"...thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.": Week 22

June 8, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday-

Tonight we had a lesson with Margarita and Vytas. I was really quite nervous because I had to lead the lesson and I did not feel ready. I am always pretty nervous for lessons anyway, because you want to follow the Spirit and teach to their needs, but plus, I had to lead. It went really well, though. They had kept our commitment to read the Book of Mormon intro. Margarita is the daughter of an investigator in Siauliai Branuslava. Branuslava is not progressing, she doesn't meet with the missionaries anymore, yet she still goes to church most Sundays. I hope that if we can get her daughter progressing maybe she will want to meet again. We spoke about baptism and Vytas felt like he wanted to learn more and make sure he can follow the commandments. Margarita was baptized at 20 and thinks she does not need to be baptized again. The lesson went really well and they said, after some convincing, they would come to church on Sunday.

Tuesday-

Today in district meeting Sister Seaman spoke about having an eternal perspective. She used a map as an object lesson, she had a smaller map and she asked up to find a specific street on that map. We couldn't find it, but when she gave us a bigger map of the same city it had more detail and we were able to find the street. The small map is like our perspective, we can not see all of the little details in it. The big map is like Heavenly Father's perspective. She committed us to look for the little details in life so that we can more fully see the full picture. After district meeting I went on exchanges with Sister Penrose. This evening we had a lesson with Diamonta, Diamonta is one of their investigators who had a baptismal date but she decided to not go through with it because she has a lot of questions still, and they aren't just regular questions, they get into some pretty deep stuff, answers that I don't know, let alone to say them in Lithuanian. But it went really well, I was able to help answer some of her difficult questions. She is very Catholic, and I think compares a lot of things to the Catholic religion.

Wednesday-

Today we had service and language thought. After service we had a lesson with the woman we are doing the service for Jura. It was a very hard lesson, she thinks that she is all powerful. We even tried to use an object lesson for priesthood authority where Sister Seaman wrote out a bus ticket and gave it to her as if it were her ticket and said that if Kontrole (the people who check our tickets) came on the bus, would they accept it, and Sister Seaman got a response that she has never heard before, she said she would look into their eyes and hypnotize them so they would accept it. Anyway, it was just a very interesting lesson.

Thursday-

Today I went on exchanges with Sister Bestenlenher. We had another lesson with Diamonta, which I was really nervous for again because I wasn't sure if either of us would understand her questions very well. Luckily, Edvinas was there as well. I am almost positive they will get married if she gets baptized. They are so perfect for each other, they are both vegetarians and Edvinas has a big crush on her. He was able to help answer some of her difficult questions.

Friday-

Today we had a lesson with Jurga. We talked about service and teaching and learning in the church. We also talked about how we can't meet with her much longer because she has to choose to act and make changes, and we are out of things to teach her. We then had a lesson with a recent convert, Ade. It was a really good lesson about prophets, Agne was there helping and we had some really good discussions.

Saturday-

Today we got to learn how to make zeppelena, it was really fun and a super long process. I am excited I learned how, though, so can make them when I get home. It is really a lot of work, so I guess Lithuanians do not make them very often.

Sunday-

Today we had church, Sister Bestenlenher had to translate for Sacrament meeting for the first time today, I bet she was so nervous. Translating is really hard. That evening we went to a less active/recent convert's house where we were planning on teaching about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, but then it was chaotic and she was not there at the beginning so we sang children's songs from the songbook. I think they enjoyed them, afterward we bore our testimonies and said a prayer. The lessons at their house are always super crazy, their whole family is less active except for the grandpa, it is hard to feel the Spirit there. I felt like singing songs with them helped.

Su Meile,

Sesuo Braun