that means hello in spanish :)
Hi everybody. Is it warm there? Its cold here. It's hard to type because my hands are still de-thawing. It was warming up last week then it just started getting very cold again. Its only about -5c but if there is any wind at all it gets nasty because of the humidity. To answer your question, no I havent gotten your package. sorry. Also I think I want alma 26:12 for my plaque. IT's agood'n.
ok so STORY TIME. So me and Elder young were harvesting(i dont know if i clearified that that means knocking doors) and we were in this dome. We went to knock on the door and this HUGE scary "BARK" came from behind the door so we decided not to knock that one. We went down the stairs to the next floor and started knocking. When we heard the door open and the dog starts freaking out at us. The owner has him on a leash and we figured he was just taking him for a walk. But we still wanted to get out of its way so we start booking it down the stairs. THe odd thing was is that the man starting running the dog after us. We got to the door and i couldnt get it open(we were freking out by this time) I get it open just as the dog gets on the bottom floor and we get out. The man then gets to the outside and lets this German sheapard off the leash. HE SICKED HIS DOG ON US. It jumped up to bite Elder young but he missed so he came after me. I knew not to run so I just kind of jumped out of the way while he tried to bite me. I was about to open up a can on him when he ran away. THe man ran after him and put him on the leash and took him inside while yelling in russian he was going to call the cops on us. It was way crazy. WE DIDNT EVEN KNOCK ON HIS DOOR. My heart was POUNDING. so yea there is a cliche' missionary dog story for you.
ok now a way cool story. Do you remember that woman that started crying in our english class while I was testifying.
The sisters had a lesson with her that next morning and they just expecting it to be a normal second lesson but she ended up accepting BABTISIM. I found out just after I e-mailed you. She is way awesome. We have a lesson with her and the sisters today. I knew there was something about her. The Lord truely reveals his prepared people. I am so stoked. Well everyone I wish you well, and I love you all
Vyresnysis Kukas
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Hey Team
How are all of you? ok obviously you cant really tell me how you are right now and even if you wrote it down and sent it I wouldn't get it for a while but just know that the correct answer is, "I am doing FAN-tas-tic!" and if that isn't your answer then I say that is silly and you should change that.
Well, sorry again about last week. The computers in this cafe are a bit old and unreliable so hope I get this one sent.
Ok well I want to start this week off with an awesome scripture. It is so hard to see progression here sometimes. I am trying my best to learn this language and I feel like I am just getting worse. And people here don't hesitate to tell you that you speak terribly. So I was thinking to myself how terrible I am at just about everything when I came about ALMA 26:12 in my scripture study. I love this verse. I don't have English scriptures on me but I will translate it from my Lithuanian ones.
It says:Wherefore I know that I am nothing, As for my power I am weak; Therefore I will not boast in myself, but I will boast in my God, Because in his strength I am able to do everything; Behold many miracles we have done on this earth, because of that we will glory in his name through eternity. AMEN!
It is not by our power that we do the Lords word. It is by the power of God. That power is given to us through FAITH. We must be humble enough to give up the "power" that is of US so that we can have room for the power of the LORD. This Language will come in time. Like Dad said it is by the Lord's time. If you feel you are inadequate take a look at Alma 29: 1-3 and get a nice dose of humble pie. "Oh if I were an angel...and could speak with the trump of God...", "...But behold I am a man and do sin in my wish for I aught to be content with the things the Lord has given me." I love it.
Ok fam enough preaching. Time for more goodies from Lithuania. First off, they have SO MANY HOLIDAYS HERE. I swear (stacy:"don't swear") They look for any excuse to get off work and get plastered at 8 in the morning. The other day was "pancake day" and I don't know how many Independance days I have seen already. It's rediculous because you go outside and its like a ghost town. You try to knock doors and nobody is home. And when they do answer they can barely stand. And talking to drunk people is always interesting. Sometimes I hear them just say nonsence and I don't know whether I misunderstood compleatly or they really just said Cristopher Columbus was the devil.
