Email: Surprise, your Father - July 21, 2010

From: Courtney Smith
Sent: July 21, 2010 8:51 AM
To: Fred
Subject: Re: surprise, your Father

Armas Isa! (Beloved Father)

So nice to hear from you! That's so fun that they went camping! It seems like you're all enjoying your summer. Jessica was just over, going camping, having sleepovers, etc. Sounds like a perfect summer compared to being in a classroom most of the day :P We try to take a leisurely stroll around the campus to get our clear our minds almost daily. Tomorrow, we get to teach our entire first lesson about the Restoration in Estonian, WOW. I can't believe it's already MTC week 6. I'm halfway done with this place. It's just coasting from here now, (except not quite such a break since there's still so much to learn, haha!) My Finnish roomates keep reminding me that some little birdy is going around saying how talented I am at the language. I try to be humble about it. I've been slacking a little the past few days on learning more vocabulary so that's what I plan to do with most of my preparation day.

I happened to see Brian Gashler while doing my weekly service early Monday morning. My job was to replace dirty erasers and wipe away all the chalk dust in all the classrooms in one of the buildings. His class was having personal study at the time and I knew it was one of the German classes so I kept my eye out and when I spotted him, I whispered "Brian..?" and then we talked for a minute or two before I had to move on with my work. I'm happy he's enjoying it here so far. What a good kid!

Monday afternoon, Sis. Aitken and I had an appointment with an ENT doc in Payson, just 30 minutes south of Provo. A service missionary volunteer, Sis. Zollinger, was our driver. She was a sweet elderly woman, however, Sis. Aitken is convinced that if we weren't missionaries, we probably would've died. Thankfully, I kept myself occupied by chatting with her most of the way and tried to not focus on her driving. We counted our blessings that we made there and back safely. Sis. Aitken has a fungus in her left ear, real fun stuff. Apparently it's something that's been sorta going around here at the MTC. The doctor said that it should go away soon with her new medications, but we have another appointment on the 6th of August.

Yup, Tilly's living the normal dogs life. Sometimes I see people walking their dogs when I'm out at the missionary field across the street and it makes me miss my silly dog ;) Goodness Dad, you sure are on top with your Estonian info! If I had normal access to a computer, I'm sure I'd be all over that too. Must run in the genes

I don't think I have much more to report on for this week that I'll have to write home about. Things are just cruising along and I'm itchin' to get to Estonia even though I know so little. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with my companion, roomates, teachers, branch presidency, etc. It's like they were handpicked, just for me. Thanks so much for the prayers. They're obviously working!

Armastusega,

Courtney