March 29, 2016

This past week has been so good! Today we are getting a car! Apparently the Vaasa sisters before us had it but there was sort of a car crash... but now it's repaired! We pick it up today and I don't know how long we'll have it. It's a lot easier to talk to people if we are outside walking but for now it's ours and we'll try and use it effectively. Only the senior companion can drive so I won't be driving I'll be navigating.... if anyone knows me well they know how directionally confused I can get. Pray for me!  But at least all of the snow has melted so that won't be an issue. There are barely any mission places with cars in Finland so I was really surprised when we got the call. Also, today we are giving a tour of the church to a bunch of high schoolers. In Finland they have to learn about all religions in school which I think is really cool and so they do these yearly tours and the missionaries show them around and answer questions about what we believe in. They are coming from a Swedish speaking school so we'll be teaching in English so I'm a little bit relieved. Europeans speak so many different languages!  

We had a zone conference in Oulu so we had to take the train there last Wednesday and we stayed two nights with the sister training leaders there. They were so cool and President Watson had some really good advice on how to use our resources better and we are starting a new Easter initiative and we got new pass along card that say '' Seuraa Hänta ja lödä uusi elämä'' or ''Follow Him and find new life''. I had a neat learning experience as we tried to talk to this Finnish woman who was out walking her dog about the new video the church has produced about Easter, called Hallelujah. She immediately said she wasn't interested and I was ready to walk away but Sisar Kwok kept talking to her and tried to get to know her. She told us her beliefs and she even told us that two Elders had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon before. After a couple minutes of talking to her Sisar Kwok again asked her if we could drop by her house later and show her the short two minute video about Easter and maybe explain a little bit about our church. She agreed and gave us her information and we are seeing her tomorrow. I learned an important lesson that you should keep talking until they walk away! I know that even though not everyone is interested there are people that are willing to hear us out. I can't say very much in Finnish but I can bear my simple testimony that Christ is our Savior and that he loves us. I can tell people that we are God's children and that we can be with our families forever through the restored gospel. That's about it, but luckily the Holy Ghost can help me out a lot. It also helps that Sisar Kwok is awesome and she always knows what to say to people.