Humbled

TERE!

I have officially started my last transfer (6 weeks) as a representative of Jesus Christ. I feel honored and humbled. Time for the SPRINT TO THE FINISH LINE!!

Some members of the Church stopped us on the street!! They were on a cruise here from America. 

It was SO fun to talk with them all in English. 

I forgot how lively and friendly Americans are!!

The work:

Our missionary leadership conference in Riga was amazing this week. We discussed how we can better help people come unto Christ. 

All four of us attended MLC this week. I love these sisters.  Next time I will see them is for goodbye interviews!

On Friday, we did our first ever mission-wide conference over Skype. We never meet as an entire mission because there are 4 countries in this mission. But with our new technology, President Pokhilko held a conference where the whole mission skyped in. So cool!!! Technology is an amazing tool from God. The assistants mentioned transfer changes at the all-mission conference (which we were not expecting because normally it is announced over the phone on the last Saturday night of the transfer). I found out I would have the privilege of staying in Tallinn with Sister Costa and Sister Lighten for the last transfer of my mission! Then on Monday (just 10 minutes ago), I received a call saying I would be transferred to Tartu to be with Sister Nelson and Sister Murdock. I am still in shock. I am crying thinking about leaving my companions and these members so suddenly. But I trust the Lord. I trust Him. 

I love Õde Nelson and Õde Murdock!

The flower lady gave us free flowers.

After my exchange with Õde Nelson in Tartu, I told God I would talk to someone on the 2 hour train ride back to Tallinn if He placed someone in my path. Sure enough, I talked with a Russian girl my same age! We became good friends. Her eyes filled with tears as she told me her friend had died just days before. She said she had just this week been pondering about her life and purpose here. A death of a loved one close to you tends to put you in that state of reflection. I shared with her about resurrection and living together with our loved ones after this life. I also taught her the entire first lesson, sharing scriptures with her from the Book of Mormon. She agreed to pray about it to ask God if it is true. She said it was no coincidence that God placed me in her path at this point in her life. I am SO grateful to share this gospel with everyone - on streets, busses, homes, and trains. (Maybe this is one reason I am now going to Tartu...to meet with her again). 

Sister Mishchenko is leaving to Riga! I will miss her and her English phrases. Until we meet again!!

It was a pleasure serving with you, Elder Klintworth! We have come a long way since the MTC (missionary training center). Have fun in Riga serving the Lord!

Culture:

You can’t tell someone's age here very well. 14-year-olds look like they are 21, and 24-year-olds look like they are 17. And 50-years-olds look like they are 30! I don’t know what it is. It’s just so hard to tell someone's age.

I talked with a French lady on the bus, and she gave me some flowers at the end of our conversation. I love her!

Funnies:

I was on a tram. I sat next to a mom with a 6-year-old boy beside her. I started talking to the mom, and the boy asked his mom (in Estonian), "In what language is she speaking?" Hahahahahaha believe it or not, when we talk to people sometimes in Estonian, because of our accents they say, "I’m sorry, I don’t speak English." And we say....."Ummmm we aren’t speaking English. We are speaking your language." "I’m so sorry girls, I just don’t understand English," and they walk away.  Only sometimes. But still. Do any of you other foreign language speaking missionaries understand what I’m talking about?? Anyway, I started talking to this boy on the tram, and he started to understand my accent so we had a conversation. I said, "Guess how old I am?" "34." *everyone around hearing the conversation chuckles* me *laughing* "Lower." Him: "30." "Lower." "12." *more chuckles* Me: "Higher." "24." "A little lower." "20!" "Yeah!!!!" It was so cute. He said later he thought I was from Russia because of my accent. :) 

Spiritual thought: 

(I wrote this part before my new transfer call to Tartu.)

I learned a lot about humility this week. I had a written down prayer this week. (Email me if you want to know what written down prayers are. Link: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/to-acquire-spiritual-guidance?lang=eng.) In the prayer, God told me that I would be humbled this next transfer. I didn’t exactly know how, but I prepared to be humbled. Sure enough, I have already been humbled in many aspects of the past few days. 

God said to me in my prayer, "Humility is a natural consequence of repentance." So, I am repenting every day to be humbled.

However, I always had a view that being humbled meant something almost negative - like your ego is being beat up or something. But my parents told me this morning that you can be humbled positively too. For example, Mary, the mother of Jesus was humbled with gratitude and honor as the angel came to her with the news she would be the mother of the Savior of the World. 

