Week 71

Goodness me, what a wild week.

Monday- we took Presidents to the Ukrainian Virtuve. It was not quite as exciting as last time. I did finally try cold beet soup- yum! We received a text from Zane that the house was in a panic. We went running over, worried that Janis didn't want to get married anymore. Nothing was wrong, Zane was just being dramatic, Kristine was just a little nervous.

Tuesday- we had thunderstorms last night! Zigrida, Valda's mom died during the night. We went over there with Santa and her 21-year old son Kristaps to help her move some of her stuff. We were quite worried that there was going to be a dead body inside because Valda told us it would smell and asked if we were afraid. Thankfully, there was no dead body, but a TON of clothes to move. Valda is scared to be in her apartment now so she's moving in with her boyfriend Janis. It was hilarious to watch Kristaps fold a 15-year-old girls clothes and look at them. I love Santa's relationship with Kristaps. She found two giant jars of fat (what the?!) in the bathroom (huh?!). Kristaps was afraid of it so she was waving it around at him. We also altered Kristine's dress (thank you mom) and taught Arta a lesson about prophets.

Wednesday- my allergies sure are bad this week. Whatever is in the air, I'm allergic- sneezing, watery eyes, the whole caboodle. I finally learned how to iron properly trying to get the wedding dress wrinkle free. I got it! I can come home now, it only took me 18 months. I had a really strong feeling to give a lonely looking teenage girl that was selling strawberries a Book of Mormon. She looked like she could use it and I hope that she will contact us. We also bought some of her strawberries and they were very delicious. We also went to visit a member and we took her grocery shopping. She was so excited to have food! She was probably my most favorite person that I've taken because her countenance totally changed as we took her. We had a good lesson with less-active Marika in which the Spirit was so thick you could have licked it and tasted the vanilla flavor.

Thursday- We spent a good chunk of the morning figured out exactly how much food we needed to buy for the Ligo party and exactly what we should buy. The grocery list we were given was quite vague. We managed, and I also managed to buy a ridiculous amount of chibas (slippers) and some wooden Latvian symbols that I am making into Christmas tree ornaments. The Ligo outdoor market was great this year! In the evening we played American football for sports. Watch out, Sister G. has nails! Elder Holdaway and I both ended up bleeding, and we were only playing flag football. Santa was waiting on the side lines with a mask and bandaids. Sister G and Elder H both ran into a pole. I laughed so hard because it looked like something Amber would do (in a good way!). We also had a fun lesson with a member who just came back from Sweden. He was very honest and I enjoyed his questions. He is a sharp man and he wants to do more service and feel the Spirit more in his life.

Friday- good grief, we were busy. Kristine came to the church 30 minutes late to get ready, so we did hair and makeup in record time. Janis peaced out right before they were going to sign all the documents, but luckily he appeared again. Kristine was so stinking happy. Janis was not. I guess that is what happens when you live together anyway? I don't know, but SG and I had a fun time running away from Kristine's and Zane's creepy brother Janis who kept trying to take pictures of us. Kristine's parents were there but only her mom came to her baptism in the evening. It honestly didn't seem much like a wedding, but only 2 witnesses were able to be their for the signing.

We ate lunch and then headed with Santa to go to Zigrida's funeral. Also another interesting experience. The paid preacher with his long pony tail and very memorized speech honestly reminded me of a dramatic interp in debate. "We all have our own paths in life, filled with sorrow..." He gave no comfort and didn't ever talk about God. It made me really appreciate the plan of salvation and how our clergy is NOT paid. Valda was very sad and it was quite fitting that we walked behind the casket being carried on six men's shoulders with the cross in front in the pouring rain. I was very glad I had an umbrella, but I was still very soaked after the whole affair. They buried the casket quite quickly and we were able to go home and change and be to the church in time for the baptism! Getting to and from the cemetery was pretty ridiculous, walking through rain and fields and puddles. Presidents said he was my friend since I had an umbrella, but if it were sunny he wouldn't be. He is so goofy!

