December 27, 2010 Merry Christmas

Hello Fam!

It was so fun to get to hear from you!! I hope the call wasn't lacking in any way. You all seemed to have a super Christmas, and Stacey and Shauna told me about the fun they had :) I don't know if I'll have much to say in this e-mail since I talked to you on Saturday! It's crazy to think I've already served 1/3 of my mission. The MTC kind of seems like a long time ago, but it doesn't feel like I've been away for very long. My first Christmas away from home was hopefully one of my last, ha ha ha! It was rather boring, but we reminisced a lot about family traditions and Christmases past, made some yummy food, and burned through a lot of candles :D

The Christmas lights were a nice touch, but they only lasted until a few days before Christmas because they all burnt out. The high-voltage doesn't let them last a long time, but it was very enjoyable for the short time we had them! It actually starts getting dark around here by 4pm. I think that causes Estonians to want to go to sleep earlier because it's just dark, hehe. Sister LeFevre actually e-mailed me last week with just a little update that she's going to school in January and is looking for a job, but they still can't figure what's with her legs and they're still trying a lot of things.

I went to church with Geidy-Ly who was down here visiting the branch. She's from Pärnu and was baptized last March, but now she lives an hour from Tallinn, but she travels down here often to visit. The other sisters stayed inside on Sunday so I feel bad since that was the second Sunday they've had to miss in a row. Like the missionaries, now all the members in Estonia (and probably all throughout the mission) have been asked to do a Book of Mormon reading challenge from the 1st of January until April 30th because May 1st is a district conference and there will be an added spirit for that. I'm excited to have the members joining us in reading, although it's not at a faster pace like us. After church, the Elders came to see how we were doing and they gave a blessing to Sis. Aitken. Sis. Dance called to talk to us last night to see how we're all doing. She's going to call Sis. Aitken again later today. Transfers are coming this week, so I wonder what they're going to do with her... We keep praying for her and her family told her that her brother's entire mission is doing a fast for her (he's nearing the end of his service in the Scotland/Ireland mission).

I hope you like the goodies I sent to you. They should be getting there this week, I'd guess. I'm really thankful to have a few new things in my wardrobe! It's nice to have a little more variety :) Only the turtlenecks seems a little big, but maybe they'll shrink a bit. As for socks, it doesn't really matter what they're like. I'll try looking for some. If the others are feeling up to it, I may look around at some other boots too. The past few days, my boots seem to be fine. I think some furry insoles I bought last week might be helping a little more now.

What are you doing for New Year's? Going to try to go out shooting or hiking and biking again? People are already practicing launching off fireworks nearby our apartment. Elder Barney told me that if we're here for New Year's we'll get to see tons of people firing them all around our house, so that's something to look forward to. Sorry there's not much else to report on this week! I love you a lot, and I'm thankful for all the support!

Love,
Courtney

December 20, 2010 One more week

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! RÕÕMSAID JÕULE!! HÄID PÜHI!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD (jk, lol)

I checked the weather forecast for the week and it looks like we'll have a snowy Christmas day! We've been long overdue for a good snowfall. It's like, been a week, ha ha ha. The streets are clear from snow, so that's just boring (plus they've been dumping truckfuls of it on a dirt patch just across the street from our window view). 'Twas a lazy week last week since we had to sit in to let Sis. Aitken rest. (president's orders) We even had to miss church yesterday :( But now we've finally got some members lined up for the next few days to help us out by babysitting/proselyting. Boy, oh boy, do we have all the old ladies worryin' up a storm now!!! They're all calling us now "is she still sick? Does she have a fever?!?" (everyone asked that x) No, it's not a fever (probably a good thing too. Who knows what they do for homemade fever remedies...) One of the old sisters tried to come visit us Saturday night, but there were tons of miscommunication on how to find our apartment so she ended up further down the street from where we were. Um yeah, BIG mix-up that made us feel terrible, but that's all I'm allowed to say about that now. My companions don't want me to speak about it, ha ha ha!

I've seen some Christmas lights, but I've seen a lot of these almost menorah type things in windows celebrating the advent of Christmas. Päkapikks (pron: pack-a-peekk They're little elves/gnomes? Sounds like a pokemon name too, haha) put candy in children's shoes starting the 28th of November until Christmas. We've got 'em in our apartment too~ It's really just Sis. Aitken, though :) Maybe now Estonians are getting Christmas trees, but I don't know where they buy them... There aren't corner Christmas tree lots like in America. We had our branch Christmas party on Friday night, so we had a Christmas concert and the missionaries sang a few carols in English. Afterward, we watched some stick-pull, tug-of-war, type matches as we waited for Jõuluvana (Santa Claus lit: Christmas..old...?? I dun get it..) Everybody brought a small gift and put it in a bag and wrote our names on a list before the party. When Jõuluvana arrived, we read the names down the list and the person was summoned to come receive a gift. I don't know if this is an Estonian thing, but each person had to recite some poem or sing a song to Jõuluvana before they could receive their gift. I sang a boisterous "Santa Claus is coming to town" with a little help from the other missionaries in the back of the room :D Nelly loved that~ Aili brought her granddaughter, Kadri, who's taken quite a liking to me. Unfortunately, that meant that she unceasingly tried to poke and tickle me and any chance she could. Not cool, but she's pretty fun :) For Christmas eve and day, we're supposed to be out serving, and spreading Christmas cheer until about 6 when we have to be back in our apartments where we just get to study about Christ and do the phone calls for the rest of the night.

I was actually wondering when the ward would be sending some missionary love :) As for the phone call, I guess I could have a little privacy, if needed. I was just thinking most of the time it'd just be on speakerphone so my companions could join, but I could step into one of the rooms if need be. We have a 3 room apartment. One room's the office/study, the other is sorta Sis. Aitken's closet, hehe. We all have to sleep in the same room so we have our beds mushed into the largest bedroom. It kinda looks like we have sleepovers every day :P

40 weddings in a single day at the temple, shoot! That's ridiculous! Totally sounds like Stacey to go at the decorating like that. She's a champ~ Hopefully, now that the decorations are finished, she'll finally send me that letter that she's been postponing since October... >.> Oh yes, I'm callin' you out, sis. The cornish pasties and nut rolls sound scrumptious. I sorta botched some fried rice last night, but Sis. Aitken says I'm learning to cook, ha ha ha. It was still good tasty though :)

Looking forward to talking to you on Christmas!

Love,

Courtney

December 15, 2010 Christmas Party

Wow, 10 day until Christmas already! And tomorrow marks my 6 month mark :O Unlike the summer-like weather you're currently experiencing, I on the other hand, feel like I live in a snow globe. Once you think the snow is about to settle and everything's all nice and pretty, the darn kiddos gotta shake the thing up again, hehehe (I wanted to save that phrase for a while, but it was totally appropriate this week ;). We had some big snow storms last week, but it hasn't snowed for the last few days. I think the temperature is supposed to dip down to about -20C (4ish in fahrenheit, methinks) on the weekend.

And yes, I did receive the packages last week! Did you send one to the mission home so you wouldn't get in trouble? Ha ha. I think they just do that to make sure that all of the missionaries at least get something for Christmas. The lights were way cute, but we haven't put the window clings up. It's cute that you wrapped all the gifts too, and no, I haven't opened them yet, although Sis. Aitken's been tempting me. I finally got my package off to home on Friday and I airmailed it so it may show up just before or just after Christmas. It's not much, 'cause I figured I could bring home some better things next time around ;)

Sounds like you had fun for Ryan's birthday! I've been thinking about him lately. What a great brother :D Love you lots!! The baptism on Saturday was beautiful and one of the Elders' investigators attended, The Dances (on their way through to Tallinn for conference) and surprisingly a lady from one of the English classes showed up. We sisters have actually eyeing to teach her a lesson, so we talk to her
about it tomorrow. Aili is so good and she was grateful for everyone who attended and who've welcomed her into their branch family. The RS President, Nelly, had me translate to President Dance that she she's praying and begging that the sisters won't be transfered on the 31st(kind of an odd day...). He tried to comfort her and tell her it's God's will, but she's so afraid, lol. She's afraid of everything,
hehehe, but it's good to feel so loved~ The branch is having a Christmas party on Friday and we're hoping the members will bring friends along. We have some ideas for spreading some Christmas cheer and to "go about doing good".

Zone Conference in Tallinn was super. We had to get on bus at 7am, so that left us rather tired for a full day of training, but it went well. We have some new focuses in the mission that I'm excited about. President Dance has asked that we start teaching active members and helping them to fulfil their missionary duties and rather than having English class every Tuesday and Thursday night, we're switching to
Saturday afternoons for 2 hourse so as to free up some prime proselyting time. I was a little worried at first when he started to talk about it, but I could see some good reasonings for it. That'll start after the new year. President also said how the mission will start a Book of Mormon reading challenge on Jan. 1st for 3 months and he asked in every prayer to pray for those "who know not God" (Alma 6:6), that the hearts of the people here will be softened. It was also good to not be the only sisters at conference too, because now there are 2 Russian sisters in Tallinn. There haven't been any for quite a while. Sister Hoggard came in the same time as me, and Sis. Gotchek (sp? dunno, her nametag was in Russian x) is from France and
got an extension so she can stay until February. We stayed at their apartment, but it was coooooold. It's a new missionary apartment, so it's not fully outfitted with enough blankets and things for extra guests, but I managed to be somewhat ok by sleeping with my coat on. The traveling and fatigue did a number on Sis. Aitken so she went with the missionary couple Tuesday morning to get tests done at the
hospital to see if they could find out what's going on. I don't know if they really found anything, but she didn't really want to talk a lot about it, so I didn't pry. Not cool since she had to miss the actual fun things we did on Tuesday. For example, we acted out a Nativity, which was absolutely hilarious, and so was the gift exchange. One of the assistants wrapped up an Elder's bible as a gift and what were the odds, I ended up with it AND I WAS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO HIM, HAHAHAHAHAHA. That was a riot! Elder Jenkins said "I was lookin' all over for that!" After Tuesday's festivities, we taxied on back to the bus station and had the Elders watch our things so we could walk to the immigration office or whatever and pick up my visa ID card. Yay, now I'm official~

Yes, I'm staying pretty warm. I think my boots let in a little bit of moisture so I'll have to try and spray them with some waterproofing stuff to see if that helps any. Sometimes if we're walking a lot, my feet will warm up and it's no problem. I have some big wool mittens that were left by other missionaries and they seem pretty warm if I have some little cheapy gloves underneath. I'm excited to see what you
sent me for Christmas. I like clothes :) Thanks so much for all the love and prayers. You're the greatest!

Love,
Courtney

December 6, 2010 It's December

You know you've been here too long when 22 degrees Fahrenheit sounds like a lovely warm day, ha ha ha! I think I'm starting to acclimate a bit because I was sweatin' like crazy on the way home from the store this morning. Well, we were carrying a lot of food and trekkin' through fresh snow too, ha ha. Today is not as cold as it was at the start of last week. I finally starting busting out my "Hot Chilly's" thermal pants this past week and they're working like a charm so far. I'm crossing my fingers I won't have to double up on them half way through January :P

And yes! I finally got that package last Thursday and everything was accounted for. Sheesh, it took a month to get here, but it was well worth the wait. I could definitely feel the love radiating from the box :D The scarves and hats were adorable and they're warm, so send my thanks along to those who made them :) I'm guessing the 3 corn bags were for each of us so I gave one to each of the companions as part of my Christmas gift to them. They were also thankful for the Brite Crawlers, measuring cups, and the Peanut Butter M&Ms, but they haven't dug into those yet! The U.S. post has some restrictions on foreign mail coming in for Christmas time, so I can't send stuff over 500 grams until the 9th or something, so my gifts to you may be late :/ Not cool. Probably terrorist warnings. As far as shipping food, I asked Sis. A and she said call her mom, lol.

Bye bye Kroon. Euro's coming to town at the start of the new year. Should I even bother bringing some kroon-age home? I've got a couple of coins which are pretty much worthless anyway. Meh, I guess I could look at pictures on the internet. That's so cool that you get to watch Rachel directing Westwood's Canticle in Carols this year. I used to watch her sing in it! I'm glad Annessa is going on a mission! I always thought she'd be one to go :)

Aili's all set for her baptism on Saturday! The branch hasn't had a baptism for 3 months, so this is a boost for morale. We're doing a little family home evening thing with her tonight, so I'm happy for that :) We escorted Liidia to and from game night on Friday, so that was fun. She asked us for her help in moving some wood from her shed into her house since her son or whoever was sick with a bad cough. We always were ask her if she needed help with anything after we teach her lessons, but I'm glad she finally took us up on our offer! I took that as a sign that her heart is softening ever so slowly :) We tried inviting an "eternal investigator" to baptism too, but she kept trying to divert the conversation and kept making the same ol' excuses, so that was disappointing. She's totally ready, but is too afraid to act. Heck, she's been coming to church since it was started here in Pärnu like 6 years ago. She's known about the church longer than practically all of the other active members. Oh well. We keep trying. Silly old people...

On Wednesday, we were treated to a buffet lunch at a hotel with some wealthy Finnish members. They came to church for Sacrament meeting and always invite the missionaries to eat with them. They come to the hotel and spa here like twice a year because it's much cheaper than in Finland. Sister Tomson (sp?) spoke English well and told us of her travels all around the world. We definitely ate our fill and were very grateful. They know we tend to eat a lot because we never know when we'll get our next warm meal, ha ha ha! The man that was with us is actually one of the sealers in the Helsinki Temple. Cool!

I'm getting excited for Zone Conference next week in Tallinn. I wonder if they'll have us stay with the Russian-speaking sisters they just put up there... We've been coming up with some ideas to help spread the Christmas cheer and the gospel this holiday season. Been prayin' for some Christmas miracles, especially since we need to build an investigator pool. Maybe we'll sing some carols as a branch out on the street or near the shopping areas and hand out pamphlets as a part of our Christmas party next Friday. I'd totally be down for that! Well, that's pretty much all the big news for this week! Thanks for the love and prayers. I feel it :)

Much love,
Courtney