Week 62

Mari 23 April 2012                          

So, not like you were wondering, but I am training Sister Gallacher in Liepaja (this is transfer number 9/11 in Liepaja).  Madison Gallacher is 20 (turning 21 in May) from Sacramento, California.  She is the most beautiful brunette on the planet and she is also just so meek and kind and good.  I decided training is like children.  I thought that I'd be better at it this time (experience) but no, trainees, like children are all very different!

SG is a sponge.  I'm a little nervous about that.   SC came knowing what she was doing and very stubborn.  SG asks tons of questions and will do things how you do them.  I'm trying to teach her that she doesn't have to eat things like I eat them or do things the way I do them.  SG is just oozing love for the people.  Her language is fine (not as amazing as SC, but it is still very very good).  SG has no problem contacting people.  She was on a bus and talked to a girl for 5 stops and gave her a Book of Mormon as one of her first contacts.  She doesn't know what is going on as much, but she'll catch on soon enough.  It is fun to see how the Lord refines you with your different companions.  SG will be the one to get rid of my sassy (I don't mean to) replies when people don't hear/don't pay attention and ask me something a billion times, lol.  SG is a great missionary though.  She will take a bit more time to train than SC, but she has her own set of skills and talents.

Monday we ate at Ginger with the elders and Margarita.  SC had sushi for the first time!  The highlights were 1. singing Mika 2. Elder Alder putting entirely too much wasabe 3.  Elder Alder and Margarita pinching their noses with chopsticks.

Tuesday was a wild District meeting.  1.  We had moustaches (thanks Amber) 2. we had funfetti cake (thanks Sister Alder) 3. we found out that everyone is leaving Liepaja!  Except for me!!! (Elder Baxter and Sister Clark are going to Riga)  New food invention: soft shell tortillas with cheese, ham, and guacamole heated up.  Yum!  So Tuesday was consumed with Santa's master plan to have us teach her friend Viktorija who has met with us once or twice before (and she also came to English for a time).  We went up to show the new masa Karosta.  Viktorija showed us the Russian Orthodox church.  They basically have saints.  I didn't know that.  Viktorija told us stories of some of the paintings of people who became saints.  Some of them you can pray to to ask for certain things.  She then showed us around the woods (which included Santa and Viktorija doing some "natural watering") as well as the lake.  There were two swans on the lake which Santa endlessly tried to get to come over to us.  "Get over here swans!"  It was cold with the wind so we went to Viktorija's house to have tea and cookies (we brought cookies- part of Santa's plan).  We also ate a chocolate Easter Rabbit.  Santa went at the ears with a knife that you would have thought was an ax.  It was quite the scene.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and Viktorija hadn't ever thought of a lot of the questions we asked so it got her thinking.  At the end Santa shared a very special experience with Viktorija.  At institute they were told that in Heaven long long ago we promised others that we would find them and help them.  Santa prayed to find out who this person was and God told her that it was Viktorija.  It definitely made the "wasted" missionary time worth it.  We got back to center in time to teach the Beldavi about tithing.  We did a practice at the end.  Raivo got to "be God" and give blessings for paying tithing.  It was neat to see that even little Raivo knew how much candy tithing his older brother should be paying him back.

Wednesday we went over to see if Valda would answer before SC left.  Valda was home, answered the door, let us take pictures and talk to her.  She might let us come by next week!  I also got new knit slippers (cheebas).  SC finished packing and we left to go to Riga.  We stayed with Sister Wilson and Sister Kurr.  They fed us shishkebabs, russell salad, and strawberry log...yummy.  We didn't get much sleep because Sister Wilson was packing and she also had lots of stories to tell us.

