Sveiki!

Transfers happened on Wednesday. I'm still in Vilnius in the same area, but with Elder Dellinger, who was in Elder Cooke's MTC group, but has spoken Russian for about half his mission and prefers RUssian to Lithuanian. Which is cool, because it means we can teach both Russians and Lithuanians- so we should be able to teach loads of people.
Petras was gone all last week, He got back a couple of days ago, but we haven't been able to get a hold of him yet, hopefully we can meet this week.
Not everyone in Lithuania is a drunken bum, although many of them are, and essentially everyone drinks and smokes. Smoking is everywhere, if you are about 16 and older you probably have a cigarrette in your mouth or some in your pockets/purse/man-bag.
We taught a lesson ata member's house, Aleksai- he cooked us sausages on a grill, with charcoal, it was so delicious.
I contacted a man who told us he was from another planet, he now teaches yoga and meditation here in Lithuania.
The first door that Elder Dellinger and I knocked on we got in, it was a very old woman and her son, who started to cry as soon as he sat down. She then just told us how God had never helped them ever, but she still believed, interesting, but not super productive.
We saw what we believe to be Lithuanian Edition of Candid Camera. A man was walking down some steps with a huge TV and then it falls, he went back up and starts flipping out at this guy telling him it was his fault the TV fell, when it was clearly not. There was a van at the top of the steps and a suspicious black box with a hole for a camera at the bottom, so we're pretty sure we were on Lithuanian Candid Camera.
A man chucked a rock or something at us from his balcony and then yelled profanities, we were given the finger X and a large arm X on a bus. A couple people threatened to call the cops.
Oh, we saw a huge shirtless Russian strutting down the street with headphones on. He looked kinda like he was dancing , but Russian's kinda walk that way anyway, but then he stops at a crosswalk and then just busts this huge like sweeping arm move. It was as if he was on an iPod commercial or something, super funny.
A group of teenagers applauded us when we walked by, that was much more friendly than the general response we get, it was quite nice actually.
Met a recruiter for the Jazz, watching the European Basketball Championships here, scouting.
An investigator who we hadn't talked to for a couple of weeks showed up to Church, which was sweet, he wants to meet, but is super busy, but hopefully we can get something set up, Tomas is his name.
Mom- you'll be proud of this, I've eaten egg, drank a fair bit of juice, and this past week, ate berries in milk with sugar, a pear, and frozen watermelon. THe pear was so delicious, and the watermelon was like eating a popsicle almost, so good.
Here's a missionary special here, I think it came from the Irish missionaries, but has made it's way across Lithuania. the Tongan:
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 pack of Commi Rami (or Ramen Noodles)
3 slices of Cheese
2 slices of bread
BBQ, or Salsa, or other sauce of your choice

Step 1. heat in microwave the noddles in water in a bowl for about 30 sec.
Step 2. Crack egg in a separate bowl and mx in flavoring, mix egg together
Step 3. Keeping the noodles in the square, dip in the egg mixture similar to French Toast
Step 4. Fry the noodle square and pour remaining egg on top. Cook until soft, when almost done, place cheese on top to melt a bit.
Step 5. Remove Noodles and place on slice of bread.
Step 6. Add Sauce of your Choice
Step 7. Top with 2nd slice of Bread
Step 8. Valgyk!! (Eat in command form)

It's so good. One of my favorites. Next week I'll write a bit about some of the characters of Vilnius that we see on a fairly regular basis and are famous among missionaries.

Thanks for your letters and email. Hope things keep going awesome. I wish I could show all of you the places where everything took place, perhaps one day you could take a trip with me to Lithuania, it's only the greatest country ever. I pray for you all and appreciate your prayers. This is definitely the only way to truly be happy, that I have definitely seen.

Su meile (with love),

Vyresnysis Conor Hilton

Sveiki!

A large majority of people are Catholic, there are Cathedrals and churches everywhere. People generally consider themselves believing, but don't want to talk to us, because they have their own faith- Catholicism. Although Elder Kukas and I have run into and taught a ginormous amount of Atheists, many of the people that are older, from when the Soviet Union was super strong, are Atheist because the Soviet Union enforced that belief.

I read "On Dealing with Uncertainty' by Bruce C Hafen and have made it one of my goals to always focus my statements on reaching the ideal and not just popping things with my shiny pin of skepticism, which I do have a somewhat natural inclination to do.

On wednesday we had to pick up some remote or part for the air conditioner in Siauliai, so we went to get it, wandered for awhile and then find the business. We go up and walk inside and the guy immediately says We have nothing for you', 'nothing, we have nothing' He turned around and started to do something else, and Elder Kukas and I were a little confused, then he turns around and says again, "we don't have anything for, we don't need anything' and puts his arms into a big X, which people occasionaly do on the street. We then understood that we were being kicked out because we were missionaries, so Elder Kukas says "we are here for our friend Ramunas Holmskis' and the guy just goes white, and then says sorry like a billion times, tries to offer some explanation, hands us the part and we walk out.

After that, we walked to a bus stop, waited for a bit when a bus pulls up and a kontroller- they check for passes, tickets adn then kick off people riding for free- they kick off this very very drunk man, I was impressed he was still standing he wobbled so much. He comes towards us, takes his two bags and chucks them in our direction, luckily his aim was quite poor and they landed a ways off to the side. He then asked us if we know who he was, in Liithuanian. We saide we couldn't understand and then he comes over angry like and takes his arm back in a fist and does the biggest wind up for a punch I've ever seen, like he was doing the windmill and then stops with his hand inches from Elder Kuko (Possessive) face, in a 'fig'- you put your thumb beneath your pointer finger, so it's like the 'I've got your nose game'. Its a gesture a little less brutal than the finger. So great.

We also convinced a man the Bible was not true. We were talking and he liked to just go off and stop listening, so we had to try very hard to keep him quiet. He was rather angry and supported his anger towards others with the Bible- "an eye for an eye and a tooth fot a tooth" We pointed out that Christ had said to love everyone, but he said 'where?!" I remember it was in Matthew 5, so we whipped out a Bible, looked it up and read "it is written an eye for an eye, but that is fulfilled and I say to love all as yourself, or something similar to that. We followed this with asking "do you believe the Bible is true?" to which he replied 'Not now!!" We tried to commit him to love others more, so hopefully he at least is thinking about his views of other people.

Saw the 'Grand Duke of Lithuania'- actually a drunk bum, who believes he is the Grand Duke. He was standing in the middle of the street, smoking a pipe, holding a rake and dandelions and saluting the traffic, Hitler style. There also happened to be a Lithuanian Classic Car Club show driving down the street at the same time. Quite funny.

On Sunday, Elder Kukas an I translated for primary, for some of the kids who don't speak Lithuanian and then taught Aaronic Priesthood- Adomas, one deacon, the only one in all of Lithuania. It was the lesson with the car story, where they push down the hill and the kids jump out until the end when one dies and the other is paralyzed. I still remember that lesson, crazy.

It has been rather toasty here, it was 100 F Saturday at 6 plus humidity, but it hasn't been as bad as people make humidity sound. Last night was an epic rainstorm, it just dumped, the streets were like rivers, we ran through it with a goal to avoid puddles, but that was useless, the whole ground was a puddle. WE stopped at a Maxima (kinda like Wal-mart) for some cover, where everyone was huddled inside and out like it was an apocalyptic movie. It actually felt way good to just run through the rain, I never thought I would say that, since I've generally been rather anti-rain, but I've come to love the rain, while being here.

I finished my first transfer- that's bonkers. We get calls tomorrow about who goes where, so next week I might be writing from somewhere else- who knows. Thanks for all who write, it's wonderful to hear from you. Lithuania is incredible. I pray for all of you and appreciate your prayers. Questions are sweet to help spark writing, sometimes I forget what you do and don't know, since I live everything every day all day.

Love,

Vyresnysis Conor Hilton(as)

Labas!

Last Monday bought a Lithuanian skinny tie and found Titan A.E. or (Titanas Po Zemes Sunaikinamo) in LIthuanian/English on DVD, so bought that, it was about $5. Ate a Lion McFlurry at McDonalds, which was delicious. Also we got attacked by a bum, who mumbled at us and then yelled to not look at him, and then he stood up and came at us, we walked into the street where a car screeched to a halt about a foot away from us. We hurried across the street. That would have been crazy enough, but later that day while walking to the bus, past a little place of construction, moved away, so we were walking in the street. When suddenly the same bum comes up at us, but can't get us since he was blocked by the construction stuff. We jumped on the bus, the doors shut, but he comes up, so the driver opens the doors and the bum just starts like yelling at us, the driver shuts the door and we drive off as the bum spits on the bus. Crazy.

It was also bubble day in the park, some guys told us to sing the Lithuanian National anthem the next night, it was a holiday.

Tuesday had a delicious kebab and had a zone conference, talking about how to increase effectiveness while teaching on the street.

Wednesday a man told us that Lithuania is Catholic they don't need us, we need to go to Egypt and China. also talked with a man from the Netherlands, who is a Hare Krikshna, Anarchist, Buddhist. Taught a lesson with Bro Snow (Chris) and the guy was very serious about meeting again, which was great, and a nice change from the norm.

Thursday we were told to read the Bible, by a guy who didn't believe we read it, it's hard to deal with people who don't want to listen to you, or don't believe you when you say what you believe.

Friday was on an eschange with Elder Hengst, which was sweet, we taught on the street all day. A man told us that "Jesus saves, not Joseph." Which is true, I agree with him.

Saturday set a baptismal date with Petras, which was fantastic. Also pulled a lesson while teaching on the street with Thomas, who came to Chruch the next day, again fantastic. We are supposed to meet with both of them again tonight, which should be sweet.

Sunday, I actually understood a good amount of Church which was incredible. We also were heckled by a float of 'pirates' driving down the street with a cheerleader as a masthead. Was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. We knocked on a door of a Russian last night, so Elder Kukas practiced his Russian, we got his number, kinda- it looks like a crazy math equation including a square root sign. He also led us into his house to show us some book, I believe to be a Russian Orthodox Bible.

Love,

Vyresnysis Conor Hiltonas

Pictures!

Labas All,

Alright, answers to questions. I do see my MTC companion often, all the Lithuanian speaking missionaries in Vilnius- there are 6 of us, contact in Center, so we run into each other a fair bit. Also at Church for the branch, which covers the whole city. I do not play the piano at Church, we try to do nothing that could be done by a member, so there are a couple people that can play the piano that do. There is a young man that plays.

For exercise, I usually run in place because my Comp will not go running due to his desire to gain weight. I also do some pushups, and stretch a bit. We are planning some sight seeing next week, so that should be exciting.

The weather has been mostly warm, except yesterday. Yesterday was good all day, until about 8, or 20:00 as it would be written here. We were harvesting and all of a sudden it just started to dump, like rain so heavy you could see the waves in it from the wind. We needed to get back, so we just ran for it, but the sidewalks are not very flat, so there were many puddles, and it was coming down so hard it didn't really matter, we just got soaked. It was insane, we were only outside for like a minute- tops.

Tuesday morning, we woke up and started to get ready when our power went out. It was unfortunate, but good timing because we had no food in the fridge to worry about rotting, bad because we couldn't buy any food to put in the fridge, but we were meeting with out landlord that night anyway, so we figured it wasn't a huge deal. Got it worked out.

Wed for dinner we were having some sausage and rice with this Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce (that's how it's spelt on the container). I was cutting the sausage and had finished, when Elder Cooke realized that you need to remove the wax covering from around this sausage, so then i had to individually remove the wax from these small sausage disks, quite an experience.

Thursday taught a fantastic lesson to Petras, who reminds me a lot of myself. He has a lot of difficult deep questions, but honestly sincerely desiring to know. Which was incredible, since Elder Cooke and I had talked aobut most of the things he asked. He also wanted to read the Book of Mormon and find out for himself if it was true. Amazing.
Also taught Skidmantas, piano and then some Gospel.

Taught two lessons Friday morning, one the guy understood, but told us he didn't need or want it in his life. The other- the man was very interested and really seemed humble and open to something new.

Saturday explored some Old TOwn Vilnius by accident while contacting, but it was wonderful looking. Also ran into a tipsy man, smoking a pipe who said "Mormons? I love Mormons! and America" THen procedeed to 'sing' "America, America! JAV, JAV, JAV!" JAV is the Lithuanian equivalen of USA, but in LIthuanian you don't say acronyms with letter names, because there are none, you just use the sound the letter makes Phonetically in English JAV would sound like Yahv.
Ate a kebab, some meat cut onto a tortillaish deal with lettuce, tomatoes, adn cucumbers.
Saw a sweet silver mini couper the other day with the top a Lithuanian flag and the mirrors striped like the Lithuanian flag as well.

Sunday, Skidmantas came to Church again, gave him music for the intro to More THan a Feeling. Oh, and during the rainstorm, the THunder and lightning was so intense that car alarms were going off, it was crazy.

Thanks to all of you, for all you've done. Lithuania (Lietuva) is amazing. Hope you all had a sweet Fourth of July, we're going to eat at McDonald's today in celebration, since that's about American as you can get. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you.

Love,

Vyresnysis Conor Hilton