So I made it to Latvia! Luckily I brought the sunshine with me. I heard it is normally grey all winter. My companion is great. Her name is Sister Hailey Sutterfield and she is very obedient and organized. Our personalities get along well together so it is good. We are serving in an area called Imanta which is outside of Riga Center. The people here are a lot less friendly then in France and many just shoo you away. There are also lots of Russians, whom I definitely don't understand.
Our last weekend at the MTC was good. Everyone went a little hay wire, so it was hard to study. We did get the epic epistle done though, so that was a good thing.
We had to wake up wicked early (wicked as in out by 4am) to go to the airport. All of our flights went well and we met Mormons at every stop except for in Germany. I talked to a few people, but no truly promising prospects. I love Sister Stout, a sister who flew with us. She is going Russian speaking and has an amazing conversion story.
President and Sister Dance picked us all up from the airport and then dropped us off to go contacting with some of the missionaries serving in Riga. It was VERY VERY VERY cold without boots. I couldn't feel my toes. Sister Dance fed us lots and we had lots of training to learn how things are done in this mission. We stayed at the mission home until Thursday getting training and living permits, having lessons from the Dances as well as the Assistants to the President.
Thursday morning we went to the church in Riga center to meet with our new companions. They are as follows: E. Burr is in Jelgava with Worsleys
E. Lynch is in Liepaja with Johnson. President Dance thought he was so tricky and had them all switch nametags. We took a taxi to our area and then we did our morning studies and headed out contacting. We came back for lunch and some unpacking and then we planned and went to teach my first lesson to a Latvian. His name is Andris and he has been investigating the church for about 7 months. He was taught about the Book of Mormon and will hopefully learn to love the book and want to be baptized.
On Friday we spent a lot of time contacting outside while walking as well as breaking into domes (aka apartment complexes, and yes, we break in) and knocking on doors. We were able to talk to a few cute old babushkas but everyone else won't even open the door. They have two doors here (one right after the other) so they will open one door and yell through the other door Who is it, what do you want, or a variety of other phrases that I don't understand. We also went and visited Inga who was baptized several months ago. She is a really sweet 27/29ish year old girl. We just shared some scriptures with her.
On Saturday all the missionaries teach English. It is a two hour long class broken up into 3 levels. Sister S. and I take the intermediate class and we had two people there today. It went well. We did a lot of calling from the area book (and our planning on doing so) because it hasn't been touched in months. Latvians don't like planning... we set up some appointments (sort of) with people that we called. They said they wanted to talk and to call next week for an appointment. So apparently having a blank page for the next day is pretty normal here in Latvia.
Church went well on Sunday. I met a lot of nice people but I don't remember any of their names and apparently they were all asking me if I'm from Sweden. They have stuff with the brand Lindstrom from Sweden everywhere here. The Branch president is about 29 and is named President Blooms. He kidnapped us as well as the elders after church for a rather long meeting at his house about investigators and such. He is apparently the ward council meeting. His wife made us dinner and we got to laugh at his goofy furball cat that looks like a dog. It chases pens if you throw them and everything!!
I'm doing well and I got a sister that I will get along with really well for my companion, so that is good.
Sorry that I can't write more, but my time is up!!
Love you lots,
Masa
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Mari Arrives in Latvia
We received this note from Mari's mission president today.
Your son or daughter has arrived safely. Here is a picture at the Riga Latvia airport with Sister Dance and I. From the airport we went for several hours of training, ate dinner, and then shared our feelings and testimonies about Christ. They went to bed early to catch up on lost sleep. Thank you for entrusting them to our care. They are a wonderful group of young men and women. They will receive their assignment on Thursday and you should receive an email from them on Monday. If you need anything or have any questions please email or call me.
Warmest Regards,
President Douglas Dance
Baltic Mission
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Last Week in the Empty Sea
Well, it is a great feeling to know that I have almost survived my time here down south at the Empty Sea. Flight plans have arrived and I will be out of here on Monday.
February has been great so far...
On Thursday the 2nd we had some fun in the evening. One of the elders received 136 odd ties from his brother. It was pretty entertaining to look at them all.
On Friday Elder Burr, Lynch, and I went and taught Sister Keith aka "Nelly the investigator" through Lehi's Dream. We mostly focused on this life and it was amazing. She learned a lot and the spirit was constantly being felt throughout the lesson. We were all really happy about how well it went. Later on in class we got to call Brother Newman on Sister Priddis' phone to practice following up on contacts and such. It was a pretty funny sight. My cough has been getting better. I went to the doctor and he is letting me go to Latvia, I am just supposed to take an inhaler if I need it to keep my airway open. Sister Huntington left today. We knew that she was leaving, but didn't think it would be until tomorrow. She was notified at lunch that she'd be leaving for the airport in a half hour. Luckily she was all packed. She wrote us later on in the week. She is doing well and she is happy. As a zone we are all doing well. The sisters are all getting along great; there is definitely a different spirit in our residency hall now. This experience has shown me how important it is to be worthy to do missionary work.
On Friday the elders were quite "broken" as we call it. We are all getting cabin fever and the cabin fever of Friday night included them singing Spice Girls and then not remembering it two minutes later. Luckily I will always remember it for them.
Saturday during class we were all falling asleep so Sister P took us out into the cold to do some contacting. We'd switch off having two of us contact and then the other would translate into English. We had a lot of fun doing this and some of the translations were pretty ridiculous (in a good way though- just fixing sentences so that they'd be correct).
On Sunday I gained a testimony of bringing pillows to meetings. Fast Sundays are mission conferences in the MTC so you get to sit for two hours on the hard bleacher seats and then have more meetings to follow. Our district decided to bring our pillows to sit on. This kept us all awake while the MTC presidency and their wives spoke. The biggest thing that the Spirit taught me in that meeting was that I just need to relax and make sure that I am happy and then I'll be doing what is right. Testimony meeting today was really spectacular. All of my district ending up bearing our testimonies and the Spirit was very powerful. When we weren't in meetings we worked on our Epistle of the Latvians, also known as our MTC advice to future Latvian missionaries set up in chapters, verses, and even includes scriptural cross references. Elder Lynch is quite the master at Bible speak, it is a hilariously amazing epistle.
