August 8, 2011
Superclean Monday was fun. I really wish I would have made a snowball though. There was a lot of ice from defrosting the freezer. We went with Rihards and his girlfriend Kristine, to the only legit Chinese restaurant in Liepaja, Ginger. It was really good. I love business lunches. Why? 1. Cheap 2. Limits my choices. It is good for us cheap, indecisive people. I ended up getting soup, rice noodles and chicken, along with a lot of sushi. I was actually quite awestruck that we got that much sushi. It was delicious and made me think of last summer and last time I had sushi... roadtrip! We went around with the elders trying to find souvenirs in antique stores since Elder Clark is leaving! We had quite the adventure trying to get to less active Velta's house (and by house I mean apartment, as always). We thought we'd get a 15 and it would be a short cut. As Elder Lynch says, "She lives on the last street in the last building in the last apartment in all of Liepaja." This isn't much of a stretch. After seeing two number 3 buses pass us we decided to take the next one and stop waiting for the 15. A magical thing happened, we weren't late! We discovered a HUGE shortcut. Velta actually lives really close to some of our other members. She is a very nice lady who has become rather apathetic since her husband died. It was really sad to see that she didn't want the blessings of the temple for both of them. We are just going to work on that desire!
We had a great great great great district meeting on Tuesday. Elder Clark got to leave us with some excellent parting advice. He talked a lot about desire and the path to discipleship. Where are you? Defiance, despair, dread, drudgery, duty, or devotion? It was a lot to think about though we got quite distracted by our next lesson. Referrals from the elders are just always bad. Or they are a lot braver than us. Regardless, we ended up at a home in Jaunliepaja to find the wife and the neighbor taking shots of moonshine through the window (in the middle of the day!). Imants came out, drunk, and told us about how his time in prison and how he could only read The Bible and Book of Mormon. We gave him one and left because he wanted to be a little too good of friends with Sister Ferrin. Thanks elders! Well, we survived and I had an adventure figuring out the lights in our apartment. Sister Ferrin calls me "handy." Astride, that lady who was going to get her eyes fixed jaked us. It was an excellent thing though because we went knocking in her area and got three phone numbers that evening, which is fantastic! Astride isn't interested. She wasn't home/didn't answer the door for another appointment that we set up later saying that she went far far away for a very very long time. Too bad we found her home on Friday. Oopsie! Sometimes I wish people would just be honest, it would be much less embarrassing for them and be a lot more respectful of other people and their time. Never mind that though, there is always a reason and because of her flakiness, we were in the right place to be with other people at the right time this week.
Wednesday was an odd day (do we ever NOT have odd days). I contacted in the same spot for over an hour while Sister Ferrin contacted the same person for over an hour. I was going for quantity over quality. ;P Mostly she got trapped with a chatterbox of an old lady on a bench. It was perfect though because it was right by center and around lunchtime so I was able to speak with a lot of people on their lunch breaks. We went and had lunch with Madara and Santa (the younger). I had fun helping Sarra and Ieva make pizza for the lunch. Leva loved spreading the ketchup and putting on all the toppings. Madara will be serving a mini mission in Riga this transfer and Santa will be in Estonia as a Russian sister. The Branch President's family were very sad to see them go. It was an odd setting apart. We waited around a lot for President to start it. Luckily Ieva kept us entertained by walking around in some stilettos that she found. She immediately had to show "the boys" how pretty she looked in them.
Rita's meeting this evening was great. She is so much happier now that she prays and reads her scriptures more regularly. It is amazing how much the little things help, and they can help a lot! We talked to her about the blessing that she has in her life and then we played sports. There were new hooligans tonight and I was stuck on their team...not very fun. They forgot the whole "team" part of it so my hockey stick spent most of the night as a baton and a sword.
Thursday was transfer day! Sister Ferrin and I are staying put in Liepaja, as is Elder Holdaway. His new companion is Elder Schmidt from Canada. I love the kid (strictly platonically speaking). He is one of those people with GREAT faith, like Elder Lynch. I really admire that and am excited to serve with another missionary who has such great faith as to convert thousands. I also finally found out my reputation as a missionary. Thanks dad. EVERYONE is obsessed that your name is Thor. "Is your dad's name really Thor? Elder Adams said to ask you where you can get your dad's thunder." I am also apparently known for my good cooking and always having treats, so that is a good thing, could be for bad cooking!
Ingus scared us silly Thursday morning while we were walking. He just snuck up behind us and gave us a fright. He is doing well and looking forward to going on the temple trip this month. Ingus wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He will be great! Vineta, our less active is doing well. Her cute four-year-old Martina was just dancing all over the place and thought her little brother was the funniest thing ever when he was getting into trouble. Vineta is a great mother and she knows what she should be doing. As it is for most people here and everywhere, the excuses to not do things just add up and we are not always willing to make sacrifices for what is right. It is one of the constant battles in mortality, our will verses God's.
Thursday was also planning day. We had lots of planning to do with the new transfer. We taught both Oskars and Santa tonight about priesthood organization. Oskars is doing well. His doctor went on vacation so he didn't have the surgery and we removed the lego from Riksi's (Santa's dog) mouth during our lesson with her, so all is well with some of our favorite recent converts.
Friday was another jake-o-rama. We had all of our appointments cancel but because of the first woman who wasn't home, we were able to meet with less active Lidija. We had an interesting lesson with her. We started out on the Gospel of Jesus Christ which somehow got to tithing and sacrifice and obedience. We promised her blessing and even though she didn't have money to pay for the bus to get to church on Sunday, she showed up! I am so proud of her and that she is willing to be more dedicated to the gospel. Friday was part two of planning (we didn't get done!). We also had a miracle. President Boswell asked us to start praying for the Branch President and his family so we have been doing so. Today his wife, Kristina, approached us and offered to help us contact less-active Russian speaking sisters and come translate at their meetings. (This is the woman with two kids, teaches Sunday School, Young Women, Institute, and Seminary). Wow! Hearts are softening and it was just the help that we had been wanting during planning on Thursday.
Saturday was fun. Professor Trelawny (aka Nina) came to English! She is such a nice lady and she caught on really quickly considering she doesn't know the English alphabet or anything. Viktorija was there as well as Rita and Sandijs. Vikotrija and Nina seemed really interested in the Plan of Salvation. We were sad that Rita and Sandijs were a little too hyper during the spiritual thought, but Viktorija (Victoria) took a pamphlet and that is progress! We helped Ludmilla clean the church (she was the only church member who came!) and had a short meeting with Kaspars. I made the mistake of giving Elder Schmidt a cookie. Now every time I see him I hear about how great it would be to have some of those cookies because they are the best he has tasted in his life (They are the Mrs. Field's cookies from your cookbook, mom). I really like them too (possibly my new favorite chocolate chip recipe) and have a personal stash in the freezer. Liga is so awesome! She brought her granddaughter and her granddaughter's boyfriend to her meeting so she could show them the church. She also brought us produce from her garden and we watched the Restoration together to better solidify her testimony of Joseph Smith. She really enjoyed the film and we are excited that she is back from her vacation. She got sick though and wasn't able to come to church. We tried to find Laima, but no one was home so we did some tracting which was fun.
There was actually no one at church this Sunday. It was sad to see so many empty chairs. The meeting was excellent. Angel man was there and he bore his testimony about God's love and 75 cent days at Humana. We got the hooligans that we always play sports with to come to Sacrament meeting. Sintija bore a great testimony as did Elder Schmidt. We only had Santa in the investigator/new member class so we joined with the normal Sunday School class. It was...okay. Relief Society (5 total, including us two missionaries...yikes!) was really good. Daina prepared a great lesson about desires based on the conference talk. The rest of the day was normal missionary stuff, nothing too exciting. We didn't get stuck out in the rainstorm so that was good. Sister Ferrin is still on her taking cat pictures kick. I am starting to really dislike cats. Why? Because it means we have to stop whatever we are doing so she can take a picture. I'm not going to own a cat now. We found that referral from Uldis. He wasn't interested and Uldis was really sad that his friend wasn't open to the gospel. Maybe next time! As Elder Holdaway says, "Sometimes as missionaries we are looking for land. Other times we are moving rocks. I've moved a lot of rocks on my mission. Other times we are planting and sowing and we are also harvesting."
Loves,
Sister L
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Week 24
Sarra, Selina, Leva
August 1, 2011
On Monday we had kebabs. They were quite messy, especially with us all trying to swat at all the bees. There are so many bees here, they are inside the stores, just everywhere. Luckily they don't sting or anything like that. We were able to visit with the Tolmacovi family and talk about the temple. They have plans to go, but they aren't concrete. Brother Tolmacovi has a great desire to go though and we hope that he will be able to with his wife to be sealed for eternity. We went contacting on the bicycle path. My favorite person we contacted was this man visiting from Russia. We ended up getting his name and number, so we were able to send that referral off to Moscow. He is Russian Orthodox, but willing to hear and learn about other religions.
Tuesday was insanely rainy. The elders called us about two minutes before it started pouring to remind us to shut our sky lights (we've only left them open in rainstorms twice). We didn't need to worry about that though because our ceiling is leaking! It has been quite the adventure to try to figure out what to do. Elder Holdaway hosted another wonderful district meeting. This week we focused on asking good questions. It is definitely something that I can work on. Asking good clear questions for understanding, to make them think, for commitment, and the list goes on. Never mind tying them in with scriptures and such. That is the great thing about teaching, there is always stuff that you can work on. We decided to throw Oskars a curve ball for his retention lesson and we watched The Restoration film. He really enjoyed it and ended up bouncing out of the room to summer institute. He is in our prayers currently as he’ll be getting some kidney stones removed from his body August 1. Visiting the active Beldavi family was quite a surprise. We were ready with a fun Holy Ghost/car activity for energetic Raivo and Lauris but we entered a peaceful home. Raivo was asleep on the couch and just Dace (the mom) and Ingus (the eldest son) were home. So we made them do the blindfold activity! It was still a great lesson and we left the game so they could do it with the other boys.
Wednesday I enjoyed studying and being mildly distracted by the nuns taking pictures of this Catholic march that was going on with singing and banners. It just seemed so silly seeing a nun with a digital camera that I almost took a picture of them. We did take a picture of two couples from Sweden. It was so nice to talk to them. One of them reminded me of Sister Call (Julie's mom), just the nicest lady. I love my ancestry! We have such great people and one of the couples lived near Karlskoga, so that was neat. It was stormy by the evening so we played ping pong for sports night. President was pretty hilarious imitating an old lady, and no one got a black eye from a ping pong ball, so that was good. We went into the slightly sketchy Jaunliepaja to go knocking. The highlight was most definitely the umbrella. I wanted to see if it would slide down the banister. It did. For three flights. I was just laughing and laughing and hoping that there wasn't anyone coming because a giant black umbrella would be colliding with them shortly. The second highlight was the eavesdropping neighbor. We were talking to this one woman who was asking us if we believe that we literally become Christ. It was a fairly long conversation and all the sudden out popped out her neighbor. "I've been listening through the door. This is very interesting, say something else smart!" Sadly neither neighbor was interested, but we had a nice conversation about the sacrament. I'm grateful I know what I know.
Picture from President Scerbenins
Thursday was incredibly random. We visited Ena who still does not want to come to church, but knows she needs to. We then spent the rest of the day with the Boswells. They came down to do interviews and so we were at the church for a long time. Sister Ferrin's interview was 1.5 hours. Mine wasn't that long. President Boswell is such a great man though! He tells lots of great stories and he is very spiritually in tune. It was kind of fun to see the things that he knew about me that you know there is only one way he could know. My favorite thing he said to me was, "Well, at my house WE pray for Sister Lindstrom." That really meant a lot. He has some pretty great one liners. "Free agency is the pits" as well as "give them some rope to hang themselves" (rope being agency, hanging being a possible consequence of said agency). So we recommended that they eat at the Pastnieka Maja to which the response was, "Well sisters, why don't you just come with us. But first, what is one thing that we need to see in Liepaja before we leave." A ride in the car to the beach and then to lunch ensued. We all had soup and at least I sat there semi-awkwardly thinking, "Wow. I'm having lunch with my mission president. I wonder how many people have done this. Weird." I guess it is to make up for never getting to go to "eat with the principal" when I was younger. Definitely a step up from McDonalds. We did weekly planning and then got our weekly gut-wrenching laugh attack from Santa. I think I might have to start a page of "Santa-isms." This evening she told us the story of her neighbor when she found out "those Mormon boys" were coming over. "They are going to take you to America to make you work and be one of their wives!" "Great! I'll be wife number 54!" "But America?!!?" "Cool, a free trip!" Oh Santa. Well, I tried my hand at potato pancakes today...still need some practice with this popular Latvian dish, but not bad for a first try and no recipe.
My favorite contact on Friday was this nice lady named Marika who said that she may come to church. I also ran into Elvira, a anti-church less active on the tram. She was actually really excited to recognize me and just talked my ear off. She was having a bad day so I invited her to our Relief Society activity, and you know what, she came! We walked into the church and there she was, sitting on the couch. Everyone was kind to her and she asked for our autographs. She is probably 50 or 60 and she loves to write poetry. She brought some of her work that she has had published. Oh how my heart broke for her. I'm not totally sure, but from what I understand she gets electrical treatment because it works better than pills. It reminded me of "The Bell Jar." That is a sad summer read for anyone who wants to venture off into the world of mental illnesses. Some music was on and that opened a floodgate of memories for her and she cried. My heart just breaks for her. I wish I could understand all the sad stories that she was telling me better. Sandijs (the dry member since his mom won't allow him to get baptized) invited his 14/15 year old friend Santa to the party (not that Sandijs could go). She came and stayed! We got to teach her after we ate the yummy cake that we made. She is looking for a religion right now- baptized Russian Orthodox but thinks that she is Lutheran.
Santa came to English (as well as the other Santa and her friend Viktorija). We taught her a full first before class and she accepted all of it, except the baptismal date. She is going to be in vacation in Ogre (yes, Ogre) for a month. Another Santa-ism was the highlight. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and by the end Santa had on her sunglasses because she was crying. She declared, "Since I got baptized I get like this all the time. This is that Holy Ghost that Rihards gave me!" Um yes, yes, it is. I love "that Holy Ghost" and am so glad for its influence in my life. It was a beautiful day to be contacting on Saturday, nice and sunny but not too hot. We have been so blessed with a fairly cool summer (knock on wood!). My favorite contact was this lady through her window. We were walking by and I felt like we should talk to her and we ended up chit-chatting for twenty minutes or so. She was a funny larger lady. "I don't believe in God. I'm too old to change. (5 minutes later) I'm Lutheran. I go to the Lutheran church sometimes."
Did I mention that blueberries are in season? They made for some great blueberry pancakes to start a lovely Sabbath day. Sunday was a fun sacrament meeting, although we were few in numbers. Madara and Elder Clark both spoke. Elder Clark because he is going home this week and Madara because she is going on a mini-mission! She will be serving in Riga and will be set apart on Wednesday. Sisters Wilson and Sutterfield will be her trainers so it looks like Sister Ferrin and I will be together for the next two transfers (assuming she gets the same trainers for the 12 week training), if not three. They did a trio with Elder Holdaway that was very good. We had a great third hour. It was great mostly because we got to have translation all high-tech. Rihards translated into the little tour guide ear piece thingies so we all got to listen. The beginning he was doing all in English and just being goofy. He was embarrassing his girlfriend Kristine from Imanta. President S. was going over the talk by President Monson from Priesthood session. The best part was when he told the elders to go home and find a wife. Did lots of calling and setting up appointments along with a little contacting after church. Favorite contact was Walters by far. He is a gentleman [yes, a gentleman] from Germany who knows more big English words than little. He was quite interested in knowing about got and finding a connection with him. He talked to us about the energy in water molecules and we just had a splendid conversation which ended with us giving him the church website. He is quite the world traveler and we hope he enjoyed Liepaja. Walking home was also enjoyable. We may or may not have been laughing at the exhorbitantly drunk young man who could not walk straight, nor keep his body straight up and his friend who wasn't willing to help him. Two younger kids then ran by with a giant blown up walrus and Sister Ferrin and I just lost it completely.
The church is true. I am so grateful for this gospel and for my loving family and friends.
Sister Lindstrom
Relief Society Cake Making
Monday, July 25, 2011
Week 23
This week was a lot more mellow than last week. It made it seem like it was forever ago that I was off on adventures in Lithuania. On Monday we didn't do much. I sat and listened to very funny Latvian pop songs for an hour and a half while Sister Ferrin got a pedicure. She really liked it and it made her happy. The cepelini from Cepelini did not make us as happy forever. We were quite excited to try this Lithuanian dish of meat in a potato shell with sauce after our excursion there but it wasn't very good. I'm sure it lives up to its reputation in Lithuania though. We did some shopping and I found a pretty awesome Vera Mode cardigan (for all you people who have been to Europe) for $1.50 which is quite the steal. It was definitely the highlight of my day. (That and that the color is, and I quote, "shark blue.") We did lots of calling in the evening (to be continued....)
Tuesday we went and visited former investigator Astride. She is an older lady that I called on Monday. She is sick and lonely and wanted us to come over right then. I told her that we couldn't Monday night, but that we could the next day so she said, "In the morning!" She is a sweet lady who has back problems and is going blind. She can't read but her kids bought her a plane ticket to England and she is going to get a laser eye operation there. We enjoyed visiting with her. She was pretty great. She wants to come to our church once she is back and she told us that we have beautiful teeth and that we need to get married. She also couldn't believe that we had to be in at 9pm. "That is the best time for dating! You should go out. No one would know." This was later followed by, "Latvian men are awful. They all drink and smoke." We visited with less active Ena who is still less active. At least she knows what she should be doing, that is always a good start. We taught her about Jesus Christ. I really like how frank she is. "No I didn't read the Book of Mormon. I could have, I had time, but I watched this new serial on TV instead even though I should be reading." We also met with Oskars and taught him about becoming gods (he asked for it!). It went much better than we were expecting and then we met with the Frolovi and trying to control Uldis, the dad, and Eriks, the son. We were talking about the armor of God. "I'd rather have a tree!" interrupted Eriks. And then in English Uldis starts, "Do you know what super hero is more powerful than spiderman? What is the word for cibas in English? Ah yes, slippers. Slipperman!" Oh goodness!
We feasted on homemade pizza on Wednesday and visited with Rita. She is still doing well and then we had sports night with the youth, which mostly consisted of Rita throwing a volleyball as hard as she could at Sandijs and vice versa. Madara went with us contacting. She is hopefully going to serve a mini-mission so we are pretty excited for her. The hooligans that are normally at the church were out where we were knocking. One of them has a crush on Sister Ferrin (he is maybe 12) and his older friend came into the apartment we were knocking and yelled, "We love you sisters!" while we were talking to this lady at her door. Jinkies!
Thursday was quite the day (conclusion of Monday). I called a potential investigator, Vineta, on Monday and she wanted to meet. Even more of a miracle was that she actually showed up, and with her two adorable kids. Her girl is probably around 4 or 5. "You speak Latvian bad. It sounds like Russian." "Well we aren't from Latvia." "Oh, that makes sense." Her little boy was a very big two year old who loved to play with the lights. So we were attempting to teach Vineta a first with all this excitement going on and watch The Restoration film. "I've seen this film before with other sisters. They came to my house and we watched it." Later on, "I have that book (pointing to The Book of Mormon) but it is black and it is bigger." "Does it have The Pearl of Great Price? Are you a member?" She was! It turns out that Vineta is this inactive member that has been missing for several years. How insane is that?!!? She doesn't have a correct address on the ward list and the phone number is wrong, so no one could ever find her. Her cell phone number was on a potential investigator list though. I love finding lost sheep! It is so sad that they get lost though. On Friday I went through the ward member sheets to try to find hers. It was sad to see how many lost sheep there are. About 2/3 of the teaching records are people who are no longer on the ward list because no one could contact them.
After our mind boggling appointment with Vineta we went to the new Relief Society President's home. Ruta had yummy "bab food" as Elder Lynch calls it. Zelma, another member had come over for a visit so we taught both of them the importance of visiting teaching. "It is summer. We don't do that here during the summer! No time!" Jinkies! We gave her a list of all the women in Relief Society so she can make assignments. She and Zelma were looking at it and started telling us all the info on everyone. It is sad how many people don't come to church because of a miscommunication that offended them. Santa's meeting was eventful as usual. We were talking about the ten commandments. "Oh! I know those! Word of Wisdom, go to church, give talks, celibacy..." "It is the law of chastity Santa, you can get married and stuff." "Yeah, yeah, celibacy." We then taught her the real ten commandments, but I won't lie, I really liked hers. Thursday we also went to try to find the referral that Uldis gave us. Problem is he lives in a large apartment building and we don't know his apartment number, nor his native language, Russian. It should be quite the adventure trying to find him!
Friday was my name day! (My real one, not in April like we thought). Happy name day to me! I made myself cupcakes. We met with Astride again. She was so much happier and looking better. She still wants us to go with her and take her to the airport and live with her though. I'm worried that if we did she would lock us out and make us go out and party in the evenings. We had a neat district meeting. We learned some of the new mission rules. First rule: smile once each day. (tangent: I'm kind of sad it is only once a day. I'm just going to pretend that it means wake up and smile and keep it on until the end of the day!) The other is more news. 1. We are all getting DVD players for our apartments. We will be able to watch The District, The Restoration, and one or two other church films. Moscow mission is getting to do the pilot programs with ipads. I am so jealous! They are going to do area book work online so that the mission president and stake presidents, etc. can have access to it as well. I hope that happens for everyone soon. I think we youngsters would keep a lot better track of people if it was on a computers [and save the trees!]. We learned that a new focus we will have is having good studies. I really like President Boswell's focus on Preach My Gospel. It is such a great resource we all have as members of the church.
Saturday we got to go out running again (after a very long period of not running which caused much sadness in my land) and so naturally something interesting happened. There is a huge music festival and so there were many drunk young persons roaming around the streets at 6:30am. And pretty much all weekend. English class was only Santa and Viktoria again. They are a fun little class. We went and visited Lidija, a member in the evening. She fell in her kitchen "Like a ball! I've never fallen like that in my life. I don't know how I did it. Ha ha ha." She was pretty epic in the best sense of the word. Her head was still hurting so she tried lying on different pillows and then wrapping a scarf around her head. At that point Sister F. just burst out laughing. By the end of our visit she had born a sweet testimony and her head was feeling better. So neat!
Sunday was good. No surprises. Church was fine and dinner was lovely, naturally (cous cous with carrots and carmelized onions if you were wondering). We went out contacting. No one too interesting to report on.
I love you all! The church is true!
Bisous!
Soeur Lindstrom
Tuesday we went and visited former investigator Astride. She is an older lady that I called on Monday. She is sick and lonely and wanted us to come over right then. I told her that we couldn't Monday night, but that we could the next day so she said, "In the morning!" She is a sweet lady who has back problems and is going blind. She can't read but her kids bought her a plane ticket to England and she is going to get a laser eye operation there. We enjoyed visiting with her. She was pretty great. She wants to come to our church once she is back and she told us that we have beautiful teeth and that we need to get married. She also couldn't believe that we had to be in at 9pm. "That is the best time for dating! You should go out. No one would know." This was later followed by, "Latvian men are awful. They all drink and smoke." We visited with less active Ena who is still less active. At least she knows what she should be doing, that is always a good start. We taught her about Jesus Christ. I really like how frank she is. "No I didn't read the Book of Mormon. I could have, I had time, but I watched this new serial on TV instead even though I should be reading." We also met with Oskars and taught him about becoming gods (he asked for it!). It went much better than we were expecting and then we met with the Frolovi and trying to control Uldis, the dad, and Eriks, the son. We were talking about the armor of God. "I'd rather have a tree!" interrupted Eriks. And then in English Uldis starts, "Do you know what super hero is more powerful than spiderman? What is the word for cibas in English? Ah yes, slippers. Slipperman!" Oh goodness!
We feasted on homemade pizza on Wednesday and visited with Rita. She is still doing well and then we had sports night with the youth, which mostly consisted of Rita throwing a volleyball as hard as she could at Sandijs and vice versa. Madara went with us contacting. She is hopefully going to serve a mini-mission so we are pretty excited for her. The hooligans that are normally at the church were out where we were knocking. One of them has a crush on Sister Ferrin (he is maybe 12) and his older friend came into the apartment we were knocking and yelled, "We love you sisters!" while we were talking to this lady at her door. Jinkies!
Thursday was quite the day (conclusion of Monday). I called a potential investigator, Vineta, on Monday and she wanted to meet. Even more of a miracle was that she actually showed up, and with her two adorable kids. Her girl is probably around 4 or 5. "You speak Latvian bad. It sounds like Russian." "Well we aren't from Latvia." "Oh, that makes sense." Her little boy was a very big two year old who loved to play with the lights. So we were attempting to teach Vineta a first with all this excitement going on and watch The Restoration film. "I've seen this film before with other sisters. They came to my house and we watched it." Later on, "I have that book (pointing to The Book of Mormon) but it is black and it is bigger." "Does it have The Pearl of Great Price? Are you a member?" She was! It turns out that Vineta is this inactive member that has been missing for several years. How insane is that?!!? She doesn't have a correct address on the ward list and the phone number is wrong, so no one could ever find her. Her cell phone number was on a potential investigator list though. I love finding lost sheep! It is so sad that they get lost though. On Friday I went through the ward member sheets to try to find hers. It was sad to see how many lost sheep there are. About 2/3 of the teaching records are people who are no longer on the ward list because no one could contact them.
After our mind boggling appointment with Vineta we went to the new Relief Society President's home. Ruta had yummy "bab food" as Elder Lynch calls it. Zelma, another member had come over for a visit so we taught both of them the importance of visiting teaching. "It is summer. We don't do that here during the summer! No time!" Jinkies! We gave her a list of all the women in Relief Society so she can make assignments. She and Zelma were looking at it and started telling us all the info on everyone. It is sad how many people don't come to church because of a miscommunication that offended them. Santa's meeting was eventful as usual. We were talking about the ten commandments. "Oh! I know those! Word of Wisdom, go to church, give talks, celibacy..." "It is the law of chastity Santa, you can get married and stuff." "Yeah, yeah, celibacy." We then taught her the real ten commandments, but I won't lie, I really liked hers. Thursday we also went to try to find the referral that Uldis gave us. Problem is he lives in a large apartment building and we don't know his apartment number, nor his native language, Russian. It should be quite the adventure trying to find him!
Friday was my name day! (My real one, not in April like we thought). Happy name day to me! I made myself cupcakes. We met with Astride again. She was so much happier and looking better. She still wants us to go with her and take her to the airport and live with her though. I'm worried that if we did she would lock us out and make us go out and party in the evenings. We had a neat district meeting. We learned some of the new mission rules. First rule: smile once each day. (tangent: I'm kind of sad it is only once a day. I'm just going to pretend that it means wake up and smile and keep it on until the end of the day!) The other is more news. 1. We are all getting DVD players for our apartments. We will be able to watch The District, The Restoration, and one or two other church films. Moscow mission is getting to do the pilot programs with ipads. I am so jealous! They are going to do area book work online so that the mission president and stake presidents, etc. can have access to it as well. I hope that happens for everyone soon. I think we youngsters would keep a lot better track of people if it was on a computers [and save the trees!]. We learned that a new focus we will have is having good studies. I really like President Boswell's focus on Preach My Gospel. It is such a great resource we all have as members of the church.
Saturday we got to go out running again (after a very long period of not running which caused much sadness in my land) and so naturally something interesting happened. There is a huge music festival and so there were many drunk young persons roaming around the streets at 6:30am. And pretty much all weekend. English class was only Santa and Viktoria again. They are a fun little class. We went and visited Lidija, a member in the evening. She fell in her kitchen "Like a ball! I've never fallen like that in my life. I don't know how I did it. Ha ha ha." She was pretty epic in the best sense of the word. Her head was still hurting so she tried lying on different pillows and then wrapping a scarf around her head. At that point Sister F. just burst out laughing. By the end of our visit she had born a sweet testimony and her head was feeling better. So neat!
Sunday was good. No surprises. Church was fine and dinner was lovely, naturally (cous cous with carrots and carmelized onions if you were wondering). We went out contacting. No one too interesting to report on.
I love you all! The church is true!
Bisous!
Soeur Lindstrom
Monday, July 18, 2011
Week 22
Mari and Sister Ferrin
Monday was the best preparation day lunch ever! Madara came with us and we ate at the Pastnieka Maja. I love that place and their garden outside was so beautiful. I got some carrot and spinach soup that was to die for as well as Rataouille that had olives in it (odd). Madara showed us this store run by Indians (from India). They had clothing and incense and all sorts of stuff from India. Sister Ferrin found some pretty epic genie pants for 30$. Rita helped us go to visit Artvis, that cute old man we contacted into last week whose wife passed away. He was the nicest fellow ever but not interested in the gospel, just having company. He was so cute though! He bought us cookies and chocolate and cut out a picture from the newspaper to show us. He also told us about his crazy downstairs neighbor who goes swimming in the sea every morning and comes to visit him every week and tries to convert him. It was the exorcists! It was pretty funny talking to him about his special neighbor. A funny drunk Russian man was hitting on Sister Ferrin the way there. "You have wife? You wife?" "I don't understand." The man then proceeds to ask Rita how to say husband in English. "You have husband? I be husband!" You've got to love when members help people hit on your companion. It was pretty darn funny; glad it wasn't me!
On Tuesday in District Meeting I was practicing with Elder Holdaway. He did a great job. He replaced my investigator name in the sacrament prayers. It was a really powerful experience. I recommend doing it (in your mind) next Sunday as you hear the sacrament prayers. It makes Christ's sacrifice for us all a lot more personal. Oskars forgot what time it was so he was 30 minutes late to his meeting. Luckily Sarra and Ieva kept us entertained. They insisted that we dance to MoTab. They were so hilarious, wanting to be dipped and twirled. We also had some good chit chats with Madara and Rita.
Wednesday morning (far too early for my liking) we headed up to Riga so Sister Ferrin could get some blood work as well as her migration done. I got to head off with Sister Stout (my favorite Russian-speaking sister ever!) and my bubbly blonde friend Sister Wilson. Sister Stout did a great job teaching a lesson in Russian about the prophet. We then met up with the sisters at the doctors; they had taken the apartment keys and Sister Stout was sick. We found out we were staying the night! Sister Ferrin was supposed to fast. I knew I should have listened to that prompting and told her to fast anyway! Needless to say, it made for a fun adventure, no clothes, no toothbrush, no worries. I got to go out contacting with Sister Wilson for a little bit and then I stayed in with Sister Stout while the other three went out and we got to talk and eat brownies and ice cream with raspberries...mmmm! Poor Sister Ferrin came home quite ill. We had to call the assistants to give her a blessing and then she spent a while more bowing to the porcelain throne. Priesthood blessings work wonders in making you puke!
