December 13, 2010
Hey Fam!
Thanks for the wonderful emails! As always, I loved them and love feeling the spirit from them. You guys are great. I guess I will start by telling about my week a little bit. It seems that since becoming a district leader, my life has become a lot more busy and there is always something going on. It's good though. I've been trying to set up meetings with more of the members in our area so that I can get to know them better, so we had a few this past week. With one couple, they live a ways outside of the city and it takes a while to get there. I just asked them for their address and then looked it up on a map and kind of memorized where it was. I love maps, so I remembered how to get there. The members kept telling me to call them and they would meet me somewhere and then take us the rest of the way, but I told them I knew where it was. So I just didn't call them and we found it way easy. I'm not trying to say I'm cool or something, it was just funny cause they were like how did you find our house?! So I just told them that I looked on the map and they were way impressed. They were pretty much shocked that we had found where they lived cause they really do live out in the middle of nowhere. Anyways, it was funny. We were able to find a few other lessons this week. We knocked on this one ladies door and she opened the door a little bit and asked what we wanted and so we told her that we were missionaries but she wouldn't open the door more than a crack. So we just kept talking to her and she opened the door a little more and we just gave her some info about our church and she started asking more questions. She was really old btw. She ended up really liking Elder Rich and I and wanted to give us some feed cause she thought ALL we did was talk to people. So, we told her no but she insisted and gave us some crackers and muffins. We tried to tell her that we had food, but she wouldn't let down. It was way funny. But then she told us that her neighbor would want to listen to us cause he was religions, so she told us to knock on his door. And we were in a stair well so it was right next to her door. So we said that we would, but she wanted to talk to him with us. So we knocked on his door and told him we were missionaries and then she started telling him that he needed to listen to us but he kept making excuses like that his refrigerator was open or something but she was way stubborn with him he eventually let us in. And it turned out to be a really good lesson and we are going to have another lesson with him tomorrow night! Haha, it was just really funny because we wouldn't have gotten into his apartment had that old lady not been there with us. It just shows that we need to be Christlike to everyone we meet and miracles really can happen. It was a cool experience. Anyways, last week was pretty busy with meetings and the normal work, but this week is going to be the crazy week! We are going to be in Vilnius on Thursday and Friday for Zone Conference and a little Christmas party. We are going to get to stay in a hotel which I'm stocked about. :) Yeah, I know... Just getting to stay in a hotel gets me pretty excited cause we never get any change! So we will be there for two days and then there will be a baptism here in Kaunas on Saturday. The Sister missionaries have been teaching an eleven year old girl and she wants to be baptized. So, I need to do a baptismal interview with her on Wednesday and I am a little nervous about that. Just cause I need to judge whether or not she is ready to be baptized or not. Plus I am worried about my understanding of the Language, but I think that it will be ok. She is a good little girl, but I worried cause the rest of her family are not members and I think that she will have a hard time staying active without that family support. I just pray that she will stay active. We are going to have a meeting with Dainus tonight and I hope that we will be able to get him a baptismal date. He is such a great guy and I feel that he is ready to be baptized. But I will let you know how it goes. This week we also have all of the normal stuff like district meeting and English classes and other meetings, plus the branch needs us to practice for the branch Christmas party that they will have in a few weeks. And lots of other little details. It's just going to be a crazy week. I hope it all goes well. But that's it about this past week and the coming week.
If we do what the Lord wants us to do, He will bless us beyond measure. But if we slacken and stop doing what He wants us to do, then we will lose those blessings and things seem to fall apart. I know that with everyone in the family if you will all do what the Lord wants you to do and be everything that you should be, the Lord will bless you. In a million different ways. But the moment that we stop doing those things, things will start to go bad. So just keep it up and be faithful. I know that life is hard and I have a really hard time doing everything that I need to do, but when I do it, I am so much happier. God has so much in store for us, but we have to do what He asks of us for Him to really be able to bless us. I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week! Keep your chins up and be happy! It's Christmas!
Love, Elder Leishman
334 days down, 396 days to go!
