Email from James - November 29, 2010

Labas Šeima ( not Žeima :D) close though,

    

   So I got mom's package the day before transfers, so no worries mom, I have it. Thanks so much for that journal, I really like how it looks and everything. I have been writing in it tons to keep it updated. It snowed on thurdsday and some more on friday. Winter is definitely here and it is how do you say, fun. hahaha. When we go outside, our hands go numb in 15 seconds if we don't have our gloves on. We wear our sweet Newsies hats now which was I don't like wearing but I have grown to enjoy them now. I had to buy one but I found a cheap one that looks pretty sweet. I will send a pic of it.

 

So transfer udates, did you guess if I would leave? Well if you did you guessed right. I'm in KLAIPĖDA. :D and guess who I am with.... ELDER HILTON. We have been having fun working together these past few days. Klaipėda is right against the coats of the Baltic Sea so a lot of people work on the docks. I love it here already, not so much the freezing cold, but I do love it her. The branch president drives the missionaries around for conferences and stuff. We pay him, cause he doesn't have a job right now, he is in school, but he came and picked me up from Kaunas, and then I was off to Klaipėda. He is way cool. He is married and has a beautiful little daughter. Algirdas, the cool 17 year old kid who I am good friends with in the branch had me call him the night before I left. He sounded way sad and he was like, " you can't go. I'm going to miss you. Who is going to clown around with me." They don't have a clown around word in Lithuania but it's pretty much like what he meant. I told him I would see him again at Roumšiškas and what not. He was so funny how sad he was about it. Lolitta called me to and wished me good luck. Kaunas is awesome. Elder Leishman was a little bummed we wouldn't be comps anymore but we are planning on hanging after the mission. He wants me to room with him at the Y which would be way awesome.

 

My first two nights with Elder Hilton, btw he was with me in the MTC incase you didn't remember. After Donatis, the branch president, dropped us off at where we stay, we went into the house where we live. We live on the second floor of a house and it is way cool inside, I will send pics of that too. It's really cold in there but we are hoping the heating will turn up a bit. There is a dog that is on the side of the house named, Bobsas, and he flipped out when I first came. There is just a little metal gate blocking him and he can almost jump over it. That night Elder Hilton was petting it and it was acting nice so I put my hand out to pet it. It smelled me hand then bit me way hard but didn't break the skin so I lived hahaha. It doesn't freak out when I come home. It randomly barks but not like it did when I first got there. I will buy it doggy treats and try to befriend it lol. So after we went to the bus station to pick up Elder Manning and his new trainee. We got them then jumped on a bus to go to their apt. I asked the new elder where he was from, he had a crazy accent and said he was from scotland. There was a rumor going around that possibly one of the new elders was from scotland coming here. It was so hard not to laugh cause he would say the craziest things with a ridiculous accent. Elder Manning was laughing his head off. It was funny. So we dropped off their stuff then split until dinner, we were going to meet up at Can Can pizza for our " Thanksgiving Dinner" hahaha. So Elder Hilton and I went contacting while the other two went and helped an older lady in the branch. Elder Hilton and I were flipping out about how funny the new elder was and how sweet district meetings would be lol. So after we meet up for our dinner. hahaha Pica for Thanksgiving, that was a first. As they sat down with us, Elder Nelson, the new elder, sat down and said in an american accent, I'm sorry guys, i'm not really from Scotland. We laughed so hard about it cause he really got us going with it. So we ate dinner and then taught a lesson with a girl investigator with the other elders. There isn't enough male members here to go with us for lessons so the missionaries usually teach together here. There is just us 4 in Klaipeda. Then we went home as it kept snowing outside.

