Hello - Goodbye

I am feeling so at home here. I just can't believe that tomorrow is our last day in Tallinn.

We started in Kadriorg walking through Swan Lake, the gardens, and the palace grounds. We arrived at Kumu just as it opened, but we only had a half hour there, so we hurried through the permenant Estonian exhibit. I decided that that collection is so important. It is great to see the same style of paintings that you would in the Louvre or any other reputable art museum, but see Estonian symbols, icons, and historical buildings like the churches of Old Town or the Pirita Cloister. They had some wonderful paintings of people in rahvariided, too. It was too bad we had to hurry, I wanted to look at things more carefully, but it was really good to see what we did as we got through about ten rooms. I don't know how they were able to preserve so much. They had one room that was full of busts--everyone from Jesus to Stalin to dolpins to young girls to other people that I'm sure were famous and recognizable to others--and many of them had recordings of things they said. The busts were placed so that when you walk through them, you become one of them...fascinating. Tony liked that room and a painting called The Sermon on the Mount the best.

Then we hurried out to Viimse to visit Salme and Bertha. They were SO generous and kind. They had a whole meal prepared for us of chicken, boiled potatoes with dill, ham, tomatoes, herring, eesti juust, cucumber and tomoto salad with dill and sour cream, and orange nectar juice. We had a very pleasant conversation, those women both just carry the Spirit with them so strongly. I think I started crying from the moment I sat down until the moment I left. It was so nice--it was amazing to hear their testimonies and to hear them talk about the temple and how much they love going there. They both have such strong faith in Jesus Christ. I felt like my own testimony grew today just being with them. We sang a hymn together (Sind vajan iga tund) and shared scriptures. It was sad to say goodbye, because they are both getting up there in years. It is hard to say if this will be the last time we will see them. I could tell they were both so happy to see "Allen" as they called Tony.

After we left Salme's, we stopped in at the Pirita Clooster and admired how massive that building once was. Then we headed into downtown and tried a Ponstnik Donut.

We went to the Kirisbergs next in Kakumae, way on the other side of town. Their house is filled with so much love! They had just received 40 kilos of strawberries today, so we helped clean, stem, and pack them up for freezing. It was great to just hang out with them and be one of the family there. They made a delicious pork and mashed potato dinner that we enjoyed with BBQ sauce that Kristi had brought from America. Lehti told us her conversion story and how she had been healed from sickness (kidney problems) after her baptism. They were among the very first - the 1990's when Kristi was just 8. We stayed there until midnight and didn't want to go home because we felt like we were already home.

[BTW - they have a saun in their house. My dad would be so jealous! ]