Week 17: October 21, 2013

What what what uuuup?

Let's just start with the fact that it's starting to get butttt cold here. We're gonna hit up a bunch of Humana's (thrift stores) today so I can get warmer skirts. I found an old skirt in the apartment that was at least five sizes too big but I figured it would be warmer than the ones I have, so I wore it to church. I can't go a single Sunday without being yelled at for my clothes--this time Ludmila was appalled with how gigantic it was. Haha she grabbed me by the waist and started trying to fix it and make my belt tighter--I felt like a five year old. She's so funny.

Last Monday we finally started branch family home evening! It wasn't planned out very well--none of the elders called the members in their area, so let's blame it on them. Haha there was Ludmila, Karl (have I mentioned him? If not, he's theeee funniest person I know. He's mildly handicapped and wears sunglasses and leather jackets inside--he's hard to explain but just know that he's smooth), Vlad (Ukrainian guy who was only here for a week), Alvidas, Lena (terrifying member who'salso hilarious), and all of us Russian speaking missionaries. We had a spiritual thought at the beginning and then played signs. It took forever to explain to them but it was so worth it. I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed so hard in a while. Whenever someone would pass the sign to Karl, he would take forever to receive it and just as long to pass it. I wish y'all could see and hear the venom in Lena's voice when she would whisper, "PASS IT, KARL!" Karl just sat there, reclined in his seat with his eyes half open/half closed and a crooked smile that looked so slick. Haha it was better than words can express.

Ludmila and Lena were freaking out at the beginning because not that many people showed up, and Ludmila kept saying that she's never coming again and how it was just terrible. But let's all keep in mind the fact that she's a classic Russian woman and, therefore, a drama queen. Haha she was telling the elders how awful it was and how she had other plans that she was going to do (which she totally didn't) and I said, "You are sassy today, Ludmila!" I mostly said that because I had learned the word for sassy that day and wanted to use it. Haha her face was priceless. She was like, "Do you know what that word means?" And she asked Elder McClure if I knew, and he said yes, and she got all huffy and hilarious and was like, "You'll answer for that." And then all this week she has been joking about how rude it was but I know she loved it.

She's funny too because this Sunday, she went around to every member of the branch and told them that they had to come this Monday. I overheard her telling Felix about it and she was like, "It was so much fun--you have to come." I can't wait for it to happen again tonight!

Another funny story happened last week on a night when we were knocking in Arkitektu again. And I hope you realize that when I say knocking, I don't mean houses. We go to huge apartment buildings and start at the top, then work our way down. Anywho, we were in this one at the very top and two Polish guys who were drunk answered. We talked with them for a little bit but one was somewhat creepy--he kept winking, which is never comfortable, haha--and so we ended the conversation pretty quick. They weren't interested anyway.
So then we go to a completely different apartment building and we had made our way almost to the bottom when we knock on a door and the same creepy drunk guy answered. I want you to picture this guy coming out of the door, closing it behind him, and standing in front of us while winking periodically and just staring in silence. Haha we asked him if he lived there and he said, "No, I live...elsewhere..." and then that's when we awkwardly waved goodbye. "We'll be going now..." Haha what were the chances?

Sad update on Galena: we brought Alvidas with us again but Galena has just gotten to the point where she doesn't listen toanything we say. It's a bummer because she seemed to be doing really well for a while, but it's impossible to help someone change their life if they don't want it.

I will say, though, that Alvidas was really funny on that lesson. He started telling her about his visions and we were like, "Ooookay, that's not usually how it works though."

I've been thinking a lot about how interesting Lithuania is lately. I'm starting to be able to tell the difference between how Lithuanians look/dress and how Russians do. Lithuanians are a lot less loud and argumentative. Haha Relief Society is always a blast because the babushki just argue the whole time. I love it.

I think I've told you about Vechaslava, my babushka friend, who is the tiniest human being ever. We see her from a distance as we're walking towards each other and I expect her to get bigger as she gets closer but she never does! Haha she's so funny and classic Russian. Today we saw her after grocery shopping and she was like, "You eat every day? I don't. I just walk outside and let the air fill me up." We kind of laughed but she didn't even crack a smile the whole time. Then she was like, "I'm joking. Have a good day." Haha that probably doesn't sound very funny but I loved it.

We have been having really good lessons with Ludmila lately. Since she was only just baptized in July, we still meet with her once a week. This last time we talked with her about the fact that we have to have faith enough to live a principle or commandment before we can receive a testimony or witness that it's true, or that it's what will make us happy. She really struggles with that-- she kept saying, "How can I have faith in something before I see that it's good for me? I want to know why before I act." I can definitely see how it's a hard concept to grasp, but I think that looking a little closer at who our Heavenly Father is makes it easier. If we understand that because God loves us; because he knows us perfectly, He knows exactly what will make us happy in this life. Commandments are pretty much an excuse for Him to give us more blessings than He would have been able to before. He works on the principle that if we obey His commandments, then we are entitled to blessings. If He is honestly the one who knows us best and has our best interest in mind, then He would never give us a commandment that wasn't going to make us happier than before if we choose to follow it. All of his energy goes into helping us overcome our weaknesses, and when we show him that we have faith before the miracle, then He is more than willing to help us out even more than He could before.
I'm sorry, I feel like my logic is jumbled and complicated, but it's just something that I think is really interesting to think about.

Anywho, I love you all a lot and can't wait to see pictures of Ashton, Riv, Yvey, and everyone else (here's lookin' at you, Beary J. Blige) in their costumes. Haha have a great week!

-Sister Gooch

Week 16: October 14, 2013

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 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? 

Week 15: October 7, 2013

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

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