November 29, 2016

Me and my lovely companions had such a great week together! Courtesy of Mama Roberts we had good ol' American food! I never knew how much I loved stuffing and gravy until I had it again last week. Being on a mission has really shown me how much I have to be grateful for. Although Thanksgiving is a really good time of year to appreciate all that we have, really everyday should be one of thanksgiving. We are blessed with so much and as I have been studying the scriptures I've seen that we should even be grateful during the hard times of our lives as well. Serving a mission is the hardest thing I have ever done but I have also never felt so thankful in my life for the blessings of the gospel and for my relationship with my Savior.

Some other news is that our church had a disco party! We taught a lesson at the church that night and not gunna lie, the disco music was a bit distracting in the background but it was totally worth it to see Finns disco! We were teaching our recent convert Osagie and he told us that he's going back to Italy for a little bit for a couple of different reasons. One of the main ones is that Finland is super cold! He said he'll be back when it warms up again! 

We have also been teaching a woman from Estonia these past couple weeks and she is amazing! We get to teach her in Finnish because Estonian and Finnish are actually pretty similar, it's kind of like how Portuguese and Spanish speakers can basically understand each other. She told us about how when she was younger it was forbidden to teach or talk about religion when the Soviet Union was still around and how she had gained a testimony of Christ by reading a copy of the bible. We set a baptismal date with her for January and we are so exited for her! 

Also, the church has produced an amazing service centered Christmas initiative called ''Light the World''. It is amazing and it has a 25 day advent calendar for service. We have been encouraged to do it to the best of our ability and I would encourage everyone else to do it too! What better way to spend this season by helping others and giving back just a little of what we've been given!