Feast

Hello 

Thank you for all the well wishes for thanksgiving. It was a super fun week and we really enjoyed it. We had a big feast at the Bishops house and it was amazing. I forgot what really american food was like. Man I miss it. On side not we bought a ham this last week and cooked it and now we have about 3 kilos of ham in our fridge and no idea how to eat it all. So needles to say we are going to be making a lot of ham based dishes this week. This week went by well, both of our inv with a baptismal date are doing ok. They are struggling to make it to church and we need to help one of them stop smoking. We are trying to kinda start a fire under them so the get some serious ambition themselves so we will see how that goes. We performed in our Christmas party and it was a hit. I will try to send a video but if not take a look on the facebook page cause I heard that it was on there. But that was a lot of fun. We are going to teach our investigator from vietnam tomorrow at a members house and so we are kinda excited about that. We also visited this family last night with three little boys and we were trying to share the initiative with them for Christmas and we were doing our best to keep it under control and so were the parents and then one of them bit the other one and there was crying and screaming and it just kinda made me miss home a little bit. But anyways it was super fun and we love that family. Right now most of our contacting is just us trying to get people to watch the Christmas video with us on there phone. It is pretty fun and usually leads into a good discussion so that is fun. This week is transfers so monday p day next week. We have had a lot of fun so I am sad to see this one go. We also are learning how to knit from this lady who runs a yarn shop in our building so In a couple weeks I should have some really really good looking stockings. That is about all. I will see what pictures I can get from this week. Have a good one!

Thanksgiving

Hello to all, 

This week was pretty good, this might be pretty short because we have a lot to do today. So we have our ward Christmas party this week and so we are gong to do this cool arrangement of Carol of the bells and assorted glasses. So we have to spend a bunch of time tunning them so we can actually play them. It should be fun. We also went fishing today and so that is what the picture is for. In Finland you can fish anywhere at anytime without a license if you use an onki. Which is like the big long stick type of fishing pole with some string tied to the end. So that was fun. We actually set two new baptismal dates with two of our investigators this week. One of them has been investigating off and on for years and then the other one we found just a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately our other guy who had a date has gone MIA this last week so we are unsure what is going to happen. But anyways it seems like a lot of progress happened so that was a lot of fun. so yeah it has been a good week. We also were able to be at a fireside in Pori with and investigator and so that was a lot of fun.  We will be on a bus tomorrow for about 6 1/2 hours so that is kinda exciting.Anyways don't worry about me on thanksgiving piispa is having us over for a nice fat turkey and so we are pretty pumped about that. Well have a great week!

Elder Lewis

The Weekly

Heyo so lets save face and get down to it. These past couple days didn't even feel like a week so I will just summarize whats been going on. Over the weekend we went to Turku to have exchanges with the Elders there. It was super fun to be back in Turku, I got to talk to some of the members who really helped me out when I first came here to Finland and it was super great. I could actually talk to them now and it was pretty cool to see that. It was great to be with the Elders there, we even got to teach the kids of a member who was less active when I was there and is now fully active and even having her kids take the discussions. We also did some service in the rain and I forgot to bring gloves so I was picking up some wet muddy leaves and so that was something to remember. 
A couple days ago we were trying to follow up with some former investigators and we got lost and so we just ended up knocking some doors and we found this really cool guy that had talked with the missionaries before. After talking to him for a little bit he pulled out a Book of Mormon from his closet and was like hey is this yours. We told him it was and he told us he had been reading from it from time to time. We showed him a video and set up a time to come back next week and talk to him. I guess it showed me God puts us in the right place even when we sometimes think we aren't in the right place ourselves. Well that about sums up the week enjoy the pictures of our spa night. 

Elder Lewis 

Long time no see

I would like to start of my email today with an apology for my lack of emails as of late. But things are the way they are and we certainly can't change them now. This week was really fun. We found two new investigators and so that was a big blessing. One of them is from Nigeria and is here playing soccer. She told us she is going to make us some spicy African food soon so we are pretty excited about that. We also had the opportunity to do some work in Pori which was a lot of fun. We cleaned one of their investigators apartments who is currently in Rehab for his alcohol addiction, it was pretty scarring to be completely honest but I think I left the apartment more of a man. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday and that was fun. We were in charge of setting up the broadcast in our chapel so it felt pretty good to be entrusted with something like that. But something also went wrong we lost some audio so people were kinda bummed about that. The doubled edged sword of responsibility I guess. Anyways it was a great week and now we are going to go out on a hike real quick before the sun sets in the early afternoon.  

Love

Elder Lewis

Pictures!

Cultured

Well here we are again and too be completely honest Elder Lewis is just plum in a hurry today. This week was really good though, we were able to visit Kokkola and do some work with the Elders there. I ate some various berries that were really bitter but now we know that they are edible so win win. We even helped an older Woman pick some berries from her bushes and she gave us some apples in return. It was really nice. We were also able to visit some student housing this week and that was a lot of fun. One lady was making fun of us through her window and then when she came out later to smoke we were able to talk with her. She actually turned out to be pretty interested and invited us to come back the next time we were in the area so that was really cool. We got to attend a Lutheran midweek prayer service today and that was interesting. It made me feel very cultured. A large majority of the people here are Lutheran so it was nice to see how they do things. Well that's all I have time for today, have a good week! 

Elder Lewis

He's back

Hello hello  

I know it has been awhile since I have had the time to write a big email. Well sorry to disappoint but this one won't be too be either. Things are going really well here in Vaasa. It seems to rain like every day which is pretty fun. A little rain never killed no body. We had some exchanges this last week and it was a blast. One of the bikes we were using broke and so we ended up walking which wouldn't have been to terrible if we didn't have lessons that were so far away. Its ok though because I think my calves grew two sizes. We also went to Seinäjoki and Elder Bartholomew and I got the supreme burgers from this restaurant and there was like a pound of beef on it. I almost died but then I put on my big boy pants and ate the burger. Some lady told me I looked like I was 16/17 and that I should be home. I thought it was pretty funny. I guess my baby face just really charms some people. 

In other news we also got to teach our Investigator twice this last week and it was really great. He is doing well and reading a lot. He even prayed for us for our first time so that was really cool. He shared a really heartwarming story about his father with us and we had a really good lesson with him. We talked about the peace that comes from knowing we will see our families again after this life. That knowledge is something that really allows us to live this life without fear. And for that I am very grateful. I know that it is true. I love being a missionary. Enjoy the gospel and enjoy the pictures!

Elder Lewis

More pictures!