Sveiki!
Glad everyone seems to be doing well, I'll answer questions first.
No, I haven't baptized anyone, we had zero investigators in the area when we started, so we have been working on finding people to teach.
The traditional Lithuanian food we ate last week was delicious, zeppelinai are balls of meat made into dumplings from potatoes, they are great, very filling, but fantastic.
Other than that we usually make American food, which is good, the stores have pretty much anything you would want in America. They have loads of juices here I had some Cactus juice this week which was quite tasty. I also ate a Snickers, since I had heard they were better in Lithuania, which is true. It was way good. I also had a Lion bar, which isn't Lithuanian, but European, quite good.
Investigators- we had a couple return appointments this week, one was really good, with Chandler, a man from India who has been living here for 4 years. He really recognized the importance of finding out if what we said was true, which is usually something not realized right off the bat. The other was not so good. He only came back to return the Book of Mormon and tell us that all religion is nonsense and that no one needs it. We talked for a fair bit with him trying to help him see the need for religion and how it can bless and help our lives, but in the end we just told him to pray about what we had said, to find out for himself if it is true, and then if he was interested to call us.
Preparation days we buy groceries, email, eat someplace as a district, probably Can Can Pizza today, some european pizza, and then do a little shopping if we have time. Oh, Elder Cooke (whose last trainee did occasionally call him Elder Cookie, so Ella you were right on the money) has been working on gaining weight, so eating a ridiculious(spelled somehow different than this) amount. Anyway he has gained like eight pounds in a week, but he doesn't fit this suit that he bought here anymore, so he sold it to me, for a little less than he bought it, which is roughly $55 in America, it fits me perfectly and it's European, so the pants are just incredible, I don't know if I can ever be satisfied wearing American style pants again.
I haven't been inside any Cathedrals, walk past a bunch everyday. Might go visit a few today, some are crazy awesome looking from the outside. No other site seeing really.
This week we did an exchange in Šauliai, so rode the train there, it's a smaller city than Vilnius, reminded me of Idaho Falls a bit actually, but Lithuanian. Was interesting to see a different city and be with other missionaries, just to see how different everyone is.
Had a crazy miracle this week, so I was teaching Skydmantas piano, some Hymn with sharps, and he said something bout sharps being weird or useless, so I said I could show him a song played with all sharps after the lesson, the song being Sweet Child O Mine by Guns 'N' Roses. Then he asked me to teach him how to play it, I said if you come to Church, I'll teach you. He said if I taught him, he would come to Church, so I wrote it down, showed him how to play it a couple more times and incredibly he was at Church on Sunday (Sekmadeini). He's been totally inactive for a long time, and the missionaries hve tried for like 18 weeks (3 transfers) to get him back to Church.
Some funny things that happened: a lady told us that we were wasting our time as missionaries, but should become priests and follow the living Christ. We were such kind, devoted, young men that we could be such good priests. We explained to her that we did in fact believe in and follow Christ, and that this was the best thing that we could be doing with our lives and that we knew that we were doing what Christ wanted us to do.
A man asked us if we were drunk, when we said we knew Christ was our savior and important to us.
When we contacted a man, he said he needed money, to which we responded we didn't have any, but we wanted to talk with him about Christ and faith, he then repeated that he needs money to do business, no money no business, then in broken English repeated that phrase, we said goodbye and walked off.
While harvesting, when we asked someone if he would be interested in talking to us, he responded with yes, thank you and then shut his door.
A lot of drunk kids yelled at us, generally swearing in Russian, which I didn't understand, Elder Cooke just said that it was very bad.
Contacting this week was hard from Thursday-Sunday because it was a holiday here, Jonis, I think- a pagan holiday given some Catholic Saint's name to make it allowable, but essentially all Lithuanians go camping in the woods and just drink for four days. But it was really like everyone was gone, we talked to some people but almost everyone in the city spoke no LIthuanian and were tourists from all over.
This week I've been thinking about the Atonement and why it includes all pains, sickness, temptation, and any problems we have, that aren't sins to require repentance. I haven't found a definite answer, I know that because he did he is able to comfort all of us equally, but that's more of an end result, not a reason why it happened. Also I thought of the atonement being an equalizer, bringing everyone to the same level, not matter what their problems are, with the Atonement, everyone is equaly capable of choosing right, it might be harder for some to reach that point, because of past decisions, but starting from birth, the Atonement enables all to be equal, evening out the world, there is no unfairness in that sense.
Oh, Alistair could you either email or mail some other little pieces of songs for the piano that I could teach Skydmantas? Ačiu labai.
Wish all of you the best I pray for you and appreciate your prayers for me.
Love,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
PS Here's where you can send mail to me in Vilnius:
Elder Conor Hilton
A/D 3438
LT-01011 Vilnius
Lithuania
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
...No Title this week
Labas Visiems! (Hello to All)
The week just flew by, I feel like I just wrote like yesterday, crazy. I taught the piano lesson and taught another one this week. It's nice to have a zone leader for a companion, kinda odd, since he has a lot of leadership stuff he needs to do, that I don't, but it's good in that we talk to the other missionaries in Vilnius a fair amount. That's great about Porter, that will be excellent.
We cook our own food, except for Preparation days when we eat out with our district out somewhere, today we are going to eat some traditional Lithuanian food, should be delicious. Elder Cooke ran cross country in high school, but I don't think running is his favorite sport, he does enjoy volleyball. Yes we have taught people, we had 6 new investigators this week, hopefully we'll be able to meet with them again this coming week and we can start to have some progressing investigators.
It's been raining a ton, which is bizarre for me, since Idaho is not really a place where it rains, but it's good, harder to contact and teach people in the rain which is frustrating, but it's not terrible. This week we worked on bus contacting, where we usually start by finding a younger male, because they will probably speak English, and then asking either a question about Lithuanian, or asking if we could practice with them. This wasn't the most easy thing since I generally don't speak a lot in ENglish, let alone in Lithuanian, to people that I don't know at all, but it was good and most people are quite helpful. Although I was told 'I don't like talking to people' and 'Not really', which was kinda funny.
Had an exchange with Elder Warner this week, we went harvesting and a very drunk man wouldn't let us leave without coming in to his house, we said no about a bajillion times, but finally we walked in, he showed us his sick wife, who sucked on her gums, and then we walked out. Super weird, crazy how when people are drunk they just have so little control over themselves, which I quess is probably one of the main reasons God, doesn't want us to drink, we lose agency. We also 'taught', in quotations because I'm not sure if we taught anything or were spoken at by the people we contacted, a couple gentlemen who only wanted to share their ideas, which is interesting to a certain extent, but not the reason I came to Lithuania. Listening is important, but needs to happen on both sides the missionaries and the person being taught.
Oh, the majority of this week Elder Cooke only spoke Lithuanian, which was intense, but good. I feel like I usually understand most of what people say, but sometimes we talk to people who like to philosophize, which usually leads to me being confused and no headway, which is unfortunate because questioning things is really how we come to know truth and discover more things, but you need to involve God and be open to the possibility that what you think is wrong.
Lithuania is amazing, I already feel at home here. This week we had some 'zuko' a drink similar to Kool Aid, but you don't need to add sugar and it tastes better, it's miraculous. There is loads of different juices here, had some melon-apple juice, which tasted like I would imagine a drink made from Starbursts would taste- incredible.
Been thinking about time and what it's like for God, not a ton because it boggles my mind, but a bit, trying to understand a little better the nature of God's omniscience and omnipresence. But if you think about prophecy from God's perspective, it's really lame, like me saying that right now as you read this you are reading this, it's just a 'duh' statement, but because we have such a narrowed, constantly changing view of time prophecy is incredible. How can someone be able to predict what will happen in an hundred years? It's crazy, but time doesn't ever expand, it's like a giant ocean that God sees all of, we are just sailing through fog only able to see what happens immediately. Anyway, that's just my little thought provoking bit for the week.
Thanks to all of you, I pray for you daily and appreciate your prayers. I know that this is the same church that Christ established on the earth, and that we can be led to people, by ways we don't understand- while bus contacting we ended up far away from where we usually would be and then taught a lesson to a guy, who was very receptive and otherwise we never would've met. I know that we can be able to understand and increase our knowledge and meaning in life, by study and the help of the Holy Ghost.
Love to all of you,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
PS I am writing this from the US Embassy, which is pretty exciting. One of the phones went off and it sounds exactly like the ringing of phones at the site, weird. Also had to get a badge and walk through a metal detector, so really was reminiscent of working at the INL.
The week just flew by, I feel like I just wrote like yesterday, crazy. I taught the piano lesson and taught another one this week. It's nice to have a zone leader for a companion, kinda odd, since he has a lot of leadership stuff he needs to do, that I don't, but it's good in that we talk to the other missionaries in Vilnius a fair amount. That's great about Porter, that will be excellent.
We cook our own food, except for Preparation days when we eat out with our district out somewhere, today we are going to eat some traditional Lithuanian food, should be delicious. Elder Cooke ran cross country in high school, but I don't think running is his favorite sport, he does enjoy volleyball. Yes we have taught people, we had 6 new investigators this week, hopefully we'll be able to meet with them again this coming week and we can start to have some progressing investigators.
It's been raining a ton, which is bizarre for me, since Idaho is not really a place where it rains, but it's good, harder to contact and teach people in the rain which is frustrating, but it's not terrible. This week we worked on bus contacting, where we usually start by finding a younger male, because they will probably speak English, and then asking either a question about Lithuanian, or asking if we could practice with them. This wasn't the most easy thing since I generally don't speak a lot in ENglish, let alone in Lithuanian, to people that I don't know at all, but it was good and most people are quite helpful. Although I was told 'I don't like talking to people' and 'Not really', which was kinda funny.
Had an exchange with Elder Warner this week, we went harvesting and a very drunk man wouldn't let us leave without coming in to his house, we said no about a bajillion times, but finally we walked in, he showed us his sick wife, who sucked on her gums, and then we walked out. Super weird, crazy how when people are drunk they just have so little control over themselves, which I quess is probably one of the main reasons God, doesn't want us to drink, we lose agency. We also 'taught', in quotations because I'm not sure if we taught anything or were spoken at by the people we contacted, a couple gentlemen who only wanted to share their ideas, which is interesting to a certain extent, but not the reason I came to Lithuania. Listening is important, but needs to happen on both sides the missionaries and the person being taught.
Oh, the majority of this week Elder Cooke only spoke Lithuanian, which was intense, but good. I feel like I usually understand most of what people say, but sometimes we talk to people who like to philosophize, which usually leads to me being confused and no headway, which is unfortunate because questioning things is really how we come to know truth and discover more things, but you need to involve God and be open to the possibility that what you think is wrong.
Lithuania is amazing, I already feel at home here. This week we had some 'zuko' a drink similar to Kool Aid, but you don't need to add sugar and it tastes better, it's miraculous. There is loads of different juices here, had some melon-apple juice, which tasted like I would imagine a drink made from Starbursts would taste- incredible.
Been thinking about time and what it's like for God, not a ton because it boggles my mind, but a bit, trying to understand a little better the nature of God's omniscience and omnipresence. But if you think about prophecy from God's perspective, it's really lame, like me saying that right now as you read this you are reading this, it's just a 'duh' statement, but because we have such a narrowed, constantly changing view of time prophecy is incredible. How can someone be able to predict what will happen in an hundred years? It's crazy, but time doesn't ever expand, it's like a giant ocean that God sees all of, we are just sailing through fog only able to see what happens immediately. Anyway, that's just my little thought provoking bit for the week.
Thanks to all of you, I pray for you daily and appreciate your prayers. I know that this is the same church that Christ established on the earth, and that we can be led to people, by ways we don't understand- while bus contacting we ended up far away from where we usually would be and then taught a lesson to a guy, who was very receptive and otherwise we never would've met. I know that we can be able to understand and increase our knowledge and meaning in life, by study and the help of the Holy Ghost.
Love to all of you,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
PS I am writing this from the US Embassy, which is pretty exciting. One of the phones went off and it sounds exactly like the ringing of phones at the site, weird. Also had to get a badge and walk through a metal detector, so really was reminiscent of working at the INL.
Monday, June 14, 2010
First Week Abroad!
Svieki!
Let's see where to start.
Well I left the MTC, finally. Flew on many airplanes, hung out in airports, talked to some people- one lady from Bakersfield CA, who was going to look some more into the Church from a friend when she got home.
Well last Tuesday we arrived in Riga Latvia. Spent the day there, we went contacting on the street, paired with missionaries in Riga, speaking English, since I don't know Latvian or Russian. Was good, had a lesson with a kid that had been contacted eariler about the restoration and set a baptismal date and then found out that he doesn't smoke or drink which is incredible, especially here. It was pretty sweet. We spent the night in the mission home and then in the morning packed up, talked with Pres and Sis Dance about some stuff and then got our assignments.
I am in Vilnius serving with Elder Cooke, from Teton Valley, ID. Elder Hengst is also in Vilnius and Sis Aldredge and Elder Sanford are in Kaunas. Elder Cooke and Elder Gearhart, Elder Hengst's Companion, are the zone leaders, pretty crazy, both of them have been out a year and a half.
Elder Cooke and I are serving in an area that had previously only been occupied by Sisters, so we are starting from scratch, zero progressing investigators, zero potential investigators, everything- since all the people the Sisters were going to teach are sisters, who we need another priesthood holder to teach, which is difficult to find.
Wed we got on a bus and rode up to Vilnius, about 4 hrs from Riga. Then I met Elder Cooke, we went to our apartment, which has a doorknob and lock in the middle of the door, just like a hobbit door, and then we got some food, ate a bit and went out harvesting, door knocking.
When you door knock here, it's usually in these 'domes' they're called, but tall buildings with three doors on a floor, cement, from when Russia occuppied the country, but that's pretty much how everyone lives. Most people didn't answer or quickly told us they weren't interested, we got an 'eik sau!', which is a rather rude way of telling people to get away, direct translation is 'go to yourself'. We also harvested a rather drunk man, who answered and then said he would be right back, he came out with a cigarrette, so we went to the bench just outside the door and talked to him. He asked where we were from said America, then Idaho. He then bothered us to find out the capital of IDaho because he didn't believe that it was Boise. He also offered to get us some heroin and weed from a Russian who walked by. Then we tried for 5 -10 min to say we had to go before he let us leave, but not before we said goodbye like men- we clasped hands bumped chests and then hugged, like mafia style.
The rest of the week we contacted, taught 3 lessons on the street on Thursday and Friday. Was great. Also on Thursday taught a less-active Skydmantas, also taught a piano lesson to him, was pretty exciting. One of our lessons was with a half lithuanian from Las Vegas, was really good, we talked for probably about an hour- he was really interested, and especially into the idea of the pride circle and how true it seemed, it really clicked with him. He also offered to give us the book he is writing about Lithuania, for free when we got back.
Saturday was zone conference, good to see a bunch of missionaries and have a little break from contacting all day. We talked about the importance of thinking 'success thoughts', which was a little edging towards the kind of stuff that I usually would make fun of, but when applied to misionary work, was actually useful. First we as missionaries need to think successfully, and use that to encourage us to talk to people, even if they are going to rather delibrately flip you off, yeah that happened as well, but also that the use of positive reinforcement with investigators, we need to focus on the positive, that is much more effective than just telling people- if you don't get baptized, you'll burn in hell, i mean who wants to get told that? and it often brings out a kinda 'i'll show you' attitude, desire to just prove you wrong. Good to always remember.
Sunday was crazy. Elder Hengst and I spoke, in Lithuanian, which was crazy. Church was rough, it mostly just flew over my head and I sat in a confused state for three hours. But I did understand little bits and pieces which was great. Then our bathroom door got locked somehow from the inside and then while closed the sink turned on, crazy, but the landlord came over and unlocked it- with a razor and screwdriver.
This morning we played frisbee, which was sweet. Oh, a couple days ago we were talking to some kids who just wanted to argue/philosophize with us, a lot like some debators, not truly open to new ideas, just desiring to prove you wrong, whatever you say. But then a girl came up to us and gave us each a little clear marble, then left. We finally got away from the kids, since it wasn't spiritual and then she runs after us and gives us some ice cream she had bought. We asked why she gave us the marbles and she said 'for your mood, because not enough people are smiling'. Bizzaro, but interesting.
Thanks for the news, it's always great to hear from people, if you use dearelder.com then I'll get it within about six weeks, but it's free, and letters usually take about a week to get here, just send everything to the mission office and it'll get to me. I pray for you and appreciate your prayers. If you have any questions let me know.
Love,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
Let's see where to start.
Well I left the MTC, finally. Flew on many airplanes, hung out in airports, talked to some people- one lady from Bakersfield CA, who was going to look some more into the Church from a friend when she got home.
Well last Tuesday we arrived in Riga Latvia. Spent the day there, we went contacting on the street, paired with missionaries in Riga, speaking English, since I don't know Latvian or Russian. Was good, had a lesson with a kid that had been contacted eariler about the restoration and set a baptismal date and then found out that he doesn't smoke or drink which is incredible, especially here. It was pretty sweet. We spent the night in the mission home and then in the morning packed up, talked with Pres and Sis Dance about some stuff and then got our assignments.
I am in Vilnius serving with Elder Cooke, from Teton Valley, ID. Elder Hengst is also in Vilnius and Sis Aldredge and Elder Sanford are in Kaunas. Elder Cooke and Elder Gearhart, Elder Hengst's Companion, are the zone leaders, pretty crazy, both of them have been out a year and a half.
Elder Cooke and I are serving in an area that had previously only been occupied by Sisters, so we are starting from scratch, zero progressing investigators, zero potential investigators, everything- since all the people the Sisters were going to teach are sisters, who we need another priesthood holder to teach, which is difficult to find.
Wed we got on a bus and rode up to Vilnius, about 4 hrs from Riga. Then I met Elder Cooke, we went to our apartment, which has a doorknob and lock in the middle of the door, just like a hobbit door, and then we got some food, ate a bit and went out harvesting, door knocking.
When you door knock here, it's usually in these 'domes' they're called, but tall buildings with three doors on a floor, cement, from when Russia occuppied the country, but that's pretty much how everyone lives. Most people didn't answer or quickly told us they weren't interested, we got an 'eik sau!', which is a rather rude way of telling people to get away, direct translation is 'go to yourself'. We also harvested a rather drunk man, who answered and then said he would be right back, he came out with a cigarrette, so we went to the bench just outside the door and talked to him. He asked where we were from said America, then Idaho. He then bothered us to find out the capital of IDaho because he didn't believe that it was Boise. He also offered to get us some heroin and weed from a Russian who walked by. Then we tried for 5 -10 min to say we had to go before he let us leave, but not before we said goodbye like men- we clasped hands bumped chests and then hugged, like mafia style.
The rest of the week we contacted, taught 3 lessons on the street on Thursday and Friday. Was great. Also on Thursday taught a less-active Skydmantas, also taught a piano lesson to him, was pretty exciting. One of our lessons was with a half lithuanian from Las Vegas, was really good, we talked for probably about an hour- he was really interested, and especially into the idea of the pride circle and how true it seemed, it really clicked with him. He also offered to give us the book he is writing about Lithuania, for free when we got back.
Saturday was zone conference, good to see a bunch of missionaries and have a little break from contacting all day. We talked about the importance of thinking 'success thoughts', which was a little edging towards the kind of stuff that I usually would make fun of, but when applied to misionary work, was actually useful. First we as missionaries need to think successfully, and use that to encourage us to talk to people, even if they are going to rather delibrately flip you off, yeah that happened as well, but also that the use of positive reinforcement with investigators, we need to focus on the positive, that is much more effective than just telling people- if you don't get baptized, you'll burn in hell, i mean who wants to get told that? and it often brings out a kinda 'i'll show you' attitude, desire to just prove you wrong. Good to always remember.
Sunday was crazy. Elder Hengst and I spoke, in Lithuanian, which was crazy. Church was rough, it mostly just flew over my head and I sat in a confused state for three hours. But I did understand little bits and pieces which was great. Then our bathroom door got locked somehow from the inside and then while closed the sink turned on, crazy, but the landlord came over and unlocked it- with a razor and screwdriver.
This morning we played frisbee, which was sweet. Oh, a couple days ago we were talking to some kids who just wanted to argue/philosophize with us, a lot like some debators, not truly open to new ideas, just desiring to prove you wrong, whatever you say. But then a girl came up to us and gave us each a little clear marble, then left. We finally got away from the kids, since it wasn't spiritual and then she runs after us and gives us some ice cream she had bought. We asked why she gave us the marbles and she said 'for your mood, because not enough people are smiling'. Bizzaro, but interesting.
Thanks for the news, it's always great to hear from people, if you use dearelder.com then I'll get it within about six weeks, but it's free, and letters usually take about a week to get here, just send everything to the mission office and it'll get to me. I pray for you and appreciate your prayers. If you have any questions let me know.
Love,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Last Week of the MTC
Oh, here's the mission address if you need it:
Elder Hilton
The Baltic Mission
Cesa Iela 31-2k2
Riga, LV-1012
Latvia
So crazy that I'm actually leaving in like 3 days. It blows my mind. I cannot believe that I've been gone for over 8 weeks, we figured out that if the whole mission feels about the same relative time as our MTC stay, that it will feel like about 3 months, crazy.
In the TRC last week we taught Brother Snow's wife, who was playing an investigator that was concerned about being baptized because of her family's and friends' reaction. It was probably the best we've ever taught, we really were focused on helping her realize the importance of baptism, even if others don't understand. Maybe it was because I really imagined someone I knew that I wanted to be baptized, and how I would want to help them. It really made the experience real. It was awesome.
I got a letter this week from dearelder.com, but not for me. Not quite sure how it happened, but it was kinda funny to read. Addressed to Andrew, and from a dad, who said Yippy skippy, two clues that I knew the letter was most definitely not for me.
Saw a bunch of people I knew this week. Mostly from BYU- Elders Mckay Daines, Aaron Larsen, Dylan Moyers, Steven Linnenmeyer. Also Elder Joey Harper, Jason Wilding and talked with Elder Cody Jardine quite a bit, awesome to be able to talke to him.
I lead the music in Sacrament meeting, kinda exciting and was asked to speak. Our Branch Presidency doesn't ask people to talk until the announce it at the start of the meeting, an interesting strategy. So far I'm the only one in our district to speak and will be since this Sunday is Fast Sunday. Talked about Virtue, focused on Mark 5:30, where it says the virtue left Christ to heal the women, footnote for Virtue being force or power. Really stuck out to me how having virtue is having power and the ability to do what God wants us to do, I thought it was pretty sweet how Virtue and Power come form the same word in Greek.
Had a Large Group Meeting about how we should expect to baptize people, because that will change our focus and we will believe in it, because if we don't how can we expect our investigators to want to be baptized? Really struck me.
The devotional on Tuesday was a bit about agency, and I just thought of the quote from Dumbledore, which I'll probably not have exactly right, "It's not our abilities that determine who we are, but our choices." Really important to me as I head out to Lithuania, where others will be better at speaking or whatever than me, but that doesn't really make up who I am. What matters is how we use what we have been given. AGain brought out the importance of not comparing ourselves to others. Also shows that we make ourselves, our identity is not something unchangeable, we can become better, we just need to put forth the effort.
Thanks for the example that all of you hve been to me. I really appreciate hearing from you and would love to hear more.
Next time I'll be in Lietuva, insane. Thanks for your prayers and I pray for you.
Love,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
Elder Hilton
The Baltic Mission
Cesa Iela 31-2k2
Riga, LV-1012
Latvia
So crazy that I'm actually leaving in like 3 days. It blows my mind. I cannot believe that I've been gone for over 8 weeks, we figured out that if the whole mission feels about the same relative time as our MTC stay, that it will feel like about 3 months, crazy.
In the TRC last week we taught Brother Snow's wife, who was playing an investigator that was concerned about being baptized because of her family's and friends' reaction. It was probably the best we've ever taught, we really were focused on helping her realize the importance of baptism, even if others don't understand. Maybe it was because I really imagined someone I knew that I wanted to be baptized, and how I would want to help them. It really made the experience real. It was awesome.
I got a letter this week from dearelder.com, but not for me. Not quite sure how it happened, but it was kinda funny to read. Addressed to Andrew, and from a dad, who said Yippy skippy, two clues that I knew the letter was most definitely not for me.
Saw a bunch of people I knew this week. Mostly from BYU- Elders Mckay Daines, Aaron Larsen, Dylan Moyers, Steven Linnenmeyer. Also Elder Joey Harper, Jason Wilding and talked with Elder Cody Jardine quite a bit, awesome to be able to talke to him.
I lead the music in Sacrament meeting, kinda exciting and was asked to speak. Our Branch Presidency doesn't ask people to talk until the announce it at the start of the meeting, an interesting strategy. So far I'm the only one in our district to speak and will be since this Sunday is Fast Sunday. Talked about Virtue, focused on Mark 5:30, where it says the virtue left Christ to heal the women, footnote for Virtue being force or power. Really stuck out to me how having virtue is having power and the ability to do what God wants us to do, I thought it was pretty sweet how Virtue and Power come form the same word in Greek.
Had a Large Group Meeting about how we should expect to baptize people, because that will change our focus and we will believe in it, because if we don't how can we expect our investigators to want to be baptized? Really struck me.
The devotional on Tuesday was a bit about agency, and I just thought of the quote from Dumbledore, which I'll probably not have exactly right, "It's not our abilities that determine who we are, but our choices." Really important to me as I head out to Lithuania, where others will be better at speaking or whatever than me, but that doesn't really make up who I am. What matters is how we use what we have been given. AGain brought out the importance of not comparing ourselves to others. Also shows that we make ourselves, our identity is not something unchangeable, we can become better, we just need to put forth the effort.
Thanks for the example that all of you hve been to me. I really appreciate hearing from you and would love to hear more.
Next time I'll be in Lietuva, insane. Thanks for your prayers and I pray for you.
Love,
Vyresnysis Conor Hilton
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