Sister Tatiana

Tatiana has not been feeling well for about a month and has been
sent home for health.

Tatiana in Riga Latvia

Well another week has gone by and I can hardly believe that it is over. Riga is the capital of Latvia and there are tons of people here to talk with it is strange here because they have two Christmases, one on the 25th and the other on the 9th the Russians celebrate on the 9th because it is the Russian orthodox calender and because they just love parties to they will make and excuse to party any time they can. For Christmas we sing in old town which is the heart of Riga and has all these old beautiful building built hundreds of years ago I will take some pictures and send them to you but it is kind of hard because it is always dark when we are there.

For Christmas the branch is having a huge party on Christmas eve to celebrate I will take pictures and send them to you it will be tons of fun Russians know how to party and they make really good food but when you have to cook for yourself everyday and you don't have a lot of time any homemade food is good. I like to eat Borch which is a traditional soup made from pork and beats it look like blood and you have to have it made the right way or it is really nasty. I also like to eat palminnie which is like wantons except for they don't have soy sauce so we eat them with sour cream with is like salt here everyone uses sour cream on everything it is actually quite funny.

The weather is not as bad as I thought it would be it is still cold but the weather is fine. and it is really funny our house is heated by the city because it is still on the communist system so it gets really hot at night and we have to sleep with the window open at night because it is never just right. I live in a apartment on the 7th floor and we did not know that we had stares until the elevator broke and we had to get out it was a fun adventure trying to find them I will send you a picture of what the view look like from my apartment.

The funnest thing to do is go harvesting we have to brake into or rather brake the code so that we can get in and then we take the elevator which feels more like a death trap because you never know if it is going to work. then just start knocking it really fun. Russians don't open their door when you knock they yell through them it makes it difficult to walk to them because everyone has two steel door and five or six lock because they lived in fear for so long.

Well I can wait to talk with you on Christmas I Love you so much

Words from cousin Tati

Date: Thursday, November 27, 2008, 8:41 AM
Wow, I can't believe that my first transfer is almost over. I feel like I just got here.

Well today was thanks giving and we made a Baltic Turkey it was really funny trying to find one because everything is in Latvian and we know how to say turkey in Russian but not Latvian and so it was really hard to ask for one but we did find one but cost an arm and a leg it was 17 lats which is about 35 dollars. Everything here is so expensive and they are experiencing a big job loss there is very little work here so we teach a lot of people who are out of work. We had all of the elders in our district over for thanksgiving dinner and made it together it was so fun trying to find things to buy for thanks giving when all the food is different.

We are teaching a lot of people her and the more we teach the more I find myself grateful for America so many people here don't believe that God loves them or that they can talk to him because communism has taught them that the one is not important only the whole so they all believe that God loves everyone but not them.
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Another sad thing they don't dream they are to afraid. We were helping this amazing young girl with her English and she had to write about what she wanted to do in life and she could not do it because she had never dreamed in her life. In America we all dream and we dream big but she was to afraid, it made me sad but we worked with her and she now has a dream a small one but it is getting bigger.

It snowed on Sunday and it was so bad that we could not see the building next to ours but it was alright because we were inside for most of it. the wind was also really strong and crazy I felt like I was going to blow away while I was waiting for the bus.

Another thing that really hit me here is people don't smile they just walk around all sad, so smile family and be happy that we live so free and that we have the gospel and can find joy and happiness in this life.
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I love you all and have had a great week and can't wait to tell you more. o by the way I don't think I've seen the son once this week, and the son is pretty much gone by 3:00 but thanks the Baltics.

love
Tati

Well I decided that something had to be done about this sad excuses for a blog. (to keep up with each other).
This is our recent trip with the Smiths to a Heritage center in Cache Valley. It's a museum like place that is set in 1909.

"Let Me Take You There"

I just thought that you'd all enjoy a picture of Drew.