Week 65

April 4, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

It was beautiful on Monday, so we planned to play soccer with the other missionaries and a few members. It was a lot of fun.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting, it was very reverent as we were preparing. Our mission has been focusing on reverence this transfer. I am beginning to see why reverence is so important and how it is more than just reverence before meetings, but also it is an attitude and kind of a way of life.

On Wednesday we had an opportunity to have interviews with President, it was great even though we will be seeing him in just a couple more weeks. I told him how I felt like I had just gotten here, and he told me that he felt that same way about our group of four sisters. After our interviews we had to wait for the sisters to meet us at the church for an exchange. After they arrived Sister Bestenlenher, Griffin and I had to hurry to our apartment to get a family proclamation for the Russian elders first English class that night so they could copy it. When we came back to the church the elders asked us to help in the English lesson since it was only two women, so we stayed to help them. After, we were finally able to go home and eat some dinner.

On Thursday I was able to go to Kaunas one last time to pick up Sister Madison. Our bus got in a little late so we decided we would meet the sisters at the church to exchange so they could be on time to English. I was so glad because I got to see a few of the members one last time. After we said our goodbyes we headed to the bus station and also had some dinner, where I had a panic attack over borsh (Russian soup), and then Sister Madison helped me figure out a plan for my life. I feel much better now.

On Friday I was able to pull a few jokes on Sister Madison, including the Vaseline on the door handle. It was great fun. Then we made muffins for the other missionaries to give to them for service for Elder Downs' birthday, which was the next day, but also for April Fool's Day. We put little papers in the muffins that said "April Fool's." The elders also asked us to come early to service and we had no idea why, we were a little nervous it was an April Fool's joke. They surprised us with these cool Russian cookies that they get from Belarus. Elder Downs shared his stash with us. They are special cookies called Konetiki, where you bite a little off the top and a little off the bottom and then suck some milk through it to soften the cookie, then you "slam" it into your mouth and it is delicious.

On Saturday we were able to help in a lesson with Valentina, who is now a recent convert. She is really wonderful.

On Sunday it was our last real Sunday, as next week will be General Conference here. I took a lot of pictures and shared a lot of little Del Sol rings with all of the children, which they absolutely loved. There was a woman who we met as we were getting off the bus to go to church, she is a member from Russia and was trying to find the church and she wasn't quite sure how to get to the church so she was looking around for someone in skirts and wasn't seeing anyone until she saw us with our Book of Mormons. She just jumped off the bus when we got off and introduced herself and asked us if we were going to church. She was able to find the church and then she bore testimony about it during Sacrament meeting, it was a cool experience.

Love,
Sister Brown