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 All of the thinly clad young girls have been replaced by old grannys in black coats down to their ankles.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