more pictures...

Ladies Retreat. Beauty with a purpose.

those were all my pictures from thanksgiving day. i stay at Dastins and Kristini's when im in Ergli becuz they have a spare room. lately i have been in ergli a lot. so hence my very messy room. Kristine, Rebecca(the younger one) and i cook most of the afternoon. they were making stuffing and i was making pies. there are pictures of all the food prep. I had left over dough from my pies so Rebi and i made a little pie together. lets just say i know how to work with kids... lol. Kristine made so much stuffiing she had to mix it in the sink. normal latvians dont celebrate thanksgiving, so all the missionaries come together to make a big celebration of there own. it was mostly americans with some brits and lats. it was a great time of fellowship! my pies even turned out pretty good. we had a 28 lbs turkey!  

A VERY BUSY WEEK!

fleas... :(

odd heading i know. why,... you might be asking...? becuz i have them! well ok i dont think that is necessarily true, but i am getting bit by them. its horrible im itchy all the time and i have these little red bites all-over. Elvis was making fun of me. but i guess the truth hurts some and and is just funny to others. i really should be giving you all these updates. but i am tired and think im just going to go to bed. lol. idk i guess i should say something. ssoooo..... ive been in ergli for the passed like 4 day, mostly becuz my family here is sick. but i finally got to come home today, although im leaving again 2mrw. im very happy though becuz i get to have thanksgiving! so saturday i helped kristine around the house, then hung out with Unda and Karina. then sunday went to church in Madona, came back to ergli... watched little essie with the help of janis, while everyone else went to church. janis is the roths live-in right now. but next week gintis comes home so janis will have to leave. monday, i helped katie by organizing anna and essies room... that was a large task. then today i went to regular tuesday meeting prayer meeting, then watched anna and jonathan while the adults met for a business and weekly planning meeting. then i came home with Diks and then had our tuesday night youth bible study. 2mrw i am doing planning with Guna, shopping with Guna then possibley some baking with Guna. then i have my weekly meeting with Laura and Annija. then ladies bible study then im going back to ergli. for thanksgiving, then the ladies retreat! BUSY BUSY BUSY! i am really starting to like the food here its going to be hard for me to switch back, when the time comes! 

LOVING LATVIA!

Ergli....

Today i was supposed to be at home in Madona, but Dikucis is still sick, so im back in ergli, at least until tuesday. normally on a sunday night i wouldve had church service in ergli too, but today i stayed home at roths becuz little essie was running a fever :( and she was so zombie like it was weird for her. but anyways tomorrow i will be getting ready for our womens retreat on friday and saturday and helping katie do some organizing. one thing that has been horrible lately is im getting these bites. and they are itchy and i didnt know what they were and i figured out that there fleas, so i have to figure something out for that becuz they are only getting worse. but katie said its very common here. i know i havent been posting any pictures lately im sorry, but becuz im simply living here it seems odd for me to always be taking pictures. but i need to go, sorry this was a lame post, just letting you know that i am not sick yet, thank you so much more the prayers! its been amazing. thats another reason that im here becuz my latvian family is very sick... and i cant get sick right now. so please pray for my family! they could really use it. Diks, Initina, and Dikucis. thank you.

a lull...

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much lately. Thats probably becuz I haven't had to do much lately. And thats becuz everyone is sick! So I left Ergli Wednesday to come back home to Madona, I WAS happy. But then I realized that my family call became more ill while I was gone. And really becuz of the holiday this week everyones normal schedule was thrown out the window. So Wednesday night we all went to bed late, becuz we ate dinner at nine. Yes nine. And we also had a whole fish, one that we bought live at the grocery store. It was odd. (sidestory) We were paying for the groceries in the check-out line and I had already endured watching Dikucis (small Diks, nasty little gremlin) poke the fishes eye repeatedly... while the fish continued to breath in the plastic bag. Yes I know that fish do this after you "kill" them but still it was unpleasant. Then Diks thought it would be funny to make me bag the fish. So I was going to put it in the bag and it jumps... out of my hand and back onto the bagging lane. I screamed and everybody looked at me while Diks laughed. (back to regular post). So I knew I would get to sleep in on thursday becuz I wouldn't be meeting Guna till probably noon for our prayer walk. and by sleeping in I mean 9. So i wake up and 9:30.. ugh! feeling horrible. And I knew Guna would call so I fell back asleep. Didn't wake up till 11! whoops. But I did feel a lot better, thank goodness. It ended up that Guna still felt bad and didn't want to go. So I decided to stay at home and soak. Which was great. Until 3:30 when I left the house to meet some kids at Rimi to get some snacks cuz we wanted to watch a movie and hang out. Which also went great. And that night I finally walked myself home. it was wonderful, I prayed the whole 20 mins back. for the cars, homes and people that I passed by. I will also admit to all of you that I finally started to feel home sick this week. I really just missed my mom. But I had been praying about it and on my way home that night, God fixed it. I felt 100% better. And then God worked it out so I could finally skype with her. HE is AWESOME! It's great becuz I'm finally seeing God's hand in everything. I love it. So for those of you who didn't see on facebook... I have been here for 4 weeks now. Also yesterday the 19th was my namesday. Well Liza's namesday and there wasn't an Alyssa in the months that I'm here so I said it would just have to do. Then 2mrw Elvi will be coming to get me at 930 and we will ride the bus to Ergli. So I don't think I will post again till Sunday night. 

                                          Loves!

its a God thing

I almost forgot to tell you about my miracle. So on Monday night Guna and I had walked to the bus station to take the last bus of the day to Ergli. I had already packed my bag and taken it to the salon where I was to meet Guna. I also had my purse, which always has my wallet, camera, and beanie. We were early, to the bus station, and decided to buy our tickets at the window instead of on the bus. We walk on up, Guna pays for hers and then tells me how much the ticket costs. I reach in my purse to grab my wallet. Uh OH! NO wallet. UGH! I pull my beanie out to be sure its not just hiding. Nope, its really not there. So here are the current problems: the bus will be here in 5 mins. Guna has no more money, Diks is not at home. My house is about a 7 min. sprint away, only one way, not there and back. So we call someone to ask for money, no answer. We think maybe we can run back to the salon and ask a lady there. They don't answer our phone call either. So we walk back outside, still scanning our brain for any ideas. Did i mention this was the last bus to ergli? lol. I'll just say that I was NOT too pleased with myself. Why do I forget things only when its important?!In between our debate, Guna sees this lady walk up to the station, its a mother of a girl that used to be in our youth group. She said, "Ill go ask her for some money." Ok, for one I hate taking money from people I know, let alone a total stranger. I felt terrible. But guess what, the lady gives Guna  5 Lat. More than enough to pay for my ticket, and she said to give the change to the church. Talk about a divine appointment, God had this all planned out. Later that night Guna smsed(text) the lady to thank her. The women told Guna, "I just had an odd feeling that God was going to use me today, and then you guys came along and i knew it was right," and then she thanked us for the opportunity to serve. I felt a little better after that.

Ergli days

I have been in ergli since about 830 monday night when Guna and i arrived here on the bus. bus rides here are not interesting at all, i think mostly becuz nobody talks.. at all. the whole bus is silent. not that its a huge bus or anything becuz its very small also, but still its amazing to me how no one will talk, even 2 people sitting togethet who knw eachother. so of course i was not about to sit for an hour in silence. HA! right! so i spoke to Guna almost the entire way.. and the best part was that we wernt sitting together, so i had to turn around. pretty much the whole bus was watching and listening to me. but no worries.. im getting used to the stares now, becuz everybody looks at me. i think its becuz im speaking english, and usually im speaking loudly and with lots of enthusiasm. so anyways we stayed the night at Dastins and Kristinis house becuz Davis Kingdom was at Dan and Katies for the BBI(Bridge Builders International) meeting on tuesday. which was infact the reason we were here. Guna and i were to watch all kids while they had this meeting in a gorgeous hotel outside of ergli. well it ended up that little esse had the flu, so katie stayed home with her, jonathan went working with bruce so Guna and i only had anna bethany and rebeka. easy! they played all day. we just had to make sure they didnt die, and feed them every now and then.. lol. jk we took great care of them. so when marvin left he left me some vanilla, chocolate chips and baking powder, things that are difficult to get out here, and he told Elmars that if he gave me the stuff i woulod make yummy cookies for him. so yesterday evening i made chocolate chip cookies, which everyone loved. yay me! i am fianlly cooking for all you who thought that day would never come. and also i eat like twicw as much as i did at home! (K.K.) i am definately eating plenty. so today is Latvijas Republikas proklamēšanas diena. lativas independence day, so we will be having a special church service today at 5, at our church in madona and the catholic and lutheran churches are both coming. im exited to see what its like. also nobody has school 2day, so all the kids have been home this morning. please pray for me that i wont get sick, ive shared a bed with Guna the last 2 nights and shes sick and kristni is sick, and anna and esse. and my family is actually sick also, so im surrounded my sickies, and dont want t0 get it.

The Fam..

This weekend was a slow one, Christine, along with others, has been sick most of this week. Dan and Katie went to Tilza, and normally im supposed to be in Erlgi most weekends, but they were gone. so i stayed home with my "family". saturday was awesome we all slept in late, had breakfast at noon, then went shopping, for things we needed around the house. we went to Maxima xx, ( i have no idea what the x's at the end mean, you dont say them, and we were there for like 4 hours. i couldnt even tell but Diks and small Diks could feel it. but by the end of the trip small Diks and i were good friends, i was so happy. thn we came home and had a big dinner of, i swear of ALL, the food we just bought! but it was great, so something about latvians/latvia that im beginning to appreciate is nobody cares how much you eat. its great! except that im pretty sure im gaining weight. and i refuse to come back weighing more then when i came. and katie told me that all the weight she gained her first year out of high school, she's never lost! i was like thanx for the horror story katie! but anyways today is Sunday i was supposed to make breakfast this morning but i forgot to get all the ingredients for french toast. whoops! but i will sometime soon. so small Diks and i played outside together today, then we sat by eachother at lunch.. and he shared his pomagranite with me, and hugged me. i thought maybe i was finallt getting somewhere with him, but then after cuddling on the couch watching a movie, he starts spitting on me, so i told him no and to stop. then he gets mad and starts pulling on my clothes.. gosh idk what to do. hes a great kid, so cute and nice! but he gets frustrated becuz i dont speak latvian. so please pray for me to be patient and to not give up on him.

Euro-style

so i maybe fibbed about not posting everyday. but 2day i decided to look half way decent, i feel bad becuz everybody already thinks that americans dress horrible, and compared to them we do, but im not helping our case any. and im getting tired of everybody staring at the american walking down the street.. although i do get a good laugh at it. so here are some pitcures of Kore, a cafe that Guna and i meet at sometimes. and some pictures of me.. lol                                                   also lativan's do something here called soaking, which i guess we do too, but anyways. soaking is just like sitting together having fellowship with God. you turn on some quite worship music, have a Bible, maybe a notebook and a pen. and you just read something out of your Bible, pray, and listen for God to speak to you, or show you something. and i just love it. ive been doing it some in the mornings. its just a great time for you to have time alone with God.                                                 Prayer request: that i could learn some more lativan. That God will make more opportunities will certain youth. theres one girl that i really want to get to know, but she is very closed and both times i tried to hang out with her she blew me off. that small Diks will not hate me. That more men and whole families would start attending church here. and that God would really speak through me to the youth. that God would comfort my new family here, they are dealing with the loss of their daughter, no she didnt die! but she is in the states attending Bibles school, and she will be gone for 2 years. and they were all very close. and that the daughter will become more comfortable living in the states, her name in Marite. also for my family, i think they miss me... lol, and i do miss them. i guess thats it for now. and yes i posted a horrible picture of myself, but i had to show you what my awesome hair can do! lol, and i have no shame, ok very little! and its funny i can make these pathetic little pig tailies... im pretty sure paytons are bigger, i wear them for vollyeball. its funny! ill take a picture of those at some point.

hmm....

i think i decided i will no longer be posting everyday. i just dont have enough new things to tell, pictures to show you, or time to to blog about it. so we'll start from wednesday, you all know what i was up to so.. it all went pretty good.  i met with 2 girls, Laura and Annija we drank tea ate some cookies and i was just taking time to take an interest in their lives and build relationships with them. they are both 14 years old, and in the states they would be in 8th grade. they are both very sweet, but a little bit sky, so i broke out my out-going slightly loud, and very friendly American-self! i think it went great, at least they want to meet again next week. then i walked a couple blocks back to the salon, for womens Bible study. I think i wouldve loved the lesson except Katie was the only other english speaker there so i didnt get most of what was going on. but its ok becuz i have to leave about halfway through for volleyball anyways. so Gutis is home, and i very happy to be, i met his girl friend shes very cute. almost every wednesday Diks and i ride to Kusa's with someone else, so i was glad this week it was Gutis becuz it was someone i know. volleyball was fun as usual, the guys are finally getting used to me being around, but they are still a little leery about me i think. it was funny becuz last week, this guy who is always on Diks and mines team basically ran me over. or fell on me however you want to put it... so they are all very careful of me now. and then this week i broke a nail, and i obviously made it known.. and they were all like "Aaaawwe!" and then proceeded to laugh. lol. idk i really enjoy playing with them. then 2day Guna and i were supposed start are weekly prayer walks, but then her good friend from a different town was in Madona today so we had lunch with her instead. idk i guess we'll start next week. but yes then we tried to figure out our weekend and i thought it was, but now my family wants me to go to the Cinema with them on saturday... so idk again. but 2mrw Guna and i will prepare food for youth meeting, then i have a meeting with Unda, then Youth meeting. so idk probably will end up busy. oh and i got to see a movie with Elvis. it was supposed to be like this group thing so i can get close to this one girls named Liba, but everyone bailed on me. so i went with Elvi. it was still fun. we have really good conversations.  i guess thats it for now. ttyl

the PICTURES!

so here are some picture of the girls that Guna and i made over. sorry i should have taken individual before and afters. but i didnt. so 2day is tuesday, and we had a great prayer meeting in ergli. then after i babysat anna while the adults had a church meeting. anna and u basically just watched every barbie movie that the Peterson's owned. lol, it was an easy job. then we had Bible study at our house. went good i think, idk it was all lativa to me. then my family left and a few youth stayed for some fun/crazy rounds of UNO! i would also like to state that lativan's have their own set of rules for uno, and i don't like it. then the girls left, and Elvi, Imi and i just hung out, laughing about facebook and draugeim.lv (latvian fb). oh and if anybody recieves a friend request from Elvis, please except him. it was all my doing anyways. and hannah thank you for being a good sport about chatting with Elvi, it was so funny though, and Imi just wanted us to say "i am table" the whole time.. idk! but yes had a good time 2day. im excited to go boot shopping 2mrw. 

I realize i still haven't posted any pictures from my last post. i'm sorry. but i have just not had time, plus i didn't have my computer, and then i seemingly misplaced my camera twice. but i will get them uploaded. so my weekend is over now. and i am back to figuring out how much more i can squeeze into my week. this is my scheduled week so far. this is always subject to change, at a moments notice.

Tuesday: Wake-up 7 am. (the norm) Prayer meeting in Ergli at 9:30, till approximately 11:30.          Lunch at Dan and Katie's. Business meeting that doesnt not include me for the bulk of it so i will be babysitting during it instead. Leave Erlgi at about 4:30. Drive back to Madona, youth Bible study at 6, (youth start arriving at 5:30). Prepare myself, house, and food until them. Youth leave around 9ish. cleanup the aftermath. hopefully in bed around 10:30ish. 

Wednesday: wake-up norm. 9:00 Go to salon, fix my hair, if there isn't clients there already. 9:30 Go look for a warm pair of good walking boots. 12:00 go have lunch with my other mother at salon.  pray for a while about meeting to follow. 1:00 help in salon, in help isn't needed, do treasure hunt with Guna. 5:00 meeting/Bible study with Laura and annie. 6:00 womens Bible study. 8:00 mens volleyball. get home about 11. in bed by midnight. 

Thursday: wake-up norm. 9ish Go to salon, to meet with Guna for morning Prayer walk for the town of Madona. 12:00 lunch probably with Guna. spend the rest of the afternoon, helping in salon. maybe get my hair colored. the evening at house with family. pretty easy day i know..

Friday:  idk yet about the morning, maybe a easier morning probably will spend it with Guna making food for youth meeting. at 3 or 4 i have meeting/Bible study with Unda... 6:00 youth meeting. 9ish head to Ergli. spend night at camp with Guna in the staff house. 

Saturday: unknown.... 

Sunday: Church service in Madona at 11:30... Church service in Ergli 6:00. Ergli youth meeting whenever church gets out. Come back to Madona afterwards.

this is my weekly schedule... just thought you all might like to know. 

