Email 9-13-10

My week went by fairly quickly as well. Thanks for the reminders of cleanliness, ha ha! I've been doing a pretty good job since now I have my own place to take care of. I scrubbed the bathroom this morning while my companion got most of the kitchen done. There's still more to do, but the most important stuff is done :)

I forgot to mention earlier for my friends that DearElder is free for our mission since it's sent by pouch mail through the church. It may take a bit longer for it to reach me from the mission home, but it's a free option if it's not pressing news.

Now I'm like the piano guru in our branch. I already have a lesson set up to teach a member and another man wants me to attend some music festival thing he's putting on in October. Maybe he wants me to perform. WUT?!! They all think I'm like Mozart, or something. It makes me feel loved though :) The humidity from the fog and rain the last few days has killed my hair so I have to wear it back :P I tried straightening it one day and it was destroyed in about 20 minutes outside. I'm trying to look nice though!

Last Thursday we did some service for a member who lives 30 minutes outside of Pärnu. We just hacked away at some old uprooted tree and made a bit fire where we burned all the little bits. I guess we'll go to Saima's every week, so I wonder which day we'll go back and help her out this week. On Saturday I witnessed my first baptism! Eda Rahula was taught by the Elders, but now we get to teach her retention lessons. I think this week we need to do a bit more finding because we need to teach some lessons. I think we have one progressing investigator who committed to baptism when she finds out that this is true, so we just have to make sure we can get her to church this week.

One funny thing Estonians do is occasionally inhale their words. I mostly hear it among old ladies and it's usally some exclamation, or affirmation like "Jah!". It kinda weirds me out every time, ha ha! We cook most of our own meals, and they've usually been pretty basic stuff like spaghetti and tacos. Sis. Aitken is up in Keila with Sis. LeDuc. They are about 2-3 hours away, I think. It took us about 3 hours to get to Pärnu from Riga by bus. There are only 4 sisters in all of Estonia. 16 Estonian speakers and I think about 8 Russians. 2 Elders and 2 Sisters in Pärnu.

Well, I gotta go now. I've been hanging around the computer long enough. I hope to be a little more efficient with my e-mail writing soon :P I love you all and thanks for the prayers!

Armastusega,
Courtney