Weel 74: Final Days and Final Words

Monday
Monday was a super clean day so therefore we super cleaned. Nothing
like a clean house! I also introduced Sister Clark to statdogs.
Statdogs are the genius that isn't in America. A hot dog in a warm
crunchy cylindrical goodness. No mess with full carb coverage. We
went biking with the gang (the elders, Sintija, and Inguss). We had a
blast! We biked down the beach trail to the giant Liepaja sign where
we were entertained by some rather large swans with half a dozen ugly
swanlings. We all got a kick out of Sintija taking on the parent
ducks and hissing back at them. We were biking to the other side of
Liepaja to see the lake and it started POURING rain.

We continued spending our day with Sintija and had a really neat
lesson with her and Arta. We watched the Restoration film and Arta
has been reading and praying. Arta said the closing prayer and
Sintija was crying afterwards because she was so happy! It was neat.
We continued on with Sintija and Arta and went to have FHE with the
Frolovi family. We read the Proclamation to the World on Families and
then we continued to converse about what they can do to have an
eternal family. Sister Clark and I continued on to inactive Lidija's
house and she gladly let us in. We talked to her about prayer. I
know that prayer is so important in our lives and that it helps us
immensely.

Tuesday
This morning we ran to the church and grabbed some ping pong
equipment. We waved at the web cams that Presidents has set us as
security videos for the parking lot and he teased us about that
afterwards. We ran to the awesome park by the sea and played ping
pong on a circular table that has two nets that cross and make an X.
We also played on the giant ship playground for ages 7-14. We figured
that 23 and 24 was close enough. We leaned of the role of the Spirit
in conversion while gorging ourselves on a dessert called "peaches
down under" which is essentially canned peaches drowned in sour cream
and brown sugar and then heated. We went and got Sister Clark
registered in Liepaja and went by a potential investigator's home but
they weren't there.

We ate nutella and fruit crepes (shout out to France!) which we
learned about transfers. It is a crazy world- Sister Kurr will be
with Rubija, Latvia has only one zone leader, and Elder Burr is coming
to Liepaja!!! I am so excited for him. They are going to have a nerd
fest in Liepaja. Elder Bergason is a math major, Sister Clark a
physics major, and Elder Burr is a genius as well.

We had a fun lesson with the Beldavi's and Eriks was even over and
helped answer lots of questions. He just about broke my heart though,
"Lindstroma, will this be the last time I see you?" We also went by
some other less actives and went contacting in the park. On the way
back from the park we ran into Crazy hyper Sintija and her twin and
mom. Those twins are so darn touchy. We set up a meeting at a later
date.

Sarra and Ieva were at the church when we had Santa's lesson. They
were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hyper and goofy. They came in and helped with
our lesson and then we had to spin and dance and spin some more.

Wednesday- Last day in Liepaja
Time sure does fly. Today we went running barefoot at the beach and
reports are neither confirmed nor denied if I got my feet wet. After
studies we went and taught Kristine and Janis. Zane randomly peaced
out to the laukos (country) and didn't care to tell us. We had a
great lesson actually about modesty. It was so neat to feel the
complete and total change in their home; obeying God's commands really
does make a huge difference.

We ate gravy toast, packed, went to the Bakery, and visited even more
people! We had a little miracle and found Valda outside of Janis'
house. I am supposed to call her so that she can hear my voice, lol.
We went to the park again and Sister Clark got rhubarb ice cream which
was quite delicious. Aivars was 15 minutes early (go figure) to pick
up our luggage so we waited with him at the bus station for a while.
His muffler is about to fall off and he kept on telling us how he
hoped he'd get it fixed so he could help the new sister with her
luggage. We had an uneventful bus ride and I may have even gotten
some shut eye.

We went to the sisters' apartment in Imanta to stay. They naturally
lived on the 9th floor and the elevator happened to be broken. They
greeted us with Danish dessert, chicken salad, and death log.

Thursday- Last day in Riga
Thursday morning SC and I took a taxi (with the same driver) to the
mission home. SC went to the trainers meeting and I helped Sister
Boswell clean and go berry shopping. We made a birthday cake for one
of the elders and just kind of hung out and waited for other departing
missionaries to come. My exit interview with President Boswell went
well although it was not what I expected. I thought we'd talk a lot
more about my mission and what I did but it was more questions about
future plans and some advice about being a good sweetheart and such.
He was the second witness to the "well done thou good and faithful
servant" feeling that I have had this past week. The Lord has
accepting my efforts as the "mother of Liepaja" as he called me. He
related the counsel he received from President Monson, that if a
missionary is making a difference in an area why would you move them?
I was able to go out with Sister Grinevicute who is from Lithuania.
We went around Old Town Riga. I wanted to go up into this one church
for the panoramic view, but I did not want to spend 8 US dollars for
said panoramic view, so we just walked around a little bit instead.
Sister Boswell fed us funeral potatoes, ham, and green beans as well
as birthday cake with ice cream. We were quite stuffed. We had a
"fireside" after that. The fireside was a lot of President Boswell's
advice for the future. Keep on dressing nicely, you don't have to
look like an apostle ever day, but don't look grungy. Facial hair-
don't have it (darn....). Don't get divorced! Think of finding a job
that will allow you to go to church and participate in callings. Do
something that you enjoy doing. Date members and look for someone
that makes you want to be better when you are with them. Find someone
that YOU want to make happy. Chase after someone but still be chaste.
If you are ever going to have an intimate conversation, have it at
the mall; you can't get in trouble there and absolutely no one will
pay attention to you. What does multiply and replenish the earth mean
to you? Enjoy the dirt poor days. Ask the Lord to send you
Ephramites and raise them in the Lord. Choose your love, love your
choice. You have to work really hard and give 100% to the
relationship. The relationship is 3 things- the marriage, you, and
your spouse; do what is best for two out of three. Give more than you
expect to get. Avoid devisive things in the home. Fight hard and
early against pornography. Date time is sacred time. Pray with your
children for them to get married in the temple.

President Boswell also gave the advice he got from Sister Boswell's
bishop. Sister Boswell had just received her temple recommend and
President Boswell came to pick her up. "I want to talk to you young
man. I have two questions. First, when do you shave?" "In the
morning." "Well, from now on I want you to shave at night, can you do
that?" "Yes sir." "Second question. When do you shower?" "In the
morning." "Will you promise me that you will shower at night from now
on? No one likes to kiss someone with a scruffy face or sleep by a
smelly person." President Boswell swears by this advice.

Friday
On Friday we woke up and had blueberry muffins for breakfast and then
headed out in the cars to the airport. Our extra baggage cost an arm
and a leg- 400$ a piece. The elders (Moffat, Pack, Mills, Froelich,
and Thomas) were very glad to have me along because I "looked like I
knew what I was doing." We went through security about a billion
times that day. Our first flight left at 11:30 am Latvia time and we
arrived in SLC at 9pm Utah time on Friday. We flew from Riga to
Amsterdam and then took a 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Seattle.
It was really neat to fly over Greenland and see all of the ice and
snow. Delta treated us well with food every two hours or so- peanuts
and pretzels, chicken curry or lasagna, a sandwich and candy, a
calzone and ice cream. I slept for maybe an hour on the 10 hour long
flight. The elders were pretty antsy to get home by the time we got
to Seattle. On the first plane they were all sad to leave Latvia and
by the last plane they couldn't wait to get home.

Mom, dad, and sister-in-law Julie greeted me at the airport. I had a
nice time being released by the Stake President at his home.
It is good to be home; I've been gone a long time and I know that my
missionary service hasn't ended, it has just begun.