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)

Labukas

Hey Family,

Well, Its been a long week.
Thats the last time I ever have a baptisim on SUNDAY after church because then you have to wait all week long until the next Sunday for them to be confirmed a member of the church and get the holy ghost. Saturday night I had the prompting that Aurimas was going to need help getting to church the next day. We were visiting with Valentinas and his family and I told them to go to his house and get him for church. It turns out that his parents werent going to let him go to church that day as punishment for not getting his chores done. Valentinas and Irina convinced her that it was important that he goes and Aurimas showed up just in time to receive the gift of the holy ghost. I dont know what his family needs to hear so that they will be more supportive but there is just a lot of oppostition these days. Not just from Aurimas's family but Valentinas and his family are facing some major deamons right now. We do what we can but we are trying very earnestly to keep a missionary relationship with them. Its been difficult for this branch when missionaries are too good of friends with everybody and then they leave and the branch falls apart. I am petrified at the thought of me personaly causing damage to this branch when i will inevitably have to leave. But there is such a large piece of me that wants to do everything in my power to make peoples lives easier. It is an intrinsic battle that is difficult to win. If I dont help and something goes wrong, i feel the temptation to blame myself. If I help and something goes wrong I feel as though i could have done something different.
The lesson I have been learning is that we cant fix the world. We can only improve ourselves. We cant look at others and see how they should change. If we have the desire to please the Father then that is all He requires of us. We just need to please the Father. We can only do our best. It's hard for me to accept that all the time as you all know. Most likely you have all seen me be too hard on myself or on others. That isn't healthy. All we can do is our best and then look at ourselves and others with Christ- like love. In Lithuanian there is no word for charity. They say charity as "true love" or "Christ's love." We need charity. We are too good at judging. We practice it too much in our spare time. Let virtue garnish your thoughts at ALL times and in ALL places. Judging people is a selfish indulgence. Just always think to yourself. "How can I please the Father? Are these thoughts pleasing to the Father?" I promise you it will be easier for each one of you if you stop trying to put BLAME on people. Don't blame others or yourself for the evils of the world. We always seem to need an explanation for bad situations. Well if you really want one I will give you one. Satan.
Now move on and focus on CHRIST.
I say these things because i have had to fight a lot of my own personal deamons lately. It hasn't been the easiest recently. I dont say that very often but I am grateful for all of it because I can now testify stronger of the love of Christ and His tender mercys. I can testify of the power of prayer and the holy priesthood and of prompting and of angels. Its all true. Pray always. Kneel down and pray as if it all depends on God and then stand up and live as though it all depends on you. I love each one of you. You're all awesome. I would ask for your prayers for my companion and I. Thank you for all you do.




Elder Cooke

Aurimas got baptised! It was awesome.

President Gabalas performed the ordinance and our district president was even able to be there as well. Aurimas's road to baptisim has been so difficult and it came right down to the wire. We had a meeting with his mom to make sure everything was alright becasue Aurimas showed up to church with a hurt hand. We needed to get his mom to sign his baptisimal form and at the last minute she thought about not letting him be baptised. I said an earnest prayer and hoped her heart would be softened. It was, and she said she didn't understand why he was doing it but if thats what he wants then he can be baptised. I was very excited to hear that. This is a change he has been wanting to make for a long time. He used to run with a bad crowd and used to do alot of dumb things. He hasn't smoked or drank for 2 months now. He has a solid testimony. He has been talking alot about serving a mission and that has him and everybody else here excited. He still has 3 years until he turns 19 but that will give him some good time to prepare.



Other than that me and Elder Anderson are doing fine. It has been very quiet since we kind of run out of things to talk about after being together for so long.

This week at church we had 6 investigators come! 3 of them were a part of a family that comes to english class. We have been working earnestly with them for a couple months now and they finnaly invited us over for dinner. They are the sweetest little family ever. Pray for them. The mom and dad's name are Inga and Arnoldas. They would change this branch in SO many ways.
In other news you are all awesome. Sounds to me as though you all have everything under control. I am sorry i have been bad about birthdays and stuff but I just dont think about all that very often. So if i have missed a birthday or two...HAPPY BIRTHDAY/WEDDING/anything else you want to be HAPPY!
Thanks you for all your love and support. I gotta go, love you!

Elder Cooke

Su naujais metais!

With the new years!

