Basket Night

When Elder and Sister Davis instituted "potluck" family home evenings, the YSA's didn't know what we were talking about. When the word was explained to them, they told us they had something similar in Latvia. Well, we found out their word translates into "basket night".
Basket night means you bring something in a basket to add to the table.

At Break-the-fast we only had 17 show up... and it was lasagna night, so for the first time, in a long time, Elder & Sister Davis had leftovers!
It was nice to have less than 20 for dinner. Dainis and Eva are married and now attend young married activities. Dimitrijs D. has a girlfriend and doesn't come very often (keep your fingers crossed that something comes of that relationship). We have several new YSA members but a few of our regulars have jobs (that is a good thing) and can't be at all the activities.  So our numbers change and so does our wall of pictures. At our first FHE of the year, we had 22 young people but 7 of those were missionaries..and it was BASKET NIGHT!

So our potluck/basket night buffet included...chips, oranges, bread, cookies, pretzel sticks, onion rings (Sister Davis's contribution), candy, carrots, dip and nuts. Quite the spread.

We had 4 investigators, which is why we had so many missionaries in attendance.  They like to make their investigators feel at home, so the missionaries walk them to our apartment and leave after the lesson is over.  By then the investigators usually feel comfortable enough to stay and play games.

The majority of the group started a game of UNO....a favorite card game. Ingus, on the left,  is a fascinating young man who is investigating the church. He has studied far eastern religions and East Indian religions. He is a vegetarian because he takes the commandment "thou shalt not kill" very seriously. He loves to get into gospel discussions with Elder Davis and stays after FHE for an hour or more. We really like him and his knowledge is amazing.

Agneta is hiding behind her cards because she had gone tanning and was a little sunburned...

There are a lot of  young people who go to  tanning salons here...we think it is because they crave sunshine and the sun is so fleeting, tanning  probably helps their emotional well being.

Why is Lauris smiling in the photo below? 

He has a huge number of cards in his hand...he must have tricked someone else into getting more cards. 

Family Home Evening gives us purpose on our mission.  We love to open up our "home" to these faithful and lovable young people and listen to their problems, share their successes and give them a listening ear that they need so badly. This is where the investigators come to socialize and discover that Mormons are pretty "normal" people.

Okay, lest you think that Dimitrijs isn't being normal...he is doing the same thing many other boys his age do when someone says, "let me take your picture".  Romans is not the type of make faces for the camera, he plans on going on a mission this summer.

Can you believe Dimitrijs P. is engaged?  

He and Marina have set the wedding day for April 27th...just before Elder and Sister Davis come home. Looks like we will be busy up until the very end of our mission!