Charity- Beautifying a Children's Hospital

                                                                               
About a month ago, the youth and young single adults of Latvia got together for a Super Saturday to create paintings for the local children's hospital.  It was a rather "creative" service project and Noemi and Sister Davis were quite pleased how it turned out. We were amazed and grateful  for the talents of those who created the fun and cheerful paintings that will soon hang on the hospital walls.
It took a while to get each painting sealed with a matte finish and attach a hanger to each one. Now they were all ready to go and Noemi scheduled a day we could take those paintings to the hospital to help brighten the walls.

Unfortunately, Sister Davis caught a nasty cold and couldn't go to a hospital. Elder Davis recruited Elder Adams to go with him. We tried to get one of the Institute Student Council members to come but they all had school or work. 
As you can see from the photo below we have a lot of snow around Riga. It has been around 23 degrees Fahrenheit (and expected to go lower!), and snows a little each night. Just enough, for all the little old ladies who keep the sidewalks clean, to have to come out each morning and shovel/sweep off new snow.

To look on the bright side...we will most assuredly, have a white Christmas this year.

Armed with 17 paintings, they picked Noemi up and slowly wound their way through snowy roads and thick traffic to the children's hospital. They purchased booties to go over their shoes and walked down a myriad of hallways...luckily Noemi knew the way.

 Usually, even the hallways are plain but the nurses explained that a school class made pictures to hang in the hallways for Christmas.

This is a new experience for Elder Adams but he's such a good sport to help out.

As  you enter the children's wing you notice they need to replace the old vinyl flooring.

 The nurses were delighted with our creative donation!   They said they would put all the paintings in the play room until the maintenance staff could come and put them on the walls of the kids rooms.

But first they decided to take everyone on  a tour of the hospital and show how nice they were gong to look on the walls.

These are what the patient rooms look like....they don't even have curtains on the windows.

The paintings will go along way to make these rooms more inviting and cheerful.

One ward Relief Society in Provo, Utah is planning on sewing and sending colorful pillowcases to donate to this children's hospital after finding out about it from Elder & Sister Adams daughter.

One little boy was in the playroom when the paintings arrived and he quickly choose his favorite.

When the paintings were laid out side by side, they were quite impressive.... until we saw how many rooms they had that needed help.

Okay, the three little pictures below were purchased at Depo (a home improvement store) by Elder & Sister Davis.  They were cute and rather inexpensive...obviously  not as valuable as the "original" canvas ones created by the youth but still appreciated by the staff. The staff are trying them out on the physical therapy room wall.

Elder Davis is holding up a painting for a sick child and his mother to see.

 

There were lots and lots of plain white rooms...

You can see that even the physical therapy room had no decorations on the walls.

 

We are grateful to have been a catalyst for this worthwhile service project. What wonderful feelings we have knowing those paintings will give happiness for years to come and hopefully will brighten the lives of  patients who need cheering up. We are grateful for Noemi and her compassion for others, that led us to think of ways we could improve this small hospital that is in desperate need of donations.

Serving others is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.

The Wedding Reception- It's All About Traditions

 

When Elder and Sister Davis saw how many traditions were being prepared at the reception BEFORE the bride and groom even arrived, we were amazed. We will try and remember them all to share with our readers...but honestly, there were so many it will be hard to remember them all. One thing we do know, we have yet to get a wedding invitation...sending out invites is just too big of expense for most of the young couples getting married here.  For this wedding, Dainis put a wedding invitation on the bulletin board at church so everyone knew about it and all were invited.

Tradition #1- Food. You might not think that having food at a reception is a tradition but it is. The bride and groom are expected to feed their guests and Dainis purchased all the food and brought it to the church where Noemi, Nadia and a few others,  prepared "finger foods" for the buffet table. 

Sister Adams helped Sister Davis with the cupcakes and brownies. Each one was decorated with a purple flower on top.

The food table was laid out nicely and was just waiting for the guests to arrive....

 

 

The desserts were ready but the cake was coming with the groom.  The grooms niece has celiac disease and the cake was made gluten free so she could eat it safely.



Elder & Sister Millet visiting with Smuidra before the party started.

 

And these chairs hold the "traditions" that the bride and groom are expected to take part in.

 

Everyone is ready and waiting for when the bride and groom appear...

 

Tradition #2:  Love is in the air....the guests of honor finally arrive at the church and everyone throws red rose petals at them. It's both a greeting and a reminder of the love the couple share.

 

Sister Senkane greets them and tells them how happy the guests are for their marriage.

Tradition #3- Prosperity and Happiness. The bride and grooms mothers bring a plate to the couple with a large loaf of Latvian bread and a jar of honey. Sister Senkane explains the bread is symbolic that they will never go hungry and the honey says that their marriage will be sweet.  They each tear off a piece of bread, dip it in the honey and feed it to each other.

 

They both lick their fingers afterwards to get the honey off.

Tradition #4.  Eve tempted Adam with an apple so the bride and groom must eat it together. As you can see it is hanging on a string so it isn't as easy as it sounds.

It takes teamwork....

 

When the apple has several large bites out of it, it is time for....

Tradition #5. To determine if the bride and groom will make good parents they must change a baby doll. Eva takes off the clothes...

And Dainis must put a new diaper on the baby.

 He does a great job until he flips the baby on it's face to tape the sides of the diaper.

 

Tradition # 6- How good a worker is Dainis? He must prove his prowess as a provider by hammering nails into a board and spelling out Eva's name.  This was a huge hit with the younger crowd at the reception.

 

It took so long, he just made a very well formed letter "E".

 

Tradition #7-  How well will the newly weds get a long? To find out, each wraps the end of a long purple ribbon around their hand once. Standing opposite each other, they take turns saying one positive thing about the other while wrapping the ribbon around their hand once more. 

They get closer and closer together, and at the end, the thick ribbon is slipped off their hands and the two pieces are tied together. The bride and groom will use this keepsake to remind them of the good qualities each of them has.

 

Tradition #8- How well do the new couple work together?  A giant heart was drawn on a sheet and hung in the doorway to the chapel. This  tradition is similar to one we use in America...but the towel on the floor is another matter altogether.

The bride and groom each take a pair of scissors and cut the heart out together.  The groom then picks the bride up in his arms and steps through the portal. Sound familiar?

 

Tradition #9- How many kids will the couple have?  With the bride still in his arms, the groom jumps up and down on the towel, which has a ceramic plate underneath it. Dainis had to jump on that plate 5 times before we heard it break! It was rather comical to see Eva, veil flying up and down, trying to hang on to Dainis while he was jumping.

The bride and groom count the largest pieces of the plate and that tells them how many children they will have. Eva named each one...according to the "plate" they will have 6 children.  The smaller pieces are how many grandchildren they will have...12.

And finally they get to enter the reception area. Whew! That was a lot of work, but it isn't over yet.

 

Tradition #10- Everyone now gets in a line and greets the bride and groom at the reception. Those who didn't make the wedding ceremony give their flowers to them and everyone stops and gets a picture taken with the bride and groom.

Marta got off work to come and brought white lilies to give to the bride and groom.

Elder & Sister Davis pose again for a picture...we sure love these kids!

 

Noemi and Martins posing with the newlyweds....

 

Marta & Elina

Tradition #11-  Flowers. Latvians love their flowers and keep the florists happy by buying them for every occasion.

 

And after all that work, everyone was free to get some food and eat. But the traditions were far from over!

 

Tradition #12-  The future.  The bride and groom are given a piece of paper and some markers and are asked to draw what they think their future holds.

 

Dainis is drawing the swing set for the kids and Eva is drawing a car. It looks like they plan on living in an apartment building...that's "normal" here.

 

Tradition #13- How well do the bride and groom know each other? They must answer questions of what they like and then their spouse must guess what they wrote. Two witnesses are brought to make sure no cheating is going on...and they get a piece of candy for every right answer. This is something ladies in America play at a bridal shower.  Dainis is an amazingly good sport about all these traditions.

Elder Senkans then sings a song to the newlyweds as they look on in delight.

 

Tradition #14- The first dance as man and wife. All the guests in the room get in a circle, join hands and slowly move around the couple while they dance.

 

Tradition #15-  Dance with the mother-in-law.  Dainis then takes his mother-in-law for a spin on the dance floor.

 

And now everyone is invited to dance...

 

Love is in the air.... 

It was good to see our other "lovebirds" at the celebration. Sasha and Svetlana have been married about 9 months and are still very  much in love. Svetlana is now expecting twins in January.

Dimitrjs has a girlfriend in Russia he misses terribly.

Nadia and Sergei have been married  8 months and still act like newlyweds.

 

Tradition #16- The cake.

 

 

The cake is cut by both the bride and groom but they don't shove cake into each others mouths like many American bride and grooms do. They cut it and start serving their guests. 

Elizabeth looks very interested because she knows she gets a piece of this cake!

And finally, the traditions are over. Dainis and Eva can pack up his brothers car with all their gifts and some of the wedding decorations (donated by Elder & Sister Davis) and head off to their one night honeymoon. Eva has to be at beauty school on Monday and Dainis has work.

 

 They will plan a longer honeymoon when they go to the temple to be sealed together in a few months.  Elder & Sister Davis stayed late to help clean up the mess....after all, we had Sunday services in this very chapel the following day. And to Eva and Dainis......

 

May you have a long and happy life together.

 

PS:  We were surprised to see the newlyweds show up at sacrament meeting the next day...."Dainis what are you doing at church? You are supposed to be on your honeymoon!" 

His reply?  "We didn't want to be a bad example to anyone.  Church is too important to us to miss the sacrament."

Aren't they just wonderful Latter-day Saints?!