June 10th- A Special Day

June 10th is usually a pretty special day around our house. It happens to be, not only Elder Davis's birthday, but also his mother-in-law's birthday.  Happy Birthday MOM! 

But this June 10th, was a little different.

Hey, we are on a mission,  what else could you expect? 

Elder and Sister Flake came from Lithuania to stay with us for a few days.  

On Saturday June 9th,  Sister Davis was out shopping with "the girls".  Sisters Millet, Segeberg and Flake wanted to shop while the men were attending a special 4 hour priesthood leadership meeting.

Four HOURS!!!

 What an opportunity... Sister Davis  knows Riga shopping nearly as well as the natives and everyone else needed a guide. Sister Davis took those Sisters to every discount store around and to two Humana Thrift Stores.  

And come to find out,  it was Elder Segebergs birthday on June 10th  also! Sister Segeberg and Sister Davis were both trying to find some unique gift for their husbands and neither of us was successful. Of course, it's not like we made it a priority....

And that night we had dinner at the Segebergs place (they are staying in the mission home until their Bulgarian visa comes through).  We had lasagna and Sister Davis was in charge of dessert so she made shortcake to go with some red, juicy strawberries that came from Spain.

We sang Happy Birthday to Elders Davis and Segeberg a day early.  Elder Davis would be turning 60 years old the next day but for that night, he was still 59.

The Adams joined in the fun. They are helping the Millets in the mission office right now and will be working with the young married couples in Riga.

And Sunday, June 10th was District Conference for Latvia! So where do you hold District Conference when there  isn't any church building big enough to hold all the Latvian Latter-day Saints?  Why the World Trade Center of course!  And it turned out to be a beautiful day...a nice day to walk since this building is a 10 minute walk from our apartment.

 The church rented a room on the bottom floor.  Bishop Stevenson, Presiding Bishop of the Church, and his wife came all the way from Utah to meet with the saints in Latvia. President & Sister Bennet, from Europe East Area, also came to speak. The meeting was great...especially because we got to hear from Eva, the new YSA member.  She did a fantastic job speaking in front of a large audience.  Way to go, Eva!

News FLASH!   Now you may not know (we have been pretty hush-hush about this) but our sweet red-haired Eva is in a relationship with the wonderful YSA,  Dainis. We wouldn't normally tell you that but we found out it it is on facebook, so it's not like you are the first to know. In fact, last week Dainis called up one evening and asked if he and Eva could stop by to eat some food they bought...."Well, of course!"  So they came by to eat and ended up having a date night at our apartment. We popped some popcorn while they watched a movie.  And now they are the cutest couple in Riga! Keep your fingers crossed that it continues to work out for them.

After conference was over (3:00pm),   we ended up with a houseful of YSA's...and it's funny but we don't know quite how that happened. You see,  at FHE we told several YSA's who had a long way to go home, they could come over after conference, bring a sack lunch and stay at our apartment before choir practice at 5:00.  But communication isn't always the way it should be in Latvia. Everyone came and no one brought any food. Sister Davis quickly got some tortillas out and made cheese quesadillas to satisfy the hungry crowd.  She was grateful for the help of Elder & Sister Adams who were invited over.
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And 10 mintues after the last quesadilla was done cooking, Elder & Sister Davis were headed up to the church along with all the YSA's.  We had 1 hour to practice before the devotional that Bishop Stevenson would be speaking at..
La, la, la, la....warm up those voices! Elder Davis was praying the choir wouldn't be too "off key".

And then the YSA's from Estonia showed up... and we quickly discovered they sang like angels. They joined our choir and WOW! the blend of voices was good!  It just goes to show you that the Lord does answer prayers.

Rihard, Juris, Elder Bennet, Roman & Maksims

(The thumbs up were because of a talk Sister Stevenson gave)

The picture below is of the whole group. In the front are Pres. & Sister Boswell,  Bishop & Sister Stevenson, Elder & Sister Bennet, Elder & Sister Senkans.

June 11th was also special...it was the first time every missionary in the whole mission was in the same place at the same time! What a good looking bunch! Can you find Elder & Sister Davis?  Sister Davis seems to have grown a little on her mission....actually she got a small stool to stand on for the picture and didn't realize how short Elder Bonner would look next to her!

The missionaries from Estonia and Lithuania rode in chartered buses to get to Riga for a morning with the Presiding Bishop.  It was a wonderful meeting.

