Shaku Maku!!!! No that is not Finnish:)... that is actually some Arabic that I learned this week:), so that is how you say like "What's up" in Arabic, just to let you know:). This week has seriously been so crazy! We went down to Helsinki which I will tell you all about... and then we came back and had some crazy busy days of finding people and teaching people and just chatting with some people:).
So last week when I wrote, it was Monday because we had to fly down to Helsinki. That day was crazy because our train to Oulu got canceled and there was no back up train coming... so we had to take a 3 hour bus ride to Oulu which was pretty fun. Me and Elder Reed just sat and chatted the whole ride. We got to Oulu and ate some dinner from the grocery store with the zone leaders and the Rovaniemi Elders... because the Roy elders were coming on our flight to Helsinki. Just as we were about to leave the store the like store security guard dressed like what you see in swat, comes storming out after Elder Cater and telling him that he never paid for his food! That was a hassel, but they were easily able to prove that he had paid so that was just like 10 min of confusion and excitement haha. We got to the airport and our flight got delayed. Seriously... every flight I have been on on my mission has been delayed... it never fails:). But we took like a hour flight to Helsinki and got picked up by the AP´s and we went back to their apartment to spend the night. That was pretty fun...just hanging with my old comp Elder Carter and the other elders.
Tuesday we went to the mission home early in the morning and got to meet up with a lot of people from our MTC group... and that was a ton of fun!! We are the first ever ALL ELDERS group... so you can tell by that it was a pretty crazy couple of days with just elders,... but it was a ton of fun!! So Return and report was really fun. The first day the trainers and the trainees all split up and we just chatted about stories that we've had in the first few weeks, how the language is coming and all that. President Aura and Sister Aura had some power points that they went over for a reminder of mission rules. We talked about the gospel and it was way fun. We also did a companionship inventory and they told us we could go wherever... so me and elder Reed decided to walk around the streets of Helsinki and do our companionship inventory there. We walked to an S Market and got some ice cream. Well turns out Elder Manner and Elder Cox also went for a walk around the neighborhoods like we did, and it was almost time for us to go back.. and we run into them and both of us are like " Do you guys know how to get back?" hahahah so we were so confused on how to get back to the mission home but we made it! We had a good laugh about that ahahah we were off by one street:). Then that night it was a Culture night and all sister Aura did was give us so much Finnish chocolate and candy and we just all sat around the table chatting and eating some really good stuff so that was a plus!
Wednesday was some more power points and we did some role plays.The best part of that day was when we went to the temple that night. The Helsinki temple is seriously soooooooo nice. And the workers there are so nice and some of their English is quite impressive! Getting to be in the Helsinki temple was way cool and we got to see some cool things. Then that night it was just kinda free time for us elders to just hang out and chat, we played some uno and talked to sister Aura, and she is seriously sooo funny... the lady cracks me up. She pretty much just spent the last 3 days just roasting all the elders. Elder Englund who is comps with Elder Aitken is hilarious. He is from Sweden and is hilarious hahah so we had some good laughs.
Thursday we went for a walk with the mission president around Espoo and he showed us some pretty cool stuff! It was just a really low key day before we all had to get on our trains to go home. So it was fun to be able to catch up with the old MTC group and really get to know the other elders. We had a Great time!! Then we we took a lovely 6 hour train ride back to good ole Kajaani haha. The train rides go by way fast which is crazy cause 6 hours on a train does not sound fun... but it goes by way fast:).
Friday we went and hit the pavement again and started knocking on doors. That was a crazy busy day. We talked to so many people and got a lot of potentials. We met this one guy and he and his family let us in to talk more and he was telling us he was from Kuwait... and then he was telling us some crazy crazy stories about stuff that happened back where he lived and why he moved out of Kuwait to come to Finland. Also I think this week I have talked to more people all named Ali or Muhammed than I ever have in my entire life haha. But it was a super busy day with lots of success so it was a good day back.
Saturday was the same as Friday... just met a ton of people and had some more success on getting some potential people to teach. We were talking to this one guy at the door and he was asking us what we believed.. because other Christians could never answer his questions... and in the middle of this this like 20 year old lady just starts yelling at us and dropping some very colorful language! She was so mad that we were in the building! I learned real quick here what the bad words are, because people yell them at us a lot... and there are some people like this lady that just absolutely hate us. So we left the building so we could get her to stop yelling and not disturb the others living in the apartment building and she seriously watched us walk down the stairs to make sure we left, which was pretty funny haha. It's crazy how doing nothing at all can really tick some people off haha. 20 min later we met this mom and son who had a crazy story to tell... they said they were super interested, and her son is in his 30s and pretty much told me his life story and all that's happened to him. He said he needed something like this cause he had nothing.... then he just yells really loud " LOOKS LIKE YOU GOT YOURSELFS A NEW MORMON!" and he was so excited!! Elder Reed was trying so hard not to laugh but we had to explain to him that we would have to teach him first. Granted him and his mom were a little drunk come to find out... so we will see who things go when they sober up haha. Being on a mission you meet some interesting people let me tell ya!!.
Sunday was a pretty normal day, just had church, and went out tracting and then had a dinner appointment with one of my favorite members! She was asking me all these questions about hotels in Salt Lake cause she's taking a trip there. Well I don't stay in hotels in Salt Lake cause I live less than an hour away... but she kept going on and on so I tried to answer her hotel questions the best I could hahaha.
Monday we had 4 lessons scheduled and we got 2/4 so that is pretty good. We taught our one investigator from Congo and that went great.... and I think she is progressing really well. It's just a little hard to get her to pray about things... but we are working on it:). Then we had a lesson with a new investigator and his girlfriend and girlfriend's brother showed up as well....and then they rambled on about how some of them used to be drug addicts and still used drugs.... but then asked some really good questions about the gospel. It was a very interesting lesson that is for sure. The real world is a lot different from Utah County... and you meet and see a lot more out here than you ever would in Utah. I'm glad I didn't live a sheltered life...so, none of this has actually surprised me. Despite the fact you meet some weird people on occasion, you still love all the people you talk to. Everyone deserves to hear the gospel and sometimes the gospel is going to be what's going to help them change their lives for the better.
It's been such a fun week!! I've met some crazy but amazing people... and who doesn't love being yelled at in Finnish till you leave an apartment complex haha. Good times good times haha. This week we have mission tour and we get to go down to Tampere. On our way there we get to spent one night in Jyväskulä and one night in Kokola and so that is going to be a ton of fun!!
Love and miss yall
Elder love is out
Pictures from his trip to Helsinki and with his MTC buddies
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