Email From James - October 17, 2011

Ugh what a week. All I can say is, I'm glad it's over. There were some good things about it, but it really took a toll on me and I can feel it today. I'm just exhausted. I always thought, like how mom said, when you get in a routine of going to bed and getting up early, you'll get used to it. Well over a year and a half later, I'm still not used to it. It's like my bed hits the pillow and i'm saying yay bed sleep and then the alarm goes off and my body feels like it hasn't had any sleep. I swear this mission is putting 10 years on me. 

So those way cool investigators we found, well let's just say they aren't investigators anymore. We had a really "great" two days. We dropped one of the eternal investigators. Ugh I will tell you about him later but he is apparently "starting" a new church where they just go in nature and have direct communication to God without leaders and without any of this authority "stuff". It made me sad because he did not look the same at all and the spirit was not there in the lesson. It really made me more sad because during the summer we had gotten him so close to baptism and he had made such a great change. The other investigator, who said he had started praying more, said he felt he shouldn't meet with us and that he didn't want to keep the Book of Mormon because it will probably become "firewood" if he kept it. Ya we should definitely save that book. Our third investigator txted us and told us who was grateful for the Book of Mormon he received and that he really enjoyed meeting with us but that he felt he had received an answer from God and that he should stick with the beliefs he has and that he wouldn't be meeting with us more. :(... Ya not a great week in the record books. 

We did find a really cool lady. She was really nice to us and is really interested in reading the Book of Mormon. That was last monday so that was a great miracle find. I hope she will continue to want to keep meeting. I also got to go on exchanges on tuesday and got to go to Vilnius. That was so much fun and I got to be in a normal two-some companionship. They are so much better than three-somes. We ate KFC but it's not as good as in america. We met with this really nice older man they are working with. He was so nice and he builds model boats. He told me I had a true lithuanian accent when I spoke. Ha I laughed and told him he was lying. :D Apparently, he doesn't show many missionaries or people his model boats and drawings and paintings he has locked away in another room, but for some reason, he said he really liked me and wanted to show me them. So I got to see a bunch of his really amazingly well drawn pictures and his boats he made. It was so cool. I hope I get a chance to serve in Vilnius. It's such a big city and there are so many people. But I'm so grateful I get to serve here because we get a lot of lessons every week. Vilnius is a very hard city to serve in. Especially in finding lessons. Everyone kinda looked at us funny, especially in KFC because I would order in lithuanian, he would order in russian, than we would speak to eachother in english. :D 

This week has just been really hard. I have just felt really dead and my fire has died a little. I am planning on fasting this week because the last time I did that a few weeks ago, I felt so much stronger after. 
 
That would be so great if mom could send those ensigns to me and that CD. That would be so great to have. :D I was also wondering, could you possibly send some lucky charms and some butter lovers microwave popcorn. Oh, we talked about cereal and I have just been craving some lucky charms. Yum :D If you could that would be so so nice. ha.

We watched all the conferences in church on saturday and sunday. It was kinda fun because I made a whole bunch of alfredo for the sunday session and we all ate that at lunch. Everyone was saying how good it tasted and how my wife will love me. :D haha. It was so funny cause I had planned on catching up on my journal writing during the conferences but I just watched conference the whole time. It made me laugh because they ended quickly, meaning I didn't realize how fast time had gone by. I laughed because I remembered when I first got here and I didn't like watching conference all over again because I had no idea what they were saying, but now I had fun watching it becaus I learned a lot of new words and phrases. It's funny to watch their translations because it's hard to translate american saying into lithuanian. It's even funnier to watch when Pres. Monson or other apostles, say something that wasn't planned. Pres. Chomskis laughed with us because he helps out alot with the dubbing and translations of conferences. Conference is so good!!! It make's me tear up a little when they do the big shot of the conference center and there are millions of members there. Here, you can feel so alone sometimes. I know my first sunday i'm going to be crying before I even start speaking by just seeing how many members there actually are. 

Nothing much else to report. It's quite cold, excpet today looks pretty nice. The mornings are darker and the nights are growing longer and longer. Soon we will be living in darkness and snow. Yay ( sarcasm added ). I love you all so much and thank you so much for all you do for me. I am so grateful to have the best family in the world. 
      Love,
        James