Linkiu visiems Geru Metu!

(I wish you all a good year!)

Hey fam
I was fun/interesting/weird/awesome to talk to all of you! I wish we could have had more time but i am thankful for what we had. Crazy to think that we only get one more of those. But I wont need to write very long so I can get to some other people i haven't had a chance to write lately. Everything here is going great.
We went to another orphanage. It was an amazing expieriance. I will just say right now. No matter what any of you are going through right now remember THIS. God loves you and he has blessed you IMMENSLY. There are many people here who cannot fathom the life you live. You can make it through your trials.
Christmas was wonderful. I Hope you liked your gifts.
As for the work, things are going great. It has been hard to find people.
But Aurumas is already reading in MOSIAH chapter 26! I am so excited for him. Valentinas and his family is so good with him. They are having him over for new years.
It has been hard for him to give up drinking and smoking. He has been eating and drinking lots of milk he said. It was hard for him to stop drinking black and green tea but he is holding strong thus far. He will get baptised. God has done a lot for his path to cross with us time and time again. God doesn't waste time. He is such a good kid. All he says is that he wants to do is stop drinking and smoking.
Other than that everything is going normaly here. Me and Elder Anderson are doing good. You learn a lot about a person when you are with them 24/7 . Its fun.
Thank you for the Pictures. I love seeing pictures of friends and family .
I love you all With allllllll my heart. Thank you for everything.

Happy new year
Elder Cooke

Su Kaledomis

Merry CHRISTmas!

Well I guess i wont have to write much today because i will be talking to all of you on friday. I will just give you all a little update on what we did this week.
We started up english classes again. The other cities in Lithuania are all going to wait until after the holidays but me and Elder Anderson wanted to get right to work so I went and put some ads in the papers and we got things rolling. Since there are only two of us I will be teaching first class english by myself again. Elder Anderson will be teaching 2nd level. We met for the first time yesterday. I asked my class what they wanted right now for enlgish. THey said they want to be able to have basic communication skills and be able to understand alot of what people say. I told them if they commit to some rules they could do that i a month. They wanted to know how I learned to speak Lithuanian and they want to do THAT. So i said, " Ok if thats how you want to learn first things first, lets apply the first principals of the gospel." I told them that they must apply first FAITH. Then i said the need to humble themselves (subtle right?) A hardened heart can't learn to do anything. And then I put them on an SYL program. Anybody who has served a mission recently knows what that is. SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE! They have to each speak English at least 1 hour each day. I wanted to make them do more but i am going to go easy for now. They are all really excited and i think we are all going to see some real progress.
Second thing that need to be taken care of this week was closing down an appartment. We had an apartment that nobody was living in. I needed to close one but before I did that I called the landlord of our current appartment and told him if he could cut our rent down I would just go ahead and close the other apartment with no negotiation. I dropped our monthly payments by 150.00 litas. I was excited about that for sure. THen came the fun process of closing down the other apartment. I know this might be boring but it just shows what kind of mission this is. Since there are so many languages people in the office can't take care of stuff like this so the missionarys do. THe part that made this difficult was the fact that my companionship has done the visa work for missionarys coming into the contry in THAT apartment. This means i have to transfer missionaries visa records to another appartment through the government. It's just a fun process ofr everybody but it is going to save the mission alot of money each month. And you all know i find this kind of stuff fun and interesting.
Something not so fun happened this week. Aurumas's step dad isn't being very east to work with. He is not allowing Aurumas to go to church as far as we can tell. We are still working with him. He still hasn't smoked or drank. YEA!
Me and Elder Anderson went to an orphanage yesterday. It was such a great expieriance. We sang for them and I juggled to SHeDAISY. Elder Anderson talked like Donald duck then I played a couple songs on the piano. I was way fun and the kids loved it. Afterwards we gave them a buch of candy. We have been eating potato soup the last few days so we could afford to buy all this candy for the kids and members. Me and Elder Anderson have committed ourselves to spending a lot less money because we really are taken care of very well. I have already contacted the director of another orphanage here in siauliai that we are going to go to with some members on Christmas. We are excited.
Well I guess I have turned a short email into a long one. Sorry. I will talk to you an Friday.
Love you!!!


Elder Cooke

History in Siauliai

Hi Family-


The star I made for our little Christmas tree out of a paperclip

An angel I made from a 2 cent piece.


Well, Transfers have come in and I am here in Siauliai with Elder Anderson, and that is everyone there is in the District. Elder Porter left and now it is just us two Elders in the city of Siauliai. This has never happened before in this mission. Not just that there are only two missionaries in a city but that this forms our entire district.
President Dance has asked that I be the "district" leader even though my district consists of me and my companion. Me and Elder Anderson both have strong relationships with the members here. The Lord has a very special purpose for us this transfer and I want to make sure it gets done. I have already been here in Siauliai for 6 months and Elder Anderson for 3. He has been on his mission for a year and a half and me for 13 months. He is a great Elder. I have served either with him or in his district for 6 months out here. We have formed a great friendship and we are both excited and ready to work.
This is a great work with great responsabilities.

Siauliai has over 129 thousand people living here and Elder Anderson and I have the keys to find, teach, and baptise with water and fire. I am so excited to be alive. I love challenges like the one President Dance has presented us with. And change is already being made.
Our Branch President here just got a temple recommend. Elder Anderson and I have been working so hard with him and that news made us so happy. After his interview he held it up for me to see. After I saw it I ran over and gave him the biggest hug I could.
Aurumas set a date to be baptised on New Years day. It will be a miracle if he makes it through the hollidays without falling into the snares of the advisary. Pray for him.

Our 1st level English Class.
Valentinas, my friend in the hat and newest convert to the church has the priestood and is still helping me teach spiritual thoughts in my English Class. There is a family in our class that is beggining to be interested in our church. Skaiste is getting ready to be married in the temple. There are so many wonderful things just ready to happen here. Please dont stop praying. Me and my companion will need all of your prayers through these coming weeks and months. The people here need it. I hope its hard because "Satan dont kick no dead dogs". He is near when change for good is about to happen.
If he isnt trying to bring you down its because he doesn't need to try anymore.
Recognize opposition for what it is and push through. Change, grow, and help others to change and grow. Lets do this.


