Sister Davis thought you might like a tour of Kraukli before we get started with Day 2 so you can visualize better what we were doing....
Kraukli has two huge guest houses (and two smaller cabins), both in beautiful shape (thanks to Edmunds handiwork), surrounded by beautiful lawns, gardens full of blooming flowers and close to a tranquil little river. Edmunds is the Latvian equivalent to Sister Davis's dad, they both take great pride in their land.
The renovated old barn (above) is three stories high. On the first floor you will find a sauna, two showers, a dining alcove, WC and staff room. The staff room (below) became"Youth Conference Central", where ALL important paperwork, props, crafts and candy was kept. It was immensely helpful to have everything in one place. It was usually a mess of bags and stuff but it gave all the leaders a place to regroup and unwind.
On the second floor, there was a huge dining room, and a WC.
This guest house sleeps about 21 people because the top floor has four bedrooms, a shower and another WC. This became the boys facility because we had twice as many girls as boys.
The second guest house is two stories with a loft above. It sleeps 37 and thus became the girls facility. No boys allowed...except for Elder Davis who happened to be sharing a room with Sister Davis.
The bedrooms were very clean and each bed had clean sheets, blankets, and pillows. Sister Davis was thrilled with the place and was determined to make sure these rooms would be as clean when we left as they were when we arrived. And thus the "Clean Room Award" was instituted at Campfire.
So on Day 2 of youth conference, Elder & Sister Davis rolled out of our bunk beds about 7:30 hoping to get a bathroom free before we left the guest house. Seminary started at 8:00 so we had to hustle...usually Sister Davis went down the hallway singing some funny song to get the girls moving each morning. She was surprised how quickly this got them up and out of bed... her singing must be worse than she thinks.
Anna, a Latvian youth, made this sign....
Antti taught an Old Testament class to half the youth in the dining room....
Estonian youth with Maris Julia & Sintija
For our class, Sister Davis took half of the youth and their leaders into the woods. She knows what you must be thinking....."What class needs to be taught in the woods at 8:00AM!?"
You will see that there is a method to our madness. You see, at girls camp Sister Davis remembered how inspiring and faith promoting it was to have the youth read their scriptures out in nature all by themselves. She wanted that same experience for the Baltic youth. And though it was early in the morning at Kraukli, the birds were singing, the dew was drying on the grass, and it wasn't raining.
We started off talking about how Joseph Smith was confused about what church to join, when there were so many to choose from and each had different doctrines. He was reading his Bible one day and James 1:5 told him to "ask of God". He pondered this scripture and decided he would ask of God and the rest is the history of our church. Well, we wanted the youth to have time to ponder and read their scriptures with no distractions. So, into the woods we went....to ponder and meditate.
All the youth were silent as we walked and Sister Davis would tap one person on the shoulder and point to a log or stump for them to go sit on ...and the group kept walking until she found another good pondering spot for the next person until all the youth were scattered around these woods.
For 30 minutes they sat; some wrote in their spiritual journals, some read scriptures and all got to have peace and quiet with their own thoughts....
The only problem was the mosquitoes.
Those nasty, little blood suckers....that should never have been created. We hadn't noticed mosquitoes the first day, probably because there was a breeze...but this morning the little devils were out in force. The youth who wore jeans and long sleeved shirts were fine...it was those who chose to wear shorts that had the problem. We had one can of repellent for about 20 people and it wasn't enough.
The mosquitoes were the only problem we had the whole time at Kraukli. We went through 3 cans of repellent in two days and had to go buy four more cans...none of the youth brought their own. We started joking that "the mosquito" should be made the new Latvian national bird.
But despite the mosquito problem, the pondering activity was a success with most of the youth. Many of them shared faith promoting things that happened to them as they pondered and read scriptures. One leader told us, she read a passage of scripture that she had read before.... only this time, "it was as if everything made sense to her."
One of the youth noticed a row of ants, busy with work...and she saw in them the analogy of our lives. The ants were in a straight and narrow line....headed back to their home (Heaven) and were busy carrying things and working to help each other. She noticed that the ants touched each other as they passed by...all were busy but all had one goal. She even drew an ant in her spiritual journal to remind her of this experience.
What a thrill for us to see a young person who can find gospel principles in nature!
