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
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