3.5 Salmon Steaks......

Wow, what an awesome week we just had! One of the best ones yet. It got to -21 degrees yesterday. I almost perished.

I talked about that one girl we found last week named Oona. She is way way good. We had another wonderful week with her. We felt that we should Invite her to be Baptized. So in our second lesson we invited her to be baptized on the 16th of February. She was pretty interested in Baptism but said that she wasn't ready yet for that date...wanted to wait a little longer. We promised blessings of following Jesus Christ and committed her to come to church to feel the Spirit there. I didnt get to talk with her a whole lot at church because of other assignments, but I talked with her on the phone after and she said that she felt the spirit so strongly in church and that everything was telling her that she was ready. She asked for a baptismal date and is super excited! She also texts us everyday to ask for a new chapter to read from the Book Of Mormon. 

I think one thing that we really miss out on quite often, is the blessing of Church. It is a time of inspiration and worship. if we want to, we can get so much out of being there on Sunday. It is so easy for us to turn it into a routine thing that we just do on Sundays. Being able to see the difference that church makes in the lives of those who haven't had it before has really made me think of what I can make it for myself as well!

We had a very filling dinner appointment this week. An 86 year old grandma (same one that we had to hide the dessert in a baggie on christmas). She fed us 3.5 salmon steaks each, two full plates of mashed potatoes, salads, two toasts, half a container of ice cream each and a whole strawberry short cake. As i was eating the cake a i saw a vision of me driving our car on the way home and throwing up all over the place. I took not another bite. 45 minutes later a less active member invited us over to eat pizza. they bought us each a full pizza and luckily my stomach had digested enough to eat one and a half slices. the Pizza toppings were chicken, blue cheese, and peaches. A very interesting combination indeed. 

Missionary work is going so so well! I remember being in the MTC and one of my teachers said that he loved the Finnish language so much because it is the language which he was speaking when he came to know who Heavenly Father really was and who his Savior was. I can say the exact same thing. I might have thought that I knew a decent amount about them before I came, but now I can see that I knew just a small fraction of it all, and still i know very little. I am so grateful for my time here in Finland!  

I was reading in 2 nephi yesterday and this one verse really stuck out to me : 

2 Nephi 20:15

Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood! 

The ax can be so sharp, maybe even brand new, being able to cut a tree down in just a couple swings. But if no one uses it to cut, what is its use? If we did not use the saw to saw, it would be useless. We depend so much on others. Especially in missionary work i have seen that no matter how good you think you are, or how good you want to become...if you don't allow the spirit to lead you, you are going to have a difficult time finding success. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are those that lead us...we need to be willing to be lead, and that is when we can magnify our callings and assignments!

love elder Christensen!