Moving day in Riga

The long-awaited day for our office to move from the old building to the new building began last Tuesday morning. The movers were to have come on Thursday and Friday, so we were surprised when they showed up on Tuesday morning. We have worked with the main man before so all recognized him but none of us knew his name. They began loading boxes and some shelving and left.

Within a few minutes, two men came into the office. They had received a phone call from a man who asked them to come and look over the office to see what needed to be moved. They didn't have a name--just the phone number on their cell phone. We checked the number and it is the number of Brother Lermontov in Moscow who was coordinating the move. Brother Lermontov couldn't be reached because he had boarded a plane back to Moscow. I asked the men what the name of their company is and the one said "I am Reitas." That was the name we had been told would be moving us, so we were very confused.

I showed them around the office and told them what needed to be moved and they left. Half an hour later, the first man and his men came for another load. I told them about the 2 men and he was unaware of them. I asked what his company name is and he said, "I am Reitas." That didn't help our confusion. About that time, this Reitas received a phone call from Brother Lermontov and told us they wouldn't be doing any more moving that day. This Reitas was the correct one but there was no agreement made between the Church and him as to cost. He said he would be back the next day.

We still don't know how or why Brother Lermontov contacted the 2nd Reitas (turns out Reitas is as common a Russian name as Jones in America).

The agreement wasn't made until Wednesday, so nothing happened that day, except it allowed us to do more packing and preparing. Thursday morning, the first Reitas and his men showed up and continued moving. After work that day, Sister Humphrey and I came over to the new office to see what needed to be done. President and Sister Dance came by and we discussed what needed to be done. We were given permission to wear our work clothes to work on Friday, which we did, and we moved things, unloaded things, and put away things for 9 hours.

I am now in my own office with large windows. It's very comfortable and after another couple of days should all be organized. This is a much smaller office than we moved from so we purged a lot of things in anticipation of the move, and will do some more purging this week.

The good news is that the Internet service was working by close of day on Friday. So, we were only without it during that day.