Week 13-Welcome to Liepaja

Monday was quite the epic preparation day. We went with our super district to Seagolda to see the Turaida castle. In the morning we played on a giant swing by the grocery store and then went into center and got McDonald's (not my idea). We played apples to apples on the long bus ride to Seagolda. From Seagolda we took another bus up to the castle and we roamed around and played in the tower and learned about the history of the castle.

We did end up not getting home on time, but that was an adventure as well. We took a bus, waited for another bus and then decided to stop waiting for that bus and took a train. The train ride was quite humorous. It was just all really funny and quite hard to explain. We found out on this train ride (okay, so maybe I got told sooner) but there is a possibility that the Elders will be taking over our area.

We saw the Harikrishna singing in Center today. They are such a great religion. I wanted to join in their parade and dance and sing. I also wanted to join in with everyone at the WWII Memorial. Latvia was a huge war front so it was a pretty big day for them having the end of that. Everyone flocked to the war memorial and took flowers and wore black and orange stripped ribbons. It was really neat to see young and old people doing this.

Tuesday was our last big District Meeting together. We took pictures together and then Masa and I had a lesson with Andris. It went okay. Inga was our member present and she did not appreciate the baptismal interview questions. She thinks they are dumb. To make up for this she did give a killer testimony when Andris answered that we want him to get baptized so that he would be a member of our church. "No! That is not why! They don't need you, but you need the church. The church doesn't care if you are there or not, but you need the gospel." President Dance called us twice and texted us once during this meeting, so naturally we contacted him afterwards. Transfers!!! I'M GOING TO LIEPAJA!! With Sister Ferrin! She was in the MTC with Sister Sutterfield. Sister Sutterfield will be with Sister Wilson in Center. Elder Taylors will be taking over the Sister's area in Imanta with his new companion fresh out of the MTC. President Dance told Sister Sutterfield not to hit him. Multiple times. I'm just so excited to be opening a new area to masas with Sista F. We went and had our ward mission leader meeting with Gatis. The other highlight of Tuesday was meeting up with the elders and having carrots and hummus, apples and crackers, and telling Elder Taylor about our investigators. The packing has begun!

The packing hasn't ended even though we spent most of the day inside Wednesday. It doesn't help that we are shutting down the apartment so everything has to be cleaned up and packed away. In the midst of our cleaning we had a telephone lesson with Martins. He is still doing really well and hope he'll get baptized without the masas there. We had our last Latvian language with Inga. She made us crepes with homemade apple jam. She is pretty excited for elders though sad that we'll (sisters) be gone. We taught her one last retention lesson and she gave a great prayer at the end in which she prayed for us (and Inga never prays for anyone)!

Sister Sutterfield is losing it. Last week it was the phone in the washing machine, this week it was the keys in the library. I had to call the elders and tell them she locked the keys in the library (the door locks when you shut it) and wait for over an hour for them to come. I'm glad I'm a good sport, I thought it was pretty hilarious. And Sister Sutterfield didn't notice the elders sneaking in, so we got to scare her together.

Thursday we officially closed shop. Sister Sutterfield had TONS of stuff to take to center (see pictures). We took a van to center, hauled up all the junk (it was junk) and then got a new taxi and Sista F and I went off to the bus station where we ran into a herd of missionaries who helped us with our bags and with whom we got to speak. The 3 hour bus ride to Liepaja was beautiful. We just talked as we watched the forest fly by. Elder Lynch (from my MTC group) and Elder Holdaway (from Sister Ferrin's) met us at the bus station and showed us around the greatest place on earth. They took us to meet our investigators and the ward members the past few days.
We gave talks on Sunday and we love the ward. I translated in Relief Society and had a really neat (missing text).

I'M IN LIEPAJA! For all of you who don't know how exciting this is, Liepaja is a city in the southwest of Latvia that hasn't been inhabited by masas for over a year. This means that I won't be serving my whole entire mission in one city. I love this place SOOOOOOOOO much. We live right basically in city center in a VERY nice apartment. It is all wood floors and has a huge room to study in with skylights and a view of an old Catholic church which has bells that ring the morning awake (7:45am). The kitchen is nice and new and the bathroom is like a giant castle. It even has a shower that works and isn't super moldy!

The church in Liepaja is gorgeous. It resembles a new-age christian church because that was the only design plans the city would approve. It has lots of windows and the baptismal font is gorgeous. The youth are often found just hanging out at the church. It is all nice and new and large and I love the design.

The branch is amazing here. It is filled with youth and many women (70% I'd guess is women) since it is a harbor city and the men go off to sea. The people here are tanned to a brown from the sea work and talk with an accent (aka cutting off the end of all the words they say). Their hands are dirty but their smiles are warm.

I love love love Liepaja. The streets are cobbled. In the mornings we can run one way to the lake or in the opposite direction and turn out on the beach.

Being out in the middle of nowhere means that I will not be getting mail frequently. So I'd recommend emailing me if you want to contact me and I can just print it off and read it later. We will only get mail if someone comes down or we go up to Center.

Week 12

9 May 2011

Well, it has been quite the wild week.

On Monday morning we woke up and had another soccer adventure with our super district. We invited Martins, our baptismal date to play as well. It wasn't quite as fun as last time because it was so cold. This week has been freezing- the heat is off and my thermals were back on. Happily today (the 9th it is nice and toasty again). Sister Sutterfield is pretty hilarious playing soccer. She kicked I think every single person accidentally. And hard. We all have bruises to show for it. I made four batches of pancakes which is enough to feed 2 sisters and 5 elders. I also tried my hand at some homemade buttermilk syrup, which is delicious (Markus, you should try it. Just make the vanilla syrup recipe from Aunt Marianne in the cookbook- it's about the same). We gave 30-day notice on our apartment. You'll never guess who has mold in their bathroom! (And we can't use the space heater = problem. Masa Sutterfield is always cold.) We went over to Velta's work to help her some more with the situation with her daughter. We taught her some English phrases so she can now say that she wants to talk to her daughter and that she is her mother in English. She was so excited to be able to call England herself!

Tuesday we had lots of guests to our District Meeting. The Jakes and the Assistants came. Sister Jakes loves us and brought cookies. We made some rocking ciabatta pizza (this week was a good cooking week) with lots of veggies and cheese on it. Anda and Vicente's lesson was good (and filled with many tangents). We went over faith as described by 1 Peter 1:5-9. We covered that one scripture block in an hour. Needless to say, we went into detail with word choice. It was so good though. Talked to a lot of interesting people today. One lady was not happy that I was in Latvia and told me I should go back home and tell America that they invaded Libya and that killing people is a sin, adding that we shouldn't be trying to save their poor little country. So America, killing people is a sin. :) Almost more entertaining was the bus ride we took to avoid Ms. Libya. We were contently on the bus and this lady started talking and shouting and then the bus driver got on the intercom and told her to be quiet. My favorite part was the whole entire bus LITERALLY "shhh"-ing her.

Wednesday was another fun contacting day. We talked to a great Russian Natalija. By we I mean Sister Sutterfield. She has the gift of tongues for that whole interpreting Russian thing. At least she had us all fooled. We got Natalija's information and she wants a Book of Mormon. She sounded like she had had a hard life. Good thing we know what can help! There was also a man who did NOT think we could help. He actually stole my Book of Mormon. And pretended to stomp on it. "This is the Bible. It is up here (above his head with his copy of the Bible). And this, your book, this is down here (pretends to stomp on it)." Sister S. was pretty upset. I was pretty much just laughing. Don't knock it until you read it folks! On the way back to our apartment we met this lady who was out sweeping. She cried a lot, bless her heart. She doesn't really know if there is a God, seeing as she has been through a lot of occupations and such. She was really sincere about wanting to know more. I look forward to meeting with her and having a real sit down lesson. Our adventurous day continued with going out with the elders to look at an apartment. It had some pretty epic Catholic pictures, but it will definitely not work.

Thursday we got Leanna to come to the church (since the whole Russian neighbor/alcohol incident the elders banned us from her house). She thought we were having a party party for her year baptismal mark so she brought her mom. Using our thinking caps and mad party throwing skills we made some popcorn and watched "Together Forever" in Russian. Leanna's mom seemed really touched that we had a movie and flowers and treats for her and of course, the most epic movie from the 80s so she nudged Leanna and Leanna actually came to church on Sunday! Raitis and Sanita are doing well. We wanted to commit them to baptism, but Sanita disappeared half way during the lesson with the baby and it was just awkward and Raitis was going on tangents so it didn't happen. Kati was so cute though. She was out in the front playing with her mom and grandma when she left and went running out the gate and told her mom, "See you tomorrow" and started walking with us. She also ran away and hid when Raitis when chasing after her. I wouldn't have minded if she came home with us!

Friday I made some fantastic Croatian chicken and had a blast stumping everyone with my "2 truths and 1 lie" sentences for Latvian class. I'm glad people think I would skinny dip in Switzerland but not dye my hair blue. (Don't worry mother, I will never skinny dip). We had our first "phone lesson" with Martins. Since he is several hours away at home for about 2 weeks we are having phone lessons. It wasn't too awkward praying over the phone and sharing scriptures. The next ones should be loads of fun!! We also went to visit the Sostaki couple- some rocks of the branch. Milde fed us some yummy salad and some of the 1 meter 19 kilo fish that Nicolas has just caught. They shared their conversion stories which was fun. And how they got married about 7 years ago. "Well, if you have the priesthood you have to get married. It is a rule, so I got married." He is definitely a romantic ;) . They are a fun couple though and have already started taking the steps to share the gospel with their friends.

The cell phone went for a wild ride on Saturday. I hope it enjoyed the washing machine ride, because it sure was a lot of fun trying to get a new one (no, it was not me who washed it). Sister Sutterfield accidentally (possibly on purpose, I don't know) took the elders phone and we went off contacting with it. We actually found an awesome Russian lady who gave us food and let us in (which like never ever in a million years of ever happens) and was just super nice and wants us to come back. The communication barrier was a bummer though. We got called "children" by a bunch of old ladies (which Sister S. also didn't appreciate). I find it more amusing...in a sad way that they don't know what they are missing, but I don't know how open I'd be to the missionaries if I wasn't so blessed to have been born under the covenant.

We did get a new phone. With a bulging battery. We crammed it in the phone and tried to charge it. It didn't work so we had to go off and use Maija's mom's phone (Maija's had no credit) and call our elders then the zone leaders and then the assistants (the first two wouldn't pick up) and try to get a phone so we could talk to our families. The men have little faith in the sisters here though because they sent our elders over Sunday morning to help us plug in our new phone. "Did they take the plastic off the battery?!" We showed the elders the bloated battery and told them that we had just tried the wet battery and it still worked.

Church was great (almost as great as the Swedish meatballs I made afterwards!). The primary sang and did a skit as well as gave us butterflies that they colored and flowers made out of napkins. It was definitely my most favorite mother's day to date. We saw Aija as well on Sunday. She is doing well and I hope will want to be baptized. She had a lot of questions about faith and repentance.

Love you all,
The church is true!
Masa Mari

Week 11

It has been a good week.

Monday we played sports with our super district. It was a lot of fun since we have a lot of good soccer players. Elder Seitz and Taylors both played in high school. Elder Frolick isn't too shabby for not really playing and Elder Adams just makes me laugh. I'm going to be really sad when he isn't in my district anymore. He is really good at handling people and situations and just making you laugh and smile and feel appreciated. Afterwards I cooked pancakes for everyone while Sister Sutterfield played hostess. Next time I will have to make more pancakes. 2 1/2 batches was not enough! We got some sad news as missionaries on Monday. Fry Days at the Jake's are pretty much cancelled. We can't have multiple districts there and it has to be over by 4pm, so pretty much won't be happening. We are all really sad about this.

Something really neat happened Tuesday with District Meeting. I was with Elder Seitz doing a teaching practice and Elder Adams assigned us to practice talking to someone who only believed in a higher power. I've never met anyone who has said that, so it was good to practice. That night we went out contacting. I talked to two girls who only believed in a higher power and I was able to use some of the things we used in the practice and I ended up getting both of their numbers and we taught one of them a lesson! Funny how the Lord works! After District Meeting we all went over and filled partikas. I was able to talk to and get to know Elder Taylor which was nice. Sister Sutterfield doesn't fancy him all too well so he probably feels like the black sheep at times in our District. I really think he is swell though.

Wednesday was quite the eventful day. We went to less-active Ineta Lidace's house and her daughter Eliza Bella had us play salon with her. My finger nails were a lovely pink. I mentally gave myself a gold star. That was the longest that my finger nails have ever been painted. She also brushed my hair and sprayed water aka perfume on my fingers and toes. Her mom thought it was pretty funny. We went back to the partika place to visit Iveta, the member who runs the Help Latvia partika (aka food bags) for some referrals. Her daughter is in a hospital in England and she doesn't speak English so we were helping with that. I forgot how much I love British accents. She gave us uncooked cold hot dogs. I was so proud of Masa Sutterfield for eating half of one. She is pretty girly with that sort of stuff if you know what I mean. We also met with Andris and Martins. Andris is being Andris, still not coming to church, but Martins accepted a baptismal date! He is planning on getting baptized June 18. He quit his job at Maxima so he will be going home to the woods for a few weeks and then coming back to Riga.

