Elder & Sister Adams needed to go to Daugavpils to give talks. Elder & Sister Davis needed to go to Daugavpils to have a recognition ceremony for the one student who finished institute for the year. It just made sense to combine the trip and have some fun together. So we headed out bright and early Sunday morning. We needed to get to the church in Daugavpils by 11:00AM and it was a 4 hour drive.
It was a nice day and we were happy to be on the road again....
though Elder Davis was very tired from driving to Liepaja the day before.
One of us noticed some white birds on hay bales.....
so we stopped the car to get a closer picture: A row of Storks!
We made it in record time thanks to our GPS and as usual, the Saints in Daugavpils were happy to see us and we were warmly welcomed. There were a lot of people there and we met the newest members of the ward...a family with five children, a rare thing in Latvia. The Daugavpils members are a happy lot and seem to love meeting together.
The Adams gave wonderful talks in Sacrament meeting (and surprise! Sister Davis was asked to speak about Institute). Then we attended a Sunday School Class on the importance of families. The recent convert and father of the five kids, talked about how his family is the most important thing in his life. His family lives outside of Daugavpils and they travel an hour by bus to church, stay at church for three hours, and get on the bus for an hour ride back home. This family is sacrificing not just their time to attend church, but the expense of 7 bus tickets. What a sweet testimony he had and how quickly he showed his dedication to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After class, Sister Davis and Sister Adams went into a room and started setting up for our special recognition ceremony. We bought 4 different kinds of cakes from the Rimi bakery....the saleslady said all of them are liked by Latvians. We forgot to tell her, the members in Daugavpils are mostly Russian speaking. But we didn't need to fear, cake (kuka) is well liked by everyone!
President Spalvans gave the certificate to the one young man who actually finished the Old Testament course of study for the year 2012.
And the photo above, is the one we put on our "Too Busy to Blog!" post which was 6 posts ago. Sister Davis is trying to make up for lost time.
Alexandrs was grinning from ear to ear as he accepted his award. We later found he has posted a picture of his certificate on his Facebook page. Isn't that the sweetest thing? He was justifiably proud of his accomplishment, and wanted to share it with the world.
And someone else needed recognition...Sister Spalvans, the teacher! She was the one who made sure Alexandrs would finish the course. A big bouquet of flowers was given to thank her for her dedication to teaching the Old Testament course.
See those "kukas" on the table ready to be served? The whole branch was invited to this celebration and Elder & Sister Davis were hoping that four cakes would be enough.
And there was enough cake! Some people even got seconds.
And because Daugavpils seldom has visitors, we were given the royal treatment. Two little girls made cards in Primary written in Latvian and one was given to Sister Adams and one was given to Sister Davis thanking them for coming. In the background are Sister Sandberg and Sister Lubberink.
We felt we had given service to the Saints in Daugavpils. They felt our love because we showed we cared about them. That's why we are on a mission...because we are needed and though we seem to do just small things, we get warm, uplifting feelings as we bless the lives of others.
Another successful day in the life of two CES missionaries assigned to the Baltic States!
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