So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

The Family Home Evening Farewell for Elder Lauris Vanags was bittersweet.  All his friends came to wish him well on his mission.  We had a special dinner and he was given a goodie bag with all this favorite candy and snacks to take on the plane. He was leaving on a Tuesday morning for the  Madrid MTC and Elder & Sister Davis were entrusted to take him to the airport. 

Rams, Aivars, Rihard and Renars.....

Lauris explaining how he feels about leaving the next day. 

We are glad he is smiling, it mean's he's ready to go.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you

Before you go Lauris,  Sister Davis has a couple of missionary tips that you need to learn. Let's make a game out of it!  First off is a shirt folding contest. Who can fold a white shirt just right, so it fits in a suitcase with very few wrinkles....? Let's show Lauris how to do it.....

Renars won!

Rudolfs looks envious....that fold looks professional.

Hope you caught how to do that Lauris!  You need that suitcase packed by tomorrow.

Now it's time for the tie-tying contest.  Who can tie their tie the quickest?

Elder Davis won but that wasn't fair...he has had lots more years of practice than these young fellows.  Lauris did pretty good himself.

 And then we had a clothes pin demonstration. Aivars, using four clothespins, could put four socks on the drying rack in seconds! Amazing to watch, he obviously has had a lot of practice hanging up socks.

No, Lauris...you need to go home and pack your suitcase!

Leaving his humble hotel room for the last time.....

Lauris has one large suitcase, one carry-on suitcase and a gym bag.

 

  

So long, farewell....

WAIT!

We have to go to President Boswell and get you set apart as a missionary first, then we go to the airport!

President Boswell is going to miss Lauris as much as we will.

But we all know that Lauris will make a great missionary and missions give you real life experiences that make you a better member of Christ's church.  After all, Jesus's best friends, his apostles, went on missions as he instructed them to.

One young woman, here in Riga, asked the missionaries why do you go around "bothering" people all the time. The answer the missionary gave?  If you had a really great gift given to you, wouldn't you want to share it with your brothers or sisters? 

 

The young lady said, "Probably." 

"Well, that is why missionaries share the "good news" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We just want to share it with out brothers and sisters around the world. They can reject it or accept it, but we still need to share it." 



Elder Koltko & Lauris



All the Sisters (Millet, Davis, Adams) wanted a picture with the new missionary!

And finally, Lauris with us, two smiling senior missionaries who love this young man very much and want him to be happy always.  We are so proud of the choices he has made that have led him to serve a mission!

 And now time to go to the airport....

What a surprise we got when Lauris's friends started showing up there. They took buses from all over town to say their goodbyes.

Sister Davis, Aivars, Pres. Blums (Riga I Branch Pres.), Elder Vanags

We got there so early, his airline didn't even have a ticket booth open.  But of course, we didn't know that, and were standing in the wrong line for 15 minutes. Then when his airline opened up their booth, all of a sudden there were 20 people ahead of us in line....how does that happen?  There must be a "Murphy's law" that dictates how airline passanger lines form.

Renars, Aivars, Pres. Blums, Lauris and Juris

 And finally, it was time to head into the "ticketed passengers only" area. It was hard to say that final goodbye knowing that we wouldn't be in Riga when Lauris returns. Our mission is up in May 2013 and his will last until August 2014.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

Adieu, adieu,

to you and you and you

And lest you think this is the end of our support for this special young man....we realize he will need lots of letters on his mission. Elder & Sister Davis wrote weekly letters to their three sons who served missions and we know how much work that is to do consistantly.  We also have seen first hand how much these young Elders crave letters from home. To get a letter in the mail is HUGE to them.  We will continue to support Lauris in the Ukraine with letters from us and all the YSA's who  know him.

Post Script:  Lauris loved the Madrid MTC (especially the food!) and even went out to a park to practice his missionary skills.  He was one of 6 Russian speaking missionaries in the MTC and we were told by the mission president that he was fearless in talking to people (even though he knows little Spanish!).  He arrived in the Ukraine mission and is doing well.