Email from James - August 23, 2010

Labukas!

     This week has been fun! Lots of crazy things have happened and lots of work has been done. On tuesday, like I said we went up to Trikai. If you search on google for Lithuania or Trikai Lietuva you can see what it looks like. It was so cool. It was like stepping into a midevil movie. It was huge. I was locked away in a slave cart. We got lots of pics. :D My camera died but Elder Porter will put pics on my card. Each room had different stuff to look at. It was like a huge museum. Then it rained way hard and it made everyting perfect cause it was a total  european knighthood look. :D I had a blast! I can't wait to go back.

     I had a hillarious but really powerful dream  on tuesday night. I don't want to type it out cause it would take forever but I recorded it on one of the tapes :D So you will hear it soon enough. On Thursday I got to go on splits with Elder Hatch. We had lots of fun. It was cool to be able to work with him :D. Everyone, including missionaries, has a friend book where members and missionaries write stuff and put pictures in it. I bought mine in old town and it looks way cool. But I have a lot of the missionaries here writing in it and soon the members. They love them here. 

     Then on Sat. Elder Porter and I were going through Old Town and there were a lot of girls heading towards the castle/ middle area dressed as princesses. We were like...ok.... Then as we went down there was lots of side shops with Lithuanian trinkets and old stuff and there was men riding horses. There were so many people. It was so so cool. Elder Porter bought a shirt that is supposed to look like the coca cola logo but it says cepa lina which is a famous food here. Very lithuanian. ;D Then that night as we were walking, some old lady gave us some flowers and said, " here's some beautiful flowers for beautiful young men." lol

      Then, way crazy, last night at about 10, I was writing in Sister Jenson's friend book and then I heard a load bang then glass crashing. I looked out and some guy was punching a door that had glass. I could obviously tell he was way drunk. Then some guy was like, hey don't do that. Then the drunk guy sat on a bench and held his hand. Then his hand started bleeding everywhere. People came out because of the loud noise. They called the police and they came over and checked out the guy. It was dark but I could see a lot of blood, then the police shined a light on his arm and his arm was way cut up and there was a lot a lot of blood. So we watched til the paramedics came and he was about to pass out. The whole bunch was covered with his blood cause some people bandaged it but it kept bleeding. I took some pics lol. It's hard to see but you can tell if you zoom up on it. Crazy days in Kaunas :D

    Our investigator, Vytalijus doesn't answer our calls or comes to church anymore. We got a hold of him and tried to meet with him but he said he was busy. He isn't going to be baptized anytime soon. It was really sad to see cause we saw a huge change in him. We still try to meet with him and continue to pray for him.

    This sunday will be the Kyiv Temple Dedication! I'm so excited! It will be cool to go to a temple dedication in a whole new language. I probably won't know what's going on but I will feel the spririt for sure and that's all that matters.

     So Elder Hatch does leave tomorrow. He is leaving a week early because of school. Some missionaries are able to do that because of school starting. So next week our companionship will be Elder Porter, Elder Manning, and I. Then transfers will be next week and Elder Porter will leave next thursday, transfer day! This week is going to be crazy though. We have to find a way for Elder Hatch to have a companion for going up to Riga and I have to go to Vilnius to get my living permit and we will be in a tri companionship. It's going to go by quick! The new missionaries are coming in next week so they will replace the other missionaries. We have a tri companionship now so there is only 2 elders and one sister coming to Lithuania.

     I got mom's letters so they got here safely. I enjoyed them a lot. :D The day those two letters came, I got letters from Madi and Nate. We had to take pics because that was the fullest the mailbox has ever been. :D we got a good laugh out of it.

     It has been feeling really good this week. It hasn't been hot because it's starting to cool down and it has rained a few nights. I love it cause it feels perfect. But I can feel that the dreaded winter is slowly approaching hahaha. 

     I love you all so much :D The gospel is true and I love the work!
            Su meile,
               Vyresnysis Sanfordas