May 30, 2011

Dearly beloved,

I had my first ride in an ambulance today! :D Whee~ Let's hope that'll be the only one too! Poor Sis. LeDuc hurt her knee quite badly while we were playing sports with the other missionaries, and we were going to suck it up to go in a taxi, but then the workers at the sports complex went ahead and called the ambulance, ha ha. The competition was getting rather intense since today we had a couple more players than usual. The Pärnu district stayed overnight after District Conference (like Stake Conference) so that the new missionaries could take care of I.D./visa/whatever work today. Since Sis. Lamar and Sis. Christopher had to do that, I went with Sis. LeDuc to the hospital. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and they still didn't really do a whole lot for her, but now she's on crutches. At least we met a really awesome couple who spoke English because he's from Italy and she's Estonian! He too, hurt his foot after he decided to play just 5 more minutes with his son, ha ha ha! Sis. LeDuc got their info while we got her crutches and x-ray developed, so I think they may actually live in our proselyting area here in Tallinn, yay~

My next 2 preparation days will be on Tuesdays, because on the 6th we'll be in Riga for Mission Conference and then the 13th will be zone conference here in Tallinn. Lots of fun events to look forward too! Recently, I've been thinking a lot about our Staycation and looking at the pictures of that on my camera since that happened a year ago now. It's almost unbelieveable! We found out that July 4th falls on preparation day, so we missionaries are going to have to plan something fun. One of the Russian sisters, Sis. Uibel (pronounced Yu-bel. Strange, I know!) started making an American questionnaire to see how American you really are. I helped her with it when we did exchanges on Thursday :) It's still a month away, so we've got time to work on it, but I'm pretty fond of the first question. Maybe not quite American history persay, but "How many thingamabobs does Ariel have?" :P Go ahead and sing the song!

We ate dinner with some members and the Perrys last week, and so I think we'll try to schedule another appointment this week. It was really lovely. Tonight we have family night with the branch president and his cute little family. District conference yesterday was really grand! President Dance spoke about how many people say that their family is their #1 priority. He'd like to rephrase that as "the salvation of my family is my #1 priority". When we understand that, then we look at the world very differently. Simply spending time with family won't save them. That comes through serving others, fulfilling callings and responsibilites and covenants. (Good work, big bro, in helping your ward members :) He cited examples of Lehi and President Monson in working for their family's salvation. I hope the members can take that to heart in helping their own families. There are many amazing members, but many of their children are straying from the strait and narrow. I don't know if it's because they're afraid of influencing their children's agency too much? Everything that inviteth and enticeth to do good is from God.

Well, I hope you all have another lovely week! Rumors are going around that this week will finally heat up, so I'm excited for that :)

Thanks for all the prayers and love.

Much love,
Courtney

May 23, 2011

Ahhhhhh, Heather's wedding!!! It's sounds like it was completely fun and lovely~ I got over most of the sickness, but I'm sorta left with a stuffy nose now. Not so fun, especially since it's finally starting to seem like summer. This weekend was perfect for the basketball tournament (lasted for 5 HOURS because of 8, 3-member teams :P Still way fun, even if my team didn't do so well), but now we're drying in the library from the lots of rain that's been pouring since this morning.

Ivo's baptism on Saturday went smoothly, and actually it turned out nicer than I anticipated. I was afraid there wouldn't been a big turnout since we had a branch event in the morning, but other missionaries brought some investigators along too. I ended up giving the 5 minute talk on the Holy Ghost since I couldn't get any other members to do it, haha. Ivo is excited to learn more from us through retention lessons, although I think he has a firm understanding of the doctrine already. The few times we've met to teach, he practically taught us with his responses to questions we were asking him. As far as that amazing family we found, we haven't been able to get in touch with them!! It's really sad! I don't know if she's just been busy or simply avoiding us :/ We'll keep praying for her that we can meet, because now we can't have her scheduled for baptism since it's been a while and she hasn't been taught again or come to church, etc. That means we still don't really have anybody to teach right now, so Sis. Lamar and I have lots of finding to do. I should probably start working on my Russian because I got those missionaries 5 phone numbers this week with my broken, BROKEN, Russian. I'm just hoping that they'll be returning the favors some how, or that there will be some miracles out of those contacts ;)

We'll be doing a dinner appointment at the Perrys' apartment (missionary couple) with some members in our area. This just gives the Perrys a chance to get to know the members and work more with them. We're the translators, and so that means we get some food too!

I'm sorry I don't have any other fun miracles to share. At least not anything big yet ;) There are definitely small ones that go unnoticed. Like for example, we went to randomly visit an inactive member, and he's going to come to church on Sunday! He's really a great man, he just knows he's a little disobedient. We talked a little about Chuck Norris though. Oh yes. That was hilarious! This weekend is District conference so I'm excited to see the members from all over Estonia, and the other missionaries too! On June 6th will be a mission-wide conference in Riga, so that'll be really nifty as well.

Thanks for all the love and support, family and friends. You mean so much to me.

Love,
Courtney

May 16, 2011

Awww, that was a cute story of playtime at Grandma's~ I wish I could get my hands on some Berry Crunch cereal for that size and price. My favorite cereal only lasts me about 4 bowlfuls (sp?), ha ha.

Well, I suppose the news is that I'm here in Tallinn with Sis. Lamar from Camdenton, Missouri. Sis. LeDuc is training Sis. Christopher back in Pärnu. We rode down to Riga on a bus Wednesday afternoon, so we arrived there a 5 in the evening and split up and did some things with the Latvian sisters and the met back at their apartment to sleep there for the night. Early Thursday morning, we had a Trainers' meeting where we discussed some of the new training material, straight from the MTC this year. The new program includes an extra hour of companion study and is geared towards helping new missionaries be prepared to train after being in the field for 12 weeks, if need be. Sis. Lamar told me that the next group in the MTC will have 2 Elder and 2 Sisters so she or Sis. Christopher could very well be training! That means we'll have 6 sisters at the beginning of August, so 2 trios? That'd be fun! Sis. LeDuc got permission from President Dance to leave mid-transfer so she could fly straight back to Utah to go to school, and that'll happen at the end of August. Interesting stuff~

Church would've been much more enjoyable if I wasn't sick xP I came down with a fever and a sore throat on Saturday night and I was about ready to ditch out on church, but I didn't want Sis. Lamar to miss her first Sunday. I mainly tried to sit in the back away from people aaaaaaand also so I could get some shut eye. After church, I asked for a blessing from Elder Broby. I'm doing a little better now, but I'm still really tired and somewhat achy :/ Being sick on a mission is the pits, and I especially feel bad for Sis. Lamar because she's stuck with me right now! She's so gung-ho at the moment (coming straight out of the MTC) so anytime we have to be inside is probably just eating at her. Well, hopefully she won't have to deal with more seriously ill companions, like I did.

This Saturday is the branch's annual basketball tournament! Fun fun! I know I used to be an aspiring basketball star in my days as a wee one, but I probably have no skills left in me, ha ha ha! Saturday is also important because our investigator Ivo is getting baptized. He just had his interview last night, so he's good to go ;) We were supposed to teach Sirli back on Tuesday, but she got sick and I sent her a text Saturday night, but she hasn't responded. :/ She still hasn't come to church yet, so if we ever do meet with her again, we'll probably have to push back her baptismal date.

Boy, this is a really lame e-mail, buuuuuuut that's all of the interesting news that I have :/ Let's pray for some miracles this next week! Thanks for all the love and support!! Oh yeah, and here's my new address:

Sister Courtney Smith
P/K 3379
10156 Tallinn
Estonia

Love you so much!

Courtney

May 9, 2011

Yay for Mother's Day calls!!! Except, immediately after I hung up, I realized that I forgot to bear my testimony in Estonian. Ha ha ha, oops~ Well, I guess you'll just have to wait a little longer to hear that. That was my second and last phone call I'll have on the mission. Wowzers! About the "like", it's come from talking with missionaries and telling crazy stories too much, ha ha! At least I don't say it when I speak Estonian! Some missionaries say "nagu" all the time, and it's rather distracting, at least for me :P I'm sure you feel the same way, he he he!!!

