Oct 7: Baltic Canonical: New area, and Conference!

From: Jordan Argyle
Date: Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 4:01 AM
Subject: Oct 7: Baltic Canonical: New area, and Conference!

All: Hey. So, here we go. 67,939 steps (52.99 km).

Q+A: My responsibilities as ZL have not been made fully clear to me yet. I'll get the paper that explains it tonight at ZL counsel. I will be going on exchanges with all the District leaders this transfer (each transfer) just after zone conference. I also am responsible for all that happens in the zone--so if stuff's amiss, I'm the first one that gets talked to. President Dance is very big on leaders working as missionaries, so that is our primary focus. We occasionally have some monkey business (a companionship needs a bed and we need to bring it to their new place, problems with transport and such, etc.), but we mostly focus on teaching and the like. Actually, my companion and I are co-ZLs.
We are responsible for four districts--all Latvian speaking (plus two Russian missionaries in those zones). Those districts are:

• Rīga Center (where I am)--two elderships and a sistership.
• Rīga Imanta (across the river)--two elderships and a sistership.
• Jelgava (where I was)--two elderships.
• Liepāja (where I was long ago)--one eldership and a sistership.

Liepāja is a good distance from Rīga--it takes about three hours by bus. Jelgava is rather close to Rīga--it takes only 45 minutes to an hour to drive there (about 45 KM away). Sigulda is that city where there was that red castle and all the changing leaves. It's very pretty, at about 45 KM from Rīga. I'll send pictures if we actually go. Elder Long (my new companion) is way rad. He's very funny, and a very good missionary. He had to go home from his mission a while ago, and now is back, so he knows all the missionaries I do (he actually started his mission quite a while before I got out here--he was Zone Leader while I was in Liepāja!!), and I think we'll work quite well together. We are both fairly confident with Latvian, and we both know the doctrine decently well, so we can just hack out good teaching skills and make the magic happen!

Pictures: The top one is a shot out my new window in Rīga. It was beautiful a few days ago--it had just rained, and when you add in the sun--wow! So, here you go.
Middle: There was a youth conference here just yesterday, and since I was at the church I nabbed a shot. This will be in church news (or in the local pages of the Liahona, the church magazine, for Latvia). I love all these youth so much!!!
Third: Random culture thing: They love their cobble-stone roads here. Here is a look straight down from my pad.

I will be watching general conference this week, starting today with the missionaries in English, then again with members (for a few sessions, if we have investigators) in Latvian. I would invite all of you to watch or read conference. Here it is in English. If you need another language, then go here. These men are called of God, and given His holy priesthood. They are living apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are prophets, seers, and revelators. They know what will happen in the future, and they teach us how to live so that we can be sure to have a safer, happier future for us and our children. God literally speaks through them today. They say what God would have them to say. I'm excited out of my mind to be able to watch it. I'm looking forward to a fountain of revelation from the Spirit, and the Lord teaches me what my investigators and I need to know though His servants.

Quickly: We've had a lot to do recently, so haven't really gotten much teaching done. But that will change. I called a lot of people that I worked with before, and a lot of them were like, "No, I don't have time. I won't have time to meet with you." I told them basically the paragraph above, and every one of them was interested. So, hopefully we'll be teaching them this weekend, and watching them be taught by the Holy Ghost! I've been way excited to see those who I knew before and love. I spent a lot of time Sunday between classes talking with people and just finding out how they are. The branch is so much the same, and so different. There are a good number of new people. It's so wonderful!

I honestly don't know what else to say. I'll have a lot to say by the means of a spiritual thought next week (since I'll be hearing conference), so until then!
--
Elder Argyle
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