Charity- Beautifying a Children's Hospital

                                                                               
About a month ago, the youth and young single adults of Latvia got together for a Super Saturday to create paintings for the local children's hospital.  It was a rather "creative" service project and Noemi and Sister Davis were quite pleased how it turned out. We were amazed and grateful  for the talents of those who created the fun and cheerful paintings that will soon hang on the hospital walls.
It took a while to get each painting sealed with a matte finish and attach a hanger to each one. Now they were all ready to go and Noemi scheduled a day we could take those paintings to the hospital to help brighten the walls.

Unfortunately, Sister Davis caught a nasty cold and couldn't go to a hospital. Elder Davis recruited Elder Adams to go with him. We tried to get one of the Institute Student Council members to come but they all had school or work. 
As you can see from the photo below we have a lot of snow around Riga. It has been around 23 degrees Fahrenheit (and expected to go lower!), and snows a little each night. Just enough, for all the little old ladies who keep the sidewalks clean, to have to come out each morning and shovel/sweep off new snow.

To look on the bright side...we will most assuredly, have a white Christmas this year.

Armed with 17 paintings, they picked Noemi up and slowly wound their way through snowy roads and thick traffic to the children's hospital. They purchased booties to go over their shoes and walked down a myriad of hallways...luckily Noemi knew the way.

 Usually, even the hallways are plain but the nurses explained that a school class made pictures to hang in the hallways for Christmas.

This is a new experience for Elder Adams but he's such a good sport to help out.

As  you enter the children's wing you notice they need to replace the old vinyl flooring.

 The nurses were delighted with our creative donation!   They said they would put all the paintings in the play room until the maintenance staff could come and put them on the walls of the kids rooms.

But first they decided to take everyone on  a tour of the hospital and show how nice they were gong to look on the walls.

These are what the patient rooms look like....they don't even have curtains on the windows.

The paintings will go along way to make these rooms more inviting and cheerful.

One ward Relief Society in Provo, Utah is planning on sewing and sending colorful pillowcases to donate to this children's hospital after finding out about it from Elder & Sister Adams daughter.

One little boy was in the playroom when the paintings arrived and he quickly choose his favorite.

When the paintings were laid out side by side, they were quite impressive.... until we saw how many rooms they had that needed help.

Okay, the three little pictures below were purchased at Depo (a home improvement store) by Elder & Sister Davis.  They were cute and rather inexpensive...obviously  not as valuable as the "original" canvas ones created by the youth but still appreciated by the staff. The staff are trying them out on the physical therapy room wall.

Elder Davis is holding up a painting for a sick child and his mother to see.

 

There were lots and lots of plain white rooms...

You can see that even the physical therapy room had no decorations on the walls.

 

We are grateful to have been a catalyst for this worthwhile service project. What wonderful feelings we have knowing those paintings will give happiness for years to come and hopefully will brighten the lives of  patients who need cheering up. We are grateful for Noemi and her compassion for others, that led us to think of ways we could improve this small hospital that is in desperate need of donations.

Serving others is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.