Thursday was another fun day. Our ward mission leader Gatis invited us over to his home to do service. The elders helped move dirt to make a garden and we sisters raked the grass to get out the dead grass so new grass could grow. We did this for a couple hours and we able to talk to Gunita about their recent marriage, her mission at Temple Square, etc. Afterwards we went in and had lunch. Their kitchen has this giant long window that gives you a view of the pond in their backyard (soon to be cleaned for swimming) and the forest. It was so nice to be out in the "country" air. It reminded me a lot of the farm or Cache Valley. We all piled into the back of their car like clowns and they took us to a bus stop. This was pretty hilarious. Elder Taylor was freaking out that his shoulder was touching Sister Sutterfield so he started stuffing copies of the Book of Mormon between the two of them. Eventually Elder Adams just sort of sat on his lap so Elder Taylors wouldn't have to touch Sister Sutterfield's body anywhere.

Less-active Janina was so happy on Friday. It was so fun to visit with her because she was so happy. They had just had a family miracle and she knows that the Lord answers prayers. We ordered some Herbal Life smoothie mix from her to try out. She has been eating it for the past six months and has lost 9 kilos, so she is pretty sold on it. My favorite part of Friday was when we ran into the Russian elders at the church. Sister Sutterfield meant to say, "I like your tie" but it came out as "I love you Elder Frolick." I may or may not be making fun of her for that still. Latvian class was crazy yet again. It just keeps on getting more crazy. Maybe it is just because I understand more. I made some of dad's infamous apple crisp. Even Inga approved of it, which is big. Inga doesn't like fatty American sweets, so hats of to you dad!

Saturday was the giant "talka" (service/spring cleaning) for Latvia. We got to wear street clothes for the second time this week (weird!) and help clean up the woods around the church. There were many cigarette butts, small baggies, beer cans, and a few needles. The small baggies we are quite positive come from the drug dealer that is in a building across from the tram stop by the church. We are pretty sure the drug users just cross the street and go into the woods after buying the goods and use them there. Latvians have always liked their nature.

Sunday was a calm day at church. We didn't have any investigators (again) at church BUT we did have the Lidace family and Janina come, so it is great to see that our less-actives are starting to come back. Martins didn't show up to church like he said he would but we did get him to come to a meeting in the evening. He is such a sharp kid, especially since he wasn't raised in a religious background,

My time has dwindled down,
Love you all, the church is true!

Sister L

Week 10 Easter 2011

Sisters Wilson and Lindstrom


This past week was amazing!

The fun started on Monday. We went to the zoo as a super district (3 Russian Elders, 2 Latvian, and us sisters) and had a blast walking around looking at all the animals. The zoo was quite impressive. The animals were also all very close since it was not America. We got to watch a show with a seal, laugh at the kodiak bears playing in giant tires, mimic the flamingos, and play I Spy with the frogs and other bugs. The most fun part (besides all getting ice cream and hot dogs for lunch) was playing on the playground. This is where we lost our cell phone, so Sister Sutterfield and I had a fun adventure going to the zoo two more times to find it. It was definitely a miracle that the phone was turned in.

On Tuesday we just had a series of entertaining events. The other night the Russian elders called and told us how they were about to extend a baptismal date in a lesson when a bunch of cops came storming in, questioned them, their investigator, and then the investigator had to go.

We were having a Latvian district meeting and the elders noticed these two men walking around and around and around the church. They finally came in and the elders recognized one of them as a man they had contacted the previous week. They gave him and his friend a 15 minute lesson and committed them to baptism. We were rushing out to our next meeting when the Russian elders showed up. Turns out the Latvians had just taught their investigators that had the cops come. They are both named Alexander and are both amazing people. One is older and the other is about 20-22 years old.

Tuesday night started off with a bang for exchanges. There were many mix-ups and so the Russian sisters were in Imanta at the church and the rest of us were in Center at the church. Sister Ferrin and Wilson got locked in (see the picture) and so we had to call the elders to come unlock the door (they had just changed the key to the building). I LOVED being with Sister Wilson in Center. She was so wonderful, making sure that I got to be involved and asking my opinion on things. She let me carry around the keys and we had so much fun contacting people. Her Latvian isn't the greatest (possibly worse than mine, but she understands more), but people always stopped to listen to her. She got the number of the first person we contacted, and we also got two lessons in a park, including praying with one lady out loud. She was the spiritual boost that I was needing and I learned a lot about just being happier for the people and being more persistent. By the end of the day my mouth hurt from smiling, it was so fun being with such a spiritual giant. I can't wait to serve with her because I know that we will be a great companionship because she loves what she does and who she is with. We had some really good lessons together. We met with Agrita and almost got her committed to baptism and then we met with this older member Helena who is dying. She is a saint. And she made me cry because her prayer was so earnest and touching. She was saying the closing prayer and just pleading with our Father to help her so she could go to church and partake of the sacrament there. It made me so grateful for my health and that I am able to go to church.

Random tangent: Living here makes me afraid to grow old. People don't seem to age well herel. I am glad to be an American, for sure.

Friday we had a Branch Easter Party. There was a 10 minute spiritual thought and then we went outside and played some games. One was finding "eggs" blindfolded, another a 2 team scavenger hunt, pin the tail on the bunny (which I got volunteered to draw), and our personal favorite a chasing game. You pair off and then there is one person without a partner who tells the last pair to run. They try to connect back up to each other while being chased by the person without a partner. The elders were quite daring taking leaps and bounds. My personal favorite was Elder Senkans chasing after Elder Taylor. Afterwards we played volleyball as missionaries with Elder Jakes and some of the members. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday we had an adventure visiting Leanna. Long story short (I don't have much time) we were talking with her in her stairwell, had two drunk Russians come who ended up taking us and the two little neighbor girls and Leanna out to talk and then to the backyard of the apartment where they had another friend and alcohol. I was ready to leave because it was obviously turning into a bad situation and Sister Sutterfield wanted to finish the tea the little girls gave us from their grandmother. Nevermind that she HATES tea and had a man trying to get her to drink that kept on grabbing her arm. We did get out but all the way home Sister S. was worrying about what those young girls would think because we didn't drink all their tea. Bless her heart.

It was interesting contacting this Easter. It is a four-day holiday so most Latvians were in their summer homes in the woods. We contacted MANY Russians. Luckily Easter is almost over, so hopefully people will go back to being themselves. Traditions here...they dye eggs with onion skins and we even had several members give us eggs on Sunday. We sang a musical number as missionaries and that is as Easter-y as it got at church. Sister S. and I made funeral potatoes and had turkey and green beans to celebrate.

Sorry I can't write more, but my time is up.
I hope you had an amazing Easter. I know I did. I am so grateful for our Savior and Redeemer.















Sisters Wilson and Ferrin Locked in the Chapel

Week 9

Four Latvian Speaking Sisters: Wilson, Sutterfield, Ferrin and Lindstrom

Can I just start by saying that I LOVE General Conference. I feel so spiritually uplifted and every talk was an answer to a prayer. I really enjoyed the talk with the analogy of the current bush. I am definitely relating to the cut down current bush right now. I was fine and happy and thought I was growing so well and now I am on a mission and being pruned and cut and reshaped when I already thought I knew what I was going to be. I am grateful that we are all in the Master's hands.

On Monday we went with our super district to FeiFei's with Inga. It was a really fun Chinese restaurant...except it took them an hour to bring the main course! I guess that is what happens when you have a group of eight people eating in Latvia... We got lemon ginger tea, soup, and chicken with rice. We also did a lot of contacting in the rain on Monday, luckily I wasn't completely soaked!

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference (aka all people serving in Latvia = zone). It was...interesting. I felt like I was in one of my psychology classes. President Dance talked about "barrier thoughts" and how our perceptions change our reality so that we need to focus on having positive thoughts. It was so great seeing Elder Lynch and Elder Burr. I'm pretty sure that Elder Burr grew at least an inch. They are both doing really well and Elder Burr is learning Russian. The assistants took us on a "Magic School Bus Trip" to "Contacting Land" where we got to practice contacting people using "natural conversations." We got fed kebabs and then got taught some more.

We had interviews with President Dance on Thursday. Mine was really short and not too interesting. He just asked me how I thought my language was going, what my goals were for my mission, and what I have learned from my companion so far (and how my family is :]). We had both Linda and Marita cancel on us (both possible new investigators for us). We got to meet with Aija, Erika's mom. She is so fantastic! She reads and has lots of great questions and comments. Erika said that she would be a "piece of work" to try and teach religion, but she seems really open to it all. We bought a yummy orange chocolate cake for Vicente's birthday and shared it with Anda and him. They are happily in love (celebrated anniversary #3 this week) and are going off to Stockholm this weekend. They can be pretty funny together. We taught them about eternal marriage and they were doing a lot of teasing to one another. We also were able to meet with Andris and talk with him about the importance of church attendance and prayer. He got yet another new work schedule, so we don't know if he will ever be able to make it to church.

Friday was a WILD day. We met with Valerija, the lady who Sister S. contacted last fall and decided to randomly show up on conference. She was very kind and fed us lots of sandwiches and tea and then showed us pictures of her family. We tried to teach a lesson but she kept talking about her Brazilian preachers. The Spirit WAS in the lesson and then she prayed and started praying in tongues as well and Sister S. totally lost it and well, the Spirit was definitely gone then. She kissed us when we gave her the Book of Mormon though. She has been searching for God all her life, so we'll see how she is. Elder Taylor made a pumpkin pie and brought it to Latvian language class. It was very good. We also talked about changing area boundaries which made a certain companion of mine very displeased. Going to Pinkie definitely made up for it. We visited Grandma Senkane (one of the first Latvian members). She is soooooooooooooooooo great! So the evening went a little bit like this: getting my glasses smashed into my face from the hug, getting dressed to try on some of the things that she knit, and then learning how to knit. In Latvian. Now mind you this would be hard enough in English, and I definitely don't have knitting vocabulary. I did catch what Grandma said, "Know you know how to knit so you can go home and get a husband now." Knitting IS very essential in a future wife, so boys, I'm ready. I can now knit (if that isn't a miracle, I don't know what is!) She also fed us potatoes and meat that you ate with pickles. I was graceful enough to drop my pickle in my tea. Grandma Senkane reminds me of my grandma, in the sense that she has lots of energy, love, and she makes yummy bread (Grandma K's is still better!). She decided to come with us to our next meeting with Inese Choblet, a ward member, but not before spraying both of us with some of her French perfume (I guess we smelled?). It was just so great. I love that woman. At Inese's we got to have some birch tree syrup. They are obsessed with it here since you can only get it out of the tree 2 weeks every year. It is supposed to be very good for your health. I don't think it tastes that bad (it is like sweet water), but my companion doesn't enjoy it. We gave a good lesson that with the Spirit tied in all their comments!

Saturday we had a super big district meeting. It was fun having the 3 Russian elders. They are good kids with great hearts; I enjoyed their comments. We met with Aija again and gave her a BOM. She actually met with the missionaries about 15 years ago, and gave a great prayer at the end and was visibly touched by the Spirit. We pray that she will want to be baptized!

I wish I could write more about Aija, but I'm out of time. Hopefully we'll get Martins a baptismal date this week!

Love
Me!














All the Sister Missionaries in Latvia

Week 8

What is new in my world....
I feel like I'm understanding a lot more this transfer. I'm praying for the Lord's help to be courageous in talking to people and it is helping. I am finally starting to see buds on things and that is exciting. The weather is wild here though. This morning it was warm and sunny and now it is cold and wet. If the mornings are cloudy it tends to get sunny and vice versa. Mostly I think I'll just plan for rain, lol.

Monday we went out with the other sisters to Tex Mex and got some Mexican with a Latvian flair food. It was really good considering it is Latvian Mexican food. We also had a great conversation with this man from Sri Lanka. He is a professor here and has been living here for several years now. He had lots of questions about our church and activities since he is involved in running two seperate churches (of two seperate religions I might add). The Jakes weren't having their usual "Fry Day" so we went around the mall and checked out the different stores. I found a really cute tan beret-esque hat because you wear hats year round here- to keep your ears warm, to keep your head dry, to keep your hair from flying everywhere in the wind (it is quite windy lately), etc.

Tuesday's District Meeting focused on working with members. Following our meeting we went with all the elders in Imanta and filled partikas- food bags for needy people. Sister Sutterfield and I met with Anda and Vicente. Sister S. worked with Vicente on working on setting up his account to do geneology on the church site. I talked with Anda about the scriptures. We talked about where she was in 3 Nephi and then talked about how I like Ether 12. She sped read it all and then we spent some time disecting Ether 12:27. Anda had some great insights about how we need to continually rely on the Lord to make our weaknesses strengths, otherwise they become weaknesses again. We also talked about it relating to the Pride Cycle. Sister S. told them she was craving pickles (I'm not sure why)... They got out this GIANT bottle filled with pickles and gave us half a dozen or so. Ask and ye shall receive! Needless to say I felt goofy carrying around pickles while contacting.

Wednesday was a very rainy day. We met up with the Ward Mission Leader, Gatis and talked about our members. We told him how Martins no longer has a baptismal date and how he has a lot of concerns, such as if there are multiple gods, etc. Gatis joked that we do and that we should build on common ground. On the way back to Imanta I spoke with the cutest Russian lady. She was very interested in the gospel and wished that my Book of Mormon was in Russian and not Latvian. I got her phone number and passed it off to the Russian sisters. I pray that she will listen to their sweet message. Inga helped us with our lessons with Martins and Andris. Mariss, a ward member (male) also came and helped. They were both God sends. Martins brought his red haired, faux-hawked, very sassy, friend with. He wanted to cause a ruckus because he wanted to know what exactly we were doing to brain wash his friend to make him want to not smoke and drink. Inga was laying out the jokes and the truth. "Yeah, we are weird, but we aren't zombies. I understand, My friends thought the same thing. You are a good friend, but if he wants to change, let him change." And those sorts of things. Mariss was the spiritual rock. What was really neat for me was seeing the change in Mr. Grumpy red-head. He was not wanting to do anything except be rude at the beginning, but towards the end of the lesson I was able to testify of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he listened. It was so neat to see that and to feel the Spirit touch him. Andris' lesson was fine. We read with him one of the Isaiah chapters in Alma. Good thing Sister Sutterfield is scripturally scholarly, otherwise we would have been toast. Inga did say something pretty funny to Andris though. She said, "You're not baptized so you won't be saved in the last day, ha ha!" I hope it made him think!

