Week 56

Hello Hello!

It is spring today. The weather keeps on going back and forth. I prefer the sun over the gray. It has been a REALLY long week. It is unfathomable that last Monday we were eating salted pig fat on rolls with the Branch President at a Ukrainian eatery. We also had some delicious borsch (my first time in Latvia). Sister Clark and I split some cherry filled pastas as well as some chicken. Yum yum. The restaurant was super great; the hostess saw that we were taking pictures and kept giving us more and more props. We left her a large tip. MIRACLE!! We saw Laima! Laima was baptized right before I came down to Liepaja. I was able to attend one retention lesson with her and it was amazing. Her spirit is so incredibly strong- I assume it is how it would feel if you were with President Monson. She is just incredible but then disappeared due to her family getting some anti-Mormon material and turning against her. We were walking to an appointment and I recognized her after we walked past so I yelled back after her and we talked. She and her husband have now divorced and it has all been really hard on her physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She isn't sure why this all happened and she is praying a lot to try to understand why this all happened and figure out what she should do. I told her to come back to church! It was so good to see her and all of us missionaries who know her fasted this Tuesday that she'd get her answer to come back to church. I was able to play legit dominos (not knocking them over) with the Frolavi family after we taught about Ether 12. It is incredible what happens because of faith.

Tuesday's big lesson was that the Lord will bless us if we go out of our comfort zone as missionaries. This is something I've been working a lot on with Sister Clark. We are working on finding a new kind of people and Sister Clark is just working on building up the guts to say hello. She really doesn't like contacting. She is INCREDIBLE with the language and does an excellent job teaching, she can talk to people on the phone, knock on doors, but she does not like talking to people outside. Anywho, I have some exciting news. When we met with Kristine on Tuesday she was to Alma 30. On Saturday she was in 3 Nephi. That is incredible! She is doing really well and Janis just doesn't seem to care. We contacted Jolly Janis from English. He said that he has almost read all of the Book of Mormon, and that if his temperature is down he will be at church on Sunday because he wants to come see what it is like. We contacted the most adorable girl, Ina, on the tram. She was super duper nice and couldn't remember what church she goes to, lol. We have a meeting set up with her this upcoming week. I was doing some computer work at the church and Ieva decided to be a missionary and use my bag. I got lip gloss-ized. Yum.

Wednesday we went contacting, studied, and then made pumpkin soup. Yum. We had a pass off lesson with the elders so that they could meet Liga from English since she lives in their area. Her and Elder Alder bonded over dogs and she came to church this Sunday! We had a little time before our last English class so we went with Liga to make origami tulips. Our English class loves us! People brought us chocolate and flowers! Santa D. helped us to teach Ieva (the troll) about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Of course Santa and Ieva got along well. "What if it is really hot on Sunday, can we go swimming then?" "No, but you can dump a bucket of water on your head." "Oh, okay."

Thursday was transfers. No worries y'all, I'm staying in Liepaja. This will be my eighth transfer in a row her (one transfer = 6 weeks). That is a while. We made popeye pucks to celebrate. Thursday was also Women's Day! Last year we celebrated by having kid champagne with Anda and Visente. This year the elders brought us tulips and no bake cookies! We also had an amazing meeting with Skaidra (LA). She fed us pumpkin soup, bread, chocolate, and gave us a ride to the church (wherein was Madara making cinnamon rolls...yum!) so we wouldn't be late. On the way we heard "The Sweetest Thing" by U2. Elder Seitz (my favorite Russian elder who stole my boots once) called to wish us a Happy Women's Day. It was even better than my birthday!

Friday was a pretty crappy day. The weather was lame and we got jaked four times. At least one of them brought us a box of chocolate and said she didn't have time to meet. :) We met with Santa but it was a sad meeting. She is just tired, doesn't like her job, and knows that it is hard to endure to the end. "Can we do anything for you?" "Sure, slip me some poison so I go quicker." "No!!" Goofball. She actually told us this unbelievable story about how she and an old boyfriend of her designed Pastnieka maja, my favorite restaurant! She thought of a lot of the clever postal things and created the first menu. And naturally on that first menu is my favorite spinach and carrot soup. Santa had an architect boyfriend and she never told us! Anyway, we are so insanely blessed as Americans. Santa works over 40 hours a week and gets 80 lats (160 US dollars) a month. We spent that much last month on heating...we have a budget of 40 lats a week for groceries. She told this tender story about how when we have break the fast if she has recently gotten her paycheck she'll buy and bring something because the week before she gets her paycheck she goes without bread because she doesn't have enough money. We had a wild lesson with the Beldavi. It was good that no one died, crazy boys.

Saturday we had more appointments fall through so we went on a long contacting walk in Ezerkrasts. We also helped clean the church, I think. Lumila remopped everywhere that we mopped, so I don't know how much we did. We saw Valda out walking. With boyfriend Janis. Not cool. She hasn't been answering our calls or visits. Janis told us she'd come when she wants to. It is a good thing I don't know more sassy words in Latvian than I already do. In my brain came a slew of sassy French things to say back to him when he was talking. "So are you coming to church on Sunday Valda?" "I don't know, what do you think Janis." "Oh, I have work." "Well that's great, I didn't ask about you. That means you'll be free Valda." Anywho. Yuck. Dumb. Grr. I shot some hoops after that one.. We taught Janis and Kristine out of the Primary age 4-7 book. They are having a hard time grasping stuff. We actually taught the same lesson to Ieva and she understood a lot more.

On the Sabbath I gave a talk based off of DC 90:24. I enjoyed it, even if no one else did. Aivars Fishmeisters I convinced to come listen to me speak. He was so great. "Just like a professional!" He's going to get baptized one day. We went contacting on the beach after calling people and ran into this great lady named Ilze who over the past two weeks has been thinking about God and religion a lot. She asked us how to properly pray and we talked to her about her family and running among other things. She talked our ears off for about 20 minutes as the sun went down and her 3 1/2 year old played on the ice.

Week 55

I would like to inform you all of the unexpected, yet expected passing of my running watch. It has been a good friend to me for the past 8 or 9 years, putting up with rain and shine, sweat and snot. It peacefully died on Wednesday night in its sleep. Attempts to revive the watch were not made seeing as major brain functions were dimming prior to death. It feels like a piece of my arm is now missing. Burial services haven't been made yet because all the memories associated with my running watch are still being played on repeat. It was a good watch and lived an exciting life.

Well, I was just waiting for that one. I feel so stripped from technology. I might have to run with the phone to know what time it is, yuck. Sister Clark doesn't have a running watch and I am far too cheap to buy one here seeing as it isn't completely necessary, just very convenient. It is a beautiful day though! Spring is here, we cleaned the house, it is lighter, and Elder Alder and I are losing it. Sister Clark and Elder Baxter still don't know that Elder Alder is leaving in 6 weeks. I wanted to keep when I was leaving a secret, but with only 4 sisters, you know what is going down. It is quite impressive. We'll talk about it with them there, but they have no idea.

We had a fun Monday. We scheduled a lunch appointment because I didn't want to cook. Ruta J made us some delicious fried rice that we ate with moldy bread. Mmm...mold. I didn't have to eat it though because I had a pocket! Sadly the homemade pickle could not go in my pocket. Sister Clark and I feel very blessed that we didn't die from the pickle. It was not a good one. There was no food at the store- no avocados, no apples, no onions. Gotta love Latvia! We just went without those and I just wanted to eat apples all week, lol. Oops! We made a HUGE batch of muffins with kefirs (plain drinkable yogurt?) and biezpiens (translated- thick milk [but think cottage cheese minus the juice]). It had 4 tsp. of sugar for 6 cups of flour. I added more sugar and I don't regret it. They were quite delicious. We had so much batter we made some of it into apple bread with a streusel topping. Yum! Monday night we had family home evening with the Beldavi and the Frolavi. Eriks was so great. At the beginning of the lesson his dad was telling us how his car died and he didn't know what to do. Eriks proceeded to take my Book of Mormon, open it up, and pretend to read, "Don't worry about your car. Buy me more beyblades. You can find answers in the scriptures!" Little did he know that was what we were talking about that evening! It was really neat to see that at 7 he knows that you can find answers through reading the Book of Mormon.

On Tuesday we had a really good, really humbling district meeting. Gotta get my butt in gear! "We are in the heat of the battle, every day fighting for souls." -Elder Baxter. We talked about being completely focused on our missions on the time and finding families for here in Liepaja. Balance is the key and it is a hard thing to do. We made amazing fahijtas for lunch. We had a great lesson with Skaidra (LA) about choosing eternal life. She wants help getting more active in church again. She gave us permission to call her about church and we invited her to share her testimony this Fast Sunday and she did---sweeeeet! We sang, "I am a Child of God" in Janis and Kristine's (I) lesson and 2-year-old Eliza kept trying to sing the chorus after we were done.

Wednesday we had a lesson with investigator Liga and taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it and thought it would be something important for her family. Yes!! She lives in the elders' area though so we won't get to teach her. English class is getting smaller and smaller. We gave the option of watching Finding Faith in Christ and a couple of people stayed (mostly members).

Thursday was a very foggy day. So foggy that when I got inside I had hundreds of little waterdroplets condensing on my glasses. It made it a perfect day for our Danish soup. We thought of Mark. It was really yummy soup. Hopefully some babushka in Denmark will make him it. Santa helped us teach a lady named Iveta from English (who actually taught Madara and Rihards music). Santa bore a powerful testimony about reading the Book of Mormon with real intent. She talked about how the first time she read it she did it because she was scared of what the elders would do if she didn't. The second time she knew she should pray before she read and have good intents. She did and said it was a completely different experience and couldn't believe how she missed all of the important stuff before when she read it the first time through. I love Santa. We got to teach English/a spiritual thought to Vesma, the elders' investigator. She is so quirkily awesome. She just has a really unique voice and can be kind of weird, but she knows French, so we like her. She really is a sweetheart, she just wants to take being baptized seriously and thinks March is too soon.

Friday was an eventful day. On the way to Valda's we had a man in his 20s contact us and start talking to us in English. "Believe in God. Only God and Jesus. Jesus can save you. I know all about you Mormons. Your white trousers and t-shirts won't save you." I agree completely. I also don't own white trousers. I own white pants if we are speaking Brit. But anyway, he was a creep-o and we were glad that Valda's house was close. We had waffles with strawberries to celebrate the spring weather. We were at the church planning there so that people could practice for the talent show that evening. The elders had this super creepy older man Oskars come that was OBSESSED with wanting to meet with us. We told him we were having a meeting for the next hour and to just wait for the boys. "But you are here now, I'll wait for you. You speak Latvian AND English. Mmm. Just speak with me. Ten minutes every day is all I need." No! We are busy for the rest of our lives. We hid in a room and he was still waiting for us after his lesson with the elders. We called the elders to tell him to go away instead of coming out of the room.

Anyways the talent show was really really really really really good this time. The RS had a skit about the parable of the talents which was a hoot and a half (see pictures). Their costumes and the script were just too good. Presidents and his wife, Sintija and Sandijs, and Eriks and Ieva danced to one of the songs off of Anastasia. Sarra was twirling by herself and she kept getting so dizzy that she'd fall down. It was really cute. The trolls did a funny skit about a school teacher and student. They are really good at fake falling. Sister Clark sang "The Call", Inguss played guitar, there was some poetry read, and we missionaries had a funny skit. We recorded the song "I am a Child of God" off of Mormon messages (http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages?v=1101413030001) and then all took parts mouthing the song. We at least enjoyed ourselves. Annika was getting a picture with Elder Alder at the end and he was making faces so she smacked him in the behind! It was so funny and we all just watched and laughed. He probably deserved it. And liked it. Ha ha.

Saturday was the third day of the third month and Sister Lindstrom found it hard to do. Sisters Lindstrom and Clark met with Ligita and the elders before church. Ligita thinks the Book of Mormon is true but doesn't want to be baptized. Sisters Lindstrom and Clark met with Janis and Kristine and they had a great time because Ludmila played babysitter so that they could talk. Sister Lindstrom and Sister Clark went and met Ieva's mother and brother (a more attractive male version of Ieva with red hair). Ieva's mom is fine with her meeting with us and coming to church. She also thinks that Ieva doesn't know what she wants. We saw a lot of dogs harvesting.

Sunday we had break the fast and I didn't do anything for it! The Elders' Quorum made spaghetti. I counseled them NOT to cook it at 9am (church ends at 2). It went really well and then we had a "coordination meeting" with the elders and I got a blessing. I feel a lot more peaceful and chillaxed now. God has given me lots of gifts to help people here in Liepaja and he isn't going to stretch me more than I can handle and He is pleased with my work which is always good to hear. I'm supposed to remember my brother, our Savior, and remember the blessings of being a missionary. The priesthood is so neat, I know that it is real.
Have fun, be safe!

Love, Sis L

Week 54

We had a very busy week, with 13 lessons with a member accompanying us. That is insanely good for all y'all who haven't recently been on a mission. Sadly, we only had one investigator at church.

