How is October almost over??

With "my Elders" from the MTC now here in Lithuania!

Labas!

We had such a great week this week, time is just flying by! The leaves are changing colors and look so pretty. Lithuania is gorgeous in the fall with all of the yellow trees.

This past week we had zone training, and it was way fun to see all of the missionaries. 

Then I went on exchanges with Sister Hayes, a Russian speaking sister. We stayed in my area and it was really fun. Then I traveled to Kaunas to pick up my companion. That was really fun to see another city in Lithuania. It is just beautiful everywhere! I love the fall time!

We also had a ward choir practice on Sunday! Like everyone after Sacrament meeting had choir practice together. An older lady, who is an investigator, led everyone. It was the funniest thing I have every witnessed. She was singing fribotto like no one's business. She must have thought we were Mormon Tabernacle Choir! It was a great time.

We played ping pong with a couple of members, Eric and Mindaugas last preparation day. It was really fun. Today we are going bowling with them, so I am pretty excited. Eric is a professional soccer player playing for lithuania. he is from Brazil, so he's pretty cool. 

It's been pretty rainy, so I love it. We also had Causcaus, or however you spell it. It is super yum, not Lithuanian, but really good. 

I know that God watches over each of His children. I know that we are here to take care of others and serve them. I love you all!

Love Sese Dzerman

We got pizza!

What a great week!

With Sister Wixom, the General Primary President

Sveiki!

This week was super fantastic!!! So many good things!!

Sister Wixom came to visit us here in Vilnius! All the Lithuanian missionaries came here to hear her speak. It was very amazing.  She talked about following the spirit and using the Book of Mormon to answer people's questions. She is an amazing servant of God.  We were able to give her flowers after and talk with her since there are only 31 of us missionaries here.  It was quite an incredible experience. She remembers me from the MTC, so that was really fun. Of course, after I reminded her :) It was amazing to have her here with us though.

That night our investigator came to listen to her speak to the members in Vilnius, so we got to attend that too with him.  He especially enjoyed Brother Wixom's comments, which was cool. 

We ran into a member from Kalingrad on the street! That never happens, so it is always so fun when someone comes up to talk to you! She spoke Russian, but hey, she was speaking to us! :)

The sisters taught a lesson to a Nigerian, and we got to join them. We have like 5 Nigerian members here in Vilnius, and I love them. They are so accepting and so awesome.  We might be able to teach a Nigerian if he has time to meet with us. There are quite a few of them here, and it is great because they speak english, haha.

This week we made log, which is a very delicious dessert we will have to make when I get back. It is so unhealthy you have no idea. Sweet and condensed milk, cocoa powder, cookies, and butter. Yeah, how do we not have that in America??? We also drank Aloe Vera water, it is so good. It has chunks of aloe vera in it, like wow. Didn't know you could eat it! Super yum.

They turned our heat on in the apartment, so that is super nice.  It makes me grateful to be warm :)

My district is awesome. There are 4 Elders and 4 sisters total. They are so great and really bring a strength to the work here.

I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know that this is His work. He loves us and wants to help us. We just need to ask Him and have faith. He wants us to be happy and we can everyday no matter what we face. I love you all so much.

Love Sese Dzerman

p.s.   Mommy, So I just have to say, I wipe our counters quite often and think of you!  Everytime I do, I think of you :)  I am glad I can as you have always done for me. Love you

Also, saw the Norby's at the MTC, forgot to tell you. They were headed to serve another mission in Paris, how crazy. They totally recognized me and rememeber I came to their house. ELder Norby asked about Brett, so if you could tell him that he remembers him, that would be great. Sorry, out of time. 

Also I tried to send pics, but it won't let me! Ahh, I have so many good ones.

I saw my elders from the MTC. It was so much fun mom. Like I love them too much. We got such cute pics together I wanted to send. It was so fun to talk with them and hear how they have been doing and how they have been seeing. It was the best. Anyways love you so mcuh! I will try pics next week, and it better work. I am happy and doing well. Loving it here.

But miss you love you!

Love sis kay

Answers to mom's questions

How long did you stay in Latvia?  a few hours?  overnight?  

~Um like 2 hours maybe just at the Latvian chapel, then we took a taxi to the bus station, then a four hour bus ride down to Vilnius. We got to our apartment by 10 and went to bed :)

When did you first see your new companion?

~ She was in the Latvian chapel too, so we came in and talked with Sister Harding a bit. Then we were lead into the chapel to meet our compaions. Then we did the training with them.

Do you live with two other sister missionaries?

~Nope it is just us, the other missionaries have separate areas and apartments

How many Elders are also in Vilnius? 

~4 Lithuanain Elders and 2 Russian Elders.

How many missionaries are in Lithuania? 

~31 total: 2 senior couples which makes 4, 5 russian missionaries here in Vilnius, 4 in Klaipeda, 4 in Saliai, 6 in Kaunas, and 8 here. But that will change soon maybe with transfers.

How many missionaries in your Baltic mission? 

~I have no idea :) but probably close to what Lithuania has for Latvia and Estonia

How much time to you get on the computer on P-Day? 

~1 and a half hours, it goes by so fast

Sveiki

Labas!