Thursday morning I made everybody waffles.  I never sleep well in Riga so I was up early anyway.  The lady who drove our taxi was super nice and SW gave her our information.  She was just a young fun lady who got us there super quickly.   I had fun at the mission home because I was the only girl!  Surprise.  The meeting was a lot shorter than the last one.  There were tons of missionaries at the bus station when we got there.  Kristine's sister Zane was also there.  She is moving to Liepaja and now has a baptismal date for May 25!  She is a shorter, older, brown-haired service-oriented (and more non-denominal Christian beliefed) Kristine.  Elder Holdaway is back in Liepaja (He was my district leader for the first 3 transfers in Liepaja).  He is accompanied by his trainee, Elder Bergason from Orem, Utah.  We saw Valda on our way to our apartment.  Weird!  We talked for a bit and later in the evening we had a great lesson about revelation with Skaidra which was just what she needed.  She is thinking of going to Austria for work, but doesn't know what she should do.  SG loves her and Skaidra came to the service day on Saturday as well as church on Sunday!

Friday we met with Zane and Kristine.  They are like normal sisters, they don't always have the same views.  Their lessons will definitely be interesting.  Zane had a baptismal date for early April, but isn't ready to follow the Word of Wisdom.  We are hoping the Kristine will get married so she can get baptized with her sister.  She said that she is at the gate just hanging on and waiting to get in on the path.  Sometimes Satan tempts her to take her fingers off but she said she isn't letting go!

On Saturday was the big talka diena (service day).  We had an okay turnout of people who helped to clean the church and around it.  Presidents like goofing off with the house.  We washed some of the windows and when I opened one of the doors water came pouring down on me.  It was pretty hilarious because I wasn't expecting it.  Elder Alder and his parents were in Liepaja for Vesma's baptism (the elders' investigator).  They came during the talka and then to the baptism.  I was no longer in jeans and a pony tail at the baptism and Brother Alder said, "Wow, you look different."  "I know.  I can look good if I want."  Like father, like son, lol.  No tact.  Anywho, the baptism went well and everyone was terribly sad to see Elder Alder go.  They told him to get married and come back soon with a wife and children.

Sunday was a good day.  Sintija invited her friend Arta to church again and we are going to meet with her this week!  We met with inactive Jana who committed to keep the Sabbath Day holy starting in June.  The Scerbinini helped us with her lesson (she is Russian).  The bus ride with the girls was fun.  I also got to say goodbye to Margarita.  She brought her friend Nastja, who she has been trying to get to join the church forever.  Nastja committed to coming to church on Sunday and even asked what time it was and everything.  Hopefully she comes!  It was a special meeting and then the elders came and gave Rita a blessing.  We dropped by our awesome contact of last week (the family) but they didn't answer.  They also haven't been answering their phones.

I can't believe April is almost over.  Time flies.  June will fly too.  We have a Mission Conference, Ligo, and the 20-year Jubilee of the church in Latvia.  And hopefully a few baptisms! 

The church is true.  I love our Savior.  Through him we can become perfect.

Week 61

Mari April 16, 2012

MONDAY we took Santa to Pastnieka Maja. She had lots of good stories about everything, especially this amazing 6 dollar dessert she ordered. It was what put them in business and got them popular. It was a pastry with berries, custard, and ice cream. I definitely am considering getting one. Sadly I was all grumpified and stressed from trying to figure out school.

TUESDAY Sister Clark was in charge of District Meeting! She had a great analogy comparing it to physics. In a physics class you have a syllabus (set up expectations...lots of homework!), you love teachers that are passionate (and knowledgeable, etc.). As a teacher you also don't teach overly complicated things and repetition is also key! You hand out books at the beginning of class (Book of Mormon) and of course there is homework!

We had a memorable afternoon adventure. We really wanted to have a member present for a lesson we set up with Janis and Kristine (via sticky note). We couldn't get a hold of anyone to come with but then I saw Santa out of our third story window! I yelled at Sister Clark to get out of the bathroom and we booked it down the stairs and ran after Santa. She agreed to come with so we went back up, put on our coats and headed out with Santa. Overhead birds were flying and one pooped on Sister Clark. This is the second time in the span of a week. I thought it was pretty funny. Janis and Kristine weren't home. We met the nicest lady, Valentina harvesting. She let us right in and talked our ears off. She is Polish but was baptized Russian Orthodox (she says she has no idea how, lol). We gave her our information and hope that she passes it on to her children.

