Sveiki Visiems!

Šventų Velykų! (Happy Easter)

I hope that your Easter was great. It was a fairly big holiday here, in fact today is still some holiday in connection with Easter. We saw some fronds last week, the sisters actually were given some on a bus, which was kinda funny.

We don't have assigned topics as a mission, we study daily from Preach My Gospel, but we can study basically whatever we feel we should. Although I think that having a topic in mind as studying or even just reading from anything to apply it in different ways is helpful. Good to hear that Jace is enjoying himself.

We can call on mother's day, don't really know details yet, but would probably be about the same time as last time. We should have more info next week.

Yes the new mission president comes in July, it will be different, but we talked a little bit with the Dances about it when they were here last week. They are planning on them doing zone conferences and interviews basically the day they get here, so we'll get acquainted quick.

I'll start with some amusing happenings.

We were talking with a guy on a bench in a park when a drunk guy approached us and started to talk to us. I was hoping he would just ask a couple questions and then leave so we could continue teaching, that didn't quite happen, so Elder Sherman started to talk to him while I continued to teach the guy on the bench. Then a hammered friend of the drunk guy comes up. The drunk man defends us from his hammered friend, telling him to just go sit on a different bench and wait for him. He leaves and shortly after the drunk guy leaves as well. We then finished up our lesson.

Remember the guy that I contacted on a bus and then wanted to come to Church? Rimantas is his name. we have been trying to meet with him this week, but he couldn't. Sunday we called and he said he worked all day, but he could talk at eight when he would be alone. Then he asked if i was married, I said no, but plan on marrrying sometime when I go back to America. That was that. We then got home and called him at eight, putting the phone on speaker so we could have a lesson via phone, the first I've had. He starts by saying that we misunderstand one another. He mentioned something about feelings and love, then asked if anyone else was listening. i said, yeah, the other missionary that is always with me is. He says he can't say how he truly feels in words. Then says something about knowing i have a girl in America, but I'm young, like 20, I can't just go without those feelings and things can I? Asking if I understood him throughout this. I said, not really. So he tried again. I then said, well in our church we believe marriage is between a man and a woman. Then we taught about the law of chastity. He again said that we didn't understand one another and that we couldn't meet. I said, well if you don't want to talk about God, then no. He then described his deep utmost respect for me for a while. Then we parted ways. It was interesting...to say the least.

Now to some serious things.

This weekend in Kaunas, we had a.......BAPTISM!!!! An investigator of the other elders, a nine yr old girl, whose family are members, was baptized. There were another 5 people baptized throughout the mission. Exciting!!

Tadas, the investigator we met with last week, came to our lesson and the baptism in a suit and white shirt, all of his own accord, because he had read in the pamphlet that that was the appropriate dress for Church. He apologized profusely because he wasn't wearing a tie, showing his desire to really do what is appropriate at church. We talked about his reading in the Book of Mormon. He had 'only' read 16 chapters. He enjoyed it and said he tried to think of applications as he read instead of just reading. We also talked about the Plan of Salvation a little bit. He said that we would've had to live with God before if we went to live with him again. Almost exactly what Joseh Smith said- crazy. He volunterred to offer the closing prayer, asking for us to be blessed multiple times throughout the prayer. It was beautiful. As we walked out of the lesson to go to the baptism, we ran into Ugne, a member who has been less active recently. They knew each other and were talking having some nice member-investigator interaction. They both came to Church on Sunday, Tadas had found a tie since the night before. He really enjoyed Church and how friendly and inviting everyone was, which is great.

Giedrius, a less active we've worked with a little, and Elder Sherman and Elder Graham worked with uite often, also came to Church, the first time in years if what other members have said is correct. He really opened up the last lesson we had with him, and as he left made sure to ask us to call him to meet, the first signs of excitement about meeting I've ever seen.

We were also able to find several new lessons this week. None were quite at the point of becoming new investigators, but we were able to teach the truth and hopefully better their lives in some way. We talked with one man about prayer. He didn't believe God would answer his prayer, so we committed him to pray and ask God if he loves him. Then we talked for like 5 minutes about saying a prayer with him there, which he finally let us. We also talked with a young man, Sergiejus, about prophets. He thought we were joking. He was excited, but forbidden by his religion to go to other Churches and read their books, etc. He said he woud call us to talk and meet later, which would be excellent.

We met with Du Wei as well. It was a very good lesson. We talked about being an example to his wife, to help her join the Church, particularly through scripture study. he recognized the imortance and I hope implements that into his daily life.

Another miracle- we recieved a media referral. The first I've received on my mission, which was very exciting.