On Monday night we all wanted to shoot ourselves. We had a completely vacuous and dull common sense meeting about health and safety. This meeting lasted almost two hours. Just boil anything you eat for about 6 minutes and you will be fine. Luckily our last LGM made up for the awfulness of the health and safety meeting. The LGM was about finding people to teach. I enjoyed hearing everyone's comments and learning the importance of talking to everyone that we come in contact with and quickly testifying of the restoration because that is what sets us apart. Service was good today as well. I cleaned with the two other sisters in our zone (Hall from Farmington, UT and Kennach from OR). They are pretty quiet but we got a lot done (sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, etc.).
Tuesday the 8th was AMAΖΙΝG. In the morning we had Brother Snyder come in and teach us about the relationship between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I learned so much. This lesson is how I thought all teaching in the MTC was going to be like. I will try to quickly sum it up. Both the Bible and the BOM contain the fullness of the gospel (check the BoM intro). The two were made for different purposes though. The Bible came after the church and the BoM came before the Restoration as it was to gather Israel and bring people to the truth. This is why we should use the BoM as missionaries to prove the truthfulness of the Bible. Moroni's intro, Ezra Taft Benson, DC 18:4, 1 Nephi 15:14 all tell about the same 3 purposes of the BoM. Matt 16:13-18 the rock is revelation. We may see but it is only in believing that we are saved.
Following Brother Snyder we had our lesson with Brother Vehawn, aka Vytas. He threw us a curve ball saying that his family didn't want him to be baptized. After a moment of befuddlement we abandoned the ship of our planned lesson and left only the parts that could apply to him and this trial, which were conveniently fasting and reading the scriptures. The lesson was great and you could feel the Holy Ghost testify as we were earnestly concerned for Vytas. We will all miss Brother Vehawn. We took some pictures with him and talked for a while after our lesson.
Yesterday (being Wednesday) I saw Chris Teuscher and Cade Cloward. Both are doing well although sick of the MTC. Japanese is really hard for Cade, but he says that he likes it. Elder Burr and I taught a great lesson in the TRC. We (by we I mean I) were really struggling with it earlier because I wasn't fully understanding all of the symbolism in Alma 32 on faith, the seed, and the tree it becomes. Luckily we got it all figured out in companionship study. The seed is a truth about God and we place it in our hearts, where we feel the Spirit and not in our heads, where knowledge is. We do the basics to grow our seed and it becomes the tree of our testimony. From this testimony (and remember that faith is action) we receive fruit- fruit which is eternal life. We taught this in our lesson and it was amazing. We asked great questions and were constantly testifying so the Spirit was there. We applied the lesson to them and showed them how they could gain testimonies of truths that they were unsure of.
It is the most wonderful adventure, a mission.
I love you all (and will be talking to some of you possibly soon). This church is the Church that Christ founded. God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. He has prepared everything that we need to succeed in this life.
Love,
Sister Lindstrom
February has been great so far...
On Thursday the 2nd we had some fun in the evening. One of the elders received 136 odd ties from his brother. It was pretty entertaining to look at them all.
On Friday Elder Burr, Lynch, and I went and taught Sister Keith aka "Nelly the investigator" through Lehi's Dream. We mostly focused on this life and it was amazing. She learned a lot and the spirit was constantly being felt throughout the lesson. We were all really happy about how well it went. Later on in class we got to call Brother Newman on Sister Priddis' phone to practice following up on contacts and such. It was a pretty funny sight. My cough has been getting better. I went to the doctor and he is letting me go to Latvia, I am just supposed to take an inhaler if I need it to keep my airway open. Sister Huntington left today. We knew that she was leaving, but didn't think it would be until tomorrow. She was notified at lunch that she'd be leaving for the airport in a half hour. Luckily she was all packed. She wrote us later on in the week. She is doing well and she is happy. As a zone we are all doing well. The sisters are all getting along great; there is definitely a different spirit in our residency hall now. This experience has shown me how important it is to be worthy to do missionary work.
On Friday the elders were quite "broken" as we call it. We are all getting cabin fever and the cabin fever of Friday night included them singing Spice Girls and then not remembering it two minutes later. Luckily I will always remember it for them.
Saturday during class we were all falling asleep so Sister P took us out into the cold to do some contacting. We'd switch off having two of us contact and then the other would translate into English. We had a lot of fun doing this and some of the translations were pretty ridiculous (in a good way though- just fixing sentences so that they'd be correct).
On Sunday I gained a testimony of bringing pillows to meetings. Fast Sundays are mission conferences in the MTC so you get to sit for two hours on the hard bleacher seats and then have more meetings to follow. Our district decided to bring our pillows to sit on. This kept us all awake while the MTC presidency and their wives spoke. The biggest thing that the Spirit taught me in that meeting was that I just need to relax and make sure that I am happy and then I'll be doing what is right. Testimony meeting today was really spectacular. All of my district ending up bearing our testimonies and the Spirit was very powerful. When we weren't in meetings we worked on our Epistle of the Latvians, also known as our MTC advice to future Latvian missionaries set up in chapters, verses, and even includes scriptural cross references. Elder Lynch is quite the master at Bible speak, it is a hilariously amazing epistle.
On Monday night we all wanted to shoot ourselves. We had a completely vacuous and dull common sense meeting about health and safety. This meeting lasted almost two hours. Just boil anything you eat for about 6 minutes and you will be fine. Luckily our last LGM made up for the awfulness of the health and safety meeting. The LGM was about finding people to teach. I enjoyed hearing everyone's comments and learning the importance of talking to everyone that we come in contact with and quickly testifying of the restoration because that is what sets us apart. Service was good today as well. I cleaned with the two other sisters in our zone (Hall from Farmington, UT and Kennach from OR). They are pretty quiet but we got a lot done (sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, etc.).
Tuesday the 8th was AMAΖΙΝG. In the morning we had Brother Snyder come in and teach us about the relationship between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I learned so much. This lesson is how I thought all teaching in the MTC was going to be like. I will try to quickly sum it up. Both the Bible and the BOM contain the fullness of the gospel (check the BoM intro). The two were made for different purposes though. The Bible came after the church and the BoM came before the Restoration as it was to gather Israel and bring people to the truth. This is why we should use the BoM as missionaries to prove the truthfulness of the Bible. Moroni's intro, Ezra Taft Benson, DC 18:4, 1 Nephi 15:14 all tell about the same 3 purposes of the BoM. Matt 16:13-18 the rock is revelation. We may see but it is only in believing that we are saved.
Following Brother Snyder we had our lesson with Brother Vehawn, aka Vytas. He threw us a curve ball saying that his family didn't want him to be baptized. After a moment of befuddlement we abandoned the ship of our planned lesson and left only the parts that could apply to him and this trial, which were conveniently fasting and reading the scriptures. The lesson was great and you could feel the Holy Ghost testify as we were earnestly concerned for Vytas. We will all miss Brother Vehawn. We took some pictures with him and talked for a while after our lesson.
Yesterday (being Wednesday) I saw Chris Teuscher and Cade Cloward. Both are doing well although sick of the MTC. Japanese is really hard for Cade, but he says that he likes it. Elder Burr and I taught a great lesson in the TRC. We (by we I mean I) were really struggling with it earlier because I wasn't fully understanding all of the symbolism in Alma 32 on faith, the seed, and the tree it becomes. Luckily we got it all figured out in companionship study. The seed is a truth about God and we place it in our hearts, where we feel the Spirit and not in our heads, where knowledge is. We do the basics to grow our seed and it becomes the tree of our testimony. From this testimony (and remember that faith is action) we receive fruit- fruit which is eternal life. We taught this in our lesson and it was amazing. We asked great questions and were constantly testifying so the Spirit was there. We applied the lesson to them and showed them how they could gain testimonies of truths that they were unsure of.
It is the most wonderful adventure, a mission.
I love you all (and will be talking to some of you possibly soon). This church is the Church that Christ founded. God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. He has prepared everything that we need to succeed in this life.
Love,
Sister Lindstrom
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Week 7 in the MTC
So Friday I was feeling so ridiculously miserable that I stayed in bed. I then went to the doctor's because I was miserable. He was very nice and we chit-chatted and he thinks that I have reactive bronchiole disease or something like that on top of my virus. He let me suck oxygen with medicine in it to open up my airways and then he gave me a narcotic cough suppressant (yes my cough is that bad...they actually made me wear a mask in the doctor's office and they also took me in right away) and an Advair inhaler to help open up my breathing since I was wheezing when he listened to my lungs. I slept some more and then got to wait while Sister Huntington visited the doctor because she has the virus too. I finished a puzzle while there and met some very interesting people.
On Saturday I made it to class. I was falling asleep though so Sister Priddis took all of us (I wasn't the only one falling asleep, just the only one drugged) outside and we played I Spy. I spied an Elder with a Mexican sombrero. I'm not quite sure why he had it. Saturday night was an adventure. Poor Elder Burr had rebelling intestines....let's just say he went to the front office and got some medicine, yet still wasn't well enough to stay. I sent him home to bed. He's doing better now.
Sunday was ridiculously dramatic. The Armenian sisters in our zone have been having some issues with each other, mostly about one companionship being disobedient. Long story short the Branch president got involved and people were offended and PMSing. It has all blown over now though, but I sure thought that WWIII was about to erupt. I am so grateful that I do not have a companion here and that I have a district that may be small, but is extremely awesome. We all get along really well and everyone is just improving in all aspects in our district.
Oh yes! Another Sunday adventure.... After the Sunday devotional by Brother Swenson we stayed to watch the Joseph Smith movie. Suddenly all the elders in my zone were whispering and pointing. They were pointing at a sister who they nicknamed "Isabel the Harlot." So Isabel is a solo sister. She was sitting between her two elders (not normal) and was leaning into the not hideous one during the whole entire movie, flipping her hair and whispering sweet nothings into his ear as well as almost resting her rosy cheek upon his bone-y shoulder. All those behind this site were quite disturbed as was I. Isabel was getting more action that I have gotten on some second and third dates! Needless to say I grabbed her after the movie just to let her know that it was quite sketch looking from the back. She exploded in a whirlwind of hatred. She informed everyone in her defiant angry voice that she has a fainting problem and that she has given herself two black eyes and a concussion. She further informed me that she could have my branch president talk to her branch president who has talked to the MTC president and blah blah blah blah blah. I still don't know what that has to do with her whispering sweet nothings to an elder, but whatever. All the elders in my zone think I'm the bomb for calling her out. Yeah, eventful Sunday!
On Monday we practiced street contacting with Brother Newman. He is so intimidating! It was good to get some practice in though.
On Tuesday we taught Brother Vehawn, the Lithuanian teacher about the law of chastity. This went over really well. Our district is really starting to teach like a team and be more loose about things. Elder Duncan of the Seventy spoke to us about building bridges for our investigator to cross. We really need to know the people that we are dealing with and cater to their needs. We need to listen to others.
Yesterday, Ground Hog Day was lots of fun in class. We had two Baltic bound sisters learning Russian come and ask our teacher questions about the Baltics. We got to see pictures of concentration camps and old fortresses. Brother Newman also told us about the Russian influence there. You can find foods like borsch and the Russian Mafia is still alive and well in Latvia. He is convinced that they have a center right below the church in Riga. He said it looks like a clothing shop but that the clothes on the displays never changed in the two years he was in Latvia and that you always see men go out of limos and come back with bags from this shop. Sounds exciting!
I taught in the TRC by myself yesterday. It went so well. Most of the time we spent talking about the importance of baptism (which was only supposed to last 10 minutes, not 30-40). This means that a lot of it was impromptu and not prepared. Amelia, one of the sisters I teach said that she could really feel the spirit when I was trying to tell her how important it was for her to be baptized again (she is a pretend Lutheran investigator), that it gave her shivers.
I still have my cold. I'm up and about moving more though. I didn't take a nap yesterday during gym, so that was good. I have another appointment with the doctor on Friday. We're all praying that my cold will go away soon so I can use all my energy preparing to go to Latvia.
Lots of Love,
Sister Lindstrom
The language is going well. Latvian is actually Sanskrit based....Latvia has tons of amber and so there was a trade trail from there to India and then mix in the several hundred years of German rule and you have the language!
On Saturday I made it to class. I was falling asleep though so Sister Priddis took all of us (I wasn't the only one falling asleep, just the only one drugged) outside and we played I Spy. I spied an Elder with a Mexican sombrero. I'm not quite sure why he had it. Saturday night was an adventure. Poor Elder Burr had rebelling intestines....let's just say he went to the front office and got some medicine, yet still wasn't well enough to stay. I sent him home to bed. He's doing better now.
Sunday was ridiculously dramatic. The Armenian sisters in our zone have been having some issues with each other, mostly about one companionship being disobedient. Long story short the Branch president got involved and people were offended and PMSing. It has all blown over now though, but I sure thought that WWIII was about to erupt. I am so grateful that I do not have a companion here and that I have a district that may be small, but is extremely awesome. We all get along really well and everyone is just improving in all aspects in our district.
Oh yes! Another Sunday adventure.... After the Sunday devotional by Brother Swenson we stayed to watch the Joseph Smith movie. Suddenly all the elders in my zone were whispering and pointing. They were pointing at a sister who they nicknamed "Isabel the Harlot." So Isabel is a solo sister. She was sitting between her two elders (not normal) and was leaning into the not hideous one during the whole entire movie, flipping her hair and whispering sweet nothings into his ear as well as almost resting her rosy cheek upon his bone-y shoulder. All those behind this site were quite disturbed as was I. Isabel was getting more action that I have gotten on some second and third dates! Needless to say I grabbed her after the movie just to let her know that it was quite sketch looking from the back. She exploded in a whirlwind of hatred. She informed everyone in her defiant angry voice that she has a fainting problem and that she has given herself two black eyes and a concussion. She further informed me that she could have my branch president talk to her branch president who has talked to the MTC president and blah blah blah blah blah. I still don't know what that has to do with her whispering sweet nothings to an elder, but whatever. All the elders in my zone think I'm the bomb for calling her out. Yeah, eventful Sunday!
On Monday we practiced street contacting with Brother Newman. He is so intimidating! It was good to get some practice in though.
On Tuesday we taught Brother Vehawn, the Lithuanian teacher about the law of chastity. This went over really well. Our district is really starting to teach like a team and be more loose about things. Elder Duncan of the Seventy spoke to us about building bridges for our investigator to cross. We really need to know the people that we are dealing with and cater to their needs. We need to listen to others.
Yesterday, Ground Hog Day was lots of fun in class. We had two Baltic bound sisters learning Russian come and ask our teacher questions about the Baltics. We got to see pictures of concentration camps and old fortresses. Brother Newman also told us about the Russian influence there. You can find foods like borsch and the Russian Mafia is still alive and well in Latvia. He is convinced that they have a center right below the church in Riga. He said it looks like a clothing shop but that the clothes on the displays never changed in the two years he was in Latvia and that you always see men go out of limos and come back with bags from this shop. Sounds exciting!
I taught in the TRC by myself yesterday. It went so well. Most of the time we spent talking about the importance of baptism (which was only supposed to last 10 minutes, not 30-40). This means that a lot of it was impromptu and not prepared. Amelia, one of the sisters I teach said that she could really feel the spirit when I was trying to tell her how important it was for her to be baptized again (she is a pretend Lutheran investigator), that it gave her shivers.
I still have my cold. I'm up and about moving more though. I didn't take a nap yesterday during gym, so that was good. I have another appointment with the doctor on Friday. We're all praying that my cold will go away soon so I can use all my energy preparing to go to Latvia.
Lots of Love,
Sister Lindstrom
The language is going well. Latvian is actually Sanskrit based....Latvia has tons of amber and so there was a trade trail from there to India and then mix in the several hundred years of German rule and you have the language!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Week 6 in the MTC
Hi
Elder Burr and Elder Lynch are doing well. They may or may not be coming down with my cold though. :/
I started getting sick on Friday. Friday was a good day though. I saw Sarah Hamilton, who I went to Girls Nation with, and Chris Teuscher. We also got to tell stories in class and Elder Lynch fell asleep earlier in the day so then he bought a kilo of candy. Brother Newman bore us his testimony about how the Holy Ghost told him to put cinnamon on his fajitas and then he saw his favorite chef do that on the tv the next day.
On Saturday we had a somewhat impromptu zone meeting on planning. Our teachers all felt that we could plan better so they got us together and talking to us about the importance of planning. It was a great activity. I really liked when we talked about Ether 2 and how we should just go and do, not wait around for 4 years to receive inspiration. I took a nap at gym today (and did so on Monday and Tuesday as well).
On Sunday Sister Wixom, the primary general president came and spoke. She is such a cute fun lady. She talked to us about the song, Nephi's Courage. We told the Lord that we would go and do. The Lord will provide a way. He wants us to be obedient. It was really neat having her use such a familiar song. It has now taken on new meaning.
Elder Burr gave the lesson in our equivalent of Sunday School today. He did amazing speaking about patience. Elder Lynch and I were both wondering where this amazing-ness came from.
Monday's LGM was a hoot. We had my favorite speaker (think brunette Heath Ledger) who was teaching us about the importance of getting people to church and how we should basically sell it to them- give them a sample like Saturdays at Costco! He then had two elders put on curly gray wigs and try to sell Sister Bailey cookies. It was a hoot and a half.
On Tuesday I woke up and I could not talk. It was entertaining in that sad kind of way that I would freak out people when they heard me try to speak. We had to teach Brother Vehawn, but I didn't say much because I couldn't. The elders did so good working together though. I was really proud of them. I went to the gym with Sister Bailey at 6am so that she could run. I went to yoga and it was nice. A little too earlier for my liking though (no worries- I took a nap during normal gym time!)
Big news. Elder Lynch got a letter from his girlfriend. I think Elder Burr was more excited about this. It has been great for Elder Lynch. He has actually stepped it up a notch. He has also been more positive. It has been so nice. She should write him all the time.
After 45 days of having rootbeer every morning for breakfast Elder Lynch had juice instead yesterday morning. It was a miracle. And he liked breakfast. And lunch. This NEVER happens. It was epic.
So I got kicked out of class today. Ha ha. Brother Newman had finished teaching our last grammar principle (that is right- done learning Latvian) and we were switching gears to practice teaching him. He then proceeded to sigh and abruptly say, "Okay, Masa (that is what everyone calls me). You have two options. Either you can go to the health clinic now and have MDT later or you can teach me now and go to the clinic during your MD time. Just go get better." Needless to say we chose NOT to teach him and went on our grand adventure. I got right in to see a nurse who says I have a virus and gave me a ga-zillion recommendations of medication to take. We went to the outside world to go to the pharmacy. I got some Sudafed. I'm also taking ibuprofen and robitussen. It is quite the concoction. I do sound like a barking mad dog though. The elders were SOOOOOOOOOO ecstatic to be in the outside world. I think Elder Burr may have been prancing. "Masa, thank you for being sick! We are so glad you aren't well!" These were common phrases on our 2 block walk to the pharmacy.
