Baltic Mission Senior Couples Conference

In a nice one day get-a-way from the daily routine, we attended a Senior Couples Conference in Riga, Latvia, that was hosted by our mission president and wife.  The night before, we were treated to a nice dinner at the Flying Frog.  The next day, we found ourselves at the new Riga chapel and listened to instruction and other presentations and we also learned from each other.  It was good to become more acquainted with the other couples as we generally do not ever see them as we all live in other countries.  I found out that one of the sisters is a cousin from the Isaac Allred line.  He would be pleased.  Midway through, we were treated to a nice luncheon in the cultural hall.  One they do well here is feed people and we were stuffed.  At 3:00 pm we ended and we drove the 4.5 hours back home.  The couple from Pärnu were our driving companions and we took them home on our way back to Tallinn.  This is their second mission in Estonia.  They love it here.

Flying Frog decor

Our Mango Chicken on homemade fries

Inside the Flying Frog (like a grotto)

Europe East Area S&I Couples Convention

As if driving to Riga didn't wear us out, we got to do it all again the following week.  We attended a convention in Riga for all S&I (Seminaries and Institute) couples in the East Europe Area.  It lasted 5 days.  We met senior couples from all over.  There were some from Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and of course the Baltic countries as well.  We were well instructed and well fed.  We stayed at the Monika Hotel in the "Art Noveau" section of town.  We also had a tour of the Open Air Museum and learned of Latvian culture and history.  We had some free time to walk about Old Town and see the sights.  The weather was outstanding with sunshine warming the place up a bit.  A nice break from the ice and snow of winter.  Sister Allred and I presented to the group a power point discussion on "Serving with a Language Barrier".  It went over very well as we used some funny video clips of language and translation problems.  President Kacher of the Area Presidency came and addressed us also.  During one of the presentations, we were asked to play Two truths and lie.  When it was my turn, my lie was that I was valedictorian of my high school.  Everyone guessed it right away.  I've been wondering if it was that obvious?  Gosh!  After the last session, we all walked over to the "Riviera" and had a royal feast.  The started all the tables with seafood appetizers (raw) oysters, clams, cray fish, calamari, raw salmon and other fish I'm not familiar with.  Then came the entrees of lamb, trout or duck. Afterwards there was a beautiful tort with fresh berries on top to finish out the meal.  The next day we said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed home.  Below are some pictures of our visit to the Latvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum.

One of the many old-style windmills here

This sits outside the church. Can you guess what it's used for?

Our Group