Loving lavtia! :D

beauty day at the orphanage.

sorry about not posting, again. i stayed up late writing it, and then forgot to publish it. so its up now. long story short, i got up early pulled a suitcase full of cosmetics, 15 mins, through the snow to the bus station. so Guna and i could catch the 7:00 bus to ergli. i was late, and almost missed it. then rode the bus for an hour, (itš a half hour trip by car). then we walked 7 mins to Dan and Katieš house, who live on the top of a hill might i add. we got here, katie made us a wonderful breakfast. then Dan and Dastins, took us out to Eagle Wings camp to marvins house, so marvin could take us to the orphanage. that all went great. at orphanage we were supposed to be fixing up 5 girls, hair and makeup. we get there to find only 4 girls, becuz one ran away. :( please pray for her. we colored hair, washed hair, dried hair, and styled hair. and i also did 6 peoples makeup. it made for a long day, but it was a lot of fun. and i have some great pictures 2 except that i left my camera at the orphanage. i know what your thinking mother. that i am still this irresponsible at 18, and in a foreign country no less. well yes i am, but the girls are goin to bring it to the ergli service 2mrw, so all is well. another exciting peice of information, im probably goin to be getting my international drivers license, this week. YAY me! um and for Dwight, ive posted a picture of my schedule for next week i think that it might be busy enough for you lol. if not let me know. katie, guna and i are cooking up all sorts of things, well its late. no camera no pictures, probably none actually until monday. sorry.
LOVEŠ!

My days with Diks and Guna

Sorry about not posting yesterday, but there wasn't that much to tell so I decided to put Thursday and Friday together. Thursday was kind of like a bye... there wasn't that much to do, but yet I was busy all day. I didn't have anything going on that day, so Guna and I decided to go shopping for Saturday. 2mrw Guna and I are going to the orphanage in Ergli, to color some of the young girls hair, and do some makeup. There is also rumors that a couple boys need haircuts but we'll see how far we get. But yeh.. we decided to do this all on our own, and I'm so excited about it. The only bad part is we have to catch the bus to Ergli at 7... which means I have to get up earlier, and then walk to the bus station with a huge bag! not real excited about that! ANYWAYS... back to Thursday. So i walked into town, we went shopping, then walked back to my house, where we were goin to make plans for Marvin's going away party on friday night. and we ended it up watching small Diks, for late in the night, becuz the parents were in Riga. so lets just say on a regular basis, small Diks hate me. he wants nothing to do with is english speaking, foreign exchange live-in sister. unless i give him gum, which i use as a tool for bribery. but anyways last night we got on just great, he played with me, talked to me... sat with me. and he and Guna even taught me how to count to 10 in latvian. i'm quite proud. so ill have a couple pix of the rocking out we did to Paramore. I'm on the sax and he's on the electric guitar. and we are both headbanging! it was great fun. and then there is also on of me walking to town. did i mention it snowed?! so Friday, the plan was for me to get up and go to the salon in the morning, like most days. then Guna would come and we would talk to Initina about my hair, then we would so shopping to get all the things for 2night. sos we did our shopping, quite a bit, might i add. and then we walked back to my house to do some baking. Guna was goin to make a chocolate cake and i was goin to make chocolate-chip cookies. little did i know this simple recipe would prove to be quite a job. so first of all in latvia they don't have regular vanilla like we do. what they use is vanilla flavored sugar. so 2 tsp.s of vanilla was out of the question. also they don't have brown sugar, and they all think raw sugar is brown sugar becuz its brown, so that was out also. another thing... is measuring cups. they have some i think, but they are not in our increments like in everything else, the US just had to be different. oh and no chocolate chips.. so Alyssa, the cooker who doesnt cook took in this supposedly simple task. long story short, i did it. and the cookies tasted great. oh and the oven temps are not the same as ours... or elevation. it was just crazy they didn't turn out horrid. so i have some pix of baking today. also today we had so watch small Diks again.. so there are some of that as well. Guna has babysitting down to a science. lol. and then 2night at 6 we had Marvin's going away party with the youth. it went great. yet again, i love it here. so 2mrw im goin to ergli, i'm not taking my computer, ill prob be able to use Dan and Katie's though. so until then..