I Was Born A Traveling Man

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

Elder Davis loves to travel.  He is "King of the Road" when he gets behind the wheel of his 2010 Opel Meriva and heads for a new destination. Sister Davis is pretty much along for the ride...or so she thought.

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkien

Vilnius, Lithuania is a 4 hour destination from our Riga apartment and that meant getting up early to make it in time for the marriage seminar.  As we headed out of town, we saw what appeared to be the beginning of a gorgeous, sunny day.  The landscape is a mixture of all colors green, while the sky sets if off with a background of blue. How delighted we both were to be outside the city and into the country.

Our last trip to Lithuania was during the dead of winter...white, frozen, dreary. But now God's creations were out in full force with beautiful bright colors. We thought these were fields of  mustard....

but a quick look in our handy guide book....

....said they are fields of rapeseed (known here-abouts as rape). Sister Davis had seen bottles of Rapeseed cooking oil in the stores and knew it must be popular but she didn't realize that this is one of Latvia's own products. We saw field after field of  bright yellow rapeseed on our trip to Lithuania.

Sister Davis was curious....the plant looks like the mustard plant that is so very common in the western United States where she grew up. Even the leaves look the same, so she had to search for answers online. She discovered that the two are different variety's of the same genus. And their seeds are both used for cooking oil...in fact the canola oil we buy in the USA is made from a type of rapeseed

According to Wikipedia: Canola is made with the seeds of Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) or field mustard (Brassica campestris L.). Its seeds are used to produce edible oil suitable for consumption by humans and livestock. The oil can also be used for fuel.  Canola was first made from rapeseed  at the University of Manitoba in Canada in the early 1970's. It was bred naturally to have lower acid than most rapeseed oil  and thus it's name:  "Canadian oil, low acid".

After about 2 1/2 hours of driving, Elder Davis started getting tired.  He had awaken earlier than his companion (something he does frequently...it's a Davis trait) and now it was time for his morning nap. Sister Davis was in a quandary. She wanted to be supportive but she hasn't driven a car for six months and driving in a foreign country SOUNDS SCARY.  And to top it off, the Meriva has a manual transmission.
Yikes, a stick-shift with Sister Davis driving....

"Grit your teeth, Sister Davis you can do this.

And that is how Sister Davis ended up driving the little black Meriva, on the roads of Lithuania. She was a little rusty with her shifting but since it was a highway with little traffic on it, she managed to get on the road, shift into fifth gear and could cruise along, while Elder Davis was zonked out in the seat next to her. Just before arriving at Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, Sister Davis gave the wheel back to Elder Davis. There is a limit to how much driving courage she had.

We spent the day having fun at the marriage seminar, and then went out to dinner with  Pres. & Sister Boswell and E/S Flake.  President Boswell asked if we were game to try a Brazilian restaurant. Sister Davis has always wanted to try a Brazilian Grill...she heard they serve lots of meat.

And she wasn't disappointed. There was one waiter who came to our table about 8 times with different types of meat for us to try. Grilled chicken, chicken hearts, turkey, pork, and last of all, beef ( because it's expensive and by then you are full!) Of course we over ate...it was mandatory. It felt a little odd though to be eating at a Brazilian Grill in Lithuania!

We spent the night with E/S Flake....

(see them on the balcony saying goodbye?)

...got up early Sunday morning because Elder Davis was born a traveling man...

and we were expected in Daugavpils (dog-of-pills) by 10:00AM.  Holy cow! It's a 3 hour drive and we had been asked to give talks in sacrament meeting. 

You might be wondering how we came to be giving talks in a place we had never been before. It was Elder Stucki's fault. Elder Stucki needed Russian Book of Mormons. His companion Elder Southard needed the money that his grandma had sent him. They needed a courier fromthe mission office and Elder Stucki heard that we wanted to come meet the new Institute teacher in Daugavpils, some day. Someday became Sunday. So we were to deliver two boxes of Book of Mormons and some cash. And, when the branch president heard we were coming....we were given the assignment to speak.

We got the phone call while we were at the marriage seminar and what could we say?
"You want us to speak tomorrow for 15 minutes each?"
"Okay.

We thought yesterday was a nice day...this Sunday morning was spectacular! Warm, sunny with a slight breeze, it was one of those rare perfect days that just makes you happy. We drove by numerous lakes on our way up Eastern Lithuania.....and lots of quaint little villages full of houses with steep roofs.

One of the interesting sights we saw all along the way...cows standing in fields with no fences around them.  In fact, most farms don't have ANY fencing.  And we seldom see more than a few cows per farm.

Our GPS took us to the heart of downtown Daugavpils, a city that is on the border of Belarus and is only 75 miles from the Russian/Latvian border. Daugavpils is Latvia's second largest city with over 100,000 people and is a major rail transportation hub to Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.  

Once there, we couldn't find the church. So with a call to Elder Stucki, we were told to park where we were and they would come get us. It seems the church is located on a street that is only for pedestrian traffic, no cars allowed. 

The church is located  on the second story of the building below:

Most of the members are Russian speaking (52% of the city are Russian).  Below, we have a photo of President Spalvens, the branch president, a sweet and humble man who introduced us as "honored guests".

Believe us, the honor was all ours to get to meet the wonderful members in Daugavpils.

It is a small branch with only about 20 people in attendance

(and that included 3 sets of missionaries!)

This is Elder Stucki with Brother Timofey. Brother Timofey is both deaf and mute and yet his spirit shines forth like we have never seen.  He knows Latvian sign language and one of our young missionaries, Elder Southard, learned American sign language in high school. They are not the same and so Elder Southard had to not only learn Russian for his mission he is now learning a little Latvian sign language from Bro. Timofey.  Bro. Timofey takes the sacrament and then a member sits next to him and writes on a piece of paper what is being said in the meeting. 

Bro. Timofey was asked before the meeting to give the closing prayer. He gives it in sign language. No one bows their heads to "hear" the prayer, they watch his hands intently to show their reverence to what he is saying.  It was wonderful, you can really feel the spirit of his prayer without a word being said.

We  stayed for Sunday School, talked to the new Institute teacher  and then headed out back to Riga.

Sister Davis never gets tired of seeing the many ramshackle farms along the way. They are so different from the newer buildings we see in America, yet people have lived in them for generations.

And these crumbling buildings, are literally, everywhere in the countryside.  Built ages ago, these were once the farm houses, barns, and out buildings of generations past. And someone made a decision, long ago, to move on...if only these walls could talk, what  a story they could tell!

We see interesting houses often on our travels...

Well, there is no telling where our travels will lead us next.....come back again and find out!