Elder Cooke

Hey-

Hi FAM
Thats so great to hear about everyone. I am glad you are all safe.
I am glad sadie didn't foul out again but she got a "T" for TETON!
Everything here is going well. Next week is transfers again. I can't believe it.
Guess what, NEW MISSIONARIES ARE COMING IN! Two Elders will be arriving next week. It is the first time new missionaries have come into Lithuania since ME! I might not see them for a while because most likely they wont send them here to Siauliai and i have a good chance of staying here. There might just be 2 elders here next transfer. Crazy hu?
4 Elders will be going home including Elder Newman and Elder Fitzgerald. wow...
As far as the work goes i had a nice little lesson taught to me last night. We were waiting at the bus stop and i was not in a good mood. Almost everything had gone wrong and i was just at the end of my rope. I was a little frustrated with EVERYthing. As i was sitting there feeling bad for myself our bus showed up. Without me having to move the door stopped right in front of me and our investigator who we had been looking for for over a week stepped out of the bus (this is Aurumas.) We had lost contact with him and I had begun to loose hope. But I had forgotten the prayers my family, friends and people in the temple had been saying on his behalf. He got off the bus said he got a phone that we can now contact him on, he wants to meet and he hasn't smoked since we met last! I couldn't believe it. I learned a good lesson of faith last night. Anything is possible with god. Thank you for your prayers everyone.
So life here is good. People are still struggling alot but thats just the times. It is sad for me to hear that Idaho isnt safe from the hard times either. But i guess that just means the whole world was due for some humbling...YEA PRIDE CYCLE! But I know if we all keep faith and a PROGRESSIVE attitude then everything will be ok. I say "progressive" because it isn't just a "optomistic" or "realistic" or "pessimistic" attitude that is going to get anything accomplished. We need to be Progressors. This when we are neither blindly optomisitic and ignore the challanges and hardships that lie in front of us,nor so realistic or pessimistic that we fail to keep the eye of faith that change can be made and trials can be overcome. We must asses our own personal situations and progress through challanges. This is when we achieve our goal in life which is to progress and perfect our selves. Never think our goal is to "survive life". LIFE is to be enjoyed and used for what it truely is. An opportunity to learn grow and progress. Necessary for that is a humble heart that is willing to accept that we dont have all the answers and we have room to progress. After that is a will and a desire for change. I challenge all of you to move forward and progress. I know its hard, guess what, it gets harder. But i know its possible, and i know its worth it. Of this I bear testimony. I love you all so much i cant describe. I pray for you and each day and every day i am here is a testimony of those that have helped me so much through the years. Thank you


Elder Cooke

Linksmiu Svenciu! Happy Holidays!

Hey fam!
Its sounds like your Thanksgivings were joyful AND triumphant!
But first things first. I am going to call Sadie a NIMROD
(being interpreted meaning Mighty Hunter) THAT IS SO COOL that she shot her first duck. I am so proud of her. I am not even sure when i shot my first duck becasue every time i shot one Kyle claimed HE shot it ;) BUt anyway on this side of the world everything is just normal. Aurumas has his Baptisimal date set for Christmas. We still havent found Edvinas. I am way worried about him. But just keep the prayers coming and everything will work out. The power of prayer is unbelievable. We can never change the will of God but we can gain strength, peace, understanding and show our faith in which we WILL see answers to our prayers. I know that is true. I have seen it.
It was just a normal week for the most part. It was really FAST but it was normal. We are just getting ready for Christmas. We started a small choir with people from our english classes and members. We just want to teach people to sing carols so they can feel that joy from the holidays that just doesnt exsist here right now. I am really excited for this.
So anyway that will be all from me this week. I am happy that everyone is doing so well back at home. You all sound happy. If there is anything you need help with let me know.
Anyway, thanks family for all you do.
I love you all with all my heart.

Go show somebody you love them!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Cooke

Labukas

Hi family
Well i wrote you an email and then the power went out so i lost it. Here is the 2nd edition.

Sounds like you are all doing fantastic. My companions always think you all are nuts because of the random stuff you all do. I really liked the "Sadie fouling out in every game" part. Thats my lil sis.

In MY world....Lithuanian is still awesome.

In other news Edvinas dissapeard. He has no way of contacting us so we didnt know where he went. We found out later that his dad got cancer and so he has been staying with him for the whole time. I really care about those boys alot. Take their names to the temple and pray for them. Other than that everything is just great here. We are still rockin the threesome here in Siauliai. I dont have much time becasue today is THANKSGIVING! we dont have much planned. We are going to go cook all day for the most part then go teach english class and then go the the branch presidents house with his family and a couple members. It should be a good time. But know that i am so thankful for each one of you. You all are such blessings to me. I have deffinately had my eyes opened to that fact. I would be lost without each one of you. I love you all with all my heart. THank you for everything you all do.

Love,
Elder Cooke

HAPPY THANKSGIVING
(if you want write me and tell me the ONE thing you are most thankful for)

Fantastic!!!

Hey fam
Everything here is just peachy.
Me and my companions are getting along just fine. Its a real party here. We went to zone conference and that was just a blast. Elder Senkans, our area 70 came and spoke to us. They randomly selected missionaries to have an interview with him and my companions and i got picked. It was a great opportunity for me to ask him some questions that I have had recently. Those men are men of God, period. <--right there thats a period. <--Thats one to. ok I'm done
Other than that we are still working dilligantly with Edvinas. He is doing really well and still hasn't smoked (day 10 or so now) Valentinas is doing awesome as well. He wants to start harvesting with us. In fact, because we only have 3 missionaries here I have started teaching 1st class english by myself. It is so much fun. They dont speak any english so I have to go 100% Lithunian with them. Its so much fun, my english teachers would be so proud :) But! the reason I say that is Valentinas has started teaching the spiritual thought with me at the end of class. At the end of each class we have a 15 min spiritual thought. Valentinas has been testifying how we need to show those we love that we ACTUALLY love them. It is so nice to have a Lithuanian say that. I tell people here all the time to show thier families that they love them. Yesterday I talked to a man on a bus who didn't want anything to do with our church but i committed him to go home and tell his wife how much she means to him, and he accepted. But when I said that in english class the people just told me that this was "an american tradition" and they dont do that. Valentinas then said, "Are you serious!," "every day when i leave the house i kiss my wife and tell her i love her. How can you live without love like that!?" He has a point. We CAN'T live without love like that. Thats why alot of people here unfortunatly end their lives early. WE NEED MORE LOVE HERE! We trying to do our part though. And that is by just loving the people. My MTC teacher said ,"If you dont love those people then who is going to?"
He was right. I love em all. And i love you all. THank you for all you do. I love you all.


Elder Cooke


p.s. oh my goodness I just realized I have been out for a year...
...time is lame, i want more.

1+1+1=COMPANIONSHIP

Hey Fam! I am still in Siauliai! But this is the weird part. I am in a threesome…and that’s it in the city. Everybody got moved out and it is only our companionship of three in the city. I am still with Elder Porter but now we have Elder Anderson as well. Both solid! Elder Anderson was with me in Klaipeda. He is from Orem, Utah. He is HUGE on football and he reminds me a lot of Craig (minus the beard). He is actually considering playing football for BYU when he goes home. I love these two missionaries to death. We are all way pumped to get started. It is way funny because now the CITY of Siauliai is our area. I can’t explain the blessing it has been to be in this city and see the changes it has undergone in the last 5 months. I have high hopes for this place. Other than that I just have to many stories that I can’t wait to tell you but this isn’t the proper setting for it. You will just all have to wait a while but I can say that I have seen the hand of the Lord here in ways I can’t possibly describe. I love it.You asked how my language is and well. I have to say that my English is absolutely terrible. Thank goodness for spell checker on Microsoft word because I can’t spell ANY thing anymore. As for Lithuanian, I would have to say that it is starting to become second nature. It is still hard but its there. I have been dealing a lot with banks and books lately because they are changing the church’s finance system here. It’s been hard but I have learned a TON of new vocabulary because of it. Its way fun.Anyways, I better get going. I love and miss you all. I can’t believe how fast the time is going. I try not to ever think about time out here though. Other missionaries do but I like to just forget about it and get to it.

Linksmu Svenciu (happy holidays)
Vyresnysis Kukas (the coolest elder ever)

Miracles in Lithuania

Hey fam.
So, VALENTINAS GOT BAPTIZED! It was just awesome. Right before the baptism things got kinda rough. This family is very familiar with attacks from the adversary. As no surprise he made himself very apparent in their lives. Valentinas found out that they were not going to be able to make their payments and could be getting kicked out of their house. Amongst other things they had nothing to eat. Me and me companion probably ate less than they did this weekend because we gave them most of our food. It was awesome. They recognized that things get worse before they get better and Irina (his wife) was actually surprised that Satan hadn't tried to step in a little sooner.
Aside from all the opposition however Valentinas was baptized by Ramunas, a member here. The service was just awesome. Elder Anderson, Elder Porter, and I all sang "Be Still My Soul" in Russian. It was nice for him because that is his family’s native language. It really had an effect on Larisa because she doesn't speak Lithuanian really well. It was kind of funny how we pulled it off. Elder Anderson and Elder Porter had a Russian speaker tell them how you say the words and then they wrote it down in English letters and they just sang that. I had kind of neat experience with it. I more or less taught myself how to read Russian with the few resources I have. I wrote down in a little book what sound each character makes and then, while harvesting in the Russian communist buildings I would read words written in Russian on power and post boxes. And then any graffiti or adz I see in town I read them. I don’t know what they mean most of the time but Russian has a lot of cognates so I can get the idea. So I actually sang the song strait from the Russian text. It was hard while we were practicing but when we sang at the baptism everything came so easy I found myself not even having to think about the words at all. It was way cool. The spirit was so strong there everybody felt it, specially a young boy who is friends with Valentines’ son Vlad. He came to the baptism and then he came to church the next day for the confirmation. You ready for the cool part. Valentinas wanted to meet with that boy and his son and Larisa’s son (Maxim) who is 14. So it was a big "man meeting" they called it. In the meeting Valentinas testified of how getting baptized has helped him and his family. Then Edvinas (the friend) accepted a commitment to be baptized himself! We are so excited for him. To do this he is going to need a lot of work with the word of wisdom but Vald and Maxim (both members) have committed to quit smoking with him. And there is another friend who might join with them to. The Lord's hand is so apparent here it is impossible to deny. I could never write all the miracles I have seen here in this place. I love it here. Transfers are next week already and I don't want to leave. I and my companion have such a strong unity right now its no wonder so much work is getting done. I still haven’t stayed with a companion other than my trainer for more than one transfer so maybe it's about time!

I love you all with all my heart. Thank you for your constant love and support and PRAYERS. They help me so much.


Su meile,
Vyresnysis Kukas


LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Lithuanian's Day of the Dead

Here are pictures of the Lithuanians "day of the dead"


where they light thousands upon thousands of candles and leave them on graves



for the spirits of the dead to have that warmth and light to guide them home.







It was a memorable experience i wont soon forget it.

Anxious

Well fam,
Sorry I wont have a lot of time to write today. We have a lot of things to take care for our Baptism on Saturday!!!!
This week has been kind of stressful for me. But I am still alive. I did however have a toenail fall off my foot and I lost 10 pounds. The weather here has taken it's turn for winter. All of the thinly clad young girls have been replaced by old grannys in black coats down to their ankles. I have never seen a people who react to the weather as much as the people here. Most of the days have been humid, cold and really really foggy. And the people have reflected that.
I was glad to hear from you all. I wont be able to write you all back but I would ask you to pray for Valentinas still. I can't tell you the changes I have seen in that family. I love them so so much. Next week i will have pictures. We have to go rent out the pool at a hotel for the font because we dont have one here. I will send pictures next week.
Thank you all so much for all your prayers. I love you all. THREE MORE DAYS!!!

Thats just missionary work,
Elder Cooke

Labs

Hi Fam.
First thing first. Valentinas hasn't smoked! But we are defiantly excited for Valentinas. He is going to have a Baptismal interview on Saturday so pray for him to stay strong. We found some church cloths and shoes for him so he can wear them to church. (He doesn't really want to. He likes jeans) but hopefully he wears them. He also is thinking of the person he wants to baptize him. He only has two choices (President Gabalas and Brother Chomskis) because as of now they are the only worthy priesthood holders in the branch. But all this talk of baptism really has him excited. We have started to direct some of our teaching at his son Vladislav as well. We have committed him to prepare to receive his patriarchal blessing. We have started him an giving up smoking. He is a good kid and just needs some direction. Valentinas is being a very good example for him right now. Also one of Vladislavs friends has started coming to our meetings because he started getting interested in what Valentinas was doing. We are excited for him as well.
Second thing second-I love you all.
And third thing third-it’s cold.
It sounds like all is well at home, that's way good. Sorry to hear about the lack of work. We can just be grateful it’s not any worse. (40% unemployment here in the Baltics). Also, on a not "totally" unrelated note, I still haven’t gotten that package. I am starting to think it was stolen but whatever. We will just have to try again.
I am however, very grateful to hear from others whenever they write. It’s always nice to hear from friends out here and be reminded that not EVERYbody hates us ;) Anyway. I love you all with all my heart thanks for your prayers and support.

Sincerely,
Vyresnysis Kukas

Great Week!

Hey everyone!
Well this week was just so fantastic in so many ways. First of all we got to see conference. And that was just amazing. Getting conference here is kind of difficult sometimes so we had a few glitches. One of which was one of the sessions was dubbed in Russian. So we unplugged on of the audio inputs and it kind of fixed it but it kind of just sounded like a Russian was in the audience trying to yell over the prophet and apostles. I got so used to it that when we watch the next session i kept waiting for some other guy to start talking and he never did. But regardless! Conference was just amazing. I cant explain how much love i feel for the leaders of this church. THEY JUST GET IT. Everything they say is so full of truth and love. DONT TAKE IT FOR GRANTED!
Also, awesome this week. Valentinas hasn't smoked! He has started his road to baptism. I already know i will not be able to explain the love I have for this man but here are some amazing things about what is going on in this little area of Siauliai Lithuania. We started teaching him about temples and that has been on his mind every since. And then we brought up Patriarchal blessings. Not only does he want one but so does his entire family. Their family situation is a little confusing so I will start at the top. First is Larisa. She has two children Maxim (16) and Irena (30ish). Maxim lives with his mom in the other elders area. They are both members but are less active. Irena is the wife of Valentinas and she has a child from a different marriage, Vladislav (16) who is also a member. Valentinas almost got baptized a long time ago but for unknown reasons decided not to go through with it. They have gone through a TON of missionaries including myself 3 months ago when I was in this area with Elder Fitzgerald. But I feel I have come back for a reason. I and Elder Porter have a great friendship with Valentinas and we are doing ABSOLUTLY everything we can think of to help him to baptism. We bought him grape juice to help his cravings with smoking. We call him EVERY night and see how he is doing as well. Yesterday I changed his desktop wallpaper to the Stockholm Sweden temple to remind him why he is doing all this. So far he hasn't smoked but it is REALLY hard for him. Every night he has dreams about smoking and he wakes up in a cold sweat. Its hard but we know its possible. Its make or break. If he smokes he wont have enough time to be baptized before he leaves for Sweden for who knows how long(at least until next year). Pray for him, you can just say his name in English (Valentine). One of the most beautiful things I have seen is his family has been pulling for him so much. We saw Vladislav on the street and asked him how his dad was doing and he said. ZERO! We don’t let him! This is so amazing because of their money situation Valentinas was getting most of his cigarettes from Vladislav and Maxim. We gave them a talking to and got everybody on board to help him do this. In return for all this the family loves to try and teach me and Elder Porter Russian. We say some really silly things sometimes but we all have a good time. I really just hope I will always be speaking Lithuanian because two Lithuanian missionaries have already been made Russian speaking halfway through their missions and have left to Latvia. It will be interesting to see what happens because we will only be getting 2 new missionaries in December when 4 more go home. That will put us at 13 elders and 4 sisters in Lithuania. I’m not worried though I’m excited.
Well I need to end this novel. I love you all so much. I know this work is true and I know I am EXACTLY where I need to be right now.

su meile,
Vyresnysis Kukas

Dear Tillie, Gabe & Jack

I haven't posted many of Jesse's letters to us but this one made me cry!! These kids sure love and miss their Uncle Lloyd!!

