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
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