Week 10

March 16, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday-
Today we ate with the Elders, then afterward Elder Armstrong wanted our opinion on a few suits he was considering. We went shopping with the Elders, it was really quite interesting to shop with the Elders.

Tuesday-
Today we had District Meeting and we all spoke about our favorite missionaries in the Book of Mormon or Bible in preparation for Zone Conference on Thursday. After District Meeting the Elders helped us move all of our things to our new apartment. Our apartment is so nice! The bathroom smells a little like cigarette smoke, but other than that is super nice. We even have a dishwasher, which is unheard of in Lithuania. I appreciate it so much more now.

Wednesday-
My laundry got stuck in the washer. I was trying to get my laundry done for Zone Conference on Thursday, so when we got in the new apartment I put my laundry in, including my suit jackets. They told us we had to stick the scissors in and turn it, but it didn't work and I think I broke it more. I am quite worried about my clothes getting moldy, but I can't do anything about it. They bought us new beds for our apartment, but oh, they are so firm. I woke up this morning and I felt like I had slept on the ground all night. Today is a holiday in Lithuania, they were celebrating 25 years of freedom. I love holiday's, there is such a good feeling in the air. Today I tried McDonald's in Lithuania, I had heard that it is way better than in America, and it was super yummy. Here you have to pay for ketchup packets and all they have for soda is a lot of Coke and Orange Fanta, and Sprite, I thought it was interesting. We traveled to Vilnius tonights and are staying with the Russian sisters. Vilnius is a huge city, there is a lot of energy here.

Thursday-
Today we had my first Zone Conference. It was really good and really long, it went from 11-7. It was a lot of sitting, but I got to finally meet all of the missionaries in Lithuania and the Russian Elders serving in Bellarus. One companionship in Bellarus had to Skype us. It was a really good conference, President Harding spoke about teaching the Lord's way. He also talked about our schedule and how our day begins at 9:30 in the evening. This helps us prepare for studies the next day. After we had a break for eating lunch we came back together and they gave everyone who's birthday's were between January and the end of May a candy bar and sung to them all, it was nice. Then we got to watch Meet the Mormons! It was really fun, especially because most of the missionaries there had never seen it, only my MTC group had seen it. After that we got a sneak preview of the Easter promotion on lds.org "Because He Lives," which won't be available until March 28th. There will also be a website that opens on the 27th, helives.mormon.org, which will continue to update and add new things on throughout the year, so it isn't only for Easter. They are also hoping to be the only advertiser on YouTube, which is on Easter Sunday, so that is super impressive. Sister Harding spoke to us about having more meaningful studies. Here are the steps, but don't necessarily need to be in this order.

1. Desire
2. Ponder
3. Scriptures
4. Revelation
5. Write down
6. Act
7. Ask "is there anything more?"

She suggested for our study journals, which she gave us a new one, to make 3 columns. The first column is for what we hear and see, the second column is for what we feel, and the third column is what we need to do about it. I have never been super good about writing down what revelation I receive while studying, but I am excited to try it out. "The most important answers in life are caught not taught." Sister Harding, at the end, gave us a little grab and go kit for emergencies and told us that we can add to it so it will be more like a 72 hour kit. Overall, it was a very good Zone Conference. We get to stay the night at some of the Lithuanian sisters apartment, Sister Argyle and Sister Soosalu. Sister Soosalu is from Estonia, so she has a cute accent.

Friday-
Today we headed back to Siauliai. I finally got to see Vilnius during the day and it was beautiful. Sister Hoskin and I had some time before our bus left, so we went to a nearby McDonald's for breakfast, because McDonald's has the best breakfast. Turns out, Lithuanians eat burgers for breakfast, apparently, they don't have a breakfast menu. We traveled back by bus to Siauliai with Elder Aidukiatis and Elder Martin. They were going on exchanges. When we got back we needed to clean our old apartment and make it look really good. We went over there and the Elders wanted to help, so they cam over and help us rearrange the furniture so it looks is like a missionary apartment and, it looks really good now.

Saturday-
Today we had cleaning checks because the senior couple was coming to do an activity for us in Siauliai. So, we got to clean our hearts out again, luckily, it was mostly just organizing our things because our apartment is pretty new, it is already pretty clean. Oh, and yes, my clothes are still stuck in the washer. Luckily, we passed our cleaning check, then they wanted to take us out to eat after they did the Elder's apartment, but unfortunately, we had to meet our old landlord to give him our keys, but he didn't end up showing up. We arranged for a different time because we were not going to miss the activity. The activity was super fun and we had a great turn out. We had quite a few less actives show up. Sister Swiss taught them how to make quilts. The Swiss' have been doing this in Vilnius for their whole mission and have done quite a bit of good donating them to others. It was super exciting and fun. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Sunday-
Today we were able to have Sister Swiss in the Primary with us and she was amazing, she was a teacher before her mission and she was so good with the boys. We got some good ideas from her to help the boy listen and settle down.

