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
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
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