no heeiiiiiiii

No terrrrrrve Family!

Wow, it's Monday already and here I am . . .taas (here again). Christmas is in the air and it's even tangible through all your e-mails. I can't wait to talk to all of you soon!

So . . . sorry . . .the list thing is all I usually have time for because I still have to send out my weekly letter to President Brown in the same hour I am allotted per week. soooo . . .

-Monday was ItsenäisyysPäiva . . .Independence Day . . . here in Finland. Pretty sweet. I've been told it's the only time you'll see a grown Finnish man cry. Very patriotic here.

-Tuesday was spent in Helsinki!!!! There, we had a Specialized Training Meeting for our Zone. In it, President Brown shared a Christmas Message that he, and some of the world's top Mormons in the Church Office Building, put together. It was completely centered on Christ. For a few touch ups, we watched a few music clips of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing their Christmas cheer. IT.WAS.AMAZING!!! I usually never cry for movies or anything like that, but I got pretty close there. The Spirit was strong and undeniable, testifying of the divinity of the Living Christ, Our Savior. We also watched a Mormon Message titled, Lifting Burdens . . . .WOW. Check it out.

-The snow was DUMPING down in Helsinki. We've been hearing that there is more snow in Helsinki than in Lapland . . .Arctic Circle area, right now at least.

-We have two pretty solid progressing investigators here, O and S. One has an anti husband who won't let her get baptized. Then O just won't get baptized yet. But we were able to teach them and a few other people this week with a few less active visits along the way.

- My bike is pretty much fixed now. There's another story for ya for when we are a talkin' later, but after a few hours of trying to fix it, I just took it to a shop and the guy fixed it in less time and for only 10 euros. . . .yeeeeah. :) Next step, new seat that isn't a sponge.

-Friday was the Branch Christmas Party here. We were assigned to have a little time to perform something in it. We decided to ask a bunch of fun trivia questions to the whole group about a bunch of random subjects, Religion, Candy, Sports, America, etc etc. It went really well and everyone, young and old, got involved. At the party, there was some confusion for a little bit because 2 Santa Clauses showed up, haha. Whoops.

-On Saturday we spent half the day with a now dropped investigator. She lives so far away, so we take a bus to get there, then she picked us up at the bus stop and took us to her house, where first we did some snow service, then she fed us, then we taught her. By the time to came out again to leave, there was already a good 3 inches more over the freshly shoveled yard. That same day, we hoped on a train that took us a half hour away and we taught a potential investigator. 45 minutes after he let us in, we were running to the train station to catch our train home, haha.

-Looks like a few of us had something in common on Sunday . . . yup, I gave a talk to in church! It went pretty well. I decided to talk about a recent quote from Pres. Monson that goes something along the lines of, "Why do we keep the commandments? . . . . So we can have the Spirit." Yeah, so I talked about ways to feel the Spirit and stuff.

-Eden, I wore that Christmas tie you sent me last year and it was a big hit here, haha.

-After church, we hopped on a bus to Elimäki, where some SWEET members live. The dad was the bishop here for 23 years!!! Watch out Dad, haha. Now he's in the high council and the whole family is awesome. They fed us . . .salmon . . .yes, I ate it, haha. Pretty good. :) The branch here is awesome. I love it. They even gave us a HUGE box of food after church yesterday.

- When I was in Helsinki I got that package that Sister Stoehner sent me!!! WOW. Tell her thanks. I sent her a thank you card too.

-Update on Christmas Call . . . it looks like my companion will try and call his family around 7 pm my time . . . .So that means I'll call some time around 8:30 pm my time. Next week we should know for sure, but that's what I know for now.

Well, time has already flown by, gotta go. Thanks again for all your love and support. Thanks for the updates and the testimonies. Love you all. Moi.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

P.S. Pics attached: Volswagen for Vanhin Watson, Audi for . . . .yeeeah. :) That's me, and Niina.