Hey guys!
Thank you so much for your letters. They really meant a lot to me. Gabe you keep tearing it up in wrestling, you could probably beat your Uncle Kukas even without a Half Nelson. Tu esi erzalas (your a stud). Tillie, you are such a sweetheart. If you get 100 {AR reading @ school} points I will write you a Lithuanian poem ok! Jack, you're awesome man. I cant be back for Halloween but I can imagine how cool you look as Jakie Chan. Your so tough, I bet you can lift up 10 books huh! I can't do that. Go see if YOU can.

I love you all. Give your mom and Dad BIG HUGS from me ok. They need them.

ata (bye bye)
Uncle Kukas (kook us)You said Jack likes Calvin and Hobbs so I thought I wound send you a picture of my new language study. KALVINAS IR HOBSAS. I love it. luv u bye

All Is Well-

Hello fam!
Well, all is well here in Siauliai. Thats good. I hope you all had fun watching conference. I havn't actually been able to see it yet. We got some dvd's bussed down to us from Riga today so we are going to start watching them each morning one session at a time. It's all just good pure truth.
SO. This has been a way fun week. Me and my new companion are getting along just wonderfully. Right now we are the youngest companionship in Lithuania. He is a way humble missionary and a way good example for me. We have a goal to speak 100 percent Lithuanian when we aren't at home and its going really well. We aren't home very often so a good 70-80% of the day we are speaking only in Lithuanian. We don't find ourselves not being able to explain our thoughts very often. I truly believe miracles happen when we speak our mission language. One miracles was that Valentinas, a father in a part member family, accepted a baptismal date!!! He has obviously been meeting with missionaries for quite some time but he truly has a desire to got to the TEMPLE! That is what got it to click for him. He is going to Sweden next month to look for work and so he will be close to the Finland temple. People here go though MAJOR sacrifices to travel across land and sea to get to the temple so when you have a opportunity to go- it is a big deal. He set a date for the 31st of this month. He smokes so he is going to need to toss that habit but he has such a strong desire right now. We are very excited for him.
Well fam i am going to go. I am hoping all is well.
Love you all,

Elder Cooke

P.S. Let me know when James Knight gets his mission call.

Some pictures of "Auksinis Berniukas" or "Golden Boy"

Siauliai means "The Archers" so he has a bow...and he is naked, but most things in Europe are.

Hello from.... ME

Hey Fam,
That’s so awesome that it is snowing so much. It has been really interesting here in Lithuania. THEY ACTUALLY HAVE SEASONS! Not like good old Teton Valley witch has 3, winter, just after winter, and almost winter. It sounds like everybody is staying active. That is good. I heard Sadie is taller than all the girls in the fam. I don’t think my brain can wrap around that one just yet. Its fun to think that mom is running around with a bunch of cheerleaders. (but I try not to think about it)
Well….I got transferred!!!!!!! Well, kind of. I am still in Siauliai but I got moved back to my old area with a yet another new companion (I haven’t had a companion for more than one transfer since my trainer) I am not really sure what that means… anyway. So yea I am way excited to get to work. I have once again been “whitewashed” (#4) so this should be fun again to start from scratch. The other Elders didn’t have any investigators so we will be starting from the ground up. But that’s ok because I found a folder with the History of Siauliai in it. It was a record kept by the missionaries who opened this city 7 years ago. They were so committed and they made such a difference in such a small time. I wont lie, sometimes it’s hard for me to see if I am making any difference out here but I know that I am where I need to be and I am trying as hard as I can and that is enough for me. If any of YOU think you aren’t making a difference in whatever it is that you are doing, just know that you are because you are where you are for a reason. As for me, I have found a new resolve to just get out and get to work. I want to step up my “speaking” so I am going to be speaking 100% Lithuanian as much as he will let me this transfer. Elder Porter is another way solid missionary. I am really excited to be serving with him. He is from Lehi, Utah- imagine that.
Well fam I am going to head out. It has been raining a lot lately, I wish it was snow. Count your blessings!!! I love you all

Elder Cooke

Sveiki

Hey Family-
Well it has been a fun week. Thank you for all of your letters it really helps to hear from you all. We had an interesting experience this week. My companion and I were walking across a street when we saw a VERY large bald man on the other side. We were about halfway across when he motioned for us to come to him. We got over to him very apprehensively and he told us to give him our phone. We did what we usually do when we are unsure about a situation. We said WHAT!? WE DONT SPEAK LITHUANIAN! WE CANT UNDERSTAND YOU! If people can't communicate then they usually dont give you much trouble. Even though we were speaking english he kept talking to us in Lithuanian. He said we shouldn't be afraid of him and that he just needed our phone for a second. He even pulled out some money for us. I wanted to trust him but with the crisis going on crime rates are out of control. So my companion just turned and walked away. The man then turned to me and said, "ARE YOU IDIOTS???" I just looked blankly into his big bald face and shrugged my shoulders, then walked away. He started chasing us down yelling at us and then I said in Lithuanian that we are not from here and don't speak Lithuanian (kind of ironic) but then he stopped and just yelled in frustration.

Here are some pictures-
This is from our last transfer with Elder Fitzgerald when we biked to Kryziu Kalnas or
"The Hill of Crosses"

The Lithuanians put up a bunch of crosses on a hill. The Soviets then mowed them down with tanks. Over the night people went and brought in hundreds upon hundreds more. They were again mowed down. This happened numerous times but the Lithuanians would not stop. Now thousands upon thousands of crosses have been brought to this hill by people from all over the world.

Also a pict of the scale showing how much I weigh now 160lbs
(it is actually me, you can tell because I have the Cooke toes)


So other than that it wasn't a very eventful week. They had a big party called "Siauliai days" which was kind of crazy. There was traditional Lithuanian dancers and people from surrounding villages in the streets selling little things. We got woken up in the middle of the night to fireworks. We figured that Russia was invading again. The next morning I felt as though it was the "DAWN OF THE DEAD" the whole city was all but abandoned except for lots of trash blowing in the wind and a shopping cart overturned on a fountain outside our house. It must have been quite the party. Good thing we missionaries were safe in our beds at 10:30.

Oh yeah, and transfers are next week (probably will stay here but who knows, i havent stayed in a city for more than 2 transfers yet and i havent had the same companion for more that 1 since my trainer, we will see) so i wont write until THURSDAY. thanks again, love you!

Well everyone thats about all I have time for Thank you for all your support. I hope you all know I have recieved inspiration more than once to fall on my knees and pray for each one of you. I am truly grateful for the restored living church that can guide us and give us the help that we need when we need it. If you feel down this week try and see who can serve. Then go and serve your butts off. I love you all.

