No Niin!!!! Hyvää Joulua kaikille (Merry Christmas)!! Christmas is definitely in the air here in Finland . . .the reason why I know is because you'd think that in the holiday season, there would be a lot of traffic and people out . . . . . . .nope. Everything is deserted. There is a thing here called 'Koti Rauha' or 'Home Peace' basically. It basically makes it impossible for us to tract and contact, because everyone is gone, or everyone doesn't want to talk until after New Years because they have guests. haha . . . so missionary work has really slowed down. We ended up taking buses and visiting members and less actives this past week, and that's probably how it will run this week too. We just want to spread the Christmas cheer! So far, all have been grateful for our visits and for our message on the true meaning of Christmas.
We ended up traveling to Kotka and Loviisa, two beautiful cities in our area. The members and less actives we visited have all been awesome . . .they just have transportation problems or health issues and they live so far away. We were fed Glögi, an awesome holiday drink here that they heat up and put almonds and raisins in. I think people have given it to us at least 6 times this week. They serve it usually with these little gingerbread cookies . . . yumm . ..
. . . . .I probably won't say much this time since I will TALK to all of you here in a few days!!!!!!!! My companion and I have been thinking about it and we might make a confirmation call sometime tonight or tomorrow to make sure everything works and set up the time. I remember a few of my sistas doing that back in the day. :) The call should last only a few seconds because it's VERY expensive. I have to go renew my phone card today and put more money on it . . . it had over 80 euros on it last time and the Mother's Day call drained all of it . . . .daaaaaang. . . . . .hopefully I get that new VISA card soon, or I'll have to use the church's card they give us, which is no prob, I'll just have to pay it back somehow.
SHANNON and LAYNE: we just this week taught a guy from Italy!!! I told him all about you two, haha. He lives here now with a family and everything . . .vespa included of course. He's not too interested, but he will accept a copy of the book of mormon. He speaks finnish, english, and italian . . .but he agreed to get a copy in Italian. So, what I was thinking, while the mission office gets that to us, can you two write in your e-mails next week a little entry\testimony I can print and cut out and put in the cover and give to this man? . . . .in Italian of course!!!! . . . only if you want. Kiiiiiiitosssssss! . . . I mean . . .Grazie!
We had splits with the District Leader this week. Elder Karlsson, from Sweden, is my District Leader, and Elder Balls, from Utah, is his companion. We had a fun time serving together for a day. All four of us at the end of the day were invited to a little Christmas social slash Glögi party, which we attended . . .good missionary work opportunity. The italian guy ended up being there too, haha. It was put on by a former investigator who just loves the missionaries. Around 15 people were there. I can tell you about it later.
Earlier that day, Elder Karlsson and I contacted into Santa Claus!! He was just walking down the main street where we contact and we decided to stop him . . .he told us to talk to someone who has time, haha. Santa Suit and all, haha.
In church yesterday 3 couples that serve as missionaries in the temple came to visit. Good ol Americans. In Sacrament Mtg. Veli Mikkola in the stake presidency spoke. He gave an awesome talk about Christmas of course, but instead of talking about the birth of Christ and everything, his talk was focused on everything that happened BEFORE that all happened, it was way cool. He talked about Mary and Elizabeth, and how they were the only 2 people on the planet for a time that knew who and where the Son of Man was to be born.
This Christmas we will be spending it with an older AWESOME couple, the Hyväriset. But here in Europe, like some of you know, Christmas Eve is bigger, so we will be spending it with the Suurinkeroiset family, another AWESOME family here.
On that note, I better go, but I leave you all with my testimony, especially at this time of year, that Jesus is the Living Christ, the Master, the Savior, the Only Begotten, and my perfect older brother. He is my light. He is my joy. He is the One who I call others to go to in this magnificent work, where His hands are stretch out still. Rakastan teitä. Kiitos kaikesta ja kuulemiin joskus pian!!!!!!!!
Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Watson
No comments:
Post a Comment