June 6, 2010
Dear Family,
Well, it's been another week! I can't believe it's June... Back in the mtc I thought it would never be summer! But time is passing isn't it? Transfers are on Wednesday too and it seems like we just barely had them! We are getting three elders and one sister from the mtc, so I will no longer be the youngest. Come November, my group and the two elders that came right before us will be the oldest! That is just weird. We will be the oldest in the mission for a whole year of our missions. haha, anyways, I'm pretty sure that Elder Graham will be staying together in Klaipeda this next transfer and that will be really good. I love Elder Graham and he is a great guy and missionary. President Dance said some things last week in our interviews that made it sound like we would be together again so we're pretty convinced! But anything can happen with transfers so I'll be ready to move just in case.Things have been good here in Klaipeda this week. Last Monday we just went to a place called Scandalis, which has nothing to do with the name, but it is the only American restaurant in town. It's like a steak house and it was so good! Tuesday we had a lesson with Jonas, who is progressing so well. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf. He has been accepting everything so well and you can just see how the Lord has totally prepared him for this. It's hard cause I feel like I don't know how to talk to him very well, so I don't feel like I know him that well, but it is coming. I was trying to ask him about his work yesterday at church and I got that he is a builder of some sort and then he asked me what my work was before I came here and I tried to tell him that I built speakers. Haha that went over well!I didn't know how to say any of the words relating to audio or speakers so I just had to point to things like the speakers on the ceiling. He didn't get it, but that's ok. I went home and learned all the words that I would need to know for that topic. :) So dad, when we start that speaker company, we will be able to sell to Lithuania! haha... But the rest of the week was pretty normal. We went out by the beach on Wednesday to do service again but we went in the morning at like eight so that we wouldn't have to deal with avoiding all of the beach goers. haha. That's always nice to get in normal cloths and do some normal work. Thursday we had another lesson with Jonas and that went well too. We have Zone Conference this coming Saturday so we had to push his baptism back to the 19th of this month. That won’t be bad cause we needed more time to teach him everything anyways. I want to make sure that he is totally ready before he is baptized. I like to be thorough with everything so it's not surprising that I am that way with our investigators. I want to make sure that they really have a testimony and that they are ready. We work with a lot of less active members here too and I just see how so many of the missionaries just pushed them to be baptized and they don't even know much about the church! Ugh, it's frustrating. That's how it was with that Russian guy who said that I have beautiful skin. He is actually a member not an investigator, and he is pretty active, it's just that the missionaries that taught him didn't really do a good job and he really doesn't know much. Anyways, Jonas will be getting baptized on the 19th and we are excited about that. In the Baltic Mission, the missionaries don't actually do the baptizing because President Dance wants the Investigator to create relationships with the members. It's actually a really good thing, but I still wish that we could do the baptizing. That would be way cool. But I'm just grateful that I can be part of even teaching them. I'm grateful that I have been blessed enough to find some great people and see people actually get baptized. So Friday, I went on exchanges with Elder Whicker. I slept at their apartment that night and we spent the day together on Saturday. We didn't get along all that well in the mtc, but we are buds now! It just shows that we are both maturing I guess. He is actually from Kaysville and went to Davis High, but he didn't know Jake or anything. But we both kind of know the same area and all that! It was interesting to see if we would be able to teach anyone cause we have both only been here in the field for three months. We didn't teach anyone, but we had some interesting conversations with people on the streets. The most common thing we ask is if they can repeat themselves. :) haha, I can't wait until I'm fluent in this language! Anyways, that was good being with Elder Wicker. We're pretty sure that he is going to be staying in Klaipeda this next transfer too. But who knows... Yesterday, Sunday, we just went to church and that is always good. And that was my week! It has been a better week for a lot of reasons, including that it's finally warm! We haven't had to wear jackets at all which is nice. So it's been good.
Elder Whicker and I FINALLY got to watch priesthood session on Saturday since we didn't get to see it in Vilnius and It was Awesome! There were some great talks in it and I especially like the one on patience by President Uchtdorf. Wow, What a great message that was. I have been reading the Book of Mormon in English and Lithuanian. I just started the New Testament cause I have never read it before, and I started reading Our Search for Happiness by Elder Ballard and it is great! I really love studying about the gospel and my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is deepening so much. I know that this church is true and we can know that just through the simple things of the Gospel. We can all know that Heavenly Father loves us, His children, so much. I'm glad that I can be out here serving and making a difference in other people's lives. Thank you so much for all of the constant support, and I love you guys again! I'll write next week!
Love, Elder Leishman
145 days down, 585 days to go!
