He's Late for a Very Important Date...the Wedding!

Dimitrijs and Marina had been planning and organizing their wedding for several months. But those last two weeks can get hectic. Marina arrived from Moscow just one week before the actual date and every day her and "Dimi" were busy.... ordering her bouquet,  setting up hair appointments, buying rings, sending out Facebook invites...and working on a  myriad of minor details.  Elder and Sister Davis were in charge of decorating the apartment and hosting a luncheon for 25 people.

When it came time to plan the menu, Sister Davis asked Marina what foods she would like on her wedding day. She thought about it a minute and said, "One senior couple used to make a potato dish that I really liked with cheese and sauce all over it." 
Sister Davis asked, "Were they called funeral potatoes?"
An excited Marina, exclaimed, "Yes, they were called funeral potatoes!" 
Sister Davis said, "Well, we can't call them funeral potatoes for a wedding so we will call them 'Marriage Potatoes'. Would you like chicken with them or something else?"  
Marina thought about it...."I really like this dish that another senior couple made that was a cake made of meat with bread inside." 
Sister Davis had to think about that description for a bit...."I bet that was meal loaf."
She got a recipe book out and showed the ingredients to Marina.
Marina was very excited, "Yes, yes!  It was meat shaped like a cake."
Meat loaf and marriage potatoes were now the official wedding food.


 On Wednesday, Marina's two best friends flew in from Moscow and stayed at our apartment.  Anya and Kristine were absolute angels!  Anya on the left and Kristine
 in the middle. They are the sweetest girls and so polite. They brought Elder & Sister Davis some gifts from Russia...now how are we going to fit them in our suitcase? 
The girls had such great fun together that week and were always asking Sister Davis what they could do to help.

Dimitrijs mom told him she wanted to help with the luncheon, so Sister Davis asked him if she would be willing to do a couple of salads.  She agreed and when Sister Adams agreed to make a dish of marriage potatoes, Sister Davis thought this would be fairly simple event for her to do.

But that was before the person who agreed to make the wedding cake backed out on them.  Dimitrijs and Marina couldn't afford to buy a wedding cake.  And Sister Davis had already agreed to make cupcakes but didn't have time to add cake baking to her list. But of course every bride wants a cake so they can get pictures cutting it and serving it to their new groom.  Sister Davis recommended asking Noemi to make their cake...remember that blog post on Institute graduation and that huge chocolate cake that Noemi made?  And she made two anniversary cakes for Elder & Sister Davis.  Yep, Noemi is the person to ask to bake cakes in Riga.

Noemi agreed happily and said she would bring the cake to the apartment on Thursday so Sister Davis could help her decorate it.

The problem was that everything had to be done on Thursday.  We needed to decorate the apartment, set up tables and chairs,  make 20 cupcakes, decorate the cake, and get the meat loaf ready. And that is why Thursday became the crazy day of the week.  

That morning,  Noemi showed up with four thin cakes layers.  We started whipping cream and slicing fresh strawberries. Sister Davis has decorated her share of cakes so she showed Noemi some cake decorating tips. 

At the same time, we had Anya and Kristine blow up balloons and start decorating.  Then Dimitrijs mom showed up to make salads. Now, this would be nothing in Sister Davis's roomy kitchen back home, but in our tiny apartment kitchen we had three women all needing spoons, dishes, knives and bowls. We kept saying, "Excuse me", as we bumped into each other.  And to make things even odder,  Dimitrijs mom speaks mostly Russian!  Her only English words were: school,  dog, cat, hello, goodbye and thank you. Which was a great deal more words than Sister Davis knew in Russian... 

So, now we have a Hungarian woman, a Russian woman and an American woman sharing a kitchen.  
That sounds like the beginning of a joke doesn't it?

And yet we all managed to work together to get everything ready for the big day.
Then Sister Davis gets a phone call from Olga.  She wants to come over and visit Kristine.  Come to find out, Kristine has been a member less than a year and Olga was one of the missionaries who taught her the gospel in Moscow! It is indeed a small world.

Noemi with her beautiful wedding cake...she has a new career opportunity wouldn't you say?

Sister Davis made the cake topper out of wire, ribbon and a few boa feathers.  We bought the edible pink flowers at the restaurant supply store. The inside had three layers of cake covered with  strawberry whipped cream and a layer of fresh strawberries on each one. Sounds scrumptious doesn't it?

As we are busily engaged making the cake perfect, in walks Dimitrijs with Marina's mom, dad and little brother ...and that is how we ended up with 8 Russians in our home. Now things were starting to get surreal.  A year and a half ago, Sister Davis didn't know anyone from Russia and now she had a whole houseful of them chattering away in Russian. They were all so warm and polite.  Marina's mom joined Dimitrijs mom in the kitchen and started making salads.  They must have made five or six of them.

Elder & Sister Davis went out to dinner to relax.  When we came back everyone was gone. Ahhhh, peace at last.
  
The next day,  Marina's hair stylist arrived at 7AM and spent over an hour getting her hair just right for the wedding.

At 8:30, the makeup girl came and made Marina look like a princess. 

Marina put on her dress, shoes, jewelry, lace gloves and veil....

and was all ready for her prince charming. 

She is sweet, modest and oh so beautiful!

We took these pictures at 10:00AM just before Dimitrijs was supposed to pick her up. Elder and Sister Ballstaedt had just arrived so we could take them to the reception center to watch the wedding. Elder Davis went to get the car.  Where was Dimitrijs?  

Hmmmm. Better call him. He tells us he is running late and will be there in 8 minutes.  Okay, but that is cutting it close. The wedding is scheduled to start at 10:30... but we tell Marina everything will turn out okay.

 Marina isn't smiling quite as much as she was before.... 

Eight minutes later, Anya calls Dimitrijs to find out where he is and he says, "there are complications" and he won't be there for another 10 minutes. Marina is starting to panic. It takes 10 minutes to get to the reception center and each couple is only given a half hour time slot to get married because another bride and groom are scheduled right after them.

Elder Davis says he will take Marina to the reception center and her groom can meet her there....but a call to the groom nixed that idea...he wanted to pick up his bride! Her two friends were valiantly trying to calm her down.  Anya suggested they pray for a miracle. And those faithful girls gathered us in circle and said the longest Russian prayer we have ever heard.   We tried to joke that if Dimitrijs didn't show up, we would find her another groom because she was such a beautiful bride we would make sure she got married that day. We were really trying to make sure she didn't start crying and ruin her makeup,  but inside we could tell she was hurt and upset. What was her groom doing? 
  

Elder Davis who was waiting in our car outside, called and said, "Get those girls downstairs so they can run out the door when he comes".  It had started to rain outside so we took two umbrellas. At the bottom of the stairs, the girls held hands and sang hymns...anything to calm and comfort our forlorn bride.




 Finally, Dimitrijs pulls up in a white limo.  The girls rush out and get in the car.    How can the groom look so calm and happy when the wedding was supposed to start at 10:30 and it is NOW 10:40!!

The limo pulled into traffic before we did and drove down the street.  We headed to the reception center with the Ballstaedts and as we turned onto another street we saw the limo pulled over at a business asking for directions.  Elder Davis quickly rolled down the window and said, "Follow us!"  We knew the way to the reception center because we had been there before.  We pull in just ahead of the limo at  10:50.  The bride and groom now hade 10 minutes to get the whole wedding done.  We can only imagine what was being said between the bride and groom on that short journey to the reception hall.

We ran indoors,  saw a roomful of waiting guests, took off coats and rushed into the reception room. The organist played the wedding march at an accelerated tempo, the witnesses practically ran into the room, and the bride and groom followed at a brisk pace. The wedding official wasted no time....the ceremony was in Latvian and took 5 minutes to finish.  And when the groom went to kiss his bride?.... you could see her obvious reluctance.  

Everyone lined up to congratulate the happy couple and  then were told to go into the atrium for a toast and some chocolate candy.  



It was out there that Marina finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed enough to begin to enjoy the rest of her wedding day.

And here they are...

 bride and groom, together and happy.

This photo: Marina's mom and step-dad on the left with her brother;
 Dimitrijs mom and dad on the right.

The first "real"  kiss as man and wife.

As the bride and groom headed off to take wedding photos around town, Sister Davis and Dimitrijs mom headed back to the apartment to get the food ready.  Sister Davis still had to cook two meat loaves, heat up some store-bought chicken and pick up the potatoes from Sister Adams. 

These are the salads that were put on the tables before everyone arrived.

We took all the flowers that were given to the bride and groom and decorated the apartment with them using every vase, pitcher and glass we could find.

The meatloaf got done, the chicken was reheated, and the potatoes arrived just before the bride and groom did.  We ended up with 26 people including Elder & Sister Davis and Sister Adams.

The bride and groom sat in their special places of honor and started eating. It was now 2:15 and they had to be on a bus at 5:00  headed to Tallin, Estonia where they were catching a ferry to Finland. Why Finland, you ask?  Because that is where the Helsinki Temple is located and Marina and Dimitrijs had an appointment the very next morning to be sealed together there.

After eating, the bride and groom were given a little quiz.  By now, you could tell that Marina was over the problems of the morning and was ready for some fun. Back to back, with two ping-pong paddles in their hands, Marina and Dimitrijs were asked questions.  Like:  Who has the best singing voice? They either held up the pink paddle to indicate Marina or the blue one to indicate Dimitrijs. Only the audience could see if they both agreed. It was a fun game and they agreed most of the time.

Then it was time to cut the cake. The cake was the only thing we could surprise Marina with. She saw the table decor and all the food we were making but we made sure the cake was hidden from her until we brought it out at the luncheon. She was so happy to see how pretty her wedding cake turned out!

No shoving cake into each others mouths in Latvia. Instead the bride and groom share a piece of wedding cake together. Such a nice, clean and dignified tradition.  Marina loved every bite of that cake. Way to go Noemi!

And just before the happy couple changed clothes to leave, they came to us with a heart shaped alarm clock and a beautifully written note to thank us for helping them get engaged and married. But the best part was the bone crushing hug Marina gave to Sister Davis and the three kisses she pasted on her cheek. Now that was a sincere thank you!  Elder Davis was getting his share of gratitude from Dimitrijs, too.  We often wonder what the parents think of their grown children showing so much love to two American missionaries. Both sets of parents were watching this scene with smiles on their faces.  And both moms came up to Sister Davis to hug her and say "Thank you" in English. We were thrilled to have been given the blessing  of serving two such faithful Latter-Day Saints as Dimitrijs and Marina. They have started their own eternal family....

What more could anyone ask to be a part of?

Shhh! It's a Secret...the Farewell Party

At Break-the Fast in March,  Eva started talking to the YSA's in a strange way before starting her lesson and Sister Davis immediately perked up to try and find out what she was saying. Eva then said something to Marta in Latvian...again in a strange way.  Now, every mother usually knows when their kids are up to something...there is this air of mystery about them. Sister Davis was sensing that with Eva.  So Eva keeps talking to the YSA's in Latvian and Marta starts translating for Elder and Sister Davis.

But the way Marta was telling this story about a girl that Eva went to beauty school with, who wasn't very good at cutting hair, sounded funny.  The girl graduated beauty school and started a dog grooming business....Marta is telling this story but she wasn't pausing when Eva was and the translation just didn't "jive" with what was being said by Eva.
Sister Davis looks at Marta and says,  "Marta are you making this up?"
Marta turns to Sister Davis with a stricken look in her eyes and says, "Yes! But Eva made me do it."

Everyone started laughing but Sister Davis knew something was up because she kept hearing Davisiem mentioned...and Davisiem means "the Davis's" ...that much Sister Davis does know in Latvian and it sounded like Eva was planning a party for Elder and Sister Davis.

This was later confirmed when Eva asked us when our last Family Home Evening was going to be. And then later, wrote a sign in Latvian and put it on the wall...with the words in Latvian: "don't translate this for Elder & Sister Davis". Eva actually told Sister Davis that is what the words said!

We could have had Google translate it for us but we didn't want to spoil the surprise...but you can see from the sign above that the "secret" is scheduled for 22, April. 

So by now, Sister Davis was pretty sure a surprise party was being planned and that was okay with her.  After all, she would really miss these special young people. She has come to love them and so has Elder Davis. We needed a time to tell them how much we were going to miss them and how much we love them. And we couldn't really throw ourselves a going-away party so it was nice they decided to.   Our last FHE in Riga will be April 29th where we will introduce the new CES couple we are training to take our place.

Several weeks later Sister Davis told Eva, "What do you want me to make for dinner on April 22nd?"  Eva said, "You don't need to make anything. I took  vacation from work and I will go shopping with you and we can make food together."

And that is what we did Monday, April 22nd... we went shopping. Eva told Sister Davis, "Today, I am the head and you are the neck".  Huh?  She explained her meaning, "I will tell you what to do. And you can do."

She bought food to make traditional Latvian dishes. Okay, she didn't buy it, Elder and Sister Davis did but she put it in the shopping cart.  We had two huge pork roasts, ham, garlic, sour cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables.  Elder and Sister Davis added ice cream and cones for dessert because Eva said, "I not worry about dessert."

Back at our apartment, Eva went to work. First she needed salt.  Sister Davis got her a salt shaker....
Eva:  "No, no! I need big salt."
Sister Davis:  "Big salt? Eva, I don't know what big salt is."
Eva: "You don't have big salt? How strange.  Don't worry, I will borrow  from your neighbors."

Sister Davis is thinking okay...what is big salt and why would she assume my neighbors would have some?
But they did! Eva was back in just a few minutes with sea salt.  She rubbed it all over the outside of the roast.  Then she took a big knife and cut slits all around the sides and ends of the meat.  In each hole, she pushed a whole clove of garlic, so deep you could barely see it from the outside.
Hmmm, this is getting interesting.

Then she put both roasts on a shallow pan in the oven and turned the temperature up pretty high.  After the first hour, she basted them every 10 minutes until they were cooked through.





Then she started on the potato salad, Latvian style. First cut up about two cups of ham, add a can of peas, one chopped onion, one diced cucumber, some mayonnaise, three hard boiled eggs and three potatoes.  Salt to taste.

Elder Davis peeled a sack of potatoes and boiled them...he forgot to cut them into quarters so they took a little longer to cook.  We decorated the room with balloons and strips of paper, set up tables and chairs and filled water pitchers. 

By then the roast was ready....Elder Davis was informed that in Latvia the men cut the meat not the women.  Which is a pretty good deal since the person cutting the meat usually gets the first taste.   


The doorbell started ringing, which we always find amusing since we leave the door unlocked so the kids can just open the door and come in.  We ended up with about 23 YSA's and four missionaries.  By the time Sister Davis got to the table to get food, there wasn't any potato salad left or potatoes. So she ate roast.  And she can honestly say, it was delicious.  Tender, juicy and flavorful, it was worth the $26.00  Elder Davis had to pay for that meat.  

Everyone raved about the dinner! 

And there was a special excitement in the air...unfortunately Sister Davis was so busy running around the kitchen she didn't get to socialize with the YSA's.

Romans was having a good time.

Eva put a lot of work into this party.  She told me the sign she put on our wall had asked the YSA's to send her a picture of themselves so she could make up a little photo album for us. As is typical of YSA's, no one sent her a picture, so she copied them from their facebook accounts!

Elder Davis loves to talk to each of the YSA's as they arrive. He has a smile on his face now but he doesn't know what is coming next and neither did Sister Davis.

We had to get up in front of everyone and take a test before we would be allowed to leave Latvia.  The first test was "How well we know the young single adults."  Eva would read off some characteristics of a YSA and ask us who it was.  This should have been easy for us...except her descriptions were a little fuzzy.  Here are some examples:  "She likes to ride horses and has red hair."  Elina K. has bright red hair but it wasn't her...it was Kristin B. Okay we got that one wrong.  Next clue:  "She has fluffy cheeks."  There must be a translation problem going on here.  Sister Davis says, "FLUFFY cheeks???"  WHAT are fluffy cheeks?"

We didn't get that person right either and Elza was a little miffed that she was described as having "fluffy cheeks".
 Eva giving the next clue:  "She had two."
Elder Davis: "Two what? Two cookies?....what?"
Sister Davis got it!  "Svetlana! She just had twins."
We ended the game with a score of "A" so we passed the test.

Next came Agneta's test..."How well do you know Latvia?"
"What do the three stars on the Statue of Liberty mean?"  Sister Davis is thinking about the only statue of liberty she knows...on Ellis Island. She is thinking: What stars does she mean?
Agneta said, "No OUR statue of liberty."
Sister Davis:  "You have a statue of liberty?  I thought it was called the Freedom Monument?"
This created a short discussion on whether you can call their statue, the Statue of Liberty or if it is called the Freedom Monument.
Oh well,  it doesn't really matter....next question!
Name three historical events that occurred in Latvia.  Easy one for Elder Davis: "When the Germans crossed the Daugava River in June 1941, despite the Russians blowing up the bridge.  When the Swedes invaded in the 1600's and built castles everywhere. When the Soviet Union gave the Latvian's their freedom in 1990.

After a few more easy questions we passed test #2.    We could go home from our mission with a clear conscience!

And then it was Elder and Sister Davis's turn. Sister Davis read a poem she wrote:

A Missionary's Love

Serving a mission across the world,

is a very hard thing to do,

Saying goodbye and leaving your loved ones,

for over year or two.

But the Savior requires sacrifice,

from his disciples young and old.

And tells us not to be fearful;

Have courage! With Him we can be bold.

So we left everything behind

that we held familiar and dear to our hearts

And came to this very unfamiliar place

to try and make a start...

How do you meet new people

and give them love and nurture

When you can't even speak their language

and don't understand their culture?

But Elder & Sister Davis discovered that

this was easier than we thought.

We gave our love abundantly,

just as the Savior taught.

Who would have thought we would find

another family to love here?

But that is what you have all become,

another family we hold dear.

How hard it is to leave you all,

we are being wrenched apart,

And that is why we decided to leave you,

a small piece of our hearts.

No matter what trails you have before you

or what burdens you're asked to bear,

The Savior said to all those who need him,

“Don't worry, I'll be there.”

So rely on the Savior to help you,

Seek Him with all your heart,

Just as we will rely on Him

to help you when we are apart.

We promise if you will all remain faithful

and endure until the end,

In this world or even the next,

We will meet you all again.

With love from your spiritual mom and dad,

Elder & Sister Davis

And Elder Davis gave chocolate hearts to all the boys and Sister Davis gave brooches with little glass hearts that she had made to each of the girls. Then we showed the video we made of our mission...and all the good times we shared with the YSA's. It was a hit with the kids because they laughed and clapped through the whole thing.

It was indeed a party to remember:

Front row:  Juris (of course), Eva, Olga, Sister & Elder Davis, Elina I., Agneta

2nd row: Elina K., Dainis, Dimitrijs D., Marina, Aivars, Elza, Iveta, Kristina

3rd row: Lauris S., Dimitrijs P., Romans, Rihard, Petris, Zane

We were given the photo album Eva made and a teddy Bear wearing a T-shirt that says, "Somebody in Latvia loves me"!  Aren't  these the greatest YSA's in the entire world?

We think so!

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.