I have so many random things to tell you about. First and foremost, the picture. Elder Jones in my district is a carpenter by trade (I tried to figure out less weird ways of saying that but none of them were as satisfying) and he is in charge of running a pinewood derby here. He gave Sister Clark and I a block of wood each and told us to carve it. When I asked for further instruction as to how one goes about carving wood, all I got was a "follow your heart" kind of answer. My response to that was, "So I set the block on my wrist and carve towards myself, right?" My humor so often goes unappreciated here.
I've decided to make my block of wood into a worm. My logic is sound: if the worm loses, it's not a surprise and people will say, "Well, at least the worm tried. Maybe next year."
However, if the worm wins, it'll be the kind of story that could replace "The Little Engine That Could" in the persuading power that the world can be threshed by weak and simple things.
Obviously I've thought about this way too much, but come on. Who doesn't love an underdog?
We went to Riga for zone conference and finally met President and Sister Harding. Our interview was really short but they are apparently close family friends with Elder Graf (bff from the MTC) and it was fun to make that connection. The rumor is true, by the way: they are classy. Sister Harding is the prettiest lady ever and she's a genius. Knows a lot about church history. President Harding is really loving and awesome as well. He said that he won't be writing us every week like President Boswell did because he's going to focus on coming on lessons with us instead. I'm pretty excited for that but I will miss the weekly letter.
Zone conference was good, though. They announced a few changes that the First Presidency made to missionary work, which was awesome. They won't make much of a difference to you, but I was glad to hear that we now need to teach the 5th lesson before baptism. I've wanted to do that with certain investigators and now I can without feeling like I'm doing something wrong.
We did a practice teach in zone conference and it gave me a really good idea that I wanted to use to get Inna to commit to being baptized on a specific date. More on that later.
On the way back to Daugavpils, so many hilarious things happened. First of all, we had woken up at 4 that morning to make it to Riga in time for our interviews. The elders stood the whole way because they gave their seats to a bunch of girls. Remember that; it's important later.
Secondly, zone conference went really, really long. It was a struggle to hang in there for the last hour and a half because we were just talking about rules and President Harding was reestablishing expectations. Which is great! Not complaining over here. It just made us miss our train home so we had to wait an hour for a bus. It was a very hot day, mind you, and we had to wear blazers and suit coats for zone conference. So our bus finally pulled up and as soon as I walked in, the heat and humidity from sweat hit me like a wall. No air conditioning, plus it was packed. So hard to breathe. I entertained myself by imagining what Mom's reaction would have been like.
We got about halfway to Daugavpils when the engine turned off and we started coasting. I joked to S. Clark that we were just gonna coast the rest of the way but then we pulled over and I realized that the bus had broken down. Our bus driver said to get off, smoke, find some shade, and feel free to hitchhike. We explored the surrounding forest for a little while and when we got back, the bus driver told us that another bus was coming from Dpils (about two hours away) to pick us up, but that we'd have better luck flagging down a bus on its way to Dpils. The problem with that was that there were about 45 of us and only 30 or so people could fit into the incoming buses, and they'd have to stand because the seats were already taken.
Needless to say, it was excellent district bonding time. According to my district, I'm 45% Ravenclaw, 35% Hufflepuff, and 20% Gryffindor. I sincerely hope I did that math right. Weird though! Because I'm pretty sure that's not what I would have been sorted as before the mish.
When a bus finally stopped, Sister Clark and I were, tragically, the last ones to be crammed in. The elders stood at the door looking all heroic and yelling, "Everything's going to be okay! Go on without us. We'll find a way home." Never felt more like I was in "The Titanic" (except for when Dad and I were running for our bus in Bruges). My face was in a Russian guy's armpit for a good 45 mins before there was another break and while Sister Clark and I stood outside to get some fresh air, two of the girls that the elders gave their seats to from the bus ride that morning came up to us and said to come sit with them. I felt like blessing the names of the elders and their children and their children's children because even though we were sitting 3 people in 2 seats, we were right under the only air conditioning vent on the bus. The girls kept saying, "You helped us, so it's the least we can do."
It was a long ride home. We walked in our door at 11:45 and after taking a cold shower, I finally went to bed.
The next day, Sister McDiarmid and Sister Ixtlahuac came for exchanges. I was with S. Ixtlahuac and even though I felt half dead most of the time, it was a good exchange. It always is with her. I'm 99% sure that she's the best missionary on earth.
As great as the rest of my week sounds, nothing was better than the lesson we had with Inna on Saturday. We taught her the rest of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and right off the bat, she was all exasperated and said, "Sister, tell me what the most important thing I must do is, in your opinion." Again, I wanted to tell her to buckle up because we were just getting to the good stuff. It was hard to keep her focused the whole time because she wouldn't see past how miserable she feels her circumstances are. She feels like she works so much but has no money left over and she dislikes her coworkers and shouldn't she be on pension anyway? I all but grabbed her face and said, "Inna, I need you to listen carefully to what I'm about to say." She nodded. I said, "The stronger your relationship is with Christ, the less your circumstances will matter to you." She repeated it back to me and seemed to think about it. We talked about the Holy Ghost and when we asked her how soon she wants it, she said, "Right now." After talking about the fact that it obviously takes effort to be worthy of that gift, I asked her to imagine someone who decides that they want to run a marathon. They're really excited and they run a mile every day this week. But next week, they have to work a lot and don't get to run as often and the week after that, family is in town, etc. I told her to compare that person with someone who decides to run in a specific marathon on a specific date. She always gets where I'm going before I get there, so she said, "I see your point." I reminded her that she asked us what she needs to do and then I said, "You need to be baptized on August 19th." She nodded and said, "Okay. Yes. That means that we must meet more often." She took the words right out of my mouth :) She has a lot to learn and habits to overcome, so your prayers would be much appreciated.
We also went on a picnic today with Sasha and Lidija. It was especially fun because we went to the forest and picked raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. All of them were wild and tiny and so cute! For some reason, the only pictures I took were Elder Hampton posing so you'll probably get some of those soon, haha.
Last random thing: Daugavpils has a good sized indoor market and we went there today to buy S. Clark some stuff and as I was bartering for a lower price on an umbrella, the lady stopped and asked, "Are you Russian?" YESSSSSSSSSSSS. Such a victory in my eyes.
Anyways, I love you all and thank you, thank you, thank you for the emails. It makes my week.
Love,
Sister Gooch
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