Thursday morning we headed out to get the blood test done as well as a donut. Yes, there is one donut shop in all of Riga and naturally the missionaries know about it. We finally got home later in the afternoon to a rainstorm, our hot water still off (had been since Tuesday), and our phone not working. Luckily we were meeting with Santa, so none of those factors mattered. We watched the Restoration with her. She is hilarious! "Ciao Joseph!" "Did he really like horses?" "Wooooww!" (when Joseph saw God).
Friday was another special day....we went to Lithuania! We took a bus and headed down to Klaipeda to meet with two sisters from Kaunus to do a switcheroo for the weekend. We got to go around rainy Klaipeda trying to find all the different statues and such randomly hidden throughout the city. I found an amazing restaurant called Le Cle (the key in French). The chef there has a new menu every week and they have this awesome garlic spread and bread station. The waitress gives you a cutting board and you can go and get more whenever you desire. If I ever own a business of some sort, I think I will call it Le Cle too. We headed back to the bus station through the sculpture park (over 100 sculptures) and met the sisters. We went with them to get pizza and ice cream and headed back to the bus station. Sister Ferrin and Edgin left but Sister G and my bus didn't come! It came two hours late so we got to go out and see more of the city and then come back before our bus got in. The bus driver stopped in Palanga, this beach town where everyone and I mean EVERYONE goes during the summer. There were so many people walking down the sidewalk by all the restaurants and booths that we couldn't get to the beach fast enough to make it back for our bus. We bought waffles on a stick that were dipped in chocolate syrup instead. I guess I really liked Palanga, because I left my tag there. We noticed that it fell off but there were really sooooooooo many people we never would have found it. Lots of families and couples were there. I guess it is tradition in Lithuania to bring your date a flower so there were many girls selling very long stemmed red roses in Palanga. Sister Grinevachute (sounds like green apple juice) and I got back home a little bit before 11pm and headed off to bed.
We woke up for an exciting day of Russian! Sister G. taught me some Russian and I taught her some Latvian and then we went out contacting and taught Santa and her friend Viktoria in English. We couldn't get Viktoria to take a copy of the Book of Mormon...bummer. We did teach them head-shoulders-knees-and-toes and they also loved drawing monsters to practice using body part vocabulary. We met with Nadezda and Sister G taught her in Russian about service. We came home to a smelly house. I started heating up some beans this morning and forgot to turn off the stove when we left. Oopsie! Well, we had black beans, that was for sure! I double check the stove now. We met with Rita and gave her some ideas for her talk tomorrow and then we went out knocking. We did pretty good picking Russian domes...only one person spoke Latvian that answered the door (and they were Russian). We had one lady who said we could come back next week. Too bad she only speaks Russian! It was nice to get out and work though. I didn't really have to clean the church today. Sintija came and was helping and told us that her dad was in Greece. EEKS! Her dad was supposed to be driving us to Lithuania tomorrow. Elder Holdaway went into battle plan mode and the last member who owns a car said they could help us. God answers prayers!
Mari and Sister Grinevachute
After church Kaspars, the ward mission leader, drove Sister G., Madara, and me to Klaipeda. Twenty minutes in he realized he didn't have his drivers lisence so we had to go back. And then there was traffic. In the woods. THE WOODS. So we were stuck in the woods for about 30 minutes stop and go traffic (reason? PALANGA!) but we made it to Klaipeda to switch partners and take Elder Hengst up with us. He is a nice elder from Germany who is going up with our elders to a training meeting on Monday.
Church was quite the event. That angel wing/lei man came. He took off his wig when he got inside today and the elders had four investigators! I sat with this sweet old 83-year-old that they invited to church last night. She was hard of hearing and basically yelled right before the sacrament prayer, "I'm hard of hearing but I can feel God's peace." While they were passing the bread she asked me if she could take it. "I've been blessed and baptized." "Of course!" I helped her take the water since her hands were so shaky. It was quite a humbling experience. The poor woman feels like she is dying and her daughter and granddaughter died. Rita's talk was amazing! I wanted to get her a standing ovation I was so proud. It was the best talk by far during sacrament meeting. Relief Society was interesting. We were talking about family responsibilities and we got talking about peoples' childhoods and during Stalin's reign and such. I am glad I was born where I was with the wonderful family, ward family, and friends that I have. May God bless you all.
Love,
Sister Lindstrom
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Week 21
Monday July 11, 2011
I'm so glad that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July. It sounded much more epic than ours. Rihards showed up to lunch at Fontaine's for hamburgers with a striped jean shirt, an American flag tie, and socks that said USA on them. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life. He said that people kept on staring at him as he was walking. I don't blame them. We ate our hamburgers and fries out on the dock and Rihards got us all talking about music because he wanted to know to what we liked to listen. Sister Ferrin and I were very close to convincing Rihards to get a pedicure with us. Sister Ferrin has been wanting one since April and we didn't have anything to do so we asked him where you can get pedicures. He then recommended the place which he frequents. I may or may not have started laughing. Out loud. He then proceeded to tell us how healthy it is and how it is normal for men and women to get them. He also said if men don't go out they'd still probably do them and not let their wife know. He proceeded to act out a scenario of a husband giving himself a pedicure in the bathroom and trying to hide it from his wife. He's a funny Latvian. We went out with Annika to go visit a Russian less active that lived in the middle of nowhere after we met with Oskars. She wasn't home!! Annika didn't seem to bothered by it and she brought us Fourth of July gifts (as did Rihards). Funny Latvians. I'm pretty sure they were more excited about the holiday than we were with our glowstick bracelets. We are enjoying the cooler (cross your fingers) so far summer weather and fruits. Strawberry season just ended and now we are on to cherries and blueberries at the market.
On Tuesday I found my favorite talk for the month, "One Step After Another" by J.B. Wirthlin. We had a lively district meeting about to be and to do (based off of the talk from the past session of conference). The highlight of my Tuesday was visiting Daina. She is a member who served a mission, but we haven't felt that she likes us very much. Sister Ferrin used her mad friend making skills though and now we are just buddy pals. I was so nervous to go to her apartment at first, but it all got worked out.
Wednesday was a fun day. In the evening we got to play floor ball with the hooligans and Ingus and his brothers (Lauris and Raivo). Maxims my favorite 10-year-old friend was out pretending to be an airplane and then a cat. He then proceeded to make faces at me. I wish he could come play with us, his parents won't allow it. I scored a goal or two even! Woot! I also used my mad phone calling skills and called about 40 former English class participants and asked them if they wanted to come to English or visit with missionaries. I could totally work in a call center. We met with Rita and went over the Plan of Salvation before sports and before that we went and had a little tea time fun at Zelma Golta's apartment. She made us pancakes and we had them with honey and tart cherry jam. It was an interesting lesson...Zelma somehow got on a tangent about this lady in Latvia who would see people's deaths before they happened. Our lesson was on charity and missionary work. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. Liga got interviewed and passed! Woot! She was pretty funny when we were going through them with her before. "Of course I believe that otherwise I wouldn't be here." Well duh!
On Thursday we had planning and I did some piano practicing. Santa is a hoot and a half. We were talking about the plan of salvation and she thought that when we are ressurected it will be like zombies. She then proceeded to act like a zombie. We cleared that up. It is so fun to watch her grow! She is getting happier every day and is letting her sparkling personality show..
Friday was spent trying to figure out our lives....at least how to get to Lithuania! There is a sister from Lithuania serving there and they are having a big party and she can't go because all her friends will be there so she is coming up to Liepaja with me and Sister Ferrin gets to go down to Lithuania for a few days. There aren't a lot of busses or anything that go there so it takes a lot of planning, especially since it is going to a different country! We had an eventful night contacting. We went to Dzintara iela (Gold Street...how fitting). This one old lady, Sofia, let us straight in, regardless of her lack of clothing (Thank you whoever invented bathrobes) and wants to read The Book of Mormon (although she wouldn't take it). She wants to meet with us again so that is exciting. We also had two men invite us in. We couldn't because of the rule of three (curses!). One has had missionaries over before, but he doesn't believe and his wife died. We told him he could live with her again and that we wanted to talk about it. It is hard having to tell people you can't come in and teach them something that would make them so happy! The second man was a Lutheran in his 30s with shoulder length shiny brown hair. He has a family and with Sister Ferrin's looks and my persistant testifying he was like, "Okay, fine. Come in. I'm interested now." The next apartment we got invited into we shouldn't have gone in either. It was this Pentecostal prayer group who were well versed in the Bible and Book of Mormon. Just so you all know, I have a different bad spirit about me, but I told him he couldn't perform an exorcism and that I'd just tell my pastor person about it instead. We did stay for a prayer though. They were so very kind and asked God to forgive us since we don't know what we are doing. The head hancho man (it was this cute 50 year old peppy lady who answered the door) spoke in tongues, asked why we couldn't and wanted to touch my head when he was praying. It was interesting and I was glad to go. I am so grateful that we don't tell people they are satanic and make them feel awkward when we pray. It is definitely not God's way.
English class was funny today. The dentist wasn't there but some man who thought we should teach Russian was. Santa came and brought her friend Viktoria. It was so neat to see Santa show her around the church and just their interactions with each other. We were talking to Santa about our coloring homework from Ieva and then she said that she wanted some so we got her a coloring page too! (Although this week Ieva told me that I needed to go gardening in lieu of giving me a coloring page. She is a pretty funny girl.) We cleaned the church, just us four missionaries today and then we had Liga's baptism. I played prelude and postlude and President Scer. had us missionaries sing a musical number. He wanted just the sisters, but we insisted that the elders sing along (and thank heavens too because Elder Clark is the only one who really knows how to sing). Liga had to get dunked twice...poor lady. The first time her legs were thrashing and we thought President was drowning her. She brought two friends. One of them was crying after the baptism and asked, "Can we get baptised right now too?" She took home a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a day of crepe making! We had 48 people at church today...a record! It helped that we had this gorgeous 17-year-old from Seattle and her exchange friend. They are doing this program where they spend a month at eachother's homes. I was able to translate a really good sacrament meeting for her. One of the talks was in Russian so I had to translate it from the translation a member was telling me. There were definitely a lot of things lost in translation! The District President gave an excellent talk on tithing though. Sunday School was good and Relief Society was almost a wreck talking about the temple. One member started asking about having multiple husbands (since they died) and if she could get sealed to both of them...aye aye aye! We also had Branch council...in Russian. Sunday night we met with Madara because she is having a hard time. Sister Ferrin was able to help her out while I chased around little Elizabeth that she is babysitting on weekends.
I had a great study this morning about our purpose on earth. Here's some homework!
2 Nephi 2:11; 10:23-24; 25:23
Alma 34:31-34
Romans 6:23
Galatians 6:7-9
Abraham 3:25
Matthew 6:33, 16:24-26
The church is true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!
Love, Sister Lindstrom
I'm so glad that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July. It sounded much more epic than ours. Rihards showed up to lunch at Fontaine's for hamburgers with a striped jean shirt, an American flag tie, and socks that said USA on them. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life. He said that people kept on staring at him as he was walking. I don't blame them. We ate our hamburgers and fries out on the dock and Rihards got us all talking about music because he wanted to know to what we liked to listen. Sister Ferrin and I were very close to convincing Rihards to get a pedicure with us. Sister Ferrin has been wanting one since April and we didn't have anything to do so we asked him where you can get pedicures. He then recommended the place which he frequents. I may or may not have started laughing. Out loud. He then proceeded to tell us how healthy it is and how it is normal for men and women to get them. He also said if men don't go out they'd still probably do them and not let their wife know. He proceeded to act out a scenario of a husband giving himself a pedicure in the bathroom and trying to hide it from his wife. He's a funny Latvian. We went out with Annika to go visit a Russian less active that lived in the middle of nowhere after we met with Oskars. She wasn't home!! Annika didn't seem to bothered by it and she brought us Fourth of July gifts (as did Rihards). Funny Latvians. I'm pretty sure they were more excited about the holiday than we were with our glowstick bracelets. We are enjoying the cooler (cross your fingers) so far summer weather and fruits. Strawberry season just ended and now we are on to cherries and blueberries at the market.
On Tuesday I found my favorite talk for the month, "One Step After Another" by J.B. Wirthlin. We had a lively district meeting about to be and to do (based off of the talk from the past session of conference). The highlight of my Tuesday was visiting Daina. She is a member who served a mission, but we haven't felt that she likes us very much. Sister Ferrin used her mad friend making skills though and now we are just buddy pals. I was so nervous to go to her apartment at first, but it all got worked out.
Wednesday was a fun day. In the evening we got to play floor ball with the hooligans and Ingus and his brothers (Lauris and Raivo). Maxims my favorite 10-year-old friend was out pretending to be an airplane and then a cat. He then proceeded to make faces at me. I wish he could come play with us, his parents won't allow it. I scored a goal or two even! Woot! I also used my mad phone calling skills and called about 40 former English class participants and asked them if they wanted to come to English or visit with missionaries. I could totally work in a call center. We met with Rita and went over the Plan of Salvation before sports and before that we went and had a little tea time fun at Zelma Golta's apartment. She made us pancakes and we had them with honey and tart cherry jam. It was an interesting lesson...Zelma somehow got on a tangent about this lady in Latvia who would see people's deaths before they happened. Our lesson was on charity and missionary work. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. Liga got interviewed and passed! Woot! She was pretty funny when we were going through them with her before. "Of course I believe that otherwise I wouldn't be here." Well duh!
On Thursday we had planning and I did some piano practicing. Santa is a hoot and a half. We were talking about the plan of salvation and she thought that when we are ressurected it will be like zombies. She then proceeded to act like a zombie. We cleared that up. It is so fun to watch her grow! She is getting happier every day and is letting her sparkling personality show..
Friday was spent trying to figure out our lives....at least how to get to Lithuania! There is a sister from Lithuania serving there and they are having a big party and she can't go because all her friends will be there so she is coming up to Liepaja with me and Sister Ferrin gets to go down to Lithuania for a few days. There aren't a lot of busses or anything that go there so it takes a lot of planning, especially since it is going to a different country! We had an eventful night contacting. We went to Dzintara iela (Gold Street...how fitting). This one old lady, Sofia, let us straight in, regardless of her lack of clothing (Thank you whoever invented bathrobes) and wants to read The Book of Mormon (although she wouldn't take it). She wants to meet with us again so that is exciting. We also had two men invite us in. We couldn't because of the rule of three (curses!). One has had missionaries over before, but he doesn't believe and his wife died. We told him he could live with her again and that we wanted to talk about it. It is hard having to tell people you can't come in and teach them something that would make them so happy! The second man was a Lutheran in his 30s with shoulder length shiny brown hair. He has a family and with Sister Ferrin's looks and my persistant testifying he was like, "Okay, fine. Come in. I'm interested now." The next apartment we got invited into we shouldn't have gone in either. It was this Pentecostal prayer group who were well versed in the Bible and Book of Mormon. Just so you all know, I have a different bad spirit about me, but I told him he couldn't perform an exorcism and that I'd just tell my pastor person about it instead. We did stay for a prayer though. They were so very kind and asked God to forgive us since we don't know what we are doing. The head hancho man (it was this cute 50 year old peppy lady who answered the door) spoke in tongues, asked why we couldn't and wanted to touch my head when he was praying. It was interesting and I was glad to go. I am so grateful that we don't tell people they are satanic and make them feel awkward when we pray. It is definitely not God's way.
English class was funny today. The dentist wasn't there but some man who thought we should teach Russian was. Santa came and brought her friend Viktoria. It was so neat to see Santa show her around the church and just their interactions with each other. We were talking to Santa about our coloring homework from Ieva and then she said that she wanted some so we got her a coloring page too! (Although this week Ieva told me that I needed to go gardening in lieu of giving me a coloring page. She is a pretty funny girl.) We cleaned the church, just us four missionaries today and then we had Liga's baptism. I played prelude and postlude and President Scer. had us missionaries sing a musical number. He wanted just the sisters, but we insisted that the elders sing along (and thank heavens too because Elder Clark is the only one who really knows how to sing). Liga had to get dunked twice...poor lady. The first time her legs were thrashing and we thought President was drowning her. She brought two friends. One of them was crying after the baptism and asked, "Can we get baptised right now too?" She took home a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a day of crepe making! We had 48 people at church today...a record! It helped that we had this gorgeous 17-year-old from Seattle and her exchange friend. They are doing this program where they spend a month at eachother's homes. I was able to translate a really good sacrament meeting for her. One of the talks was in Russian so I had to translate it from the translation a member was telling me. There were definitely a lot of things lost in translation! The District President gave an excellent talk on tithing though. Sunday School was good and Relief Society was almost a wreck talking about the temple. One member started asking about having multiple husbands (since they died) and if she could get sealed to both of them...aye aye aye! We also had Branch council...in Russian. Sunday night we met with Madara because she is having a hard time. Sister Ferrin was able to help her out while I chased around little Elizabeth that she is babysitting on weekends.
I had a great study this morning about our purpose on earth. Here's some homework!
2 Nephi 2:11; 10:23-24; 25:23
Alma 34:31-34
Romans 6:23
Galatians 6:7-9
Abraham 3:25
Matthew 6:33, 16:24-26
The church is true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!
Love, Sister Lindstrom
Monday, July 4, 2011
Week 20
(don't forget to enjoy the pictures at the end of Mari's letter)
July 4, 2011 from Mari
Hello hello from sunny Liepaja! We have actually had a lot of rainstorms this past week but that is fine with me because it keeps the world cool. Modest is hottest has taken on a new meaning and humidity doesn't help. I sure am grateful for air conditioning...next summer!
Monday's preparation day was just what I needed. We went to the beach at Karosta where there are all the old forts. I would have contently sat all day on a pile of rocks looking for sea glass, but we had to go past the beach to the forts so that Elder Clark could see them. It was a lot more mellow of an adventure since we didn't have half the ward this time; just Madara, Rita, and Sintija. Those girls brought Sister Ferrin a piece of cake for her year mark and we all sang to her while inside of one of the forts that had been pushed into the sea. We were able to do another family home evening with the Tolmacovi. We made a Plan of Salvation puzzle for Selina the six-year-old to do. She really liked it and I think that her parents have gotten the hint that they should come back to church. Afterwards we were able to go knocking back at the "dome" (or apartment complex) that we had gone to with Madara a few weeks back. We felt pretty dumb trying to get in. It was unlocked though we thought it was locked and we didn't have the code. A man who lived there in English said, "You just have to turn the handle, it is open." DOH! We felt silly, but we did get in. That lady that we had visited wasn't there, but we talked to a great old man whose dentures were almost falling out of his mouth when he spoke. He kept on telling us that his wife was angry that he was talking to us. It was true, when they shut the door she started yelling at him for talking to "those Mormon girls." Oh how life is funny sometimes.
On Tuesday we went to Mara's house to hunt her down. She was one of our baptismal dates, but we haven't spoken to her for a while now. We didn't find her, but I did speak to this old lady who was looking for a new church because she just couldn't go to the Catholic Church anymore. She was nice and I hope that we see her again. We had a lesson with Oskars which went well. The little girls Sarra and Ieva were there so before Oskar's lesson they made me play hide and go seek with them. They thought I was pretty clever since they couldn’t find me. Sarra tried to stick her hat on Elder Clark's head, it was quite humorous watching this all happen and meeting with Liga was great. We were a little worried about it, but she reads the Book of Mormon every night and has a testimony of Joseph Smith!
On Wednesday I made some of Aunt Joyce's indian fry bread. Boy is it good! It is in between a scone and a tortilla and may be our new "scone" dough recipe, we really enjoyed them. I called all of the former investigators from one of the area books (except those that had been met with in the past 3 months) and we also met some great people contacting in the evening. By the tram was Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter. Minus the hair, a lot smaller, and with the same big glasses and was very soft spoken. She was so great! She was telling us how we should get bikes and do the Tour de France of the Baltics and talk to the people following that and that we should get a small bus to go pick up people from the country and bring them to church. She recommended that we have dances and parties and just share our knowledge with others. My favorite thing that she said was, "God is like the sun. If he shines, he shines on everyone." We talked to a beautiful lady in her 30s who had two children. She called them her gifts from God and she definitely knows what life is about. She sells strawberries at the market and lives across from the church. We are hoping to see her again...we almost got an appointment set up with her. We had sports night tonight with the elders, Rihards, and the hoolies. Rita was there since we had just had a meeting with her but she didn't really play since she doesn't like floor ball (aka floor hockey). I am considerably better at playing hockey now and I am not going to wear a skirt next time!
On Thursday Rihards helped us with Latvian and we had our weekly planning session. Sister Ferrin made some epic canvas book covers for her scriptures and we had a meeting with Santa. We had Rihards along and actually had our lesson about the temples this time. Oh goodness, I love Santa! When we talked about eternal marriage she was just like, "Oh my goodness! Thank heavens my husband is gone. I would never do that with him. He couldn't ever be a member anyway, no way." We had a great lesson with the Beldavi boys and mom about putting on the whole armor of God. Raivo was his hyper little monkey self bouncing around and Lauris is just the cutest little kid.
Friday we met the Boswells. Words cannot express how much I LOVE THE BOSWELLS! President Boswell has so much energy and is so much fun and Sister Boswell is very composed and refined. President Boswell talked about how they got their calling and priesthood keys. He talked about how keys are passed and that he shares the keys to find, nurture, and fellowship with the Branch Presidents so that we need to work with them a lot. He, as President, has been instructed to spend 50% of his time with missionaries and the other 50% with the Branches and the members. He is just so fun, I love him! It seems like the Boswell's theme of missionary work will be based off "What ere thou art act well they part"......As missionaries we should match the grandeur of the message that we teach. Sister Boswell's dad saved that rock that is in the MTC from Scotland that says that. You can look it up about D.O. McKay
Some quotes from President Boswell from others...
Elder Clayton "This is the best run mission that I've ever seen in the church."
Elder D.H. Oaks "It's been my experience that the Lord sends His very best missionaries to the Baltic Mission."
Yeah, the Boswells have rubbed shoulders with lots of prophets and apostles. Sister Boswell has some major connections with them. Her dad was a mission president in Scotland so Elder Lynch LOVES them. On Monday we were also able to visit the ring man. I had him make me a ring out of a spoon and I gave it to Sister Stout today, she loved it. She is currently in a three-some with the sisters in Center. Those lucky masas!
My interview with him (President Boswell) was awesome. It is nice having a priesthood leader who you really feel like they care for you and just get down and dirty to help you be better.
We went to More than Muffins afterwards and got paninis and blueberry muffins and then we all attempted to sleep on the hot bus ride home. God loves us so he sent a storm! It was a huge thunderstorm.
Saturday was busy as always. We visited Ena, taught English, and cleaned the church. Only the Russian Dentist came to our English class today so we went over words and phrases she needs in the dentist office, I was her practice patient, and that was that. We got caught in the rain going to a meeting. It was so fun! I just laughed the whole way. We had a meeting with Liga and it went really well. It was basically a crash course on ALL the commandments that she needs to follow to be baptized. Marika helped which was great. We talked with Marika about missionary work afterwards.
Sunday was a great meeting. I was sitting by Ieva who is learning to read so she loves to sing. She would always belt out, "DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!" I had to try really hard to keep my laughing on the inside because it was so stinking cute! Santa taught the lesson in Relief Society! Our Santa who hates praying in public! I felt like a proud mom watching her, she did a great job. After we broke our fast I had a three hour call-a-thon. I have officially called all the phone numbers in the "Former Investigators- Phone numbers only - Lots of Janes" area book and started going through round two. I was able to practice the piano and singing a little bit at the church before our lesson with Rita. I'll have you know that I am improving. :) Yay for practicing! Poor Rita is not a happy one right now. Her brother is paralyzed for life now and she is mad at the world. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her.
Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the air conditioning and fireworks! We are planning on having hamburgers today to celebrate!
ML
July 4, 2011 from Mari
Hello hello from sunny Liepaja! We have actually had a lot of rainstorms this past week but that is fine with me because it keeps the world cool. Modest is hottest has taken on a new meaning and humidity doesn't help. I sure am grateful for air conditioning...next summer!
Monday's preparation day was just what I needed. We went to the beach at Karosta where there are all the old forts. I would have contently sat all day on a pile of rocks looking for sea glass, but we had to go past the beach to the forts so that Elder Clark could see them. It was a lot more mellow of an adventure since we didn't have half the ward this time; just Madara, Rita, and Sintija. Those girls brought Sister Ferrin a piece of cake for her year mark and we all sang to her while inside of one of the forts that had been pushed into the sea. We were able to do another family home evening with the Tolmacovi. We made a Plan of Salvation puzzle for Selina the six-year-old to do. She really liked it and I think that her parents have gotten the hint that they should come back to church. Afterwards we were able to go knocking back at the "dome" (or apartment complex) that we had gone to with Madara a few weeks back. We felt pretty dumb trying to get in. It was unlocked though we thought it was locked and we didn't have the code. A man who lived there in English said, "You just have to turn the handle, it is open." DOH! We felt silly, but we did get in. That lady that we had visited wasn't there, but we talked to a great old man whose dentures were almost falling out of his mouth when he spoke. He kept on telling us that his wife was angry that he was talking to us. It was true, when they shut the door she started yelling at him for talking to "those Mormon girls." Oh how life is funny sometimes.
On Tuesday we went to Mara's house to hunt her down. She was one of our baptismal dates, but we haven't spoken to her for a while now. We didn't find her, but I did speak to this old lady who was looking for a new church because she just couldn't go to the Catholic Church anymore. She was nice and I hope that we see her again. We had a lesson with Oskars which went well. The little girls Sarra and Ieva were there so before Oskar's lesson they made me play hide and go seek with them. They thought I was pretty clever since they couldn’t find me. Sarra tried to stick her hat on Elder Clark's head, it was quite humorous watching this all happen and meeting with Liga was great. We were a little worried about it, but she reads the Book of Mormon every night and has a testimony of Joseph Smith!
On Wednesday I made some of Aunt Joyce's indian fry bread. Boy is it good! It is in between a scone and a tortilla and may be our new "scone" dough recipe, we really enjoyed them. I called all of the former investigators from one of the area books (except those that had been met with in the past 3 months) and we also met some great people contacting in the evening. By the tram was Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter. Minus the hair, a lot smaller, and with the same big glasses and was very soft spoken. She was so great! She was telling us how we should get bikes and do the Tour de France of the Baltics and talk to the people following that and that we should get a small bus to go pick up people from the country and bring them to church. She recommended that we have dances and parties and just share our knowledge with others. My favorite thing that she said was, "God is like the sun. If he shines, he shines on everyone." We talked to a beautiful lady in her 30s who had two children. She called them her gifts from God and she definitely knows what life is about. She sells strawberries at the market and lives across from the church. We are hoping to see her again...we almost got an appointment set up with her. We had sports night tonight with the elders, Rihards, and the hoolies. Rita was there since we had just had a meeting with her but she didn't really play since she doesn't like floor ball (aka floor hockey). I am considerably better at playing hockey now and I am not going to wear a skirt next time!
On Thursday Rihards helped us with Latvian and we had our weekly planning session. Sister Ferrin made some epic canvas book covers for her scriptures and we had a meeting with Santa. We had Rihards along and actually had our lesson about the temples this time. Oh goodness, I love Santa! When we talked about eternal marriage she was just like, "Oh my goodness! Thank heavens my husband is gone. I would never do that with him. He couldn't ever be a member anyway, no way." We had a great lesson with the Beldavi boys and mom about putting on the whole armor of God. Raivo was his hyper little monkey self bouncing around and Lauris is just the cutest little kid.
Friday we met the Boswells. Words cannot express how much I LOVE THE BOSWELLS! President Boswell has so much energy and is so much fun and Sister Boswell is very composed and refined. President Boswell talked about how they got their calling and priesthood keys. He talked about how keys are passed and that he shares the keys to find, nurture, and fellowship with the Branch Presidents so that we need to work with them a lot. He, as President, has been instructed to spend 50% of his time with missionaries and the other 50% with the Branches and the members. He is just so fun, I love him! It seems like the Boswell's theme of missionary work will be based off "What ere thou art act well they part"......As missionaries we should match the grandeur of the message that we teach. Sister Boswell's dad saved that rock that is in the MTC from Scotland that says that. You can look it up about D.O. McKay
Some quotes from President Boswell from others...
Elder Clayton "This is the best run mission that I've ever seen in the church."
Elder D.H. Oaks "It's been my experience that the Lord sends His very best missionaries to the Baltic Mission."
Yeah, the Boswells have rubbed shoulders with lots of prophets and apostles. Sister Boswell has some major connections with them. Her dad was a mission president in Scotland so Elder Lynch LOVES them. On Monday we were also able to visit the ring man. I had him make me a ring out of a spoon and I gave it to Sister Stout today, she loved it. She is currently in a three-some with the sisters in Center. Those lucky masas!
My interview with him (President Boswell) was awesome. It is nice having a priesthood leader who you really feel like they care for you and just get down and dirty to help you be better.
We went to More than Muffins afterwards and got paninis and blueberry muffins and then we all attempted to sleep on the hot bus ride home. God loves us so he sent a storm! It was a huge thunderstorm.
Saturday was busy as always. We visited Ena, taught English, and cleaned the church. Only the Russian Dentist came to our English class today so we went over words and phrases she needs in the dentist office, I was her practice patient, and that was that. We got caught in the rain going to a meeting. It was so fun! I just laughed the whole way. We had a meeting with Liga and it went really well. It was basically a crash course on ALL the commandments that she needs to follow to be baptized. Marika helped which was great. We talked with Marika about missionary work afterwards.
Sunday was a great meeting. I was sitting by Ieva who is learning to read so she loves to sing. She would always belt out, "DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!" I had to try really hard to keep my laughing on the inside because it was so stinking cute! Santa taught the lesson in Relief Society! Our Santa who hates praying in public! I felt like a proud mom watching her, she did a great job. After we broke our fast I had a three hour call-a-thon. I have officially called all the phone numbers in the "Former Investigators- Phone numbers only - Lots of Janes" area book and started going through round two. I was able to practice the piano and singing a little bit at the church before our lesson with Rita. I'll have you know that I am improving. :) Yay for practicing! Poor Rita is not a happy one right now. Her brother is paralyzed for life now and she is mad at the world. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her.
Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the air conditioning and fireworks! We are planning on having hamburgers today to celebrate!
ML
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