Week #12

What a great week, huh?

Been hearing a lot of stuff on the street about England. What is going on?

We had a fun Ligo week. Ligo is a holiday that celebrates the summer solstice. It is bigger than Christmas. We went to Lido (a great food place) twice. Once we paid and the other a nice family from Orem took us. The Brewers. Never thought a family from Orem would buy me a meal in Riga, Latvia.

I wake up at 3 AM on the dot every morning. It makes sense that I would wake up when the sun comes up, right? Well, that is 3 AM...(It is also still light at 10:30 at night)

We did a lot of contacting this week. We go knocking in the little cities that surround Riga. We are assigned to go to Balozi (Ball-oh-ghee). We went on Saturday and met a couple of Pentacostal preachers from the US who we will met with on Wed. We also met Irvings. A nice, almost nude, man who LOVED us.  (The man was only wearing a speedo)

We have a good amount of lessons set up for this week, which will be nice. 

Marta is doing well, we have a lesson with her today. I love it here and I cannot wait until I can understand what everyone is saying.

There was a huge storm last night. We had all of the windows open in our room (because our room was 92 degrees) and we woke up with water coming in and the curtains almost torn of the wall. It was fun.

Read your scriptures everyday if you do not already. It will bless your life. I love my mission and I love serving the lord.

I am now skinnier than I was when I starved myself on DASH.

Elders Josts

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Week #11

Angry birds is HUGE in Latvija.......

Hello all.

I still don't understand anything that is going on here and I feel like I am going to die every minute of every day. I love it.

Someone please send me updates on Euro 2016.

Now with all that said and done, let's get to the fun stuff, shall we?

I went on 2 exchanges this week, one to Jelgava with Elders Birch and Satterlee (thank the heavens I LOVE Elders Satterlee) and the other I stayed in Riga with on of the Presidents Assistants.

Jelgava: A quaint town of about 60,000. I like it there, a lot smaller than Riga. I talked to a Jehovahs Witness for about a half hour. She took a pass along card.

Riga: Talked to a guy about soccer and then to an Atheist about god. It was great. Latvian is coming along at an okay rate, I think.

We have a good amount of investigators right now who are all doing well.

One of them didn't come to church and this was the text we received from him after 

"Sorry I didn't make it today, I got tangled up with booze and women last night"

I couldn't help but laugh. We have a long way to go.

On a different note, we have an investigator named M. She is 28 and is going to get baptized. She is wonderful. 

The new church building (which is GIANT) will be done the end of next month and M will be the first person baptized in that building. It will be a huge blessing to the branch.

The members in the Riga Latvia 1st Branch are the strongest members I have ever met. It is really difficult to be a strong member in Latvia, but they do it and they do it with a smile. 

I love my companion, I love this language (sometimes), I love Latvija ,and I love the lord.

P.S. I forgot my camera... I will send double next week.

Also, There is insane amounts of Angry Bird graffiti all over Riga. I will send pictures next week.

Love, Elders Josts

Week #10

Iron Maiden is coming to Riga.

Dear people in America,

How is Trump treating you?  There is no Trump here in Latvia (lol).

Riga is a fun place.

Elder Ballard came and spoke to us this week, what a guy. He is hilarious. He talked about the Spirit World and it was very cool.

The members here are so nice. They try to talk to me in English and I try to talk to them in Latvian, it is one giant fun mess.

We have a number of good investigators, and they are a lot of fun.

We taught the first lesson to a guy who tried to record our lesson on his phone and get us to say some false stuff. He talked about Hitler, it was fun.

Our real investigators are progressing well. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we get a couple of baptisms set up this week.

We teach English classes. We have had a good turnout, which is rare.

The new building opens up in a month and everyone is excited. The opposition the the church is strong here. It is a fun balance between the love and hate for us. I love it.

I saw some guy from Lithuania this week. We hugged for 15 minutes. He tried to hold my hand. I said "no" I'm on a mission.  (He was able to see his good friend Parker who is serving in Lithuania.  I wasn't sure if they would ever see each other since they are in different regions so I was so excited to hear that all of the missionaries were coming to Riga to hear Elder Ballard speak.)

Riga has some really cool architecture and we live in the middle of the coolest area. You should all come sometime (dont really, I would get in TROUBLE) it is great!

We talk to a lot of people every day and I love them.  My testimony is growing real quick and I love this gospel. It is hard, that is for sure, but it is worth it. 

Love,

Elders Josts

Week #9 Latvia

I don't have an Elders Satterlee quote....I am so sorry.

What a week.

I am in the Riga Center Area. All of downtown Riga and a little bit more.

My Trainer is Elder Nelson from Seattle.  There is a Mormon documentary about his family. Two Brothers Two, or something. I haven't seen any of it.

I cannot understand a word that anyone here speaks, which is fun.

We have taught a good amount of lessons. We taught 5 last week and we have 4 today, which will be fun. That is a lot of lessons, from what I hear.

We have on of the biggest and nicest apartments in the entire mission. No A/C though, but we survive. 

Street contacting is fun. People tend to ignore us. It is fun to be an annoying missionary. 

Church was fun. I bore my testimony. It was great.

It is very pretty here. And dirty. And stinky. And great.

I will attach many picture.  

I love you all.

Still send dearelders. They send them here LOL.

Funny story, during a second lesson last night in a park, "If I Were a Boy" by Beyonce started playing. I thought to myself "How strange is this, I am in Riga, Latvia, teaching about the restoration of the gospel, with some soft Beyonce in the background." I am truly blessed.

Love,

Elders Josts