Hei!

Sooo . . . yep, I'm still here in Kouvola . . .for my 5th Change. Looks like I am still needed here. Maybe it'll be like Joensuu and I just won't leave till I get a baptism, haha. Elder Balls left just a half hour ago to Savonlinna. I spent 3 changes with that man, and a good 3 changes it was. He was actually pretty bummed to leave Kouvola, it's a really good place with an awesome branch and things have been starting to take off here. Now, my new companion is Elder Edelman. He was actually my replacement in Joensuu when I left there! So he has been in Finland for about 6 months now and I can already tell that I'm going to like this guy. It's a bit of a tender mercy actually, haha, because I already feel like I am going to need to up my game with this guy just to keep up with him. I can already tell he is a good Elder and I am excited to get to work with him. Oh yeah . . .he's from Georgia.

So, about this past week. . . . .Well, first off, it's been wonderful weather here recently . . . except for right now . . .it's raining. . . . but most of the week has been bright and sunny, and it's finally getting green. Last P-Day we went to a local park and tossed around a frisbee that I got in a package a while back. It was pretty fun and we felt really good for the rest of the day, and even the next, because we spent more time outside and were able to run around a bit . . . .not to mention us working on that tan. Yep, our missionary tan lines are coming back. haha

Well, Zone Conference was Tuesday. It was awesome! Sister Brown spoke about Peace and Faith, the Assistants spoke about Elder Robbins' recent conference talk . . like to BE and to DO, which was really good. The Zone Leaders spoke about Finding, and Pres. Brown spoke about the Plan of Salvation. I'm going to miss Pres. Brown, he is such a good teacher and leader and he has done a lot for the mission. A year ago this mission had to find 91 new investigators on average to get ONE baptism out of it. Now, we have to find around 10 to get ONE baptism. I'm telling ya, the awakening is hitting Europe . . Finland especially. I really feel like the awakening is hitting Kouvola as well, and success is on it's way.

Our investigators are doing well, in fact, most of them are progressing. Our roommate duo is still doing awesome. One of them came to church yesterday while the other one was sick. Again, the members did very well in fellowshipping her. It seems like they are having a hard time connecting the fact that there is ONE true church though and ONE priesthood, because of the experiences they've had in other churches. so we are working on that.

We had a good teach with Olavi too. Lately he has been saying how he feels like his faith is too weak, so, we had a teach on Faith and actually used Elder Edgely's Nov. 2010 Conference talk, Faith-The Choice is Yours. Olavi just feels inadequate and wants to be perfect before setting a date, but he is ready and hopefully he'll recognize that soon.

We found a lot more potential investigators last week. We talked with a man, collecting money for a certain foundation, for nearly an hour the other day. Turns out, he knows A LOT about our church and our beliefs and he wouldn't accept the fact that we claim we are Christian. He's working on his Master Thesis here and has studied Theology for quite a while too. Bible Bashing gets us no where, so, even though we wanted to, and so did he, we just testifies about the stuff we do know and ended up getting his number. That is just one of the few stories we have for the week.

Hockey Season is back. Finland played Sweden last night and dominated them 6-1. I was woken up in the middle of the night by all the cheering going on. I got up and looked outside and people were crowding the streets, cheering and celebrating their win, cars honking and all. It was insane. I can't believe my companion slept through it all. haha. The whole week actually there have been hockey games going on, so no one wanted to talk to us at their doors because the game was going on.

With the warmer weather, people set up shop in the center and start playing their instruments and 'one man band' set ups. For example, we had Indians playing those peter pan flutes, a Latvian playing an accordian and a trumpet at the same time, and a cowboy playing the banjo, harmonica, and drum at the same time. Very entertaining.

Well, I better get going. It sounds like a bunch of stuff is going on back home these days. I hope all goes well! I don't really know what else to say other than, Goodbye, God Bless, and can't wait to hear about all your adventures next week.

I'll leave you by telling you about how this morning I finished the Book of Mormon again. This time, is was a huge project because I was marking everything and studying it more in depth, like highlighting the church doctrine on one color, the Christlike Attributes in another color, Christ's name in another color, and the stuff He says in another color. It was a big project, and I've never read it that way before. But it really helped me draw closer to it and to my Heavenly Father. I know that that book is true. I hope you all are reading it often, even if you are reading another church book or scripture, we have been counseled to ALWAYS read the Book of Mormon. It is the keystone of our religion. I know it is true.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson