Halleluja

As always, church was a great little part of the week. The branch is probably around 100 members or so big, which is really good for just a branch. There isn't a chapel but they have a floor in a building which is just about a 5 minute walk from my place. As previously mentioned, there are so many Americans, sacrament meeting is translated by one of the missionaries into English for us all. It's a good experience to be the one wearing the headset. I think we take it for granted already speaking the lingua franca of the Church. There is a Sunday school class in English, however, which is nice. The best part about church, however, is singing the hymns. Here's why:

(if it doesn't work try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6a75BDoJqg&feature=related )

I've only ever seen a few Mr. Bean episodes; this happens to be one of them. Funny enough, this same thing happens to me each Sunday. Despite my best efforts to lift my voice in Latvian, it mostly comes out as unintelligible mush. It makes me laugh actually.

When it is possible for me to pronunciate the words, however, it sounds as if a Latino, not an American, is attempting to speak Latvian. This too makes me laugh. My good buddy Ben served as a missionary in Korea and later spent a good amount of time in China. Needless to say, he has very good grasp on the Asian languages. He, being a very smart guy, has also picked up a considerable amount of Spanish. The funny thing is, when he speaks Spanish, it sounds as if an Asian is trying to speak Spanish. If I were majoring in linguistics, I'd probably do a study on this phenomenon. Since I am not, I will just laugh at it.