Christmas Card

The Sorensen family just got a Christmas Card & pictures from Elder Cooke!! He says:

"Wishing you all the small delights and simple pleasures of Christmas." Labas Seimas. How is the Christmas Season going? I have to say it's an interesting feeling here. I mean it fells like Christmas but it doesn't "FEEL" like Christmas. Or at least the one I'm used to. But I love it. I have gotten this far into December without seeing one Wal-Mart commercial! How cool is that?! I loved the caroling story {*see Leslie's blog}. I showed it to everybody. I with I could be with all of you Christmas morning. Just remember you're always in my prayers. I Love you all with all my heart! Elder Kukus

Merry Christmas Family! (letter#5)

How is everybody? I missed you all this morning but we had a great time. Thank you so much for the letters and the packages. I think i am going to get diabeties but its been great to have treats to eat at all hours of the day. I am super stoked about the foot warmers. I havent been able to try them out becasue i am going to wait to cut them up for when i get boots in Lithuania. THis morning was wonderful. Us and the Armeinians, who we have grown quite close to over these 5 weeks, had christmas togeather opening presents. My companion Elder dellinger's Mother sent me a couple goodies to go with the ones i got from you. I am so blessed and so grateful for all this love slapping me in the face.

I just want to tell you real quick about my Christmas Eve. I dont know if i am ever going to have one quite like it. It started out slow but after lunch we went to class to do some more studying and we came to see our teachers were ready to celebrate Su kunc'omis. Its a holiday in Lithuania that lands on Christmas Eve but isnt really related to Christmas. We pretty much just ate a ton and i got some gifts. a dry ereas board which i cant tell you how excited i am for. And then one of my teachers gave my the tennis balls he took on his mission to juggle. So now i have some second generation juggling balls! But now the real good stuff. Last night I had the wonderful oportunity to listen to one of my favorite apostles Elder Bednar and his wife. It was such a wonderful expieriance. I wish i could type up my notes i guess you will just have to wait a couple more christmas's to hear it. Afterward he shook every missionarys hand. When i got to him he said, "Elder Cooke, merry christmas" it caught me off guard that he knew my name, but then i realised i was wearing a tag and felt kind of silly. Then i sang Silent night with my zone in Lithuanian, Armeinian, english, and sweedish. it was way cool.
oh p.s. i just got called as the district leader so that is kind of crazy. Its been neat to be a leader i just have less study time wich kind of stinks. But i know if i serve hard i will be rewarded and more importantly you will be.
Todays schedual is kind of crazy. We all got gifts that were donated. I got a called to serve music cd even tho i dont have a cd player so i dont know what to do there. i would give it to somebody else but they all have the same one so i dont know. We also got letters from the first presidency. But to day we have two firesides. i dont know who is coming but it will be hard to beat Elder Bednar. I have some study right after this which is good because i have 7 cases i need to learn :)

I am so glad to hear you are all doing well. Im sorry sadie got hurt put im glad to know she is putting it all out there. Thats how cookes do it! (and sorwensuns: for gabe)
I just want to say to all of you how much i love you. I have the picture of what you all look like in my head. Your eaither crowded in the kitchen or sitting around the living room in your new pajamas that feel awesome becasue they havent been washed yet. Kyle probably got his "special spot that he totaly called on the couch" and the rest of you are waist deep in a sea of paper.
I want you all to know how much i love you. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful loving family like you in my life. Heavenly Father knew how much help i needed so he had to give me the best. I hope you all take this moment if you haven't already to look at the man who is responsible for all of this. Our dear brother Jesus Christ. His love and his selfless act for each of us. Such love we cannot comprehend. We must mearly show our appreciation for what we do understand by coming unto him and bringing other unto him as well. When we serve others we are only in the service of him and our dear father. I want to challange each of you to grab some scriptures off the fireplace and read Luke , the Christmas story. It is impossible to not feel the spirit reading that. I would encourage you to then bear testimony of Jesus Christ to each other and let the sweet spirit speak through you. I promise you if you do that you will learn things about each other and yourselves that you didn't know.

I love you all with my heart and i miss you all. Thank you for all your love and prayer. I can feel them every day

Elder Cooke

THE MTC "THE GREATEST RIDE ON EARTH" Dec 18th 2008

Labas S'eimas

How is everbody doing!? All is well here at the empty sea. I dont really know what questions i didnt answer but i have started to bring my letters to the laundry room so i should be better now.
- Its been quite a week. I still havent come to terms with the fact that it is already Preparation day again (they dont like us saying "p" day anymore) Time is the wierdest thing here. My scheduled "sleep phases" which just seem like another block of time seems like i just lay down and then my alarm goes off in 10 seconds and i have to lumber into the tree of life again. This makes it just seem like one big day. But this was crazy for a couple of reasons. I got really frustrated this week with the language. I was so mad at myself for not making the progress "i" felt like i should be making. Especialy with testifying. I understand i am not supposed to be able to give the best lessons but i wanted more than anything to just feel the spirit when i testify. I am so focused on figuring out what to say that i have no chance to focus on the spirit.
So i was so mad i just went in the hall and started working on pronouns. I dont know about japaneese but i know craig has done pronoun trees before. I did over 100 in a row just because i was mad and i didnt want to talk to anybody. A couple of things happened. I didnt learn that much because i couldnt feel the spirit when i was being so selfish and was only caring about myself. And the other thing that happened was when i went back into the classroom i saw a note on my desk. It was from the sisters. Now i hadnt gotten angry at anybody i just wasnt "being happy" I opened the letter that night and read how the sisters had always noticed how happy i was and it seemed i never got frustrated with the language becasue i never let it show. And they told me how that always helped them to stay positive. And even though i wasnt being mean they could see whan that light wasnt there. I saw the effect just being happy can be. Hence, the scripture d&c 68:6 i told leslie about. I love it. if you read this letter read that verse. I know its kinda missionary like but it is so true. And i testify to you that Heavenly Father loves each one of us and is aware of our needs, and if we mearly just put our faith in HIM that he will give us what we need and instead of being focused on ourselves we can then use our enrgies to help others in need. To cap off this story i regrouped commited myself to put my trust in the lord that he will provide a way to accomplish the things he has asked of us. I focused my energies instead on others and in return last night at the teaching appointment, after a rough broken lesson, i looked my investigator in the eye and started to testify of the truthfulness of this church, the book of mormon, and the joy that i know he would have if he mearly just went to his father and asked. I have never felt the spirit so strongly in a teaching appointment. Not even close.
Today we went to the temple. It was a special day because it will be the last time for a couple weeks becasue its clossed for the holidays. But it was the best temple trip i have ever had. I was sick this morning. I felt terrible. I went reagardless but it was really difficult. My zone leader Elder Carlson asked me if i wanted a blessing. We were in a large dressing room and we went to a back corner where he and Elder Stephonson gave me a blessing. I can not tell you how strong the spirit was there. We were all trembling from it. And as soon as it was done my sickness was gone. We talked about it later and we all knew we would never forget that expieriance. Elder Carlson is my hero and i truly love him. He is such an example and such a strong missionionary. Kiekdienas stebuklas, everyday miricals

i wish i had more time becasue i still have so much to say but i guess you will just have to trust me when i say i love this work and i love this church. I would ask anybody who is reading this to commit themselves to spreading the Love of christ by just being happy no matter the circumstances becase "the reason we are here could be standing right in fron of us" Glen Pace

I love you all
God bless the work
Elder Cooke

Letter#3: DEC 11, 2008 Thursday

So this week has been kinda crazy (week 3!!!) I had a bunch of stuff written down so that this would be easier but with the 3000 pounds of words, lessons, and songs floating around in my head its easy to forget little pieces of paper. So I’m winging it.
First off it was great to hear about your trip. Sounded way fun! I can see dad and uncle Kim having a blast fishing and I’m sure it was beautiful. Good thing brick walls are beautiful to me because I'm in paradise here! :)
So I have had so many really cool experiences whilst being here. Most of which has been the power of prayer. I don’t think I have prayed this much in the 19 years leading up to this combined! But I can’t tell you how many times I have had the Lord answer my payers so instantly.
For example: I was in class studying and I was having trouble understanding the spirit. We are told to follow promptings of the spirit and teach by the spirit but I didn’t exactly know how specific they were about that. So I said a prayer asking the Lord to help me recognize promptings of the spirit more strongly. I opened my eyes and my teacher Brolis Snow asked me some question and while I was talking to him I became somewhat fidgety and start playing with my "Preach my Gospel" I then became still and answered his question and looked down at my book. Out of the hundreds of pages in preach my gospel i was on the one page that said in big bold letters "HOW TO RECOGNIZE PROMPTINGS OF THE SPIRIT" it was awesome.
now with language: We were going over interpersonal sentence construction and we had just started and the teacher started a sentence and he asked us to finish it. I said the word and he got a funny look on his face in fact everybody did. I had just said a word we hadn’t learned and conjugated it in a way we hadn’t even knew existed to that point. I had just said the word because it came into my head. Sure nobody got baptized because of it but it sure picked me up when i was think there was no way i was going to be able to learn Lietuvis'kai.
Now keep in mind i am in no way kum laude or however you say it. Almost everybody in my district has learned a language so they understand these concepts a ton better than me. What a blessing it is to have them to help me along. However in my teaching appointment instead of saying Joseph smith translated the Book of Mormon, i told our investigator That Joseph Smith BOILED the Book of Mormon. and that God went to a grove and Joseph Smith revealed himself to him. So once a can stop preaching false doctrine maybe I can be a be a half decent missionary :)
Well to make a long story long I love the spirit here. I am trying to stay just as excited each week, as I was the week before. Its difficult but I am striving for it. My testimony has been practically sprinting since I walked through these doors. Every day I see how blessed I have been to know about this gospel my whole life.

As' z'ino kad Mormono knyga yra tikra.
ir mes turime pranas'as shandien
Dz'osefas Smitas yra pranas'as
As miele' jus ir evangelia,
ac'iu uz' visas

elder cooke

Baz'nyc'a yra tikra! means-The Church is True! :)

On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Jesse Cooke wrote:

OK so This week has been amazing. I mean obviously it was, look where i am! Haha so first off Thanksgiving was great. We had the man in charge of church aid come speak to us and then we assembled 10,000 first aid kits to send oversees, and like happy cheezy missionaries we sang hymns and prymary songs the whole time like "Put your shoulder to the wheel" and what not.
So yesterday me and my sister teaching companion taught the first lesson...in total Lithuanian! Can you believe how obvious it is that the Lord has is hand in this work. I know I would not be anywhere near where I am now without the Lord's help and my constant prayers for the gift of tongues. The lesson was really simply made, and amidst our nouns in improper casing and our verbs conjicated into all sorts of sillyness, (at one point I told him that God "manifests" himself unto us daily. I was talking about the spirit but he said afterward after hearing that he was ready to be baptised right there!) Our investigator understood the message and committed to read the Book of Mormon. It was a great experience and I get to do it again tonight!
We went to the temple today for the first time and that was amazing. I absolutly love my zone! We are all remarkably close and there is not the slightest bit of hard feeling among us.
As far as my companions go, we have yet to have a fight, we have had some disagreements but only because one of them is exactly like me and the other one is a polar opposite, funny thing is I get into more disagreements with the one exactly like me! I guess I just don't like living with myself as much as I had dreamed about. That being said- I still love them both and have had amazing experiences with all of them.
After Tuesday's devotional Bishop Edgly, of the Presiding Bishopric, we had a district review and were all in tears. We went to the Joseph Smith movie, 'Prophet of the Restoration' or 'Dz'osefas Smitas Pranas'as uz' Sugraz'inima', on Sunday. I can't explain the spirit that was there. I absolutely loved it. My testimony has never even been close to as strong as it is now, and it's only been 2 weeks! Now I guess I know why people still refer their missions in talks in their 80's. Anyway as we were walking back to our residence halls some Elders were singing "We thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet" we all went in and sang it with them. We had about 30 elders in that small little classroom and one senior sister- more spirit, more testimony, more tears, I love this place.
I want to thank everybody for all the support and love you have all shown me. I have gained a real apreciation of all that i have. If your are reading this I am sure i know you and I know I love you. I know this church is true, and I am doing everything I can to prepare to meet the people I am supposed to meet in Lithuania. There is somebody that has been waiting their whole lives to meet me in the words of Sister Boone. And to them I will be the face of Christ. I love you all so much, God bless the work!

Vyresnysis Kukus