LAST LETTER OF MISSION 12/12/11

Nu va,

Aš nelabai žinau ką galvoti dabar. Sunkų man suprast kad šiandien yra mano pasuktinas pasiruošimo diena Lietuvoje. Tikrai nesąmona kad aš busiu Amerikoje Penktadienį. Aš esu labai labai dėkingas jums visiems už jūsų meilę ir gerumą. Tikrai jūsų palaikymas man esant čia yra labai nuostabus. Aš turiu nuostabią Šiemą. Ačiū labai už jūsų palaikymą!

Tai šią savaitę labai greitai prabėgo. Mes buvome labai užimti. Mes turėjome daug susitikimų ir ištikrujų mes praleidome labai gerą laiką. Aš myliu labai savo porininkus. Manau kad jie bus tikram draugams po misijos.

Nu šią savaitę mes susitikome su Romu ir su Raimonda. Romas- Jam gerai sekasi skaityti Mormono Knygą. Mes Kalbėjome su juo apie krikšto pokalbio klausimus. Jis labai teisingai ir gerai atsake tuos klausimus, bet dar yra sunkų jam tikėti kad Jėzus yra musų Gelbėtojas ir, kad mes galetume bendrauti su Dievu per maldą. Bet vistiek viskas tvarkioje su juo kol kas. Aš manau kad jis nebus pasikrikštytas šią ateinančią šeštadienį. Bet matysime. Mes žaidėme kresinį su juo šeštadieno vakarą. Tai buvo labai labi smogų. Mes žaidėme mokykloje ir aikštele buvo labai seni. Jis su jo draugais žaideme prieš mus (Amerikiečius). Mes pralaimėjome. Bet vistiek buvo smogų žaisti su jais. Dabar mano kunui labai skoda! Aš galejau daryti kaip "Slamas Dunkas" Haha buvo sunkų mokyti savęs kaip žaisti dar kartą. Yra baisai sunkų rašyti lietuviškai jums. Tai gal aš baigsiu. I'm wasting a little too much time typing in Lithuanian haha it's hard... So this week was fun I'll translate for you on Friday if you want haha. I'll end with leaving you my testimony.

Aš labai esu dekingas už šią galimybę tarnauti čia Lietuvoje, tarp šitų žmonių. Jie yra labai nuostabi žmones. Aš labai myliu juos. Buvo sunkų man pasidalinti savo liudijamą bažnyčioje. Nes buvo mano pasuktinas kartas tai daryti. Gerai mano liudijimas... Aš tikrai žinau kad šia bažnyčia yra Dievo Tikroji bažnyčia zemeje ir kad Burinukas Džosefas Smitas sugrąžino ją į žemę per Dievo galią. Žinau Tomas S. Monsonas yra Dievo pašauktas pranašas mūsų dienomis. Žinau kad Jėzus yra Kristus kad jisai yra mūsų Išperkejas ir Išganytojas. Jis kentėjo dėl mūsų nuodėmių. Per Jo apmokėjimą mes tampame švariais. Dievas atsako į mūsų maldas. Jis yra mūsų mylintis Tėvas Danguje. Jis nori kad mes būtume laimingi šiame gyvenime. Laikydami Dievo įsakymų mes gauname palaiminimus. Šitoje evangelijoje yra nesibaigiančius laimės ir džiaugsmas. Aš myliu jus visus :)! Aš visa tai sakau, Kristaus vardu, amen.

Love you guys!!!! See you Friday :)


-Elder Jeffrey John Manning

DECEMBER 2011

Hey Everyone!

It's getting surreal that time is creeping up on me so fast. I'm getting nervous and all that fun stuff just thinking about it. Super weird! It gets me a little sad to think of the fact that it will all be over soon. Of course I miss you all dearly, but it will be very hard to leave this place. I'm already experiencing the confusing feelings. I will be forever grateful for the experiences and the knowledge/lessons that i've learned here. (I've seen missionaries that are anxious to leave, as this mission can wear you down at times, in the beginning, I thought that I would be glad to get out when my time came, but I have grown to love this people and feel for them, the light of Christ is real and the Book of Mormon is true and together they can truly touch lives and encourage the hopeless to look up...pretty amazing!!)

Anyway for this week... It was pretty good. We started off the week by helping a member find out where the leak was in her septic tank, haha, I know pretty gross huh? I don't know how many times I gagged while digging... But in all seriousness it was fun, well, probably better to say good to do because she needed it done and it helped her and her little family. We did that, then we hurried home and got showered and got on a bus to Vilnius to spend the night. It was fun as we stayed with Elder Kezele and Elder Rich.

We stayed up chatting for a little while as it was the last time (the conference) that we'd see each other until the end of the missions. It was fun. I will really miss Elder Kezele. He's doing so well and getting into the "very very focused" mode of being a missionary. They are all well. Ha, I've been comps with them all. Again it was fun to be with them all one last time!

The next day we went to Kaunas with all the Vilnius Elders and Sisters. The Conference was fun and it was definitely weird knowing that it was my last one, and hard seeing a lot of those people for the last time. President Lawrence, of the Seventy is serving in the European East Area Prescy, in Moscow Russia, was there with his wife. His wife talked first about the gathering of Israel. Really really interesting stuff, haha, my brain was blown. Pretty cool though! Then President Lawrence talked. He's definitely a servant called of God. He has so much power in his words when he speaks. Great guy. The conference was a very special one and had a lot of good teachings. As the conference wound down I was able to share my "departing" testimony with all the Missionaries of Lithuanaia.... Haha needless to say I was the only one that cried out of the 4 departing missionaries here... and there even were 2 sisters there... Oh well haha. Afterwards we took a picture and President Lawrence asked to have interviews with a few of the missionaries, and then he said my name. I was a little nervous at first, but got in there and it went really well. He's a great guy and very loving. It was a very special interview for me. He sat there with me for about 5 seconds and just stared into my soul, I could feel it. Then he smiled and said "Elder Manning I had a feeling to talk to you today during the meeting... The Lord wants me to tell you how grateful He is for your service and for the legacy that you are leaving here. You've served Him well." I broke down crying... (I can't explain how special that was for me to hear. I have wanted to know if my efforts have been accepted as my time comes to an end). When everything was over, we headed back to Siauliai and got in around 9:30 that night.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. English went well on Saturday. Our investigator, Romas is doing well! He accepted the Law of Tithing like a champ! Haha and in church he was hillarious. We were talking about "the Book of life" that we are to be judged out of, and how a lot of what people do in the church is written down. So he turned to me and said it sounded a lot like the KGB (if you don't know what that is, I'll tell you in a couple of weeks. Pretty crazy.) He had a good time. He's great! We have become close friends. I wish I could see him get baptized but in all fairness to him, I don't feel that he is completely ready and I would rather make sure than to do it too soon. As he will be a great strength to the branch in Siauliai.

Well that is about it for the week it flew by! Time is very weird! Well I love you all! Until next week!

With Much Much Love,

Elder Jeffrey John Manning

PS Awesome about the AGGIES!!!!

Happy December (almost)

Hey Everyone!

Time is flying by! When I woke up this morning I couldn't believe that it was time to email again! Things went well this week and a lot of the usual missionary things happened this week. So I'll just throw in some of the highlights of the week.

I was able to call to Salt Lake this week to order Hymn books for our branch here. The branch president just asked me to do that so that was pretty fun. Haha When the lady answered and I said "hello this is Elder Manning from Lithuania". She was super confused. So I was put on hold for a little bit then she got back on and I tried to place an order, but the product was put on hold (availability??) for some reason. So I wasn't able to order them. Haha at the end of the phone call I told her to have a good night as it was 8:00 p.m. here, but that means it was only around 11ish (a.m.) there haha oops. It was fun though, to talk with someone in America :).

We had a fun Thanksgiving day party at the church. One of the members killed their turkey and we had it as our bird to eat! It was fun even though I didn't have any as I wanted the members to have some before I did, and by that time the turkey ran out. Oh well haha so for my Thanksgiving dinner I had a pack of macaroni and cheese from my package from home haha thank you America for Mac n' Cheese!!! Thanks again for the package! It was a great activity as we had Romas there and also Raimonda. It was really fun. I spent most of the time talking with Romas. We talked a lot about basketball. He loves basketball and played on a team here for a little while. He asked me to play with him sometime and wants to do a "Lithuania vs. America game" haha. So we talked about the basketball league here in Lithuania and also about the NBA being in lockout. We then talked about skiing and how he loves to go to the alps and also how he wants to go to "Aspenas" Aspen, CO. ha then we talked about how he loves movies with Jack Nicholson in it and also with Burt Reynolds. He loves the movie "The Longest Yard". It was a really fun convo with him. By the time it was over, an hour had past and it was time to go for the night. He's a way cool guy. As far as his baptismal date being moved up.. I don't think that it will necessarily happen as it would be rushing him too much. We still have things to teach and to review, but it will be up to him. We still need to ask him about Pres Boswell's request to move it up so I can witness it before I leave and get his take on it. So we'll still see about that. Either way I feel he will be baptized and be a strength to this branch in Siauliai.