WEDNESDAY we had pancakes with good old Zelma. She reminds me so much of Grandma K. The most saintliest lady you will ever meet, but never thinks she is good enough. As President Uchtdorf said, "Humility is thinking less about yourself, not less of yourself." We taught Kristine (Janis isn't really that interested...boo) and it was a spirit filled lesson in which we found out that she doesn't know if TS Monson is a prophet. Good thing that I do! We told her she could watch Conference and pray about it. "You can always bank on the prophet." (The District 2 quote for anyone who has watched it recently). We also met a hilarious lady who spoke to us in Latvian, Russian, and also German. We aren't sure why she started speaking in German at the end, but she sure was a hoot. "I don't want to talk about you Mormons, I need to go (and then she proceeded to talk to us for 10 minutes). "Ich mooder Constantine."

THURSDAY I had a good contacting morning. We've been going out a lot in the morning and hop on and off the tram and talk to people going to work and school. Santa forgot that we had our weekly retention lesson so we went harvesting by her house and someone let us in! Inta was a sweet older lady with her magnifying glass to read. The Spirit was most definitely there but the stinker wouldn't agree to meet again or come to church. Curse that agency! It is actually a great thing, but only when used correctly. We had FHE with Sintija and Eriks. Sintija filled us in on all the school drama. She is also working on being a member missionary. Her latest plan is to buy school friends Hesburger so that they will like her more so that she can in turn invite them to church. Whatever works, right?

FRIDAY morning I had a terrible tram contact. It was really blunt and awkward but the young mom said yes we could come and we set up a time. Wahoo! We had a really powerful lesson with Santa. She learned that she has indeed received revelation before (she thought that she hadn't) and is intended to use her new knowledge (see "Revelation" in True to The Faith). The Young Women's broadcast was amazing. "Put your shiney on!" I don't know why I think that is so funny, but I am still giggling about it. We had a fireside broadcast from Riga to here in Liepaja. It finally started working in time to hear the last talk, Elder Senkans. He told the story of his conversion. The missionaries forgot to follow up after giving him a copy of The Book. He waited a couple of months for them and finally went and found the church. "What are you doing, giving people this book if you aren't going to ask them to be baptized?!" They asked him, he said yes, and he translated the BOM into Latvian, is a 70, and has done all sorts of other good stuff. Remember to follow up!

SATURDAY we watched General Conference in Latvian. We spent most of the time opening and closing the door for Eliza, getting her drinks and more sugar (she doesn't need it...her teeth are rotting and she is only two!). I also received a package from my bestie with moustaches. The primary kids got a hold of those and it was pretty fantastic. The Elders Quorum was in charge of making lunch....10 liters of pasta and maybe 20 people. We didn't even make a dent in it. People ate it with ketchup, yum!

SUNDAY was also pretty chill, more conference. The Relief Society made half a million open sandwiches. The highlight was definitely finding a family! They were on a potential investigator list. Mara and Kristops have two cute girls and are quite rich. It is Kristops hobby. They are a very loving family and pretty open. They both have a lot of questions. Thankfully the Spirit hinted to take a new copy of the BOM (I have a beat up one I walk around with) as well as the Restoration DVD. Both were used and hopefully next weekend we will be going back. It is amazing how happy a normal/good day can feel after a bunch of bad ones. As Santa prayed on Friday "Thank you for this awful day." The bad ones make the good ones really good. I have a testimony of that.

Week 60

Mari Apr. 9, 2012

Well, on Monday I was just on a shopping extrava. I went to my favorite second hand store, Second Breath, and got this bunny made from a glove that I have loved since I saw it who knows how many months ago. I also bought some yarn for some groovy chibas (slippers). We had burgers and fries at Fontaine's while a snow storm raged outside. Sister Clark tried to make Texas Sheet cake. She put the eggs in the boiling chocolate mix for some great looking chocolate egg drop soup. I made her start over. Harvesting I met a man named Arnis. He said he has lots of problems, has been looking, but isn't ready to talk about that kind of stuff yet. I'm praying that he will be ready soon.

