Week 55

I would like to inform you all of the unexpected, yet expected passing of my running watch. It has been a good friend to me for the past 8 or 9 years, putting up with rain and shine, sweat and snot. It peacefully died on Wednesday night in its sleep. Attempts to revive the watch were not made seeing as major brain functions were dimming prior to death. It feels like a piece of my arm is now missing. Burial services haven't been made yet because all the memories associated with my running watch are still being played on repeat. It was a good watch and lived an exciting life.

Well, I was just waiting for that one. I feel so stripped from technology. I might have to run with the phone to know what time it is, yuck. Sister Clark doesn't have a running watch and I am far too cheap to buy one here seeing as it isn't completely necessary, just very convenient. It is a beautiful day though! Spring is here, we cleaned the house, it is lighter, and Elder Alder and I are losing it. Sister Clark and Elder Baxter still don't know that Elder Alder is leaving in 6 weeks. I wanted to keep when I was leaving a secret, but with only 4 sisters, you know what is going down. It is quite impressive. We'll talk about it with them there, but they have no idea.

We had a fun Monday. We scheduled a lunch appointment because I didn't want to cook. Ruta J made us some delicious fried rice that we ate with moldy bread. Mmm...mold. I didn't have to eat it though because I had a pocket! Sadly the homemade pickle could not go in my pocket. Sister Clark and I feel very blessed that we didn't die from the pickle. It was not a good one. There was no food at the store- no avocados, no apples, no onions. Gotta love Latvia! We just went without those and I just wanted to eat apples all week, lol. Oops! We made a HUGE batch of muffins with kefirs (plain drinkable yogurt?) and biezpiens (translated- thick milk [but think cottage cheese minus the juice]). It had 4 tsp. of sugar for 6 cups of flour. I added more sugar and I don't regret it. They were quite delicious. We had so much batter we made some of it into apple bread with a streusel topping. Yum! Monday night we had family home evening with the Beldavi and the Frolavi. Eriks was so great. At the beginning of the lesson his dad was telling us how his car died and he didn't know what to do. Eriks proceeded to take my Book of Mormon, open it up, and pretend to read, "Don't worry about your car. Buy me more beyblades. You can find answers in the scriptures!" Little did he know that was what we were talking about that evening! It was really neat to see that at 7 he knows that you can find answers through reading the Book of Mormon.

On Tuesday we had a really good, really humbling district meeting. Gotta get my butt in gear! "We are in the heat of the battle, every day fighting for souls." -Elder Baxter. We talked about being completely focused on our missions on the time and finding families for here in Liepaja. Balance is the key and it is a hard thing to do. We made amazing fahijtas for lunch. We had a great lesson with Skaidra (LA) about choosing eternal life. She wants help getting more active in church again. She gave us permission to call her about church and we invited her to share her testimony this Fast Sunday and she did---sweeeeet! We sang, "I am a Child of God" in Janis and Kristine's (I) lesson and 2-year-old Eliza kept trying to sing the chorus after we were done.

Wednesday we had a lesson with investigator Liga and taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it and thought it would be something important for her family. Yes!! She lives in the elders' area though so we won't get to teach her. English class is getting smaller and smaller. We gave the option of watching Finding Faith in Christ and a couple of people stayed (mostly members).

Thursday was a very foggy day. So foggy that when I got inside I had hundreds of little waterdroplets condensing on my glasses. It made it a perfect day for our Danish soup. We thought of Mark. It was really yummy soup. Hopefully some babushka in Denmark will make him it. Santa helped us teach a lady named Iveta from English (who actually taught Madara and Rihards music). Santa bore a powerful testimony about reading the Book of Mormon with real intent. She talked about how the first time she read it she did it because she was scared of what the elders would do if she didn't. The second time she knew she should pray before she read and have good intents. She did and said it was a completely different experience and couldn't believe how she missed all of the important stuff before when she read it the first time through. I love Santa. We got to teach English/a spiritual thought to Vesma, the elders' investigator. She is so quirkily awesome. She just has a really unique voice and can be kind of weird, but she knows French, so we like her. She really is a sweetheart, she just wants to take being baptized seriously and thinks March is too soon.

Friday was an eventful day. On the way to Valda's we had a man in his 20s contact us and start talking to us in English. "Believe in God. Only God and Jesus. Jesus can save you. I know all about you Mormons. Your white trousers and t-shirts won't save you." I agree completely. I also don't own white trousers. I own white pants if we are speaking Brit. But anyway, he was a creep-o and we were glad that Valda's house was close. We had waffles with strawberries to celebrate the spring weather. We were at the church planning there so that people could practice for the talent show that evening. The elders had this super creepy older man Oskars come that was OBSESSED with wanting to meet with us. We told him we were having a meeting for the next hour and to just wait for the boys. "But you are here now, I'll wait for you. You speak Latvian AND English. Mmm. Just speak with me. Ten minutes every day is all I need." No! We are busy for the rest of our lives. We hid in a room and he was still waiting for us after his lesson with the elders. We called the elders to tell him to go away instead of coming out of the room.

Anyways the talent show was really really really really really good this time. The RS had a skit about the parable of the talents which was a hoot and a half (see pictures). Their costumes and the script were just too good. Presidents and his wife, Sintija and Sandijs, and Eriks and Ieva danced to one of the songs off of Anastasia. Sarra was twirling by herself and she kept getting so dizzy that she'd fall down. It was really cute. The trolls did a funny skit about a school teacher and student. They are really good at fake falling. Sister Clark sang "The Call", Inguss played guitar, there was some poetry read, and we missionaries had a funny skit. We recorded the song "I am a Child of God" off of Mormon messages (http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages?v=1101413030001) and then all took parts mouthing the song. We at least enjoyed ourselves. Annika was getting a picture with Elder Alder at the end and he was making faces so she smacked him in the behind! It was so funny and we all just watched and laughed. He probably deserved it. And liked it. Ha ha.

Saturday was the third day of the third month and Sister Lindstrom found it hard to do. Sisters Lindstrom and Clark met with Ligita and the elders before church. Ligita thinks the Book of Mormon is true but doesn't want to be baptized. Sisters Lindstrom and Clark met with Janis and Kristine and they had a great time because Ludmila played babysitter so that they could talk. Sister Lindstrom and Sister Clark went and met Ieva's mother and brother (a more attractive male version of Ieva with red hair). Ieva's mom is fine with her meeting with us and coming to church. She also thinks that Ieva doesn't know what she wants. We saw a lot of dogs harvesting.

Sunday we had break the fast and I didn't do anything for it! The Elders' Quorum made spaghetti. I counseled them NOT to cook it at 9am (church ends at 2). It went really well and then we had a "coordination meeting" with the elders and I got a blessing. I feel a lot more peaceful and chillaxed now. God has given me lots of gifts to help people here in Liepaja and he isn't going to stretch me more than I can handle and He is pleased with my work which is always good to hear. I'm supposed to remember my brother, our Savior, and remember the blessings of being a missionary. The priesthood is so neat, I know that it is real.
Have fun, be safe!

Love, Sis L