I found mint chocolate!!! And it led to a first discussion:)

TERE!

Well, anyone who knows me knows how much I love mint chocolate, and they don’t have much of it here in Estonia unfortunately...BUT I found some mint chocolate covered almonds today at the Kalev chocolate store and THEY WERE SO GOOD! When we went to the pharmacy, I gave one to the cashier, and she LOVED them too! When I asked if she’d ever want to meet up with us to talk about God (you know, the casual conversation from chocolate to the gospel), she said she has never believed but has just started to believe! So she gave us her number! Miracles can come from mint chocolate everyone :) 

All the sisters in Estonia!! This is the most sisters I have ever served with! Awesome quote from Sister Lighten while we talked about conquering the natural woman/man in all of us, "The body speaks louder than your spirit, but the spirit is stronger than your body.”

The work:

• Of the 8 first lessons we had planned for this week, 5 HAPPENED! Miracle! On Wednesday, we had 3 first lessons back to back. And 3 new investigators that day! The first was with a19-year-old girl I had talked with on the bus last week. She brought her boyfriend along to the lesson, and both of them were open to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it! The young man said the closing prayer and asked God to give him wisdom to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We are meeting again with them tonight! The second first lesson we had on Wednesday was in a cafe with a wonderful young woman (referral from a member in Tallinn). She attends a different church right now! She has been religious in a particular faith her whole life and at the beginning of the meeting, she wasn’t open to changing religions. But by the end of our conversation about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, she was really interested! She even read 3 Nephi 11 from the Book of Mormon right there as we sat in the cafe. And when she found out we have a living prophet on the earth today who holds God’s restored authority (President Russell M. Nelson), she was so excited and wanted to read online the talks he had given. So cool!! Our third first lesson that day went a little differently...the woman was a referral from another member here, and she came to our Christmas service last Sunday! She was very skeptical about the Book of Mormon being the word of God. She said she had already prayed about it and hadn’t gotten an answer. I asked her if she would be wiling to act with the answer she received from God. (For example, would she be willing to change something in her life if she knew the Book of Mormon were true?) She said no. I explained that it is written in the scriptures that God cannot answer her question unless she is willing and ready to act with that knowledge. She said that makes sense, but she is still not ready to act with her knowledge. So I promised her once she is ready to act, God will then answer her question. 

• Our two other first lessons this week were with an older woman without an ear and a 15-year-old! The older woman is SO CUTE. She has read the Book of Mormon many times but doesn’t remember anything she reads. Yet she WAITS for the missionaries to come, she loves it so much. It was so cute, and her cat was all over us as we ate some gummy candies she can’t eat because she has no teeth. :)

• The 15-year-old we met with is super cute too! She is the organizer when we go to serve in the old folks’ home here in Tartu. We went to dinner with her this week and mainly got to know her. Õde Nelson did a killer job explaining prayer (in Estonian - we practiced it). And we invited her to meet with us again to talk more about God! She wants to! Blessings. 

• ALSO we met with the awesome man last Monday night who I talked with on the bus last week. We met with him twice this week, and he is super excited to learn more! 

• ALSO, so every week I have the opportunity to translate here in church, and this week there was a speaker who warned me about how hard her talk was going to be. Actually, multiple people came up to me and warned me about how scared I should be to try and translate her talk (she was going to talk about Estonian history). Well, I prayed REALLY HARD that God would give me the gift of tongues and help me translate her talk. Sure enough, though it was far from perfect and I didn’t catch every word, I was able to translate it and get the message across to everyone. I thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to put complete trust in Him, especially in that moment!

