#106 This is the end of the road for me here in Finland

 Honestly.... this week has been so busy and way fun! I wouldn't have wanted the last week of my mission to go any different. We had a good time teaching, finding, serving, and going to the sauna. But I'm not gonna write about every day because honestly, after sending literally a million emails on my mission I am all out of emailing energy:)) Just know it was good and was a very normal and busy week as a missionary:)). 

I am very grateful for the opportunity that I've had to be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I would not trade these last 2 years for anything in the world. I have made friendships that will last a lifetime, and I have memories that will be with me every single day. I have most definitely learned more about the gospel than I ever thought was possible... I would and I am still learning and will continue to learn. The great part is it's all a journey and we just keep going and God will tell us when we have reached the end. But in the mean time... we keep striving to improve ourselves and learning more and more every day:) 

With that being said... that is what I'm going to keep doing after my mission... am I going to be perfect at it? Nope. But am I going to try? Yep.  One thing that I've learned is that God appreciates and values effort, he doesn't expect us to be perfect... but just that we try.  

If you ask me... "what was the number one thing you learned on your mission? Of the best thing you learned? Honestly, I'll probably give you a different answer every time. I don't think I could say that one thing I learned is more important. And yes some of the things I've learned are simple things that we learn as a child.... but I guess now I understand it better and know it better than I did before. I can tell you this though... that I learned the other day... Goat and Oysters, surprisingly not a bad combo but there are some repercussions for it Haha. 

But I've learned a lot on my mission and I'm proud to say I achieved my goals that I had before coming out. I didn't want to return from my mission with any regrets. I do not regret anything from my mission, and I am very happy with the way I have served. There is a quote "you have 2 years to serve the Lord and an eternity to think about it" and for the rest of eternity I have nothing but good things to think about from my mission. 

I had the goal of returning a better person than I was when I left. And I feel that I am returning a much better person than I was before I left. Does that mean I am perfect? Heck no. But it just means that I am trying to better myself and will continue to do that. 

Thank you to all of you who have supported me in my decision  to serve a mission these last two years, I really appreciate it. 

Other than that this is the end of the road for me here in Finland... but my road continues back in the states. 

Hope y'all have a good week and I'll see ya soon!

Elder Love out

#105 Berry picking and successful sports nights

 Wednesday was a really busy day for us. We had district council in the morning and we had a really good discussion about teaching people and not lessons. And we did some role plays about contacting and that went well. We had to eat a quick lunch because Veli Ståle came to pick us up about 20 minutes later to take us to their house in Naantali where we were going to do some service. We went to help them in their garden picking berries. Boy did those berries taste good, the blueberries were awesome and same with the black berries and the red vine berries as well.  What we picked pretty much the whole time were the vine berries. We picked berries and chatted for about 2 hours, and after picking berries we went to sauna and chatted with Veli Ståle some more and he told us about his work as a ship engineer and a ship designer as well. Then after sauna they fed us this awesome lasagna and homemade bread and a salad as well. It was way good. Daniel took us home after and we chatted a bit and then we quickly changed because we were going to a contacting activity with the elders and the zone leaders. But when we got there it was pouring rain, so we didn't get to do it. Instead Elder Dossett and I went to the store and picked up a candy bar for a member friend who had burned his face and neck at work, and went to see how he was doing. He's doing good and we chatted with him for a bit. We bussed home after and that was the end of our day. 

Thursday was a pretty quick and simple day. We did our studies in the morning and then had some lunch. After lunch Elder Melton and Elder Isom came over for some Facebook finding before we went to help a member move in. That was a way fun move but also kind of a pain in the butt. Moving a bed up 6 stories is not the easiest thing... but we got it Haha. We stayed and chatted with them for a bit and got to know them better and we also helped out putting together some of their furniture. After... we had to find and get some dinner because we were doing volleyball contacting. Some of our friends showed up so it was great to have them there so we could talk with them some more. We also met 2 of our friends from the time that we played basketball and that was great! We talked with them for about an hour after so that was way good! 

Friday was a busy day as well. We went for a normal contacting block in the morning and also to the elders place to pick up a Arabic Book of Mormon and to the church to make some copies of these Arabic papers we had. So that took up our morning. We had some lunch and weekly planning after. We didn't get too far.... because we had  been trying to get a hold of a referral we got... and we had the chance to meet him.... so we went down to the center to meet him. We got him the Book of Mormon and taught him about it. It was a little hard because we taught the guy completely through google translate. He would just hold the phone up to us so we could speak into it and it would translate to Arabic for him. We are also gonna try teaching him Finnish. That night we went basketball contacting and met some new people which was way cool and they are way nice guys. So that worked out great and we got to talk to some cool people! 

Saturday in the morning we had to spend part of the day at the church cause we had been called and asked if we could speak in church. So we had to get those talks done. But after writing those we had some time to talk to our friend Ayush which was good. We went home and we did some work on Facebook until dinner time and then we walked across town to our sports night. Our group on facebook to invite people now has over 50 people in it and we had the biggest group we had ever had!! We finally got to meet some people in person that we had been in contact with on facebook. It was great getting to meet them. We had a lot of fun playing volleyball and then we went to play football. We asked some guys who were already playing if they wanted to join us and they did. We had a big group playing but we had a way fun game! But after the game was the best part. We sat down on the field and chatted with people after and our friend Rami came over to talk to Elder Dossett and I. He's been coming to sports for a few weeks now and he starts asking us all these questions about the church and the scriptures and churches standpoint on stuff. Then we got into the plan of salvation and finding truth and it was a way good conversation/ lesson that we gave him. He has so many questions so we are going to set up a time this week so we can meet with him and teach him. But it was awesome to see how our sports nights actually work and we have people who are interested in religion and learning about our church so that's awesome!! 

Sunday was a really good day. We got to church and chatted with some members before. Elder Dossett and I were both asked to speak in church so that's what we did. We both spoke about the Book of Mormon. Elder Dossett went first and gave his first talk in Finland and I went second. I gave my last talk in Finland. But I spoke for about 15ish minutes and it went really well. I was proud to have reached the point that I didn't need to write everything down.... so that was a good moment for me, but I still  have a good chunk written  down:)). After church we talked with lots of members before heading home to do some studies. We then had Come Follow Me with the district after studies and had a good discussion. We had a ton of berries at the apartment hat were given to us by a member and there was no way we could get them all... so we made a delivery run to the elders and the sisters apartments to drop off some berries for them before going home to have some dinner. Elder Dossett called his family for come follow me and then we ended the night doing some Facebook work and that was it. 

Monday was a pretty good day. We had a really busy morning of meeting with our friend Ayush and fixing his bike. We did a lot of walking that morning and contacting but people were especially not in the mood to talk to us that day Haha. But then we went home and did some studies. And we got home late so by the time our studies were done we had to make a quick dinner and then help a member move with the other elders so we were with them helping a guy in our ward move. Afterwards he took us for kebab and that was pretty good and way nice of him and then we came home. But we did have to haul a bed down 7 stories on the stairs and also haul a table up 7 stories because they would not fit in the elevator. Took some time but we got it Haha. 

That's the end of the week. We have a really busy week as well this next week. Lots of things going on. 

Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Love out

1) P-Day volleyball

2-7)Garden area where we picked a lot of berries!

8-9) "Bought myself some strawberries and made a chocolate dipping sauce"

10) "I guess the protesters didn't like this guy"

11) From our morning contactin

12-13) Walking home from sports night

14) Our friends

15) Turku

16) "Waiting for the bus"

17) "Us and Daniel

#104 Tour de Finland and Swedish baptism talk

 This week has been really fun! Lots of stuff going on and just an overall way good week!

Wednesday was a pretty good day. We were with the elders pretty much the whole day cause we had a lot of the same stuff going on.... so we just decided to do the morning together as well. We did studies in the morning and then got lunch. After lunch we walked to the church to help out a funeral. We had to help carry the coffin into the church and out of the church. The funeral was nice and people said some nice things but it was a little sad. Funerals are depressing and they had lots of music and that just made me sleepy. But everything was okay don't you worry. After we carried the coffin back to the car we left the church and went home for a little bit to change because we were going to sauna with a member and the elders. We met them at the church and the member drove us to his place where we were going to sauna. He told us it had been 20 years since he had gotten to take the elders to sauna. Sauna is really nice, it gets really hot and it's relaxing and you would take breaks and walk out into the nice Finnish country air and sit down for a bit and then head back in... it was way nice. 

