Week 45: May 5, 2014

Hey everyone!

It has been such a good week. We got on a night train from Moscow (which means that it looked a little bit like Harry Potter if you squinted one eye and pretty much closed the other) that stopped in Daugavpils and went all the way to Riga. It was weird to be on a form of transportation and not hear Latvian over the speakers, but just pure, sweet Russian. We had to wake up at 4:30 to make it so we were pretty exhausted by the time we made it to zone conference. Latvia is so beautiful though. Everything is turning green and wildflowers are starting to bloom in the countryside. It was our last time seeing Sister Benson, so it was nice to be able to say goodbye before she headed home. They also announced transfers, which was fun. It never happens with the whole zone together. Sister Roy and I are together again in Daugavpils, which is exactly what both of us were hoping for but not expecting because she's already been here for four transfers. Never wanted to chest bump someone so bad.

Another exciting thing about transfers is that Elder Hampton, who I served with in Narva for a transfer and was our zone leader here, came down to Dpils with a trainee, Elder Grimes. They are both awesome and really fun to work with. And also, Sister McDiarmid is coming back to Riga to be our new sister training leader! I am so pumped about that because we haven't been able to serve in the same country since we got here.

Although we weren't able to meet with Zita, something really cool has happened with her. We've been working on getting her to be more open about any questions that she has so that we can point her in the right direction as to where to find answers. Well, she finally took it to heart and has been texting us with her questions. Her first one was, "Can you remind me why God doesn't give us answers to our prayers right away?" It makes me so happy because it's like proof that she's truly thinking about what we're teaching her, and that it's not just going in one ear and out the other. 

We were able to meet with Inna again this week. I swear, the more opportunities that I get to teach people, the more I can feel my love and understanding grow for them. We weren't able to get the quit smoking program totally ready because we haven't been able to find a member that is free to help us out with it so we moved it back a week. What we did do was watch the Restoration film with her and teach her about authority. She's great because right after I finished explaining the concept of authority using the example of the difference between a policeman giving me a ticket and a garbage man giving me a ticket, she said, "Okay, so in application, this means that baptism isn't valid if the right person doesn't perform it." She's smart. That made sense in her head, but since she doesn't believe that the Savior actually helped anybody by dying, it's hard for her to believe that God's restored gospel could change anyone in our days. She said she wanted us to send her daily scriptures though, so she is still wanting to learn more.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we have sports night every week on Saturday. This Saturday we showed up to the usual soccer field and there was already a team there, mostly comprised of 15-8 year olds, plus their coach who looked exactly like Brat Noren from the MTC. (Shout-out to Brat Noren! Miss ya and hope everything's going well!) They invited us to play with them, so we did, thinking that even though they had more people, we would be fine because they were mostly little kids. Well, we were pretty much dominated. Kids here are so, so good at soccer.

Which reminds me: the pictures are 1. Sister Roy and I laughing really hard because of the previous 10 attempts to get a decent picture and giving up, and 2. Do you see that little tornado? His name's Pashka, and he is insaaaane. 

It was fun though and we're hoping that they'll be there next week.

President Spalvens invited us over to eat shashlik, too. It was such a pretty day and it was yet another moment that seemed surreal because we sat in the back yard of this little green, wooden house with a garden and greenhouse next to us while the smell of grilled meat filled the air. I told Lidija that if I closed my eyes, it almost felt like America.

It was so good though. I had the realization that I will be really sad to return to American food after eating so well here.

Randomly, I've thought a lot this week about the phrase, "Love is blind." Now bear with me, here, haha. I read a talk by Bruce C. Hafen about it and it kind of blew my mind. He made the point that love is not blind; it is bound. And the more it is bound, the less it is blind. I've thought about that in the context of consecration and my missionary work. I interpret bound to have the same meaning as dedicated, or consecrated. Often I find that there's a choice we can make when we have something that requires commitment in life: we can either hold back some portion of our heart and keep ourselves from experiencing as much pain, and by extension, as much joy or blessings, or we can plunge into it wholeheartedly. That's applicable for relationships, jobs, missions, educations. I've thought about the moments on my mission where my heart just aches like I never thought it could, and compared it to the moments that I've held back a part of myself for the sake of keeping myself from experiencing pain. In the moment, the first was harder to experience, but in retrospect, it is much more painful for me to think about the fact that I didn't give it all that I had in every circumstance I was in. I want to be the kind of person who gives my all to everything that I dedicate myself to, and so I guess that I'm really lucky to be where I'm at because there's not better place to learn than on a mission. 

I love you all a lot and hope you have a great week! Thanks for your prayers and support, by the way. They really do carry me along.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 44: April 28, 2014

Hey folks!

It's been a real good week. One of the pictures I attached is the portrait that I drew of Sister Roy (Obviously hair is a struggle for me) and then the other one is of the zoo. I'm now moving on to drawing a portrait of Anna, so wish me luck with that sucker. She's cute though so it won't be too rough :)

I forgot to tell you that a few weeks ago, we finally got a chance to do service for Sister Shamshura. We basically just stacked wood for her, but it was so nice to be able to help her. It gave me a chance to get to know her a little better and ever since then, I've felt a lot more comfortable talking to her. 

This week we were able to stack wood and help Valentina garden. I was turning over the soil with a shovel and the whole time, everyone was so impressed with my technique and they kept saying, "Well, she is from Idaho. Of course she knows what she's doing." I didn't bother mentioning that picking raspberries or peas while my grandpa trims or digs is about the extent of my gardening experience, but I thought it was pretty funny. 

During that time, I made the mistake of not understanding a Star Wars reference and consequently asking what it was from. Now Elder Hansen is determined to tell me every detail of the whole saga (can you call that a saga? I've never seen it). We're about two hours in and I just found out who Darth Vader is. I'm counting my lucky stars that it's only on Mondays that Elder Hansen has to, in his words, "culture" me. He's a hoot.

And, random side note, there's a fair that came right by our apartment and every day we walk by it, I feel like we're in America because it's usually playing music from Grease and there's a ride with the statue of liberty on top. It feels like summer here.

Last week we were able to go to the zoo as a district and that was really fun. I was actually super impressed with Daugavpils' zoo because even though it's tiny, it looks awesome. As you can see from the picture, it looks like a jungle inside. The coolest part to me was that they had lots of open cages and there was a colony of ants crawling along the branches above our heads. I took a picture with a monkey for Riv. He would have loved it. 

We also went to the Crepist (a really old fortress) and it was fun to go through all of the underground tunnels. We didn't have much time but I figure I'll be here another transfer so I'll go back sometime.

My favorite part of the week was our "girls' night" that we had with Zita, Lidija, and Anna. We watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration in English because all of them are fluent and it's more powerful that way since Zita speaks better English than Russian. Zita is a very tender person and she cried for most of it. She didn't understand why Joseph had to go through so much and why so many innocent people were persecuted and killed. She said, "It doesn't seem fair that he received all of those things from God and then he didn't even get to do anything about it before he was killed." It was cool to be able to say, "Well look at where we're at right now. We're in a church building in Latvia because of what he did. He didn't die in vain because we're here." She came to church on Sunday and she is doing really well. I really love her a lot.

We also had another lesson with Inna on Saturday. Teaching her English is so fun. For the spiritual half of the lesson, she wanted to read the Book of Mormon, so we read the intro and answered a bunch of her questions. We're also going to do the quit smoking program with her on Thursday, so we're happy about that. She came to sacrament meeting on Sunday and even though she came late and left right afterwards, I asked her what she thought about it and she said, "It's like medicine here." I'm so excited for her to find out that she can have that kind of feeling with her 24/7. She told us on our lesson on Saturday that "the Mormons live a perfect life". I thought that was interesting and it made me want her to find out for herself all the more.

