February 14, 2011
Dear Family,
Hey, thank you for your great emails today! I really enjoyed reading them and hearing from you. This week was good I guess. Not a lot happened. Ignas called me and told me that he didn't want to join our church because he said that the Book of Mormon was to extreme. I think all of the "the wicked will be destroyed and thrust down to hell" moments in the book got to him. Haha, but he said that he would still like to meet and we are hoping to resolve his concerns. Because I'm sure that he was just reading it in the wrong spirit or something. The Book of Mormon is such a wonderful book! We are in 20's of Alma and I am loving it! What great examples from the sons of Mosiah. I really love that Book and my testimony of it is growing so much. We also met with Dainus this week and that was a good lesson. We mostly talked about baptism and I wanted to really know if he understands it. Elder Rich told me afterward that I was a little too bold when I told him that he can't be saved in the kingdom of God if he isn't baptized, but.... haha, whatever. He was fine. He understands everything and he said he would be baptized if his mom was ok with it. But she isn't and she really doesn't like the church for some reason. We have suggested that we meet with her too to help her see that we aren't bad, but she won't have that either. He doesn't need his mom's permission cause he is 22, but he doesn't want to hurt his mom. So.... I am at a loss as to what to do and I think all we can do is be patient and pray that his mom's heart will be softened. God loves Dainus and He has a plan for him. We just have to have faith that it will all turn out and be there as instruments in the Lord's hands to help in any way that we can. Last Tuesday for P-Day we went to a museum and that was really cool. It was a museum of the most famous artist in Lithuania and it was great. I am realizing more and more that I just love the arts so much and I feel so peaceful when I am around them. I would love to have my own theater when I am old... It was cool to see this guys art and see his style. He did most of his paintings around 1905 so, they are pretty old. Anyways, it was cool and I really liked it. It will be really interesting to see what happens this week with transfer... I really have no idea what could happen. I could be here for another one, or I could go to a different city. I will let you know. But, that was pretty much my week. The weather tricked me this week and started to get a little warmer and I actually saw the sun a few times!..... But then it got super cold again. I can't wait until It is warm again.
That is so crazy that Carly is getting married! Tell her congratulations for me! That's great though and it blew my mind! Is that going to be Rachel when I get home???!!! haha, jk. And that is super weird that Pat is home. I remember just like it was yesterday when I went into the mtc with him to say goodbye. But it goes by that fast. It's sound like he had a great mission. I can't wait to talk to him about our missions. I really miss him, so make sure to tell him hi for me! It sounds like the family is doing well. I'm sure that I will be ecstatic to be home when that time comes. It will be so nice to see such happy people all the time! But I will say that I will be kind of shocked cause the people are so quiet here! I saw a little kid throw a fit the other day in a store over some candy and I was like of my gosh that is so loud! I literally haven't seen that since the plane ride over here almost a year ago! We are the loudest ones here and I'm sure our neighbors hate us... But hey, we are Americans!! We're supposed to be loud! haha. So, I think I will be shocked when I get back.
And, I had a thought about prayer. We often just want to pray for a miracle like you said, but also like you said, we have to do our part first. A while ago, I talked to a guy on the street that told me that our claim that we have to do our part for the Lord to help us was not right and I almost feel over! He was talking about that scripture in 2 Nephi that says that we will be saved by the grace of God after all that we can do. He said that all we have to do is call on god's name and we will be saved. I wanted to slap him. That is NOT how God works. We would never get anywhere in life if we didn't do our part and learn something from it. It's like those kids that get everything handed to them. God expects us to try and to our part for all that we have. Then will he bless us and help us out. So, I think that it is great to pray for miracles, because they really do happen. But we need to be doing our part. I hope that you have a wonderful week! Keep up the good work and have faith. The Lord will work miracles through our small efforts. I love you all so much! Happy Valentine's Day!!
Love, Elder Leishman
397 days down, 333 days to go!