Thursday was a really busy day. Pretty much we just ran around all day helping the other missionary companionships. We had district council in the morning which was really good. We had a good talk about Obedience. We had to leave a tad early to get to a lesson with a guy we had been trying to meet with for about a month now. So we were borrowing the elders bikes cause we would need them later in the day. So we took those and biked to the park where we met our man Aram. And he has studied the bible pretty well and we had a really big discussion about the bible and why we need the Book of Mormon. We also talked about the trinity and  our difference in belief of them being 1 or 3 separate beings. We tried showing him scriptures that show that they are separate but we are going to talk more. It was very interesting talking to him. But after that... we got on the bikes and hauled to the train station... cause we were told we had to pick up the zone leaders there.  Elder Isom was giving a baptismal interview to one of the investigators of the elders. Well we were biking way fast and the chain fell off Elder Dossetts bike in the bus station parking lot... and we tried to fix it as fast as we could... and it  just wasn't  going. Well we finally got it and we biked around this bus that just arrived and headed to the train station. Then I heard faintly "Elder Love!" And I wasn't sure if I heard correctly and being in the mindset of a hurry we kept going... and then again I heard "Love" or what sounded like my name. I felt we needed to turn around and there were the zone leaders. The plans got changed and they came by bus. It was a miracle that we even decided to bike the way we did to get to the train station. But we were lead to the right place at the right time. Well the chain fell off Elder Elder Dossetts bike again... so I was supposed to bike with Isom to the church and get him there on time. But we had to fix the bikes and we sent Dossett and Isom on a bus to get there cause it was gonna take a bit with the bike. Well Elder Kimball and I fixed it pretty quickly and biked to the church and met the other Elders there. Isom interviewed and we waited for it to be over cause the Elders were staying back and it was mine and Dossetts job to get the zone leaders back to the bus station. Elder Dossett and Kimball took off on the bus to get there in time for the bus and I waited for Elder Isom to get out of the interview and to bike to the station. Well the interview was long and when they got out... Elder Isom and I had about 10-15ish minutes to bike across the main part of the city to catch their bus. So we hopped on the bikes and we are zooming through the city and streets. We got way lucky with one green light and the rest were red. So that didn't help but Isom and I hit a hill and Elder Isom was like "I got Bison legs, we will make it up this quick" so we flew up the hill and then we hit the last straight away after a few more streets and Elder Isom and I were now in the Tour de Finland racing down this street to get to the bus station and we got there just in time. So that was way fun! But then we had to bike back across the city to return the bikes to the elders so that was a killer. And when we got there we found out Elder Kimball still had my bus card.... so we were walking home. But don't worry.. I'll get it back in a few days, they are coming back. But we got back and then taught an online language class for some elders in Helsinki cause they couldn't make it...so we got home in time for that. We ended the day with dinner and a trip to the store for a few treats to reward ourselves and bread. 

Friday was a pretty simple day. We helped the elders clean our baptismal font cause they had a baptism the next day... so we spent the morning doing that. Then we went home and we did some weekly planning and got all of next week planned for. Had some dinner and then headed back to the church to help the elders, cause I had to translate the whole program into Swedish cause the guy getting baptized the next day was a Swedish Finn. I also had to write a talk about baptism in Swedish cause I would be speaking the next day. So that was Friday. 

Saturday was a wayyyy fun day and super busy! For the record we walked over 43,000 steps and over 21 miles that day. Elder Dossett and I's record breaking day for most steps and distance the whole transfer. But in the morning we had Kaspers baptism. He was the investigator of the Elders. So we went to help set up for that and then I gave my talk in Swedish about baptism. It was nothing too long but we did that. Then the baptismal ordinance was done. Elder Melton spoke on the Holy Ghost and then Kasper was confirmed a member of the church and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost. We had some refreshments after and talked with people and that was way fun. Then the sisters wanted to go get pizza so we all walked with our friend Ayush as well down to a pizza place and got some pizza and ate it in the park. Then we walked home and got in a quick language study and some dinner and then headed back out to our sports night. We started earlier because some people have expressed interest in playing football as well as volleyball. So we walked to a new park which again was on the other side of the city and we had lots of people come! Our facebook group that we created worked out and we had lots of new people and met some way cool people. One guy is literally down to do anything with sports  helping us out, learning Finnish, and he is even interested in learning about the gospel. So we are pretty excited about that. We played volleyball and football and that was a ton of fun. Got some mosquito bites but it's worth it. Then Elder Dossett and I hiked back home and walked through the city and there were a ton of people but we made it home and then crashed. It was a really really busy day but it was way fun and so good!

Sunday we had church and we spent a lot of time after church talking with some members and friends of the elders that showed up to church early. We came home and did some studies and then we had Come Follow Me with the district. It was really good and we talked about the first part of the war chapters in the Book of Mormon which was really good. We had some dinner. Elder Dossett called his family to do a Come Follow Me. And that night just texted a few people and set up a meeting with our friend Ayush for the next day. Pretty simple day. Also it was really warm as well, pretty warm. 

Monday was a way fun day! In the morning we contacted a lot of members and introduced ourselves and let our members know that we were there for them if they needed anything and we got a good response from it! We also did some contacting that morning as well and talked with this guy from Russia. He was really hard to understand, probably because half the words he spoke were russian so we didn't understand Haha. Then we went home and did some studies and then went back out for some more contacting. Not much happened there so we went back for some dinner and then went to meet the Elders and our friend Ayush. I didn't know that more people were coming but Ayush brought his roommate from Romania and then Rami from our volleyball group also came. We were all getting together so we went to Burger King together and they got food since we had just eaten. We were gonna go do something but everything apparently closes early on Mondays so we had the idea to go to the church to shoot some hoops. Well me and Ayushes roommate from Romania got into a good conversation about churches and we talked about money and the church. So I told him about fast offerings and tithing and where all the money goes, he would share stuff about Romania. He was really interested and when we got to the church we decided to cease the moment while we were talking about religion and churches, and we gave them a church tour and showed them everything. I think we could have some potential on maybe getting to teach him but we will see. But he told us that we were cool and our church seems cool. But it was way cool getting to show him the church and talk to him about all that stuff so that was way exciting. He's a way cool guy and we are gonna see him some more. Then we played some basketball and headed home and that was the end of our day. 

Hope y'all have a good week!

Elder Love out

#103 Just a FUN week!!

 Way fun week! Hope you enjoy the read. 

Also the best news this week is we found out we can Sauna!! So that's way sick

Wednesday was a way fun day. We had district council and this one was in person so it was a lot more fun. The elders from Rauma came down and stopped by our apartment as usual before district council. We started walking to the chapel and it was cloudy but no rain. Well... we make it most of the way and we are literally like down the street... 5 min from the church and it starts to rain. It's not to bad just light so you wouldn't get too wet, well about 1 minute later it is pouring rain and none of us had an umbrella or anything cause it hadn't rained. Well we get to the church and we are soaked. We got to the church and everyone else is dry like nothing happened but the 4 of us were dripping wet Haha. That's the start to the bad luck for Elder Love that day. We had a great district council and talked about finding new people to teach. It went really well. We went and ate lunch and after we went to the gym and passed a volleyball around for a bit. Usually after our in person district councils we play a game or something. This time we just had a nice little circle going passing the volleyball. Well we're playing and Elder Kimball passes me the ball... I had to bend and go down a little farther to hit the ball. Well I bend/ squat  down a little to hit the ball and BOOM!!! There was a nice pop and there went my pants. I ripped a pretty decent sized hole in my pants Haha. So that was the end of volleyball for me. Just after that they wanted to take a district photo so Elder Gatrell just so happened to have a safety pin and pinned the hole in my pants shut so I could at least walk home without anyone really noticing haha. But we went back and I got to change my pants. We did some studies and had dinner. For the night block Elder Dossett and I wanted to try contacting by fishing. So we went to fish and we noticed some red bull cans floating in the river, and we thought to ourselves "think we can get those cans out of the river with our onkis?" Plus someone was bound to talk to us doing that. Well we got the cans out of the river, a few people wished us luck in our endeavors and were also really curious to what we were doing. Worked out pretty well. Then we went fishing for actual fish and talked to a few people. We caught 1 fish that night, just a little guy but that's good. On the walk home a guy stopped us and asked if we got a fish cause he had biked by earlier and thought he saw us pull one out. So we talked to him for a bit and then another guy asked if we were the Mormons. So we chatted with him as well. It went really well! We talked to so many people!

Thursday was a pretty good day as well. In the morning it was raining pretty good and not many people were out.... so we decided to stay at the apartment and do some Facebook work. We got a lot of stuff done so hopefully it will have some positive effects. We got a text that morning as well that a YSA member from Rauma was moving into our area that day and needed some help moving stuff into her apartment. So all 4 of us elders in Turku went to help and met up with some more members from Rauma that were helping. It started pouring rain and so we were pretty much running back and forth with stuff and moving as fast as we could. We got it done in like 10 min, she didn't have a lot of stuff. But we did spend the next like 45 min putting her couch together and helping others assemble stuff like chairs in the kitchen. So that was way fun. We stopped by McDonald's and got a soda to reward ourselves. I think Finland finally got the any size drink for a buck deal. It's about time.... cause man... drinks are pricey here. We had to run to the store real quick and grab a few things and then it was dinner time. Luckily by then the sun was back out and it was warm cause we had planned to go basketball contacting in the park that evening. We showed up and not many people were there... but then we had enough guys to okay a game. One guy from the states like us, some guys from Algeria and Albania, and a few Finnish guys. But we got some games going and got to chat with them a bit and made some friends so that was way fun. But also I left that basketball night with 20 mosquito bites Haha. But it was worth it. 