So I know that God is humbling me in many ways. I am grateful to Him for that. As my mom said, "'Prepare to be humbled' sounds to me like, 'Prepare to see the hand of God.'"

I am prepared to see the hand of God these last 6 weeks.

(And now writing after receiving this transfer call to Tartu). 

No wonder God told me He would humble me next transfer. His plan is bigger, and I know this transfer will be so hard but so good as I serve GOD. This is His work. This is His call for me. I am scared and so sad, but I know that God can give me peace. Tears are falling on the keyboard as I write this, but I am trying to tell myself that it is God’s plan, because it is! So for any of you reading this who are also going through an unexpected time period of your life, please know that I am too. We all go through hard things. I don’t understand exactly how you feel, but Christ does. And He understands how I feel too. He understands that I have best friends in this city among the members, nonmembers, strangers, and missionaries that I am devastated to leave. He knows I don’t know why I’m leaving. BUT He also knows why HE needs me in Tartu with Sister Nelson and Sister Murdock. I pray that He will show me those reasons bit by bit every day. 

I trust Him. Can you?

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

Ether 12:27-28:

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. 

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope, and charity bringeth unto me - the fountain of all righteousness.

I ate dandelions!

TERE!!

Ok, did anyone else know that dandelions are super healthy for you?? You can eat the yellow part and the stem! It has lots of vitamins :) Go and try it! (But be careful because Õde Lighten had a stomachache the next day but I was fine...)

I love being a missionary!

The work:

We went to the zoo with "Emily’s” mom!! Great bonding time :) We love growing a relationship with her!! Earlier in the week, Emily taught us the Plan of Salvation while her mom was there too. Such a cool moment seeing Emily testify to her mom about God and His plan for us.

With permission, I went down to Riga to spend a day learning down there! (Just like Sister Sorensen came up to Tallinn to learn, I went down to Riga to learn.)  We love serving with our fellow sister missionaries! I learned a lot while being with Sister Sorensen about how to be a better leader.

What a TREAT seeing my dear Sister Bruner in Riga!!!!

Sister Lighten and I had taught a girl back in Pärnu who got BAPTIZED on Saturday, so we got to attend the baptism! She got baptized in the ocean!

Shout out to my mom for teaching us so many garden analogies because this is a candid picture of me teaching a garden analogy to everyone at our service project. I’m my mom's daughter ...

The analogy was about uprooting the strawberry plants to then move them temporarily and put a tarp on the soil they were planted in. Then we replanted them where the tarp was placed. I made the analogy that sometimes God has to take us out of something good (the strawberries were growing fine without the tarp) to then put us in something BETTER with the preventative, protecting tarp. Like God plucked me out of Estonia for a hot second (3 weeks) last July, and I was like, "What the heck???" But He was simply putting a tarp on the soil in Estonia so I could then be replanted and thrive.

Morning runs...

Culture:

Market 

Putting fruit in water is very common here. Strawberries, grapes, fruits that I don’t know the name of....

The word for "entertainment" is Estonian is "meelelahutus," which literally means, "mind divorce." What does that teach us?.....:)

"Alma" is a woman’s name here. So we have to explain often that the prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon is a MAN. 

"Õde" in Estonian means "sister" and also "nurse." So we consider Christ our doctor and we are His nurses (His servants)! We nurse the Estonians back to spiritual health if they will let us!

This street is called Church Street!

Funny:

A woman walked onto the bus today with a full-sized tree. No joke. It was probably 10 feet long. We asked her about it, and she said, "Yeah, I just got it from my neighbor’s yard, and I’m replanting it in my yard!" It just made us chuckle that a woman was holding a tree on the bus. Estonians love their nature!!

When my companions see the elephant...

I gave the polar bear a little kiss. 

Spiritual thought:

Luke 22:32:

"31 ¶ And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

The Lord has prayed for you and is still praying for you. By name. 

I pray for you too. Both Christ and I love you!

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

"The Lord gives us His Holy Spirit in this life as a FORETASTE of the joy of eternal life." ("Earnest" from the bible dictionary) There is so much JOY ahead of us!!

The Blessing of Technology

TERE!

Happy Mother's Day!

The work:

I testify that God has given us technology as a tool to help gather His children from all across the world. This week, modern technology was able to help three of my friends and family from home to participate in lessons with dear Estonians here. My sister, Olivia, joined us via Facebook video chat for a lesson with "Emily" about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Olivia and Emily are about the same age, so they were able to become friends! It is so cool for Emily to now be friends with Olivia, a strong, beautiful example of someone who knows she is a daughter of God and acts like it. Emily needs more friends like Olivia! 

Another one of my friends Rachel, a returned missionary from Taiwan and fluent Chinese speaker, was able to join us over Google Hangouts for our lesson with our Chinese-speaking friend! He and Rachel were able to speak in Chinese, and Rachel communicated to us some of his deeper concerns he had not yet described to us. So cool. 

AND my dear trainer and friend ÕDE TULLIS was able to testify alongside us via Facebook video chat as we talked to a woman Õde Tullis and I had the privilege of teaching and helping enter the waters of baptism last June. 

On top of everything, I was able to Skype my beautiful mother for Mother’s Day.  I love you Mom.  

Funnies:

Sister Sorenson

Sister Sorensen, the sister training leader from Riga, was up here in Tallinn this week. I am the sister training leader in Estonia, and Sister Sorensen wanted to do an exchange with me here to see how missionary work in Tallinn is done differently than in Riga. It was so fun! Next week, I will go down to Riga for a day to experience the missionary work down there. The purpose is for us to take what we learn from the other area and apply it in our own area. Well, Sister Sorensen had never been to Tallinn so obviously did not know her way around. On our bus ride home, I encouraged her to talk to people on the bus! I had given her tips earlier in the day on how to talk naturally with strangers on the bus to share the gospel message. Well, she took my invitation seriously!! I was talking to someone in the front of the bus, and she was in the back. She thought she saw me in the front still talking to people, so she proceeded to have 5 CONVERSATIONS on the bus!!! She was killing it!! Then the person she thought was me at the front turned around, and Sister Sorensen saw her wearing jeans. She panicked as she realized, "That is not Sister Smith-Driggs." I had called Elder Klintworth, our zone leader, once I realized she didn’t see me get off the bus 25 MINUTES EARLIER. Hahahaha so he called her, and he and his companion picked her up from a bus stop 25 minutes away from my bus stop. I was alone for about an hour in total...on top of all that, my phone died. So I was alone without a phone hahahaha. You bet I prayed so much to Heavenly Father that all would work out ok. And it did :) Hey but at least Sister Sorensen got past her fear of talking to people and contacted 5 CHILDREN OF GOD on the bus! Way to go, Õde Sorensen!! 

Elder Bunker and Elder Klintworth

Culture:

I have never seen lightning or heard thunder here....it rains a lot but rarely "storms." 

We pay for public bathrooms and water at restaurants. Pretty much the only thing we never pay for is bread at restaurants. :) Estonians love their bread!! 

People walk with their flowers upside down here. Like if someone gifts you a bouquet of flowers, you hold it upside down as you walk around with it. They believe it keeps the flower from wilting faster.

I love these sisters!

Spiritual thought:

I realized something about repentance this week. Repentance is an exercise of humility. Because God already saw what you did wrong. He sees everything we do. But when we come to Him in prayer and say out loud, "I did _______, God. I’m so sorry," then we admit to ourselves that we did that. Only when we humble ourselves do we truly repent and change.

Overall, in the repentance process we need to remember that God loves us. When we admit what we did wrong, He sees our humility and helps us become better because of it.

I invite each of you who are willing to pray right now (even if you’re at work so you can’t speak out loud...just pray in your head). I invite you to admit to God something you have done, knowing that He obviously already knows about it. Ask for forgiveness. Feel His forgiveness. Feel His love. He loves you.

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

Jer. 16:15-16:

15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

16 ¶ Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Is God trying your patience?

TERE!

Well, the weather got cold again, but we helped two fellow children of God say their first prayers to Heavenly Father this week so that made up for the cold weather :) 

Amazing exchange with Sister Murdock in Tallinn!! We talked to so many people. I admire her drive to do what is right and talk to as many people as possible.

