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