Hey Family!
Well first off I hope that everyone is doing well physically and spiritually :)! It was hard to hear of Grandma's passing, but it was also somewhat of a relief as she didn't seem to be doing too well. Which brings me to my next thought of how grateful I am for a purpose/plan of being here in life. I don't know how it would be if I didn't believe I would see her again. Life would be pointless if all we had to do in our life is die and that's it. I thought about the line in the song...
I Know That My Redeemer Lives
1. I know that my Redeemer lives.
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead.
He lives, my ever-living Head.
He lives to bless me with his love.
He lives to plead for me above.
He lives my hungry soul to feed.
He lives to bless in time of need.
2. He lives to grant me rich supply.
He lives to guide me with his eye.
He lives to comfort me when faint.
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart.
3. He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend.
He lives and loves me to the end.
He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath.
He lives, and I shall conquer death.
He lives my mansion to prepare.
He lives to bring me safely there.
4. He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I know that my Redeemer lives!”
He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I know that my Redeemer lives!”
I thought of that song quite a bit this week. I thought of a lot of things that really helped... And in the end I'm just evermore happy that I have a Savior who knows how I'm feeling and gives me strength. I enjoy having that knowledge as it gives me peace when uncertainty arises.
The week seemed to go pretty well. We met with a good amount of members and had some great lesson with investigators. We met with Raimonda again this past week. She's doing well, but hasn't really read or progressed from the last meeting with her which was about 2 weeks ago so that is a little disappointing. Romas is doing amazing. He accepted the Word of Wisdom like a champ! He is really progressing towards baptism. Sunday was a little bit of a road bump however as the lesson was on exaltation and the members just went into some weirder questions and concerns and one even brought up exorcism... Pretty weird. We hope and pray it didn't have any major effect on him. He was really willing to meet again on Tuesday though so will help him with any concerns then.
It's starting to get really really cold over here. Winter is near ha boooooo. It's dark around 4:30 again. Hmmm well I think that is about the updates for the week for now... Pretty normal week with nothing super huge to report. I'll send some pics. I LOVE YOU GUYS! (ok so maybe just one picture that is new haha)
with much, much love,
11/07/2011 Sveiki Gyvai!
Aš sužinojau kad mano pasuktinas pakeitimas aš busiu Šiauliuose. Labai keista man kad aš tuoj baigsiu savo tarnavimą kaip misionierius Lietuvoje. Dabar aš esu su vyresnaisais Sendfordu ir Nelsonu. Nelsonas yra tas pats misionierius that I trained last year in Klaipeda around this time of year. It is pretty weird that it kind of all went full circle kind of weird.
Anyway we had pretty good week. We weren't really too busy the first couple of days this week. Monday was Halloween and P-day so we had a branch party. It was really really fun! I believe the members enjoyed it. At least it looked like they were all enjoying themselves.
Tuesday was "All Saints Day" here in Lithuania. Pretty crazy as they light the whole cemetery up with candles and it's pretty cool/creepy. We went and got some fun pictures.
We then received transfer calls and found out Elder Kezele would be leaving to go back to Vilnius
and that Elder Nelson would be coming to be with us in Šiauliai. I wasn't really expecting to move and I was right haha I didn't.Wednesday we did service for awhile as we helped this member's friend move. I was pretty crazy as she had so much stuff in a smaller apartment. She's definitely got to be good at "tetris" haha. That was basically the day as we had to give some time for Kezele to pack and get all of his stuff together. We had a good lesson with our investigator Romas and that was basically the day.
Thursday morning woke up a little earlier and rode to Vilnius with Elder Kezele to drop him off and to pick up Elder Nelson. At the bus station some of the youth from Vilnius had heard that I was coming to pick up Elder Nelson and they were there to say a quick hello and goodbye... Probably the last time I'll see them :(. It was a little hard to say bye, but it didn't really hit me until I was on the bus ride that I wouldn't ever see them again as a missionary. Little realizations such as that have been hitting me a little hard lately. We got back to Siauliai and then went to get food and then had a lesson at the church. That ended the events of Thursday.
Friday was a good day! We had a meeting in the morning with some older investigators and then met with a less active. The best part of the day or the coolest experience as when we had about 2 hours to go do something before we went to the less active. We knelt down and prayed that we would use our time effective and that we could find someone. Well after the pray elder Sanford and I felt the impression to go stop by a former investigator who we thought had moved to the Netherlands. So we tried to fight with reason and our given knowledge that we would just waste time going down to that area on the south side of town, but we listened and he was there and we had a great lesson with him. He's really wanting to keep meeting and to read from the book still. It was definitely a miracle.
Saturday was another great day. We had to go early in the morning to get a projector for the Europe East Translation where Pres. Utchdorf spoke. So we grabbed the projector and set it up at the church. Then had a lesson and watched the conference with the members. It was good and fun to watch and hear the leaders of the church again. We had an excellent lesson with Romas and he accepted a baptismal date of Dec. 17th. It was a great lesson and we had planned on addressing some of his concerns, but he said the questions he'd had for years we resolved in the 2 chapters that I gave him in our last meeting. Another testimony to me of the power of reading scriptures. What a great book it is! He is progressing a lot and has made tremendously huge strides from the beginning! He's awesome!
Sunday we went to Kaunas to finish the District Conference. It was awesome to see all of the old members from all over Lithuania (except Vilnius as they stayed there and had it broadcasted to them). It was fun to see them all and I told them when I would be going home when they asked how much I had left. They were pretty sad, but not as sad as I was I'm betting. Hard to say goodbye, but they all talked about how skype was there for us to talk and keep in touch haha... So that was good to remember ha :). We came home weekly planned and ate... Now I'm sitting here typing you... Haha that's about it for now everyone. I LOVE YOU ALL :)
Elder Manning
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