Labutis

Hey fam/everybody,

    It was a fun week. We had a lot of interesting things happen, as always.

      I did a ton a squats this weekend so my legs are just hamburger. It was not a good idea. The weather has gotten a little warmer which was good but I feel its the last hurrah before we dive into winter. I can't believe it is already time to put our sweet coats on again. It should be only a few more weeks of just suits.

      Finding went well this week. We found 8 new lessons this week. I was amped about that. Taught some good people. Last week we had a cool expieriance. Elder Manning and I were trying to find a place to harvest and we were going to go to some apartments that we had our eye on but it just didnt feel right. We didn't say anything to each other but we just kept on walking. We walked right past them and found a big red building that just felt good. We went in and like always said a prayer in the staiwell and the third door we knocked on we found a beautiful family. They let us in and we had a wonderful lesson.

 The coolest old man in Lithuania. Mikolas. 

He feeds us every time we go to his house even though he is way old. He calls us his little brothers.

I ran an exchange here with Elder Graham and we found a way cool kid named Marijus. Way nice kid who shows a lot of promise. We had some interesting things happen with the branch this week. Members dieing/loosing testimonies/getting admitted to pschyc wards. It happens. But all is well and the week looks like it should be fun. I have some more exchanges I need to run and I have to go to Vilnius tommorrow so I can leave for Riga bright and early Wednesday morning. Lots of work but its the greatest time of my life. I love it but you should all know that by now. Thank you for everything. I love all of you too.

Elder JBCooke

Laba

Hey everyone. 

 some pictures of Laisves aleja

Thank you for the support and good letters. I appreciate them. Even if i totally fail to answer your questions and my letters seem to get less and less informative. And thank you for putting up with my spelling which has gone from terrible before my mission to almost absurd. Spell check helps though.

 The street where we do most of our contacting here in Kaunas.

We are working with the branch here in Kaunas a lot. I have been meeting with President Dance to discuss what should be done. Kaunas has had a lot of bad missionary work in the past so there are just lists and lists of inactives. It is a tough situation. It has made them a little wary of new converts. It is good because I was able to meet with the district president (stake president equiv.) and talk about how we can start to work better with the branch. We talked about using past experience to make good logical decisions but not letting it hamper my faith. Since I have been here I have seen 3 people get baptised and all three at one point fell away. I know, definitely not fun. Valentinas came back and is on the up and up which I am so grateful for. Due to branch and missionary efforts and people who truly care about that family. Sarunas is going through a tough time right now and i will have to explain all these stories when I get home. The point is I know I did my part and I can't be upset when people use their free agency. And I definately can't let that affect my faith for the future. If I have learned one thing out here I have learned that people have agency. I feel the spirit burning within me so I know that I am doing everything I need to be doing. I hope I can help translate that more to the branch here. I have to speak Sunday after next so it will be a good opportunity. We have to have faith always that people can change. Anybody can change. (see sermon at end of letter)

 A picture of Elder Manning & I at a members house here named Loreta (we call her  Bobaleta) 

The Missionary couple are the Morrels.

    Elder Manning is the right man for the job here as District Leader. He is a great learner and is ready to make any changes neccessary to be a better missionary. I couldn't ask for a better example. This week there isn't too much new to report.  So I will just do what I love to do, testify.

(*my sermon for today)

The gospel changes hearts. I have been so blessed to see the gospel work on people to turn them into different people. We all say,"we need to be true to ourselves" and although that is true in some aspects we can never use that as an excuse to keep ourselves away from being who we REALLY are, creatures of our God and King. WE are the creations of God. And as such we have a responsibility to be true to THAT truth and not all the bad habits and desires we have picked up during our time here on earth. That is not who we really are. It is a lesson I needed to learn myself and i am still trying to learn it. There is no excuse for sin and there is nothing good that comes from it. You dont need to sin to understand sin. C.S. Lewis stated, "Only the tree that stands against the wind knows its full power." We only understand what we are up against if we stand against it. Sinning distances one from God who is the source of all truth and light and therefore we become less educated and have a weaker understanding of everything as it really is. I have seen people come to that light and fall away, including myself and i have found a new understanding for the verse that wickedness never was happiness. When somebody is truly converted then it changes their whole perspective and it makes there previous life and selfish desires seem trivial and worthless. The gosple is good, "it tases good" as Joseph Smith would say. I love it and I love all of you. Look for truth not for excusses. Thank you all so much for everything.