Thursday Sister Sutterfield taught me how to make twice baked stuffed potatoes. They are really good. We also had some not so goodness. One of the elders serving in Imanta, Russian speaking, was going home. He was a great missionary so we were sad to find out but so happy when we got a call from Sanita and Raitis. They were cancelling their appointment (boo!) because their daughter was sick (Latvians do NOT like visitors when they are sick. They are very phobic about that sort of thing.) and the doctor said not to have any visitors. BUT Sanita told us that Raitis loved the reading SO MUCH that he shared it with his mom. And wanted to with a friend but he had already given his copy of the Book of Mormon to his mom. How great is that?! We taught less-active Ieveta. The highlight was definitely a bird flying into the window during the lesson. There was this loud smack and then feathers stuck to the glass!!! Sister S. started to laugh...ahh. Missionary work. We had lots of time to contact today, but we saw mostly cats. We could have seen at least 30 or so in a 2 hour period. It was nuts. Even more nuts was the awesome girl Alisa that we met. She was waiting at a bus stop and had awesome style that reminded me of Kirstin/her friends. She had a lace skirt she made herself and a mustard yellow coat, an insanely cool umbrella, and two cameras. She was going to Center to a poetry reading with her friends. We started talking to her (in English) about what we do as missionaries and why we decided to serve missions, as well as what we believe. She had a lot of questions and said she didn't think she could know about God at such a young age (21). She was so interested in the convo that she was like, "That is my bus, but I'm going to miss it because I want to keep talking." Exciting!! We got her phone number and will be calling her soon. Thursday I also contacted a lady whose mother had just died...yikes! I force gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told her it would help.

Friday was someone's birthday! I woke up and made crepes for Sister Sutterfield. We went to the church to watch Saturday Afternoon's session of conference with the elders (Russian and Latvian). We brought some bean dip that I made and put candles in and sung to her. We then went to Ineta Lidace (the less active with 3 girls) to help clean/share a message. The house was so clean though, there was nothing to do, so the girls wanted to play cafe with us and gave us muffins and milk. It was pretty cute (other than it all being in command form. "Sit here! This is your table! Give me the money now!" We went to Latvian language class where we sang and had Sister Sutterfield blow out the candles on her birthday cake that I made. I am pretty sure that Elder Taylors ate half of it by himself. I'm guessing that it was pretty good. :}

Lately we have been seeing lots of people selling pussy willow branches. In Latvia it is to remember Easter/Christ. They also have a tradition of spanking the children with it on Easter for their health.

Saturday the members got to watch conference. We went and helped to prepare for the lunch that was inbetween the sessions. We were also able to meet with Martins. Inga came and helped. We found out that Martins' concern is drinking. Inga told him he could quit and that our prayers would help and that we need to pray for him. We definitely are praying that he will quit, as well as that he will get a baptismal date again.

Sunday we also helped get the lunch ready for inbetween sesssions. I had a very hard time listening/understanding. Their mouths were moving and Latvian was coming out at a different speed and so I am just glad we get to listen to it in English. The two sessions that I have watched have been so uplifting and each talk has been an answer to a different prayer that I've had on my mission. The gospel is amazing! When we are searching for answers God does provide them. So, we were contacting on this street and this cute little kid was learning how to ride his bike. And fell. And kept on falling. And then ran straight into a pole with his shoulder. We felt so bad, especially since we walked by 4-5 times because we were contacting different people. It was so sad/funny. He was a trooper. We talked to a really nice Jehovah's Witness that had lots of questions for us. We talked for at least 20 minutes. We were also able to meet with Erika's mom. Her name is Aija. She actually lives really close to us. We are teaching her English/the gospel as well. The spirit was definitely there while we were teaching and I have hope for her. I could definitely see her getting baptized. She never has been because she thinks it is just the "popular" thing to do in the Catholic church. Favorite drunk of the week: This man called us cute little ducks and asked why cute Sister Sutterfield was not married.

Well, that is all the time I have.
Love you all, the church is true!
Bisous,
Soeur L

Week 7

Mari's Missionary District

Shalom!

On Monday evening we received transfer calls. Sister Sutterfield and I are still together in Imanta. Elder Adams is staying but Elder Mills has been replaced by Elder Taylor. Sister S. does not like him, so it should be fun!! We also went to this amazingly fun tea house on Monday that Kirstin would like. It is basically like a greenhouse- all glass and round. They have pillows up the twirly stairs that you can sit on, sip your tea, and people watch.

On Tuesday we celebrated Sister Sutterfield's half-way mark. We made "anthill cake." This consists of several boxes of crushed cookies and sweetened condensed milk. It is really good, but isn't something that you should be eating every day by any means. District Meeting was pretty funny today. It took us a good half hour to settle down and get serious and then by the end we were too serious. District Leader Adams said, "I'm in a room full of perfectionists and they are all tying their nooses under the table." That is one of the most witty comments I have ever heard. I have a feeling we will all be fake-tying nooses for a long time. I tried buckwheat today for the first time. It was...interesting. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. We went and taught Anda and Vicente. We ended up showing them some Mormon Messages. The spirit was very strong, but Anda was kind of trying to deny it. She has been going through a difficult spell lately. It's definitely a good thing that we are required to visit recently-baptized members weekly for a year after their baptism. After Anda's we went "harvesting" in some apartment buildings. We knocked into a creepy Russian man who ended up following us out of the apartment building. We most definitely ran away. I've never been chased by a Russian before. Speaking of Russians, the people here can be prejudiced. A lot of the Latvians hate Russians and think they are the cause of all of their problems. Bless their hearts!

On Wednesday Sister Sutterfield woke up sick. We stayed in most of the day except for the evening when we had two lessons. Our first lesson was with Martins. We taught him about tithing using candy. It went really well. He stayed after and talked to us and Maija (the member we had helping) until Andris came. With Andris we just read with him from where he is in the Book of Mormon. We are trying to light the fire back in him to want to be baptized.

On Thursday we went to visit less active Janina (who has come to church a lot the past while). She noticed Sister Sutterfield's cold and made her take some vitamins, drink lots of tea, and stick some ointment up her nose....while we were having tea. I made some wicked good chicken noodle soup. It was mostly good because we bought animal shaped noodles for it. I also made some granola during the day (since we were inside again). I think I have your Moab granola recipe down dad! It tastes really good with dark brown sugar. We went to help Lena Blum, the RS president with a going away party for Zane. She will be serving in Ukraine. We got to stay for dinner and had essentially potstickers. Some had cherries in them and others had potatoes and mushrooms. They were really good. It was funny because it was a Relief Society activity but they invited the Elders and Maris who had just got done teaching a lesson at the church. I hope they enjoyed their first RS activity!

On Friday I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Latvian! Woot! I learned how much the Book of Mormon focuses on the missionary purpose (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and in the order that they appear. I also noticed how much it talks about the heart...the gospel truly is something that we know in our hearts. I made some amazing curry corn chowder with rice, corn, potatoes, celery, carrots, and curry. It is definitely one of my new favorites. Martins texted us and told us he was "sick" and couldn't make it to his lesson. What he didn't know is that Maija called and told us that Martins had been texted her with lots of questions and doubts and wanted to meet with her and talk about it. I didn't do anything for April fools. They call it Aprilapril here.

On Saturday Sister Sutterfield started to get more on the mend. I was in charge of the district meeting lesson. It was about revelation through church attendance and it went really well. I learned a lot about how it is the jump starter to people progressing and feeling the spirit in a lot of different ways. We taught English class which went well. We told our class about prophets and conference and invited them to come listen to it in Latvian next week.

Sunday was FREEZING at church. They turned off the heat and it was just cold. Right before sacrament meeting Grandma Senkante (her son is a 70) grabbed my arms and starting pumping them back and forth and she was telling me to do that to get warm. It was just hilarious. We didn't have any investigators and church, but we were able to meet with Martins. He came an hour late. Turns out that his friends are not a good influence. He had LOADS of questions and concerns so as of now he doesn't have a baptismal date. Maija did most of the talking. I did get to testify about Joseph Smith and praying to know. It was really neat because it was the first time in Latvian that I really felt the Spirit strongly while I was testifying. He still wants to meet with us and he is going to read and pray, so that is good. We are hoping that we can get his concerns resolved. He loves his friends from the church and is going to family home evening with them today.

Love you,
Sister Lindstrom



Sister Sutterfield and her 'Halfway' Anthill Cake