opposition in all things

Terrrrrrrrrrrrve. . . . . . one of the joys of speaking Finnish is that we often get to roll our 'R's in intense ways. :)

It was really nice reading all of your e-mails just now. So peaceful, so comforting, some sadness, then some good laughs. Thank you.

Today marks the first day of the new change in the Finland Mission. With it comes some new goals, new visions and desires, and . . . .as usual, a bunch of traveling. :) We had another District Meeting in Kuopio on Saturday, but this time Pres and Sis Brown were there. It was there that we learned that Elder Causse of the Area Presidency is coming for a Mission Tour in 2 weeks. So that means my Zone gets to trek back up to Oulu to hear him speak. yay for 10 hour trains. :) Then, the following week I have my 6 month Kieli Koul . . aka, Language School with my MTC group in Helsinki. (It'll be our last one). Then, the week after that we are trekking back to Oulu for Zone Conference, haha, yay for traveling!

We've recently been teaching a couple who are our 2 new investigators. They are quite the busy people though, so our teaches have been pretty short, and usually ne of them isn't there. But he has been reading a bit of the Book of mormon and is actually already in Mosiah, although he said he hasn't really been thinking while he reads, just kinda going through it I guess. He likes it though, said it's very similar to the Bible's text.

Last Tuesday a member randomly called us up and invited us over for dinner. We ended up eating probably one of the Finn's most favorite summer foods . . . . .Muikku . . .(google it) . . .it's a small fish that they just cook whole, everything still there, and just feast away! They are really good at taking it apart (bones, organs, scales, and all that) I think they had eaten 3 before we even finished our first one because we had no idea what we were doing, haha. YES, I ate them . . . . for all you doubters, haha.

Our awesome investigator 'N' is still doing great. The Adversary is very aware of her great faith and good choices, and is really trying to take her down. Basically all of her family and friends are extremely against her being converted. They send her Anti material, they text her, they call her, they scream at her, and this whole time (at least while around them) she's kept her cool and ignored ALL of it. The other night was especially hard on her because everyone was getting drunk around her and yelling at her and saying awful things. She said she cried all night. Yet, through all this she still knows the church is true, that everything they say is false, AND, she still loves and prays for all of them. How amazing is she?!! She wants so badly that they stop and see the light. Besides us and her member friend in Helsinki, we are all she's got for a support system, and the Man upstairs of course. We taught her after church yesterday and she prayed at the end, and in it she prayed for MORE trials to strengthen her faith. I'm telling you, she teaches us somethimes more than we can teach her. She still won't set a baptismal date though, is still waiting for the confirmation from God. But we seriously feel that when it comes, it could be within the hour that she's in the water. She still wants to be baptized in a lake, 'more natural' she says, haha. I could go on, but can't right now.

Another miracle we got to see was yesterday at church. 3 older couples from America (the men all former missionaries here way way back in the day) decided to visit. The miracle is that none of them coordinated it with eachother, and 2 of them used to be companions!! haha, AWESOME.

Low on time . . . what else is new . . . haha.

I love you all. Gotta send pics, so I'll go. Tell grandma I love her and I'll write her taas (again). Moi Moi.

-Vanhin Watson