It was a wonderful week and was topped off by a great Sunday! I got to talk to my family and I loved that opportunity. It was just what I needed and I am not distracted in the work at all. Sister Ormsby and I left the church after talking with our families and we were just so filled with energy! We had a really successful night! We just love this work and we are having so much fun doing it together. I love working with a companion who can work evenly with me and we have a lot of the same desires and interests. We both love all foods (neither of us having anything that we don't really like) and so we eat great! We love the food we eat! It has been great!!
Well, here is an update on my week. Since I talked to my family, there isn't a ton to write, but here is an update about all the investigators.
Skaidrīte is coming along really well. There was a few tense moments this last week where she got mad at a member and got really emotional, but she calmed down quickly and talked it out with the member and now they are back to being friends. She had her interview yesterday before church and she is most definitely ready. She is very prone to other people so we are going to meet with her shortly every day to help keep her on a spiritual high. We are going to do all we can to keep the spirit in her home and life so that she will just soar right along to baptism this week. I know that she will be able to be baptized and the branch is very excited for her to be baptized. I am also very excited to help this woman who I have come to love into the waters of baptism this Saturday at 3.
Viktorija is doing very well. She didn't come to church last week, but was here yesterday and was warmly welcomed back by the branch. We are working already with the ward council to find a family that can "adopt" her and help her stay strong. So far we haven't heard the branch counsel's thoughts, but we want it to come from the branch counsel and not from the missionaries. We have expressed our desire and now we are hoping that they will follow up with it and invite a family to look after her. For sure though, the Fro family has taken an eye to her. Hopefully they'll just take care of her.
With Gija and Sintija: We have talked to the brother on the phone and he is okay with us going and meeting with them at the hospital and teaching them. We asked him about baptism and he said, "I'll have to think about it." We are hoping to set up a meeting with him sometime for this week so that we can talk about baptism more and this church so that we can share with him all that we have shared with the girls. We want to have him on board, especially since Gija and Sintija have expressed a desire to be baptized. They are doing all that is asked of them to do, so hopefully the brother (who is the guardian as far as we know) will agree with this.
We also got three new investigators. First off, Eva. She is a sweet girl who came to English class after I called her up. She had talk to the assistants in Riga and they had passed me her number. She came and we taught her a lesson after English. She then set up another lesson with us this week, but didn't come. Now her phone has been turned off every time we try to call. We know that she is 17, but she had gotten permission from her mom to meet with us. We asked her to bring written permission to our meeting, but that was the last time we talked to her. We would go to the mom, but she lives 2 and 1/2 hours from Liepaja in a place called Tukums. It is about an hour from Imanta. I have been there before. So, we'll try to get in contact with her again this week so that we know what is going on.
Also, we talked to Jānis this week who is our second new investigator. He has a very cool story. Sister Ormsby and I were about to finish up before lunch and she said, "We need to go a little farther, I feel like there will be someone we need to talk to on the corner." We get to the corner and there is a man. We both thought to ourselves, "There he is." It wasn't the man. He was argumentative, and not wanting to listen a all. I was confused, when all the sudden I looked up and made eye contact with another guy also standing on the corner. I hadn't seen him when we came up, but while testifying to the first guy, I made eye contact with the second guy. He was definitely the one! He came over as the first guy started to leave and takes the Book of Mormon from Sister Ormsby's hands. He was very open and curios as to what that book was. We set up another meeting, to which he wasn't able to come. We are working on getting a hold of him. I hope that we are able to, because he was so very open.
The third new investigator is Uldis. He was also awesome! He is also a progressing investigator this week! We talked to him while coming back from an appointment. He was very open and later told us that he stopped because he thought he recognized Sister Ormsby. He realized that after he stopped us, that actually he didn't, but he figured why not talk to them. He was a brother who is a member in America and some acquaintances who were also members. We asked if he had ever heard about the church from them. He said no, but that was because he wasn't interested and he didn't ask, and they didn't offer, or if they did, he didn't listen. He said this time, on the street was different and he was interested. We taught a 25-30 minute restoration on the street! We taught the whole thing and even quoted the first vision! It was incredible. He was really receptive. We met with him few days later and watched the restoration film as a review. He was very open and is curious to know if it is true. When we commited him to baptism, he said no, but that he will be open to an answer and if God would say it, he would be baptized in this church. He is a father as well, so hopefully this week we'll be meeting with the whole family.
That was our week a long with 11 member present lessons! We could have had more, but we had about 6 fall through. Still, 11 is the most I have ever had on my mission! It is looking to be even higher this week!
I'm not sure what else to write, but I will share a spiritual thought. I just have a small spiritual thought on service this week. I know that that is a big thing. I have had quite a few opportunities to serve and I love them everytime. I have seen what service can do to people. For example, we serve Viktorija's family, and that really softened her dad's heart. He was against churches in general and now really likes to talk to us. Also, we have been able to do a lot of translating service. We just had a new relief society president called. Her name is Maja Frolova. She is from Indonesia and married to a Latvian (the met online). They speak English with each other. She knows a very little amount of Latvian and no Russian. She does a great job so far as the Relief Society president. She is getting visiting teaching started (there was no program here at all) and she is doing a great job with that. Well, we are helping her a lot with translation and it is so much fun! We have become very close with her and we work together to serve the sisters. Well, I know that service is the way it works in Christ's church. We much serve if we want to build the kingdom. I challenge you to all go to serve because as the scriptures say, "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)
I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Go out and serve someone!
Ar mīlestību,
Māsa Klauvarda
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