And then E/S Davis headed out  to shop for food for FHE.
After all, it was Monday night!

Called to Serve!

One of the YSA's were are working with in Latvia received his mission call and we were so excited for him.  Lauris hasn't had an easy life and we have been mentoring him.  When Elder Millet told us Lauris's mission call had arrived from Salt Lake City and was at the mission office, we asked Lauris if he could wait two days to open it at June's Break-the-Fast.  He said, "Yes, I can do".

After all, Lauris has been living on his own since he was 15 years old, and we wanted to make sure that opening his mission call was a grand experience for him. We invited EVERYONE who might be interested...which meant Sister Davis had to make 4 huge casseroles for dinner. Luckily, one could be made in the crock pot and thus we only had to cook three in the oven (one at a time, of course) and then worry about how we could keep them all warm until dinner time.

Below, is Latvia's newest senior missionary couple, Elder & Sister Adams, who were supposed to go on a mission to  Mongolia but were denied entry visas.  They came to see what Break-the-fast was all about and were a great help.....hmmm,  maybe we need to invite them more often.

 

 So after a hearty dinner....Elder Davis has everyone who ever served a mission tell Lauris one inspirational story or one thing they liked about their mission. Dainis is translating into Latvian...Elder Davis is telling about his mission to England, a looooong time ago....and Lauris is nervous. 

It's Elder Adams turn to talk about his mission.....listen up Lauris!

Everyone is excited for Lauris....Lina is filming the event for the 20th Anniversary of the Saints in Latvia which will be celebrated in two weeks......Svetlana,  Natalia, Alexandrs (Sasha) and Maksims...all Russian Latvians.

Dainis had surveyed everyone in the room about where they thought Lauris would be serving....Lauris had already told Sister Davis he did NOT want to go to Russia (even though he speaks Russian!).  Some of the answers were pretty funny...like West Africa, Washington D.C., and even Latvia.  And now Lauris...it's time to open the envelope! He tries opening it from the back and the glue is just too strong.....

So, Elder Millet steps in with his trusty pocket knife and slits the top right open, impressing everyone in the room! And the call is read...."You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine Mission.

Well, Lauris is excited about that and will be heading for the Missionary Training Center in Madrid, Spain the beginning of August.  Congratulations!

Bob Visits A Palace

Bob really isn't the kind of dog one expects to see in a palace. He doesn't have a whole lot of class...in fact, when you push his tummy in, he says in  nasally Spanish,  "I am getting hungry....VERY hungry". What can we say, he started life as a Taco Bell Chihuahua.  Someone recently told us, after he heard Bob "talk"... "That was the creepiest voice I have ever heard",  and he could be right.

But Bob was along for the ride and a Palace was where we were headed. It was cloudy when we arrived at Rundale (roon-dah-lee) and a few rain drops started falling as we parked the car in a grassy area. 

Rundale Palace is so big and such a tourist attraction, there are four different places to eat there. And we were hungry!   We got out of the rain by ducking into a little Kafenica. The food was hot, homemade and inexpensive. We were all happy, even Bob.

While we were eating, it started raining "buckets". Oh no!  Everyone of us, had left our umbrellas in the car.  The parking lot is a long walk away.   We decided we had to brave the elements and headed into the storm.  Below you see Sister Millet and  Sister Davis with our hoods up.

This is just where the horses were kept!

The palace is still a little way further....just keep walking, and walking...

We enter into the courtyard and still have a ways to go before we get to the entrance...

but at.  And now we have arrived! Rundale Palace.

 Rundāle Palace is one of the most outstanding Baroque style buildings in Latvia. It was built between 1736 and 1740 as a summer residence for Duke Ernst Johann of Courland.  At the time the Duchy of Courland was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This palace (it is really big!) was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an Italian architect, who designed many Baroque palaces for the Russian nobility. The Duchy of Courland was taken over by the Russian Empire in 1795, and Catherine the Great took a dislike to the Duke and did what any spiteful woman would do....she gave the palace to someone else.
She decided to give it to the brother of her boyfriend...Valerian Zubov. He died in 1804 and his young widow, a local girl got the house to herself. During the German occupation of World War I,  the German army established a hospital and a commandant's office there.

It has over 50 rooms that are open to the public and others are still be renovated.  The entry hall could house  a small army all by itself.

The rooms are opulent and ostentatious and we had no "tour guide". You are just allowed to wander around at your own leisure.  Each room had it's own detailed description list that we could read. 

The first room we went into was the "green" room.  We soon found out that every single room had gorgeous European paintings on the walls.  The Duke was a serious art collector.

Nearly every room had a handpainted mural on the ceiling....

And the long hallways are just as gorgeous as the rest of the place.

Because of the rain, we didn't get tickets to the garden tour but we got a great view from some of the rooms.....

A design made of hedges, grass, flowers and ground cover....pretty creative.

This is the Dukes bedroom. Notice that HE has two furnaces in his room....

This was the ladies bathroom....



And now back to the real world, where two senior missionaries have a small apartment, a short bed, no yard, no view, and no thermostat.  But as nice as this palace is to visit...who would want to live in a palace everyday?  We are happy where we are, thank you very much!

Saints by the Sea

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds religion classes called Seminary & Institute  (S&I)  during the school year for young people to have an in depth study of the scriptures. This year the Latvian students studied the books of the Old Testament. These classes give students the opportunity to understand the doctrines that Christ taught and how they can apply the lessons in their lives today.


We have been told by our prophet, Thomas S. Monson,  to make Institute a priority. Institute classes are for Young Adults 18-30 years old...but in the Baltic most Institute classes are combined with the seminary age kids, 14-17 year olds.  Not only does Latvia not have very many students, we don't have very many teachers, so it makes sense to combine the classes.


In the spring, a graduation ceremony is held to honor those students who completed the course. Elder & Sister Davis, along with Noemi, planned a ceremony in the coastal city of Liepaja, Latvia. The class there had about 12 people attending (several older than YSA age) and they deserved some recognition for their diligence.

Early Sunday morning we drove to the coast....with Noemi, snacks, a dozen roses, brownies, and paper products. We got there in time to unload everything and get to the chapel before sacrament meeting started. Only there were so many people in attendance, the only seats left were the front row!

Two students talked about what they learned in seminary, a young single adult talked about institute class and the teacher, Kristina gave a talk.

The Branch President gave some remarks at the end of sacrament and then Noemi and Sister Davis gave out flowers to those who attended the combined Seminary/Institute class.....


Kristina, on the right in the photo below,  is an excellent teacher, one of the best that Sister Davis has ever seen in the church and she has seen some pretty awesome teachers. We would like to clone her and put her in every church classroom in the Baltic. Good teachers can change the world.

The first to receive her recognition is Sintia (Cynthia) who is a remarkable young woman. She was the one who translated everyone's remarks for us into English...she's 16 years old.

The next seminary age student was Ingus (in-goose)...again, a remarkable and spiritual young man.
Kristina was given a big, bouquet of roses and chrysanthemums for her dedication as a teacher. She is expecting her third child in the next few weeks.

 And these are the students who attended...along with the Branch President and kids.

And then it was time for brownie sundaes!  And guess who Elder & Sister Davis met in Liepaja unexpectedly?  Eva! She was visiting her cousin and came to church.

On the way home, Noemi says, "Are you up to a little sight-seeing on the way back?" 

"What a silly question, of course we are!"

So we head to the beach in Liepaja....

We passed by this statue and Eva said,

"Elders Davis don't you want to get a picture of this?"

Elder Davis: It's just an ugly bear eating honey."

Eva: "No, it is not! This is Winnie-the-Pooh."

Then we walked past this remarkable play area for kids...complete with giant ship, climbing tubes, riding scooters and fun things that our grandchildren would have loved to have seen.

And within 5 minutes we were standing on this very large stretch of Liepaja coast line....

                                            

   The three amiga's....oops! In Latvia...tris draugi

We drove up the coast aways (after a slight detour due to construction) and came to a special place that Noemi called the "surprise".  Only the surprise ended up being on her.

We parked the car and headed up this lovely trail, along with a hoard of mosquito's...... Noemi had been here once before and knew there was some spectacular scenery ahead.

But when we arrived...Surprise! someone had destroyed the wooden steps that led down to the beach and we were stuck on the cliff  overlooking the sand.

 Now, you might not think this is such a remarkable sight but you have to remember that Latvija is a pretty flat country. So this cliff is quite the tourist attraction, and the wooden stairs look like they had rotted, so someone took them out. It was still  a pretty view and reminded Sister Davis of Los Osos, California.



It was such a lovely day, made for us to enjoy the beauty of God's creations.  We are silly when we don't take the time to appreciate how beautiful the world is around us.

