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

Weekly

 (Elder Putnam)

Sveiks yalll!! ok so I wrote up like half of this last week and didn’t have time to finish it. but I’m getting more structured with me after 9 activities so that’s solid.

Ok so for FB finding we go around and message a ton of people as soon as they accept our friend requests. So, I messaged this dude named Jānis and just said I liked one of the things he reposted (I added some deep thoughts to the mix as well) and he responded with a ton of messages. He opened up like so much talking about his mental health struggles, alcoholism and how much he hated living in the UK. He has some interesting spiritual takes that kinda line up with the gospel, especially the plan of salvation, but some that don’t at all. We have some interesting messages back and forth about twice a day but the message chains are like 12+ messages long. It’s crazy. He likes to swear and I’m honestly certain he’s on something every time he messages me, but I don’t have anything that points to that. It’s a very fun situation.

Tuesday: we made soap. Art night is on Tuesday nights at 6. So this week we made soap. We melted it then added some coloring and scent to it. it actually turned out pretty well. we each ended up with five pieces and I gave out two to some random teenagers on the bus. they thought it was kinda weird but also mad funny for us and the māsas.

Thursday: we had an awesome English night and it snowed. We invited tons of people and a lot of random people showed up too. Of course, Vlad was there. We also had Saša and his notgirlfriend, and one other person who’s chillin in Latvia and hiding from Russia :). All of them were Russian.

Friday we went to Lasmas house with the sisters for dinner. It was Latvias birthday so everything was themed red. It was so good. We had this raspberry juice that slapped, like a rice and chicken curry almost - but Latvian, and Honey Cake. All Latvian foods that were so good. We heard about her life in and out of the church and she gave us some solid pointers on how to help find people, and also help bring members back to activity. I didn't realize how big a branch Liepāja was. Like 20 years ago they probably had 15-20 youth and now we have like 5. Its wack. So that’s something we’re gonna work on.

Saturday: So Saturday is Game Night. We decided to go all out and invite everyone on our friends list and have snacks, herbal teas, ping pong, and even spikeball, to add to the board games. We played all of them in the Relief society and Primary rooms combined. It was wonderful. We got Nekyta (who also helped us clean the church), Kristian’s (the most elect person we found Big Book of Mormon finding in literally my first week) and his son Kristian’s (who is awesome). Lasma came to that as well and Kail and Sai showed up too (they’ve been friends with the sisters for a long time).

Sunday: Gosh I love the youth. Ok so the Birkenfeldi are a big family. Their oldest is 13, and their youngest is like 2. So during the middle of sacrament meeting the youngest will come running up to the piano and try to accompany alongside me. He is a fun little dude. We had a bunch of people

Other thoughts: The youth we have are so solid. I’m making handshakes with each of them and their lowkey dope love Emīls. He’s a new member and he helps pass the sacrament every week. He always comes up to me when I’m playing prelude and says hi. I’m so happy to see him every time. Then we got Jazeps. Jazeps is the backbone of the youth. He was, for a time, the only youth in the ward and he’s so strong. He also has a calling to put the hymn numbers up before church. Love the dude, so spiritual and reverent. Then there’s Lukas. That’s lasmas son. I’m not quite sure how to describe him. He dresses like a "roadman" whatever that means, except for when he’s at church where he’s so good. And were also about to get Sebastian’s Tomass in Deacons Quorum too. I’m so excited. There are some other youth were gonna work with to bring back from inactivity. Ya so that’s the young men. I don’t really interact with the young women as much.

that’s all for a week ago

see yall

Pelmiņi rules

 

(Elder Putnam)

Ok so I’ve decided in the middle of the week to start journaling for like 10 minutes at the end of the day so here’s what we got:

Thursday: On Thursdays we do Weekly planning. It takes up a big chunk of time even though we don’t have anyone on date and we have very few lessons. So, I still haven’t done language study today. We went whiteboard finding this morning which was pretty solid. We invited some people to English Nights and Game Nights and stuff but tonight we only had one person at English Night: Vlad. I love Vlad. He’s this old Russian dude who has the most obscure English vocabulary ever. Luckily though, He has pretty solid grammar. We corrected his pronunciation a ton and helped him learn to say the sounds that "th" makes, namely those in the words "those" and "Thursday". There’s no sound for that in Russian or Latvian so its difficult for people here to pronounce them. anyways, He has an interesting testimony. He seems to know the Book of Mormon is true, but he doesn't really understand what it is. For Example, he knows how to pray, and he prays with much faith, but he doesn't really understand how the church works. Like, he thought it was a requirement for members of the Church to have at least 5 kids... otherwise you'd get in trouble. Like what? Anyways, we invited him to church. He has a lot of interest in the church, but from what I’m told, he talks too much to get through an entire lesson with him. We had some big dub finds throughout the day. I found a dude who plays volleyball which is awesome cause were trying to find a day to play volleyball with people. anyways, I’m speaking in sacrament on Sunday so that will be rough. this time its 10 minutes and I cant ramble in Latvian. :// fat rip.

Monday: ya so that didn’t work. on Friday we did some contacting and whatnot. I don’t really remember a ton ://. Saturday we had game night and a lesson with a new member. I promised him a tie if he read the entire book of Mormon. hopefully he does. Sunday I low key volunteered myself to play in the primary program in 3 weeks. which is gonna be rough. I also spoke and got complimented on how much better my Latvian is than the first week.

Today we went shopping and I got a Super Bowl hoodie for a workout hoodie. I also found some ties at a thrift store and those were money. I overbought on food. so that’s nice and fun. Ahhh I forgot to look for dumbbells. If anyone wants to ship me some dumbbells for Christmas that would be much appreciated. I drink Pepsi now so that’s fun. I made a Pepsi combination with lime, coconut, and cream and I mixed it up with a chopstick. ļoti garši. I am so good at contacting in English. its crazy. Latvian is rough tho. I’m understanding better tho. ya so that’s what I got for the week. oh, I started a Dienas laimīgs brīdis (happy moment of the day) thing and I’m having a fun time with that. I’ll be better at journaling this week.

Elder Putnam

pictures:

1. anders house vibes

2. had to happen once

3. ties from the thrift store go hard

Dia De Los Muertos

 (Elder Putnam)

Aight, so I’m a little less lazy this week but my email is still not gonna be very well thought out. Last Pday we ended with an FHE lesson with the Birkenfeldi. Fun fact: if you go to the Come Follow Me manual, Brālis Birkenfelds and his son are on the front cover. Which is kinda awesome. I thought that was just sorta an eastern Europe vibe, cause that’s what they’ll do with some of the missionary pamphlets, but I guess not.

Anyways, after the lesson, we invited one of Brālis Birkenfelds' neighbors to a branch hosted Dia De Los Muertos party. He ended up bringing some of his kids and grandkids and now we have an appointment with him in a few weeks.

We had exchanges which were super fun. Elder Argyle and I went up to Rīga and my companion for the day was Elder Bastow. That was very hype. We taught English Club then made pasta as the two temporary companionships. Then the next morning we did some street contacting. I will say that contacting in Rīga is a lot more fun than in Liepāja. I got kebab for the first time in Rīga which was pretty darn solid. It was not quite as shwarma-ie as I imagined.

We finished raiding the old Liepāja Russian Elders apartments and I found a machete that we brought back to our apartment.

Dia De Los Muertos ended up being a very fun and successful activity. We invited a ton of people to it and it was a blast. We also saw some people across the street from the church at a park and invited them in. It was two at first, but they left twice, each time bringing back another friend. Gotta love Emīls and the gang.

I got my packages from Rīga today which was awesome. I made bread with the standmixer, breadpans, and oven mits. It turned out pretty darn solid. were gonna give it to one of our neighbors that says he loves missionaries. love the dude.

Were meeting lots of new people. Not holding a ton of lessons unfortunately, but it is what it is.

I got some walking shoes which is pretty money.

That’s like all I got for the week. I love the mission but I cant really sit down and put it in words or remember it all so ya.

Read from the Book of Mormon daily, it provides strength, encouragement, and guidance.

here’s some pictures:

1. Great breakfast before exchanges (ended up getting out the door 15 min late tho)

2. "And it came to pass... that we did go about to destroy the church of God" smth like that.