Labas Visiems!

Oh, I just got a letter from Sis Larsen. They're working on missionary plaques and wanted my favorite scripture. The scripture I' feeling at the moment is 2 Timothy 4:7- Paul talking in prison in what he thinks will be one of his last letters. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Always just pumps me up. She asked that you convey my scripture choice to the bishopric. Thanks!

Had a few run ins with Jehovah Witnesses this week. Once we were harvesting and two ladies in dresses came to one of the doors, after whispering mysteriously to themselves after seeing us, which isn't really an uncommon occurrence. They informed us that they were visiting this house, so we just kept on walking. As they left they made note of the building, probably to record that we had been there. The second happened while we were contacting. We were teaching a man and another guy just pulls up on his bike and greets us saying: Brothers Mormons, doesn't quite translate. He then asks what we're doing I say preaching the word of God. He asks questioningly, Really? I said yeah. Then we talked a little about what that meant. Talked about repentance, Jesus being the Son of God and then what God's name is. He said Jehovah, which I knew he was going to say, so I said that We believe that Jehovah is Christ and God's name is Elohim. He then preached to me a bit about how it couldn't be Christ, I listened and then testified. He rode off and wished us good luck.

Again, Tadas is a miracle. We called him Wednesday night to just see how he was doing and he hadn't read or prayed since our meeting on Saturday, but he then called us on Friday to say that he had prayed before an exam and felt like it helped. At our meeting Saturday, he had actually read through 2 nephi 9 or so, again apologizing for not reading that much. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, referring to 2 Nephi 2 multiple times, he remembered the verses and as we later talked about what we need to do here on Earth, sharing from Christ's teachings in 3 Nephi, he responded saying that Nephi earlier had taught something similar, showing that he really is reading and thinking about what he reads. He really enjoyed the baptism and subsequent giving of the Holy Ghost last week. He thought it was very powerful and said he enjoyed the strong symbolism of total immersion and cleansing of the fire, which he said he felt a strong power as that gift was given. At the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized, for the second time. He said that he wants his baptism to have a spiritual significance, so he wouldn't do it then, but wants to have it as a goal. We said that that was why we wanted to have a date to work towards. He said he would think about it and the next time we met, he would tell us the date. He also wanted to know the requirements for baptism and we explained basics and that we would go over them in more detail with a calender when he had a date. We also heard via a series of people that he was discussing getting baptized with Ugne, who came to church again on Sunday.

We found a man, Algimantas, we were able to teach contacting. He was interested in what happens after death. We used that to teach the Restoration saying that the Book of Mormon is the key to that knowledge. It was a great lesson and later that day we found him on a bench already beginning to read the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately he lives outside Kaunas, but he said he would call us when he had read the chapter we had assigned him. At the least he will be touched by the Spirit and gain knowledge to help him in the Spirit world.

We worked with Du Wei, talking about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. We committed him to pray and ask God what he should do about working on Sunday. He said he would, and knows that God will Help him.

Met with Giedrius as well. Talked about the healing power of the Atonement, especially through our change in returning to Church and scripture study. He seemed more relaxed and comfortable than normal, which is great.

Met with Vygantas, another less active. Valdemaras came with us and really befriended Vygantas. On Sunday Valdemaras was asking other members that were baptized about the same time if they knew Vygantas and trying to find him a friend at church.

On Saturday we went with the other elders to help Orestas, one of their investigators. He has a baptismal date, but is working to overcome some problems with most forms of temptation. He lived a rough life for a long time and is trying to turn it around. He's building a house, so we went to help clean up stuff and then eat shish kabobs. It was pretty fun. He's a great guy and really wants to be better. THe kabobs were absolutely delicious. Tried a little raw onion with black bread as well, wasn't bad.

Elder Sherman and I taught the training this Saturday. It was on the Doctrine of Christ. The lesson plan had the idea of teaching the doctrine of Christ and then talking about love being the center of missionary work. We were thinking about that and then just combined the two, connecting each individual part of the Doctrine of Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, to Love. It was a very enlightening discussion.

Thanks for your prayers and love. I pray for you and love serving. Hopefully you all have an excellent week. Look forward to talking to you on Sunday.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas