What a blast this transfer has been so far! We are really having a good time here in Vantaa. It was pretty rainy these past few days...last night it was storming out! And pretty cold. The sun no longer is up by the time we go to bed. We are fearful that summer may be coming to a close.
This week was a busy one. One great thing was that we had zone conference this week. that is always a great meeting. the europe area has created this new program or whatever it is called. "Read the Book of Mormon for 21 days" I am really excited to share that with our investigators and less active members. We dont read the entire thing in 21 days, but each day there are certain verses that we can read and by the end of the program it should hopefully become a habit. we tried this with ourselves 4 months ago to try and make it a habit to do a role play everyday. at the end of the 21 days, it really was a habit. Zone conference is always fun because we get to meet everyone and chat. my trainer was there and my third companion. We had a fun time catching up on old times.
After zone conference a member asked us to help him move a couch from our old apartment in tikkurila. they are selling it now. that was the only thing left. So of course we said yes. we get up there...we live on the 4th floor, and take off our suit coats and get right into the work. I bend over (making sure i am bending with my knees) and lift with my might...and i guess my leg muscles were flexing but seconds later we hear something that sounds like tearing fabric. At first we just paused...but then i said "oh no...these are my good pants" the rip is so huge!! probably like 8 inches in length right on the seam on my backside and maybe like 5 inches wide. We continued to work and i couldn't change my pants for about 5 hours. I can say that the see through stairs at the train station were a struggle.
But there were a ton of great things this week! We taught this guy named matt...he is the guy we played basketball with a couple times. he asked us to teach him a little about what we believe as mormons. it was great. we shared the Book of Mormon with him and he said he would read it. He also wants to meet again and play basketball. He is my number one target for this transfer. just a normal guy, like 25 years old, trying to figure out life!
I had the opportunity this week to teach gospel principles on sunday. The weeks lesson was on prayer. I learned SO much about prayer. One thing that occurred to me as i studied for it was, "is a prayer really a prayer if it is not sincere" this question really made me think about my prayers and what i can do to make them more sincere. OF course heavenly father already knows what we need, and what we want...but he wants to hear it from us. There is a definition of prayer that i saw, and it is: heartfelt and sincere speech with God...i like heartfelt and sincere communication with god a lot better. When we communicate with someone, that is what leads to understanding. in sports, if someone messes up or makes a bad play..some might say that there was a lack of communication among the players...someone might have said something or given an order..but there was lacking understanding...when we communicate with each other...and especially with God, instead of just speaking to him, then that is when we will see a difference. I am going to work on that these next couple weeks and see if i cant create a habit of communicating with my father in heaven. And also a little side note, dont we know that communication takes two to work? allow God his chance to communicate back.
I got to see one of my friends from 4 months ago. his name is hien ha. i taught him like 2 times a week for a while but then he moved to seinäjoki..my first area...but he was down here visiting for the day!
There work is moving along here! Thanks for all that you do! love elder christensen
Airplane Museum
No comments:
Post a Comment