Heyyy everyone,
Before I get to how I'm doing, I need to know how X-Factor is going. Haha psych. Please don't take that seriously, Dad.
This week was really really good and then really really rough. I guess first of all, you should know that I'm still in Vilnius for my second transfer! I'm pretty happy about that. I've finally built relationships with the members and I still want to get to know them all better.
Also, I would have sorely missed Maria, my babushka friend. She's the sweetest. It makes me sad that she's a little too old and out of it to receive the gospel though because she told me that she wakes up everyday and lays in bed thinking of all of her sins every day, and how she cries herself to sleep at night because she feels so terrible for having an abortion when she was in her twenties. It's heartbreaking, actually. But she's so good--I can tell she's just one of Heavenly Father's favorites.
We got two new elders in our district since Elder Christensen went home and Elder Bell went to Imanta, Latvia. We got a new district leader, Elder Bullingbrook and a new zone leader, Elder McClure. They seem cool.
So let's talk about food now. Haha we went to Ludmila's again last week and she basically stomach punched me with pure Russian food. She made us some kind of dried mushroom soup that was filling in and of itself (I wasn't the biggest fan, but I have a feeling that I'll just get used to mushrooms by the time that I'm home), but then she piled plates of rice and what was essentially breaded chicken with some kind of gravy stuff. I don't know how to describe it because she used a bunch of spices that I've never seen in America. I was feeling barfy but then I drank a giant cup of tea on top of that. I'm not who I used to be.
Mike, you asked what kind of snacks I like here. Selga cookies are really good; they're like shortbread but 12983479384 times better. Every Monday, Sister Weaver and I try new pastries and we found some in Center by Zara that are amaaaaazing. Mine was a chicken pastry thing that apparently Lithuania is famous for. Also, Muesli is great. E'erbody knows that. It's like a granola cereal.
So as I said, this week was super good and really hard. A few great experiences: I was on the bus and I noticed that the guy sitting next to me was looking at the BOM in my hands. In my mission, it's a rule that we always carry a BOM, no matter what. So I was trying to think of a conversation starter when he pointed to it and was like, "Give me that." Haha so I did and I watched him read the whole introduction and leaf through it. It's just crazy because we have a hard enough time getting our investigators to read through the intro and there he was, doing it! His name is Sergei, which was lovely to hear because it's pretty much guaranteed that he's Russian. It's hard in Lithuania because most of the people that we meet, we have to pass off to the Lithuanian elders because they speak Lithuanian better than Russian. Anywho, Sergei took the BOM and said he'd call. He wouldn't give me his number, but whatevs. Hopefully something good comes of that.
Second awesome thing was that we were on the way home on Sunday night last week when we stopped this Lithuanian lady named Eglė. She was really interested in what I was saying about the Book of Mormon and she took my Russian copy and asked for my email. So we took Elder Packham and Elder Hall over on Thursday night to give her a Lithuanian copy of the BOM and also to kind of pass her off to them. She let us in and Sister Weaver started by saying, "We know that you're really busy, but we'd just like to tell you a little bit about the Book of Mormon." Eglė interrupted her and was like, "Actually, if you have time, I'm really interested and I'd like to hear as much as you can tell me about it." Haha golden! We taught her a really in-depth first lesson and then at the end, Elder Packham invited her to be baptized in November. She said, "My cat will be giving birth at that time, so can we do it in October?" AHHHHHHHH I was moving my hips a little in a victory dance on the couch. Haha so she was committed to the end of October. We were about to walk out when every single one of us got the impression to warn her of opposition. Sister Weaver said that she might encounter opposition or go through hard times but that if she turns to Christ, he'll help her through anything. I wanted to contribute too so I tried to say, "Satan knows that this gospel is going be help you become a better person and he doesn't want that. But I promise that you'll have joy and peace if you turn to Christ when you're struggling." Here's what came out: "The devil knows that this gospel will help you to become better, and he does not want that. But I promise you that you will be eating joy and peace if you pray to Jesus." Hahaha whyyyyyyyy do I open my mouth sometimes? Apparently "have" and "eat" are like the same word in Russian or something. I just feel like that's a lack of foresight on the part of the fools who made Russian up.
Anywho, I've been praying so hard for Eglė, but then on Sunday she texted Elder Packham and told him that she doesn't want any contact because she heard that we're a cult. It's so frustrating that the Church's reputation here is so bad. It was definitely the most discouraging thing so far on my mission just because she seems sooo ready for this gospel! She even said that minutes before we stopped her on the street, she had just dropped hers son off who has been deathly ill and she was crying. She said she saw us as angels and that God knew that she needed to be humbled to hear our message. So yeah, that's been tough.
Margarita and Galena texted him the same day and said the same thing--double whammy.
Anyways, good things happened too. Let's talk about those. The Relief Society President, Yanina, is the most celestial person ever. Seriously, she's awesome. I had told her in passing that I didn't have a winter coat and she called me last week, saying, "Sister Goochka, kljwoeijhslkdjlfjsjk lskejfwoiejfslkdj we jjfslk jsljfkd." Well, that's what I understood. She is sooo hard for me to understand. There's something about people who grew up with their parents speaking Polish and then they themselves attending Lithuanian school that makes it really difficult for me to understand their Russian. Alvidas is the same way--their Russian sounds a lot softer and blended together and it's pretty much just jibberish to me. Anywho, I guess that she had been trying to tell me that she was at this bazaar and was looking for winter coats for me and had found that they had a really good selection. The next day she took us there and I bought a total babushka winter coat. But it was only 108 dollars! Remember how my mission said to bring 270 dollars to purchase a coat? I thought it was a good deal. I had thought that it was black but apparently it's dark blue, which is a bummer. It's not the ugliest and Sister Weaver assures me that it's one of the cutest ones she's seen, but I don't know. Sister Weaver also things that slippers with cats on them are adorable so I don't know how valid her opinion is at this point.
Anyways, Yanina is such an awesome person. She's literally always serving people. I guess that she used to have back problems that were terrible and she prayed one day, promising God that she would dedicate the rest of her life to service if He would heal her. She hasn't had back problems since and she has definitely lived up to her promise. Every time we talk to her, she's buying groceries for a struggling member or she's at someone's house helping them clean. It's ridiculous.
This Sunday was really good. It was fast and testimony meeting, and I think it's the number one thing I'll miss about church here when I come back home. The members are hilaaarious. Hardly anyone actually stands behind the pulpit and speaks into the microphone--they stand off to the side and yell their testimonies with wild gestures. I wish you could all meet Sasha. He is the most animated and loud Russian man I have ever met. His testimony was earth-shattering, as you can imagine.
So yeah, things are good. I miss you all a lot but it also hits me every day how crazy it is that I'm having this experience. Who in the world gets to go to Lithuania and focus on nothing but the most important things for 18 months? This girl right here. Haha I'm annoying myself but I love you all and hope that you have a lovely week!
Love,
Сестра Гучка
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