God's Tender Mercies

Hi everyone,

This is me and Sister Skaistea a member of our awesome branch, in front of our church.

It was nice to hear about the wrestling team. It really feels like wrestling season around here. It has just been bitter cold here. I dont remember it being this cold last year. Can you believe i have been in Lithuania for over a year now. I can't! I dont want to think about how much time that means I have left.

So, I am going to start with a fun story. Last week we had zone conference. We didnt do it like normal however. Elder Anderson and I were to go by ourselves to Jelgava, Latvija. There we would meet with President dance and the Elders in Jelgava as well as some Russian speakers from Riga. We live fairly close to the Latvija border so we got on the bus and headed out. About 20 minutes on the bus i realized i had forgoten my passport (are you surprised) I was really hoping that there wasnt going to be a passport check at the border because they would kick me right off the bus. I had heard from president Dance that they almost never check at this entry point into Latvija so that gave me some reassurance. We came up to the border and i saw a Latvijan police car and a man waving us down. We were getting checked. The bus stopped and I told Elder Anderson I didn't have my passport. We were both kinda freaked out becasue we knew what was going to happen. I said an ernest prayer and so did Elder Anderson. A large bald man on the bus and said "Passes!" He checked everybodys and then he came to me. I told him I didn't have mine. He asked us in Russian if we spoke Russian...we dont...We asked HIM in english if he spoke english...he didnt. He asked US in german if we spoke german...we REALLY dont. We finnaly asked him in Lithuanian if he spoke lithuanian...He had no idea what we said. In the end we had NO way of communicating. He pointed back the way we came and asked said "Klaipeda?!" we said, "No Siauliai" He pointed back and said , "RIGA?!" we said, "No Jelgava." He had absolutly NO idea what to do with us. He finally just pointed to Elder Anderson's passport and said "USA?!" we said yes and then he said, "PASS GOOD." and then he gave me a thumbs up. It was awesome. Scary, but awesome. So we got to zone conference had a great conference and then went to catch the only bus that ever goes back to Siauliai. Here is funny story number 2. President Dance was in a hurry so he just droped us off at the bus station and asked if we could figure out how to get back. We told him, "Of course" and went on our merry way. If you remember, WE dont speak Latvian or Russian and that is all people speak in Latvija. One of the Latvijan Elders who was with president Dance in the car just shouted as the door closed, "Ohn Sauli means -to siauliai!" and that is all we had to go with. We asked a kid in english if he knew where we could get tickets. He had no idea what we said so I just said, "buy tickets. HERE?" and i pointed to building. He nodded and we went in. Now was round two. I stood in front of all the people in the bus station and said,"WHO HERE SPEAKS ENGLISH?" one girl said she did and I had her translate for me and the ticket booth. They told when the bus would get in. We went outside to wait and then we realized we had no clue where it would be coming in. So then we found another kid who could speak some english and asked him. He didnt know but then i told him about myself and I asked him where he was going and he said Riga so i told him that there were missionaries there who wanted to meet with him. He said that sounded like fun and he gave me his name and number and i later gave that to the missionaries in Riga. But then i found a sighn that said "Sauli" on it and i remembered what that Elder said. I fugured that must be our spot. Sure enough a bus came in there and we got on and made it home. (Nobody checked us at the Lithuanian border) We were late for english class so we ran to the church and all our students were waiting for us outside. They were happy to see us. All in all it was an interesting but fun day. It is so interesting to me because i never thought i could be a missionary for well over a year and still have a day where my companion and i couldn't communicate with hardly ANYbody. This mission is just so awesome. That really made me appreciate living in Lithuania alot more.
So in other words everything is going just fine here.

Me and Elder Anderson are getting along well.
We are going into our 13th week as companions. Its just been a blast lately.

I am teaching Elder Anderson to juggle 4 balls. He is actually picking it up really well.

We have a family here that we feel very good about. They would change this branch so much. It is a dad who is in Elder Anderson's english class and a mother who is in my class. And then thier daughter and their son. They are all so good. The mom prayed in my english class last week. I was so excited. The mom and dad have both said that if they recieve an answer then they will be baptised. Pray for them. Arnoldas and Inga is thier names. They're awesome. My advise for everybody this week is to just be happy and do what God tells you to do. It really doesn't get more simple than that. I love you all so much.

Vyresnysis Kukas
(Kukas means "cakes" in Latvian i found out)