There is MORE to Come......!

What a solid week!

It was juhannus this week. That is a really big holiday here in finland. It is supposedly the brightest day of the year! It rained though were I was at, which stinks. But any way, during juhannus the people love to party and to grill makkara. We got invited to our ward mission leader's home and had a really awesome time grilling with him. That is the first time I have been to his home. He is really cool. We were also able to bring a really cool less active member named Miki with us. He is super cool and is really trying to get back to church. He is a 20 something year old dude. He went on a mission to finland..he is also finnish. We are planning to go eat kebab with him soon, and also brought him a on lesson with us this week. 

Since this is elder Jones' last transfer in finland...he has to go to this thing called "my plan" were they talk about what to do after the mission is over. It is a whole day long. So me and elder kester, who was in my district last transfer spent the whole day together. It was super fun! I also got to spend two days with elder lewis who was my companion in seinäjoki. he also is going home after this. They slept at our house in tikkurila for two days. It surely was a blast!

We found these two really cool older finns this week. They are a married couple. So many bad things have happened to them recently and they are at a all time low in their lives. If there is one thing that they need right now, it is the knowledge that God has created a plan for them that doesn't end with death. That one of the greatest parts about God's plan! There is more to come after this life. I might also add, not only is there life...but also work to be done! And that actually makes sense...because the greatest joy in life comes from creating, from doing, from working, and from serving. We already have had two great lessons with them. They are way ready to make some changes in their lives to better follow Jesus Christ and receive more blessings by doing so!

This week I studied accountability. We need to be accountable for what we do. God is aware of the choices that we make and will hold us accountable. We to should be aware of what we are doing and hold ourselves accountable. In missionary work, there is always someone to report to...who then reports to someone else, who then keeps on reporting. 

I found this really awesome verse this week in Doctrine & Covenants 45: It says  "For verily I say unto you, that great things await you;" When we are following christ and living by the example that he set...how could great things not await us? I have a strong testimony that great things await every single one of us. 

I love you all! 

elder christensen

Ye Do It Unto Me.

Hello everyone!

What a strange but good week i have had. We had transfers...and my new comp is elder Jones. He is in his last transfer before he goes home to Iowa. He is pretty interesting...and super smart! And very good at finnish. I ask him questions everyday about Finnish and there hasn't been one yet that he couldn't answer. So I am very grateful for that! We get along great.

Also, I hope that everyone is enjoying the world cup. It sounds like quite the tournament. We were walking down the road the other day and these two guys yelled at us and said that they were from Tunisia and that they were going to beat us tonight. it turns out that they thought we were English. (Tunisia played England that night) The finnish people aren't really into the world cup, but all the foreigners love it.

We had a cool experience this week. On the train, we sat down next to a group of people, we usually only sit next to one person so that we an talk to them. but after like a couple minutes of silence, i started talking to this girl, and then we were all talking. Nothing really came of it though....but we got off the train and walked around for like 20 minutes and ran into this girl again, and she asked us to pray with her (she had a really hard week). so we prayed. and then after, she asked us to give her a blessing. But we decided that it probably wasn't the best idea on the side of the street. But we can meet with her later! It just shows....talk to everyone...you never know who is ready and who has been searching and praying to be able to find you.

During personal study this week, I was reading in Doctrine & Covenants 42 and i read verse 38: For inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me. It reminded me of the famous verse in mosiah, which says "when you have done it unto one of the least of these your bretheren, ye have done it unto me" In this case it is talking about serving your fellow man, and that when we do good things to others, we are doing good things to God. I really like this verse in DC because i think it helped me understand that its probably not just the good things that we do to others, that in turn we do to God as well. Its important that we continue to focus on the good things that we can do towards others. It is easy to forget that not only are our good deeds noted in heaven, but also the wrong that we do. By staying clear of doing wrong to others, everyone wins.

i am so grateful to be serving others here in Finland! What a joy it has been. I hope that you all have a great week!

love elder christensen

God LOVETH A Cheerful Giver!

Hyvää Huomenta!

Well, this transfer has come to a close. We got our new assignments on friday! I will be staying here in tikkurila, and will be serving with elder Jones who was just zone leader in Tampere. Elder Jacobsen will be the new zone leader there. We are both really excited. Everyone says that elder jones is the best in the mission at Finnish, so i am pretty pumped to have him teach me his secrets.

 This week was a very fun week to end the transfer. We had soccer on saturday, and boy it was awesome. We play frisbee actually with the ward every saturday for like an hour, and then soccer after. When we played soccer, we asked these 6 shirtless really drunk guys if they wanted to play with us! And they said yes. So me and my comp were on their team. Some of them were actually really good. One of them was really old though and he was running and stepped on the ball and fell...he was injured in the first minute of play. I think our team would have won, but we had one problem...it was our goalie. His name was arto, and he had many drinks. he had the right intentions, but his dives to save the ball were just a couple seconds too late.

As a district this week, we went singing in downtown Helsinki. It would usually work very well, but this week was really cold for some reason, so not a whole lot of people were walking around town. We did get a couple people though to watch and take pictures of us. We sang Finnish primary songs.

On saturday night, we showed Meet the Mormons video at our church. It is a pretty good movie. We actually had quite a few people say that they were going to come, but in the end none of the people we invited showed up.  Some of the other missionaries' people were there though, so we started the movie. Elder Jacobsen and I went to the streets to look for people to invite in for some ice cream. We bought 10 liters of ice cream and then also some sodas and chips. So we had a lot of food and not alot of people to eat it all. So we walked around the streets alot looking for people and no one was interested. but then we saw these two kids, they were throwing acorns at each other...and i said that they would probably like ice cream, so i asked them if they wanted some and some soda. And that we were showing a movie in our church. They said yes! they each got two bowls and watched the movie for like 20 minutes. It was an awesome experience for me. Hopefully they know that we are just normal people like them that like movies and ice cream.

Something crazy that happened this week during a contact. We were talking to this old grandma and behind her we saw this trash can smoking pretty badly. Every second it got worse...and the lady talked for a long time. So when she ended, we ran to the store and grabbed some water and ran
back and started pouring water on it. it started fizzing way bad...and i was thinking: Woah! this is pretty hot. but no, it was just sparkling water. there was like a chain reaction and many cigarettes got lit or something. 

we made homemade fudge this week and chocolate moose (i always eat my moose with purple grapes, i did it on accident once at a members home, but it is so good!)

2 corinthians 9:6-7

6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

I hope that this week we can all serve in our callings,  as well as serving others not out of necessity but with full purpose of heart. I know that as we do this we will be happier! God loves those who are happy givers!

i love you all, elder christensen

small mystery boy?.....

There is Power in the Book of Mormon!

Good morning everyone!

I surely hope you all had a great week. I had another good one. 

Last p-day, we went to soumenlinna. It is this huge castle on an island in front helsinki. We had to take a ferry to get there. It was so cool. Probably the best pday i have had. awesome weather, and this guy named dinh who loves missionaries came with us. we took almost 400 pictures...so you will have some amazing photos. 

On sunday this week, we met this family from india while tracting...and they said that we could go back the next day and bring them a hindi Book of Mormon...so we showed up, with dinh...and they were all ready and excited. They gave us pear juice and geisha chocolate and a variety of nuts. They were super excited. The mom's name is pooja, and then the boys are sunny and Cali. the boys just came from india like 2 weeks ago and are happy to have some friends. They are 16 and 14 years. They want to go play cricket with us. haha..maybe next Tuesday! The dad is a chef...and he was at work. But the lesson was so great! and they all committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! 

Also, we had this neat experience with one of our boys named Destiny. None of them have jobs, and so we have been looking to find one for all of them. But one elder in our district found this job for one of them..and he gave it to us to give to them. We were going to give it to roman...our progressing investigator...but when we got there for his lesson, he wasnt there, but destiny was. so we taught him. We felt like we should give it to him...and he was so happy, he said that it was an answer to his prayers. He woke up this morning, and opened the Book of Mormon and prayed "please Lord, give me something good today" i definitely believe that this was an answer to his prayer! there is power in the Book of Mormon...read it! 

This is probably mine and elder jacobsen's last week together. We have transfers this friday!

sorry, short email this week....love you all

elder christensen

This is Dinh!