Saturday is a Special Day....

Saturday is a "special day" in the Baltic Mission because most baptisms are scheduled for Saturday mornings. And for the third week in a row, in Riga, we had baptisms scheduled! Sister Davis still had her cold and stayed home not desiring to brave the 15 degree temperature and snow.  But both Elder and Sister Davis are happy to see how well attended these baptisms are. The two people getting baptized on Dec. 15th, were young single adults....and the other YSA's came out to congratulate them, give them flowers and show their love for these newest members of the church.

First, we will tell you about Iveta. Iveta has been coming off and on to Family Home Evening with her friend Aivars since we arrived in Latvia.  She belonged to another church and just came for the games and social part of  FHE.  We all liked her because she is such a sweet girl.  We don't know why, but we didn't see her at FHE for about 4 months.  In the summer, she started coming to FHE again and somewhere along the line,  she decided to have the missionaries teach her a little more about our church. The problem was she was starting school in Liepaja, a 3 hour drive from Riga. She came home to Riga on Friday night and had to return to Liepaja on a bus, Monday evening. She loved coming to FHE so much, she took the late night bus to Liepaja so she could still attend.

Now the reason for this rather lengthy story, is that Iveta had a couple of sets of missionaries. The Sister Missionaries in Liepaja taught her during the week and some Elders in Riga taught her on weekends and Monday nights.  These are the Liepaja Sister missionaries,  Clark and we believe Peterson.

And these are the Latvian Elders, Massey and Schmidt.

Iveta loved all her missionaries!

We had only met Andres once before at Family Home Evening because of his work schedule.  Elders Morgan and Grover taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Aivars, second from left in photo below, was performing the ordinance of baptism.

Iveta with Sisters Nelson and Gallacher.

Pale pink roses, peach Amaryllis, white and yellow chrysanthemums...nice bouquet!

Here are all the missionaries and YSA's who attended the baptism....

Front row kneeling:  President Blums, Juris Maksims Kornevs
2nd row: Andres, Elina, Iveta, Marta, Elina, Sister Peterson (in orange)
3rd row: Elders Grover, Massey, Michelson, Davidson, Morgan, McCaffree, Schmidt with Bergeson behind him, Christensen, unknown girl with Edgars behind her, Zane in teal, Elder Keller, Sister Gallacher, Elder Burr, unknown boy, Sisters Clark and Nelson.

And if you think that's all Elder Davis did on Saturday, think again.  While Sister Davis was nursing her cold at home Elder Davis took on the full missionary duties by himself!  The YSA's had planned an"afternoon at the movie" after the baptism. The few YSA's who could attend enjoyed popcorn and the movie "One Mans Treasure".   That was a nice rest for Elder Davis (though he made all the popcorn)....but that wasn't all,  two hours later, in the same building, was scheduled  a Russian-Spanish Christmas Party!

The Russian Imanta Branch was planning a Christmas Party and since Sister Ramos is assigned to that branch she must have had some influence on what was going to be served for dinner.  She called all the senior missionaries and invited them and of course we all asked what we could bring...something Americans do by nature.  We were asked to bring Spanish food. HUH?  It seems the Russians like Spanish food (we know the Latvians do!).  Sister Davis knows Mexican dishes which are a little different from Spanish ones, so she offered to make two pans of chicken enchiladas. And Elder Davis brought back two very empty pans, so they must have been a hit.

And then the Russian branch celebrated Christmas by acting out the story of Christs birth.

This poor guy must have been playing King Herod....Elder Davis wasn't really sure because the play was all in Russian.

And if these are the wise men...where are their gifts?

It is all a Russian mystery to Elder Davis...but everyone came together to sing in the end.

And finally, after a very long day,  Elder Davis could come home to a sniffled nose wife who was grateful she could count on her companion to take over the missionary work and do such a great job all by himself!