Dear Family,
Well it has been 15 weeks! This mission is going to go by so quickly. The mtc just dragged on, but out here in the field it goes a lot faster. It seems like Preparation days just come so fast! It's crazy. This last week was pretty normal. It was way cold though and we had to wear our coats again. I can't wait to wear short sleeved shirts! It's starting to warm back up though and the leaves are finally starting to come on. I can already tell that I am not going to be a big fan of the winters here. Thank goodness I only have to go through one full one! I'm really grateful for that. Anyways, some highlights about my week... I went on exchanges with Elder Whicker on Wednesday. He was in the mtc with me so it was way interesting to see how we had improved with the language and if we could really do anything without our trainers! haha, I guess I'll say that it went pretty well. We didn't get shot or anything! I still struggle a ton with the language, but it was cool to see that I have learned at least a little bit. We taught like two lessons on our own I think but thankfully they were both in English! But it is still stressful even teaching! It really is a skill to be a good teacher and I hope that I can develop that skill a lot better over the course of my mission. Hmm... The rest of the week was pretty normal with tons of contacting and knocking doors... Meeting some really funny drunk people, angry people, cool people, and just plain weird people. I run into all sorts of crazy stuff here! Seriously, back in friendly Utah you would never see half of the things you see here! It's almost common place to me now, but when i really think about it I realize that a lot of this stuff just isn't normal. :) Like for instance, in two weeks they are having a gay parade! Oh man am I excited for that! Haha don't ask me what that entails, but it is taking place on the street just over from where our apartment is. Haha it makes me sick! Apparently Vilnius is the last capital in Europe that hasn't had this gay parade so they are going to come in two weeks. It should be very interesting. You never see that in Utah let alone in America! Ok, on a better topic, there was a baptism on Saturday of a guy about 22 years old and he is just totally solid. He was Elder Cooke and Whicker's investigator but I knew him pretty well too. He is just the greatest guy and I'm so happy that he made the choice to be baptized. There really aren't very many baptisms compared to some of the other missions in the world, but I think I am happy with the numbers we get here. It just seems more sincere and we really get to know and care about the people we work with. I know it's a great thing that I get to be a part of. I think that is it from this week that was interesting... It was just a normal week where I'm always very tired and just work! Life as a missionary keeps you very busy. Oh one thing I forgot to mention is how much all of the world events effect us here! For instance, when the Polish President died that was everywhere! We border Poland here so everyone was talking about it! The first day that we found out, tons of people were like, It's the Russians! The Russians caused it and there is going to be another world war! haha well... That was one crazy guy running down the street that said that, but there was talk of Russia being involved. Kind of funny... If there were a war or something we would be right in the middle of it if you think about it. Also, since the volcano erupted in Iceland all of the air plains were grounded because of all the stuff in the air covering all of Europe. We could actually see some of the haze in the air and tons of people were stuck here. No one got mail this week either because no plains were flying. That was no fun for everyone, but everything is cleared now so that's good. Anyways, it's just really interesting to see how many things affect you when you are in a different part of the world.
Ok, well I need to go but I hope everyone has a great week! Just know that I'm doing alright out here. Just trying to work hard and do my best. It's a big struggle at times, but I know that it's such an important thing that I am doing. I'm grateful that I am able to serve and show my gratitude to Heavenly Father for what I have been given. We have all been given so much. Well, I love you guys so much! Stay strong!
Love, Elder Leishman
103 days down!!! 627 days to go!