It was nice to hear all of your voices! The "cinco-cinco-cinco" was really cute :) Church yesterday was just great. Our investigator couldn't make it, but we'll have an appointment with her tomorrow night and a member offered her home for us to teach, so I hope we can do it there! Today's and Yesterday's weather has been gorgeous! We don't need any sort of jackets, and it's been nice to soak in some warmth and sunlight! I just hope that when it's really hot here, that it will be only for a short time. I can't imagine enduring hot weather without AC. Well, we still have a ways until that gets here, so moving on~

I don't think I have much to report on today since I told you most of the latest news on the phone already. Transfers calls will be no later than Tuesday night, but I'm already getting nervous for that! I'm excited to get a new companion and with the new training module that we have, that means we'll be together for at least 2 transfers (3 months). This new training would have been nice for Sis. LeDuc and I to have when we first got here to Estonia because supposedly it prepares you to train after only being in the field for 12 weeks. I was just thinking, I might have to train for the remainder of my mission... Am I ready for this?? Perhaps I'll never think so, but I was talking it over with Sis. Wrigley (Russian sister going home this week) and she said that it's amazing to see how the Lord helps you, in a way, to step up to that responsibility. Sis. LeDuc is going to be a great trainer, although she still worries with the language. I'm sure it'll turn out fine for me too :)

I've tried to keep half of my things packed, just in case I have to move, but I'll still have to re-situate things, ha ha. At least since we know we won't be opening a new apartment, wherever we end up, hopefully that means we won't have to take random cleaning/apartment supplies along with us. That made the move from Pärnu a rather interesting one :P Well, it's about time for me to get going now! Gotta go get some pancakes at Kompressor! Yummy~ Thanks for all the love and prayers! You're the bestest ;D

Love,
Courtney

May 2, 2011

Ooh boy, things have been pretty hectic this week, but so far so good in Tallinn. The Pärnu Elders have been taking the liberty of staying at our apartment there and eating our food, but oh well. Our new place here is like ye olde standard Estonian 2 room apartment. It's certainly tinier than the Pärnu South apartment and it was previously inhabited by an old grandma. Oh yes, it shows, ha ha ha ha. The Perrys, the missionary couple here in Tallinn, went to sign the lease and the owner didn't expect us to move in so quickly so the apartment was in pretty bad shape, cleaning-wise. The Perrys spent probably 7 hours just cleaning the kitchen on Wednesday. When we arrived on Thursday morning, we spent maybe 2 hours cleaning everything in the bathroom. The floor is still really gross so we might just chuck the rubbery covering on it and buy some new rugs or something. Perhaps the Perrys were a little desperate to get the apartment, but oh well. It's a missionary apartment. They're not always the prettiest places, but they're functional. Like for example, my bed could certainly be used for a trampoline, it's that bouncy! We're dying to try out some of the pieces from granny's several tea sets too :) And with the Russian sisters just a 10 minute walk away, there's definitely going to be fun things in the future!

President Dance just wanted to move us up here so we could get this area somewhat established before the new sisters arrive. We had to pack all of our belongings since one of us will be staying here to train while the other will go back to Pärnu or Tartu. I know sisters haven't been there (Tartu) in over a year. There might be hints that I'll be here, but there's still a week before transfers. The weather's been colder here than in Pärnu :P Must be that cold, nothern wind from the sea. We haven't been left with many investigators to work with, or much of an area book for that matter, so we're pretty much starting from scratch with this area. Yay for being whitewashed~ It's a little daunting, but so far it's been fun. We have the area of Mustamäe and Haabersti, so like south-western Tallinn. I think Mustamäe is kinda 50/50 when it comes to Russian and Estonian. Last night we went to do some knocking for about 2 hours at the far end of Haabersti. Lovely place!! I haven't seen nice houses of that size in well, almost a year, ha ha.

Miracle of today was that on our way to the library on the tram, we noticed a black man out the window who got of the tram. I always get excited when I see signs of diversity here :P Anyway, he stood in front of where we sat and he was just looking at us. I'd wanted to say something and then he asked in English if we were from some church. He'd seen my nametag! He's from Nigeria and he remembers a branch from his home town and had some good impressions of it. He's very religious and just wants to help his wife (an Estonian and sitting in front of us :) learn about Christ. So we gave them a contact card, a Book of Mormon, and we got their phone number. Aziz told us that he's looking forward to our call to meet in the future! And they'd like to come to church too! We had missed our stop because we were talking to him, but he also admitted that our conversation made his family miss his stop as well, ha ha ha! Wow, what a tender mercy from the Lord!

I don't have the mailing address for our mailbox in Tallinn yet. I'll get working on that. We still did an exchange on Friday, so Sis. G came with me to do service with the ward at the Zoo on Friday while Sis. LeDuc chilled with Sis. Dawson and Sis. Wrigley (who has had foot problems lately and can't do much) We'll be helping them out more this week so at least all of the sisters can get some equal time to get out there and work.

As far as the Mother's Day call, you can call me when it's evening time, therefore early morning for me. Sis. LeDuc's fam is going to call us during our night time. Maybe you could call me at around 7am? I don't know what time that'd be for you. Thanks for the prayers. I think it's working :)

Love,
Courtney

P.S.I actually can't really go and check on my e-mail so easily, but since it was an emergency, I got permission :)

April 25, 2011

Hi fam!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! And Happy Birthday to Shauna too! Easter here was very beautiful. We made a huge dinner for 10 (missionaries and some members) and it was a lot of work!! Now I better appreciate all that you do Mom! We made a pork roast, corn, a bunny-shaped cake and the Elders brought mashed potatoes.

The weather is just perfect right now. We went with a potential investigator this morning to the forest 30km away and there were some bogs too. The ground was very soft and felt like we were walking on mattresses, ha ha! We climbed to the top of a watch tower and We walked across the highway towards the oceanside to get to her country home. She's preparing to sell it because it's just too much work to keep it up by herself now that she's old. It was so cute~ The house was built some 118 years ago, but she's only owned it for the last 17 years. She did a lot of renovating, but it still looks very reminiscent of the period. I felt like I was in some sort of house turned into a museum, except we could actually touch and explore things, ha ha. After that, we tried to check out the ocean nearby, we saw some swans (?) but there wasn't really a beach so as we wandered around in the brush, we were just tromping around in the marshes and therefore got our shoes, feet, and pants soaked, ha ha ha. Buuuuuut it was still fun :)

Apparently Estonians like to color their eggs with onion peels that they wrap around the egg and then boil it to give it a brownish-yellowish color. Another interesting activity they do is to go around tapping the boiled eggs together to see who's cracks first. It's kinda like rock-paper-scissor fights, but with eggs :) We had a good turn out of people at Game night and several investigators too! The children did a puppet show of the Good Samaritan which was really cute.

It turns out that we didn't have the exchange last week, but it will be Friday of this week. I'll be going up to Tallinn and Sis. LeDuc will be here with Sis. G. I think this is an indicator that I may be moving to Tallinn next transfer. There's a high possibility, but I suppose we should wait for the official word in two or so weeks. Our District Conference (like stake conference for all the members here) has been change from this weekend until the final weekend in May because Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy will be coming from Moscow. I'm kinda bummed because I was looking forward to see everyone, but we'll have to wait some more.

Now that Easter's over, that means that Mother's Day is coming soon and a phone call home too! Better get excited~ I've been reading several Ensign articles lately about Easter and from conferences past. Those have been very uplifting and inspiring be to continually improve.

I love you all sooooooo much!

Love,
Courtney

April 18, 2011 Happy Easter

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

April 11, 2011

Hello!

Yesterday was quite lovely. Ain came to church, and Lempi left her Lutheran church a little early to come make it to sacrament meeting :) Unfortunately, they didn't stay for the last session of conference, but one of the Elders' investigators did! (she was found through the open house 6 months ago. She starting to attend again now that work isn't so crazy :) Ain told us he wanted to give a bunch of brochures to a friend of his, so that's cool! President Dance paid a surprise visit to our sacrament meeting (we only found out on Friday), and he spoke and so did a young man, so we actually didn't have testimony meeting, hehe. The young man actually was serving a mission in Hungary and he was actually in the same MTC group as Leslie Jordan. I don't know really the details for him coming home a few weeks ago, but I know Pres. Dance assigned him to speak yesterday, so it was good to see he's doing all right. After church we think we might try renting bikes sometime when it warms up a little more. We had Zone Conference on Friday and I was surprised to see it looked like it had recently snowed as we rode into town. However, it looked like lots of snow had melted in Pärnu once we were back in our apartment. Zone Conference was excellent!! Elder Neuenschwander, an Emeritus member of the Seventy, and his wife, are now family history-ish missionaries in Moscow. They've been assigned to speak to the members here in the Baltics about keeping records and the importance of them, but they also joined our conference. After the conference, we rode into the old town part of Tallinn and enjoyed some pancakes at Kompressor. It was really good, and nice on the wallet too! I finally had a sneek peek of Old Town, but I wish I could have explored more. Oh well. That day'll come sometime :D

I still have to finish watching the last session of conference in English, but I've been really enjoying it so far. Hearing the prophet speak about temples has made me even more anxious to go. I hear the youth are having a conference in Helsinki, Finland so they can do a temple trip in July. I wish I could go!!!! I believe it was Elder Robbins (?) who talked about marking off children as 'Done' like some checklist. We all had a good chuckle at that! So, what would you say about that, family? I'm not quite there yet, huh? :P Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

We'll probably have to push back Jüri's baptismal date...*sigh* We had the branch president teach him with us once this week, but since Bro. Raid already has something against him, they were just kinda bickering, so it wasn't very effective to teach with a spirit of contention there :/ He's just lacking faith and trust that God will bless him if he just tries to live the commandments. We'll have to work on the basics, because he's going to need some more time to bring for the fruits meet for repentance and baptism. The good news for the mission is that we have 40 baptismal dates though!

You're right, that Boston trip was a long time ago! I could totally imagine Dad have a good laugh at Stacey's blunt response :P HAHAHAHAHA. I would've roared with laughter as too! I've seen a couple of beagles around town lately and so it's made me really miss our little silly Tilly~ Thanks for all the love, hugs, kisses, and support!

Much love,
Courtney

P.S. The contacts are great. Oh, and last week, Bro. Tšekmarjov made us amazing banana milkshakes. Oh boy, they were SOOOOO DELICIOUS. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh? :)

April 4, 2011 Generel Conference

You're already in the high 90s??!? Wow. Today (finally) is absolutely gorgeous~ I think I might ditch the boots and leggings soon. Wearing pants under skirts for the last, well, 5 months or so
might take some adjusting to go without, he he! It's also strange to see how the sidewalks seem to grow nowadays. Were they really that big before the snow? I dunno. I'm glad to hear all is going well back home!

I got the package last week, woo hoo! The Starburst jelly beans didn't last long though, ha ha ha. They were just sooooo goooood. Like a burst of flavor in your mouth (hence the name? lol) Now that's American candy for ya ;D

We have Zone conference in Tallinn on Friday and I think some Emeritus member of the Seventy is doing a broadcast on Sunday. General Conference was great! We'll watch the rest of it in English this week or in the following weeks. We actually had 3 investigators come to at least one of the sessions! 2 of them are men that have baptismal dates, one for the 30th this month, but we still have a lot to teach them. The hard thing with Jüri is that we're experiencing some
resistance from some of the branch members who don't feel comfortable about him. We need a fellow lady member to teach him with us, but some declined or couldn't make it so we had to have the Elders help us teach. I think there are rumors going around about Jüri, which may or
may not be true, but I think he's trying to change. We'll be able to tell by how well he keeps his commitments when we teach him next time.

Now for some good news! Turns out Sis. Aitken was misdiagnosed and she actually just has Mononucleosis, hence the extreme fatigue. So, I guess once she can keep up a missionary's schedule for a full week, then she'll be ok to come back. I would think she'd come back here
since she's already learned some Estonian. Elder Aardema went back to Tartu, so now Elder Elmer is here and this is Elder Baird's last transfer. For today's p-day, we'll be playing tennis with the Elders and one of their English students, so we're excited for that :) Gah, I can't think of what else to write about!! Sorry fam! I get pressured and then my mind goes blank >.< But I hope you know I love you so much. You're such a great strength and support to me!

