Well well well. Let's see. Monday the elders wanted to go out to eat. Weird sauce. I forgot that Elder Holdaway is a pusmasa (half sister) and that he loves to do stuff with his girls. We tried going to two different restaurants, but they had both closed down. We settled for a place called The Old Captain in English. I didn't find anything fantastic so I ended up buying really expensive pureed foods, aka baby food. Good, but I have a bigger appetite than a baby! Rubija, a member who is very bored (waiting to go on a mini-mission, in her 30s) came with us and shopping because she was bored. You've gotta be really bored to hang out doing errands. Anywho, we stopped by some potential 'gators on the way home from losing Eriks in Dominos after teaching him about reverence. This one lady kept popping my personal space bubble! I almost fell off the stairs because she kept getting in my face. She also kept simultaneously switching from Latvian to Russian. Ar prats!
Tuesday we had a meeting with Oskars and talked to him about the love of God. He is going through a tough time at the moment, but we are hoping to get him out to church again. After we met with Kristine (the one with the twins, terrible two year old and boyfriend Janis) and Zane (Kristine's sister) we ran to member's home. Zelma made us a delicious lunch of frikadellas and griki. We then booked it to the bus station to go up to Riga for Zone Conference Wednesday. We bought ice cream, got on the wrong bus (not my fault!), and found the right bus that happened to have the Russian sisters in it (Hello to Brad Call from Sister Stephanie Dawson). We had a nice chat with them all and then an even longer chat (*cough midnight cough*) with the Latvian sisters. Sister Clark was glad to see me and even more glad that I was her trainer. Good to know that I didn't mess up. ;P Apparently I was supposed to teach meal planning skills....you'd think three years of college would be sufficient, but I guess not.
Wednesday morning I made pancakes for everyone since I could. Zone Conference was great. We talked about being a "4th missionary" (the best one) which essentially means giving your heart. The rest was deja vu of my first zone conference (ironic since it was my last). We talked about barrier thoughts, faith, and took a trip to "contacting land" on the Magic School Bus. We had Muffins 'N More for lunch which was quite excellent. Yum yum good food. I miss good muffins. Some things just do taste better from packages (aka brownies and muffins). I also had a nice interview with President Boswell. We talked about the branch and how wonderful Sister Gallacher is.
Thursday we taught wonderful Zita from our English class about the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it (who wouldn't) and had loads of questions on how to know that we are forgiven and if her baptism as a child was valid. We also got to go gardening! Yay! We went out into the woods and then poof! Old people and their gardens. We helped Sister Beldava weed...if you can call taking grass out weeding. She still needs to plant but we needed to clear the land. It was nice to be back in the dirt. Since we were out in Zala Birze (Green Forest) we were late to grandma Ausma's birthday party! They were celebrating everyone who was turning a big age (75, 80, 85, etc.) at the nursing home. We made it in time to hear two songs and then be there for the announcing of the big birthdays. Ausma was very glad that we came and she took lots of pictures with us. It was fun to see all the old folks hanging out. English went smoothly. Numbers were really hard for them. It took us an eternity to count to 100 together.
Friday we took Presidents with us to visit Lidija R. Sadly we think she is getting old and losing it a bit. She is convinced that a giant narcotic gang is after her. She is a nice lady so it is a bummer that she is ill. We had a testimony meeting of sorts with Kristine about why the church is important to us. The Spirit was there and we all went away with good feelings. We got new outfits at Santa's- Riksi is shedding! The elders joined us at Marika's house to learn Latvian. Elder Holdaway was asking questions about ridiculous words like to moo, to glimmer, to glisten, to sparkle, etc. He loves the language.
Saturday we had a nice lesson with Sintija's friend Arta about prayer. Arta is a funny one. She says she doesn't believe but loves coming to church. She's believing and just doesn't know it. :] When we asked her how she thought God would answer us she said through people like you. I love those kind of answers! We finished up teaching Zane and Kristine the 10 commandments. Zane is feeling down that she doesn't have a job and a place of her own, but it will all be well. Presidents asked us to make something for Mother's Day. I immediately thought of Grandma's Cherry Swirl Cake. We baked one pan but we had a lesson and it wasn't quite ready so we thought we'd leave it in the oven on timer. The angels must have sat on it because when we got home the oven was still on! The cake was still salvageable. Oye! Teaching the Beldavi about the Stripling Warriors was a hoot. Raivo was fascinated by the picture. "Who is that on the horse? Do they have bows and arrows? Why is he wearing a different bracelet?" and so on. I had a hard time teaching because I was just laughing at his questions.
I love you all and am praying for you. The church is true. Use your agency to make good decisions.
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