July 2010

Greeting from the Baltics!!
Things here are going pretty well... Another week and month has gone by. It's pretty nuts! I
started to think about the month of August and everything that happens. There are a couple
of family birthdays along with the start of football season. haha So to catch you up... I was in Vilnius (far eastern Lithuania) last preparation day as my companion Elder Hatch had a couple of meetings in Riga (Latvia) with the Zone Leaders. Now this week I’m in Klaipeda (far western Lithuania by the Baltic Sea) while he's up at a district leader meetings. So I've kinda been tossed around the past couple of weeks. haha. I’ve been transferred back to Kaunas (middle of Lithuania)from Vilnius, to be with and send home Elder Hatch this month as his time is up and he needs to get back to get into school and continue his baseball scholarship at UVU in Provo.

This week, I’m here with Elder Whicker (my MTC comp) on splits. It's fun being back
with him, but I will be returning back with Elder Hatch in Kaunas on Thursday., It’s great to be
on the coast and a little bit closer to home for a while. haha. It reminds me of San Diego with
an Eastern European touch.
We had a fun event this past Saturday called "Rumšiskės". It's where all the members of the
Church in Lithuania meet up in a little farm place with a barn and basically celebrate the Church
in Lithuania. It was pretty fun and we got to throw around the football for awhile which felt way
good. The only bummer of it all was right when it was over I had to get on a bus to Klaipėda with
Elder Whicker while his companion and Elder Hatch went to Riga for the training. It was about
a 4 hour bus ride and pretty hot and muggy. The bus had no AC. (Helix trip through Vegas all
over again. Haha) We seem to maintain about 70% humidity on top of the 80 degrees during the summer months. We shower twice a day. I know you guys on the ocean countries know what I’m talking about. haha

So when we arrived to Klaipėda it was around 8 and we just went and got some food to eat and headed home. Before Church the next morning we were walking and got within 100yards
of the church and we realized that we forgot the bread for sacrament so we had to run home and run back to the church haha pretty insane trying to run in a suit coat for 10 mins. in the heat and humidity. Church was good and half of it was in Russian. (which helps get to know that language better) They have this Russian member who just blasts the hymns and it’s fun to listen to him haha. After Sacrament meeting, I was asked to teach a youth class and Elder Whicker was asked to teach a different one, so, we split and we both had to just make it up as we went, haha pretty nuts but I somehow managed to get through 50 mins of the class talking on faith. It was fun and interesting. The members are so strong and faithful for being so few. After the meetings we went home and broke our Fast, and tried to do some contacting, but it was the "Juros Sventa" here this weekend meaning the "Festival of the Sea". As always, we ran into a lot of drunks, But we made it back home safely. It was super loud all through the night as it was the last night and the biggest party night of the festival, haha, It went on all night. So that’s basically the update haha what else... oh we have a baptismal date in Kaunas. But we’ll see if he keeps his commitment. We'll meet with him more and keep working with him. His name is Mykolas and is a 50ish year old guy.

Each day is truly an adventure but finally getting control of the Lithuanian language makes it a lot more fun, and starting to understand more Russian makes it better as well. I think of you
guys a lot and hope that all is well. The work is True!

Love , Vyresnesis Meningas (Elder Manning)