That brings up a whole new topic...RUSSIAN. Here in Vilnius is quite a bit of Russian influence. You can still feel the scars of communisim seeing how Lithuania only got rid of them in '93. Everybody here speaks Russian but not openly. They aren't that friendly to Russians obviously. But it is very frustrating knock on 5 doors in a row that only speak Russian. Sometimes I don't know when it's Russian and when I just didn't understand. I have learned a very Simple door and street approach in Russian to get referals for the Russian Elders. They understand me for the most part but I want to get a little more to say.
ok really quick: I want Kyle's cobbler reciepe. We have tried some baltic style and Its good but I wanna try Kyle's too. Also are you still making Family calanders. That would be nice to have also.
Well to wrap up I just want to express the immence humility I have right now for the work of the Lord. I see each day so many things I need to improve on and often times I dont see how it's possible. I feel nobody here wants to listen. My first contact Edvanas doesn't want to meet anymore and we have to push Vytenys's babtism back again. He doesnt want to let go of the Catholic church. This place is stuck in its traditions. Vilnius has the highest consentration of churches per capita in the world. To give you an Idea of the thought process here. We asked Vytenys if God or Jesus Christ THEMselves came down and told him he needs to get babtised what would he say. He said, "I dont know i guess i would need to think about it." It has become more than a belief here. It gets hard to accept somtimes. But let us press on is so great a cause. It doesn't matter. We are here to give all the opportunity to come unto Crist through his church. We get laughed at alot on busses and on the street. But we are put through advirsery so we can understand true joy. In english we began our spiritual thought after the lesson and I noticed a new woman in class. Me and Elder young tought of looking to Christ as an example. Elder young explained he had taught himself to juggle by reading books. He thought he knew how to juggle but he didn't know why it was so hard to progress. Often we read of Crist and feel that is enough. We know how to live and we are ok. But why is life still so hard we ask. Because we have a LIVING Crist and we need to seek for him in our day. We need that living example.
Elder Young explained how he came to me and I taught him how to "actualy" juggle. And within a week he had progressed to a level he hadn't ever thought of. (of course we juggled for them) So must we go to Christ for help and guidance. It is not enough to just read about him. We must seek him in our lives in our day. I began to testify of humibliy and how we must be humble to take upon us Christ. As I pointed to my left I said we must know he lives and that through him we can have more, that we can BE more. The new woman began to cry which I haven't seen very often here. I almost did but I held back. I felt Christ up there with me. He took my broken Lithuanian and he began to speak to thier soul. After everybody left I collapsed into the chairs. I hadn't felt the spirit that strong in a very very long time. I actualy can't remember when I have. I was trembling. Christ lives. And I will not cease to work until I find those I was called to find and proclaim that truth to them. Thank you everybody for all your prayers. We need them here. We need them everywhere. I sincerly love and miss all of you, just not enough to leave the work.
as' jums myliu
Vyresnysis Kukas
p.s. That rocks about Jake is he spanish speaking or english, let me know. Either way it still rocks, he rocks.
Well, sorry again about last week. The computers in this cafe are a bit old and unreliable so hope I get this one sent.
Ok well I want to start this week off with an awesome scripture. It is so hard to see progression here sometimes. I am trying my best to learn this language and I feel like I am just getting worse. And people here don't hesitate to tell you that you speak terribly. So I was thinking to myself how terrible I am at just about everything when I came about ALMA 26:12 in my scripture study. I love this verse. I don't have English scriptures on me but I will translate it from my Lithuanian ones.
It says:Wherefore I know that I am nothing, As for my power I am weak; Therefore I will not boast in myself, but I will boast in my God, Because in his strength I am able to do everything; Behold many miracles we have done on this earth, because of that we will glory in his name through eternity. AMEN!
It is not by our power that we do the Lords word. It is by the power of God. That power is given to us through FAITH. We must be humble enough to give up the "power" that is of US so that we can have room for the power of the LORD. This Language will come in time. Like Dad said it is by the Lord's time. If you feel you are inadequate take a look at Alma 29: 1-3 and get a nice dose of humble pie. "Oh if I were an angel...and could speak with the trump of God...", "...But behold I am a man and do sin in my wish for I aught to be content with the things the Lord has given me." I love it.
Ok fam enough preaching. Time for more goodies from Lithuania. First off, they have SO MANY HOLIDAYS HERE. I swear (stacy:"don't swear") They look for any excuse to get off work and get plastered at 8 in the morning. The other day was "pancake day" and I don't know how many Independance days I have seen already. It's rediculous because you go outside and its like a ghost town. You try to knock doors and nobody is home. And when they do answer they can barely stand. And talking to drunk people is always interesting. Sometimes I hear them just say nonsence and I don't know whether I misunderstood compleatly or they really just said Cristopher Columbus was the devil.
That brings up a whole new topic...RUSSIAN. Here in Vilnius is quite a bit of Russian influence. You can still feel the scars of communisim seeing how Lithuania only got rid of them in '93. Everybody here speaks Russian but not openly. They aren't that friendly to Russians obviously. But it is very frustrating knock on 5 doors in a row that only speak Russian. Sometimes I don't know when it's Russian and when I just didn't understand. I have learned a very Simple door and street approach in Russian to get referals for the Russian Elders. They understand me for the most part but I want to get a little more to say.
ok really quick: I want Kyle's cobbler reciepe. We have tried some baltic style and Its good but I wanna try Kyle's too. Also are you still making Family calanders. That would be nice to have also.
Well to wrap up I just want to express the immence humility I have right now for the work of the Lord. I see each day so many things I need to improve on and often times I dont see how it's possible. I feel nobody here wants to listen. My first contact Edvanas doesn't want to meet anymore and we have to push Vytenys's babtism back again. He doesnt want to let go of the Catholic church. This place is stuck in its traditions. Vilnius has the highest consentration of churches per capita in the world. To give you an Idea of the thought process here. We asked Vytenys if God or Jesus Christ THEMselves came down and told him he needs to get babtised what would he say. He said, "I dont know i guess i would need to think about it." It has become more than a belief here. It gets hard to accept somtimes. But let us press on is so great a cause. It doesn't matter. We are here to give all the opportunity to come unto Crist through his church. We get laughed at alot on busses and on the street. But we are put through advirsery so we can understand true joy. In english we began our spiritual thought after the lesson and I noticed a new woman in class. Me and Elder young tought of looking to Christ as an example. Elder young explained he had taught himself to juggle by reading books. He thought he knew how to juggle but he didn't know why it was so hard to progress. Often we read of Crist and feel that is enough. We know how to live and we are ok. But why is life still so hard we ask. Because we have a LIVING Crist and we need to seek for him in our day. We need that living example.
Elder Young explained how he came to me and I taught him how to "actualy" juggle. And within a week he had progressed to a level he hadn't ever thought of. (of course we juggled for them) So must we go to Christ for help and guidance. It is not enough to just read about him. We must seek him in our lives in our day. I began to testify of humibliy and how we must be humble to take upon us Christ. As I pointed to my left I said we must know he lives and that through him we can have more, that we can BE more. The new woman began to cry which I haven't seen very often here. I almost did but I held back. I felt Christ up there with me. He took my broken Lithuanian and he began to speak to thier soul. After everybody left I collapsed into the chairs. I hadn't felt the spirit that strong in a very very long time. I actualy can't remember when I have. I was trembling. Christ lives. And I will not cease to work until I find those I was called to find and proclaim that truth to them. Thank you everybody for all your prayers. We need them here. We need them everywhere. I sincerly love and miss all of you, just not enough to leave the work.
as' jums myliu
Vyresnysis Kukas
p.s. That rocks about Jake is he spanish speaking or english, let me know. Either way it still rocks, he rocks.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Missionary Humor
I thought I'd post a couple cartoons that made me laugh! Just to shake things up a bit! 
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Howdy All!!
