January 17, 2011

Hey Howdy Hey!!

Glad to hear the package finally made it after a MONTH >.> Yes, the bunny hats are the fun winter accessory this year! The Mesikäpp (means "honey paw") and the white chocolate with the strawberries and cookie bits are some bars that I like. Chelsea's going to Rome?!?!? I got a letter from Noel and Heather this week and they mentioned that she'd be getting her call soon. That's so amazing! I have a high school friend serving there, and they should know each other, so that'd be way cool if they met up. That's a bummer that she has to wait for almost half a year to get to the MTC, though! Is Maureen just English-speaking then? Still cool, she's going to San Diego :)

We actually have noticed that it is getting a little lighter now, but it's not light out past 4:30 yet. Apparently we're gaining 3 minutes of light a day, at least that's what Elder Aardema told us. Last night it snowed, but it warmed up past the freezing point for today so now it's misty and raining. What?! Silly weather. The new boots I bought were a lot cheaper than the other ones and a little bulkier, but they're still fashionable and functional. They're holding up well so far. We have a washing machine in our apartment, but Estonia doesn't believe in dryers so we have to use big drying racks. That means some of our clothes may feel a little more like cardboard when you first put it on, but well, just gotta deal with it. Sis. LeDuc and I were actually fantasizing the other day about when we'll get to use dryers in the future. Mmmm that warm, soft, fragrant feeling of pulling towels out of the dryer~ Moving on...

Last week at McDonald's, we made it just in time for the 80's Power Hour or something of the sort on the French music video channel that was playing in the tv's. 80's French pop music videos are TERRIBLE, HAHAHAHAHA! We were enjoying our fries and McFlurries in sheer
amazement of how obscure they were. At least Michael Jackson's "Thriller" put them to shame right as we were leaving. Ok, well, that's an odd one too, but whatever :P For today, we're going to check out the indoor tennis hall, methinks. I will probably play horribly, but we thought we should try and get some excercise besides running for buses, ha ha.

We're still rather rusty teaching our English class, but oh well. It's pretty much our first time and they haven't revised a curriculum yet so we're trying to put it together on our own. Still trying to figure how to best use it as a source for finding people who are prepared to receive the gospel. There are some people that I feel are ready though.

Ok, Aili RAWKS. Yesterday in Sunday School, Elder Barney got up to do our missionary moment. He gave some statistics about how much more effective member missionary work is than knocking on doors and asked for a member to volunteer to hand out a Joseph Smith pamphlet. I turned around to give the members a staredown since there was some hesitation, and then Aili stands up excitedly (with a tiny bit of encouragement from Sis. LeDuc :). I was thinking "OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE MARVELOUS. OUR NEWEST CONVERT, ONLY 1 MONTH!!!" That's how you can tell somebody's really converted. They want to share the
gospel :D After Sunday School, Elder Barney and I were talking about it and he felt exactly the same way. He was starting to get a little impatient with the members just before she stood and so he wanted to say "There, you see! She's putting you all to shame!" Silly Elder :P We're praying that her experience went well.

Liidia's heart seems to be softening a little bit. We started to run out of ideas of what to teach her and didn't have a solid plan before we left for her house, but we did pray for the Spirit. She told us that she did actually read a few chapters, and then she asked me what I had read that day. I was reading in 2 Nephi 9, which talks about some of the Plan of Salvation, and so we went ahead and taught her with that. Sis. LeDuc asked her if she thought the Book of Mormon could be the word of God (we've asked this a lot already), and this time, without getting quite as defensive, she said that these were truths that we had read in the chapter. We took that as evidence that the Spirit is slowly working on her heart. She's very grateful that we come and read scriptures with her because she's alone and loves to talk about the Savior. We just can't get her to come to church yet because she says it's slippery and her church is closer xP

Sis. LeDuc and I are FAR from being awesome missionaries. I feel like both of us have pretty much been kicked to the curb and therefore have to figure out how this stuff works on our own. But hey, we're learning. All I can say is, the sisters who'll be coming in May better be super grateful that they have the best trainers in the world ;D Time to get going now. Thanks for all the love. I love you so much!

Much love,
Courtney