This joke's for you Ryan: What is a Russian's favorite movie? Horror Show!

Much love,
Courtney

P.S. Just so you know, my release date is December 9th. I've known for about a month now but I forgot to tell you :P

March 28, 2011 End of March

Hey hey!

I'm jealous of your weather right now. Ours can't seem to make up its mind! Winter doesn't seem to want to give up on its icy grasp just yet. It looks all nice and sunny in the morning, and then 15 minutes after we leave our apartment, it gets windy and snows. :? I don't get it. We had sort of a blizzard this morning but I think it might be kinda partially sunny right now.

The exchange was really fun! It was kind of nice to see a little more of the town. I didn't eat anything much different in Tallinn because we just made our own food :) Sis. Hoggard, who was down with Sis. LeDuc in Pärnu during the exchange, was the one with all the money, haha. I'm the one who takes care of the finances (yay for mah bankin' skillz~!) but we just made spaghetti and ate lots of toast and cereal. There are 3 Russian sisters in Tallinn, so thankfully they have enough beds for me to get one too. Sis. Grineviciute (sp?) is on a mini-mission (young adult member from Lithuania) but now we helped her do some of her paperwork for a full-time mission! She'll be serving here in the Baltics, Russian-speaking since she can't go anywhere else since she needs her braces on for like 3 years, (yikes) but also yay! We'll see more of her in the future! The time she's spent on the mini-mission will count to her total service time. I arrivedTuesday night so we tried to give a birthday card to an inactive but she wasn't home. On Wednesday, I got to sit through a missionary coordination meeting all in Russian (the Elders were worried I was getting blasted with the language, ha ha. I wish I at least knew some grammar basics so I could have learned more from this but oh well :P ) lucky me, hehe. After that, we make a big lunch and played a few rounds of Skip-Bo and Phase 10 (imported for Sis.
Hoggard's b-day a few weeks back :) Went to the church for a meeting with a young member and set off the alarm because Sis. Tanner forgot the code, ha ha ha! That was fun. Aaaaaaand to end that night, we taught an old man who knew some Estonian so I taught the first bit of the Plan of Salvation, but then I let them do the rest of the talking. It was a good, but looooong lesson so I tried to stay awake by the end of it, he he. Thursday was just back to Pärnu and we also did our weekly planning that day. Oh yeah! The 24th marked Sis. LeDuc's anniversary on her mission. WOW.

Friday was neat since we had all of our district's investigators with baptismal dates in attendance! We were celebrating the 70th birthday of one of the members so there was a LOT of food (which we conveniently used the leftovers for the following day's RS birthday event :) We also were celebrating Elder Aardema's birthday. After game night, we did an impromptu lesson with our 2 investigators (Ain and Jüri) and 2 members about the Book of Mormon which went very well.

We've found out that President Dance is doing transfer calls this evening, so methinks that means a lot of changes in the mission...? Elder Aardema predicts we'll be here just one more transfer and then move when the new sisters arrive. I think so too, but we'll see~

I think those comments about Lithuania could be said for the Baltic states in general, actually. The poor folks just aren't very used to being open and friendly. They kept to themselves during the Soviet time and that's still an ongoing trait, I'd say. Pärnu might be a little more of an exception, perhaps because they're accustomed to lots of summer visitors. We've been lucky to meet a lot of nice people, but we've still met angry, or unpolite people. Saturday night we had 2 people yell at us telling us to "leave them be. Nobody wants to hear what we have to say" Sure it's a downer, but it fades over time. What hurts more is that they have absolutely no idea that
giving us just 10 minutes could eternally change their lives for the better. "No time" is often an excuse that we get. Do we really not have enough time in our lives to allow God to bless us?

I'm really excited for General Conference this weekend! I think we'll watch it all in Estonian first with the members and then get together to watch it in English later on. Last night I read some of the March Liahona before bed and I really liked it :) Thanks for all the love, support and words of comfort and cheer!!

Hugs and kisses!
Courtney