Dear loved ones,
It's been a little bit of an up-and-down week 'round here. The weather is really pleasant now, "all you need's a light jacket!" Sort of like that, ha ha.
We tried to invite Lempi to be baptized when we were teaching her, but I don't think she really understood what we were getting at so she didn't quite give us a direct answer. At least we had a member there to help explain a little. Oh well, we'll have to try again this week. I'm not sure if sometimes Estonians really understand what 'authority' means. That's where we could use a little more member help to testify about that. Jüri doesn't seem ready to make the sacrifices to come to church, so he can't get baptized on April 30th like we'd planned. We told him we'd move it to May, but haven't set an exact date. We hope to teach him with some other members so they can share their experiences with the blessings of sacrifice. Ain is our other investigator with a baptismal date. He's kinda hit rock-bottom this week as some family problems have really been stressing him out and causing him to turn to drinking as a solution. Thankfully the Elders were able to come with us on Thursday to go visit him and do a little intervention. That made me feel a little safer. Ain is a nice man, but he's kinda huggy and even more so when he's emotional. Yesterday, we asked the branch president and his councilor to try giving him a call to check up on him and provide support. Ain did say that he wants to get baptized with his son on the same day. His daughter, age 17-18? was baptized a year and a half ago, but she's been inactive since I've been here. I didn't even know he had a son who's somewhere in his 20s. Ain gave the Elder his son's number. Who knows if he's really interested, but if so, we have a lot of work to do!
Since the first weekend of this month was conference, and because we didn't have time for testimonies last week, our branch president wanted to have testimony meeting yesterday. It was really great! I hope that this means the branch is on a rebound because things just seemed a little off during winter. Actually, on the way to church, I sat a across from a lady who was fumbling with some bags on her lap so I ask if it'd help if I hold on to it, to which she declined. Then she said "You must be a Mormon." I said that that's usually what people call us, but it's a different name. Then she said that she could tell I was a member because we're always so willing to help. I asked "so, you've talked to missionaries before?" "I'm a member" *gulp* "Ohhhh, ok!" She's been inactive for several years because she has bad health and somebody (I bet it was a missionary) told her that she doesn't love God since she won't come, or call a taxi to get to church or something like that. Ouch. Yeah. She's still bitter about that and so I said that I'd like to talk more with her later, but she said we'll see in the future. Oddly enough, I talked to the Elders about her and Elder Baird said he called her the night before, so obviously God wants us to get in contact with her :)
We maaaaaay be having exchanges this week...? I'm not sure. Sis.Wrigley was supposed to come down last week while her companions went to Lithuania for Sis. G's braces, but she was too sick so she stayed with the senior couple in Tallinn. So, perhaps we'll try again this week! Elder Elmer said he has some news for us, but won't say anything until tomorrow's district meeting :P BUT, I did get an e-mail from President Dance that includes the exchange report, so I think it's a go, for sure! (and if it's not, ha ha, oh well) Gotta run now!
Have a lovely Easter!
Love,
Courtney
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