Week 13: September 23, 2013

Hey y'all!

How are you? Like honestly, I want to hear how everyone is doing. I feel like people don't actually update me on their lives because that's kind of weird over email or whatever but I want to hear details of how you're all doing!

Anywho, this week has been pretty good. We actually weren't able to meet with Galena or talk to Askoldas over the phone, so that was kind of a bummer. But lots of good things happened, too. 

For one, we had Zone Conference. I just gotta start by telling you that each language has a reputation in the Baltic mission. I guess it's best described by Harry Potter classifications: Lithuanian missionaries are Hufflepuff, Estonians are Slytherin, Latvians are Ravenclaw, and Russians are Gryffindor/Slytherin. Haha I tell you this because Lithuanian missionaries are just different from Russian ones. They're all really huggy and hilarious and just a hoot to be around. So Zone Conference was fun. The day before, I did an exchange with a sister that I came out with, Sister Grey. She took a year of Russian before her mission so she can speak really well. I was slightly terrified to go on an exchange with someone my age in the mission but it turned out to be a great learning experience. I was surprised with how much Russian I can comprehend and how well I can communicate when I'm not relying on my trainer. It forced me to listen a lot closer so I was actually able to translate a lot for Sister Grey when she didn't understand. We decided to advertise for English club with chalk on the sidewalk by where we live and that was really successful because we talked to almost everyone that walked by. Lots of people here speak English enough to have a very basic conversation and I've learned enough Lithuanian to start a conversation so it was good. After we were pretty much going to head home, a lady came and yelled at us because apparently it's illegal to draw on the sidewalk in Lithuania so we got our hineys outta there. 

Oh! Funny thing about Zone Conference/Lithuania in general: people think that my voice is good here. And I really hope you understand I'm not saying this in a braggy way AT ALL. Do you realize how hilarious it is that my voice is considered good? I wish you could hear what it sounds like every sacrament meeting. I think anyone with an ability to stay on pitch is classified as a superstar here. It's the best because it makes me feel like I suddenly acquired this ability to be less than mediocre at singing.

Anyways, my district sang the musical number for Zone Conference. It was great. The people in my district are Elder Erekson (he was the group older than me in the MTC), E. Bell, E. Christensen (he goes home after this transfer) and E. Grant. They're all from Utah except for E. Bell. We all get along really well.

I told you last week that we had planned to go to Trakai, and that was awesome. The castle is kind of an island that you have to cross a few bridges to get over but it was sooo cool. The whole time I kept thinking how much Dad would have loved it (All of you probs would have loved it but I went to Paris with Dad and I remember how museums are kind of his thang). We were able to go inside and go through all the different towers. It's kind of like a museum in the fact that every room had artifacts & information about it. It's weird to think that the castle is technically in my area. It's a forty minute walk from the bus stop to the castle, and then it was another forty minutes to walk to the Elanskaya family afterwards. We had to cross this sketchy bridge that was just floating in the water and, as you can imagine, I was hyperventilating/cracking up the whole time. We went to their house to teach Alena again about baptism, which was really fun. It was her eighth birthday and we bought her a cheap Barbie doll and made the mistake of giving it to her before the lesson. The only toys she really has to play with are the stickers on the side of her dresser, so she was pumped about it. 

Her mom, Christina, was making tacos for dinner but we couldn't stay because we had to walk about an hour to our bus stop. It's funny that the only reason members ever make tacos is for missionaries because missionaries are the ones who taught them how. 

We went over to Ludmila's a few times last week to prepare her to receive her patriarchal blessing. She was sassy, as usual. She made us these cheese pastries that were the greasiest things ever. They tasted good, as always, but it was one of those things where you hate yourself after. Haha she is so good at cooking but it just hurts whenever she makes us eat.

I made her laugh pretty hard on Sunday. We are always the first ones to get to the chapel because S. Weaver likes to practice the hymns and I like to talk to people, and Ludmila was the first person to get there after us. She set her stuff down and was about to walk out of the chapel to hang up her coat when I said, "Ludmila! Tapeлка!" (Ludmila! Plate!) From the very first time that I went over to her house, she has quizzed me on the word for plate and I could neverrrrr remember. I don't know what was wrong with my brain but I would repeat it and then it would leave me forever. So it's been almost a month of her being frustrated with me. I finally wrote it down and memorized it, so when I said it to her, she was sooo jazzed. She was telling Alvidas about it during sacrament and cracking up all over again.

Do you remember me telling you about Margarita and Galena? Well on Saturday Elder Packham and Elder Hall asked us to help on a lesson with them. We ended up making cookies and while the cookies were baking, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation. It went really well. I just love both of them so much. Their house reminds me of Christmas for some reason. But anywho, they're both really funny. Elder Packham had brought the ingredients for the cookies and I guess that they had done an object lesson with the ingredients before so words like "faith" and "baptism" were written on the sugar and stuff. Elder Packham asked what we needed to add next and Margarita was like, "A cup of baptism." Haha and the whole time that we were making them, Galena was getting ready for work in the other room and singing "God Bless America" just to be a rascal. They're both such great people. They fed us lunch and it was essentially tons of mushrooms on top of mashed potatoes. Get this--I didn't even blink. Ate it, no problem. That's improvement, right? Haha I don't think I'll be too picky by the time that I get home.

This week is going to be insaaaane because we are in charge of putting together this gigantic Book of Mormon that we can use in a finding activity with members and we're switching apartments with E. Packham and E. Hall. If it sounds like we are with them all the time, it's because we are. Haha I don't know whose idea it was to assign both of our companionships to this board but it has to be professional looking and with our limited budget it's looking grim. Haha but I'll let you know how that goes.

Saturday was also Radvilė's baptism. She's a Lithuanian girl who just turned eighteen. She's been waiting to be baptized for two years and four months, but her dad never gave her permission. Since her birthday was last week, she was finally able to. It was such a happy day! Something super funny that happened was that after the whole service was over, everyone lined up with flowers and congratulations. A lady who she's met maybe once but is just investigating the church went up to her and started belting out Ave Maria at the top of her lungs in an opera voice. You could tell that Radvilė felt so awkward; it was hilarious. Sister Weaver got it on video, thankfully. 

But yeah, life has been really good. I was reading in 1 Nephi--I don't remember which chapter, but it was a short one where Nephi was basically just saying that he was going to write the history of his people on a separate set of plates and he would write the things of God and the ministry of his people on the small plates that turned out to be the Book of Mormon. It made me think about the fact that the only thing that really matters in the end is the ministry of people--their miracles, faith, lessons, trials, and spiritual experiences. These are the things that help their posterity the most. It made me wonder what we are doing to record our ministry today. Are we writing down the things that actually matter? Are we even ministering to other people in the first place? What can we do to more actively share what strengthens us? Honestly, I feel like before my mission I was so terrified to share what makes me strong because I thought people would think that I was trying to get them baptized or something. What I didn't realize is that I was keeping them from growing like I had. What we have in this gospel is applicable to everyone--it's not just for Mormons. It's for anyone who's ever felt like they could use some help in becoming a better person or who just wants to feel like they're doing the right thing with their life. I hope that you can remember that you're all placed in other peoples' lives for a reason--that you each have knowledge that will strengthen someone else.

I love you all and I hope that your week goes swimmingly. As always, give my nephews and niece hugs up the wazoo for me.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 12: September 16, 2013

Hey everybody! 

It's been another great week here in Vilnius. Kind of insane. I forgot to tell you that last week we did a chalk drawing of the Plan of Salvation with Elders Packham and Hall (big surprise, we work with them alll the time because they're the Lithuanian elders that we share our area with and it's more convenient to do finding activities with them because we can talk to waaay more people...also they're our besties4lyf). It went really well and I finally felt like I was actually contributing something, haha. 

I also forgot to tell you that we went to Trakai to visit the Elanskaya family. It's about forty minutes away from Vilnius and it's SO pretty. It's got a lake and people just randomly riding horses down the road, plus it's also got the castle that I'm pretty sure I pinned on Pinterest. Haha we only saw the castle from across the lake because the Elanskaya family lives on the opposite side but it is such a cool place. We were given the task of preparing their eight year old (as of today! It's her bday up in herr) for baptism. Her name is Alena and she's adorable. We watched the Swan Princess with her in Russian for a few minutes and it was adorable because she knew every word--not just to the songs but to the actual movie. It was one of those moments that it hit me: I'm in Lithuania watching a Disney movie in Russian with a little Russian girl, sipping Russian tea and eating freshly picked Lithuanian plums. And I fed their goat later, so that was even more weird to me. Haha I'm still not used to all of this. Sometimes I'll get on a bus and the bus driver will have a Russian rug hanging behind his seat for decoration and there will be really loud Lithuanian pop music blasting and I am kind of blown away that I'm here. I love it. 

Anywho, we are going to Trakai again today to tour the castle and also because we have another lesson scheduled with Alena. It's going to be a pain to get there because you have to walk forty minutes on foot to get to their house--did I mention it's kind of in the middle of nowhere? The Elanskaya family live in really humble circumstances. They don't have running water and their house is pretty small and they don't have glass windows; just plastic coverings. They are awesome though. They don't have enough money to come to church every Sunday but the branch has been able to pick them all up in a van for the past couple of weeks.

Things have been going so well for Galena! We started the quit smoking program with her this past week. The best feeling was when she tossed her cigarettes in the trash and there was this lovely swooshing sound. Haha she is the most sincere person I've ever met. She's been smoking for forty years so she has a lot of will power and desire to quit. It's really cool to me that I'm helping someone to quit smoking. That's just an experience I never thought I'd have/want to have.

Something that was great this Sunday was that she came to church with us. I think she liked it a lot and the members were good about talking to her. Alvidas was awesome, as usual. He's a silver bullet to all women over the age of forty, as Sister Weaver says.

Another lovely thing about this Sunday was that after sacrament, I noticed a bunch of people were gathered in the kitchen. We went in and Tatiana Orlova (used to be in the Relief Society presidency here) shoved me in line and gave me what everyone else was eating. It was this really good bread with peppers, onions, and some other unidentifiable vegetables in a vinegary sauce on top of it. SO GOOD. I got the recipe. And also I got Ludmila's recipe for her apple pie. It's in Russian so I'm hoping that I'll either be able to read it by the time I get home or that Jared will be able to translate it, haha. 

There's this babushka that lives by us that I think I told you about named Maria. We stopped to talk to her the other day because she was sitting on a bench outside Rimi (grocery store) and she gave us these amazing apples. She called them "delicious miracles". She's adorable.

Speaking of food, Sister Weaver and I go through two bottles of hot sauce every week. I don't know whether that's shameful or not.

Something exciting about this week was that I came up with an idea that the branch is actually gonna use! I suggested that we start doing branch family home evening on Mondays because the majority of the members are either single and don't have a family or if they do have family, then they are the only members. The branch is pumped about it so that's cool. Hopefully we can make it effective and fun for everyone.

We have a new investigator named Askoldas, btw. He's the nicest guy I've ever met. Seriously. He texts us almost every day with what we should do to enjoy our time in Vilnius. I don't think he understands that we literally don't have a minute of free time. Haha we told him that we were planning on going to Trakai today and he has texted us every day since with advice on where to eat, where to go hiking, etc. He's awesome. He's a professor at the university here and doesn't have time to meet with us so our lessons are over the phone. It's really hard but he's technically progressing since he reads and he's mostly kept all of the commitments that we've asked him to. He's just funny and kind of hard to gauge (sp?) because he is so nice and smart and he looks at the scriptures really intellectually rather than trying to apply them to his life. I'll let you know how everything goes with him.

Something interesting that I've learned from him and a lot of the people that I talk to here is that they view life much differently than I do or than people generally do in the States. What I've found with the majority of the people that I talk to is that they don't believe in free agency like we do. And what I mean by that is that they live life and if bad things happen to them, they expect to have to struggle through it and life just always has to be hard. It's a difficult concept for Askoldas to grasp that we can choose our attitudes and how we let our trials shape us. He told me the other day that he doesn't like how churches make people feel guilty because then they get depressed and it's not a good thing for them. I tried to explain that I totally agreed, but that the purpose that we have guilt in this life is to recognize when we are doing something that's not making us as happy as we could be and Heavenly Father gave us the ability to feel bad for our sins so that we could recognize that change needs to happen. Guilt is supposed to be very temporary because we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We have someone to help us get rid of all that extra baggage and we don't have to carry it around. It was hard for Askoldas to grasp that we can actively change ourselves to be more Christlike. I guess it hit me this week how differently I think from the people that surround me. 

