Footprints in Finland: # 4 A week of Faith

Terve! Mita Kuulu!

Well this has been another week that has just flown by. The days drag on and sometimes feel like they never end and they just mesh together,but then the week is already over it's crazy!

Friday: Today has been a really good day. So we had to teach a lesson today and I was so nervous, I don't know why! I have taught many lessons before, but this one I was nervous on how it would go. But it went GREAT!! It was a really good lesson. Later we had class with Veli Allen and he was hilarious and making so many jokes I was dying. It was a little hard to focus cause on Fridays we have exercise time at night, so we were all just hyped up cause we had not gotten the chance to work out and get our wiggles out haha. But we still got all the things that we needed to get done done.

We got some pretty good pizza cause it was pizza friday,and that is something to look forward! It's better than some of the other meals you get here hahah.

Then we went and played volleyball like we always do and that was a ton of fun cause our entire zone playsed. Later that night I met with Elder Ball for my District Leader meeting and that was way fun, cause me and Elder Ball get along really well. It was way fun to sit and chat with him. After my meeting I met up with the rest of our district and we were chilling outside studying and just chatting, getting some much needed relaxation time, and just getting to know everyone even better.

Saturday: Tonight in our night class we had the Icelandic teachers sub for us because ours was sick,and that was so much fun. We read in Alma 34. Amulek is teaching and he teaches about faith. I don't know if you have noticed but when I write home, faith is a common topic and it's been brought up a lot in my classes, devotionals, and personal study. So as you can see faith is important. Earlier I ready Matther 8:26 "And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?..." And Hebrews 10:38 "Now the just shall live by Faith..." I think one point is pretty interesting. Why are ye Fearful? Why are we fearful if we have faith. If we have faith then we shouldn't worry as much. Yes we are all human and can't live a worry free life, but why fear when we have faith in Christ? I have struggled with this cause Finnish is a pain in the butt, but I have noticed that the days that I really put all my faith in him, he will help me with the language. Do I understand everything? I wish.. but maybe one day I'll finally remember a phrase I have been working on memorizing. It's the little things, and yes I still struggle with the faith and putting all of my trust in Christ that he is going to help me.. but it's getting better. Just like Hebrews 10:38 "Live by faith" If we live by faith, things may get a little easier for us and our relationship with Christ will strengthen.

Today was a pretty good day. We lost to the Russians again in soccer but i'ts still fun. We hope to eventually win one hahaha. But when its like 40 on 60 it's hard,cause we are outnumbered and there are so many people... but its fun hahah. We had to teach a 20 min lessons in English and that was great! My companion and I did great and teaching in English is so much easier hahaa. That's a given. That night with the Icelandic teachers we had to teach a 5 min lesson to one of the teachers about the Creation and the Fall. Well everyone was taking their turns and me and my companion ended up being the last ones, and we had to teach one of the teachers but in front of the entire class!!! That was not what we were expecting but he got out nerves out and went to teach. It's hard when you have like 10 other people all watching you and how you teach hahah. But we ended up teaching for 15 min! Not what we were expecting and plus the teacher forgot to set his timer for 5 min so it never went off ...so me and my companion thought it was the longest 5 min of our lives ahaha. But it was a really good lesson and really fun.

PLUS it was BYU's first home game and if you go up to the top floor of T4 and you look towards the stadium, you can kinda see the video board! But some tree are in the way so you can't really see anything and then if you zoom in on your camera all the way, you can see all the people, but the scoreboards are way too bright... and the camera can't adjust so you cant see the score. I tried ahahah. But you can hear people cheering and that's dumb cause then you wonder what's happening hahahah.

Sunday:

Today was Sunday and it was a really good day. Got up and went to my district leader meeting and we talked about the missionaries that need help and what we can do to help them. With sacrament meetings everyone talks in the mission language and I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING!! How great is that!!! But no it was not Finnish ahaha. It was the Norwegian Sister and Elders that spoke and some Sweeds spoke as well. Byt I understood them as well hahah. If only that were for Finnish haha. We said goodbye to the Norwegian Elders and Sisters and that was sad cause they are some of the coolest missionaries. So people of Norway take care of Elder Garrett, Elder Dansie, and Elder Fryer for me.. they are awesome!! One elder was telling me there was someone at the MTC who he thought was so attractive and was sad he wasn't gonna see her. She teaches one of the workshops haha. We had a workshop on Tuesday and guess who was there, this girl ahaha. So me and Elder Melton were just dying and thought it was so funny, so we got a picture with her that we are sending as a joke hahahah. Then we went to the devotional and watched our Sunday film and then went to bed.

Monday: Today was a pretty good day. We played some games in the Gym today to switch things up a bit, but still had fun. Language study was a lot of fun and I got another video for you guys of me speaking Finnish and you can also see how weird me and my companion are... but we have a ton of fun together. He also got his nose cast off so he looks better now to hahah. We had class with Veli Edwards and Sister Clark and that was so fun! We had a book of Mormon read and read in Mosiah 4. Verse 19 it says " Are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same being, even God..." Which I thought was interesting because it is so true. We are all beggars and depend on God. We all beg for forgiveness of our sins, we all beg for help every single day. But he has poured out his spirit on us and has done everything to help us. We just gotta have the faith. I also read Psalms 31 and that was something that I needed. David is speaking with the Lord and telling him his doubts and fears, but he also praises the Lord and all that he is. Verse 1: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed" Put your trust in the Lord and be not ashamed. Verse 3: " For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me and guide me" Like it refers to in Helaman 5:12 build your foundation on the Lord. Build your fortress on the Lord and he will lead you and guide you. Verse 4: "For thou art my strength", Verse 6: " I trust in the Lord", Verse 7: " Thou hast known my soul in adversities" So he is trusting in the Lord, Relying on the Lord for strength kinda like FAITH. Verse 10: " my strength faileth because of mine iniquity" His faith sometimes isn't the best when times get tough and that's when our faith should be its strongest. Verse 14: "I trusted in thee,... Thou art my God", Verse 15: My times are in thy hand", Verse 23: "O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and the plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." The reward is what I think of as blessings and he will bless us when we have faith and do his word. If I remember correctly its James 1:22 it says something like " Be ye doers of the word, not hearers only" You can't just listen, you have to act, if you don't put any of it to action you will never grow. Then in Verse 24: " Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." It's hard to not get discouraged sometimes because we are human, but have courage and the faith that he will help you. He will strengthen you and all we got to do is have a little faith. I write these things to share with you in hopes to help, but at the same time it's a little pep talk for me to help me and work on my faith. Even though I'm a missionary, I still have the trials and struggles too and I need all the help I can get. If we have the faith in him he will strengthen us and so we just need faith and everything will fall into place. It my not be the way you want,but it will fall into place the way the Lord wants, and we will see the blessings later.

Tuesday: It has been a pretty good day. We had the usual sack breakfast and volleyball in the morning. We only had one class today cause of the evening devotional. As usual learning Finnish is very confusing and hard. Tonight's devotional was great and another motivational time for me. Our speaker from the presidency of the seventy ripped up his talk cause he felt he needed to speak on something else and I am glad he did. He talked about conversion and faith. Weird how Faith is brought up again hahah. To sum it up they pretty much said " You are not alone in this, trust in God and he will help you and he is always there." He also said something along the lines of " It's gonna be hard. When Christ was on the earth he had a lot of trials as well so we can't expect it to be easy, but the sooner we accept that and do our best, the better it will be. " That's what I got from it. In our devotional review we all talked about what we learned and talked about how we have been feeling the same way. It'ss nice cause we are all in the same boat, but someone always has an insight you have not heard that you learn from. I love that our district is way open with one another and we trust each other so its been a huge blessing to all of us.

Wednesday: Today was an overall good day. We taught a good lesson about Faith in Christ. Veli Allen gave us some tips on how to make our lessons better which was helpful to hear and learn something to make them better. That night we had TRC and it went really well. It was a little tough though cause the second guys that we taught just seemed like he didn't want to be there. When we would ask questions it would be quiet for a little bit, someone would answer and then the other guy would be quiet and then just say "Sama" which is same. So they didn't talk, but somehow that managed to be our longest lesson which I thought was funny hahah.

Thursday: Today its obviously P day and we are just chillin. Went to the temple this morning, had a bomb breakfast at the temple and now we are emailing!

Thats a wrap for this week!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Love is out