April 18, 2011
Hello Family,
As I read your letters, I realized that I really do get to talk to you in three weeks!! I am so excited for that. I really miss you guys. It does seem like I just talked to you though! Time goes fast. I'm so excited though. I will make sure to laugh for you, mom. :) I will give you the information in the coming weeks so that you can call. I hope you can get through to me this time! Well, things are going well here. What happened this week... We met with our investigator, Vida, like three times this week and she asked if she could get baptized a week earlier because she is so excited about it and doesn't want to wait. Haha, we felt like she is ready, so we moved it to this Saturday. She had her baptismal interview yesterday and is ready to go! This will be the first time that I see someone get baptized! There were others in mycompanionship at the beginning of my mission, but they got baptized the week I got there... So I don't really count those. I am so excited for Vida though. She is so good. I'm so grateful for her faith and for the progress that she has been making. I will have to send you a picture next p-day of us at the baptism with her. She is the nicest lady. I'm glad to be a part of this. Our other investigator, Loreta is going to get baptized next week and she is doing really well too. She has investigated the church for a long time, but like I have told you, she just gets it this time around with us and has really felt the truth of all that we have taught her. She is right on track to be baptized next Saturday. We had two other baptismal dates, but they are both faltering and need some time and work. I hope that they as well will progress and join the church. So, that is an update on our investigators. I am just happy that Vida and Loreta are getting baptized. They are great people and I am so grateful to be a part of this.
What else about this week... I went on exchanges with Elder Williams. He is a Russian speaking Elder that is serving as a zone leader with Elder Manning right now. It's weird that President Dance has a Russian speaking and Lithuanian speaking companionship. But that's how the Lord wants it. Anyways, It was cool to be with Elder Williams. He is way cool! He is from Hawaii. It was fun to learn some Russian words and to be kind of the Lithuanian expert. :) The week was pretty full of meetings with investigators... So there isn't a whole lot to say about the week. On Saturday we had a cleaning activity with the branch at the church. It was National clean up the country day, so we did our part and cleaned up the area around the church. We got to wear the Helping Hands shirts too! It was good to get out and do something with our hands. Oh, we also got to watch the priesthood session of conference this week and that was GREAT! I loved President Monson's talk. I thought it was so interesting how they talked about marriage so much during conference. I agree with the general Authorities in that people shouldn't put off marriage. They need to be careful about it, meaning who they choose, but I think that marriage is really important. It was great to feel the spirit and I really liked the talks in Conference. I can't wait until the next conference. I have come to love it so much during my mission!
I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so much and I miss you too. Be happy and be thankful for all of our blessings. I'll talk to you next week!
Love, Elder Leishma
453 days down, 277 days to go!