A cool prompting that I had this week was that every time we pray, we should pray as if Christ is beside us--because He is! He helps us to find the right words and explain what we're feeling and what we need. We just need to acknowledge our Mediator because he is so ready to help us out and give power to our prayers.

Anyways, I'm so glad to hear that everyone's doing well. I love you all and most especially Yvey, Riv, and Ashton! Haha paka.

Love,

Cectpa Gooch

Week 11: September 9, 2013

Hey e'erbody!

So those pictures of Yvey made me cry. Haha she is beautiful! And I'm not even saying that because she's my niece and that's just what you say as an aunt: she's seriously adorable. I'm so jealous of all of you. Gahh but I'm so glad that everything went well. Can't wait to get more pictures of her! You better send me tons.

This week was really good. We have had some sweet miracles. I'll start with Galena and Margarita. 

I think I told you that we passed them to Elder Packham (been spelling his name wrong this whole time) and Elder Hall. It's been cool to receive confirmations over and over again that passing them at that specific time was the right thing to do. I guess that on Wednesday, the elders went over to their apartment and they could tell something was wrong with them. I guess that they had just heard that Margarita's dad had committed suicide that morning. I don't remember if I told you that her dad wasn't in her life and wasn't a very good dad, but yeah. I guess they were just kind of shell-shocked. They brought Alvidas (the guy who whispers sweet nothings) and while they fixed their furniture, they taught them about the Plan of Salvation. It's just awesome to me that Heavenly Father sent missionaries to them at this specific time so that they could be there to comfort them with that specific message; that there's life after this and that people can continue to progress and change and become better even after death. 

They also introduced Margarita to some youth in the Lithuanian branch and they got along really well. There's a girl who's 17 as well that they introduced to her and she's getting baptized next weekend and Margarita said she'd come. Great things are happening with them.

The other huge miracle that happened this week has been with our other investigator, Galena. She's the one who's been meeting with Jehovah's Witnesses and who is kiiiind of argumentative. Haha remember how I said that she'd change her tune once we introduced her to Alvidas? It worked! Haha we invited him to our next lesson with her and after the first five or so minutes, it was like he had calmed the raging storm inside of her. He's such a peaceful and knowledgeable person that I feel like it's impossible to argue with him. She stopped saying stuff like, "Well, that's not in the Bible." Alvidas started talking and suddenly she was soaking up every word he said. It was awesome because you could honestly feel the Spirit the whole time even though her apartment was filled with noise: there was a car alarm going off outside, it was pouring rain, her dog was barking a lot, her son was listening to some really loud elevator/techno music. 

At one point it was really hard for me not to laugh though because Alvidas is famous among the missionaries for doing this thing where he opens up the Bible to the end of Malachi and talks about how 500 years are missing from the Bible and then he puts the Book of Mormon inside it and shakes it in the investigator's face saying, "This fits!!!" Haha he didn't necessarily shake it in Galena's face but he definitely put the BOM inside the Bible and showed her what's up. I was shaking. Thankfully Galena's eyes were glued to Alvidas because I was having a hard time keeping a straight face. 

Another cool part of that lesson was that I was able to tell Galena how I receive answers (which was good because Alvidas went off about how he received his answer through a vision--we were like, "uhhhh"....) through having my journal in front of me and writing down my thoughts as they come. I talked about the fact that we can learn how to discern which thoughts are coming from our own mind and which ones are inspired by the Spirit by just writing them all down and then when you look at what you've written later, it's really clear which ones were revelations and which ones weren't.

The next lesson we had with her, we actually got her to come to the church. It's interesting how the Lord inspires at least one of us (S. Weaver and I) to do something that the investigator needs. For example, I felt really strongly that we should start meeting Galena at the church and S. Weaver felt really strongly that we should have member on the lesson. Both things happened for the last lesson that we had with her. Brat Falec came. He's in the branch presidency and he was pretty much the first member of the church in Lithuania. He was so perfect for the lesson! The Spirit was there the whole time and Brat Falec was really good at working with us and saying just enough but also letting us teach like we're supposed to. It's usually hard with members on lessons because they are Russian and that means that they talk for a verrrry long time and they go off on random tangents and they feel the need to answer every single question that the investigator has. I'm not saying that answering questions is a bad thing--it's kind of why I'm here--but members don't usually get that it's more important to teach the investigators to find the answers for themselves. The whole time we were kind of building up to the commitment of asking her to come to church on Sunday and the cool thing is that we never even told Brat Falec our main goal of the lesson but he taught to it anyways. He told her all about what we do on Sundays and when we asked him how he received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true, he testified about the perfect thing. He said that he didn't receive an answer until he started living the principles that are in the Book of Mormon--until he started coming to church and honestly repenting, he didn't know it was true. We were able to testify that Heavenly Father rarely gives us answers right when we ask. He expects us to act in faith and actually do something about the little knowledge that we do have. Before we were even halfway through the lesson, Galena was quiet for a while and then said, "I'm coming to church. Maybe not this Sunday but I'm coming next Sunday for sure." It was clear that the Spirit was there just because she was ready to keep the commitment before we even extended it. She was also asking all of these questions like whether or not her dog was going to go to heaven and a bunch of little things that would be answered if she just knew that the Book of Mormon is true, and S. Weaver said, "Galena, you have a lot of really good questions, but I promise you that once you receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, all of your questions will be answered." Right after she said that, Galena was quiet again and then said, "I'm going to read the whole Book of Mormon." 

It's awesome to see the process of Heavenly Father softening someone's heart. Galena's way nicer and less argumentative than she used to be and she seems happier when we talk to her. Getting to know her has reaffirmed the fact that I was sent here, at this specific place and time, to meet people like her.

You have all asked about food a lot, and this week I got to experience the real deal at Ludmila's. She invited my whole district (us, E. Erikson, Bell, Christensen, and Grant) to eat at her place. She made us Ukrainian borsht, meat blini, Russian apple pie, and tea. That doesn't sound like that much but you must keep in mind that this is Ludmila we're talking about: the woman dishes up your plate and expects you to eat like a growing boy. Haha she gave me a huuuuge bowl of borsht, three blini, a piece of pie, and a huge cup of tea. All of it was amazing--I actually really like borsht and her apple pie blew my mind, but it was so much. I was watching the missionaries around me and they all tackled one thing at a time: borsht first, then the blini, then the pie, and then the tea. I was full after the borsht and the blini was the hardest part for me because it was full of mushrooms and super greasy. I honestly sat there and thought to myself, "I will vomit if I have to eat all of this. I am physically incapable." Elder Christensen couldn't even look at me while we were eating because he would start laughing at how pale I looked. Haha and then Ludmila picked up a blini and shoved it in my face, asking why I wasn't eating. I told her I was making room and she was like, "That's right, you'll make room!" all sassy-like. I don't really know how I did it, but I ate all of it and I'm still alive. Ludmila is the best cook ever so at least I wasn't choking down gross food. 

She also invited Alvidas to eat with us and that was great because her love for him is so obvious. He kind of gave a little sermon (he used to be a priest so it's just in his blood) during dinner that was hilarious. At one point he said, "You sisters need to be careful when you're pregnant not to speak about death or hate because your baby will hear it and they will be programmed to it when they're born." LOLLL I died. So much love for that man.

Genadi (another member of the branch presidency) told me that I was bearing my testimony when we got to church on Sunday. That was fun. Haha so bad. It's like I forgot all of the Russian that I know when I got up there. But it wasn't too terrible; the members came up to me after and a bunch of them said that my Russian is really good for my first transfer. There's this one lady, Lena, who kind of has mental problems and is a little bit scary with how mean she can be but she came up to me and was like, "Your Russian is suprisingly good!" and then started going off about how bad one of the elder's Russian is. Haha she's terrifying and well-meaning at the same time. But yeah, the members are all so great. I love them. 

I wish I could write more but I gotta peace out. I love you all and give Yvey (and Riv and Ashton) a kiss and a swat on the bum for me. Haha miss you all.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 10: September 2, 2013

Hey, y'all!

So I'm thinking it was pretty obvious last week that I was experiencing a little culture shock. Haha it's extremely different here, what with all the languages and the fact that people just live life a lot differently. But I'm feeling so much better about things. Last week church was a little overwhelming and I was getting frustrated because my Russian doesn't get me much further than, "Hey, my name is Sister Gooch. I'm from America. We have a very good message about happiness. You want to listen?", "Are you a believing person?", and "I like to eat. It's cold outside. You like Jesus?" Haha it's good stuff. 

I feel like my Russian is improving exponentially from day to day. It helps a lot because Sister Weaver is good at forcing me to say all that I can in Russian and she doesn't bail me out unless I absolutely have no idea how to say what I want in Russian. She's been a major blessing in more than one way. I'm really glad that I got a trainer who is never negative and always does things for the right reasons--we're not obedient because we're uptight missionaries who think that's just what we're supposed to be doing. We're obedient for our investigators and for the people that we're meant to find because we want to be the clearest conduits for the Lord's spirit.

Speaking of investigators, this week was full of miracles. I think I told you about Marguerita and Galena last week. We were having a hard time trying to figure out what they needed to be taught and we were sitting in companionship study one morning when it hit me: we needed to pass them to the Lithuanian elders in our area. Marguerita is the 17 year old daughter and she couldn't understand really simple Russian words like "perfect" and "guilt", so we brought E. Packem and E. Hall to our next lesson with them. E. Packem is one of the most ridiculously likable people I've ever met and he's a great teacher because he's really good at simplifying things. He's also hilarious. And E. Hall came to the Baltics at the same time that I did, but he's funny too. The lesson went so well and you could tell them lightbulbs were going on for both Marguerita and Galena because they understood the language better. We stopped by again yesterday with the elders and E. Packem pretty much just knows exactly what to say. Marguerita was saying that nobody from their church ever helps them out (they have a lot of broken things in their home and they don't have a lot of money because their dad left and doesn't want anything to do with them) and E. Packem was like, "What do you need help with?" Marguerita just went off for a few minutes, listing a bunch of things that they need and E. Packem said, "Alright, we're going coming over on Wednesday and we're going to fix all of it." It's awesome because as missionaries it's hard to get people to see that you care about them more than they understand. Most people think that we want their money or they want them to sign away their apartment or something crazy like that. Tons of people think we're a cult. But it just feels good to be able to show them that we really are here to help in any way that we can.

I think I might have also told you about Ludmila. She's was baptized in July and she's this 55ish year old lady who's got so much spunk it's ridiculous. She calls herself a hooliganka (like a hooligan) and cracks up everytime. We meet with her twice a week because that's what you do for a whole year after converts are baptized. Anyway, one day we ate dinner and then decided to head over to her place for a lesson. Baaaaad idea. I was so full and when we got there, she had made us blini, which is basically Russian crepes. It was so nice of her because I had mentioned in passing on my first Sunday that I wanted to try blini and so when we get there, she folds one up and dunks the whole thing in sour cream, then shoves it in my face. Not exaggerating. She put it up to my lips and was like, "Eat!" It was so painful. Haha I felt like I was gonna barf. But the good news is that blini is amazing and the sour cream isn't half bad here. She also made me drink a huge cup of raspberry tea and by the time I was done I was feeling pretty ill. But I've learned that you never eat before you go over to Ludmila`s--at the very least she feeds us cake and tea. It's always really good, so I look forward to it. Yesterday she made us eat a tonnn of this plum cake, which is essentially like sweet corn bread with plums in the middle. It's surprisingly good. I'm also getting used to drinking a lot of tea. But Ludmila is funny; she forces us to eat everything and she always says, "It's tasty, right?" She teaches me a lot of words every time we go over there and helps me out with my pronounciation. She, along with every other branch member, gets a real kick out of my Russian.

Speaking of which, the branch members here are the best people I've ever met. Everyone calls me Sister Goochka and they always make the pinching cheek motion and say, "Little girl!" all the time. Being small and not being able to speak Russian is a cute combo, apparently. Haha seriously though--they are all so willing to help out with lessons and they all share the gospel with their coworkers and friends. One of our biggest miracles this week happened on Sunday because Felix (this member who allllways sounds like he's drunk because he slurs his words like there's no tomorrow but is super nice) brought this lady that he works with, Nika. He introduced us and told Nika, "Give these girls your number! You need to be taught by them." So we are meeting with her this week. 

There's also Alvidas, who is the most charming man in Lithuania. I was talking to S. Weaver about it this week, and it's just his spiritual gift to soothe people and lull them into a sense of security. My first Sunday, he sat by me and talked to me a lot and I didn't understand for more than half the time but I just felt so much better afterwards. He's our go-to man--if anybody has difficult investigators, they bring Alvidas to a lesson and they end up getting baptized. No joke: he's baptized six people in the past couple of years. And something funny about him; when he baptizes people, he does something that I like to call "whispers sweet nothings" into their ears. For example, when he baptized Ludmila, he was whispering as they were in the font, "Your life is a clean slate. Your prayers will have power and you will overcome many things." Hahaha I love him to death.

