The Baltic Traveler

Friday, January 11, 2008

Budding Artist

Julija Ujuk bore her testimony and spoke about how she and her husband had taught their children in Family Home Evening about listening to the talks in Church. She had suggested to her 8 year old daughter Rebekah that she take notes of some kind so she could remember what the speakers said. Julija forgot about her suggestions until church started this morning and Rebekah took out a tablet of paper and markers, and got right to work. She listed who spoke and the main thoughts of their comments. She also drew portraits of the people on the stand, includeing Russ and I. After the meeting Rebekah gave me her portrait of us. It was a pretty good likeness of Russ and I, considering her age and the limited number of markers she had to work with.

Hotels

Most of the cities where we have congre- gations are large enough to have really nice hotels, a wonderful surprise considering that I came here expecting to suffer as we traveled. In the capital cities, we stay at the Reval Hotels - first class all the way. Some of the smaller cities have more quaint lodging, bordering on the quirky. In Tartu, we stay at the Pallas Hotel - pronounced Palace - whose name outreaches its reality a bit. Each of the rooms has a theme. Russ and I seem to constantly be assigned what I like to call The Big Cat room, so named for the mural on the wall opposite the beds. We discovered that it's their handicap room - I'm hoping that our constantly being given this room is a reflection of record keeping rather than our physical appearance. It's clean, but very bare bones - 2 slightly caved in single beds, and a thin carpet that valiantly attempts to hide the rises and dips in the cement floor beneath. It's a little unnerving to go to sleep under the watchful eye of the mural's 2 reclining felines. I always feel a little as if I'm being assessed as dinner. On one visit, they assigned us to a more sophisticated room. We unlocked the door and found ourself face to face with a mural depicting naked people cavorting about on the walls. We went back to the desk and asked the clerk if there were a different room available. She replied, with genuine surprise apparent in her voice, "You don't like dancers?" Bring on the tigers. . .

Agnese and Astra

When we first arrived in Riga, one of the first groups of people we got to know well were the Young Adults. Agnese is one of my favorite people in the world. She has boundless energy, and knows EVERYTHING that is going on in the mission at any given time. I don't know how or where she gets her information, but she manages to always be in the know. 3 years ago her attire was jeans, T-shirts, and a baseball cap, usually worn backwards. I told her, after we knew each other really well, that the goal of my mission was to get her looking like a girl. I think I've arrived! Agnese and her mother Astra came for dinner, and Agnese was wearing girl clothes and some makeup. I think she's beautiful, and I think SHE likes it too. She just got her mission call to Yeketerinburg, Russia, and will leave for the MTC in May. She'll set the place on fire, to be sure!

The Cookie Jar

What's the most popular place in the mission home? Why, the cookie jar, of course. Keeping it full is a challenge. I came home one day to find the jar empty, and a laminated picture of the Assistants to the President, pointing to the empty cookie jar with very sad little faces. They had put the picture in the bottom of the cookie jar as a reminder that it needed filling. I told them they had shot themselves in the foot with this one - the picture makes me laugh so hard when I look at it that it's incentive not to put anything in there to cover it up.

Fashion Statement?

This is NOT the newest in missionary attire in the Baltic Mission. Elder Gardner came to the mission home pick up his new companion. While here, he asked me how long it would take to fix the rip in his suit pants. When he found out it was an easy, quick fix, he dashed into the Assistants' apartment next door, took off his suit pants, put on his sports/sleeping shorts, dashed back to our apartment, and handed me the pants. Although the suit coat/shorts combo is undoubtedly a comfortable, casual look, I don't think it will catch on here.

Caroling in Dome Square

The missionaries were invited to sing Christmas carols as part of an ongoing Christmas show in Dome Square in the center of Old Town. It was a good public relations opportunity - a chance to meet some new people and create good will for the Church. All the missionaries wore Santa hats and big smiles. I brought my flute to accompany them, but soon found that it's impossible to play outside in really cold, windy weather! My fingers got too cold to move, and I noticed that a drop of my saliva had frozen on the mouthpiece. I gave up playing and joined in the singing!

The Afghan

Elder Racker (a great missionary) is the original Renaissance Man - he does everything and very well. He took a bit of hassling, however, over his ability to crochet. He can whip out a hat in about 45 minutes. He's taught many of the other Elders to crochet as well, causing a little bit of concern on Russ's part as to how much time was being spent on this activity. So he had to issue a policy statement limiting the crocheting to Preparation Day! He thinks that we're probably the only mission in the Church that has need for such a policy. . . At the Christmas Conference in Estonia, Elder Racker presented us with an afghan he had made for us, which displayed the flags of each of the countries in our mission. Impressive!