Email from James - November 8, 2010

Hey Dad,
 
  So I got the birthday package last week. I said it got here on the 30th so it came pretty quick. I still haven't opened up the presents, except for the one with the camera. hahaha my comp. and i wanted to see the camera. WOW THANK YOU SO MUCH. That is a way flipping nice camera. I loved the pics that were on it and mom had a few films on it from when you were in vernal. I loved them.  I looked at the pics, the one with parker pretending to be scared  by the dinosaur is my favorite. His face is so so funny. I listened to the CD. Oh my gosh that made me day. You guys are just like how you were when I left and it made me so happy to hear all of you. I loved the sarcasm and the crazyness and everything about it. I let my comp listened to it for a bit so he could hear what you sound like.  We laughed so hard when anna was acting like mom when she talked about drvining. I laughed for son long cause she did that with me too :D I feel for you anna. Also, does Anna have a BF? I was laughing at that part. hahah. I also wanted to hear the song you have in seminary. :D You'll definitely have to make some more cd's. The volume was very good too. It was very clear and loud. I was kinda bummed the other part when mom went to the nieghbors. It only had the woods on it. but I loved it so much. So mom can relax and know that the camera is here. so transfers isn't this week but the next week so I don't know what mom is going to do about sending the package with the charger. I was hoping she had sent it last week. So I don't know what you want to do.  u possibly could send it today and it would get to me before transfers. We don't transfer to new areas till the thursday of that week. So that is the 27th so you would still have enough time to get it to me before transfers. But you would have to send it between today and wednesday just to be safe. It should get here pretty quick cause the b-day package got here in 11 days. It said it got here on the 30th. It would be good not to have to wait without a charger and some new music hahaha. We need new music. We have listened to our cd's over and over too much. Like all the EFY cd's and missionary cd's. BTW don't bother in buying missionary type cd's cause every missionary has it here hahaha I can gurantee if you see a cd at Deseret book or seagull book, we have it :D Thanks so much for the Ensign. That one looks so so cool!! I miss temples so so mcuh and they have a small pic of the stairs in the Oquirrah Mtn. Temple. :D 
    
Ya our DL told us that president dance has families send christmas packages and they do a chirstmas conference so that is what it is for. So I will act surprised hahahah. :D I"m very good at acting.
    
Man you get to do the coolest stuff with your job. Get coached by Jerry Saloan and drive go carts and what not. You got the coolest job by far! I loved the pics of the office. It looks very proffesional and the view is sweet. I can't wait to see it in person. Your shuch a hard worker. I feel very blessed to have such an awesome dad who does so much for the family and shows so much love to us. Your my hero!
    
Oh ya I don't like having the clocks turned back. :D hahaha. After lunch break is over at about 5 some days. It's pitch black outside and the sun is going to keep going down earlier and earlier. It makes missionary work a lot more.. fun when it seems like it's time to go home by how dark it is. We were out harvesting and it was so dark in the stairs I couldn't see my face. My comp had his flashlight and so we had that. It was fun. I brought mine too. I miss the blue sky and sun already. It has been raining every day still and everything just looks dead and bleak. It's very interesting. The smallest things can make our day when it looks like how it does here. :D 
    
Ya I can't believe i'm going to be 20 this week! I'm trying to enjoy my last week as a teen and then I have to be a big boy on sunday. lol :D 
    
Ya if i happen to be in Kaunas for another transfer, I wouldn't mind to much :D) the morrels are having the missionaries over to thier place for thanksgiving. The only other place I know where missionaries are invited over for dinner is in Vilnius so we will see what happens. I can't wait til I can be back home and finally watch football with you. I know that sounds weird coming from me but I have been dying to watch football :D
    
That's so cool you did visits with President Homer. I didn't know he did that with Bishops. I really respect the District leader. He lives in kaunas and he was the one who translated the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. He is just the man. He truly holds all the Branches together. :D I will tell you his story when I get home of how he joined the church. I like him a lot. We try to have members for our lessons but it's hard to get them to have time. But we do need to do that more. Yesterday, we had District Conference which was so amazing. President and Sister Dance came down and all the members in Leituva. It was so cool to see them all and just to see that their are actually a lot of members here. President Dance gave a good talk about how the members need to help the missioanaries more so we can have people to teach. I really hope they will listen cause we have no one to teach. All the members would ask me if I was no cause they hadn't seen me before cause I had only been in Kaunas. Then I would tell them no I have been in Kaunas for almost 4 transfers. :D I would tell them how I loved Kaunas so much and they would laugh and say just wait till you come to Vilnius or Klaipeda or Sauliai. :D They are so so awesome. Algirdas is so funny about no having me leave. Me and him are just buds. :D I am going to be so sad when I have to transfer out of Kaunas. The members are so nice to me and like me a lot. We were visiting one of the families in the branch and the dad asked if I could teach him how to tie a tie. We tried over and over but it didn't make sense to him. So I tied a few of his ties for him so he could just slip it over his head every sunday :D
   
So here's a crazy story So we were out harvesting ( knocking on doors) and as we were knocking, we could hear some people talking in english on the other side of one of the doors. I could hear one of the girls talking and I recognized it was one of our english students. So we knocked on the door and she was in their with a 25 year old couple. We laughed and told them who we were and what we were doing to the couple. The couple said in english, oh we are JW's. I asked if they would want to hear our message. They said sure, we were just asking about you. They were very nice. The husband was from france and his wife was from lietuva. They gave us some chocolate and some fruit tea and were really nice. So they asked us to tell them what we believed in. So we told them, " ok this is just what we believe in. We aren't saying any church is wrong and we are just telling you what we believe in." So we pretty much gave a condensced first lesson. AFTER oh my gosh. They just wipe out their JW Bible and start off with, in dadada it says that no man can see god. and yayayadadad. Oh my gosh they asked us what we thought about the craziest things. We talked about Adam and Eve, Armageadon, who God really is, they heard weird rumors about Mormons how if we baptize someone, we become their rulers in the next life. Oi it was so so crazy. But, we handled it very well. We easily could have began arguing with them and disproving them, but we handled it very camly and just told them what we belive and know to be true. I told a lot about it on my recording so you will hear about it.
     
So as of now we are back to zero investigators. Our one investigator, with the alcohol problem won't answer our calls or txts and never replies back if we ask if we could meet with him again. We keep searching though. It gets really hard at times when we go days without talking to anyone and no one will let us in when we go harvesting. This is definitelly a very hard mission and one I have grown and will grow a lot with. I can honestly say i'm going to have a lot more patience when I get home :D
     
I have set a random goal to only write in cursive now. Last english class, we wanted to learn everyone's names so we had them write all their names on the board and all of their hand writting looked so nice and was way cool cursive. So next letter I send home you will see. I'm already getting way good at it and it looks so much better. :D 
     
Thanks so much for the package. And if you could possibly send the other package this week that would be good to get that before transfers. My battery doesn't fit in Elder Leishan's chrager so it's going to be dying soon and those cd's I wanted. lol. You all are so so good. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family. You have all done so much for me and I thank God everyday about how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. I love you all so much. I can't wait to hear from you again. Before we know it, it will be christmast and we will be talking on the phone. :D 
    
 Have a great week and stay safe :D If you haven't in a while, go to the temple for me :D
            Su daug mielų,
                Vyresnysis Sanfordas