Time for breakfast...
Breakfast was cheese and ham croissants with hot cocoa and Rosol salad. Sister Davis had the cocoa and croissants...she just couldn't stomach eating cold salad for breakfast. Elder Davis, of course, tried
everything, at every meal. He is a good man!
Antti's next class was a team building exercise. The youth had to build a Lego house by designating someone as the architect, construction manager, and carpenters. It had to follow a specific plan and be done under the time limit. The youth loved it!
everything, at every meal. He is a good man!
Antti's next class was a team building exercise. The youth had to build a Lego house by designating someone as the architect, construction manager, and carpenters. It had to follow a specific plan and be done under the time limit. The youth loved it!
At the same time, Elder & Sister Davis taught the scripture marking class that was such a hit at Latvia's Super Saturday. Again, the kids participated and were eager to try out a new way to find scriptures by topics.
The two boys on the right are brothers; Ingus and Elves...
Luiza, Anna, Alars & Joosep....
This is Sasha's little sister....Jelizabeta; Julia is next to her, working hard.
The next workshop, Elders Flake & Davis were giving to the boys...."A Chosen Vessel" was the title but it was mostly on hygiene. They actually talked about sweat glands....the ones that leave the yellow stain on shirts. Here they are preparing in the Staff Room.....
The boys were taught about cleanliness and how girls don't really like stinky boys. They were all given a bar of soap and told to use it that night before the dance. The boys seemed to be enjoying the class because it was based on "how to attract girls".
Meanwhile, the girls were having a modesty, cleanliness class in the dining hall and one girl was chosen to get a free haircut.
This worried Sister Davis a little...."Skaiste, you're giving a haircut to a girl without her mother's permission?!"
Skaiste (a trained stylist), "Don't worry Sister, this isn't the United States!"
And sweet Gintare (below) won the haircut... and guess what? She was the only youth whose mother happened to be chaperoning at youth conference. This made Sister Davis give a sigh of relief! Her mother was thrilled Gintare was getting a free haircut...which is what Skaiste had told Sister Davis all along....every mother would be thrilled to have their daughter get a free haircut.
And now a word or two about Galina...the mother who was chaperoning. She was the only local leader who had children over 4 years of age. Not only is she the mother of a teenager, she has been a member of the church in Lithuania for 17 years...just after the Soviet occupation ended. She has experience as a mother and as a church member. We loved having her at camp...unfortunately, Galina only speaks Russian. It didn't really matter, we managed to communicate just fine. Galina understood more English than she could speak. She could easily be next years conference chairperson with a translator by her side. This is what the church really needs in the Baltic countries....experience in it's members, and that is just a matter of time.
The kids had a little free time before lunch....
The kids had a little free time before lunch....
Lunch was substantial. In Latvia, the big meal is in the middle of the day, with a smaller dinner in the evening. So, lunch was a chicken fillet, mashed potatoes, beet salad, bread, orange cream dessert and punch. And it was good!
Now that tummies were full, we had a dance workshop! The boys met separately from the girls and Donatas and Lasma taught these classes...dance etiquette, simple dance moves, etc. Donatas is a young at heart, branch president in Klaipeda, Lithuania. He has some crazy dance moves and he was loved by the boys at youth conference.
And then the youth had free time for two hours....Riina on the zip line.
Adomas, Alars and Ingus, swimming in the pond...
European football.... and volleyball in the background.
The crafts class was t-shirt painting:
Snack time!....
Pastries and meat rolls, but who's hungry?
And then time for the Service Project. The younger girls were given the task of raking the lawn for Edmunds. The older youth went into the mosquito invested forest and cleaned up the many trails that Edmunds makes through his property.
The evenings were always so nice...we never had to wear a jacket except to keep the mosquitoes from biting us and it stayed light until 11:00. We will finish this post with a few random pictures from Kraukli....
Edmunds even has an outhouse on his property....just like Sister Davis's dad!
The guest house cat was covered with ticks...obviously, his main job is to catch mice.
Notice the flash card he is staring at.....
And we have no idea why someones tennis shoes are hanging from the skylight....
Day two is not quite over...the campfire, district activity and dance are still ahead but will have to be published in another post. Stay tuned!
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