Email 9-29-10

This has been a pretty fun week. I actually had to travel to Tallinn last Tuesday to do visa/living permit whatever stuff last week. Sis. Lepp from the Tallinn branch helped us with paper work which was splendid, but they were remarkably slow that day and we were there for at least 2 hours. Anyway, I got to see a little bit of Tallinn, but we didn't wander far from the bus station. It takes just under 2 hours to travel from Pärnu to Tallinn by bus. That's how most people get around the country, I think. Thankfully, we checked the mailbox before our bus ride up there, so I received a letter from Mark and fam with some drawings and pictures of the kiddos. Precious~♥

District conference on Sunday, in Tallinn was certainly interesting. Our branch rented a small bus to take up the members who signed up the week before. The branch leaders went up a day earlier for the Saturday training. I had the privelege of sitting next to Jana, a very energetic 9yo on the way up to Tallinn. Tickle attacks, funny faces, etc. She couldn't keep her hands off, lol. That was fun :P Hearing conference in 3 languages is sort of a brain overload, ha ha! Back and forth between Estonian, Russian, and English (since President and Sis. Dance spoke). It was fun meeting some of the other members and missionaries though. The Dances brought up mail from the mission home so I got the DearElder from Veronica. She seems to be doing super and I was so excited to hear from her~!!!! We had a few hours after the conference until our bus left for Tartu so we just chatted away. Then it was off to Tartu Sunday evening. We sisters got to stay at a hotel while the Elders had to fit in the other missionary apartments ;) We had training all day on Monday and then Monday night we met Tartu's oldest member, Helmi. Helmi is 90 years old and LOVES the missionaries. I think she was baptized about 7 years ago or so. She insisted on feeding us even though she is a very very poor pensioner. I only ate a piece of bread and some juice to show my thanks. After that, we each took turns playing her in chess. Apparently, she was some chess champion when she was younger, but of course some of that skill has faded with time. Technically, I beat her, but when I went to take her King, she could've sworn that he was one space to the left and not in check. So yeah, after that, then she beat me pretty good :P I'll let her have the victory this time. I think the Elders usually beat her so that should boost her confidence :D Helmi was so so sweet and thankful for missionaries. She certainly thanked Heavenly Father for sending us. She was sad when we had to leave to catch our bus back to center.

Walking around the center of Tartu is really cool. The old town hall plaza is really neat. It's also a lovely time of year to be driving around Estonia since the trees are starting to change colors. Unfortunately, a cold spell came in on Monday and Tuesday and it was quite nippy all throughout the country! Down to like 7 degrees Celsius which is somewhere in the high 30s I reckon. I had to bust out my big coat! And my legs and feet were chilled from the wind. Gotta start layering... Thankfully, today's not as bad.

I'm excited for General Conference this weekend. We'll watch the Relief Society session Saturday evening and then the Saturday morning session after that. Then we watch several sessions on Sunday, and then the last session we'll watch the following week. Maybe that's when we'll finally watch it in English too, I dunno.

Sis. LeFevre is from Draper, Utah. She is studying Journalism at the University of Utah. We receive copies of the Liahona from time to time. I think they just gave us the September issue at our district conference. I believe they try to get copies to each companionship when they can.

Last night on our bus ride home, I actually met some Italian kids who said they were singers in some choir with kids from Denmark, Estonia, etc. Random. I chatted only for a little bit about where we were from and what we were doing here and the guy I talked to was really nice. Even more random is that I think I remember seeing Italian Book of Mormons at our church building... I'll have to check again, but I'm hoping that the Lord will place them again in our path before they leave Pärnu on Saturday.

Ooh boy I'd love a recipe for mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, and soup. Yes, we can find some tortillas here. They only come in wimpy 8 packs though :P

Gotta run! Thanks for the love and prayers!

Courtney