A Missionary Christmas

A Post-Christmas, Christmas post!

 This is the season beloved of the year.
Sing a rhyme; Christmas time soon will be here.
Tell the true story of Jesus’ birth,
When, as a baby, he came to the earth.

This is the new star, shining so bright,
Lighting the world on that first Christmas night.

This is the angel proclaiming the birth,
Singing “Hosanna!” and “Peace on the earth!”



Deck the Halls  with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la la, la la la la.

Tis the season to by jolly,
Fa la la la la la, la la la la

Come to Bethlehem and see,
Him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord the newborn king.

Go tell it on the mountain

Over that hill and everywhere

Go tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born

Our mission president has been very busy. He had 8 missionaries arrive just before Christmas. They needed to be orientated, assigned a companionship and sent to the city they would be serving. On top of that, there were three zone conferences to schedule: Lithuania's, Estonia's and Latvia's.  And that is how Latvia ended up with a zone conference on Christmas Day. We started the day with a gift exchange ($4 or less)  using the story of Tommy Wright...and passed gifts left or right depending on the story that was being read.

New Elder, Elder Bergeson, Pres. & Sister Boswell, Elder Massey, Elder Bland, Elder McCaffree

Sister Davis with her new "pet"....turtle.
Elder Davis got a candy bar.

We watched the Baltic Mission 2012 DVD with pictures of all the missionaries and baptisms for the year, followed by an hour of training.  Each missionary will be given their own DVD to take home. Then it was lunch time...a delicious Christmas chicken dinner at the medieval restaurant, Pie Kristapa Kunga, next to the Riga Chapel.

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to

zone conference.

Elder Driggs (new missionary) and Elder Schmidt

Sister Gallacher and Sister Clark

Come and be bold then,

Testify of Christ!

Elder McClellan & Sister Kerksiek

Elders Massey & Davidson

Elders Bland and Bergeson

 Elder Morgan and Sister Weaver



Sisters Lubberink & Nelson, Elders Bird & Baxter, and Sister Peterson

After our scrumptious meal, we walked back to the church for leadership training.

And had a beautiful Christ-centered program on the birth of the Savior...

...that brought the Spirit of God into our hearts.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.

We ended with a testimony meeting and closed the conference so the missionaries could call home. To keep young missionaries focused on the work, they can only call home on Mother's Day and Christmas, so this is an extra special day for them. We had five missionaries come to our apartment to call or skype with their families. They each had about 40 minutes to chat and it was fun to hear their excited families asking questions. 

The number one request from every missionary's family?  Say something in Latvian!  And after one girl heard her Sister speak to her in Latvian we heard her say this, "Oh, you're just making that up."

Siblings are hard to impress!

Elder & Sister Davis consider this a memorable missionary Christmas.  We will never forget being together with these young and old missionaries who are far from home and family, dedicating their lives to bring others to Christ. We are blessed by their friendships.

And now a song for our family....



We'll be home for Christmas

You can count on us

Not this year, but we'll be there 

next year with all our stuff.

This Christmas Day will find us

Where the love light gleams

We'll be home for Christmas

If only in our dreams

And so we're offering this simple phrase
To friends from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said many times, many ways,
"Merry Christmas to you."

It's a Wonderful Life

Elder Davis has a favorite Christmas movie. It means a lot to him because, if there is one thing Elder Davis doesn't like, it's having to watch a movie he has already seen. But his favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life", he watches nearly every Christmas season and so far, he hasn't gotten tired of it. Which is why our YSA's got the mixed blessing of watching Elder Davis's favorite movie on Christmas Eve.

Mixed blessing, you say? You will see....read on.

Christmas Eve 2012 happened to fall on a Monday. So what to do for FHE?  Most  of the young people would be with family right? Well, we found out that Russians don't celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25th....they celebrate on January 7th. Latvians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25th but it isn't as big a holiday to them as New Years Day is. Elder & Sister Davis decided to have a small Christmas dinner on Monday night for those YSA's who didn't have anyone to spend Christmas with. And invite everyone else to come watch a movie.  We ended up with 7 people around our table for a ham dinner. We had invited the Adams and they cooked half the meal (they have become dear friends).  By 7:00PM we had 12 people on couches and chairs waiting for the movie to start. 

Sisters Davis, Adams and Alex "the Marine".

We can never remember Alex's last name but he works at the American embassy, thus the nickname. 

The Christmas tree gave us ambiance...

Homemade toffee and peanut brittle, caramels and brownies...

They were just for snacking. We had pie for dessert.

Sister Davis had been waiting for months to make her frozen berries and peaches into Christmas pies and with Sister Adams pumpkin pie we had plenty. Berry pie is a Sister Davis Christmas tradition.

And then the movie gets started

The movie is in English with English subtitles for those who can read English. This is the mixed blessing part....dinner was nice and dessert was great but Anatolijs doesn't speak a lick of English. He has told us through an interpreter he sure wishes he could communicate with us.  He started the movie with eyes wide open but he was soon fast asleep on the couch! 

 

Juris probably didn't understand much of the movie either but the story got lots of laughs and everyone agreed that Jimmy Stewart's acting skills were top notch. Donna Reed was pretty believable, too.

Alex was only pretending to be asleep!  Lauris had seen the movie just two days before and he liked it so well, he came over to see it again. He is now a "It's a Wonderful Life" fan.

 

After pie and ice cream everyone headed out into the cold and snowy night...except for Juris.  He hung back and Sister Davis finally figured out why. He had given us a Christmas present that very night but we hadn't had time to open it and he wanted to watch us open it. Elder Davis started the process. We discovered that the paper was glued to the box. Juris told us he didn't have any tape so he glued it on. Unfortunately, the glue was so globbed on, it hadn't dried yet and Elder Davis started getting glue all over his hands and clothes.

It was a rather large box and we couldn't begin to guess what could be in it. Juris was so excited he kept taking pictures of us opening it. You can see our mouths drop open because it was a big surprise!

Juris had spent a lot of time in his woodworking class making a wooden Christmas tree candle holder. And he wanted to give it to us. Isn't that the sweetest thing?  Sister Davis gave him a big hug.

This was one of those great gifts that you will never forget. It involved a lot of time and skill to make and he was proud of it...and he gave it to us. These are the moments you live for on your mission...not because we got a gift that is priceless but because we got a gift of love.  But now the question arises... how on earth we are going to fit that in our suitcase?  It will be a challenge getting it home but it will be worth it to have the memories of this night forever.

It truly is " A Wonderful Life" for Elder and Sister Davis.

T'was the Week before Christmas...

T'was the week before Christmas,  and all through the mission

 All were hard working and baptism wishing.

When what with our wondering ears did we hear?

We didn't have just one.... but TWO baptisms near.

 

Agneta and Edgars while feeling the Spirit

Agreed to be baptized  just before Christmas.

Agneta and Elder Morgan

With them dressed in white on a cold winter day...

they were immersed in warm water and their sins washed away.

Baptisms bring happiness to young and old...

Elder Christenson, Pres. Bsowell, Edgars, Elder Davis  

So we left our warm homes to go out in the cold.

To see these two friends make a decision so right

We could tell by their faces they could see the "Light".

 Elder Christenson, Edgars and Elder Davidson

The Atonement of Christ brings everyone cheer

Repentance is necessary before He appears.

(See how tiny Agneta is? It's no wonder Sister Davis loves her so much, she is easy to hug!)

Agneta is special we helped teach her truth,

She studied and prayed and became quite the sleuth.

What did God want from her? She wanted to know!

 His answer to her? Let your testimony grow. 

Take that step of faith and do what is right

Be baptized by immersion and show others your light.

When someone suggested  a group picture we take

We gathered up front and smiled for their sake.



So, what is the best present to give this new year?
Why, the gift of salvation to friends far and near!

Lasma and Agneta...best friends.

Be like us missionaries, teach others of Christ

To our Father in Heaven, He paid our full price.

We can be like Him if we would just try our best

So follow his commandments and you will be blessed.

Singing in the Snow!

Last year at Christmas time, Elder and Sister Davis introduced the art of Christmas Caroling to the YSA's in Riga, Latvia.  It was such a hit, we decided it needed to become a "tradition" for FHE. There was no grumbling this year from any of the YSA's and more enthusiasm for "singing to strangers". In fact, Aivars had to work late, but he was determined to find us where ever we were singing when he got off work.

We met at the church at 6:30 for some pizza.  Olga, the Student Council president, had 5 names of people who lived in downtown Riga to visit.  Sister Davis had made five plates of cookies and Zane had two Latvian Christmas songs printed for all the carolers to sing from.

And then it started snowing...

.

Roman, Zane, Iveta (the new member), Juris (kneeling), Dimitrijs, Elder Davis & Olga

It was a cool 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside but that wouldn't deter us from our caroling duties. We walked 6 blocks in the falling snow, cracked the code to get into the building, climbed 4 flights of stairs (honestly, why isn't Sister Davis losing weight on her mission?), and stopped outside a door.

We knocked and waited....and waited...and Sister Davis suggested to the carolers to just start singing and someone will open the door. But we started singing and still no one , opens the door. Finally, Juris pounds on the door with his fist and it opens, a young mother with her baby girl answered the door.

We started singing and that sweet baby girl, puckered up her face and started crying! Not a very auspicious way to start our evening of caroling. We don't really think we sounded that bad.

 We left a plate of cookies and warm Christmas wishes and headed down 4 flights of stairs and out into the cold snowy night.

The carolers walked 7 blocks back in the direction in which we had come (walking in the snow, slows you down some) and we finally find #77 Valdemara St. Olga had the code written down, so she punches in the number. Beeeeeeeep! That means it didn't work. She tried again and had no luck. Of course, every boy in the group had to try that same number...thinking they would be able to unlock the door but no one was able crack the code.

Hmmmm! Now what? Someone was smart enough to say lets try the back of the building.   Sure enough, there was another code box in the back of the building. Tried the code again....BEEEEEEEEEP! 

Nope, that one didn't work either. Now lest you think this is something unusual, it is not. There are always snafu's in every activity we try....but it was cold outside and dark and it was getting later by the minute. We needed to find out how to get into that building. Then Sister Davis notices a building behind the one we were trying to get into...it was also, #77. As we walked around to the front of it (which was on different street than Valdemara), we found another punch code box.

This time the code worked!  We got in and headed to the stairs...the mailboxes were numbered 22-33. We were looking for apartment #66...that was not a good sign. 

Three YSA's took the rickety elevator (it looked like those cage ones they use on construction sites) up to the third floor...and discovered there was no apartment #66. So we all troop outside and discover....are you waiting for this?.....there is ANOTHER building #77 next door to this one!

That makes three separate buildings, all with the same number on two different streets.

Sister Davis would really like to interview the Riga City Planner, what was he thinking?

We get into building #77 the third, and low and behold, there is an apartment #66.

We troop up three flights of stairs...

 and get ready to knock on the door of an older, less active member of the church.

And just before we start singing, who comes tromping up the stairway, but Aivars.  How could he possibly have found us, when we couldn't even find the right building?  It seems Zane had been texting him and he found us easily. Now we are ready to sing!
The door opens and Zane asks the lady if we could sing a few Christmas songs...

... we don't know what she said, but we do know the kids started singing Silent Night in Latvian and, after that, Joy to the World. The woman was so touched, she just kept saying, "Paldies" (thank you) over and over. We gave her a plate of cookies and Zane invited her to the branch Christmas Party on Saturday.

Everyone was touched by the spirit they felt doing this small act of service to this sweet sister. By now it is 8:45 and Sister Davis said, that was our last one. Aivars wanted to keep going, after all he had just joined us for the fun. We still had three plates of cookies to give out but Sister Davis was concerned about the time. Most older people don't want to be disturbed after 9:00PM and we would have to walk many more blocks to get to the next person on our list. Caroling is way harder in Latvia than it was back "home".

We all came to the decision, we would head back down Valdemara St. and go to the doughnut shop and sing to the employees, give them cookies and we would buy doughnuts and sit and talk. Another four blocks of walking, we discovered the doughnut shop closed at 8PM. Now what?  Sister Davis suggests to Aivars, find someone on the street we can sing to and we will give the cookies to them. She then pats him on the back and says, "Aivars let the Spirit guide you to find someone."

Well, we walked another block without Aivars stopping to sing to anyone. He just kept walking, with all of us following along, ignoring those other pedestrians we could have sung to. Mind you, it is still snowing and quite cold outside but the spirits of the YSA's were warm and enthusiastic.  It was really a party atmosphere in our group.
We walked all the way to the park at the end of the street...and we kept asking Aivars, "How about this person coming towards us?"   None of them seemed the right sort to sing to.
Finally, we end up near the large Russian Orthodox church near Old Town.  

Two young girls came along and Elder Davis tried to give them cookies while asking if we could sing to them...he barely finished his question, when the girls squealed and took off running at a high rate of speed!  It was so funny....several YSA's joked that those girls couldn't get away from Elder Davis fast enough and that maybe he needed to practice his "delivery" a little better.  Then we realized why the girls took off running so fast...they had looked up and noticed their bus just arriving at the bus stop several yards away and they were running to catch it before it left!

Another young man was spotted coming down the sidewalk and Elder Davis was determined to give his cookies away and sing to someone so he could get out of the snow and go home.
Dimitrijs beat him to it. He asked the young man if we could just have three minutes of his time. At first this young man wasn't sure of what we were doing. Elder Davis said, "We have cookies to give you". The young man said, "No, I don't want any cookies."  We insisted and he took them reluctantly.
Our intrepid carolers gathered together and sang in English, We wish you a Merry Christmas.  By the time we were done singing the song, the young man had joined in. He sang right along with us in English and got a BIG smile on his face. He thanked us and set off still smiling with cookies in hand. Elder Davis then turned to the carolers and said, "Now that we have shown you how to do it, take the rest of the cookies and go find someone else to sing to...Sister Davis and I are going home".  
And we headed through the park towards home.

The rest of the story....
About 40 minutes later,  while sitting in our front room, we got a call  from Olga. She said the Russian Elders had just called her and told her a story she wanted to share with us. Elder McCaffree and Elder Christensen had the name and phone number of a young man that had met with other missionaries before and they had  tried calling him several times and never been successful getting a hold of him.  Tonight that young man called them and said he wanted to set up an appointment to meet with them.

He told them he was on his way home that evening and he was surprised when some people from their church stopped and sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to him and gave his some cookies. He had seen Elder Davis's name tag and knew we were from the same church as the missionaries he had once talked with. Elder McCaffree said the young man kept saying to him, "It made me so happy! I just feel so happy."

There are about 700,000 people in Riga, Latvia and few of them have ever met with Mormon missionaries. What are the chances that the young man we sang to on the street, would be one of those few who HAD met with missionaries before?  AND what are the chances of that young man calling the Elders that night, excited to meet with them?

We say the chances were actually quite good when you have the Savior on your side!

Now, if you want to say it was all just a coincidence...we will say to you:  "Where is your faith?"

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!