It was neat to see Kristine baptized because she was very prepared and it meant a lot to her. Eliza started bawling when she saw her mom in the baptismal outfit and then again when she was in the water. Eliza doesn't like getting her head washed. We had a fun Ligo party afterwards with meat, cheese, bread, salad, cake, and of course head-wreath making! We played a sing off game (Americans v. Latvian [aka not fair because they have tautas dziesmas]), a candy string eating contest, and a balloon popping contest (when you have it connected to your ankle). I totally won! Wahoo!

Saturday- actual Ligo, was pretty quiet. We talked with Liga (baptized last July). She is sick but is doing well. It is sad to see that she doesn't get the gospel. We also met with another less-active and had an excellent lesson with her.

Sunday- we had the Boswells down! So fun! President Boswell has some pretty ridiculously great stories. I envy his life. I'd tell you some of the stories, but I'd probably get in trouble, lol. We made them NY ziti and Thor's bread which they loved. We sat around the table and President Boswell kept on telling more stories. We were also able to have interviews with them which was nice. In the evening we had a zone conference call and I talked about making English an effective finding tool.

Week 70

(June 18, 2012)
This past week was one of those slow yet fast weeks. They always throw me off. Mission Conference feels like it was weeks ago, but alas, it was only last Monday. Kristina Shcherbinina had her baby while we were at mission conference! She has a cute dark haired girl named Esther (Estere). Mission Conference- Bishop Stevenson made fun of me about going home. When we went through and met them he asked how long I'd been out. "A while," I replied. I had to do the math after that. My 18-month mark was on Friday the 15th! Elder Bennett said it felt like we were more obedient missionaries, and talked about giving everything to the Lord. Sister Stevenson told a cute story about how the gospel changed a family in Japan. Bishop Stevenson talked about finding the elect, hardwork, obedience, and testimony. Thoughts: obedience is not a sacrifice. Every lesson should be like a testimony meeting.

Tuesday was our Preparation day. We were able to go to the Karosta Prison that was in use until 1997. Our tour guide was a hoot and a half. "But that is not my problem, that is your problem. You were a bad soldier and this is not a prison." It was totally like a prison but not for civilians- no beds, bathroom twice a day for 2.5 minutes, and lots and lots of military exercises. We all really enjoyed ourselves. The tour guide was definitely what made it. We took the bus home with Sintija and quizzed Eriks about baptism. Uldis is really nervous that he won't pass the interview, but I have no worries. We had Sintija continue to spend the day with us and we took her to our lesson with Zane and Kristine which was a very nice lesson about being converted. It is important to continually strive to be converted. No one can do it for us!

Wednesday we held district meeting and talked about the importance of the Restoration. It really is so key and vital. I wish I could explain it better so that people would get it and join in on the salvation party bus! Afterwards Zane and Kristine brought over a whole entire family (of almost 4 generations) to see the church. It was a little hectic because Zane and Kristine were taking different people and talking about different things. By the end everyone was very confused. It is exciting to see how happy they are to be sharing the gospel. In the evening we had a wild lesson x2 with crazy hyper Sintija and her mom. Her mother won't let you get in a word edge wise so eventually SG let me listen to her mom and she started to teach Sintija about the Book of Mormon. Team effort! They are both very believing and have potential if we ever get a chance to TEACH them something. Highlight of the day was definitely the drunk 30 year old trying to buy us ice cream. All was going well gospel-interest wise until his work called and he found out he wasn't fired, so his desperation for change was not as great. We forewent the ice cream since he wouldn't promise to call Elder Holdaway and get the help that he needs. Afterwards we had a really really really good lesson with Oskars. Probably the best I've had with him. We talked about the central role that the Book of Mormon has in our conversion. Hopefully he'll be back soon. He gave a very sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father afterwards.