Elder & Sister Davis poise for a "cute couple" shot.

There are so many interesting buildings here, you can't help but stop and take pictures.  We hope we never take these sights for granted while we are in Latvia.

And finally, our main destination on the way back to Riga.  Kuldiga (kool-dee-ga) ...a town from another time. It was founded in 1242, alongside the Venta River.  In the 16th century, Kuldiga's castle was one of the residences of  Duke Gothard  Kettler. 

Most of the town managed to escape the numerous wars and fires through the years. You can still find original wooden buildings dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.




It's amazing that buildings are centuries old here....

Kuldiga has the longest brick bridge in Europe at 538 ft. long. It spans the Venta River, and was built in 1874.

The bridge is just down stream from the widest waterfall in Europe.


The Baltic region has so many places to fish and so few people... it's a fisherman's paradise.... Elder Davis' wishes he had brought his fishing pole.

And now you will get to see Europe's widest waterfall....

are you sure you are ready for this?


Don't get too excited...it is wide, but it's the little bittiest waterfall we have ever seen.
This is some tourist attraction...you can barely hear the water falling.

This is the first waterfall that Sister Davis has actually seen people walking across...




It was such a gorgeous day! Notice the two fishermen,  below, who have the river to themselves.

We were told that this is a statue of  "Suitu seivas", Latvian folk singers that have a unique singing style. Later Sister Davis saw a  suitu group singing on YouTube...they have a unique style all right.  The ladies are really just singing/talking loudly while some harmonize by chanting in the background.






Doesn't this seem an idyllic place to live?

Two cannon over looking the widest waterfall in all of Europe? 
It makes sense....
It's not like that waterfall could ever protect the city from it's enemies.

Kodak moment?

It was getting late and we needed to get home to Riga...so we plug in our GPS and she tells us to turn onto an unpaved road..
.

We turned on the road out of Sabile and we noticed a whole lot of people watching us from a yard next to the road. Who were all those people?  Was someone having a BBQ?

Elder Davis slowed way down to take a look...and found the people were actually dummies or maybe dolls. Homemade figures depicting military people, children, teachers, policemen, businessmen, mothers...and if you look closely the quirky lady who made these figures is standing amongst them watching all the people in cars stop to take pictures. We waved at her but we got no response. Can you find her?

Can you see her now?  Middle left, the only figure with a tan face.

Think of all the hours of quirkiness she must have endured to create her family of dolls.

The World is a funny place sometimes!

But as we settled back onto another dirt road,  we wondered.....

 did our GPS really know where we were?

We decided it didn't matter where we were, we were having fun.

This was the neatest old building...

And after thinking we would never get home....we arrived at Jurmala where Eva says, "Stop! I am thirsty!"

Elder Davis pulls over wondering where she is going to get a drink. She takes out an empty water bottle from her backpack...and runs across the street, telling Sister Davis to come too.

Where is Eva going? And what is that nasty smell in the air?

Sister Davis sees a gazebo with what looks like a stone well in the middle of it.....

And downhill a little way is a marble lizard with water coming out of it's mouth

 Eva crouches a few feet away from it holding her bottle up to the lizards mouth, filling it with icy cold water .

"Eva, what are you doing?"

Well, some words are just to hard to translate into English. She didn't know the English word for a sulfur spring. But she said the water is very good for you with vitamins, so she fills her water bottle with this cold, spring water whenever she can.

In the car, she tells Sister Davis to try a sip.
"Okay, but just a sip..."
And then Eva says, " Hold you nose as you drink, it doesn't smell good."

No kidding! It not only stinks, it tastes awful!  Sister Davis can NOT believe she actually tried that water!  But Eva insists it is very healthy and will do her good.

This picture of the cloud studded sky shows how light it is at 8:30 at night.

We drop Noemi off at home. She was happy to have had a break from her two sweet, but active boys all day. We drove Eva home because though it was light out, it was 9:30.  She lives in what we would call a dorm in the USA but here they are called hostels. Hers is a girls only hostel so Elders Davis wasn't allowed in but she really wanted Sister Davis see where she lived.

Wow, we certainly got an education today...

starting with the recognition of some very dedicated saints in Liepaja, then visiting with two very dedicated saints as we traveled unknown roads and ending with two tired but dedicated missionaries with full hearts and educated minds. Life is good in Latvia.