Celebrate Good Times . . . Come on!!!

It's been another great day here!

We started the morning at the Genocide Museum. Blah. Cold. Dark. Eerie. We walked through the different jail cells the Lithuanians were confined to. We also walked through the execution chambers. It was raining and the dark clouds helped create a somber mood. They showed a video of the executions . . . something I don't understand. A few of the cells I was less familiar with: padded cells (where they put prisoners in a straight jacket and shut the door. because it is padded, you couldn't hear their screams), and water confinement cells (put a few feet of ice cold water - even during the winter months - in the bottom of the cell and had a small metal stool in the center that feet could barely fit on. You either balanced on the stool or stood in the water.). This prison was still being used in 1969. I have never understood the holocaust nor do I ever want to know what was in their sick minds. I just hope we all learned enough about it to never let it happen again!

On to better things . . . day two of the celebration:
It took us a few minutes to grab a taxi after the museum but a beautiful day in the rain :) A Russian member of the Seventy spoke to us this morning and then we watched video clips of the history of the church here. In 1907 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints actually had a presence in this country. I believe it never really had a chance to get going because of the unstable government. They never knew where they belonged - with Russia or Germany. All they ever really wanted was to be their own country!! We again heard testimonies from the first missionaries here. It was a great meeting . . . a little long for the kiddo's but they never complained. They have translated everything for us so no one feels left out! That is another reason it can seem long - translation is repeated twice :)

I was able to meet Rinaldas ( Matt is sleeping so you wont be getting the correct spelling). His family was Matt's first baptism in Kaunus. He (Rinaldas) served a mission but has since become inactive. (There are so few members here it is hard to hear about those that have become inactive.) Rinaldas made the decision to come to the celebration and I believe it will be a positive experience for him. Just listening to him talk (he speaks great English) I can tell that he has a lot of respect for Matt. He was just 11 when he was baptized. He has a lot of great friends here and hopefully he felt the Spirit today as testimonies were shared. We will meet him for church tomorrow and hopefully spend some more time with him.

That brings me to my new favorite picture. Matt, Denis, Kastutus, and Rinaldas. Denis and Kastutus run the branches (in my opinion) and have been/are the rock and future of the church here. In the dedicatory prayer given May 25, 1993 Elder Ballard promised that one day there would be wards and stakes here and maybe even a small temple. The current mission president brought this up today and challenged the members to go forward with the work. There are currently 5 branches in the country and 894 members. With those numbers they shouldn't be to far from stake and ward organization but like everywhere else, they need active/worthy priesthood holders.

A few other pics include: Matti and Kael being involved with the kids dance. Kael was break-dancing while the L children were doing more of a Baltic-style jig. Matti was just watching :)
Then I caught them sleeping. Three and a half hours of meeting is hard on anyone!! They were such good sports!! Then I love how Kael is showing off his yawn to Rinaldas while we were visiting.

We had authentic food for lunch, although Kael was begging to go next door. He made it through and so did I. If I could pronounce it I would. It was a crosiant with meat or veggies cooked inside, it was good. All of you know I joke about my Coke but I am really missing the H2O. Wow. Water is the most expensive drink here. It must be purchased at dinner and it is usually only in an 8 oz bottle. That doesn't go far with four of us sharing. We had a drink at breakfast and then went until 8:30 tonight before we drank anything!! We won't be doing that again, stocked up at the Rimi (grocery store). (Rik - I had been keeping up with my 80 oz until now . . . youch!) Did I mention they charge to use the restroom . . . I mean water closets here? If you eat at a restaurant they are complimentary otherwise you have to pay $.30L (15 cents) or so. Probably not going to break me but I'm not sure they use the money for bathroom attendants;)

I was able to FaceTime with the boys tonight!!! Love them! Just hope I didn't cause to much of a problem for Aunt Crystal! I am going to try to sleep. I napped for 15-20 minutes, now I am wide awake, 11:30 here! I'll adjust . . . in time to come home!!