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