We are Not Required to Follow Blindly!

Wow! What an exciting week! I moved out of Vantaa! I have been there quite a while. 6 Months in that ward. I will surely miss all the members and investigators! I was pretty sad at first, but i guess there is something special about being a missionary. You just get to love whoever you are with. I have already developed a huge amount of love for the people here in Pori! Such a good place! pori is an old little town on the west coast of Finland. Like right on the coast, so thats pretty sweet. We are in a trio here, which is always fun. never a silent moment thats for sure. This is my second trio, i was in one in the MTC. We have a car here, so that helps us stay warm and get around easily! There is supposed to be  the first snow fall soon, this week actually sometime. I am going to have to pull out my furred jacket. 

My two companions are named elder Winder and elder Madsen. (very tall guys, i feel like a midget with them) They are both going home after this transfer. We have been working hard though and we are doing great in talking with people and tracting and teaching. There have been a lot of really cool people this week that we have talked to. Many were pretty interested! Our Book of Mormons are all being given away! But that is a good thing! We set a baptismal date too! this investigator is named Pekka. He is trying to get over smoking, and really wants to change, follow Christ and be baptized. We set the date for January 19th. Each week he will drop to one less cigarette until they are all done! We are super excited! and he came to church this sunday! yesterday we sat down with him and had a heart to heart and set some goals and made a plan.....he is ready to go!

The branch here in Pori is quite small. We had like 22 people attend sacrament meeting this week including us 3. elder madsen plays the piano and is in the branch presidency. But the members are super solid. Lots of older sisters and stuff.

One day this week we headed over to a part member family and did a ton of service! we raked leaves for a while, then we stacked firewood, and then helped them move these three giant book shelves to their new house. They were super heavy...good thing there was three of us. It is always good to give service...always leaves me with a good feeling. Their new house was way cool. they are really rich, and everything in the house is electric. all the doors just open and close with buttons. 

I have been continuing to read the Book of Mormon. I am always amazed by Nephi's example. Whenever we have our own questions, we can always look to the examples of living or past prophets of God! when Nephi has a question about something he goes to the Lord and receives revelation. We are not required to follow blindly, but to seek our own personal answers! There is so much more that our Heavenly Father wants to give us!

I love you all! Elder Christensen