Dear Family,
Well, yet another week has gone by! It is actually nearing the end of May! Wow, time goes a lot faster out here in the field. It seems like Preparation Day comes and goes so fast and then it is here again! It's crazy. Anyways, I will start with a little bit about my week. It has been a normal week but different at the same time. We still haven't been able to find any solid investigators but we are trying our hardest everyday! Elder Graham and I get along great and he is a lot of fun. He's really easy to get along with so that's good. Our days this week have been mostly normal with lots of contacting and knocking doors, so not a lot new there. We didn't have any hot water this week though!! UGH! Once a year they turn off all of the hot water so that they can clean all of the pipes. So we just had ours this week! it was totally miserable!! Our apartment is already way cold so taking a cold shower was not fun! haha we were pretty much cold blooded this week! I'm so glad that I brought an extra blanket with me! So on Saturday we got our hot water back and we were so happy. And it has finally warmed up here so it is way nice. I will be so happy to have totally reliable things back in America when I get home. It's things like this that really make us grateful for what we have. I'm so grateful that I live in America! I also went on exchanges with Elder Porter on Friday so that was cool. He is from Lehi and is totally into music and recording just like me. So he was asking me tons about recording stuff and what he needs to do to get set up when he gets home because he is a really good guitar player. So I told him all of this stuff that he needed and he wrote it all down and was totally interested because he is going home soon. See... Missionaries are totally normal people! Of course, we are focused on other things, but we are still normal people. It was really fun for me to remember all of that stuff again. How much I miss music and recording! I really want to get back into it when I get home. Oh, talking about Music, Dad, thank you for all of the music! you sent me the perfect selection and It saved me! We will definitely need more, but it is great! Also, all of the missionaries have been so impressed with your speakers! When I tell them that you built them they are like no way!!! So many of them have said that they will pay us to build them some after we get back! So you see... Free advertisement on the mission! haha, I love the speakers too. I really think that they sound great and you did a great job with them. So thanks a ton dad. You’re the best!
So more about this week, We had District Conference yesterday in Kaunas and that was really good. District Conference is pretty much just like a stake conference. So all of the members in Lithuania went to Kaunas to have a big conference. it was really nice. It was so cool to see all of the members there and to see that there are actually people that will listen here. It would seem small to the eyes of people in Utah or even America, but it was so nice here. There were probably about as many people as there would be at a missionary farewell. So not a ton for an entire country, but it was still way cool. We had a great talk from one of the seventies. He is the area president here. It was Elder Paul. He is German so he spoke in English and someone translated it into Lithuanian. Oh, it was way nice for me! We also heard from President Dance and Sister Dance. It was nice to see all of the members from Vilnius too. The daughter that I had talked about that was in that family that got baptized when I first got to Vilnius was baptized on Saturday too so I'm sure that was exciting! I was really happy to hear about that! And the dad that was baptized a while back was able to baptize his daughter so that was really special. I couldn't really say much to them, but I got across that I was very happy for them. I hope I will get the chance to go back to Vilnius when I can speak better. And I'm sure that I will, because there are only four areas here to go too! Anyways, that was nice yesterday. We had a three hour bus ride there and back so it was nice to get a MUCH needed nap! I have needed one for the past five months! WOW, I have almost been out for five months! That is crazy! Almost 1/4 of my mission done! Crazy... But on the way back from Kaunas, I talked to the Family that got baptized here when I first got here the whole time. Well, at least I tried... :) We just talked about food and things that I can sort of talk about. I spoke more Lithuanian yesterday than I have the entire mission yet! It felt good, because I get really scared to talk but it helped me to see that I know more than I think I do. I'm a perfectionist so I hate doing anything unless it's perfect! But that doesn't work at all with a language. that is honestly one of my biggest struggles... Just talking because I don't ever feel comfortable with it. But that's part of learning I guess. The language is still killing me, but it comes more and more every day. So that was pretty much my week! No hot water and it was really cold here up until Saturday. District conference and I went on exchanges with Elder Porter. He is the District Leader here in Klaipeda. He is Elder Whicker's Companion since there are only four of us in Klaipeda. Other than those things, there really isn't much else to tell. I'm a lot more comfortable with the city now and with the new area, though I do miss Vilnius a lot. My Companion and I get along well and the language is coming. I talk to tons of people everyday but most of them don't want to listen to us. It's really hard not to get frustrated with some of them because a lot of them are very rude and just want to tear us down as people, but it is ok. I'm doing ok here and I'm glad that I can serve a mission for my Heavenly Father. I know that It will bring blessings to those people here and to me and my future family after the mission. It is so hard at times and is a very difficult thing, but how else are we going to grow. I'm grateful that I am growing and I can see it in lot of ways already. Just being able to Iron my own shirts is growth! :) haha, So that is the update from Me!
Thank you everyone for your letters. Thank you for all of the love and support and all that you do for me. You guys are the best! I will write again next week!
Love, Elder Leishman
Me in front of the main church in Vilnius
Me and Elder Coxs with the Family that got baptized in Vilnius when I first got there
Me at an old Russian war memorial here in Klaipeda
124 days down, 606 days to go!
