We arrived back from Sweden on a Saturday instead of Sunday Oct. 22, because Elder Nelson, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was coming and speaking here in Latvia (at our church building)! We were excited to hear him speak, and take advantage of the opportunity since he is getting older. He's 93 now, which is so impressive that he's even making trips like this at his age! He may even become our next prophet.
So we got to church early so we could get a "good" seat, and prepare for his arrival. Elder Nelson was actually in the basement of the church speaking to the missionaries with his wife before they came up and addressed the congregation. A long day for them, especially because they had to move on and travel that same day. Here we are killing time. ;)
Thomas had fun taking the Latvian hymn book and focusing on a part of the word that spelled "Riga."
We didn't have awful seats, but to really get a good pic, you can't have anyone in front of you. This is as good as I could get. It was nice listening to his message in English! He spoke about a lot of different things including reading the Book of Mormon, but I remember especially that he admonished us to teach our children about God and the Godhead so they know they are loved by a Heavenly Father and a Savior that lived and died for them. The messages of the prophet and apostles are using simple in nature, going back to the basics that we need to be reminded of. I appreciated being in the presence of an apostle of the Lord, with my family, here in Latvia!
His wife actually spoke before him, along with a few other general authorities, Elder Karen and Elder
We were all hoping of course to be able to shake his hand, but being 93 and having other things he had to do, he waved and blew kisses at the congregation before leaving out a side door.
We brought back two of the Elders, the ones that have "adopted" us, for dinner. Elder Yost and Marziale are wonderful and so good with our kids. They gave a wonderful hands on lesson using water, soap, and pepper. The kids stuck their fingers in peppered water and the pepper stuck to them. Then they put soap all over their fingers and put them back in the peppered water, and this time the pepper didn't stick. The soap represented the Holy Ghost. If we have the Holy Ghost, the temptations of the world won't stick to us because we'll make good choices with his guidance and help. We'll be able to say "no" to those temptations that could bring us down and lead us on the wrong path. Great object lesson that totally stuck with the kids (no pun intended). ;) We love our Elders!
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