Week 5 :)

The famous MTC map!

This is Elder Seger who I was really good buds with, unfortunately he had to go home today due to medical problems. Im gonna miss the dude!

Hey everyone!!

This week has been awesome!! The days in here are really starting to speed up. It's crazy that I've been learning finnish for 5 weeks now.  So not a ton has happened this week, it's more the same ol same ol, because I mean thats what happens when your on the same schedule everyday. But it's been good none the less and the Lord really does bless! So yesterday I got to Host missionaries for the first time which was awesome! I got to be the missionary that rips the kid from the parents hands at the curb when there dropping them off. It was pretty sad seeing some of them leave there families. There was one missionary that's going to where my friend Elder Collin Gibbs is going in Chicago east side spanish speaking. He has a really cool story, a week before he came here he baptized both of his sisters and his parents are non members so he was the only member for a while. That was pretty emotional seeing him leave his family. But it's all for the Lords work! But it is a really fun job!! The Finnish is coming better and better. I'm memorizing Joseph Smith's first vision in Finnish, I've memorized about two paragraphs. It really sucks translating it over because finnish is so literal about things you have to reword whole sentence structures.  It's crazy that I only have 3 in a half weeks left! Then I'm teaching real finns!!  For any of you that have seen "The Best Two Years" when Elder Calhoun is in the bread shop getting bread, and the lady speaks to him and all he has is a blank face. That's exactly what's going to happen to me haha.. Like I'm understanding my teachers a lot better now, but they speak slower to then the real finns. Next week we are going to Skype real finns, that'll be interesting.  They talk soooooooooooo fast.  But, eh, I'm not nervous I'll get it someday.  

So this Tueday we had a suuper cool devotional. I got to do the opening prayer for the MTC devotional so I got to pray in front of 2000 missionaries. That was pretty sweet. I was kind of nervous that I would instictly say rakas tallivalinen isa, or Dear heavenly father in Finnish haha.  But it was all good.  But the MTC President called up an Elder with the last name of Ahmad. He's the first Elder to come out of Syria and the first Syrian missionary! He told a heart wrenching story of his father being a political prisoner, and his family's escape as the rebels were closing in to Lebanon. Absolutely amazing. The gospel is there! The Priesthood is there. Soooo coool. I couldn't help but wonder if I was somehow related to him back in the bloodline since Mom's side is full of syrians, maybe were distant third cousins!!. But his story was amazing! He actually had to give his Mom a priesthood blessing because she got shrapnel in her upper jaw and it had to be reconstructed. He had to watch over his two younger sisters, because his dad was taken as a political prisoner. Crazy, it shows how blessed our lives really are.  

My two investigators have both committed to baptism, and we got the one whos afraid of water to overcome her fear, so that's good. We have almost taught all the lessons! Teaching the law of chastity in Finnish was a bit of a challenge, but we pulled through!  I also finally got some pictures from the old hungarian district that left that I became great friends with, and there all in budapest! What's crazy is they took a picture in the same spot that I took a picture when I was in Budapest 2 months ago!!  

But some days in here can be a challenge, but that's good! You get the highs and the lows, but it all helps prepare you. In Either chapter 12 it states that the lord gives you weaknesses so that you may be humble. I really do believe that. A interesting picture is in the lobby of the MTC. It states, if you knew you could never fail, what would you do. At first I was like I would do everything, and invent everything, and cure cancer. But then I realized that wouldn't be the case. I wouldn't do anything. Because it's the failing that drives me to keep going harder. I remember a quote by Michael Jordan that said if it wasn't for the last shot I missed, I wouldn't be coming back to the gym stronger with a motivational to improve myself every time. The airness himself speaks wise words! 

So I just got back from the temple and got some bad news. One of the Elders in the other Finnish District who me and him go to the weight room all the time to lift is going home due to medical issues so I'm pretty sad about that because I have grown really close to him.  But I'm also happy for him because this is the best thing for him.  

But thanks for all the letters and support from everyone!! I love it all and it means a ton to me!

Mina rakastan kakki sinua!

I love all of you!

Vanhin Ford