Thursday we had a cute lesson with the Tolmachovi about reading your scriptures together as a family. We gave them a Book of Mormon stories book and they've started reading it. Our sports night started quite late because the elders are the only ones with keys to the sports equipment. In the meantime we enjoyed getting to know Jurislav. He is in his 20s. Born in Russia, raised in Cali. He went back to Russia at age 15 and went to circus school for a year. He was a DJ in Canada and is just a really nice energetic entertaining person. Once we finally did play floorball we had a blast. Eliza wanted to play so we swapped her a hockey stick for a little broom. It was pretty great. There were some hoolies shooting hoops and doing push ups. Once they left Eliza went over to where they were and started doing "push ups." I'm glad that I have good bladder control because it was hilarious. In other news, Sister Gallacher writes her own piano music and it is amazing.

Friday we ran into one of the elders' old 'gators, Andis. He's really tall. My neck hurt after looking up so long. He talked our ears off, but we didn't miss any lessons. We showed Zane and Kristine our real church tour. The highlight of the day was Erik's baptism. He looked like a martian killer with his new toy gun and the white suit. His baptism was pretty funny. I tried really hard not to laugh. Walking into the font his dad was teasing that he was going to drown him. Uldis then proceeded to basically spin Eriks every which way because he didn't know which way to hold him and have the arms and such. We had a birthday cake and ice cream afterwards to celebrate this great day of turning eight! We may or may not have forgotten to confirm him after though. :) Good thing there are Sundays!

Saturday we had a good lesson with Arta. She came without Sintija and we had a good discussion on why bad things happen to good people. She has also prayed three times since we last met and read the homework. She still doesn't know if she believes in God. I can't imagine not believing in God and I think it would be very hard to start believing in him at age 16. After cleaning the church we went to Karosta to celebrate Sarra's Fourth Birthday. Remeber that time I was there last year for her birthday? I'm feeling old. Sarra is no longer shy. She loves giving us kisses, talking our ears off, and jumping on us and grabbing our necks. We had crab and rice salad, watermelon, and a cake made of cookies. For games this year we played hair stylist (I looked like a Christmas tree according to Presidents). We had a jolly good time playing button button. Sarra kept on telling who had the button and so it was just silly. We had an incredible lesson with Janis, Kristine, and Zane. Kaspars was there to help us teach why it is important to read the Book of Mormon. Towards the end Kaspars randomly grabbed SG's copy of the Book of Mormon, opened to a random page and started reading, "Teach your children to do good...don't search for riches...." It was very spiritual, especially since Kaspars had just talked about how meaningful and useful the scriptures are in our day. My testimony grew.

Sunday was the Sister Lindstrom show. After Branch Council I led the music, translated the first talk into Latvian, gave the second talk, and translated the third talk into English on the translation set. I definitely prefer translating as people talk. It is a lot harder for them to wait and pause. When that happens you have to try to remember what they said and it just isn't as fun. We had raclette for lunch and SG called everyone to set up lessons all by herself!

Good times. Love you all.
XOXO

Week 69

So you'll never guess whose watch broke yesterday. I refuse to have my time run out so I fixed it since just a part of it fell off and it wasn't the battery. Sorry for the delay in writing. We had Mission Conference, that's right, m-i-s-s-i-o-n conference yesterday so Tuesday is P-day this week. Weird. Never mind that my BABY brother just gave his farewell talk. We don't talk about things like that. "Ahhh!" Is a random scream that Sister Gallacher has been hearing as of late. At least I don't go super crazy like the elders? Happy Birthday tomorrow (Wednesday) bestie [your letter is coming late. it got sent back. *sigh*] and thanks for the letter Drewbie. And if you are out there Sister Ferrin, I never got your letter that you supposedly sent. And Happy Father's Day! I appreciate you Dads out there. You're the greatest. And happy 18-month mark to me on Friday the 15th. Weird!

Monday was miraculous. We found Laima (Laima is an inactive recent convert. Her family went super anti right after she got baptized and her husband divorced her because of it)! It was a district effort. We were on a bus going up to Karosta when I saw Laima. Elder Holdaway and I started freaking out. "Oh my goodness, that's Laima!" "No way no way. Keep your eyes on her and get ready to get off this bus at the next stop. We are going to get her." I think she was slightly disturbed when 4 missionaries came running up to her (two blocks of running) just to say "hi." She has a job now and says that she is slowly getting better. It is only a matter of time until she'll be back. What a blessing though to find her! We eventually did make our way to Karosta and it was beautiful weather. The "stairway to heaven" is slowly falling off the cliff. It is kind of scary and totally suspended on the sides- meaning no longer connected to the cliff side. We had a fun time going through the old war forts and finding sea glass. We decided to contact our way to the park in the evening. This super hyperactive 14 year old came up and contacted us. Her name is Sintija and she is beyond bouncy. She was very interested in the fact that we had Jesus Christ on our name tags and invited us to come back (we saw her yesterday, Monday the 11th and talked to her mom as well). We also went to talk to inactive Aina and had an interesting exchange with a couple (30s?) who had just been in NYC. "We were the only white people where we lived." Ha ha, yes. Indeed. There is a negative black population in Latvia. I've maybe seen a dozen in over a year of living here and maybe 3 in Liepaja. Anywho, they were really rude at first, but then in the end we ended it as acquaintances.

Tuesday District Meeting involved a FH'zookie. Baked in a pot. It was at least a 3 inch thick cookie and took almost 2 hours to cook. We went and taught Valda. It was so neat to see how she had something that she wanted to share with us that she read in the Liahona. It is great to see her back into the gospel and happier again. We met a man named Jack from Australia. His grandmum was Latvian and now he has a bunch of property and he bounces between Latvia and Australia. He is a very nice fellow and has looked a little bit into our church since Mitt Romney is running for President. We invited him to come for a tour sometime because we had a big turnout of people to learn how to make Grandma's Cherry Swirl Cake. What can I say, my grandma makes good desserts. The children had a fun time taking ridiculous pictures on my camera and thankfully didn't break anything.

Wednesday was a sunny beautiful day. I told a woman that on the tramvajs and she started tearing into me about how it was beautiful in HER country and that I should leave it. Naturally I saw her three days in a row after that. I still haven't decided if I should try to say hello again. It was a good little learning moment for me. I didn't say anything back, but I was thinking of responses after we had left the tram and I came to the conclusion that, you know what, I was called by a prophet of God. My calling is important and I am doing a good work. We had a sweet little miracle not long after that. We are trying to get a recently less active, Laimonis back so we have been asked to try to make daily contact with him. Thing is he has neither a phone, nor friendly family members that allow us to come over. I was praying that we'd be able to find him somehow today and Voila! There he was sitting on the park bench across from the church. He heard that Joseph Smith had 30 wives. Oh boy. That one definitely shook little SG's testimony and so she studied polygamy all morning and fretted about it. I love what it says in Preach My Gospel though. We are all backed up against the wall and need to take a leap in faith. All you need to know is that the Book of Mormon is true and then the rest logically falls into place. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We met with Arta and taught about Satan which was an interesting topic, but went well. I think we piqued her interest for reading the Book of Mormon. I still haven't given up on inactive RC Liga. I knocked on her door. For five minutes. Either she wasn't home or really doesn't want to talk. We had another bad contact turn good. Another older woman was telling me that I was doing a dishonest work. I just tried to be her friend and by the end she spent at least 10 minutes telling us her life story. Sometimes I wonder why people are so impolite at first. Guess they wouldn't really be happy in Jesus' presence. They aren't okay meeting the "missionary" but when it is just a "person" they are more friendly. Anywho, the ring man Maris' girls were out selling painted rocks. I totally bought one and it is my new favorite rock. But it isn't a pet because pets aren't allowed. We met an inactive member Martins who saw some junk on tv about the FLDS a few years ago and thought it was us. Oh boy. I feel like all I did was argue today but by the end I learned just to be like, "Do you know that the Book of Mormon is true?" because it really does resolve all concerns.

