A Record Breaking FHE!

Our apartment is getting smaller....no, we aren't moving, it just seems smaller ever since we had 35 people attend Family Home Evening!  Unbelievable isn't it?

April 15, 2013....tax day in America, started out as a normal Monday; we shopped for groceries, cleaned a little and cooked a lot.   We made taco soup because we never know how many people will show up and it is easy to expand.  And something told Sister Davis she needed to bake two apple cakes this time.  Enough to feed 30 people.

Since spring has finally arrived (it's been in the 50's  Fahrenheit), we thought we might get a few more people coming.  Also, the sun isn't setting until 9:00 PM so it seems early when we start FHE at 7:00 and the sun is high in the sky.

Our first guest came at 4:00 and helped sweep and set up chairs. Our next guest came at 5:30. Hmmmm, this is getting interesting. By 7:00 we had more than the usual in attendance.  We started with a prayer and began serving everyone....and soon had to get  more chairs out.  By the end of the night we had 35 people crammed into our small apartment. 

We put away one of the eating tables  before the lesson to get a little more room. Two of the Elders had to leave, but that still didn't give us much breathing room. 

Elder Davis was so overwhelmed he went into this office for about 40 minutes to get away from the noise. 

It also got very warm, but when we opened the windows the street noise was so loud it disrupted the lesson so we closed them. 

Janis Blums gave a lesson about using church websites to do family history, strengthening your testimony, and sharing your testimony on blogs, Facebook and other social media sites.  

People were very attentive, though translating was going on in two different areas of the room.

We had 9 investigators in attendance (including a Nigerian man) with 8 missionaries. Sister Davis started cutting the cake before the lesson was over so she could get everyone served in a timely manner.

Object lessons

One of the things Elder and Sister Davis like to show teachers in the church is how to effectively use object lessons in their classes.  We want the students to have a visual object to help remind them of  gospel principles.  So when we were asked by Sister Bonner and Sister Koiv to come to Estonia and share the things we learned in CES training in Turkey this year, we took objects to show them.

The first objects we brought were two missionaries.  Elder & Sister Ballstaedt had never gone to Estonia before, so we brought them along for the ride.  Missionaries make great object lessons and because they wear name tags with the Church's name under it, they are easily identifiable. 

We had all the Seminary and Institute teachers in attendance.  We first showed a video called "Teaching the Saviors Way".  We then talked about how the Savior taught using questions, loving his pupils, and making them think about what he was saying by using stories to create pictures in their minds.

Then we talked about using simple objects to get their students to think. We held up a white piece of paper with a small black dot in the middle and asked them, "What do you see?".  They all said, they see a black dot.  But we told them, the white paper is so much bigger, why do you notice the black dot and not the paper?  This led to a discussion of why it stands out...and rather then tell them what lesson to use this object with,  we asked them to tell us what lesson they COULD use it in.  The answers were varied and all were right; you could use it for a lesson on repentance, looking for the good in others, gossip and how it mars someones reputation... all those topics and it was just a simple piece of paper with a black dot on it.

We took a ball of yarn and did an activity where the teachers got in a circle and threw the yarn to each other, each holding a part of the yarn before throwing the ball to someone else...it makes a giant spider web if you do it right. And then we had one of the teachers lift up her arm and found it affected everyone else's yarn they were holding. They could feel that someone had made a change....think about what lessons that activity could be used in. See how great object lessons are?  We won't bore you with any more but suffice it to say, we spent an hour teaching how to use object lessons to make their lessons more interesting. 

We said our fond farewells to Sister Koiv...she is really a great person and we hope she continues encouraging the teachers in Estonia.

Now, don't think this trip was all business and no fun....we managed to fit in a little fun.

Elder Davis found a new girlfriend... but she's just another pretty face.

And Sister Davis found a new boyfriend. She wasn't drawn to him for his good looks...no! She likes him because he's smiling and has some really good food on that menu.  She was hoping she could get him to cook for family home evening. By the way, the lunch special that costs 12 Euros  equals $15.72. What a bargain. We told you things are expensive here, didn't we?

 One last picture of all of us in front of Viru Gate. Notice the heavy coats, hats and gloves...still no Spring.

The next Monday we were surprised with another object lesson.  This one was given by Agita (Ag-ee-ta) at Family Home Evening.  Agita is an investigator being taught by the missionaries. She has had a few lessons in our house and speaks fluent English. She asked Romans if she could give a lesson sometime in Family Home Evening and he said, "Of course!" 

We had 22 people show up that night ( 7 investigators) so Agita was a little nervous. 

Jeanette and Sherry (dental students studying in Riga), Sister Kerksiek and Elder Baxte

Agita brings out an empty jar.  Hmmm, this object lesson seems familiar to Sister Davis. Agneta is helping by translating what is being said into English and holding the jar for Agita.   

Agita starts putting some small rocks in the jar and filling it up.  She likened the rocks to important things we do in the church like praying and scripture reading. Then she asked the audience if the jar was full. Some said yes.

She then got a small bag of colored sand and poured it between the rocks. She likened the sand to other things we need to do, like attend church and family home evening. She said no matter how full you think your life is, God makes room for the important things. 

Is the jar full now?  Not quite. She slowly added water.

She said that all the things in the jar are important but without baptism they don't mean you are fully committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.     

Pretty good object lesson, wouldn't you say?

Weather or Not....

Last year at this time, Elder and Sister Davis were walking all over Riga without heavy coats and hats. Not this year.  We have had snow several times in the month of April.  

After another heavy snowfall on April 1st,  Elder Davis said, "We have to take a picture of this".  It was like a great April Fools joke on us... from someone up above.  Elder Davis is holding up his fingers to show it is the 1st of April, 2013. 

This is what our parking lot looked like on Aprils Fools day. We couldn't believe it was so deserted  on a Monday in downtown Riga.  We later realized it was a holiday.  The day after Easter Sunday is always a holiday in Latvia.  That is a tradition that should be copied in the states. Good Friday AND the Monday after Easter are both holidays through out Europe.

 We had a few days of no snow but it was still cold.  

And then we were blessed with  a few days of sunshine.... 

But on Monday, when we had to shop for Family Home Evening....

 More snow!

Are you kidding me?

Big falling flakes of snow!

We are both just tired of all the snow. 

 It is time to break-up with winter!

Finally, on April 12th, it got above freezing but people are still wearing hats and heavy coats.  Now it's April 14th,  the ice has melted and most of the snow is gone,  so spring can't be far off...

can it?

A Holiday on Ice- Stockholm to Riga

After attending the Stockholm Temple on Wednesday and Thursday, we needed to be at the Tallink Ferry terminal by 5:00PM on Friday... in Stockholm.  We managed to find time for just a tiny bit of sightseeing on the way there.  When Sister Davis says tiny, she means that sightseeing was so very fast that it was like a whirlwind.  We ran everywhere and saw so little along the way.

So lunch was part of the problem because it took so long to shop for "pelmini"...and then the YSA's were so stuffed with food, it was hard to get them to move.  They were told if they wanted to see anything in Stockholm they needed to pack their bags ASAP and meet in the foyer of the guest house.   They were still upstairs packing when Maksims says to Sister Davis,  "The train to Stockholm leaves in 15 minutes."

If we wanted any time to sight see, we had to catch that train!  Sister Davis starts pushing kids to hurry up...and we head out the door in  5 minutes.  The train station is about a 7 minute walk and we still had to buy the tickets for the train so Maksims says whoever is buying the tickets has to run!  Elder Davis remembers running for the very same reason to get to Institute class in Stockholm on Wednesday and he shakes his head and says, "Oh no, I am not running again." But Sister Davis was a little more motivated since Maksims said he would take her to the best souvenir shop in Stockholm. She starts running while fumbling in her purse for her credit card.  Now Maksims is 25 and is in pretty good shape since he walks everywhere....and Sister Davis will honestly tell you she is not in good shape and had trouble keeping up with him.  She was getting winded and realizes she is going to have to join a gym when she gets back to the "States".  Huffing and puffing, she makes it to the ticket booth and Maksims tells the cashier how many tickets we need while Sister Davis swipes her credit card through the machine.  With tickets in hand,  Maks notices the train coming and he says to Sister Davis,  "Running".  Meaning he is running to catch the train and she had better too!  We ran down a flight of stairs and through a tunnel and arrived at the train as the doors were just about to close. Red faced, totally out of breath, Sister Davis plops down on a seat while Elder Davis and all the other YSA's calmly watch her.

They had been serenely waiting for the train to arrive and got on without any tickets..what would they have done if Sister Davis hadn't made the train with all her purchased tickets?

Elder Davis takes the ticket receipt and puts it into his financial folder. One of his missionary jobs is to keep track of our finances and we were getting reimbursed for this trip. So every receipt needs to be kept safe. Sister Davis is ever so grateful that Elder Davis loves to keep track of money...she is not very good at it.  Thankfully the train ride to Stockholm let her rest and catch her breath.

The 10 of us arrive in Stockholm and, with suitcases rolling behind us, start out from the train station to experience the sights, smells and sounds of Stockholm.

Sweden is more modern than Latvia and we saw Burger Kings, 7-Eleven stores, and other American franchises ....but most of the signs were in Swedish and we didn't have a clue what they said.

We entered Old Town at a pretty fast clip...suitcases clacking on the bricked pavement as we walked.

And true to his word, Maksims led us to a discount souvenir shop....


where Sister Davis was able to make a few purchases.   Honestly, how  can you come to Sweden and not buy some souvenirs to show you were there?

If this shirt looks a little small for Sister Davis it's because she bought it for her grandchild! 

This is Pippi Långstrump or as Americans know her...Pippi Longstocking...

 Pippi Longstocking is a fictional girl in a series of books written by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, who wrote them for her 9 year old daughter Karin.  The first book was published in 1945 and has been translated into 64 languages. Pippi is quite the character but the Swedes are proud of her.

had us on a tight schedule so we had to leave the shopping behind and run through Old Town  to see the major sites....

Across the river to the...

entrance of the Presidential Palace...

Here we are pulling our luggage around Old Town like a bunch of tourists...

And here is the Palace:

Where we posed for a photo...

These are the photos we snapped while fast walking around Old Town....

Agneta was striving for the "Queen of the Day" look.

Stockholm in the summer

We finally managed to get to the tram stop and for once didn't have to run to catch our mode of transportation. 

At the ferry terminal, we went up the escalators and found ourselves in a line to validate our e-tickets.

Maksims having a bit of fun behind the Russian Tallink ferry desk. He actually knows what that sign says!

The ferry was named the "Romantica", an appropriate name for a ship taking 8 YSA's and a newlywed couple on it. Elder & Sister Davis were too tired to care what the name of it was.

After navigating our way through narrow corridors, we found our tiny cabin in the bowels of the ship...left our luggage inside and headed up to the top  deck.

And took pictures of the skyline of Stockholm.

We weren't the only ferry in the fjord...

Sister Davis is inserting a map of Sweden for her readers so you can see where we were in relationship to Latvia.  We are sailing through the Baltic Sea to the bay of Riga all night long and, if all goes well, will arrive at 11:00AM the next day..

We saw beautiful scenery as we sailed out into the fjords and some really nice homes along the shoreline.

The YSA's were busy exploring their overnight home. These ferries are very large and have about 5 or 6 restaurants, two nightclubs with live entertainment and hundreds of "sleeping compartments".  Cars are in the bottom deck. We planned  a meeting with all our YSA's on ship to figure out who would be sleeping in what room. These ferry tickets aren't cheap and you pay $58 per person, 4 people per cabin.  A private room costs about $250 a night.  Since we had an odd number of girls, one had to sleep in a room with girls they didn't know.  Each tiny cabin has two fold out bed/couches and two sleeping berths above them with a tiny bathroom that included a sink, toilet and a shower that really isn't a shower.   But these Latvian kids are used to sharing and didn't mind the inconveniences at all. They were just excited to be together for another night.

Eva, Dianis, Iveta, Romans, Julia, Elina, (front) Agneta and Aivars (Marta is taking the photo).

Elder and Sister Davis made sure everyone had money for food and left the kids to their own devices.  We needed some "down time".  We found a quiet restaurant with an attentive waiter and had a scrumptious dinner.  We watched a little Latvian folk dancing at one of the nightclubs and decided to call it a night.

Of course, the YSA's had other plans. Since Roman's shared his photos with us we have a record of their night.

Out on the very windy deck at night ...  

Listening to live entertainment...

Notice the cowbell being played!

Agneta and Marta getting up the courage to sing Karaoke....

Elder and Sister Davis were in bed by 9:00 and asleep by 9:30... and everyone else? It was closer to one in the morning.   Guess who got up earliest?  It wasn't the YSA's!
We both woke up several times during the night because we kept hearing a "creaking" sound....having never sailed on a ship before we didn't have a clue what were "normal" sounds and what "weren't so normal" so we both just went back to sleep.  It wasn't until morning when we went upstairs to another deck and looked out the window...and saw this:

Yep, we must have made a wrong turn because it looked like we were in the Arctic.  The creaking noise we heard was the ship actually cutting it's way through the ice. Wow!  How cool is that? We are on a ship that is sailing through a sea of ice!

So of course Sister Davis wants to go outside and see it "up close and personal". 

It was very cold and windy but what an adventure.  How many people can say they were on an "ice-breaker" ship?
Elder Davis was the first to notice seals on the ice. See the seal below?  He jumped out of the water and onto the ice to get out of the way of the ferry.  Smart seal.

The ferries stay on certain "lanes" in the ocean and help keep the ice from getting too thick by churning it up as they sail back and forth.

Elder & Sister Davis like mornings on a ferry because there were no crowds.  

Most people were still asleep, so we got some pastries and hot cocoa, sat at a table and  looked out the window. The icy sea  was fascinating to look at.

As we got closer to Riga, the ice opened up and we came into open water again.

When we saw the lighthouse at the entrance to the Daugava River, we knew we were nearly back to Riga. 

What an amazing week we had taking such wonderful and faithful young Latter-day Saints to Sweden for their first experience in the temple.  The memories we made will last into eternity and we hope it will be the same for the young single adults that came with us.  This trip took a lot of effort and we were exhausted but in a good way....doing the Lord's work brings such peace and joy into our lives.