September 13th...

Well Hello!!!

Big news!! My sister is pregnant!!!!! Heck yes. I am going to be an uncle twice over. The Estonians say I am a 'very rich man' because of this. So I am doing absolutely wonderful! Can I just say, I love Tallinn and my companion is the best. We have an absolute blast here. We have had the funnest week. Tallinn is huge, way bigger than Tartu or Pärnu so yes we were enjoying ourselves getting lost everyday. It was just way fun. We have no investigators or potentials or contacts beacause our area was ran my sisters and then closed down for 12 weeks. So pretty much we are starting from scratch. We have just been contacting and knocking like crazy. People are very different here. They are much more busy and less open to talk with us. And the most annoying part, that answer back to us in English. Yuck. I hate english. haha. Especially when we can both talk in Estonian with each other just fine. But we are still working hard and trying to find those people that are ready. It takes about 20 minutes to get into our area, so we only went in on Wednesday. We went knocking for like 3 hours and lets just say, there are some huge dogs. You would've have been hysterical watching us check the gates for 5 minutes to see if there was a dog or running from dogs or jumping and screaming because dogs scared us. But really I am loving it. This just makes me not want my time to end. I live right in downtown Tallinn as well and it is so fun. Reminds me a lot of Salt Lake. There are so many people and sky scrapers and we just love it. haha. So Eda from Pärnu was baptized on Saturday by Bruno (who was baptized 3 weeks ago). She called us and was just super excited about it. We were way excited too. We haven't really found any investigators yet, but we are working on it. Miracles are in the works right as I am typing. Our branch is huge. Its like a ward. haha. Well not quit. But there are about 60 active members, tons of priesthood. They just don't need missionaries here. It is weird, because we are so needed in Tartu and especially Pärnu. So its a different feel. But i like it because we can just focus on finding people. Way good week. I hope you are all doing well. I will attatch pictures.
Elder Boyce

Enjoy the pictures. There is an 'american' store here called stockmans. The oreos are 10 bucks. haha. but they had bisquick and...wow. Just amazing. haha.

Labor Day...

Hello Everyone,So do you want to hear some news? I have finally made it up to the big leagues. I am in Tallinn. Me and Elder Aardema have both been white washed into Tallinn and I am district leader. Lets just say it has been a fun and confusing few days. He had to stay back in Pärnu until Saturday so I came up with Elder Jenkins and Elder Baird for a couple of days. They got sisters in Pärnu finally after a year so he had so introduce them to everyone. So I came here and tried to learn my way around for when me and Elder Aardema got together. It has been a hilarious few days. We are so lost, and have no idea what we are doing. I felt like the new, awkward kid in church yesterday which was strange. But it has been such a blast. I wasn't to excited to serve here. But me and Elder Aardema were plotting to become companions, which worked, but we both didn't want to be in Tallinn. But I already love it. It is a blast and there are so many people and just so much to do. I have learned how to work a gas stove after letting gas leak out for 5 minutes (new worries we have a C02 detector) and we figured out how to bake a cake without a thermostat on the oven. We have figured out what to do when lost, and we can make it to the church, grocery store, and now the library. We are attempting our area tomorrow. haha. I am having the time of my life and I love it here. I hope you all know that. I miss you like crazy and I can't wait to start sharing more miracles with you. Tell everyone hi, and pass on my new address. Love you like crazy. Vanem Boyce Oh ya, happy labor day. They don't celebrate it here, but its always good to remember. Vanem BoyceP/K 3379Tallinn 1056Estonia (Eesti)

August 30th...

Well what a week it has been. Pärnu is just on fire with success. Wehave been really blessed. For the month of August we had a missiongoal of 19 baptisms. We fell short of 15 but, 5 were from Pärnu. Sowe were really excited about that. On Saturday, Reelika was baptized.We baptized and confirmed her on the same day, and it was so good.She was so excited to finally become a member and now she can enjoyall the blessings she was missing out on. As for the miracle that wewere praying for last week...we were hoping that a long time churchgoer would finally get baptized but the lesson didn't really go asplanned, and she still has problems with tithing. So pray for Eevithat her heart will change. We saw the Kiev, Ukraine Templededication on Sunday which was a way cool experience. I have neverseen one before so it was really fun. President Monson was justmaking jokes the whole time when they were doing the cornerstoneceremony. Oh, and way weird. Carol Mckita the news anchor lady wasthere. That was a little weird to see I forgot all about her and allthe news channals back at home. haha. It was fun to be with themembers that were worthy to go and see them take part. Pärnu isamazing! Eda is also doing well. I keep thinking she is just toogood to be true, but she is. She has no problems with anything thatwe teach her and she acts as if she has already heard it. Plus shemakes amazing strawberry cheesecake. haha. She will be baptized onSeptember 11th. What a day right? I am still getting over my cold.Blah. I just have a cough. Its annoying me. The weather has turnedquit cold here as well. Fall is here. I am not excited for this. Ineed gloves to go outside. haha. But we will survive right? Amember just brought me so way nice wool knitted socks as well, sohopefully I will stay warm. Well I love you guys. Transfers are thisweek. I will let you all know what happens so you can send me carepackages :) Armastusega,Vanem Boyce

August 23rd...

HelloWell where to start about thispast week, I don't even know. Umm Wednesday my old companion ElderLee came on splits with me and we found out he is moving to midway soI am excited tohave him close to us. Me and Elder Aadrema teach alady enlgsih and she wanted an english lesson so we set up a time withher. So all 4 of us missionaries went to her work which turned out tobe a senior center. So she showed us around invited us to leave booksof mormon and then set up a big meeting thing. So we were able toteach a first lesson to a bunch of patients and employees. That wasso fun. Some were entirely crazy but some were very sane.I love these people here though, and you just get in the mind set that you are never leaving. Like Iknow I am going home, but its almost not real. So that was cool.Also a guy got baptized here about 7 months ago and he speaksestonian, russian and some english. He has been inactive as of late,but he brought his girlfriend who only speaks russian to the churchlast week. So we asked if we could teach her and she said okay. Wellwe taught a first and yesterday we taught her the plan of salvationand committed her to be baptize. She didn't say yes, and she didn'tsay no. But its cool we teach in Estonian and he translates toRussian. But she is already way nice to us whereas before she wasvery standoffish. So hopefully things will happen with her. Brunowas baptzied on Saturday and confirmed a member on Sunday which wasawesome. After his blessing he just sat there and said 'Wow!' Sothat was really neat. Saturday Reelika and hopefully Eda will also bebaptized. We have a temple dedication to watch on Sunday so we aretrying to get all the new converts allowed to go. So its veryexciting to see the work just move forward. We have been busy and theLord has been blessing us. We are also praying for a miracle thisSaturday. There is a lady that has been coming a long time namedeevi. Well we are trying to get her to be baptized on Saturday aswell. The other Elders teach her and they are going to teach her thisweek. Pray she accepts. Well that is all from me. I love you somuch. Love you. We will talk next week.Armastusega,Vanem Boyce Ps. My address is Vanem Boycep/k 55Hommiku 2Pärnu 80010Eesti (Estonia)

August 16th...

Hello!!Ya it was so funto see the smoots. sister smoot served here about 1 maybe 2 yearsago. They took us out to dinner and attended churchwith us. So I got a letter from Kärt(she is the one in Tartu i taught). I gave her a book cover and meand Elmer signed a book of Mormon for her. That was way cool. She isgoing to america any time now and wants to go to yellowstone. So i amexcited to hang out with an estonian when I get home. We have anotherbaptismal date with a lady named Eda. I committed her during englishand she accepted. So that is so exciting. We now have 4 dates. Thework is exploding. The other 3 that were baptized are oding so well.I love them so much. The Mom and Daughter are just shining examplesto there Dad and simblings and the Dad will be baptized on Saturdayand the son will follow shortly after. Kristina the other one thatwas baptized just went to a youth conference thing along with Kerle (itaught and baptized her last Jauary) So that is so awesome. They areall so strong. The work is just going so well. So many people wantto listen to us. Its a weird feeling. haha. I am so excited abouthaving a niece when I get home. I brag to everyone here. I cannotwait to meet her. But everything else is going well. Thebranch is doing good and today we are going to ride bikes and itsgood. Anyways. I love you.Boyce

August 10th...

Well we have
some extieing news. We have 3 more baptisms planned for August 21.
Bruno and his son and Reelika. Reelika has been coming to church
since December time and her mom gave her permission to be baptized.
So we were very exctied about that as well. Blessings. The past week
was really fun. I was in a 3 some with Elder Aardema and Gray as
Elder Hortin was in Riiga for training. So it was a blast here. We
could teach any one we wanted and it was just a successful four days.
We had zone conference yesterday in Riiga and it was such a blast. We
learned a lot about baptism and our purpose and i just really enjoyed
it. Umm..really that is pretty much all that is going on that I can
remember. So i hope you are enjoying the summer and ya.
Love,
spen

Do You Want To Hear A Miracle?

Do you want to hear a miracle? We started teaching a girl named Kristina. She has been coming to church for a year but her parents won't allow her to be baptized. Well last Sunday I was sitting in Elders Quorum bored out of my mind so I decided to go downstairs and just sit on the couch. I was just thinking and all of the sudden an idea came to mind (God) The idea was to have Kristina write her testimony down and give it to her parents. So we committed her and didn't hear much else. She said she was just working on it. So Friday came around, the day of the wedding. Kristina came running in and yelling Im getting baptized, Im getting baptized!!!! My parents said yes, they read my testimony and said Okay, its your decision!!! I was in shock. I just could not believe that the idea worked. So we did a baptismal interview and she passed. That night she was baptized. So I learned a big lesson. I was sent here for people, it wasn't about me, it was about others, totally. So the wedding was amazing. The branch planned it all and was so excited. It was so awesome. So right after the wedding we went to the River where Tiia (the mom) Jaana (her daughter) and Kristina were baptized. It was so amazing. Tiias husband and son will be baptized at the end of the month so we are looking forward to that as well. On Sunday all the missionaries got to stand in the circle and confirm them members of the church! It was a way neat experience and we added 3 people to this church!!! That is just unheard of here in Pärnu, so be excited!!!! haha. Then we taught the family about Temples on Saturday night and they are planning on being sealed next August 28th, so I will be back in Estonia for that. So awesome. It was just a really awesome week with all of that. So that is my news. Enjoy it as much as I did.
Armasusega,
Vanem boyce