Hey

Hey fam,
This has been a fun week. We went to Rumshishkes. Its the celebration of the opening of missionary work in Lithuania. It was so nice to see the members from Vilnius and Klaipeda again. I love them all so much.
As a district we have been trying to pick up the work here. Its been a little slow going here. Last week we got about 5 lessons all week. But that just made me that much more determined for this week. The branch is throwing me a birthday party on Sunday night where we are going to cook Shashleekai. (its like shish ka bobs) I am way excited.
Right now we are meeting with a Gypsy couple. They are really interesting people. They are way nice though. I don't excactly know how interested they are in the church but they seem really accepting.
Thanks for the money I think I might buy an umbrella becasue I dont have one or a rain jacket. I have been doing really well thus far but it rains a ton. I have just been dealing with it because I can't bring myself to spend money on something lame like that. On a totaly unrelated note I think I am getting sick. Other than that I am doing just peachy. I have gotten some leters from my friends and they really cheered me up. Its been so frustrating for me lately but I have been doing my best to just forget it and get to work. Sometimes we put so much focus on little things that we forget the big picture. Yea this language is hard, yea the Lithuanian people are not always the happiest most "open minded" people, but if I am mad becasue I want to speak better so I let that stop me from talking to ONE person doesn't that defeat the pourpose of everything. We learn to speak so we can talk to people. So how silly is it if I don't talk to somebody becasue I am frustrated that I can't talk to people. It is just one of the many ways we are tricked by the advasary. The SECOND we begin to think about ourselves the work stops. It has been hard for me to learn this because I am just strait up imperfect. The mission is really good at pointing that out for you. And honestly I hope I don't ever forget how imperfect I really am.
Well fam this is the last time you will hear from me as a immature teenagaer. Next time I will be an immature 20 YEAR OLD! cool right?

ok fam Love you all

Elder Cooke

The City of Dreams

Well...I didn't see it coming but I got transfered. I am now in a city called Saulai (Show-Lay) It is the smallest of all the cities open to missionaries here in Lithuania.
I am serving with Elder Fitzgerald. He is absolutly awesome. He was my district leader in Vilnius and I absolutely love him. He is from an island in Alaska. His family are all crazy fishermen. I totally have a hookup in Alaska now! But (more importantly) he is an awesome missionary.

Couple of interesting things.

1. We are being "whitewashed" (my second time and his sixth time) So neither of us have been in this city before and have no idea about anything. The least amount of Elders come here so not very many Elders know much about this city right now in the mission.

2. Two sister's just went home from our mission. So that means we only have six in Lithuania. That also means they just took sisters out of Saulai. Right now my district is my companionship and one other companionship of Elders. (Elder Mcnevin and Elder Neilson, both awesome) Elder Mcnevin is the first councilor and Elder Neilson is the District leader.

Saulai is an interesting place. I was way sad to leave Klaipeda and her members but I know this is where i am meant to be right now. It was even harder because the night before I found out I was leaving our investigator Robertas accepted the commitment to babtisim. Missionaries have been trying for a while and he is finally ready to make that commitment. I am so happy for him. He came to see me before I left. He is one of the most amazing men I have ever met. I dont know if I accomplished anything in Klaipeda but if it was all just to help him, then it was worth it.
Its going to be tough work here especialy considering we are starting from absolute zero as far as investigators go. I am way excited to get to work here. It is going to be a language push because the people here speak a bit different here. They speak VERY fast with a ton of energy. In the other cities they refered to it as sauletiskai, which basicly means its thier own little dialect. The branch here experienced some shock last week with some member drama and that seems to be a regular occurance. Everybody says here that missionarys either go to Saulai because they have charity or becasue they need to learn it. I just go where I am told and work so I guess we will figure out later if I have charity or not. In the meantime I am just going to put my sholder to that good ol' wheel here in "The City of Dreams" or "The City of the Son"
But We have a lot to do today so I wont get a chance to write other people who wrote me. I will try next week. I love you all

Vyresnysis Kukas


ps: here is my adress

Vyresnysis Kukas
A/d 56
Lt-76001 Saulai
Lithuania


I used a little $ to buy a nice Book of Mormon for Robertas.
If you do ever send me something dont forget the history of the Catholic church, the Russian Orthodox and the Jahovas Witness. The Jahovas witnesses have thier center for the Baltics here in Saulai and their massive church is 20 feet away from our church here.

Love you

Dobre Dien!

Dobre Dien! (thats russian)

Hey fam. Glad to hear you are getting some good weather. The sun is visiting us here as well. In fact, way, way to much. Remember how in the winter we hardly ever saw the sun? Well we are on the other end now. I haven't seen night time for a few weeks. We go to bed at 10:30 and the sun is still sitting nicely above the horizon. I don't know when it goes down but it is definitely up way before we are. We have blankets over our windows so that helps. The other fun part is the heat. The temperature never gets to crazy hot...BUT...It is super humid so we just sweat like crazy. The worst part about that is the buses. The just sit and bake all day so it gets WAY HOT and that makes a lovely aroma with the people that dont care to ever shower...which is more people than it should be. But Its a lot hotter in other parts in the world so I can't complain. Im a missionary so that makes everything better, and worth it.

So...the happenings. This week was way good. We had a lesson with the Branch President here and his wife. I will just tell you right now that President Peciulis (Pe-choo-lis) and his wife are the fruit of the Baltics. An apostle said that the members of eastern Europe would be the strongest members in the world one day. I can already see that happening but If they were all like President Peciulis then that would already be so. He is an amazing man. They remind me of mom and dad so much. To give you an idea of who they are i will say that When I was with my last companion we recieved their mission papers so they could start filling them out. And my companion now just translated an interview with them and President Dance. President and Sister Peciulis are going to be the first couple from the Baltics to serve a mission! I am so excited for them. They are absolutely amazing and such a light to the people here. The members around the world could learn a thing or two from there two Lithuanians, I know I have. We all need to be a light and an example to all around us no matter what. All times in all places. I love them

Transfers are next week. I have no idea what is going to happen. They might close Klaipeda for sister missionarys. I am not sure. Right now there are me and Elder Putnam, the sisters and a "split companionship." That means one is a Lithuanian speaker and the other one is a russian speaker. I don't know what they are going to do. I guess we will see. I will most likely stay here in Klaipeda. I really hope so. I love it here. But I know I will go where I am needed. That also means that I wont write until Thursday. But just write me the same as you always do.

Well fam I am going to go.

Thank you everyone for everything you do. It's July 1st. The best month ever because the coolest kid in the world was born in this month (me) :) just serious
Thanks again

su meile
Vyresnysis Kukas

Life on the other side of the rock

Hey all!
How is life? This bow hunting fishing thing is sounding awesome. I guess I will be a little out of the loop when I get back but I guess you will just have to show me how its done. Things are normal here. This weekend was a little frustrating just because we had a lot of people get way mad at us and when we did find somebody who would talk to us they all only spoke Russian. It is a little frustration when you work your guts out to learn a language and then you still feel completely useless because you can't communicate with a large part of the population. It's all good though. We all just reset our focus and get back to work. We have 2 progressing investigators right now. Saulus has a babtisimal date. ITs July 11. He had a problem with drinking but we are working with him. He has a good heart it's just a matter of getting him excited about the gospel and seeing why its important to be babtised. Robertas is still progressing but he is still living with his girlfriend and they dont want to talk about marriage until after the baby is born. We are going to meet with him and explain to him he is probably going to have to move out
. We wanted to bring in the whole family but she doesn't seem that interested. We would take it slower with him but there is a difference between the "spirit of confirmation" and "the gift of the holy ghost". Right now Robertas knows the church is true and has a strong desire to be babtised. That is the spirit of confirmation telling him truth. But after we recieve that confirmation, if we dont act on it, we lose it. Only with the gift of the constant companion can we be sure we have the spirit with us as long as we are worthy. Robertas needs to act and he needs to make a choice soon. Pray for him. Today is a holiday so we are in the equivalence of a "radio shack" becasue it is the only thing that is open. Honestly there are so many holidays here it is rediculus. Anyway, i gotta go. I Love you all.

Ramybe
(peace)
Elder Cooke

The Roller Coaster of Missionary work

Well fam another week older and wiser,
Its sounds like you are all doing awesome. I have to admit I am a little jealose you all got to go for a nice run together. I heard you all dominated. That rocks! You guys are all my heros. Just make sure you dont wear yourselves out before I get home so we can still have fun.
That is so sad about Andrew. I can't believe that. I am sure you are praying for his family. They need it at a time like this. Suicide is that last resort when you have absolutly NO light left in you. Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in the world. I can't really explain it in words of any language, but when you walk down the streets you can see the absence of the light in people here. This country is deteriorating more and more aver day. Its a dieing country. Anybody who contributes to society and is educated well is doing everything they can to get out. And they do get out. This leaves war torn grandmothers and old bums on the street which makes up most of the population. Everybody still lives in communist housing which means i can look at any door and I know EXACTLY what it looks like inside. I can even know what cabinents and bookshelves they will have most of the time. They were all given the EXACT same things. I have been in about 3 diferent "styles" of apartments. Thats all I have seen so far. I would say more but It will probably need to wait until I come home because we have to be careful what we write here.
Something interesting is also that our mission is roughly getting cut in half. Not in land but in the number of missionaries. There hasn't been a single new Lithuanian Elder that has come in after me. And there probably wont be any more until around Christmas. By that time there will be 12 of us Elders left here in Lithuania. We dont know how many more will sent but we hope its a lot. Last transfer Elder Dellinger who was in my group got changed to Russian speaking. Nobody knows why but we dont ask questions, President Dance is the man. Elder Dellinger is up in Estonia now.
This week as far as "happenings" go was up and down. Vydmantas came to church and hated it. He called us and told us he is a babtist now. Then he hung up... I was way bummed about that. I thought of why God had helped us to find him that night if he was just going to fall away. Why was it worth Gods time? But then I rememberd this is all Gods work. Even if we just needed to stop ONE thing from happening that one night and then be on our way. Its Gods work and he uses his tools to get his work done.
Elena also this week dropped us. She was an amazing lady who we had a member present lesson with. The member and her connected so well. She was progressing and we were about to commit her to babtisim but then she told us she has her own church and isn't ever going to change. She said she doesn't want to meet again. This just killed me. I yelled out loud after I got off the phone. My companion came running in because he thought i had gotten stabbed or something. It honestly felt like i had. It was terrible to hear. I knew this woman was ready for the gospel. I could see how it could help her. I had that "eye of faith" that made it possible to see her as a member. But to see her have such a change of heart just killed me. I just have to accept people have thier free agency and I can't make choices for them.
Also Robertas didn't meet with us this last week. He is the one with the pregnant girlfriend. He is absolutly amazing. He dissapeared and we could get ahold of him. I wanted to freak out. I was so sick of all of this happening. But then we got ahold of him and he met with us last night. He had had a rough week and had turned off his phone. I told him never to do that again.
Also this week our hot water got turned off so we had to boil water in a pot and take a shower out of our drinking glasses. That was fun.
Well fam thats it. Oh wait....the good news! A girl that was in the school me and Elder Cox taught at is getting babtised in a couple weeks!!! We taught in thier school and told them our church is a refuge from the world. This girl came to english and then the sisters started meeting with her. She is a 17 year old girl named Alisa. She needed a refuge from home becasue her Dad beats her and her mom. She loves church and is so happy now with the members. The only battle is she is 17 and needs her perents permission to be babtised. Pray for her parents hearts to be softened.
It was a nice thing to hear after this last week. So remember that even when life keeps throwing its worst at you just know somthing good is about to happen.
Oh so as for buisness. My watch broke so I am going to have to buy a new one. I am just going to get and old crappy one from a turgus (market). Other than that I am good. just tell me how much is on my card next week. Also if you want to put something else in that package you can put a short wrap up history of where the catholic church and the Russian Orthodox church came from and thier basic beliefs. That would be some very valuable information here. Other that that I think I am good. We found some decent peanut butter knock off here so it wont be so expensive to send more.
Thanks fam for everything . You all rock the world. I love you all I love this work I love serving the Lord and I LOVE SERVING THE LITHUANIANS! I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Take love from your son your brother and your friend.
Elder Cooke

Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 3:24 AM

Hi Fam

The couple in this photo is Donatas and Lasma. Donatas served his mission in Wisconson and his wife served in Switzerland. The interesting thing is, is that she is from Latvia which means she doesn't speak any Lithuanian. They both speak English and so that is how they communicate. He is a translator for the church and is in the branch presidency here. He is about 23. He is one of the coolest guys on the planet. I love him to death.




I have a new companion. But I am still here in Klaipeda. Elder Cox just got sent to Kaunas to be a zone leader.
My new companion is Elder Putnam. He is the new district leader here in Klaipeda. He is a way solid missionary. I have heard a ton of good things about him. I hear he likes to contact which is awesome because I love to contact. It will be a little different because he hasn't been in Klaipeda before so I will have to have the place figured out. Im excited to work with him.
Im glad you got your pakage. I don't know why there wasn't a CD in it? Maybe they took it out at customs or something. I guess I will just hold on to this one and not send it. I just need to get a new memory card.
I dont know if I understood that last letter right. Dad is going to walk a mile in high heels? wow. I need pictures.
Tell Jake good luck and that I love him. Somebody give me his E-mail address so I can write him a letter in the MTC. He will need it. I will have to send it quick because it will take a letter about as long to get him as he is in there for.
He is going to be an awesome missionary. I guess they can't send ALL the awesome ones to the Baltics.
Well fam I have to go. We have some big lessons for our investigators here this week so I will tell you how they go next week. I love you all

Ramybe
(peace)

Sveiki-

Hey fam n friends
This week was way cool. After we taught in the school they asked us to come back so we came again the next day. This time in the middle of the lesson Elder Cox asked if we could say a prayer. But he didn't say, "Can WE say a prayer" he said "Can Elder Cooke say a prayer?" So yea I prayed in a high school last week, twice. (The next class the TEACHER asked us to pray)
Also cool this week was District Conference. Because we dont have a stake, it is the equivilant of a stake conference. Elder Senkans our area 70 from latvia came down and spoke. He spoke in russian so he had our District President translate into Lithuanian for him. President and sister Dance spoke also (they had translators translate into Lithuanian and all the Russian speakers had headsets where somebody was translating into Russian)
My favorite part about conference was speaking to all the members. I LOVE speaking to the native Lithuanians. They are so willing to help me learn. I ended up having constant conversation in Lithuanian for about 6 hours strait with different members and investigators. It was such a great help that I have already seen results of betters speaking and understanding from it.
Me and Elder Cox are doing really well. We have been working as hard as we can and we both have seen so much growth this transfer because of it. We are trying harder each day to become better missionarys and better people.
I hit my 6 month mark yesterday and it kinda hit me in the face. I can't believe i have been out on my mission for half a year already. I dont really know how I feel about it. A bunch of mixed feelings I guess. But I do know if gave me another reason to reset my bearings and get my priorities in order. I want to work harder and learn more so I can be able to make more of a difference here in the Baltics. If anything I just want to be what I was called to be and thats a servant of the Lord.
Thanks fam for everything you do.
I Love you all,

su meile-
Vyresnysis Kukas