Monday, March 23, 2015

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























No comments:

Post a Comment