Happy Birthday to Tom

Thomas turned 24 - his last birthday living at home - and I outdid myself in doing virtually nothing for his birthday! Oh well - it's all about being a good mother-in-law. Kathleen has nothing to live up to!

We had a lot of fun shopping for presents. The floods meant that a lot of shops were closed and we couldn't get to others - but we did manage a crock pot, crock pot cook book, mop and bucket - we had a house husband theme going. He loved it. (I plan to borrow the cook book before it goes to live in a new house.) Peet gifted a print of one of his engagement photos.

Even though the celebration was confined to presents, corn beef for dinner and cake, we all celebrate daily having Tom in our family.

The Scariest Movie of All Time

Because Tom's girlfriend, Kathleen, came up from Melbourne for the YSA Ball, Thomas and Jesse had a few friends over for a bonfire and movie night. We projected the movie on to the side of the new site hut that will be the QPI office - and made it a scary one. The scariest movie ever made in fact.

When I was maybe 10 years old, Samantha and Petie and I watched House of Wax. I don't quite know how we got away with that but it scared the living daylights out of all of us. For the rest of my childhood I had to have the bed near the door - the other two reasoned that I was the oldest - therefore I had lived the longest - therefore it was only fair that the wax man should take me first. We must have watched the movie without permission because though all three of us were cowering in our beds we never did tell Lee or Joan till we were adults. I slept with one eye open for years. But I did eventually get over it - Sam stills credits that movie for her fear of fire and Petie cannot sleep with an unlocked window - no matter what.

Louisa will back me up - she came in part way into the movie and burst into tears saying it was just too scary - and had nightmares that night.

Max disagrees - he thinks it was funny - what would Max know.

By the way - we like Kathleen very much - she quilts - she's a nurse - and she got ready for the ball in 20 minutes - what's not to like.

For two years we've been saying 'when Tom comes back he'll love ...'. Now he's busy reading:

watching:

and listening to:

And many more.

I have no idea how he'll squeeze in a job and uni!

(He's also doing heaps around the house, helping on the Fulchers house a bit, enrolling in uni, looking for work, preparing a couple of talks and soon he'll be helping out at Pine - so he's not really a drone.)

Shabbat

Every time I visit the Jewish Synagogue in George Street I come away with two distinct impressions. Most importantly I realise what a rare and magnificent blessing and responsibility it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, and I am left with a lingering wishing for a more meaningful sabbath. It just all sounds so wonderful - the separation from the world in a much more dramatic way than we are accustomed to - the ritual meals - the watching for the sun to go down.

It's not that we're bad at keeping the sabbath day holy - and every Sunday I am grateful for the break from a week of worldy cares intruding - and Alec said just a week or two ago that without the Sabbath he thinks he might just explode from too much to do. But I long for a little bit more peace still. All in all though we are pretty decent sabbath keepers - we don't shop, watch TV, play computer games and so on and we do spend the day going to church, reading scriptures or other uplifting stuff and talking a lot (and resting).

But this week was Tom's first real sabbath at home - and the rest of the kids were merciless. They started the morning by asking to go to McDonald's for breakfast - these kids object violently to McDonald's any other day but knew that Tom didn't know that. Tom looked mildly alarmed. Roger and I sighed and said 'what do you think'.

Then when we arrived at Kawana Waters ward (we were at the beach for the weekend) and sacrament had been delayed for an hour they suggested a quick trip to the servo for snacks, wished they brought their togs because they could fit in a quick swim and so on. I think it was the swim that tipped Tom off that they were taking the mickey out of him.

It continued all afternoon with Tom looking bemused - he got the joke but it still made him nervous.

When evening rolled around and I said it was time for scriptures Max complained and wanted o go to bed. 'Only half an hour' I said.

'Half an hour! We never have scriptures for half an hour!'

By now Tom was onto the joke.

Funny day.

But next week our words as well as our actions will match again as we remember the blessing of the sabbath and the Saviour whose atoning sacrifice binds our family through good, bad and funny. And I'll try to make a special meal.

Here's the 'held at gun point' story

As we were driving away from the airport Tom says 'So I do have one story I need to tell you.'


It was like this:


Tom and his companion Elder Roderick (a strapping young man who once carried Tom back to the apartment after he sprained his ankle) were knocking doors in an old apartment building. The one fellow they talked to was obviously drunk or high - so they left. When they were part way down the stairwell the fellow yelled for one of them to come back. Tom yelled back that it was both or none. And they were about to leave altogether when Tom noticed that the fellow had a gun hidden behind his back which he then pulled out and pointed at them. Tom said 'the arguement was pretty much over then.'

So they were ushered into the apartment and Tom figured that he was about to die in a third world apartment block and his body would never be found. The gun toting villain was rifling through their bags - a disappointing moment I'm sure. Because he was high or drunk he put the gun down and went towards a bookcase.

Elder Roderick was right beside the gun and being a bit of a good old boy who knew his guns, grabbed the gun and said 'we're out of here' and they dashed for the door. He cocked the gun and realised the chamber was empty (which was probably for the best since he said he was ready to shoot the guy) but pointed it at the guy anyway when he reappeared. Knowing the gun was unloaded the villain started coming at Tom and Elder Roderick as they were trying to get the dodgy locks on the door open. And met Elder Roderick's fist - a bit of a scuffle followed and Elder Roderick won.

They got the door open and headed out only to meet his friend - another scuffle - which the good guys won - and they raced out of the building and into a nearby field.

At this point they thought they should call the Mission President who calmly told them to take the gun to the police station.

A little interrogation followed at the police station with one of the police officers going mad at Tom and companion for being out tracting in the dark - and then finally they managed to relinquish the gun.

A chat with the mission president followed - where it was suggested that since these things get exaggerated when they hit the mission field and since he gets calls from parents when these things happen (which makes it sound not altogether unheard of) the boys could perhaps wait to tell the story till they got home!

Tom told the story so well that we were laughing to crying as we listened.

And Alec and I said 'yep we were right.' The night before we were saying 'I bet there is so much stuff that we'll find out when he gets home.' But I hope that's the most dramatic installment!

Home

A mix of nervousness (Alec), high expectations (Max), relief (Kim), and general excitement (everyone) met Tom at the airport.

The nervousness was due to scary returned missionary stories Alec had gathered from friends - brothers throwing out CD collections and similar. (So far it all looks ok - Tom seems to be coping with a return to civilian life.)

The high expectations were due to Max's many plans for things he and Tom will do together (and Max's stated expectation that it won't be long until he is an uncle - no pressure Tom!).

And relief that Tom didn't have to become the mormon version of Terminal Man - his luggage was overweight in London so he had to delay his next flight while he tossed out old clothes and sunscreen until he got in under the weight limit. And Tom had no money left on his account so he was stranded in the airport and cashless. And he made it through Dubai airport with an Israel stamp in his passport.

David and Beth and family came to welcome him - as did Mark Parry, Daniel, Jessica and Madi. All were grateful for the delay in flights since his old arrival time was 12.40 am and the new arrival was 6.30 am.

(Yep - that's Peet in a flanno - he took it off before church.)

The early arrival meant there was time for a shower and shave at home - both desperately needed - and a clean white shirt - more or less - all his shirts are torn or stained - we picked the best - his shoes have holes, his suits are stained and torn - and his ties are droopy - a clothes shopping trip is imminent. Tom tells us it is the inevitable result of hard work - and slackness in the laundry/mending department I think.

After church, and lunch at Joan and Lee's (osso bucco and mashed potatoes - which is apparently far preferable to the canned pigs heart in jelly with mashed potatoes that Tom ate in Latvia), we came home for long enough for Tom to start unpacking and colour in the last letter on the mission chart before heading out to be released and to General Priesthood meeting.

Poor Roger is desperately sick and after soldiering through a long day at church he collapsed this afternoon and couldn't rouse himself for the Priesthood meeting - disappointing because Tom will probably bear his testimony again (in addition to Sacrament meeting) and Roger will miss it.

Funny - a two year mission seemed a very long time but now that he is home it seems like he never left. He is much the same - a bit more grown up - being held up at gun point will do that to you - a stronger testimony - a couple of extra kilos - a few odd Americanisms - but no accent - and the same boy. Same quirks, same sense of humour, same love for little brothers and sisters, same loud voice that Roger could hear up on the stand as he came in to church, and same sweet humble spirit as when he left us two years ago.

And he can read The Chronicles of Narnia in Russian and simultaneously translate into English!

We're happy.

Talking to Tom

News from the Mothers Day phone call:

• Tom still speaks with an Australian accent. (Peet thinks he sounds American - Peet is wrong.)
• Last week a fellow they approached in the park called the police over and accused Tom of trying to steal about $500 - the police let them go since it was clear that he wasn't - but told them to stop approaching people unless they want this to continue.
• The fellow firing the gun outside the school seems to be shooting every day now - but it's all pretty ho-hum stuff. (In one of Tom's recent letters he said they heard a sound like firecrackers and went to investigate - turned out it was a fellow shooting a pistol into the air outside a primary school - Tom said the weird thing was that it wasn't weird and they just continued on their way.)
• It's 'lovely and warm' in Latvia - between 13 and 20 degrees celcius. Tom said everyone is so much happier when it's warm.
• Many of the younger Russians say they wish they were still part of the Soviet Union - the older ones who can remember Stalin don't.
• The bed in one of his old apartments was actually the insides of an old couch laid on the floor - and it had a dent where many missionaries woke up, rolled on to their knees to pray, and stayed on the mattress - so any bed we put him in will be fine.
• Tom still doesn't know when he'll get home - but we do - 12.40 am on Sunday 31 May. He is coming home through London and Dubai - we just have to check that he is ok in Dubai since he has an Israel stamp in his passport.

Thomas Photos

Christmas at the CES missionaries flat:

Latvian Russian District - Tom is in the back row - fourth from the right - nest to the missionary in the middle who must be a giant - and that's the ocean in the background!

Thomas News (lots of it)

28 November 2008

I'm writing a little bit later today because P-day was today (and not Wednesday) and all of this thanksgiving rubbish has left us doing that for most of the day- it seemed so much more simple at home when all we did was a turkey.

We're now writing at 5:00, when P-day is almost over. My companion seemed more excited about that than doing the work, which annoyed me to no end. Just so you know, I have told president about this and he has since conducted two interviews with my companion that have been in excess of two hours long. One last Tuesday, and one last Sunday (which lasted five hours, we got out at 6:30 that night).

Max's pictures regarding a *blank* are hilarious. I think the picture saying "I deserve a *blank*" might be blackmail, but love the fact that Jesus is smiling at him from "his Bubble". I also love the fact that he spelled "Deserve" as "Dsrv"- I guess we as Australians really do miss our vowels a lot.

Well, work's been going slowly this week. I've been trying harder to "pull my weight", and to get my companion to pull his. This means a little more bugging him to get up at least to do companionship study. I dunno, I'm sensing a severe lack of spiritual power this transfer. There is no matter of just a talented missionary in this work. The Lord does the work while to tools just keep sharp. When a tool is blunt, a worker is less likely to use it.- this is the situation I find myself in. I'm not going to say that it's all my companions fault either- a lot of it is me feeling like there's little chance working with him, and that creates a state of spiritual apathy- one of the curses of missionary work. He's a good guy, as a person I like him a lot, I just find him trying as a companion.

Well, sorry for the gloomy letter this week, I'm not hating my mission, I guess things just aren't going the way I want them to this week.

4 December 2008

For the record, I DO remember us having a turkey on some time other than Christmas. I just figured that would be thanksgiving.

I don't think my companion ever liked me as much as other companions have. That might be because I don't agree with him sleeping in or being negative about finding. I find both of those to be a little irritating. I knew him back in Vilnius, and he we had very... separate views. I dunno, he's a great guy. I just don't know what us being together was meant to accomplish.

The talks by Elder Bednar were great, though. A lot of really good insight into prayer and the attitude we need to have while praying. I'm going to give them another read today, I think. They were good for me to read, made me think about how I'm praying now. I think sometimes, we expect that because the Lord answers prayers, and because he knows what we need even before we ask, we can be as vague as we like when we pray.

That's now the way that I have come to understand it. I have found that when praying it has not been enough to simply ask "Help us to find someone to teach." I have found, rather that it is important to ask for help in the processes of that. For example, ask Heavenly Father to speak to their hearts, for us to have His spirit to be with us, etc. I think it works the same way for all walks of life as well.

As for how I'm feeling, there is no need to worry there. I've found that, disappointment, irritation and even sorrow happen on a mission. If it didn't, then salvation would be a cheap and whimsical thing. It isn't that way, it will never be that way and it never was that way- not when Christ bled in Gethsemane. I made a commitment to follow Christ. That means taking the occasional step to Calvary, the infrequent second-or-two in Gethsemane. But all of this is destined to end in nothing but joy.

I am still loving my mission and I still feel like this is what I am meant to be doing. I know my Heavenly Father is pleased. Can I ask for more?

It's great to hear about Sarah Anderson. Particularly since she was giving Kelly a hard time about her being baptised. Congratulate her for me. It sounds like my homeward is starting to grow a lot more rapidly. How are the other two going? The ones that were afraid of water?

Also congratulate Peet. That kid is such an achiever! It's putting Alec and I to shame. Work here has been going slowly. We have a couple of meetings set up today from tracting on Sunday. A couple of people who had parties going, but they were happy to set up a meeting for today. I went on splits with my district leader last Saturday. That was really good. We contacted a lesson off the street, sat down in the Church and had an... interesting lesson.... I won't go too far into details.

Well, that's all form me. Say "Happy Birthday" to Granny for me.

11 December 2008

Well, transfer calls came on Tuesday night. I am still in Riga serving with a new companion. His name is Elder Winegar. He's only just finished with his trainer- which seems to be a norm for me (I get all the people that the zone leaders train first, apparently). I like him a lot, I think we'll get some good work done.

Elder Markle is going to Kliepeda in Lithuania- A mostly-Lithuanian city that has a couple of Russian-speaking members. I think it'll do Elder Markle fine. He likes working with members- evidenced by what happened last transfer. I think, if anything, Serving with Elder Markle has encouraged me to enter activities like contacting and tracting with more confidence than I ever had, just because I've been feeling like I've had too. Elder Markle was never too optimistic about harvesting. Strange thing, though, is that after this transfer he's going home. President called him into a meeting essentially to tell him that. I'm not sure why it is. But I think it might just be that President no longer knows what to do with him. It's kinda sad, but I think it might actually be better for Elder Markle. He never really liked the way that the mission is run, and maybe never really liked proselyting that much.

As for calling, the best time would be just like last Christmas. My number is (371) 2201 5452. I can't wait to hear from you guys. The office told me they have a package for me. I'm excited to check it out. Will get the size for my pants. I think two pairs would be nice. Can't get it right now, though. We're a good 40-60 minutes from my flat as it is (I'm working on using Australian terminology again, I think the Americans are trying to make me into one of them).

The blog stuff is hilarious. I love to death the story about the grasshoppers. I somehow do not find it hard to believe that max would eat three. If correct, though, I believe that they are entirely against Mosaic law.

Well, throughout the last couple of days we've been Christmas carolling with great results. Last night, while doing so, I met this great guy named Edgars. He's a baptist who found faith after he had a rough stage in his life and even tried to kill himself, so is now a pretty humble guy. I know that might not make a lot of sense, but I've met plenty of people who have had such experiences and come out with a firm faith in Christ.

It was interesting to hear about Dad's mission. I never knew that he only baptised one person. Put's a lot in perspective for me. I guess one of the scariest things for me was the concept of coming home and trying to encourage missions for Peet, Max and someday my own children, and not being able to back that up with millions of wonderful success stories of having converted so many people. This really is the Lord's work. If I could put it all into adequate words the joys of it, the growth, the pure satisfaction of being a missionary, I would consider myself eloquent. But, for lack of a better word, I'm just going to have to say that all of these things are full. I love you all,

18 December 2008


You asked if I know what transfer I'll be coming home on. I can't give an exact answer, but according to the calendar on my phone (some missionary put down all the transfer dates on it before I came here) it should be somewhere in the last week of May. But I haven't been called about a returning date just yet, so really, it's all up in the air. Elder Markle thought he was going home in March, which didn't end up happening.


Well, I could tell you about the lesson we had with the guy I found carolling this week, but really, it's all about Monday this week. We had been contacting all day with the intention of finding someone we could take into the church and teach. All we got for hours was cold and irritated.


Then, at 4:00 that day, we met Aleksei. We had a quick lesson with him in which we spoke with him about praying to know if God exists (He was not a believer). Then we had a lesson with a member- Hadezhda. We were speaking with her about missionary work and told her about our experience that day. Her grandson, 17 yr old Anton came in and she said to us "Tell him what you told that Aleksei kid". We then had a great restoration lesson with him. It was so great that one miracle became the basis for another one.