• (last) ALSO - Õde Nelson and I recorded, "If You Could Hie to Kolob," this week with super cool harmonies...if any of you want the mp3 of that, let me know and I can send it to you :)

I LOVE YOU FAM!!! (Christmas call)

• Holiday photos from missionaries visiting Tartu this week:

Funnies:

• Õde Nelson made banana bread this week for a Christmas party, and she wrapped it all up and put it on the ground next to a pile of things we had to bring to the party. As we were going to bed, she asked, "Is the door locked?" I went to go check it. It was really dark because the lights were off...well, I checked the door, and it was locked! On my way back to the room, I felt something squish under my foot. I gasped... Õde Nelson: "Don’t tell me that’s the banana bread..." Me: "I am so sorry!!" HAHAHHA we were on the floor laughing so hard!! So, the banana bread had a half footprint in it when we brought it to the party HAHAHAH

• "I hate thinking. It takes too much time." - a member

• Elder Chappell: "Do you believe in Santa Clause?" Member: "It’s complicated."

Mom comment: Looks like all the missionaries 

had lots of fun and silly things to do in 

packages they got for Christmas;)

Culture:

In front of a famous, tilted Estonian building 

This is an Estonian swing!!

Guess which one is mine...

The one that says, "I am God’s daughter" :)

Spiritual thought:

This week at zone conference, we talked about building our own personal temples (check out “Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice” at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/come-listen-to-a-prophets-voice?lang=eng). Meaning, counseling with the Lord about your temple (your testimony) and its blueprints! How does it look? What are its building blocks? What are things you truly have faith in? Christ? The Bible? Commandments? The Book of Mormon? What Christlike attributes (charity, hope, patience, diligence, etc.) make up who you are now and who you want to be? Big questions to ponder.

Today, I finished the Book of Mormon, successfully finishing President Nelson’s challenge to the women of The Church of Jesus Christ to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. This experience has increased my testimony of the Book of Mormon! This morning, I got on my knees and prayed. I prayed to God and asked him in Christ’s name if the Book of Mormon is true. What came to my mind was this - everything good comes from God. What are the good things that have come out of the Book of Mormon in my life? To name just a few: a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, peaceful moments, and powerful moments sharing passages and stories from it with those I love (like with all of you).

So, if all things good come from God, and all these good things have come into my life because of the Book of Mormon, it clicked in my head that that means the Book of Mormon is from God. 

I love the Book of Mormon. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful to be His representative for just under 7 months more. (Today marks my 11-month mark of being a missionary...so surreal. I am so grateful.)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace. (And happy new year!!)

Õde Smith-Driggs

Moroni 8:16: Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.

GOD TAKES CARE OF HIS WORK

TERE!! Merry Christmas wonderful friends and family :) I am grateful to spend this Christmas in the service of the Lord. It is my first and last Christmas as a missionary in Estonia, so I am trying to make the most of it!! (Also fam bam...can’t wait to see you all tomorrow over Skype!)

District pic

The work:

OK WOW FRIENDS. The biggest lesson I learned this week was that God takes care of His work. He always has and He always will. This week, I did what God asked me to do - re-focusing in areas that needed spiritual strengthening and prayerfully re-aligning my priorities. In return, God took care of His work. For example, we met with a woman that I had met in Pärnu the same day I find out I was moving to Tartu (I think I talked about this in my email last week). Well, turns out we were both going to be in Tartu, so we set up to meet. We went to dinner with her and one of the young members in our branch. At the beginning of the conversation, she talked about how much she didn’t believe in God. She said she wanted to meet so she could hear the way I view the world. We then talked about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how that applies in her life.  By the end of the conversation, she was talking about how merciful God is and how much He loves his children. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?? God has already started softening her heart to hear about His existence and His love! We prayed together, and she said she had never prayed before. Well, fast forward one day...Õde Nelson and I get on our bus that goes from Tartu to Pärnu (3 hour bus ride). Guess who is sitting in our seats? That very same woman we met with the day before! SUCH A MIRACLE. That has never happened to me before. We talked for the whole 3 hours! She told us then that after we met, she had remembered one time where she HAD prayed, and a miracle happened (long story). That is not the first time this has happened...after we meet, the people we meet with tell us of experiences and stories that "come to their remembrance" when they actually noticed God’s hand in their life. So cool. Wow, being a missionary is such a blessing.

SO that is only one example of when God took care of His work - by placing her on our 3 hour bus ride. Another example is this - since the beginning of November, I and my companions have been giving out roughly 40 invitations a day to the Christmas church service for December 23rd. Well, we finished giving out ALL our invitations the night before the service. We were so excited to see all the people that would come from the invitations we gave them! .... Well here’s where the miracle happens. No one (I repeat...NO ONE) showed up from an invitation we gave them, BUT THERE WERE 50 PEOPLE AT CHURCH (normally there are about 30), 9 of those newcomers being potential investigators!!! AND THEN that night, a man called us. I had talked to him really briefly and given him an invitation. He called and said he was sad he couldn’t make the service but still wants to meet up. We are meeting up with him tonight! SO, because I and my companions showed our faith in giving out hundreds and hundreds of invitations over the course of a month and a half, God sent many new people to teach our way. So so grateful :) (Seriously, God has sent us SO MANY PEOPLE. We have 8 first lessons set up for this week...8 FIRST LESSONS! 8 new people wanting to meet and talk! God is so good. God is soooo so good. He takes care of His work.)

We also met with a really cool guy from Malaysia this week. He asked us to take his picture in old town last Monday, then he took our picture. We ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon on the street right there, then he came to meet with us and the elders in the church. He had lots of great questions and is excited to come to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He prayed at the end for the ability to "decipher" if the book is from God. Such a good question that everyone needs to find out for themselves. They can’t just trust us! People can find out for themselves that God is real, that He loves us, and that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are true! The man said he respected us and what we do, and thinks it’s really cool that we are all out here on missions. That’s always fun to hear, especially after being persecuted and hated by other people a lot every day because that’s the nature of being a representative of Jesus Christ. “But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore, they shall not hurt [her], although [she] shall be marred because of them. Yet I will heal [her], for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.” (3 Nephi 21:10) I’m grateful that Christ heals my heart when I am "marred." :)

Funnies:

The funniest moment happened this week when Sister Nelson and I laughed SO HARD for about 35 minutes straight quoting "Hot Rod." Good times, good times :)

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!

We were broke, so the elders made us 

sandwiches for lunch. They are awesome!

Culture:

Christmas is 3 days long here in Estonia! It is marked on the calendar as December 24-26, but the biggest day they all celebrate is December 24 (so today!). It’s been super fun to just tell everyone, "Häid jõule! Häid jõule! Merry Christmas!" I even yell it across the street at people! Hahaha. 

Old Town

Spiritual thought:

This week is the #LightYourFaith week for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' #LightTheWorld campaign, and I am so excited!! This week, I invite anyone who wants to join me to wake up 15 minutes earlier to study the scriptures and pray a little bit longer. I know that as we each strive to light our faith just a little bit brighter this week, we will feel Christ’s spirit and love filing our lives even more. 

You know, sometimes in Estonia being surrounded by atheists who tell me I’m crazy for believing in God makes me doubt. Sometimes Satan tries to tell me believing in God is like believing in Santa Clause. 

BUT NO.  When those inevitable moments of doubt come, I "doubt my doubts before I doubt my faith." I recall all the moments I have prayed to God and felt Him talk to me. I recall the moments like this week when He has placed certain people in my path to talk to. I recall all the moments I have felt the Holy Ghost testify to my soul that the Book of Mormon is true. I recall all the moments in lessons that I have testified as a representative of Jesus Christ that Christ lives and He loves us. 

Nope, God is not like Santa Clause. God is a real person with flesh and bone. He know us, He loves us, and He guides our lives. He is our Father, and we are His children. I know that, and I am seeking earnestly to share that with as many people who will listen here on the streets and busses of Estonia.

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace. (And Merry Christmas!)

Õde Smith-Driggs

Mormon 9:21 - Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

We shopped in a closed store!

TERE!! Well, we got lost in Tartu a lot this week, set off the Church alarm, a Russian lady called me an angel, and I translated in church thanks to God’s help...ROLLER COASTER WEEK!

Tartu Christmas Market

The work:

• Before I move on to talking about our wonderful new area, Tartu, I have to update you all on the AWESOME family I told you all about last week in Pärnu. Sister Durfee and I met with them along with our branch president before I left for Tartu. They are doing great! They said it is hard to remember to read the scriptures and pray (as that is not a habit most Estonians have haha), so we made a plan with them to help them remember to do so. The mom said, "It’s super interesting....when we meet with you, it feels like everything you say is true and good and right. Then as soon as you leave the house, I feel confused and begin to doubt." It’s scary how fast Satan starts to make people doubt about truth they have heard. BUT, this family is strong and they will beat Satan!

• Ok, so Tartu!!! Well, the first two people we talked to here (our taxi driver and a woman I talked to at a bus stop) gave us their information to meet up again. So FROM THE VERY START, God was showing Sister Nelson and I that He would place prepared people in our path here in Tartu to help them come closer to Christ. I am so grateful! We have so many lessons set up for this coming week thanks to God’s infinite mercy. 

This picture describes this week: still figuring out the bus schedule, 
so Sister Nelson and I were stranded at bus stops in the cold, waiting for the next bus LOL.

• We had our branch Christmas party this week! Elder Widmann, Elder Chappell, and we sang the 12 Days of Christmas with funny dance moves. The branch liked it I think :) There are about 30-35 people that come to church here in Tartu, so about twice the size of Pärnu! And there are LITTLE KIDS here!! An actual "primary!" So fun. Lots of families. Not as many old folks, but there is still one wonderful older gentleman, and he has become my best friend already. :) 

Culture:

The word "kuna" in Estonian means "because" or "since." But here in Tartu, it also means "when." ???? Hahahaha so that is a fun one to listen for... 

Christmas party food! Blood sausage (exactly what it 

sounds like), cabbage, salad, potatoes, and sausage. 

Ohhh how I love my Estonian meals :)

Estonian ribbons

First off, my companion is a babe. But second off, it’s hard to see in this picture, but there were little pockets of BLUE SKY!! We still haven’t seen the sun, but blue sky was exciting!

Funnies:

SUPER FUNNY THING HAPPENED OUR FIRST DAY. Ok, so our first day here, we had to go to a store to buy food for our apartment. We were in a rush, so we were kind of oblivious to what was happening around us. We started shopping and putting food in the shopping cart. About 15 minutes later, a store worker came up to us and said, "Who are you?" Thinking she was mad missionaries were in their store, I simply said, "We are missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ, but we are just here to buy food!" Hahah...she looked at us and said, "We are closed!" Only THEN did we look around and see boxes around us and some construction workers working on the lights....HAHAHAHA it was legendary. The workers were all laughing at us thinking we were crazy LOL. We put all the food back and went shopping at a different store :)

Upside-down house

Spiritual thought:

There is a part in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ when Jesus himself comes to the ancient Americas to teach the people there (after He was resurrected). He teaches them many things, then says this:

“I perceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.

Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again.”

(3 Nephi 17:2-3)

I thought it was very interesting that He did not say to the people, "Wow, you all look tired. Go home, take a nap, watch some TV to relax, then come back tomorrow, and I will continue to teach you." No. He said, "Go home, ponder about what I have said, pray about it to be able to understand what I have been teaching, and prepare yourself to come back tomorrow."

Ponder, pray, and prepare. I think that gives us a sense of what God expects us to do every day. :)

I love you all! You are God’s child.  He loves you!

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

3 Nephi 19:20 - I love this scripture because Christ is praying here . . . He prays for US!

“Father, I thank thee that thou hast given the Holy Ghost unto these whom I have chosen; and it is because of their belief in me that I have chosen them out of the world.”

GOODBYE PÄRNU . . . HELLO TARTU!

