Week 58- 9 months in Vilnius-->Panevėžys (my new home)

 Hello Everyone!

Short Version: I moved from Vilnius to Panevezys this last week. After 9 terrific months in Vilnius, I'm moving to another city. Fun Fact: vezys in Lithuanian means cancer, sadly Pane doesn't mean anything. Here in Panevezys we've already invited someone to be baptized and they said yes! This is a super brand new area, it's only been open for 3 months so there is no building and 0 members living here. I'm really excited though because no one here has ever seen missionaries so we get to be their first impression.

Long Version: It was really sad to say goodbye to all the members and other friends in Vilnius. After being there for 9 months, it felt like home. I'd left the city 2-3 times the entire time I was there so my entire mission experience in the Baltic Mission was just Vilnius. It took me a bit by surprise when I found out I'd be going from the biggest city in LIthuania to the smallest area in the mission. For reference, it's not like super tiny. The population is 84,000 but it feels like a small town. Panevezys also used to be where all the gangs centralized to after the fall of the soviet union. Now it has the reputation for being a sketchy city with a ton of drunk people and gangsters but that's mostly a joke. 

Our friend Savelis who is getting baptized next month took us to a Christian worship group. They invite people of all different faiths to join them, they sing and pray and bear their testimonies to each other. It was unique but actually very cool to be a part of. At one point, the leader of the group asked me and my companion, Elder Morrissey, what we believed and to tell everyone about our church. BOOM! Super cool opportunity to share the Book of Mormon so hat's exactly what we did. As we were about finished, Savelis asked if we could read the Book of Mormon with everyone and they said yes. We read the entire introduction and the testimony of the 3 witnesses. At the end everyone was super curious and we gave away all the book of mormons we had with us. We're planning to bring more the next time we visit. 

Also a funny thing  happened while we were there. The entire meeting was in Lithuanian of course, and while we were singing they didn't tell us any of the lyrics. Luckily the songs were super repetitive so we were able to sing along pretty well. However, one of the lines in a song (translated to english) was "jesus, my victory." The word for victory is "Pergalė". I misheard the lyric and was saying "Pragaras" which happens to be the word for Hell. I don't anyone heard me so that's good. I was really confused while singing my version, but now I know for next time. 

There's a river by our apartment that looks really similar to the Snake River in Kennewick. What made it extra weird is they also have a frisbee golf course right next to the river as well, just like home. Walking down there freaks me out because it's super similar to being at home. I'll get a picture of it this next week. 

We ate out at this one burger restaurant. The burger tasted really good but it's kinda weird. The burger is called the Stinky Mexican, beats me because it was not stinky and it was very tasty. The weird thing is they put a single tortilla chip on the burger. It had other mexican flavors in it too, not just the chip but that's the first time I've eaten a hamburger with a tortilla chip. 10/10 would recommend. 

Funny thing,  just now as I'm writing this, I have found out I've been showering completely wrong. I thought our shower did not work and I've been splashing myself with water from the bath tub faucet.  . Also, our kitchen sink water pressure is non existent so we have to fill up a pitcher of water, boil it and then that's how we do our dishes. 

The last day I was in Vilnius, Elder Key and I were teaching a group of Iraqi men over zoom. They are currently living in a refugee camp for numerous reasons. There is a member from Lebanon oddly enough, Will, who speaks Arabic and could help us translate for them. His actual job deals with working with everyone who lives in these refugee camps across Lithuania and he has been talking with them about the gospel for a while. He has a graduate degree in psychology and was telling us some really useful tips before we called the men. His main advice was to seek to understand the men and form a connection with them before doing anything else. Finding out where they are from, their situation, their background, their family, etc. Because of their situation, it reminded me of this youtube video clip of Brene Brown who talks about empathy. It's changed the way I talk with people and I'd recommend watching it. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw. The 4 main points things for everyone who doesn't have time to watch the video:

1, Perspective Taking

2. Staying Out of Judgement

3. Recognizing Emotion in Other People

4. Communicating Emotion

John 11:35 "Jesus Wept." Here we get to see an example from Jesus' example of empathy towards Mary and Martha. If you remember, this is when Lazarus has died and Mary and Martha come to tell Jesus. They say later that If only he had been there, Lazarus would not have died. I'm not sure whether or not Jesus knew at the time that he was goin to raise Lazarus from the dead, but either way when he saw Mary crying he "groaned in the spirit and was troubled." I don't know if there's a better way to end this other than a classic jeffrey R Holland Quote:

"Brothers and sisters, such a sermon demands that I openly acknowledge the unearned, undeserved, unending blessings in my life, both temporal and spiritual. Like you, I have had to worry about finances on occasion, but I have never been poor, nor do I even know how the poor feel. Furthermore, I do not know all the reasons why the circumstances of birth, health, education, and economic opportunities vary so widely here in mortality, but when I see the want among so many, I do know that “there but for the grace of God go I.”18 I also know that although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother, and “because I have been given much, I too must give.”19

In that regard, I pay a personal tribute to President Thomas Spencer Monson. I have been blessed by an association with this man for 47 years now, and the image of him I will cherish until I die is of him flying home from then–economically devastated East Germany in his house slippers because he had given away not only his second suit and his extra shirts but the very shoes from off his feet. “How beautiful upon the mountains [and shuffling through an airline terminal] are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.”20 More than any man I know, President Monson has “done all he could” for the widow and the fatherless, the poor and the oppressed." (Are We Not All Beggars, 2014 October General Conference)

May we all first seek to empathize before seeking to give advice, voice our opinion on the situation. Stephen Covey might add "Seek first to understand, then be understood." This will be helpful for your families, for your relationships, for work life, dealing with contentious people, the list goes on. It's hard, and I'm definitely still working on it. Something that goes through my head during an argument or a heated debate is "if only they understood where I'm coming from and my side of the story." Why don't we allow others the things we too wish for? How different would just your life be if you simply sought to understand others more?  There's so much more I want to say but this email is getting long. Enjoy your week:) Understand first, empathize, be kind, and go forward from there.