Thomas News

Last weeks letter:

Well, once again, transfer time has come and it has been a shocker: My new companion, Elder Rassmussen (who was in my district in Vilnius, in the last picture, he's doing the little hand symbols) and I have been "Whitewashed" into Riga, Imanta.

Whitewashing involves when two missionaries are sent into a new area in which neither of them have any experience. Basically, those missionaries are to open a new area. Usually, missionaries just have a flat and an area book and have to work their way off that. Well, Elder Rassmussen and I expected that after transfer calls. What we didn't expect was that we were extremely whitewashed.
To explain the situation, we came into Riga without: -An area book,-A phone (which we got later that day)-A city map,-A branch list or even-An apartment.

As of last night we had an area book, which was encouraging. We still have no branch list or apartment, but the branch list is getting worked on by our district leader, Elder Sargeant, who is also trying to find us a new apartment. We've been sharing a flat with two Latvian-speaking elders, which has been fine. This does, however, mean that we have no investigators, which is a shame. But we're working on it.

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. It's a VERY large amount of people compacted into a very small area. Traffic is worse her than any of the Baltic cities I've been to thus far, but we get around. The city is divided into four branches 1. Riga center on the western side of the river, and it's Russian and Latvian branches, and2. Riga Imanta, where I serve on the other side. Both sides of the river are incredibly different. Riga Centre is the business side of the city, whereas Imanta is almost entirely the residential side.

Street contacting here is more difficult than in other cities, but we make up for that with tracting. What we are really looking forward to is meeting the members, we both had some amazing results come from member work, and we're looking to emulate those results here.

Riga in the last few days has had a huge amount of snow and it's only just starting to warm up up. This means that either the snow will all melt or it will all become ice again. Personally, I'm not fussed on either. It's cold when it snows, but when it DOESN'T snow, it's even worse. It can get so cold that clouds can't form ice crystals. Damned if I know.

The Daugauv river (the river that runs through Riga, I think that's how it's spelt) is entirely frozen over. This is disturbing to me as it's size is about that of the Brisbane river times 1.5. The River that ran through Vlinius is a glorified creek in comparison, and it hasn't even entirely frozen over yet.

My previous companion, Elder Lind, is training a new missionary in Vilnius, I'm glad he is, he was a good teacher for me and I'm sure he will be for this kid. Elder Rassmussen kinda reminds me of Codi in a way. I can't put my finger on it, but he's a good, somewhat laid-back guy. You are sure to hear more about him throughout my time here, however long that is.

In this district, Elders serve for a certain amount of time in the mission office, and yesterday was our turn. Mostly stuff they couldn't afford to train the monkey to do, but it wasn't bad.

Well, before leaving Vilnius we had some great things happen, mostly to do with Pjotr and Taisia. We've been reading the Book of Mormon with them and Taisia has just been desperate to read. Desperate enough for her to get mad at her Pjotr when she thought he had been reading too much. I also found myself understanding people a lot better now. Elder Lind told me my language had greatly improved, and to top it all off, Elder Vigners, a missionary from Latvia serving as a Lithuanian-speaker said my Russian had greatly improved. This, as you can imagine, is VERY exciting.

Still without my card. But things sent by mail during the Christmas season DO tend to take forever to come. I have a little bit of personal funds with which I hope to by at least a hat (Gloves I can do without for a little while longer as it's actually a little bit warmer in Latvia than in Lithuania).