Friday we went out for a good contacting block in the morning. Not much going on... well because they weren't interested in us Haha. Had some lunch and then hopped right into weekly planning. I cleaned up the teaching pool that missionaries in the past had refused to drop... but it was time to drop them. So we cleaned that out and then spend a good chunk of time adding all of the members numbers into the phones because for some reason we were missing like more than half of them. So that was a bit of a pain in the butt, but now we are better off cause we got it done. We made some dinner and then went out to contact for the rest of the night. We talked to a quiet nice man who has been an electrician for 40 years and he told us why he left the Lutheran church. After he told us his story he left cause I guess he didn't want to talk anymore:)). Then we also got stopped by some guys who were willing to talk... but one guy only cared about what Satan wants and who goes to hell. So I guess that's good for him. Another guy asked if we had a pamphlet for him to read. And he started reading it right away so maybe he will call us or at least find something good that can help him. Then after that nobody really talked to us and that was the end of our night. 

Saturday was such a fun day. In the morning we had interviews with President Kervinen. We all showed up at nine cause he hadn't said anything about what time each person was meeting with him and he's just like "So who wants to go first?" And then we started and the rest of us sat in the foyer area with Sister Kervinen. We talked about anything and everything and she is way funny as well. But it was way fun. I then got to meet with President Kervinen and he is awesome! Too bad I only get to serve with him one transfer cause he is awesome. We talked about Turku and the work and all the Activities we had been up to. President is very much for trying new ideas and getting out there and being normal with people. So when we told him about basketball, fishing, frisbee, etc. He was way excited and was like "wow that's awesome" and we had a way good chat. You can become best friends with him instantly. And at the end of all our interviews he told us to go by some ice cream and we did just that with a few more treats and ate that all together by the river. Way fun! We went back to the apartment to change out of suits and then we had to go to the church to meet our friend Ayush. He cooked some eggs and toast with a bunch of indian spices and was pretty good. And we got to talk with him before and after as well which was good. The elders also joined us on that as well. By then it was getting late and we had to change for our sports night so Ayush walked with us back to our apartment and we chatted, then  we went inside real quick to change and then back out to go play some volleyball. Volleyball was as good as usual and it was so much fun! All the other people that come as well are now just a bunch of way good friends so its way fun! But then the day was already over and we had to walk back home, but we ran into the guys we played basketball with and they were pretty happy to see us so we chatted with them and they asked when we were coming back. So trying new ideas seems to be working and we are making lots of friends so that's way cool!

Sunday was a good day. We went to church and it was fun because President and Sister Kervinen spoke in church... so it was fun to hear them speak. After church we spent some time talking to members and a member from Espoo was in Turku visiting his sister so it was way fun to chat with him. I hadn't seen Perti in over a year so it was awesome to catch up with him. Then we went home and did some studies and then bussed to eat with Sebastian, he had invited us over to eat. We got some quality makkara and a good salad, and then cake and ice cream for dessert. We chatted with him and then talked about Gods plan for us. We bussed home and then we texted a few people and then we did Facebook work for the rest of the night. I worked on making a group on facebook for all our people who want to play volleyball and for people we want to invite to come play. So I worked on that for a while and also called the elders to get some help with it. And that was pretty much all that happened Sunday. 

Monday we got up and worked on texting or calling all the people in our area book who had not been taught in a while. So that took a while and we finished off the morning trying to track down all of our YSA on facebook so we could contact them and invite them to stuff. Had lunch and did studies. Went out contacting and tried talking to people, but we had really nice weather so that was another upside to the day. We then went mini golfing with the YSA and that was way fun!! It's so cool to get to help out at the YSA activities and get to know them and talk with them.  It was my first time going mini golfing in over 2 years I think and I did pretty good. Had me a good few hole in ones Haha. Then we ended the night by going to McDonald's. We had a great day!!

This week has been way fun! We have another fun week coming up, well every week is really fun. 

Elder Love out 

1) Our districti

2) Got a red bull can out

3) Caught a small fish:)

4)The Elders:)

5)Getting a bus pass from the sisters

6)YSA activity, Daniel and Elder Dossett

7-9) Turku

10) An old prison turned in to an apartment building

11) Where we play volleyball

12) "Still got some skills"

13) Got to see Perti from Espoo after a year

14) Cooked some hamburgers

15)Church in Turku

16)Elder Dossett caught a leaf:)

17-19)"My ripped pants....that I totally fixed by the way"

20)Frisbee activity

21)Elder Melton finding his frisbee:)

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