Week 42- Quarantine on the Horizon....please no:(
Hello Everyone!
Short Version: Well the covid numbers are once again rising so Latvia has gone into a strict lockdown mode. Lithuania's numbers are following suit but for the sake of my sanity I hope we can stay out of a quarantine situation. We're still doing lots of bus contacting, English club and facebook work. It's been a lot harder because the weather makes it so most people stay inside so we don't run into as many people and people don't like talking to us as much when they're cold and wet. If only they knew about this great message we have...
Long Version: If you had not noticed already, I have gotten back on to my Instagram account but I've been using it to find people and share the gospel. It's been way more distracting than Facebook so it's hard to not get lost in the endless abyss of instagram content.
One of Elder Sieverts friends from back home ordered us food online and it was literally the most amazing food I've eaten in quite some time. It was a burrito and it didn't taste like all the other fake Mexican food they usually have here.
A youth in our branch, Danielius, is going to be getting the Melchizedek priesthood soon and we're super excited for him. He didn't tell us that until yesterday and now he's even considering a mission. We're going to meet with him and talk about the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood from D&C section 84. When we first met him, he wouldn't talk to us. But now when he comes to church, he sits next to us and talks to us after the meeting. Oh yeah, that feels good inside.
I'm now the "Social Media Specialist" which is a really cool name that means I have to go to lots of meetings about social media. That being said, the meetings are really useful but there's a lot of meetings and extra work on my plate and I'm pretty sure Elder Sieverts is going to lose his mind the next time I tell him I have a Social Media Meeting.
We did some really interesting service for a man with one leg. I'm not sure how he lost his leg, but asking didn't feel appropriate at the time. He bought this summer house (ironic huh?) that he's started living in but the garage was filled with all sorts of mysterious items. Among our favorites were: a portable toilet, War and Peace in Russian, 3 cases of Belarusian Vodka, Russian propaganda (we wanted to keep it but it looks really bad if anyone found out the missionaries have Russian propaganda at their apartment), and Russian Spider-Man on DVD. I got to keep Spider-man, lucky me. Most of the other stuff was old rusty car parts and tons of German and Russian books. 
After helping him, we ate the most amazing tasting meat I've possibly ever tasted in my life. I'm not sure what kind of meat but it was large chunks of what looked like beef marinated in spices and other delightful juices. There were also some mushroom flavored sausages that were tasty as well.
After helping him, we ate the most amazing tasting meat I've possibly ever tasted in my life. I'm not sure what kind of meat but it was large chunks of what looked like beef marinated in spices and other delightful juices. There were also some mushroom flavored sausages that were tasty as well. After a long day of facebook meetings, Elder Sieverts and I decided to pull another prank. What we did will remain unsaid, but you'll be happy to hear this. We did the prank, came back to our apartment and then felt really guilty for what we had done. So then we spent the next 30 mins rushing to undo our prank before anyone could find out, and in the end, no one was pranked. If you know anybody who thinks that missions don't change people, BOOM there's evidence it does.
My Lithuanian is getting to the point where I can understand what people are saying to me, I just can't always say what I want to say to them. Sometimes I'll even know how the word is conjugated, cased and spelled and I can see it in my head, but my tongue won't work right. It comes out of my mouth like jello. It's frustrating at times. It's really interesting to me how God works and the people he chooses to do his work. If he really wanted someone to preach the gospel to Lithuanians, why'd he pick me? Why did he ask Moses to lead a giant group of people if he was bad at talking to people and God knew he was going to ask Aaron to do the talking? Why does he send people on missions and they come back without "success" even though they did everything they could? It's very hard for me to understand some of the decisions God makes even when I know his ways are higher than mine and he knows infinitely more than I do. Thinking about this has been fun but I still have many unanswered questions. However, it's surely grown my appreciation for the scriptures. The more I read through the Book of Mormon and Bible, the more patterns I notice. The pattern I've noticed lately is that God likes to call "unqualified" people. He called Joseph Smith, a farm boy, to translate an ancient record. He asked Moroni and all the other prophets in the Book of Mormon to record their experiences in a language they weren't super familiar with (Mormon 9:31-34, Ether 12:23-25). David prepares with 4 smooth stones to fight a Giant fully decked out in armor. Jesus asked fishermen to follow him and be fishers of men. Clearly, God isn't preoccupied choosing our callings based solely on our current abilities and our strengths. Coming to Lithuania to be a missionary has felt like being a toddler who's been given a pair of size 10 shoes then being asked to run a marathon. I know God is fully aware of each one of you. He doesn't need us to finish the marathon today and he realizes our shoes don't fit, though one day they will, it just takes some growing. It's gonna feel awkward and uncomfortable, especially at the beginning. Perhaps we'll even have blisters, but little by little our feet will grow, we'll cover more ground and gradually work our way towards the finish line. Whatever "marathon" you've been asked to run, please run it because God knows you and every little step is noticed by Him.
Viso Gero,
Elder Smitas
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