    

The next day we went and harvested and tried to find some less actives. We go harvesting pretty much the whole day cause it is so so cold outside. There was a crazy russian lady who was trying to get us to come into her home but she was way drunk. Then after lunch we were able to meet with a way cool older couple. The invited us in and said they knew all about Jesus and God and what not. We asked if we could share a short message with them about our Church and the Book of Mormon but the woman said we didn't need to. So not to offound them, we just chatted with them while eating Mandorin Oranges. They were so so nice to us. As we talked, we would slip in principles from the Plan of Salvation, following the example of Ammon :D It was so so much fun. Elder Leishman and I didn't even have one new lesson the whole transfer. Then we had a fun lesson with some members and sang primary songs which one of the ladys there thought was hillarious. The other elders came too so we were all there.

 

The next day, OH MY GOSH WAS SO AMAZING. We went out in the morning to find another less active home. They weren't home so we just harvested the dome. A nice lady let us in to her home. We kept it short cause antother guy wasn't home but we taught her about Jospeh Smith and God and the Book of Mormon. She was so so receptive. I can tell you how much God has truly helped me grown and learn this language. I didn't even think about the langauge as I spoke. I just said the things I wanted to say and it came. Dad it was so so awesome. The spirit was so so strong. I was so pumped after the lesson. It really boosed my confidence up. So we gave her a book of mormon and got her phone number so we could meet again with her. After that, literally 15 minutes later, another lady let us into her home and we taught a very powerful lesson with her. She accepted a book of momron and agreed to meet again. TWO LESSONS BEFORE LUNCH TIME. It was a true miracle. We had already doubled the numbers I got in a whole transfer. I know there are people out there waiting to hear our message. It was so amazing. After we were both so happy and were marveling at how much we had both grown and learned since the MTC. It was a blast. Then we had lunch and then right before meeting up with the other elders for a lesson, we found yet another lesson. THREE NEW LESSONS IN ONE DAY.  It was so so amazing. Oh I can't wait to tell you about it over the phone. I loved every second of it and the lord truly has helped me so much with the language.

 

It has been fun being in an area with a new missionary. It allows us to see how we used to be and where we are now. Elder Hilton and I always reflect on how we used to be in the MTC and how we are now. We have grown so much. It's humbling to watch Elder Nelson struggle with talking and stuff. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch him grown and learn. I love it. I have heared so much just these past few days that we speak beautifully and way well. It's awesome. I know the Lord has truly heard my prayers.

 

So on Sunday, I had to speak. The branch is very very small. About 20 people. That gave me an even bigger drive to find more people. I want the chapel to be full. My talk went way well. I felt cool cause a lot of the branch only speaks russian, so there was a lady in the back of the room who would translate what I said from Lithuanian to Russian. Then we went to the youth class where Thomas, a way cool 18 year old kid, and Maggie and Gintara who are 12. Then we had preisthood which was in Russian so that was interesting. It sounded like a way good lesson and I still felt the Spririt. :D

 

That's all that's new up until today. It is way cold but I love the work and being here and enjoying the work. Elder Hilton and I are having a blast serving together. We have tea time every meal and night cause it's warm and the fruit tea here is so so good. I'm totally drinking it more when i'm home. So here's my new address where you can send mail and stuff. Dad, can you put it on facebook, preferably on the side blue thing so it will stay there so everyone can see it. it is:

A/D 408

94-198 Klaipeda 10

Lithuania

I can't wait to get the package and hear from you. I love you all so much. BTW parker you can get black olives here :D It's crazy, I will be able to talk on the phone with you so soon. Tell Austin congrats on his mission call. Wow Africa. I will send some pics with this. :D

         Su daug mielų,

            V. Sanfordas

Photos from James - November 2010

Email from James - November 22, 2010

Labas Family!!!

I hope you are all doing well in beautiful snow covered Utah. :D I wish it would snow here instead of the gloomy rainy days. But, The Morrels said that it's supposed to snow this thursday so we will see what happens. That will sure make transfers fun. We are getting three new elders to Lithuanian and apparently one of them is from Scotland so it's going to be so cool to have him here lol. There is some website called lds moms and Elder Leishman's mom talked to that elders mom so that's how we found out. Elder Leishman's mom loves that website were all the moms can talk together. 

Ya so as you know, transfers are this week and we are all really excited to see how it will play out. Algirdas hopes I will stay here, lol. I gave him a hug yesterday and his mom, Ala, said that she hopes I stay in Kaunas for a little longer and that she was going to cry if I leave. She is so nice to us. Ya for transfers, we get the calls wednesday morning and then have transfers on thursday. In Lithuania, there are 4 places to serve. Kaunas, Vilnius, Klaipeda, and Sauliai. The sisters only have two areas to serve in and that is Kaunas and Klaipeda. I hope I get to see a new area sometime soon haha. Lithuania, except for Vilnius, is still like this far off mistik land that I haven't seen yet. All I know is Kaunas and parts of Vilnius. Speaking of Vilnius, Zone conference was so so good. We had Elder Schwitzer come and talk to us. He is the East European Mission President. He was so so cool and gave such good lessons about how we could better contact and we got into a good discussion about how the book of mormon is true. It was a lot of fun. We stayed with one of the elders apt. while all the other misionaries got to stay at a hotel. hahaha . I wanted to go to a hotel but we had fun playing cards and eating brownies and ice cream. I really hope I serve in Vilnius. It's just like being in a huge downtown city. Big buildings, big signs, bright lights, and lots of lots of people and so many places to go and contact. I love being in the city.

Ya sorry about the spending spree, I had to get some things. I am going to send off the package for you all this week. I may need a little extra money for that cause with the coat it's going to way a little more and I have to buy a box. About 50 dollars should be plenty fine. Ya grandma said in her email that she mailed her package to president dance. I'm hoping hers and the other one mom sent will get to the mission home before the christmas conference. Our christmas conference is on Dec. 16-17 so it should. I'm just not sure when they are leaving for the other conferences for the other countries. 

Hahaha i'm glad Parker told me he got all that new stuff and that he isn't drawing on the walls. :D Tell him good job! I laughed so hard when you told me how he drew the same thing of no girls allowed like on the Little Rascals. He's such a funny kid. I love that he likes watching Samurai Jack and how they remind him of me. I love that show. I love listening to that CD you all sent me for my B-day. I have your tapes finished and will put them in your christmas package. I'm so happy to hear you made another recording CD. I'm very excited to get it. I haven't gotten the charger yet but it should come anytime this week. I'm hoping it will come before transfers cause I want to have a working camera :D

That's so cool to hear about all the baptisms you had and about the new family that moved in. I miss having so many members around in the neighborhood and so many people to befriend the members who are less actives and non-members. The branch just got reassigned to new people so we have a new branch president and counselors and a lot of new callings. That was way exciting to hear that yesterday. Wow, your at 4 years of tithing settlement. Time has really flown by. I still remember when I found out from the voicemail from Uncle John that you were becoming the Bishop. That doesn't feel like it was that long ago. That's so cool that Bro. Kelley is your executive secretary. He is so so cool. 

Oh the infamous Turkey Bowl!!! I'm so jealous. It sounds like you all had tons of fun playing. I loved going to those and playing football with everyone. I miss playing sports on p-day. All the other elders here never want to go play sports. The elders up in Vilnius always do which makes me jealous but eh we have fun. Hahaha ya i'm channeling my speed to you while I can't run here. Which kills me cause i'm dying to do something sportsy where I can run a little. Wow, Bro. Bentley broke his leg. That is crazy! It sounded way painful. Last monday elder leishman and I went bowling. We had so much fun. It's good to just do something that just takes your mind off the work and just have fun. We are going to go bowling again today which I am very excited for. 
 
