Labas Visiems!

The office elders speak Latvian or Russian, but they only work in the office in the morning or something like that. No, people hardly ever get language switched, occasionally if they have a Lithuanian or Estonian speaking assistant, then that elder is switched to either Russian or Latvian, but that hardly ever happens.

Kaunas is bigger than Klaipeda, but architecture wise it is about the same. Kaunas is also laid-out way crazy, so I don't have any idea where anything is, whereas Klaipeda is a long rectangle, with three main roads, really just one main road. The Church building in Kaunas is exactly the same as the one in Vilnius, they were built around the same time, I believe. Kaunas also has the longest walking street in Europe, pretty sure in all of Europe anyway- Laisves Aleja, which is like the Way of Freedom. That's pretty fun to contact on in the morning.

A few entertaining experiences to start.

A man on a bus told us we were a cult, to which I replied no, we're not. He then asked if we were Catholic, I said no, and he said, well then you're a cult.

A couple of people from Egypt asked us how many Gods we had. We said 1, then he flipped because he'd been told by other missionaries 2 and 3 and just wanted to argue. We tried to explain, but he just told us to make up our minds. We asked what they believed and they said- the oldest religion in the world. I was curious what they were going to say next but that was all they said.

A blind girl got off the bus with us and asked if we could stay with her at the bus stop until her bus came. We did and while we were there we were able to talk about religion with her a little, which was nice.

A way old drunk man on a bus called us cult members and then tried to speak to us in like 4 different languages, strating with German, then French, then something else and finally Lithuanian. After mumbling some sentence in lithuanian he fell back into his seat.

While harvesting this week, a few different old women told us to go home and only to be out during the day. Questioning why we would talk about god at night. It was about 7 when this happened.

We also talked to a drunk man in English. He started by asking us if he looked drunk, I said yeah. He said that was his problem and he wanted to go to rehab and wanted our help. We gave him our card and talked about our church some. He asked us about the Law of Chastity and we explained some about it, he didn't believe us, saying that not even the pope keeps that. Then he told us how he'd been in jail in England because his friends had a party at his house one night, he wasn't there of course, and when he got back home there were a bunch of dead bodies in his house. He took the dead bodies, in garbage bags, to the bus station. We weren't quite sure what to think after that. We gave him a pamphlet and told him we could talk more later and give him the Bok of Mormon, which he wanted, when he wasn't drunk. We haven't seen him again yet, but probably will run into him again, hopefully he'll be sober.

We met with a couple of less actives- one is named Du Wei, he's from China, near Beijing. We teach him in English and have just been reviewing the lessons, because he had some misunderstandings. He was actually taught and baptized by Brother Snow, so that's a fun little connection. He really wants to go to the temple, so our goal is to help prepare him for the Melchezidek priesthood and the temple. He's way nice. He owns a couple chinese restaurants here in Kaunas.

The other less-active is Giedrius. He's an interesting character. He gives perfect answers, but hasn't come to church in who knows how long. We want to find out the real reason why he doesn't come to Church.

We met with a former investigator as well, vytautas. We talked about baptism and he said he was already baptized and that perhaps our meetings and asking him to pray were a test of God to see if he would stay Catholic or be a traitor. He has read the entire Book of Mormon, so we asked him to pray about it. He said maybe. We'll see how it goes. He knows a lot and remembered quite a bit from being taught.

That was about it for this week. Elder Sherman and I have SYL'd a fair bit, which is sweet. This transfer is already off to a great start. I love Kaunas and the more I see of Lithuanian and the more Lithuanians I know, the more I love them. It's great serving people here. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you. Hopefully this week goes awesome.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Labas Visiems,

First for the news on Transfers. I am now serving in Kaunas, with Elder Sherman, he's been out for 2 transfers. It was hard to leave Klaipeda, but again as I left and came into Kaunas I felt like this is is the place I need to be. Not sure why, but I'm sure it will be seen. The address in Kaunas is:

Elder Conor Hilton
A/D 286
44004 Kaunas
Lithuania/Lietuva

My shoes are great, i don't think they contributed to the problem, but who knows. It worked out fine. It was a little nerve-wracking since I don't know medical lingo in Lithuanian and the doctors English was less than stellar, but I made it out and it seems to be healing nicely.

Before I left Klaipeda we met with Tomas, to talk one last time and we had alread scheduled a meeting with Lucy and Maggie, so we went to that. It was nice. We shared a scripture and sang some primary songs with them. We also talked about schools in China, which was very interesting.

A bum came up to us and asked for some money for the bus. We told him we can't give people money and he became very upset. He was swearing and waving his arms in our faces. We hopped on the next bus hoping to get away, but he hopped on a different door and came rambling towards the front of the bus where we were standing. We then hopped off. He slumped into a seat and the bus drove off.

In Kaunas, we have an investigator named Antanas. He has very severe muscular distrophy or some similar disease. He is incredibly small and can't really use his hands and needs a wheelchair to get around. He is quite receptive and very intelligent. We met with him with a member to talk about baptism and the gift fo the Holy Ghost. It went very well.

We also met with a man named Lyongindas. He had met with missionaries previously and had a baptismal date but then his record just stops. He speaks English, very interesting English, and lives outside Kaunas, which makes it hard for him to meet. We had a nice conversation and got to know him a little better. He loves to read and has read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl fo Great Price and numerous conference talks.

Had a few entertaining experiences already. A man told us he wouldn't listen to us because he knew all about our Church and it was bad. We asked what he knew and then he told us that it was connected with the Mafia and stole your money and kids and once you joined you couldn't leave. We tried to tell him that wasn't true, but he wasn't really listening to us.

Another man told us that organized religion was bad because the 'hierarchy' destroys the relationship between man and God. He was very worried about the 'hierarchy' and didn't like that. He also didn't really let us say anything.

Some hoolies came up to us outside a dome and started speaking ENglish. One of them quoted the song 'what ya gonna do when they come for you?' and asked Elder Sherman if he was afraid of that song. Elder Sherman was like 'what?' and then said 'no' It was pretty funny.

We talked with a Jew for awhile who wanted to speak hebrew so he could convince us that we shouldn't believe in Christ. It was a nice conversation, probably the longest I have ever talked to a Jew before.

In English class we talked about future tense and they asked how to use 'shall'. I told them it was exactly the same as will. THey tried to argue and say you can only use it with I, but I finally just told them that they shouldn't worry about it because they would sound weird if they used it. It was pretty funny, as well.

CHurch was nice. It was strange being in a different place where I didn't know anyone, but good. Priesthood is basically always combined here, and we also got quite off track from the lesson, so sounds like we had similar priesthood experiences this past week.

I love serving no matter where it is. Lithuania of course is the best. We have had a fair amount of snow this past week, it's also been rather cold. Well, hope all of you have a fantastic week. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Sveiki Visiems!

I haven't really been sick ever, when I was with Elder Whicker I started to get a little cold and sore throat, but he doctored me up, making sure I drank chicken broth at night and in the morning and drank loads of water, he knew what to do due to his health training for when he worked at a nursing home. That was really the only sickness I've had.

Not a ton to report this week, since we had zone conference and then Elder Sanford and I were in Vilnius for a couple days, our working week was shortened.

We started off in Vilnius after zone conference, because I had a very terrible ingrown toenail, that I probably should have taken care of earlier, but it didn't really hurt and you know how I am with things, I was just hoping it would heal itself. Anyway, we went to the hospital and the numbed me up and cut away. We were hoping to leave that day, but needed to stay so they could change the dressing Wednesday morning. It was a bit nerve-wracking since they spoke broken English and my vocab in Lithuanian is rather limited, but everything got worked out. Unfortunately, I'm not supposed to wakl too much for the next week, which limits our ability to work and is frustrating for me because I just want to get out and do something and feel rather useless sitting in our apartment, but we were still able to get some teaching in and move the work forward.

We met with Ainis again, this time we brought Dovile with us, and taught about desire and God answering prayers. Dovile added a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of that and was a great asset to the lesson. Ainis seemed agreeing and wanted us to teach some doctrine rather than ramble about his questions that we couldn't answer. He also came to Church yesterday, which was absolutely fantastic. Everyone greeted him and seemed excited to see him there.

For English class, Elder Sanford and I decided to speak in British accents the whole time, because we had heard that Lithuanians can't really tell the difference between accents in English. The class didn't say anything the whole time, although whether they didn't notice or not, I'm not quite sure. Tomas and Dovile, who have started to come, noticed and asked why we were talking funny, but the rest of the class was silent on the matter.

After English class the Branch had a Valentine's Day activity. It was quite enjoyable. We played a bunch of games and invited our English class to come, a few people did. One girl, Amelia (Emilija) came and seemed to make friends with Tomas and Dovile which was sweet.

