February 14th...

Hey,
Its been freezing here. Its about -3 degrees Fahrenheit today. Eat your hear out. So its been a pretty busy week. Way more busy than last. I have lots of stories. First one. When I was in Tallinn last September I lost my planner. I could never find it and then it left my memory. Well a couple of weeks ago a man walked into the Tallinn church, gave my lost planner to some misisonaries, and said God bless. Then a missinoary went to chase after him and he was gone. They are claiming he was one of the three nephites. But how crazy is that?! I was way excited. But that was just way weird to me. I told them to call every phone number inside the book becasue someone must be ready to hear. Next story. I was able to go on splits with Elder Elmer this week. We went and taught a guy named hanes. We read Alma 7 with him and talked about baptism. So I committed him. He said he wasn't sure. So I committed him again. Still he wasn't sure. So we talked a little bit and an idea came to me. We needed to give him a date, and then let him pray about it. The date would show God his willingness and then he would have something more specific to pray about. So I committed him again. We also had a member with us and everytime we would committ this guy the member would open his mouth and give him an out. So when I committed him again the member went to speak and I just put my hand on him. We sat silently for like 30 seconds, and the guy said okay. It was really cool just to see the spirit work on this guy. I felt like we had to give him a date and push him. Normally i'm not so pushy, but I felt he needed it. It was a way cool experience. I hope the member also learned too. Next story. We were teaching Vend Vilpo. He is so awesome. He wants to be baptized but his wife won't marry him. So we shared the intro with him in the Book of Mormon showing him how he could introduce the book to people. Then he told us a way rad story. He says he doesn't hide the fact that he's a mormon-haha-at work. So he was working one day and a friend came up to him in a panic saying he couldn't find his keys. So Vilpo said 'well ask God, he'll tell you.' So 15 minutes later the guy came back and said 'Hey, you were right. I prayed and found the keys!' I just love that story because he is such a member missionary and not even baptized. Then he brought his two kids to church with him on Sunday and they loved primary. So that was just way awesome. I was so excited. Then in church the Branch President asks me 'hey can you translate for Laura' laura is a member from Finland who speaks english. So I just figured I would translate sacrament meeting for her. I said sure. Then I realized that Laura wasn't sitting with the congregation. She was sitting up front where the speakers sit. Then it dawned on me that he wanted me to translate her talk from English to Estonian. So I was freaking out. I said a prayer to calm myself and I got up and did work. It was my first time ever translating this way-especially in front of a crowd. It was a way cool experience. It made me realized that we have way weird saying in english. But it was very good. Also, I found a sewing machine at the church. I got permission to take it home. So on my lunch break I sew some sweet book covers. I will attatch some pictures. They are awesome. We went to visit a less active on Saturday out in Elva. Its about an hour away. It was freezing by the way -17 or for Fahrenhiet users 0 degrees. We got there and she was so happy we came. She was so grateful and smiling so much. She is less active becasue its hard for her to get to Tartu for church. But she still has a lot of faith. I felt really good that we went out and visited her. We then found out her neighbor is also a member. So we were able to visit with him too. He was way nice, but didn't seem interested right now. But hopefully it left an impression on him. We committed him to start reading again. We'll see what happens. I hope we can go out there again next month. Wow. Okay. I wrote a lot this week. Oh!!! One more thing. I was reading the book of Mormon this morning and something caught my eye. In Alma 24:15-18 the anti-nephi-lehis or whatever there names are are preparing for an attack by the lamanites. Instead of fighting they bury there weapons in the ground 'making them bright.' They also feel that this is a 'testimony' to God. Well I got thinking about this and the verse in 3 Nephi 18:24 where Christ tells us to hold our light high. I realized this is exactly what the people did. They were being examples to their ´attackers even unto death. And through their actions to follow and be like Christ thousands of Lamanites were converted. I just love this story. Because if we hold our lights high, we could affected many people. I love you all. SO MUCH!! Keep up the good work.
Armastusega,
Vanem Boyce