What a crazy week! i have been sick the whole week with a deadly cough, but i guess everything else was way good. Actually it was one of the best ones we have had. I am getting way excited for general conference. i have been rereading all of the conference talks. I have only read the first Saturday session so far, and it is amazing how like 4 of the 6 talks or however many there were, were focused on the need and blessing of a living prophet. i am so grateful that we have a prophet here on earth to guide us and help us to be happier.
Some way cool things happened this week. on Tuesday, we got to go to the chocolate factory. It was so cool. we took a tour that lasted about an hour, and then after the tour, they took us into a room and gave us free time to walk around and eat as much chocolate as we wanted. I very much enjoyed it. The factory also had these robotic mowers that just moved around by themselves and cut the grass. pretty cool stuff. the world is advanced now.
We had a neat experience this week. we were waiting for our bus to come and we had like 5 minutes, so we decided to start talking to this guy and we was way cool. pretty interested in what we were doing here in Finland. and then we got on the bus with him. after a couple minutes talking with him on the bus, a lady two rows in front of us leaned back and asked "will you talk with me?" so we talked with her too. the guy was very interested and gave us his number. we didn't have enough time before our stop to get the girl's number, so we gave her our card and said please call. That night she called us and wanted to meet...so we met on friday. She is the best. she wants to change her life around. she even came to church with us on sunday! all 3 hours! and she wants to go to the temple grounds with some of the members. it occurred to me that if we hadn't of talked to this guy at the bus stop, then we probably wouldn't have met this girl. she over heard us talking and felt the need to ask us to talk with her. It would have been so easy to just wait 4 minutes for our bus to pull up...but by listening to the spirit we were able to find someone we didn't really even try to find. I know that there are so many people like that here in Finland. It is our job to be in the right places and to follow the spirit, because there really are people that want to talk to us.
Also this week, we found our old investigator named Edward, from 4 months ago. he went to ivory coast and his phone broke so we could never find him...but every time we were at the train station we checked for him, because he always hung out there with his friends...and this week we found him! we are excited to meet with him again. Our investigator Risto is still chugging along. he couldn't come to church this week because he was in estonia, but hopefully on sunday he will be there. We taught him the law of chastity and the atonement. and talked about how we are friends, and that his Savior Jesus Christ is his friend. because christ died for us, we have the opportunity to change and become better. i read a talk this week called What is a friend? by marvin j ashton. He makes a really good point in the beginning of his talk. He asks around, what makes a friend a friend. and the answer he got was that a friend is someone who accepts us for who we are....i have heard this so many times at school and church and stuff. And this talk completely changed the kind of friend i want to be. He says "we are something less of a friend if we leave a person the same way we find him." that is such a good point. if we do not leave our friends better people, if they havent improved, are we really a friend? we shouldn't just leave our friends the way they are...but lets lift them up. That is what we told Risto...we are your friends. we love you. and that is why we are helping you to change...that is why we want you to improve. i would challenge everyone to be better friends from now on...find something you can do to help your friends.
One more quote from the talk: "president Lincoln was once criticized for his attitude toward his enemies. "why do you try to make friends of them?" asked an associate. "you should try to destroy them,"...."Am i not destroying my enemies", Lincoln gently replied , "when i make them my friends?" that is some deep stuff.
We gave a school presentation which went great as well this week.
Love you all, i hope that you had a great week!
elder christensen
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