On Sunday as we were walking to the bus before Church, a man stopped us and asked if Christ really existed. We said yes. He then began to speak incredibly broken English mixed with Lithuanian. He was asking something about priests, little kids, and Egypt, and how that could happen if Christ was real. We said we didn't know why, but tried to explain, but he kept interrupting us. He then said he wanted...(looking upwards and pointing towards the sky), which I guess means he wants to go to heaven, but not really sure. He kept asking why, in English and then spitting out Lithuanian words, not even sentences. Finally we just said that we needed to go and left. Still not quite sure what he wanted to know.

President Blindaruk gave us all a copy of the Russian alphabet with the Lithuanian and English equivalents of the letters, so we can learn how to read and sing in Russian. I worked on getting it down yesterday and have it almost memorized. I wrote my name in phonetic Russian and a bunch of other things as well, it looks like Alien writing or something, but it's pretty cool.

Well, that's all I got this week. Thanks for your prayers and I pray for you. I love Lithuania, and everything about it. I know I say that like every week, but I can't really explain it enough. This week is transfers, so who knows where I'll end up. We think that I'm probably leaving Klaipeda, but President Dance usually has some unexpected things happen during tranfers, so who knows. Mom and Dad, did missionaries try and predict tranfers in your missions? It's like our March Madness, everyone puts in their guess. Partially probably due to the small ness of the mission and limited options for movement, but I was just curious. Hope you all have a great week. Love Every Minute of It, like the song by Loverboy.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Канор Брус Хилтон (That's my name in Russian, phonetically I believe)

Labas Visiems!

Sounds like everyone's doing alright, minus your sickness.Hope all of you feel better. Thanks for the news. I can print the recipes off at the church actually, so thanks a lot.

This week was fairly successful, it was great. We had a few new lessons, as well as meetings with members and even a meeting with Ainis.

We met with an older catholic couple, who told us they weren't going to be mormons, trying to get us to leave, but we finally convinced them that we understood that and just wanted to talk with them about God. They were very friendly, but when we got to Joseph Smith and said that we believed that we are the only true Church, they just kinda blew us off and said, well every Church says that. The wife seemed a little more interested and asked about how to find out if its true. We told her to do as Joseph and we had done and pray and ask Heavenly Father, who will tell her of the truthfullness.

We also met with an old man, Edvardas. He rambled a fair bit and showed us a bunch of pictures, in which he looked like a stereotypical Russian that would be trying to take out James Bond or something. He wasn't super interested at first, but when we asked if we could come back he was very enthusiastic and we left a pamphlet which he promised to read, also quite enthusiastically.

Our meeting with Ainis wasn't quite as beautiful. He has been reading in the New Testament and doesn't understand why we need a Church, ordinances, temples, covenants, etc. Christ only ever says to Believe and Follow him. All his teachings are contained in the New Testament, so why do we need anything else? We tried for awhile to logically talk it out, testifying of prophets talking as Christ now, but we weren't getting anywhere. Finally, I just felt like I should testify and commit Ainis to pray. I did and promised him that God would answer his prayers. My testimony was incredibly strengthened by my bearing of it, which is still hard for me to understand how that works, but I know it does. Also, my testimony silenced his concerns, at least for the moment. I hope he truly prays desiring to know the truth. That's really the only way to arrive at any sort of satisfactory answer.

We met with a less active couple, Anatolij and Vanda. Anatolij was feeling terrible and they were thinking he might need to go to the hospital. We offered to give a blessing and he accepted our offer. I acted as voice, which was incredibly humbling. I couldn't really express fully anything, but I felt again just that overwhleming love that Heavenly Father has for each of us, no matter what circumstance we're in. It's always good to feel that again.

Zone Conference was yesterday- it went quite well. We talked mostly on faith and how it realates to desire. President and Sister Dance talked about the need for our desires to line up with the lord's and when that occurs, we will see miracles. It's interesting to think about how to make your desires one with God's or even to realize what your hearts truest desire is. President Blindaruk mentioned in priesthood that the thing you love most is what takes most of your money, time, and thoughts. I suppose that your truest desires are probably what you love most, so just need to think about that and what I can do to better align my will with God's.

I hope all of you have a great week. I love all of you and pray for you daily. I appreciate your prayers. I love Lithuania and the Lithuanians. Focusing on that love makes everything easy. Again, I encourage you all to find the good because it's there- no matter what happens, there is something good that is hiding inside. It's all in your attitude, which can be related to a small helm of a ship, as described in D&C 123: 16-17, I believe that is the correct reference. Anyway, just be happy.

Love you all,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas