Sveiki Visiems!

First, this week was a little sad, but unreal. We had our last interviews with President Dance and our last zone conference, also making it probably the last time we will see him, until a reunion or something. Sad. Zone Conference was very good. They told us about their call, so we would know and have an idea of what the Boswell's just went through. The interview was great, we just talked a bit and at the end I asked for advice, if he could give me any advice, what would that advice be. He said that he'd been thinking about that and that he actually had wanted to tell me, so I was inspired to ask that question. Then he started saying that intellectually I've had great achievements throughout my life and that things that way come very easily, that learning lithuanian has stretched me some, but not that much. Also that a mission is about stretching yourself and becoming fully well rounded. He said that there are some times when I seem to hesitate just a bit, and to work on those. THen he paused and said I don't think I could say this to any other missionary here. Paused thoughtfully again considering that statement. Then said, no, I couldn't say this to anyone else. 'Have some reckless abandon'. I know I can say that to you (me) because your reckless abandon will be within the boundaries of the rules. He said to just be a little wild, try new things, experiment. Find those areas that are uncomfortable and focus on them stretching myself. I've been thinking aobut that and how to have 'reckless abandon'. It was interesting advice, that I will follow.

Second, some entertaining anecdotes from the week.
Monday we were contacting and I contacted this guy, wearing white pants, a white shirt tucked in with some japanese flower girl design, and using an umbrella as a cane. He totally stops, turns towards us and says "Do you want somethin'?" (in English), then the equivalent in Lithuanian. He had a strange accent, so I asked him if he spoke English. He replied perfectly. This time I caught the Australian pirate accent. I asked how he learned, he replied that for 50 yrs he lived in Australia, so then I asked if he was Lithuanian, yes full-blooded. Then I said we were missionaries and he told us to try and save these parasites. That all the people with any good in them left, leaving behind these. He sneered, gesturing to the people on the street with his umbrella. These bandits, parasites, and liars. Try and save them. Save them. Save them. He muttered the last directions almost to himself as he walked away leaning on his umbrella. He also had an accent in Lithuanian, Australian pirate again. Super strange.

A lady from finland asked if she could take our pictures. We said sure. They even prominently featured our copies of the Book of Mormon.

Last night, this happened in sequence almost exactly one after the other, we contacted First, a man who wanted to hear about the 144,000 who would go to Heaven, when i replied that we didn't believe only 144,000 would be saved, he said he wasn't interested. Second, a crazy man who muttered at us and then began to growl in our direction. and Third a man who crossed us with his finger to protect himself from our evil Spirit or something.

Tadas. Finally after about two weeks of no contact except via phone we met. He, of his own accord, decided to try and fully live the Word of Wisdom, giving up coffee, which he previously was using to stay awake to study and be attentive in class. He is still reading and praying and trying to do what's right.

Du Wei. We met and he told us that he was at a turning point in his life. He could choose now to follow Christ and be blessed or he could choose to follow Satan, end up wealthy and 'soulless in a BMW'. He came to Church on Sunday, to me signifying his desire at the moment to follow Christ.

We again had the opportunity to run into Algimantas on Laisves. We talked about authority and reviewed that, since he didn't really understand why he would need to be baptized again. We then testified of the Book of Mormon being the key to finding out if what we say is true. He's been reading, so we invited him to pray about what he read.

Another small miracle saved us from having what could have become a heated argument with a drunk man. We were waiting for our bus and a drunk man approaches us looking rather upset. He then proceeds to talk to us in English asking why we don't speak Lithuanian and how we could think about helping people if we only speak English. He was starting to get worked up, when our bus pulled up, we said goodbye and hopped on, driving away.

Well, that's about all for this week. Transfers are on Thursday. I love Lithuania and the Lithuanian people. I Love all of you. Thanks for your prayers and know that I pray for you. May you all have a wonderful, beautiful, and worthwhile week.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Sveiki Visiems!

First, Elder Leishman and I have been talking a lot about music and what to listen to when we get home. I want to listen to everything because I love music so much, but if that hampers my spirituality, then I don't want to. I had a question for you, mom and dad, just based on something I noticed growing up and something that Elder Leishman's dad told him. First, did you not feel like listening to some of the music you listened to before your mission, afterwards? Second, why? I noticed that neither of you really played music much ever, but was that because you just didn't really care or felt it hurt your spirituality or just slowly stopped. Just curious.

This week was mostly spent in finding efforts, so had a few interesting experiences.

While contacting two girls about our age call out to us, in British accents, "are you the mormons?" I have developed a tendancy to kinda ignore those sort of catcalls because generally they are from people who just want to poke fun, but felt like I should talk to them, so we did. Turns out they were tourists from Finland who had been meeting with missionaries on and off for 2 yrs going on a road trip to Macedonia for some prayer event. They just had a couple questions about how to say things since they knew that Mormons always speak the language. Good to know that people can count on us for something.

Later that day we were walking and a guy dropped his wallet I stopped and was going to pick it up, when another guy, hereafter refferred to as theif, grabbed it and booked it. I just stood there, the first guy was on the phone as well. I looked around not knowing whether to chase the theif or call to the guy or what, a third man saw as well and looked like he was going to go after the theif so I wasn't worried, but then he wasn't doing anything so I moved to go talk to the guy now walletless, but....SURPRISE!! An interviewer and camerman accosted us. Asking if we saw it and what went through our heads. I then noticed all actors assembled together laughing and realized we had been punk'd, minus Ashton Kutcher. Anyway, I explained I was confused and didn't know what to do, but was about to go tell the guy as they interrupted me. Crazy.

We went to Orestas's house to do some more ervice and eat some more delicious food. It was great. Had an exchange with Elder Sherman and met with Orestas. It was great. Discovered even more how much he's changed his life and is commited to living right. He was going to bring a friend to Church, so was waiting for her, but she didn't show and didn't show, so finally he left. He knew he was late, so when the bus got to the stop, he sprinted to the Church to take the sacrament. He made it inside the building just as a member went into the foyer, it was a miracle. He will be getting baptized not this saturday but next Saturday. He's awesome.

English class in the spiritual thought was a miracle. Last week, it didn't go so well, there was just kinda a bad Spirit about it. THey had asked what was different about our Church, so we explained the Apostasy and Restoration of authority, emphasizing that during the Apostasy the religious people were good people doing what they could, but some of our class took it as us bashing on their religion. This week we just asked if they had questions. They did. About tithing specifically, so we taught about tithing. At the end of the lesson, they said 'oh, i understand now. That makes a lot of sense." It was fantastic.

Yesterday we sang as a district in center and a woman, who was blind happened to stop to listen to us. As we finished up, a drunk man approached her for money, she tried to just tell him off, but he wouldn't leave and she couldn't really quickly exit, due to her blindness. The sisters wanted to talk to her, so Elder Leishman and I approached the drunk man and got his attention and then led him away from the woman, so that the sisters could introduce her to the Gospel and to help her out. He seemed to be following us without really wanting to, a blessing and mini miracle. We then stood and watched to ensure that he didn't return to bother the woman and the sisters. While standinghe and his drunk friends left, one coming to talk to us. He told us he respected us, but that we shouldn't talk about our Church here because Kaunas is the most terrible, cruel, Godless city in all of Lithuania. He proceeded to tell us how awful it was and then I just said, well that's why we're here. They need it the most. He then said in English "Yes, of course.' wished us good luck and walked away. Hilarious.

Lithuania is wonderful. I love being here, every minute of it. I appreciate your prayers and pray for you. Enjoy your summer and work hard.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Hey, forgot to mention this, but on Sunday the first stake in Russia was created. The second stake in Eastern Europe. Woohoo! Just thought I'd update you on that, since I don't know if you would find out that sort of thing.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas

Sveiki Visiems!

