The Last Busy Week

Why do we use the expression,  'Busy as Bees?" Probably because the average honeybee  spends nearly every hour of daylight foraging for food. They do get to rest at night, though bees don't really sleep.  And their wings flap 11,000 times per minute, which is why it sounds like they are "buzzing".  That has got to wear you out at the end of the day, don't you think? 

On our last week serving as Baltic Missionaries, we were as busy as any bee.  On Saturday, April 20th, Marina came from Russia to stay with us for a week to get ready for her wedding to Dimitrijs.  She is a wonderful girl but things get more hectic when you have company.   Marina's two girlfriends came on Wednesday night and her parents  arrived Thursday morning. Only the parents had a hotel room...the rest stayed with us.  .

Wednesday, we shopped for table decor, food and candies for the reception luncheon we were hosting in our apartment. 

Cleaning BEES:
Meanwhile we were trying to clean an apartment that had 18 months of grime in it.
Who would have thought  a small apartment could get so dirty in a year and a half?  The dust bunnies under the bed in the extra bedroom were downright scary.  And that small gunky stuff in the refrigerator that you have to scrape off with a knife...just who put that in there? And honestly, how does so much crud get into the kitchen drawers?  What is it made of and why isn't it analyzed by NASA? It certainly could be an alien life form taking up residence  in my kitchen drawers.  Now, lest you think we never clean this apartment, you would be wrong.  We do clean it...just not as thoroughly as when you know someone else is moving in. Then you want it clean enough that the new people don't think you were slobs. But cleaning when you have company isn't as easy as when you don't.  And washing sheets isn't as easy as back home...the washing machine takes one sheet and a pillowcase at a time. Most beds have two sheets each, top and bottom.  That means four loads of laundry, drying each on on a small rack before making the bed. It will take two days just to clean sheets! But Sister Davis found a secret weapon...the portable heater. Put it next to the drying sheets and you can dry two pairs of sheets in a day.

Grateful BEES:

We were grateful when our replacement couple, Elder and Sister Viramontes finally arrived to take our place. They came the day of  Dima and Marina's wedding and we were a tad busy that day. President and Sister Boswell entertained them and put them up in the mission home so we could feed the wedding party, clean up and pack.  The Church needs so many more senior couples...without the Viramontes willing to sacrifice time away from their family we would worry about the YSA's we have worked with. The new couple will love them just like we did and will strengthen them by continuing FHE and making sure Institute is fun and meaningful.

THANK YOU, ELDER & SISTER VIRAMONTES!!

Another grateful BEE....
This is Yuri, from Jelgava...he is grateful that Elder and Sister Davis are leaving Latvia.  He "inherited" Elder Davis's suit and white shirt and was ever so thankful to have a suit of his own. We heard he was saving to go to the temple and couldn't afford a suit.  He posed for this picture, happy as could be.  What a humble and faithful Latter-day Saint.





Sabbath Bee's:  We took Elder & Sister Viramontes to church and showed them how much fun sacrament meeting is in a language you don't understand. We introduced them to as many members as we could until their head was probably spinning. After Relief Society was over, the sisters insisted on taking a group picture with Masa Davis.  Well Masa Davis hopes she gets a copy of it!  There were a few sad moments when she reflected about never seeing most of these people again.  It makes you melancholy to realize that in just a year and half, these people have become more than just acquaintances, they have become friends. And how can you not miss seeing your friends? 




We only had three days to orientate the Viramontes but we managed  a quick tour of the Jewish History sites, Elder Davis is so fond of.  We realized that this would be the last time we would give this tour. 

Elder Viramontes took to driving in Europe-East like a duck to water.  Though they were jet-lagged, this new missionary couple managed to keep awake for all the many things they needed to learn before we left for home. They were eager and excited to get started.

Farewell to BEES:

We had so many farewells to say our last week. We said farewell to Marta when we took her to the airport on Saturday for her flight to England.  She left us a beautifully written letter that brought tears to our eyes. Monday, of course, was a Family Home Evening Farewell and that was a whole other post.Wednesday was  our farewell dinner party with the senior couples, hosted by Elder & Sister Ballstaedt. The Millets, Adams, and Ballstaedts had prepared a great feast for us.  We had a hilarious time sharing mission stories and some tender moments when the other couples each shared something they liked about us.  How we will miss those special moments with them. They have become such close friends.

Friday, after Dimitrijs and Marina's wedding lunch, we had another farewell. Eva, Dainis and Agneta came over to eat leftovers from the wedding and we talked and reminisced about the good times we shared  while eating Russian chocolates. Then we walked them to the bus station about 10:00PM and walked home by ourselves...our last walk through Riga at night. We packed the last of our stuff and moved into the Albert Hotel across the street from our apartment about midnight. The next day we met with the Viramontes and said farewell to our apartment. 
On Monday night for FHE,  the Viramontes introduced themselves to the YSA's and we took a backseat.  When it was time for us to leave for our hotel....Elder Viramontes had the kids line up for more farewell hugs and goodbyes.  

On Tuesday, Antti and Skaiste came by and we had a farewell luncheon at Lidos with the Viramontes.  It seems  everyone wants to say goodbye to us...and we were getting the feeling we couldn't get home fast enough. We are sure everyone was sick of saying goodbye to us and wondering when we were actually leaving!

But finally, we had our last farewell.  Tuesday night, April 30, 2013, we stayed in the beautiful mission home  and said goodbye to our friends, President Boswell and his lovely wife, Sister Boswell.  We were treated to a nice dinner at Burkans (Latvian for carrot).  We had a nice visit, watched the video we made of our mission and went to bed at 11:00...only to get up at 3:30 AM.  We had to catch that 6:05 flight. 

Flying  BEE's:
President Boswell drove us to the airport at 4:00 AM. We had to pay excess baggage fees since the airlines now only allow one 50lb. bag apiece. We were happy that each of our bags were underweight and the mission pays the excess baggage fee.

Our Lufthansa airplane took us to Frankfurt Germany where we had a two hour layover...but in an airport that isn't much time.  Frankfurt is a busy hub for air flight and trying to navigate your way through an unfamiliar airport takes time. Plus Sister Davis was hungry and needed some food.

The next flight was from Frankfurt to San Francisco which was 11 1/2 hour flight on an Airbus. We were supposed to have aisle seats but somehow got seats sandwiched between two other people. Luckily Elder Davis was seated next to a very nice German woman who offered to let us out whenever we needed a break.  The plane had 3 outside cameras mounted on it and we had fun watching each of the views from the plane. 

Eleven and a half hours is a long time. We watched three movies,  ate two meals, took three small naps and got up to walk around three times. The Airbus holds about 500 people and the plane was nearly full. The upstairs is for first class and business class and we can only imagine how nice it was because we weren't allowed upstairs.
Just when you think you can't take any more flying, the pilot announces we are coming into San Francisco.

We arrived just before a flight from Tokyo did, so the terminal was very crowded. Can you find Sister Davis in the picture below?

It's pretty hard!  You can only see her legs.

 Elder Davis struggled to get a picture without anyone walking through it but to get Sister Davis so completely hidden was a surprise. 

Homecoming BEE's:

We were so excited to be in America!!

Customs was a piece of cake...they took our form and waved us through. No one looked at all those souvenirs Sister Davis put in her luggage.

We knew we had several hours before our flight to Boise, Idaho. As we were waiting in another security line, Sister Davis heard someone say, "Hello,  Sister Davis."  
Sister Davis turned around and saw a nicely groomed Oriental looking young man. Sister Davis looks at him puzzled...does she know him?
So she asks, "Do I know you?"
He smiled and said, "No, I read your name tag."

In the course of our conversation, we found out that he was from South Korea, on his way to Salt Lake City to go to school. He had just gotten off his mission to London, England 10 days ago.  He didn't know any English before his mission and now he was fluent.  His mother told him to go to America and go to school before he forgot his English.  And with faith that he could enroll in the LDS Business College he came to America. We had lunch together and then had to split up because our flight was moved to another area of the airport. Our four hour layover turned into a five hour layover.

We finally were on the last leg of our journey home.  We arrived in Boise, Idaho at 7:30PM and after a long walk down the terminal we finally saw our wonderful family waiting for us. Words cannot express the feeling of joy and sense of homecoming you get when you see your family again.  Bailey, our eldest grand daughter was just as excited to see Grandma as Grandma was to see her!  

Below is our daughter Melissa and her husband Trent, Aaron and Bailey our grandchildren, and Roger (a friend of the family holding the sign).

Our son Matt and his wife Brandy with Sunny and Aaron greeted us with hugs and a new grand baby.

Aaron brought flowers for Grandma.  Isn't he a sweetheart? 

After 20+ hours with little sleep is it any wonder we looked worn out?

The two Sunny's: Our newest grand baby, Sunny with the happy grandma and her good friend Sunny.

Sister Davis was overwhelmed with happiness...and couldn't quite take it all in.  Our mission was nearly over.

 But first we needed to report to our Stake President. Which was why instead of going home we headed to the Stake Center, where President Firmage greeted us warmly. We gave a brief report and then he read a letter sent by President Boswell to him that blew us away. It was so flattering and we were overcome with emotion. Then President Firmage gave us a blessing that was so beautifully said. What a great way to end our mission.  This has been an experience we will never forget. We have been touched by the lives of so many people and have formed eternal friendships. How grateful we are to have served this mission.  
We know that God lives. This is His work. We know that Jesus is our Savior and that his gospel brings hope, peace and joy to those who live it.  We know that missionary work is important in bringing souls to Christ. How great our joy has been to serve Him.

We would like to thank all those people who made our mission so much fun and so worthwhile and to our readers who inspired Sister Davis to keep  blogging.  Since this is a mission blog, we are ending our journey here.  


Farewell friends....until we meet again.

He's Late for a Very Important Date...the Wedding!

Dimitrijs and Marina had been planning and organizing their wedding for several months. But those last two weeks can get hectic. Marina arrived from Moscow just one week before the actual date and every day her and "Dimi" were busy.... ordering her bouquet,  setting up hair appointments, buying rings, sending out Facebook invites...and working on a  myriad of minor details.  Elder and Sister Davis were in charge of decorating the apartment and hosting a luncheon for 25 people.

When it came time to plan the menu, Sister Davis asked Marina what foods she would like on her wedding day. She thought about it a minute and said, "One senior couple used to make a potato dish that I really liked with cheese and sauce all over it." 
Sister Davis asked, "Were they called funeral potatoes?"
An excited Marina, exclaimed, "Yes, they were called funeral potatoes!" 
Sister Davis said, "Well, we can't call them funeral potatoes for a wedding so we will call them 'Marriage Potatoes'. Would you like chicken with them or something else?"  
Marina thought about it...."I really like this dish that another senior couple made that was a cake made of meat with bread inside." 
Sister Davis had to think about that description for a bit...."I bet that was meal loaf."
She got a recipe book out and showed the ingredients to Marina.
Marina was very excited, "Yes, yes!  It was meat shaped like a cake."
Meat loaf and marriage potatoes were now the official wedding food.


 On Wednesday, Marina's two best friends flew in from Moscow and stayed at our apartment.  Anya and Kristine were absolute angels!  Anya on the left and Kristine
 in the middle. They are the sweetest girls and so polite. They brought Elder & Sister Davis some gifts from Russia...now how are we going to fit them in our suitcase? 
The girls had such great fun together that week and were always asking Sister Davis what they could do to help.

Dimitrijs mom told him she wanted to help with the luncheon, so Sister Davis asked him if she would be willing to do a couple of salads.  She agreed and when Sister Adams agreed to make a dish of marriage potatoes, Sister Davis thought this would be fairly simple event for her to do.

But that was before the person who agreed to make the wedding cake backed out on them.  Dimitrijs and Marina couldn't afford to buy a wedding cake.  And Sister Davis had already agreed to make cupcakes but didn't have time to add cake baking to her list. But of course every bride wants a cake so they can get pictures cutting it and serving it to their new groom.  Sister Davis recommended asking Noemi to make their cake...remember that blog post on Institute graduation and that huge chocolate cake that Noemi made?  And she made two anniversary cakes for Elder & Sister Davis.  Yep, Noemi is the person to ask to bake cakes in Riga.

Noemi agreed happily and said she would bring the cake to the apartment on Thursday so Sister Davis could help her decorate it.

The problem was that everything had to be done on Thursday.  We needed to decorate the apartment, set up tables and chairs,  make 20 cupcakes, decorate the cake, and get the meat loaf ready. And that is why Thursday became the crazy day of the week.  

That morning,  Noemi showed up with four thin cakes layers.  We started whipping cream and slicing fresh strawberries. Sister Davis has decorated her share of cakes so she showed Noemi some cake decorating tips. 

At the same time, we had Anya and Kristine blow up balloons and start decorating.  Then Dimitrijs mom showed up to make salads. Now, this would be nothing in Sister Davis's roomy kitchen back home, but in our tiny apartment kitchen we had three women all needing spoons, dishes, knives and bowls. We kept saying, "Excuse me", as we bumped into each other.  And to make things even odder,  Dimitrijs mom speaks mostly Russian!  Her only English words were: school,  dog, cat, hello, goodbye and thank you. Which was a great deal more words than Sister Davis knew in Russian... 

So, now we have a Hungarian woman, a Russian woman and an American woman sharing a kitchen.  
That sounds like the beginning of a joke doesn't it?

And yet we all managed to work together to get everything ready for the big day.
Then Sister Davis gets a phone call from Olga.  She wants to come over and visit Kristine.  Come to find out, Kristine has been a member less than a year and Olga was one of the missionaries who taught her the gospel in Moscow! It is indeed a small world.

Noemi with her beautiful wedding cake...she has a new career opportunity wouldn't you say?

Sister Davis made the cake topper out of wire, ribbon and a few boa feathers.  We bought the edible pink flowers at the restaurant supply store. The inside had three layers of cake covered with  strawberry whipped cream and a layer of fresh strawberries on each one. Sounds scrumptious doesn't it?

As we are busily engaged making the cake perfect, in walks Dimitrijs with Marina's mom, dad and little brother ...and that is how we ended up with 8 Russians in our home. Now things were starting to get surreal.  A year and a half ago, Sister Davis didn't know anyone from Russia and now she had a whole houseful of them chattering away in Russian. They were all so warm and polite.  Marina's mom joined Dimitrijs mom in the kitchen and started making salads.  They must have made five or six of them.

Elder & Sister Davis went out to dinner to relax.  When we came back everyone was gone. Ahhhh, peace at last.
  
The next day,  Marina's hair stylist arrived at 7AM and spent over an hour getting her hair just right for the wedding.

At 8:30, the makeup girl came and made Marina look like a princess. 

Marina put on her dress, shoes, jewelry, lace gloves and veil....

and was all ready for her prince charming. 

She is sweet, modest and oh so beautiful!

We took these pictures at 10:00AM just before Dimitrijs was supposed to pick her up. Elder and Sister Ballstaedt had just arrived so we could take them to the reception center to watch the wedding. Elder Davis went to get the car.  Where was Dimitrijs?  

Hmmmm. Better call him. He tells us he is running late and will be there in 8 minutes.  Okay, but that is cutting it close. The wedding is scheduled to start at 10:30... but we tell Marina everything will turn out okay.

 Marina isn't smiling quite as much as she was before.... 

Eight minutes later, Anya calls Dimitrijs to find out where he is and he says, "there are complications" and he won't be there for another 10 minutes. Marina is starting to panic. It takes 10 minutes to get to the reception center and each couple is only given a half hour time slot to get married because another bride and groom are scheduled right after them.

Elder Davis says he will take Marina to the reception center and her groom can meet her there....but a call to the groom nixed that idea...he wanted to pick up his bride! Her two friends were valiantly trying to calm her down.  Anya suggested they pray for a miracle. And those faithful girls gathered us in circle and said the longest Russian prayer we have ever heard.   We tried to joke that if Dimitrijs didn't show up, we would find her another groom because she was such a beautiful bride we would make sure she got married that day. We were really trying to make sure she didn't start crying and ruin her makeup,  but inside we could tell she was hurt and upset. What was her groom doing? 
  

Elder Davis who was waiting in our car outside, called and said, "Get those girls downstairs so they can run out the door when he comes".  It had started to rain outside so we took two umbrellas. At the bottom of the stairs, the girls held hands and sang hymns...anything to calm and comfort our forlorn bride.




 Finally, Dimitrijs pulls up in a white limo.  The girls rush out and get in the car.    How can the groom look so calm and happy when the wedding was supposed to start at 10:30 and it is NOW 10:40!!

The limo pulled into traffic before we did and drove down the street.  We headed to the reception center with the Ballstaedts and as we turned onto another street we saw the limo pulled over at a business asking for directions.  Elder Davis quickly rolled down the window and said, "Follow us!"  We knew the way to the reception center because we had been there before.  We pull in just ahead of the limo at  10:50.  The bride and groom now hade 10 minutes to get the whole wedding done.  We can only imagine what was being said between the bride and groom on that short journey to the reception hall.

We ran indoors,  saw a roomful of waiting guests, took off coats and rushed into the reception room. The organist played the wedding march at an accelerated tempo, the witnesses practically ran into the room, and the bride and groom followed at a brisk pace. The wedding official wasted no time....the ceremony was in Latvian and took 5 minutes to finish.  And when the groom went to kiss his bride?.... you could see her obvious reluctance.  

Jazeps had his own special gift for the bride and groom.

Everyone lined up to congratulate the happy couple and  then were told to go into the atrium for a toast and some chocolate candy.  



It was out there that Marina finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed enough to begin to enjoy the rest of her wedding day.

And here they are...

 bride and groom, together and happy.

This photo: Marina's mom and step-dad on the left with her brother;
 Dimitrijs mom and dad on the right.

The first "real"  kiss as man and wife.

As the bride and groom headed off to take wedding photos around town, Sister Davis and Dimitrijs mom headed back to the apartment to get the food ready.  Sister Davis still had to cook two meat loaves, heat up some store-bought chicken and pick up the potatoes from Sister Adams. 

These are the salads that were put on the tables before everyone arrived.

We took all the flowers that were given to the bride and groom and decorated the apartment with them using every vase, pitcher and glass we could find.

The meatloaf got done, the chicken was reheated, and the potatoes arrived just before the bride and groom did.  We ended up with 26 people including Elder & Sister Davis and Sister Adams.

The bride and groom sat in their special places of honor and started eating. It was now 2:15 and they had to be on a bus at 5:00  headed to Tallin, Estonia where they were catching a ferry to Finland. Why Finland, you ask?  Because that is where the Helsinki Temple is located and Marina and Dimitrijs had an appointment the very next morning to be sealed together there.

After eating, the bride and groom were given a little quiz.  By now, you could tell that Marina was over the problems of the morning and was ready for some fun. Back to back, with two ping-pong paddles in their hands, Marina and Dimitrijs were asked questions.  Like:  Who has the best singing voice? They either held up the pink paddle to indicate Marina or the blue one to indicate Dimitrijs. Only the audience could see if they both agreed. It was a fun game and they agreed most of the time.

Then it was time to cut the cake. The cake was the only thing we could surprise Marina with. She saw the table decor and all the food we were making but we made sure the cake was hidden from her until we brought it out at the luncheon. She was so happy to see how pretty her wedding cake turned out!

No shoving cake into each others mouths in Latvia. Instead the bride and groom share a piece of wedding cake together. Such a nice, clean and dignified tradition.  Marina loved every bite of that cake. Way to go Noemi!

And just before the happy couple changed clothes to leave, they came to us with a heart shaped alarm clock and a beautifully written note to thank us for helping them get engaged and married. But the best part was the bone crushing hug Marina gave to Sister Davis and the three kisses she pasted on her cheek. Now that was a sincere thank you!  Elder Davis was getting his share of gratitude from Dimitrijs, too.  We often wonder what the parents think of their grown children showing so much love to two American missionaries. Both sets of parents were watching this scene with smiles on their faces.  And both moms came up to Sister Davis to hug her and say "Thank you" in English. We were thrilled to have been given the blessing  of serving two such faithful Latter-Day Saints as Dimitrijs and Marina. They have started their own eternal family....

What more could anyone ask to be a part of?