Monday was busy filled with non-preparing activities. We had a lesson with Ruta about service and then she took us over to her son's so that we could do some service. Aldis is a cop here in Liepaja but wants to move to be with his wife who just got a job in England. Only problem is that he doesn't know English so we are meeting with him once a week. We were very surprised in our spiritual lesson to find out that his mom hasn't told him about The Book of Mormon or anything like that. People are often afraid to share the gospel with the ones that they love, but if we truly understand that it is the only way to be with them in the eternities, we wouldn't hesitate. We had popeye pucks for dinner (yum yum frozen spinach is my friend!). We had a pleasant surprise at the Frolavi FHE- Arta was there! She was able to get her first exposure to learning about baptism and poor Eriks did not win "Search Ponder and Play", a game that Aunt Claudia sent me. The Frolavi love that game and Eriks always pouts if he doesn't have the galaxy.
Tuesday for district meeting we worked on our building tour. It uses the pictures in the building as well as other visual displays for great effects to essentially teach the restoration. Elder Holdaway has invented a "comment cup." I don't like it. You are supposed to not say your random tangents/comments and just write them down to be read later. Random comments are the fruit of life and enjoyable conversation! We also finally (I've been thinking about it for months) got a copy of our key made which was just about the coolest thing to watch. They have so many old school keys here. I think it would be neat to buy one and just carry it around in America to confuse people. We taught Zane and Kristine about tithing. I love those two. A few hours after the lesson Zane called me asking if she can pay on any day or if she has to wait until Sunday. We met with the Beldavi and thought we'd try playing a game after we taught about the Sacrament. Bad idea. Who knew hot-cold could be such an intense game that can cause tears. I don't know if we are going to try playing a game there again. Poor Dace was just trying to stay patient and not strangle anyone.
Wednesday was a rainy day. the days are really long when the sun isn't out because they just seem like an eternity. I don't know why because now the sunrise is at 5am and sunset is after we finish planning so it is perpetually sunny. Anywho we took Oskars along to Zane's and Kristine's lesson so that he could hear them go through the baptismal interview questions. When we got to keeping the Sabbath Day holy Kristine totally called Oskars out and told him that he should be coming to church more. Awesome! I'm excited for her to be a member and take her to everyone's lessons. The elders also dropped by to give Zane a blessing. It was a great lesson overall because the Spirit was very strong. We took that Spirit and went to Valda's. She was home! And answered the door! And Janis stayed. He told us that his brother just died so we were able to sing "Oh My Father" and teach him some of the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was really strong which NEVER happens. Janis is just not the greatest person so normally the Spirit runs and hides whenever he is in the vicinity. Rumors were also confirmed. Old Zigrida is indeed losing it. At the end of our lesson she started screaming at Valda not to come to our church because it was the devil's church that is full of robbers and that we'd steal all her money. I was even more shocked when Janis started talking back to her. "Be quiet mamma. You know that isn't true. Stop speaking crazy." Janis just got brownie points and is no longer in the negative.
Thursday we helped an old man across the street. And then all the way to his house. He got stuck in the middle of the street and all these cars were trying to go around him so we pretty much saved his life (not really). But he was very appreciative and said that even he was 86 years old he would let Sister Gallacher stay with him because he'd love her. Oh boy! It was neat though because afterwards some of his neighbors stopped us and thanked us for helping him. Zane and Kristine both passed their interviews! Hurray!
Friday was another cold and rainy day. Especially cold since our hot water and heating are off! We moved studies into the kitchen and put on the space heater. Friday morning was entirely swallowed up by trying to figure out wedding business. Long story short President Bowell offered to expedite Kristine's wedding (the soonest they could was June 22) which is 155 lats, and 2-day ship a wedding dress from America so that she could get baptized with her sister. She didn't take our offer, but all parties seemed pretty happy about it. I was pretty disappointed. She said that she asked for the Lord's guidance that day and He had provided a way that she could get baptized with her sister and she rejected it.
We took Lidija L. (active) on the tour with the elders and she loved it. We also took Santa (RC) on Friday. It is going to be a very powerful tool for teaching and I'm excited. We made no knead garlic bread (YUMMY!) and ate it with some of Lidija's homemade cheese. We also got to meet with Marika (LA) and had a good lesson with her about Christ-like attributes and she showed up to Sacrament meeting on Sunday! She almost strangled all the children making noises, but at least she was there renewing her baptismal covenants.
Saturday was a great English class. No one wanted to participate, but the great part was the Spirit-punch that was the spiritual thought. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and the Spirit was almost overpowering. There were some teary eyes in the audience. Yay for the Spirit! I also had a little miracle of my own. After calling this woman since June 2011, I was finally able to meet with Rasa. We met her on the beach and she talked our ears off. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and invite her to church. We were very tired after our very long, very slow walk. Rasa did it in 3 inch heels on the sand. Ouch.
Sunday was a fine Sabbath day. It is getting warmer! A miracle was Presidents lesson second hour. I think that this is the first lesson he has ever taught without ever once going into Russian. I'm going to blame it on my challenge to him to read three pages of the Book of Mormon in Latvian daily. :P In the evenings we dropped by a few people who weren't home. A block before our house we had a boy stop us and ask for a Bible. Eventually I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. I'm pretty sure he was just messing with us, but who knows, maybe he'll read it. I didn't give him our phone number though. Have fun if he calls elders!
Have a great week!
Love, Māsa Lindstroma
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