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.