Labas,

Halloween is not really celebrated here. But today, November First, is a huge holiday, All Saint's Day, I believe. People go to graves and put candles on them, it's much more of a somber, honoring the dead feel, than Halloween. We did have an activity that we planned at the church, with the members, for halloween. We bought some pumpkins, really small ones, that would fit in your palm, and they were mostly yellow. Pumpkins here are much different than in America. Anyway, we carved pumpkins and ate tacos, because they don't get tacos, and the missionaries have often made them for activities, so it's kinda a tradition.

This week was incredibly uneventful, except for a couple things. First on Sunday, we had the opportunity to teach four college students about the Church, answering questions. They just walked into Sacrament meeting, from the Lithuanian Christian College, which is here in Klaipeda. Students from there have come a few times, since they have some requirement to attend different Christian services. It was a wonderful opportunity to teach, since we hadn't had any new lessons the entire week. It was definitely a blessing.

The second thing is much more comical and not quite as uplifting, but most assuredly humorous. We had been contacting all day, earlier in the morning we had contacted two drunk people and gave them both Restoration pamphlets and then helped one read his prescription to help him stop smoking, since it was in English. Then that night a man approached us, who we almost just walked past, because he looked kinda like a bum, his shirt was unbuttoned fairly low and was two short so his gut hung out the bottom. His hair was kinda messed up and he had John Lennon glasses. But he greeted us in clear English, "I never thought I would see Mormons here", so we stopped and asked if he was a member, he's not, he's a Lutheran, but he's from Canada, Montreal and worked in the States. He then asked if we were from Utah, which Elder Whicker is, so he said yes, I said no, since I'm not. After our response he began to explain a problem with Utah's government throwing away 500 Million POUNDS OF CARP!! Isn't that just ridiculous? I would like to know if that's true actually, but anyway. We said that we had nothing to do with that and neither did the Church, but he offered to take us to a cafe and buy us drinks and talk about the problem and religion. We explained a little about the Word of Wisdom, since he offered to buy us coffee. Then we wandered with him looking for a cafe to sit, hoping to be able to teach him. We finally found one, after he had stopped in a park to pee on a tree, and went in. He bought us our drinks and got a black coffee and a shot of vodka. He asked if we had a problem with him drinking and we said we would prefer he didn't in front of us, so he actually refrained from drinking the whole time we were there. During our wandering's we discovered he works for the UN on some deal to help women, or maybe stop drugs. He's also the head of research and Development for something. His best friend is the head of Food Science at Cornell, Joe Richardson, I believe. He also has some connection to a rich Italian family in New Jersey, who may be a part of the Mafia. His previous best friend was a Canadian Mountie, but got shot to death in the winter wilderness of Canada, trying to stop some drug deal. He also has connections to the NY Times, and was going to stop a story they were going to run about this carp deal blaming the Mormons, since he felt that was unfair after talking to us. He previously has worked on stopping drug trafficking in Brazil. Myles, is his name. Oh, and the night before he had been beat up by some skinheads while walking out of a jewish cemetery here in Klaipeda, for his friend Joe, a Jew. That's why he got the vodka, for the pain. He also speaks 8 langueages.

Anyway a crazy experience.

Love you all,

Vyresnysis Hilton