Email from James - June 13, 2011

Sveikas Dad,

Su Tevo Diena iš Lietuvos. :D Happy Father's day from lithuania. Last sunday was father's day but since there are no fathers or really any men in the church, we didn't really celebrate it. Also a future Happy Father's day for this sunday to you dad. I hope your day is fun up at the Lambournes and your day at church is well too even though it may be full of church meetings and what not, but I hope it is still good and you get some time to relax. Also, I forgot to tell mom but I did get the Lambournes calender and I love it so so much. I thought I told them through email I got it but I guess I didn't. Tell them thanks so much and I truly appreciate it. I also got christmas pics from the Beans and the Ashtons which was way nice for them to do but I don't remember if I sent them a letter or anything. I will have to.

Ya last week I really did get to travel a lot and this week I get to do the same thing all over again. :D I have exchanges tomorrow and I'm going back to Vilnius then this weekend we have zone conference, our last one with President Dance, ugh :( which will be in Vilnius also. I can't believe it has come to where President Dance is almost about to go home. He has been such an inspiration and help to me all through my mission and I just can't imagine someone else serving in his place. I am completely excited to see what this new mission president will bring. I would say his name but I keep forgetting what it is. :D But it's just all the time we just say, President Dance said...... It's going to be hard not saying that all the time. He's such a great man and truly a man of god. I have no doubt that he will be a general authority one day. He is so wise and knows the scriptures so well. 

Your Birthday sounded really fun. Eating Pizza and seeing pirates. Where is that pizza restaurant at the District cause I may have eaten there. There was one right by the circle infront of the theater that was by there and it was brand new and I ate there a couple of times with some friends. Ya that pirates movie looks sweet. I can't wait to see it. We have our own movie nights here. It's great. What we do is, since I have seen a lot of movies, we set up the room so there is plenty of space and we turn off all the lights except for some where I am "acting" and the other elders sit in chairs and watch. So I act out movies they haven't seen after the day is over and they "watch" a movie haha. They actually get such a kick out of it cause it gives them something to give their minds a break so they beg me to say another story or act out another movie. I love it cause I love acting out the movies I love or telling stories :D hahaha it's been a lot of fun and they say they hope I don't get transfered next week cause they won't have movie nights. I laughed so hard when you told me how parker asks a lot of questions during the movie and that you had to explain that mermaids weren't vampires or sharks. haha it seriously made my day because I can totally picture him doing that. 

We had a wonderful and amazing Lietuvos Audra, Lithuanian storm. As I told you, Lietuva means the place or rain so when it rains here, it REALLY rains. So on saturday after english, it rained so hard and the heavens opened up and poured down all the water they had up there. It was so so cool. Elder Erickson and I went outside and just stood in the rain and let it fall on our faces. It felt so good cause they day before was super hot. The thunder was so so loud and it made all the car alarms go off like it did last year. I love it when it rains here so so much. It's amazing. Today thankfully it is a way beautiful day so we are going to do something really cool today with one of the members that just got baptized. I was able to be in the circle when we gave him the preisthood yesterday. :D so today we are going to go rent some bikes, dviračai, and then we are going to go on a long bike ride up to Križaus Kalna, the Hill of Crosses. Remember when I found that pic and put it on my facebook account. It's where there are a million crosses on that hill. I'm way excited because I haven't ridden ( rode or however you say that in english)  a bike in so so long. I will take lots of pics. It will be so much fun.

This past week wasn't too exciting. We got dropped a lot so we didn't have a lot of lessons so we did a lot of searching but didn't find much. We made friends with a really cool dog named Zara. It followed us around and we played with it while we walked around the houses. We had a lot of crazy things happen while finding, hahaha, but I will tell about them after the mission. We had fun though and this week will hopefully be a lot better in the finding phases.

I really like that story dad. You should totally send that to the Liahona or Ensign. They would totally post it :D I have been learning that a lot too that when we teach, we are just saying a rote script or saying everything we know, we are teaching our brothers and sisters and helping them return to heavenly father. That's why I love studying from Preach My Gospel so much because it constantly teaches to use the spirit in teaching and how to become a better teacher. It's been so great studying with preach my gospel and I still have yet to learn so much more. I'm not a great teacher but with the spirit, I have had some great lessons. Thanks for sharing that story, I can't wait to hear more. I love hearing about your mission. You truly were such a great missionary and I try to be as good as I can and serve with everything I got. This week was really cool for me personally. I did a lot of contacting things I have always been nervous to do before. Usually when I see a person on a bench, I usually keep going cause it's kinda akward here to just go up and talk to them, but I just sucked it up and contacted a lot of guys that were just sitting down. Sadly they wouldn't let me sit by them and just talk but it's ok, God knows I have the desire now to find more so perhaps one day I will find a cool guy to talk to. I notice more and more as I work harder, my language improves. I can remember words more and more and I can speak more smoothly when I am forgetting myself and just working. I love this language so so much and as my time on a mission gets ever shorter, I realize I will probably never hear a native speak lithuanian in a long time or I won't have another chance to speak to a native after my mission for a  while so I try every chance to talk to people. I love the lithuanian people so so much. Sometimes I think mom thinks that I miss a lot of stuff from home and that I don't love the country a lot  now. But it's actually quite the opposite. There are a lot of things I miss from america, trust me I could make a huge list, but there are so many things you can never see in america then you can here, more so as a missionary. To a tourist's eyes, they see shops, restaurants, hotels, big cathedrals, but as a missionary giving all of my time here, I see so much more. It means a lot more to be serving in a place then just visiting. I can't express it in words but I love this country with my whole soul. It will always be such a big part of my life and I will never forget the people I meet. The members have meant so much to me and they will alway have a special place in my heart. 
Ah I could just go on forever but just know, i'm not counting down the days till I come home or am trunky in anyway, I'm actually dreading how short of time I have here and how much more I want to know this language better and meet as many people as I can. :D 

I read in Luke 7:7-8 which is about the Centurion Servant who wishes for the Savior to come and heal him but he feels unworthy. He says he can command people to go and they will go, simply he has a lot of power under his hand. I thought it was amazing how even though with all his talents and powers, he felt unworthy to hvae the savior come unto him and heal him. He had such great humility and recognized his insignificance and because of that, he was healed. I really learned that this week. Even when I feel totally confident in the language or I feel invincible when I have those really high moments, I must recognize that I always need the Lord's help in all I day. I have been really trying to work on my prayers at night and have each prayer full of power and really conversing with Heavenly Father. I have been studying a lot about Revelation through prayer and it quites a difficult topic to grasp and I know I will have to work on that probably through my whole life. But I have seen and know that it is real and that God does grant us revelation when we recognize we always need his help.

Well I got an exciting week ahead and i'm excited to see what new things will happen and what I will learn and who I will meet. This is the last full week of this transfer already. Pretty crazy. Hopefully I won't get transfered but I'm pretty sure I won't but you never know. Tell everyone hi for me and that I love them. I love you a lot and look up to you so much. You in return help me want to serve harder and give my all in everything I do. 
              Meie Visada,
                   James