I taught in the TRC with Elder Lynch. We did really well and you could feel the spirit when we were telling stories about praying to God. We taught our two investigators the first 5 commandments (out of the ten). We did well!
This morning I attempted to sleep in with Sister Huntington. She caught my cold. I didn't sleep very well, but we couldn't go to the temple since we'd infect everyone. We received some sad news this morning. Two elders from our zone went home today for various reasons. Hopefully they will be back though. We got two new sisters in the zone yesterday. One is going to Guam and the other to Independence, MO.
The church is true. Don't worry about me getting sick. I got a blessing this morning and as Elder Lynch said, "There! Now you'll be better!"
Love you lots! I'm praying for you!
Masa Mari
Elder Burr and Elder Lynch are doing well. They may or may not be coming down with my cold though. :/
I started getting sick on Friday. Friday was a good day though. I saw Sarah Hamilton, who I went to Girls Nation with, and Chris Teuscher. We also got to tell stories in class and Elder Lynch fell asleep earlier in the day so then he bought a kilo of candy. Brother Newman bore us his testimony about how the Holy Ghost told him to put cinnamon on his fajitas and then he saw his favorite chef do that on the tv the next day.
On Saturday we had a somewhat impromptu zone meeting on planning. Our teachers all felt that we could plan better so they got us together and talking to us about the importance of planning. It was a great activity. I really liked when we talked about Ether 2 and how we should just go and do, not wait around for 4 years to receive inspiration. I took a nap at gym today (and did so on Monday and Tuesday as well).
On Sunday Sister Wixom, the primary general president came and spoke. She is such a cute fun lady. She talked to us about the song, Nephi's Courage. We told the Lord that we would go and do. The Lord will provide a way. He wants us to be obedient. It was really neat having her use such a familiar song. It has now taken on new meaning.
Elder Burr gave the lesson in our equivalent of Sunday School today. He did amazing speaking about patience. Elder Lynch and I were both wondering where this amazing-ness came from.
Monday's LGM was a hoot. We had my favorite speaker (think brunette Heath Ledger) who was teaching us about the importance of getting people to church and how we should basically sell it to them- give them a sample like Saturdays at Costco! He then had two elders put on curly gray wigs and try to sell Sister Bailey cookies. It was a hoot and a half.
On Tuesday I woke up and I could not talk. It was entertaining in that sad kind of way that I would freak out people when they heard me try to speak. We had to teach Brother Vehawn, but I didn't say much because I couldn't. The elders did so good working together though. I was really proud of them. I went to the gym with Sister Bailey at 6am so that she could run. I went to yoga and it was nice. A little too earlier for my liking though (no worries- I took a nap during normal gym time!)
Big news. Elder Lynch got a letter from his girlfriend. I think Elder Burr was more excited about this. It has been great for Elder Lynch. He has actually stepped it up a notch. He has also been more positive. It has been so nice. She should write him all the time.
After 45 days of having rootbeer every morning for breakfast Elder Lynch had juice instead yesterday morning. It was a miracle. And he liked breakfast. And lunch. This NEVER happens. It was epic.
So I got kicked out of class today. Ha ha. Brother Newman had finished teaching our last grammar principle (that is right- done learning Latvian) and we were switching gears to practice teaching him. He then proceeded to sigh and abruptly say, "Okay, Masa (that is what everyone calls me). You have two options. Either you can go to the health clinic now and have MDT later or you can teach me now and go to the clinic during your MD time. Just go get better." Needless to say we chose NOT to teach him and went on our grand adventure. I got right in to see a nurse who says I have a virus and gave me a ga-zillion recommendations of medication to take. We went to the outside world to go to the pharmacy. I got some Sudafed. I'm also taking ibuprofen and robitussen. It is quite the concoction. I do sound like a barking mad dog though. The elders were SOOOOOOOOOO ecstatic to be in the outside world. I think Elder Burr may have been prancing. "Masa, thank you for being sick! We are so glad you aren't well!" These were common phrases on our 2 block walk to the pharmacy.
I taught in the TRC with Elder Lynch. We did really well and you could feel the spirit when we were telling stories about praying to God. We taught our two investigators the first 5 commandments (out of the ten). We did well!
This morning I attempted to sleep in with Sister Huntington. She caught my cold. I didn't sleep very well, but we couldn't go to the temple since we'd infect everyone. We received some sad news this morning. Two elders from our zone went home today for various reasons. Hopefully they will be back though. We got two new sisters in the zone yesterday. One is going to Guam and the other to Independence, MO.
The church is true. Don't worry about me getting sick. I got a blessing this morning and as Elder Lynch said, "There! Now you'll be better!"
Love you lots! I'm praying for you!
Masa Mari
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Week 5 in the MTC
Hello all!
THURSDAY
Did I mention the temple waffles? They are enormous. I got one with blueberries and strawberries. It was even smiling like it was happy to see me.
FRIDAY
Brother Newman took us on a random walk today around all of the MTC grounds. It was really nice and even kind of sunshiny-ish. We also got to have "story time" which is a Friday tradition. In our class, we get to each tell a story to each other in Latvian. It involves lots of actions so it is pretty funny.
SATURDAY
We had our giant grammar review which actually wasn't too mind boggling. Sister Priddis taught us how to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in class today. Biggest MTC food surprise...They had TOFU. I know, unbelievable. And it was actually really good.
SUNDAY
Dun Dun Dun. So today I officially become the Coordinating Sister for the Branch. This is akin to Zone Leader. Except for there is one. And I don't really do anything except rat on the sisters in the meeting so the president knows what is going on. It also involves a lot of somewhat silly meetings. Oh boy! It definitely took up all of my Sunday. Luckily, it started out super well. For Music and The Spoken Word it was black-soul music themed because the next day was "Black Monday" as my elders decided to call it (aka Martin Luther King Jr. Day). It was great to hear some of the songs that Mark sang back in choir! Sister Madsen came and spoke to the sisters. She is another in the slew of people who have come to speak who used to serve in France. God enjoys mocking me. Sister Madsen was great though. She taught us about being charitable and how we shouldn't judge. A mote is a tiny splinter and a beam is huge- so fix yourself first! She told us how true charity is love in action. She had sisters come up and share experiences of acts of charity they had seen. One particularly impressed me. It was a senior missionary who, when she joined the church had her father estrange her. She continued to write him and tell him why she loved her father and after years of doing this he came and visited her and her family. They now have a relationship again because she never stopped loving him and trying to fix their relationship.
Gordon Brown is the new MTC mission president and he spoke in the devotional. He is older and has this cute lisp. He is also a very touchy person...he was hugging all the elders he was having come up to make comments during his devotional. President Brown talked to us about how we need to invite the spirit which converts. He also said that we should just be the best we can be. "Work without faith is just as dead" is a thought that impressed me a lot as well. Just think about that one.
Sunday there was this lovely rumor going around in the zone that we would be getting a solo sister that would be French speaking. Needless to say I was really excited to get a companion, nevermind one I could speak French to. But rumors are indeed, just rumors. No new sisters!
MONDAY
Monday was a really fun day. We got to clean 70s yellow showers which included using this crazy acidic spray and seeing how far we could slide in the bathroom. They then had us clean the floors. I don't blame them. Brother Newman taught us some really neat stuff today about Nephi and how he learned from the Holy Ghost. He wanted to know what his father Lehi saw and the Holy Ghost teaches him. This is a great example to how we should teach.
We had a good large group meeting about being missionaries and setting goals to achieve them. My favorite quote from this meeting was, "That black nametag comes with a price."
Today the sunset was beautiful. We got to see it because we had gym after dinner today.
More homework! Watch "Voice of the Spirit" on the Mormon Messages. I loved this one as well. One of my favorite things they said was, "You cannot travel through life on borrowed light." How true this statement is! We must grow our own testimony to make it through this life. It is our own faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ that will bring us through all the trials and tribulations that life will bring.
TUESDAY
I'm starting to bother Elder Lynch. He started it though. He decided he can burp all the time and I don't believe that fits under "quiet dignity" "acting like the Saviour" "being polite" "being a gentleman" or the 50 million other things we are supposed to live up to. Seeing as after asking him not to that there was a continuation of said bodily functions which are "normal" and therefore acceptable according to his knowledge, I've turned into Emily Anne. It makes me smile. Emily is my roommate who would always say, "Excuse me, I'm a pig!" If she ever burped. So I just say that to Elder Lynch, "Excuse you, you're a pig!" He has gotten rather flustered by this and asked me how he turned into a pig over night. Maybe he'll get it eventually. But until then his burps don't bother me nearly as much because it reminds me of happy roommate times at dear old USU.
For choir (did I mention that I am in the MTC choir?) today we sang "Ever Be Near Us" by David R. Naylor. I recommend looking this song up. I LOVED it and wrote down all the lyrics because it was just so inspiring.
Just as inspiring was cute little Garrit Gong of the 70. He is a genius and also terribly charming and witty as a speaker. His message was to be of good cheer! We can do this because: 1. We can be perfect in our Savior 2. The Book of Mormon 3. God's words are always fulfilled and 4. There is power and authority in our calling. He told us how QEDs (quintessential existential dilemmas) are really opportunities for eternal growth and that we can be perfect in some things.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday Brother Newman told us about this heart attack in a cake Lat cake. It sounded pretty good in its utter unhealthiness. In the Teaching Resource Center tonight I taught with Elder Burr. We taught two sisters who served in Latvia about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It went pretty well. It was nice to not have the pressure of last week and teaching all by myself. Elder Lynch taught by himself and did really well. And he didn't strangle anyone before hand which is always a plus.
I also learned that you shouldn't try to run really fast after dinner, it just doesn't agree with one's stomach.
THURSDAY
We woke up and went to the temple nice and early and then sat down for a lovely omelet in the cafeteria. Now I'm just typing away wishing the sisters weren't so lazy and that one of them would take me out to go running. Maybe in Latvia...I did buy some Yak Tracks for traction so I should be able to go running around on ice now!
Well my time is up. I love you all. Have a great week!
Bisous
Sister Lindstrom
THURSDAY
Did I mention the temple waffles? They are enormous. I got one with blueberries and strawberries. It was even smiling like it was happy to see me.
FRIDAY
Brother Newman took us on a random walk today around all of the MTC grounds. It was really nice and even kind of sunshiny-ish. We also got to have "story time" which is a Friday tradition. In our class, we get to each tell a story to each other in Latvian. It involves lots of actions so it is pretty funny.
SATURDAY
We had our giant grammar review which actually wasn't too mind boggling. Sister Priddis taught us how to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in class today. Biggest MTC food surprise...They had TOFU. I know, unbelievable. And it was actually really good.
SUNDAY
Dun Dun Dun. So today I officially become the Coordinating Sister for the Branch. This is akin to Zone Leader. Except for there is one. And I don't really do anything except rat on the sisters in the meeting so the president knows what is going on. It also involves a lot of somewhat silly meetings. Oh boy! It definitely took up all of my Sunday. Luckily, it started out super well. For Music and The Spoken Word it was black-soul music themed because the next day was "Black Monday" as my elders decided to call it (aka Martin Luther King Jr. Day). It was great to hear some of the songs that Mark sang back in choir! Sister Madsen came and spoke to the sisters. She is another in the slew of people who have come to speak who used to serve in France. God enjoys mocking me. Sister Madsen was great though. She taught us about being charitable and how we shouldn't judge. A mote is a tiny splinter and a beam is huge- so fix yourself first! She told us how true charity is love in action. She had sisters come up and share experiences of acts of charity they had seen. One particularly impressed me. It was a senior missionary who, when she joined the church had her father estrange her. She continued to write him and tell him why she loved her father and after years of doing this he came and visited her and her family. They now have a relationship again because she never stopped loving him and trying to fix their relationship.
Gordon Brown is the new MTC mission president and he spoke in the devotional. He is older and has this cute lisp. He is also a very touchy person...he was hugging all the elders he was having come up to make comments during his devotional. President Brown talked to us about how we need to invite the spirit which converts. He also said that we should just be the best we can be. "Work without faith is just as dead" is a thought that impressed me a lot as well. Just think about that one.
Sunday there was this lovely rumor going around in the zone that we would be getting a solo sister that would be French speaking. Needless to say I was really excited to get a companion, nevermind one I could speak French to. But rumors are indeed, just rumors. No new sisters!
MONDAY
Monday was a really fun day. We got to clean 70s yellow showers which included using this crazy acidic spray and seeing how far we could slide in the bathroom. They then had us clean the floors. I don't blame them. Brother Newman taught us some really neat stuff today about Nephi and how he learned from the Holy Ghost. He wanted to know what his father Lehi saw and the Holy Ghost teaches him. This is a great example to how we should teach.
