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)