Heeey everyone!
This week was good. It makes me a little sad that people don't celebrate Halloween here and that we don't make things like caramel apples or carved pumpkins but it's whatevs because autumn is 2385345 times prettier! That's being dramatic but for real, the colors are a lot more vivid than they are on our side of the States, at least.
The weather has been pretty good here but I can't tell you how many times I've been chewed out by babushki who tell me I'm practically naked because my clothes are more appropriate for summer. Haha there's nothing I can really do about that in the next few weeks because our preparation days are taken up by emailing, grocery shopping, and watching Conference one session at a time.
We watched the Saturday morning session last week, which I loved. Ulisses Soares' talk about how to cultivate meekness was so good! "Because of the Atonement, we have the ability to change our spiritual character." I know I've talked about this before, but I feel like it's in our nature to think that we were born a certain way and there's not much that we can do to ultimately change. That's just my favorite thing about the church: we are not only told that we can change, but we're given the tools to do so. The more we understand about the Atonement, the better we can use it.
We watched the Saturday morning session last week, which I loved. Ulisses Soares' talk about how to cultivate meekness was so good! "Because of the Atonement, we have the ability to change our spiritual character." I know I've talked about this before, but I feel like it's in our nature to think that we were born a certain way and there's not much that we can do to ultimately change. That's just my favorite thing about the church: we are not only told that we can change, but we're given the tools to do so. The more we understand about the Atonement, the better we can use it.
We watched all of the sessions in Russian on Saturday and Sunday with the branch, which was just brain melting. Haha here's my thought process during Conference: "......forgiveness....something about the Atonement...power or strength? Ehh I don't know....I promise that...welp, I might as well just read the Книга Мормона." It's painful. Haha but thankfully we watched the Sunday afternoon session in English with Samuel, a Nigerian member who goes to the Lithuanian branch. Plus some of the members just talk the whole time so it was easier to focus. I loved Russell M. Nelson's talk! He spoke more about how we can change our very character through the Atonement. It was a cool promise that if we consciously think of our bodies as temples, then the decisions that we make with this in mind will determine our destiny. I also loved how he said not one of us can stop being a child of God; that we're eternal beings and that eagerly, earnestly, and exactly obedient to the commandments is the only way to feel true liberation and joy.
When we were waiting for a bus after Conference, this guy in his late 20's came up to us and just started going off in the most random English I have ever heard mixed together with a bunch of profanity. The only thing I understood was that he kept quoting Breaking Bad, which I thought was hilarious. He was obviously on drugs, so we got in at the opposite end of the bus from him.
Jared, you'll also be happy to know that I tried a duner/kebab/shwarma thing. I liked it, but I don't really understand what the rave is all about. Then again, I got it at a fancier place and it wasn't like a street vendor because all of the street vendors are rumored to sell dog meat...so I don't know if that's ever gon' happen.
We went to Ludmila's twice this week, which is always pleasant. It was cute because she had tried to give me her apple pie recipe but it was really hard to understand so she made us watch while she made it and write down a more accurate version of the recipe. She's so funny. We came back the next day with Svyeta, a member, and ate the pie while teaching her about family history.
Lately we have had just an hour or so to go finding each night and that doesn't leave us with many places to go because buses take so much time out of our proselyting time, so we went to Arkitektu (a place two bus stops away from us). Almost every night this week we have ended up walking babushki home because they are so nice and they love to talk about God. None of them have been the most interested but they're the most adorable people and they could basically talk all night if you didn't cut off the conversation.
Anyways, we stopped this one babushka and she was hilarious. At the very beginning of our conversation, she pointed to me and said, "You're a very kind girl," and then she pointed to Sister Weaver and said, "but this one's more sneaky." Haha she went on to tell us that she has psychic powers. She said that my life is going to be very hard because I am so innocent and sweet and I'll just endure my trials in life because I'm not sassy and Sister Weaver's will be easy because she can stand up for what she wants and all that. I was thinking, "Orrrrrr I don't speak Russian very well so I just nod and smile at times that I deem appropriate (85% of the time)." I don't care what she says: I'm sassy!
At one point she took out her phone and was like, "Look at this power I have." She put the phone in her palm and then slapped it with her other hand and the hand that slapped it had the phone stuck to it. It's hard to explain but just imagine her holding her phone in her palm with her hand straight while staring at us blankly. It was one of those moments that I thought, "Is this really happening right now? Am I really in Lithuania, staring at a babushka holding up a phone in her hand and talking about her psychic powers?" Haha it was so funny.
The next day we went to Barbara's apartment with Elder Erekson and Bolingbrooke since she's a member. You should know that it's pretty much customary to be given tea at the very least when you go to someone's house, but Barbara gave us walnuts to crack open and some really good apples. They were really good. Anyway, we were talking later on in the lesson and somehow Barbara gets on the subject of natural milk. Nobody but S. Weaver understood what she was talking about but Barbara asked us if we wanted to try it. Elder Bolingbrooke said sure so she brought some out for the elders and Sister Weaver has a really hard time saying no, so she said yes. Barbara asked me but I figured it was better to say no than to have to hand her a cup full of untouched milk and I've noticed that they don't really get offended, so eh. But while she went to get Sister Weaver a cup, Elder Erekson told us that it tasted exactly how cows smell. A direct quote: "It's what I would imagine udders to taste like." The best part about it was that Barbara gave Sister Weaver her milk and just stood there, watching her and waiting for her to finish it. Hahaha I was dying. Elder Erekson and I couldn't look at each other after Barbara was like, "Tasty?" And Sister Weaver sounded physically pained when she said, "Yes, very." I just loved that I was spared from it.
We finally met with Galena last week. We brought Yanina to help us out but it was seriously the roughest lesson I've ever had. She really wanted to argue and then she got mad that we weren't arguing with her so she got a little mean. It's frustrating to have someone who absolutely won't listen to anything you have to say and who asks the same questions over and over again, even though we've answered her. It basically comes down to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true, and that's not something that she's quite grasping. It's also hard to help her progress because she meets with Jehovah's Witnesses once a week and it feels like all of the progress me made in the last lesson is totally lost by the time we meet with her again.
Last night the Lithuanian elders invited us to be on a lesson with Dasha, a Belarussian girl who's in her early twenties, I think. She's atheist and had agreed to listen to a short spiritual message after half an hour of the elders teaching her Lithuanian. She's super smart and really cool and we had a good discussion about who God is and what the Church is all about. She's really good at English and it was interesting to hear a little about Belarus. She's here in Lithuania for university and she has lots of intellectual ideas--she knew the word for existentialism in English! But yeah, she was way cool. She's not actually in our area, so we won't be able to teach her but I think Elder McClure is a really good match for her anyways.
Two more highlights of my week and then I gotta peace out: 1. I found Daim bars. They're like Heath bars, just better. I'm in love. And 2. we were joking to Elder Packham and Elder Hall about the fact that we might as well just start having companionship inventory together since we work so often with each other, and they told us something really funny. There was a survey that we had to take for our mission and one of the questions was "What is your favorite finding method?" and both of them wrote "The Russian sisters" because we are basically setting up a lesson with a new Lithuanian person for them to take over teaching every week. Haha we found another girl this week who was so cool! I don't usually stop girls who look under 20ish because they almost always turn out to be Lithuanian and don't speak Russian, but I stopped this girl and asked her what helps her get through trials in her life. She ended up saying that she has just recently been looking for the right path to God because she's noticed His hand in her life. She said she wasn't really interested in Christianity because it didn't seem right to her that Christians drink and smoke. Well have we got exciting news for her! Haha she was really interested after we told her a little bit about the Word of Wisdom and she asked when she could meet with us, so hopefully we can set up an appointment with her and just invite Elder Packham and Elder Hall so they can take over from there.
Anywho, I hope that all of you are doing great! I miss you all tons love your guts.
Love,
Sister Gooch
P.S. Not sure if it's legal, but can you send me pepper spray?
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