The work:

Our three "kolmakesi" of best friends are doing great! They read the Book of Mormon every day and have prayed about it and know it is true. We met with two of them this week, and one of them told us that her neighbor saw her reading the Book of Mormon and called her crazy. But our wonderful friend said to her neighbor, "You know what? You read it yourself and then we can talk...because this book is amazing!" :) 

We met with an amazing man this week who had come to church after seeing my invitations on Facebook. We taught him how to pray and he loved the thought that we don’t read off anything while we pray, rather we speak from our hearts. God is our Father, so He wants to hear how we are doing in our own words :) 

We also met with "Emily's" mom this week! She had come to Emily's baptism and cried because she felt the Spirit so strongly. She has started to read the Book of Mormon with Emily. It is amazing to see Emily testify to her mom about Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ. Her mom told us that the day Emily and she met Elder Nilsson on the bus, she had felt a prompting that they needed to leave their house and go walk around Old Town. So she told Emily, "We're going to Old Town!" They walked around Old Town, then on the bus ride home, they met Elder Nilsson. Their lives have been changed ever since. Emily's mom said with a sweet smile on her face, "God sent you to us." 

Our dear member joined us for a 24-hour exchange as a missionary! She is amazing.

The Allreds are back!!!

Culture:

THE BALTIC SEA

Food bank!

There are huge mirrors in almost every single elevator here. I can’t remember if that is super common in America or not...? 

Dishwashers are rare here. I have only been in ONE home with a dishwasher in Estonia, and the amazing family is actually from America.

"Football" on the beach.

Socks are very important here. Inside, you either wear slippers or socks. I don’t actually know if I have ever seen an Estonian barefoot 

Stuffed to the brim with amazing food:)

Funnies: 

Õde Lighten forgot about her onion....3 weeks later and look what happened!

This is one of my best friends, and we found a hedgehog crossing sign... only in Estonia hahahaha.

Spiritual thought:

I had such a growing experience on Sunday. You know the scripture, "God trieth [his people's] patience and [his people's] faith. Nevertheless - whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day." (Mosiah 23:21-22 in the Book of Mormon) Well, this happened on Sunday at church. 

I have translated every week in church for about 5 months now, but this week was district conference (equivalent of stake conference) when all members from Estonia gathered in Tallinn for wonderful meetings. Normally when we translate, a man translates for men and a woman translates for women. But it is not necessarily always that perfect of course. A different woman had translated the first meeting, so I was under the impression that I would not have to translate the second meeting. But right before it started, someone came up to me and said, "Are you translating for the women or should the men already translating just translate for the women too?" I was intimidated to translate for the entire district, so I let fear get the better of me and I said to just let the other men translate it. For about 10 minutes, the Spirit chastened me saying, "You have never said no to a calling to serve before. Why do so now?" So, I repented and went to the male translators and whispered, "I will translate for the women." I could see the relief on their faces as they thanked me. (Translating is exhausting after a while, so they were happy they would get a break!) I prayed in my head and pled, "God, please help me translate! I have repented and acted with faith now. Please help me translate." I had complete confidence the Lord would help me translate as He has helped me translate every week for the past 5 months. But "God trieth my patience and my faith." The first woman's talk began with a story about two old testament prophets playing a ball game or something like that, and I was so confused. I couldn’t talk for like 2 minutes...nothing came out of my mouth. I was stuck. If any translators are reading this, you will know the feeling I’m talking about. It’s a terrifying feeling. Finally, one of the male translators offered to take the translation microphone from me and translate the talk. I handed it over, embarrassed and a little frustrated. Frustrated with myself and with God. I had repented and decided to plead for God's help while translating. But then I couldn’t translate the first talk! "Nevertheless, whosoever puts his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day." I didn’t go anywhere. I stayed with the translator, determined to translate the second talk with the Lord’s help. Even though God tried my patience and faith during the first woman's talk, I trusted him to help me during the second talk. And sure enough, He did! I felt the words come fast and perfectly into my mind as I translated. 

I am grateful for God’s help. Even when He tries our patience and faith, we can continue to trust in Him. We show that trust by continuing forward (in my case, staying with the translators, willing to try translating the second talk). God will always fulfill His promises.

Is God trying your patience?

Continue asking in faith as if you have already received the help or answers you are seeking. God will bless you as you trust Him and act with the faith you do have. 

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy! Find peace :)

Õde Smith-Driggs 

“To a great degree, our relationship to Christ will be determined - or at least affected by - our relationship to each other.” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/the-ministry-of-reconciliation?lang=eng)