On Tuesday we had some of the Texas sheet cake take two with nutella, raspberries, and whipping cream. Can you say yum? Holy cow, sometimes my ideas are too good. Elder Alder declared that it must be wonderful to be a sister because your apartment is a constant bakery. "Oh look, we have blueberry muffins coming out of the toilet again!" The big lesson that I learned this week is that the key to missionary work is being led by the Spirit. I am refocusing on that in my teaching and prayers. It makes a difference. Out on our way to harvest we had a pagan stop us and ask us what makes us different from other churches. Big can of worms! I never know where to start when people ask that. He was a really nice fellow, but started to run when we started for our planners.

Wednesday we taught Oskars by the Spirit. It was a neat lesson and he really really appreciated it. It felt good. We had a little miracle that a less-active's inactive daughter came and sat in on our lesson. We are trying to wise up with Kristina and Janis so we had Kaspars teach them about repentance. He did really good at involving Janis. We met an angel of a girl, Kira on the streets. We invited her to church and she said that she would try to come sometime. We also had a random Marta text us wanting to meet at 8pm at the church. Sadly she never showed up.

I was a beaming parent on Thursday. Sister Clark just marches up to people and starts to talk to them now. This is a complete 180 from her basically running in terror from people. On the tram in the morning I contacted a really nice father, who, sadly, is going back to Sweden for work tomorrow. The internet is everywhere though and he has our website. Margarita (Rita) is back in Liepaja! Holy happy joyous reunion. She looks really really happy and is excited to share the gospel with several of her friends here.

On Friday we colored 60, yes 60 eggs. We learned how to color some traditional Latvian style with onion skins. They turned out gorgeous. I am glad we didn't do all 60 that way though, it is a little time consuming. You have to wrap cloth as well as string around each individual egg. Someone was locked in their house when we were harvesting. We knocked and they tried and tried and tried and tried to open their door, but it wouldn't. After two or three minutes they finally gave up. I really wish we got to know who was on the other side.

Saturday we got to start watching conference. Priesthood session was really good. The music was very powerful. We had our branch easter party. Annika wanted to hide all 60 eggs by herself. We made her share, so I got to hide eggs out in the rain. We had lunch, which included some nasty stuff. Someone brought the chocolate syrup out and it went on top of EVERYTHING. Boiled eggs, bread, mayonnaise....disgusting! And they said we are sugar addicts in America... We played button button whose got the button with a rock. Behind our backs. Little Raivo was the cutest thing ever. He would just get huge eyes and smile if you asked if he had the rock even though he never did. We practiced for our musical number as missionaries. Elder Alder said I sounded like a rooster being strangled. I did. I can't sing, okay?!

Sunday's rendition wasn't much better. Good thing Sunday is over with. Sunday wasn't my day. I got two eggs from members, stuck them in the fridge, and someone took my eggs. :( I also tried to make meatloaf. Two hours of cooking later we gave up and ate it anyway. Trying to find people was less then effective. The only people home were people who were sick. Oh well, the snow is melting and it is supposed to be warm by the end of the week!

Christ lives. Our message shines brightly against the darkness, doubt, and depression of the world. He lives and because He lives we will live too.

Week 59

Mari 2 April 2012

Happy April! We definitely got an April Fools. Snow. Wind. Brr. Spring will come though.
We had a fairly mellow week. Sister Clark was sick, so not much happened.
The Highlights...

MONDAY
We met with Janis the older from English. He said he wanted to be baptized on Easter but that his wife isn't happy about that so he is thinking maybe Ligo (summer solstice). We called him later in the week to set up another appointment. To keep him and his wife from fighting he is no longer an investigator. He said maybe in the fall she would be simmered down though. He is such a hoot, I am sad I won't get to teach him more. He was telling us about taking jail tours with the Frank Constantino. He is a talker because he is a politician, but you can confound the wise when you ask spiritual questions. We met with Ruta and she fed us griki (buckwheat = yuck) with pork and white sauce. I survived. It wasn't THAT bad, but I wouldn't make it for myself. Ever. We also almost died on the tramvajs. There was a Russian brawl. I think the older one may have been trying to protect us since the younger one was staying stuff in Russian to us, but ne panyamaya. Beer was not thrown on us, no punches or kicks got us, but the stinking tram conductor wouldn't open the door and let us out! We got ice cream after that to calm our nerves.

