Email from James - August 1, 2011

Svieki kaip visada ;D

I am beginning this email with a funny joke:
So there was a Bishop and his two counselors on an island and it seemed as if there was no way to get off. They found a lamp and a genie came out of it and said he would give them one wish each. It seemed almost too good to be true. They could easily get off the island this way. So, the second counselor said, " Hmmm, well I think I wish that I was with my son up at his scout camp". Poof, he was gone. The first counselor said, " I'm not quite sure, I think I wish I was with my family right now at home." Poof, he was gone. It was now the Bishop's turn. He sat there and thought for a while and said, " Boy, i'm not sure. This is quite a tough one. I wish my counselors were here right now."  

Haha well I hope that made you smile. :D It's cheesey I know but it was funny to us while harvesting for a while.

Ya tell me about it, I can't believe it is already August. I don't know if you know, the transfer just ended as of yesterday and I am currently in my 11th transfer and there are only 16 tranfsfers in the field. Time is REALLY going by and it makes me sad and yet more and more determined to fight as hard as I can til the end and continually look at myself and see how I can improve. I have a lot of personal goals for the transfers and I am excited to see what this next transfer will bring. Transfer calls will be this week so I will let you know what happens. We are only getting two new missionaries this week and they are two sisters. 

That's fun to hear about you and your fun bike ride. I think rode bikes are way cool. Ha really random but during church, there was a big bike race going on outside so all of a sudden a police car went flying by saying to keep the roads clear and then all of these bikers came zooming by the church. It was cool. Ha, ah man my bike got stollen. Tai negerai. :/ Well hopefully we can find anotherone for college cause that's probably what I will be riding for a vehicle for a while. haha. 

That's crazy to hear that they are already talking about next year's youth conference. Eh I don't want to hear I will be home by then. I will still be here haha. :D Those ideas for an EFY thing or the raft activity sound really cool. I agree with both too. Hearing all of the missionaires fun trips to EFY when they were younger makes me wish I would have gone to some. Eh maybe I will be an EFY counselor or something. That would be fun. That's really crazy to hear that you may or may not be the bishop next summer. That would be weird to come back and see you sitting in the audience at my homecoming. I hope you can still be the bishop when you get home. That would be a real cool experience. Get set out by my dad and then return back with my dad as the bishop. I guess we will just have to see what the Lord has in store. 

Tell Brother McDermott hi for me. He's way cool. Whenever people say hi for me just tell them I say hi back as a temporary recording hi until I can get home and say hello back to them. Haha that was super random though. I can't wait to be back and be able to thank people in person and tell everyone about my mission and all the great experiences I am having. 

OOO I'm very glad to hear that Bro. Bean still wants me to be on the team next year for Ragnar. I really want to run that next year. I am also very excited to hear that you want to do it too. That would be so much fun to have you on the team. :D That's way cool to hear also that Dallas is on the Bingham Cross Country team. I can't believe he is in highschool too. 

My tooth is doing fine. It hasn't been bothering me. I figure I can make it tell I go home to get it checked. 

So quite a full week this past week. I shall rehearse for you:

The funniest thing happened to me that has never happened to me in my whole life. So we were harvesting for a long time and we were coming out of a dome stairwell and I had to check something in my planner. So I open it up and begin looking. I felt something hit my shoulder and figured it was a rain drop from a tree cause it has just poured a few minutes before. So I glance over expecting it just to be wet, well it wasn't water. I had been hit by a bird poop. Haha oh man I couldn't believe it. It landed right on my shoulder.  I went over to be big puddle and tried to wipe it off carefully but it smeared it pretty good. It was a joke and we couldn't stop laughing. I wiped it off a lot with the water from the puddle but it didn't turn out too good. It looked pretty funny but thankfully it came out when I put it through the wash.

As for Kęstutis' baptism. We had a lesson with him and gave him a blessing because he was pretty nervous about his baptism. It was a real good blessing and he said it made him feel better. We picked out a baptismal jump suit and we got all ready. His baptism was on sunday morning before church cause that was the only time he could. We planned on having breakfast at the church after with him and with president chomskis. He didn't want anyone to come cause he says he wants it more private. I will explain that all when i'm home. He is way funny. :D So saturday night he said he was fine and ready  and happy. Well we get up early sunday morning and I began making crepes for breakfast. Just the batter. There was a ton. Well we get a txt and he said, sorry I can't come today. That was it. We tried calling him and sending him txts but he didn't reply. It was a little bit of a bummer cause we really thought we were finally going to get him baptized but he didn't come again. So the baptism didn't happen but we are going to keep working with him. He's such a great guy and we would do anything for him.

Yesterday, Irina, one of the members here was really sick. She couldn't even sit up. I think it was a reaction from a sergery she had and she didn't look so great. So after church we went over to give her the sacrament and then to give her the blessing. I gave the blessing after the annointing. That was a really powerful experience for me. It was a little nerve racking at first cause it is in lithuanian but I just realized I had to just really on the spirit and I would be given what to say. It was amazing. I didn't have any worries right as we put our hands on her head. The spirit was so strong and I could feel the Lord working through us. The words came without thinking to my head and I know it was exactly what she needed to hear. That really helped me so much. I felt such a new fire and energy for the work after that blessing. That was my first time giving someone a blessing in Lithuanian.

I'm excited to see what's going to happen this transfer. Who I will be with, how I can improve, what the Lord has in store, who I can find, and how I can better serve the Lord. I am so blessed to serve here. I love the people here so much with all my heart and I can't believe how many blessing I have received from Heavenly Father. He knows me and he knows how I can help people here. As it says in Corinthians, " The Lord takes the weak things and makes them strong". 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all the help you provide to me. I can never pay you back for all you do for me. Have a great week.

                   su daug meilų visada ir per amžius,
                             James