Water Shut Down

Terrrrrrrrrrve Fämily!! Wow, always the best way to start the week by hearing from you. I'll get right to it since I don't have as much time today. A member couple is going to feed us at a food shelter type of place, haha, then right after this we are going to the hospital to give a blessing to a member here from Helsinki. So . . . . :

We've had a couple water shut downs this past week. I guess they are working on something. So that means we get to pop out the buckets and live off of reserves. :) They shut it off again this morning right as we were doing our dishes.

Winter has struck . . . on my year mark too! Songs from White Christmas were popping into my head all day. The temps have dropped and the wind chill is back. . . . .meaning the winter coats are out. N even gave some mittens and a scarf to the both of us which was way nice of her. We were freezing our tails off one night while tracting and all of a sudden we heard the Ice Cream Man's little jinggle, haha . . . .Welcome to Finland. The change in weather has taken a toll on us because we ride bikes. I've already crashed twice . . . not too bad though. :) My comp said that he saw one of them and asked me afterward if I knew what I just did. I said no, then he told me that out of reflexes when I started to go down, I apparently put a foot up on one handle-bar, and the other foot up on the seat and surfed my bike to the ground with a roll to finish it off. haha, bike surfing . . . . gotta love it. My back brakes have snapped, my tires are thin, and my seat has a tear in it that turns it into a sponge which, in turn, turns my butt wet whenever I sit down. haha, yay for bikes!!

We had splits this week with our beloved Elders from Kuopio, Elders Gorringe and Pond. We set up 4 teaches, 2 for each pair, but mine were the only ones that actually worked in the end. They went pretty well, and the member who was at the second one really liked my Finnish and the way I taught and lead it all. Splits are always fun and give us chances to show what we got and put us in all kinds of situations.

We have a new investigator who we met on the street and gave a church tour too. Turns out that he is 18 . . .and already speaks 7 LANGUAGES. He even teaches Finnish through some of these languages at the university to the foreigners who are trying to learn it.

3 couples serving in the Temple came up to Joensuu yesterday for church. The 3 men\elders all gave talks . . . all had previously served in Finland as missionaries way back in the day. It was nice to have their added spirit in the meetings, and we were able to speak with them afterward and get pictures because they were invited to the same DA as us.

We taught J, our 24 year old investigator from Pakistan who has a baptismal date for November 6, during church with another member who is from Tanzania in Africa . . .here studying. It's still his date!! Katsotaan.

So many stories, so little time. Sorry for the shortness. Love you all. In my prayers. Moikka!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson