Ernests will be Baptized, Happy Easter, and Vilārs

 (Elder Putnam)

Monday April3rd: Bro this day was legendary. Ok so unfortunately, Māsa Johnson is headed up to Rīga. However, that meant that we spent a good portion of the day as a group. We went to a petting zoo with Raitis and Lāsma. We fed the donkeys, goats, dear, pigs, emus, and many more. It was pretty solid. There were also swings at the end which Raitis and I sat on and talked and overall just vibed on.

Then we went to New Yorker. Bro it’s such a vibe. Mens clothes from New Yorker are mad cheap, comfortable and in decent style. So I got a hoodie and a sweatshirt. It was pretty solid. Then we had Family Home Evening which I didn’t know I was conducting. It wouldn’t usually be a big deal, but it was in front of like half the ward and a few investigators haha. It went pretty well. I played games with the Ščerbeniņi kids and they are just so fun. Benja kept trying to climb on my back, which we all know is a missionary no no. But we spent some quality time with Rebeka, Estere, Benja, and even Māsa Ščerbeniņa. Then we went to Hessburger. Unfortunately, Lukas started feeling sick. So I went over and started talking to him. We talked for like 30 minutes about music (specifically Kanye and Eminem -- don’t ever come at me for listening to them again -- The Lord knows where He is sending His servants)

Anyways, that was pretty cool.

Tuesday we had art night as well as a lesson with Ernests about some basic commandments. Nobody showed up to art night so we just ended up playing Durak or Cūkas (Latvian name) with Ernests and Raitis. Durak is a really fun game, but it’s also mad simple and quick so kinda pretty solid. I still wanna figure out how to play yooker or however its spelled.

Quick thought: this week was a lot of just thrown together food for dinner. I ate literally just veggies one night... and I liked it. I think Elder Bastow is starting to negatively affect my life as a missionary. No all jokes though.

Wednesday: We had another lesson with Ernests. I’ll explain a bit about him here. He’s 14 years old and likes to dance. He has lots of questions about the gospel, but his attention span for gospel stuff is pretty darn low. That’s why we have so many lessons so often. He’s gonna get baptized this weekend. We met with his parents on Wednesday and he was like really confident in his desire to be baptized in front of his parents, who are not interested in the gospel. He's always at the church which is so great...but he’s also always at the church.

Thursday I found out I would play for the Easter program on Sunday. I half-learned a ton if songs. We also had a lesson about the word of wisdom. Pelmeņi for dinner. Its significantly better if you boil then pan fry them with olive oil.

Friday we went basketball finding. It was rough. I had a great time, but it was entirely ineffective. Elder Bastow and I are debating whether or not it’s a good idea to go when school gets out. I feel like my competitive side shows too much. We also had Māsa Ščerbeniņa study outside the church. The weather is absolutely gorgeous here and thus, Māsa ščerbeniņa talked with us for like 2 maybe 2 and a half hours. It was wild.

Saturday we had the Law of Chastity lesson with Ernests. We included Māsa Ščerbeniņa who’s an absolute legend. She basically explained the principles to Ernests and how to apply them. Made it so much easier.

Sunday was the big easter lunch with the ward. It was an absolute hit and now they want one all the time. Afterwards we spent time with Vilārs just looking at pictures and stuff. We are encouraging him to be more active and serve in the church more. Vilārs is dope.

Overall, loving life, enjoying the scriptures a lot more and understanding what it really means to serve in the church.

Raitis, Ernests, un Tad Talak

 (Elder Putnam)

Gooodddd Morning Vietnamammmm!!!!

Gosh it has been quite some time since I wrote an email home.

I got a Rimi card. That saves me like .16 Euros per Rimi trip. It'll build up over time. Some how I end up spending like 25% more on groceries every week than other Baltic missionaries do. Its wild. So I'm half-broke, but I'm getting my protein in. So we are all set.

Let’s backtrack like 4 weeks. Ok so we got Raitis on date about a month ago. He's a 19 year old Latvian dude who has just been waiting for the gospel. He is now gonna be baptized on Saturday which will be super cool. That Sunday was also the first day he showed up to church with a button up shirt. Like he is so cool. He wants to serve a mission too (Or at least he is thinking about it). Unfortunately, his family is not super interested in him joining the church. It's kinda sad. But he just loves the Book of Mormon and he keeps talking about the peace that he always feels at the church and when he reads the Book of Mormon.

3 weeks ago was Lasmas birthday, so we threw her a party. It was also a Thursday which meant English Night, a lesson with Raitis, and Vlad. Vlad gets his own shou-out. He will call random missionaries out of the blue just to talk to them in English. He is so kind and polite, but he is a little bit of a hassle sometimes. On top of that we had Exchanges. So Elder Argyle joined our lesson (which was a Book of Mormon read) and got to know him better. Very good things. I did drink my last Fairlife protein shake gosh that tasted good. I'm now using the bottle for my fast-offering collection. About 3 weeks ago we were supposed to start teaching Sebastians Tomass about the Priesthood. He will soon be ordained a deacon and that will be so dope. The amount of Aaronic Priesthood holders in the branch just spiked. Like it’s so dope. And with Raitis we will have another priest pretty soon. Some dude on the street called us Satanists. That was funny, but then like 30 seconds and 100 meters later we placed a Book of Mormon. Get got, Lucifer.

2 weeks ago we thought we had a new friend. We went street contacting and like nobody was interested. I had been preparing short little thoughts that I could share throughout tram rides and stuff like that. (tram contacting sucks by the way, in Liepaja at least). But I saw a youth wearing a cross necklace and I was like, bro, do you have time to talk about Jesus? and he was like, yeah bro of course. So we gave him a watered down 60% of the Restoration lesson, and we set up a time to meet. Then he was like, bruh I'm sorry, can't make it tonight. Then we rescheduled, and he biffed on us again. But its cool though, cause we have his contact info, and as soon as guitar night happens, we're gonna try to get him there.

This past week (since I forgot what happened the week before): Ok so we've been trying to set up a meeting with Atvars. He's an inactive member. Last P-day he stumbles into the guitar studio (while we are spending a copious amount of time shopping for a guitar for Masa Johnson). So he walks in, like probably 30 seconds before were about to leave. and I introduce myself as the dude who's been texting him in English (the entire conversation was in Latvian too). It was whack but then we started contact with him again. That was good. On Thursday we had English Night again. A couple months ago the Masas found a group of kids to come to game night. Every once in a while one of them, Ernests, comes to an activity. Such is the case here. So Raitis and Ernests are the last people to be at English night and Raitis mentions that he is gonna be baptized. And Ernests gets super surprised and starts asking questions about that. So we show him the baptismal font, explain it all, and then he sees the Big Book of Mormon (a giant wooden frame that looks like a Book of Mormon that we use to talk to people about the Book of Mormon.) And so we give him the schpeel on the Book of Mormon (he speaks fluent English but we spoke in Latvian cause were like that) and then how it relates to Joseph Smith and the First Vision. And were like, would you be interested in learning more about it? And he's like sure. So we do a lesson, with our almost baptized friend, Raitis, and the Masas. And he wants to be baptized and serve a mission. It’s crazy. Absolutely love the dude.

We also had District Conference (the equivalent of Stake Conference) in Riga this week. Raitis came in person and Ernests attended over zoom. They are both just eating up the gospel. We want to make sure the seed isn't falling on stony ground though, yall feel? Mathew 13:5 vibes. We baptize converts that are gonna stick with it. They both loved District Conference.

I also loved district conference cause I understood like 97% of it. Like its so wild. The church is so trueeeee. Like I like to think about things logically. If the true church is not on the earth (and I am not serving the true church), there is no way that I could pick up this language. I'm smart but I’m not that smart. Like I speak Latvian. It’s an obscure and difficult language. The gift of tongues is real and the church is true. God still performs miracles. Moroni 7.

Alright yall are dope. Love yall. I hope this was entertaining enough for yall to read it all. See yall next time

Elders Patnams

I'll say it, Im sick of pelmeni

 (Elder Putnam)

Dang it has been quite a solid few weeks.

Lets get a recap. Last pday with Elder Argyle. Absolute vibe. We went to the Northern Forts and just kinda sat in the sand. It was so peaceful. Anyways, I think that I wrote about that in my last email.

On the following day we went to pick up Elder Bastow and drop off Elder Argyle. Elder Argyle and I got off the tram and started making our way over to a worried looking Elder, sitting alone on the bus station bench with his guitar backpack. what a vibe. As soon as he saw us he put one hand in the air and started bopping to some beat he had going in his head. Mans a legend. I will cherish an remember that moment forever.

So for the next week were just SYLing like crazyyy. Its so good. I've never seen so much language improvement in suuch a short time. Screech and Preach did kinda fall off the cliff though. Rip to that. No worries we will hop back on that grind. Then came Sunday. I was so excited to introduce Elder Bastow to the members here cause I knew they would love him. But then Masa Ceimere absolutely clowned me by saying that his language was better than mine. That threw me spiraling, but Elder Bastow and I are closer now because of it. I literally have so much to learn from him. Every time we talk about spiritual things he enlightens my mind. Honestly we gotta talk more about that stuff.

The District: Aight so the district is so dope. We have the most hype possible combination in all of Latvia. I mean you might be able to argue Sister Prach into that category, but thats a reach still. Masa Johnson is dope. She doesn't SYL though which is diezgan kaitinosi, bet ko darit. tas nav mans parinieks. But she definitely brings some talent to the table so we will give her that.

So for Pdays we've been 1. Up in Riga and so we jsut kinda chilled. 2. Went to the Northern Forts and then played games. 3. Up in Riga so we just kinda chilled. But today, Elder Bastow got matching Gym Lacplesis hoodies. They are so dope. We also snagged some solid weights from Depo and covenanted to go shopping there every week. Its literally such a glorious store.

We are teaching a new person. This dude comes to every single activity. He is so good. I'm not supposed to go into too much detail about the people we are teaching, so thats gonna be it for now.

Anyways. I'm not being disobedient by messaging. Today is Pday cause we had to move it.

Good stuff I'll attach some pictures.

Transfers low key going to be CRAAAZY

 (Elder Putnam)

Aight, so lots went down this transfer meeting. as far as Latvia goes, Elder Nybo called it to the letter. He was like, Elder Argyle, as zone leader, is gonna be comps with Elder Jessop in Riga. Elder Beebe is coming to [Elder Nybo] in Imanta, and Elder Bastow is coming down to Liepaja with [Elder Putnam]. It doesn't get much better than that.

Anyways, brief overview of training. Elder Argyle and I had literally no success with anyone in Liepaja, statistically speaking. But we were actively working hard and activities (with Lasmas help) have started to become a big thing in Liepaja. Elder Argyle taught me many things through his great example. He also pushed me to be a better missionary than I wanted to be sometimes. He has hints of Ricciardi if anyone knows what that means.

Our first Pday we went to the Northern Forts. I jumped around a ton and had fun, but I didn’t really understand the peaceful constant noise of the winds. We went back today to kinda close out the companionship. It was a little snowier and more dangerous to jump from rock to rock so I just kinda sat there. I started thinking about how this might be my last transfer in Liepāja. I’ve loved this place since the first Sunday I’ve been here. I've made connections with these members and I’m just kinda scared to leave them in the hands of someone else. But that’s enough of that. Imma take Elder Bastow and the Māsas back next week. Gosh I really feel like Liepāja is the place for me. I love it so much.

Being companions with Elder Argyle has taught me so many things about the mission. He also taught me what it meant to love the members. I learned so much the past two transfers, and Imma be straight up, im nervous that with all the fun Elder Bastow and I are gonna have, were gonna skip out a little on doing the truly spiritual beautiful things, the things that we need to have if were going to be successful in this area that just desperately needs it.

Anyways, weirdly deep email this week that maybe like 2 of you will fully understand, but that’s the case, folks.

Latvian phrase: man liekas - to me it seems

not a ton of pictures this time around. but here you go:

first 4: Northern Forts, but in the wintertime

5th: Emīls, Prezidents Ceimers, and I all wore pink ties so that we could match on Sunday. It was so great.

Christmas party and exchanges

 (Elder Putnam)

Momma said to write an Email.

I do love the mission. Like don't get me wrong, but I never have time to write these emails. After 9 time is dinner (cause missionary work goes into and through dinner time) and Screech and Preach. S and P is just vocab learning.

Pday: Got a coat which is epic. It has camels’ hair. What’s more Saudi Arabian than a camels hair coat in Latvija?? lots of things, but anyways I got that coat.

ill add a picture. It actually looks so good and it goes down to my knees almost.

Tuesday: We were mostly prepping for the Christmas party that Lasma put on. Major success. We had to bring in more chairs and tables cause so many people came. But the Rīga Māsas wouldn’t talk to anyone new. That high key pissed me off.

I played a Latvian piano piece will Elder Argyle and Māsa Ceimere sang. It went very well. First day of exchanges with Elder Nybo. We messages Atvars (recent but no longer active convert) and asked if he wanted to hang out. He is so hard to get in contact with.

Wednesday: second day of exchanges with Elder Nybo. He’s such a good elder. We SYLd so much (basically where you only speak your mission language to each other). Big fan of SYL. We also went caroling at an old folk’s home. There were some people there who did not sing the right notes. it was hilarious. Then we talked with a ton of the people there. They loved us and gave us piparkūkas. We got pizza rolls.

Later we had dinner at the Birkenfeldi. They showed us magic tricks, one of which took me over an hour to understand.

Thursday: All I remember from Thursday is that we had one person show up late to English club. But she’s so great. She’s from Ukraine and literally speaks fluent English she just has a thick accent.

Friday: Basketball night we had a ton of people there, but apparently, they are all cocky and disrespectful players. We also had contact with two inactive families. And were going to visit one of them tonight.

Saturday: Game Night. Massive success since Raitis brought his entire family. They are so amazing. We stayed late to clean the church then led Come Follow Me. Thanks to Elder Beebe who showed up to that.

Sunday: there wasn’t a teacher in second hour so we taught the lesson... this time in Latvian. I don’t understand people.

Monday (today): Rip Māsa Barkere. We went and did all the things that she wanted to do since she’s getting transferred up to Rīga and she’s gonna miss this place. It’s gonna be rough. Māsa Barkere is a vibe. That’s prolly the best way to describe her. I mean she seems like she wouldn’t be animated whatsoever but her rants, hahaha oh my gosh they are great.

yeah that’ll be missed.

We went on a walk on the beach with Lasma. Yalls, things boutta get rough in Liepāja. Were about to get a greenie who’s gonna get put with someone who is not confident in her language (māsa bentlijas language isn’t actually that bad, just her accent). Then, if Elder Nybos prediction is correct Elder Bastow will come down and be with me in Liepāja. Neither one of us will understand people. But that won’t happen. Ill go up to Rīga with Elder Jessop, Elder Bastow will replace me here, and Elder Beebe will go to Elder Nybo. That’s my prediction. Pray for Liepāja yalls, pray for this city.

Lots of pictures. too many to add captions

Shoutout to Alyssa and her missionary memes. they keep me going

peep the popsocket from Elder Beebe though 👀👀👀 thats goes hard 🔥💯

Weekly Putnam

 (Elder Putnam)

Ya so this is gonna be a mess, but here we go.

Monday, Pday

Aight so Monday was intense. Because we were invited to so many Christmas parties, we had a ton of stuff to buy (none of which did we actually buy). But we had to wait in our schedule for a whole bunch of things that relied on each other to happen. I’m not explaining this very well. Anyways, we called up a less active member (we’ve visited him once after church several weeks ago, but he hasn’t answered the door or our phone calls recently) and he answered. We had prayed prior to our call that he would have a soft heart and listen to us. Well, after checking in with him to see how he’s doing (he’s finally fully healthy so that’s pretty solid) we invited him to Lasmas branch Christmas party. Another shoutout to Lasma she’s incredible. So, he essentially said he’d be down to come. Then we asked if we could visit him later this week. he said yes. Were bringing President Ceimers to that and it’s gonna be legendary.

Then I went to get a haircut. It was really short, but on our way to Kurzeme (the mall), we saw Brother Prancans (another returning member) and invited him to the Christmas party. He said to start texting him since he will actually be able to respond to those (he often misses our calls). anyways many miracles today. Gotta love the Pday miracles.

Tuesday, art night

Tuesday we always have art night. it was just generally a busy day. we also have district counsel on Tuesdays. this time we did a combined district counsel with a district in Estonia. I learned a lot from Elder Judd. He’s so wise and seasoned. He actually taught me a ton about tram contacting and just being quick with responses and tying it into the gospel.

We had 3 regulars at art night tonight and they seem to be enjoying it a ton and likely they will come to other activities. lots of fun.

Also Elizabete is a lot more elect than I realized.

Wednesday, I got nothing

Thursday, forgot my TRP

So really funny story. the office elders usually buy our tickets for us to come up to rīga. So we messaged them and Elder Maxwell, bless his heart bought 4 tickets. then it turns out he got some for the wrong day, so we bought 2 more, which were earlier than we expected. So we got into Rīga early. Then we stayed with the Avotu Elders (Elders Nybo and Bastow) and I found out that I forgot my passport in Liepāja.

Friday, Basketball night

Ok so we woke up in the morning. Elder Bastow showed me a killer ab workout. It’s absolutely insane, I don’t know how he manages it. Anyways, since I forgot my passport in Liepāja, we went to the church to comp study and grab packages. Unfortunately, I knew what I got for Christmas (at least in part) before it actually rolled around, since we had to consolidate space in my suitcase. While I didn’t get my TRP appointment, I did have another solid conversation about the restoration of the gospel on the bus with a dude. He didn’t want to learn more. But one of the things that’s in Preach My Gospel is that if you can feel the Spirit, then other people around you can as well. Not sure if I remembered that correctly, but in the conversation I definitely felt the Spirit. I guess I’m still trying to figure out teaching skills.

We got back in time for the Youth activity which was piparkūkas (gingerbread) making. Our cookies ended up turning out wretched, but we frosted them anyways. still not sure what we did wrong. I gave Jazeps some counsel on being an example to the world in his school. It was a good experience.

Then we had basketball night. That was so fun. We had 5 on 5 running full court cause gvido is a legend. This was our third week doing this and we have a great time. Gvido was a dude who showed up the second week. He brought with him literally 5 other people. He’s carrying basketball night. They all seem pretty chill and we love them.

good day

Saturday, Christmas Eve

Legendary time at the Ščerbeniņi. We played lots of fun games and ate good food. I found something called grey pees and they are so good and have so much protein.

Sunday, Christmas day

We had a wonderful Christmas Sacrament meeting. The missionaries sang What Child is This in Latvian which was dope. We did a nativity reading and in between every few verses we sang Christmas songs. it was great. afterward we went to Lasmas house where we spent a very long amount of time.

Today was mad busy and we made a charcuterie board (shoutout to sister Downey)

Here’s some pictures

1 and 2: Charcuterie boards go hard

3. Christmas tree in the apartment

4. I got a haircut

5. Lidl drip

6 Christmas at lasmas

7-9 Ščerbeniņi household Christmas party (peep the tricep extension)

čebureki ir money

 (Elder Putnam)

čebureki ir money. That’s all I have to say.

Tuesday: Ok so we started the day by going to the store to pick up some emergency potatoes for the thanksgiving dinner that night. Then we went to the church and immediately started with a service project for Māsa Birkenfelda. That took about 2 hours longer than planned, so rip district council. Anyways, in the middle of it, one of the returned missionaries that showed up brought us donuts from the donut man. The donut man is iconic. His shop is the only reason that I know that donut is virtulis. Gotta love that man. Anyways, even better than his donuts are his čebureks. It’s a Russian thing and it’s got like a pastry type croissant and the juiciest ground meat ever. love it.

We also got Kebabs from Pakistanas Kebabs. It was cheap and pretty solid actually, but kebabs do not match the classic salami, cucumber, ham, cheese, and pesto packed sandwiches I have every single day for lunch. Also, I think there’s a curse on the apples here. My first week I tried this one type of apple. It was so good, and they were large and it filled me with the spirit. My second week I loaded up on them and they were rotten... like all of them. So I switched to another apple the next week: money. again, bought a ton and then they were rotten. I’m on a new load of apples this week, so next week will be a downturn.

But yeah, I'm starting to eat healthier and I feel better, but I’m still gaining weight. still tryna figure that one out.

We finished the day with the Thanksgiving dinner. We had a bunch of friends come and bring different things. Then we had some families from the ward come as well. It was a great turnout. One of which is Kristian’s. We met Kristian’s at the end of my first week, or the beginning of my second week. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he said he would come to church that Sunday. We were so hyped... after Elder Argyle told me what he said. Anyways, we he didn't end up coming to church or really responding to us a ton. We found out he was kind of going through something at the time.

But, he showed up to game night last Saturday, and we invited him to the thanksgiving party and he was there. He talked with President Blūms which was very nice, because I could hardly understand him. He speaks so fast its crazy. But we talked about lots of things, and he asked how he could become a missionary. That threw us off a bit. But he is very interested in the gospel lots of "tieši tā"'s in our conversations. I’m very jealous because I simply do not understand what people are saying. And all Elder Argyle says is that he’s so elect. its kind of annoying, but we are very excited for him to come to game night this coming Saturday. Lasma is awesome and she coordinated a signup sheet for a member family to come to game nights weekly. She’s also feeding us thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and is planning a ward Christmas party. Lots happened on Tuesday.

Wednesday: I had the best leg pump I’ve had since I got to the field today. made me happy. So we held district counsel today since we missed it yesterday. We gloried in the Lord and all the success we've had recently. We also had a Mission devotional. My boy from home got his mission call. Shoutout to Henry. Persian Speaking finna go hard. We went to deliver gingerbread cookies to members. We went to one house and there were clearly people inside, and they were clearly trying to get their dogs to stop barking, but nobody answered. Then we went to another house and we couldn’t guess the code to the building so we went home. It’s starting to get pretty cold and there’s no way my 10 dollar amazon gloves are gonna work a week from now. But I got a beanie and a few new scarves so I should be set there.

Thursday: We spent most of the day cooking, then had weekly planning. But, we went to Lasma's and ate. Thanksgiving dinner was so good. We brought orange rolls and funeral potatoes. The sisters brought several desserts. And Lasma took care of everything else. Then we watched Home Alone cause now it’s Christmas season. We had it in Latvian though so it was a form of language study. Elder Argyle seemed skeptical. Also now I have a handshake with Jonas too. We ended up leaving Lasmas house in some weird fashion. The sisters and Lasma kept laughing, and we made several jokes that the apple juice might have a certain percentage marked on the bottle, but no. Our district is pretty solid. Also I found out that I'm playing in the Primary Program this Sunday not the following, so I have a lot to practice. I guess yall will find out how that went at the end of the Email.

Friday: I don’t remember anything from Friday. We did a service project with the relief society.

Saturday: we had a bunch of members at game night, but Kristian’s dipped

Sunday: primary program. I played two songs in it. We also realized that I really need to learn another sacrament hymn. We had a lesson with Markus. that went surprisingly well. He likes to joke around with us though.

today: we did a walking self guided tour of liepāja and it ended with it snowing. and we saw mareks. I’ve been in solid contact with him for a while now but this was the first time we saw him in person in a bit.

This week’s spiritual thought: gratitude

We are blessed with so many great things. like really. and we begin to recognize those blessings more when we serve God. Be grateful for your blessings. express that gratitude to Heavenly Father through prayer.

Aight. love yall. You’re great. Go do good things

1. fit check with one of my new scarves. I need to get a new phone case

2. it was very cold so peep the Rocky inspired workout fit