Well, first about a schedule for people in the summer that you asked about last week. I was thinking maybe a variation of my schedule, up early- exercise, study alone and then together. So, you could do a mixture of gospel study and normal educational deals. music practicing for a bit. You could all try and learn Lithuanian- that would be cool. Also, I was thinking about Preach my Gospel. I thought to make it actually sorta fun, with all the drama lovers, you could practice teaching the lessons, either as a whole lesson or just specific principles, with one or more people pretending to be an investigator. Or for a family home evening activity every once in awhile. Also, I was thinking about those able making a weekly excursion to the temple. I remember Al said something about wanting to do that, now's the time. And as Mom knows, probably the sooner you start that habit the easier it will be to keep it. Just some thoughts.

Our rule for short sleeve shirts is the mid 20's Celsius. So we have been wearing them the past little while. We have to wear suit coats to Church, until the presiding official removes his, but other than that- we have been suit coat less.

For Alistair- First, congrats on being a graduate. Sounds like your speech was awesome. What exactly did you talk about? Maybe you could send it to me, that'd be cool. My Religion proff was Byron Merril. I'm not sure on the spelling of his last name. Pretty sure he was in teh religion department. For mission prep Bro Bott is supposed to be incredible, but super hard to get. I don't know any other names religion wise. I would say that Honors would definitely be worth it. Do they really not have any honors freshman academy groups? That's too bad. I would say that that was super awesome to do. Hmm...Other than that, get to bed early, get up early, don't sleep in class. Take notes. Talk to your proffessor or TA or someone if you need help, sooner rather than later. don't have Facebook open when you want to do homework. Go to awesome free things on campus, like ACoustic Explosion. make friends with people in your hall, it'll be more fun. Class wise, just take some basics, my honors classes were my favorites and it was easier to get together and study as a group- also a fantastic idea, might take a little more time, but more effective and enjoyable.
That's all I got for now on that.

We had mission conference yesterday, the first time that any of the missionaries here have had that. President Clayton, of the presidency of the Seventy and Elder Lawrence of the Seventy and the East Europe Area presidency and their wives were present. We traveled sunday night to Vilnius and then early early Monday morning to Riga. It was fun to travel together. Mission conference was great. It was essentially a Q and A session. Talked about companionship relationships, studying, agency of others and our faith, forgiveness, just very good. Then we ate and visited with all the other missionaries. I talked mostly with Elders Adams and Alder, the Latvians from the MTC, now serving together. It was so great to talk and see them. Also talked with some Russian Elders that had served in Vilnius when I was there. It was awesome. Super crazy because one year ago on that very day, We flew into Riga. Nutso. time flies.

We were able to meet with Du Wei, and at the start of the meeting we just asked how he was doing and he told us not very good. Then he just started talking about how life is hard right now, but he knows that his trials are so God can teach him to be humble. There were several times as he spoke that he paused and both Elder Leishman and I felt that we should just listen more and he always continued. We were led by the Spirit in that aspect and then in what to share about patience and the importance of putting God first in our lives. It was an incredible lesson. His life is essentially the Pride Cycle that happens throughout the Book of Mormon. He himself said that when his business does well, he forgets about God, so then he has trials so he'll remember God. It's crazy how applicable that is and to see the same things on an individual scale.

We were unable to meet with Tadas because he was sick, but he let us know in advance and we talked a little bit. He's still reading and desires to be baptized.

We also met with Vygantas. We taught the Plan of Salvation, going deep into parts of it that he had questions about, since he already had a basic understanding. We also clarified that temple ordinances are essential for eternal glory in the celestial kingdom, giving him further motivation to come back to Church and go through the temple. He was very grateful and appreciated our help and giving him sections in the scriptures to read that explained further about the Plan of Salvation.

Well, I wish you all well in your summering. Lithuania is wonderful and fantastic. I pray for you and appreciate your prayers.

Love,

Vyresnysis Kanoris Hiltonas