January 3, 2011
Dear Family,
Hey, thanks for your great emails. They always make me so happy. I guess I'll just start by talking about my week. It was a pretty slow week for us cause everyone is with their families and partying... Haha... So we mostly went and visited members and less actives. We had district meeting on Tuesday and that was pretty good. That night was the branch Christmas party and that was fun. Us four Elders were the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it turned out really funny. I'll have to send some pictures at some point. But the party was good. The first councilor in the Branch dressed up as Santa and all of the kids had to do some sort of talent to get a present. It was fun to be there. The rest of the week was pretty long. We had to be in by five on New Year’s eve and six on New Year’s Day, so that was weird. I didn't know what to do with all of the free time! So I pretty much just figured out what I want my goals to be for this year and worked out. I went to bed at the normal time on New Year’s Eve, but of course I got woken up at midnight by what sounded like WWII!! They sell tons of those huge fireworks here and there are no restrictions. It seriously sounded like a war zone outside cause you could hear fireworks going off all over the city(so that sounded like a ton of guns) and huge explosions right outside! It was nuts, and there were tons of screaming, drunk people. They know how to party here I guess! Anyways, the next day, New Years Day, the city was totally dead and there was no one outside. One of the members called and asked us to come help shovel at the church, so we gladly did that. The Church parking lot is a pretty decent size, and we had to shovel the whole thing with just three of us... AND it was super wet snow and was about a foot deep! It took us about four hours to do it and the piles on the side of the parking lot were about six or seven feet tall when we were done. Elder Rich and I kind of hurt all over the next day... haha... But it was fun. Oh, that day we also started reading the Book of Mormon and it has been so great! I had no idea that looking for specific things like Faith, Love and Charity, and Diligence could be so beneficial! I am in about 1 Nephi 12 right now and I mark tons of stuff on every page! It's pretty cool and I know that by the time I am done, I will have learned a lot. I Just have to BE diligent If I want to finish by March 31st. Anyways, that has been great. I also set all of my goals for this year as well and if I can get them done, it will be so great! I will just say a few, but some of them are; read the Book of Mormon twice more, read the New Testament, Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, Our search for happiness, parts of the D&C, and The Pearl of Great Price. I want to memorize the Living Christ and a scripture in English and Lithuanian every week. There are a lot of attributes that I want to develop as well as personality traits. Hmm... What else... I want to get to 148lbs by June 1st (I am 140lbs right now, so that won’t be too hard, but it all has to be muscle). I want to get a six pack... haha... Yes, I want to be BUFF! I think one of the most important things that I have is to learn how to better recognize, work with, and understand how the spirit works. I hope that I can get it all done. This past week I did a big study on setting goals and I am really excited about what I set for this year. It will keep me really busy, but I will grow so much through it. Anyways, that was pretty much my week. Not a lot happened and now we are going into the coldest month of the year! Wish me luck!
I want to wish all of you luck as you start school again!
I love you guys all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week. Be happy and smile!
Love, Elder Leishman
P.S. Nothing really happened with Dainus this week, but thank you for keeping him in your prayers. He has just been really busy this week and it has been hard to meet. I hope that everything is ok and that it will all work out, but just wanted to let you know.
355 days down, 375 days to go!
