Week 51

key
SC = Sister Clark
I = investigator
M = member
RC = recent convert

Some of you may be wondering about the cold: We are nice and warm when we are inside. No frostbite, all body parts accounted for. We heard it has been -33C here. I don't know if that is with windchill and humidity or not, but it is cold. People always tell us we are crazy to be out and to get warmer clothes on. I can't fit more than two scarves on my body people! I finally smartened up and started wearing thermals under my wool tights which makes your toes get cold later. Mostly just your extremities and your nose get cold. I like it when you go out and it is so cold the inside of your nose just kind of freezes. It is the weirdest feeling ever, it makes me giggle. We also have been using hot hands and toasty toes when it gets especially cold and we will be outside for a while. Saturday we took a pot to the church that had about a tablespoon of water in the bottom...by the time we got to the church it was ice! Our apartment is very warm, I turn down the heat at night often because it is too warm; I only sleep with one blanket. We ALWAYS have hot water. It is one of the fun things about being in a post-communist country- the heat and hot water!

Others may be wondering about baptismal dates. Valda passed the interview and will be baptized this Saturday. The trolls haven't come to church so we are having an ultimatum...no lessons until you come to church...or they have to be with your mom. Janis and Kristine want to get married in the summer...we are still working on that.

Let's see, the adventures this week....
Monday was mostly just running around Liepaja getting all the random odds and ends that SC needed. We had chicken noodle soup with the elders, Rubija (member), and Presidents. There was still leftover. I don't know how soup lasts forever! We went to drop off some of this said leftover soup to a sick member, Nadezda. We did indeed "drop" it off. The handle broke and the soup proceeded to spill in the entryway. Oopsie! I thought it was pretty funny. Sister Clark is still mortified. We met Uldis Frolovs (member) with his kids, Sintija and Eriks at the bus station. He's been gone for around 6 months. We walked the long walk (3 miles) with his baggage home and then taught about the restoration. Uldis didn't stick around though, he went to skype his wife in Georgia (the country).

Tuesday we celebrated Madara's (mini missionary from Liepaja called to the Temple Square mission) twenty-first birthday with a most excellent cake and candles. While I was cooking lunch SC did this hilarious show-off your muscles "Excuse me, have you seen my beach ball? It went that a-way. It is about this big." (all while flexing your arms). I got a good ab workout from it and still chuckle everytime I think about it. SC likes to randomly do it to make me laugh. Good golly we are silly! Rubija helped us teach Kristine (I) about the Ten Commandments. She is so solid; her answers to why we have the commandments blew me away.

Wednesday we went to JYSK, aka the overpriced, not as cute IKEA of Latvia and bought some items for a member in the ward. They don't have a lot (aka any) furniture, so we went on a district adventure to pick some stuff out! We proceeded to get the new members of the district registered in the city. The lady there was so great. Elder Alder was holding this big pile of stuff from JYSK. "Oh, is that a gift? For me?" I then introduced SC to Baltic tacos which we had leftovers of like ALL week. Presidents had a great analogy when we were teaching Valda (I) about enduring to the end. "I live on the fourth floor. If I give up and get tired at the third floor I haven't endured to the end. If I want to make it home I have to continue all the way until I get there." So this week was a wetting pants week, and luckily not ours. Eliza (two year old) wet herself whilst we were teaching Kristine and Janis about the Law of Chastity. She also spilled on herself and got wet on the break the fast after church on Sunday. I've been watching the film from when Elder Bennet came and spoke. "It's cool to be outrageously obedient." Y'all just remember that.

Thursday was cold. Especially in the Beldavis (M) home. They hadn't started a fire yet and so we were all huddled on the couch watching our breath. We had a really great lesson with them on the priesthood though, regardless of the cold. We taught Santa Dike (RC) about the Sons of Mosiah and talked about fasting. "Why is God so preoccupied with food and us eating or not eating?!" It was a good question.

Friday we met the mailman! He brought me a letter saying I was an illegal alien. Thanks! I'm getting my visa renewed soon. We had a nice lesson with good old [literally] Ausma (M). The Spirit was strong as we taught her about prayer. Prayer is so important and I know that God listens and answers us! I'm still loving being with Sister Clark. She is training me on how to be a good teacher. And we have fun. Possibly too much fun. The jokes are overflowing and we have a blast harvesting and doing basically everything. The latest and greatest this week was trying to use the Harry Potter spell, "Alohamora!" to open doors while harvesting. It didn't work. The people who did answer were wondering what the devil we were doing out in the cold. I told one handsome Catholic boy to come to our church because 1. it was warmer in our church 2. we have youth activities and 3. I promised it would be more interesting than his church. He didn't come on Sunday. :( Ah yes, and we had another wet pants experience at RC's Dzintra's home. Her adopted girl is learning to be potty trained. Dzintra's lesson went well, but was sad. She feels that God cares for her and guides her, but not that He loves her. I know that He does love us and that is why he cares and guides us. He doesn't want to give us trials, He has to though so that we can be prepared to live with Him again and be what He is.

Saturday was incredible...we had over 30 people in our English class. Obviously all of our advertising (radio, newspaper, etc.) worked. SC was terrified. I like teaching smaller classes. There is no way I am going to get to know everyone's name if there are 30+ people and class is only an hour, including the spiritual thought. We went over the Articles of Faith and one older gentleman commented, "What is this Book of Mormon? It sounds like it is worth reading." Yes, indeed it is. SC loves gnocchi, or at least the sauce I made for it. She wrote down the recipe. Mostly it was just random stuff- sour cream, green onions, mushroom, tomatoes. We walked back and forth and back and forth waiting for Kaspars, our amazing branch mission leader, to help us out teaching Janis and Kristine (I). We had an awesome Spirit-filled lesson about fasting, prayer, and scripture study.

Sunday was a nice day, Branch Council was effective, I got to translate for Sister Boswell, and I fed over thirty people soup with only 5 lats (10 dollars) and there was leftover soup! Score! It was a yummy yellow pea, white bean, chicken soup. I had a short interview with Pres. B. We are both doing most excellently well. Funny story about break the fast...someone brought raspberry jam? in a 35% alcohol container. When we saw it we hid it and then disposed of it later. Oopsie! The Boswells brought down mail- still nothing from Julie, but I got my dear elders as well as Grandma and Jami's pouch and a giant envelope from a friend of mine with lots of pictures. Fun stuff! Like I said, the mail monster eats all the good stuff.

Sunday night I said the prayer before we went out contacting with what we learned from Elder Bennet in mind. It went something like this, "Heavenly Father, please help us find a new investigator. We really want to and we have the faith too. And also we've been really obedient." When the prayer was over Sister Clark laughed at me and told me it sounded like I was asking Santa Claus for presents, "I've been extra good this year!" Regardless, it worked! We were harvesting with the purpose to teach a lesson and find an investigator and some old lady who I was nice to on the street before just let us right in, made us grilled cheese sandwiches, tea, shared a pastry with us and let us teach her about the Plan of Salvation (her husband just died 6 months ago). We set up an appointment to show Birute the church. Faith + Obedience = miracles!

The church is true. God loves us. The sun is shining, it is a good day to be a missionary for the Lord.

Sister L