Week of the Seventh Variety

Sveiki,

Some suckers would be nice, but only a few, since we can only have them in the dorms.
We don't do service on P-day, besides going to the temple, but we have an assigned service deal on Mondays, we move stuff for the kitchen, kinda like Bishop's Storehouse, pretty fun.

Haha...I wish I could've been paid $100 for learning 10 hymns.

I got the Ensign, so no need to send it.

Alistair, we went out that window in Martin's class when I had her, so it's something that just happens. Sweet story though, quite humourous.

Have you found out what mission Ryan's going to?

Pictures, all of us, me with long hair...

Will you just send me winter stuff when I'm in Lithuania, that would probably be best.

We should be leaving on the June 7th, or that Monday, whatever it is. I think we leave at like 4 AM, but we don't have flight plans, so I don't know for sure. Were you going to send a calling card, or what should I do about that?


Alright, on Friday we had our first full day in Lithuanian. It was rough, but incredible how much we could actually say. We understood each other and actually it was way fun. By the end of the day though, we were all kinda out of it, just way exhausted. Dinner in lithuanian is 'vakariene' and Elder Hengst said it, but I heard macerena, so now we all sing 'Hey, vakariene' when it's time for dinner.

Thought of some interesting analogies/applications this week. One for truth, inspired by the verse in John 32:8, I think, ...The Truth shall set you free. Lies or anything false are chains that hold us bound unable to fully live our lives, but the Truth is the key to those chains of lies, unlocking them and giving us more freedom.

Also for Star Wars- the Force is like the Holy Ghost. It's all around us and able to be felt by everyone, as long as they are in tune. But only those who have studied and trained can use it to it's fullest potential, the Jedi. The Jedi are also given the role of Jedi, which can be related to the giving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Talked about how the truth will sound familiar to our investigators, it will seem like something they have heard before. An experience I have had myself when learning new things. Looks like Socrates had the right idea, ask questions because the truth is inside each of us.

It snowed like crazy the first half of Monday. A huge tree fell over in front of our building and the mailroom. Branches fell all over and they even announced that we should avoid walking under any tree branches since they might fall on our heads. Crazy.

In class one day we talked about the Atonement, approaching it from the perspective of what our world would be like without it. Was very interesting and thought provoking I had actually been thinking about something similar after reading in Alma 34, if I remember right. About how we need to be ressurrected to be judged and we need the atonement to be ressurrected, so without the Atonement nobody could recieve judgement or a Kingdom of Glory, loads of other things would be different as well, but that was just one that stuck out to me.

I am realizing how bizarre the English language is while learning Lithuanian. Especially when I want to translate a word or phrase. We have so many words with double and even completely contradictory meanings. English would be incredibly hard to learn as a second language.

Our district had the opportunity to host new missionaries this week. We help them with their bags and get them set up in their rooms, get some stuff from the bookstore and take them to their class. I actually got to be Elder Cody Jardine's host, which was pretty sweet. It was great to see him again and I think it really helped his mom deal with him leaving. Also hosted three other missionaries, went to some buildings I had never been in before, kinda exciting.

We spoke lithuanian most of yesterday as well and are doing another full day on Saturday. It really helps a lot, and being immersed in it will be incredible. I cannot believe I've been gone for seven weeks and head out to Lithuania in about 10 days, insane. But it will be awesome.

Love,

Vyresnysis Conor Hilton