I'm not going to lie, I was very happy that this email was very long. I love hearing all about how the week went and what's new. Elder Leishman takes a long time to email so I always get done a lot faster than him so I just stand around and wait for him to finish hahaha. It's a good thing I like him. I hope you enjoy the pictures. You can see what I look like in my new coat and some funny pics of our Halloween pumpkins. Mine is the more evil looking one. I tried to load some pics from the All Saints Day but they didn't work so I will just show you after my mission as a surprise :D 

But all in all, nothing new to report. I went on exchanges with Elder Cooke who is going home this week and we had a lot of fun. He's such a funny elder. They have a tv up at their apt. so we watched a the church history dvd which has short films about events from the beginning of the church so we were quoting those all day. Brigham Young is the best actor in them, " Who's kingdom are you trying to build? The Lord's... or Lyman Johnson's?" hahahah it's great. We haven't found any new investigators but we keep trying. We have walked and walked and walked and talked and talked and talked but still nothing. The elect are very good at hiding. I have begun reading Jesus the Christ. It's such a good book. I'm on chapter 5 already and I love it.  

I hope you have a great week. Thanks so much for giving me money and sending the packages and helping me out so much. Your the best! I love you all so so much.

Su daug mielu
    V. Sanfordas

Email from James - November 15, 2010

Hey Dad, and everyone,

      Thanks for the package, I loved the gifts that were in it. That's such a cool book, I have looked through it and it's got some pretty cool stuff in it. And the tie is awesome. I'm wearing it today and for tomorrow at zone conference. It's such a good looking tie. And wow those fish crackers are like heaven. Elder Lieshman and I were talking about the snacks we missed in America last week and we were like oh I wish I had some fish crackers and when I opened that present, we both laughed. I'm trying to save them as much as I can :D We had a few and we just wanted to eat them all. I love the sweet blue bouncy ball. It is so so cool. Small things like that provide much entertainment as a missionary. :D We also laughed at when we blew up the balloons, and they were water balloons so they were really small :D It was awesome. I took a pic of it with my  comps camera but I don't have my card so I will send the long waited pics next week for sure. Thanks for the B-Day Cake Parker! I loved it and hopefully you wished for that I could learn the language faster and find people! :D Everyone wished me a happy birthday at church which was way nice of them :D They are so sweet to me. Thanks for posting the face book comments. That's cool how you could do that and I loved seeing how everyone said happy b-day!
    
I'm glad to hear you mailed off the camera charger last week. The camera won't even turn on it has no power. Hold off on mailing the other christmas package, if your planning on sending it to where i'm serving cause transfers are NEXT WEEK and I have a good chance of transfering to a new area. I will email where i'm at not this next monday, but the following monday. I really want to get that music, especially the spirit soundtrack and the equilibrium soundtrack, but if i'm in a new area, I don't want to have the other elders deal with holding on to the package for me. New music will be so nice, you have no idea. :D Thanks for sending it though, you guys are the best for doing so much for me. :D I got you all a little something that you will like that I will send with my coat. :D It's not much but I think it's cool. I also have 4 tapes I will send with it too. :D Lots of funny stories.
    
Wow it's finally getting cold in Utah, some of the other missionaries were saying that it kinda snowed/rained the past week. It got way cold over the weekend which made harvesting and contacting fun hahaha but today it feels nice outside, nice being that my face isn't numb within 5 minutes :D But like I always say, I can bear the cold cause i'm looking good in my new coat. :D I will send pictures of that too next week. 
    
Yay go Bingham! I'm glad to hear that they are doing good again this year! I still cant believe that Anna is in highschool. Oh the highschool memories :D That's awesome to hear that Austin is going to get his mission call soon!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to hear about that!!! He's going to be awesome. How is Travis doing on his mission papers?
     
Yay Training Meetings!!!! Those are always way fun! Not as fun as missionary training meetings but still fun. hahaha jk. That's funny they don't wan't to recite the Aaronic Preisthood thing. That was always a tradition lol. Zone conference is tomorrow and i'm so so excited. The last zone conference was the last time i had been out of Kaunas so it is going to be fun to get out for a bit. We are traveling up there tonight and then staying at one of the elder's apt's. The East Europe Mission President is coming to the meeting and is going to address us. I'm way excited. I can see we are going to learn a lot. :D
     
We got 12 new investigators as a District last week! We set a goal of 7 and did 12!!! We would call eatchother if we got a new investigator. That's sweet news, but Elder Leishman and I didn't help with any of them. We really wanted to help a lot and worked so so hard but we didn't get one new lesson in. It was a very rough week. On saturday, we went to an area and we were hoping to have a good way to end off the week. But, we got yelled at almost all the doors that someone was home and got shooed out of a place like a dog, and people were threatening to call the police. Ya, it was fun. So Sunday, Elder cooke noticed we were a little down so he said we would have a small exchange that night. So I was with him that night. We found a guy to talk to which was way good and him and I just talked for a long time which was way good. He is really nice to me and really helped me to pick my head up. This week is going to be a lot better, I can tell. Keep praying the work will go forward. I completely finished the Book of Mormon so I won't have to do that anymore for study, so i'm going to be studying lithuanian non-stop. :D
         
Have an awesome week!!!! I love you all soso much and thank you so so much for all you do for me!!! :D
             Su daug meilu,
                 V. Sanfordas

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

Email from James - November 1, 2010

Hey Dad, and everyone,

   So today is "All saints day" which is a major holiday in lietuva where everyone goes to cemeteries and puts candles at all of the graves. So, everywhere is closed except for the mall. We went all over trying to find a place to email. Then one of the members called us to help her move. There are some other lady members here so we have been helping them move most of the morning. Then they said we could use their laptops. So that is most likely going to be our p-day for the day. :D I need to work out my arms a little, even though I lift weights everyday. lol
    
So with the change of times, the sun goes down very very early! We were carving pumpkins/lunch break then we noticed outside, and it was pitch black. And it's going to get darker and darker still. haha it's very weird. So ya, our halloween was pretty fun. Elder Leishman and i carved pumpkins so it was a lot of fun. :D I will email pics next week. 
    
Before I forget, mom emailed and said that you were going to mail my shirt with some cd's and the charger probably this week. If you are, do you think you could send a new journal for me. Preferably one that looks like the one I first had. I really like how it's a darker color and a really cool style. They don't sell journals here, surprisingly, so could you send me one. If you can't I can probably buy a notebook journal thing they sell here. They are like journals, so I guess they do have journals but they are kinda pricey. BTW the package hasn't come yet. I think it will probably take another week to get here but you never know :D It comes when it comes.
    
So I have to address this issue, you said that the elders where over with bro. ashton and some kids trick or treating. So where the elders out trick or treating? if so oh man we all flipped out cause that is so bacho(bad). I told them about that and they were like what!!!!!! and I was like I know. hahaha. Make sure them american elders are working. hahah.
     
I got a sweet coat!!! We went to the Turgus, pretty much like a huge flea market. Grandpa would die to be here cause they aren't old or used things. They are new but for way cheap prices. But they have everything!!!! It was over a mile longs of rows and rows of shops. I will attach a pic of me in my new coat next week too. I love it cause it was for a way good price and it's fitted. They lady was so awesome who helped us. I bought a way nice scarf, let me just say the scarfs here are so good looking and way nice, for way cheap. So as i was buying this coat, she put another nice scarf around it. So I told her I didn't need it but she said, " you don't want a gift?" It was so nice of her. But ya I love my new coat to death. Elder Leishman always gives me a hard time about it cause I love it so much. He only does cause he is jealous. :D
     
So we have been working with an investigator who the missionaries have been working with for a long time. He has a problem with alcohol. We taught him a couple of times last week and we set a baptismal date. He has had so many baptismal dates. So we were working with him and he said he wants to be baptized and he knows the book of mormon is true and everything. So he committed to come to church on sunday, cause he needs to be clean of alcohol and come 3 times in a row to church. He said he would. He didn't show up again to church. He finally emailed us back and said he drunk again so that was why he didn't come. Then he started acting like he didn't care if this church was true, cause all the churches sound the same. Ugh, it is so hard when you get someone so close then they just drop it. We are still working with him though and pray he will want to do it. It's hard for someone to give up old traditions and start new ones that ask you to be better. 
    