On Monday I found the most divine chocolate mousse. It was like being back in France...yummm. It reminded me of that awful awful French book that was a torture to read by Proust. He has a "petite madeline" moment where he has a bite of this cookie and it takes him back to his glorious childhood. Anywho, we also did some missionary work. We were able to meet with Jana (LA) who we are trying to get active. We had a nice lesson, though it would help if we spoke Russian. Ne gavaru pa russki! We had the most hilarious 10 commandment lesson that I have ever witnessed with the Beldavi (M). We were talking about how you don't use the Lord's name in vain (people often say "Ak Dievs!" here). I likened it unto Inguss' name. Inguss wouldn't like it if we hollered his name, "Ak Inguss!" every time something bad happened. Then proceeded "Ak Inguss (giggle)!" "Ak Raivo!" "Ak Lauris!" "Ak Elvis" "Ak Filips [the bird]!" and so on and so forth. It was pretty great, especially with mom and brothers tearing into others on certain commandments. We were warmly invited to come back next Monday and talk about not using all of our time on the computer.

Sister Clark likes gingerbread so we decided to try making a gingerbread log (aka artery clogger of goodness- nesquick, sweetened condensed milk, butter, smashed gingerbread cookies). In District Meeting we talked about testimonies and how they are important. I like in True to the Faith where it states so simply what our testimonies should be. Ieva gave us coloring homework (how did she know I was stressed?!) and we made some delicious bbq chicken pizza. I don't have a talent for inventing BBQ sauce just if y'all were wondering. I do have a talent for poetry slamming. Sister Clark, having gone to that awful land of BYU would poetry slam hymns with her roommates for fun. It is quite an enjoyable missionary activity. Missions make you so weird. Presidents came and helped us to teach Janis and Kristina (I) about the importance of following commandments. Hopefully it helps because we shouldn't procrastinate the day of our repentance!

Kristina helped us teach Oskars about how to teach Wednesday night. Kristina schooled us...in all of our planning we forget to plan to teach about the Holy Ghost! It was a good reminder that he is the most important part. We had a nice lesson with Alesja (LA) about baptism and confirmation. She committed to come to church but then she ended up going to Riga on Sunday. After English class we invited them all to stay and watch the Restoration film. Only a few did, but one of them, Liga, was visibly touched by the film and we were able to meet with her on Thursday.

Rihards helped us teach Liga the restoration. Liga actually has had contact from missionaries and had a Russian copy of the Book of Mormon. We talked to her more about the Book of Mormon and she said she was excited and wanted to read it this time. She prayed very sincerely at the end to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet from God. Elder Adams was down from Riga for exchanges and participated in a Branch Missionary meeting. By the end we all had mustaches drawn on our fingers, it was pretty funny. Janis and Kristina (I) now know the 10 commandments and are going to "try" to live them. We split the trolls up and taught them at the same time in different rooms so they couldn't bother each other (yay for splits!) and it worked really well. Ieva and I talked more about Alma 34. It is a good chapter. Read it.

Madara hung out with us basically all Friday. We taught Rita (I) English. Well mostly we made Madara and Rita practice speaking to each other and taught her the Plan of Salvation in less than 10 minutes! We ate some soup together and then we taught Vaira. She brought us molding apples (yum!...I gave them to a bum). With Vaira, Sister Clark and I were both very impressed to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She has LOTS of deep questions. I didn't even know where to start. Cute Tamara (I) (a Russian) from English brought us pink tulips and chocolate. Who needs a boyfriend when you teach English?! Tamara just has a good light to her and accepted the Restoration. She is just busy so we will see if we can get this to become a priority. With Santa (RC) we went over Alma 42 and talked a lot about how God shapes us through trials and that he doesn't want to have to punish us all the time and stuff- the whole mercy/justice thing can be confusing for her.

On Saturday when we got to the church to prepare for English the elders had a woman there and said, "Hey, teach her about the Book of Mormon." Well, okay. It was a really spirit-filled impromptu lesson. Lidija helped us a lot when we taught Vaira again. She just won't sit and listen because she has so many questions. I'm not feeling too badly that she is in the elders' area and that they will be teaching her. We met with the trolls again- talked about the Book of Mormon with Olga and Repentance with Ieva. Olga's mom doesn't want her coming to church and so it looks like we may be saying farewell to the trolls again for a time.

Sunday I had a great talk prepared off of DC 90:24 that I didn't get to give. I did get to teach an impromptu 2nd hour about the Fall and Adam and Eve. We all survived, especially with Santa's humor. "Why was it bad for Adam and Eve to eat the fruit?" "Because it wasn't washed." I threw the phone at Sister Clark after lunch and made her set up all our appointments. She did pretty well on the phone. Other than the fact that she doesn't talk into it so they people are always saying, "Allo? Allo?" We went and visited an inactive who has 8 kids and will be earning 40 lats a month. Good luck. It is so sad to see that people aren't willing to come to church- even if you flat out tell them that it will help their temporal needs be fulfilled. God really does love us and I know that he blesses us temporally and spiritually.

-Sister Lindstrom

Week 53

Well, hello world. We are alive and well. My music player, on the other hand, is not. It died this past week. February has not been my technology month- my camera got lost, the music player died, and now I'm just waiting for my running watch to give up the ghost. Oh well. It has been raining on top of the snow which makes for an ice skating adventure. No one has fallen yet, but I'm not quite sure how we are going to run on this stuff.

Monday we went and got yummy raspberry pastry hearts at the bakery. Valentine's Day is not really celebrated here, but you do see displays of chocolate out and such. We made kartupeli pankukas (potato pancakes) for lunch at the church. We borrowed the elders' waffle iron and made chocolate waffle cookies- yum! Harvesting was pretty great. There was an old man with a flowered robe (his) that answered the door. It was an effort not to start laughing until the door was shut. We also had a flirtatious young lad who draped himself on his door. Yes, congratulations, you are tall. I was joking with Sister Clark about it, to continue her beach ball jokes... "Have you seen my door frame? It is about this high. I think it was right here last." She lost it.

The door adventures continued on Tuesday. We went to heart attack the elders at 6:30. We had "punny" cards, a chocolate box filled with heart shaped cookies, and loads of pink and red hearts. We all got a really good kick out of that. In District Meeting I learned a lot about faith. Faith IN JESUS CHRIST leads to (the) action OF REPENTENCE. I think that often I haven't taught faith that way. There is always something new to learn. We made salmon for lunch to celebrate Single's Awareness Day. Good thing I have a companion, I'm not ever single. We taught Janis and Kristina (I) about the Word of Wisdom. They have absolutely no problem with it- don't smoke, don't drink, don't like coffee. Sister Clark, at the end of the lesson, commented, "Wow, that was so easy." We went to search for Gints- an inactive. His neighbor's dog tried to eat us. "Don't eat the girls!" his owner, who actually helped to build the church told him. Little Ieva (M) helped us to teach the Trolls. She was so great. She'd whisper things into my ear to tell them. "Tell them it is hard to feel the Spirit when they are laughing during church. Tell them that they aren't following God's commandments and that that is bad." By the end of the lesson both Ieva and Olga were pretty serious. Nothing puts you to shame like a six-year-old calling you out.

Wednesday we paid our rent...heating was 80 lats! Yikes! We had a neat lesson with Zelma (M). We talked about family history and she has a new resolve to find more of it. We had a tea party with Valda (RC) and Kaspars, who baptized Valda. It was so neat to see Kaspars doing his duty. We didn't know he was invited, but he showed up with juice and cookies. He was very polite and helped Valda's ancient momma, Zigrida. Kaspars also proceeded to help Valda with her wood-burning stove and she commented about the wet wood she had. Kaspars looked at his watch, said that he had 15 or 20 minutes before he needed to go, and asked for an ax so he could cut up some of her dry wood into smaller pieces! It was such a neat experience to see him being a part of Valda's life and serving. Our English class went well. We gave a tour of the church and were able to answer several questions, such as why we don't have crosses, and why there aren't any pictures in the sacrament hall.

We were able to meet with Janis (I), the jolly one, from English class on Thursday. He completely agreed with everything we taught about dispensations and apostasy. He is open to meeting more and wants to learn more before he accepts a date for baptism. He really enjoys our building and wants it to be his home. He has been searching for gospel truth a lot- didn't like the Lutheran church, didn't agree with the Baptists, etc. We made stuffed peppers (Ole!) and the highlight for me was getting not one, but TWO letters from my bestie! The mail monster didn't get them! Ausma B. (M) helped us to teach Janis and Kristina (I). We read Ether 12:27 and she shared a really neat story about how after having a priesthood blessing she was able to pass her driving test when before she had failed it. God really can literally turn our weaknesses into strengths!

Friday. I love seeing our branch work so hard to get things together. Bless the relief society president's heart. We had a meeting about visiting teaching to encourage her and help her do it. She had already started doing a lot, but she didn't have anyone in partners! Oh dear, I hated having to tell her that normally when we can we have visiting teaching partners. She is doing such a great job though. I love Ruta. We had a most excellent lesson with Marika (M). She hit it off with Sister Clark and had a lot to share about Jesus Christ. She went on a BYU Israel tour and it really strengthened her testimony. We had an interesting lesson with the Trolls. Madara helped out and asked them what they wanted from the church and from the missionaries. Olga responded that she wanted to help people, learn more about God, to repent, etc. etc. Ieva said, "Basically the same, but I also want to be a missionary." Her face was filled with embarrassment and she hid behind a book. She wants to be a missionary! Soooo good! We talked with them about appropriate church behavior and established expectations and consequences. They have been behaving so much better since this meeting.

Saturday we went running to the park and then after studies, helped out with the primary party. It was quite the adventure- musical balls (like chairs, but you have to grab a ball in the middle of the circle), decorating cookies, weaving hearts, and learning about the Good Samaratin. The kids really enjoyed themselves and a lot stuck around after the party and could be heard running around while we were teaching English. Valda helped us to teach the Trolls. It actually went really well. She told them that this was serious business and that they should leave their old, evil lives, and live the church life. She testified that it was a much better life, that it is like flying around like a bird above the clouds.

We had 48 people at church! That was definitely the highlight of Sunday. We also met with Santa (RC) and talked more about visiting teaching and then went to find some souls! We didn't find any. Just kidding! We found Ruta, a former investigator who was a sweetheart, and on the bus ride home we were able to contact Liga who was extremely friendly and asked us about when we have church services!

The church is true and don't you ever forget it!

Week 52

On Monday we decided to take Valda (I) up to the Scerbinini's for family home evening. She was pretty funny on the bus; I felt like I was with a small child. "Are we there yet?" "No." "Are we there yet?" "No." "They live very far away." "Yup, they live by the last bus stop." "Are we there yet?" "No." Anywho, we all really enjoyed family home evening. We brought the temporal food (brownies and ice cream) and we talked about Mosiah 4:30, which is Presidents favorite, and don't forget it! My favorite was 3-year-old Sarra showing me her photo album. She made up stories about all the pictures and they were pretty funny.

Tuesday was an adventure. We had a pleasant bus ride up to Riga to get my visa renewed. Naturally we got lost. No one said where to go after we got to the big red church! We went into a Narvissen and asked for directions and started heading that way. An older gentleman came running out, hollered us down, and pointed the other way and told us the tram was that-a-way. We were grateful that he pointed us in the right direction so that we weren't late (miracle!). We got to the migration office on time (miracle!) but Valeris (the member who helps out with visa work) wasn't there. Uh oh. I called him and he said that he didn't have it written that I had an appointment on Tuesday. I asked the front desk and I indeed did not. They did have my papers ready (miracle), a free appointment within the hour (miracle), and Valeris was able to leave work to come (hallelujah). So I'm legal now and many miracles happened to make it so! "We believe in ...obeying the law!" Turns out my appointment was for Tuesday but they rescheduled it to be with everyone else on Thursday but forgot to tell me. All was well though, we bought kebabs, Magnum ice cream bars, and made it safely home.

Wednesday was the day for our District Meeting on contacting. I forgot how scary it is to talk to people, especially when you don't understand what they say back. The practice really helped our younger missionaries. We had another large English class. I don't know how I feel about big English classes, it is hard to sense who is interested in the gospel because there are so many of them. They all seemed very intent while we were using pictures to tell them about the Book of Mormon. Janis, a retired fellow, was very excited to take a Book of Mormon and read it. We are planning on meeting with him next week. We got investigator Janis (I) very interested in the Priesthood. With the help of Kaspars (M) we taught Janis and his wife-to-be Kristine about the priesthood and how it would be a blessing in their lives.

Thursday we actually did weekly planning on the correct day, wahoo! The highlight of the day for me was teaching the Beldavi (M) about family history. Elvis poured over my pedigree chart and asked me questions about it. He is excited to get online and start doing some research. Dace also lit up and started telling us stories about her working on family history. Elijah's spirit is alive and kicking here in Liepaja! We also met with Lidija (M) to help her plan her first Primary Activity. I'm sure glad that I have worked with little people before so that I know what kind of things they like to do. It should be a fun party; the theme is "Love your neighbor".

Friday we had a Holy Ghost POW! lesson. We simply read, "The Living Christ" with Rita (I) and the Spirit couldn't even be contained in the room. Ausma B. (M) did an amazing job helping to teach Valda about her baptismal covenants and why they are so important to keep. We had a riveting discussion with Oskars on pride and we all learned a lot. Pride takes on so many faces! We gave Janis and Kristine homework last time and they read it! We were then able to talk with them more about baptism and confirmation and invite them to Valda's baptism.

