Week nineteen

Many changes this week. I have 2 new companions, and I have finished training 2 weeks early. Elder N is the new Assistant and I am paired up with Elder M and Elder N. I will be staying in my area next transfer and might be training.

M got Baptized on Saturday. She was SOO happy. When she came out of the water, she was panting and covering her face out of joy. It was wonderful. When she bore her testimony the Holy Ghost was very strong. I have been so blessed to have her as an investigator in my training. She was patient and truly wanted to learn, which made things super easy. She sent me this text after I asked her how she felt. (Sometimes she texts in English and sometime in Latvian, this one was English) ''Yes, this day was amazing! I felt so much love! I knew it will nice, but I didn't expect that nice! And I have so much flowers! Wow! Thanks a lot! Arlabunakti! Līdz ritdienai!'' (They give women flowers and men chocolate here after baptisms)

We had Zone Conference. It was a blast.

Other than those 3 things, this week was not too interesting.

We contacted a ton and had 0 lessons.

Me, Elder M and Elder N will be on a 2 week exchange until the newbies get here on the 24th.

We will be going out to Jurmala (that means seaside) tonight for a Family Home Evening with the N's, a family that moved here 2 weeks ago. They are great.

I will keep all of you posted on what happens to me. Who knows, maybe ill be moved to Lithuania and be companions with Elder Seeg. That would be great. We would baptize the Baltics in a day.

Love you all, I didn't kill any birds this week.

Sincerly, Elders Deviņos (DEV-IN-YOAHS) It is 9 in locative case. My name literally translates to Nine Belt. 

Week #18

Subject: Who will love a little Sparrow, whose traveled far and cries for rest?

In the worlds of Paul Simon:

"Who will take pity in his heart? Will no one write her eulogy? 'I will.' said the Earth, 'For all I've created returns unto me. From dust were ye made, and dust ye shall be.''

I have taken pity in my heart and am now writing her eulogy. She was a good bird. She had traveled far, and she is now resting above the clouds in paradise. If only she had realized that the pane of glass was not open air. She did not suffer long. 

Sparrow ????-2016

​

Now that the eulogy is done, I will explain. Me and Elder Nelson were standing in front of the church, talking to people and seeing if they wanted to take a tour. Out of nowhere, something smacks me on the top of my head. I look to the ground, confused, and I see a dying bird. What are the odds that a bird would fall perfectly on my head? Hopefully it means good luck. If not, I am in trouble.

Also, tell my that I am not the best looking skinny man in all of Latvia? You can not do it. It is impossible. Really though, I look sooooooo goood.

By the way, Elder Seegmiller, I lost 4 pounds in 1 day last week. 

That is not a joke by the way. I was extremely ill this week and I shed weight like a race horse. 

Anywho, M will get baptized on Saturday. She is so prepared and will be such a solid member. We are excited and have already planned our pizza/ice cream party.

Yesterday, in a taxi, Phil Collins came on. It was wonderful. I thought "How can this get any better?" just as I thought this, Candle in the Wind by Elton John came on. This place is home now.

One of our new investigators, E, told us yesterday that ever since he has met with us, he hasn't had any Alus (beer) and had had no desire to drink anymore. The Holy Ghost is incredible.

Business lunch was great. Brother S is by me and P is by Elder Nelson.

​

It was at a pub. Perseus hid his beer from the camera.

Great times in good old Riga.

Elder Josts

Week #17

What. A. Week.

I love Riga. The people of Latvia are like Coconuts, really rough and scratchy on the outside, but hollow with some liquid on the inside.

That was a joke.

Ha Ha

I think it is a common misconception of people here that they are cold. They are the warmest people of all time.

Anywho, we have a few new investigators this week, but I will tell you about one.

P: A middle aged man with 2 kids and a wife. Formerly a Baptist Minister, and now is the head of one of the largest IT companies in Europe. He got a Book of Mormon in 2014 after contacting a member on the internet. He has read it on a regular basis since then. He was a referral given to us by a member and we met with him on Friday. He quoted from the Book of Mormon and told us exactly the chapter that Korihor makes his appearance in Alma. He also told us he knows that this is the true church. That never happens here, or anywhere in the world. He went on the "The Churches of Riga" facebook page and wrote about us and about the church. He will be defending the Church on the Largest Baptist Radio network in Europe this week.

He is also taking us, and a member to his favorite place to eat in Riga today. An IT Tycoon, one of the most successful Lawyers in Latvia, and Two Missionaries. I am PUMPED.

M's Baptism is in 2 weeks. We are getting all the details put together. She almost started crying in our last lesson because she "Doesn't feel like she has serves in the church enough". How did we get so lucky?

Our other Baptismal Candidate, Ja, has not been reached in 2 weeks. Completely fallen off the face of the Earth.

One of my favorite members, Janis (50% of the male population share the name), gave a talk in church yesterday. He spoke 15 minutes, and only got through 1/10th of his talk. He read straight from the scriptures and from some of the manuals, and at the end, said "If you don't follow these things, that makes you a Joker" and pulled a Joker card out of his pocket.

Another Janis story: He was helping with a lesson and to introduce himself he said "I am Ja. Hobby: Japanese language." and that was it.

Investigators are falling out of the sky. It is wonderful. Hard work brings blessings.

Love Elder Josts

Week #16

A member of the ward who we were really close too died on Tuesday,
very unexpectedly. It was hard, but somehow you
 just keep working and the lord pulls you through.

On the brighter side of life, I got the packages. Love them. Also,
​the new church opened this weekend. It is the nicest church I have ever seen.
 More like a Temple. We are really blessed 

over here in Latvia.

We are going on a River Cruise later today, which will be fun.

Both Marta and Janis are going strong. Looking forward to the Baptisms now that
 the building is done.

We taught the first ever lesson in the new church this Sunday to a man named Andris
that looks, talks, acts, and sounds, 

just like Chris Seegmiller. It was horrifying. If we have another lesson with him
I will have to get a picture. I am not 

kidding, it was scary how close it was.

Speaking of pictures, this week there will be no pictures. I am at a library (I have a
 Riga National Library card now) 

emailing because there are no computers at the new church yet and these computers s
till run Windows XP. 

One of them is Vista.

​

I love it here in Riga. People are nicer than you would think. I don't know how to
talk, but I get by somehow.

People love soccer and tennis here so I fit in just fine.

There is a ping pong table at the new church. I am ready to slay some Latvians at my
own game. It will be great.

Love you all.

God is real, God wants to help you, Show some faith, Read some books (Book of Mormon,
Bible, D&C, Pearl of

 Great Price, Lord of the Rings), Say some prayers. It is easy, and ohh soo rewarding.

Love Elders Josts

Week #15

Everyone plays Pokemon Go here and I cannot so Pokemon NO.

The Sunday that I forget my camera, Eliza Jackson just rolls in 25 minutes late to Sacrament Meeting. I will have no pictures of this wonderful reunion. Looks like she has to come back (lol).

​

For some reason, the moment that I left for Europe, everyone decided to follow me. I have 3 postcards from Paris, 3 from London, 2 from Madrid, 2 from Switzerland, and 1 from Stockholm. My wall is covered with cute postcards, mostly of building of famous things in that country, and one with some cows and another with a horrendous picture of Her Majesty, the Queen. I love them.

I have lost 36 pounds. I will have to buy new shirts at some point and get all my slacks and suit coats tailored. I will not lie to you, I am the best looking person in Eastern Europe.

This week was odd.

We had many lessons planned and many lessons fall through. It is nice when we have this happen to know that we have 2 investigators (M and J) who are just as excited to meet with us as we are with them.

We had good lessons with them both this last week, and both are progressing really well.

M's baptismal date got pushed back to Aug 13 because she lives in Cesis now (100 km from Riga) but she is awesome.

J is doing good as well. He is a Rugby star and is very humble and easy to teach.

A good experience from yesterday:

We had a lesson with M after church. We taught about Baptism, Enduring to the end, Prayer, Scripture Study, and Sabbath Day Observance. We had to Members with us in the lesson, Da and An. Both are middle aged to older, I don't really know, and are incredibly strong members. While they were talking I had a thought "I should tell my Mom tomorrow when I email how crazy and cool it is that she was able to raise 3 kids in the gospel alone and how much I love her and respect her for it." I don't know why I thought that, but I wrote it in my planner and was going to do it. Turns out, Mother will be giving a talk next Sunday on raising kids in the gospel. The Holy Ghost is a cool guy.

