#92 Turku

Wow! This week has been way fun and has been pretty busy! 

Wednesday started off pretty crazy. We had a service project for a member planned and he had told us that he was gonna pick us up that evening. Well he texted us and said he was gonna pick us up at 9:30 in the morning! We had to move a few things and it got a little crazy but by 9:30 he was there to pick us up, and we were on our way. We went to his place and he explained that we would be digging dirt and rocks from this pile he had delivered and would be loading it into wheelbarrows and pouring it in the driveway. Now in Finland there are not to many driveways with concrete it's just dirt and rocks. So what does that mean for us? We would be putting in a new driveway for him that day! And the driveway is not small... he has a small road that leads to his house and we would be doing that too. Well let's just say to make this story short cause I'm not going to explain about each wheelbarrow of dirt Haha. BUT lots of shoveling dirt and rocks, a whopper and fries from Burger King, lots of water, and 6 hours later we finished. He would come out maybe like every 30 min to chat a bit and see how it was going... but other than that, Elder Larson and I did the whole thing Haha. It was good hard work and I haven't used a shovel and a wheelbarrow in a long time so it was quite fun but mannnn I was tired after that:)). But we got back home and cleaned up just in time to teach Elder Larson's Russian aunt some English. She actually knows a lot of English so she's doing really good. Had some dinner and went for a walk and then came back and got on the Facebook find n grind for a bit and then had a mission wide zoom call that night.  And I crashed at the end... I was exhausted Haha.

Thursday was Elder Larson's birthday! He turned the big 19! So we did our best to celebrate with what we had. I had the district get together over a video call and surprise Elder Larson and sing happy birthday to him that morning before everyone else would say happy birthday haha. The sisters were way nice and even made Elder Larson some cookies for his birthday. But we had district council and we talked about teaching people and not lessons. We also talked about asking questions and had some roleplays with asking questions which was hard. Cause the role play was to teach a principle by only asking questions, that one was a bit tough. After district council we walked over to a kebab shop and we got some kebab which was wayy good. You can never go wrong with that meal. We did some studies that afternoon. The Rauma elders called us and asked if we could join a lesson with a Jehovah's witness. Not for bashing purposes, let's get that clear. They just were having a hard time understanding what he said so they asked if I could help. So this guy had called the elders and asked if they would want to discuss the bible. Well come to find out we just ran into a bored JW who had been calling everyone in his phone and then called us. But we had a really good chat, we talked about a lot of things but it went way well. Don't think he will be calling us again but hey it was good Finnish practice Haha. Then we had some dinner and gospel study with some elders. And we finished off the night on the Facebook find n grind and a mission wide zoom call. But it was an over all really good day!

Friday really not that much happened. In the morning we had our usual Facebook session and doing some companionship study. We ate lunch and then headed to the church to get out of the apartment for a bit, and we also did weekly planning there. This old guy in one of the Turku wards here came to chat with us and he was a really nice guy. But MAN! He talked so slow and monotone. Like don't get me wrong he was way nice but man I was getting so tired talking to this guy and we chatted for like 45 min cause we were the only ones at the church Haha. Well we walked home and it was wayyy nice weather and the warmest it's been like all year so we took a fat walk around the Aura river. There were a ton of people out as well and would have been great for contacting... but we can't exactly do that. But while we were walking around and people were staring at us so I'd smile, wave and say hi to all the ones staring that I made direct eye contact with Haha and we had a few college students laugh at us as we walked by... but hey that's nothing new. But but but we were stopped by this lady and she asked us where we were from and told us she used to be a member of our church. But she was so surprised to see missionaries she said she had to stop us and say hi. But we had a really good chat and she took one of our cards so that's cool. And that night I bet you can guess what we did. That's right! The Facebook find n grind. Messaging lots of people and trying to get conversations going. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it goes not so well Haha. And of course the last thing we did was have a zoom call. I specifically remember President asking the mission how often we wanted to do these. His options for us were either 5 days a week or 3. And as a mission we decided on 3 times a week. Yet we do them every single day. Maybe they counted the hands wrong when we all voted for 3 days a week. But what do ya do Haha.

Saturday not much happened that day either. I mean we had some good times Facebook finding in the morning and having companionship study before lunch. After lunch we took a nice walk outside to enjoy the weather and get out of the apartment for a bit. We came back and had some language study and took a bit of time to just tidy up a few things around the apartment. We made some dinner and then took another quick walk around the block before we had gospel study with the other elders here in Turku. We had a good chat with them about what we can learn from the scriptures about effort and how we need to put forth effort into things. We were gonna have a lesson with our friend Piia but that lesson fell through sadly but that's okay... because we can meet with her here soon hopefully:). So we ended the night on the Facebook find n grind and ya know that's just how it goes:))

Sunday was a good day and a bit busy. We had church so we walked over that morning and met the elders and sisters so we could watch church. Don't know why... but this week the talks just seemed to never end Haha but they were good. We had some time after to discuss come follow me afterwards and that went well. During lunch Elder Stanley had brought a game for us to play during lunch called "Coup" at least I think that's what its called. It was way fun so we played a few rounds of that during lunch time. We walked back home and did some studies and these went by way fast. Before we knew it, we were making dinner, and we were gonna watch a devotional thing made by some missionaries here in Finland.... but that video didn't work Haha. So back to Facebook find n grind. Finished off the night by having call ins and getting to chat with all the missionaries in the district and the zone leaders. Always enjoy that cause it's fun that we get to call them and chat.

Monday was a pretty fun day. We had a pretty normal day planned out of facebook finding and calling members. But a member called us and asked if we wanted to come over and help out with some yard work and eat pizza, so we jumped on that right away Haha. But we mowed their lawn and we pulled some weeds and chatted for a bit. Then it started to rain and it was coming down. It was also coming down while we were at the bus stop as well. But we ate pizza and chatted while we waited for the rain to stop. But the rain came down, no flowers came up and we had to call it quits after a while cause it just wasn't stopping Haha. But that was way fun. We came back home after that and we did some Facebook finding and talked with a few people and then ended the night with a zoom call Haha. 

That's all I got for this week:) 

Elder Love out

1-11) Turku....from the frisbee golf course

12-13) The rain was coming down

14) Ready to go do some service

15) "Trying to spice up the banana bread"

16) "Taking the boat bridge in Turku"

17) Kebab for lunch

18-19) Nice weather for Elder Larson's birthday. Taken from their apartement

20-25) "putting in a new drive way for the day"

video- It was raining!