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.”
No comments:
Post a Comment