#37 "Finland is the best place on earth!"

Well everyone... this has been quite the exciting week here in Espoo. We started a new transfer and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Kimball and he is from Arizona. He has been in Finland for 4 months so we are the younglins in the mission... but we are getting work done! It's been a pretty fun week and really busy with a lot of things going on. One new thing as well which was a blessing to hear...we do not have to wear our suit coats every day now cause it is warming up!!! So now we can wear short sleeves or sweaters!! And in our case sweaters have been worn a lot cause it snowed on Saturday and it was -6C haha. But then it warmed up again... but has been a little chilly. Finland's spring time is just whack and it confuses me:)) 

Tuesday was transfer day. So we went to Helsinki and sent Elder Fitzpatrick to Oulu and  I hung out at Helsinki Main with Elder Melton from my MTC group. We went around and helped missionaries get on and off trains, getting tickets handed out to them cause we had all the stuff and that was a lot of fun. There were a ton of missionaries coming through Helsinki main... so we got to see a lot of people. Then my comp came in at around noon and we went to get our bus passes fixed, helped a few more missionaries and then we headed off to start doing some work in Espoo. We had a DA that night and we got some really good filipino soup. We had to rush from their place to the bus stop to catch a bus to English and Finnish hour. We had a really busy day and it was a lot of fun!

Wednesday we had district council. We got to the church and we we had our first district council as a new district and it went well. I made it through my first district council leading it and it went pretty well. After district council we went and we did a poster activity down by the beach and we went to do some contacting and try to talk to a lot of people. The only problem was that it was Vappu which is a Finnish holiday where everyone celebrates graduating from high school.  It doesn't matter how old you are... they all wear their graduation caps and everyone drinks a ton. So not many people were all that interested in talking to us that day.... but it is okay cause we will just talk to them again another day:))

Thursday we had a DA with one of my favorite families in the ward. It's the same family we pretty much go to every week. That was so much fun!! I love going over to their place and they are just awesome! Other than that...Thursday we spent a lot of time tracting and we found another potential person to teach which was awesome! We got a lot done on Thursday and we tried to follow up with some people and we will have to go back and follow up with them again cause they were not home:))

Friday we went out and we had a good tracting block in the morning and talked to a lot of people which was surprising, cause a lot of people answered their doors:)). But that turned out really well and we talked to this British guy for like 20 min and on the bus ride all the way back to Iso Omena. We then began studies and we were about to start weekly planning and we had bee making some calls.... and one of the guys we are working with texted us back asking if we could meet. So we dropped everything we were doing, started to prepare a lesson and then we went to teach him. We taught him the plan of salvation and it was such an awesome lesson! He had so many  questions about the Book of Mormon and as we were teaching the plan of salvation, He was one step ahead of us and would like ask a question about what happens to people who never get to hear the gospel. We were literally about 10 seconds away from explaining the spirit world and what happens there and then he would ask another question. Which was awesome! It was funny... I explained the Celestial kingdom to him and how we get to live with God and Jesus Christ and he looked at Elder Kimball and gave him this look like "That's pretty sick that we get to live with God". It was really funny and it just clicks with him. Elder Kimball said it's like he's learning stuff he already knew but didn't know he knew it:)). So we are working with him and we have to figure out a few things before we can try and see if we can get him a baptismal date... but I am way excited to see what happens with him.

Saturday we went and played soccer with the Nigerians again and that was a ton of fun. They had a full on meal with rice and chicken prepared for all of us after the game so we all got to eat lunch together...and it was wayyyyy fun.  Then we went and we played basketball with a less active member and that was a lot of fun. Saturday was a really big sports day which I am not complaining about... and then we finished weekly planning cause our planning was put on hold cause we went to teach a lesson. So that was about it for Saturday.

Sunday we had church and we had a lesson with the person that we found earlier in the week. It was a way good lesson... they said that we could come back so that is a big positive... cause there is someone new to teach! Then the rest of Sunday we did some studies and we went out to visit some people and tract and that was way fun. 

I totally forgot but one of the days... I think it was Thursday..we were street contacting after we tried to visit someone... and it was raining so hard. We stopped this guy biking which never happens and we talked for like 20 min. We had a way good conversation and said that he would call us so that we could meet and help him with a service project... and that was way cool. That is why in one of the pictures we look really wet...good thing for windbreakers to keep us nice and dry, except my head. I took my hood off cause I couldn't hear him and my head got soaked but it was way worth it. 

That's about all for this week. Finland is the best place on earth!
Elder Love out

1-2. Saying good-bye to Elder Fitzpatrick
3. Austen and his new companion Elder Kimball from Arizona
4. Got some yummy ice cream
5. It started to snow while playing soccer with their Nigerian friends
6. Ready to ride their bikes:)