I have been in Finland a whole week! it is freezing here. I had to buy a new coat! This one has fur on the hood. Real nice. I love Finland so far. It is very awesome...The people here are quite interesting thats for sure. My new p-day is tuesday.
My new address is:
Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien Jeesuksen Kristuksen Kirkko
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
Upseerinkatu 3 C
FI-02600 Espoo
Finland
FI-02600 Espoo
Finland
If you dont put the church name on the letter, then it might not make it to the mission home...that is where all the packages and letters go to first. For some reason, if there isn´t the church name, then the mailman doesn't know where to put it so they sometimes send it back.
I forgot my camera, so you will have to wait for pictures of Finland till next week...but these are the last of the MTC pics. The picture of me really sweaty was after our last work out session at the MTC...elder Jordan and I did a run and we were going so fast...I have never been so tired in my life.(until I got my bike) He is a cross country runner and does push me.
We left the MTC at 6:50 AM on monday, and took a bus, to a train in Utah. We only had like 3 minutes to get like 50 missionaries luggage off the train before the train closed the doors and left, so lots of people were freaking out and panicking...it was mayhem. But in the end, everyone made off the train and got to the airport. My companions brother showed up also, so we talked with him for awhile. Pretty cool guy. Our flight from utah to dallas was about 3 hours I think, and then dallas to london was 9. They fed us two meals on that flight...Pretty good too. It was a fun flight, but we couldn't sleep at all. So we were super tired the rest of the day. We chilled in the london airport for 3 hours i think. We walked around for a while. Some elders bought watches. I bought a water with american money, and they gave me some British pounds back...so now I have some sweet coins of the great queen of England.
We got our seats split up on the flight to finland, so I sat next to a finnish guy who lives in miami. He is flying to finland to visit his mom. Apparently he owns a really successful business that is going to be on shark tank he said. Super cool guy. He used to be a pilot, so we talked about planes like the whole time.
We got to finland at like 3 or 4 in the afternoon on wednesday. Finland is a 9 hour jump ahead in time i think from utah. The mission president and his wife (the auras) and the APs were all at the airport waiting for us. Pretty cool. They are all super nice.
There are only a couple cars in our mission, and they are all toyota yaris...gray in color. so we all shoved ourselves in to those and made it to the mission home in Espoo. The mission home is really awesome...and super big too. We sleep upstairs in the attic where the ceiling is really low, so we kept bumping our heads. It is everyone's dream to buy their own house in finland, but not many people do. They mostly live in apartments. That night we had interviews with president aura, and ate dinner and then went to bed. He is a super nice guy. And very spiritual.
The next morning, we got our assignments! The mission wasn't going to assign anyone new to rovaniemi (highest city we can go right now) this transfer...so lots of people got bummed. I know that a couple of our elders had been praying for that every day haha...but I wanted to go there too just to experience the arctic circle. Hopefully!
I got assigned to Seinäjoki! (wall river) Very awesome place! It is a huge area too, one of the biggest i think. We are in the north Zone. My companion is elder Fielding! he is awesome. very funny. loves star wars and music. I think that he has been in his mission almost a year. I am his first trainee and this is the first time he has been senior companion. we are learning together.
We stayed the night in Haaga (in helsinki city) with a couple other elders. Elder lewis and elder skinner are in my district too (kokkola and vaasa(Swedish speaking...bad luck...doesn't know any...nor does companion)) which is awesome. We have had two district meetings already. On district meeting days, we get on a bus for a 1.5 hour bus ride to vaasa. Our district has the seinäjoki, vaasa 1, vaasa 2, kokkola, pietasari, and a senior couple. All are very awesome. I have to play piano at the district meeting . Good thing that I brought my simplified hymn book. Also, the Finnish hymn book doesn't have all the songs we have, so we have a good time trying to figure out which song is which when we can barely understand what it is saying.
In seinäjoki, we basically just tract. We dont have any investigators, and there are only 15 active members. Our church building is an old bank...There is a really cool safe in the basement were the extra meetings are held. Very cool. (We are emailing at the church right now.) Sunday was a fun day. I got to give a little introduction in my ward and tried understanding their questions...I can speak fine, but understanding is the hard part, because they talk lightning fast. If only I knew what they were saying. haha. I know that the gift of tongues is real, so I am not worried about it. I have a talk assignment on dec.31...my birthday. And i think the branch wants me and my comp to sing a Christmas song the Sunday before that.....we shall see...
I love my branch, the members are so cool! We got like 5 dinner appointments covering the week of Christmas which is awesome! And one of the members gave us a goodie bag with chocolate and toilet paper!
Tracting is also fun...We have had some neat experiences. Our goal is to share the christmas video that the church has put out. (light the world) We usually share it at least once a day. We have met a couple of cool people. We met a kid last night who is from nigieria and turned 17 yesterday...so we made a fake phone call and ran to the store and bought chocolate and a card and then ran back to his apartment and gave it to him and sang happy birthday. His parents dont like the church, but like us, and say we can keep coming back. We showed them the christmas video and the kid said that it was really touching and more people should watch it. He is going to share it with his family. Really cool guy and really down to earth. It is important that we are grateful for our blessings. He knows no finnish, cant go to school till he learns some, his dad works all day and all night, and they are poor. Our whole message this christmas is about christ and serving others...Make some goals to serve people in your community, and that are around you. There is always someone who needs your help! The church is true! And it doesnt get any less true the more times old people yell at you when you knock on their door!
cool stories:
met a harley motorcycle man and he took us to his shed to show us his collection...Started rolling drugs in front of us and then smoking....neat guy...we shall return back to him.
A guy on the street gave us some money, so we put it in tithing for him...he was drunk...but we called president aura and he said something like this : Missionaries have a certain light around them. when people are in dark places, they are attracted to you.. that is why this happens so often.
My first day tracting here was a blizzard...and today was also. you ride your bike and cant open your eyes because snow gets in them. The first day, we went outside and the had to return home because we were frozen...our hair was white and crispy. we got beanies then went outside again...and met a guy who really wanted to go to church who happened to be named jussi! we called him on saturday to make sure he was going to come....but fake number :( Elder fileding says it happens a lot.
Bikes are the worst thing to ever happen to me. my trainer rides so fast...my legs are jelly. usually after like ten minutes, my legs start cramping up...and the roads are straight ice...we dont have bike spikes yet..I will be ripped by the time I get off my mission...while tracting, we must have slipped a million times...
“If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill. And as the world becomes darker and more dangerous, we must keep climbing. It will be our choice whether or not to move up or to stay where we are. But the Lord will invite and guide us upward by the direction of the Holy Ghost, which He sends to His leaders and to His people who will receive it.”
Elder Eyring
love everyone! I will email again nest Tuesday i think.....with pictures of finland!
love elder christensen
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