Hey everybody!!!
Man, it just felt like last pday, days go by sooo fast here!! Somedays the actual day can be long, but weeks go by sooo fast!! I keep thinking that spring is just around the corner, but this week was one of the coldest. Atleast Saturday and Sunday were, it was about -8 celcius, but if you couple that with the subartic winds and walking around tracting it gets pretty chilly. But I love it!! So I"ll apologize in advance, I havent taken many pictures because I keep forgetting to bring my camera around, but next week Ill upload a lot of pictures from Finland. The thing with Finland winters is they are so harsh and everything looks dead, unless it really snows then it looks like Narnia. But since the spring is coming everything is starting to come back to life and its starting to look way pretty!!
So a funny story that happened is I was having a dinner appointment with this family thats in our ward, and they were just asking questions to me about my family. The word for mother is Aiti in finnish. Well my brain decided to not work while trying to think of the name and instead I said "minun (swear word, donkey) is very nice. I meant to say my mother is very nice. But yea, that didnt come out right, but they just started laughing really hard haha!! So sorry mom, I promise I didnt mean it haha. Foreign language probz. But this week has been a good one. Weve done a lot of tracting lately because a lot of our investigators keep dropping. We have quite a few investigators though which is great. But havent had much success lately having a consistent meeting with them. We have this investigator right now whos had a long previous past with the missionaries and has had a tough time, but lately he has been coming to the church and has been really accepting of our message. Hes from russia, and hes a really cool guy. Tough outer shell but a soft heart haha. Another family we have been working with is the H family. They are a cute family and there kids go insane with excitement when we teach them. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself because there 3 year old son can speak and understand more finnish then I can. The father is running for parliament so they are super busy so its hard to teach them. But I have high hopes for them! One of the converts that Vanhin Findley recently baptized right before I came to Finland received the priesthood last sunday. he was all smiles and so happy!! It was awesome, and there was such a strong spirit while it happened. Its great to go over and teach him, hes a super cool guy.
This week while tracting we found a man that invited us in. Apparently he knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he has never been to church or knows anything else about the gospel. So im really excited to go back and teach him because if you know the BOM is true, then you know Joseph Smith was a prophet and then everything else falls into place.
So Ive noticed I have been able to understand a lot more recently when people talk. Now when I say a lot more it means I can pick up on more words but by no means do I know what people are fully saying to me haha. I talk to a lot of people in Finnish, like contacting on the street, but when they respond usually I hand it over to Vanhin Findley because I dont know what there usually saying. But its very humbling, and I have a lot of fun talking to people even though I dont really understand what there saying. The best is when I talk to people, and I do understand what they say back to me and then we get in a conversation, and then I explain that I have only been in Finland 3 weeks and the looks on there face is so priceless haha. Some have called me a liar because they think no one could speak like that for only being here 3 weeks. Even the Finnish people know how hard there language is and will have pity on people. But sometimes its really fun to be the noobie and take everything in. I know I dont need to be afraid when I talk because I know Im representing God and know matter what, even if I cant talk to them I can give them a smile and sometimes thats good enough.
This week in church was super good. In sacrament meeting I focused more on the words during the sacrament prayer and I started thinking of Jesus Christ Atonement for me. I have been doing a lot of studying on the atonement to understand it better since everything in the Gospel works because of it. Its just something so hard to understand. But this week I was reading a talk by Elder Bednar on how theres two parts to the Atonement. The Healing (repentance), which is normally the thing we think of when we think of the atonement. And then there is the empowering part. That allows Christs mercy to strengthen us, and it allows good men to become saints. We need to use the atonement daily and it allows us to become closer to our savior Jesus Christ.
Anyway, good solid week. Everything is possible through God. If we apply the atonement to our lives daily, bad men become good, good men become better, and better men become saints. It empowers us in everything we do.
Mua mua! Mina tiedan etta, kun me uskomme jeesuksen kristuksen me saamme voima. I know that when we believe in jesus christ we receive strength.
Vanhin Ford.
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