It is almost Christmas, but
you wouldn't know it by the weather in Latvia. This is one of the
warmest winters of my life. The snow is gone, and it hasn't gotten below
freezing in a while. I shouldn't complain, because I've heard it can
get REALLY cold here, and i am happy right where it is at. I would like a
white Christmas, but I am okay if the snow waits a little bit. :)
Well, here is the update to President Boswell about this week:
"This
week we are going to really work on talking to EVERYONE this week as
well. We haven't been doing as good a job as we need to do. I really
want to be a Preach My Gospel missionary, but I do have a long way to
go. I think it will be important for me to really focus this week on
talking to everyone, but more than just talking to everyone, I'm
changing it to teaching everyone. :) I want to go above just saying,
hello, how are you? to saying, Hello. We are missionaries from the
Church of Jesus Christ, and we are here to tell you that you can live
with your family forever..... (or something like that). I've been
creating quite a few "one liners" to use with people so that I can
quickly help them see the purpose I am stopping them to talk. I have
given some in Latvian to Si, so that I know that I am also saying
these in good Latvian, and I'm going to work on just perfecting those,
just like I would with gems.
"I also had another realization this week as I
was teaching Sister Mitton during second companion study. We were
talking about what makes a successful missionary. I had a thought that I
shared with her about what makes us successful at all, whether in
missionary work or in life. True success, in my opinion, is measured by
how well we align ourselves to the will of God. That is true success. It
is the only way to find true happiness in this life, and we can secure
any blessings we need as we achieve true success. This is something I
really want to focus more on daily, aligning myself to the will of God.
This is his work and he guides it. We just need to do that which he
already has laid out for us to do.
"So, this week was hard, again. It seems like we are
working hard, but we aren't yielding any results yet. We are doing some
great things though!! I loved this last week. We got to sing a ton. The
singing at the Christmas market yesterday, went really well! I hope we
will be invited back, but I know that we touched some hearts, and I know
that we left a good reputation with people about the church." So, to
tell you more about this. A Latvian Christmas tradition are the tirdziņi
(little markets). They set them up just for Christmas time and they are
a blast! Well, in some they like to have live music. A member in the
branch (G) set it up so that we could go sing at one this Sunday
after church. It went really well. We sang all of the Christmas hymns,
but in Latvian! They were beautiful and it was really fun! Also, for
singing this week, we are having the branch Christmas party this
Saturday and there will also be a musical part, and the same eight
missionaries are singing for that again. I also am doing a special
number with a few other missionaries. We are doing a quartet and singing
Klusa Nakts (Silent Night). I am really looking forward to it! :) Wish
me luck and I'll let you know how it went next week!
"Also, this last week, we (our district) was able to find another way to serve. On Friday
we went to a less actives place of business. She actually owns and
operates a charity. She helps families that have a lot of children and
don't have money to provide for them, as well as she supports different
children homes. She has a lot going on with it being Christmas time and
we went and helped her out for two hours on Friday.
We wrapped Christmas gifts that will be given to children in the coming
weeks. It was a blast, and we will be going back next week! Another
great thing is that there might be a new investigator out of this. One
guy who works with her has been to church before and has a Book of
Mormon. His name is Mart. He is in his 20's and Sister C kept
pushing for him to talk to us more. She kept saying that we need to
become friends and that Mart should listen to our message. :) It was
pretty funny, but he would like to start attending family night and he
wants to come to the branch Christmas activity!! We'll talk to him more this Tuesday. He will probably be the elder's investigator though, but we are glad to help with the process."
Also, something fun I learned is that Sister Mitton
and I are related!!! :-) We are like fourth or fifth cousins once
removed or something like that. Her mom's maiden name is Brown, and
sister mittons 3rd great grandfather is Homer Brown. (which is my fourth
great grandfather). Someone figure out exactly what that relationship
is for me. :) But it was a fun discovery and I was glad I had my fan
chart with me so we could figure it out.
One more fun thing this week was the primary program
in church! If you think they are cute in America, come see one in
Latvia! This was my favorite! :) They were so cute, and they sang so
cute! My favorite part, was the lady said, "We have... and then paused."
And this little boy had a picture and was standing next to her. He
sadly had the picture the wrong way and the picture was a picture of a
horse when it was backwards. So she says, "We have..." and the little
boy says, "ZIRGS! (horse)" It was so cute!!! It was a great experience.
Well, that is all I have time for this week. I'll
let you know more next week. I love this work. Don't ever doubt it! This
is the best work in the world! This church is true. Never doubt it!
Ar mīlestību,
Māsa Klauvarda :)
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