Week 17

May 4, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday-
Today we tried to go to a museum that we thought was open, but we should have known better. Nothing is open in Kaunas on Monday. There are a ton of museums, but none of them are open. So instead we walked around cute old town. We found a frozen yogurt shop and tried it, we also went into a few souvenir shops, it was a good day. We also ate for dinner this delicious tomato soup that Sister Seaman made with quesadillas. For the second time on my mission, the keys to our apartment got left in the door when we left. We didn't notice we didn't have keys until we got home that night at 9:00, so we called the Elders and asked if they could bring our spare key. We waited on the stairs and were planning when one of our upstairs neighbors came up the stairs. I guess she had grabbed our keys and had left a note in the top of our door. She was really nice to have kept our keys for us. We felt bad because the Elders were almost to our apartment when we called to let them know that we had our keys.

Tuesday-
Today in district meeting I taught about courage. It was really quite perfect because yesterday in one of my emails I got a quote from someone that was said by Elder Bednar in General Conference, "correct knowledge of and faith in the Lord empowers us to hush our fears because Jesus Christ is the only source of enduring peace." I also read in the Liahona about courage and there was a quote that I really enjoyed in that article, "courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval." I really like that because everyone, especially me as a missionary, is looking to be approved as a representative of Jesus Christ. After I taught about courage we were able to watch a few General Conference talks. I loved the talk by Wilford W. Anderson about dancing and maybe sometimes not hearing the music. I also liked Dale G. Renlund's talk and that story he told where the quote was said, "the Chuch is like a big hospital, everyone is sick in their own way, they come to church to be healed." We have to remember how everyone is imperfect in their own way, we have to accept each other and become better. We need to learn from each other.

Wednesday-
Today was so cold! We had to put our coats back on for today. We were supposed to have two lessons tonight, but they fell through so we practiced some Lithuanian words with Emilija, it was fun. We then had Branch Council, which got a little heated. Afterward we were leaving and the door handle on the gate had rusted off. On the way home, we were riding a marsrute home, which is another type of transport that is faster than the buses and you pay a little more money. So we were riding it with the Elders when these two boys got on, the one sat behind us while his friend payed. I could smell him the moment he sat down, he was drunk. So then he starts speaking to us in English, we are not supposed to talk to men anyway, but especially not drunk men. The Elders were so nice, they said that instead of getting off on their stop they would ride with us to our stop, and Elder Hanson gave up his seat so that we could move away from the drunk man. I am so grateful for the Elders and that they stayed on with us.

Thursday-
Today I was on exchanges with Sister Bestenlenher, we walked around and spoke with people, it was fun. You really get to know someone pretty well when you just are walking with them.

Friday-
Today we had a sewing activity which we made banana bread for. It was a really good turn out. We did three quilts and sewed these little ball things. We had one previous investigator come and like three less actives come to the activity. It was really fun. This evening we had a lesson with Ade, the recent convert at the senior couple's house (the Bruce's), it was really good. Ade is super good. We were talking about the law of chastity and we asked him how he keeps his thoughts clean and he said he gathers with other people and never is not talking to someone, even on the walk over he was talking on the phone.

Saturday-
Today we had service, I learned how to plaster walls, it was fun. I am learning all kinds of new skills here on my mission. We then had a lesson with the woman we are serving with the Elders, that was very interesting. Her name is Jura, which means sea. She likes to talk a lot, so she would go on and on. She even told Elder Hanson his future. We didn't really get to have a full lesson with her, but it was very interesting.

Sunday-
Today was Mothers's Day in Lithuania. Ade brought a friend to church today. She is a Nigerian girl, her name is Folu. She was really nice and Sister Seaman was able to sit by her and translate for her. She was super interested in meeting with us after all three hours of church. We are hoping to meet with her this week, she even said she would go to district conference that is coming up. While we were out walking around tonight we spoke with this one woman who was very interesting, I started talking to her and she kept repeating the number 24, which I guess is the number of years she has been baptized. Then she started talking about money, she kept repeating the hand action for money and saying over and over, "money, money, money, money." She was saying that is all everybody wants is money when they should just love each other and then she hugged each of us and then she started singing, "hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah," over and over with her hands up in the air looking up, then she asked us to join in. So here we are on the street singing hallelujah with this crazy woman. Then after that she asked us where we were from and we said America, and then she started talking about Abraham Lincoln, then Clinton. Then she went back to singing hallelujah, this time we didn't sing with her, and after we said it was pretty and she said, "no it wasn't, because you didn't help." Then she asked if we sing that son, we said we sing. At some point in the conversation she had linked arms with me and we stayed like that for awhile. She was sweet, but a little crazy. We finally had to end it because she just kept going on and on. So that was a very interesting experience tonight.

I have not been sick at all. We weren't able to visit Liuda this week because she couldn't, but we are going to try and go tomorrow. I don't know how far I walked, but my feet do get pretty tired by the end of the days when we walk a lot. I get to Skype here at 6:00 PM our time, which is 9:00 AM your time, we get to Skype for 40 minutes. I think it would be best to just add Jarom to the Skype thing when we do it. I am excited to see you on Sunday!

Love,
Sister Brown