#79 Russians for the win!

Alright folks enough with the dumb jokes.... let's get crackin on this weeks email.

Tuesday. Just mentioning this day cause we saw the Northern lights again. They weren't as strong this time and didn't last to long.... so no pics... but hey lucky us. They are pretty sick. 

Wednesday was a pretty fast day. In the morning we had district council. It was nice to see all the boys on the computer screen Haha. But we had a good discussion on setting baptismal dates with our friends that we are teaching. The morning went by fast...suddenly it was time for lunch and for studies.... so we went home and did that and then bounced off to go teach Thure. We had a pretty good lesson with him talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ. We also watched some of the Bible videos so he could get a visual representation cause he said he didn't know the story all that well leading up to Christ going to the garden. Then we went home and made some dinner and right after that we went to our youth night. This week they spiced things up and we went bowling! And this was also the first time I've been bowling on my mission so that was pretty fun! But I did bowl pretty bad but hey that's okay. 

Thursday we had splits! So that morning we did some studies and then went and took a bus to the train station and trained down to Seinäjoki. When we got to Seinäjoki we had some lunch and then went out to tract and possibly get some lessons if people were home. Me and elder Kimball went to teach a lesson. I was so lost at first cause he was talking about radio waves, genetics, and steam pipes. How all that fits together I have no idea but we ended up having a good discussion with him about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Then Elder Kimball and I went tracting after the lesson and talked to so some way nice people. It's always sad when people tell you about family members who have recently passed away. It's always just way sad. But we had the message of the Plan of salvation to give them so that changed the mood from sad to happy:). Then we went home to get some quick dinner and then elder Johnson and I went to talk to this guy and hopefully get let in. He let us in and we talked about the Book of Mormon with him and he had some great questions and we talked with him for a bit.... but we had to keep it short cause we had to run to another lesson. So we rushed over there to teach their friend with a baptismal date. He is awesome and he loves america so it was way fun getting to teach him. We read in the Book of Mormon and talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and he is gonna help us through the challenges we face. But he is way cool and really wants the gospel to be apart of his life so it was way cool to see. Way cool spiritual lesson and I think we were able to help him out a lot in that short time... but the spirit is the biggest impact on him even after we leave. Even crazier part.... earlier that day elder Johnson and Roylance had tracted into his parents by accident. But that is a huge blessing cause they were kind of against their son being baptized but now that the elders know where they live they can help them understand some stuff so that's way cool. Then after that we headed home for the night and that was the end to our really busy day. 

Friday we got up and had a pretty slow morning with studies and then we headed to a service project for friend of the elders in Seinäjoki. So while everyone was cleaning the windows I somehow got put in charge of making the beef for the tacos we were gonna have for lunch Haha. She kept on telling us she had never made tacos before and she was not wrong. This is by far the weirdest taco I've ever had. It was more like a sandwich with some garlic dressing and pepper mayo with pickles and some french cheese and eggs and a lemon mayo. Yeah it was an interesting taste for sure. Not as bad as I expected but I managed to avoid the eggs with the squeezable fish paste the comes out of a tube:)). I ate lots of stuff other than that Haha. Then we went back to the apartment and changed and then caught our train back to Jakobstad. The train was kinda crazy cause it was full of a bunch of college students in their party pants on their way to some crazy party in Rovaniemi. It's funny to see them getting ready to party all night cause they start partying on the train and then they see us and just like look at us and whisper among themselves. You hear their few comments that they make to mock us. But there are two very different lifestyles. But we got back to Jakobstad and biked home and then made some dinner cause we got home late and we had our branch sähly night that we had to get to. So we ate dinner and went over to play sähly and that was so much fun! I think I'm starting to get better but me and a ward member Joseph were getting pretty serious with it and making plans so that we could win Haha. It was a lot of fun and getting to play some sports... it's a nice change. But man does it get tiring when you are constantly running Haha.