The view out my apartment window

Laikykites

Elder Kukas

Transfers

Hey fam,

   Well, I have left my beautiful Vilnius. I am now in a new city with a new branch.  KAUNAS.
   I am with Elder Manning from Logan, Utah. He is an awesome kid who is way athletic. He actually has already signed with Utah State as a Quarterback.
  I am still a zone leader but i will not be with Elder Gearhart who is also still a zone leader and still in Vilnius with Elder Dellinger from our MTC group. Elder Gearhart and I are in Riga right now for zone leader council but I will be back in Kaunas tommorrow. I love Kaunas already. It is a nice change of sceanery. It has a beautiful old town and the people are way nice. It has gotten a bad rap from missionaries saying it is way ghetto which is partialy true but it is way beautiful as well. It just depends on what your looking for. Elder Gearhart says it's the best city in the baltics and what Elder Gearhart says is law. I'm way excited for the move. We have been finding a lot of people to teach and have been working hard. Everything is going really well. I am happy and healthy. Love you all.

Elder Cooke

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

Dear Fam

How are you all doing. I am just livid with jealous rage after seeing that Alaska trip picture. That looked way fun. 

 

We had a busy week this week. Elder Gearhart and I went to Klaipeda on an exchange. We took the train so i just slept to the whole way and read Jesus The Christ. I also had an exchange in Kaunas witch was way interesting. I have never served in Kaunas so it was fun to get to know the city. There will not be sacrament meeting next week because we will have the Kiev temple dedication. I am way excited for that. It is so wonderful to see a temple going up in the former Soviet Union. That is something of great value to the members here. Lithuania had 4 baptisms last week which was just wonderful. The mission is up to 14 this month and we are trying very hard for 19. pray for that if you could. It would be the most in a very very long time. Thank you for all your support. We are working hard and staying focused. I love you all.

 

 

 

Elder Cooke

Tired, But Happy

Well everyone,

   It was another fun week. I had to go to Šiauliai two times this week so we could run a baptisimal interview with a great family there. A family of three is all set to go this weekend. We are way excited. But two trips to Šiauliai just takes it out of you. A train takes about three hours and a bus back takes four hours so in two days I got to read Jesus the Christ for about fourteen hours on the bus. This week we have to go to Klaipėda so I can interview a father of a family who was recently baptised. He is a way great guy. I met him once and he will be great addition to the branch there. It will be more train rides however. Also this week I will get to go on an exchange to Kaunas wich will be fun because I have never served there before and it will be a fresh new city for me. I have been in Vilnius for almost seven transfers now. That about ten months. It's quite a city. I love it.

   We had Zone conference on monday. Thats why i didn't write. It was way fun. It was a little sad seeing how the next one in November will be the last one. President rent his shirt and made a title of liberty. It was sweet bacause he ripped of his shirt and buttons went everywhere but he had another shirt and tie underneath the one he ripped off. It was way cool. He got us all excited. Well. Thats all that is going on in my world. 

   I hear times are tough. Imagine that.

Keep the faith.

   I love you all tonz,

Elder Cooke   

Back in Vilnius

Hey everybody,                                                                    Monday August 9, 2010

   It is nice to be home after being gone to Riga for so long. It has been a little bit cooler which is very nice. We didn't have a very succesful week last week which was a little discouraging. Despite out efforts and due to a lot of meetings Elder Gearhart and I reported 1 lesson for the week. I am not excited about that but I know that we still fufilled our pourpose. The zone here is doing well. We have 6 baptismal dates set for this month which is just unreal. Elder Gearhart and I need to go to Šiauliai to do an interview for a family of 3 getting baptised the weekend after next. I am excited for that. I am grateful to see fruits as a mission even if it is not in my area. I know I am working hard even though things seem a little dry sometimes. It is hard to stay focused but I know it is betted to just get to work. I love it here and an excited for this week. It should be a lot of fun. Thank you for everything you do as my family and friends to support me. I love you all.

Elder Cooke