It's been a super week! Haven't really had any luck or opportunities to find new people to teach, but Aili has accepted baptism on the 11th of December! She's very willing to learn about the gospel and I'd say the members have taken the responsibility of doing most of the teaching :) The Elders also have a baptism for the 18th. This'll be exciting for the branch! We made a companionship goal 2-3 weeks ago that we wanted 2 baptisms within a month span. We remembered this goal last night and we've planned to confront some "eternal investigators" this week and challenge them to baptism after we have a small testimony meeting with them. That's definitely the optimal way to invite the spirit to touch people's hearts. A lot of testifying has been softening Liidia's heart a little bit at a time each time we go back to visit. She's opened up a lot to us and is reading a little bit of the Book of Mormon at a time, but I don't know if she's keen on continually coming to our church each week. We keep inviting her to events though.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Tuesday since Elder Hortin was flying out on Thursday to go back home. It's crazy to think he's home now. We miss him already, haha! Sis. LeDuc had the pleasure of cleanin' the innards while I held a flash light and Sis. Aitken was making the pie crust early in the morning. Sis. A chronicled the whole life of the turkey from cleaning, brining, cooking, basting, and eating, lol. It took a lot of time preparing the meal, so it made us even more thankful for our dear mothers back home. Sis. A also invited her friend Kätlin to come and feast with us since she had lived in America for a bit. Sis. Aitken's mom sent a can of pumpkin pie filling, but the pie wasn't ready to eat until after we got back from English class that night. We shared some with Merit and Janeli and they enjoyed the pie greatly! (Although, it sure doesn't touch your homemade squash pie, Mama!)
It snowed from Tuesday to Thursday so we had a "white" Thanksgiving! It's been clear and sunny this weekend, but it's certainly a wee bit nippy out now!! I checked the weather report on the newspaper rack in the post office this morning and it's like, 7 degrees fahrenheit today!!! As we went to the grocery store, my breath froze to my hair and gave it a lovely frosted look so the companions had to take a picture, haha! I also had my first casualty of the season the other day (i.e. I slipped and fell on my bum). I guess the missionaries like to keep a "fall" count :D Friday was game night and we played some way fun tag game that I'm going to have to teach you some time! Aili even brought her granddaughter, and I know they enjoyed it :) The kids kept wanting me to play tag with them and they WORE ME OUT! We always get such a workout after game night, ha ha ha!
On Saturday was some sort of Relief Society enrichment activity where there were two short talks about the Word of Wisdom and then the rest of the time was filled with singing songs and eating lunch and chatting around a big table. It was really fun to just listen to them tells stories and laugh :) Oh goodness~these ladies are just the cutest!
I got a letter from cousin Chaz this week since I sent him a postcard a few weeks ago. He seems to be doing well, so I'm proud of him! Still no package though!! Sis. Aitken could've sworn it would have been here on Friday because her packages senses were tingling. I'm pretty sure it'll turn up finally this week... Mom, I was thinking about how I should handwrite some more letters. Now that winter is coming there's no real good reason to stay out for Preparation Days, so I'll try to repent and send some handwritten love your way! I'll be sending home a package, but it might be a little late since I'm only sending it this week :/
We're finally going to go to McDonald's today. Yup, that's right! Pärnu is now a legit town since there's a McD's. They built it about 2-3 months ago, but I haven't gone there yet since it's at the edge of town on the Elder's side of the river. Today's e-mail from President Dance reminded us of the upcoming Christmas phone calls from home! You can call our cell phone between 7-10pm (our time) and the phone calls are to last 30-40 minutes. We'll probably have to create a family call list with the 3 of us, so let me know which time is optimal for you and I'll let you know when to call exactly ;) Also, we have training in Tallinn again on the 13-14th of December, so P-day is going to be on Wednesday that week.
Well, I think that's it for this week! It sounds like you had a splendid Thanksgiving, as usual. I know being away from home has definitely caused me to ponder a little more about all that I have to be grateful for ;) I love you all so dearly.
Much love,
Courtney
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