Saturday was a really lowkey day. We started our that morning by heading to the church to send a spiritual thought to the ward. Sometimes it goes quick and other times it takes a little longer cause you have to type the same message 3 times but all in different languages. So this one took a little bit. We went home and had some lunch and then after lunch had to head over to go visit out man Kenneth and do some service for him. So we pumped up the all the tires of his wheel chairs and we had to help him run some chords for his tv in his bedroom and get that all set up for him. He showed us his new lights in his kitchen where he can change the color of the lights from his phone so that's pretty fun. He kept changing them so fast it felt like we were at come disco party Haha. By then the afternoon had come and we still had studies to do so we did some quick ones and then weekly planned and tried to do that fast. But also trying to get some stuff ready for next transfer took a while so by the time we were done it was time for Swedish studies and then our day was through Haha.

Sunday was a way fun day! So we went to church and we had a member bring her friend again. So sacrament meeting was a little crazy cause we had to translate sacrament meeting for a member and at the same time pull up all the scriptures in Russian for her friend so that she could read them. Well things got better cause after church the branch Presidents wife invited us, our member and her friend all over for dinner. So that was pretty cool..but it gets better:). We biked over there after church for the dinner appointment and we had some way good potatoes and fish...and Heidi's homemade bread which is way good. So at dinner there was The branch President, his wife,  their sons mother in law from Russia, elder Roylance and I, then Augnetta... an awesome member also from Russia, and her friend Larisa from Russia. So at dinner people were speaking Swedish, Finnish, English, and Russian haha it was crazy but so fun. After the dinner we went to share a spiritual message and we were gonna talk about the Book of Mormon. We had brought one in Russian planning to give it to Larisa. All I said was "We have a loving Heavenly Father..." and then Augnetta and the mother in law go off in Russian. It was so cool cause we would say some stuff and then Augnetta would translate to Russian. The mother in law only speaks Russian so she will chime in after stuff is translated. But it was so cool to see them just kinda take over and talk in Russian so you just sit and let the members do their work. So we were just team teaching with these members and it was going great. I'm thought to myself that this was just way cool. Well by the end of it which also was like 45 min later she asked is if she could have the Book of Mormon. So we gladly gave it to her and she said she was gonna read, and we are gonna start teaching her English on Thursday cause it's her dream to learn English. But she speaks pretty good Finnish and Swedish. So she's just way cool and it was way fun to see all our members just all giggle and giving us thumbs ups and helping teach her. It was so cool!! So Russians for the win! If people think Finnish is hard, Russian is a whole other ball park... that language is way weird... I have no idea how people speak that language, that makes no sense:)). But that's besides the point cause Russians are bomb. So we went home after this appointment and biked home real quick to use the bathroom and then back out. Did some follow up and then went tracting. We ran in to this way cool Islamic guy. We had a way good conversations about Jesus, Juice, Norway and then to end the night he showed us his birds. This guy has probably like 100 birds but he pulled out this big bird that he has and we got to hold him and his name was Picasso and he was a way cool bird. He would just climb on your arm and then make his way to your shoulders or would just chill behind your neck and look around your head Haha. But it was just way fun chatting with him and getting to see all his birds. So it was just a way fun day!

Monday was a blur it went by so fast. So Monday morning we went and did some follow up with potentials to see if we could visit some of our friends. We did get to visit a family we teach Finnish to who are moving to Helsinki... so this was one of the last times we would see them. So we talked with them for a little bit. They were also asking us about the TV show "Sister Wives" and if they were apart of our church. So that took some explaining to do and then they explained some stuff about Mohammed to us so it was a good chat. By then it was lunch time and studies. We then got picked up by a members husband to take us to their place for a dinner appointment. We had some way good food and we talked with them for a LONG time. They asked if we were in a hurry and we told them no cause we set aside time to eat with them obviously. Well we got held there for a long time and they just kept stuffing us with food and we were there for a long time. But we had a really long conversation about the church and somehow it led into different athletes that have blood doped and then talking about Russia. We covered everything. And don't you worry that was majority in English. I don't know how to talk about blood doping in any other languages Haha. But also we found out that her Husband is a member! And he served his mission in Scotland. Elder Roylance and I were way surprised. But it was sad also to see someone go from one side of the spectrum to the other. But maybe we are gonna get somewhere with him cause he invited us to play badminton with him today so we are doing that so that should be fun!

Well that's the end of the week and the next time you hear from me next week I'll let you know about what happens with transfers. We shall see who will come to me in Jakobstad. Pray for him!haha

Have a good week!

Elder Love out