Čau visiem!!
Happy 2014! I hope you all rang it in memorably. I know I did! I'll tell about that soon. I'll just say it was a little too memorable and I am looking forward to a more quiet one next year. :)
First off, here is my weekly report to President Boswell. This will give you a good idea as to what I was up to this last week. :)
"I am really learning that when I apply exactly what the Lord says, only then does the work progress. Whether that is what you say, personal revelation or through other leaders. He guides the work. When I say "the work progress", I also am learning that that is not how I want it to progress, but how the Lord wants it to progress. Our goal is to figure out how he wants it none, and align ourselves to that. Thank you for all you advice that is helping me align myself to the work of the Lord. I am glad that I am able to be here in this mission learning the concepts I am learning and helping these people.
"This last week, we sadly already dropped our new investigator An. I am apply Elder Bennett's "Love them enough to drop them". He just is not at all interested in meeting to learn more about God or developing faith in Him. He is interested in learning about our history and what kind of people we are, more for interest's sake. Almost like he is a scientist observing a weird specimen. We are going to call him again in a few weeks to see if he has read any of the Book of Mormon, but as of yet, he was just absolutely not interested. I know though, that we planted a seed that will grow. He is intrigued by why we are so happy and why we are the way we are, and hope that intrigue will grow enough for him to really want to find out.
"We did get a new investigator this week. I, who is D's friend, met with us once this last week. He has a lot of true desire to find out the truth of these things. We are really excited to work with him, and we are working on getting his family involved as well. It is going to be a challenge because he lives in Jurmala half of the time and riga the other half, but we are hoping to make something work out. Sadly he can't do skype lessons, but we are hopeful that at least we can make it work half the time. He truly wants to learn and find out more about these things, so that will be huge.
When we met with I, D's sister Ag was also there. She was interested. She does live about 3 hours away from Riga though, so that makes it hard. We are going to work on setting up a skype lesson with her this week and talk more about the Book of Mormon.
"Sadly, with our less active, An, it didn't work out this week. When people want to change, the opposition comes. He is receiving it, but I know he will get through it. He already set up another meeting with him. I know he'll come back this year. It is just going take some efforts and prayers and time."
So, that is what is going on with us. We are working with I, our less active An, and really just trying to build the branch up in our area. We are working on strengthening our members and helping them back. Our branch is getting a lot stronger that it has ever been, and a week ago we set a mission record for the most people ever at church! The church right now is the biggest it has ever been in the Baltic Mission! And it is only going to keep growing! The Branch we are working in has hit 100 every week for the last couple of weeks, and it is wonderful to see the growth! We are becoming more consecrated, obedient, and really learning to work hard to do the Lord's work. I am grateful I get the privilege to do it.
So, my new year was a little too eventful! It was LOUD! We have to be in by 6 because Latvians like to ring in the new year with fireworks! These are not just the little ones we buy in America. These are big in the air fireworks that anyone can buy, and everyone is doing them. Where we live it is just a lot of tall apartment buildings, and a lot of people were doing fireworks. It was very interesting, and fun to listen too. We went to bed at 10:30 as we are supposed to and, lucky, with a little effort I was able to fall asleep, but I did get to ring in the new year this year. :) I was wide awake at 12 when everyone lit of fireworks! Right outside our apartment and all over Rīga. I have never heard anything like it and I honestly don't know how to describe it! It was so interesting. So, I didn't get a lot of sleep that night (as the celebrations really just get started at 12), but it was okay. It was some fun memories. Sister Mitton had ear plugs and slept through the whole thing! I thought that was pretty funny, but ha ha. Oh well. It is a fun/interesting memory. :)
Other than that there wasn't anything really big this last week. Russian Orthodox will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow, so the holidays and craziness isn't over yet, but after that I am looking forward for it to calm down just a little bit. :)
Oh, and mom, I met the Latvian version of the scarlet pimpernel! He was just like him, just in Latvian!! It was the best! He kept calling us missionaries madams and misters, and it was just so great! He even had the stuffy rich British accent, but just in Latvian! I laughed really hard with Sister Mitton that night as I described him. It was great! We had a short, but interesting lesson with him. We sadly will not be meeting with him again (he has a lot of really crazy ideas about what a church is supposed to be and ours didn't fit it), but the memory is fun. It was also a great opportunity to just simply practice teaching. :)
So, I think that is all for now. I just want to end with my testimony. I know that Christ lives. He is our savior and Redeemer. He loves us. We need to find faith in Him. I have been studying faith a lot lately and I have learned a lot. I would recommend you all read it. I read President Packer's talk from two conferences ago, and I liked this quote. It goes something like this, "I am becoming to know that faith is a word of power, not just belief." Do we have faith that is a faith of power? If we don't, we should pray, study, and work to get it. I know I don't have it, but I am sure working to develop it.
I love you all, and I am so grateful for you help!
Ar mīlestību,
Māsa Klauvarda
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