We haven't gotten ahold of our other investigator we found a couple of weeks ago. His phone never works and he hasn't called us. So we went and stopped by his home but he wasn't there. So we wrought him a note and said we would come by tomorrow and left our number. We went back the next day. The note was gone so we were hoping he would be home. He wasn't and he hasn't called us back. We will keep trying though.
    
Let's just say it's been a really hard few weeks. We have had no success in finding our teaching. I can see why a lot of missionaries become fluent so quick is because they teach a lot. I wish we could teach more. I'm not lacking the faith cause I know that there are people out there who are ready to hear the gospel. The other elders found a way solid guy who is 23. He is just awesome and already has a baptismal date. I had a chance to talk with him and he is really cool. I hope he gets baptized. He would be so awesome to have in this branch. :D
     
So I loved those pics. Parker looks so awesome with his moustache. hahah. I got a kick out of it. Also I loved how he told the ward about me in his program. I'm always so glad to hear he talks about me and what not. He's such a stud :D 
    
Thanks for telling the members about me dad. I liked how you put it lol. :D I can't wait to get the package. 
     
Well i'm off to eat whatever the members have made us. :D I can't wait to hear back from you. I love you all so so much and keep you in my prayers. 
          Su meile 
              V. Sanfordas

Email from James - October 25, 2010

Sviekas Dad,
  
   OH good ol guitar hero! :D That's crazy how there are mice in the house again. We haven't seen any in our apartment so we have been pretty lucky. Our apartment is so small so if we did have some we would hear them or see them. I guess the spiders make up for it. :D

   Haha I laughed at how you had to turn up the heat. We have a good laugh at our heating system in our apt's, and also with the electricity here. If we have to wash clothes, we have to make sure all the other electrical things are off and unplugged cause our washing machine uses so much power. We usually wash clothes when we are asleep or when we are out. Elder Leishman gets cold easily but I have been alright. He brought a blow dryer from one of the other apt's so he puts it by his feet when he studies haha. I just make little whinny faces and he just tells me to shut up and I laugh. :D Last Firday, there was a crazy storm that came in all day, It hailed way hard for most of the morning then snow came in. First snow in Lietuva!!! Then it stopped at about 13:00 then rained the rest of the day. Our pants were soaked when we finally got back home. We were had fun though! We used our umbrellas as shields when we would walk past the roads so we wouldn't get sprayed. You couldn't even see the tires of the cars there was so much water in the road. But there isn't snow on the ground yet thankfully. It's pretty cold though, but not too bad. I haven gotten used to it.

   Sweet, you sent the birthday package off. Tell mom thanks for sending her camera. I was probably going to buy Elder Cooke's cause it's a nice one and he is going home after this transfer but that will be a lot easier to not have to use money for another one. :D I'm excited to get my package. Today we are going to a Turgus, it's like a big flea market. They have them all over Lietuva, grandpa would love them. They are huge here. But we are going there today so I can get me a coat and a hat. I'm not excited to wear the "newsie' hats. I think they don't look good on me, but i'm already past caring how I look. I still make sure I look good, so mom don't worry, but what the president says to wear, I wear it. :D I will send some pics in the chirstmas package I will send. Speaking of christmas package. You could probably send that to whatever city I serve in next transfer, unless president dance has said otherwise. We are having zone conference on the 16th of November so that is going to be the only time we could get a package from Riga from them. You can let me know what your going to do for that next email. I am going to send back my trench coat so you can have credit and then I don't have to haul it around.

   I"m excited to hear about how that roadshow went. It doesn't really make sense to me with the hoarse line but it sounded like lots of fun. :D Ya Bro. Fletcher is the new Elder's quorum president! He is perfect for that job :D Man, you have to do a lot of work again for the ward. You are going to be quite busy. Don't worry, I feel for you, I'm busy everyday so I can see how much you have to work. I feel so blessed to have such a hardworking dad who cares so much about us, his family, and the ward and God's work. Thanks dad for everything you do. :D

   Ya (phone) calls here are funny. They have you guys call here on our cell phones and our phones aren't the greatest. We set up a time to talk and then you call us here. I'm so excited to talk to all of you in December. :D It's coming pretty quick. Yesterday I realized I have 3 weeks left of being a teen then I will be 20 :D haha! 

