6/14/16: Minulla Ei ole aikaa

Well. I ran out of email time. 

This week I did missionary work. Yay!

Have a wonderful week!

6/7/16: Short Email this Week

What up fam. Sorry this email is going to be a shortie because I have a meeting I have to go down to in Helsinki so I have to go take a train. and I have like 20 minutes to email.  But its been a great week. I have my new companion Elder Buhler because of the emergency transfer, it was sad to have Elder Aldous leave, we were only together 2 weeks but we had a lot of fun together.  But we have been teaching a lot this week, our investigator Petri who I found my 3rd day here in Lahti FINALLY came to church, had a good time.  We have been having some pretty crazy teaching experiences with our investigator fahad haha. Lets just say it can be everything from teaching lessons in a bar, to helping his old granny friends, to the craziest of stories...

But anyway I have to go down to Helsinki. Super excited because I get to see my 2nd companion in the field Elder Bascom, who is doing a internship here in Helsinki and a ton of other friends in my Helsinki area I served in!

Elder Ford

5/31/16: The prayer of healing, Emergency transfers, How to find your investigator an apartment, 5eurohobobag, free bikes

Moro Perhe and ystaviä, 

It was a good week this week. So Elder Aldous and I have been having a blast together. We finish each others sentences in lessons, and we have done a lot of good work and have had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Sunday we get a call from President, and something happened somewhere else so Elder Aldous is moving up North, and my new companion will beElder Buhler. I went on splits with him his first day in the country so it will be sweet to see the growth in him..  Its sad to see Elder Aldous go, but it is what it is..  But I am staying here in Lahti, which I am super happy about because I love this area and ward. (BTW family, has Amber moved in yet down the street, she left last tuesday so she should be back). 

Anyway super great week this week. The first thing that happened was I mentioned how last week I gave my investigator who should be going to baptism soon a blessing last week because he was sick and had mono. Well in the blessing it was promised that he would get better by the end of last week, and me saying that even suprised me because the doctors told him atleast 3 weeks, and when I saw him he was in pretty bad shape, his throat was really swollen and could hardly talk.  Well we visited yesterday... and well he was all better. He is a little tired still from the Mono, but besides that he is fully recovered..  It was crazy to see!!! The gift of healing does work, even in finnish haha!!  That was a really tender mercy from the Lord.  

Our other invesigator fahad cant get baptized because right now he doesnt have a recidency permit, and he couldnt find an apartment. So this week I did some calling around to some friends I have made here in Lahti, and I found him an apartment and he moved in this last week! He is basically our neighbor now!!! Such a cool guy.  

There is also this really cool place in town where I can buy a 5 euro bag of food, I get a ton of food, so a ward member and I are going there and will be giving some food to some people in need.  

Another cool thing this week is we found two pretty decent bicycles in the trash. They need a little fixing up but there nice bikes, and Im thinking of fixing them up and giving it so some friends. 

Other then that the work here is going great! Valterri should be going to baptism soon, and we have some other great progressors. The Lord has been very mercicul here in Lahti..! 

5/24/16: Kesä

Well this week has felt like it has gone by in a blur! Not to much to report. Yesterday I got to give a blessing to my investigator in Finnish, that was fun. Right now he wants to get baptized, but he has mono, but I felt very confident with the blessing that I gave him so we will see how that goes.  I have my new companion, his name is Elder Aldous, he is awesome, very outgoing so we get along great.  Right now were just doing a lot of finding. However, the thing I have dreaded all year is coming to pass. Summer. And that sounds really weird but let me tell you a little about Finnish summers. As a normal person there the best thing ever. Beautiful Weather, lots of traveling, and TONS of concerts. As a missionary. not so much. Basically in the summer all the cities abandon and become ghost towns. The students go back home. Everyone leaves finland and goes to tropical places. Its crazy. So well see how that plays out. Well find people in the knooks and crannies of the city:)  

We also had a really cool lesson with an investigator where he told us his conversion to christ, how he used to be involved in all sorts of witch craft. Very powerful conversion story.  This week I also had a really cool experience. We stopped a lady on the street but all she could speak was Russian. She needed help getting somewhere but there was no way we could explain to her how to get there because of the language barrier. We were walking away and my companion had an idea to call the bishop, who then referred us to someone in the ward that can speak russian.  We didnt know where the lady was that we talked to so I said a prayer, and I had the strong impression to go one way, and we ended up finding her. So the spirit is always there to help us if we are listening.  

