Sister Walles' email about Vaidas Baptism

Laba Diena Visi!

We were able to have a baptism this week and instead of it happening on Saturday it was moved to Sunday!   Sundays are truly a blessing.

Vaidas our now new convert was baptized and he was so excited about it, He invited a lot of his friends and the miracle about that is they actually came! The baptismal room was so full we had to have people stand because there was no more room to sit. It was such a blessing for all those that were able to come. Vaidas shared his testimony with all of us and in his testimony he quoted Patarliu knyga 30:5 "Kiekvienas Dievo Žodis yra tyras; jis yra skydas tiems, kurie juo pasitiki."

Proverbs 30: "every word of God is Flawless (Pure); He is shield to those who take refuge in him."

it was so powerful and just an incredible thing to witness.

God truly does change people for the better, he sees what we can become, we just need to trust him.

I don't know any other place i would rather be than serving the Children of God in Lithuania. 

Go. Love. Serve.

-Sesuo Vales

(see picture of Vaidas in drafts)

Kayleigh's legacy lives on

I received this email today from Elder and Sister Suisse currently serving in Klaipeda, Lithuania where Kayleigh finished her mission.  

Hello Sister Jerman,

Sister Walles told us this story about your daughter and then Sister Suisse shared it with the other missionaries in zone training today. She also sent it to our grandson who just entered the MTC this week. I thought you might appreciate what she said to our grandson.

At our zone training I shared a story that I'll share with you too.  We had a sweet sister in our district that was quiet and tiny, but a really dynamic missionary.  One icy and cold day as she was walking down some steps. she slipped down the steps and fell facedown in front of a man walking by.  She jumped up and gave him her best street approach.  It would have gone over better if the man hadn't been laughing so hard.  And then they tracted him out later in the day and he laughed again, but didn’t let them in. The point to this story is that she didn't give up.  Right before she went home she contacted a man on the bus and he is the one we are baptizing this Saturday.  She didn't let little slip ups hold her down but did her best right until the day she returned home.  What a missionary.

Sister Jerman’s legacy lives on. Tell her hello for us.

Love,

Elder and Sister Suisse

News from Klaipeda

Kayleigh has been home 17 days.  We just got this message from Elder and Sister Suisse who serve in her last area.  
"BTW - you can tell your daughter that Vaidas is being baptized next Saturday.  She found him on the bus a couple of weeks before she went home."  (Actually less than a week)
Wow - I just cry about this one.  
She was proselyting on a bus and the man she sat next to was not interested in her message.  After he got off the bus, another man leaned over and asked if she was really a believer.  She was able to share her testimony with him and he wanted to learn more.  They met him 2 days later on Christmas Eve for a lesson, then he came to church on Christmas Day and then they met again the following day.  She left 2 days later wishing she could stay to teach him but Sister Walles and Sister Aidukaitytė took over and continued teaching him.  He will be baptized this Saturday, January 21st. One day less than a month after his first contact with the church, this young man has heard the gospel, received a witness that it is true, and now desires to be baptized!  This is an astounding miracle! 
This makes the 6th baptism she was directly involved in. 

Here is what she wrote home about Vaidas her last week on her mission.  
"After having a conversation with a person on the bus, a man leaned over to ask if I really was a believing person. He said that he had just learned about God a few months ago and was trying to do his best to follow him. We were able to have a lesson on Christmas eve and talk about the mercy of God and how He has given us the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He is a pure follower of Christ that just wants to give back to Him because Christ saved him from his addictions in rehab. He came to church on Sunday after attending his, and stayed the entire time. He plans to come every week and stay to learn all he can. He is already reading a few pages from the Book of Mormon each day and is excited to be able to better follow Christ. This person is so prepared by the spirit. I am so excited to see where the doctrine of Christ can take him. God is preparing His children to accept the gospel because He loves them. He gives us the opportunity every day to share that special gift of the atonement that He gave to us. It brings so much joy because it is true joy. "

Fun stories

Kayleigh told us a fun story that happened to her during the last month of her mission at the Christmas devotional/celebration held with her mission president.  A brand new Elder had just arrived from the MTC and overheard someone say something about "Sister Jerman."  He was surprised to learn that she was still there serving so asked to meet her.  He explained to her that when he got his call to Lithuania he looked on the Internet and found her Blog  - lightinglithuania.blogspot.com  and he said he read through the whole thing and looked at all the pictures to try to learn all he could about his mission.  He said he mainly picked up on the idea that is would be cold - not from what she wrote but from the pictures.  He was truly happy to meet her as he thought she would already be home by the time he got out there.  He met the legendary "Sister Jerman"  She would never say that about herself but here is the story shared by her cousin.

  Her cousin Jacob Turville asked a friend of his who came back from the Baltic mission if he knew Sister Jerman.  He had served in a different country but finished serving as an AP in the mission home.  He told Jacob, "Many missionaries come here and serve for two years without a baptism, but, I know Sister Jerman.  She was the missionary who would call every few months to tell us she had another baptism lined up and ask if the president would like to attend." 
 Wow -  we are so proud of that super obedient and hard working missionary girl!  

Kayleigh's Homecoming

Friends

and Family came over after the meeting.

Turville cousins

Elder Jones' family and Sister Bestenlehner

Dave and Cami

Granny and Granddad

the Hendricksons

Spackmans

Sister Bestenlehner (Vernal)  

drove up from Cedar City this morning. 

We served Lithuanian chocolate.

Finally, a picture of all 8 of us again!

Relaxing night at home.

Kayleigh's Homecoming Talk

Here is the basic outline of her talk as she shared the 10 things she learned (to value) on her mission.  

1. ​Joy over Happiness

2. After going days and weeks with "no sun",  "the Son" is always there.

3. scripture reading

4. personal prayer

5. obedience

6. coming to know Christ

7. the atonement

8. finding the one - God cares enough about each person to help the missionaries find them one at a time.

9. our precious time on earth

10. God loves each one of us

She gave such a beautiful talk and testimony.  She is such a sweetheart and it is SO good to have her home.  She thought school started a couple days after she got off the airplane but was happy to learn she had a whole week.  She put on her Lithuanian traditional clothing and went to Roger's school to teach the kids about Lithuania.  She said winter is considered to last 8 months there.   She told me that the lack of sun was the hardest thing for her to deal with.  So cold and always so dark and gray.  Hard to feel happy and have the desire to bundle up and go out.  They often just boarded buses and road around town as a way to contact people since no one was on the street or at least no one wanted to stop and talk.  Her last baptism came as a result of talking to a student on a bus.  She was a part of 5 baptisms during her 18 months in Eastern Europe.

Aunt Cami wrote up her notes to share with my family. 

Notes from Kayleigh Jerman’s sacrament meeting talk:
God can bless us so much more if we keep His commandments.
Scripture study and sincere prayer are so important. I have learned to pause and listen,
even in the midst of prayer so that I can be guided. It is also important to choose to follow
His will.
Some of my greatest experiences of my mission were on my knees speaking to my Heavenly
Father, knowing that He loves me and is listening. What an amazing privilege!
Moses 1- We see that Moses received strength from prayer. I cherished the time I was
given every day to study the scriptures. I love the Book of Mormon and learned to love the
Bible. It is amazing and we need both books.
As we come to know Christ, I believe we experience a little bit of the pain that He suffered.
John 17:3- “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent.” So essentially, Christ experienced all of our lives so that He
could give us aid when we experience trials. He loves each one of us!
Man on the bus, after hearing Kayleigh invite another person to discuss the gospel, “Are you
a believing person?” This gave her the chance to teach him and then he came to church.
Many missionaries will be helping this man on his journey to baptism. And the Lord cares
so much about each one of us that he prepared a way for this one man to hear the truth!
I have learned that we really have so little time in this life. We are on His time. Before and
after this life are long stretches of eternity. We must use this time wisely so that we will
have no regrets.
Mosiah teaches us about being an agent…to act and not to be acted upon. Agency is so
precious!
Remember always that you are God’s child. When we forget that precious truth, we can fall
into temptation. But as we follow more intensely and exercise greater faith, we can qualify
for greater blessings. It requires consistency and daily effort.
Bonnie Oscarson quote (not sure if this is the one): “We need to acknowledge the centrality
of God our Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, to our faith and salvation. Jesus Christ is
our Savior and Redeemer. We need to study and understand His Atonement and how to
apply it daily; repentance is one of the greatest blessings each of us has to stay on course.
We need to see Jesus Christ as our primary role model and the example of who we need to
become. We need to continually teach our families and classes about our Father’s great plan of salvation, 
which includes the doctrine of Christ.”