2009 is gone. That just blows my brain. 2009 was my 1 FULL YEAR as a missionary. I cant believe it went as fast as it did. Guess that just means I have to put that much more into not wasting any time.
The New Year came and went without much ado. We even slept through the fireworks. THe mission had us inside for most of the days around new years because things tend to get a little out of control. The only realy interesting thing that happened was I heard somebody get slammed into our door. You know me, I was curious so i went and looked out the peephole and watch our female neighbor punch a guy in the face. There was some other people that showed up and they all wrestled around but nobody died so That was good.
Recently the only rattling thing that has happened is I was a little concerned about my health earlier. I started getting frequent headaches for that last few months. They would come about- in the afternoons and would just rock my world. I think it has a lot to do with the weather. We are inside knocking doors more often because of the bitter cold and i just need to be outside i think. But then i started getting frequent nosebleeds (sometimes 6 a day) but that usually happens to me in the winter. Valentinas and his family didnt like that answer however. They started praying thier gutz out. THey are just so darn faithful. I told them not to worry about it but they said they were going to take me to the hospital. I wouldn't let them so they told me TAU REIKIA NUSIZEMINTI! or YOU NEED TO HUMBLE YOURSELF! I just laughed. They thought it was my blood pressure so i said if they could get one of those little blood pressure checker things then i would let them do that. Well it turns out they HAD one and i let them check and it turned out i am about as healthy as they come. So honestly I dont know why i have been sick lately but it is something i can work through. I have been getting really tired lately but once i walk outside it usually wakes me right up. I like it when I am tired because it means i must be doing something right.
Ok now for some intense miricals. I am going to be sharing some very powerful things that have happened in this last week. I can honestly say that this last week could be one of the most spiritual weeks of my life. It started one night with a dream. I dreamed that I saw a woman who just embodied love and caring. She was giving a lecture and I was intently listening. SHe then stopped and came up to me. The sat next to me and pointed to a man i recognised as Marius, a recent convert here. She said that he needs help and that i should help him in "real life." The next morning I told my companion and we gave him a call. We had recently been to his house and it was just a mess. We set up a time when we could go over and help him clean up. In short we took his house from compleatly unlivable to decent. We did what we could. But the mirical is that in helping him we found some things in his apartment that showed some things we need to review in the missionary lessons. Also Marius has alot of trouble reaching out and asking for help. While redoing his floor i taught him that we need to accept help sometimes. Even our Prophet has councilers. We dont need to get through life alone. He came to church this last Sunday and he had an entirely different countinance. He looked like he had a little more light in him.
January 2, 2010 will be a day a never ever forget. The entire day i had many buffetings from the advisary. And while blessing my egg drop soup i prayed. I didnt "say a prayer" but I PRAYED. I didnt know what to say or what to ask for. I just said, "Teve, tu zinai mano sirdi, prasau padek man surasti pagalbos" or "Father, you know my heart. Help me find some help." I was then prompted to go read from the New Testiment. I read from Colossians ch3.

"9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the bold man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

Those words hit me in a way I cannot describe. I was filled with the spirit and i realized how much of my life has been wasted as the "old man" I knew I needed to make changes in my life. I knew i needed to become somebody else. We say often "You need to be yourself" well...how do we know who ourselves are? Our "selves" are eternal. Not just on this mortal plain. We dont know ourselves. We dont know who we were before this life. In all actuality we are fighting to "Become" ourselves again. I need to be different. I understand that on a different level now. In the ponderings of those verses, God saw fit to reveal some heavy truths to me of who I need to become in this life. I will say that there is alot of work in from of me. But i know that CHRIST IS ALL and in him we find ALL rightousness. ALL means 100%. I am currently reading the BOOK OF MORMON only marking the word "all". It makes you look at the word "all" differently. ...Serve with ALL your heart mind and strength. ...Leave behind ALL personal affairs. It is invigorating. I love it. I feel a new resolve to do this year right and then to keep going past that. But we need to start small. Watch the words you say. Watch your actions. I have had the pleasure of other dreams since that first one and i will save that for other days. Maybe i will tell you those ones in person. I feel closer to my Heavenly Father now than I have ever had. It saddens me that it took so long. But I know life is a process and I know that there is still so much I can learn. I am so excited to learn.
Thank you for "ALL" you do and have done in my life. I love you "ALL" with "ALL" of my heart.


Su meile
Vyresnysis Kukas

p.s. This is the new mission home address:
Cesu 31-2K2
LV-1012 Riga
Latvia

to write me letters use this pouch address/fold letter and tape & mail with a regular stamp:
Elder Jesse Bergman Cooke
Baltic Mission
P.O.Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT. 84130-0150

Linkiu visiems Geru Metu!

(I wish you all a good year!)

Hey fam
I was fun/interesting/weird/awesome to talk to all of you! I wish we could have had more time but i am thankful for what we had. Crazy to think that we only get one more of those. But I wont need to write very long so I can get to some other people i haven't had a chance to write lately. Everything here is going great.
We went to another orphanage. It was an amazing expieriance. I will just say right now. No matter what any of you are going through right now remember THIS. God loves you and he has blessed you IMMENSLY. There are many people here who cannot fathom the life you live. You can make it through your trials.
Christmas was wonderful. I Hope you liked your gifts.
As for the work, things are going great. It has been hard to find people.
But Aurumas is already reading in MOSIAH chapter 26! I am so excited for him. Valentinas and his family is so good with him. They are having him over for new years.
It has been hard for him to give up drinking and smoking. He has been eating and drinking lots of milk he said. It was hard for him to stop drinking black and green tea but he is holding strong thus far. He will get baptised. God has done a lot for his path to cross with us time and time again. God doesn't waste time. He is such a good kid. All he says is that he wants to do is stop drinking and smoking.
Other than that everything is going normaly here. Me and Elder Anderson are doing good. You learn a lot about a person when you are with them 24/7 . Its fun.
Thank you for the Pictures. I love seeing pictures of friends and family .
I love you all With allllllll my heart. Thank you for everything.

Happy new year
Elder Cooke

Su Kaledomis

Merry CHRISTmas!

Well I guess i wont have to write much today because i will be talking to all of you on friday. I will just give you all a little update on what we did this week.
We started up english classes again. The other cities in Lithuania are all going to wait until after the holidays but me and Elder Anderson wanted to get right to work so I went and put some ads in the papers and we got things rolling. Since there are only two of us I will be teaching first class english by myself again. Elder Anderson will be teaching 2nd level. We met for the first time yesterday. I asked my class what they wanted right now for enlgish. THey said they want to be able to have basic communication skills and be able to understand alot of what people say. I told them if they commit to some rules they could do that i a month. They wanted to know how I learned to speak Lithuanian and they want to do THAT. So i said, " Ok if thats how you want to learn first things first, lets apply the first principals of the gospel." I told them that they must apply first FAITH. Then i said the need to humble themselves (subtle right?) A hardened heart can't learn to do anything. And then I put them on an SYL program. Anybody who has served a mission recently knows what that is. SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE! They have to each speak English at least 1 hour each day. I wanted to make them do more but i am going to go easy for now. They are all really excited and i think we are all going to see some real progress.
Second thing that need to be taken care of this week was closing down an appartment. We had an apartment that nobody was living in. I needed to close one but before I did that I called the landlord of our current appartment and told him if he could cut our rent down I would just go ahead and close the other apartment with no negotiation. I dropped our monthly payments by 150.00 litas. I was excited about that for sure. THen came the fun process of closing down the other apartment. I know this might be boring but it just shows what kind of mission this is. Since there are so many languages people in the office can't take care of stuff like this so the missionarys do. THe part that made this difficult was the fact that my companionship has done the visa work for missionarys coming into the contry in THAT apartment. This means i have to transfer missionaries visa records to another appartment through the government. It's just a fun process ofr everybody but it is going to save the mission alot of money each month. And you all know i find this kind of stuff fun and interesting.
Something not so fun happened this week. Aurumas's step dad isn't being very east to work with. He is not allowing Aurumas to go to church as far as we can tell. We are still working with him. He still hasn't smoked or drank. YEA!
Me and Elder Anderson went to an orphanage yesterday. It was such a great expieriance. We sang for them and I juggled to SHeDAISY. Elder Anderson talked like Donald duck then I played a couple songs on the piano. I was way fun and the kids loved it. Afterwards we gave them a buch of candy. We have been eating potato soup the last few days so we could afford to buy all this candy for the kids and members. Me and Elder Anderson have committed ourselves to spending a lot less money because we really are taken care of very well. I have already contacted the director of another orphanage here in siauliai that we are going to go to with some members on Christmas. We are excited.
Well I guess I have turned a short email into a long one. Sorry. I will talk to you an Friday.
Love you!!!


Elder Cooke

History in Siauliai

Hi Family-


The star I made for our little Christmas tree out of a paperclip

An angel I made from a 2 cent piece.


Well, Transfers have come in and I am here in Siauliai with Elder Anderson, and that is everyone there is in the District. Elder Porter left and now it is just us two Elders in the city of Siauliai. This has never happened before in this mission. Not just that there are only two missionaries in a city but that this forms our entire district.
President Dance has asked that I be the "district" leader even though my district consists of me and my companion. Me and Elder Anderson both have strong relationships with the members here. The Lord has a very special purpose for us this transfer and I want to make sure it gets done. I have already been here in Siauliai for 6 months and Elder Anderson for 3. He has been on his mission for a year and a half and me for 13 months. He is a great Elder. I have served either with him or in his district for 6 months out here. We have formed a great friendship and we are both excited and ready to work.
This is a great work with great responsabilities.

Siauliai has over 129 thousand people living here and Elder Anderson and I have the keys to find, teach, and baptise with water and fire. I am so excited to be alive. I love challenges like the one President Dance has presented us with. And change is already being made.
Our Branch President here just got a temple recommend. Elder Anderson and I have been working so hard with him and that news made us so happy. After his interview he held it up for me to see. After I saw it I ran over and gave him the biggest hug I could.
Aurumas set a date to be baptised on New Years day. It will be a miracle if he makes it through the hollidays without falling into the snares of the advisary. Pray for him.

Our 1st level English Class.
Valentinas, my friend in the hat and newest convert to the church has the priestood and is still helping me teach spiritual thoughts in my English Class. There is a family in our class that is beggining to be interested in our church. Skaiste is getting ready to be married in the temple. There are so many wonderful things just ready to happen here. Please dont stop praying. Me and my companion will need all of your prayers through these coming weeks and months. The people here need it. I hope its hard because "Satan dont kick no dead dogs". He is near when change for good is about to happen.
If he isnt trying to bring you down its because he doesn't need to try anymore.
Recognize opposition for what it is and push through. Change, grow, and help others to change and grow. Lets do this.


Elder Cooke