Well, I hope you all had a fantastic Easter, remembering Christ and his ressurection. I Love Lithuania, I can't say it enough. I love all of you and wish you the best.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Sveiki Visiems!

on the Atonement. First, we were talking about a talk by Elder Bednar that he gave at BYU, I believe, it's called like The Standard of Light, or something along those lines, which talks about the Atonement and might be interesting. Also, for me, I thought of a discussion we had on the Atonement in the MTC and it's broader application. Discussing how the Atonement really enables us to pray, have the priesthood, have temples, gain inspiration, and essentially everything. That really helped me to see the much broader impact of the Atonement in my life. I always knew it could help, but had never really done anything that bad to bother me so much that the Atonement would make that incredible difference, if you know what i mean.

Some exciting news- as a mission we have over 30 individuals with Baptismal Dates!!! There are 9 in our zone, most of Lithuania ( Kaunas, klaipeda, and Siauliai). It's incredible, hearts are being softened by our prayers and dilligence.

Today we had interviews with President dance and ate lunch with him and Sis Dance as a district, it was wonderful. I will miss them when they leave.

This week we were able to meet with a young man who w had a lesson with about a month ago. We met at the Church and invited him to be baptized. He said he had already been baptized, so we then asked about baptism and taught about that and recovered the first lesson at a much more relaxed pace. At the end he was willinga nd felt like he needed to read the Book of Mormon, at least to start and see how it went. He still wouldn't necessarily agree to be baptized but saw the connection between the Book of Mormon and everything else we taught. We set up a lesson for this Saturday and invited him to the baptism that will take place that day as well.

While bus contacting, I talked to an older man and gave him our card, barely sharing anything because we needed to exit the bus. He called us about an hour later and we met and talked just briefly. He wanted to come to Church, but thought it was just for young people, because he only saw missionaries going into the Church, we explained that all were welcome. He was unable to attend this Sunday because of work, but we have a meeting with him this week to talk about what Church will be like and explain some of our beliefs. Truly we need to talk to people everywhere.

We also helped Du Wei to exercise his priesthood. He had asked us a couple of weeks ago about blessing his restaurant, because he feels there is a bad spirit there and he can't feel the holy Ghost. We looked into the blessing of homes, since we figured that was the most similar thing that we did and discovered that it doesn't require the Melchezidek priesthood, so Du Wei could do it himself, instead of us. This Saturday we went with him to his restaurant and talked about how to do it, what to say and then asked him to pray. He did, as we all knelt on the ground. He offered the prayer in English, the first time he's ever prayed in English. It was beautiful. He said that he felt better as soon as he prayed, which is great.

As always talked with a few interesting people this week as well.

First, Petras. We met him in a park and he asked us if we knew where he could find a Pagan church to join. We said no and then started talking about Christ and our Church. We asked if he wanted to find out which church was true, he said no, and then proceeded to try and prove that God doesn't exist talking about black matter and other random things. It was funny.

Second, Vytautas the prophet. We have talked to Vytautas before, about Nuclear Kinetic Energy. This time he told us he was a prophet and got revelation from God. He told us that the President of the EU knew that Ireland's economy was going to collapse and that he was in cahoots with America, who wants to destroy the EU- one country at a time, it started with Greece, then went to spain, now Ireland, next Lithuania! Then he needed to leave to spread the word.

Third, hoolies on a bus. We were sitting on a bus and a group of teenagers, two guys and three girls get on. One reads Elder Sherman's tag and then yells asking what we are doing here. we try to answer, but she just keeps asking, so her friend then moves seats to be right in front of us and starts talking much more calmly with us asking. We explained and we actually had a fairly decent conversation.

We finished conference. It was wonderful. I hope you all had a chance to watch and think about what was taught and what we can all do better. well, I love Lithuania and all of you. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you. I hope everything goes excellent this week. Have a great Easter!

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Sveiki Visiems!

First to answer your questions Ella. In The Baltic Mission, President Dance has directed that if at all possible a member perform the baptism, not a missionary. Also, I have not baptized anyone.

First we had a lesson with a woman, Vytauta, that we had harvested into and scheduled a lesson with, she couldn't meet at the scheduled time, but rescheduled and we were able to meet. We had Vitalijus, a member, come with us. The lesson was great, due to Vitalijus. She mentioned that she wasn't sure why she told us yes and let us in then to talk. Vitalijus then testified that it was God showing His love for her and that it showed she was ready for something more, almost straight out of the Preach My Gospel DVDs with Jynx. It was great.

Also, Sunday we had a lesson with Vitalijus and Edita at 19:00. Due to unforeseen circumstances we weren't able to eat before then, but not taking thought for ourselves, as we arrived at their home they had a little cake and some tea for us. Just a small little miracle, but it stifled our hunger enough to focus on the lesson, not our stomachs.

