Sveiki Visiems!

That's crazy about going to Russia. Since being with Elder Dellinger I've heard a lot of crazy stories of stuff happening in Russia. Interesting little tid bit, the missionaries there have to leave every three months or so for a few weeks and reapply for their visa, sometimes they get denied, so we have a few missionaries that used to serve in Russia, now serving in the Baltics.

I haven't spoken to anyone today, but I spoke to a few people yesterday.

I wrote Dylan a couple weeks ago, but haven't heard from him, i'll probably write again sometime this transfer.

It depends for transfers and switching companions. Elder Kukas only had one transfer where there were no changes in the companionship, so it's not totally irregular, people tend to stay for longer periods of time in certain cities, but it can just be all over the place. One of the other Russian elders said that he thinks this is a sign I'm being language switched, but I don't think so, especially because we have ten Russian speakers coming in next transfer and only three Lithuanians, two elders and a sister.

So, Petras hasn't answered his phone since we committed him to baptism, so we'll probably try from another companionship's phone, just to get confirmation that he doesn't want to meet anymore. It's rough when people seem to be really progressing and then just stop, but we can't control other people's choices, we can only invite them to change and give them an opportunity.

Last monday I bought 1984 and Animal Farm in Lithuanian, I think that's what I'll enjoy most is being able to read books in Lithuanian when I get home, to help keep up my language and increase my vocab.

Some interesting reactions this week:
A man stuck out his tongue at us
I was told to go to China, because they don't need us here
A guy made a gun with his fingers and then shot me in the head twice, with sound effects and everything.
A couple guys said 'Aloha!" and then gave us the hang loose sign
A guy told us he was a communist, we continued to try and talk to him and then he said 'no, i'm a real communist. Really.' and he walked off.
A kid, probably about my age, talked to us in English, asking why we were here in Lithuania when it has a long Christian history and the people are good Christians. A bit funny since it was the last country in Europe to be Christianised and still has pretty strong pagan influences, and as far as I can tell, most of the people don't consistently attend Church, which he said they did. Anyway, we just said that there are missionaries all over the world and we want to help people strengthen their faith in Christ and find truth.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we teach English Class twice a week, which is a cool opportunity. Had some kinda funny experiences this past week, with people kinda attacking each other about how we should teach. And then we taught future tense, so we asked people to say what they would do if the world was going to end in three days. It got pretty intense. One lady said she wouldn't do anything different, and then the guy next to her just started to badger her, like really wanting to know what she would do, rob a bank for example. He's response was 'eat a lot of junk food, watch movies...make a lot of love'. Which startled a couple of members who were in the class, just funny. Elder Dellinger said he would rob a bank, buy a plane and then fly all around the world, to which the members responded, 'but you'll go to hell'. So funny.

A lady came up to us and touched our tags saying 'black'. Elder Dellinger asked her if she spoke Russian and then she asked 'Why do you wear black tags and white shirts I can see you from far away?' But she walked off as soon as she finished asking, not even waiting for an answer. bizarre.

This Saturday was Rumšiškes, a celebration of missionary work, where all the members in Lithuania gather and have this youth conference esque deal. Every branch does a skit, which was pretty entertaining. The Russian branch's was just random, but hilarious and then they finished by singing some u2, which was just perfect. Ours included the Ghostbuster's Theme, so it was quite good, of course. Elder Dellinger and I convinced a couple of youth from Klaipeda that Paris Hilton is my sister, so if I ever serve in Klaipeda, we'll see if they still think so. They had food and dancing, the missionaries have and continued to teach some line dancing to them, and of course the macerana, ridiculous, but entertaining.

On Sunday, we went to all of the Lithuanian branch and then Russian sacrament as well,, because we were switching companions for a bit, due to some giant 4 day training for District and Zone Leaders in Riga, it's supposedly happening in missions all over, some changes in how we teach and what they teach at the MTC. Anyone so until THursday night, I am companions with Elder Lyshman, and Elder Dellinger is companions with the other Russian elder.

Elder Lyshman and I got stopped by the Kontrolerius (Controllers) on the bus yesterday, checking our passes, which unfortunately had just expired and neither of us had even thought about it, until they checked and they didn't work, so we got ticketed, 40 litu, which was lucky since it should have been 80, but still no fun.

Well, thanks for your news. Good luck in all you do. I pray for all of you and appreciate your prayers. Hope to hear more again next week. Lithuania is just beautiful, of course there are things I like about America that I can't find here, but you can't find a perfect place, in this life, so why worry about it? Just be happy and think of all the wonderful things about where you are.

Question of the week: Will we eat in Heaven? If so, will we eat meat?

I love all of you and wish you the best. I love hearing from you. Have an excellent week!

Love,

Vyresnysis Conor Hiltonas