So good week this week. I will start off by saying thank you for your prayers for Ingrida. She finally set a date for her babtism! However, its a little ways away. She set it for June 27th because its her birthday. So we would like to get it closer but every time we meet she makes so much progress. It just shows that if we are humble and activly seeking knowledge, God will always help. This week she got really sick. She told us to bring medicine. I had some Dayquil from the MTC that i hadn't opened so we took that. When we got there she really started to open up to us. She talked about problems with her daughter she had been having and how her work had gotten mad becaue she was sick again. They called her weak and they might fire her. She was crying and I felt so helpless. I told her never to forget that there are always people out there who love us. We told her we loved her and asked if she wanted a blessing. She had never heard of that so we taught her about it. And then I gave my first anointing in Lithuanian. Elder Young gave an amazing blessing and she cried again. It was a wonderful meeting and I know she felt the spirit. I love blessings when you can just phisicaly FEEL the priesthood. Its an amazing thing. Thing are really hard for Ingrida and I know it is going to test her faith. We are always tried before blessings. God wants to make sure we are dedicated. And essentialy we are showing to ourselves whether or not we are dedicated. I hope Ingrida continues to show faith in the Lord that things will work out if she just keeps the commandments he has asked of all of us.
We are still working with Vtenys. We are really trying to get him to church this week. But he is reading more so that is way good.
I want to just say now a few things about this wonderful mission. This week I got a nice big hug from a drunk man. It really threw me off. It is really wierd to live in a city like this. I love it but I see things that I am not used to seeing. Like the fact that the trash we threw out this morning is almost definatly been picked apart and compleatly sorted through by dumpster divers. Or how people sell mouthwash here in little booths on the street. Why? Because it costs 3 liets and bums cant always afford to buy alchahol at 5 liets so they buy mouthwash and drink it instead. It is really sad but it happens all the time here. I wish I could just help people see the joy that they can find in Christ. It is so hard becasue everybody here says they believe in Christ. Sometimes I wish they had never heard of him before but they have all been brought up Catholic. And it is really hard to convince somebody that they need to still follow christ but just change religions. They say, "I have everything i need and i dont need any more." They say that with a cigarette in thier mouth a beer in thier hand and they look more miserable than somebody who was just dragged through a potato field. It makes NO SENCE. And then they wonder why they are so unhappy. And those are the ones who will talk to us. Most see the word mormon on our copies of the Book of Mormon and immidiatly associate the words cult, sect, and darkness with us. The churches here all preach to hate us essentialy. When Missionarys first got here they published in the papers (under a picture of them singing hymns) SPRING WELCOMES AMERICAN CULT (who practices polygamy)
It is very frustrating. But I know that each person still deserves thir chance to hear this message. It makes sence that the true chuch of Christ would take the most heat from the world. Should we expect anything less. We should start getting worried if Satan stops working on us to make us miserable. That means he isnt worried about us. We want him to be scared out of wits becasue of us! ok enough ranting
This week was transfers and I am still in Vilnius with Elder Young (i am excited becasue of this) But a couple things. I need to get my Visa. I have this transfer for the government to accept my papers or else i will get deported to Ireland to join with thier mission until i do get my papers. Ireland would be cool but my language is bad enough without me leaving the country. I want to stay here. So give me a shout out in your prayer ok :)
Speaking of language. This sunday was kinda neat because President and Sister Dance came to Vilnius on Sunday and in sunday school the sisters were translating for sister dance and then all of a sudden they had to leave. I was not sitting in a stratigic location so i got to scoot down and take a stab at it. It was cool that I got that chance to translate for the last little bit of class.
Ok real quick. Thank you for sending the package i will let you know when you get it. ok thats all for me this week. Thank you all for your intrest in this little country across the world. Keep your prayers coming, we need them. I will keep sending mine back at you. I love you all.
Jusu, (yours)
Vyresnysis Kukas
We are still working with Vtenys. We are really trying to get him to church this week. But he is reading more so that is way good.
