Hello loved ones!
Yay for new babies in the family!!! Good thing he came a little early too, so that probably put Lachelle at ease. Shauna sent me pictures :D Oh, about Kara, Noel thankfully notified me of that about a month back or so. I just got Kara's wedding announcement last week because it was sent to Pärnu. That is so funny! Her new husband was actually in Symphony with me and Noel, Jake, etc. :) And she was so excited to learn French to go to Montreal too! Ha ha ha!
Grilled pizzas sound so delicious right now.... Often we missionaries go to eat before coming to the library, but not today, so now I'm STARVING. I rocked it during the last half of Gatorball today, so I got lots of high-fives from the Elders, ;) I actually scored maybe 4 goals today! w00t. Sisters are kind of like wildcards, I guess. Some weeks we do really well, others, not so much, hehehe.
We finally got the schedule for Conference this weekend, so it looks like we'll live at the church on Saturday and Sunday :) The final session will be shown the following weekend after Sacrament meeting. I've been reading the September Liahona lately too, so that's getting me all sorts of excited as well! Among other news, tea consumption has been exponential throughout the month of September, and it doesn't show signs of letting up... (tried to make that sound like some forecast, lol) Everybody we visit now offers us some. It's that time of year again~ Speaking of forecast, I'm sure it's been cloudy and rainy nearly every day for the last 2 weeks. One particular day last week was very... misty? The drops were so small, it just felt like the clouds were constantly spitting in your face. x( I took down my coats so Sis. Lamar could try them on and see what she wants to look for. How did I survive with those last winter??? I don't knooooooooow. Heavenly Father sure does watch over his missionaries :) Anywho, last Friday we joined the youth for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. It took them a while to get the hang of it, but I think they enjoyed themselves :)
Last week had some great little miracles, and some upsets too, and even this all happens daily. But you learn to shrug it off and you sorta forget it all in the morning after a good 8 hours of sleep :) That's what I look forward to nowadays, ha ha! Thanks for all the love! You're the greatest!
Love,
Courtney
P.S. For ASU, I don't remember my ID # any more. You got that? I'll try to get working on that letter this week. Maybe I'll write the rough draft, then type it next week?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
September 19, 2011
Tere, mu kallikesed!! (Hi my little dears!)
This week's e-mail may be relatively short because I actually sent you a voice recording! w00t w00t! I always forget I have that feature to use, but I was reminded of it yesterday because a few Elders use it quite frequently. So, that takes care of having to write down a lot of details for some of the little miracles we had this week :) I don't know if that's the smarter or lazier way to go, ha ha ha.
Well, Sis. Lamar and I are still here in Tallinn! (And so are the Russian sisters too! :) We're in for the long haul. It's interesting how my mission has been almost equally split between maybe 2 companions. Variety is hard to come by when you only have 4 Estonian-speaking sisters, but meh, we're becoming better friends as the time passes. I told Sis. Lamar that I apologize in advance if I kill her by the end of this transfer, though, ha ha! :P We've has some minor little quarrels lately, but it's mostly me just being stupid. Yeah, that's probably why.
Back on Saturday, we cancelled English class so we could participate in the branch's service project day. This day was actually district-wide, so each branch was doing little service projects all around Estonia. Sis. Lamar and I were grouped with the cute lil' ol' Relief Society President and we were dropped off at our service location in the Nõmme area of Tallinn. All we did was just clean a couple windows for this 83-year-old lady named Silvi, but she was oh so grateful for us being there. There were so many tears shed and so many thanks and praises to the Lord during our visit. The project really could've taken 1 hour, but we were there for 4 0.0 That was mostly due to Silvi and Luule (RS pres.) talking away and looking at pictures. Silvi had a really awesome trip journal of when she and her husband traveled all around south-eastern Europe and hiked several mountains in or near Hungary. There were pictures that went with every entry! It was super cool, and it inspired me to try that some time in the future :) Silvi was so over-joyed to have us there, she even clapped her hands with excitement when Luule suggested that we sisters pay her another visit in the future, lol. I don't think I've ever received that sort of reaction before. If we do go to visit her this week, we'll take the Nõmme Elders with us so we can pass her off to them.
Other than that, we've had some good lessons with members this week, active and less-active. We taught a few investigators, and even invited 2 of them to be baptized, but they say they're too old to change (they're not that old). Boy, the excuses you hear on a mission are probably the most lame, EVAR. Anyway, really, I think this just means that Sis. Lamar and I have some finding to do, because nothing's really coming out of the investigators we have... That's kind of disappointing considering we thought we had some good young potential with a few of them. Well, that's just another joy of missionary work! You learn how to cope with disappointment on a whole new level.
This past week was sooooooooooo rainy, windy, and stormy!!! Yesterday was finally lovely again, but it's back to dark and rainy today. And oh my goodness, the sun goes down before 8PM now!! That's so strange ;P We'll have to go buy our reflectors soon so we can hang them from our bags or coats, yay~ Oh yeah, and I finally busted out my coats from my suitcase, just so Sis. Lamar could try them on for size. I should get those dry cleaned before I have to use them again...
Wow, I'm glad I didn't miss out on your dinner party, ha ha! I'm so excited for General Conference in a few weeks. We had District Conference yesterday, but it was just broadcasted to the other branches so that wasn't as fun, but the talks and testimonies were so great. Thanks for all the love and support!
Love,
Courtney
This week's e-mail may be relatively short because I actually sent you a voice recording! w00t w00t! I always forget I have that feature to use, but I was reminded of it yesterday because a few Elders use it quite frequently. So, that takes care of having to write down a lot of details for some of the little miracles we had this week :) I don't know if that's the smarter or lazier way to go, ha ha ha.
Well, Sis. Lamar and I are still here in Tallinn! (And so are the Russian sisters too! :) We're in for the long haul. It's interesting how my mission has been almost equally split between maybe 2 companions. Variety is hard to come by when you only have 4 Estonian-speaking sisters, but meh, we're becoming better friends as the time passes. I told Sis. Lamar that I apologize in advance if I kill her by the end of this transfer, though, ha ha! :P We've has some minor little quarrels lately, but it's mostly me just being stupid. Yeah, that's probably why.
Back on Saturday, we cancelled English class so we could participate in the branch's service project day. This day was actually district-wide, so each branch was doing little service projects all around Estonia. Sis. Lamar and I were grouped with the cute lil' ol' Relief Society President and we were dropped off at our service location in the Nõmme area of Tallinn. All we did was just clean a couple windows for this 83-year-old lady named Silvi, but she was oh so grateful for us being there. There were so many tears shed and so many thanks and praises to the Lord during our visit. The project really could've taken 1 hour, but we were there for 4 0.0 That was mostly due to Silvi and Luule (RS pres.) talking away and looking at pictures. Silvi had a really awesome trip journal of when she and her husband traveled all around south-eastern Europe and hiked several mountains in or near Hungary. There were pictures that went with every entry! It was super cool, and it inspired me to try that some time in the future :) Silvi was so over-joyed to have us there, she even clapped her hands with excitement when Luule suggested that we sisters pay her another visit in the future, lol. I don't think I've ever received that sort of reaction before. If we do go to visit her this week, we'll take the Nõmme Elders with us so we can pass her off to them.
Other than that, we've had some good lessons with members this week, active and less-active. We taught a few investigators, and even invited 2 of them to be baptized, but they say they're too old to change (they're not that old). Boy, the excuses you hear on a mission are probably the most lame, EVAR. Anyway, really, I think this just means that Sis. Lamar and I have some finding to do, because nothing's really coming out of the investigators we have... That's kind of disappointing considering we thought we had some good young potential with a few of them. Well, that's just another joy of missionary work! You learn how to cope with disappointment on a whole new level.
This past week was sooooooooooo rainy, windy, and stormy!!! Yesterday was finally lovely again, but it's back to dark and rainy today. And oh my goodness, the sun goes down before 8PM now!! That's so strange ;P We'll have to go buy our reflectors soon so we can hang them from our bags or coats, yay~ Oh yeah, and I finally busted out my coats from my suitcase, just so Sis. Lamar could try them on for size. I should get those dry cleaned before I have to use them again...
Wow, I'm glad I didn't miss out on your dinner party, ha ha! I'm so excited for General Conference in a few weeks. We had District Conference yesterday, but it was just broadcasted to the other branches so that wasn't as fun, but the talks and testimonies were so great. Thanks for all the love and support!
Love,
Courtney
Monday, September 12, 2011
September 12, 2011
Hey,hey!
Wow, the ward back home is still growing?!? How many more LDS folks can we fit into that area??
Uh, yes, please let me know what I need to do about going back to ASU. I thought they said something about me sending them a letter or whatever at least 2 months before I'm back, I don't know if that means before the semester, or about the time I get back to the U.S. The change in my release date was dictated more by the MTC as far as scheduling incoming and departing missionaries I guess. This next transfer will be 7 weeks long, and then the one after that will be the normal 6 weeks. We have transfers this week, so we still don't know where we're going to be yet. The sisters in Pärnu right now think that the newish Sis. Nef could come up to Tallinn to be with Sis. Lamar, and so I'd go back down to Pärnu. I love that apartment, and the members, but I think I may want to stay here, at least one more transfer. Meh, we'll see what happens! Sis. Lamar is sort of freaking out now with the thought that she'd been in charge if she's left here with a new sister, ha ha ha! She only knows where some of the busses go and she's been here almost as long as me! Thank goodness I'm pretty good at directions. :P
This week, I had the special opportunity to ride in an old Lada (a.k.a. Zhiguli, or something like that), twice! This particular model was 25 or so years old, so it's a relic from the Soviet era. A member gave us a ride home after dinner at the Perrys' on Friday night, and we also hitched a ride after church. Then she gave us a gigantic bag of apples, which we're still trying to figure out what to do with. We made a little applesauce, ate a few, and even gave a dozen or so to the Russian sisters and we still have a lot left over. It's still nice that people consider that the missionaries could use some food though. :)
Back on Saturday, we still taught English class, even though the Russians cancelled their's for a branch activity they were doing that same day. Before class started, there was a young Russian man who came in and I thought he wanted to know about English class. Thankfully, we had a member there who could speak Russian, because we actually found out that he wanted to know about our church services. I called up one of the missionaries and had them talk about that. And he really did come to church yesterday! This could be like one of those random, but miraculous stories that we get sometimes in the mission where somebody waltzes into the church on their own!