Thursday we ran into Laimonis again! Today he had questions about letting non-members take the sacrament. We had a lesson with Ivita, a very believing English class student. She got baptized about 1.5 years ago, so she wasn't too keen on hearing that there is more truth than what she has found. It was interesting to hear what her preacher has taught. A lot of it is truth/half-truths are taught in other churches. Um, I love the Branch President here. "Sisters, can you help me with something? Do you have a minute?" "Sure, what?" "Are these the right lyrics?" Phantom of the Opera. All I Ask of You. To make a long story short we ended up belting that song with presidents several times with the new speakers that he bought. So fun. Oh my, my heart will be sad without Presidents in my life. We made yummy calzones and played floorball with the elders, Inguss, and Raivo (who broke his arm on the 10th, poor kid). Floorball was super fun, other than the fact that SG and I were EXTREMELY sore for two days after that. The highlight of my Thursday was talking to eternal investigator Aivars on the streets. Why? Because Jack and his dog came strolling by. We told Aivars that Jack was from Australia and Aivars asked if Rogers (the dog) was from Australia too.
"No, actually he's Italian."
"He's Italian? When did dogs have nationalities?"
"He is a Bolognese poodle but he was born in Latvia."
"Does he speak Italian?"
"He doesn't speak Italian but he does prefer Ciao to Labdien. And he likes lasagna."

Oh my goodness, hilarious! Their wits are perfect for each other. I wish I could have stayed longer and listened to them.

Friday we met with Indra from English. She is going to Finland to pick strawberries for 5 weeks and wanted extra help with her English. She has a Book of Mormon and she said she'll take it with and read it. She actually knows Aivars (the forever 'gator) and said she's noticed the change in him (he used to drink all the time and the missionaries helped him to quit) so we got to help her make the connections of why he's become a better person.

Saturday we went park contacting again after teaching Valda, cleaning, and meeting with Santa. We talked to inactive Aina and one of her co-workers. SG taught her first lesson in the park! All by herself! I was so proud of her. We had an impromptu lesson on Fathers with Zane, Kristine, and Janis. It was madness. Eliza (2.5), Davisa (7), and puppy were there. Eliza would pull Rambo's face and ears and then Davisa would try to grab her dog back. Rambo would like Eliza and then she'd stick out her tongue and let the dog lick her tongue. Eww! Davisa told her not to do that and then Eliza got mad and threw a battery-powered dog at Davisa's face. Poor kid is going to have a black eye, but she took her cut cheek like a champ. Later on they were on the bunk bed and SLAM! Face plant into the ladder. Eliza was bleeding everywhere and oh my goodness. Control the children someone, please! I was dying. I was dying of laughter after Eliza used her little potty and was pulling up her pants when Rambo started walking towards her. She started screaming in fear which was just hilarious to me since she was just barely tongue-ing the very same dog. We had even more dog adventures after. We have a good-looking businessman neighbor in his 30s who was outside with 5 male friends and his ridiculously ugly dog. I think it is a bulldog. For some reason his friends started talking to us in English and the dog started jumping on us. Our neighbor was profusely apologetic in English. "I'm so, I'm so sorry. It's a terrible habit of his." I didn't know he spoke English. Anywho, I kind of wanted to keep on talking to them, but 6 drinking men on a Friday night and a bulldog does not seem to be in my favor. "I'll see you tomorrow," our neighbor said in his Brit accent as we went in the apartment complex. I thought it was the most hilarious thing.

Sunday morning we were running with a wedding dress (Runaway Bride!) to catch our tram to the bus station. We made it. We went up to Riga for a great District Conference where we sang a beautiful arrangement of "Come Thou Fount." I really enjoyed one of the talks about how we need to build a good spiritual house. How does your house look? Is it run down? Does it need remodeling? Santa sat between Elder Lynch and I and was hilarious during the sustaining of the people. We frosted a belated birthday cake for Sisters Kurr and Gallacher and then headed off to the Bailey's. The Bailey's are an amazing embassy family who are like a giant slice of American pie. They really are the greatest. They were so kind and had all the Latvian missionaries over for their last Sunday in Latvia. We had hamburgers and strawberry shortcake for their early Father's Day dinner. I didn't know the Bailey's well, but I am so grateful for them and their strong example. They both served in callings and came to church every week, regardless of the language barrier. They move every 2-3 years and always do service projects with their kids in each new country. Sister Bailey even moves their 72 hour kits with them. They truly love the people of Latvia and love helping the missionaries. They are amazing!

Lots of Love,
Sister L

June 2012 Pics Zane's Baptism

Week 68

June 4, 2012

Another week has come and gone. I still don’t believe that Mark is going into the MTC soon. AHH! Where has the time gone?

Monday was super clean Monday. We definitely super cleaned. Rubija Berzina, a 32 year old member was set apart as a mini-missionary so she spent the day with us. We took her out to lunch at my favorite, Pastnieka Maja. They didn’t give us all the right things that we ordered, but what can ya do? It was still really yummy. I got my favorite spinach and carrot soup and then I got probably one of the best desserts I’ve had in my life. Filo pastry dough stuffed with wild berries, ice cream, cream and strawberry jam. Yum. I was stuffed. Definitely worth three lats, but I probably should have shared more of it. I was definitely full 2/3 of the way through, but it was just SOO good. In the evening we had a ridiculously long appointment with Lidija. It was supposed to be about scripture study, but she blabbered on and on and on for over an hour about fasting.

Anywho, Tuesday morn we woke up early so that we could go by Rubija’s and grab all of her luggage to take on her mini mission. She now owns over half my wardrobe, ha ha. She will definitely be the most styling missionary in Daugavpils. She got called to Latvia Russian speaking! President Boswell told us she’d be going out of Latvia, but she’s opening up Daugavpils to sisters with another Russian-speaking missionary! She was ridiculously happy to be serving a mini-mission. I got my new ID card up in Riga. I feel like a secret agent now. They had to take finger prints and photos. Next will probably be voice recognition. We went to the office after my appointment and got semi-forced into going to this nasty Cafe. Rubija needed to have lunch and it was the closest thing. I didn’t want to eat there but she said she wasn’t eating if we weren’t, so we had to take one for the team. I got a letter from Sister Madara Zommerovska, which almost made up for the bad food. She is having a blast serving at Temple Square. We got back to Liepaja and were able to teach Janis and Kristine, albeit we had to wait almost 30 minutes for Janis to get back. We had a good lesson. Long story short is that he has no desire or reason to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. I’m still looking for the section on how to make people have a desire in PMG. I called transfer calls. By that I mean I called that we weren’t getting them until 10:22pm. In case you were wondering, Liepaja is staying the same. Wahoo! Ten transfers in a row.

Wednesday we had a District Meeting by Sister Gallacher. She taught us about spiritual gifts. They really are the greatest things. Y’all should read up on them. We had two amazing lessons on Wednesday. The first one was with Arta, Sintija’s friend and we went over Alma 32. She related perfectly to the story. „That’s like me. I have a desire, I want to believe, it is just hard because there is another half that is trying to say that God doesn’t exist.” The lesson was amazingly good, we found out some questions she has, and we got her to pray ALOUD. This was a HUGE momentous step for her. Rihards came with us to teach Janis about God. Rihards did an amazing job testifying and he also invited Kristine and Janis to read and pray together, like he does over the phone with his fiancée. The spirit was strong.

Thursday...Happy Birthday Sister Gallacher. She’s official now- 21. Wahoo! We started the morning off right with a great lesson with a student from English. „If I didn’t already have a church, I’d come to yours. I agree with everything that you teach and I like how I feel here.” Well, you don’t hear that every day. Inta was very impressed that we had apostles. „That is new” she told us. We went to Fontaine’s for SG’s birthday and I got the best kebab I’ve had in Latvia. I hope that Denmark has better kebabs for Mark. We also went to Valda’s house. She gave SG some jewelry and a really cute speech blessing her with health, endurance, and a faithful cute husband. The rest of the day was spent planning and eating chocolate ice cream.

Friday morning we had another meeting with a cute old man from English, Arvids. Arvids was impressed that no one got paid in our church. He’s a cute old grandpa. We had a lesson on the phone with recent convert Zane. She is working on a branch member’s farm and loves being in nature with the animals. We had a good time doing some unexpected service at Valda’s. From what I understand her old boyfriend of six years is out of prison and wants all of his china and doilies back. They could have fed an army. We filled up two large suitcases and the bathtub with china. We were wrapping it in old German magazines from the 40s-60s. SG just about died. Santa came and helped and would carry giant bags of his stuff like Santa Claus and go „ho ho ho.”

In the pouring rain on Saturday we went out and bought groceries for break the fast. Meat at the market = disgusting. No gloves, no cleaning your hands. The woman still had meat on her hands while handing us the money. Eww eww eww. We met with long time member Annika and went through some old branch lists. She gave me a lucky button from a trade fair of sorts that they had last weekend. We cleaned the church and then took Santa with us to teach Valda who kept telling us all that we need to find boyfriends. Once we left Santa started singing a song she made up. „We’re going to find a boyfriend, a boyfriend, we’re going to find a boyfriend *sniff sniff sniff*” „What are you doing?” „Looking for a boyfriend like Riksi [her dog] would.” Oh my Santa. My world will be so dull without that woman. We were also talking about visiting teaching and her lack of a partner. „I’ll take Sister Holdaway.” (Elder Holdaway is known for being a half sister) I died when she said that. I made SG scones. She’s never had scones! She was also appalled that I was sticking honey on my scones. I thought that was normal. This transfer SG is in charge of getting us everywhere. I had fun letting her get lost. She may be worse than me. She tried to take us on a bus going the wrong way. I didn’t let her do that. I have been showing her how to use a map....how ironic.

Sunday was a crazy Sunday. No one was there to conduct (Elder Holdaway did). No one was there to teach Sunday School (thanks again EH), and Lidija called at 7am saying she wouldn’t be there in Primary. At least we got the advanced notice. Primary was a bit wild, but we had fun learning about being missionaries. We had 53 people at church, albeit 8 of them were the Bailey’s from Center visiting. It was nice to have people to pass the sacrament. I was really worried that we wouldn’t have anyone there to bless and pass the sacrament. We had plovs (some weird meat and rice dish) for lunch and strawberries. Yum! I’m excited for strawberry season. I forgot about how yummy strawberries are here. We took Santa with us to see whatever happened to Oskars. Oh. My. Goodness. She would be the best companion. She was knocking on his window and doors in all sorts of ways. „Do you think he is home?” „No” Santa said as she continued knocking. She also covered up the peep hole and tried yelling „Oskars” into the window pane. We tried going by a few other homes and no one was home. While we were calling people Zane texted us and asked us if we could come over. She and Kristine had some questions on fasting so we talked with them about that among other things.

The church is true. This week I have gained a greater testimony about how important the Priesthood is. It doesn’t matter how many Sister Lindstrom’s or other women we have at church, or in the church if we don’t have the Priesthood. The Priesthood is God’s power and I don’t have that. As much as I would like to help, I can’t help fill those callings. The priesthood is necessary and I am so grateful that I lived in a place with many worthy priesthood holders. You are so needed. You are so precious. Without the priesthood we can’t progress in the gospel.