We finally made it to church! Here's the proof:
Vilnius Church Building: 83 Ateities St
Before we left, I prepped the meat for our Valentine's dinner. It's always scary to try a foreign stove, especially when leaving it for 3 1/2 hours. At least it is a newer oven, so I had no choice but to trust it. I don't know how anyone ever traveled without the internet. I google to translate language, convert temperature, research the area, look up Lithuanian recipes, find pictures... So I was able to look up the temperature I wanted, turn on my convection oven and we came home to a delicious smell. It's a blessing that at least onions and garlic are universal!
Adam made arrangements for our taxi rides. It really sets the tone for church to listen to a little top 40 radio on your way. Everywhere you go, American music is playing. There seem to be very few Lithuanian artists - I should google that and find out.
It's always a little scary to go to church somewhere new. But when we walked in we were immediately welcomed by at least 7 sets of missionaries. I didn't count, but it seems like there were 4 sets of Elders and 2 sets of sisters, and then 1 senior couple. This was the Lithuanian family branch. There is also a Russian branch that meets at 2, and they have their own missionaries, though I'm not sure how many. When missionaries are called to the Baltic mission (covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus) they are called to speak either Russian or one of the specific languages for each country. The Russian speaking missionaries cover the entire mission, where the specific languages stay within that specific country. In Lithuania, there are only 4 sizable cities, and so the missionaries rotate only within those 4 cities.
There was also smattering of people transplanted here. Two families - actually, a family around our age and an empty nester couple - are here from America working to do reconstruction on the US Embassy. For the older couple, she only agreed to come if her husband promised to show her Europe. Apparently, they travel all the time. With a little advanced planning, you can travel all over Europe for really cheap. There is also a newly wed couple who arrived in Lithuania 3 days after they got married so he could come play basketball - a hugely popular sport here. Another young man is recently arrived from Brazil to play football (soccer). Then there was a group visiting from the BYU travel abroad group located in Riga, Latvia. They were here for the weekend to see Vilnius. Only the 2 families from our group attended this ward. The others went to the Russian branch as a couple of them speak Russian from their missions.
We were thankful to arrive early enough to get translator headsets. They had about 15-20 of them and one of the Elders translated the entire meeting for all of the above mentioned English speakers. The missionaries are relied on heavily for translating. The Bishop only speaks Lithuanian. Some of the members, including the YM's President, only speak English. So the missionaries have to translate in meetings and interviews. It was a missionary farewell Sunday. One of their more recent converts is leaving Thursday to serve in Scotland. He is the only member in his family, who is a little distressed that their son is leaving them for 2 years. But he was enthusiastic about leaving.
There was an English speaking Sunday school class that was taught by the senior couple, who are here serving the young adults in the area. With all of the visitors, the class was pretty good sized. The boys attended their class, which was all of the youth combined into one Sunday school class with a set of Elders there to translate. They said it was a little chaotic, but such a good experience for them. Both came away feeling so thankful for our ward. There were only 2 YM to pass the sacrament and no priests to bless the sacrament, so that's how small their youth program is. I bet there were only about 5 Lithuanian families and maybe 15 other members there. They will really need some foreigners to continue to live there until their numbers grow. The older people in this country are very leery of anything or anyone new. The youth are all atheists and have very little comprehension of God. So spreading the gospel here is quite a challenge.
The sisters in Relief Society were all very welcoming. Thankfully, one of the Sister missionaries translated for us there as well. At the beginning of RS, they asked if anyone could play the piano. When no one raised their hand, I felt the pressure and volunteered to play. Thankfully, music is universal. And playing kept me from slaughtering the words of the Hymns. I don't understand their pronunciations of letters at all. It would be like learning half of the alphabet all over again. It's still amazing to me how fluent these missionaries get after only a year or so of speaking the language. Our lesson was a read conference talk by the lady I'm assuming was the RS President. She mostly just looked flustered. I had much empathy for her.
The boys enjoyed YMs a little more than Sunday school, as it was all in English. In fact, for our scripture time tonight, we had everyone share something they had learned today in church and both of them shared what they had learned in YMs. (Their lesson had been on sustaining your priesthood leaders.)
The windows on the side are to the chapel and overflow area. When the 2 spaces are combined, I'm guessing it makes up the cultural hall. It was a bigger building than I was expecting.
The residential housing surrounding the church was all in the style of this spectacular Russian-style architecture. It's just depressing looking. And there was quite a bit of it. The only businesses we really saw were grocery stores and gas stations. It really made me feel how hard the Soviet occupation was for the Lithuanian people - and no wonder the population now is all atheist. This just does not promote a feeling of love.
It was nice to have Adam come home from church with us. That hasn't happened in years. We even got to just rest when we got home! A couple of our dinner guests wanted to bring some traditional foods - a Ukrainian potato salad and a Russian salad - so dinner was pretty easy on my part. The roast turned out juicy and fell right apart like it was supposed to. I also made a traditional Lithuanian dish - at least that's what the internet told me. I boiled potatoes in water with dill (they love dill in this part of the world) and then made several sauces (I did a mushroom, a bacon and a beet sauce) that you use to dip your potato in. Kendalls provided a cheese platter appetizer and cake for dessert. We had a Valentine's feast!
No one stayed late as it was a work night. Shooting begins first thing tomorrow morning! Call time is 6 am.
Saturday -
I never wrote about Saturday. For starters, we woke up to sun shining brightly through our windows. That's never happened before. I now know that our kitchen windows face east and that those windows would need blinds if the sun actually came out more often. It was bright.
The morning was spent doing more laundry and homework. Tyson chose to stay home the whole day. He napped and did more homework. Jacob and I met up with the Kendalls. We went to the National Museum. It has been rebuilt in the style of the Grand Duke's palace over the ruins of the site of former palaces of the Grand Duke. (Apparently, this whole region was one larger country with smaller areas being ruled by a Grand Duke. Today, Lithuania is its own country with a President and elections.) In the basement, you could see the old foundation stones from palaces of the past. On other floors, there were items found in the excavation of the palace and other historical items.
Because it was a Saturday, there were guys in costume reenacting sword fights.
They had swords and armor for the kids to try out.
The highlight for the kids was playing a huge game of chess.
You can see the old foundation walls in the background.
17th Century throne of the Grand Duke.
Replications of the crowned jewels of various rulers.
Grand Palace courtyard.
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