Latvia pictures

this picture is made completely of buttons

 

castle in Sigulda
 

castle in Sigulda
 

castle in Sigulda


 

Connor-"They let us wear chainmail!!!"

Gargoyle in Sigulda
 

Connor does love his weapons
 

This is by Saki.  He has these all over Riga.  This is Connor's favorite.

 

Connor made this especially for his Mom.  I have a great son!

6/18/13

HEY EVERYBODY! Kas Jauns!?

I was so happy to get all of your emails this week and I apologize for not writing on my normal P-day (yesterday) I had my first zone conference and it was so good. It was super weird to see people bear their final testimonies because they were going home before next zone conference because I cant even imagine this incredible work ending for me here in Latvia. I have already fallen in love with the work and I grow closer to my Heavenly Father everyday because I HAVE to rely on him. I know without a doubt I could not learn this language without His help in my life and I'm so grateful for that. I'm also SO thankful for all the knowledge I'm learning about the scriptures and people in general. I LOVE LATVIA.

This last week has been so sweet. We're talking Baigi Labi here in good ol Riga. Last P-day I had the opportunity to go travel to Sigulda which is a little town about an hour ish away by train (every time I get on a train I just wish it was taking me to Hogwarts) and the city there has some ruins of castles and what not. It was so cool! That's where the pictures I'll send are from. It was super funny though because we went in our P-Day clothes of course and for some reason people are A LOT nicer to you when you're not dressed as one of those "Satan-Worshippers-Crazy-Mormon people. It was rather refreshing honestly. Anyway, we went there and Elder Bland and I had a blast. I'll send as many pictures as I can. 

Let me tell you about Aleksandra (sorry wig you already heard about this) who's a member here and she's about 60 ish. When we go to church we're supposed to sit with members here and not your companion so my first week was a little intimidating knowing that wherever I sat, I probably wouldn't understand a word they said to me. I decided my safest bet was with some babushka (grandma). I sat down next to this lady and honestly she still hasn't stopped talking to me. Now, this wouldnt be so bad if I could understand a word of what she was saying but I seriously can only tell you what her name is, other than that I know absolutely nothing about what she tells me, ha-ha. I kind of feel bad but she seems to have a great time talking and always smiles (maybe that's not good...) after. I pretty much just say "labi" over and over again. we'll see how long I can get away with that. 

IT WAS MIRACLE WEEK THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!! Since I've arrived here in Riga we haven't had 1 investigator, which has been pretty tough to say the least. I've been praying and praying to find someone and I honestly talk to anyone that walks by me on the street. We were out on Monday night last week for about an hour contacting session and right before it started, the rain came... :D  I turned to Elder Bland and told him that in the scriptures Rain is usually something people would pray for so obviously rain equals blessings. I went out as happy as I could down the street and started talking to people. For the first 10 minutes we didnt have any luck UNTIL this young guy walked passed me so naturally I said hello. He took out his Headphones and began to talk with us and I actually understood him! We testified of Christ and gave him a Book of Mormon. We asked if we could meet up sometime to talk more about Christ and about the Book he was holding in his hand.  He promptly told us we could meet that very next day at the church. What you have to understand is that we get tons of people that will say they want to meet but then continue to stand you up like a 16 year old waiting for his date. Needless to say, I wasnt completely sold but I was so grateful to my Heavenly Father for putting us in eachother's paths. The next night HE CALLED us to confirm!!! We of course met with him and at the end of a very spiritual lesson, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted before we could even finish asking him!! Since then we've met with him everynight! In our second lesson we were prompted to teach the word of wisdom and see if he had any problems because everyone and their dog smokes here. When we found out that he smoked we asked if he wanted to quit and he said yes. We told him that is was possible but only through hard work. What happened next brought the spirit so strongly... He sat and pondered for a minute and then proceeded to reach into his pocket and pull out a pack of smokes and chuck them across the room sinking the shot right into the trash can. He looked at us and was ready to find out how to quit. What a tender mercy... I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!!!!!!! His name is Martinš (Martinch) so please remember him in your prayers!

Thank you all so much for the support you give me and I hope you know that I pray for every single one of you in my prayers and I think of you every night. Thanks a million for the blessings you give me! Love you all! Help the missionaries at home!!!!!!

