Er pojk är jättefin. Ni behöver inte oroa er.

I bet some of you are thinking that my subject line is Finnish, tricks on you because it is actually Swedish. So this week we had transfers and Elder Vennerholm was transferred into my area. As you can probably guess he is from Sweden. Anyways this week I learned a lot and had a lot of fun doing it.  

So this week we were able to teach one of our investigators who has been taught for awhile but has not committed to Baptism. We decided to teach her about the role the Jesus Christ can play in our lives, if we let him. The key with our whole lesson is that we must let him. We can educate ourselves on all the facts and dates surrounding Jesus Christ but if we fail to let him into our lives then it profits us nothing. As we learn about Jesus Christ we need to also follow him. I know that as we do we will see our lives change and become something better than we had ever imagined. I know that Through Jesus Christ we can be happy in this life and in the life to come. I am so grateful for everyone's support and love. Thank you

Elder Lewis

Joy

Wow this week went by so fast, where did it even go? This week was definitely my most interesting week as far as food goes. The members in our wards love to feed us authentic Finnish food. So far I haven't tasted anything that wasn't delicious. We also made some Gambian food with an investigator from Gambia. I don't even know how to pronounce the name of it so I won't even try to spell it.  

We were also blessed this week to attend the baptism of a daughter from a family in our ward. When one of their little boys was giving the opening prayer he thanked Heavenly Father that his sister could finally be baptized because she had been waiting a "super long time" I loved it and it made me reflect about how there are so many people in heaven that have been waiting a "super long time" for us to be baptized on their behalf. I know that temple work is just as important as missionary work. 

Other than the ward baptism we had a pretty normal week. One thing that stuck out to me this week was joy. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week I came across a part in Alma where the Laminites wage war on the Nephites because they are mad the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi have left their lands. Many Nephites die and there is great mourning, but it also says that they had much joy because they had hope in the promises of the Lord that they would one day see their lost ones once again. I really like the word joy because I think it means so much more than happiness or pleasure. Joy is something that we can have even when we aren't in our ideal situation. Elder Nelson talked about this same topic in General conference. He talked about how this Gospel can bring a joy that is lasting and that will endure any trial we have. I know that as we live the Gospel we can experience lasting joy.  I am so grateful for the joy that this gospel has brought me in my life. 

Loves

Elder Lewis

What a week

Well this week was crazy busy, we really tried pushing this week to contact as many people as we possibly could. I probably shook like a million or so hands. We stopped a lot of students who go to the Turku Academy. Most of the students are at least interested in Religion and will usually talk to us and listen to our message which is really cool.  

So this week we taught one of our investigators who is in college right now and looking for answers. Rick is actually a religious studies major with a minor in theology. It is really cool because he knows all about how our religion differs from other religions. We taught him about Enos and about how we can receive answers to our prayers so that me may know that this church is the true church. We then also talked about how Alma the older came to be so strong in the church after Much prayer and fasting. We emphasized how we all gain testimonies in different ways. Sometimes the strongest testimonies come over years and years of tiny yet important spiritual experiences. I know this is true and I know that as we continue to follow God's plan we can build a testimony that is rock solid. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! After much deliberation I decided that I would dress up as a missionary this year. This week was really pretty amazing. This week we had a lesson with a investigator that has been investigating the church for a very long time. I don't know if she has actually been investigating the church this whole time or she just enjoys the company in her old age but either way we are happy to teach her. We decided we wanted to do something different but we still wanted to have a really spiritual lesson. So we decided that a primary object lesson about the atonement would be fun and would give us a chance to testify. We brought a candy bar to the lesson and gave it to her as a present and then later we stole it and ate it. She laughed for like ten minutes and then we explained that we were really sorry and that we wouldn't do it again, but we couldn't give her the candy bar back because we ate it. We explained that this is where the Atonement comes into play. We talked about how the Atonement satisfies the demands of justice that we ourselves will never be able satisfy. It was a super powerful lesson and we were all able to bare testimony of how power the Atonement is and what is has done for us in our lives.  

We also had splits this week and it was on Halloween so double party. For half the day I was with my district leader and everything was really great, but then we switched and I was with his companion who is just as new to Finnish as I am. We taught well tried to teach a lesson to our recent convert and it was interesting. After that we went contacting and that was even more interesting. One woman we stopped simply just did not understand us and we were trying to say that we represented our church and what not and finally she just got a stranger walking by to translate and then when she found out we didn't need help but we were just trying to share the Gospel with her she went from confused to even more confused about why we thought we were going to be able to share the Gospel in Finnish. But we still didn't give up and we gave her a book of Mormon which was really cool. We talked to a lot of people that night and to be honest most of what was said to me went over my head but we did testify about the church and because of the spirit some of the people were interested and accepted a Book of Mormon. My thought process is often fake it till you make it but often times it is me doing what I can and then the spirit taking over. So yes I will probably continue to fake it till I maybe one day make it but I will also continue to rely on the converting power of the spirit because that is where true conversion comes from. I am so grateful for all the lessons I am learning and I can't wait to learn more. Have a great week and eat some Halloween candy for me!

Loves

Elder Lewis

Enjoy the picture of me next to like 100 pounds of pure gospel (book of Mormons)

and Elder Henry and I when we saw our first snowflake