Sigulda, a place of fairy tales....

 

The weather wasn't actually "fairy tale" quality  when we decided to go to Sigulda once again... but we knew that winter was on it's way, so on a Tuesday, we invited the Adams to go  with us on a crisp, grey, fall morning to the fairy tale town of Sigulda, Latvia. 

 

One of our YSA's,  Elza was from Sigulda and when she heard we were going to her "hometown" she told us all the sights we needed to see. She was a great help....she even gave directions to everything.

 

This was one of the first buildings we saw as we entered Sigulda and it reminded Sister Davis of Switzerland for some reason...though she has never been to Switzerland and has no idea if the buildings look like this or not.

 

Sigulda doesn't actually have a fairy tale history.  It was taken over by the Livonian Order in 1207, who lost it to the Poles in 1562. The town passed between the Poles and Swedes for 150 years until Russia took it over in the Great Northern War 1700-1721.  This town has been controlled by other people for most of it's history.  Now, it is a major tourist attraction in Latvia.

 

Located right in the center of town, this white stone church was first mentioned in historical documents in 1483 as St. Bartholomew's and, with the exception of its tower and pulpit that were added in the 1930s, hasn’t really changed much since then. It now has a Lutheran congregation.

 

Sisters Davis and Adams in the park near the church. You can see we are bundled up! Brrrr.

The decor inside the church is simple and dignified.....

You can visit the church every day of the week and even climb up to the top of the tower. There is a donation box for visitors as they are trying to add a wing of classrooms so we all donated to such a good cause. Upstairs is a nice pipe organ and a small, rather unique picture gallery. The pictures are all made with buttons.....

St. George and the Dragon

 

Sister Davis was fascinated by the creative way this artist used buttons.

 

 

It is time to start saving buttons, Sister Davis's creative juices are flowing and she wants to make one of these when she gets home!

 

The view from the steeple.....

We saw this typical Latvian "grandma" (she looks like she just walked out of  a fairy tale, doesn't she?) helping her husband chop wood for the church and asked if we could take her picture. She was very gracious and stopped her work to pose for us.

Elza told us there was a "new castle" in Sigulda and an old one; she was right....
This is the entrance to both the new and old castle.

Sister Adams and Davis showing off the "new castle"... a place fairy tales are made of.

 

The new castle was actually built in 1867...but was just remodeled.

And right behind the new castle is the "old medieval one". 

 

The next thing Elza said we needed to try was the ariel tramway over the Gauja River. 

 

The "cable car" takes you from the city of Sigulda on one side of the river to the town of Krimulda on the other side.  It is about a 7 minute ride.

 

 With some fantastic views....

 

 

Turaida Castle can be seen in the distance...

 

 

Guaja National Park....

 

And finally we disembark on the Krimulda side of the river.  Below is the 19th century manor house once owned by Count von Lieven (it definitely looks like a fairy tale house), that is currently being used as a rehabilitation center for children.

 

The gardens had "fairy-tale" sized dahlias in bloom....

Most of the town is really what is left of Count von Lieven's estate. He must have had a huge staff because many buildings were the residences of his employees.

The stables and residence of the grooms....

The old barn has unusual stone work on the walls....

It was just another typical estate belonging to a count....

So we got back into the cable car to get back to our car on the Sigulda side of the valley. And on the ride back home we spy something big and black on one of the tallest pine trees and had to smile. It was one of the "Three Bears".  Someone strapped a stuffed bear to the tree to amuse those on the cable car ride.  We wondered how long he had been "hanging out" there.

We were told they also offer bungee jumps from the cable car itself. No thanks!  Back in our car we headed down the hill and up the other side to visit the Turaida Museum...which includes another castle.

 

It was chilly but the fall colors were still pretty. We knew that winter would soon be here as the leaves were falling from the trees with every little puff of wind.

 

 

Who would ever think we would be saying to ourselves..."Oh no! Not another castle!"

But, here we were at Turaida Castle with Elder & Sister Adams, thinking just that. We had heard the view from the tower is incredible so it was worth a visit....

 

This is a giant medieval tower...."Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

 

One of the docents in period costume. 

Part of the castle has been rebuilt and houses a museum of history.

The castle was built in 1214 but after a fire in 1776 it was left to ruins.....

We climbed the 7 flights of stairs to the top of the tower to get this view.
Sorry we didn't see Rapunzel that day but it was the perfect tower for her.

 

We took a quick tour of the museum and since Elder Davis had the camera, we have mostly pictures of weapons...

 

Sister Davis is "peeking" around a huge chair.  Even the book on the table is big.  Hmmmm...
Did a giant once live here?  Maybe this was a real  fairy tale castle. 

 

And the rest of the story?  

We drove home in the rain ,

stopped for dinner

and realized we had a "fairy tale" day of adventure.

 

And we all lived....

 

Conference Weekend...no regrets.

On the first Saturday in October, we already knew what we would be doing that weekend; it was time to prepare for Break-the-Fast....it was also Conference Weekend. Conference is what members of our church call "General Conference". 

  

 General Conference occurs twice a year in Salt Lake City, Utah at our fabulous Conference Center that seats 21,000 people.

  Our Church Presidency and other church leaders broadcast their messages to a world-wide audience and the Tabernacle Choir inspires us with their music. If you have a computer, television or radio, you can hear conference or download the talks and listen when it is convenient.  The messages they give are intended to uplift us, warn, teach and encourage everyone, not just members of our church, in times when living a Christian life can be difficult.   Latter-day Saints love and admire their prophet and his apostles because they are men of God chosen to lead and guide us in these "latter-days". 

President Monson in the middle, with Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchtdorf; together they make up the First Presidency.

The only problem in Latvia and other places in the world...is the difficulty of translating from English to their native tongue.  The entire two days of Conference is recorded and translators work hard for two weeks to make sure each talk is translated into their language accurately. After all that hard work,  two weeks after conference is broadcast in Salt Lake City, it is broadcast at church in Latvia. 

Elder & Sister Davis watched conference on their ipad the day AFTER conference.  We knew if we wanted to be inspired we had to watch conference in English. Translations usually put us to sleep. 

Meanwhile....what about those 30 hungry kids that usually show up for Break-the-Fast?  We had to get cooking!  We decided to make three pots of Sister Boswell's bean and vegetable soup, which is easy to make but still requires chopping, browning, pouring and stirring.   The messy kitchen below is the result:

The soup is delicious and filling...

Two stockpots and a Crockpot full of soup.

We do most of the work on Saturday and just reheat on Sunday.

 The apartment was clean and ready...

Elder Davis and Rihard were just waiting for everyone else to show up after church.  The Russian branch meets in the morning and most of them stay at church or come over early to our apartment until the Latvian branch is finished at 4:00 PM.  We leave right after sacrament meeting is over to get the food ready and dinner is served promptly at 5:00.

We forgot to get pictures of everyone when they arrived (actually we were too busy when everyone arrived!).  President Blums,  president of Riga 1st Branch, had been asked to give a spiritual presentation. We only had 22 YSA's show up this time . We didn't realize how many of our YSA's were doing the translating for General Conference into Latvian and Russian.   Thus we had a smaller turnout...and actually had some leftover soup!

And what did we learn from Conference?

Some exciting news!

President Monson announced a change in the age for missionary service.   They  have lowered the age requirement for young men to 18 years of age (from 19) and young women to 19 years of age (it was 21).  There were surprised and happy expressions on many faces at conference at this announcement.  Within two weeks there was a 400% increase in missionary applications.

These are highlights from talks given that especially inspired Elder & Sister Davis:

"The Holy Ghost works in perfect unity with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, fulfilling many important roles and distinct responsibilities. The primary purpose of the Holy Ghost is to bear witness of God the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ, and to teach us the truth of all things. A sure witness from the Holy Ghost carries far more certainty than a witness from any other source...."

"Immersion in the scriptures is essential for spiritual nourishment. The word of God inspires commitment and acts as a healing balm for hurt feelings, anger or disillusionment. When our commitment is diminished for any reason, part of the solution is repentance. Commitment and repentance are closely intertwined."

President Uchtdorf spoke how people, with the click of a mouse can "connect" with thousands of "friends" without facing a single one of them. "Technology can be a wonderful thing, and it is particularly useful when we cannot be near our loved ones.... However, I believe that we are not headed in the right direction, individually and as a society, when the most frequent way we connect with family or friends is by re-posting humorous pictures, forwarding trivial things, or linking them to sites on the Internet.... If we fail to give our best personal self and undivided time to those who are truly important to us, one day we will regret it.

"Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories."

And that is just three of the 34 talks given!  We were spiritually fed when we watched the conference talks each day.