I want to just say now a few things about this wonderful mission. This week I got a nice big hug from a drunk man. It really threw me off. It is really wierd to live in a city like this. I love it but I see things that I am not used to seeing. Like the fact that the trash we threw out this morning is almost definatly been picked apart and compleatly sorted through by dumpster divers. Or how people sell mouthwash here in little booths on the street. Why? Because it costs 3 liets and bums cant always afford to buy alchahol at 5 liets so they buy mouthwash and drink it instead. It is really sad but it happens all the time here. I wish I could just help people see the joy that they can find in Christ. It is so hard becasue everybody here says they believe in Christ. Sometimes I wish they had never heard of him before but they have all been brought up Catholic. And it is really hard to convince somebody that they need to still follow christ but just change religions. They say, "I have everything i need and i dont need any more." They say that with a cigarette in thier mouth a beer in thier hand and they look more miserable than somebody who was just dragged through a potato field. It makes NO SENCE. And then they wonder why they are so unhappy. And those are the ones who will talk to us. Most see the word mormon on our copies of the Book of Mormon and immidiatly associate the words cult, sect, and darkness with us. The churches here all preach to hate us essentialy. When Missionarys first got here they published in the papers (under a picture of them singing hymns) SPRING WELCOMES AMERICAN CULT (who practices polygamy)
It is very frustrating. But I know that each person still deserves thir chance to hear this message. It makes sence that the true chuch of Christ would take the most heat from the world. Should we expect anything less. We should start getting worried if Satan stops working on us to make us miserable. That means he isnt worried about us. We want him to be scared out of wits becasue of us! ok enough ranting
This week was transfers and I am still in Vilnius with Elder Young (i am excited becasue of this) But a couple things. I need to get my Visa. I have this transfer for the government to accept my papers or else i will get deported to Ireland to join with thier mission until i do get my papers. Ireland would be cool but my language is bad enough without me leaving the country. I want to stay here. So give me a shout out in your prayer ok :)
Speaking of language. This sunday was kinda neat because President and Sister Dance came to Vilnius on Sunday and in sunday school the sisters were translating for sister dance and then all of a sudden they had to leave. I was not sitting in a stratigic location so i got to scoot down and take a stab at it. It was cool that I got that chance to translate for the last little bit of class.
Ok real quick. Thank you for sending the package i will let you know when you get it. ok thats all for me this week. Thank you all for your intrest in this little country across the world. Keep your prayers coming, we need them. I will keep sending mine back at you. I love you all.
Jusu, (yours)
Vyresnysis Kukas
Thursday, February 26, 2009
i wanted to say that i have contacted right there on the left side of that street. :)
Ok so a couple neat things, Ingrida (in-grid-uh) wants to get babtised! She doesn't have a specific date though. She wants to get babtised in the lake so she wants to do it when it warms up. Even though there was just a babtisim last week in the frozen river! But that is such an improvment for her, we are way excited. She doesnt know if she can give up tea and pay tithing though. Tea is a HUGE part of the culture here. They can still drink fruit tea but they love thier green and black tea. She has a wonderful heart though and we can see how much happier she is every time we talk to her. It's so great to see that. Also one of my first solo contacts, Vtenys (vi-ten-eece) accepted a babtisim date for the 21st of next month. He said he could give up drinking and smoking but not tea. AGH! It's ok though, we are going to keep working with him. He might not make his date becasue its hard for him to make it to church but he is going to try.
Transfers are next week! Holy cow I cant believe that my first transfer is almost done. Thats so crazy! I will probably stay here with Elder Young for my next transfer but you never know.
So there is a huge crisis here in Lithuania right now. the "crises" is on everybody's minds and so people always ask us about money. "Do you make money being a missionary?" "Can I be a missionary and make money?" Its silly. At least they aren't yelling at us EVERY time now :) It is always fun to have somebody say, "Eik tu sau!" which means essentially, Go to yourself! It's fun then you get a nice Baltic swat (they put thier arm up and swat it at you to say go away) and you go talk to the next guy. Its awesome. Its so great to see that I would never have had the courage to say the things to people that I am saying out here. Maybe its becasue its in a different language so I dont fully comprehend it but I think it is more of the Lord standing right next to me hoping just as much as I am that they will listen. It's like the picture of Christ knocking on the door. We have the name of Christ. We represent him. Just as we all do who are members of HIS church. We have taken upon us HIS name. This means we represent him to others. This means we need to live accordingly. We need to be worthy of that title. I am trying so hard to be more like Christ. Oh and here is something neat. My first name Jesse (it sounds weird to hear my first name) In Lithuanian they would drop the "se" and put on a Lithuanian ending so they can decline it. in this case the ending is "us" so my first name in Lithuanian is "Jesus" neat eh?
Well thats all for me this week. Thank you so much everybody for your letters. It helps me so much to receive your light every week. Thank you all for averything.
As' myliu jus su visa mano sirdami. niekada as negalu dekoti jums uz visa as turiu. Aciu labai uz jusu pagalba,. Tikrai myliu.
Vyresnysis Kukas
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Awesome week!/random tidbits
Brangus Seimas
That is so awesome about you all running the dam marathon. 5k Of course everybody waits until now to get into running. It should be a blast though, i will just run around my apartment at the same time so its like we are doing it together. That might be kind of annoying becasue it would be about 2 in the morning here.
Also cool is Paul going into the MTC! That is so awesome! Its fun, he will love it :)
All is well here in Lithuania :)
Its white! We have got some nice snow over the last couple days. Its been a nice change of scenery over the wet sloppy gray stuff we have had the last week or two. Also the 14th was Lithuanias Independance day. I should say that this whole year is going to be a little crazy because it is the 100th year of Lithuania. Apparently the oldest document recording Lithuania's name was found in 1009 in Germany so hence...the Tukstantus Metis (100th year) It is really a nice excuse for everybody to party hearty for tomorrow we die (kind of thing).
I did see, however, some interesting things on Independance Day. We got into some interesting apartments and I saw men so drunk in the middle of the city just falling to the ground and slowly try to get up just to fall back down. It was really sad and there really wasnt anything we can do. We tried to help one man who had taken up residence in the middle of the sidewalk just laying down. We tried to ask if everything was ok and he just mumbled (more than usual) some random vowels and passed out more or less. It was snowing outside and we didn't want to just leave him there but we couldnt do ANYthing to help him. There were a lot of them and I just felt hopeless (or helpless, im not sure). But yea, it was interesting.
ok i still have a lot to say to make up for last's week's short letter.
First off...DIGGIN THE TOASTY FEET INSOLES! They help a TON. It has been getting impressivly cold here. It will only be about 15 below 0 Celcius but it is so stinking cold because of the humidity. If there is any wind at all you just want to hold a torch to you face so you can move your lips to talk (ok i might be being a little dramatic, but it is cold, trust me)
second, I am learning how to cook finally. We dont cook regular Lithuanian dishes, mostly because they take forever. Most of what we make was invented by mighty Baltic missionarys here. Only because the ingrediance are interesting. Like milk for example. You can leave the milk here out of the fridge for years and it wont go bad. In fact, I dont think it ever goes bad. So thats Idomu.
oh Mother, Do you remember Chernobyl? The Nuclear power plant that blew up? Yea well her twin sister is here in Vilnius. An exact copy, so that is fun. Also when that other one exploded the fall-out cloud went right over the Baltics so that means, A: we cant eat fish here because they are radioactive. and B:I cant be an organ donor. Im not sure what the rule is on donating blood though.
Ok here is a funny story
So in English class we baked cookies for everybody as a little treat. After each class we teach a spiritual lesson. This week I lead the lesson. For being as terrible at the language as I am I actually wasnt that nervous as I thought I would be. I taught about the Holy Ghost and that if we merely seek for truth humbly then God will answer our prayers. I then got REALLY comfortable and told them God loved them and that I love them. Why else would i be here if I didnt know this was true and I wanted you to have this same message. I was defiantly not planning on telling my english class that I lvoed them but, hey, im a loving guy :) THe funny thing is was when an old lady came up to me after class and said, "Did you back these cookies?" I said yea and she asked me if I had a girlfriend! I said no and she said "You are going to make a very good husband. I have a daughter and maybe you would want to have friendship with her" It was so funny, we both started laghing but she then I realised she was still waiting for an answer. I told her thank you but im not allowed to do anything like that right now. It was so funny. She is meeting with some other elders right now and is showing a lot of progression.
We had Zone conference this week also! It was way cool to see all my old district. I am all alone here in Vilnius as far as that goes. President and Sister Dance are so amazing!(He was born in Idaho so of course,right?) I got a whole new resolve to get out there and work like crazy. We are working really hard on our investigators right now. We have about 3 or 4. We got stood up another 5 times last week so a potential of 10 new lessons and investigators went to 0. It was really frustrating but there is no sense in letting the poor choices of others bring us down and hinder our ability to spread the love of Christ to other people. WE (you too) are responsible to give people the opportunity to feel the power of this wonderful gospel. Missionarys are teachers not finders. Members are finders. (well here we are both because even though i have asked every member for referrals I have only gotten two in a month and they were from people on the street. Member referrals have never really exsisted here) UNTIL NOW right? Big things are ready to happen here. I can feel it. I will tell you a little more about our investigators next week, I have relaxed enough for one week. But for now please pray for:Edvanas,Andrus,Ingrida,Povolus, and Vtenys.
