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Go ahead and leave comments on here. We pass them along and Courtney loves to hear from her friends!!

Monday, February 28, 2011

February 28, 2011 End of February

Things are starting to warm up a little more! The temperatures are fluctuating around the freezing point, so that's nice. I hope that means that the nasty sheets of ice on the paths around town will be mostly melted by next week? Ok, maybe it won't happen that quickly, but hey, we can dream :)

Thursday was Estonia's 93rd anniversary of their (first) independence. We met with some of the members at the church that morning to sing the national hymn, and listen to them tell stories and we sang some more song from the hymnbook. One of our eldest members even brought her traditional Estonian garb so I got a picture of that! We tried asking folks if they do anything special for their holiday, but we never got any really good answers. It made me wonder what America's Independence Day would be like in the winter? No more barbecues, watermelon, and corn on the cob!! There might have been a parade here...? If so, I don't know where or when it was. We did see some dirt bike racing on the river. Yes, on the river. They plowed a flat track on the snow the day before and there were a bunch of races going on. That made me miss the Figure 8 races at the fair :)

We only had 8 people in our English class this past week, so that was kind of a bummer since half of them are old students. Maybe next week...? Anyway, we're doing a private lesson with one of them this week.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from Sis. Aitken yet. Some fun stuff for this week is that we will have Sis. Tanner coming down form Tallinn for a few days. I think she's probably one of the most senior Russian-speaking sister missionaries, so that'll be awesome. We already have a referral for her to work with and Raissa (Russian, inactive member) agreed to meet when we have more exact details of when she's getting here and for how long.

One mini-miracle this week was that Sis. LeDuc contacted an old lady on the bus right before we had to go to district meeting and they started talking as if they were old friends! We got off at the same bus stop near the church, and she showed us right to her apartment. She invited us in, but we told her we'd have to come back in 2 hours because we had our meeting to get to so she agreed to that. After our meeting, we go back, and she cooked us a meal for lunch! Perfect
timing since I was getting rather hungry! She was a really sweet lady who had been through a lot and she was really grateful to have met us. She said God must have put us in her path :) She gladly accepted the Book of Mormon, although she's always been Lutheran. We had a return appointment for later in the week, but she called us that night and had to cancel because her daughter was going to come pick her up to go visit relatives, but she wants to meet again!

Gah!! Sorry fam! I ran out of time to tell you more this week, but I hope you all know I love you tremendously! Thanks always for the prayers and love.

Courtney

P.S. Could you tell me Maureen's mailing address when you get it? :)

Monday, February 21, 2011

Pictures Again!

Another batch of pictures. The descriptions (for most) are in the previous email post.

ENJOY!!




















Another batch of pictures. I believe the descriptions are in the previous email post.

ENJOY!!


February 21, 2011 President's Day

Hey everyone!

My birthday was great! While bowling, I at least scored over 100 on the second game so...yay? Ha ha! I got the package on the exact day, perfect!! Thanks so much! Everything fits fine :)

Aili and Ülo's wedding was great! Sis. LeDuc and I gifted them a generic version of Jenga, which they were thrilled about! We've played it with them a few times when we've done FHE with them and so we knew how much they liked it :) Nelly (RS President) was at a loss for words because of how pretty Aili looked, ha ha ha ha. She wouldn't stop talking about it! I uploaded a few pictures of the wedding and other things. Speaking of cakes, we ate SOOOOO much cake at the wedding!! There were several varities so of course we had to try some of each! The cakes here aren't as sweet so I guess in that way, we didn't feel as bad for eating so much, hehehe. One of the members said she probably should fast the following day because she ate so much :P One other interesting thing that happened was that we saw a young woman at the wedding whom we knocked into and taught a short lesson to almost a month ago. That was a surprise! She was suprised to see us too. We were a little afraid to talk to her until around the end of the wedding. Apparently Aili is an acquaintance of hers from work or something. We're thinking of going to pay her a visit maybe this week or the next :)

The district president (like a stake president?) and his wife came down from Tallinn to perform the wedding and to speak at church on Sunday. After church they gave us a little tower (made of a toilet paper roll and clay) that their boys made with an Estonian flag sticking out the top and a Kalev 'Estonia' chocolate bar (YUMMY) in honor of the 24th of February. That day is Estonia's independence day (the original, when they first became their own country. There's a 2nd independence day in the summer when the USSR fell).

The other good news for this week is that a man whom the Elders had been teaching was baptized last Wednesday! His wife is a semi-active member, so we're praying that his conversion will be a blessing to the family. Other than that though, there hasn't been much else to report about.

Transfers were last week. We're still in Pärnu~ I'm kinda bummed that Elder Barney was transferred up to Tallinn. He's the last one left of my very first transfer here. Sis. LeDuc and I agree that he'd make a good bishop in the future, dunno why ;) Elder Baird has come down from Tallinn to be Elder Aardema's companion. He's definitely much shorter than Barney was, but he's a good teacher too. He's got about 3 months or so until he finishes his mission. I don't know much about him, but he does like to ask a lot of questions to get to know people. Almost like interrogating, he he :)

Tonight, we're doing FHE with the 1st counselor's family. Sergei is also the branch mission leader, so we know him pretty well from our weekly meetings with him. He is solid as a ROCK in the church. His wife just doesn't really understand gospel things. We were thinking of talking about Jesus as the Bread of Life. Hopefully we can make it simple enough for his wife, and two little kids to understand as well. We plan to play some games and maybe make a box cake that Sis. Aitken left here :)

Last week was certainly cold and slippery~ We're still layering a lot, but folks say things will start warming back up by the end of the week, yay! We've been having a rough time finding service opportunities lately :/ Nobody will let us help them! We find this perplexing since there are so many poor people here, wouldn't you want some free help?! Some other people have told us to wait until spring or summer. Normally we would help Saima with things at her house, but since there's snow, there's no work to do in the yard yet. So fam and friends I need some help here. We could use some ideas on how to find, or even finding people to teach. I know how much of a smart, clever, experienced bunch you are ;)

Lots of love,
Courtney

Monday, February 14, 2011

February 14, 2011 Happy Birthday

Beloved Family and Friends!

GAAAAAAAAAAH~~!!!!! LACHELLE'S HAVING A BABY!!!1!11! I'm so essited xD

I didn't recieve any of your packages yet, but I got the shirts and divinity nut rolls and several cards from Grandma and Carol. That was really thoughtful, and yummy! I have 3 rolls left :) With "Friend Day" (Valentine's in Estonia), the end of English classes, and my birthday, Sis. LeDuc and I have been loaded up with lots of chocolate lately so there's no need to buy anymore for quite some time! Valentine's Day isn't really big here since it's only been celebrated within the last 20 years, but I think they just give chocolate to friends, (pretty much what they do for every other holiday here, methinks, :P) We're going to go bowling today for my birthday, and tomorrow I'm getting my haircut so I'm really excited. It's already been a super birthday! :D

I'm sorry to hear that Dad isn't feeling so well! Actually, this last week has been pretty bad for us too since when I finally started to feel decent enough to go work, then Sis. LeDuc came down hard with a fever and chills. It's like our Pärnu district was plagued with something, ha ha! So we were pretty much out of commission for almost a week. Now we gotta catch up! We made a huge batch of sugar cookies for Game Night and our English class, complete with pink frosting for Valentine's~ As soon as we started to pass around the cookies and then set them on the table, Saima started mentioning how these would be great with prunes on top. WUT?!?!11 NOOOOOOO. DON'T DESECRATE OUR AMERICAN SUGAR COOKIES WITH YOUR NASTY PRUNES!!!1!!!11!! But sure enough, she asked Zoja to bust the prunes from the closet (for Primary?) and then they placed one on top of each of our pretty pink cookies remaining on the tray. Ugh, that's so Estonian... The Elders were especially in an outrage because they're doing a no-sweets challenge with a couple who's trying to work on the Word of Wisdom. We Sisters haven't been helping them with that lately, ha ha ha. Needless to say, our cookies were a big hit!

President and Sister Dance came to our branch on Sunday, but the turnout was smaller than expected. Earlier in the week, we invited them to come to eat with us after church, so they accepted and brought the Elders along too. We tidied up the apartment and made Sis. LeDuc's Chicken Paprika. It was fun to eat and chat with them, and President told us some fun bits of news too, like Sisters' Conference next month in Riga, and that we're going to do an exchange next transfer with the Russian sisters! w00t w00t. Oh, and one other secret he let out was that we're having a Mission Conference probably at the start of summer, so that's something to look forward too! President spilled the beans about it because I mentioned that Elder Burr from my stake was coming in soon, although I probably wouldn't have the chance to meet him, then President said "you may get to see him sooner than you think!" :)

We had to drop an investigator this week :/ We taught him with Bro. Tšekmarjov, who was a great help, and we clearly invited to be baptized, but he doesn't want to change and repent right now, so he refused. We'll still occassionally check up on him though, see how he's doing. Last night, we visited a lady whom we knocked into a few weeks back and I think she sees that the Book of Mormon could be true, but she said that she's not sure if this is the right time since she's
busy and her mom, excuses, etc. Me and Sis. LeDuc just testified away about what this knowledge means for us and she agreed to meet again. We need to take a member with us next time so that they can help her see why she needs this NOW in her life.

Transfers are this week, but nobody thinks we'll be whitewashed into a new area yet. Even IF we were transferred though, we're still going to make it to the wedding this weekend! Oh and the Elders have a baptism on the same day, so that's really great for the branch! People have been telling us that this weekend is finally going to get nasty cold, so we'll see how that goes. It's been rather nippy the last few days~ I still think we've lucked out this winter, so I can put up with the bitter cold for a little bit :)

Well, that's all I've got for this week! Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes, and of course all the usual hugs and kisses~

Love you so much,
Courtney

P.S. I suppose I'll have to ask around and see what I can do here then for eye stuff. I'll have to pay out of pocket for it, but from what I've experienced or heard so far with Estonian medicine, it's quite cheap since it's socialized or whatever.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Pictures!