We asked our english class what they do here for chirstmas. They do lots of traditional foods but they don't really put up lights like how we do in America. Like around stores and stuff they might have lights, but everyone lives in domes, not houses, so they don't do lights. That kind of made me sad. So it doesn't change to much here at night. They do put up tress and have Grandpa Chirstmas ( Santa Klause) Chirstmas will be interesting. We don't go out a lot cause everyone uses the hollidays as an excuse to get even more drunk then they usually do during the week so it gets pretty dangerous for us to be out. So we just contact til 3 then have to stay inside for the night. 

    Wow your doing Trek again. I loved Trek so so much! That would be so fun to be a counselor for that. You'll have to let me know how that goes! That's so crazy how that might be your last big thing with the youth as a bishop. I didn't realize in February that it will be your 4 year mark. Time is just flying. That would be so cool if you were still the Bishop when I get home. :D You sent me out and brought me back lol.
    
    Ya Turkey Bowl!!! I miss going to those. Those are so much fun! You'll have to take some pics and send them to me. Ya play real futbolas and some good ol american football. You might be surprised to know I have been dying to watch a good american football game. I think the mission might change me and I may be watching football a lot more when I get back :D lol. Once again your right that I might change about football when I grow up ahaha. 
    
    Ya halloween is this weekend. I love halloween so i'm kinda sad they don't do much for that here. Elder Leishman and I are going to decorate the apt., there are already thick dusty old spider webs on most of the wall cealings and corners so we have that creepy part taken care of  haha, but we are going to try to find some pumpkins to carve and decorat the apt. in other ways too. :D I wish I could see what the neighborhood looks like. I love how are nieghborhood goes all out for halloween :D
     
     So not too much has happened here. We were able to teach a way cool guy. He let us in and he accepted a book of mormon and said he would read and pray about it. I am excited to see if he wants to meet more. He is really nice to us. He has a young daughter and is married. His wife wasn't there so we werent able to teach them together.We went to his door and he opened and asked if we were coming for tithings. hahah at the time we both didn't know what tithings were in lithuanian. He told us to wait and he went in his house. He came out with 5LT's and said here you boys go. We laughed and said we don't need money, we are teaching people about Jesus Christ's true gospel that is back on the earth. He at first didn't seem that interested. We asked if he had seen or heared about the Book of Mormon and we showed him a copy. He took it and began flipping through the pages. We asked if he had 20 minutes so that we could explain what the Book of Mormon is and what we are talking to people about. He warmly let us in and he seemed very interested.
    
     We went to the zoo last monday. It was so so much fun. There was no one there! It is a very small zoo but we don't get to do lots of fun stuff like that so we had a blast. We were acting like little kids as we freaked out about all the animals we saw. We took lots of funny pics I will email to you. :D I figure I can send some pics in letters and in emails perodically so you can have some instead of sending the card back and forth. If you didn't, could you send back my card in the christmas package. :D I need to get those other pics :D I finished the book of mormon in lithuanian and I have set a new goal for myself. I don't learn a lot of word when I just try to memorzie them one by one. So, I was pondering one day of what to do. I set a goal to memorize all the scripture mastery for the book of mormon in english and in lithuanian. It will help me with grammar structure, words, etc. Then after I will keep memorizing verses we teach with. :D I have DC 4 down. We had to memorize it all in english for zone conference cause we are having a area zone leader come so I memorized it in Lithuanian too :D It's been a lot of fun. I have learned so much and I have yet to learn so much more. :D
       
     I can't wait to get the package and hear from you all. :D Thanks for all you do for me. I am so truly blessed by how much you sacrifice and do for me so I can be out here. I love you all so much. 
             Su miele,
                Vyresnysis Džemsas Sanfordas