letter 19 December 2011

Sveiki!

Well guess what??? I am still here in Riga.�� I by the end of this transfer I will have been in the same apartment for a little over 9 months straight.�� I wasn't expecting to stay.�� It has been absolutely great this week.�� My new companion is Elder Morgan.�� He has been out for about 7 months.�� I have been in this one apartment his entire mission. hehe.�� He is so good.�� We are just going to work.�� It is awesome when you have a companion who has the same desires as you.�� We both want to work.�� Life is so awesome when you know that both of you will put in all the effort you have.�� Then it doesnt feel like one missionary is pulling all the weight and dragging the other one along. Also, he is like a 5 star chef.�� He just throws together awesome dishes all the time.�� It will be a great holiday season.��

So this week we have found a lot of people that want to meet.�� It is great to see an empty schedule get completely filled.�� I think we are going to accomplish a lot together this transfer.�� So we just taught a lot of people this week.�� Hopefully they will start to progress.�� So there is still no snow here.�� It has been on and off snow and rain but nothing sticks.�� I am sick of rain though.�� It is getting old.

Nothing new has really happened here.�� Just the new companion and work work work.�� It is just nice to be a full time missionary again with no ties to the office.�� I think Elder Morgan and I are going to get a small little Christmas Tree for fun today for preparation day.�� Well I heard that you have those Stake Conference goals.�� Be sure to have you Family Home Evenings!

Talk to you soon.

Love,
Jared

Letter 12 December 2011

We have transfers coming up this week. Everyone thinks I
am going to Liepaja. We will see. Well I dont have too much time to write
today. Three sisters and my trainer are going home on Friday so we are having
kind of a Goodbye preparation day for them. It is weird to see people that I
have served with for so long starting to head home. It is crazy. Well this
week was pretty good. The Older Lady should be baptized in January if all is
well. She has been reading up a storm. They have been telling their families
all about the Gospel too. This week was just a lot of finding time. I forgot
what it was like to be out on the streets for 7-8 hours a day. We were really
busy in the office. It is alright though. Well I hope that a lot of people
show up for the Food Drive to help. So I just got those packages in the mail.
Everyone around me charged me that I wouldn't open them until Christmas. So I
havent touched them yet. Mom you said there was Christmas Tree cakes, what
about the feffernuese (something like that). So yesterday at church a few of us
sang What Child is this in Latvian. It was pretty good. We have a pretty
musical district. I sang a solo in it and it went pretty well. My voice isnt
anywhere near where it was in High School. We have some Christmas Zone
Conferences coming up so that should be fun. Well I love you all and I will be
sure to write some more next week. Sorry to cut it short. Love
youJared

Recent Baptism

Elder Brabazon and his companion with a recent convert in Latvia.

Letter 5 December 2011

I cant believe it is already the 5th of december. So for us it has been just wet and rainy as of late. It has been cold but I guess not cold enough for snow. All of the natives are saying they want snow. It just looks terrible with all of the Christmas decorations everywhere but no snow. I wouldn't mind snow myself. Well this was a pretty crazy week. We just had some stuff go down that got pretty intense. So we also had a ton of miracles happen this week. So that guy I mentioned last week who wanted us to meet with his family, it went pretty well. They were very nice. We had the usual latvian sit down with some tea and chat kind of lesson. The whole time they were pretty quiet and just wanted to "confirm" that we are some crazy sect like everyone thinks we are here. We just sat down and showed them our family pictures to help show them that we are just normal people. We talked about the restoration of the Gospel and that the same church that Christ established is again on the earth. It is not a church that a bunch of guys got together and made up. The mother was very very catholic and the Catholic preachers here actually forbid people to read the Book of Mormon. She did just that. We asked many times if she would read a few verses as she was talking. She refused. At the end of the lesson they understood the restoration. We asked if we could leave a Book of Mormon with them so they could find out for themselves if our message was true. She again refused and said "not in this house." I felt prompted to ask the Father who was very quiet during the lesson if he would like a Book of Mormon. I did so kind of awaiting the explosion from the refusal we had just heard. He said, I cant say that your message isn't true. I think I will do what you said and read it. We left him a book and he said he would read. It was really cool at the end of the lesson. Their son was with us in the lesson and he was just testifying that he knows that this is all true. In the very end we asked the father who he would like to have pray to end the lesson. He said "my son." So his son offered the closing prayer which I believed touched his family. It was a cool experience.

It is amazing how so many people think that we are just so evil and terrible people as members of the church. If only they could break that biased ill-informed prejudice they could see that we are trying to help people change their lives. They would see the many blessings that come from trying to live like Christ. It just blows my mind that people see us missionaries who aren't paid, give away copies of the Book of Mormon for FREE, learned this foreign language and can speak it fluently, working rain or shine or snow and freezing cold, are here for two years voluntarily, try and help people overcome addictions... I could go on... So for all the people that read this blog and have no clue what a member of the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believes, meet with the missionaries and find out for yourself before you judge. It is amazing to me of what is written in the scriptures is true about they shall make good things seem evil and bad things seem good. It is happening.

Well this week we have been meeting with an older couple in their early 80's. They are really cool. The wife just accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of december. She has read about 200+ pages of the Book of Mormon and loves it. That is just in a weeks time. Well, I think that about sums up this week. I have just been busy and forgot to ask my mission president about the 24th. Well, love you all.


Jared

Change in Blog

We had some issues with Elderbrabazon.blogspot.com and it no longer exists. This is the new blog for Elder Jared Brabazon. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Gary Brabazon