March 7,2011
Dear Family,
Well this week has gone by pretty fast! Last Monday all of the leaders went up to Riga for a training meeting, so I had to stay here in Vilnius with two of the Russian speaking elders. It was pretty cool. My head was blown with Russian though and it was way confusing! I learned a few phrases that will help when I run into Russian speakers. I was with them for the night on Monday and then all day on Tuesday. It was fun to get to know those guys. Elder Whicker got back on Wednesday morning and he had to be on that stuff all day that cleans you out... So we were inside all day and it wasn't a fun experience for Elder Whicker... But it's over and he is thankful. I pretty much just read all day and got caught up on some stuff that I wanted to study. It was kind of nice to have a relaxing day actually. My first one in a year!!! Thursday we went to the hospital and Elder Whicker had his Colonoscopy. I sat in the hall for FOUR HOURS with nothing to do! What a fun day. They didn't end up finding anything, and Elder Whicker was really disappointed. They took a biopsy though to see if he had some sort of virus, so hopefully they found something there. He just has occasional pains, but he might just have to live with it until we get home at the end of the year. Poor guy. I hope that we can get it worked out. But he is fine for now. After the Colonoscopy, we just came home so that Elder Whicker could sleep. Friday was a pretty normal day and then on Saturday we had English class and that older man, Vitalis got baptized after that. It was a really special experience to see his son baptize him and see their family united n the gospel. He is the cutest old man! He is 88 and drove a tank in WW2! It was a really nice baptism. On Sunday right before church we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators and then he stayed for church. His name is Pijus and we are really hoping that things work out with him. He's a really great guy. Oh, I also had to translate for the first time in church as well! Ugh, that was stressful... The guy I translated for is an intern at the U.S. embassy right now. He is a member and was at byu, so that was cool. It was way hard to translate though and I didn't do to great... :) But I think he got the gist of what was being said! It was a cool experience though. And that was my week! It went by really fast cause of all the things that happened. It has been a little warmer and I think that spring will be here soon. We are still trying to get things going in our area, but we have faith that things will pick up. Hmm... what else... Things are pretty normal as a missionary. I am really grateful to be serving with Elder Whicker. He is so funny and we get along really well. It's fun. We have a lot of good laughs... I really can't believe that it has almost been a year since I got here in Lithuania. That is going to be so weird once we are past that point. Other than that things are going well.
I can't believe that they were ranked #3 in the country! That is Huge!!! But then they lost one of their players... It sounds super emotional and if I were there, I would probably be right in the middle of it. I'm sad that I have to miss probably their best season in a really long time. But... the work of the Lord is more important. Thanks for sharing the updates with me though. I like to hear what is going on. I heard that three countries in the Middle East are moving towards democracies! That is great. You know what happens when governments change to democracies... We send missionaries in! haha, that still probably won’t be for a long time, but we can see that the last days are here!
I have a testimony that this is God's true church. I love the gospel. Don't ever take your blessings for granted. Have a wonderful week and be happy!!
Love, Elder Leishman
418 days down, 312 days to go!