Love,
Sister Brown

Week 9

March 9, 2015

Dear Family and Friends:

Monday-
Today we tried a Statdog for the first time, it is just a hot dog that everyone said was so good and we needed to try it. It was actually pretty good. We took a taxi because we didn't know where the place was where you get them, all I know was that it was at a gas station called Statoil. We asked him to take us to Statoil and he didn't know what that was, so then we asked him to take us to Saules Miestas (a mall) because we had seen a Statoil on the way to Saules Miestas before. we saw it on the way and we were like right here, and then he understood what we had been saying before. It was kinda funny.

Tuesday-
Sister Hoskin made this delicious pie for district meeting today, it was apple. We had to hurry out without even trying it to make it to an appointment, it was really sad, then the woman did not even show up so we missed out on pie for nothing. In District Meeting Sister Hoskin spoke about questions and listening. We read John 11 and talked about how Jesus is the best friend anyone can have. Elder Aidukiatis spoke about loving yourself. We read Doctrine & Covenants 107:99-100 and he asked what connections can you make between loving yourself and our duty. I thought about it and realized that loving ourselves is part of our duty. Our body and our personality are not ours, they are gifts, and therefore we have a duty to love them and take care of them.

Wednesday-
Today we were able to meet with our branch member, Birute. I always love going over to her house. She loves to chat and help us knit and she always feeds us the most delicious foods. She also gave us a lot of advice for our future families. She is very wise and I love to learn from her. We also took her some clothes that were left in our apartment and she absolutely loved them. We went over to Jovita's today and she was doing good, Sister Hoskin braided her hair for her. I think she really enjoyed that. Her brother came in the door and she stopped and was waiting for him to come in and see her hair, but he went straight to his room. She was cute and it was super sweet for Sister Hoskin to do that for her.

Thursday-
Today we were able to go with Birute to her mother's house and have a little lesson with her mom. She was the sweetest old lady. We know that she probably won't be able to be baptized in this life because she is very old, but we can still share spiritual thoughts with her. We are going to go over once a week and clean her floors. I am excited for the service opportunity.

Friday-
Today we made a delicious apple cake thing, it was super yummy. Gitana helped us and we are going to be taking it to a less active member's house who lives just outside Siauliai tomorrow. We also got to visit one of our more recent converts tonight, her name is Jolanta and her son, who is about 14, is named Armenis. They are so sweet. We have been wanting to meet with her for a really long time, but she works so much and overtime we would go over there she would not be there. We got there and knocked and we saw that they were about to eat dinner, but they made us come in and eat some of their dinner, they are so nice. We felt really bad for eating their dinner. It was really good, though. She really needed the visit, she is having a little bit of a hard time. I hope we are able to meet with her again soon. She is super sweet, she loves to kiss our cheeks and hug.

Saturday-
Today we went to Silenai, which is a small country town just like 15 minutes away by train. We have a less active who lives there named Asta, she has like 8 children. We didn't call beforehand to make an appointment because her phone number was not working. She could't really meet with us today, so we talked to her for like 15 minutes and gave her the apple cake we had made for her yesterday. Then we had to go wait for like an hour and a half for the next train to take us back to Siauliai. When we got back to Siauliai we helped Gitana deep clean the church. It was really fun, I enjoyed it. We stopped by Aldona's house this evening and she was home so we had a lesson with her, after she had been avoiding us for a few months now we saw this coming, but Sister Hosking invited her to be baptized and she said that she doesn't plan on changing churches. So that is that. It is a bummer, but not surprising, she has met with many different missionaries and drops them every time. She is being prepared, I know that one day she will accept our message.

Sunday-
Today in Lithuania it was Women's Day. It was nice, I saw women carrying around flowers and men carrying flowers to give to their women. We received a tulip after Sacrament meeting. On the way home from church a man was kissing all the women he passed on the street and tried to do the same to Sister Hoskin and I. I tried to give my tulip to 2 different women who would not take it on the bus, finally the last woman on the bus took it. So, Happy Women's Day!! I think we should celebrate this holiday in America. We also thought daylight savings changed our clocks today, but I guess in Europe we don't change our clocks until the 29th of March.

Love,
Sister Brown

Week 8

March 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday-
Today for preparation day we just relaxed at home because Sister Hoskin is a little sick. In the evening we went out to go and knock on some doors. She is doing better, I think the oils have been helping and we did make the chicken noodle soup, it was delicious! The mashed potatoes were a little difficult. I boiled the potatoes in a frying pan because we only have one pot, and no, we don't have a crockpot. Then we have this little hand blender thing I found that you stick in your cup to make smoothies and I think it made my potatoes a weird texture, but they still tasted good.

Tuesday-
Today we had district meeting, we all had our names on a slip of paper and we all drew names and whoever we drew is who we would be trying to serve secretly without them finding out who it is. I drew Elder Aidukaitis. I feel like he will be easy to think of ideas for. He likes candles, and light up things, and mint green is his favorite color. It will be fun to think of creative ways I can serve him. On the way home from district meeting we were trying to talk to people all along the way, but nobody wanted to listen. We got to the bus stop and we tried another woman, she didn't want to speak to us, but we saw another, so we went and spoke to her. She was super sweet. Then we had English class in the evening where one of the elders had already begun his "secret service." There were cookies for Sister Hoskin and the reason we knew they were for her was that she loves cows, and there was a little cow inside, it was cute. We found it is Elder Norman. On the way home from English we talked to another woman who was super interested and would have given us her phone number, but she did not have it memorized. She took ours, hopefully she calls. Today was just full of miracles. Sister Hoskin and I were talking about how Heavenly Father tests our faith by putting these people in our paths who continually reject us to see if we will keep talking to others, then he blesses us when we continually act. There is a verse in Alma that talks about this, Alma 26:27 "Now when our hearts were depressed and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

Wednesday-
Today was so amazing. First we got to travel to Kadaniai and visit our investigator who lives there. We usually just have lessons over Skype with her. It was good to actually meet her in person, her name is Jurga. It was a really good lesson. Then we traveled back and we had a lesson with Jane, who is a less active. She is leaving for England this week for 4 months. We are super sad, we are going to miss her. I think she is going to miss us as well, she gave us these beautiful teacups and some applesauce, and something else that has berries in it, we are not quite sure what it is. She was super sweet, she did not want us to leave. She kept giving us tea, but we had to get going because we were meeting the elders to look at our potential apartment, which I am pretty excited about, it is really beautiful. I will send pictures when we move in, which sounds like won't be until March 10th.

Thursday-
Today was really good, we had a lesson with this woman named Alexandria and her husband. They are the parents of one of our less active members. She would not let us get many words in, she likes to talk, she also tried to give us chocolates filled with alcohol. They did read the restoration pamphlet we gave them. They really enjoy reading, when I gave her husband the Book of Mormon he opened it right up and started to look through it. Then we went to meet the Sister Training Leaders at the bus station for exchanges. I got to go to Kaunas with Sister Penrose for this exchange, while Sister Hoskin stayed in Siauliai with Sister Seaman. It was really fun, Sister Penrose is really cute, and quite short, even shorter than me. She makes me seem tall.

Friday-
Today I was in Kaunas for my exchange. It was a super short exchange, basically we got to do our morning studies and then come back to Siauliai, but before we headed back we did have a lesson with a less active named Virginia. The most interesting things happen when I am on exchanges. Kaunas is a super confusing city, the streets are super crazy and we had to take two different buses to get to Virginia's house. We took the first bus, then got off and waited at the next bus stop for our next bus. We got on a bus and it took us back where we began, poor Sister Penrose was so embarrassed. We tried again, we ended up being about 20 minutes late to an already super short lesson because we had to hurry off to the bus station. We had a super quick lesson with Virginia. I got back to Siauliai and we were able to go see Jane one last time before she left town. She is so sweet, we heart attacked her door a few weeks ago and the hearts are still all over her door. We were able to take pictures with her and say goodbye.

Saturday-
Today was so amazing! We went to Kristupas and Laura's to give them a gift because they just had a baby, they are such good parents already. We then did some stop by's and while we were walking on the street we talked to this woman named Kristina and she was so amazing. Sister Hoskin did not start this contact like she usually does, she followed the Spirit and asked her if she spoke English. Heavenly Father knew that she would want to listen if we spoke English with her. She was super sweet and we got her number and invited her to English where we could give her a Book of Mormon. she seemed super interested, unfortunately, she is going to England next week, but I hope we can stay in contact so when she comes back she can meet with the missionaries. We also talked to this other woman at the bus stop while we were waiting for the bus. I didn't realized it while we were talking to her, but I found out afterward that she had said she was drunk, she also was interested in the English classes. She took a pamphlet and we also exchanged numbers, so maybe we can help her. She seemed to have a pretty rough life when we were talking to her.

Sunday-
We usually have bus passes that we just scan on the buses, but today since it was the first of the month and you have to refill your bus pass, we had to buy actual tickets from the driver. We didn't have any small bills or enough change. The smallest we had was a 10 euro, so we tried it, but the bus driver said he could not break it, so at the next stop we got off and walked to where we needed to go. While we were walking we decided we should just buy more than two with that bill so that we could ride the bus home that night. We decided we would buy eight so we would have some to get around tomorrow until we can refill our cards. So, we got on the bus when it was time to go home and asked the bus driver for eight tickets, he did not understand, I don't think they usually sell that many tickets at once. He was just saying he didn't understand and Sister Hoskin was holding up her fingers and just kept saying it, he was so nice, he did it for us, he so did not have to, he could have just made us walk like the other bus driver.

Love,
Sister Brown