Thank you so much everybody for everything (I think that should cover it) I love you all
word of the week: Gailestingas-mercy
Myliu Jusu- Vyresnysis Kuk(ukas)<-domininative
That is so awesome about you all running the dam marathon. 5k Of course everybody waits until now to get into running. It should be a blast though, i will just run around my apartment at the same time so its like we are doing it together. That might be kind of annoying becasue it would be about 2 in the morning here.
Also cool is Paul going into the MTC! That is so awesome! Its fun, he will love it :)
All is well here in Lithuania :)
Its white! We have got some nice snow over the last couple days. Its been a nice change of scenery over the wet sloppy gray stuff we have had the last week or two. Also the 14th was Lithuanias Independance day. I should say that this whole year is going to be a little crazy because it is the 100th year of Lithuania. Apparently the oldest document recording Lithuania's name was found in 1009 in Germany so hence...the Tukstantus Metis (100th year) It is really a nice excuse for everybody to party hearty for tomorrow we die (kind of thing).
I did see, however, some interesting things on Independance Day. We got into some interesting apartments and I saw men so drunk in the middle of the city just falling to the ground and slowly try to get up just to fall back down. It was really sad and there really wasnt anything we can do. We tried to help one man who had taken up residence in the middle of the sidewalk just laying down. We tried to ask if everything was ok and he just mumbled (more than usual) some random vowels and passed out more or less. It was snowing outside and we didn't want to just leave him there but we couldnt do ANYthing to help him. There were a lot of them and I just felt hopeless (or helpless, im not sure). But yea, it was interesting.
ok i still have a lot to say to make up for last's week's short letter.
First off...DIGGIN THE TOASTY FEET INSOLES! They help a TON. It has been getting impressivly cold here. It will only be about 15 below 0 Celcius but it is so stinking cold because of the humidity. If there is any wind at all you just want to hold a torch to you face so you can move your lips to talk (ok i might be being a little dramatic, but it is cold, trust me)
second, I am learning how to cook finally. We dont cook regular Lithuanian dishes, mostly because they take forever. Most of what we make was invented by mighty Baltic missionarys here. Only because the ingrediance are interesting. Like milk for example. You can leave the milk here out of the fridge for years and it wont go bad. In fact, I dont think it ever goes bad. So thats Idomu.
oh Mother, Do you remember Chernobyl? The Nuclear power plant that blew up? Yea well her twin sister is here in Vilnius. An exact copy, so that is fun. Also when that other one exploded the fall-out cloud went right over the Baltics so that means, A: we cant eat fish here because they are radioactive. and B:I cant be an organ donor. Im not sure what the rule is on donating blood though.
Ok here is a funny story
So in English class we baked cookies for everybody as a little treat. After each class we teach a spiritual lesson. This week I lead the lesson. For being as terrible at the language as I am I actually wasnt that nervous as I thought I would be. I taught about the Holy Ghost and that if we merely seek for truth humbly then God will answer our prayers. I then got REALLY comfortable and told them God loved them and that I love them. Why else would i be here if I didnt know this was true and I wanted you to have this same message. I was defiantly not planning on telling my english class that I lvoed them but, hey, im a loving guy :) THe funny thing is was when an old lady came up to me after class and said, "Did you back these cookies?" I said yea and she asked me if I had a girlfriend! I said no and she said "You are going to make a very good husband. I have a daughter and maybe you would want to have friendship with her" It was so funny, we both started laghing but she then I realised she was still waiting for an answer. I told her thank you but im not allowed to do anything like that right now. It was so funny. She is meeting with some other elders right now and is showing a lot of progression.