From Shauna:

Some of you (ahem HEATHER) have been bugging us about posting pictures. Truth be told, I was able to download them over a week ago, but was already working on another photo project so I was a little pixelated-out and put posting these on the back burner. Let me make amends now by posting some of those for you right now. She did not provide me with info about each picture so I'm going to try guessing what's going on, or else totally make it up ;o) ENJOY!





FIRST BAPTISM!!
Sister Aitken, Aili, Sister Smith, Sister LeDuc





Mission Christmas Program
I'm guessing...Nativity Scene. Courtney is obviously one of the wise men (in a robe)
The scene is complete with a donkey and a live manger. Don't forget the star (Elder with a yellow square of fabric). They are so resourceful.





Ah! Someone getting into the spirit of the Christmas holiday.
Check out those seat covers...




Sister LeDuc and Sister Smith



They visited an investigator who worked at a local cemetery.
She took a lot of pictures of it because it really was beautiful, especially with all the snow.





A replica of the Christus at one of the grave sites. These are highly adorned plots.
What a lovely picture.




A bit after it snowed. You can see how much snow fell by trying to find the road sign...
It really is a pretty picture too!


I believe this is the view of the Baltic Sea from their apartment.




All of the Pärnu missionaries.


Glad to see the constant snow doesn't dampen their spunky personalities!



Finishing off the last of the pumpkin pie from their Thanksgiving feast.



Apparently Star Wars is a universal language.
Some of the members goofing off at an activity.



A fashion show at another of their activities. Look at those pleats!



A shirt sent to her from Mark, Marily, Dallin, Adam and Owen for Christmas....and YES, several someones in Mesa love you!!!

February 7, 2011

Hello!

Raissa (the Russian lady) completely spaced on our Monday FHE, so we moved it to Tuesday at the same time. We invited the Elders to come along, but they had to come a few minutes later. There were about a dozen people (regulars at the soup kitchen, methinks) there whom she'd invited to come listen to us talk about ourselves, why we're here, what we do, etc. To be honest, we were a bit intimidated since they told us to sit, eat cookies and start talking, ha ha. So we talked for a few minutes about our normal lives and then Raissa was giving us hints of where to go to next in our presentation (they were silent...). Just about when I started talking about how the Priesthood was restored through Joseph Smith, the Elders popped in and then I directed the attention to them. I don't know if the folks felt like they should be easy on our Estonian and not ask any questions, but once Elder Barney started talking, that's when all the crazy questions started popping up, ha ha ha ha! Sometimes, it got a little intense and the conversation started to drag on for quite a while, but eventually we passed around our homemade brownies and started playing Uno with them. Actually while the others were doing that, I gave 2 Book of Mormons to and taught two men about it. Apparently one of them had been in prison for about 14 years, but says he found God 13 years ago :) Fun times! When it was time for us to head home, Raissa told us to come back when we can. Now about that Raissa woman.... we discovered the following day that she's actually and inactive member!!!!! Wow, that made us feel rather dense! That explains so much! Anyway, I hope that we can go back sometime soon, and hopefully we can get her coming back to church.

Zone conference in Tallinn was really great. We talked a lot about faith, about how it procedes the miracles and it's a principle of action and power. This P-day has been very low-key. Elder Aardema is under house arrest because he called Sis. Dance saying he had a fever so we made the Elders some chicken soup this morning and took it to them before coming to write e-mails. I've had a fever the last 2 days, but I'm over it now. Just pretty tired and sluggish still :P

This upcoming game night, there's going to be a short play that some of the members have been putting together, so I hope it will be a decent finding activity if they invite they're friends to come. Recently, Aili has been begging us to come to her and Bro. Raid's stretching sessions at the church, ha ha. Normally we'd decline, but she has a friend that comes, so I kinda tried to throw in a little scriptural thought at the end how stretching is like learning, so if you don't keep learning about spiritual things, then your testimony becomes weak. Once you stretch, then the next time you can stretch a little bit further. You get the idea. She wants us to come tonight, but we'll see if I feel up to it.

Sis. Aitken FINALLY wrote us today to say that she's been diagnosed with typhoid fever. Egads, that's dreadful. She has to be completely well for a month before she comes back, so she may not be able to get back here in March like she was hoping. I'm glad that we know now, though. The members have really been bugging us with questions about it so now we finally have and answer! Sis. Aitken's Estonian friend Kätlin is going to cut our hair on my birthday, for free! (since she's learning!) I'm excited for that.

You taught me well! (and there's still much for me to learn from ya ;) Don't freeze your toesies and nosies off! Put a hat on!! (the old ladies scold us with that all the time :P)

Much love,
Courtney