Zip-zap, How About That!

Elder & Sister Davis thought Youth Conference was over and done with (and we are left with some wonderful memories) ...until we discovered a stow-away when we unloaded the mission van.  An errant basketball, that didn't belong to us,  ended up in our apartment. We thought, "Oh no, Edmunds may be upset his basketball disappeared."
So we decided it needed a trip home. But when?

Monday, of course, was FHE.    Elders Koltko and Mills showed up early to have a missionary discussion with a YSA investigator in our apartment. We have been hosting teaching moments a lot lately.  The young Elders have discovered that our home is a perfect place to teach those people who speak a little English.

The atmosphere in a members home is warmer than in a classroom at church. And Elder & Sister Davis love to share their thoughts during the discussion. The investigator,  Renars,  has been coming to FHE for a month or more and felt very comfortable in our apartment.

Look at all the young men we have:

Svetlana (at the table), Ilza and Marta (in the kitchen) were the only females amongst 15 males.

 Eva has a new job and works most Monday nights, she and Dainis are still "dating". Marta #2 (we currently know 4 Martas, so we have numbered them to keep them straight in our minds), has been accepted for a nanny position in the Netherlands for the rest of the summer. Marta #1 will be living in England for a month with her mother. Elina is in Germany going to school. It sure is hard to keep the young women in Latvia! 

So after the lesson was over, Sister Davis and the girls went for a walk and left the guys playing Uno and Chess. The weather has been perfect lately.  Sunshine with a breeze....clouds roll in and drop a few showers.... the sun comes out again....it's been in the upper 60's to low 70's.  Wonderful walking weather.

So the next day was Tuesday, the day we have the least going on....lets take that basketball back to Kraukli and have a day to unwind from missionary work.

Disclaimer: If you think Senior Missionaries are all business, ALL the time, please don't read any further on this post,  we hate to disillusion you.   Missionary work is serious business! We are here to bring souls to Christ...but sometimes you just need a change of pace.

E/S Davis invited E/S Adams along to see Kraukli (and, of course, to return the errant basketball), as they have never been out of Riga.  The weather looked nice, and we set off early.  We decided to try a new route to Kraukli...through Sigulda (hey, it's only a little longer route). There is supposed to be a castle in Sigulda that we wanted to explore...only we couldn't read the small signs and kept getting lost. We ended up going down this hill and into a forested area. Time to turn around....

"Wait! What are all those cars on the side of the road. Let's go take a look!"

Tarzans?!

Like in... King of the Jungle?

It looked like a fun spot to stop.  Piedzivojums means adventure ....so Tarzans must be an adventure park. And the sign showed lots of adventurous things to do...including a zip-line through the forest! So four senior missionaries get out of the car to look around and that is how we ended up getting our exercise for the day.  Yes, that is right...missionaries need to stay in shape for the rigors of missionary work.

The first thing that caught our eye was the lift-chair ride up the mountain. That seemed tame and we could get some great pictures from the top.... 

So for $1 we could ride up and for another $3 we could Bobsled back down. Hmmmm. That sounds like fun... and since Sister Davis is so short she had to "hop" to get into the chair lift before it scooped her up. Good exercise.

Elder & Sister Adams were behind us....

Sister Davis is twisting to get that shot...good exercise!

Sister & Elder Adams enjoying the view.

Are we CRAZY or what?

Once at the top, both of us had to "hop" off the chair before it dragged us back down the mountain and we hiked all over the top of the mountain getting some great photos....good exercise.

That is a sod roof you are looking at, below,....next to the bungee jump.

                                                                     Wonder how they mow that thing?

There were  good views no matter where you looked.  We found out, this small hill is the main ski area for all of Latvia.  It actually has two lifts operating in the wintertime.

Sigulda is located in Gauja National Park. This is the Gauja River flowing past Tarzans.

There were even more attractions of the top of the mountain....

But finally it's time to head back down.  The small bob-sled track looked steep but Sister Adams is fearless.  She got on first and flew down that mountain, never using her brake until the end.

Sister Davis was more timid and got on last so not to slow anyone else down.  She used her brake often on the way down...so much so,  her sled stopped well short of the stopping point.

Okay,  that wasn't as much exercise as we thought....so what's next?

Well, there is that zip-line to try....do we dare?  It would be good exercise (and only $14).

Everyone was game except Sister Davis....hey, someone had to take pictures.

This is the instructor teaching the zip-liners how to steer, stop and stay safe.

There are quite a few ropes, clips and harnesses to deal with.

Hmmmm it looks more complicated than they thought. But it's going to be good exercise!

This is the route of the zip line...

Another chair-lift to the top and they are set to go.

Now, this is going to involve some serious exercise!

 Who will go first?  Oh, no doubt about it...Sister Adams whose nickname is "dare-devil".
Oh, wait, that does NOT sound like a good nick-name for a missionary....how about Sister Adams the Brave-heart.

She ZIPS!

She ZAPS!

 Now, at first, Elder Davis and Elder Adams struggled a little with landings. You have to time it just right to get on that platform....too slow and have to pull yourself up; too fast and you slam into the platform.  And the one glove they give you?  Put it on your hand and it becomes your brake.

This time Elder Davis was a little short of the platform and that is where the REAL exercise comes in!  You have to pull your body weight uphill to get to the platform.

"Three people up a tree, two are crazy and then there's me!"

I better check this equipment carefully....