I finally finished reading Doctrine and Covenants! So many things that I've always skimmed over have jumped out at me. I started reading the Pearl of Great Price and something in Moses 1 struck me. In the first chapter, it tells of God's visitation with Moses and how He shows Moses the world and all of His creations therein. I circled every time that He addresses Moses, because a few times, he says "my son", and if you pay attention to what His message is to Moses, it's a lot about his divine potential. It's interesting to contrast that with Satan's appearance soon afterwards, where some of the first words out of Satan's mouth are, "Moses, son of man". Aren't the differences between the two so illustrative of every situation in our lives? It is always the Spirit of God telling us that we are His; that we have potential to become just as He is and that we need not stoop below our privileges. On the other hand, it's always Satan trying to make us forget who we are and Whose we are. For Moses, it was very clear that it was God talking to him and then that it was Satan talking to him. In our days, it's not quite as easy to distinguish the source of our thoughts, of the comments of others, or of anything that we choose to listen to or surround ourselves with. I think this experience that Moses has is a good example of what we can apply in our judgments, though. We can determine if whatever we are hearing or thinking builds us up to become as God is or if it diminishes our potential and stunts our growth. By those measures, we can know perfectly the source of whatever it is we're dealing with. 

I realize that making decisions in life is hardly ever that black and white, but I think that the more we apply small truths like this, the easier it becomes to see things as they really are.

I had always thought that the more involved people were in this church, the more "Mormon-y" and less relatable they become. Now that I'm here, I realize that's just plain stupid. Of course there are people who are more judgmental and don't seem to understand the most basic Christlike character of service and charity, but basing our activity and studies in this church on the conduct of others is pure idiocy. Our religion and God's purpose for us is to soak up as much truth as we can and to study and to become and to not take the easy way out of things by stepping away from the church because we think "the members are way too judgmental". Our attitude should be to be the change that we'd like to see--to be the example of acceptance and Christlike service that we wish we could see in our wards or branches. Let's think a little less about what we'd like to become and a little more about what God created us to become, because I can guarantee that His vision is going to leave you a lot happier and capable. God didn't make us to be acted upon: He made us to act. We are the forgers of our faith and it is up to us to fulfill and magnify our callings in the best way that we know how, so that we can be beacons to those who otherwise wouldn't have stepped up without our example.

I love you all and I thank God every day that you're a part of my life. I'm prayin' real hard for you every day and I'm grateful that you're doing the same for me.

Love,

Sister Goochka

Week 43: April 21, 2014

Hey folks!

Did you know that in Daugavpils, they paint gigantic Easter eggs and then put them out on the main street for the whole week? It is so cool. Pretty sure that a bunch of artists are hired to do it because the eggs are rad. 

Easter was good, by the way. The weather here feels like summer and going outside for the first time without a scarf and coat made me feel like a turtle without a shell. It's just cool enough for me not to hate my life, so here's to hoping that it won't get hotter!

Speaking of Easter, I know that most of you know this already but I'll throw it in there for those of you who don't. In Eastern Europe, it's normal to walk around and tell people, "Он воскрес!" and then they respond, "Воистинну Он воскрес!" Translated, that's "He is risen (or resurrected)" and the response means, "Verily (in truth), He is risen!" It's a great conversation starter and kind of fun that people actually respond to it. Easter here is like a blend of decorating eggs and stuff like we do in America but different in the sense that it seems a little more centered on the Resurrection side of things. It's like the best of both worlds. There are also lots of Easter desserts, like this raisin bread frosted muffin thing with jelly candies on top. Not altogether unpleasant, but the lemon-blueberry pastry that some members gave us was better. Also, there are cookie things that I remember Jared introducing me to just before I left that look like nutshells but inside there's sweetened condensed milk. 

We finally got to meet with Zita again this week! Lidija helped us on the lesson. The lesson was similar to one that I had taught Sasha in Narva, because we made a flow chart with trust in the middle. It showed that, for one, we can trust Heavenly Father and secondly, we can trust ourselves because we have repentance and access to the Atonement. We also discussed how we have to trust Him to receive answers to our prayers and what the difference is between being worthy and being perfect. Zita couldn't answer that when I asked her and I'm pretty sure that it's a common misunderstanding. 

We also taught a woman named Inna who has been in Ireland the whole time I've been here but was finally able to meet on Friday. She's a very straightforward person and has a rough kind of exterior at first but is really nice once you get to know her. We taught her English for thirty minutes and then the next thirty minutes we basically just asked her what she wants to get out of life and what she wants to change. As always, everything she listed off is able to be fixed by the gospel. 

It's in situations like that where I always wish that people could just have the knowledge that I do. Not saying that I know everything, but I feel like the more you study this gospel, the more that it makes total sense. To me, nothing less than what we know from the scriptures and modern day revelations makes sense. Sister Roy and I were talking about it the other day, how a lot of churches are concerned about being saved, but I wonder how often they truly contemplate the meaning of "saved". Does it mean existing somewhere in the clouds abiding in eternal bliss, or playing a harp, or just floating around without pain? The only logical thing is that we continue to progress and continue to grow in our knowledge and talents, because that's what we've done our whole existence: before this life, during this life, and after this life.

I've thought a lot about how knowledge is power in its purest form. That's also something that I love about the church: we accept all truth, because we know that God is the source of truth. Taking it a little further, a scripture in D&C says "intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence": simply put, the more that we seek to learn truth, the more open we are to receiving additional truth. Mathematically, we don't learn new truths one by one (addition), but for each one truth we're opened up to many more (multiplication). I just tried really hard to express how that makes sense in my head, haha. Hopefully it worked.

It makes sense that God makes us have faith and be believing before we can have a certain knowledge, though. It's not like we give anybody who wants to be a doctor a degree and a scalpel right after they express the desire. They're required to go through school and to learn for themselves rather than have all the information told to them. It's the same thing for us in life. God's not going to raise an excellent person up just by telling them what it takes to be excellent and telling them all the truth that He knows. He raises excellent people by requiring faith and experience because we have to have our character and knowledge seared into us.

This week the sisters from Riga also came down to Daugavpils for exchanges. It was super fun because I got to be with Sister Ixtlahuac and Sister Nikolaeva: a trainee in her first transfer and a native from Narva. It's always surprising to be put with a younger sister in the mission and then realize how much you've learned because you compare it to how much they don't know. The funniest thing ever was teaching on the streets with Sister Ixtlahuac because she always, without fail, would stop the drunk and homeless people. Sister Nikolaeva and I were laughing so hard the first time that we couldn't even help her out because Sister Ixtlahuac stops this guy who we saw coming toward us. He would stop every few feet and stare at something in the distance, and his beard was stained yellow from years of smoking and drinking, and he was swaying...very obviously not in his right mind. Sister Ixtlahuac had her face an inch away from this drunk guy's face and was yelling into his ear, "Вы вообше верующий человек?" I probably slaughtered the spelling on that, but she was essentially asking, "Are you a believing person?" She's like this little ball of sunshine and she's always super happy, so it was a great exchange. 

We also started art club this week. It's kind of funny because only one person showed up and she's kind of my worst nightmare because she walked in and was like, "Let's see what you can teach me," in a challenging, awkward kind of way. I felt so weird because then she was like, "I'd like to see your art work." So I showed her a few things that I've drawn while here (one of them being a forest) and she was like, "You are afraid of the unknown. You do not have confidence in your ability to try new things and you cling to your past." Haha orrrrr I really like the trees here and figured I'd draw them...

She's a little crazy but made it fun at the same time. We're drawing self portraits so I'm frantically trying to teach myself how to draw to her standards.

Anywho, I love you all. And I guess I'll be talking to you soon? I haven't heard anything yet so I'll tell you when I do.

Have a lovely week!

Love,

Sister Goochka