TERE!! As my title says, I am saying goodbye to Pärnu. After over 8 months (6 transfers) in this dear, väike city, I have come to truly love the people and culture here. Since I came here straight from America, I feel like I have truly grown up as a missionary and daughter of God here. I have learned how to love people as fellow children of God. I have seen and felt God’s love for his tiny branch in little Pärnu. As I led the music yesterday in my last sacrament meeting, I wept looking out at my Pärnu family I had come to know and love as my brothers and sisters. I know I need to grow and learn different lessons in Tartu because sister missionaries haven’t been there for about 6 months. So Sister Nelson and I (the awesome Sister Nelson who has been serving her first two transfers with Sister Tullis in Tallinn) will be "whitewashing." That just means that we are going to work really hard to find new people and start a fresh new area. Amazing because the very same day I found out I was moving to Tartu, we talked to two cute girls on the street who live in Tartu! They gave us their number and want to meet up when I move there. I thank Heavenly Father for placing them in our path so that Sister Nelson and I don’t have to start in Tartu with absolutely no one to teach about Jesus Christ! I am so excited to start a new adventure in Tartu! I am excited to come to love the members in the small branch over there as well! :) 

This was the place I took a picture one of my first days 

in Pärnu over 8 months ago...and now I am leaving Pärnu! 

I love Pärnu!

The work:

• BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER!! We are teaching a FAMILY in Pärnu now!! We saw a mom walking her baby and ran after her to give her an invitation to our Christmas sacrament meeting. She set up to meet with us on the spot. When we met with her and her living partner and her 18-month-old baby, she explained that she had no religious background, but her living partner described his experiences praying and receiving answers to his prayers. So cool! As we taught them about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they were so attentive and loved hearing about it. They asked questions about how to receive the answer to know if what we were talking about is true. At the end, we knelt and prayed together. Sister Durfee said the prayer to bless their family and prayed that they would know that what we were teaching was true. After the prayer, the mom said she felt a strange feeling she had never felt before. She stayed on her knees for the rest of the lesson, even after Sister Durfee and I moved back to the couch. THEY ARE AMAZING!!! Our branch president is coming with us to their home tomorrow (my last lesson in Pärnu). We can’t wait!

• We met with another mom this week! Sister Tullis and I had stopped her on the street last week when Sister Tullis was here for an exchange. Again, we stopped her to give her an invitation to our Christmas sacrament meeting on December 23 (talk to the missionaries near you if you would like to attend the special sacrament meeting on December 23! ). She set up to meet with us later. So this week, she asked us to walk and talk with her as she walked her baby. As Sister Durfee and I walked with her, and as we asked why she wanted to meet, she said that 3 years ago, missionaries from a different church stopped her on the street and she didn’t talk to them. That day 3 years ago, she promised herself that the next time missionaries stopped her, she would talk to them. Three years later, we approached her on the street :) Amazing how time works! We had a great discussion about forgiveness as we walked together. All the while, we were testifying about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. At the end, we stopped on the street and I prayed for her. Right when we ended the prayer, her baby woke up and she had to head home. When we were walking towards her home with her, we ran into someone that she had not seen in years. Turns out, that person was somehow connected with a person she has a hard time forgiving. Not a coincidence!! We told her afterwards that that was a form of an answer to our prayer....that God heard our prayer. 

• We also talked with a cool young man on the street this week. We gave him (you guessed it) a Christmas sacrament meeting invitation, and he stopped. We ended up talking for about 40 minutes in the rain. Super cool guy! He thought it was interesting how I explained that prayer is just talking with God. Really cool conversation. At the end, we ended up praying for him as well - just right there on the street. We folded our arms, and I said a prayer out loud for him. He is going to meet up with the elders soon! 

• I saw a girl on the bus I had talked to before. We had a friendly conversation, but I didn’t ask her to meet up again. As we walked away, I could feel the Spirit chastening me for not inviting her to meet up with us. Ten feet later, I told Sister Durfee we had to turn around and invite her to meet with us. Well, when we went back, she was nowhere to be found. I felt super bad I didn’t invite her the first time I had seen her. We visited one of our investigators in the area, then were walking somewhere else and we saw two people approaching. We turned to each other and said, "Let’s talk to them!" As they got closer, I saw that it was THE SAME GIRL (with her boyfriend)!!! I immediately said hello again and asked if we could meet up. She said, "Text me!" and gave us her number and walked away. Sister Durfee and I walked away with our jaws dropped. We immediately said a prayer of thanks that God placed her in our path AGAIN to give us a second shot to invite her to meet with us.

I will miss my dear Õde Durfee!

Culture:

"Christmas Eve" in Estonian is, "Christmas Saturday." But even if Christmas Eve is on a Monday, it is still called "Christmas Saturday!"

Made mugs with one of our less active members! 

Then she sang with us in church the next day!

Funnies:

• "Moses said: Let us go, or there are gonna be lots of frogs." Elder Chappell hahaha

• We serve at an old folks home (my favorite thing ever). This week, an old folks home called us and said they were expecting us to come the next day at 2. We were confused because it was different than our normal time, but we went to our normal old folks home anyway at 2 pm. They saw us and said, "We are expecting you tomorrow." Hahah so we realized we had called a different old folks home last week looking for service, and it was THAT HOME who had called and said they were expecting us at 2. So we called them, apologized for the confusion, then made our way over there. We showed up 40 minutes late (we felt so bad), and they brought us in and sat us down on a couch in front of 10 old folks :) We thought we were just going to talk to them separately and get to know them like we do at the other old folks home. But the worker said, "OK, talk to us about Christmas!" Turns out, they were expecting a Christmas concert/message from us hahahahahaha. SO we looked at each other and then performed an impromptu, 20 minute Christmas message! We sang a few songs, and read the Bible story. It turned out OK for not being planned at all! Hahaha and I loved going to each of them at the end and shaking their hands, wishing them a merry Christmas. I felt like Christ when we visited his people "one by one."

• We attempted to do a #LightTheWorld activity, but....läks huvitavalt hahahah. We spelled out "#valgustamaailma" (#LightTheWorld) with candles and were going to ask people to come light a candle to "light the world."
  
  Well, 900 candles later and guess what happened? The wax froze because it was too cold. So none of the candles burned. HAHAHAHA well, we just contacted people in the area for a while and handed out cookies instead :) We still found lots of interested people!

Shout out to my brother, Abraham, and my friends serving missions in Thailand! I said hello to these people in Thai on the street, and they FLIPPED OUT, they were so excited!!

Spiritual thought:

I have been reading in 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon when Christ comes to the Americas. It has been so powerful and moving to read about what Christ teaches the people. I realized this week as I read His teachings that from the very beginning, He emphasizes two essential things. 

1. "And the Lord said unto him: I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended into heaven." (3 Nephi 11:21). So, firstly he emphasizes baptism. Of course it is important to be baptized with God’s authority.

2. "And he said unto them: On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations among you." (3 Nephi 11:22). The SECOND thing he teaches them is that they should not fight with each other. Doesn’t that show us how deeply Christ cares about how we care for each other as brothers and sisters?

I love you all. And I know Christ loves you all. He is on your right, left, behind you, and in front of you. Ta armastab teid kõiki. Ta ongI teie ees, kõrval, ja taga. ärga unustage, kuI tähtis te olete tema silmades. Don’t forget how important you are in God’s eyes. :)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace!

Õde Smith-Driggs

3 Nephi 12:16 - “Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

LIGHT THE WORLD #valgustamaailma

TERE!!

Well, this week we celebrated our dear old grandma’s birthday with all the babushkas in the ward, prayed and read scriptures in the hallway with our Russian less active male friend, and one of my old lady friends I see frequently on the bus invited me to her birthday party...great week!!

Exchange with THE Õde Tullis in Pärnu! I love her!

The work:

• As many of you know, this week, the LIGHT THE WORLD campaign began! (lighttheworld.org) Saturday was the international day of service, and Õde Durfee and I had the opportunity to spend 4 hours at an old folks home, talking with the old babushkas there and helping them around. Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE OLD PEOPLE!!! Especially old grandmas!! Soooo you could say those 4 hours of serving the babushkas was a dream come true. Now we will be going weekly to the old folks home for 2 hours. Also, a group of female dancers came to the old folks home, dressed in Estonian national clothes, and danced traditional Estonian dances for us! WOW, I love Estonia and all its native traditions :)

• During the most recent conference given to all the girls and women of the church ages 8 and older, President Russell M. Nelson invited all of us to study the Relief Society purpose statement (https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/PDF/13373/13373_rs_poster_eng.pdf), then to create a purpose statement for our own lives. I prayerfully created my life purpose statement this week. It was a revelatory process, and I invite anyone and everyone to create your purpose statement for your own life! I realized that it really does all come back to the simple things :)

Worked hard in Riga, Latvia this week with Õde Sedivy while Õde Durfee was in a leadership meeting!

• I learned a lot about boldness this week. I have had many conversations recently where I testify very boldly about Jesus Christ and about the Book of Mormon and how I know of its truthfulness. This week, there were some very bold moments when I walked away from the conversation and thought, "Was that too bold?" But I read this in the Book of Mormon about some missionaries, and it calmed my fears. “And it came to pass that they did preach with great power, insomuch that they did confound many of the dissenters who had gone over from the Nephites. And it came to pass that Nephi and Lehi did preach unto the Lamanites with such great power and authority, for they had power and authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what they should speak given unto them— Therefore they did speak unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, and were convinced of the wickedness of the traditions of their fathers.” (Helaman 5:17-19) As a missionary and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have been given great power and authority from God to speak for Him, teach for him, and love for Him. This power can "confound" and "astonish" the hearer. Well, like I said, I was thinking about boldness a lot this week and walked away from multiple conversations thinking I was too bold. As I thought about some lessons we had with some older women this week, I became discouraged thinking that even though I was so bold in the lessons and testified my guts out, that it felt like they hadn’t changed at all. Well, after reading these verses in the Book of Mormon, I thought back to those lessons and other recent conversations I have had on the bus, and I realized that what I have been saying (what the Spirit has told me to say in certain moments) has been "astonishing" people. It has been "confounding" people. Many times this week, after I boldly testified about something they needed to change to feel more joy in their lives through Jesus Christ, or after my companion and I boldly invited them to change, the people were speechless. They were "confounded." I am grateful to have realized this important lesson this week - that if our God-given authority is "confounding" and "astonishing" people, causing a change in their hearts...that is not being "too bold." That is doing our job as missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Funnies:

• If we don’t wear hats or gloves or tights this time of year, we get chewed out by babushkas. Even strangers will scold us if we don’t have gloves on haha. Wellllll, I forgot to put on a hat one morning because it wasn’t extremely cold, and when we arrived at the babushka’s house, she saw Sister Tullis (who happened to be with me for that lesson, and who was wisely wearing a hat) and she said, "Rõõm sind näha!," or, "Good to see you!" to Sister Tullis. Then, she turned to me without a hat on and said very sternly, "EI ole rõõm sind näha. Kus on su müts??," or "It is not good to see you. Where is your hat??" HAHAHAHA that’s what I get for forgetting to wear a hat.

• My hair was still wet from washing it one morning, and we went outside...guess how many seconds it took before freezing into ice? 10 seconds :) #happywinter

THIS PIC WAS NOT POSED!! 

Hahahah I was really cold as we were waiting for something outside, and Õde Durfee thought it was so funny how cold I looked LOL.

I don’t even know how to describe this picture...

• Anyone who knows me knows I say a funny phrase, similar to, "Oh my gosh!" I say, "Holy cow nuggets and cheese!!" Hahahahah that’s weird in and of itself. BUT GUESS WHAT?? We COOKED cow nuggets and cheese this week for dinner :) I didn’t realize until Õde Durfee told me that another name for "cow nuggets" is "meatballs." .... face palm.

Culture:

We made gingerbread cookies with our friend this week. Häid jõule!

The Christmas tree is up in Pärnu!! And Christmas music is playing in the stores! IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR WOOT WOOT!!!

Gotta love Estonian food :) 

Spiritual thought:

"Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name." Helaman 3:27

There were hard moments this week when all I could do was cry. It’s OK to have moments like that. But I know through experience that in those moments, when we cry unto God through prayer, we can feel of His love and infinite mercy. 

I will be forever grateful for Jesus Christ and His unconditional love and mercy. I love Him. :)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

Helaman 14:13 “And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits.