TERE! from Peter Barnes

Tallin is beautiful! It's a a very cool city, in my opinion it battles with Vilnius
for the prettiest in the Baltics, but feels more like a "big city" and is not as
green as Vilnius. It almost feels like Portland with a lot of winding roads downtown, a few tall buildings, and right on the coast. But it's a LOT colder here than in Oregon. It hasn't actually been too cold this week, average from -5 to -10 C, but the wind is a little more biting than in Riga. I haven't been able to see Helsinki across the bay yet but I'll keep looking!

Yesterday at church went very well. The building and branches here are more developed/american than any others I've been in. We attended the Russian branch in the morning, and i was shocked to see actual deacons passing the sacrament and a priest age recent convert blessing. That was a first! There's a few really strong families with young kids, which makes church a little more nuts. But fun too. We had two investigators in the Russian branch, one named Jevgeni (Russian for Eugene!) and he's been around for a while, and LOVES the Liahonas. He gets them every month so he can study them. He's a good, clean guy, in his 50s, and he told me more about the Joseph Smith story than I've ever heard from an investigator/member, like how Oliver Cowdery translated and had more education tha\n Joseph Smith... Then a new investigator named Jan came (that's not an American J, it's more like Yawn but that just looks odd so I'll write Jan) and he's 25, came to English and enjoyed church. He's a way sharp guy, and he's yet to be baptized and looking for truth. That's what iIm talking about.

I'm pretty sure the Estonian branch is the biggest in the Baltics. There are a few families that have been around for 15-17 years, and an active attendance of 80 (including missionaries). I guess there are more members in Riga, but they are split up into two branches because of the buildings on both sides of the River. They also had youth passing the sacrament, and a full branch presidency. It was sweet! Fast and Testimony meetings are always a favorite, the members here do a very good job about mostly just testifying of doctrine. Every once in a while you'll get your long crazy not so spiritually uplifting stories, but there weren't any yesterday, which was good. Well there might have been but they were in Estonian so I didn't understand. Estonian sounds like a lot of mumbling chickens, but in a more pretty and organized way. It's very similar to Finnish, so my hats off to Cami. And then back on quick because it's cold! Just kidding, that was a bad joke but we actually do have to go. Our time is short today because we're running to a lesson soon scheduled with Antiano (an investigator from Equador who's been around for a while )and our branch president, President Egi. He came up after sacrament meeting and they scheduled a time to meet (in Estionan) and they told me and I couldn't argue! So I'll try to give some more details next week, but I love it here, my companions are sweet and we have a blast! I'll send some pics soon, and if you have any more questions, fire away! I hope i answered most of them. I love you! I'm so happy to be here, and there is nothing better.

Love Elder Barnes #12