TUESDAY
Surprise! The branch loves me! We were invited to a farewell party but it was also for my birthday! The branch is so great. There was cake, ice cream, brownies, and loved ones. Madara is leaving on her mission to Temple Square Thursday morning! We also got mail. Thanks mom! That card is funny; I definitely didn't get it last year. I apologize to everyone who has written and hasn't received a reply...it means that I didn't receive your mail. The former Masa Amelia Largey was in the country and we were able to help her track down some old friends.

WEDNESDAY
My boots broke. Boo. Luckily it was just the zipper and it only cost 4$ to fix it! We had District Meeting and our opening song was horrid. We could not compose ourselves even to pray. Oh boy. We had a great lesson with the Beldavi on fasting. They are so stinking cute!

THURSDAY
We needed to travel up to Riga so I could renew my visa. Again. The bus ride up was enjoyable because surprise surprise Amelia and the elders were also going to Riga so we all got to reminisce about old missionaries. Filling out my visa papers was fun. I don't know how old anyone is. My momma is 21, okay. Luckily Sister Millet said it wasn't too important. One elder she said had 10 siblings, but Valerijs, the man who helps us, said, "Today you are an only child." Sister Wilson and Sister Kerr came and we had lunch together at Dada's. Those two are ridiculously happy and ridiculous together. We did planning on the bus ride home and were able to do some knocking on some doors.

FRIDAY
SC was still sick so I made chicken noodle soup that ended up more like dumpling and dumpling soup. Lots of dumplings. Lots of soup. We visited good old Ausma. She can see a ton better now and told us how dirty her house is now that she can see (but that she is also lazy). She also showed us amazing photos from when she was young. We met a very kind gypsy. Russian family, born in Latvia, loves the country, speaks incredible English. He told us not to own a house because then you are a slave to it and have to take care of it. He also tried to be pen pals with us, but luckily the rain started. We taught Kristina about fasting and it went well and the spirit was very strong.

SATURDAY
We helped a member translate her CV. I haven't made one of those in a while. It was kind of hard. We also went shopping with the Rutas for break the fast. We are going to die from the market meat. It is not sanitary! We had a really fun time before meeting with Kristina. I couldn't stop burping. You'd of thunk that I drunk air or something, it was a good five minutes. I fear to think of what Sister Clark thinks of me. We ended up reading a conference talk with her since Janis didn't come in for the lesson and it was one we wanted him to be there for!

SUNDAY
Leading music is hard when it is the church cds. They do not keep the same tempo. The branch really struggled with that. We had borsch together for break the fast. Harvesting we knocked into a man who couldn't stop laughing but said we could come back. Sounds fun!

EASTER IN LATVIA
Calm, or Quiet Week starts with Palm, or Pussy Willow Sunday (the Sunday before Easter). You get to whack people with pussy willows to bring them good health if you are the first one awake.
There is then Green Thursday which is when Christ supposedly performed the sacrament, so they have a sacrament meeting then.
Big Friday is Christ's death day. They don't have sacrament on that day.
Silent Saturday is when they glorify Christ being in the tomb. Church services are "quieter" on these days.
Sunday is the Big Day, a joyful day where they celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.
On Easter you can eat peas to be rich and prosperous.
If you don't want big legs you are to get up before the sun and climb up a rock with bare legs.
You have to swing a lot and then you won't be sleepy all year.
Also, Thor, tradition says that you need to prune the apple trees on the First Easter so that there will be a lot of apples.
If it rains on Easter then the cows will give lots of milk.
You should drink at least 10 liters of birch sap. It will help get you in shape, clear out all that winter gunk.
They also have some Russian traditions- pasha and also kulichs (sort of like the British Easter Bread hot cross buns) that have fruit and frosting.

I hope you all enjoyed conference! We will be watching it in Latvian on the 14th and 15th.

Christ lives! It is our happy message to the world!