Email from James - June 27, 2011

Brangus Tetė,

You got that right we had a busy week. It was a really fun week. It may seem like a lot didn't happen cause I couldn't remember a lot but I will try. I wrote a lot in my journal every night so I won't forget the little details. We had a lot of investigators not show up to lessons but we were able to find a lot more. It was awesome. Unfortunately, as said you did in your mission, we waited for them to come to church like they said they would but none of them showed up to church. We also had a lot of funny things happen this week. Pavidžiui, for example, as we were harvesting in a Bendrab, pretty much the worst form of an apt. buliding you could ever find, these two little boys would follow us around and ring a lot of the door bells when we weren't even down there and they would tell people that we wanted to talk with them. Oh my gosh they were crazy. They would wait and watch and if the people said no, they pretty much all did, they would start laughing. Hahaha probably the craziest harvesting I have had to do before. There was a lot more that happened but i'm sure you can imagine how it would be. English class was awesome. Elder Lindell and Elder Erickson teach the first class and I teach the second class. I had about 25 people come to class and it was so much fun. They were so much fun to teach. It's always fun to teach when you can get the class to laugh at you and I got them laughing pretty hard haha. They thought it was fun. :D There were some ladies in the class that were a little flirty, hahaha like mid 20 year old girls haha, but they were a fun class. In church, we are preparing skits to do for Rumšiškas. We have some funny ideas of what we are going to do that go along the lines of home teaching. If you can remember, Rumšiškas is that summer activity where all the members of Lithuania get together at that cool cabin area thing and we all have a big party. That was my second transfer in the field when we had that last year. It's going to be on the 16th of July. I'm way excited because I will be able to talk to people more and I will be able to see all of the members that I love in all the other cities. It's going to be a blast. This past week was a huge holiday in Lithuania so the city was way dead so we went out harvesting. Hahaha, we didn't do that for too long because everyone was way way drunk, so we didn't harvest for too long. Quite some funny stories I will have to tell after the mission. ;D

So yes it is President Dances last week of the mission. I can't believe it. I'm way excited for Pres. Boswell and Sis. Boswell to come though. They are going to be great. We are going to have another zone conference next week so I will be able to have an interview with him and we will all get a chance to meet him. He for sure won't be learning LIthuanian. The mission presidents here don't really learn the languages. They kinda start but since there are 4 languages in this mission, there is really no point. Pres. Dance started learning Latvian but didn't really keep it up and then he knows a very little bit of Russian. Pres. Boswell won't learn Lithuanian. 

Hahaha I have to tell you about a funny dream I had last night. I was a trainer and I was training two missionaries. One was a younger guy, standard new missionary, and the other one was you dad. Oh my gosh it was hilarious. I was really confused why you were serving a mission but I was told I had to train you and help you with the language and how to work. So we went out to a place to eat with Elder Lindell and his new trainee. We started talking and we went up to some people before eating and I contacted them, and you kept asking me how to say things and I would tell you how to say it and then you would say it in a hillariousl new missionary accent. :D You tried very hard but the guy kinda laughed. So we met up with the other missionaries and we just got a small thing to eat. We said we didn't have a long time til we had to go home because it was almost nine. You asked what time we had to be back and we said at nine. You said that was weird and that you wanted to talk to the President about it because apparently in France you were able to work til 10. You said you thought that was so weird and that you wanted more time to contact people. Haha It was pretty funny and I had to tell you that's what the rules were and we were to live by them. :D Then I woke up hahaha. It was quite funny to see you working as a missionary but you weren't younger or anything. Just how you are now but with a white shirt and a name tag. Maybe your going to be a mission president soon. :D

It sounds like you guys had a way fun time at Trek. Trek was so much fun and I won't ever forget those fun times. That's way cool they were able to go on the original trails of where the pioneers used to be. So it wasn't at the same place we did where we did Trek? hahaha I think your just getting all the energy I don't get to use for sports on the mission haha. I definitely plan to do Ragnar when I get back. When I was in Vilnius for exchanges for the second exchange, we did a run in the morning through center and up to a huge hill with three crosses on it. My comp. said I was going to kill him by how fast I run. It was about an 8 mile run and I felt so goo the whole time. I can't wait til I can run every morning again. In a threesome we don't have enough time to go running in the morning and my body doesn't feel like doing push ups or weights in the morning. Ya even though we do it every morning, I still can't get up at 6:30. I dont' think I will ever get used to getting up that early. 

I'll be really interested to hear what car you end up buying. The poor awesome Mazda is finally made it's last day. Audi's and Mercedees  here are quite cheap here suprisingly, because we are in Europe. But i'm so tired of seeing Europen cars and no change in how they look. They pretty much all look the same. Haha whenever we get a lucky chance to see a huge truck, which is so rare, we flip out like little kids. I like that car a lot. Hahah people here always talk like after my mission i'm just going to get home and have a car and find some pretty girl and go off to college and have a great carrear and what not. hahah it's fun to tell them I will get home and will have no money, or car, or a girlfriend ( I will have no money for one haha), and I will somehow get to college. I just say what I am wearing right now as a missioanry will probably be my same wardrobe when I get home. :D Then they say, oh well in that cause just come live here in Lithuanian and marry a lithuanian girl so I don't have to leave them :D 

We got a lot of cool lessons set up this week and I am so excited. I have been finishing my reading up of the gospels in the Bible and it has been so awesome to read. I have learned so much. In the first chapter I realized I need to recognize more of the small miracles of the Lord that he gives and then he will give more when we are humble and we recognize his hand in our lives. When I first got here, the "small little miracles" , that don't seem big to the older missionaries, seemed huge to me. I would thank Heavenly Father with all my heart for them and it would get me to work harder and I know the Lord blessed me for it. Now those "small miracles" seem like more everyday occurances. I learned I truly need to thank Heavenly Father for all the things that happened during the day that are truly miracles from Him. I love how detailed and more spiritual indepth the gospel of John is. I'm just super excited to start getting into Acts and the doings of the apostles aroun the world. 

I forgot my camera again but I will send some pics next week. I liked the picture of Anna at Trek. The good ol Wyoming foothills. :D I will be excited to talk to you again next week. 

                  Būk stiprus tikėjime ir žinok kad tave myliu labai daug,
                                James