Week 73-Final Weekly Email from Mari

Well, this week wins for adventures. Remember how last week Sister Gallacher and Elder Holdaway were in my district? They aren't anymore. Ha ha, yup. I'll just leave you all in suspense for a while.

On Monday Sister Gallacher and I had a busy day. Since we had said goodbye to Elder Holdaway who was going home early to see family we had the day to ourselves. We went to the three main older churches here in Liepaja. We went up to the tower of one of the Lutheran churches which was SO amazing. Gorgeous! Best 50 centimi I have spent in Liepaja. We also went to the museum, which wasn't very neat. They had large collections of old school cameras and radios that Kirstin would have liked though.

We went to meet Andris, a former investigator in the park. His lesson was amazing! He had so many questions and has been thinking about religion a lot. He was such a pleasure to teach because he would always ask questions and tell us when he agreed, disagreed, or didn't understand something. We went over some of both the restoration and the plan of salvation with him. After an hour we said that we needed to go and he was almost offended. "I'm here feeling the Spirit right now learning and you tell me you have to go?" Yup. But that Spirit is testifying that it is true. He agreed with most everything except he believes in reincarnation. We had to scurry off because we had a FHE appointment with the Frolovi. Eriks has been picking up English like crazy. He tried to pray in English, which was an entertaining thing for us to hear. “And I also want to talk about grandma. She be a good good good girl...”

Tuesday we were able to properly meet our new district member and leader, Elder Brighton. He has been serving in Klaipeda, Lithuania and is currently the district leader there as well. District leader of two different districts in two different countries = pretty cool. He is a really humble, hard working, down to earth missionary. His district meeting on Christ-like attributes was very spiritual. I learned that to gain knowledge we not only need to study but to use our faith (apply!) DC 88:118. A great scripture about patience is DC 67:13. After District Meeting we took some of Valda's old magazines from the 50s and 60s to the museum and they readily took them. I had an amazing contacting experience in the evening. I approached a couple who at first didn't want to talk at all. Almost a half of an hour later we finally said our goodbyes but not before the husband told us that now he was “half ready to meet” and that we “planted a seed” and that he has some things “to think about” now. It was so neat to have a person actually say those things. So often as missionaries we don't get to see the fruit of our labor or the seed grow that we planted, but the Lord knows what He is doing and it is all in His hands. We also had an entertaining run-in with Aina (less active) on Tuesday. She told us how she doesn't like the fat cook at her work so when she sees him she mutters scriptures in Hebrew under her breath because they are really powerful. Oh boy.

Wednesday. I love America. I didn't realize how grateful I am for my land of freedom until we were singing songs about America for the Fourth of July. I really do feel so blessed to live in a land where I haven't had my rights and privileges taken away. We have it pretty good. To celebrate we were going to have a picnic but alas, it rained. We had hotdogs and watermelon anyway. I had some computer stuff to do and SG ended up talking to Aivars for almost another two hours because she is trying to help him over his concerns. Mostly they are concerns that he has to get over himself by taking a leap of faith. I was also able to help train new member Zane to work in the Primary since the Primary president is MIA all summer.

Thursday. It is hot. I don't like hot. I would be such a baby somewhere like South America or Africa. Cold is a lot easier to deal with. We ate chocolate chip pancakes before we started our mission-wide fast (worst day EVER for fasting). We helped an inactive couple, the Martinsone move to a new apartment. I was very glad that they only lived on the second floor. We got most of the moving done in about two hours, which I thought was pretty good. The elders only stayed for 45 minutes. They would have stayed a full hour, but the map and the actual streets did not match up. It was a miracle we found their street. So, I had one of my most memorable lessons on Thursday. I don't know if you remember Zenta, but last year with Sister Ferrin she was an investigator. We set up an appointment to meet with her. We were quite surprised to see her 9-year-old disabled grandson butt-naked when we walked in. Did she try to put pants on him? No. He pushed SG around me in a circle while SG was on a computer chair with balloons on it while she pretended to blow a train whistle. Um, can we say really funny and awkward and bless Sister Gallacher's heart for being a good sport. We have another meeting set up and I REALLY hope people will have clothes on again.