Elder Cooke

Howdy

Well...
Im here and still alive. Elder Newman and I are still hard at work here in Siauliai. Some fruits of previous labors showed up this week. One was showed by a man who we had met with a couple weeks previously unexpectedly coming to church. Also a man that I had contacted the first day of the transfer met with us yesterday. Both men are actually showing some real interest in the church. It was nice to see some actual progress. We took some major opposition this week from hosts of Jehovah Witnesses and from a wave of Baptists that have overrun the streets handing out pamphlets. As I was talking with one of them a woman came and said they shouldn't be talking to us because it "gives them a bad name." Other than that we just had a ton of people make fun of us this week and try to fight. The young men here usually don't have a problem trying to call us out and make us look foolish. But we learn to live with them. I guess what I learned this week is that as long as I get rid of pride people cant really have an affect on me.
It sounds like life in Idaho is just crazy right now. Everybody sounds way busy. Thats good. I am getting excited for conference again.(i can't really believe its already another conference.) I hope all is well. The package still hasn't come but I am definately waiting for it. Thanks for everything you all do.

sudie
Vyresnysis Kukas
(Dzesys Kukas)
jesse cooke

p.s. I wont have a chance to write Leslie and her fam this week but I wanted to say that I had the coolest dream ever. I was talking to Tillie and Gabe in Lithuanian! It was way cool. anyway, BYE

Lab dien

Hey everyone.
Wow, it sounds as though a lot is going on back home. I hope everybody is healthy. I pray for all of you all the time.
Well another week here in Siauliai. We had zone conference yesterday. It was really awesome. Learned a lot about how I need to improve as a teacher. Other than that it was a normal week. I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson. He gave his last testimony in Zone conference. He with be the first Lithuanian Elder to go home since I got here. The mission is down to 82 missionaries from 112. Still no sighn of new Elders comming to Lithuania. They are going to have to close another city to sisters next transfer wich is sad because WE NEED SISTERS MISSIONARIES. Anyway, I hate to say it but I dont really have any investigators to talk about. That has been one of the most frustrating parts about this transfer. I have been working harder than I think I have my whole mission and we are getting lessons but nothing is coming from it. It is really just a kick in the pants sometimes. But as long as I can say I did the will of the Lord I dont have to worry about what results come about. Everything is according to HIS time and HIS will. It is just hard when you work harder and results go down. I guess I just got to work harder then. I know somebody is here. Well fam I got to go. I love you all.

Elder Cooke

p.s. It feels like Cross Country season here. I tell people that all the time and they have no clue what I am talking about :)

Sveiks

Hey Fam
That is so crazy and sad about Liz's dad. I hope everyone is doing alright.
On this side of the pond it was a good week. We had an unexpected mission conference!!! The way this misson is set up, we usually dont have opportunities to see all the missionaries from the mission. HOWEVER, this week President Razband from the presidency of the 70, Elder Powell from the 70 and Elder Perry from the quorm of the twelve all were in Riga to speak to the members there. But thursday we found out that on Saturday the whole mission could travel to Riga, Latvia and The general authorities were going to have a special meeting for all of us. It was just absolutly amazing. We were all so excited. All the Lithuanian missionaries were there about 2 hours before everyone else. The talks were amazing. Elder Perry is so funny. He shook all the missionaries hands also. It was a great expieriance. We took a picture as a whole mission. It was wierd because before that day I had never set eyes on 2/3rds of my mission. But it was way neat to see the other missionaries. We have a lot in common but also alot of differences. Each country has a whole different culture with different major religions (Lithuanian-Catholic, Latvia-Lutheran, Estonia-Athiest). Not to mention all of us missionaries together speak 5 different languages (english included). It was just such an awesome expieriance and I am so thankful we got to go.
This week was also way good for the work. We took this area, which was getting an average of about 6 lessons a week and we got 16! MY companion and I are working around the clock. I swear we hardly waste one second of time. Its way good but it makes the days go by to fast. We found a beutiful family who just got married. We were so excited and they were so prepared and ready but then they told us they are going to Norway. That is what everybody here is doing. Nobody can find work in the Baltics to they are all leaving. I know the unemployment rate in Riga is aroud 40% right now. Thats just crazy. Anyway that was kind of frustrating but we found some other really good investigators who we are really excited about. I guess I dont have to say it but I still havn't seen one baptism come from me being here. I have the temptation to let that get to me but I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing and that is good enough for the lord. It seems like the other cities have been seeing some succes. There was a babtisim in Kaunas (the only city i havent served in) wich ended a dry spell that had lasted for over a year. So that was exciting. Thats one thing I love about this mission. The missionaries are never competitve with baptisms. If anybody gets one in the country then thet whole country is SO EXCITED. It really brings us all together. I cant express enough how much I love this mission and the Elders and sisters serving here, especially in Lithuania. We all get to see each other every zone conference because we do both zones in the country together. It really just makes us one big family. I love it. Anyway I love you all. THank you so much for the support. I know it would be impossible to keep going without it.

su meile
Vyresnysis Kukas

Hey all

Labas Fam!
Well transfers came and went and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Newman from American Fork Utah. He is a way solid missionary. I am still in Siauliai but I got moved areas. I got whitewashed again so we both don't know much about this area. We are ready to get to it though. There are still only 4 elders here. Elder Fitzgerald is in my old area with Elder Johnson. Elder Johnson is from good old Payette Idaho. Me and him are the only Idaho-ens so we were way excited to be serving together. Not to late either becasue this is his last transfer. Elder Newman and Elder Fitzgerald were in the same MTC group and they go home in 3 transfers. So this is a REALLY old district. Then you got me who is 10 months old! I love it. I wish I could always be a missionary.
Anyway I am excited to start another transfer and I have a lot of things I am working on. I just finished the Book of Mormon in Lithuanian again so I am ready to hit D&C way hard. We have a ton of stuff to do today so its going to be short but know that I love you all and I am workin hard.

Iki
Kukas

Kuku kachu

That means "With the Cooke of cats" (our name Cooke. Not an actual cook, that word is Virejas)

Hey Fam!
We had a fun Sunday this week. You could call it "Missionary Sunday" Because all the youth went to a youth conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This means mostly everybody was gone. This also meant I passed the sacrament Elder Neilson blessed it. I led the music and Elder Fitzgerald played the piano We both spoke and Elder Mcnevin led the meeting. It was fun but I hope we dont need to do it again. We are trying hard to get as little missionary involvment as possible. Although already assighned for next week is Elder Nielson to speak and I'm to play the piano. It's fun here in Siauliai.
I suggested to our district that we all finish the Book of Mormon in Lithuanian no matter where we are by the end of the transfer. (That is next week) Elder Nielson and Mcnevin are near the end so it shouldn't be that hard for them. I, however, am in the begining of Alma. This is good though becasue I have found out about myself that when I make a really tough goal I usually reach it. If it is to easy I usually lose interest. Anyway I am reading about 50 pages a day in Lithuanian so I can finish. I will tell you how it goes. I am pretty sure I am going to stay here with Elder Fitzgerald next transfer. I really don't know what else they would do with me. I have already been to as many different cities as most of the missionaries here. But I really don't care where I am. I just love the members everywhere. Plus I love being with Elder Fitz. We get along very well. Also we had two investigators come to church on Sunday. Which is good becasue they made up about 20 percent of the congregation. They are both way good guys. One is from english class and is just one of the kindest men I know. The other other we found street contacting one day. He had been meeting with the Jahova's Witnesses but after he came to church he said he is going to "say goodbye" to them. So that was cool.
Anyways fam I better go.

Love you all.

Taika
Vyresnysis Kuku Kachu~!

Hey fam
So we had a good week this week. A family we have been meeting with started showing some progress. They are a part member family. Irena ,the mom, is a member and so is her son Valdas. Her husband, Valentinas, is not a member. They are in some really tough times right now. They live in a Bendrabutis (a community housing apartment) So everybody on a floor shares a bathroom and a kitchen. They just live in a little 10 by 10 room. They are way nice people though. We cooked them dinner one night becasue the only thing they had money to buy that day was sour cream. They next day we "broke the fast" with the branch and so we invited them to that and they had food to eat for another day. We talked to the branch president and the branch gave them some money for this week. The wonderful part is that Valentinas came to church this week! He hasn't been for a very very long time. We are way excited for him. It's great because Irena wants to get sealed in the temple really bad. I hope he comes around.
Other than that not a lot is going on with other investigators. We haven't met with the gypsys for a while. Zone conference was this last week and it rocked as usual.
Thanks for the package!
Also thank Liz for me. She sent me a way funny package for my birthday and it arrived to the day so that was a score.
Oh I almost forgot. We met with some members from Vilnius yesterday and they taught us how to cook Bulves Blynai (potato pancakes)
p.s. it just took me forever to remember how to spell potato. They were way good. They put me over 155 pounds for the first time in my life. That means i have put on about 20 pounds since i have been here. Which is weird because you can't tell i don't think. Its wierd.

Well fam Thanks for everything now for my testimony:
Tikrai zinau kad dievas dar gyvas. Jis yra mano asmaninis Dankiskasis Tevas. Ir zinokit kad Kristus vaikciuoja su manim cia Siauliuose ir tiesog jis visada vaikciuoja su visais savo vaikais. As esu labai dekingas jam uz viska jis dare del manes. Aciu uz tavo pagalba ir zinokit kad As su visa savo sirdimi jus myliu. Laikykites

Vyresnysis Kukas

From your (20 yr old) missionary son

Hey Fam.
Well I had a wonderful birthday. The Branch threw a big party and we had a lot of fun. I had to pop 20 balloons and in each one was a piece of paper that told me something to do. I had to tell a story or recite a scripture or do whatever was on the piece of paper. It was way fun and I got a good language study out of it. In the last one was I had to bear my testimony to everyone. It was just an all around fun experience. After that we had "toasts" from everyone where I was wished anything from "lots of miracles" to "lots of wives". Then we had saslykai (sha shlee kay) It was so so good. It was just a fun day. Then I got to street contact that night. It was the best birthday ever.
We have Zone conference this week so Im excited for that.
I love you all and sorry if I don't write to others who email me, I am trying my best we just never have time. Thanks for all your love and support. Your all in my prayers.

Elder Cooke

P.S. who the heck ISNT married over there now!

Hey

Hey fam,
This has been a fun week. We went to Rumshishkes. Its the celebration of the opening of missionary work in Lithuania. It was so nice to see the members from Vilnius and Klaipeda again. I love them all so much.
As a district we have been trying to pick up the work here. Its been a little slow going here. Last week we got about 5 lessons all week. But that just made me that much more determined for this week. The branch is throwing me a birthday party on Sunday night where we are going to cook Shashleekai. (its like shish ka bobs) I am way excited.
Right now we are meeting with a Gypsy couple. They are really interesting people. They are way nice though. I don't excactly know how interested they are in the church but they seem really accepting.
Thanks for the money I think I might buy an umbrella becasue I dont have one or a rain jacket. I have been doing really well thus far but it rains a ton. I have just been dealing with it because I can't bring myself to spend money on something lame like that. On a totaly unrelated note I think I am getting sick. Other than that I am doing just peachy. I have gotten some leters from my friends and they really cheered me up. Its been so frustrating for me lately but I have been doing my best to just forget it and get to work. Sometimes we put so much focus on little things that we forget the big picture. Yea this language is hard, yea the Lithuanian people are not always the happiest most "open minded" people, but if I am mad becasue I want to speak better so I let that stop me from talking to ONE person doesn't that defeat the pourpose of everything. We learn to speak so we can talk to people. So how silly is it if I don't talk to somebody becasue I am frustrated that I can't talk to people. It is just one of the many ways we are tricked by the advasary. The SECOND we begin to think about ourselves the work stops. It has been hard for me to learn this because I am just strait up imperfect. The mission is really good at pointing that out for you. And honestly I hope I don't ever forget how imperfect I really am.
Well fam this is the last time you will hear from me as a immature teenagaer. Next time I will be an immature 20 YEAR OLD! cool right?

ok fam Love you all

Elder Cooke

The City of Dreams

Well...I didn't see it coming but I got transfered. I am now in a city called Saulai (Show-Lay) It is the smallest of all the cities open to missionaries here in Lithuania.
I am serving with Elder Fitzgerald. He is absolutly awesome. He was my district leader in Vilnius and I absolutely love him. He is from an island in Alaska. His family are all crazy fishermen. I totally have a hookup in Alaska now! But (more importantly) he is an awesome missionary.

Couple of interesting things.

1. We are being "whitewashed" (my second time and his sixth time) So neither of us have been in this city before and have no idea about anything. The least amount of Elders come here so not very many Elders know much about this city right now in the mission.

2. Two sister's just went home from our mission. So that means we only have six in Lithuania. That also means they just took sisters out of Saulai. Right now my district is my companionship and one other companionship of Elders. (Elder Mcnevin and Elder Neilson, both awesome) Elder Mcnevin is the first councilor and Elder Neilson is the District leader.

Saulai is an interesting place. I was way sad to leave Klaipeda and her members but I know this is where i am meant to be right now. It was even harder because the night before I found out I was leaving our investigator Robertas accepted the commitment to babtisim. Missionaries have been trying for a while and he is finally ready to make that commitment. I am so happy for him. He came to see me before I left. He is one of the most amazing men I have ever met. I dont know if I accomplished anything in Klaipeda but if it was all just to help him, then it was worth it.
Its going to be tough work here especialy considering we are starting from absolute zero as far as investigators go. I am way excited to get to work here. It is going to be a language push because the people here speak a bit different here. They speak VERY fast with a ton of energy. In the other cities they refered to it as sauletiskai, which basicly means its thier own little dialect. The branch here experienced some shock last week with some member drama and that seems to be a regular occurance. Everybody says here that missionarys either go to Saulai because they have charity or becasue they need to learn it. I just go where I am told and work so I guess we will figure out later if I have charity or not. In the meantime I am just going to put my sholder to that good ol' wheel here in "The City of Dreams" or "The City of the Son"
But We have a lot to do today so I wont get a chance to write other people who wrote me. I will try next week. I love you all

Vyresnysis Kukas


ps: here is my adress

Vyresnysis Kukas
A/d 56
Lt-76001 Saulai
Lithuania


I used a little $ to buy a nice Book of Mormon for Robertas.
If you do ever send me something dont forget the history of the Catholic church, the Russian Orthodox and the Jahovas Witness. The Jahovas witnesses have thier center for the Baltics here in Saulai and their massive church is 20 feet away from our church here.

Love you

Dobre Dien!

Dobre Dien! (thats russian)

Hey fam. Glad to hear you are getting some good weather. The sun is visiting us here as well. In fact, way, way to much. Remember how in the winter we hardly ever saw the sun? Well we are on the other end now. I haven't seen night time for a few weeks. We go to bed at 10:30 and the sun is still sitting nicely above the horizon. I don't know when it goes down but it is definitely up way before we are. We have blankets over our windows so that helps. The other fun part is the heat. The temperature never gets to crazy hot...BUT...It is super humid so we just sweat like crazy. The worst part about that is the buses. The just sit and bake all day so it gets WAY HOT and that makes a lovely aroma with the people that dont care to ever shower...which is more people than it should be. But Its a lot hotter in other parts in the world so I can't complain. Im a missionary so that makes everything better, and worth it.

So...the happenings. This week was way good. We had a lesson with the Branch President here and his wife. I will just tell you right now that President Peciulis (Pe-choo-lis) and his wife are the fruit of the Baltics. An apostle said that the members of eastern Europe would be the strongest members in the world one day. I can already see that happening but If they were all like President Peciulis then that would already be so. He is an amazing man. They remind me of mom and dad so much. To give you an idea of who they are i will say that When I was with my last companion we recieved their mission papers so they could start filling them out. And my companion now just translated an interview with them and President Dance. President and Sister Peciulis are going to be the first couple from the Baltics to serve a mission! I am so excited for them. They are absolutely amazing and such a light to the people here. The members around the world could learn a thing or two from there two Lithuanians, I know I have. We all need to be a light and an example to all around us no matter what. All times in all places. I love them

Transfers are next week. I have no idea what is going to happen. They might close Klaipeda for sister missionarys. I am not sure. Right now there are me and Elder Putnam, the sisters and a "split companionship." That means one is a Lithuanian speaker and the other one is a russian speaker. I don't know what they are going to do. I guess we will see. I will most likely stay here in Klaipeda. I really hope so. I love it here. But I know I will go where I am needed. That also means that I wont write until Thursday. But just write me the same as you always do.

Well fam I am going to go.

Thank you everyone for everything you do. It's July 1st. The best month ever because the coolest kid in the world was born in this month (me) :) just serious
Thanks again

su meile
Vyresnysis Kukas

Life on the other side of the rock

Hey all!
How is life? This bow hunting fishing thing is sounding awesome. I guess I will be a little out of the loop when I get back but I guess you will just have to show me how its done. Things are normal here. This weekend was a little frustrating just because we had a lot of people get way mad at us and when we did find somebody who would talk to us they all only spoke Russian. It is a little frustration when you work your guts out to learn a language and then you still feel completely useless because you can't communicate with a large part of the population. It's all good though. We all just reset our focus and get back to work. We have 2 progressing investigators right now. Saulus has a babtisimal date. ITs July 11. He had a problem with drinking but we are working with him. He has a good heart it's just a matter of getting him excited about the gospel and seeing why its important to be babtised. Robertas is still progressing but he is still living with his girlfriend and they dont want to talk about marriage until after the baby is born. We are going to meet with him and explain to him he is probably going to have to move out
. We wanted to bring in the whole family but she doesn't seem that interested. We would take it slower with him but there is a difference between the "spirit of confirmation" and "the gift of the holy ghost". Right now Robertas knows the church is true and has a strong desire to be babtised. That is the spirit of confirmation telling him truth. But after we recieve that confirmation, if we dont act on it, we lose it. Only with the gift of the constant companion can we be sure we have the spirit with us as long as we are worthy. Robertas needs to act and he needs to make a choice soon. Pray for him. Today is a holiday so we are in the equivalence of a "radio shack" becasue it is the only thing that is open. Honestly there are so many holidays here it is rediculus. Anyway, i gotta go. I Love you all.

Ramybe
(peace)
Elder Cooke

The Roller Coaster of Missionary work

Well fam another week older and wiser,
Its sounds like you are all doing awesome. I have to admit I am a little jealose you all got to go for a nice run together. I heard you all dominated. That rocks! You guys are all my heros. Just make sure you dont wear yourselves out before I get home so we can still have fun.
That is so sad about Andrew. I can't believe that. I am sure you are praying for his family. They need it at a time like this. Suicide is that last resort when you have absolutly NO light left in you. Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in the world. I can't really explain it in words of any language, but when you walk down the streets you can see the absence of the light in people here. This country is deteriorating more and more aver day. Its a dieing country. Anybody who contributes to society and is educated well is doing everything they can to get out. And they do get out. This leaves war torn grandmothers and old bums on the street which makes up most of the population. Everybody still lives in communist housing which means i can look at any door and I know EXACTLY what it looks like inside. I can even know what cabinents and bookshelves they will have most of the time. They were all given the EXACT same things. I have been in about 3 diferent "styles" of apartments. Thats all I have seen so far. I would say more but It will probably need to wait until I come home because we have to be careful what we write here.
Something interesting is also that our mission is roughly getting cut in half. Not in land but in the number of missionaries. There hasn't been a single new Lithuanian Elder that has come in after me. And there probably wont be any more until around Christmas. By that time there will be 12 of us Elders left here in Lithuania. We dont know how many more will sent but we hope its a lot. Last transfer Elder Dellinger who was in my group got changed to Russian speaking. Nobody knows why but we dont ask questions, President Dance is the man. Elder Dellinger is up in Estonia now.
This week as far as "happenings" go was up and down. Vydmantas came to church and hated it. He called us and told us he is a babtist now. Then he hung up... I was way bummed about that. I thought of why God had helped us to find him that night if he was just going to fall away. Why was it worth Gods time? But then I rememberd this is all Gods work. Even if we just needed to stop ONE thing from happening that one night and then be on our way. Its Gods work and he uses his tools to get his work done.
Elena also this week dropped us. She was an amazing lady who we had a member present lesson with. The member and her connected so well. She was progressing and we were about to commit her to babtisim but then she told us she has her own church and isn't ever going to change. She said she doesn't want to meet again. This just killed me. I yelled out loud after I got off the phone. My companion came running in because he thought i had gotten stabbed or something. It honestly felt like i had. It was terrible to hear. I knew this woman was ready for the gospel. I could see how it could help her. I had that "eye of faith" that made it possible to see her as a member. But to see her have such a change of heart just killed me. I just have to accept people have thier free agency and I can't make choices for them.
Also Robertas didn't meet with us this last week. He is the one with the pregnant girlfriend. He is absolutly amazing. He dissapeared and we could get ahold of him. I wanted to freak out. I was so sick of all of this happening. But then we got ahold of him and he met with us last night. He had had a rough week and had turned off his phone. I told him never to do that again.
Also this week our hot water got turned off so we had to boil water in a pot and take a shower out of our drinking glasses. That was fun.
Well fam thats it. Oh wait....the good news! A girl that was in the school me and Elder Cox taught at is getting babtised in a couple weeks!!! We taught in thier school and told them our church is a refuge from the world. This girl came to english and then the sisters started meeting with her. She is a 17 year old girl named Alisa. She needed a refuge from home becasue her Dad beats her and her mom. She loves church and is so happy now with the members. The only battle is she is 17 and needs her perents permission to be babtised. Pray for her parents hearts to be softened.
It was a nice thing to hear after this last week. So remember that even when life keeps throwing its worst at you just know somthing good is about to happen.
Oh so as for buisness. My watch broke so I am going to have to buy a new one. I am just going to get and old crappy one from a turgus (market). Other than that I am good. just tell me how much is on my card next week. Also if you want to put something else in that package you can put a short wrap up history of where the catholic church and the Russian Orthodox church came from and thier basic beliefs. That would be some very valuable information here. Other that that I think I am good. We found some decent peanut butter knock off here so it wont be so expensive to send more.
Thanks fam for everything . You all rock the world. I love you all I love this work I love serving the Lord and I LOVE SERVING THE LITHUANIANS! I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Take love from your son your brother and your friend.
Elder Cooke

Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 3:24 AM

Hi Fam

The couple in this photo is Donatas and Lasma. Donatas served his mission in Wisconson and his wife served in Switzerland. The interesting thing is, is that she is from Latvia which means she doesn't speak any Lithuanian. They both speak English and so that is how they communicate. He is a translator for the church and is in the branch presidency here. He is about 23. He is one of the coolest guys on the planet. I love him to death.




I have a new companion. But I am still here in Klaipeda. Elder Cox just got sent to Kaunas to be a zone leader.
My new companion is Elder Putnam. He is the new district leader here in Klaipeda. He is a way solid missionary. I have heard a ton of good things about him. I hear he likes to contact which is awesome because I love to contact. It will be a little different because he hasn't been in Klaipeda before so I will have to have the place figured out. Im excited to work with him.
Im glad you got your pakage. I don't know why there wasn't a CD in it? Maybe they took it out at customs or something. I guess I will just hold on to this one and not send it. I just need to get a new memory card.
I dont know if I understood that last letter right. Dad is going to walk a mile in high heels? wow. I need pictures.
Tell Jake good luck and that I love him. Somebody give me his E-mail address so I can write him a letter in the MTC. He will need it. I will have to send it quick because it will take a letter about as long to get him as he is in there for.
He is going to be an awesome missionary. I guess they can't send ALL the awesome ones to the Baltics.
Well fam I have to go. We have some big lessons for our investigators here this week so I will tell you how they go next week. I love you all

Ramybe
(peace)

Sveiki-

Hey fam n friends
This week was way cool. After we taught in the school they asked us to come back so we came again the next day. This time in the middle of the lesson Elder Cox asked if we could say a prayer. But he didn't say, "Can WE say a prayer" he said "Can Elder Cooke say a prayer?" So yea I prayed in a high school last week, twice. (The next class the TEACHER asked us to pray)
Also cool this week was District Conference. Because we dont have a stake, it is the equivilant of a stake conference. Elder Senkans our area 70 from latvia came down and spoke. He spoke in russian so he had our District President translate into Lithuanian for him. President and sister Dance spoke also (they had translators translate into Lithuanian and all the Russian speakers had headsets where somebody was translating into Russian)
My favorite part about conference was speaking to all the members. I LOVE speaking to the native Lithuanians. They are so willing to help me learn. I ended up having constant conversation in Lithuanian for about 6 hours strait with different members and investigators. It was such a great help that I have already seen results of betters speaking and understanding from it.
Me and Elder Cox are doing really well. We have been working as hard as we can and we both have seen so much growth this transfer because of it. We are trying harder each day to become better missionarys and better people.
I hit my 6 month mark yesterday and it kinda hit me in the face. I can't believe i have been out on my mission for half a year already. I dont really know how I feel about it. A bunch of mixed feelings I guess. But I do know if gave me another reason to reset my bearings and get my priorities in order. I want to work harder and learn more so I can be able to make more of a difference here in the Baltics. If anything I just want to be what I was called to be and thats a servant of the Lord.
Thanks fam for everything you do.
I Love you all,

su meile-
Vyresnysis Kukas

It's Hot

Hey everyone,
So its starting to get really green and beautiful here. The smell of beer and cigarretts are ocaasionaly interrupted by wiffs of the sea and blooming trees. Its quite nice. Me and Elder Cox taught 19 lessons this last week. It was awesome.
We extended a babtisim date to one of our investigators, Saulus, and he accepted! He is planning on June 24. We have another investigator, Robertas, who wants to get babtised but he is living with his pregnant girlfriend. They are going to get married later in the summer so unless he moves out, he cant get babtised until then.
I had a realy great expieriance with contacting this week.
It had been a rough morning with contacting that morning. I had some Russian men get mad at me on the bus. One saying, "Look! I found a priest!" After that, right when we got off another man got mad at me on the street. I was walking with my companion and I saw another man who didn't look too happy. I wanted to think that he would get mad at me just like the others but I knew i needed to talk to him anyways. We started talking and I asked if he would be interested in our message. He said he wasn't babtised so I asked him if he wanted to be. He said, "Of course i do! Can you do that?" We are planning on meeting with him in the next day or two. It was just really a testament to me that I can never let people who aren't ready to hear the gospel afect the chance for those who are ready. We will see how this goes i guess.

WEll fam thanks for everything. I love you.

Thats it for me

Viso Gero
Elder Cooke

Putting the mettle to the peddle and the thing to the floor!

Hey!!!!!!!!
How is everybody? Im just great. Things are going good. Me and Elder Cox have gone strait to work. We are trying to teach three lessons each day and we are on schedule so far. I never taught anything close to that in Vilnius. I met my new english class yesterday. That are way nice. All the women think that mom is 35 and had plastic surgery to look so young. And when they heard how young Leslie was with four kids they were very impressed. It should be fun. We have had some interesting expieriances so far here in Klaipeda. We had some girls tell us the love us in english, then they said they worship us...yea it was way awkward. Then we knocked on a door and a man was just standing at the end of a long hallway shaking his fist at us. So we just closed the door and walked out. We left the dome and he was just at the window behind the curtains and watched us all the way around the corner. On the way here there were some kids making fun of me in Russian. I understood enough to catch that they were saying it was funny that I couldn't understand them(kind of ironic) and then some irreverent words in Russian. They thought it was hillarious. Cool thing is, however is when they got off this old lady was not very impressed and told me how the kids these days have no respect for holy things (I think she meant me) and I simply told her we still need to love them because that is what Christ would do. She was very impressed with that and wished me well. Remember how important it is to always represent and exercise belief. If we all threw out a few more seeds then a few are bound to hit good soil. Here in Klaipeda we do street lessons. We dont have a teaching center like in Vilnius so if we can we just teach them the lessons on the street then have a prayer with him. I thought that was a great idea and started doing it on busses as well. It blew my companion away when I told him I asked a guy to pray with me on the bus. Yea it is kind of awkward sometimes but why should that matter to us. I never thought I could do stuff like this but anything is possible when you are doing the Lords work.(You dont have to be a missionary to do the Lords work). Let this gospel shine through you so everyone can see. This gospel brings joy. I can see it so much here. I got to meet a whole new bunch of members on Sunday. It was awesome. I spoke in church and when I said I had been out for 3 months I saw some wierd faces in the congregation. After the meeting they came up to me and told me they had been thinking I had been out for a year! It made me feel a little better about this whole language thing. Now dont think I am over here speaking fluent beautiful Lithuanian. I still sound like a fool a lot of times. And I dont always understand everything. I am, however, very confident in the language. I am confident because I know as long as I put all of myself into this work, then the language will come. And I will understand what I need to understand and I will be able to say what I need to say. I am not confident in myself but in God. I love this work, I love these challanges, I love each old lady and drunk bum and angry Russian. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love you all

Viso Gero (I wish you all that is well)
Vyresnysis Kukas

OH and my new address is:
A/D 408
94198 Klaipeda 10
Lithuania