But really, Mom, you are the best. You have some pretty stubborn kids (except for Megan) and you did it. You are the only one who is worthy to give that talk. You are the best example of Christlike love in the world. I love you more than you will ever know. I cannot wait for christmas. (lol)

Anyway, a drunk Russian tried to pour beer on me last night, so I am doing great.

Love you all. 

Elder Josts

Week #14

Ledus Laikmets.

Title means "Ice Age" Seen posters for the movie all over town. No one spoil it for me, okay?

Euro was a good one to miss. Don't care for Portugal or France. Go Italy.

Andy Murray won Wimbledon, which is a shame.

Durant to the Warriors? Come on, that is worse than Lebron to Miami.

I am almost glad I cannot follow sports.

We celebrated the forth the way everyone should, at the Riga Latvia KFC.

J and M are both doing well. M came to church but Janis did not, still both going strong though.

We have a new investigator named O We met on the street and he told us that he had an overwhelming feeling that he needed to meet with us. Found the Restoration very interesting. We will see!

We sang in front of the new church building and got 6 potential investigators, which is great. Every missionary in Riga comes to sing and Elder Nelson and I get ALL of the potentials. Perks of being in the center of the city.

Gave a 10 minute talk in church yesterday about Prayer. Very scary. It went well and I hope I wont have to give another one for a while. It was the second to last week in the current building. (second floor of a business complex) I'm glad I got to speak in this building before Latvia says goodbye to it forever.

I miss fishing. We went up to do service by the Balt Ezers and I saw a bunch of guys pontoon fishing and it made me sad.

That was the week, we taught a lot of lessons to M and J and have some hopeful potentials to hopefully snag this week.

Love you all. I'm having a great time here and learning a lot about the gospel and myself.

(Plus, i'm now skinnier than I was Sophmore year)

Elders Josts

Week #13

T.G.I Friday is the worst in America, why would they want it here? I blame Guy Fieri.

Any who, Happy Fourth of July. I cannot believe that 240 years ago today, Columbus sailed across the ocean on the Pinta, Nina, and the Santa Maria and declared Independence from the tyrant king.

I feel a little weird that I have no clue what is going on in good ol' Merica. Someone inform me of Trump's take over. I need to know. All I hear about on the streets here is England this, England that, what ever. #AMERICA

Seriously, we have it pretty good in America. Latvija is INCREDIBLE, but there is no place like home.

This week was great. We taught many good lessons and got told we are not christian by a Pentecostal Preacher.

Elderi Nelson and Birch (we were on an exchange) went to meet with Ma and Ch, a couple of really nice guys from the States. We talked for a minute, laughed a little, and had some refreshments. Then we talked about the Restoration and bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. This man had obviously done his Anti-Mormon literature homework. Long story short, we asked to leave, he told us we were disrespectful, he said a prayer and asked for us to be untangled from out web of lies, none of us said Amen, and we left. SO MUCH FUN! :)

Really though, it was a lot of fun.

M randomly out of the blue broke up with her boyfriend and now we don't foresee any issues on the way to baptism. Elder Nelson about jumped through the roof when he read the text she sent telling us the news. She is wonderful. 

On Saturday, we went to Iecava to help a member load up every belonging of him and his family into a couple of trucks. He is moving to Liepaja (another city in Latvija). A quaint little town of 9,000. We got some fresh berries. It was a blessing, truly. 

We have a new investigator, J, who we met with 3 times last week. He reads and takes notes on the BOM. Hopefully, by the end of this week, he will have a baptism date as well.

Having a good time here. No fireworks allowed here. Have a great fourth. We have 3 lessons today and I am getting a haircut.

Finished the BOM yesterday, pretty good book. I love Ether 12.

The Church is true, and the more old religious ladies, young atheists, and middle aged bald Pentecostal preachers tell me it isn't, the more I know it is.

Love, Elders Josts