At 9pm we were doing our nightly planning and we received a call. “Hey sisters, this is Assistant Kolkto. How are you? What are your plans for tomorrow? Nothing big? Good, because you are going to need to rearrange them. Sister Gallacher, you will be going to Imanta with Sister Hanks, a Russian-speaking sister. Sister Lindstrom, Sister Clark will be joining you in Liepaja tomorrow at 2pm so you don't have to travel anywhere.” What the?!!?!?!?!? Transfers aren't for another week. Speechless would be the appropriate term to describe our response. Totally not expected.

Friday was mostly spent getting all packed up. Aivars Fishmeisters, our eternal investigator in Liepaja is so great. He really is like my grandpa here. He drove our luggage to the bus station and then bought us ice cream (it was another really hot day) while we waited for the Riga sisters to get there. Their bus was 20 minutes late so Sister Kurr almost missed the return bus. She literally walked off the one bus and then got on the next. We broke our fast with baked new baby potatoes, carrots, and chicken (yum!!!) and then went to work. We showed Oskars the spirit-filled church tour and then we went to Marika's. She gave us each two ice creams- yum and we talked to her about prayer.

Saturday was mostly busy work- weekly planning, cleaning the church, working on branch stuff, and of course singing opera with Presidents. We helped the elders teach 18-year-old Viktorija about Jesus Christ. I love the Spirit. Even though I don't know Russian I knew that she was being asked to be baptized and that she had some concerns. I am glad that the elders asked her because if they weren't, I was going to! We also wrote down Zane and Kristine's conversion stories and had an awesome lesson with the Tolmachovi family. All morning study the topic we planned just seemed wrong. I prayed and the idea of giving the church tour (which is essentially the Restoration using the church building) came into my head. While we were in the Sacrament Hall Elina expressed how she had been thinking this week of how she wanted to start meeting with the missionaries and taking the discussions again to relight her testimony and how going through the church like an “investigator” was just that.

Sunday I gave a talk. I at least really enjoyed my talk. It was ten things that I had learned from my service as a missionary that was also advice to the branch. I'm sad more people weren't at church. Zane totally froze up and apparently hadn't prepared the lesson like she said she had, so improvisations had to be made. Primary turned out fine, but Presidents looks pretty stressed that he has no Sunday School teacher for recent converts nor someone to be in Primary. After I spoke in Sacrament he said a few words and got all teary-eyed and thanked people for their service. I like to think he was crying because I'm leaving, lol. He really is one of my good friends.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's kingdom here on earth. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that Jesus is the Christ. The Book of Mormon is a testament of Him and of God's unending love for His children.

Thank you everyone for your love, support, and prayers.

See you soon! :)

Love, Sister Mari Lindstrom

Week 72

Where oh where has June gone, oh where oh where can he be? It definitely doesn't feel like summer. It has been raining a lot here. And no, I'm not really trunky. Yet. Never say never. Mostly I just try not to think about it. It will be hard to say goodbye but when it is time to go home it is time to go home. I feel blessed that I lived in France for a year, so I'm more used to saying goodbyes like these.

Monday- It was rainy so we couldn't go biking. We ate GIANT strawberries and played ping pong with the elders and branch president for preparation day.

Tuesday- I have decided that the Lord is pretty kind. I'm quite weary. Sister Gallacher: "What are your hopes and dreams?" Sister Lindstrom: "To sleep." SG: "No, really..." SL: "Really." Ha ha, anyway, moral of the story is that the Lord is helping me to do His work and I am very grateful for that because as Joseph Smith was told, you won't have the physical strength. District Meeting was great. Elder Holdaway and I gave parting advice. I shared a lot of what President Dance shared when he left because I feel the same way too. I also added some of my own things- always study PMG, never suppress a generous thought, and bribe people with chocolate. :) (I didn't really say the last one). We had some yummy death log (the condensed milk, chocolate, crushed cookie dessert). My favorite thing that Elder Holdaway shared was a quote that went something like this: "Satan gets the bad ones through disobedience and the good ones with disappointment." I really liked that. We went to Sister Ruta J.'s and she fed us some of the best borsch I've had. She apologized though, because it is apparently impolite to feed guests soup. We were able to meet with Zane, Kristine, and their mom. We showed her the Resto film. Zane and Kristine think we should show it on TV. They are so funny as of late. They have HUGE plans to share the gospel with all the country folks.

Wednesday- We had a LONG lesson about enduring to the end. We barely endured the lesson. Zane and Kristine ended up confessing their latest sins (Kristine has been experimenting with doing and not doing things). I told them to stop. You wouldn't want your kids experimenting with narcotics to see how bad they really were, would you? We visited cute old Ausma and then went to visit less-active Lilita. We had a hoot and a half at her house. We were reading the talk by Carl B. Cook "It's Better to Look Up" and they translated his wife's name as Māsa Kuka (which means Sister Cake in Latvian). I started giggling and I lost it, as did everyone else. It is a great talk though, go read it! We had a neat lesson with LA Valdis in the evening. He has finally decided that he really does need to read every day to have the Spirit more in his life- hurray! I concur with his conclusion.

Thursday- We had a meeting with Valda (RC). She is doing okay since her mom died. She asked us to help clean the house but there really wasn't anything to clean. We helped the RS out and took a less-active grocery shopping. I have no idea how one person can eat 1.5 kilos of cucumber, but that is what they bought. It really blows my mind how much they make 10 lats go. We were very happy to eat our potato pancakes for lunch after a rather long morning of service. We had a lesson with RC Zane before sports about teaching tips and so SG forgot her shorts! We looked pretty silly jogging home with me in running clothes, and SG in running clothes and a skirt. We played floorball this week but everyone was a little off and we weren't all so competitive.

Friday- Mark your journals. This morning was the first morning I went out contacting without a jacket. We are still doing some of the experimental schedule which I love. It allows you to go out contacting at 8am instead of starting studies. We went into Jaunliepāja and it made me remember how ghetto Latvia can be and that it is indeed a third world country. There I said bye to LA Ena and we met a lady named Aina who is a potential investigator. A relative just died, so she was having a super hard time. It was neat to be able to testify to her and teach her how to pray and then pray with her. We met the greatest 83-year-old on the way to the Beldavi's. Her name was Sophia and she talked to us for a good 20 minutes telling us about her life. She used to milk cows (by hand! she told us) and would sing to them. When she sang they would all go in a straight line. She was so happy, positive, and her family was her joy in life. Raivo and I had fun goofing off in the lesson. SG wasn't too happy, but when you have a slap stick, you just have to play!

Saturday- We were blessed to be able to go to the 20 year Jubilee of the church in Latvia. Amazing! We took two mini buses up in the rain to the Imanta chapel. There we listened to several talks. Elder Lawrence told the members that they need to start doing missionary work themselves if they want a stake. The temple president of the Stokholm temple talked about how large the church is on both sides of the veil. Lena Bluma made an INCREDIBLE video about the church in Latvia that was probably at least 40-60 minutes. It was really quite indescribable to see. We are doing a great work here. The first baptism in Latvia was in 1992 and in May 1993 then Elder James E. Faust dedicated the land of Latvija for proselyting. He prophesied that there would be several stakes here. I definitely got all teary eyed and then Sarra and Ieva (4 & 6) started giving me hugs and playing with me. After the film we had pioneer line dancing and a photo exhibit about the different branches in Latvia- Riga 1 & 2, Imanta 1 & 2, Liepāja, Daugavpils, and the Jelgava group. About 220 people attended. My favorite part was the branch skits. Imanta's Latvian branch changed the words to church hymns and made a medley which was hilarious. We also had a birthday cake and a Jeopardy gave of the church history in Latvia. This game involved chocolate chip cookies and the game paper, scissors, rock. The bus ride home was pretty quite for me. Ieva took a bunch of pictures with my camera, and we played games and drew pictures. Santa was being a stinker at the party though. Everyone would ask, "How are you Santa?" "Bad." "Why?" "Because Sister Lindstrom is leaving." Oh jeez, I had so many missionaries come up and tell me. Her and Kristine have plans to kidnap me and stick me in a cupboard.