-Elder Webb

6/10/13

Lab Dien! Ka iet Maijaaaaaaaaaaa??? here i am again just writing a letter from the other side of the world while you all are sleeping like babies back home. This week has been awesome!!!! Im still working hard with elder Bland and we're having an awesome time. We're out contacting everyday which is helping improve my Latvian so much. The only bummer is that because we're working so hard, I have hardly any time to take pictures; however, I am traveling today to Siguda which has 3 ancient castles so I'll be taking loads of pictures for you next week! Hmmmm....Stories from this week. oh! If you didnt know, It LOVES to rain here in Latvia. I'm not talking like a little drizzle, this is like full on notebook style rain and the best part is that it will come out of no where. Honestly it will be bright blue skies with a couple baby clouds one minute and then the next it's pouring down harder than I've ever seen. It's so funny because the people here don't really like the rain so when it comes crashing down out of no where they all run to the closest tunnel or some type of shelter and just wait it out. Of course I'm running around the whole time in it having the time of my life while all the Latvians look at me like I'm crazy but I can pretty much always get them to laugh about it. Anyway, the last time it down poured, this older gentleman got stuck underneath a really small tin roof of a shop and he probably had about three feet of space to remain dry. Seeing this as a golden opportunity (where he couldnt just run away) we went up and started testifying to him in Latvian of course. Honestly if a photographer would have been there it would have definitely made it on the cover of the next ensign because we're on a beautiful street with a massive cathedral right behind us and my companion and I are standing right in the middle of a sidewalk stream having water soaking us head to toe, handing this man a Book of Mormon who's barely finding shelter under this roof thing. Oh man it was so cool!!!!!!!! but...no picture :( hahaha it's awesome here though. We dont exactly have any new investigators EXCEPT I contacted into this man from Chicago who doesnt speak a lick of Latvian (tender mercy for sure seeing how mine is about the equivalent of a 4 year old with a mouth full of food) and he's here teaching OLD TESTAMENT AND HEBREW. Talk about the hardest lessons of my life. Honestly, we meet once a week and I get the chance to share about our church and he has a problem with mostly everything I say but he continues wanting to meet. I think he knows probably every single verse in the bible which is good and bad I suppose. He's a Calvinist so that makes it super fun too but I love him to death. His name is Mark and I'm so glad we have the opportunity to teach him. Other than him we pretty much just contact into drunks all the time which gets a little weird hahahahahaha the other day I went up and started talking to this man on the street and soon realized he was REALLY drunk. Anyway, I asked him if we could meet sometime when he was sober and he said yes and then told me about how he wanted to quit alcohol. My companion expressed that we could help him accomplish that through Jesus Christ and his eyes lit up. The next second he was on the verge of tears kissing our hands....you know how I am with other people touching me...let's just say that I'm pretty sure my BAC went up a little by the time he let go. man, so strange haha My district is awesome and I'm becoming so close with all of them. The coolest parts are that I'm serving with two of my MTC Masa's here in Centre and the second coolest thing is that there are only 13 Latvian elders and we're not getting anymore elders for the next 6 months. It's so humbling to know that God gave me the opportunity to be one of them. I love my mission with all my heart and I'm learning life lessons I couldn't learn anywhere else. I hope you're all doing great back home and I'm still praying for you everyday all day! I love you all so much and I can feel the blessings of your prayers everyday when I get discouraged at times. Thank you so much for all you do for me and I cant wait to hear from you! I'll send pictures next week!!! Es Jus Milu!

Connor's first letter from Latvia

Mana Gimene!

IM IN LATVIA!!! I am assigned to Riga South right now and my companion's name is Elder Colton Bland (facebook stalk him). IT IS SO AWESOME HERE!!!!!!!!! The language is so hard but other than that it's crazy fun. Yesterday was the first time i got to go to the branch here and the members are incredible. I bet we have about 80 members and they're all incredible. It was fast and testimony meeting yesterday so i took a deep breath and decided to go up. My language wasnt the greatest but i did my best to be as happy as i could. After the meeting some babushkas (russian grandmothers) came up and told me how great i did (i think...) and one lady told me something so cool. She said that when i stood up, i had a smile that was so contagious and she saw it spread to everyone in the room and that my dimples and smile was something these people needed. it was such a cool experience. My district has two of my MTC masa's in it so it's really cool to see them a lot still. My companion is an awesome guy. I feel pretty confident with being able to get along with anybody so i'm not too worried about companions. Man it stinks to be in real life. I had to go shopping for my own food today! Like i would have died if i didn't go get it, and i don't mean just going to the fridge and having food magically being there. Also i've decided that laundry is the essence of Non-funness. We do a lot of contacting here and it gets a little hard at times. Honestly if i got a dime every time i heard "nav laika" (now lyka) i'd be so rich. Honestly it's all worth it though when someone accepts a Book of Mormon, but no worries i promise i'm smiling the whole time regardless of how hard it gets at time. Also, I swear i've already smoked about a pack of cigarettes since being here because everyone and their dog smokes here. I've been so busy i havent really had time to take any pictures but i promise ill send some next week. My mission President is incredible. He actually reminds me a lot of President Dude which is a real tender mercy. he actually loves fly fishing too! tell grandma Diann that sister boswell wants her email to write her if she wants! I really do love it here and im so grateful for the chance i had to talk to all of you on monday. It was so nice to hear you and know you're all doing great.

stories- hmmm......Well we dont really have any investigators right now because the work here is a little slow but no worries, that's going to turn around real fast. When we're out contacting i love to talk to everyone the walks past me except sometimes it's not exactly appropriate. Here in Latvia, apparently clothes aren't very important. Honestly all the girls, which is about 70% of the population here, dress like they're going to prom EVERYDAY. Honestly we do a lot of looking down because it's so ridiculous. Other than them the people here keep to themselves a lot. a lady actually yelled at me the other night for saying "good day" to her because it's not appropriate to say that to someone you dont know. Lucky for me, Mother Teresa backed me up and ended up walking with me for about an hour talking about the gospel. I gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to come to church so we'll see what happens. She kept calling me "berni" which means child hahaha she was so great. 

Im so happy im out here serving my Lord everyday, all day. i wouldnt be anywhere else in the whole world. I would GREATLY appreciate prayers for my language if you could spare some prayer time for me. Know that i pray for you all everyday and that i love and miss all of you so much. Talk to you soon!!! LOVE YOU

-Elder Connor Webb