Saturday we were able to go over how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. We showed them how to find references and read Enos 1:1-8 and then I shared about God answering my prayer when I couldn't find the hotel in Spain. No habla espanol Quesadilla! I think we gave out about 20 copies! There was a girl from Morocco in the Elders' class. Naturally my French came out as Latvian. *Sigh* She just laughed at me and said I was mixing up my languages. I could understand her perfectly though. :D It was nice hearing French. We scarfed down some leftover quiche and then took our mayonaise cake and trifle-thing to the church and helped set up. About 25 people were there to see Valda enter the waters of baptism. I was able to be the other star of the show with Rihards. Rihards played the piano, conducted, and was a witness. I led the music, participated in a musical number, and spoke about teaching Valda. Lime light! Luckily it was truly Valda who was shining; She definitely has a twinkle to her eye now. The branch is really embracing her. Afterwards Valda was baptized she said she was so happy she could fly. :) We had lots of yummy treats, some of which got in my hair when Ieva (M) gave me a big hug. Kristine (I) really really really really liked the baptism. "So I guess we have to wait until we are married to get baptized, huh." "Yup." "Well, could we do it on the same day, like go get married and then get baptized after?" "Absolutely!"

Sunday was a church of miracles. #1. The trolls showed up. #2. Brother Tolmacovs was at church! (It's been a while) #3. Kaspars was able to confirm Valda (he also baptized her). Santa was naturally the comic relief in Sunday School. She had Valda laughing so hard she was crying. After that Santa said she wasn't aloud to talk because she'd be a distraction, lol. We had a delicious candle-light dinner- rosemary mustard chicken with seasoned potatoes and carrots...mmm! Harvesting was fun. We found a door covered in bubble wrap (yes I popped it) among other things. We were also contacted on our way home by this lady who said she will be calling us! Gotta love miracles!

I've been studying out of PMG ch 5 a lot lately. My testimony has grown that God planned to have the BofM a long time ago.

Week 51

key
SC = Sister Clark
I = investigator
M = member
RC = recent convert

Some of you may be wondering about the cold: We are nice and warm when we are inside. No frostbite, all body parts accounted for. We heard it has been -33C here. I don't know if that is with windchill and humidity or not, but it is cold. People always tell us we are crazy to be out and to get warmer clothes on. I can't fit more than two scarves on my body people! I finally smartened up and started wearing thermals under my wool tights which makes your toes get cold later. Mostly just your extremities and your nose get cold. I like it when you go out and it is so cold the inside of your nose just kind of freezes. It is the weirdest feeling ever, it makes me giggle. We also have been using hot hands and toasty toes when it gets especially cold and we will be outside for a while. Saturday we took a pot to the church that had about a tablespoon of water in the bottom...by the time we got to the church it was ice! Our apartment is very warm, I turn down the heat at night often because it is too warm; I only sleep with one blanket. We ALWAYS have hot water. It is one of the fun things about being in a post-communist country- the heat and hot water!

Others may be wondering about baptismal dates. Valda passed the interview and will be baptized this Saturday. The trolls haven't come to church so we are having an ultimatum...no lessons until you come to church...or they have to be with your mom. Janis and Kristine want to get married in the summer...we are still working on that.

Let's see, the adventures this week....
Monday was mostly just running around Liepaja getting all the random odds and ends that SC needed. We had chicken noodle soup with the elders, Rubija (member), and Presidents. There was still leftover. I don't know how soup lasts forever! We went to drop off some of this said leftover soup to a sick member, Nadezda. We did indeed "drop" it off. The handle broke and the soup proceeded to spill in the entryway. Oopsie! I thought it was pretty funny. Sister Clark is still mortified. We met Uldis Frolovs (member) with his kids, Sintija and Eriks at the bus station. He's been gone for around 6 months. We walked the long walk (3 miles) with his baggage home and then taught about the restoration. Uldis didn't stick around though, he went to skype his wife in Georgia (the country).

Tuesday we celebrated Madara's (mini missionary from Liepaja called to the Temple Square mission) twenty-first birthday with a most excellent cake and candles. While I was cooking lunch SC did this hilarious show-off your muscles "Excuse me, have you seen my beach ball? It went that a-way. It is about this big." (all while flexing your arms). I got a good ab workout from it and still chuckle everytime I think about it. SC likes to randomly do it to make me laugh. Good golly we are silly! Rubija helped us teach Kristine (I) about the Ten Commandments. She is so solid; her answers to why we have the commandments blew me away.

Wednesday we went to JYSK, aka the overpriced, not as cute IKEA of Latvia and bought some items for a member in the ward. They don't have a lot (aka any) furniture, so we went on a district adventure to pick some stuff out! We proceeded to get the new members of the district registered in the city. The lady there was so great. Elder Alder was holding this big pile of stuff from JYSK. "Oh, is that a gift? For me?" I then introduced SC to Baltic tacos which we had leftovers of like ALL week. Presidents had a great analogy when we were teaching Valda (I) about enduring to the end. "I live on the fourth floor. If I give up and get tired at the third floor I haven't endured to the end. If I want to make it home I have to continue all the way until I get there." So this week was a wetting pants week, and luckily not ours. Eliza (two year old) wet herself whilst we were teaching Kristine and Janis about the Law of Chastity. She also spilled on herself and got wet on the break the fast after church on Sunday. I've been watching the film from when Elder Bennet came and spoke. "It's cool to be outrageously obedient." Y'all just remember that.

Thursday was cold. Especially in the Beldavis (M) home. They hadn't started a fire yet and so we were all huddled on the couch watching our breath. We had a really great lesson with them on the priesthood though, regardless of the cold. We taught Santa Dike (RC) about the Sons of Mosiah and talked about fasting. "Why is God so preoccupied with food and us eating or not eating?!" It was a good question.

Friday we met the mailman! He brought me a letter saying I was an illegal alien. Thanks! I'm getting my visa renewed soon. We had a nice lesson with good old [literally] Ausma (M). The Spirit was strong as we taught her about prayer. Prayer is so important and I know that God listens and answers us! I'm still loving being with Sister Clark. She is training me on how to be a good teacher. And we have fun. Possibly too much fun. The jokes are overflowing and we have a blast harvesting and doing basically everything. The latest and greatest this week was trying to use the Harry Potter spell, "Alohamora!" to open doors while harvesting. It didn't work. The people who did answer were wondering what the devil we were doing out in the cold. I told one handsome Catholic boy to come to our church because 1. it was warmer in our church 2. we have youth activities and 3. I promised it would be more interesting than his church. He didn't come on Sunday. :( Ah yes, and we had another wet pants experience at RC's Dzintra's home. Her adopted girl is learning to be potty trained. Dzintra's lesson went well, but was sad. She feels that God cares for her and guides her, but not that He loves her. I know that He does love us and that is why he cares and guides us. He doesn't want to give us trials, He has to though so that we can be prepared to live with Him again and be what He is.

Saturday was incredible...we had over 30 people in our English class. Obviously all of our advertising (radio, newspaper, etc.) worked. SC was terrified. I like teaching smaller classes. There is no way I am going to get to know everyone's name if there are 30+ people and class is only an hour, including the spiritual thought. We went over the Articles of Faith and one older gentleman commented, "What is this Book of Mormon? It sounds like it is worth reading." Yes, indeed it is. SC loves gnocchi, or at least the sauce I made for it. She wrote down the recipe. Mostly it was just random stuff- sour cream, green onions, mushroom, tomatoes. We walked back and forth and back and forth waiting for Kaspars, our amazing branch mission leader, to help us out teaching Janis and Kristine (I). We had an awesome Spirit-filled lesson about fasting, prayer, and scripture study.

Sunday was a nice day, Branch Council was effective, I got to translate for Sister Boswell, and I fed over thirty people soup with only 5 lats (10 dollars) and there was leftover soup! Score! It was a yummy yellow pea, white bean, chicken soup. I had a short interview with Pres. B. We are both doing most excellently well. Funny story about break the fast...someone brought raspberry jam? in a 35% alcohol container. When we saw it we hid it and then disposed of it later. Oopsie! The Boswells brought down mail- still nothing from Julie, but I got my dear elders as well as Grandma and Jami's pouch and a giant envelope from a friend of mine with lots of pictures. Fun stuff! Like I said, the mail monster eats all the good stuff.

Sunday night I said the prayer before we went out contacting with what we learned from Elder Bennet in mind. It went something like this, "Heavenly Father, please help us find a new investigator. We really want to and we have the faith too. And also we've been really obedient." When the prayer was over Sister Clark laughed at me and told me it sounded like I was asking Santa Claus for presents, "I've been extra good this year!" Regardless, it worked! We were harvesting with the purpose to teach a lesson and find an investigator and some old lady who I was nice to on the street before just let us right in, made us grilled cheese sandwiches, tea, shared a pastry with us and let us teach her about the Plan of Salvation (her husband just died 6 months ago). We set up an appointment to show Birute the church. Faith + Obedience = miracles!

The church is true. God loves us. The sun is shining, it is a good day to be a missionary for the Lord.

Sister L

Mari and Sister Clark















The Frozen Baltic















Driver (Aivars Fishmeisters)














Mari on the Frozen Baltic
















District with Ruta, Relief Society President