We also tracted into someone that let us in saying that he needed help overcoming his drug addiction so we will see how that goes!

Rakaudella, 

Elder Ford

PS:  Amber Patomo left yesterday Mom and Dad, so She is delivering the mothers day present I told you about. She should be in Utah thursday. So sad she left:( if you need to remember what she looks like see the attached photo below haha!

The other photo is me and bill, he is a super cool guy I have had the privilege to teach.

The other photo is of me and my boi Fahad! Me and him are the same age. and he is ripped! He is actually a bodybuilder. He wants to be baptized, he know the book of mormon is true, he just needs to find a place soon and then he can be!

5/16/16

Terve 

Finally this week we got the clearance that we can finally take off our suitjackets since its getting kind of hot and now we dont have to roast. Good week, been finding a lot since our progressing investigators were all busy this week or sick. We had a really really good lesson however with a guy named Petri. We thought we were going to drop him since it wasnt going anywhere, but then we decided just one more lesson and we started reading the Book of Mormon, and his entire heart change and now he loves meeting with us. It was a really cool thing to see.  We also had Zone meeting this week which was really good to see everyone, however I am starting to lose track of people, shows I am getting old in the Mission. Transfers are here and I am getting Elder Aldous, I think hes from Oregon, and I am staying in Lahti which is really good because I love this place!!! We also brought cookies that I made to a former investigator yesterday, and then a member who is friends with her on facebook showed us a post she made an hour later saying she was having a terrible day and then godsent people made her day. Just a reminder we can always do that. 

Have an amazing week!

Rakaudella,

Elder Ford 

Fishing for pday. We only had a broomhandle and some string and a hook.... didnt catch anything:(

also, pictures of lahti, and the lake in our town. From winter to summer, all in the same change since I have been here. Finnish sunsets are the best.

5/9/16: 100 Books of Mormon

Well.... basically this week my companion and I had the opportunity to hand out 102 Books of Mormon. It was literally the most exhausting week of my life. We were doing the math, we had to atleast talk to 1200 people, most of course were no´s, and cold shoulders, maybe a few birds were packed in there. It was also definately one of the lasagna most fulfilling weeks of my mission. We met so many cool people, including this hilarious ripped dude from Iraq. Me and him are the same age, but he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger haha.  He is super cool, and he came to church this last week and absolutely loved it, and said our doctorine is so logical.  We also got a ton of other potentials this week that we have to follow up with from the non stop street contacting this week we did.   7 hours a day all week of straight street contacting walking in circles. Lets just say we became pretty acquainted with some of the common city dwellers. But it was a successful week.

We were also able to set a baptisimal date with another of our investigators named Ansi for June, He came to church for the first time yesterday.

We also went to bird watching with one of our investigators. It was sweet! The tower was super high!!  

Hope everyone has a good week!!!

Rakaudella,

Elder Ford  

5/3/16

Great week this week. Highlight of the week is I got to see my boy Andy Mccoy haha! I havent been able to see that dude since last summer, because he went on tour and then I left Helsinki. I was in Helsinki for a quick stop and so I thought I might say Hi to the guy. Let me tell you, if there was an autobiography by him I would definately read it. The stories he tells to us are hilarious, you literally see it all as a rockstar. 

So this week my companion and I goaled to hand out a 100 book of mormons so hopefully all goes well. Yesterday we gave out 28, it was sooo exhausting, but very rewarding and we set up several lessons on the way, and there was a guy we talked to on the street that told us how thankful he was for our service and how jealous he was of us, but he still wouldnt take a Book of Mormon XD  But hopefully well achieve our goal! 

Our progressors continue to do well. Were meeting with a guy named valterri who wants to get baptized soon, he just feels like he needs his testimony to keep growing so were definately banking off the power of the Book of Mormon.

Have an amazing week to all!

Elder Ford