Monday, March 2, 2015

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








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