We Have Work Enough to Do...

Its Easter Week here in the Baltic, and.....

We have work enough to do,

Ere the sun goes down...

 The light is changing rather rapidly in Latvia.
The sun sets about 20:00 (8PM) now, and like the hymn says we are working "ere the sun does down." That means Elder & Sister Davis have been doing a lot of work! This post will show a slice of the work we have been doing for the past week.
Sunday was fast Sunday...so Saturday was definitely not a day of rest. Elder & Sister Davis were preparing for our fifth break-the-fast by shopping and preparing the food. We were making ham, "funeral potatoes" and green beans in celebration of  Easter. We try and prepare everything the day before so we only have to heat it up on Sunday.  Since we have afternoon church, we leave right after sacrament meeting, hurry home and start heating food. With one oven, it takes about 2 1/2 hours to heat three big pans of food, one after another. The ham was heating in the crock pot. We set up tables in the morning....

...and once the YSA's started coming, we didn't have time for photos! We ended up feeding 29 hungry people with three pans of potatoes, two loaves of french bread, 5 bags of green beans and 5 tiny hams.                  For ourselves and mission too,       Ere the sun goes down....
Monday of course is FHE, but before we could worry about that,  E/S Davis needed to walk to the mission home and work on some budgeting paperwork that Elder Davis needed. It was a little wet and cold outside so Sister Davis wore her boots and bundled up. Outside our apartment we noticed the beginning of a sink hole in the cobblestone street.

After an hour worth of work at the mission office...it was time to head home. But wait! What are those big white things falling from the sky?  Oh NO! It is SNOWING!!! The wind is blowing a gale, the snow is swirling in all directions...Sister Davis had a  hard time keeping her eyes open with snow flying into them. And she just had to laugh...its April 2nd and we thought spring had sprung but mother nature has a mind of her own!

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And two hours later the sun came out and we went grocery shopping for FHE.  Luckily, we instituted "potluck" last month for every first Monday.  E/S Davis bought potato chips and made dip....and waited to see what else would arrive. We ended up with oranges, pears, grapes, carrot sticks, cookies, cookies, and more cookies. Since we  only had 14 come to FHE (can you believe Sister Davis said "ONLY 14!) , there was plenty to eat.

Tuesday we started a new  business in our apartment...the Baltic Mission Bed & Breakfast. First we had Elder & Sister Perry coming from Estonia to stay for two days. They are nearing the end of their mission and had to bring a young elder down for a visa renewal. We took them to some historical sites that we have already seen.

And we finally found the Old Jewish Cemetery that Elder Davis had been looking for two months ago. It is a 2 mile walk from our home through the Jewish ghetto.  Part of the reason we couldn't find it is that now it's a park....

The  Nazis blew up some of the graves  to erase evidence of all the bodies they buried here and the Soviets later used the head stones in construction work. There are a few bigger pieces of granite and monument foundations scattered around but it doesn't look like a cemetery anymore.  And if you read the last words of the memorial marker, you will see that good old America has stepped-in to preserve this heritage site, here in Riga Latvia. We are an amazing country!