Family,

 

It's been three weeks!! Only six more to go. It's really weird to see so many people come and go. I know like two people who came here at the same time I did or later and they're already in the field! Like always, things are good. Being in the MTC though kind of makes me feel like I'm in elementary school all over again. We're in a classroom all day learning how to read and write. We have to stay within the school's boundaries. We eat at a cafeteria. But at least we get recess? We all feel like little kids. I think I also assume that everyone around me is older than me. Turns out I'm the oldest in my district aaaaaand generally older than a lot of other people here. I'm only 20! I found out yesterday that these two Hungarian elders who sometimes eat with us are eighteen years old! So crazy.

 

Well, the 4th of July was fun last week. We got out of class early. We had a small little devotional and then we watched 17 Miracles. It was my first time watching it all of the way through. Then we had ice cream and watched the fireworks!! Also, Deena, my boss from the bookstore was with her husband on campus so I went over and sat by her and watched the fireworks with her. It's always nice to see people I knew before the MTC.

 

Estonian... it's coming. Vend Strong has been able to teach us much more lately and it's been lots of fun. Mine and Sister Holdaway's lessons are improving. It's crazy what one can understand if the Spirit is present. Last week, Sis. Holdaway tried to tell our investigator that the gospel brings you peace and happiness but said, the gospel brings you peace and apples. Oh the joy. I haven't said a lot of crazy things. But earlier this week, I asked if the investigator created the Book of Mormon rather than read... But anyway. I like Estonian a lot. It's tough, and the partitive and genitive cases are hard to get used to.

 

There are some really random words. In one of our grammar books, there are a list of phrases and words to help us practice pronunciation. There's one word that means "at the endge of the ice": jäääär. Jõeäärne õueaiamaa means a garden by the river. And then this one is my favorite. It's the word for at the edge of the outside garden: õueaiaääres. Eight vowels in a row. Whooo.

 

Tonight will be our first experience with TRC. Volunteers come in who know Estonian and we just have a brief lesson for about twenty minutes. I've heard it's a lot of fun, because they're themselves and not pretending to be investigators like our teachers. It's much more chill and most of them are returned missionaries so they know exactly what you're going through. Vend Strong also said that sometimes, we might even skype with people from Estonia!! It'd be so much fun, but very, väga intimdating!

 

I was practicing the piano today and when I was done, a lady asked me if I was auditioning for a musical number. I told her no and then Sis. Nally walks in (she's the wife of the MTC president) and tells me I should audition. Eeeeeeek. I don't know yet. We shall see. But it was lots of fun to talk with her and she absolutely loves our last name.

 

I've had a couple of interesting dreams lately. One night, I had a dream that Estonia got a full hymn book! Their current hymnbook only has 27 hymns in it and about five of those are sacrament hymns so we have 22 hymns for the rest of the week... and we sing at least three times a day... not a whole lot of variety. But I was so excited in my dream! The other one also has to deal with Estonia. In my dream, a sister missionary in the field had some sort of emergency that she had to go home. Pres. was frantic and told the MTC that he absolutely had to have another missionary. He didn't care if she didn't know Estonian and said she would learn everything once she got there! So I got sent there. It was an odd half nightmare half ecstatic happiness kind of dream.

 

On Sunday, a Bro. Durrant spoke to us at our devotional. He talked about boldness. He talked about how when we think of bold, we think of loudness and strength. But he explained that bold is quiet. Bold is sincere. We should act boldly with love. I was so excited cause my whole district is quiet and introverted and I felt like it was exactly what we all needed to hear. Being quietly bold is something I can do. :)

 

Ma armastan teie! I love you all!

 

Love,

Õde Chestnut

 

P.s. no photos today. Vabandust. I can't find the charger to my camera so.... next week. Hopefully. :)

Vabadus!

Tere hommikust!

And happy Fourth of July! I'll be going around yelling "Vabadus!" (freedom) all day now. I finally figured out the photo thing so enjoy! This week has been good. We taught our first lessons in Estonian. ahhhhhh. It wasn't pretty. However, it's really emphasized the importance of having the spirit in the lesson. Without it, I would be way too occupied and worried about what/how I was saying something. But when I take the time to pay attentiont to the spirit and the investigator, it's amazing how much I can actually understand. We're teaching three investigators right now: Hilja, Liina, and Siim. They're our three teachers and they're hilarious when they're in character. Since we've been here, we've mostly been taught by Õde Christopher. Last week, we got a new teacher! Her name is Õde Robinson. She's really great. Then there's Vend Strong who has taught here for a long time. He's really good and he's lots of fun. He laughs at our Estonian a lot, but it reminds me not to take myself so seriously.