Dear Everyone

How are you all?
I can't believe this weather. One day I woke up and it was fall.
This week is transfers. I have been in Vilnius for a while so I might be on my way out but there is still a good chance I will stay. If I go one more transfer then I will have served in Vilnius for a full year total. That is crazy. Things are going well. We almost hit our mission goal of 19 baptisms.
We had 17 which compared to last month (4) it was a very good month. We all saw a TON of miracles. Elder Gearhart and I had one miracle that was a great experience.
     We were walking across a bridge in city centre and I felt like I should talk to the man next to me. He got a big smile on his face and said he would listen to us. As we started to teach him on the park bench our lesson started to go an interesting direction. Instead of talking about the restoration and prophets as usual we started to both talk about and testify of returning to Christ and using his atonement. We both were wondering why we were teaching this type of lesson when absolutely nothing he was saying was instigating it.  After we finished we found out a couple things.
He was walking on the bridge and, having seen us, told God that if we talked to him then he would give God another shot and would listen to us. When he said "another shot" he was meaning returning to the fold of God because we found out that he was an inactive member from Kaunas that was living in Vilnius and had fallen off the map. He had recently been thinking about coming back to the church when he ran into us and we were led to tell him what God had been trying to say for a while. We can all come back to the arms of Christ's atonement whenever we are prepared to change. Nobody has strayed to far. We can all come back.

   Experiences like that help me to know that we are successful missionaries because the spirit is working through us. I think that brings more peace to a missionaries soul than anything else to know that the master is happy with our service. Right now we are working with Kęstutis. He is a good guy. He is separated from his wife who lives in England but he still loves family and believes it is an important unit in life. We are trying to get him to have a greater desire to change. We had a good lesson where we talked about the word of wisdom. We had a member there to testify of the blessings of living according to the Word of Wisdom. He didn't commit to live it 100% but he is showing progress.

   I am feeling good. I am healthy. I am in good company. Elder Gearhart and I have now been companions for about 21 weeks now.  We won't be companions next transfer but we are both ready to work even harder. 

  My goal next transfer is to work so hard I actually pass out. It's possible. I am excited for what is ahead. Stay strong everybody. You only live once (not twice like James Bond) I love you all. Serve where you stand.

 

 

Vryesnysis Kukas