Sunday- What a nice sacrament meeting. We had missionaries that had served in Liepāja around 12-15 years ago come and bear their testimonies. It was really neat. One of them had a really great 7-year-old. Here are some excerpts from our conversation: "What? There are more boy missionaries then girl missionaries? Wow. And the boy missionaries are younger? When I grow up I want to be a missionary, a scientist, a mad scientist, or just a normal person. Do you think I could be a missionary AND a mad scientist?" I told him that he could, but that he probably wouldn't have time to do experiments. Someone's parents apparently need to explain a little more about missionaries, lol. I taught second hour, nothing special, and we kept the children from killing themselves in Primary in 3rd hour. We broke our fasts together after which is always nice. Santa bore a sweet testimony and got really choked up about missionaries. It is always good to know you made a difference in someone's life. I'm pretty sure me and Santa were buddies in the pre-existence. We are still working on getting an appointment with Kristaps, her son.

Love you lots,
See you soon!

June 2012 Pictures

Week 71

Goodness me, what a wild week.

Monday- we took Presidents to the Ukrainian Virtuve. It was not quite as exciting as last time. I did finally try cold beet soup- yum! We received a text from Zane that the house was in a panic. We went running over, worried that Janis didn't want to get married anymore. Nothing was wrong, Zane was just being dramatic, Kristine was just a little nervous.

Tuesday- we had thunderstorms last night! Zigrida, Valda's mom died during the night. We went over there with Santa and her 21-year old son Kristaps to help her move some of her stuff. We were quite worried that there was going to be a dead body inside because Valda told us it would smell and asked if we were afraid. Thankfully, there was no dead body, but a TON of clothes to move. Valda is scared to be in her apartment now so she's moving in with her boyfriend Janis. It was hilarious to watch Kristaps fold a 15-year-old girls clothes and look at them. I love Santa's relationship with Kristaps. She found two giant jars of fat (what the?!) in the bathroom (huh?!). Kristaps was afraid of it so she was waving it around at him. We also altered Kristine's dress (thank you mom) and taught Arta a lesson about prophets.

Wednesday- my allergies sure are bad this week. Whatever is in the air, I'm allergic- sneezing, watery eyes, the whole caboodle. I finally learned how to iron properly trying to get the wedding dress wrinkle free. I got it! I can come home now, it only took me 18 months. I had a really strong feeling to give a lonely looking teenage girl that was selling strawberries a Book of Mormon. She looked like she could use it and I hope that she will contact us. We also bought some of her strawberries and they were very delicious. We also went to visit a member and we took her grocery shopping. She was so excited to have food! She was probably my most favorite person that I've taken because her countenance totally changed as we took her. We had a good lesson with less-active Marika in which the Spirit was so thick you could have licked it and tasted the vanilla flavor.

Thursday- We spent a good chunk of the morning figured out exactly how much food we needed to buy for the Ligo party and exactly what we should buy. The grocery list we were given was quite vague. We managed, and I also managed to buy a ridiculous amount of chibas (slippers) and some wooden Latvian symbols that I am making into Christmas tree ornaments. The Ligo outdoor market was great this year! In the evening we played American football for sports. Watch out, Sister G. has nails! Elder Holdaway and I both ended up bleeding, and we were only playing flag football. Santa was waiting on the side lines with a mask and bandaids. Sister G and Elder H both ran into a pole. I laughed so hard because it looked like something Amber would do (in a good way!). We also had a fun lesson with a member who just came back from Sweden. He was very honest and I enjoyed his questions. He is a sharp man and he wants to do more service and feel the Spirit more in his life.

Friday- good grief, we were busy. Kristine came to the church 30 minutes late to get ready, so we did hair and makeup in record time. Janis peaced out right before they were going to sign all the documents, but luckily he appeared again. Kristine was so stinking happy. Janis was not. I guess that is what happens when you live together anyway? I don't know, but SG and I had a fun time running away from Kristine's and Zane's creepy brother Janis who kept trying to take pictures of us. Kristine's parents were there but only her mom came to her baptism in the evening. It honestly didn't seem much like a wedding, but only 2 witnesses were able to be their for the signing.

We ate lunch and then headed with Santa to go to Zigrida's funeral. Also another interesting experience. The paid preacher with his long pony tail and very memorized speech honestly reminded me of a dramatic interp in debate. "We all have our own paths in life, filled with sorrow..." He gave no comfort and didn't ever talk about God. It made me really appreciate the plan of salvation and how our clergy is NOT paid. Valda was very sad and it was quite fitting that we walked behind the casket being carried on six men's shoulders with the cross in front in the pouring rain. I was very glad I had an umbrella, but I was still very soaked after the whole affair. They buried the casket quite quickly and we were able to go home and change and be to the church in time for the baptism! Getting to and from the cemetery was pretty ridiculous, walking through rain and fields and puddles. Presidents said he was my friend since I had an umbrella, but if it were sunny he wouldn't be. He is so goofy!

It was neat to see Kristine baptized because she was very prepared and it meant a lot to her. Eliza started bawling when she saw her mom in the baptismal outfit and then again when she was in the water. Eliza doesn't like getting her head washed. We had a fun Ligo party afterwards with meat, cheese, bread, salad, cake, and of course head-wreath making! We played a sing off game (Americans v. Latvian [aka not fair because they have tautas dziesmas]), a candy string eating contest, and a balloon popping contest (when you have it connected to your ankle). I totally won! Wahoo!

Saturday- actual Ligo, was pretty quiet. We talked with Liga (baptized last July). She is sick but is doing well. It is sad to see that she doesn't get the gospel. We also met with another less-active and had an excellent lesson with her.

Sunday- we had the Boswells down! So fun! President Boswell has some pretty ridiculously great stories. I envy his life. I'd tell you some of the stories, but I'd probably get in trouble, lol. We made them NY ziti and Thor's bread which they loved. We sat around the table and President Boswell kept on telling more stories. We were also able to have interviews with them which was nice. In the evening we had a zone conference call and I talked about making English an effective finding tool.

Week 70

(June 18, 2012)
This past week was one of those slow yet fast weeks. They always throw me off. Mission Conference feels like it was weeks ago, but alas, it was only last Monday. Kristina Shcherbinina had her baby while we were at mission conference! She has a cute dark haired girl named Esther (Estere). Mission Conference- Bishop Stevenson made fun of me about going home. When we went through and met them he asked how long I'd been out. "A while," I replied. I had to do the math after that. My 18-month mark was on Friday the 15th! Elder Bennett said it felt like we were more obedient missionaries, and talked about giving everything to the Lord. Sister Stevenson told a cute story about how the gospel changed a family in Japan. Bishop Stevenson talked about finding the elect, hardwork, obedience, and testimony. Thoughts: obedience is not a sacrifice. Every lesson should be like a testimony meeting.

Tuesday was our Preparation day. We were able to go to the Karosta Prison that was in use until 1997. Our tour guide was a hoot and a half. "But that is not my problem, that is your problem. You were a bad soldier and this is not a prison." It was totally like a prison but not for civilians- no beds, bathroom twice a day for 2.5 minutes, and lots and lots of military exercises. We all really enjoyed ourselves. The tour guide was definitely what made it. We took the bus home with Sintija and quizzed Eriks about baptism. Uldis is really nervous that he won't pass the interview, but I have no worries. We had Sintija continue to spend the day with us and we took her to our lesson with Zane and Kristine which was a very nice lesson about being converted. It is important to continually strive to be converted. No one can do it for us!

Wednesday we held district meeting and talked about the importance of the Restoration. It really is so key and vital. I wish I could explain it better so that people would get it and join in on the salvation party bus! Afterwards Zane and Kristine brought over a whole entire family (of almost 4 generations) to see the church. It was a little hectic because Zane and Kristine were taking different people and talking about different things. By the end everyone was very confused. It is exciting to see how happy they are to be sharing the gospel. In the evening we had a wild lesson x2 with crazy hyper Sintija and her mom. Her mother won't let you get in a word edge wise so eventually SG let me listen to her mom and she started to teach Sintija about the Book of Mormon. Team effort! They are both very believing and have potential if we ever get a chance to TEACH them something. Highlight of the day was definitely the drunk 30 year old trying to buy us ice cream. All was going well gospel-interest wise until his work called and he found out he wasn't fired, so his desperation for change was not as great. We forewent the ice cream since he wouldn't promise to call Elder Holdaway and get the help that he needs. Afterwards we had a really really really good lesson with Oskars. Probably the best I've had with him. We talked about the central role that the Book of Mormon has in our conversion. Hopefully he'll be back soon. He gave a very sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father afterwards.

Thursday we had a cute lesson with the Tolmachovi about reading your scriptures together as a family. We gave them a Book of Mormon stories book and they've started reading it. Our sports night started quite late because the elders are the only ones with keys to the sports equipment. In the meantime we enjoyed getting to know Jurislav. He is in his 20s. Born in Russia, raised in Cali. He went back to Russia at age 15 and went to circus school for a year. He was a DJ in Canada and is just a really nice energetic entertaining person. Once we finally did play floorball we had a blast. Eliza wanted to play so we swapped her a hockey stick for a little broom. It was pretty great. There were some hoolies shooting hoops and doing push ups. Once they left Eliza went over to where they were and started doing "push ups." I'm glad that I have good bladder control because it was hilarious. In other news, Sister Gallacher writes her own piano music and it is amazing.

Friday we ran into one of the elders' old 'gators, Andis. He's really tall. My neck hurt after looking up so long. He talked our ears off, but we didn't miss any lessons. We showed Zane and Kristine our real church tour. The highlight of the day was Erik's baptism. He looked like a martian killer with his new toy gun and the white suit. His baptism was pretty funny. I tried really hard not to laugh. Walking into the font his dad was teasing that he was going to drown him. Uldis then proceeded to basically spin Eriks every which way because he didn't know which way to hold him and have the arms and such. We had a birthday cake and ice cream afterwards to celebrate this great day of turning eight! We may or may not have forgotten to confirm him after though. :) Good thing there are Sundays!

Saturday we had a good lesson with Arta. She came without Sintija and we had a good discussion on why bad things happen to good people. She has also prayed three times since we last met and read the homework. She still doesn't know if she believes in God. I can't imagine not believing in God and I think it would be very hard to start believing in him at age 16. After cleaning the church we went to Karosta to celebrate Sarra's Fourth Birthday. Remeber that time I was there last year for her birthday? I'm feeling old. Sarra is no longer shy. She loves giving us kisses, talking our ears off, and jumping on us and grabbing our necks. We had crab and rice salad, watermelon, and a cake made of cookies. For games this year we played hair stylist (I looked like a Christmas tree according to Presidents). We had a jolly good time playing button button. Sarra kept on telling who had the button and so it was just silly. We had an incredible lesson with Janis, Kristine, and Zane. Kaspars was there to help us teach why it is important to read the Book of Mormon. Towards the end Kaspars randomly grabbed SG's copy of the Book of Mormon, opened to a random page and started reading, "Teach your children to do good...don't search for riches...." It was very spiritual, especially since Kaspars had just talked about how meaningful and useful the scriptures are in our day. My testimony grew.

Sunday was the Sister Lindstrom show. After Branch Council I led the music, translated the first talk into Latvian, gave the second talk, and translated the third talk into English on the translation set. I definitely prefer translating as people talk. It is a lot harder for them to wait and pause. When that happens you have to try to remember what they said and it just isn't as fun. We had raclette for lunch and SG called everyone to set up lessons all by herself!

Good times. Love you all.
XOXO

Week 69

So you'll never guess whose watch broke yesterday. I refuse to have my time run out so I fixed it since just a part of it fell off and it wasn't the battery. Sorry for the delay in writing. We had Mission Conference, that's right, m-i-s-s-i-o-n conference yesterday so Tuesday is P-day this week. Weird. Never mind that my BABY brother just gave his farewell talk. We don't talk about things like that. "Ahhh!" Is a random scream that Sister Gallacher has been hearing as of late. At least I don't go super crazy like the elders? Happy Birthday tomorrow (Wednesday) bestie [your letter is coming late. it got sent back. *sigh*] and thanks for the letter Drewbie. And if you are out there Sister Ferrin, I never got your letter that you supposedly sent. And Happy Father's Day! I appreciate you Dads out there. You're the greatest. And happy 18-month mark to me on Friday the 15th. Weird!

Monday was miraculous. We found Laima (Laima is an inactive recent convert. Her family went super anti right after she got baptized and her husband divorced her because of it)! It was a district effort. We were on a bus going up to Karosta when I saw Laima. Elder Holdaway and I started freaking out. "Oh my goodness, that's Laima!" "No way no way. Keep your eyes on her and get ready to get off this bus at the next stop. We are going to get her." I think she was slightly disturbed when 4 missionaries came running up to her (two blocks of running) just to say "hi." She has a job now and says that she is slowly getting better. It is only a matter of time until she'll be back. What a blessing though to find her! We eventually did make our way to Karosta and it was beautiful weather. The "stairway to heaven" is slowly falling off the cliff. It is kind of scary and totally suspended on the sides- meaning no longer connected to the cliff side. We had a fun time going through the old war forts and finding sea glass. We decided to contact our way to the park in the evening. This super hyperactive 14 year old came up and contacted us. Her name is Sintija and she is beyond bouncy. She was very interested in the fact that we had Jesus Christ on our name tags and invited us to come back (we saw her yesterday, Monday the 11th and talked to her mom as well). We also went to talk to inactive Aina and had an interesting exchange with a couple (30s?) who had just been in NYC. "We were the only white people where we lived." Ha ha, yes. Indeed. There is a negative black population in Latvia. I've maybe seen a dozen in over a year of living here and maybe 3 in Liepaja. Anywho, they were really rude at first, but then in the end we ended it as acquaintances.

Tuesday District Meeting involved a FH'zookie. Baked in a pot. It was at least a 3 inch thick cookie and took almost 2 hours to cook. We went and taught Valda. It was so neat to see how she had something that she wanted to share with us that she read in the Liahona. It is great to see her back into the gospel and happier again. We met a man named Jack from Australia. His grandmum was Latvian and now he has a bunch of property and he bounces between Latvia and Australia. He is a very nice fellow and has looked a little bit into our church since Mitt Romney is running for President. We invited him to come for a tour sometime because we had a big turnout of people to learn how to make Grandma's Cherry Swirl Cake. What can I say, my grandma makes good desserts. The children had a fun time taking ridiculous pictures on my camera and thankfully didn't break anything.

Wednesday was a sunny beautiful day. I told a woman that on the tramvajs and she started tearing into me about how it was beautiful in HER country and that I should leave it. Naturally I saw her three days in a row after that. I still haven't decided if I should try to say hello again. It was a good little learning moment for me. I didn't say anything back, but I was thinking of responses after we had left the tram and I came to the conclusion that, you know what, I was called by a prophet of God. My calling is important and I am doing a good work. We had a sweet little miracle not long after that. We are trying to get a recently less active, Laimonis back so we have been asked to try to make daily contact with him. Thing is he has neither a phone, nor friendly family members that allow us to come over. I was praying that we'd be able to find him somehow today and Voila! There he was sitting on the park bench across from the church. He heard that Joseph Smith had 30 wives. Oh boy. That one definitely shook little SG's testimony and so she studied polygamy all morning and fretted about it. I love what it says in Preach My Gospel though. We are all backed up against the wall and need to take a leap in faith. All you need to know is that the Book of Mormon is true and then the rest logically falls into place. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We met with Arta and taught about Satan which was an interesting topic, but went well. I think we piqued her interest for reading the Book of Mormon. I still haven't given up on inactive RC Liga. I knocked on her door. For five minutes. Either she wasn't home or really doesn't want to talk. We had another bad contact turn good. Another older woman was telling me that I was doing a dishonest work. I just tried to be her friend and by the end she spent at least 10 minutes telling us her life story. Sometimes I wonder why people are so impolite at first. Guess they wouldn't really be happy in Jesus' presence. They aren't okay meeting the "missionary" but when it is just a "person" they are more friendly. Anywho, the ring man Maris' girls were out selling painted rocks. I totally bought one and it is my new favorite rock. But it isn't a pet because pets aren't allowed. We met an inactive member Martins who saw some junk on tv about the FLDS a few years ago and thought it was us. Oh boy. I feel like all I did was argue today but by the end I learned just to be like, "Do you know that the Book of Mormon is true?" because it really does resolve all concerns.

Thursday we ran into Laimonis again! Today he had questions about letting non-members take the sacrament. We had a lesson with Ivita, a very believing English class student. She got baptized about 1.5 years ago, so she wasn't too keen on hearing that there is more truth than what she has found. It was interesting to hear what her preacher has taught. A lot of it is truth/half-truths are taught in other churches. Um, I love the Branch President here. "Sisters, can you help me with something? Do you have a minute?" "Sure, what?" "Are these the right lyrics?" Phantom of the Opera. All I Ask of You. To make a long story short we ended up belting that song with presidents several times with the new speakers that he bought. So fun. Oh my, my heart will be sad without Presidents in my life. We made yummy calzones and played floorball with the elders, Inguss, and Raivo (who broke his arm on the 10th, poor kid). Floorball was super fun, other than the fact that SG and I were EXTREMELY sore for two days after that. The highlight of my Thursday was talking to eternal investigator Aivars on the streets. Why? Because Jack and his dog came strolling by. We told Aivars that Jack was from Australia and Aivars asked if Rogers (the dog) was from Australia too.
"No, actually he's Italian."
"He's Italian? When did dogs have nationalities?"
"He is a Bolognese poodle but he was born in Latvia."
"Does he speak Italian?"
"He doesn't speak Italian but he does prefer Ciao to Labdien. And he likes lasagna."

Oh my goodness, hilarious! Their wits are perfect for each other. I wish I could have stayed longer and listened to them.

Friday we met with Indra from English. She is going to Finland to pick strawberries for 5 weeks and wanted extra help with her English. She has a Book of Mormon and she said she'll take it with and read it. She actually knows Aivars (the forever 'gator) and said she's noticed the change in him (he used to drink all the time and the missionaries helped him to quit) so we got to help her make the connections of why he's become a better person.

Saturday we went park contacting again after teaching Valda, cleaning, and meeting with Santa. We talked to inactive Aina and one of her co-workers. SG taught her first lesson in the park! All by herself! I was so proud of her. We had an impromptu lesson on Fathers with Zane, Kristine, and Janis. It was madness. Eliza (2.5), Davisa (7), and puppy were there. Eliza would pull Rambo's face and ears and then Davisa would try to grab her dog back. Rambo would like Eliza and then she'd stick out her tongue and let the dog lick her tongue. Eww! Davisa told her not to do that and then Eliza got mad and threw a battery-powered dog at Davisa's face. Poor kid is going to have a black eye, but she took her cut cheek like a champ. Later on they were on the bunk bed and SLAM! Face plant into the ladder. Eliza was bleeding everywhere and oh my goodness. Control the children someone, please! I was dying. I was dying of laughter after Eliza used her little potty and was pulling up her pants when Rambo started walking towards her. She started screaming in fear which was just hilarious to me since she was just barely tongue-ing the very same dog. We had even more dog adventures after. We have a good-looking businessman neighbor in his 30s who was outside with 5 male friends and his ridiculously ugly dog. I think it is a bulldog. For some reason his friends started talking to us in English and the dog started jumping on us. Our neighbor was profusely apologetic in English. "I'm so, I'm so sorry. It's a terrible habit of his." I didn't know he spoke English. Anywho, I kind of wanted to keep on talking to them, but 6 drinking men on a Friday night and a bulldog does not seem to be in my favor. "I'll see you tomorrow," our neighbor said in his Brit accent as we went in the apartment complex. I thought it was the most hilarious thing.

Sunday morning we were running with a wedding dress (Runaway Bride!) to catch our tram to the bus station. We made it. We went up to Riga for a great District Conference where we sang a beautiful arrangement of "Come Thou Fount." I really enjoyed one of the talks about how we need to build a good spiritual house. How does your house look? Is it run down? Does it need remodeling? Santa sat between Elder Lynch and I and was hilarious during the sustaining of the people. We frosted a belated birthday cake for Sisters Kurr and Gallacher and then headed off to the Bailey's. The Bailey's are an amazing embassy family who are like a giant slice of American pie. They really are the greatest. They were so kind and had all the Latvian missionaries over for their last Sunday in Latvia. We had hamburgers and strawberry shortcake for their early Father's Day dinner. I didn't know the Bailey's well, but I am so grateful for them and their strong example. They both served in callings and came to church every week, regardless of the language barrier. They move every 2-3 years and always do service projects with their kids in each new country. Sister Bailey even moves their 72 hour kits with them. They truly love the people of Latvia and love helping the missionaries. They are amazing!

Lots of Love,
Sister L

June 2012 Pics Zane's Baptism