We were also able to meet with Du Wei. He mentioned that he had prayed for help with his restaurant and then there was some political groups that met there, which received news coverage and resulted in many very wealthy people coming and ordering a lot of food. He said that he knew that was an answer to his prayer. He also mentioned that when he doesn't take the sacrament he feels tired and not as energized the entire week. It was great to see him recognize the power of the sacrament in his daily life.

We had zone conference this week which was fantastic. Elder and Sis. Neunschwander (don't know how to spell that) were here. He's an emeritus General Authority and they are currently serving a mission for the Church Records department in the East Europe Area. It was pretty exciting for them to be here and have them talk to us. It was as always fantastic to be together and be able to learn. We talked about the oath and the covenant of the priesthood and how all people are able to receive the priesthood, through the ordinances, thus applying the oath and covenant to all members of the church.

We watched some of conference in English, the Saturday sessions. It was great like always. I feel like I definitely lived beneath my potential as a quorum president in the past, but so did Pres. Eyring, so I guess I'm in good company. Just need to change for the better now, right? Also watched in Lithuanian, translated a little into English for Du Wei on Sunday morning. That was incredibly difficult and like before definitely flet guided to at least be able to communicate some spiritual thoughts even if it wasn't really what people were saying.

Funny little incident- Mykolas, an old Russian man we meet with weekly, said that I looked Mexican, or Brazilian. Not really sure what that's about. People seem to be really confused about my nationality. Often they guess some sort of Asian nation, but just all over the place. Thought you might enjoy that.

As always, I love Lithuania. I love you. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you. I hope all of you have a great week.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Labas Visiems!

First, we've heard a couple kinda crazy things that America declared war on Libya and that there was some sort of civil war in America. Not sure what's up, but maybe if you could share a little truth, that would be appreciated.

With conference, we'll watch it this week in English and then on Saturday and Sunday in Lithuanian.

Elder SHerman is recovered, but I have not been feeling super great. Able to work, which is good, just my stomach has kinda been wigging out. No worries though, everything's good.

Glad to hear that Seattle was excellent and you enjoyed conference. I'm looking forward to being able to watch and learn. Tomorrow we have zone conference which is also always a great opportunity to learn and is awesome because all of us are brought together, it's like a little reunion.

This week we stopped by a man, Edgidijus, who we had harvested into previously, but was having a party, so was unable to meet. He immediately let us in and was willing to listen. We had a good fist lesson, he wouldn't commit to baptism, but definitely wanted to read the Book of Mormon. He invited us over the next night to continue teaching. We returned and taught a little about the plan of salvation. He had read a little and was interested in what we had to say. He said that he really wants to know what his purpose in life is. He has some concerns with organized religion, but is searching for something more than he has. He is moving, into the sisters' area, into a friend's home, who he wanted to have us teach because he said 'he really needs what you guys have'. It should be a wonderful opportunity.

We began meeting with a less-active, Tadas. He is about 20 and comes to Church fairly regularly, but doesn't really know the teachings and is kind of agnostic. He was quite closed at first, but has since really opened up. We invited him to a lesson with us, which unfortunately fell through, so we met with him instead, but he was very excited and wanted to know how he could prepare to help us. We also harvested a little with him. As we started our meeting he offered the prayer and prayed for us that it would be easier and that more people would listen to us. We talked about reading the Book of Mormon and he asked what we taught people. We showed him the pamphlets and he didn't really know about any of those things, so he asked if he could take them and read them. We of course were quite excited and gave him some. Then, this was THursday night, we talked about how much of the Book of Mormon he could read before Church on Sunday, I started with about 4chapters. He said no, more, so I went up and then he asked how long First Nephi was. We looked and said about 50 pages, and he said he would read all of First Nephi and the three pamphlets before Church. We followed up yesterday and he had read them. It was fantastic.

We also met with Du Wei and talked about repentance as a way we can feel the Holy GHost more in our life. We read from a few scriptures and had him read and explain them, since he has a hard time reading and understanding. He actually did a fantastic job of explaining what they menat and we showed that he could learn something from even just a few verses which would only take about a minute to read. He really seemed to get it, it clicked that he can read and understand, it was awesome.

That's about it this week. Sunday we had a meeting with the 'youth' here and talked about missionary work and asked what we could do to help the branch become stronger. As a result, I have recommitted myself to get to know the members and be their friend, like I greet them and am friendly, but go out of my way to talk to them. Something that's still a little hard for me, but that's what a mission's about, right? doing things that are hard, but need to be done.

I love all of you, and Lithuania. Thanks for your prayers and as always I pray for you. Hope your week back in school is excellent.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas