Week 89- Slow and Steady

 Hello Everyone!


I'm still in Riga chugging away in the office. We had to be in the office full-time for a couple days. There wasn't much to do as far as office work goes so we spent most of it contacting over facebook. Other notable events that happened: 

- our new friend Rudolfs came to game night after finding a pass along card from last year that was left on the ground at the library. 

- Someone dared Elder Yeyna to drink a shot of apple cider vinegar. He decided to instead chug out of the bottle. About 250ml into chugging, his throat swelled shut and he couldn't breathe. After 20-30 seconds he was able to breathe again but immediately threw up all of his dinner and was sick the next 2 days. 

- we had to go with President Huff to test out the pastries he would buy for Elder Quentin L Cook to eat at his apartment.

- I didn't say already, Elder Cook visited our mission. It was super cool because everybody from Lithuania and Estonia visited. They rented busses to drive everyone. He had a super cool testimony that he shared in a special missionary devotional and also in the member devotional. He said "I know the Savior's voice and I know the Savior's face." He said there is more but it is sacred and not an appropriate setting to share it all. Super crazy and I can only imagine what happened.

- I saw a ton of people from Lithuania at the Elder Cook conference. All the missionaries came as well so there was a mini Vilnius reunion. It was super great. Simon and Dora Calabrese have said they want to serve missions which is a huge W for everyone. It'll be so good for them. Margirdas and Denis from Šiauliai also came. They are both non-members but they really enjoyed it. Margirdas is planning to get baptized this weekend. Denis is still thinking about baptism but he's basically a dry member at this point. He's more active than 95% of the Šiauliai branch. 

Quote of the Week : "Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness." - Boyd K. Packer

Ciao,
Vyresnysis Smitas

Pictures
1. Vilnius Gang
2. Lots of Missionaries 
3. Riga Arial View
4. Margirdas (left) and Denis (right)
5. More Missionaries + Kaunas Jonas
6. SYL Video (SYL=Speak Your Language, every Friday all the missionaries are encouraged to speak only in the mission languages but in the office I speak Lithuanian, my Companion speaks Russian, another Elder speaks Russian and another Estonian. It's quite the combo)






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