#2 Happiness and a lot of laughter!!!

TERVE!!!!

This week has seriously gone by so fast!! It seems like yesterday that I was writing last weeks email. So I'm guessing that it is a good thing. So here is all about another week in the MTC.

Friday: Today was a pretty good day. We had another lesson to teach and it went really well. We were able to hit all of the points that we wanted to hit, so me and my companion were proud of ourselves for having a successful lesson. Later in class we had a discussion all about repentance. The importance of it and why we do it and the blessings that come from it. It reminded me of the discussion that we had about faith last week.

We got our flight plans for our trip to San Francisco and we will be going on Tuesday. You will hear all about that trip a few paragraphs down haha. Once we get our visas we are one step closer to being able to go to Finland!! That night was a lot of fun and relaxing which is something that I needed. Its nice to be able to let loose and just relax after all the work you are doing during the day.  We played some sand volleyball, we do that every Friday night as a zone. And it is seriously so much fun, Its one of the things that I look forward to every Friday.  I am getting better at volleyball so by the time I leave the MTC, I'll be a pro haha. That night we studied for awhile and after we studied we had all the elders together. We were just hanging out and joking around and having a fun time. It is so amazing that we all get along cause if not, this experience could be really different.  

Saturday: So the big important part of today was a discussion we had about faith. Mosiah 4:9-12. Verses 9-10 it mentions the word "Believe" 6 times. From it we learn that we have to sincerely believe in Christ. We must believe that he will help us and that he will be there for us. Like in verse 10 it talks about repentance but we must humble ourselves, ask with a sincerity of heart, and we have to believe that we will be forgiven. Verse 11... as we have come to know the things it talks about "ye should remember, and always retain in rememberance"  and again, we should humble ourselves, and stand steadfastly in the faith. In verse 12 it PROMISES us that if we do these things we will ALWAYS rejoice and be filled with the love of God.

Other than that, the day was pretty good, we had a really good scripture study. The classes seemed to drag on but when it was over it seemed as they flew by. Time as a missionary is weird and just doesn't make sense haha. It's nice to be able to read the scriptures cause not gonna lie, sometimes you just need a break from learning Finnish!Haha.

I met with the zone leaders today and that was really fun, being able to talk with them, cause they are the coolest guys. These guys are the greatest examples and being able to talk to them and hear their stories and what they have learned, was really cool. 

Sunday: Today was a really good Sunday, I had district council meeting and it was fun to be with all the District leaders and zone leaders . We have good meetings and we make them fun.  I have gotten to know all of them in the short time I have been there which is cool, cause now we are all such good friends.  Two elders in my group gave the lesson it was good. One of them handed out starbursts, but they were the spicy ones!!! None of us knew, so me and this Elder that is going to Norway were looking at each other and busted up laughing cause they were spicy.. and everyone in priesthood was sweating and it was hilarious!! The Croatians spoke in church cause they were leaving on Monday which was sad cause they were so nice. I also heard Mongolian for the first time and that language is freaking whack. It sounds so weird.  But Finnish isn't anymore normal. I also got to meet an Elder from my mom's home ward in Norway!. We have gotten to know each other pretty well and have been talking almost everyday, cause we live in the same building and we have fun together.  Everyone has figured out that I have a little bit of a country accent. So there was one moment where I sounded just like Elder Calhoun. (Best two years movie:))One of the Sister missionaries now calls me "Country Boy" which is pretty funny. So I guess its not just mom that thinks I have a country accent hahaha.

Monday: Today I was reading the testimonies of the three witnesses and the eight witnesses. I really like the end of the testimony of the eight witnesses. They say "And we give our names unto the world that which we have seen. And we lie not, God bearing witness of it." We are missionaries and we are giving our names "Vanhin Love" to the world, and we "I" am/are going to testify and be a witness that the Book of Mormon and the Church is true. We will have God on our side as a witness with us. And with God on our side nothing is impossible, so we as missionaries will be successful in spreading the gospel. 

So we leave for San Francisco tomorrow!! It's been weird cause we are all focused on that, and making sure we have everything. We played some volleyball today and you all know how much I love volleyball, so that was great. We had class with one of the instructors and he is my favorite teacher. He never tells jokes or anything but when he says stuff its hilarious cause he's kinda serious but not! But today he was telling so many jokes and we were all laughing so hard some of us were crying!! That night we at the donuts that mom and dad sent, and another elder got a box as well. But here's the thing...since we were leaving for San Francisco in the mornin, we had to eat all of them so they wouldn't go bad!! With all of us, we ate them all in like 5 min. They were soooo good!!!

Tuesday: San Francisco!! So today we went to San Fran. It has been a really long day and super busy. We had to get up at 2:45 in the morning to get ready so we could be at travel by 3:45. They took us to the tracks, and we had to ride that all the way up to Salt Lake, and then take a train over to the airport. When we got there we all bought some breakfast and talked to a lot of people asking us where we were going. I got to have a Dr. Pepper for the first time in two weeks and that was glorious! Haha Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:30am but our flight was delayed 2 hours and so we didn't get to leave till 10:30. But it was still so much fun, cause all of us were just chillin and having a good time. The plane ride was fun cause me and another elder were telling stories, and one of the sister missionaries was talking to us about surfing..like I said, just a fun time on the plane. We landed in SF and our shuttle was late by like an hour and the day was just not looking good hahah. Our shuttles finally arrived and they drove like they were in India!!! Our driver I swear nearly killed like 10 people from the way that he was driving,but we made it to the visa place all safe, so I guess thats whats important right? haha. The visa place was the absolute worst, they were so slow and we were there for 4 1/2 hours. On our way back to the airport with these scary drivers, we nearly killed another 10 people!! However, some how we made it to the airport all safe again with so much time before our flight. We thought we were going to miss our flight with how slow the visa people were. But God was looking out for us and got us there safe with time to eat dinner. Our flight was also delayed 45 min to Salt Lake so we took that time to plan lessons and study, cause we had not done anything that day cause we wanted a break ahahah. But the flight home went really fast and before we new it, we were in Salt lake. Then the MTC people picked us up and we tried to convince our driver to take us to Maverick before we went back to the MTC, and we passed like 12 of them, but we never got there. The ride home from the airport was one of the funnest parts of the day. I also got to take your typical airplane pictures so I had fun with that as well ahahah.  We had been up for 20 plus hours and we were so tired!! When we got back  we just all crashed and that was the best sleep ever!!

Wednesday: Gonna start out with TRC. This was the first TRC that we have done being in the MTC. It was the coolest experience. So TRC we teach some random strangers that speak Finnish. Our first lesson was with a guy that had served his mission in Finland, and he was the coolest guy ever. His Finnish was so good! Which was a given since he served there but still. It gave me and my companion hope that we could be that good. We had our lesson prepared and we taught about Faith. It went a lot better than we thought it would, and we filled 20 minutes! We have never done that before! After the lesson it was a confidence booster cause he told us for being here 2 weeks our Finnish was really good. So that made me feel really good. But it was so cool to see what it would be like to teach an actual person.  I got to see my friend Ty from California today and that was awesome cause I haven't seen him since EFY last year. I also go to see Ian (his cousin) as well but we haven't gotten a picture yet so that is coming. 

Today is P day and we are just chillin. Love and miss you all!!!

Elder Love is out

sorry for spelling errors I am typing really fast so there may be a lot hahah

Oh....I forgot my FUNNY STORY!!

This happened yesterday!!
So me and my companion are about to go into our lesson with Sister Cardon. So we knock and she answers and says some stuff in finnish that we didn't understand. She held up her hand trying to tell us "5 minutes". I got that part.

Well as you know Finnish is a hard language and is a little hard to understand.. well I thought she had said "Can you come back in 5 minutes?" Which I thought was valid cause the last elders had just taught her. So I tell her "yeah 5 min is good" and start walking back to class cause we are supposed to come back in 5. Well turns out she said "Can your lesson be 5 minutes?" So that changes things causeI'm halfway down the hallway already and my companion is running after me "WAIT! she asked if our lesson could be 5 minutes!" So we ran back and taught our lesson but still after our lesson  we were laughing so hard and it was so funny!!! So even in the moments when you need to teach, humor always finds its way in haha.

Love yall

1. View from his class room in Provo
2. Wonder what he's thinking:))
3. Austen and the Norwegian Elder
4. What Austen studies every day
5. Salt Lake airport
6. His group
7. Hanging out at the airport
8. Flying over Utah
9. Landing in San Francisco
10. San Fran
11. His group
12. You know...just Austen:)
13-18. San Francisco