Europe.

I have been promising to put up pictures from Europe for the last month. For one reason or another I have delayed. So, to all my loyal readers/lookers, I know there are very few of you, here you are. I have debated back and forth in my mind how to present the trip. It was incredible. I went with Rach and we met amazing people.

Here are some of the people we met...

Lithuania

These are most of the girls from the Vilnius Branch.

(Jolita, Sarah, Aleksandra, Kristinia, Marinia, an old Elder, and Sandora)

This is Alinia, she is one of my MOST favorite little girls in Lithuania.

Did I mention it rained the entire time we were in the country?

This is Giedre, she is very important to me.

I met her about 8 months into my mission and we have been very good friends since then.

We are standing on top of one of the highest points in Vilnius.

This is Lucy and Maggie. They are from China. Lucy makes the best Chinese food I have EVER had. Maggie is afraid of the camera and Lucy has the strongest faith I have ever seen.

These are the girls from Klaipeda. This is a picture of Anna's wedding shower. Anna was my companion, she is native to Latvia. I picked her up from the mission home exactly one year after my mission started. She was a brand new missionary and the first thing she did was correct a grammar mistake. She is the one who really taught me how to speak Lithuania. She moved to Ireland with her husband. I love her. (Anna, Sarah, Vika, and Little Dovile)

This is Edita's mom. Edita lived with my family when she came to America before she got married. Edita's mom was so king to let us stay with her.

This is Dima and Natasha's family!! They are truly amazing. When I began my mission Dima and Natasha had their first little girl, Nikole . She is now 3 and crazy!! They had Sophie about a year ago. Rachel thought she looked just like a cupid. We spend a night with them, it was crazy and fun. Nikole cried when we left. Nikole also ate more than Rachel and me, which is pretty incredible. (Rachel, Sarah, Dima, Nikole, Natasha, & Sophie)

This is Saules and Marinia. I love them. When I was on my mission, Marinia never failed to inform me that I was gaining a little weight. She also taught Jenna and me some hilarious stomach exercises. We could never get through the exercises because we were always laughing too hard. Their daughter Emma, in the picture, was born on my mission. I can't believe how big she is. (Saules, Marinia, Emma, & Sarah)

This is Nijole and her husband. I worked with Nijole my entire mission. She fed me a lot on my mission, a lot. Rachel and I had lunch with Nijole and her husband. We ate for three hours straight. It was great, we were so full we could barely walk away.

Germany

This is Diana, Mitch's cousin. Rachel and I stayed with her in Munich.

Rachel and I went with Christian and his cousin Andrew to a bonfire to celebrate the summer solstice. Christian went to SUU to receive his Master's degree. Christian is from a little city right on the border of Germany and Austria. This was my favorite night of the trip. More details to follow..

Rachel, Christian, and I lit wax candles, walked up a hill, and lit a bonfire with 20 little kids.

It was awesome.

While at the bonfire, we met these nice German men. They were drunk and shocked that Mormons were there. They were also puzzled as to why we didn't drink. On the night of the bonfire, Christian told Rachel and me that he has never seen two girls eat so much food. Should we take that as a compliment? I think so.

Greece

This picture was taken in Athens in front of the Parthenon. These are our (Rachel and my) friends, Lilly and Matt. We met them in the airport in Naples. We were stuck in Naples for a billion hours, our flight was delayed for way too long. Good thing we met Lilly and Matt. They got engaged in Paris a few weeks before coming to Greece. We spent two days with them, they loved us.

I don't know this lady's name. But Rachel met her at church in Greece. She is from Philippians and Rachel was able to speak Tagalog with her. I thought it would only be fair to put one picture up of Rachel with one of her people.

This is us with the sister missionaries in Greece.

Austria

Rachel and I met some of these girls at the temple in Frankfurt. They were so nice to let us stay with them in Vienna. They live in Vienna and took Rachel and me on an incredible tour of the city.

(Sarah, Rachel, Ester, Lillian, Ester, and Margaret)

More to come...