The thing that I love about Russians is how blunt they are. They just tell you what's up and nothing is really offensive to them (except for not eating their food). It also makes it kind of hard because if they think you're annoying for wanting to talk to them, they'll pretty much tell you.

Our other investigator Galena is blunt like that. Haha we brought a member, Tatiana, to our lesson the other day and at the end she turned to Tatiana and said, "Will you come to the next lesson with them? You know a lot more than them and I like talking to you better." Ouch. See what I mean? Not necessarily mean, it's just painfully honest.
But it's all good because we're bringing Alvidas to our lesson with her
today--pretty sure she's gonna change her tune.

At the beginning of the week, we decided to go to the furthest away part of our area just to explore and go knocking or something. That experience made me change my mind about Lithuania--it's absolutely beautiful here. There's a lot of forest area and the country is more hilly and there are flowers and gardens everywhere. That's what it was like where we went that day--like a sleepy little country town. It was real cute. My first really awkward moment happened on my mission though. We were in this aparment complex thing and we knocked on a door and nobody answered. We waited for like a minute and then knocked the door just across from it. Then the most dreaded thing happened--both doors opened at once and I had to take the door with the sweaty beer-bellied man in a tank top while S. Weaver took the one with the nice 30 something lady. Haha the guy was pretty angry and all I was able to get out was, "I have a message about happiness that I want to--" and then he was yelling. But it was so ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh.

 I also saw the cutest thing ever while we were waiting for our bus to get back to our apartment: this babushka was playing with her grandson and they had this blue balloon. She would hit it in the air and the little boy (he was four or something) would laugh so hard and scream. It physicially hurts not to be able to play with little kids. Haha they're adorable here and they remind me of Ashton and River every time. Gahh.

Another great thing that happened the other day was we got a text message with this guy named Vladimir's email in it. We had no idea who it was so we called and he asked for an Elder Winegar, but we're pretty sure he went home in 2006 or something so we told him that. Vladimir was like, "Oh, okay. I guess I'll be your friend then. Can we meet next week? I want to take lessons from you." It just blew us away because most of the people that we talk to everyday either don't want to meet or the people that we do meet with are suuuuper difficult to teach. But what a miracle! We're gonna call him today and try to meet. 

I'm learning so much here. There's this thing in "Baltic mission culture" that says "We offer a more excellent sacrifice". I didn't really understand what that meant so I've focused a lot of my personal study on learning about it. Here's what I've got: I was reading in 1 Nephi chapter 3, when Laman and Lemuel were really angry with Nephi for not getting the plates in the first few tries. I've never related more to them--I could just imagine their thought process. "Haven't we already sacrificed enough? What more is there to give? I thought the Lord wanted us to do this! Why isn't he making it easier?" But I get it now. Laman and Lemuel didn't understand the principle of a more excellent sacrifice. The Lord doesn't ask us to give up "things". He didn't ask me to give up schooling or seeing my family and friends. He asks me to have complete faith in Him and to be willing to follow Him, and He tests me on it every day. Do I have enough faith to leave Jerusalem? Do I have enough faith to turn back and get the plates? Do I have enough faith to go back and not get the plates on the first few tries? 

A more excellent sacrifice is doing God's will, even when you cannot see a purpose or way for it to be accomplished. A more excellent sacrifice requires a more excellent trust. Greater sacrifice requires great faith but it will always yield greater blessings.
Sorry, I don't mean to get wordy or preachy but it's something I really want you to think about in your own life. What kind of sacrifice are you offering? 

Anywho, everything is great here. We come to Center to email and it's like a whole new world compared to my area. It's like twenty minutes away on bus but the buildings are just old and the architecture is cool. None of the Soviet dirty apartments. The people dress super well. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty pumped about the shopping. They have Zara and a few others stores that they don't have in America that are like better versions of H&M. If you see that a bunch of money is taken off of my card today, it's because I am going shopping after this. Haha anyways, I love you all and hearing from you seriously makes me happier than you know. I'm so jealous you're all in Ashton but I hope that things are great! LOVE YOU!

Love,

Cectpa Goochka