The young guy on the platform was the guide, who lead the way from tree to tree until they got the hang of it.  How would you like his job?   Playing Tarzan everyday in the summer!

Now, lest you think Sister Davis wasn't getting any exercise, think again. She was running all over the forest, up stairs...down stairs.... dodging trees, trying to get these photos. She was sweating by the time this ride was over!

Tarzan of the Jungle!

Sister  Davis was sitting patiently on a high set of steps waiting for one of the group to zip across these cables.....

 She missed Sister Adams completely, she was zipping by so fast, but she managed to get Elder
Adams....

And her adventurous companion...zipping in mid-air.

And then came the big meadow they had to cross several times.....

And then Sister Davis lost sight of them...she quickly got on the chair lift to return below...hoping to find them amongst the trees near the bottom of the run.

And on the way down she saw there was another zip-line course that looked like really good exercise... this guy is navigating this scary looking bridge tied to a zip-line....

And this girl has to ride that itty-bitty bicycle across that cable attached to a zip-line. 
Those people are very brave!

There is another whole zip-line obstacle course that people can navigate.

No wonder this place is called TARZANS!

There is even a small zip-line course for kids 5+ years.

There is real grass growing on that roof....but why?        None of us knows...

And then Sister Davis spots her companion coming in for the final landing!  GREAT EXERCISE!

 Well, what do you know...

no one hurt, everyone got great exercise, everyone had fun...

way to go missionaries!

No time left to see the castle,  we have to get that basketball to Salacgriva.

So, after a quick stop for lunch at Hessburger....

We headed north and took some photos on the way.

These houses have some interesting roofs and Sister Davis loves the way the fence is made with sticks.

Some delightful chickens next to a...

...stork nest.

We went through one of the oldest towns in Latvia,  Limbaži.

 We spent so much time exercising this morning that once we got to Salacgriva, we gave Edmunds his basketball (we don't even think he knew it was missing) and a plate of chocolate chip cookies and headed back to Riga.  But the Adams had yet to see the Baltic Sea...so we stopped where we always stop to see the Baltic and took some pictures of the Adams...

Oh, another form exercise!  Building a sand castle...actually the Adams found this one already on the beach so the only exercise for them was getting on their knees to pretend they were building one. But at our age, bending down IS exercise and so is trying to get back up!

And thus we say, so long for another day....
                                                                              from the Baltic Sea to you....

"Til we Meet Again

Our last day of Youth Conference was bittersweet. Yes, all the adult leaders were tired and needed naps. But the friendships that were made at youth conference were so precious and priceless. The youth in the Baltic are amazingly strong. They crave spiritual things in a world where no empahsis is given to religion or to Jesus Christ and his teachings. Being honest, kind, happy, and giving service to others aren't things they are taught in school here or even in some of their homes.  And they loved the classes they got at conference. One young woman said she wanted more of the classes and less free time...can you imagine? Wanting to go to more spiritual classes than playing games and having fun. That's how it was for some of them.
Well, the breakfast was great...an omelet casserole and then jsut enough time for everyone to clean their rooms and take the bedding off the beds. The Estonian's needed to catch their bus at 9:30 in Salacgriva...but wait!  Someone said, "We need a group picture!"

Well, duh! Of course we do...how could we have forgotten that?

 

Lasma how did you miss the group picture?

And then the Estonians had to say goodbye to all their new friends....

 

Load themselves into the van.....

And head out of Kraukli....

The rest of the youth started taking pictures of all their friends. And so Sister Davis became the subject of several photo shoots...and she looked like death the last day of youth conference. Her hair was a mess and needed washing, no makeup on, her last set of clean clothes....Oh, why couldn't everyone have taken her picture the day she arrived and not the day she left?

Eustina, Sister D., Andzelika

Jeva, Sister D., Karolina

Austeja, Sondra and Luiza

And as the youth were waiting around, Sister Davis heard Sintija ask, "Who is going to buy our bus tickets home?"
Sister Davis: "What? You don't have bus tickets home?"
She found out,  the three kids from Liepaja needed bus tickets from Riga back to Liepaja and didn't have any money to purchase them.  Wouldn't you have thought the adults who bought their tickets to Riga would have thought about how they were going to get back?
So Sister Davis gets out her wallet and gives 20L to Sintija (the oldest of the kids at 17) and says, "Can you find your way to the bus station in Riga and purchase the tickets?"

And then someone from Lithuania says, "We have to purchase all our bus tickets to Lithuania in Riga, too."
Luckily the Blindarukas were from Lithuania and Sister Davis left that responsibility to them to sort out. They needed to purchase 16 bus tickets home to four different cities. Shouldn't this have been done already?

And then it was time to walk back down the long driveway to the bus  (it had been waiting for awhile):

 Tomas, on the left, is hamming it up by pretending he is crying...he was a YSA leader and was as tired as all of us were and happy to be going home!  We are sure he got a nap on that bus ride back to Riga. He will be going on his mission soon and we will miss him. He was a great example to the boys at youth conference.

And one last goodbye, Elder Davis!

And now the missionary couples need one last group photo.

Notice the nearly matching jackets that Sister Flake & Sister Millet had on...

too bad Sister Davis didn't coordinate with them. :)

Leaving Kraukli...but we will be back! After all, YSA conference will be here the end of August.

Post Script:  Sister Davis got home and took a 3 hour nap. It took several days to finally catch up on all our sleep and feel human again. But it was worth every minute being at youth conference with those wonderful kids.