Sveiki!
Hi everyone! This letter again might be shorter. I wanted to send
more pcitures because we found out that after this week they might not
allow us to send or receive pictures in our email. :( So, in case that
is prohibited I wanted to get a lot of pictures out. :)
This last week has been pretty slow. Nothing big has been
happening, but we are still working hard. :) We have a baptism in Riga
this week. Her name is Agita. She isn't our investigator, but I love her a ton. She is so stoked to be getting
baptized and we will be going to that baptismal service! I'm excited for
that. We are working on getting several of our investigators there. I
hope it works that we can get them there. It won't be easy, but it wil
be worth it. That I know for sure.
So, as for fun things that I've done in this past week. This
morning we went on a run out to the woods next to our house to see a
monument. I sent a picture of it. It has a plaque in the middle under
this tall white statue, and then surrounding it is just a bunch of
rocks! It is a monument to remember all the jews that died in that
forest. They would ship tons of jews up to Latvia from all over Germany
and different concentration camps and then they would shoot them in this
forest. There are little burial sights everywhere (or at least that is
what they think they are. They are raised areas of dirt with a rock on
top. This happened for three years in this forest. It is so sad and you
would never know this monument is there. I'm so glad we went and saw it.
It was so cool! We walked around all these rocks that represent all the
people who died and it is crazy! They did a good job with this
monument. I don't think people realize (at least i didn't) how much
Latvia and the rest of the Baltic states really were affected by World
War 2 and also how many people died just during the different occupation
times as Russia and Germany fought over who got to be in charge of the
area. We went to the occupation last week on preparation day and learned
all about the people that controlled this area and what happened to the
people here in Latvia. They were treated awful and tons of people died.
It really helps me gain an apprectiation for them and makes me
understand why they can be slow to trust people. They don't like to
trust strangers.
So, I also went to Old Riga last week which I love! It is so cute
and very European. It also is definately a tourist place. But I love it
none the less. We went in quite of few of the many churches that are in
Old Riga and I loved see the designs and the different painting, but
there is one thing I learned for sure. Although our churches are not
always very elegant (especially here in Riga where church is on a rented
floor of an apartment building) there is a special spirit that our
building has that these buildings lack. They may be beautiful and the
spirit is there a little bit, it is definately not as much as the spirit
that is felt our houses of worship.
Also this past week, on Saturday,
we went contacting with the Russian sisters on a small exchange. We had
to get permission, but it was a ton of fun. Here is what I wrote
President Boswell (mission president) about it. "I enjoyed the conacting
with Sister K and Sister C. It was a lot of fun and it was
great to be able to speak with everyone. We ran into a few people that I
would start a conversation with them in Latvian and they wouldn't know
what I was saying so whoever I was with could pick it up, so everyone
person we stopped got talked to. Sister P and I weren't able to
get any numbers or investigators out of it, but while I was with Sister
C she was able to get a number for a Russian man. It was a really
great learning experience, and I feel like it was beneficial to our
work. Thank you for letting us have this opportunity." The Russian
sisters (as in russian speaking sister missionaries) share our area with
us so we see them a lot and i love them. :) But anyways, they both said
to me and to my companion, you are so fearless! You talk to everyone
and don't let anyone walk past without getting contacted. That surprised
me so much. I hadn't realized I was doing that I just wanted to talk to
the people. This especially surprised me because I have always been so
shy and now I'm out talking to people and sharing the gospel with no
fear. :) Who knew!
I love you all so much! Got to go!!
Love you!
Sister Cloward
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