Week 11

March 25, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday-
Today was super good, we got to shop at a much smaller grocery store since we moved. We have one x Maxima across the street. We used to shop at the XXX Maxima in Acropolis, but now this one is much closer. The X's indicate how big it is. While we were gone our landlord and somebody came over to fix our washer so I could get my clothes out. I had to wear the same two skirts all week so I am glad my clothes are out now, they just smell a little musty. We also got to try this place that sells ice cream called iceco and it was the best ice cream I had ever tasted, it was super yummy.

Tuesday-
Today we had a lesson with Jovita, one of our members, and we talked to her about how she can better feel the Spirit in church and how she can get more out of church. Thank you Mom for the key chains, I can tell they are going to be a big hit. I gave one to Jovita, then we had a lesson with Jurga on Skype with Gitana, our member, and after the lesson I gave one to Gitana, she was really excited about it. They have never seen anything like it before. I might need you to send me more if I get transferred to another area. For English the Elders decided it would be better if they taught the advanced class and we taught the beginner class, so we switched classes. This class is really good about staying focused on what we are talking about. We thought it was going to be a lot harder because they know less English, but it actually went really well. They understood quite a bit.

Wednesday-
Today we had zone training, but before that our district met at Birute's so we could help her on her farm, she is one of our members. We helped her take the bark off of these pieces of wood that Ramunas, who is her husband, made a fence out of. It was super fun, but afterward we had to go home and change quickly because we had zone training. Our whole district was a little late for zone training. Zone training was really good except as we began to look at the program I see that my name is on there for closing prayer. I was so nervous to say the closing prayer in Lithuanian in front of all those missionaries who are quite more experienced than I am. After stop-by's we were heading to the bus stop to go home after stop by's when we see a drunk guy and he is trying to ask us for directions or something and Sister Hoskin was telling him we don't speak with Lithuanian, so he wouldn't talk to us and he wasn't getting it, so finally in English she said, "we don't speak English," and he stopped talking and we start laughing, then he joins in because he is drunk and he doesn't know what is going on. It was really funny, but I am glad he wasn't a scary drunk guy.

Thursday-
Today we had English. We only had two students show up, but there is a woman named Nijole, who comes every time and she is really good at answering our questions and participating. She just knew all of the right answers, it was amazing.

Friday-
Today we didn't have a lot of lessons or anything going on, so we planned to do a lot of knocking on doors. We figured the Lord has a plan for us today, but we didn't know what it was going to be. So, we are knocking on a door in that area where the woman asked us to come back during the day, we went there. Her name is Nijole, and she was very nice. She invited us right in and we gave her a restoration pamphlet to read. She had a lot to talk about and she said we could come back. I think she is really lonely, she lives all by herself. She had met with the missionaries before, so she already has a  Book of Mormon. So that was amazing. Then we head to the bus so that we can go to an appointment we have with one of our less actives Gintautas. When we get on the bus we see a young girl named Evelina, who Sister Hoskin knows from English class. She used to come. She has perfect English, she is about to graduate from high school and is looking at colleges. She was super cute, I got her name so I can become Facebook friends with her when I get home. I want to see where she ends up. We go to Gintautas's lesson that we were having Gitana there with us, we are trying to set them up. We think that they would be a cute couple. They seemed to get a long really well. We hope they can get married in the temple.

Saturday-
Today was another amazing day! We went out and knocked on some more doors from our stop by list. We met a lady named Antinina and she didn't have very much time but she let us in and was very interested in English class and meeting with us, so we set a date to meet again after English class. I am super excited, she was very sweet. After that we helped Jovita clean the church. We also had a lesson with a recent convert, Jolanta, and she is amazing! We talked about temples and how she can prepare herself to enter, she is super excited to go. Their next temple trip will be in July, they only get to go once a year to the Finland temple.

Sunday-
Today we had a lesson with Jurga and we taught her the Word of Wisdom, she has quit smoking for a couple of weeks now!

Monday-
Today we weren't able to have preparation day because we had to go to Kedaniai to visit our investigator, Jurga. It was fun. I enjoy traveling and seeing the countryside, it is beautiful.

Tuesday-
Today we had district meeting, but instead of having a regular district meeting we talked about the members and what we can do for them. We just went through the member list and talked about each person, we only got through 1 page of 3, but I felt like it was super helpful. We have a lot of less actives that we are trying to concentrate on, but it seems like most people here do not understand that it is important to come to church. I think a lot of them grew up Catholic and never had to actually attend, so they may think that it is not important.

Love,
Sister Brown