Wednesday: We got up and we were out the door early to go and finish up some residency stuff in Helsiki. We got to see the city for a little bit but not too long. We then went back to the mission home for a meeting and then we would be meeting out trainers and finding out where we would be serving! So my trainer's name is Elder Reed, he is from Oregon and has been out for about a year. My first area is KAJAANI. Kajaani is close to the middle of the country... it is about a 6 hour train ride from Helsiki. Now here's the catch....I did not get to Kajaani until Thursday! Here is why! So after we got assigned to our trainers and found out where we were going, it was off to the train station for all of us to go to our areas. My trainer told me we would be spending the night in Kuopio with some elders cause we had to be in Oulu the next day for our district meeting. So we took a 4 hour train ride to Kuopio and hung out with the elders there for the night. That was fun... but I was so tired and sick of traveling and only had more traveling to do haha. The elders in Kuopio were way nice and so we had a good time with them.
Thursday: So we got up this morning and got on a train and took our 4 hour train ride to Oulu. So fun huh... so far 8 hours on a train haha. We got to Oulu around noon, and let's not forget, I still haven't seen my area, been in the country for 2 days, and yes I am still hauling all of my luggage around cause we haven't been to Kajaani haah. So that really sucked. We got to Oulu and were picked up by the zone leaders. Elder Haws and Elder Viitenan and they are hilarious, they are so fun to hang out with. Then we went to the church for our district meeting so I got to meet everyone in the district and I got to see my old comp elder Carter! We are in the same district but he is serving all the way up in Rovaniemi. The people in our district are way chill and super fun so we had a party. After our meeting we went to play sports and we played some badminton and Sähly which is like field hocky pretty much. That was fun, still kind of hard cause I have no idea what people are saying to me so there was a bunch of finnish and I was so confused as to what was going on. Since me and Elder Reed did not have any dinner.. cause we hadn't been able to go to Kajaani...we went to Burger king for dinner with the Zone leaders. The coke here tastes a little different, and I have never been a fan of Burger king... but it was pretty good. Still getting used to the tiny cups, and no refills.. I guess that could be a good thing haha. But we were in Oulu till about 6 and then we got on to the train to take a wonderful 2 hour train ride to Kajaani. So I finally got to my area at around 8 ish and it was completely dark so you can't see anything... so I just had to wait till the morning to see what the place even looked like ahha. But I finally got to unpack and now I don't have to carry around my luggage with me any more which is a blessing cause hauling those around really sucked.
Friday: So today was the first day in the area and the first day of doing some actual missionary work. We got up and did studies and exercised and then got ready. First thing we did was go out and do some street contacting. Now the Finnish people are very reserved and don't talk to really anyone... so when you just approach people on the street to start talking to them they look at you like you are whack. That was really scary at first, cause it seemed that all the Finnish that I had learned had gone right out the window and left at the MTC. Well the more people we talked to the more I got comfortable. Usually though I never got past the part of "we are missionaries..." and then they would just walk away, or tell us they were not interested. So there was not much success.
So, there is an old burned down castle in the center of town that was burned down back in the 1700s and we walked around that...all that's left now are the ruins of the stone walls.. but it looks really cool but it's super small. So y'all can see some pics of that. Then we had lunch, some language study and comp study and dinner. For the night we went out and we went tracting. So we went to some apartments where a lot of the college students live. The first door that I knocked on they opened! and then I introduced us and then it got slammed in my face. So that's fun. Well that same thing happened about 7 more times that night, either they would not answer or it got shut on us.. so that's nothing new any more haha. Kinda stung the first time but you just gotta learn to roll with the punches. So we kept knocking on doors till 8. In Finland you can't knock on anyone's door after 8 unless you know them, so after that we just went back to street contacting.
Friday:Got up and did our thing in the morning and then went out tracting right away. Not much success but we got a guys number so thats good... so we will see if we can get a meeting with him. We went and had lunch and then street contacted that night. Funny story for ya!! Elder Reed was like hey lets talk to this guy. So I go up and talk to him, he's wearing a BYU hat and claims to know nothing about the church, then asks me why Nephi had to kill Laban, and then starts talking in English! This guy threw me for a loop and was so confused as to what the heck was happening. Then Elder Reed and this guy start busting up laughing and it turns out its the Branch President and he wanted to mess with the greenie. ME hahaha. So that was pretty funny. We went to meet with one of our potential that was found street contacting the week before I got there. We met with her and had some interesting African food...it went well! We got a lesson planned with her for Sunday.
Sunday: First Sunday here was the most confusing day of my life. I had no idea what the heck was going on and the Branch pres was just laughing at the look that I had on my face all of church ahaha. So I could not tell ya what was going on. Our potential came with her son to church. Also here in Finland the privacy laws are hecka strict so anytime I write about people I have to be very breif and simple when I talk about them. But they came to church and we went and taught them the First lesson after church. We went to the lesson and the branch pres and his wife came with us and they helped us teach the first lesson. I did not say much cause i had no idea what was going on. Elder Reed just told me when to speak and what we were talking about so I could Contribute... but we taught her whole family and it went really well. After this lesson we have potentially 3 total investigators which is great!
Monday: We had another district meeting in Oulu so more train time for us. The Kajaani elders travel a ton cause we are in the middle of everything and are kinda out by our selves. But that was a ton of fun to go up and spend the day with the district , we did some language study up there, and then had some really good pizza for dinner. Pretty good day over all. Then just a train ride back and some more street contacting that night.
Today we are emailing for a little bit and then out and getting a lot of things we need to get done.
ALSO we are way short on time for emailing...so if you email me I will probably write you every two weeks cause it's so limited on time.. and don't have enough to write much. But THANK YOU for the emails , they are great and love hearing from you guys
Love y'all
Elder Love is out
Lots of pictures from Vanhin Love this time. Pictures from the MTC and his flight to Helsinki, his comapnion and Kajaani Finland!
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