Tonight, we have a lesson with a less-active member, so I hope that goes well. We've never talked to him before, so we'll just get to know him and learn of his experiences. Pres. Boswell has asked us to leave a blessing on each home we visit, but we don't always meet the people we teach in their homes. Sometimes they won't let us, hehe. At least our lesson tonight will be though!
Do I feel like I've grown a lot on my mission? That's a question that I think almost everyone asks, ha ha! Boy, I sure hope so! You'd kinda hope that with all this time and money spent that you'd get what you'd pay for and more, right?! ;) Sometimes I feel like a totally different person, and at other times, I still feel like just plain ol' me. But overall, yes, I feel like I've grown and been stretched and have found out what I'm good at and what I'm not so good at. It's a very humbling experience, and I'm learning how to better work with others and of course, rely more on our Heavenly Father and the Savior. A mission is almost like a huge testing ground for life where you can try out new things and see how well they do or do not work out, ha ha. Or like the Church's "finishing school". Sis. Lamar and I had a long pillow talk about this last week. She decided that she wanted to be really honest and she admitted some of her frustrations that she had with me, but she's over it now and she's really thankful that she could learn from me. I feel likewise about her too. Having a companion 24/7 helps to reveal some personal issues, problems, or quirks that you have that you never realized you had before! But, being honest, open, and humble about it really helps find solutions to work it out. Marriage prep, anyone? Ha ha ha ha! :P I feel like I've learned about a lot of good skills for life while on a mission. I certainly have a lot more to learn though! Perhaps ya'll would be better judges of how much I've really changed (or not)! I also feel more sure about who I am and who I want to be, and become, etc.
Thanks for all of the love! I love you all so dearly~
Love,
Courtney
P. S. I forgot to mention that we have a Estonia-wide service day on Saturday with all the members and then District conference on Sunday! w00t w00t. General Conference will be here before you know it ;)
Wow, the ward back home is still growing?!? How many more LDS folks can we fit into that area??
Uh, yes, please let me know what I need to do about going back to ASU. I thought they said something about me sending them a letter or whatever at least 2 months before I'm back, I don't know if that means before the semester, or about the time I get back to the U.S. The change in my release date was dictated more by the MTC as far as scheduling incoming and departing missionaries I guess. This next transfer will be 7 weeks long, and then the one after that will be the normal 6 weeks. We have transfers this week, so we still don't know where we're going to be yet. The sisters in Pärnu right now think that the newish Sis. Nef could come up to Tallinn to be with Sis. Lamar, and so I'd go back down to Pärnu. I love that apartment, and the members, but I think I may want to stay here, at least one more transfer. Meh, we'll see what happens! Sis. Lamar is sort of freaking out now with the thought that she'd been in charge if she's left here with a new sister, ha ha ha! She only knows where some of the busses go and she's been here almost as long as me! Thank goodness I'm pretty good at directions. :P
This week, I had the special opportunity to ride in an old Lada (a.k.a. Zhiguli, or something like that), twice! This particular model was 25 or so years old, so it's a relic from the Soviet era. A member gave us a ride home after dinner at the Perrys' on Friday night, and we also hitched a ride after church. Then she gave us a gigantic bag of apples, which we're still trying to figure out what to do with. We made a little applesauce, ate a few, and even gave a dozen or so to the Russian sisters and we still have a lot left over. It's still nice that people consider that the missionaries could use some food though. :)
Back on Saturday, we still taught English class, even though the Russians cancelled their's for a branch activity they were doing that same day. Before class started, there was a young Russian man who came in and I thought he wanted to know about English class. Thankfully, we had a member there who could speak Russian, because we actually found out that he wanted to know about our church services. I called up one of the missionaries and had them talk about that. And he really did come to church yesterday! This could be like one of those random, but miraculous stories that we get sometimes in the mission where somebody waltzes into the church on their own!
Tonight, we have a lesson with a less-active member, so I hope that goes well. We've never talked to him before, so we'll just get to know him and learn of his experiences. Pres. Boswell has asked us to leave a blessing on each home we visit, but we don't always meet the people we teach in their homes. Sometimes they won't let us, hehe. At least our lesson tonight will be though!
Do I feel like I've grown a lot on my mission? That's a question that I think almost everyone asks, ha ha! Boy, I sure hope so! You'd kinda hope that with all this time and money spent that you'd get what you'd pay for and more, right?! ;) Sometimes I feel like a totally different person, and at other times, I still feel like just plain ol' me. But overall, yes, I feel like I've grown and been stretched and have found out what I'm good at and what I'm not so good at. It's a very humbling experience, and I'm learning how to better work with others and of course, rely more on our Heavenly Father and the Savior. A mission is almost like a huge testing ground for life where you can try out new things and see how well they do or do not work out, ha ha. Or like the Church's "finishing school". Sis. Lamar and I had a long pillow talk about this last week. She decided that she wanted to be really honest and she admitted some of her frustrations that she had with me, but she's over it now and she's really thankful that she could learn from me. I feel likewise about her too. Having a companion 24/7 helps to reveal some personal issues, problems, or quirks that you have that you never realized you had before! But, being honest, open, and humble about it really helps find solutions to work it out. Marriage prep, anyone? Ha ha ha ha! :P I feel like I've learned about a lot of good skills for life while on a mission. I certainly have a lot more to learn though! Perhaps ya'll would be better judges of how much I've really changed (or not)! I also feel more sure about who I am and who I want to be, and become, etc.
Thanks for all of the love! I love you all so dearly~
Love,
Courtney
P. S. I forgot to mention that we have a Estonia-wide service day on Saturday with all the members and then District conference on Sunday! w00t w00t. General Conference will be here before you know it ;)
Monday, September 5, 2011
September 5, 2011
Howdy howdy, Fam and Friends!
Yesterday and today have been absolutely gorgeous, weather wise~ No Labor Day here, but the 1st of September is a national holiday because that's when all the kiddos go back to school. Sis. S (native Latvian, but also Russian mini-missionary) had to go to Latvia to get her health tests and things done so she could complete her missionary application. So, Sis. Uibel came to chill with us for 2 days. Always a pleasure! It would have been more fun if we taught more lessons though, because we were stood up by almost all of the lessons we had at the church xP I don't know if having lessons scheduled at the church building is like more of an excuse for folks, NOT to show up... because usually we don't know their addresses if we just contacted them on the street and got a phone number.
As for working with less-actives, we've made contact with a lot of them, but haven't really been able to teach many of them yet. Many people have no valid phone number on file, just an address, but they're usually not home, so I guess we have to keep stalking some of them. Who knows, maybe they don't even live there anymore. We missionaries are mostly just collecting information so we can clean up the ward list because there is a lot of wrong information on it. Some less-actives might even seem impossible to find if they moved or don't have a working phone number (people change numbers here a lot, it seems), so we've sorta joked about having members do some internet stalking or something to try and locate these people. That sounds like something I'd enjoy doing, but alas, as a missionary, I have very limited internet access :P That could potentially be a very good resource though.
Anne came to church yesterday and so did a less-active member or two that are in our area! Slowly, we're seeing some improvement. We're really trying to work on our teaching skills and we realized that we have a lot we can work on. I really don't know what else to say, and now it's time to jet. Sorry!
Happy Birthday to all the birthday kids and thanks for all of the prayers and support!!
Lots of love,
Courtney
P.S. The mission president just issued an e-mail for the missionaries leaving the same time as me. My release date is actually Dec. 16th, just so you're aware.
Yesterday and today have been absolutely gorgeous, weather wise~ No Labor Day here, but the 1st of September is a national holiday because that's when all the kiddos go back to school. Sis. S (native Latvian, but also Russian mini-missionary) had to go to Latvia to get her health tests and things done so she could complete her missionary application. So, Sis. Uibel came to chill with us for 2 days. Always a pleasure! It would have been more fun if we taught more lessons though, because we were stood up by almost all of the lessons we had at the church xP I don't know if having lessons scheduled at the church building is like more of an excuse for folks, NOT to show up... because usually we don't know their addresses if we just contacted them on the street and got a phone number.
As for working with less-actives, we've made contact with a lot of them, but haven't really been able to teach many of them yet. Many people have no valid phone number on file, just an address, but they're usually not home, so I guess we have to keep stalking some of them. Who knows, maybe they don't even live there anymore. We missionaries are mostly just collecting information so we can clean up the ward list because there is a lot of wrong information on it. Some less-actives might even seem impossible to find if they moved or don't have a working phone number (people change numbers here a lot, it seems), so we've sorta joked about having members do some internet stalking or something to try and locate these people. That sounds like something I'd enjoy doing, but alas, as a missionary, I have very limited internet access :P That could potentially be a very good resource though.
Anne came to church yesterday and so did a less-active member or two that are in our area! Slowly, we're seeing some improvement. We're really trying to work on our teaching skills and we realized that we have a lot we can work on. I really don't know what else to say, and now it's time to jet. Sorry!
Happy Birthday to all the birthday kids and thanks for all of the prayers and support!!
Lots of love,
Courtney
P.S. The mission president just issued an e-mail for the missionaries leaving the same time as me. My release date is actually Dec. 16th, just so you're aware.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
August 29, 2011
With this new focus on working with less-active and active members, that's what we spent most of our time with this past week. A lot of it was wandering around finding addresses and trying to stop by at apartments because the phone numbers are bad. There are several people in our area that have seemed to vanish because we have no good, current contact information for them :/ I don't know if some of the members would still keep in contact with them. We got jaked by a less-active and we'd planned for the branch president to come with, so since that fell through, he invited us to his place for a soup dinner with his family! That was so nice :) We had several other appointments that were no-shows, so that's always disappointing, but meh, that's missionary work.
It's so strange to think Sis. LeDuc is home now! At least she's going right back to school, so that'll keep her busy. Chances are that I'll be in Tallinn for at least one more transfer, probably with Sis. Lamar again too. The new training program wants new missionaries to be with their trainers for 2 transfers and Sis. Christopher and Sis. Nef are in their 1st transfer together.
Last night, we had a birthday dinner for Elder Broby, which was pretty nice. Elders McGavin and Nielson made all of the food and there was 7up chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and kool-aid like beverages. Brownies and ice cream were for dessert! After that, we had a nice lesson on the Plan of Salvation with some less-actives, who both made it to sacrament meeting earlier that day. :) Yahoo! Actually, we had 4 less-actives from our area at church!
People keep wanting to give us fruits and veggies to eat! It's kind of annoying sometimes, ha ha ha. We scored tons of plums and apples and we don't know what to do with them all. Maybe make applesauce?
I got some letters from cousin Chaz, and Noel this week, yay! I also just got a letter from an MTC friend serving in the San Diego mission and she said she went on exchanges with Maureen Davis a few weeks back! Boy, what a small world! She thought it was cool to make that connection. :) Sis. Uibel gets to come chill with us for 2 days this week since her companions have to go to Latvia, so I'm looking forward to that! We're actually going to go out to eat today, just sisters only. I don't know if the Elders are just jealous, but they said we can only do that just once a transfer, ha ha. Good thing a new transfer starts in about 2 weeks ;P Golly, I'm almost in my last 2 transfers... what???
So, here's my fail DVD player quote of the week! *written on back of player* " HIGH TEMP. CAUTION Please do not put it in the sun directly or near to the instrument in kitchen! They may change its shape or color, its surface can become hot if it worked long time, but this is not abort."
That's all I got this week! Thanks for all of the love and prayers!
Love,
Courtney
It's so strange to think Sis. LeDuc is home now! At least she's going right back to school, so that'll keep her busy. Chances are that I'll be in Tallinn for at least one more transfer, probably with Sis. Lamar again too. The new training program wants new missionaries to be with their trainers for 2 transfers and Sis. Christopher and Sis. Nef are in their 1st transfer together.
Last night, we had a birthday dinner for Elder Broby, which was pretty nice. Elders McGavin and Nielson made all of the food and there was 7up chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and kool-aid like beverages. Brownies and ice cream were for dessert! After that, we had a nice lesson on the Plan of Salvation with some less-actives, who both made it to sacrament meeting earlier that day. :) Yahoo! Actually, we had 4 less-actives from our area at church!
People keep wanting to give us fruits and veggies to eat! It's kind of annoying sometimes, ha ha ha. We scored tons of plums and apples and we don't know what to do with them all. Maybe make applesauce?
I got some letters from cousin Chaz, and Noel this week, yay! I also just got a letter from an MTC friend serving in the San Diego mission and she said she went on exchanges with Maureen Davis a few weeks back! Boy, what a small world! She thought it was cool to make that connection. :) Sis. Uibel gets to come chill with us for 2 days this week since her companions have to go to Latvia, so I'm looking forward to that! We're actually going to go out to eat today, just sisters only. I don't know if the Elders are just jealous, but they said we can only do that just once a transfer, ha ha. Good thing a new transfer starts in about 2 weeks ;P Golly, I'm almost in my last 2 transfers... what???
So, here's my fail DVD player quote of the week! *written on back of player* " HIGH TEMP. CAUTION Please do not put it in the sun directly or near to the instrument in kitchen! They may change its shape or color, its surface can become hot if it worked long time, but this is not abort."
That's all I got this week! Thanks for all of the love and prayers!
Love,
Courtney
Monday, August 22, 2011
Monday August 22nd, 2011
All is well and good around these parts! We've had some fun things to do lately, so that helps to pump us up and enjoy our work a little more. Last Thursday, we actually had 5 lessons planned with investigators, and less-active members. I don't think I've ever had that many scheduled appointments in one day. In the Baltics, that's pretty good! So, I hope that's a sign that things are improving :)
Friday was exchanges with the Pärnu sisters! Sis. LeDuc leaves for Riga on Wednesday, and the back to the States on Thursday! That's so weird. Since she and I were together in Pärnu on Friday, it was just like old times, and it almost made me feel like I supposed to go with her, ha ha! Alas, my time has not yet come, but it is soon enough, goodness gracious! Time flies~ (they same the same thing in Estonian too :)
On Saturday, we came back up to Tallinn for zone conference, which was fantastic!! Pres. Boswell wants us to contact all of the members in our areas by October 23rd or somewhere around there. He wants us to make that our new focus, to teach all of the the lessons they learned before baptism. He actually hopes that this won't be finished before all of us leave the field! I'm hoping to get some more instruction and ideas on how to go about this, and working with members to accomplish at tomorrow's district meeting. After zone conference, most of the Estonian missionaries crashed at Kompressor for some yummy pancakes. They're deceptively filling. At zone conference, we were also given DVD players so we can watch the District, missionary training videos during our study or meal times. What's almost better than that was the hilarious instruction manual with it's poorly written Engrish. Here are some good ones:
-"After buying the DVD (player), please read the operations and other instruction of user manual carefully, the incorrect use will cause the damage of health and loose of wealth." That sounds like a proverb.
- "Note: avoid of the liquid of LCD screen touch body directly, when it was broken, the liquid has touched the skin, please wash your skin by mass water at least 15 minutes." Mass water??
Stay tuned for more, I just ran out of time today to list more ;) Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers. You're the greatest!!!!!
Lots of love,
Courtney
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday August 15th, 2011
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how some afford to live here and have long vacations, and summer homes, etc., especially when they complain about how little they earn. Hmmmm, go figure... Anyway, you'd almost think it's already Fall time here. It's been rather cool so in the mornings, I feel like it's time to go back to school. I think someone told me it's supposed to go back up to the low 80s later this week, ha ha. I hope y'all aren't dying back at home.
I don't know if it was our fault or what, but we're not going to teach Keili anymore for a while. Her member cousin finally came back from her month with her husband's family in the States so we asked her to call Keili and invite her to church. Maris (member) said that Keili just wasn't sure if this is what she's looking for, although we know she really enjoyed it only 2 months ago. I don't know what the deal is, if we were too persistant with following up on her while she was out of town, invited members to her house to teach with us, or a myriad of other things. When there are disappointments, all sorts of questions and theories pop up. Whatever it may be, we're just going to give her some space and still make her cookies or something from time to time. Maris is sure she'll come back, one day. Poor lil' Sis. Lamar is still pretty heartbroken about it. I think she was affected the worst. But, there's still hope! We had a great lesson with a guy last week, and we happened to see him on the street last week, and we saw Anne this morning on our way to sports. Last Saturday was her birthday, so she said she couldn't make it to church, but I know she wants to come again. Now we just got to get her to read more (and her son too!)
We had exchanges with the Russian sisters last week so I got to be with Sis. Hanks and Sis. Schnaidere (uh, spelling? I have no clue, but she's a mini missionary from Latvia :) I even got them a Russian lady to call whom I contacted on the bus. I keep half-joking with them that it seems like my job since I've been in Tallinn is to find the Russians people to teach. Half-joking. Lol. Surprisingly, we got a call from the sister missionaries down in Pärnu right after the exchange we had and they said that that we're doing another one, this time with them! I think I'm going back to Pärnu on Friday so I can be there with Sis. LeDuc, and we're going to do game night with the branch too! Awww, like old times~ We have zone conference on Saturday so we're going to come up to Tallinn early that morning. Sis. LeDuc only has about 10 or so days left! Egads! That's absurd. Anyway, it's probably better she's going straight from the mission right back into school at BYU.
Other than that, I'm not sure what else to mention... oh yeah! I scored 3 goals at Gatorball today! w00t! I think that's the first time I ever scored. Well, thanks to some great assists from Sis. Hanks ;) We also made our own chili con carne concoction last week that turned out pretty well with baked potatoes. Maybe we'll try that again this week. We should come up with some new meal ideas... we're kinda getting stuck in a rut, hehehe. Mom, I love how you always mention food in your emails. It makes me yearn for some good ol' homestyle cookin'.
Well, that's enough of that. Thanks for all the love and support, loved ones! You're the greatest!!! Thanks for the hugs and kisses too ;)
Love,
Courtney
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday August 8th, 2011
This morning, Sis. Lamar and I got haircuts, well mine was just a slight trim. But yay, for soft, flowy, hair! We've got a bunch of new missionaries in Tallinn now, mostly in the Russian district though. Even a mini-missionary is joining the Russian sisters! She's from Latvia, but knows Russian and English well. I have to ask her how to write her name ;P
Great work, Mom! That's nice that sister knew she could turn to you for help. Our mission president also wants us to work with our branch president and council to work with less-actives and part-member families. Mostly, it's just been us doing it on our own, so I wonder what our district will try to do differently to help with that. We've been working with some less-actives, and it's slowly working. I think what helps is having them to member missionary work, so they're more prone to come with a friend they wish to introduce to the church. One of them should have been there on Sunday, but he's reaaaaaaaaly laaaaaaaaazy, and he's promised us so many times. At least we got him to come about 2 weeks ago. We got a round of high-fives for that from the Elders at the following district meeting, he he he.
Keili did come back to town, but she said she wasn't sure when she could meet. We had some other appointments set up this past week, but some of them got sick. Sometimes I wonder if they feel as sick as they say they do... So! We're praying for a happy, healthy week! We've done a lot of contacting, and a little bit of knocking. Last night we found a great couple and a young mom that said we could come back. The Russian Sisters are now teaching a young man we knocked into and got his phone number. He's been to church twice and has a baptismal date! I wish we had a good progressing investigator like that for ourselves, but oh well, I guess we're really working for the same team after all ;) We taught an old man from our English class on Saturday and he was the only person we invited who came to church. I don't know why he keeps coming to class since he's seeing little to no progress with his language, but maybe he's been prepared for a greater purpose :)
Last week's double FHEs were a blast! We were fed so much food! The Branch President's family even surprised us by busting out some homemade root beer floats!! Oh goodness, that was dreamy~ Apparently Elder Lane gave him the root beer extract ;) It's almost strange now to look out the window before bed and see the street lights back on at night, ha ha. Within 2 months, it'll probably starting becoming really dark. Oh boy~
The primary religion is Lutheran, with Russian Orthodox coming in 2nd and a good number of Baptists, Pentecostals too.
Thanks so much for the prayers and fasting on my behalf. It's been a better week, not exactly sure how. It's sure been exhausting at times! Uhhhhh.... I am all out of ideas of what to right now of what to write. Buuuuuut I love you all so so much! You're the greatest. Thanks for everything!
Love,
Courtney
Great work, Mom! That's nice that sister knew she could turn to you for help. Our mission president also wants us to work with our branch president and council to work with less-actives and part-member families. Mostly, it's just been us doing it on our own, so I wonder what our district will try to do differently to help with that. We've been working with some less-actives, and it's slowly working. I think what helps is having them to member missionary work, so they're more prone to come with a friend they wish to introduce to the church. One of them should have been there on Sunday, but he's reaaaaaaaaly laaaaaaaaazy, and he's promised us so many times. At least we got him to come about 2 weeks ago. We got a round of high-fives for that from the Elders at the following district meeting, he he he.
Keili did come back to town, but she said she wasn't sure when she could meet. We had some other appointments set up this past week, but some of them got sick. Sometimes I wonder if they feel as sick as they say they do... So! We're praying for a happy, healthy week! We've done a lot of contacting, and a little bit of knocking. Last night we found a great couple and a young mom that said we could come back. The Russian Sisters are now teaching a young man we knocked into and got his phone number. He's been to church twice and has a baptismal date! I wish we had a good progressing investigator like that for ourselves, but oh well, I guess we're really working for the same team after all ;) We taught an old man from our English class on Saturday and he was the only person we invited who came to church. I don't know why he keeps coming to class since he's seeing little to no progress with his language, but maybe he's been prepared for a greater purpose :)
Last week's double FHEs were a blast! We were fed so much food! The Branch President's family even surprised us by busting out some homemade root beer floats!! Oh goodness, that was dreamy~ Apparently Elder Lane gave him the root beer extract ;) It's almost strange now to look out the window before bed and see the street lights back on at night, ha ha. Within 2 months, it'll probably starting becoming really dark. Oh boy~
The primary religion is Lutheran, with Russian Orthodox coming in 2nd and a good number of Baptists, Pentecostals too.
Thanks so much for the prayers and fasting on my behalf. It's been a better week, not exactly sure how. It's sure been exhausting at times! Uhhhhh.... I am all out of ideas of what to right now of what to write. Buuuuuut I love you all so so much! You're the greatest. Thanks for everything!
Love,
Courtney
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday August 1st, 2011
LOTS OF RAIN, recently! We talked to a less-active member last night and she said that on Saturday, they got a month's worth of rain. Wish I could send a little your way! Today is beautiful though, and The Perrys, our senior couple, said that this week is forecasted to just be sunny. If it's like today, then I'd like it. :)
Today has been super fun! We went to Skypark a huge, trampoline/indoor playground place. It's more for kids, so it was pretty funny when a dozen or so adults took over the trampolines for a time, but when we migrated to the jungle gym, the kids rushed back ;) We even played out some war scenarios with foam balls and air turrets, and we used the plastic balls for grenades! It was very intense and tiring, ha ha ha. To finish it off, most everyone tried on the sumo suits and we had wrestling matches. I only watched :) Afterward, we ate some pancakes at Kompressor. Tonight we're doing FHE with the Branch President's cute little family! We also wanted to meet with another family this week, and dear Sister informed me that they're actually doing FHE on Tuesday night since she'll be out of town, so we're having back-to-back FHEs this week! Woohoo!
We didn't have any of our own investigators at church yesterday, but we saw a friend of a man whom we've taught once and invited him to church, and he came (after he finished his cigarette, lol) He stayed for all 3 hours and has a teaching appointment with the Elders :) Now that it's finally August, people will start migrating back into the city over the next few weeks so we can finally get some lessons and progressing investigators.
Transfers happen on Thursday. That means Elder Barney is leaving! So strange, especially since he was the last remaining member of my very first district here. I think there may be a lot of changes among the Elders here too. Who knows, since we have a new mission president now. A mini-missionary from Latvia is coming up to be with the Russian sisters this transfer, so that'll put them in a trio. I hope we can borrow one of them a couple of times to go knocking some day. That way we cover more ground, hehe ;) We've been contacting a lot of people on the streets and have met some cool people, but haven't been able to meet with them again yet. We're also trying to go through former investigators. Pres. Boswell wants us to focus on working with the Branch President and the branch council to find people to teach, so I hope we have a good lesson tonight with his family.
Not sure what else to write at the moment, so it's ta-ta for now! I love you all so dearly~!!
Love,
Courtney
Today has been super fun! We went to Skypark a huge, trampoline/indoor playground place. It's more for kids, so it was pretty funny when a dozen or so adults took over the trampolines for a time, but when we migrated to the jungle gym, the kids rushed back ;) We even played out some war scenarios with foam balls and air turrets, and we used the plastic balls for grenades! It was very intense and tiring, ha ha ha. To finish it off, most everyone tried on the sumo suits and we had wrestling matches. I only watched :) Afterward, we ate some pancakes at Kompressor. Tonight we're doing FHE with the Branch President's cute little family! We also wanted to meet with another family this week, and dear Sister informed me that they're actually doing FHE on Tuesday night since she'll be out of town, so we're having back-to-back FHEs this week! Woohoo!
We didn't have any of our own investigators at church yesterday, but we saw a friend of a man whom we've taught once and invited him to church, and he came (after he finished his cigarette, lol) He stayed for all 3 hours and has a teaching appointment with the Elders :) Now that it's finally August, people will start migrating back into the city over the next few weeks so we can finally get some lessons and progressing investigators.
Transfers happen on Thursday. That means Elder Barney is leaving! So strange, especially since he was the last remaining member of my very first district here. I think there may be a lot of changes among the Elders here too. Who knows, since we have a new mission president now. A mini-missionary from Latvia is coming up to be with the Russian sisters this transfer, so that'll put them in a trio. I hope we can borrow one of them a couple of times to go knocking some day. That way we cover more ground, hehe ;) We've been contacting a lot of people on the streets and have met some cool people, but haven't been able to meet with them again yet. We're also trying to go through former investigators. Pres. Boswell wants us to focus on working with the Branch President and the branch council to find people to teach, so I hope we have a good lesson tonight with his family.
Not sure what else to write at the moment, so it's ta-ta for now! I love you all so dearly~!!
Love,
Courtney
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday July 25th, 2011
Awwww, camping~ Fun fun! Our usual investigators were out of town, so not a lot of news about them. Sis. Lamar came back from her little trip to Parnu on Wednesday. Of course she fell in love with it, so she was a little bummed to come back to Tallinn, especially our area
which just has hundreds of huge apartment buildings.
Estonia just had Temple week last week, so our numbers at church were a just a little fewer, so I actually played the piano in church! Of course I've played in Relief Society, but I haven't had to play for sacrament meeting since my days in Parnu. I tried the organ a little earlier in the week as we were waiting for an appointment when I was with the Russian sisters. Speaking of Russian, I've had to use it so much lately! Sis. Lamar and I knocked one part of a 9-story apartment building and either people weren't home, they ignored us, or they were
Russian! We only talked to 2 Estonians that whole time! We had to do a lot of finding this last week, so that's always very tiring physically, mentally, and spiritually! We're trying to go through some former investigators as of late, and we had a lesson with one old lady last night, and we scheduled another for tonight. English class back on Saturday went really well! We had 3 new students, they're Russian, but they are friends of members, so at least member missionary work is happening! We gotta figure how to get that happen a little more in our branch.
Oh goodness, I'm the next one to come home? Wow, that's interesting! I guess I really am. The nice thing about this summer has been that as soon as the weather gets really hot, it seems to rain a day or two later, so that's kept it nice and reasonable. Some days it switches from sunny to rainy, so it's hard to keep track, especially since we don't normally carry an umbrella along with us, ha ha.
I think my time is almost up here, so gotta go! Sorry this is really lame, but I'm hoping and praying for better things this week! I think it'll happen ;) Thanks so much for the prayers and love. It means a lot to me ;)
Love,
Courtney
which just has hundreds of huge apartment buildings.
Estonia just had Temple week last week, so our numbers at church were a just a little fewer, so I actually played the piano in church! Of course I've played in Relief Society, but I haven't had to play for sacrament meeting since my days in Parnu. I tried the organ a little earlier in the week as we were waiting for an appointment when I was with the Russian sisters. Speaking of Russian, I've had to use it so much lately! Sis. Lamar and I knocked one part of a 9-story apartment building and either people weren't home, they ignored us, or they were
Russian! We only talked to 2 Estonians that whole time! We had to do a lot of finding this last week, so that's always very tiring physically, mentally, and spiritually! We're trying to go through some former investigators as of late, and we had a lesson with one old lady last night, and we scheduled another for tonight. English class back on Saturday went really well! We had 3 new students, they're Russian, but they are friends of members, so at least member missionary work is happening! We gotta figure how to get that happen a little more in our branch.
Oh goodness, I'm the next one to come home? Wow, that's interesting! I guess I really am. The nice thing about this summer has been that as soon as the weather gets really hot, it seems to rain a day or two later, so that's kept it nice and reasonable. Some days it switches from sunny to rainy, so it's hard to keep track, especially since we don't normally carry an umbrella along with us, ha ha.
I think my time is almost up here, so gotta go! Sorry this is really lame, but I'm hoping and praying for better things this week! I think it'll happen ;) Thanks so much for the prayers and love. It means a lot to me ;)
Love,
Courtney
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