We had a good large group meeting about being missionaries and setting goals to achieve them. My favorite quote from this meeting was, "That black nametag comes with a price."
Today the sunset was beautiful. We got to see it because we had gym after dinner today.
More homework! Watch "Voice of the Spirit" on the Mormon Messages. I loved this one as well. One of my favorite things they said was, "You cannot travel through life on borrowed light." How true this statement is! We must grow our own testimony to make it through this life. It is our own faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ that will bring us through all the trials and tribulations that life will bring.
TUESDAY
I'm starting to bother Elder Lynch. He started it though. He decided he can burp all the time and I don't believe that fits under "quiet dignity" "acting like the Saviour" "being polite" "being a gentleman" or the 50 million other things we are supposed to live up to. Seeing as after asking him not to that there was a continuation of said bodily functions which are "normal" and therefore acceptable according to his knowledge, I've turned into Emily Anne. It makes me smile. Emily is my roommate who would always say, "Excuse me, I'm a pig!" If she ever burped. So I just say that to Elder Lynch, "Excuse you, you're a pig!" He has gotten rather flustered by this and asked me how he turned into a pig over night. Maybe he'll get it eventually. But until then his burps don't bother me nearly as much because it reminds me of happy roommate times at dear old USU.
For choir (did I mention that I am in the MTC choir?) today we sang "Ever Be Near Us" by David R. Naylor. I recommend looking this song up. I LOVED it and wrote down all the lyrics because it was just so inspiring.
Just as inspiring was cute little Garrit Gong of the 70. He is a genius and also terribly charming and witty as a speaker. His message was to be of good cheer! We can do this because: 1. We can be perfect in our Savior 2. The Book of Mormon 3. God's words are always fulfilled and 4. There is power and authority in our calling. He told us how QEDs (quintessential existential dilemmas) are really opportunities for eternal growth and that we can be perfect in some things.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday Brother Newman told us about this heart attack in a cake Lat cake. It sounded pretty good in its utter unhealthiness. In the Teaching Resource Center tonight I taught with Elder Burr. We taught two sisters who served in Latvia about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It went pretty well. It was nice to not have the pressure of last week and teaching all by myself. Elder Lynch taught by himself and did really well. And he didn't strangle anyone before hand which is always a plus.
I also learned that you shouldn't try to run really fast after dinner, it just doesn't agree with one's stomach.
THURSDAY
We woke up and went to the temple nice and early and then sat down for a lovely omelet in the cafeteria. Now I'm just typing away wishing the sisters weren't so lazy and that one of them would take me out to go running. Maybe in Latvia...I did buy some Yak Tracks for traction so I should be able to go running around on ice now!
Well my time is up. I love you all. Have a great week!
Bisous
Sister Lindstrom
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Week 4
Hello all,
Another week has been survived at the MTC. The lack of outside-edness is starting to wear on me though. Some days when I see the sun I feel like in Monte Cristo seeing the sun for the first time in forever, or a cute little puppy that gets locked in a cage and is rarely let out to play outside. That being said, I'm quite the happy child when I do get to see the sunshine. Sometimes I just stare at it.
Scottish word of the day: Numpty- it means idiot/stupid
Zone word of our life: "Inadequate". Someone told the elders to stop saying stupid or retarded, so now you hear at least 5 times a day "Elder, stop being inadequate!" Or whatever.
District fun: I believe I told you about how Brother Newman has us play rock paper scissors lizard spock. Well, the elders and I decided to make our own version of this game and now play babusha, cat, pigeon. It is pretty hilarious and makes me laugh every time we do it.
Friday was a day of fours. Elder Newmann had us study four hours of grammar straight and so then I decided to run 40 minutes straight on my tiny little track. It was actually a pretty good run.
Saturday I learned that the food in Latvia is actually really good. They do like tea of all sorts though, and tend to get offended if you have some. Kirstin definitely should have been called to this mission. They also have a whole entire row dedicated to honey in the grocery stores. I am quite excited for this. It will be a nice change to MTC food (which is slowly growing on most of us....well, kind of).
Sunday we as a zone (Elder Burr, Lynch, and myself) had a companionship inventory. It was really good. They expressed how they thought that Brother Newman is sometimes inadequate in the way he treats me compared to the elders so that made me feel better about life because it was bothering me. We also had a complain-a-thon about the Armenians (those missionaries learning the Armenian language) who can be...inadequate.
Anywho, on to important things. Sister Clayton (husband in the 70) came and spoke to us in Relief Society. She gave a really great lesson/talk about how we are writing our own life stories. She told us that we should go back and erase all the bad parts, see challenges as opportunities, write others in as co-heroes, as well as to be a "certain woman" in our story. Every day is a new page. She told a cute story of a girl going into kindergarten who on being told to pick her favorite colored crayon and write her name. She wouldn't do it because there wasn't a pink crayon! Sister Clayton counseled us to just pick another color and start drawing a picture. She promised us that it will be the right color for us (even if it isn't what we thought was our favorite).
I sat by Brother and Sister Smith at lunch. It was fun sitting by them because they were telling all sorts of stories about Sister Smith's (who is a missionary going to Armenia) grandpa (the couple is related to the missionary). Sister Smith the younger's grandpa once bombed some pigs accidentally!
Today I gave the "Sunday School" lesson on virtue. It went extremely well. I was a bit nervous at first because some other districts joined us as well as Brother Smith. We all learned a lot about virtue and how it really is just all Christ-like attributes and should be our moral values. We looked at the last chapter of Proverbs and found over 30 characteristics of someone with virtue.
Homework for you all: Watch the latest Mormon Message which I believe is called Don't look back. It is really funny and inspiring. We really do need to remember that our future will be better than our past and taht we can choose to change.
I was forgotten by the sisters on Monday. It used to really bother me, but now it is getting more humorous. Someone forgets me at least once a week, so it is now my game to guess who and when. They forgot to pick me up for breakfast. We had a great large group meeting today. It was by the man who basically invented key indicators and doubled the amount of baptisms while he was a mission president in Mexico. He told us that good missionaries believe that they can baptize and that the Lord wouldn't put you somewhere if there weren't people to baptize. It reminds me of the 4 minute mile. No one thought it could be done so no one did it. Then someone believed in themself, prepared, were obedient to their schedule, had the capacity, believed and then did it. After that tons of people broke the 4 minute mile. We cannot let people pop our belief balloons (as he did with real balloons which left some sisters screaming). As missionaries we shouldn't prepare people for the telestial or terrestrial kingdom.
