Moi Moi

Well, it has been a long week and I can't believe that yesterday was my 5 month mark for my mission . . . woa . . .time flies.

Last week after I e-mailed you we hurried and did our grocery shopping and set out for a small town called Kitee where a member lives and had invited us for lunch and possibly teach her less active granddaughter and non-member husband. Nothing really came out of it but it was a good teach.

We taught our investigator Anne again last week. We finished up the first lesson. It went pretty well, but she was more in a talkative mood and didn't really pay attention and just talked a lot. She is still doing well, but she's out of town so we don't know when we will teach her again.

We almost got another investigator! He basically is one but we couldn't get a return appointment because he didn't know his schedule. His name is Cuong Le. He's Vietnamese but he was born in Finland and knows Finnish. A missionary couple that served here a few years ago taught his parents while he translated for them, he was only 15, but they left and now we found him by tracting. Small world. He's now 18, engaged, haha, and studying to become a chef. He's really nice and let us in and let us talk and teach for a while. He seems very interested and I'm very excited about him. He doesn't know much about God or religion, since he grew up Buddhist but isn't really active in that. He liked everything we said and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We're going to try and visit him again this week.

We met and taught Toni, our less active we teach every week. He was pretty depressed and asked for a blessing, so we gave him one, my companion's first in Finnish. Then we read The Book of Enos together because we sensed he was depressed about his life and the choices he made in his youth. It went pretty good.

We tried to visit a recent convert as of a few years ago, who lived way out on a farm. Her Chinese husband was the only one there and wasn't interested but was very nice. He let us take some pictures with their two huge black Newfoundland Dogs. These dogs were beastly, haha. If they stood up they would be as tall or taller than me. I kept thinking how my sisters would react if one of these dogs came up to them and laughed. :)

On Thursday we and the Savonlinna veljet road-tripped it to Oulu again for Zone Conference, which was amazing. Sister Brown taught about Faith and Peace, The AP's talked about Our Purpose as Missionaries (they had an object lesson to start out where they gave us some objects and asked us to describe it, but I didn't get one, so when they got to me they said describe our Purpose, so I recited the Missionary Purpose on PMG Pg 1, they were surprised I said it because no one else in the other Zones did and I was the first in the mission. Pres Brown gave me a Twix :) ), the Zone Leaders taught about Working with Members, and President Brown talked about a lot of things: like Evaluating ourselves, as even God did in Moses 2:31. Also about how he likes the improvement he is seeing in the mission but related to Pres Hinckley's We Can do Better talk. There were 4 young Finns preparing to go on their missions soon who were in attendance and afterward I spoke with one of them for a long time, through dinner and until he finally had to go. Cool guy. He's serving in the Provo Mission, so look out for a Finn you Provo dwellers. :) So all in all Zone Conference was really good and I learned a lot. It was good to see some other missionaries and have some laughs with them. I got to see 2 of my baby Finns for the first time since the MTC: Vanhin Higginson and Vanhin Marlor. Then 3 of the 8 missionaries who are leaving home this change were in my Zone so we got to say bye to them . . .awesome missionaries: Vanhimmat Kääriä, Oseen, and Holterstrom. (2 of them are Swedes)

On Saturday we trekked back to Joensuu, after a pit stop in Kuopio for Lunch. I drove the 7 hours . . . .long day, haha.

Well, sorry this e-mail is all over the place, not much time here so I kinda have to just type the basics. I still don't have the package yet. I got 2 letters from Helsinki, i think from UPS or Customs or something, telling me I need to come get it and show ID and stuff. I called the mission office and worked it out and they got them to send it to the mission office then they'll call me when it comes and ask if I want them to forward it to me. Still haven't got that call yet, haha. This package has been a legend for 2 and a half months and I still haven't seen it yet, hahahaha. :)

Well, Change Calls are this Saturday. I don't think we are going anywhere, but we'll see.

It was good hearing from all of you! Seth, your Eagle Project sounds like it went amazing, Congrats! Dad, the news about the company is awesome . . .congrats. Gonna have some ski passes for me when I get back? haha Shannon, thanks for the e-mail, glad to hear things are going well. Tell Jeff congrats for me! Lindsey, i couldn't download the picture :( but thanks for writing! Eden, I can't believe the little guy can talk and almost walk, haha, next word you have to work with him on after Dada is Eric. :P Your recent fun and adventures sound sweet. Layne, Baptize that man!! WOOOO!!! Has an awesome name too. :) Like the snow? I've been trying to blow it your way, haha.

Well, I miss you all but I am about the Lords work. It's hard. It's rewarding. It's the best. I know it to be true. Rakastan teitä. Moi.

Vanhin Watson . . . . . sorry if I am forgetting something . . . .I always do . . .:P