Clean walls=not cool

Hey fam,
I can't believe it is Monday again. No seriously, I am kind of freaked out. Elder Grahm and I had a good week this week. Our family we are teaching came to church again. It was way good. We were looking for a member to teach them with. They were concerned about giving up Catholic traditions which is totally understandable. We were thinking about who we could use and them we got a call from Bro. Olsen who suggested a man named Edwardas. We thought that sounded good so we called him up and he was happy to come over. During the lesson he talk his conversion story which was quite incredible. At one point in his life he had given up all hope and sat on the train tracks and just waited for a train to come. The train came and switched onto a different set of tracks. He took that as a sign from God and started looking for truth. After some time he found the church and then moved to England where he found the missionaries and was baptized. He then came home and baptized his entire family. He is not happy with a wife and kids here in Vilnius. His entire family had very thick traditions but they found a hope and light in the Church of Jesus Christ that they wanted to join with. He turned out to be the perfect member. He invited our family and us to go to their house for dinner this week. We are excited for that.
Another miracle that we had the pleasure of seeing was with our investigator Antonas. We met with him this week and he had some concerns. He didn't know what was going to happen to him after baptism. He thought he might have to give up everything to the Lord and not have any money for food. He also thought he would have to go and talk to people on the streets like we do. We were trying to explain to him that he would still live a normal life but it just didn't click because it was coming from us American missionaries. I was thinking about how we needed a member to be there and into the teaching center walked Igor, a member from the Russian branch here. We asked if he could help us out. He was able to testify of the blessings his own baptism had brought him and how he still lived a normal life. He just followed the commandments of the Lord also. It was perfect. After the lesson we asked Igor why he came into the teaching center. He said he really didn't know. He thought that maybe some missionaries would be there and he could say hi but he had no reason to be there. We told him he had a big reason to be there.
God lives and He answers prayers. He looks after his flock. Make sure you are in his flock and that He is your shepherd. The adversary will not support his followers in the last day but slowly leads them down to the gulf of misery and endless woe. Christ will support his children always if they hearken to his voice and follow his commandments. Look for miracles in your daily life. They are tender mercies that let you know that you are where you need to be. Christ lives and his church is on the earth. It doesn't make sense that it wouldn't be. God doesn't look at who we were but who we are and who we can become. This is just some advice i feel like i should write. Learn from the past, don't live in it. I love you all and am grateful for your examples. Thank you for everything.


Elder Cooke

Getting down to business

Hey Fam,
Well it has been quite a productive week. An investigator who my companion Elder Grahm contacted has a baptismal date! We had met with him a couple times and he is just a humble prepared individual. We were teaching him about the restoration and i felt prompted to invite him to be baptized and he accepted. He will have a tough time coming to church because of his work but his date for now is the 13th of March. We are way excited. Also, the family who we are teaching came to church again yesterday. It was awesome. We are trying to find families in the branch who can help us teach them.

Last week we had Brother Olsen come and teach them with us. Brother Olsen served a mission here a long time ago and now he lives here with his family. The will be here for about 2 years. He is awesome. Right now he is the Elders quorum president. It is weird to hear his little kids speak English with PERFECT accents. It is crazy.
We had as a district 8 investigators to church! Everybody here is working really hard. I cant believe how fast this city moves. Everybody is always in a hurry. I cant tell you how many buses i have had to run for in the last week.

I am attaching some pictures of what we did for preparation day today. We went to Trakai. Remember when we went last year? Well the lake was frozen over so we had a good time playing in the snow. We had some recent converts come as well as some investigators. Antonas came as well. He is our guy with a baptismal date. He is awesome.



Well that's all I got this week you all keep up your moving/house building/accounting classes/schooling/cheer leading/softball/tax season/keeping kyle happy (thats angela) I love you all so much and your all in my prayers.

Elder Cooke

Home Sweet Home

Well, you wont guess where i am.



Vilnius has been nicknamed "Gothom" by the missionaries.
The picture at night is my view out of my new apartment.
Its so awesome.


I have been transfered to Vilnius to be the District leader and to pick up in Elder Grahm's (my new companion) training. He came into the field last transfer and he is just awesome. He is from Georgia! It has been really really odd coming back to the city where I myself was trained. I haven't been here since. It is quite the experience. ESPECIALY since i have been in Siauliai for the last 7 or 8 months where the church is still so young. I just came from the smallest district/branch in Lithuania to the Largest. It was so crazy to actually have 3 HOURS of church! I am going to be so grateful for priesthood meeting for the rest of my life. It was very difficult to say goodbye to the members. Funny story, every transfer that has come up Valentinas and his family fasted and prayed that i wouldn't leave and EVERY time i stayed. This last week we told them transfers were on Wednesday and they said they were going to do it again. However transfers ended up being on Tuesday and they didn't get a chance to do it this time and I got transfered. They were mad about that. It was hard to say goodbye to the branch president and his family as well. He said he knew i was different than most missionaries and the first time i came to their house for dinner I left one of the "Thank you" notes mom gave me. He said he has seen a lot of missionaries come in and out and he has never had that before. so, THANK YOU MOM. The relationship I have with President Gabalas is one I will have my whole life. As well as so many other of the members here. It is a tender mercy that Skaiste is going to be moving here with her soon-to-be husband. Although she is sorely needed in Siauliai. However...
...I am now in Vilnius and I am excited to be here. My companion and I are getting along very well. We are very similar except for the fact that he is 6'9. Yea it's crazy. He is one of two missionaries that have come out after my group. They came out last transfer and he is doing amazing for how long he has been out. He has a ton of drive and has already been a great example for me. My district consists of: Elder Cox (was with him in klaipeda) and Elder Sakavich (he was changed to a Russian speaker and got sent to Latvia, He is going home after this transfer) and then our Sister missionaries are Sister Richards (Also going home after this transfer) and then for the first time i am serving with Sister Hall! We are all way excited for this transfer and are going to get some great things accomplished.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. Don't worry yourselves with my health. I am alive and will be for quite some time. Sister Dance got me a place i can go get checked out but i don't really want to take the time to go do it. I might and i might not. Just keep prayin. They work.
I love you all so much. Thank you for everything. I am in Vilnius now.
Well thanks again.

su meile,
Elder Cooke

Hello America

Well, its Febuary or Vasaris which means "SUMMER" in Lithuanian.
They like to just ignore the cold i guess.


Now i am not sure what month they say "comes in like a lion" but i vote that it gets changed to February because this month just rocked my world. Last week right after i wrote all of you and told you "all is well" i got food poisoning and had a fun rest of the week. I had some bad lithuanian meat as far as i can figure. In any case it was quite an expieriance. However, i dont know if its over because like i have said in previous emails i have been really tired lately and have been getting frequent headaches. Also in the mornings if i work out a lot then i get sick to my stomach. All this started about the same time around 4 months ago. If you remember 4 months ago i weighed 160 pounds and i was just getting bigger. Now i just realized that i have lost 20 pounds over the last few transfers.
Thats not good. I talked to sister Dance about all of this and she is looking into it with the area doctor. So right now I think the best GUESS can be summed up by our dear friend Lloyd Christmas , "I got worms!" haha lets hope not.
So, other than that all is well!
We get transfer calls tommorrow. I have no idea what is going to happen. I have a feeling i could be leaving but who knows. I am preparing myself for both outcomes.


Well. Cool story for the week. This one is a little bit more on the history side of Lithuania. As you all know Lithuania was under the occupation of communist Russia for a long time. In 1989 (year i was born) the people of the Baltic held hands and made a human chain stretching from the capital of Vilnius through the capital city of Latvia to the capital of Estonia. This formed Baltijos kelias or "the baltic way" in opposition of the occupation. After much political working with leaders, Lithuania was granted her independance. The country then had the fight of bringing thier country and people out of communism. THe first thing they did was take down the nummerous propaganda statues of communist leaders and send them to be destroyed. One rich Lithuanian actually bought most of the statues and had them placed in a park where it was turned into a memorial. This park Is called "Gruto Parkas" and is in southern Lithuania. Elder Anderson and I had a rare opportunity to go down to this park last week and see these statues. It was a solomn serious spirit there- similar to the one i felt at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. It really gave a new meaning to Elder ANderson and I about what we are actually doing here. We are bringing light to these people. It was quite an expieriance.
Well fam. I have got to get going. I guess we will see where this week takes me. Don't stop the prayers. They are so neccessary and appreciated.
I love you all so much.
Remember who you are.



Vyresnysis Kukas= Elder Cooke