So yes, this week with Elder Winegar has been good thus far. I've had to ask him a couple of times how his name is spelt, but that's been the only major problem. We've been pushing each other and seeing good things happen. Turns out in our district is a college football player- Elder Matee. He's a giant of a man who was trained by Elder Berryhill. Elder Berryhill was also a HUGE missionary, so the two of them must have looked pretty daunting on the street together.


We have a VERY different schedule for Christmas this year. No staying-in-doors for this year. I think that is likely to make a few missionaries more than a little irritated. I think I can even name a few- but I won't. This year we're are still proselyting in essence. But we've been asked to find inventive ways to do it- ie. not so much contacting and DEFINITELY no tracting.


We've been doing a lot of carolling on the streets in the last couple of weeks. It's been going well, a lot of people have stood by to watch.


Gee, Max. You and your darwinist theories. Oh well, he'll figure out the truth soon enough. I wonder if he really knows what that phrase means.


Okay, here's a proof of how much Russian is messing with my English. I almost wrote "means" as "meens". In Russian, almost everything is spelt phonetically. Well, that's all from me this week. I love you all. Look forward to hearing from you in ten days time.



24 December 2008


Last week was simply amazing. We found someone new almost every day. This one hasn't been going as well. But that happens. Mission experiences are either faith-building or faith-trying. But neither of them are ever really negative. We've been carolling a lot this week, on a stage in old town, no less. A lot of people have been watching which has led to so many opportunities to talk to people. Sadly, last time they were almost all tourists from Moscow and Holland- even a Scottish guy. Well, like I said, don't want to go into too much detail this time, I'll be stuck for words tomorrow, otherwise. But I love you all.



1 January 2009

Wow, what a week. P-day today has had a different schedule. We began proselyting at 10:00, and officially, P-day has only just begun. But it was a great morning. We had been stood up on one meeting, the other called in sick. So we were left contacting. But while contacting, we found Yuri, an older man who had time to talk, so we took him into the church. We had a good meeting with him.


But right after, the guy who called in sick showed up. Turned out he was feeling a little better and wanted to come. Great lesson with him.


As for my accent, I think they are right to a degree. I talk differently with Americans than I do with Australians. So I think that's starting to rub off.


Christmas day was amazing. Speaking to you was a real treat. We then went carolling to less-active members, followed by more carolling in old town. Due to a lack of information on our part, however, after that we were left with nothing to do. But we did have one bag full of goodies that had been intended for members that we never got to. So we decided to go and give it to a guy that we had tracted into- Andre. He let us in, telling us "I kept on thinking about you guys and how I need to visit your church this week. I think maybe Christ sent you here." I didn't want to sound boastful, but told him that I thought we might be. Since then we've just had great experiences with him. He is SO humble, it's amazing.


Though, honestly, with all the great things that have been happening this week, I think Satan's been working just as hard to counter it. We've ran into so many people this week who have been just plain angry at us. Such is the work of one who is destined to lose.


Well, that's all this week. We need to buy groceries still, write to President, travel an hour home and be back in our apartment by 5 pm (It's just about 2:00 right now, yikes)

8 January 2009


Well, Andre (the investigator we found a while back) is still going strong. He's come to church twice so far. Last week he told us he couldn't even come to sacrament meeting because of work, yet there he was- in a suit and tie, no less.


Jesse just sounds like she's having a ball in Athens (I was going to write "having a riot", but that might have been a little tactless). Sisters in this mission get pretty similar treatment from drunk men- marriage proposals, creepy men stroking their hair, I think Europeans are just like that. I think the reason that the missionaries just looked at her weird is that they don't let American missionaries into Greece. That's what I've heard, anyway.


This last week has been deathly cold- -11 degrees. I told Andre that at home, temperatures don't get below +10 degrees and he just laughed. It's been very uncomfortable, but in the last couple of days it's warmed up a bit, resulting in massive snowfall (did you know that it actually gets TOO COLD TO SNOW here? uncanny). As such, the streets and parks are just beautiful- covered in fresh-fallen snow.


You're right, the YSA convention news I find very cool. It sounds like a lot of fun.


New years was hectic. We were locked down in our apartment at 5:00 that evening and were woken up at 12:00 by the whole city exploding with fireworks. There was even some young punk in our stairwell letting off some.


I cannot omit zone conference this week. It was amazing. Halfway through, we leave the chapel and pile onto a bus, which takes us to jurmala beach- the very spot where Elder James E. Faust dedicated the land of Latvia for missionary service. We read his dedicatory prayer, which gave some interesting insights. Namely that the first missionaries to serve there would see temples and stakes in Latvia during their lifetime. It was an amazing experience.


Well, that's all from me now. I gotta write to Jesse, Peet and then President (I've been getting emails all over the place today).

Thomas News

22 October 2008:

This week has made me excited beyond excited, because we came closer than we ever had to teaching 15 lessons this week. I'm not quite sure what we did to deserve it, but it went amazingly.

We found one area that has just been perfect for tracting. It's been like walking into fairyland. We've already taught a couple of lessons, and I think we're going to be able to teach a lot more with the Lord's help. As for staying in Daugavpils- I would love to stay here for the rest of my mission. I've really felt like I've been pulling my weight in this city, and I love the branch to bits. The whole district has been predicting my leaving for the last couple of transfers, mostly because they think it would be cruel to keep me here much longer. I, on the other hand am loving it. But, we'll see what the Lord wants for me. I'll just say this- I've worked harder and more effectively here than I ever have on my mission.

Some more money on my card would be wonderful for one of three reasons. Most importantly, because I'm am running out of suit pants, they all have hole worn on the inner leg. I fixed one by putting an iron-on patch, and made the hole worse by trying to do the same to another (all this happened just last week, was not happy at all). Secondly, a member got a photo with me and is now bugging me constantly for copies, if you could find your way to getting me some money for that in the next couple of hours (big ask, I know), it would be wonderful. The final one is a little selfish, I guess. I found a book I would like to buy and read when the mission is over. It's a Russian translation of "Hound of the Baskervilles"- one of those old Sherlock Holmes novels.

Something interesting occurred this week while in sacrament meeting (followed by 1st session of general conference- wonderful session). I was sitting behind the sacrament table contemplating what I saw as a major problem- no investigators at sacrament meeting. My disappointment was deepened when I learned that other missionaries in the district had somewhere around 2 or 3 investigators with them. I started to wonder why it wasn't working for me. Was I that poor a missionary? Why wasn't the success coming as quickly for me as it had been for others?

Naturally I started thinking about what I had done during the week, trying desperately to find a ray of sunshine. It came quicker than I expected, and in a different way than I had expected. I remember a meeting I had with Yariga the day before. We had been addressing her fear of going to the the city, where our church was located. To do so, we shared Alma 7:10-13. which in effect says that Christ bore our griefs and sorrows so that he may succor his people. We told her that such griefs and sorrows include her fear of the city.

Suddenly, that scripture started to have meaning for me. The spirit gave me the strong impression of it's truth. And I started to realize it's application for me as a missionary. I understood that Christ felt every ounce of grief that I felt when investigators did not come to church, when people I tracted into gave me that disgusted look and proclaimed "I don't need it!", when the Book of Mormon had not been read for several weeks and when Baptismal dates failed. I began to understand more fully the meaning of "(bearing) our griefs and (carrying) our sorrows". That morning in sacrament meeting, the Atonement held more meaning for me that it ever had in my life. Sure, we had meetings this week, a considerable amount of them, too. But all in all, it was that experience that made the week wonderful. I'm sorry there aren't more interesting stories to tell you, but if any come to mind, I'll be sure to write them.

5 November (One of his letters just never arrived and he refers to it in this letter):

Turns out after all that talk about going to Narva, I'm not serving there after all. I was there for one day before I get a call from President Dance telling me that I am to be re-transferred to Riga. I've served there before, but this time I am to serve on a different side of the river. I am now on the eastern side of the city. The missionaries who were here before me have both had Visa problems and now have to leave the European union. Hence President Dance had me re-transferred back into Latvia at the last minute.

My new companion is Elder Markle. He's an odd one, but I like him. Before I forget. Yes, I do know Viktorija. We all call her Vika, She's a recent convert in Daugavpils. Do you remember the one that sent us the text message? The nice one with funny grammar? That's her. I gave her your email address because most young members in Daugavpils have what they call a "Friend book", in which many missionaries leave a friendly word, and a contact. I gave them your email because I don't want her sending to my LDS mail, and I'm not sure my hotmail is still valid. (This girl sent an email to us saying ' Hi mate whats up home slice???? I just want to tell you, that we ,miss you so much and we want that you come back in Daugavpils! Becouse you be great elder! You are the best!!! All the best! Vika ')

Which brings me to a nice story about when I left Daugavpils. Having been there so long, I felt that there had to be some special objective accomplished before I left. Therefore, the call to go to Narva came unwantedly. I began to think that maybe God was just sending me there to fill space, and that better missionaries had been sent to other areas where their work could be more fruitful at that time. Well, news gets around quickly in Daugavpils. Vika found out. For some background information, Vika was found through English class. She first entered the Church Building to come to my intermediate English class. There, after several English classes, the sister missionaries started meeting her, unfortunately, she was unable to come to church due to problems getting into the city from where she lived. So, the sisters stopped meeting with her for a while. During this time she still kept coming to my class, and was still hearing my spiritual thoughts. Eventually, sister missionaries started meeting with her again. The time was right, and she was baptised. She is now a faithful member of the church. I suppose having known me throughout the whole of her LDS experience, she thought it appropriate to come and see me off when I left. She gave me a note, thanking me for introducing her to the church and participating as a witness at her baptism.

Those words of thanks changed my whole outlook on my time in Daugavpils. When I got the call to leave, I thought that all of my efforts had been wasted. On the bus out, I was silently thanking my Heavenly Father that he was able to use me to save one of his children.

In other good experiences this week, going too and from Narva allowed me to stop in Tallinn for a night and go to the Branch's Halloween activity. I got to see the family I baptised while there- they are so strong. The Kid who says "what the hell" is now passing the sacrament, and the girl that I baptised is still strong as well. It was great to see them.

Also 5 Novemebr:

Okay, I think It's time to tell you a little bit about our investigators in Riga. I got into Riga on Saturday, so I haven't had a lot of time to meet them. But here's the one I've met.

His name is Artur. He's a tall, VERY muscular Boxer who wants to go to Australia for study and work. He speaks in a very deep voice using Schwazenager-style English. He's more ready for baptism than he seems to think, but has so many questions I'm worried he's going to get distracted by the minor details of the Gospel and not enjoy the real blessings. But still, a great, humble guy. He would like to know what the population of Australia is like. And how many members are there. Could you give me a number?

Riga kinda overwhelms me, having been in a small city for the past nine months, coming here is somewhat of a culture shock. I asked Elder Markle if he was related to the Elder that you knew, he hasn't heard anything about it. Well, love you guys. I'll write more as I think of it. I still have 40 minutes here, so if you want to ask any more questions, now would be the time to do it.

11 November:

Before I go too far, I should explain: I have Zone conference tomorrow, so I'm writing to you on Tuesday. Sorry, I forgot to tell you last week. If you are able to see this before the day's out, let me know you guys are still alive and well, but if not, I guess I'll hear from you next week.

Well, it's been a slow week, this one. Not teaching as much as I'd like, but this can only get better, I suppose. A lot of the leaders keep asking me if I get along with my companion. They seem a little concerned about him. I suppose they have a right to be worried- he refuses to tract or contact (he is convinced that he should only work through the members, and that nothing else works), he sleeps in pretty late for a missionary (his usual wake-up time is 9am) and, by the look of things he refuses to take advice from president. It's a shame, because I like the guy, but occasionally the aforementioned habits drive me up the wall. But I won't go too deeply into that. I don't want to dwell on his bad points, but I've found myself thinking about it a lot.

Having been in Daugavpils for so long, Riga seems amazingly clean in comparison. That might sound strange, since a year ago I was also in Riga and thinking it was the most disgusting place I'd ever been in. But Daugavpils had it's messes as well. Needles and broken bottles on the ground were common, not to mention human feaces. With that in mind, I feel like I'm in a much cleaner environment right now. The Branch in Riga, again in comparison to Daugavpils, is enormous. Ten active priesthood holders doesn't sound like much in Australia, but here it seems like almost too many members. Really makes me think about how lucky I was to grow up in a ward that was so solid. The only thing about Riga that I don't understand is the total absence of children in the branch. I think this is the only branch I have been in which has no children at all. I baptised a couple of them in Estonia, I became a good friend to them in Vilnius, I remember looking after at least one in Imanta, and I look back with a amused frustration (if such a thing exists) on the times I had to chase a whole bunch of kids who were trying to run out of the church in Daugavpils. It really is uncanny.

We have a new investigator: Boris. He was given to us by the assistants (who speak Latvian and Estonian) and we managed to get in contact. We had a quick chat, and he seemed uninterested, but was willing to come to church when we picked him up. He's now willing to meet with us. Well, that's all from me. Not a very exciting week, this one. But who knows, maybe later.

With Okas family:

With Elder Berryhill:

With Riga Dsitrct:

19 November:

Firstly, a HUGE thanks to granny for the money- it will come much in handy- partly because I have also found the entire "Chronicles of Narnia" in Russian- I'm considering building a small library of books in Russian.

Who would have thought a storm could do so much damage? It sounds like all hell broke loose in Brisbane. I'm telling a fellow missionary about this right now and he's just as surprised. I don't think I ever heard of anything like it. Is everyone more-or-less well all things considered?

I'm looking at Jesse's formal photos, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to put at least a little bit of fear into that Ben kid. He looks alright, though. Kinda hard to picture him as a prime minister- what, with him looking like the Billy Joel off of Greenday and all. Oh well, if they can vote labour in when the whole world is going into a financial crisis, I guess someone who looks like a punk-rock-hero might seem pretty good. I had to at least chuckle when I saw the Picture of Nathan with his date- he's looking more than a little pleased with himself.

Well this week saw the first snowfall this year. I woke up this morning to the entire street being white. It started snowing on Monday and very little of it was melting away- which is what it did about this time last year. These last few days were the Latvian Independence days. These are three days when the Latvians celebrate their freedom from soviet rule- guess which language gets the dirty looks? So we spent the last few days tracting into people's parties and trying to use less-conventional ways of finding (eg. using the area book). Well, I'm afraid that that's all I have time for right now. I'm under directions from president to read a couple of talks from David A. Bednar. So I need to get to those.

Thomas News

Lots to catch up on:

September 11:
There's no need to worry about the Russia-Georgia conflict. We are at the moment relatively safe from anything too rough. That said, there is a lot of worry about the whole matter over here in Daugavpils. There are people here who tell me about their worries that world war three is starting. But right now, the most beef that people have with us is that they think we should be going back to our own countries to preach.

President Dance is an incredibly genuine man. He's made a lot of changes to the way that the mission is run. For example, we no longer play soccer with the locals on Saturday like we used to. That got my companion a little unhappy. But I think he's more or less over it now. I dunno, personally I found playing sports on Saturday a waste of time. Particularly when we had baptisms on that day. So much less work was done on those days.

My companion, Elder Roderick is a good kid. Like I indicated he gets upset or angry pretty easily, which has actually helped me since it puts the responsibility on me to be the one in the good mood. The things he gets mad at aren't anything out of the ordinary, just a lot of them. It seems to me that he wasn't the kind of kid you'd have liked to cross back in high school. But that said, he's a wonderful worker with a exquisite receptiveness to the spirit.

This week's been a good one considering all of the curve balls that were thrown at us. Elder Roderick and I had to go into Riga last week, like I told you, to see a dentist there that could help with his tooth. On that day we learn that Elder Roderick needs to go into Tallinn to take care of Visa troubles the result of this being that I returned to Daugavpils without a companion only to work in the other Elders area for a few days. Elder Roderick came back to Daugavpils for a day and a half before we had to back to Riga for a zone conference, which he wasn't happy about.

But I'm glad he came back. Because we therefore had the opportunity to find Andre and Anya. A younger couple who are living together (and thankfully, not drinking- they just plain don't). The spirit was so strong in that meeting. We set up another meeting and the setting up went like this. Us: "Would we be able to talk to you on Tuesday"Anya: "Definitely."Andre: "But that's your birthday."Anya: "It's okay, I'd like to talk with them more."Andre: "I that case, definitely, come back" When we saw them yesterday, we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. Andre told us he would definitely read the book and gave us his phone number without us asking for it. The meeting on Tuesday was just as spirit-centred. They are wonderful.

We've been told recently to start focusing more on getting the members involved with missionary work. President Gibbons from Eastern European area presidency was there and he told us something interesting. He said in order for this to work, missionaries (and members) "need to get it out of (their) heads that this is a hard thing." There has been huge focus on working with members and THEN doing all other things we can do to find people. It was very interesting, because I always saw it the other way around. Well, that's all from me. I love this gospel. It is the only in this world that will save it, particularly in eastern Europe. I love you all and pray for you always.

September 25:

This weeks been one of the tougher ones to start the transfer off. Only three lessons apart from member lessons (active and non-active). So not really much to talk about this week. It's been somewhat ironic, because during last zone conference (which was a little over a week ago) they told us to do all we can to get teach 15 lessons a week. I've been doing all I can. A common plan will usually be somewhere around 6 each day. None work out. We can't even find someone from English classes because we haven't had people come since two transfers ago. I'm now just going to tell elder Berryhill that Elder Roderick and I aren't going to English- It just isn't worth it anymore. We need to find more people we can talk to.

My companion's teeth aren't getting much better. Actually, it looks like he's going to have one pulled out. The infection that's giving him pain is actually in the bone, and the Dentists have no clue what to do- Good on ya, Latvia.

This week, Elder Rasmussen came to Daugavpils. He has now finished his mission and was hanging around Daugavpils with his family. We had a quick lunch with him and his family, and saw him off to the train station. It's kinda scary now. I'm losing my senior companions. The only ones left now are Elder Arnell and Elder Berryhill.

It's interesting being a missionary around young babies. This week Elder Roderick and I tracted into one apartment where a young mother opened with a 10-week old baby. I had never seen a more excited baby in my life. I get reminded about what Piper told The members in Estonia when I was there "Our children are more spiritual than most of us. They remember what it was like being in the pre-existence." I wonder how much they remember. I'm definitely not the first missionary to have this experience. A lot of missionaries have had similar experiences.

Love hearing everyone's stories. Particularly amused by the pigeon incident, and Peet's choice of costume for the Pine dance. I'm sorry there's not much to talk about this week, it's been a tough one, but that usually means the Lord has something great in store for us. Our district leader, Elder Freeman (who used to be district leader her before elder Berryhill), gave us a couple of tips on how we can find more lessons. Some of which I didn't even think were possible for a long time. So, I'm confident that with the Lord's help, you'll get a longer, more interesting letter next week.

October 2:

Well, interesting bit of news this week. Someone tried to convert me to the baptist church. We were tracting last week and we ran into a baptist family. They tried to tell us how there was no salvation in the Book of Mormon, only in the Bible. The father of the family took my Book of Mormon and tried to explain to me how we were "rejecting the gospel". At that point I had enough. I snatched my book from him, growled a goodbye, and went into the next building. I waited for a while before I could calm down. I was so mad.

I soon realized, however, that calming down wasn't going to happen. A verse from the Book of Mormon came into my mind: 3 Nephi 12:23-24 (translated from Russian) "Therefore, if you will come to Me, or desire to come to Me, and remember that your brother has something against you -Go to your brother and first be reconciled with him. And then come to Me with a humble heart, and I will accept you." It occurred to me that as tactless as that man had been against everything I know to be true, I was the one claiming to be a servant of Christ.

I told my companion that we had to go back and I to apologize to that man. After doing so, he again tried to convert me, but I respectfully declined and we went our separate ways.

That decision turned out to be one of the better ones I have made. After my apology, we found this wonderful family. A huge one with 7 kids (the oldest being just eight years old). We had a wonderful lesson with them. I taught while my companion got to know the children. We want to go and see them sometime again this week.

Other bit of good news this week comes from only a day or two before. My companion and I had been stood-up by two different people, destroying our plan and back up plan for that afternoon. We decided to go to our regular harvesting area, which involved us going past the home of Anatoli- an investigator that we were on the verge of dropping because meeting with him had become impossible. Both my companion and I decided to drop by him since we were going by his house- just to give him one more chance. We knocked on his door and he wasn't home. We turned around, about to abandon him forever, when he showed up from taking a stroll around the suburb we asked if we could talk with him for 15 minutes, and he agreed. That lesson, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and challenged him to baptism. He now has a baptismal date for the 25th.

I haven't gotten the camera yet- I'll probably get that next week at zone conference. That will be next Wednesday, by the way. As such next P-day will be on TUESDAY. You can expect a letter from me then. But I nonetheless send you a photo. The whole Russian-speaking Zone in Latvia had a photo taken together last Zone conference with president Gibbons of the the Area Presidency. I'm top left- the who looks like he is falling over- there wasn't much room for me up there. I'm holding onto my companion, Elder Roderick, for support. Elder Seastrand is standing next to Elder Roderick. I'll send you the photo in a separate Email since it got sent to me by Sister Strodl.

Well Alec, if you're thinking of putting in your papers at that time, then I'll be perfectly honest with you- I was hoping you'd do that. I would honesty love to see you again before you go- but you do what you feel the Lord wants you to do.

I've also been thinking about the trails of missionary work. The more I think about it though, the more I understand that the biggest trial a missionary faces is his own lack of vision. His own inability to look further than the here and now. I think that's the way it is in life in general. Last week I wasn't so much sad as stressed. It's so easy to get stressed when you can't see the end from the beginning.

Well, that's all from me. Love Max's story about him praying twice. Sometimes I think the youngest children have the purest faith. Maybe that's why Christ said, regarding children "Such is the kingdom of God". Well, Love you all. Look forward to hearing more from you on Tuesday.

October 8:

Daugavpils has gone mad!
Don't be too alarmed by the subject of letter. It just means that we seemed to have run into every nutcase in Daugavpils this week. Just contacting we have run into every kind of person- From the Angry, to the Nice, yet strange, to the Plain Nuts. We even had a lesson with one (Plain Nuts) and she was really insane (coincidentally, she was a Jehovah's Witness- my companion and I had a good laugh about that).

Not much huge news this week, we're going to push back Anatoli's baptismal date probably to the 15th of November. He wasn't able to come to church last week because of health problems, and he has a lot of work to do before he's ready.

We are also going to be working in a new area in Daugavpils. It's part of the new policy put in by President Dance. Cities used to work thus: 2 companionships of Elders would take each half the city, and 1 companionship of sisters would take care of the women that the Elders couldn't teach in the whole city. Now each companionship has a particular area- be they Elders or sisters. And well, that means we're working in an entirely new area (although, we still get to keep the investigators that we've been teaching previously). It means that I'm looking at a lot of juggling in the future.

The new area has been paying off, though. We found a new investigator yesterday while tracting- Yariga. She's a nice old woman. Being in a new part in the city has been strange for me. All of sudden, I'm able to get lost in my area- that hadn't happened to me for a long time. But I'm excited. Yesterday we we tracting in a suburb on the outskirts of town (again, new for me). It was sublimely beautiful. Huge forests of green and yellow leaves (Autumn has definitely hit- having seasons like this is kinda bizarre) and an area that is many times cleaner than what I'm used to. Oh well. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be quite the adventure.

We have zone conference tomorrow. That'll be interesting. Each missionary needs to prepare a 5 minute talk on faith. one missionary will be selected on the day to present, so we'd best be ready.

Sad part of the week, though. We tried going by that family we found last week, and the father told us he doesn't want us by again. Oh well, maybe the Lord was more concerned about teaching Elder Fulcher. Understand about Dad not coming. Even if he did, the going into Russia would probably be out of the question. Elder Berryhill told me some right horror stories about when he was there. Well that's all from me. More interesting stuff next week.

October 16:

Well, sad bit of news this week, we've had to say goodbye to Anatoli. His Book of Mormon was gathering dust, he had never come to church and he wasn't really taking his own Baptism seriously.

But that's about as far as the sadness goes. I don't know if it's just been yesterday that made us happier, or just it's generally been a good week for us. For starters, I'm very excited about Yariga, the older woman we met last Monday while tracting. Last week we gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon. She was incredibly thankful to finally have a form of God's word to man. She was without a bible for many years, and upon receiving the book, she held it close to herself and kissed it lightly- Like I said, very thankful. She has a slight problem coming to church, but that's not due to lack of care so much as she is scared of downtown Daugavpils, where the church is located. Gonna work with that.

Also yesterday was amazing for us- 5 lessons taught in the one day. This brings us to 6 this week- Already equal to the amount of lessons we had last week.

I got the camera last week. Was overjoyed that Dad left some photos on the camera- they were great to look at. Peet's pictures of discuss-throwing are great, and I think I will definitely have to get that printed. As well as Alec's photo of him getting a Mullet (care to explain?). The pictures of Straddie are amazing too- looks like a really beautiful place, and it was great to see pictures of the whales and (I think) dolphins. I was a little confused when first I saw them. I thought Dad was just taking photos of water and trees.

Zone conference was amazing. So much good stuff, but the best was probably President Dance's comments. He spoke to us about people asking him what was and wasn't allowed. He introduced to us the "one degree principle"- the idea being that venturing off our course, even by one degree can put us many miles off track. He related this to our purpose as missionaries- we are to find, teach and baptize. That is the one degree. Anything that takes us off that one degree (for example, lingering after church) should be avoided if at all possible. It gave me a lot to think about in regards to planning. For example, at lunch, do we just eat and go or do we take some time to recharge? We've adjusted our plans and have found better results because of it.

Final thing in the week I'd like to talk about is another lesson we found while tracting some small weekend-gardening cottages (Dachas). Russians use these a lot during the summer and autumn to grow natural food, and relax away from home. They are usually there every weekend when there's no snow. So last Saturday, we thought we'd find them there. We found a lovely old lady named Elizaveta. We taught her about Joseph smith and knowing by the Holy Ghost and invited her to pray and ask God for knowledge about the truthfulness of the message. She told us she wasn't sure about that. She usually prayed to Jesus and Mary. I asked her if she believed that God was our Heavenly Father, if she believed she loved, after she said yes, I affirmed it with my testimony and asked her again to pray to God. She said she would.

It's getting pretty cold up here at the moment. Temperatures have gone back to 6-10 degrees and that's been made worse with the wind and rain. I think I might be coming down with a slight cold thanks to all this, but not to worry. It's intestinal flu that makes me really worried. I've had that before and it's been terrible. Well, that's all from me. I hope you are all well, and I love you all.

Still catching up on Thomas News

By mid-September I will have served in Daugavpils longer than any other missionary I know (at least, in consecutive transfers). This is now my 5th transfer in Daugavpils, which I can't really complain about. My companion is Elder Roderick. This is only his second transfer right now, so he still feels a little uneasy about language. But I did the same thing on my second transfer. He'll do fine, I think. He's a big Californian kid who played Rugby in high school.

Elder Berryhill is now my district leader. He's training a new missionary. When the rest of the Daugavpils district found out I was still going to be here, they found it a little hard to believe- I've seen everyone in last transfer's district come and go.

Investigators have just shot through the roof last week. Elder Berryhill and I found no less than 11 this week- One family (3), an older couple, a VERY old lady, another couple, one lady and two younger men (one of which was Dimitri- who has a desire to be baptised). President thought it worthy to note in his letter to the missionaries that one companionship found 11 investigators in this week.

A little bit about them (at least the one's we're still teaching)- Sergei is one of the humblest men I've ever met. Fighting a winning battle against depression, our first meeting with him he told us that he knew that there was something different about us. He had some very serious questions about life after death. We met with him briefly last night, and he again told us that he could feel a real sense of brotherly love around us. He very strongly believes that our bodies and souls can become re-united after death- says he even had a dream about it.

Vadim, his wife Larissa and their daughter Tanya- Very friendly family, Vadim is a little hard to get through to, very Russian Orthodox. But still found what we taught interesting.Sveta, her Husband and her mother- We met them tracting a long time ago. She said come back, but the husband was the only one home. That week, we're tracting again, and she sees us. We have a quick chat and she tells us about her mother who is very sick. We were allowed to come in and give her a blessing. We intend to see them again this week.

Sergei and Ilona- Found in the Area Book. Sergei was very receptive. His wife, Ilona, however, seems to there for the ride- that can change though. Elder Freeman (my previous district leader who is right now in Imanta, Riga as the Latvian-Russian-speaking Zone Leader) Will be teaching Sergei during the week, as Sergei works weekdays in Riga, but Elder Roderick and I will be looking after him on the weekends.

The funny part about the whole thing is: 9 of these investigators were only found at the end of the week. I think that's the way the Lord tests you sometimes. You gotta feel like your banging your head against the wall occasionally to reap the blessings.

A early Happy Birthday to Jesse, and I believe a late one Peet. Why did I not hear anything about it? As for the camera, since I'm staying in Latvia, probably better to send a camera. If I was going to be in Estonia, or Lithuania, I would say "let's see", but I think at this stage, sending one would be a safer bet.

Please don't be worried if I am happy as a missionary or not. I am certain that a missionary (at least in 90% of cases) is never so much unhappy as he is shortsighted. My problem has not been that my mission is not wonderful, but that short-term setbacks are allowed to develop in my mind and become despairing. In almost every situation, God has had something wonderful in store, something to lift me enough to drown even a thousand bad experiences. And In case you are wondering- I am delighted by my mission. Well that's all from me, I'll let you know how things progress.

Dear Dad,

Well, rough trots happen.

We have a lot of people who drop off, but thats more to do with the fact that we've been finding a lot of people in this transfer. These sort of situation really just help you to weed out those who will not progress, which makes finding them much more wonderful. I've sent the details to Mum, so you'll probably find out more from her. My new companion this transfer is Elder Roderick from California. He's on his second transfer and a giant! No taller than I am, but strong as an ox. He played Rugby in High school. I think I'm in safe hands at the moment.

So how was Peet's Birthday? I never heard anything about it and as I understand his and Max's are pretty close together.

Well that's all from me, more in the letter to the family.
Your son,Tom

Catching up on Thomas news

I know last time I wrote I had some hard days, but last week was definitely the hardest week I had ever had.

Our lesson total was 2 for the whole week. All 5 of our previous investigators dropped us, including those with baptismal dates. That hurt a lot. And for a long time it was looking like we were going nowhere. Then on Monday we were blessed by one of the most powerfully faithful young men I had ever met. His name is Dimitri, and he is now an investigator with us. We gave him the first lesson, and he ate it up. The questions he asked I had never heard an investigator ask before: How do you become a member of this church? How could he become a missionary? He showed such sincere interest. I have great hopes for him.

Don't worry if I occasionally sound unhappy in my emails. It's not so much unhappiness as it is a lack of understanding. I'm not miserable so much as stressed, and all in all unlearned in the ways of our Father. In the last couple of weeks I failed to comprehend the Lord's hand in this work. As long as we do the Lord's will he never forgets us (as I was guilty of having thought) he only refines us. If we were continuing to teach these people, who were clearly not taking the gospel seriously, we might have overlooked or ignored those who were actually ready. I've been looking at those photo's from the baptism.

Tell Alec that if he doesn't get his hair cut soon the labourers will be using him to sweep the floors. Yeah, I know, hypocrite. If you look at my hair lately, look long enough and I think you'll see my skull. And when did Peet get so big? He's almost as tall as Mum. Thankfully Max, Louisa and Jesse still LOOK pretty much the same way I left them. Keep it up.

Well, this may be my last week in Daugavpils. Transfer calls are happening this Sunday, so next week I could be writing you from another city (first time in half a year, how about that?). I keep having these weird dreams about going to Narva (all-Russian city in Estonia). If I end up going there, I'm gonna be a little weirded out. There are baptisms happening in this mission, quite a few have happened in Daugavpils. I've just been stressing out because I haven't been bringing as many to baptism as I had wanted to, or a frequently.

As for the car, I don't really know. I'll make that decision later.

The cameras here have ranged depending on the quality. For a canon-brand (which I think would be ideal, since I still have the battery charger for it) the cost is between 130 and 180 lats I think that translates into 260-360 American dollars. Couldn't tell you what it is in Australian. I would advise not buying one there, though at least until the end of the week, and we know whether I am staying in Latvia or not.

Yeah, I think I still want to teach English and Media. I really feel like I want to do something that will change peoples lives. One of the reasons I'm on a mission actually. And one of the reasons I got stressed out. Well, that's all from me this week. I'll let you know how things work out. I love you all.


This week there was one girl baptised that I had been teaching in English for several months. Her name is Vika. My companion baptised her and my district leader and I were witnesses. It was wonderful to be a part of that experience.

She was a little apprehensive about going into the water (she said it was cold-it wasn't). But she felt great afterwards and sent us the following text message (in her hilarious broken English): "Dear Bear and dear Fama (Elder Berryhill and Elder Fulcher) ;) Inexpressible I'm happy that baptize me. Thanks you:-] Brilliant feeling... Thanks you for everything :-]"

She's a very good "churchy" girl now. I just thought that text was worth sharing.

Thomas News

I've just gotten the Blog Stuff- all wonderful, of course. But why don't I get any letter from you guys? I'm kinda desperate to hear about Max's Baptism.

Good week so far. The remainder of last was definitely one of those "Trials of your faith". None of our meetings worked out for about 3 days. Then on Sunday we found one amazing, very humble young guy named Yuri. He lives with his girlfriend, and has a 3 month old child, but is still very receptive to the spirit. We'll let you know how he progresses.

The last three days have been some of the most amusing on my mission thus far. I went tracting with my district leader on Monday while on splits. In this mission we rarely tract houses, the majority of Latvia's population lives in large apartment complexes. Anyway, we found in one apartment complex a homeless man sleeping on the top floor. My district leader was a little creeped out. He told me that he had never seen that before. I told him I had once- in Vilnius. It certainly makes you feel old when you have had experiences in the mission field that your district leader has not yet encountered.

Other experiences involve two from last night: first of which was a drunk man who came over to talk to us. This happens more times than I would prefer. We asked him if he had been drinking (as if we couldn't tell- vodka leaves a stench on you that can knock a grown man unconscious). He said he had. We asked if it was some sort of holiday today- prime drinking time in Latvia. His reply was "Well... it's Tuesday." Such is the attitude toward drinking in Latvia- any excuse will do.

The second was an elderly lady we knocked into. She told us she wasn't interested, and we left. before we could knock on the door next to hers, she told us "Don't knock on that one, they're all Russians. They're always drunk. So is the next door, all drunkards. Now the door after that one. Those are good Latvians. You want that door." She was probably the most racist lady I've met in Latvia- and that's a big call.

Other than that, not a whole lot happening this week. We tracted into a lady named Regina that we want to go back to tomorrow. My Companion and I are just giving it all we got to find people this transfer, and it's showing off.

I've been reading a little out of "Jesus the Christ" lately and have been incredibly impressed by the trials of our Saviour. One thing that impressed me the most has been his temptations during his forty-day fast, and Satan comes to tempt him to turn stones to bread. It says that the temptation was not to eat, but to heed to the word "if". To have Christ doubt his divine sonship and think "If I'm the son of God, surely God would not let me suffer like this. Why would he?" I'm led to think of our own trials in our life. Many times it is tempting to think "is it right that we should suffer like this?" I was particularly thinking so last week, when it seemed like everything in my area was falling down around me. I began to wonder if God actually cared about anything I did. I have since come to realize that Satan's temptations are universal. Not just the temptation to do what is not right, but to think incorrectly about our relationship to our Heavenly Father. I know that our Heavenly Father has a sincere and deep love for all of us- and that love isn't removed simply by the presence of trial (see Romans 8:35-39).

Well, that's all from me this week. If you can give me some last-minute details about Max's baptism, please do. I'm kinda desperate. I love you all.

Then he got my letters and replied - a bit sad:

Don't worry I'm getting them. That section in "Jesus the Christ" helped me put a lot into perspective. I ended up with not only a better understanding about My Heavenly Father or about Christ, but about my place as a witness of him. I'm not gonna deny, last week was one of the most difficult of my mission. one of those weeks where you just feel like you're trying to nail jelly to a wall. I was lucky to have have the help of a Good district leader, a companion who told him I needed help and the help of the spirit to give me even greater insight.

Then it got tragic:

If you look in the chapter that talks a little about his baptism, (I think, I was kinda just flipping through) there is a part in there about his 40 day fast. I'm coping fine. Sunday at church was very difficult for me. I went into the library there, locked myself in and started praying as hard as I could- I had found before that this was the best way to find relief. Some opened the library, I presume they saw me because they closed a while afterwards, I never really payed attention. Somehow or other my companion found out, told my district leader that I was having troubles and he spoke to me later on (which helped a lot). I guess I really just felt beaten. I was never at the point of wanting to go home- I knew full well that no matter how hard things got here, going home before I had fulfilled my duty to God would just make things worse, if for no other fact than I would have feel ashamed beyond my strength to bear it. As a missionary I have felt temporarily beaten at times, but never ashamed for what I have done here. And I don't see that changing in the near future. What I felt was that I was going nowhere, like I was doing more harm than good. The long and short of the whole situation is that Satan worked hard on me this week. He knows missionaries make great "trophies" if he can win them over, which makes him zealous when using his powers on them.

Thomas News

Ouch! My heart bleeds for Dad! The operation sounds like VERY painful business. Hope he's getting some actual rest instead of doing working around the house (which is what "rest" has meant in the past).

Well, something of a landmark for the transfer happened yesterday- we finally knocked over a whole suburb. Elder Berryhill and I had been tracting pretty much every night this transfer in only one suburb of Daugavpils. Now between us and the sisters (who have been tracting in our area behind our backs, mongrels) the area is now pretty much invalid at least for a year. And we've gotten some pretty good investigators out of it.

The family I told you about, and Nina, who now has a baptismal date. A little bit about them now, by the way. Nina has now finished the Book of Mormon. It's very impressive, because she only got the Book a little over a week before. She's an old lady and stays at home a lot, so I think she had plenty of time. The problem is getting her to pray. She's really lacking desire.

The Family are still wonderful. The parents have baptismal dates for the 17th of August and the children are now calling us the "uncles". It was very cute. We took two of their children to sacrament on Sunday, for non member's they were dressed very well. Maxim (9) was dressed a little punky, but still clean. Karina (10), looked like I may as well have been taking Simone to church. It was hard not to think that I was.

At church that day, Aleksandra also came. It was so good to see her again. We still need to hold off before we speak to her. That Devil of a daughter I think is still ready to kill her if she sees us again.

This week we had one Elder get very sick. To all future missionaries- Do everything you can to stay in good health. In this mission, every district is essentially made up of two companionships of Elders (who each handle one side of the city) and one Companionship of sisters (who take care of all the women), so if one missionary gets sick both companionships have their effectiveness cut in half at least for a day, one missionary will look after the sick Elder, while the other two go out and try to fit two days of work into one day. It's no fun at all.

My companion just gave me some VERY disturbing news. Missionaries are now no longer going to be sent to Russia. They are closing the whole country down. It will be a two year process, where all the missionaries trying to go there will finish their missions there. But aside from that, it's game over there, at least for now.

Louisa, tell me about the kids who were teasing you, I can't beat them up yet, but I can make a list. Well, that's all from me this week. I love you all, and hope you are well.

And my birthday letter:

Dear Mum,
I think now is a good time to wish you a Happy Birthday for yesterday. I want to thank you for having written to me every week. It amazing, but not all missionaries get that. I knew one missionary who didn't get a single letter or email for his first three weeks in the field. I wanted to send him one of yours to him, and tell him to insert his family members names where appropriate. There of course have been hard times as I've tried to serve here. But it is always comforting and encouraging when I read your letters. You know how you don't know what you got 'til it's gone? I guess it's a similar idea.
Love you,Tom.

Thomas News

It's really sad to hear about what happened to Bob this week. Send my love to his family. He was a righteous man, though. I can only imagine exaltation for him. On a side note, good grief, Max.

Don't worry too much about the parcels thing. My companions aren't exactly overloaded with parcels either. It's kinda normal. Besides, I didn't come her to get parcels, what makes me happiest is seeing people accept commitments to baptism. Such a thing happened this week, actually.

One of our new investigators, an older lady by the name of Nina accepted a challenge this week. After receiving the challenge, she asked "What do I need to do?" We explained that we would help her prepare for this sacred ordinance. It's kinda funny, because that week, almost all our investigators dropped us.

Excluding the family. I guess the Lord just lets that happen to make you humble enough to receive blessings. I'll let you know how it goes. For the record, I have had just almost as many new investigators this transfer as in my whole mission, so we're really getting some great thing happening. As for the family we've been teaching, they are wonderful.

We played UNO with them before giving a spiritual thought last week. Now the children are addicted. The kid's that I know so far (there are 5 kids in this family) are Maxim (or Max, age 9) and Karina (age 10). They remind me of Louisa and Maxwell so much. They play with each other a lot and they are some of the most well behaved kids I've ever met. When they meet missionaries, they don't attack them, climb on them, or try to steal their tags (it happens). We plan to commit them to baptism this Thursday.

So where is Daniel Burgess going on his mission?

Okay, some bad news this week. I think my camera has been stolen. Possibly during English class, possibly during church. My bag was in a fairly accessible place in another room. I've searched my apartment and the church all over and have not found it. I'm so sorry. I really am. I know how much this represents a lack of respect for other things. I have a few ideas as to who might have taken it, if it was somebody I know, and if it was them, then it is either stolen or broken now. Again, I know that this was not a cheap camera and I am deeply sorry.

Aside from that, though, I do need to congratulate Peet. Good on ya for helping out Max getting ready for his Baptism. And Good on Max for taking it so seriously.

On a side note, I didn't know Peet and I had the same shirt, looks good on him. As you can guess, I'm now looking at the Blog photos. Frankie May is a gorgeous kid. I can see why Mum loves her so much. Well, that's all from me today.

It's time for me to write to president and tell him what's been happening this week. I love you all and look forward to writing to you next week.

Thomas News

Becky has bird flu? I know it isn't funny, but I do have to laugh at the fact that this doesn't happen in Australia. Bird flu, Mad Cow Disease, that's all something that they should be worrying about up here! So of all the sicknesses for her to get in all the medical books in all the world- It HAS to be bird flu. I'll be praying for her, of course.

Haven't found the family we've been praying for yet, but our work to achieve this has pulled off some great results. We've been finding people everywhere as we've been contacting, tracting, and doing all we can to find and teach and keep our covenant (because that's what it is), we've still had some amazing results. Just in terms of numbers, last week we found 8 new investigators, 5 of which we found in one day. That's huge for any missionary.

Unfortunately, some did not actually approve of us coming back when the time came, and some we did not feel would go anywhere. But I'll fill you in on those with whom we are working right now.

Lionti is probably our most promising looking investigator. He's a 50-odd man who is still working (which is a miracle in itself- oftentimes they're trying to live off a pension). We have given him a Book of Mormon and he says that he will read it. He's read a brochure we gave him Joseph Smith and enjoyed it.

Victor and Marina have 5 kids (which is HUGE in the Baltics) one of which joined in on the lesson. They both work, so it's often hard to get a hold of them. But we're still prayerful. First lesson we had with them, Victor prayed, which is wonderful.

Nikolai was one that I was a little concerned about a first. He's got a disease which totally forbids him from sitting still (maybe check Max for that). His arms were flailing everywhere as we were talking to him and his legs were constantly shuffling. That said, he is still strangely coordinated, and a VERY intelligent man. We will be going by to see him again soon.

So yeah, a great week so far. I think we're really going to to do something great this time around. Of course, all of this is dependant on our getting 18 contacts a day, challenging 2 people a day to baptism on the street, and so forth.

Other news, this week we had a some guests from the USA at church- My trainer, Elder Harris and his parents. It was so good to see them, Elder Harris, it seems hasn't changed a bit. But it was strange to see him again on Monday wearing shorts.

We saw President Dance yesterday in a miniature zone conference (no matter how "miniature" those things claim to be, we still have to go to Riga almost all day and get back to Daugavpils late- but, this time we had about 1 hour in the day to contact). He's a good man, a *little* bit different to President Watterson in the sense that President Dance is more of a scriptorian (President Watterson was more the motivational speaker). Sister Dance, however was very peaceful quiet- not at all like Sister Watterson who was always very vivid and static.

I love Max's note to Jesse. At this rate I'll have to teach him how to write in Russian. My Russian handwriting is marginally better than my English. I haven't tried the sticky thai chicken recipe, mainly because it requires brown sugar- which plain doesn't exist in the Baltics.

Just one scripture to share with you this week, because I think I am running out of time and still need to write to President. Read 3 Nephi 28:14 This is just after Christ has shown them amazing things. As you read, think about this:- What power was not given to Christ's apostles?- Do you consider your ability to testify of Christ as a power from God?- How does one get this power, how does one loose it?

Well, that's all from me I think. I love and miss you all.

Thomas News

This weeks letter:

Well, last week things took a turn for the worst with Aleksandra. After weeks of not talking to her daughter herself, God forced it on her and the results were not pretty. Aleksandra came with us to a baptismal service. Not hers, as she had not yet spoken to her daughter. While we were walking there, her daughter drove past and saw her on the street with us. She was totally enraged!

She later phoned up Aleksandra three times that day with the intent of yelling at her. Later, Aleksandra went to her daughters house (how she could, I don't know). The whole family was gathered there and they started yelling at her. Swearing, telling her how foolish she was, the works. Aleksandra was trying to keep the saviour in her mind. She said that when she closed her eyes she could see him, but when she opened them again to see her family yelling at her, the feeling of love left.

That should have been the end of the story. Hardly. Aleksandra's daughter also called all of Aleksandra's neighbours and they all came around and told her what a bad person she was for joining what they called "the sectists". She told us that she felt as though everyone was against her. She says that we can no longer go to her, and that we'll just have to figure out some other way. Needless to say, we've been praying and fasting for her. Also needless to say that it makes my blood boil thinking about the way that Aleksandra's own relatives (who, by the way, don't care much about religion themselves) could be so heartless to such a sweet old woman. We are not giving up on her yet. She has a solid testimony of the gospel, but needs a little time to recover. The whole story disgusts me.

It hasn't all been bad this week, though. This Monday we had an activity with the branch (for which I foolishly forgot my camera). Monday is the Latvian holiday known as Ligo (pronounced "Lee-go"). It's the longest day of the year and as such, there are a lot of fairly pagan traditions surrounding it. Including wearing a leaf wreath on your head, and jumping over a fire. A lot of fun, and great for the members.

This week has been the start of a new transfer. I'm still with Elder Berryhill. We have a VERY serious goal to find a family. And not just any family. In our prayers we have been very specific with who we want to find- our leaders have been recommending this quite a lot over the last two zone conferences. We've also been willing to let the Lord know what we are willing to do, and what we feel we need to do to accomplish this. For example, how many contacts are we willing to get, how many lessons are we willing to teach this week, etc. I'll let you know how this progresses.

Well, that's all from me this week. I love and miss all of you.

Last weeks letter (this is my fault - I asked if there was anything that would have made him better prepared):

I'll first address what families can do to better prepare sons and daughters for missions.

First are generally things that have helped me that I would advise young men and women to do. I would advise teaching these things.

- Keep the standards in "For The Strength of Youth". As a missionary, you are going to have to get used to cutting the cord from the world. Specifically, you are going to have to accept the fact that missionaries are something of an oddity. Such a vast separation from a increasingly wicked world can best be aided by beginning such a separation now by keeping these standards. That way, it will not seem torturous when you are called to keep the generally higher standards of missionary work, or do a work that is occasionally mocked by the world, yet praised of God.

-Work hard in school, seminary, and all other aspects of life, even if it is occasionally tedious. There are going to be aspects of missionary work that require a lot of diligence. Simply saying "I can't do that" or "That's not my thing" is not going to make your mission happy or successful. Develop a habit of working hard so that working hard as a missionary will not have to be forced.

-Increase your circle of friends. Learn to talk to all sorts of people. That includes those of other races, cultures, ages, or locations. Learn to try to relate to them. The people you encounter are more than a mere baptismal statistic, and if treated that as one, will not make those important steps towards salvation. You must look at them the way Christ would.

-Learn to profess your belief. Don't keep it a secret that you are a church member. When asked, don't wash over the fact that you actually know that the principles you believe in are true. As a missionary, it is not worth it to fear that people will mock you if you start proselyting- occasionally, that happens anyway. Young men should get used to proclaiming their faith so that they are not ashamed of the gospel, and don't need to apologise for anything relating to it.

As for things that were revelation instead of review in the MTC, I'd say that the only thing I didn't understand fully was the relation between Repentance and Baptism. It is important to grasp that Repentance is not complete without the covenant to take the name of Christ upon yourself.

The important part, I think is to get young men reading "Preach my Gospel" and going on meeting with missionaries. It's then that you realise the Church is not a social network, but God's truth restored.

Now for the questions:Are you studying effectively and being prepared to teach?
When I study the primary purpose is to feel the spirit insomuch that I can feel I have power when I teach. Of course, I also study the principles I intend to teach and what scriptures I can use to speak to the investigator's heart.

Are you developing Christlike qualities?
Developing Christlike qualities doesn't happen immediately. However, the more I study about Christlike qualities, the more I realize how closely their development is connected to doing the work.Do you recognise and understand the Spirit better than you did before your mission?Yes. I have realized that the spirit directs you when you are in the process of doing something good. For example, the spirit does not direct you in how to fulfill your calling until you are trying to do that yourself.

Do you have a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon?
Yes. The more I read form it, the more I come off feeling enlightened, motivated and comforted.

How are you doing with learning your Russian?
Russian is coming along nicely. I am now able to speak confidently with people. Of course, I am not fluent and cannot speak perfectly. But usually you can sense their feelings- a gift of the spirit.

Are you using your time (what's left of it) wisely?
I am trying. It's hard to tell if I am, occasionally, but generally we are contacting at the right time to contact, harvesting at the right time to harvest and teaching at the right time to teach.

Are you working to improve your teaching skills?
Always. I am constantly on the prowl for new scriptures, added insight and a better understanding of the language in order to meet the needs of my investigators. As for my purpose as a missionary. Yes, it is well understood. And the more I see people change thanks to the gospel, the more I realize the power of that purpose.

Well, that said, it turns out Aleksandra is going to speak to her daughter today. She even said "This time, I'm going to her house so she can't leave before I get a chance to tell her." Apparently that's what happened last time.

Well, lots more to do today, I'll write more about the work next week.