Week 67

Time is running out. Quite literally. I brought three proselyting watches (aka not including my running watch) on my mission. This transfer my purple watch died and then my nice Invicta watch decided that it also wanted to join the pile of watches that need new batteries. It was actually great because time was slowing down. Anywho, let us just hope my last watch doesn't die, I'm not sure what that would mean.

Last Monday was H-O-T. Like 35C (95 F) hot. Which is a big jump from like 10C. Luckily it didn't stay for more than a few days. Happy year mark Santa! You know you've been on a mission for a long time when someone that you helped teach and saw get baptized is no longer a recent convert. We took her over flowers and butter. Santa loves butter. We taught her about the temple. I'm taking her to the DC temple when I find a rich and obedient husband (Aivars, Liepaja's eternal investigator told me so). Santa showed us some of her old photos which was awesome. We taught the Beldavi and scripture study and gave them one of the fun picture Book of Mormons.

Tuesday we woke up far too early to go up to Riga to get my visa picture. The bus ride was gorgeous. The rapeseed (yup, rapeseed) was in bloom so there were giant beautiful yellow fields mingled in all the greenery. We got to my appointment early so we went walking through a GIANT cemetery and saw huge lilac trees (these monsters weren't bushes) as well as many old grandmas cleaning burial areas. I got bitten by a bunch of mosquitos. I still have the bites and they are bruised...hopefully I don't die. They finally stopped itching on Sunday. Anywho, we didn't get lost (yes!) and we met up with Rubija and the Riga sisters and went to Muffins and More. I got a pesto-mozzarella Panini as well as a caramel muffin. Yum yum. We left Rubija to spend the day with the Riga sisters. She is going to be a mini-missionary starting Tuesday! At the office Elder Holdaway and I had a wonderful surprise- a birthday package for us! Wahoo! The way home to Liepaja was so neat. We ran into a Brother Walker of California who is adopting twins from Latvija. He told us his story and the twins make children 9 and 10. Bless his heart. We also saw the Millets (senior couple) at the bus station with their three wonderful daughters who were visiting. It was fun to meet them.

Wednesday we had district meeting since we were on a hot and sticky bus all Tuesday (okay, so only 8 hours of Tuesday, but still). Quote of the meeting "We are helping people learn Heaven." We made giant tacos for lunch. And then proceeded to eat the left-overs for the rest of the week. We figured since we forgot Cincqo de Maijo we'd just make up for it by having 5 days of celebration. Zina came to help us teach Zane and Kristine and bore a great testimony about not getting offended and remembering why you go to church. We had a meeting with inactive Dzintra. She forgot me (that's a good thing) and she was uber nice to us. No door slamming when we have cookies for her this time. And she actually gave us cookies. After English we had a meeting with Arta to watch Finding Faith in Christ. Aivars was there so we invited him. He is getting so much closer. He said he felt something in his heart watching the movie. He just still has lots of questions, and some of them are good. I think we all have questions. Some are important like will everyone have a body and some are not like will I have my earring holes in heaven (thank you Sintija).
Thursday Rubija spent the afternoon with us so we went to some lessons. First stop was Lucija, an old, pant less lady with flies everywhere. She completely forgot that we called to set up an appointment and she didn't connect us with the Mormon missionaries (she was a former investigator). The conversation kept repeating which was somewhat entertaining. We also visited the old man we helped across the street. He didn't look as happy as I thought he would to see us. Oh well. We went to Valda's and she is looking much happier. Her and Janis had a fight so she came to the baptism as well as church on Sunday. We rode another hot and sticky bus ride to the Scerbinini's for an excellent FHE put on by the very pregnant Kristina S. We brought ice cream and brownies. We took enough brownies for everyone to have two each but we only got one. I'm assuming Sis. S. is eating the other 10. She downed 5 pieces of Texas sheet cake in a row at the baptism on Friday. Anywho, we had a lot of fun with Sarra, Ieva, and Eliza.

The baptism went well. Presidents forgot to put the plug in the water [oopsie!]. Luckily someone noticed so we only started 45 minutes late. Eliza started bawling when she saw Zane in the font waving and smiling at her. It was pretty funny. Zane was very happy and excited after she was baptized. She got dressed faster than Presidents. We only had time to sing 2 verses of 1 song. Many people showed up which we were glad about.

Saturday morning we got to take Rubija shopping for her mini-mission. Humana had everything for 20 cents which was AWESOME. One lady from our English class gave us these cool light yellow tulips that look like Edward Scissor-hand trimmed the end of the petals. They have lots of neat tulips here. Presidents invited us to a surprise party and wouldn't tell us what the surprise was. It was Uldis and Maija Frolovi! Uldis is FINALLY back in the country with his wife. Hallelujah. Sintija and Eriks were very excited. We had sausage, cheese, and even more cake to celebrate. The highlight for me was Maxims. He's my favorite! He's the neighbor who got stuck on his fence and had his dog chase him...he just makes my heart smile. Anywho after planning a music group was singing outside our window. It was the most beautiful chorus I have ever heard. They had just performed at the Catholic church across the street.

Sunday made for chocolate cake #5 that I made this week. I don't even like chocolate cake all that much. We were having seminary graduation/sacrament for third hour and had lots of peeps from Riga. Sister Davis (CES couple) didn't know that everyone was invited so she didn't have enough brownies for everyone. We didn't realize this until we were walking to third hour (which was sacrament today). She told us the ox was in the mire so we ran home (literally) to start making Texas sheet cake. We've got skills. We stuck one in the oven at home, got one in the oven at church and made it to the church in time to partake of the sacrament. I still don't know how we managed that. We did miss Zane getting confirmed, but everyone got their cake. Sister Kristina S. had five again. With ice cream. She's a champ, I hope that baby girl of hers comes soon!

Sorry we haven't got more time today! It has been a wild ride.
Love you lots,
Sister Lindstrom