This is the best work!

Sveiki sveiki!!

This week was super great!! I hope everyone had a great week as well!

Tuesday we had an awesome day. We were able to meet with one of our members, Tamara. She is my favorite and just so strong. We talked about mothers because she was not able to make it to church last Sunday and then we also talked about the Book of Mormon. But she told us her two great advice she has received in life. Her first one is to look at yourself in the mirror every single day and give yourself a compliment like you are so pretty or cool. She has done that every day. The second one is when someone gives you a compliment to say thank you and accept the compliment and if it's about clothing say "I like it too!" She is one of my favorite people and I can see how the advice she has received in her life has given her more confidence. So I started looking at myself in the mirror and telling myself something and it works! It has helped me feel God's love for me even more! Then later that night we had a lesson with Jadviga. She was someone I taught last summer who ended up not progressing, but we had such a fun lesson with her. She believes some crazy things and ended up just prophesying my life haha. According to her, I will be marrying a Latvian, I'll be a journalist, and have three kids. She's the best haha. She is so cute and such a strong lady who can do anything! We also said 5 sentences in the whole lesson. She would stop and be like okay you're turn to talk but then continue to keep talking. She's the best haha. We also made our English night film for Facebook and it was a hit!! We are basically famous now, actually just Elder Edwards but it was still so fun. We have all thought about going into the movie business after the mission. But if you haven't seen it it's on my facebook! You can watch it for a good laugh!

Wednesday was also a great day. We had a lesson with Anita in the morning and right before she got there I had a feeling we needed to change rooms and meet in the Sacrament Room and I almost pushed it off because it didn't seem that big of a deal, but we were going to talk about the Sabbath Day and it would be good for her to be in there so I mentioned it to my companions and we decided to switch there. Before I continue I just want to say, DON'T PUSH OFF LITTLE THOUGHTS LIKE THAT! That was from the spirit! God knows what we need and He knows what is coming so listen, even if it doesn't seem like that big of a deal!! Because it helped so much with our lesson. We got to the room and we were just catching up and we could tell something was off. Well, turns out she had a pretty big question that had been troubling her and she almost stopped meeting with us because of it. She is so prepared, but that doesn't keep her from Satan! If we hadn't been in that room where the spirit was able to work with all of us soo much stronger and clearer I think I would have freaked out and we probably would have scared her away from us not knowing what to do. But God knows me and my companions and Anita so He had been preparing us for a week. And we were able to adjust our lesson plan to her even better so the Sabbath Day was finally able to make more sense to her. With Sister Loo's training, we had been watching the district where they talk about listening and before the lesson I had set a goal to listen better and good thing because then we were able to understand her better. She is still doing great and my love continues to grow for her. I love being a missionary and meeting the people that we do. Later on Wednesday, we went to the Bite family for dinner. They are also some of my favorite people and they fed us the best food!! We were also able to her Aivars conversion story which was so inspiring to keep going because God is preparing people for us. 

Thursday I got to spend the day with Sister Bolander!! We were able to go contacting and go to Game Night! It was so fun and she is one of my favorite people to be with. She's such a great missionary. We also handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon. Wahoo!! We probably won't get 50 because this is the last week of the transfer but we are 27 and we will get close to our goal! Being able to focus more on the Book of Mormon has really strengthened my testimony of it that it is the word of God and we must read it everyday! It's just so much better that way. 

Friday we were able to meet with Sandra again! She is the best. We taught some English and then went over family history with her. But the whole time with her was just so fun. Then we were able to meet with one of our returning members and we met with her the day after too! She just randomly called and asked us to meet. Such a miracle! Then we had sports night again which is always the best. Saturday we were able to go to the soup kitchen again and this time they had a chef come in and make this Chinese food for all the people and gave us some too and it was so good! Nothing better than the soup kitchen!

Sunday was such a great day. Getting to church was a little rough. There was a huge marathon going on that shuts down a lot of Riga and everything that gets shut down is where all our public transport runs so we had to be creative in getting to church on time but we made it! And it turns out that our tram we always take is completely shut down right now so more buses for us! But Sacrament was so good this week and we all learned a lot! Sunday school was also good. Recently, I have put a bigger emphasis on studying Come, Follow Me and it truly has made Sunday and the whole week better. Our Sunday school teacher has put a big emphasis on applying what we can learn and it was sweet to hear what everyone had been learning and how they want to apply that. They teach me so much every single week. I love the branch here! Later that day all us Latvian missionaries were invited to go to one of the American family's house for dinner and then to do a fireside for all the youth. So we all got on a train and headed to Jurmala, which is a different city. I've always wanted to go there so it was so fun! They were running behind a little on dinner so the kids took us to the beach which is basically in their backyard and it was so pretty! I love Latvija. And the fireside was all about my favorite thing, missionary work! All 7 of us were able to tell all the youth how we decided to come on a mission, the pros and cons, and how it's affected our lives. It was one of the best experiences ever. The spirit was so strong and I was filled with so much love for missionary work, my companions, the people in Latvija and for God and His goodness. Halfway through a drunk man got into the yard and tried to end it but nothing can stop us! We were able to get him locked out and then sing hymns until he left. This is the true church and this is the best work. I wouldn't change my mission for the world. These last 15 months haven't all been easy but as I tried to think of cons to tell the youth to be more real nothing bad would come to mind. The hard days just make me stronger and more ready and the good days well they are great!! If you are thinking about serving a mission, really consider it. It's hard, but there's so much joy that comes from it. Joy that can't be explained. When I first started out I wouldn't have thought I would come to love it so much, but there is so much joy that comes from running down the street to catch up to someone to share the gospel or being in a lesson and seeing the spirit touch someone or being with your companions all the time and just laughing with them. Missionary work is the Lord's work and I'm so grateful I get to be a part of it. I couldn't be happier!

Thank you for the love and support! I love you and have the best week!! 

Love,

Māsa Brūnere

Pics

1: All the missionaries in Riga!

2: Icecream!

3: Whiteboarding

4: us 4

5: BEach

6: me and sister loo!