Sister Priddis is no longer sick and back in class with us as of Tuesday! She wasn't the only surprise on Tuesday. ELDER HOLLAND CAME!! He was incredible and had me just crying freely. Instead of trying to summarize his hour of speaking, I'm just going to make a copy of my notes and hope you can figure it out. This will be one of those talks that we as missionaries will look back on and say THAT changed my life. He talked about our lives changing forever and how we cannot fall away or it will break his heart. PMG was made to convert missionaries. In closing he told the story of the disciple Peter who finally left his nets to feed God's sheep forever. We should do the same.
Also on Tuesday I set two gym records. Sister Bailey decided that the records were pretty weak sauce and that we were going to go around trying to break them until we each had at least one. We both ended up with 2 new records set each. Sister Bailey in the bench press (for reps of lifting 50 pounds) and her incredible 7:30 wall sit. I broke the free throw (ha ha) record as well as the sit up record. My abs are still sore.
Wednesday I taught 3 pretend investigators about the plan of salvation in Latvian. By myself. It went really well! They were really nice and the Lord helped me to be able to testify and remember the things that I had prepared.
I love you so much. You are in my prayers. Tell Grandpa 'hi' for me.
Love,
Mari
Another week has been survived at the MTC. The lack of outside-edness is starting to wear on me though. Some days when I see the sun I feel like in Monte Cristo seeing the sun for the first time in forever, or a cute little puppy that gets locked in a cage and is rarely let out to play outside. That being said, I'm quite the happy child when I do get to see the sunshine. Sometimes I just stare at it.
Scottish word of the day: Numpty- it means idiot/stupid
Zone word of our life: "Inadequate". Someone told the elders to stop saying stupid or retarded, so now you hear at least 5 times a day "Elder, stop being inadequate!" Or whatever.
District fun: I believe I told you about how Brother Newman has us play rock paper scissors lizard spock. Well, the elders and I decided to make our own version of this game and now play babusha, cat, pigeon. It is pretty hilarious and makes me laugh every time we do it.
Friday was a day of fours. Elder Newmann had us study four hours of grammar straight and so then I decided to run 40 minutes straight on my tiny little track. It was actually a pretty good run.
Saturday I learned that the food in Latvia is actually really good. They do like tea of all sorts though, and tend to get offended if you have some. Kirstin definitely should have been called to this mission. They also have a whole entire row dedicated to honey in the grocery stores. I am quite excited for this. It will be a nice change to MTC food (which is slowly growing on most of us....well, kind of).
Sunday we as a zone (Elder Burr, Lynch, and myself) had a companionship inventory. It was really good. They expressed how they thought that Brother Newman is sometimes inadequate in the way he treats me compared to the elders so that made me feel better about life because it was bothering me. We also had a complain-a-thon about the Armenians (those missionaries learning the Armenian language) who can be...inadequate.
Anywho, on to important things. Sister Clayton (husband in the 70) came and spoke to us in Relief Society. She gave a really great lesson/talk about how we are writing our own life stories. She told us that we should go back and erase all the bad parts, see challenges as opportunities, write others in as co-heroes, as well as to be a "certain woman" in our story. Every day is a new page. She told a cute story of a girl going into kindergarten who on being told to pick her favorite colored crayon and write her name. She wouldn't do it because there wasn't a pink crayon! Sister Clayton counseled us to just pick another color and start drawing a picture. She promised us that it will be the right color for us (even if it isn't what we thought was our favorite).
I sat by Brother and Sister Smith at lunch. It was fun sitting by them because they were telling all sorts of stories about Sister Smith's (who is a missionary going to Armenia) grandpa (the couple is related to the missionary). Sister Smith the younger's grandpa once bombed some pigs accidentally!
Today I gave the "Sunday School" lesson on virtue. It went extremely well. I was a bit nervous at first because some other districts joined us as well as Brother Smith. We all learned a lot about virtue and how it really is just all Christ-like attributes and should be our moral values. We looked at the last chapter of Proverbs and found over 30 characteristics of someone with virtue.
Homework for you all: Watch the latest Mormon Message which I believe is called Don't look back. It is really funny and inspiring. We really do need to remember that our future will be better than our past and taht we can choose to change.
I was forgotten by the sisters on Monday. It used to really bother me, but now it is getting more humorous. Someone forgets me at least once a week, so it is now my game to guess who and when. They forgot to pick me up for breakfast. We had a great large group meeting today. It was by the man who basically invented key indicators and doubled the amount of baptisms while he was a mission president in Mexico. He told us that good missionaries believe that they can baptize and that the Lord wouldn't put you somewhere if there weren't people to baptize. It reminds me of the 4 minute mile. No one thought it could be done so no one did it. Then someone believed in themself, prepared, were obedient to their schedule, had the capacity, believed and then did it. After that tons of people broke the 4 minute mile. We cannot let people pop our belief balloons (as he did with real balloons which left some sisters screaming). As missionaries we shouldn't prepare people for the telestial or terrestrial kingdom.
Sister Priddis is no longer sick and back in class with us as of Tuesday! She wasn't the only surprise on Tuesday. ELDER HOLLAND CAME!! He was incredible and had me just crying freely. Instead of trying to summarize his hour of speaking, I'm just going to make a copy of my notes and hope you can figure it out. This will be one of those talks that we as missionaries will look back on and say THAT changed my life. He talked about our lives changing forever and how we cannot fall away or it will break his heart. PMG was made to convert missionaries. In closing he told the story of the disciple Peter who finally left his nets to feed God's sheep forever. We should do the same.
Also on Tuesday I set two gym records. Sister Bailey decided that the records were pretty weak sauce and that we were going to go around trying to break them until we each had at least one. We both ended up with 2 new records set each. Sister Bailey in the bench press (for reps of lifting 50 pounds) and her incredible 7:30 wall sit. I broke the free throw (ha ha) record as well as the sit up record. My abs are still sore.
Wednesday I taught 3 pretend investigators about the plan of salvation in Latvian. By myself. It went really well! They were really nice and the Lord helped me to be able to testify and remember the things that I had prepared.
I love you so much. You are in my prayers. Tell Grandpa 'hi' for me.
Love,
Mari
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