Last 4 days in Pärnu

It is now August 17th - the morning after my parents needed to leave. Spencer and I woke up in our apartment and had NO idea what we wanted to do. So we decided that going to the beach was going to be the perfect activity!



It took us a while to actually get up and out - but as we did, my friend, Janeli, gave us a call and wanted to do something. We invited her to come along. She insisted it was too cold to get in the water, but agreed to come along with us and enjoy the sand and water fully dressed.

When we met up with Janeli, Spencer and I were both in our swimming attire and Janeli was in a full-on sweat outfit. It was awesome! What was even greater was that it started to rain not long after. Needless to say, it was a little bit cold for a beach day - but we played around on the toys anyway.

This swing was a blast - especially when Spencer and Janeli joined me in it.

I didn't get a picture of all three of us, but here's one when Spencer decided to get out and give us a push.

We then went to lunch with Janeli and just happened to run into the missionaries at the same place. We joined in on their lunch and had a great time!

After going home and getting ourselves little more presentable, we headed off to the little church building for English classes. Sister Nelly Osula was so excited to see us there, and she was very adamant that we get a picture taken together. She had even called me earlier that day to make sure that I didn't forget my camera because she could not handle the idea of not getting a picture with us.

We were pretty beat after English class, so we headed home with some food to get some rest for the night.

The next day, we were able to make some fun rounds to visit some of my favorite people. We started off the day with Sister Linda Hamburg. This lady is one of the most kind and patient ladies I've ever met. She is SO optimistic that it's hard to have a sad or foreboding thought in your head when she's around. It really is incredible to be in such an amazing person's presence. Spencer was an absolutely wonderful too because he didn't hardly understand a word of what we talked about, but he nodded and smiled and waited patiently while Sister Hamburg and I talked our hearts out.

Spencer, me and Sister Hamburg - the camera timer was a wonderful invention! From Sister Hamburg's apartment we went straight to catch the bus to Ülle Tilk's. We missed the bus we should have gotten on, so we had to wait another hour for the next one. I hate it when that happens! But since we were lucky enough to find her on Monday when my parents were still there with the car, I was able to call her and make sure we could still get over there with the next bus. I was so excited to see her again and talk to her about her life and everything that's been going on. Again, Spencer didn't hardly understand any of our conversation - but I am grateful that he was so willing to sit through these wonderful visits.
Once we got back into town, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to Sister Pruel's house again, where Janeli surprised us by joining in the fun and eating the most delicious chocolate cake ever! While here, the rain started to absolutely pour and the power went out! Spencer and I had fully been planning on walking home, but apparently we didn't end up doing that and had to catch the bus home.

While at Sister Pruel's, Janeli invited us to go to her family's home in a small town called Kabli that is situated right on the Baltic, almost to the border of Latvia and Estonia, which is about an hour bus ride out of Pärnu. I had the opportunity to go there once as a missionary and was so excited to go again with Spencer.

The bus didn't leave the next morning until almost noon, so while we killed time that next morning I took Spencer to the Pärnu market to see if we could find any cool things to buy. We had a great time looking at all the fresh veggies and mostly enjoying the interactions of all the old Estonian ladies selling their stuff. Spencer especially enjoyed watching this old lady on the right, in the red. We didn't find anything we really wanted, so off we went to the bus station. After all our experiences in the Ghanaian buses this summer, we had mixed emotions about getting on another bus. We were not too excited to be on a bus period - but absolutely thrilled that we had soft seats and smooth roads to travel on.
Once in Kabli, Janeli took us straight to the Baltic to show us the beautiful and scenic route along the beach. I don't know how well you can see the sea, but it's there and it was gorgeous.
We then stopped by the store to pick up some sausages for lunch and headed right to Janeli's to do some old fashioned, Estonian grilling. This picture is of Janeli's grandpa, Spencer and Janeli on the right holding our bowl full of goods for the cucumber, tomato and sour cream salad (an Estonian classic) :).
After Janeli's grandpa started up the grill and about burned his hand off with syrup-like lighter fluid, Spencer was put in charge of the grilling. Boy were those sausages good!
The whole crew around the table. Janeli's cousins were visiting from Germany for the month, so we were so excited that they could join us in the feast.

Janeli's friend (whose name I don't remember), Janeli, cousin, aunt, grandma, me and grandpa.

Although the visit was short and sweet, I am so glad that Spencer got to see more of the Estonian countryside and have a chance to interact with more Estonians in their native environment. They absolutely LOVE the country and believe the land and all the nature to be very sacred. When you go to the country you can tell how well they take care of it and they take great pride in making it as beautiful as possible.

