After the paintings we went to St. Peter’s cathedral. It has a large spire that you can pay and take an elevator to the top. It gives a great view of Riga, though not quite as good as the view from the top of the hotel elevator we went up the day before. Anyways, I went to the top of this cathedral twice on my mission and both times it was incredibly windy and freezing cold. Thankfully this time it wasn’t too bad. The sun was actually shining (miracle!) and it was a pretty day. We stayed up there for a while; until Mitch finally said he was cold and we went back down.
After the elevator ride we went in the Blackhead House. This building was always under construction when I was here as a missionary, so I’d never been in inside. I didn’t even know what it was, but was always intrigued by it as anyone would be. I mean, check out this picture of the front of the building! So, Mitch and I went on a self-guided tour of the building. It was interesting because inside the building the signs and information never precisely said what the building was used for or what the organization (the Blackheads) did that started it. There are statues and painting of African Americans throughout the building, which is strange considering that everyone in Latvia is Caucasian. Anyways, we developed our own theory that the Blackhead organization was involved in slave trading; afterall, Riga was at one point a booming ship port. Thankfully we were wrong. When we got back to our hotel that night we looked it up on Wikipedia. The Blackhead organization was more like the Free Masons; it’s a society of men who gather to discuss ideas and issues of the day. Not quite as interesting as our theory, but happier and kinder.
After the Blackhead house we went to the Latvia Occupation Museum. This museum was incredibly detailed, well translated, and very informative. I was so impressed that every single sign was translated in English, German, Lithuanian, Estonian, and a few other languages. The museum tells the history of Latvia, which sounds boring, but it was actually very interesting. Latvia was occupied by the Russians for over 50 years!!! Can you believe it? That is such a long time and explains why most of the Latvians have the attitude they have towards the Russians.
Anyways, I felt really sick about halfway through the museum and missed out on some of it. But what I saw was great. Mitch really enjoyed it and now he probably understands Latvian history better than I do and I lived there! Ha,ha. We got some food and water at a café after that and I felt much better.
After eating, we took our paintings back to the hotel then set off for the church. I was really hoping the missionaries would be there so I could tell them to find Karina and get her coming back to church again. As luck would have it, the Russian speaking sister missionaries were there! We had perfect timing! I told them about Karina and they got my email address and said they’d email once they find her. I hoping she hasn’t moved so they can find her! As we were talking, a man walked into the church. He spoke to us in English as he was Latvian. He said he had heard about our church on the internet. He had a lot of questions and wanted to know more. What??? That never happened to me! I hope that happens more often for the missionaries here! The sisters called the Latvian speaking Elders, who happened to be right down the street. They were there in a matter of 3 minutes and were able to have a meeting with that young man. How cool is that?
Anyways, I talked to the sisters for a while about their work here. They just baptized a family of 5, but it sounds like they don’t have a lot of investigators in their teaching pool. The mission has closed the city of Vilnius to Russian speaking sisters, which made me sad, but I completely understand as there are just hardly any Russians in Lithuania. It sounds like the only cities open to Russian sisters right now are Riga (which was just reopened after being closed for the last 1.5 years to Russian sisters), Daugavpils, Narva, and Tallin. Quite a difference from when I was here! One sister said she had a horrible time in Tallin, Estonia because NO ONE would speak Russian to her. I told her my theory that in a few years there will not be any more Russian speaking missionaries in the Baltic Mission; there just aren’t many Russians here anymore and even if they are here, they usually speak Latvian at work, school, etc. so that is becoming their first language. Also, only people over age 40 or so speak Russian; the younger generation speaks Latvian. The sister agreed with me. She said she finishes her mission next month; there are only 8 Russian speaking sisters in the ENTIRE mission right now; seven of them go home next month, which means there will only be ONE Russian speaking sister for the ENTIRE mission. In December they get one more Russian sister, which will mean ONE Russian speaking sister companionship for the ENTIRE mission. I can’t believe it! It makes me really sad, but at the same time, I completely understand. It sounds like the work here has really slowed down or else not as many members are serving missions. When I was here we had over 110 missionaries; now there are only 80. Some Elders have had to stop learning Latvian and start learning Russian because they don’t have enough Russian speaking Elders, but at the same time, they have drastically cut back the amount of Russian speaking sisters. So sad.
On the other hand, the branch is doing very well. The members stay active and are very committed to the Gospel. It seems that splitting the branch into a Russian branch and a Latvian branch has been a very good thing. While I am sad to see the Russian sisters numbers decline, I understand and I still believe that the work will continue on. Perhaps there will be more native missionaries here and the members will become more involved in missionary work to make up for the lack of Russian sisters.
Anyways, it was fun to talk to the sisters. They called Nina Adams for me and let me talk to her. Nina Adams sounds like she’s American, but she is very much an old Russian “babushka.” She is HILARIOUS! She remembered me and was excited to hear from me. I asked her if she was home, she said yes and I told her we would be right over. She lives kind of far away, and I really didn’t think we had time to see her considering our dinner appointment with Sveta and Olga at 6:15, but we decided to try anyways. Stupid me, I didn’t write down her address when the sisters gave it to me, and I just figured I would remember. I knew I could find the area, I was just worried about knowing which apartment was hers. The area she lives in is nothing but dome after dome after dome and they all look EXACTLY the same. It’s ridiculous. Well, we tried several apartments and none were hers. I was so sad and could have kicked myself for not writing down her dome and apartment number. I know we were on the right street, and I’m 99% sure we were in the right dome, but we couldn’t find the right apartment. Pretty soon we had to leave to meet Sveta and Olga for dinner. I felt so bad about not seeing Nina! I asked Sveta to tell Nina I was sorry and explain what happened. I guess the positive thing is that I didn’t have to say goodbye to Nina again; I hate saying goodbye to these people, knowing I’ll probably never see them again in this life. At least it spared me the tears.
We took a marshutka (a little van/bus that is faster than a regular bus) to meet Olga and Sveta. We were still 15 minutes late; I felt really bad but they were really nice about it. (All the buses and rushing around stressed me out and I felt like a missionary again. I don’t miss that aspect of my mission.) We went to dinner at my favorite, big Lido’s. It’s a really neat restaurant. It’s kind of out of the way and there’s only two trambvy trains that go there and a short walk after that. But it’s worth it. I was able to speak to Olga and Sveta in Russian on our way out there. It was strange how the language came flowing back to me. Mitch said the same thing when we were in Cambodia, but it really was strange. It was almost like I never stopped speaking it. Of course, just as when I was a missionary, it was easier for me to understand Russian than to speak it, but I still did fine and really enjoyed hearing and speaking Russian again.
Our food was great! Lido’s serves traditional Latvian food, which mainly consists of meat and potatoes. But not our kind of meat, it’s different. And the mashed potatoes are to die for! Probably because their dairy products are amazing and they put more butter and milk in the mashed potatoes than I’d care to know, but it makes them heavenly. I had an entire plate of mashed potatoes with my favorite carrot cream sauce, which sounds disgusting, but it’s SO good. I also had blini (which is pretty much like crepe) filled with strawberry sauce. Yum. Lido’s is a Latvian building and the play traditional Latvian music. It’s really a neat experience.
Our company was great; I loved hearing about Sveta, Olga, and the other members. I’m glad they are all doing so well. One member, Natasha, wasn’t able to make it to church on Sunday, and sadly, I wasn’t able to see her while we were here. But, I was glad to hear that she is getting married in December! Natasha is probably about 35 and she teaches English at an elementary school. She speaks English almost as well as Elina. I helped Natasha with an English essay she was writing when I was a missionary and became really close with her. Anyways, I guess another teacher she works with joined the church back in April and recently asked her to marry him. Yeah! I’m really happy for her.
Olga and Sveta are so much fun. We saw some Lido workers dressed like traditional Latvian people. Mitch commented that the wreath on the man’s head looked like a “feather duster.” Olga and Sveta thought that was the funniest thing to say and literally did not stop laughing about it the rest of the night. It made me laugh to hear them laugh. They’re fun people. They said they will now remember Mitch as the “feather duster” guy. Ha,ha.
We said our goodbyes at the bus stop. Olga made me promise that we’d come back next summer. I said we’ll try in two years as next summer we’ll have brand new baby girl with us. I would love to come back in July sometime, but we’ll see. For now I’m just glad we got to come at all. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but easier in a way because I was able to see how happy they are and that they’re both doing so well with work and studying at the University. Olga is getting her Master’s right now and Sveta got a scholarship to study in England for a semester next February. I’m really happy for both of them.
On our way back to our hotel we stopped at what I call “the Mafia store.” Let me explain: we rent the second story of a building in Riga for our church. Next door is a tall, skinny building. On the first floor of the next door building, there is a store, a.k.a. the Mafia store. From the windows in our church, you can easily see who enters and leaves the Mafia store. As a missionary, I obviously spent many hours at the church and often saw who entered and left the Mafia store. I’m not exaggerating when I say that everyone who entered and left fit this description: a man; dressed in a very expensive, Italian suit; with shiny, expensive black shoes; always carrying a brief case; and always being chauffeured in a shiny, black Mercedes. Hmmm, pretty sure that’s none other than the Mafia. Now, if you walk past the store and look inside, all you see are two 5 foot long racks of clothes. And there are only about 10 items of clothes on each rack. And all the clothes are black. So basically, the store looks empty. There is a counter where there was always a lady, dressed in all black, standing to greet the Mafia as they walked in. They would enter, walk past the clothes, and disappear behind a wall or down some stairs. They never stayed long, and would leave with their brief case and drive off in their Mercedes. Fishy, right?
I was thoroughly convinced that this was a Mafia meeting place; somewhere they would go to plot their next move. Well, our last night in Latvia, Mitch and I walked by and took some pictures of the store. Then we got brave and went inside. (Okay, I don’t think Mitch was scared at all; it was just me and my crazy Mafia theory.) When we walked in, dressed in our jeans and cheap coats, the lady at the counter LITERALLY looked us UP AND DOWN as if to say, “You do NOT have enough money to be in this store.” Boy, was she right!!! We went behind the wall and found a room full of shoes for sale. Guess how much the shoes were? Oh, they ranged from $800 to $1,500!!! Wow, so even if the Mafia didn’t plan anything there, they are definitely the only ones who can afford to shop there! I’ve never seen such expensive shoes and clothes in my entire life. Anyways, I guess my theory is partially wrong; they don’t plan business there, they just shop there. J What a way to end our stay in Latvia.
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