AN EXTENDED VISA TRIP TO RIGA, LATVIA HIGHLIGHTED OUR WEEK

Riga is dotted with beautiful
parks and gardens like this one.

Every six months all missionaries have to leave the country in order to renew their migration papers. In January, we flew to Riga and returned that same day which is what all the young missionaries do. For this trip we decided to take an extra two days and actually visit the city of Riga and not just the airport. We are so glad we did as Riga is an absolutely beautiful city. 

A panoramic view of Riga's Old Town.

Paul and Dick Pierson talking with Elder Atkinson.
Elder Atkinson (next to the car) went to 
Pleasant Grove high school.  He
and Paul played basketball for Coach Crump and
 knew a lot of the same people.....small world.

We flew into Riga with the Piersons on Monday and spent the afternoon with the Atkinsons, the CES couple assigned to the Baltic States, living in Riga.  We had a wonderful visit with them and their coordinator, Onte. They are doing great work with the young singles in Riga and surrounding areas. Their apartment is huge (our whole apartment would fit in their living room and kitchen area) and is located just above the YSA center. The chapel for their church meetings is located in the building next door. Quite convenient.  This is the Atkinsons 4th mission.  We were in awe of their dedication to the Lord's work.  We ended the evening together with dinner at a local restaurant, The Lido.  This buffet type restaurant was highly recommended to us as it served authentic Latvian food.  My salmon was very good but Paul's pork and cheese dish was covered in onions....much to his dismay.

The side view of the oldest church
just outside the Atkinson's apartment

The front view of the oldest
church in Riga

This wash basin was in the lobby of the Lido Restaurant.
Interesting place to wash up before dinner.

Paul standing on Riga's
lock bridge which spans
the canal.

The next day was our day to see Riga. We started walking and came across a lovely park with the city canal running through it. We decided to take a boat ride around the canals of the city. There is a small canal which empties into a larger canal that divides the city. It was a delightful ride with a wonderful view of old town once we got out into the large canal.

Riga's answer to Venice, Italy's gondolas

Waiting for the canal ride to begin

Entering the large canal

Along the small canal

A walking tour of old town was next on our agenda. With map in hand, Paul led us to all the sights in old town....exquisite cathedrals, open air restaurants, and beautiful historical buildings. We ate lunch at an Italian restaurant and then found a frozen yogurt shop, YoYo's, for a late afternoon treat. As we were finishing our yogurt, we felt a few rain drops and, before we knew it, we were in a down pour.  When it stopped for a few minutes, we decided this would be a good time to catch the city tour bus to see the rest of the city in a covered vehicle.  We were glad we made that decision for as soon as we entered the bus the rains came down with a vengeance. We would have been thoroughly soaked had we decided to head back to our hotel. As it was, we got a great feel for the rest of the city outside of Old Town and, by the end of the tour, the rains had let up enough for us to walk home. Granted we were all a little wet by the time we reached our hotel, but not drenched. A fun day.

The Freedom Monument

A Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Some of the many outdoor cafes

The UNESCO seal honoring
Riga as a world historical sight
because of its Art Nouveau buildings
and wooden houses.

The historic Church of St. Peter

An example of the Art Nouveau  style
of architecture so prevalent in Riga

House of Blackheads - a concert hall first built in 1334.
Destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 1990

The Three Brother - an example of the construction in
medieval age of Riga

Riga's Dome Cathedral

Powder Tower - the only

structure still standing of

the city's early fortification wall

Waiting for the doors to open

Wednesday, our flight didn't leave until 5 in the afternoon so we had some time to explore some more of the city. The Atkinsons had told us about a very sobering KGB building that conducted an English tour at 10:30 each day. Dick, Paul and I opted to go on that tour. Jeanie had no desire to see it so she went off on her own for the couple of hours we were gone. We were so taken by the magnitude of the pain and suffering these Latvians experienced under Soviet rule. It began in 1940 when the Russian troops invaded Latvia. They killed or imprisoned anyone who had been in the government or the military.  They also punished anyone who in any way, spoke out against the new regime. This was done under the guise of a Soviet law that said they could imprison and interrogate anyone who displayed behavior considered in opposition to the Soviet Regime.  We heard of an old lady who was imprisoned and tortured because she complained about the government confiscating her property. This continued until 1941 when Germany occupied Latvia. Then after the the war, Latvia again came under the rule of the Soviets.  At that time they again began imprisoning, torturing, and putting to death anyone in opposition to the regime. 

A monument on the side of the building honors those who were imprisoned here.

It reads: During the Soviet occupation the State Security Agency (KGB) tortured,

 killed and morally humiliated its victims in this building.

The conditions in the prison were inhumane. The prisoners were housed 35 to a cell meant for 6. They could not sleep during the day and at night the lights were turned on brighter. If you laid down to try and sleep they had to have their eyes facing the bright light. The reason...to sleep deprive their prisoners so they would be more likely to confess to the trumped up charges against them. Hot air was pumped into the cells so they lived in sauna like conditions and they were only allowed out of the cell once a day to go to the bathroom, once every 10 days for a shower, and once every 10 days to two weeks for a short walk in a confined courtyard. We wondered how anyone survived any of this. We were amazed that this confinement continued up into the 1990's when the Soviet Union fell.  We were told that after Stalin's death the punishment was not quite as severe though still feared. The building was called the 'house on the corner' because those summoned to the building entered a door that faced the corner of the street. Those who entered were often never heard of again. They were either killed, imprisoned, or deported to Siberia. Such sad times. Rightly so, the Latvian's cherish their freedom and worry about what their future holds.

The house on the corner

The inside courtyard where we

 waited for the tour to start

A typical  cell in which many prisoners were crammed

The peep hole where the guards could look into to make

sure the prisoners were obeying the rules while in their cells...

no sleeping during the day, no talking, and eyes toward the light when sleeping at night.

The cell door

The small courtyard  where prisoners

were allowed to walk every 10 days

In Riga, wooden houses are protected and can't be torn down.

This one has been restored and is in use.  Other are not being

used and are very run down but cannot be destroyed.

A great TexMex restaurant we found for lunch

The outside of our hotel was made of glass panels that have been

etched with the words of  Latvian folk songs.

Folk songs are treasured here.

This is an interesting statue.  There are four different figures

inside the wooden structure.  They come up one at a time

at different times throughout the day.

A towel and a bucket are now a 

permanent sight in our bedroom

When we got home from Riga, our home was extremely hot as the temperatures had been in the 90's while we were gone. We promptly turned on our little air conditioner unit in our bedroom to cool that room off so we could sleep comfortably.  Just as we were getting into bed, we heard the sound of dripping water.  When we turned on the light, we found that our air conditioner was leaking water in our bedroom instead of draining outside as it is supposed to do. We promptly turned it off....thank goodness for a fan that could blow right on us.

My konga pouch.  Paul's is

black and fastens on to his belt.

Thursday, we headed up to the mission office to get our papers updated.  As missionaries, we have to carry our passport on our person at all times. We do that in a konga pouch worn around our waists.  We are told never to give our passports to a police officer if we are stopped. Instead, the office has prepared a sheet of paper referred to a cop stopper. It is a copy of our passport and our migration card and should be enough to satisfy a police officers inquiry into our legality.  It is that migration card that has to be updated every six months for most of us. The mission office has to send in the papers we received at the airport and get an official migration card within one week of our returning to Moscow.... hence the trip to the mission office on Thursday.

Later that night we attended senior council. The Broadbents had the responsibility of the evening's activity.  They gave us a most insightful set of questions regarding scriptural accounts in the Book of Mormon. We had a competition between the men and women. The multiple choice questions got us really thinking. For example: What period of time took place between the destruction in the Americas and the appearance of Christ to the people there? Almost a year is the answer. We all thought it was 3 days and that He appeared right after they heard His voice. Not so, if you check the dates at the bottom of the pages in 3rd Nephi.

Friday, we made some plans for Todd and Kailee's visit, worked on a YSA video, and then went to game night.  We were grateful to be in an air conditioned room for the evening as it was very hot in our apartment and not a real comfortable place to be for very long.  With air conditioning only in our bedroom, the rest of the house stays mighty warm when the temperature get into the 90's with no breeze.


After fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon until early evening when 5 BYU students and 3 of their friends came to our apartment for pie. The BYU students have been here for several months on a study/work program from the university. Garrett and Jeff often came to our Institute class. I promised Jeff I would have everyone over for pie before they left for America. Sunday was the decided upon date as they all left the next day. We enjoyed their visit, though it was not without incident. When they arrived, they buzzed our apartment and we pressed the button to let them in. Several minutes past and no one came up to our apartment. It was then we got a call from Garrett telling us they were stuck in the elevator in our apartment. Luckily there is a button in the elevator to push for emergencies but it still left 5 of them stuck in our tiny elevator for over a half hour. They were very hot and sweaty by the time they finally got up to our apartment. They said they felt like they had been in a sauna. We all decided they needed one more thing to laugh about before leaving Russia. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and they enjoyed the pie.  

Lemon Cream and Banana

Cream pies

Our special friend, Sasha, loved the

lemon cream pie....she said she was in

heaven eating it.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

While we were waiting in the station for our express train to the airport, we noticed this vending machine. It contains a yellow plastic wrap product that is used to wrap traveler's luggage. For just under ten dollars, a man opens the machine, pulls our the end of the wrap and totally covers your luggage. We can't understand this. In America, aren't we told to be sure our suitcases are unlocked so they can be inspected, if needed? These wrapped pieces of luggage certainly could not be inspected very easily.  

Friday night when I couldn't sleep, I opened up Facebook and read a post from one of our Russian YSAs saying how he will miss the chili at Wendy's. This prompted me to look on line about the future of Wendy's in Russia. According to the the article, the eight Wendy's are all closing soon, if they haven't already. The article was entitled, "Russia too 'chili' for Wendy's". Great play on words.  Paul ate his last 39 ruble hamburger on Saturday when we ran up to Metropolis mall to do some shopping. 

ANOTHER AMAZING WEEK!!!!!