Spencer and Janeli on the ride back.
This Thursday in Kabli was our last day in Pärnu :( We left Friday at 1:00pm to head back to Tartu. Sister Osula was so sad to see us go and hurried to the bus stop to see us off. It about broke my heart AND Spencer's to see her sitting right outside or window waving and following the bus as it took off. I will definitely miss the people here and all the wonderful times we had. Hopefully someday we'll get to go back and show our children how wonderful all of it is.

Pärnu Vanematega

Pärnu! How I love this place! I spent the last 6 months of the mission in this amazing little city. It is situated right on the Baltic Sea and it so incredibly beautiful! The people are wonderful and amazing too and it only took about a day for me to realize that I was going to LOVE my last 6 months there.

My parents were with us here for the first 4 nights were stayed here, then they had to leave to go home. So this is our post with the adventures we had with my parents. Our last few days here will come next.

We left Tartu later in the afternoon on Thursday, August 12th and headed for Pärnudiis (or paradise, as many of the missionaries called it).

Our first adventure on the Pärnu soil took us straight to the beach. This is where my companions and I would go running every morning that the weather wasn't being ridiculous. It was not always easy to wake up at 6:30am every morning, but running on the beach was something I always enjoyed doing.

Spencer and I on the beach

My dad and Spencer had to try out Pärnu's version of a see-saw - isn't this thing great!? They would NEVER put this is approve this as something safe to put in a public place in the states. It would definitely be too dangerous. Sad - that all the "dangerous" toys are the funnest ones.

We then went to dinner at the missionaries' favorite restuarant - Stefani's. Their pizza is incredible and it was so fun to be back there again.

The next day we spent the morning at the market that had sprung up on the main street in Pärnu. They had so many fun things to buy and we took quite a bit of time shopping around, trying to find the most perfect thing for each of the kids who got left at home.

It was especially hard to find something for the boys. Here my mom is contemplating wool socks...

The girls were easy - they all got this awesome jewelry with Baltic Amber in it.
The wool socks idea was nixed - but my dad thought this blacksmith stuff was awesome.

This guy was letting the kids make their own nails here.

All the really cool stuff cost about an arm and a leg at the blacksmith shop though... :( So the boys ended up with candy - edibles are always a good backup plan!

We still had fun shopping though!

After our shopping trips and enjoying our time in all the touristy sights of Pärnu, we got to go to the branch family night! I was so excited to see everyone again and to be a part of family night! The games were all so much fun and it was great to get to talk with the missionaries and hear how everything in the area is going now.

Going to FHE was also a great thing because I was able to give our Estonian phone number to the members so we could set up some times to visit with them all. It was perfect! Saturday we then got to make a visit to Sister Ülle Pruel's house. It was so much fun to see her again (as she did not come to FHE, but received my phone number from someone who had) and to have my parents and Spencer meet her. She understands English, so we were all able to talk as long as I translated her Estonian for everyone else because she won't speak English.

We then had a dinner date at the Lastsenko residents. Vilma Lastsenko and her son Tarmo fed us til we were about to drop. Vilma's other son, Indrek, was out with the missionaries so he had to miss out. I loved eating all the Estonian food again! We had potato salad, meat pastries, chicken schnitzel, bread, beans, like 4 different desserts - it was heaven!
After this filling dinner and time talking with everyone, we headed out on a drive to an outside little town called Audru, where we spent some time working when I was a missionary. There are a couple members that live out there and it also has some very beautiful area that I wanted my family to see.

Here's part of Audru. This is my favorite bridge in Estonia! Not sure why, it just is.
The next was Sunday!!! Anyone who hadn't come to FHE that I wanted to see while there in Pärnu, I was hoping I would see at church - so I was pretty excited. To my surprise (with only a couple exceptions) I wasn't much disappointed.

The members there are so wonderful and so much fun to be with. We got to church - I was asked to speak AND say the closing prayer, my mom was asked to lead the music and Spencer was asked to play the piano. Boy do they know how to utilize the resources they have when they're available.

Here's some pictures after church of some of the branch members. I love them so much!

My parents had to leave Estonia the next day, so after church and dinner was all over we wanted to make sure there wasn't anything we'd missed as far as things to see. We decided to go a walk through a park and down to the beach. We found this wall of rocks that separates the sea from the river that flows through Pärnu into the sea. I had seen pictures of it before, but never been here. I was so excited and we all made it our goal to walk all the way to the end of the wall of rocks.

We didn't quite realize how far out it really went. This picture is looking back to land at maybe the halfway point.
This is looking out the "end" - We couldn't even really see it yet!
It took us a good 30 to 40 minutes to walk all the way out there - and with only a couple falls along the way we made it!
It was so beautiful out there and I loved seeing the sunset and the sailboats there in the background.
My dad really went out on the edge here
Spencer and Dad
This is me and the view of the walk back the was awaiting us.
Spencer and the sailboats.

I love it here! It's so beautiful! The sun literally sets here for hours. It's gorgeous!

We were feeling pretty artistic. Cool huh?
Anyway - our adventure on the rocks was the end of our Sunday evening and Monday morning, as we got everything packed up and ready to go, we had just enough time to take my parents out to Paikuse (another area outside of Pärnu that we worked in). I taught a wonderful lady there who didn't show up to church and I really wanted to see her. Her name is Ülle Tilk. She was baptized just a week or two after I left and when she didn't come to church I knew I had to track her down and see her again. By an amazing stroke of providence (because I wasn't positively sure which building she lived in) we ran into her as I walked into one of the doorways. This was the last person that I really wanted my parents to meet - and even though we only had enough time to set up a visit with her after my parents had gone, I was so grateful to have found her and gotten her phone number, along with introduce her to my parents before they left. It was a true miracle!

It was sad to see my parents go, but how grateful I am that they got to experience at least part of this wonderful place. It was so wonderful having them there and I only hope they were able to enjoy it as much as I did.

Tartu

We are now on a train headed to Tallinn, where we will then catch a ferry to Helsinki and then fly home tomorrow morning... but I haven't kept up very well. So this post is going back well over a week ago to our 3 day visit to Tartu with my parents.

We started out visiting Helmi and Jelena.

Helmi is a 90 year old woman who joined the church about 5 years ago. She is living with another member named Jelena. It was perfect! We got to visit 2 people in one visit, and I loved letting my parents and Spencer get to know them.

Helmi's first request was that someone play chess with her. Since my dad was so kind as to inform us know that he was the 6th grade chess champion, we thought it would be a great idea to let him be the one to play her.

He put up a good fight - but alas, Helmi won.

Jelena then played and sang some wonderful Russian songs for us on her guitar. I loved listening to her play and sing again. We used to go over there every once in a while and we would sing with her. I love it!
Jelena took off early though, and wouldn't eat with us. Here she is with Spencer and I.
Helmi then proceeded to feed us about everything in her fridge. We were SO full and THEN she offered us cake. The cake looked great, so we didn't really complain - but just as Spencer is reaching for his piece she says, "Wait! You are the biggest and need to eat more! You must eat more bread, meat and cheese before the cake!"

Oh the enjoyment we got out of that! We couldn't stop laughing. My mom especially got a kick out of it and probably laughed harder than all of us put together.
After this visit we headed over to Nadezdja's apartment. She of course had food for us also - even though we had no more room left in our stomachs - but we ate anyway. The greatest irony of it all though is that when we were all convinced we weren't going to touch another piece of food, Nadezdja looks at my mom and says, "You are the smallest and skinniest! You MUST eat more!"

Oh the good times! I love these ladies!

Nadezdja, Me, Mom, Dad and Spencer in the front.
After both of our visits and being stuffed full of food, we then had a lunch date with Kaisa :) My dad was thrilled to hear of how well I'd planned out our day. Spencer, my mom and dad just got some smoothies, while Kaisa and I got some real food. I have to admit I was a little more stubborn with eating at the other two places because I knew I didn't want to make Kaisa eat alone. It was so fun getting together with Kaisa again and seeing her cute face again. This girl is absolutely amazing and is a rock in the Tartu branch here. I love her and am so glad that we got to see her while we were here.

Kaisa, me and Spencer
The next day we went on a full-on walking tour of Tartu. I'm pretty sure I walked my family miles. It was so fun for me to walk around as I did when I was a missionary there and to see all the wonderful beautiful sights again. I loved every minute of it! Not sure my family was grateful for all the walking as I was :)

This is an old church with some sweet, old stairs and falling apart tower that they let us climb. It was a fun adventure!
These stairs were built along the walls so we could walk up safely
Cute!
My mom was FLIPPING out of these stairs. Again, she could see through the holes in them to the floor and was absolutely and completely convinced she was goin gto die. Not sure why I find so much joy in this.
A platform partway up the climb.
The top! It was such a beautiful day!
We then headed to the river in Tartu. There's an actual beach here where people swim. It was fun to stick our feet and do some of the things we weren't allowed to do as missionaries :)
Dad's taking a rest on the bench. We'd walked a lot!
This is what I call the massive Sorry piece. I actually have no idea what it's for or why it's here, but I always found joy in seeing this as a missionary - so I had Spencer stand in front of it so I could get a picture of it.
At the market - this carved watermelon was SWEET!
Our lunch stop in the hill! I love it here!
It was originally a gun powder cellar that they've now made into a restaurant. It's literally INSIDE the hill.
LOVE HIM!
This was the end of our stay in Tartu. We didn't get to do EVERYTHING I'd wanted to do - but in order for my parents to see everything REALLY special to me, we needed to head to Pärnu, and I knew Spencer and I would be back the next week after my parents left, so we could finish our adventures in Tartu there.