Hmmm those are the big things that stick out this past week... So this upcoming week will be great as we have a General Authority coming to our Zone Conference, Elder Lawrence. Technically he's President Lawrence as he's in the Europe east presidency. He lives in Moscow. It should be really fun and I'm excited to see him and possibly talk with him a little bit. That will be on Wednesday and we'll travel to Kaunas for that. Tomorrow ,Tuesday, we have service to do for a member. Her sewage line broke ha (emoticon-fun face huh hahahaha) ... I should have used these more throughout the mission eh?! ha ha. Anyway, that will be interesting as we've been getting lots of rain and then it freezes on the ground. Oh yeah I've forgot to mention that we still don't have snow, but it is freezing cold for me still ha. The winds and high humidity rattle my bones still.

Things are going well still. I love you all and consider myself so blessed for having a family like you to support me!!! I love you guys! Until next week!

Su Meile, Elder Jeffrey John Manning


****Attached is a picture of Elder Brock Mays, a new Elder that arrived last transfer to serve with Elder Whicker in Klaepida. He will be an awesome missionary. His parents (Homer and Bonnie Mays) went to school with Dad at Sky View back before calculators were invented. haha

Remembering Grandma Mary

Dear Family,

I received a call from Pres. Boswell this morning, Weds., Nov. 9th around 10am telling me of Dad’s email, that grandma had passed away.... It was Really, really, hard hearing that. He gave me permission to email you guys and to check my email from you as well. I hope all is well at home. I don't really like death (I guess nobody really does) and that call seemed to suck a lot of energy and life out of me. I continue to keep a silent prayer in my heart that everything will be well back at home.

I'm sure the shock and pain I feel will be gone after a little while, it is a little rough right now, but I'm very grateful that she is able to rest now and that she'll be able to remember the covenants that she has made with our Heavenly Father. I’m especially grateful that she has a lot of loving family to help her on the other side. I pray that everything will be in order for the funeral and that the spirit will be there. I'm very grateful for the conversation I was able to have with her right before I left for the MTC, I was hoping it wouldn’t have been the last. How grateful I am for the great plan of the Master that ties us all together, and that not even death can break the bonds of love! I am so very grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ as it was He who broke the bands of death so the grave has no power over mankind.

I'm grateful that things worked out to be able to write and send a few thoughts about Grandma Mary. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of her is her willingness to always serve others. Every time we would make the trip down to Goshen for the holidays or some other time she always had the house ready for us and things prepared. She never complained about it either. Her warm hug and kiss, she would greet us with, was something I will never forget. She is a great example to me of perseverance and how to handle trials. When she began getting sick and losing weight, she would always muster up some sort of smile or little comment that kept her and others around her positive. I remember one time in specific she came to a game of mine when she was not really feeling well. She had to leave at half time, but she cared enough to come and support me even though it wasn't comfortable for her. A uncomfortable and probably a little painful act for her, but it meant the world to me seeing her in the stands. She is an excellent example to all those that came into her life of love, kindness, endurance, and service just to name a few. I feel blessed to be able to call her my Grandma and to have known her for the wonderful lady she was. I look forward for the reunion we will have in heaven and for the love and joy as a family we will have, there, together. Until then may God be with her til' we meet again!

I continue to pray for you all and for everything to go well this day. I love you all!

Elder Jeff John Manning

The Baltic Mission

NOVEMBER 2011

11/14/2011


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,

Elder Jeffery John Manning




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

OCTOBER 2011

Chapel

Church (building where they meet)

Elder Manning playing the piano.....or is he???

10/26/2011

Good day everyone!

I hope this weeks letter finds everyone happy, healthy and in general just
well :)! My week went pretty well and another Zone Conference has come and
gone. It's crazy it was the last time I'll see Elder Warner for a little
while, well last time as a missionary. It's crazy to think that it's all
gone by this fast. He leaves next week! So that was a little bit hard to
say good-bye, but he said he'd be up in December. That will be a fun
reunion.
Anyway we were pretty busy this past week with some good lessons. We now
teach personal English as well as the group English lessons. So we'll just
send around a personal visit sheet during class and if they're interested
they sign up with their phone # and info. Then we go and visit them in their
home and have a quick little lesson afterwards. It's worked really well as
of late. So as I said a couple really good lessons out of that.
On Wednesday we met with a member then we went to a little sidewalk market
here and tried to find a guy who was selling old soviet stuff, as he knew
about the Book of Mormon and said it was a great book. Well we looked for
him for a little while then I got swooned in by one of the older guys
selling old USSR stuff and I found and bought an old USSR/Lithuania flag.
Pretty crazy! It was their flag while they were under reign. Kind of a hard
and dark time for the people, but I thought it would be an excellent peace
of history from this side of the world. It was only about 15 US$ as he said
they're rare and that the people here don't really have much interest in
that time... For a reason obviously. So I thought that was pretty neat. I
don't know what I'll do with it, but nevertheless a way sweet piece of
history eh?..
We met with a member family and they have a HUGE German Sheppard! They asked
if any of us were scared of dogs and we answered no... Then they let the dog
out into their small apartment haha needless to say it was like "a bull in a
china shop". He was a mean dog, but really wanted to play and was jumping
all over us and doing a playful gnaw. After we wrestled with it for awhile
it calmed down and a was really really well behaved dog. I think that I
wouldn't mind one in about 10 years or so :) haha. I liked it a lot.
Also on that day we had one of the English students come to the church and
give us about a 40# bag of potatoes! They were straight from her garden and
she said she appreciated our service a lot. Haha I'll send the picture of it. It was pretty funny as her trunk was full of them. Really nice lady though!
Our investigator Raimunda is doing really really well. She is keeping her
commitments and we are now helping her quite the coffee and champagne at
nights. She's a great example of changing and listening how she can apply
different principles. We hope to get her a baptismal date this week!
Members here are being awesome to meet with her.
We went to Vilnius on Sunday night to stay for the Zone Conference the next
day. It was really fun as we were with Elder Warner and Elder Hilton for the
night. They are really fun elders to be around definitely.All of Elder Warner's stuff was being sorted and he's trying to decide what to mail home
and what to throw away so he would make weight on the plane. Way weird
seeing that. Zone Conference the next day went really well and it was a
great spirit there. It was sad saying bye to Warner though... Oh well in
due time haha.

Well that was more or less the week. I love you guys! Thanks for the support
and love you show me! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! OH AND "JENN NAE" (Forrest gump
voice) HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week on Saturday!

Love you guys!
Elder Jeffrey John Manning

Hey guys! WOW it's OCTOBER again! 10/4/2011

Well where to start?.. It was a pretty challenging week to say the least, but I'm grateful for it as it lets me know how good the other weeks really are. One thing haha.... People are a dang circus when they are drunk. They can't think and it makes them hard to control themselves. Drunk Russians are no fun to run into haha... We spent half a night trying to get away from one and in the end I had to walk with him down the highway with his drunk can all over me so he wouldn't get hit by a car haha it was a rodeo night to say the least.
Anyway... Enough about that. Our investigator Raimunda continues to progress. She's way great and has a super good personality which is fun to be around in lessons. She, with her two little daughters, came to church the past two Sundays. She is doing great! She's still a little scared to except a (baptismal) date, but we'll keep working with her.
We continue to meet with a lot of members and less-active members and that is going really well. They like to meet with us here in this city more than the other cities I've served in. It's fun to be around them! One of the members here is really excited about doing missionary work with her friend and has already been giving him little lessons. It's awesome to see that kind of enthusiasm here.
Oh other exciting note of the week haha. We have fleas... We think we got it from one of the members dog. Gross, and it doesn't feel good to get bitten by them. We did get some flea spray and it's seemed to have worked so far, so our fingers are crossed!
We are ready for this week as we have a feeling it will be better then the last one ;) haha. I think the hard weeks are good for us so we can learn to love the simple little things and it is a good natural humblelizer (just made up that word).
The seasons are changing and its getting colder and darker by the day. I love the sunny days. It's been a little overcast as of late and people here are getting a little bit more grumpy. I don't blame them, it's not really too fun when the weather changes anywhere.
Hmmm I'm trying to think of what else to write. It was a pretty average week of knocking and a little contacting. IT'S NUTS to think it's already October!
So quickly just some fun stuff that I will be doing this week, ... Get to go to Klaipeda tomorrow and have a District Meeting with them, so it will be fun to be back there! Then we get to watch a rebroadcast of Conference this week at some point. I'm really excited for that definitely. It's great we have a living prophet in these days that leads this church of ours!
I love you guys! You're AWESOME to have as my family! Have a great week! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you guys!
Elder Jeffrey John Manning

SEPTEMBER 2011

Us with Povilas after helping him.

Lithuanias National team shoes for basketball (he has a MAJOR shoe fettish)

A group of lithuanians singing

me and elder leishman

Sveiki Visiems iš Šiaulių

Well hey there everyone!

So transfers came and went.... I'm now sitting here in Šiauliai with Elders Kezele and Sanford. I'll be here in a 3-some this transfer (new Elders come in next transfer, my last...crazy huh?). Pretty crazy when I received that information as I thought for sure that I would most likely be going back to Vilnius. So it was really really crazy finding that out, as I thought I wouldn't ever make it to the city of Siauliai. I was a little disappointed leaving Kaunas again, but what can ya do about it?.. I'm excited to be with the Elders that i'm with as they really like to work and they are fun to be around....

It was a little tough leaving Kaunas as I had my last lunch with Mykolas (sure love that guy) and said goodbye to the members there. I left without telling a lot of members as it wasn't too big of a deal because I just got back there and started re-newing the relationships with them haha now I'm gone again. I will see them though another time in November, so it's not as bad as it could be... It was weird leaving though.
The B-ball "championship rounds" just got to Kaunas and the finished yesterday. Spain won it all against France. I guess the Gasol Brothers kind of ran the show. Lithuania lost early so it kind of took a lot of the fun atmosphere away, but it was still exciting while there.

So a little about Siauliai. It is in the North Central area of Lithuania and it's the smallest city open to missionary work in Lithuania right now. There are only about 20 members that actively come to church and they meet in some rented out apartments on the bottom floor of a communal living place, by the jail and also, by the Jehovah's witness' "kingdom hall"... And Siauliai is the main city for the jw's in the eastern Europe area... Pretty interesting as this city is still dominated by a lot of Catholic cathedrals, but also there is a little more variety here. So as you are walking to the church you have the JW's kingdom hall, the jail, then our little church in the communal living apartment building. The members here are really friendly and the branch here relies a lot on the missionaries as there aren't really that many here. This city has been opened for about 9 years to missionaries. So the church is fairly new here, but the people of Siauliai seem to be a lot friendlier then in some of the bigger cities haha so that's pretty nice.

We have a really cool lady here that we are meeting with. I've only met with her once while I've been here, but she came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. Oh yeah and church here is only for two hours. We have also met with a couple of members here and they are all way nice and love the fact that I'm tall and played basketball haha I guess that's a plus...

I'll probably write a little more next week as I'm getting used to the city and the members, people, and area... It will be a little different here, but should be a fun place to serve. We teach a good amount here so it's good to stay busy. Elders Kezele and Sanford are also fun to be with. Elder Sanford just got made a DL for the first time so I guess I'll help there as needed, but so far he's doing well and so I'll probably just get to sit back. It will be a good change. It will be nice to get to know the people here better as well.

I'm about to finish the Bible and The D&C... It has been really fun to read those and to learn a lot of cool new little tid-bits from it! I have really enjoyed the opportunity to study the scriptures here and to see how they apply to us all. It's very simple... When we keep the commandments, heed the prophet's words, do what we're told from leaders... We are always happy and God blesses us in one way or another. As simple as it is I just didn't really put it together that well before being here in Lithuania. So I'm very grateful for that. I'm also very grateful for you guys, my family, back at home! Family means so much more now as I've been away from you all... I loved you all a ton before, but it has definitely grown and I've come to realize that family is that consistency that is always there for people. Well I think that is about it for the week! Till next time!!! I love you ALL! Have a great week!

LOVE YOU ALL,
Elder Jeffrey John Manning