Last weeks letter:
"Mum, if you really want to know, Missions are always tough. That's the nature of the mission. But it really is the most wonderful sort of tough you can imagine. As a missionary there's no better feeling than just throwing yourself out there- even if the day yields "nothing" (I've learned that those sort of days don't technically exist). You get home, And you look back on how much you did, what it did for others, what it even did for you and all the "toughness" is worth it.
I remember when Jeffery R. Holland gave a devotional at the MTC. He said something like this: "You (the missionary) will have occasion to ask: Why is it so hard? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't people just flocking to the font? Why isn't the only danger in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking went in the baptismal font?... ... I am convinced that missionary work is hard, because SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE... (As disciples of Christ) we are expected to spend a *little* time in Gethsemane, a *little* time at Calvary... When we are rejected, when we are spat upon, we walk side by side with the greatest life that ever lived."
Yes, this is a tough mission. We are dealing with a people hardened by the atheist tradition of the Soviet Union, smothered by the Eastern European alcohol traditions (which plain wipe the floor with those of Australia), and blinded by the Lutheran, Catholic and Russian Orthodox faiths. But I am not in the least bit worried. I have every bit of confidence that the Lord will lead me in this work, and am finding joy in every bit of toughness that comes my way.
Last Sunday, while I was contacting on a bus, one man, VERY large and in his late 40s at least, told me he would drag me off the bus and beat me senseless. As we got off the bus he followed us all the way to the church telling us we would go to hell and if he had a gun he would shoot us. I love these people, and thus it hurt me deeply to hear them say that (be aware, though, that this guy was just blowing smoke). But I am not discouraged. Elder Lind frequently likes to remind this district that even Christ, for the blindness and unbelief of the people was led to exclaim "O Jerusalem!" So when you ask if it's tough, my answer is that missions are always tough: that's just missions in general. But it is not something to mourn, it is something to love- the toughness is always equal to the good you are achieving. Okay, now I've given my two cents on that (actually, to be fair, I've given about five dollars), Time for the week. This week has been great.
Another Meeting with Raimondas. That kid is great. He keeps trying to reschedule meetings for earlier- A sign that he isn't intent on shrugging us off. He says he might get baptised, and he might repent. Not definite yes's, I know, but he's only 16. I think he deserves a little slack for even being as interested as he is now. We've also had a LOT of meetings with Pjotr and his daughter, Taisia. We've been taking a member along with us, who has been great- Ginnadi his name is. He's also keen to come with us to meet another Part-member family (that's where our focus has been of late- part-member families- they're kinda like automatic member referrals). The family is the Zheboloviches. Their dad is the only one who wasn't confirmed. And his was a strange case. He was baptised all fine, but he turned up drunk to his confirmation and obviously, wasn't confirmed. But we're working on him, helping him to quit drinking.
We also found two new investigators last night- Dima and Marina. They're both plain amazing. We found their address in the Area Book and went to visit them, they let us in and gladly spoke to us. Dima is a little bit atheist, and has done a lot of thinking. Marina is probably the nicest lady in Lithuania. But the missionaries who first spoke with them made a major mistake. They recorded Dima's age as 40 (he's actually 35) and Marina's age as 50 (more like early 40s at most). We got quite a shock when we met them.
Good luck with Shakespeare, Jesse. Make sure you let me know if you think Hamlet was mad, or just pretending. It's an interesting quote "more matter with less art". Which part of Hamlet did you find that in?
Had to laugh about Max being amazed. And your butcher's knife threat. I seem to remember getting the same threat. It still lingers in my head the time when you decided to eat with your fingers- I was out and out disgusted and wanted to tell you to stop, but I remember that you gave me warning about that in order to teach me a lesson and decided against it.
No I don't have gloves and to my absolute shame, I seem to have lost my card. I have enough money for food for the rest of the transfer, but otherwise I'll be in a little trouble. Wasn't there a second card on the same account somewhere at home? If so, can that be sent here. The winters actually aren't that bad, I've been coping fairly well and some days have been getting by on just my coat- not even a scarf (most days I am using them, however) and barely using the sweater, but that's more forgetfulness on my part. It still doesn't feel like thermal-weather."
This weeks letter:
Firstly it was GREAT to talk to all of you yesterday. I'm still, I'll admit, in mental fits of laughter from the news that Dad bought a Wii (and for the record, I forbid Peet to Wii on the couch *chortle* *chortle*).
Christmas really did feel different. Not really like Christmas at all. We spent it mostly watching family-rated movies and playing Risk (the board game, which is actually kinda addictive) We'll be doing the same deal on New Years, but will have to be in the flat at 7:00 and visiting members is out of the question- Apparently Christmas alcoholism has nothing on that of New Years. We actually stayed in the other Elders' flat last night. Taking a taxi home is actually a New Years Day deal. We stay in the flat until 9:00 pm.
No, I didn't take photos of my injuries. Actually, I wouldn't really call them injuries. The only visible mark is the one on my lip which really looks more like it could have been a cold sore or pimple at one point. My companion had an egg on his forehead and bruise on the ridge of his nose, but all is well now. The sad part was I thought 7 enraged young men (one of whom looked like hell, literally- "wailing and gnashing of teeth" would be an adequate way of describing him) could have done a little bit better than that. Their "punches" didn't hurt, they were just uncomfortable. Elder Lind said we may as well have been pecked to death by a duck... If only he knew...
That said, getting beat up wasn't even the shock. But, I was pretty disturbed this morning when, crossing the river, we see large chunks of Ice being carried on the water. Elder Lind didn't think my fears were justified. But he lives in Utah, where snow is not only expected. They depend on it- snow from the mountains is their major source of water. So I still think my fears are justified.
Thankfully, the temperature doesn't make the work too hard. Tracting is done almost entirely in large blocks of flats (we call them "Doms"- meaning "house or home"). And they are usually pretty well heated. But carolling on Christmas eve was a nightmare. We were singing in Lithuanian, which means of course, that I don't know any of the hymns (I have memorized the first verses of "A poor wayfaring man of grief" and "Angels we have heard on high" in Russian, though). So I'm holding the words in front of me while blissfully accumulating frostbite on my fingers.
Hearing your accents over the phone, I realized just how different I must have sounded to everyone back home. It was quite a shock- I didn't think I sounded THAT different.
Well, we had a really good week despite the frights. This week we got meeting an inactive named Algerdis. We give him a good two hours or so because he talks forever and very slowly about the least interesting topics (and I don't mean to be harsh, but he DID spend almost half and hour talking about his juicer and then another half hour about his water filtering system). We almost had to fight to give him a spiritual thought. We also came across a lovely couple that we found in the area book Dima and Marina. Marina is as nice as one can imagine. Dima is a nice guy also, but he LOVES to argue as we found out. This week was also good for Pjotr and Taisia. This week they both attended church- the first time for Pjotr for 4 years. Just recently, less actives have been literally flocking back and it's been very exciting.
The lunch yesterday was magnificent. Simple, yet tasty. Just some chicken and mashed potato. But it was just wonderful to spend time with that great family. I bought one packet of the natural lollies and some of the koala key rings for the kids. They loved them. Mirek (the oldest) made sure everything was good and in order while David (the next one down) tried his hardest to each the lollies ASAP. Illina (1 or 2 years old and cute as can be) just held her Koala proclaiming "Moya Mishka (my little bear)" but later she got into the lollies. Not even chewing them, just putting lolly after lolly in her mouth and letting them stay there. It got to the point where they were sticking out of her little mouth and she still wanted more. She later decided to be more practical, take them out of her mouth, and put them on the floor."
