#34 Zone Conference

Well this week has just flown by... I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing last weeks email:)The weeks go by way too fast. It has been another great week here in Espoo and we have had a lot of fun being with members and with zone conference. It's been a good week. 

Tuesday it was P day but it was a really fun p day.:)) We were emailing last week and a YSA member in our ward showed up and he wanted to hang out with us. Now... we were going to go over to their house for dinner that day.. but we changed it up. We finished emailing and then went with him... and he showed us some cool spots in Espoo and had some dang good food:)) and it was just way fun. Got to see some really pretty parts of Finland. That is about it, kind of a had to be there moment but that is kind of hard for y'all haha.

Wednesday it was zone conference!!! That is always fun cause we get to see all the missionaries in the zone! You don't get to see them that often so its great when we all get together.  We had some really fun activities about to better invite people to church. The zone leaders had a fun little show or skit, not really sure what you want to call it. But you will get to see a picture of it and it was a lot of fun. We did watch a lot of videos about how we can use technology in the mission cause we will be getting smart phones at the beginning of May...so that is exciting and will help the work here in Finland a lot. After zone conference we went with the zone leaders to a place called tortilla house and got some burritos cause a member owns it...so we get a bomb discount and it's dang good food... so that was a lot of fun, good company and good burritos:)). 

Thursday we got to have another dinner appointment with the older couple in our ward that feeds us just about every week... but this week they also invited the recent convert as well, so we got to eat dinner with all of them and that was a ton of fun. I love going over there cause we get some dang good food but also we just have so much fun together each week so it makes it so fun. We are now all just best friends and it's just a party. The recent convert as well gave us a ride to our lesson that we had after. Giving directions is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be... but good thing he had google maps that would tell him where to go. But the thing is... he never heard it... and sometimes went the other way that it told him... so we looked at the map and then we told him where to go... cause he didn't hear the phone or did the opposite thing haha. I wish you guys could meet these people cause they are awesome!! We had a great lesson as well with our new friend that we are teaching. Learned a lot about his religion as well so it was a learning experience for the both of us:)).

Friday we had weekly planning and we had a lesson with another new guy we found to teach. Really interested in the Book of Mormon and he said he might be able to give this Book of Mormon away while he is on vacation and come back and get another one from us:) So we will see what happens there. Friday also me and Elder Fitz attempted something that we both have never done before. We wanted to make an Apple Pie. And may I just say with his great apple slicing skills and me rolling out the crust we made a bomb apple pie and we took a picture to prove it. It didn't last long cause it was so good:)).. but we have the proof that we made an apple pie!!:) 

Saturday we did the usual of meeting our friends from Nigeria and playing soccer with them. Elder Fitzpatrick scored a goal... and now...when one of us Americans scores a goal you should see the look on their faces... they are just in shock at what has happened. How could an American score a goal.... they suck at soccer:)). But they are just mind blown and it's the funniest thing in the world. And they had their Nigerian pop music blasting off some fancy speaker the whole time...so we get some cool music as well. I'llhave to take a video to show you guys:)). 

That night we got to meet with one of our very good investigators. He has been investigating for quite some time now and we had an awesome meeting with him! We talked about general conference and he was telling us about how he had gotten answers to questions and how he started to apply the things that he had learned into his life! It was so cool to see how great of an affect general conference had on him. Even with us being members we should be able to get just as much out of conference as he did. We can learn a lot... so it's important that we watch it. 

Sunday we had church and that is always great! We are able to see all the members and chat with them and see how their week has gone.  It's a lot of fun to hear about what they are doing. We had a missionary coordination meeting and those are always helpful cause we are able to get the help from the ward that we need... and the ward is a huge help for getting a lot of missionary work done. That night we had a lesson with a couple and they are talkers... they will just talk forever about anything and everything so sometimes it's hard to get them to focus. But we taught them the restoration and they were silent the entire time, asking a few questions and making a few comments here and there and it was just amazing about how quiet they were and really listening. Then they went on to tell us that they will read the Book of Mormon chapter by chapter so that they can understand it. Way cool lesson. We also had a person to refer to the Turku elders and we got to talk to them and that was a lot of fun as well. 

Monday we got to meet with one of our less actives and he is just awesome!! We talk about anything and everything and somehow there is always a spot where he can refer to him going to the gym and then we see some video of him working out with his buddies:) We had a lesson planned with guy that we have been trying to get a hold of since like January and he said he was gonna come... but sadly he never came....so we rescheduled for today so hopefully something will come of it. 

That is about it for this week. We have transfers in about 2 weeks cause this week we have a 10 week transfer... so we will see in about 2 weeks what's gonna happen. Many missionaries are starting to make predictions:)). Its always a game with the elders to see who can guess the most right and its a lot of fun:)) 

Have a great week! 

Elder Love out

Some questions we asked Austen this week?

1) If you could provide any council at all to us here at home, what would it be?

"Live your life so you are always prepared to meet GOd. President Nelson said that time is running out. So don't wait till the last moment to make a change or repent...cause by then it will be too late".

2) Are you having fun?

"Yeah...I'm having a lot of fun!!"

3) Most spiritual thing that happened this week?

"We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators after general conference...and he's had like 3 baptismal dates...but he told us he wanted to be baptized. He was happy cause HE came to the decision this time and not because someone asked him. So pretty much we are working with him and letting him decide when he wants to be baptized and all that....so we know that he's doing it cause he wants to...and not because we are the good missionary friends.