Week 63

So this past week was pretty uneventful missionary work wise.  And not that anyone is counting, but happy 500th day of being a missionary to me!

Monday nothing really happened besides FHE at the Frolavi.  Sintija is really excited that her friend is willing to meet with the missionaries.  Eriks and I about died laughing during the prayer when Sister Gallacher called him Eriky.  I finally finished my Christmas candy (Thanks Drewbie!).  It is really sad though...I keep on going to my sock drawer and I only find socks.  No more Reeses Pieces.

Tuesday we helped some of the sisters organize clothes for a clothing drive that we are having.  We had a good lesson with Oskars about trials and such.  DC 58:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5 were some of his favorite scriptures that we shared.  The weather has been nice (when it isn't raining) so we got to go out contacting on the seaside because there were loads of families there.

Wednesday we said goodbye to member Skaidra.  She is moving to Austria to work for three months so we watched President Uchtdorf's "Forget-me-not" talk and discussed the five points that he tells us never to forget.  I learn something new every time I read that talk.  We taught Zane and Kristine the Plan of Salvation and had about 25 English students.  This group's dynamic is so different than the last.  It is kind of fun.  Some of the old ones talk all the time and complain that I go to fast (I took an hour to go over the alphabet.  That isn't fast.)  I'm excited for English regardless.

Thursday I contacted the cutest young woman Vendija.  She was completely mesmerized that I was from America and a missionary.  Sadly she had to get off before I could get her info.  On my mission I have learned a lot more about how we have faith in Christ to be cleansed of our sins and so therefore we repent.  We taught this to Zane and Kristine and then went with a member to help buy their groceries.  We had an amazing lesson with the Tolmacovi family.  Eliza is almost one and she loves crawling and scrunching her nose and laughing.  We brought a flashlight to explain dispensations and she also thought that was a great chew toy.  I really like comparing having the priesthood on earth to the flashlight.  It lightens up the darkness and provides the pathway home!  In other news we made a yummy quiche with all sorts of goodies in it (zucchini, tomato, mushroom, green onion, etc.)

Friday we said by to 'gator Rita who was only in it for the English.  Presidents said Ieva isn't taking exercise from her anymore and that we didn't have to teach her.  That leaves us with two investigators total.  Yikes!  Time to find is all the time!  Our investigators are good ones though.  Zane is progressing well and Kristine said, "Marriage or no, I'm going to become a Latter-day Saint."  You go girl!  We taught Santa while she was pantless (go figure that would be SG's first experience with my Santa).  She was wearing a Christmas robe though so we didn't see anything scandalous (phew).  We went down to contact some potential investigators and saw Lidija R., a member who I reactivated who got offended and went inactive.  Supposedly her downstairs neighbor makes narcotics and the fumes come up at night (she may be crazy).  Regardless we told her we'd come back and help tape all of the cracks.

We did that on Saturday after we taught English.  Lidija promised to come to church on Sunday (and she did, for all three hours and got a blessing).  Five English students stayed after class to watch the Restoration film.  Naturally Satan was against that so the projector screen wouldn't come down and then the sound went out.  Never fear, old school TVs are still here!  Speaking of films, they were filming one on the corner of our street.  It was very distracting to try to plan with that gong on.

So, this is the part that all you mothers shouldn't read.  SG and I were asleep comfortably in our beds when I hear some loud people outside our apartment.  I wake up, get out of bed and the front door is open!  Oh no!  SG and I still swear we checked that it was locked, but I guess not.  Luckily I woke up and saw that someone had opened it (but not come in.  We have angel body guards) before they had a fight in our stairwell.  And someone tried to open our door again.  We didn't sleep after that one.  And we are quite jumpy.  And paranoid about the door being locked.  We definitely lock it now.  All's well that ends well.  Moral of the story is: 1.  Lock your doors. 2. Pray for missionaries!  

Other than being ridiculously tired, Sunday was great.  Elder Holdaway gave an incredible sermon on keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  I was ready to jump up and say that I am no longer doing missionary work on Sundays!  Second hour was entertaining as was third hour.  Third hour we learned about how to be good teachers.  Kristina showed a great film that showed what kind of teachers we should be- loving and patient.  An old man and his grown son were sitting on a bench.  The father asks, "What's that?"  "A sparrow."  "What's that?"  "A SPARROW."  "What's that?" the father asks again. "A SPARROW!!  S-P-A-R-R-O-W!" the son yells.  The father walks up, goes and gets a book, and then comes back.  He opens his journal and begins to read an entry from when his son was three years old.  'Today I was sitting at the park with my son.  He asked me twenty one times what a sparrow was.  Every time I answered him, giving him a hug and simply saying. "a sparrow."'  And then it got all mushy and they hugged.  Moral of the story is SL is working on becoming a good parent/trainer/human being in general.  I am often the frustrated impatient young man.  "It's a sparrow, duh! Hello!"  I think it is a good lesson for us all.  And kudos to you parents (and our Heavenly Father) who put up with your childrens' endless questions.  "What's that?"