Dying eggs with onion peels . . . Happy Easter!

TERE!!

This week was the first week wearing no tights. HAPPY SPRING! :) (Also happy birthday Sister Tullis!!!! Igatsen sind!)

The work:

The work was pretty slow until Sunday when 4 NEW PEOPLE showed up at church! One of them is a man from China who saw my Easter posts on Facebook about the Savior and our special Easter church service. He decided to come to the service! We will be meeting with him again on Wednesday. He really enjoyed the service. 

There were three other 60-year-old women who showed up to church. Elder Nilsson was trying to talk with them on the bus ride to church, but he speaks Russian, not Estonian. So he called us and had us invite them to church. He had talked with them in the park a few days prior, and gotten the number of one of the ladies to give to us sisters. We had already been in contact with her. It was a miracle that God placed them all on the same bus on Sunday morning on the way to church so these three women could come with Elder Nilsson and Elder Klintworth to church! They enjoyed the service too. Turns out, they are good friends with one of the members here! So they all sat together and giggled and enjoyed feeling the Spirit of God as we sang songs about Christ's resurrection. :) We met with them during church, and explained the Book of Mormon. They are all excited to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to ask God if it is true!

"Emily" is doing well, and is going to the temple for the first time next week! 

Our Easter consisted of making cookies and dying eggs with onion peels (see culture section below). The two members we made them with are AMAZING. We delivered the eggs and cookies to a few less active members and sang to them. They cried as they felt the Spirit through song. 

Zone conference:)

Sister Mischenko!

Funny:

Glasses Tuesday!

Culture:

So in Estonia, the stores sell packaged onion peels for dying eggs. You first take an egg, cover it with onion peels, wrap it up in paper towels, tie it shut, then boil it. The eggs come out speckled and brown! And then, Estonians do something called "koksima," or "egg tapping." I hit my hard boiled egg against someone else’s, and if her egg cracks, then she loses. If my egg cracks, I lose. We played it with a wonderful older lady, and she beat us all :) Koksima! Happy Easter!

Estonians wearing national clothing randomly came and danced around us in the park!

Today, my companions and I accompanied one of our dear members to Lauluväljak, the place where more than 200,000 Estonians gather every 5 years to sing and celebrate their country's freedom. When we stood there, I felt God's love for Estonians so strongly. I know that God knows each Estonian individually because they are each a child of Him.

One of the dear families here put together an Easter obstacle course for the missionaries.  I love these people!

Happy Easter cake!

Spiritual thought:

How can a person know if what we are teaching is true? One prophet in the Book of Mormon teaches about how he came to know for himself. 

Alma 5:45-46

“And this is not all.  Do ye suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true.  And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you they are made known into me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is manifest in me.”

I can add my testimony to that. I would not be here if I did not know that God is real, He loves us, and He has provided a way for us to communicate with him personally and frequently. I am grateful for personal revelation. I am grateful for God!

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

Mosiah 2:41:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.