This week was beautiful! The weather is wonderful here! We had one day of thunderstorms, which I love!!! But the rest of the time it has been clear skies and hot, humidity. But the heat has been cooler in my opinion this week and really quite enjoyable. I also spent time in Rīga this week with Sister Berchtold. I had to teach at a zone training meeting there. Sister Branchflower and I are the sister training leaders for our zone so we taught them. It was really fun. We talked about revelation and receiving revelation in our planning. We found that a HUGE key in receiving revelation is prayer. It all starts with how sincere our prayers are. :)
So, to update you on the work, first off about Gundega who has a baptismal date for August 30. She is doing well. We had a miracle with her this week! We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday. We asked her if this would be a problem. She told us that she is addicted to smoking and to coffee, but just a week ago decided on her own to quit both. She is going on about 2 weeks free of these substances!! It is incredible! She was smoking a pack a day and drinking 10 cups of coffee in a day. Well, she up and quit them both! We gave her some advice and things to help her keep going and she is trying so hard! She is great! She told us that she just felt like now was the time to try. I know that because of the things she is doing (praying, reading the scriptures especially the Book of Mormon, and coming to church) have given her a power to be able to get over these things. She has been able to receive divine help from God. I love her so much and glad that she is still progressing. She was at church yesterday and participated in the Sunday school lesson about sabbath day holy. It was so great to see her testimony start to shine through. She really wants to do that which is right. She also has been very well befriended.
We also got a new investigator this week! Her name is Agija (Ageeya for pronounciation). She has been attending our English class that we teach twice a week, but when we told her we would be taking a break for a couple weeks she was really sad. We told her we could come by and talk to her more about our church and the message we have. She was open to it and invited us over. We'll be going over for the first time this week. :)
Also, yesterday at church was a great day! It was fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong! There was no quiet moment as many people were being prompted to go and following that prompting to get up and bear their testimonies. One cute testimony was from the few youth in the ward, Edgars, who got up and announced to everyone that he was engaged! He is engaged to Sintija who is also one of few youth in the branch. They are so cute together and are planning to get married in December. It was really fun and made the whole branch so happy! We also had two investigators there, Gundega and an older lady Ieva. Ieva just walked into church last week and decided that she needs to turn her life more to God so, she's been attending church. She is hard of hearing, but it super cute! It was really fun!
One things Sister Berchtold pointed out to me this week is how much the members love me. I hadn't realized that! I mean, I love them a ton, and I guess it is reciprocated. I love being here with them. They are so thoughtful and I love that about them. One member gave me a old dress she had this week. It is a little small, but it was such a thoughtful gift. I love the members here. They help us so much. Whenever we ask for help on lessons they are more than willing to come and help us! It is so wonderful to see. I love that about them! I hope I can be half the member they are after my mission. They are truly member missionaries.
So, my dad asked me to tell more about Sister Berchtold. I love her a ton! She is a hard worker! She has great ideas and shares them. I love talking with her. We always seem to have something to talk about. That is probably one of my favorite things. It doesn't matter what, but there is something to always talk about! She is such a sincere person with desire to do better. She is willing to try new things and is also very honest about situations which is great! She and I came up with this idea to take more pictures, and so we made a list of situations when we could talk more pictures. Some of them are, nightly phone calling, nightly prayers, cooking food, etc. They are situations that are daily and routine for us, but are special to do as missionaries that we will want to remember after our missions. I really like it! I hope I will get to send some of them home. :)
Well, that is it for today. I just wanted to share a thought about being a missionary. I am realizing more and more that being a missionary is something all members of the church should strive to do 100% of the time. This does not mean walking the streets stopping people and handing out copies of the Book of Mormon. This means living what you believe! It means being an example of someone who believes in Christ, all the time. It means being a disciple of him. It isn't hard. It is just simply something that we must decide to do and start doing. If you want to start, simply start with your prayer and scripture study. Come to know Christ by praying to the Father in His name and reading about him and his words in the scriptures. These are daily things that will put on us on the path to be missionaries. I know that these things, praying, scripture study, and church attendance are three fundamentals for our foundation. We must do these daily to continue to stregthen your testimony. I know that this is truth. I love being a missionary and testifying of these things.
Ar mīlestību,
Māsa Klauvarda
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