We had Zone conference this week also! It was way cool to see all my old district. I am all alone here in Vilnius as far as that goes. President and Sister Dance are so amazing!(He was born in Idaho so of course,right?) I got a whole new resolve to get out there and work like crazy. We are working really hard on our investigators right now. We have about 3 or 4. We got stood up another 5 times last week so a potential of 10 new lessons and investigators went to 0. It was really frustrating but there is no sense in letting the poor choices of others bring us down and hinder our ability to spread the love of Christ to other people. WE (you too) are responsible to give people the opportunity to feel the power of this wonderful gospel. Missionarys are teachers not finders. Members are finders. (well here we are both because even though i have asked every member for referrals I have only gotten two in a month and they were from people on the street. Member referrals have never really exsisted here) UNTIL NOW right? Big things are ready to happen here. I can feel it. I will tell you a little more about our investigators next week, I have relaxed enough for one week. But for now please pray for:Edvanas,Andrus,Ingrida,Povolus, and Vtenys.
Thank you so much everybody for everything (I think that should cover it) I love you all
word of the week: Gailestingas-mercy
Myliu Jusu- Vyresnysis Kuk(ukas)<-domininative
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
One week wiser
ok fam dont hate me.
If i dont write much to the rest of you because i just wrote this big fat juicy letter and it just deleted it so.....yea...awesome.
ok so. This week was crazy. Its is always crazy here. Last week went very well. To give you an idea of what very well is here, we had 12 lessons last week 5 of them were new lessons. THAT is awesome :) However, this week didnt start so great(aside from this email fiasco) we had 5 NEW LESSONS set up yesterday!...and they all stood us up. So that was discouraging. BUT LET US ALL PRESS ON IN THE WORK OF THE LORD! I am getting more used to the people here. I have learned that they are just really straight up and honest with you. That just it. They dont beat around the bush. If they dont want to talk, they tell you. If they think you are the devil, they tell you. And when i heard of people getting the door slammed in their face I didnt realize it mean REALLY slamming the door really really hard and then procceding to lock up the 50 different locks and deadbolts they have. Its fun. But I absolutly love it here. I am really learning to love the people. The members here are so amazing. THere arent that many of them so it just shows how strong they are. I see every day how this is exactly where i need to be and i would trade it for ANYthing. I love Lithuania. I wouldnt want to be in any other mission in the world. Even in The Babtisim central of Brazil. I know its hard here (its hard everywhere) but i love the refining challenges of Lithuania. No beautiful statue was made by somebody throwing marshmallows at it for 30 minutes. It took a long period of polishing and refining. I can see myself becoming so much more. I cant make people accept the gospel but i can work on myself and make myself a better servant.
well gotta go bring others to Christ
word of the week:Stiprybe-strength
Myliu-Vyresnysis Kukas
If i dont write much to the rest of you because i just wrote this big fat juicy letter and it just deleted it so.....yea...awesome.
ok so. This week was crazy. Its is always crazy here. Last week went very well. To give you an idea of what very well is here, we had 12 lessons last week 5 of them were new lessons. THAT is awesome :) However, this week didnt start so great(aside from this email fiasco) we had 5 NEW LESSONS set up yesterday!...and they all stood us up. So that was discouraging. BUT LET US ALL PRESS ON IN THE WORK OF THE LORD! I am getting more used to the people here. I have learned that they are just really straight up and honest with you. That just it. They dont beat around the bush. If they dont want to talk, they tell you. If they think you are the devil, they tell you. And when i heard of people getting the door slammed in their face I didnt realize it mean REALLY slamming the door really really hard and then procceding to lock up the 50 different locks and deadbolts they have. Its fun. But I absolutly love it here. I am really learning to love the people. The members here are so amazing. THere arent that many of them so it just shows how strong they are. I see every day how this is exactly where i need to be and i would trade it for ANYthing. I love Lithuania. I wouldnt want to be in any other mission in the world. Even in The Babtisim central of Brazil. I know its hard here (its hard everywhere) but i love the refining challenges of Lithuania. No beautiful statue was made by somebody throwing marshmallows at it for 30 minutes. It took a long period of polishing and refining. I can see myself becoming so much more. I cant make people accept the gospel but i can work on myself and make myself a better servant.
well gotta go bring others to Christ
word of the week:Stiprybe-strength
Myliu-Vyresnysis Kukas
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