Week 67

Time is running out. Quite literally. I brought three proselyting watches (aka not including my running watch) on my mission. This transfer my purple watch died and then my nice Invicta watch decided that it also wanted to join the pile of watches that need new batteries. It was actually great because time was slowing down. Anywho, let us just hope my last watch doesn't die, I'm not sure what that would mean.

Last Monday was H-O-T. Like 35C (95 F) hot. Which is a big jump from like 10C. Luckily it didn't stay for more than a few days. Happy year mark Santa! You know you've been on a mission for a long time when someone that you helped teach and saw get baptized is no longer a recent convert. We took her over flowers and butter. Santa loves butter. We taught her about the temple. I'm taking her to the DC temple when I find a rich and obedient husband (Aivars, Liepaja's eternal investigator told me so). Santa showed us some of her old photos which was awesome. We taught the Beldavi and scripture study and gave them one of the fun picture Book of Mormons.

Tuesday we woke up far too early to go up to Riga to get my visa picture. The bus ride was gorgeous. The rapeseed (yup, rapeseed) was in bloom so there were giant beautiful yellow fields mingled in all the greenery. We got to my appointment early so we went walking through a GIANT cemetery and saw huge lilac trees (these monsters weren't bushes) as well as many old grandmas cleaning burial areas. I got bitten by a bunch of mosquitos. I still have the bites and they are bruised...hopefully I don't die. They finally stopped itching on Sunday. Anywho, we didn't get lost (yes!) and we met up with Rubija and the Riga sisters and went to Muffins and More. I got a pesto-mozzarella Panini as well as a caramel muffin. Yum yum. We left Rubija to spend the day with the Riga sisters. She is going to be a mini-missionary starting Tuesday! At the office Elder Holdaway and I had a wonderful surprise- a birthday package for us! Wahoo! The way home to Liepaja was so neat. We ran into a Brother Walker of California who is adopting twins from Latvija. He told us his story and the twins make children 9 and 10. Bless his heart. We also saw the Millets (senior couple) at the bus station with their three wonderful daughters who were visiting. It was fun to meet them.

Wednesday we had district meeting since we were on a hot and sticky bus all Tuesday (okay, so only 8 hours of Tuesday, but still). Quote of the meeting "We are helping people learn Heaven." We made giant tacos for lunch. And then proceeded to eat the left-overs for the rest of the week. We figured since we forgot Cincqo de Maijo we'd just make up for it by having 5 days of celebration. Zina came to help us teach Zane and Kristine and bore a great testimony about not getting offended and remembering why you go to church. We had a meeting with inactive Dzintra. She forgot me (that's a good thing) and she was uber nice to us. No door slamming when we have cookies for her this time. And she actually gave us cookies. After English we had a meeting with Arta to watch Finding Faith in Christ. Aivars was there so we invited him. He is getting so much closer. He said he felt something in his heart watching the movie. He just still has lots of questions, and some of them are good. I think we all have questions. Some are important like will everyone have a body and some are not like will I have my earring holes in heaven (thank you Sintija).
Thursday Rubija spent the afternoon with us so we went to some lessons. First stop was Lucija, an old, pant less lady with flies everywhere. She completely forgot that we called to set up an appointment and she didn't connect us with the Mormon missionaries (she was a former investigator). The conversation kept repeating which was somewhat entertaining. We also visited the old man we helped across the street. He didn't look as happy as I thought he would to see us. Oh well. We went to Valda's and she is looking much happier. Her and Janis had a fight so she came to the baptism as well as church on Sunday. We rode another hot and sticky bus ride to the Scerbinini's for an excellent FHE put on by the very pregnant Kristina S. We brought ice cream and brownies. We took enough brownies for everyone to have two each but we only got one. I'm assuming Sis. S. is eating the other 10. She downed 5 pieces of Texas sheet cake in a row at the baptism on Friday. Anywho, we had a lot of fun with Sarra, Ieva, and Eliza.

The baptism went well. Presidents forgot to put the plug in the water [oopsie!]. Luckily someone noticed so we only started 45 minutes late. Eliza started bawling when she saw Zane in the font waving and smiling at her. It was pretty funny. Zane was very happy and excited after she was baptized. She got dressed faster than Presidents. We only had time to sing 2 verses of 1 song. Many people showed up which we were glad about.

Saturday morning we got to take Rubija shopping for her mini-mission. Humana had everything for 20 cents which was AWESOME. One lady from our English class gave us these cool light yellow tulips that look like Edward Scissor-hand trimmed the end of the petals. They have lots of neat tulips here. Presidents invited us to a surprise party and wouldn't tell us what the surprise was. It was Uldis and Maija Frolovi! Uldis is FINALLY back in the country with his wife. Hallelujah. Sintija and Eriks were very excited. We had sausage, cheese, and even more cake to celebrate. The highlight for me was Maxims. He's my favorite! He's the neighbor who got stuck on his fence and had his dog chase him...he just makes my heart smile. Anywho after planning a music group was singing outside our window. It was the most beautiful chorus I have ever heard. They had just performed at the Catholic church across the street.

Sunday made for chocolate cake #5 that I made this week. I don't even like chocolate cake all that much. We were having seminary graduation/sacrament for third hour and had lots of peeps from Riga. Sister Davis (CES couple) didn't know that everyone was invited so she didn't have enough brownies for everyone. We didn't realize this until we were walking to third hour (which was sacrament today). She told us the ox was in the mire so we ran home (literally) to start making Texas sheet cake. We've got skills. We stuck one in the oven at home, got one in the oven at church and made it to the church in time to partake of the sacrament. I still don't know how we managed that. We did miss Zane getting confirmed, but everyone got their cake. Sister Kristina S. had five again. With ice cream. She's a champ, I hope that baby girl of hers comes soon!

Sorry we haven't got more time today! It has been a wild ride.
Love you lots,
Sister Lindstrom

Week 66

Well, hello hello. Another adventurous week. It seems like about three since Mother's Day. The hot water has been off so I've been practicing my yoga breathing. Zane is all ready to be baptized on the 25th and her sister Kristine will be joining her after her wedding on June 22nd. In other news, it is Santa Dike's year anniversary of being baptized. Weird! I've met with that woman at least once a week for the past year. She is still one of my best friends. I'll hopefully get to see her son Kristops one more time before I leave, because Santa and I are planning to get that kid baptized. I'm convinced that is why Mark is going to Denmark since that is where Kristops currently lives. He has to do the work that I didn't finish! Sometimes I reflect on being a missionary and it is just so funny to me. People like nuns seem like such deeply spiritual people and I'm sure if I saw missionaries running around I would think they were very much into their religion. I don't feel like I'm obsessed/a nerd/insert appropriate word. I just feel like the gospel is more of a way of life, but not a weird one. We are normal people with some extraordinary knowledge and power available.

Monday was busy filled with non-preparing activities. We had a lesson with Ruta about service and then she took us over to her son's so that we could do some service. Aldis is a cop here in Liepaja but wants to move to be with his wife who just got a job in England. Only problem is that he doesn't know English so we are meeting with him once a week. We were very surprised in our spiritual lesson to find out that his mom hasn't told him about The Book of Mormon or anything like that. People are often afraid to share the gospel with the ones that they love, but if we truly understand that it is the only way to be with them in the eternities, we wouldn't hesitate. We had popeye pucks for dinner (yum yum frozen spinach is my friend!). We had a pleasant surprise at the Frolavi FHE- Arta was there! She was able to get her first exposure to learning about baptism and poor Eriks did not win "Search Ponder and Play", a game that Aunt Claudia sent me. The Frolavi love that game and Eriks always pouts if he doesn't have the galaxy.

Tuesday for district meeting we worked on our building tour. It uses the pictures in the building as well as other visual displays for great effects to essentially teach the restoration. Elder Holdaway has invented a "comment cup." I don't like it. You are supposed to not say your random tangents/comments and just write them down to be read later. Random comments are the fruit of life and enjoyable conversation! We also finally (I've been thinking about it for months) got a copy of our key made which was just about the coolest thing to watch. They have so many old school keys here. I think it would be neat to buy one and just carry it around in America to confuse people. We taught Zane and Kristine about tithing. I love those two. A few hours after the lesson Zane called me asking if she can pay on any day or if she has to wait until Sunday. We met with the Beldavi and thought we'd try playing a game after we taught about the Sacrament. Bad idea. Who knew hot-cold could be such an intense game that can cause tears. I don't know if we are going to try playing a game there again. Poor Dace was just trying to stay patient and not strangle anyone.

Wednesday was a rainy day. the days are really long when the sun isn't out because they just seem like an eternity. I don't know why because now the sunrise is at 5am and sunset is after we finish planning so it is perpetually sunny. Anywho we took Oskars along to Zane's and Kristine's lesson so that he could hear them go through the baptismal interview questions. When we got to keeping the Sabbath Day holy Kristine totally called Oskars out and told him that he should be coming to church more. Awesome! I'm excited for her to be a member and take her to everyone's lessons. The elders also dropped by to give Zane a blessing. It was a great lesson overall because the Spirit was very strong. We took that Spirit and went to Valda's. She was home! And answered the door! And Janis stayed. He told us that his brother just died so we were able to sing "Oh My Father" and teach him some of the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was really strong which NEVER happens. Janis is just not the greatest person so normally the Spirit runs and hides whenever he is in the vicinity. Rumors were also confirmed. Old Zigrida is indeed losing it. At the end of our lesson she started screaming at Valda not to come to our church because it was the devil's church that is full of robbers and that we'd steal all her money. I was even more shocked when Janis started talking back to her. "Be quiet mamma. You know that isn't true. Stop speaking crazy." Janis just got brownie points and is no longer in the negative.

Thursday we helped an old man across the street. And then all the way to his house. He got stuck in the middle of the street and all these cars were trying to go around him so we pretty much saved his life (not really). But he was very appreciative and said that even he was 86 years old he would let Sister Gallacher stay with him because he'd love her. Oh boy! It was neat though because afterwards some of his neighbors stopped us and thanked us for helping him. Zane and Kristine both passed their interviews! Hurray!

Friday was another cold and rainy day. Especially cold since our hot water and heating are off! We moved studies into the kitchen and put on the space heater. Friday morning was entirely swallowed up by trying to figure out wedding business. Long story short President Bowell offered to expedite Kristine's wedding (the soonest they could was June 22) which is 155 lats, and 2-day ship a wedding dress from America so that she could get baptized with her sister. She didn't take our offer, but all parties seemed pretty happy about it. I was pretty disappointed. She said that she asked for the Lord's guidance that day and He had provided a way that she could get baptized with her sister and she rejected it.

We took Lidija L. (active) on the tour with the elders and she loved it. We also took Santa (RC) on Friday. It is going to be a very powerful tool for teaching and I'm excited. We made no knead garlic bread (YUMMY!) and ate it with some of Lidija's homemade cheese. We also got to meet with Marika (LA) and had a good lesson with her about Christ-like attributes and she showed up to Sacrament meeting on Sunday! She almost strangled all the children making noises, but at least she was there renewing her baptismal covenants.

Saturday was a great English class. No one wanted to participate, but the great part was the Spirit-punch that was the spiritual thought. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and the Spirit was almost overpowering. There were some teary eyes in the audience. Yay for the Spirit! I also had a little miracle of my own. After calling this woman since June 2011, I was finally able to meet with Rasa. We met her on the beach and she talked our ears off. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and invite her to church. We were very tired after our very long, very slow walk. Rasa did it in 3 inch heels on the sand. Ouch.

Sunday was a fine Sabbath day. It is getting warmer! A miracle was Presidents lesson second hour. I think that this is the first lesson he has ever taught without ever once going into Russian. I'm going to blame it on my challenge to him to read three pages of the Book of Mormon in Latvian daily. :P In the evenings we dropped by a few people who weren't home. A block before our house we had a boy stop us and ask for a Bible. Eventually I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. I'm pretty sure he was just messing with us, but who knows, maybe he'll read it. I didn't give him our phone number though. Have fun if he calls elders!

Have a great week!

Love, Māsa Lindstroma

Week 65

Well well well. Let's see. Monday the elders wanted to go out to eat. Weird sauce. I forgot that Elder Holdaway is a pusmasa (half sister) and that he loves to do stuff with his girls. We tried going to two different restaurants, but they had both closed down. We settled for a place called The Old Captain in English. I didn't find anything fantastic so I ended up buying really expensive pureed foods, aka baby food. Good, but I have a bigger appetite than a baby! Rubija, a member who is very bored (waiting to go on a mini-mission, in her 30s) came with us and shopping because she was bored. You've gotta be really bored to hang out doing errands. Anywho, we stopped by some potential 'gators on the way home from losing Eriks in Dominos after teaching him about reverence. This one lady kept popping my personal space bubble! I almost fell off the stairs because she kept getting in my face. She also kept simultaneously switching from Latvian to Russian. Ar prats!

Tuesday we had a meeting with Oskars and talked to him about the love of God. He is going through a tough time at the moment, but we are hoping to get him out to church again. After we met with Kristine (the one with the twins, terrible two year old and boyfriend Janis) and Zane (Kristine's sister) we ran to member's home. Zelma made us a delicious lunch of frikadellas and griki. We then booked it to the bus station to go up to Riga for Zone Conference Wednesday. We bought ice cream, got on the wrong bus (not my fault!), and found the right bus that happened to have the Russian sisters in it (Hello to Brad Call from Sister Stephanie Dawson). We had a nice chat with them all and then an even longer chat (*cough midnight cough*) with the Latvian sisters. Sister Clark was glad to see me and even more glad that I was her trainer. Good to know that I didn't mess up. ;P Apparently I was supposed to teach meal planning skills....you'd think three years of college would be sufficient, but I guess not.

Wednesday morning I made pancakes for everyone since I could. Zone Conference was great. We talked about being a "4th missionary" (the best one) which essentially means giving your heart. The rest was deja vu of my first zone conference (ironic since it was my last). We talked about barrier thoughts, faith, and took a trip to "contacting land" on the Magic School Bus. We had Muffins 'N More for lunch which was quite excellent. Yum yum good food. I miss good muffins. Some things just do taste better from packages (aka brownies and muffins). I also had a nice interview with President Boswell. We talked about the branch and how wonderful Sister Gallacher is.

Thursday we taught wonderful Zita from our English class about the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it (who wouldn't) and had loads of questions on how to know that we are forgiven and if her baptism as a child was valid. We also got to go gardening! Yay! We went out into the woods and then poof! Old people and their gardens. We helped Sister Beldava weed...if you can call taking grass out weeding. She still needs to plant but we needed to clear the land. It was nice to be back in the dirt. Since we were out in Zala Birze (Green Forest) we were late to grandma Ausma's birthday party! They were celebrating everyone who was turning a big age (75, 80, 85, etc.) at the nursing home. We made it in time to hear two songs and then be there for the announcing of the big birthdays. Ausma was very glad that we came and she took lots of pictures with us. It was fun to see all the old folks hanging out. English went smoothly. Numbers were really hard for them. It took us an eternity to count to 100 together.

Friday we took Presidents with us to visit Lidija R. Sadly we think she is getting old and losing it a bit. She is convinced that a giant narcotic gang is after her. She is a nice lady so it is a bummer that she is ill. We had a testimony meeting of sorts with Kristine about why the church is important to us. The Spirit was there and we all went away with good feelings. We got new outfits at Santa's- Riksi is shedding! The elders joined us at Marika's house to learn Latvian. Elder Holdaway was asking questions about ridiculous words like to moo, to glimmer, to glisten, to sparkle, etc. He loves the language.

Saturday we had a nice lesson with Sintija's friend Arta about prayer. Arta is a funny one. She says she doesn't believe but loves coming to church. She's believing and just doesn't know it. :] When we asked her how she thought God would answer us she said through people like you. I love those kind of answers! We finished up teaching Zane and Kristine the 10 commandments. Zane is feeling down that she doesn't have a job and a place of her own, but it will all be well. Presidents asked us to make something for Mother's Day. I immediately thought of Grandma's Cherry Swirl Cake. We baked one pan but we had a lesson and it wasn't quite ready so we thought we'd leave it in the oven on timer. The angels must have sat on it because when we got home the oven was still on! The cake was still salvageable. Oye! Teaching the Beldavi about the Stripling Warriors was a hoot. Raivo was fascinated by the picture. "Who is that on the horse? Do they have bows and arrows? Why is he wearing a different bracelet?" and so on. I had a hard time teaching because I was just laughing at his questions.

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day. I sure had one! It was a BUSY day. Impromptu Mother's Day talk in sacrament meeting, leading the music, leading the special musical number by the Primary, teaching an impromptu lesson on the Priesthood for Gospel Principles (you'd think I did Impromptu Speech in debate), and then we got to Primary just in time 3rd hour to save the day. It was chaos. There were chillins all over hiding in the church. We sat down and had a long chat about Primary and what we can do to improve everyone's church experience. We had french toast and then hurried off to talk to our families. We love you families! Sister Gallacher's family is a hoot and a half. Her dad was the greatest. Every three minutes he'd say, "Gawl Maddie, you look so pretty." or "You have beautiful shoulders." or "Your hair looks so great honey!" I was supposed to study language, but I was getting a kick out of the Gallacher's so I listening to them. They are a fun family and I know have an invite to visit them. Roadtrip to Cali anyone?

I love you all and am praying for you. The church is true. Use your agency to make good decisions.

Week 64

Monday I found out that I could be Sister Gallacher's personal clothing shopper. I have quite the knack for finding things that she enjoys. She was befuddled that I knew. “I don't wear clothes on my mission like the ones I wear at home.” What can I say, it is a gift. We found her an awesome dress from the fifties at my favorite secondhand store Otra Elpa and SG loved all the antique stores because antiques don't really cost much here. We had FHE with the Frolavi about being good examples. “We can help others” was Eriks' answer to everything. We also had a great lesson with a less active in which we got to her ice berg of why she is having a hard time coming to church. The gospel is all about love I have decided. If we love God and others we will keep the commandments, we will serve them and we will be happy.

Tuesday during District Meeting Elder Holdaway told the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. We concluded that we are real because we are falling apart and our whiskers have fallen off, ha ha. It was a good story and a good reminder that when you give everything then you become “real” (perfected, more like Christ, etc.) I introduced Sister G. to Baltic tacos...mmm....tacos. We had an intense evening. Zane, Kristine's sister called saying that she wanted to talk to us and Presidents. And then didn't sound happy. Duhn duhn duhn. We arranged our schedule so we could meet, called President Boswell so that we knew our “game plan” for possible scenarios. We didn't plan for what happened. Kristine wants to get married and they want to start the church up in their home town and give 10% of the food that they grow as tithing and they offered work for church members who don't have jobs, that they could come live with them and work in the country. Talk about getting the gospel. Awesome! We started making wedding plans right away. We are getting her a temple dress (I am not confident enough in my sewing skills to make a dress from scratch. For a wedding. No sir.) and she kind of went home to “propose” to Janis, or at least give him an ultimatum “now or never!” On Sunday they informed us that they are staying in Liepaja because they still need to learn a lot before sharing it with everyone else (whew). Talk about intense! Like camping, “in tents!” (Har har, that is what Sister Clark would always say.)

Wednesday was a good day. I passed by a lady sitting on a bench but felt that I should talk to her and I did. It was the clunkiest contact, but she was very friendly and talkative. She willingly gave us her phone number and should be meeting with her in the next couple of weeks! This happened right before our lesson with our new investigator, Zita! She is from our English class and comes with her 11-year-old son so she can help him learn English as well. She is such a great mom. She is looking for a third job so that she can let her son play soccer more competitively. He is really talented and already goes across Europe playing. She wants a good clean life for him and all the opportunities that she can give him. I was overwhelmed with her love for her son. Thanks to all you mothers (and fathers) out there who sacrifice everything so that your kids can reach their dreams. I love you mom and dad. She was very touched by the Restoration film, with tears freely flowing. The Spirit was very strong. Zita believes that God answers prayers, is Lutheran, but only goes to church on Christmas. She is worried about the persecution that comes from being associated with our church (and even coming to English class) but she is still going to read The Book of Mormon. I really want her to accept the gospel because I know it is something that she needs in her life and would greatly enrich and bless her and her family. We also had a meeting with Valda. Albeit a sad meeting. Zigrida is really sick. She just lies in bed and doesn't even have the strength to get up. We tried to help stand her up so that Valda could clean up the yucky mess in her pants, but she wouldn't let us because it hurt too much. We turned her over on her side, Valda cleaned up what she could, and we sang church hymns so Zigrida wouldn't cry. Getting old doesn't look like fun. Valda is really unhappy with her drunkard Janis back in her life but she doesn't know how to get rid of him and is afraid to come back to church. She does miss her church family though. English is interesting; we have some really good people and then a whole bunch that scatter once the spiritual thought starts. One particular lady who always complains was trying to say shirt but left the “r” out of it. It was great to see which class members knew their American curse words and just started laughing and laughing.

Thursday was my turn to almost wet my pants. We went to chop wood at Kaspar's house. Sister Gallacher would pick up the rusty old dull ax, say something ridiculous like “This is for all those kids who didn't get Christmas!” and proceed to whack a piece of wood as hard as she could. We aren't the most efficient wood choppers, but we did have the most fun. All body parts are still accounted for! We also made Chinese coleslaw and put apple in it...yum. It definitely tastes better when you put all the salad dressing in on top of the salad. Anywho, we tried having a clothing drive, which totally bombed for a Relief Society activity, but such is life.

Friday “May the Fourth be with you” was the theme of the day. SG can be pretty funny. It was another eventful day. Santa the younger was back from her mini-mission (over 6 months later) to be released, only to become a missionary again in a few days because she is going to serve full-time on Temple Square. She will have served over two years. She is an amazing missionary and bore a powerful testimony of how God never leaves us but that we leave Him. There was a mini-fireside of sorts with ice cream and log (chocolate cookie frozen heart-attack mess of goodness). Two sisters from Lithuania accompanied her up so we all went to lunch together at Doka Pizza which is neither American or European pizza. They don't really have sauce on it, but they have really crumbly cheese and the crust is almost deep-dish, but it just tastes like a weird casserole your grandmother (not mine) would make you. We lucked out on finding a bus to Palanga, Lithuania, five hours before a bus back to Klaipeda, so we got the sisters home in time to go to evening lessons. Elder Holdaway showed us a new church tour that is a lesson on the Restoration that is going to be a very powerful teaching tool. It uses a lot of visuals (i.e. a dark room representing the world without priesthood). In the evening we met with Santa and the Beldavi and talked out gratitude. I found a quote by President Monson that I really liked. It inferred that we start to recognize our blessings we cannot help but feel God's love more in our lives. I agree. For my bedtime prayers I have started simply saying prayers of thanks and I love it. I wake up a lot happier, I sleep more, and I don't spend all evening beating myself up in my head about what I could have done better that day.

Saturday. Have I mentioned that it has cooled down? We have gone from having the fan on to the space heater in only a few days. I don't really mind though because 1. Jackets are better than sweating. 2. My legs are WHITE. 3. My boots are in better shape than my shoes. (Although I did get in trouble for wearing boots. I alone am apparently keeping spring from coming just by wearing my boots. No one else is. I'm glad Annika clued me in to my weather changing powers). We were able to meet with Sintija and teach her friend Arta. Arta has zero religious background. WEIRD! After her lesson I went home and reread the PMG section about teaching people without a Christian background. Odd thing is she doesn't believe in anything. She isn't atheist, but she doesn't really believe in anything. The Plan of Salvation was really interesting for her and hopefully it got her started thinking. We are going to work on helping her have spiritual experiences and then one day she can be a young woman in our church and live happily ever after. We wanted to stop by Valda's again so we called first. Drunk Janis her boyfriend answered. “How did you know it was me Janis?” I don't think that one is ever going to get old. It kills me every time. I still don't get why people like to drink. You do dumb things, it smells bad, etc. etc. He said she was at the Catholic church so we snuck in there to call his bluff. We didn't see her there (phew!).

SG and I get along well. Maybe too well. She likes old movies and tap dancing. We both can get off track by singing a song after someone says some phrase or another. She has a great voice and can be pretty funny. We most often get distracted right before we are going to pray. Oopsie!

See you on Sunday! :P

Sister Lindstrom

Week 63

So this past week was pretty uneventful missionary work wise.  And not that anyone is counting, but happy 500th day of being a missionary to me!

Monday nothing really happened besides FHE at the Frolavi.  Sintija is really excited that her friend is willing to meet with the missionaries.  Eriks and I about died laughing during the prayer when Sister Gallacher called him Eriky.  I finally finished my Christmas candy (Thanks Drewbie!).  It is really sad though...I keep on going to my sock drawer and I only find socks.  No more Reeses Pieces.

Tuesday we helped some of the sisters organize clothes for a clothing drive that we are having.  We had a good lesson with Oskars about trials and such.  DC 58:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5 were some of his favorite scriptures that we shared.  The weather has been nice (when it isn't raining) so we got to go out contacting on the seaside because there were loads of families there.

Wednesday we said goodbye to member Skaidra.  She is moving to Austria to work for three months so we watched President Uchtdorf's "Forget-me-not" talk and discussed the five points that he tells us never to forget.  I learn something new every time I read that talk.  We taught Zane and Kristine the Plan of Salvation and had about 25 English students.  This group's dynamic is so different than the last.  It is kind of fun.  Some of the old ones talk all the time and complain that I go to fast (I took an hour to go over the alphabet.  That isn't fast.)  I'm excited for English regardless.

Thursday I contacted the cutest young woman Vendija.  She was completely mesmerized that I was from America and a missionary.  Sadly she had to get off before I could get her info.  On my mission I have learned a lot more about how we have faith in Christ to be cleansed of our sins and so therefore we repent.  We taught this to Zane and Kristine and then went with a member to help buy their groceries.  We had an amazing lesson with the Tolmacovi family.  Eliza is almost one and she loves crawling and scrunching her nose and laughing.  We brought a flashlight to explain dispensations and she also thought that was a great chew toy.  I really like comparing having the priesthood on earth to the flashlight.  It lightens up the darkness and provides the pathway home!  In other news we made a yummy quiche with all sorts of goodies in it (zucchini, tomato, mushroom, green onion, etc.)

Friday we said by to 'gator Rita who was only in it for the English.  Presidents said Ieva isn't taking exercise from her anymore and that we didn't have to teach her.  That leaves us with two investigators total.  Yikes!  Time to find is all the time!  Our investigators are good ones though.  Zane is progressing well and Kristine said, "Marriage or no, I'm going to become a Latter-day Saint."  You go girl!  We taught Santa while she was pantless (go figure that would be SG's first experience with my Santa).  She was wearing a Christmas robe though so we didn't see anything scandalous (phew).  We went down to contact some potential investigators and saw Lidija R., a member who I reactivated who got offended and went inactive.  Supposedly her downstairs neighbor makes narcotics and the fumes come up at night (she may be crazy).  Regardless we told her we'd come back and help tape all of the cracks.

We did that on Saturday after we taught English.  Lidija promised to come to church on Sunday (and she did, for all three hours and got a blessing).  Five English students stayed after class to watch the Restoration film.  Naturally Satan was against that so the projector screen wouldn't come down and then the sound went out.  Never fear, old school TVs are still here!  Speaking of films, they were filming one on the corner of our street.  It was very distracting to try to plan with that gong on.

So, this is the part that all you mothers shouldn't read.  SG and I were asleep comfortably in our beds when I hear some loud people outside our apartment.  I wake up, get out of bed and the front door is open!  Oh no!  SG and I still swear we checked that it was locked, but I guess not.  Luckily I woke up and saw that someone had opened it (but not come in.  We have angel body guards) before they had a fight in our stairwell.  And someone tried to open our door again.  We didn't sleep after that one.  And we are quite jumpy.  And paranoid about the door being locked.  We definitely lock it now.  All's well that ends well.  Moral of the story is: 1.  Lock your doors. 2. Pray for missionaries!  

Other than being ridiculously tired, Sunday was great.  Elder Holdaway gave an incredible sermon on keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  I was ready to jump up and say that I am no longer doing missionary work on Sundays!  Second hour was entertaining as was third hour.  Third hour we learned about how to be good teachers.  Kristina showed a great film that showed what kind of teachers we should be- loving and patient.  An old man and his grown son were sitting on a bench.  The father asks, "What's that?"  "A sparrow."  "What's that?"  "A SPARROW."  "What's that?" the father asks again. "A SPARROW!!  S-P-A-R-R-O-W!" the son yells.  The father walks up, goes and gets a book, and then comes back.  He opens his journal and begins to read an entry from when his son was three years old.  'Today I was sitting at the park with my son.  He asked me twenty one times what a sparrow was.  Every time I answered him, giving him a hug and simply saying. "a sparrow."'  And then it got all mushy and they hugged.  Moral of the story is SL is working on becoming a good parent/trainer/human being in general.  I am often the frustrated impatient young man.  "It's a sparrow, duh! Hello!"  I think it is a good lesson for us all.  And kudos to you parents (and our Heavenly Father) who put up with your childrens' endless questions.  "What's that?"

Week 62

Mari 23 April 2012                          

So, not like you were wondering, but I am training Sister Gallacher in Liepaja (this is transfer number 9/11 in Liepaja).  Madison Gallacher is 20 (turning 21 in May) from Sacramento, California.  She is the most beautiful brunette on the planet and she is also just so meek and kind and good.  I decided training is like children.  I thought that I'd be better at it this time (experience) but no, trainees, like children are all very different!

SG is a sponge.  I'm a little nervous about that.   SC came knowing what she was doing and very stubborn.  SG asks tons of questions and will do things how you do them.  I'm trying to teach her that she doesn't have to eat things like I eat them or do things the way I do them.  SG is just oozing love for the people.  Her language is fine (not as amazing as SC, but it is still very very good).  SG has no problem contacting people.  She was on a bus and talked to a girl for 5 stops and gave her a Book of Mormon as one of her first contacts.  She doesn't know what is going on as much, but she'll catch on soon enough.  It is fun to see how the Lord refines you with your different companions.  SG will be the one to get rid of my sassy (I don't mean to) replies when people don't hear/don't pay attention and ask me something a billion times, lol.  SG is a great missionary though.  She will take a bit more time to train than SC, but she has her own set of skills and talents.

Monday we ate at Ginger with the elders and Margarita.  SC had sushi for the first time!  The highlights were 1. singing Mika 2. Elder Alder putting entirely too much wasabe 3.  Elder Alder and Margarita pinching their noses with chopsticks.

Tuesday was a wild District meeting.  1.  We had moustaches (thanks Amber) 2. we had funfetti cake (thanks Sister Alder) 3. we found out that everyone is leaving Liepaja!  Except for me!!! (Elder Baxter and Sister Clark are going to Riga)  New food invention: soft shell tortillas with cheese, ham, and guacamole heated up.  Yum!  So Tuesday was consumed with Santa's master plan to have us teach her friend Viktorija who has met with us once or twice before (and she also came to English for a time).  We went up to show the new masa Karosta.  Viktorija showed us the Russian Orthodox church.  They basically have saints.  I didn't know that.  Viktorija told us stories of some of the paintings of people who became saints.  Some of them you can pray to to ask for certain things.  She then showed us around the woods (which included Santa and Viktorija doing some "natural watering") as well as the lake.  There were two swans on the lake which Santa endlessly tried to get to come over to us.  "Get over here swans!"  It was cold with the wind so we went to Viktorija's house to have tea and cookies (we brought cookies- part of Santa's plan).  We also ate a chocolate Easter Rabbit.  Santa went at the ears with a knife that you would have thought was an ax.  It was quite the scene.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and Viktorija hadn't ever thought of a lot of the questions we asked so it got her thinking.  At the end Santa shared a very special experience with Viktorija.  At institute they were told that in Heaven long long ago we promised others that we would find them and help them.  Santa prayed to find out who this person was and God told her that it was Viktorija.  It definitely made the "wasted" missionary time worth it.  We got back to center in time to teach the Beldavi about tithing.  We did a practice at the end.  Raivo got to "be God" and give blessings for paying tithing.  It was neat to see that even little Raivo knew how much candy tithing his older brother should be paying him back.

Wednesday we went over to see if Valda would answer before SC left.  Valda was home, answered the door, let us take pictures and talk to her.  She might let us come by next week!  I also got new knit slippers (cheebas).  SC finished packing and we left to go to Riga.  We stayed with Sister Wilson and Sister Kurr.  They fed us shishkebabs, russell salad, and strawberry log...yummy.  We didn't get much sleep because Sister Wilson was packing and she also had lots of stories to tell us.

Thursday morning I made everybody waffles.  I never sleep well in Riga so I was up early anyway.  The lady who drove our taxi was super nice and SW gave her our information.  She was just a young fun lady who got us there super quickly.   I had fun at the mission home because I was the only girl!  Surprise.  The meeting was a lot shorter than the last one.  There were tons of missionaries at the bus station when we got there.  Kristine's sister Zane was also there.  She is moving to Liepaja and now has a baptismal date for May 25!  She is a shorter, older, brown-haired service-oriented (and more non-denominal Christian beliefed) Kristine.  Elder Holdaway is back in Liepaja (He was my district leader for the first 3 transfers in Liepaja).  He is accompanied by his trainee, Elder Bergason from Orem, Utah.  We saw Valda on our way to our apartment.  Weird!  We talked for a bit and later in the evening we had a great lesson about revelation with Skaidra which was just what she needed.  She is thinking of going to Austria for work, but doesn't know what she should do.  SG loves her and Skaidra came to the service day on Saturday as well as church on Sunday!

Friday we met with Zane and Kristine.  They are like normal sisters, they don't always have the same views.  Their lessons will definitely be interesting.  Zane had a baptismal date for early April, but isn't ready to follow the Word of Wisdom.  We are hoping the Kristine will get married so she can get baptized with her sister.  She said that she is at the gate just hanging on and waiting to get in on the path.  Sometimes Satan tempts her to take her fingers off but she said she isn't letting go!

On Saturday was the big talka diena (service day).  We had an okay turnout of people who helped to clean the church and around it.  Presidents like goofing off with the house.  We washed some of the windows and when I opened one of the doors water came pouring down on me.  It was pretty hilarious because I wasn't expecting it.  Elder Alder and his parents were in Liepaja for Vesma's baptism (the elders' investigator).  They came during the talka and then to the baptism.  I was no longer in jeans and a pony tail at the baptism and Brother Alder said, "Wow, you look different."  "I know.  I can look good if I want."  Like father, like son, lol.  No tact.  Anywho, the baptism went well and everyone was terribly sad to see Elder Alder go.  They told him to get married and come back soon with a wife and children.

Sunday was a good day.  Sintija invited her friend Arta to church again and we are going to meet with her this week!  We met with inactive Jana who committed to keep the Sabbath Day holy starting in June.  The Scerbinini helped us with her lesson (she is Russian).  The bus ride with the girls was fun.  I also got to say goodbye to Margarita.  She brought her friend Nastja, who she has been trying to get to join the church forever.  Nastja committed to coming to church on Sunday and even asked what time it was and everything.  Hopefully she comes!  It was a special meeting and then the elders came and gave Rita a blessing.  We dropped by our awesome contact of last week (the family) but they didn't answer.  They also haven't been answering their phones.

I can't believe April is almost over.  Time flies.  June will fly too.  We have a Mission Conference, Ligo, and the 20-year Jubilee of the church in Latvia.  And hopefully a few baptisms! 

The church is true.  I love our Savior.  Through him we can become perfect.