We had another awesome week in Vilnius! It was pretty interesting, as usual :)

This week we were able to teach a potential investigator, so that was really exciting! He is very cool and willing to learn. We hope to continue teaching him this week.  We also taught two less active members and that was really cool.  They are all so nice and loving to the missionaries.  It is very humbling to visit them in their homes because they are so small, often just one little room is their entire house. We sit on their beds and talk with them over a tiny table.  It is weird to think about the big houses back home that have multiple rooms! We ate some pretty intersting things with the less actives and members this week because they love to feed us. We always get yummy tea and little cookies.  One member fed us a really good pepper, potato, some kind of meat soup. Another fed us in between General Conference. It was potatoes and chicken, or so I thought. Someone asked me and I said it was chicken, because I would know! But it wasn't, it was all mushrooms!! What the heck, that was a weird realization.  They really know how to make yummy mushrooms that look and taste like chicken.  I guess I really don't know :)

We also visited a less active member who made us dinner, which was very nice.  She wanted to show us what she cooked, so she opened a lid that contained a huge fish inside! I about started crying, haha.  It was a whole huge fish, and we were going to eat it. I was really hoping I wouldn't get the head, and I didn't luckily.  I slowly ate my piece, picking out the bones the whole time. It was weird to see the rib cage. Luckily it wasn't too fishy tasting, but seriously. Hopefully never again. It was so sweet of her to feed us though. They are so giving and so nice.  That was my companion's first time eating fish here after 11 months! I got it in my first month, of course :)

Last monday we played tennis with the other sisters, which was way fun. They have cool red clay courts. We also ate Lithuanian pizza, that stuff is super good!! And their ice cream of course is super amazing.

P-Day tennis in beautiful weather

Our power went out after plugging in a heater, so that was exciting. But we got it back on eventually and then we were able to get the oven working again with help from the Nuttalls. I am grateful for electricity and working machines!

We were able to watch General Conference! The Saturday sessions were in Lithuanian, so I didn't understand one thing, but it was very cool. Sunday, we went into the english room to watch it.  It was amazing. I love conference so much. It really filled my spirit so much.  So cool to hear God's words to each of us. I know that He has his living prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us.  He loves each of us, and He wants us to be happy like Him.  We can through the atonement of Christ! I love you all so much!

Love Sese Dzerman

This is how her companion, Sister Madison described it - " we ate a fish! doesn't sound very exciting right away, but I just have to tell you that they cooked it by curling it up in a crockpot and letting it sit for a couple hours. they took the lid off to show us and it was just this ginormous, whole fish! skin and all! and then they just chopped it up into sections. It thankfully didn't taste bad, but just the image was a little sketchy haha"

She also mentioned this - "Sister Wixom and Elder Klebingat are coming tomorrow though so i'm really excited to hear from them. Sister Jerman and I have been given the assignment of buying flowers to welcome them."

This is in Uzupis. You should look it up, way cool. It's the hippy town north of Vilnius.  They have their own constitution - in like 20 languages, super funny.

A wedding lock

When they get married, they put their lock on the bridge and throw the key in the river.

Awesome Two Weeks!

Me and Sis Madison in our apartment

Sveiki!

It was such an awesome week this past week!  Lithuania is just an incredible place full of incredible people.  I love them all.  I am so blessed to be here now in Vilnius as a missionary; it has been the greatest experience. Although I can't speak or understand, I know the language will come :)

This week was great.  We were able to visit Gedameno's tower, which is a cool old castle and tower on a green hill close to our apartment.  Such a cool tourist site that overlooks the entire city.

Gedemeno's tower

View of Vilnius from Gedemino's Tower!

We also ate at Forto Dvaros, which is a great authentic Lithuanian restaurant. I had borsk and fried cepeliniai.

Us four sisters at Forto Dvaros

They are both so good! This was in Old Towne, which is the area next to ours. We also bought cute amber rings because amber is a big thing here.

We have seen a lot of pretty sunsets that fill the whole sky.  This city is so beautiful with all the churches and castle and sunsets.  It is so gorgeous!

Beautiful Vilnius Sunset

We had a lesson with two less actives this past week, and they are both so sweet. It was my first lesson in Lithuanian, and it was fun.  I got the bearing a simple testimony part covered :) 

On Wednesday we had a lesson set up with a potential investigator, and he came with three of his friends!  We had them come to FHE with the single adults, and it was really cool.  Two of them were actually muslim, but the other two are Catholic probably.  We hope to meet with them again this week because they are so cool. At least one seems very interested in the gospel.  Heavenly Father lead them right to us, so it was a very cool experience.

We also got to watch women's conference, and it was so good.  We went to the senior couple's apartment, Elder and Sister Nuttal.  They are the greatest people; we are so blessed to have them here.  All of the speakers were great; I was sad when they each sat down.  I learned so much from the spirit.

Elder Waters and I were able to meet with President and Sister Harding for additional training. They are the greatest mission president and wife ever.  

Sister Madison and I were able to attend break the fast with the young adults.  I talked with a few of them, and they are so awesome.  They have such great faith, it was very cool for me to see.

One day when we were contacting, we saw a huge line of motorcycles roll through town.  There was at least a 1000, no joke.  It was kind of random, but cool to see.  There are way more people here with motorcycles than I thought :) They kind of plugged of traffic a bit haha.

I also got caught on the bus without my bus pass, but they kindly let me go, which never happens.  It was a merciful blessing.  I will not forget it again!  

We drink a lot of tea here, which I like. I never had tea before, so it was weird blessing my tea for the first time as a missionary. Of course it's fruit tea, so no worries.  It is super good though.

I just want to testify that I know God knows each of us and is always there. I have received so much help from Him everyday.  As we look for His hand in our lives each day, we will always see it.  There is always something to be grateful for, and He always shows His love.  

I love you all so much.

Love Sese Dzerman

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