Week 58

Monday was filled with some crazy weather. Within 10 minutes we experienced sun, wind, rain, hail, and then snow. Mother Nature can be such a pill. No worries, that didn't stop us from making chicken pasta salad (YUMMM!) as well as a Texas sheet cake for a family home evening that we didn't go to because our investigators cancelled. Oh well. No use crying over baked cake. Admist our lack of FHE-ing we found an awesome fellow, Ivo. He has never been baptized but knows he should and wanted to know the difference between the Catholics and Lutherans. We love people with questions like those.

Tuesday's District Meeting had a really entertaining practice. We were working on contacting and gems so we had a teaching stick. Whoever was the investigator could randomly say "Pass!" and then you'd give it to someone else and you have to continue where they stopped off. We taught Janis the elder who is willing to meet with us 2-3 times a week and learn all that we have to teach. We showed him a teaching record and he was very interested in eternal marriage; he has been married 40 years now! We are pretty excited about his willingness to meet. Harvesting we ran into a J-dub (Jehovah's Witness). Oh boy! She was 84 and did not look it. She was really friendly and we were able to correct some of her beliefs about Mormons.

Wednesday was a sunny day. Hurray! I love the sun. Unlike this one lady we said hello to. You woulda thunk we killed her dog. And her cat. And her grandchildren. She was very offended that we were asking her how she was doing. Happy Thanksgiving! We bought one of those yummy stuffed chickens at Rimi (the supermarket) and had Thanksgiving dinner (minus the rolls and pie). The Scherbinini came and had a family home evening with us and Janis and Kristina. Ieva and Sarra both fell asleep during the lesson which was quite hilarious. We taught the Beldavi about missionary work and then had Inguss come and help us with a lesson to a new investigator Elina. Elina is already friends with a member, tries to read the Book of Mormon but doesn't understand it. She wants to start her life over but doesn't want to be baptized. She is in the elders' area so we will see if they can change that.

Happy Birthday to me! Thursday I turned twenty three. It wasn't the worst day, but it wasn't the best. I made myself a carrot cake. That was fun. I bought cream cheese. It indeed was creamy cheese. I'm glad I tasted it before I tried to make cheese whiz frosting. We went and bought real cream cheese. Another old person got mad at us for saying hello. She went off and was yelling super mean not true or necessary things. I just about cried waiting at the tram stop listening to her rant off a bunch of balogne. Janis cancelled on us. We had a lesson in the park with Laimonis, a member who sadly has a lot of questions and doubts. To mix up weekly planning we tried it Sista Johnson style and built a fort. We took a nap during the middle of planning because being on the floor was making us tired, lol. Favorite birthday phone call: Elder Carlsson (from Sweden) sang Happy Birthday in English and then a Swedish birthday song. THEN Elder Burr came on and sang in German and Russian. Elder Lynch then tried to sing like they would in Scotland. It was pretty fantastic and made my day almost as much as Santa's awesomeness. She had five salmon-colored roses for me and a box of fancy chocolates. I don't even want to know how much she spent on me, but it was so sweet. We had a lesson with her and at the end she said the nicest prayer ever. "Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful day. Of course it had to be wonderful because 23 years ago on this day our Dear Sister Lindstrom was born. She is a great missionary and friend. She is kind and a hard worker..." and all sorts of other nice stuff. I love that woman! We sang about the Wise and Foolish men at the Frolavis' and then we had to run (literally) to the church to close it. The elders brought me a bouquet of eggs. They were on kebab sticks and they thought they were pretty awesome.

On Friday no one jaked us! It was a miracle. We met with Vineta and we got to play tic-tac-toe with her daughter. Sister Clark also caught the cold her children had. We had a lovely stroll back to the church by some of the old houses here in Liepaja. They are so pretty. We met with Rita and discussed the Proclamation to the Family. She gasped at the part about parents being responsible for how they raise their children. We met with Baiba, a happy go lucky English student who said her first "real" prayer with us (which was awesome) and is willing to meet and sees the importance of the Book of Mormon! We also met with Marika and learned some language and shared a thought about the 10 Virgins.

Saturday we met with Oskars. He has a new new job that has better hours! We talked about opposition in all things and what we can do to conquer Satan- pray and read our scriptures! (2 Nephi 32:8-9, DC 10:5, Helaman 3:23-30, 1 Nephi 15:24). We taught Skaidra (LA) half english half spiritual thought on Visiting Teaching. She committed to do it and she even stayed after and helped to clean the church! Progress is beautiful! For service I cut and dyed Santa's hair. Oh boy, my 50-year-old friend now has plum colored hair. I didn't pick the color just so y'all know. We also ate gravy toast, talked about faith with Janis and Kristina and saw Valda. She said she couldn't talk long because of her illness. Some other members have seen her and it sounds more like controlling boyfriend Janis. Anywho....

Sunday was a blustery day. Pres. S. talked about the HTing message about prophets and Pres. Birkenfelt talked about a variety of things. Long story short church was entertaining. Two random girls showed up (18 or 20?), sat in the front row. At one point during sacrament meeting they got upset at each other and moved over seats so they weren't by each other. Girls. Sister Clark is sick so I mostly called people and let her sleep. Our new neighbors Ivo and Gints came by. I declined politely an invitation to their home. Bummer that I ALWAYS work. :) We also studied about Heaven sent questions on Sunday. It was amazing; I finally understand what that is and that we need to pause in our teaching and not say the first thing that comes to our minds.

I read about Shiblon in Alma 38. I really liked what his father had to say to him. I felt like it is what my Father would say to me. I love reading the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true. And so are you. I'm a poet, and you didn't even realize it!

xoxo

Cestra Linstrom