Seinajoki

So I am in Seinäjoki and you would pronounce it like Say nah yokie but with a apple sound on the A in nah. Hopefully that helps. Anyways the city is about 60,000 in population. The Branch is about 15 people. We have 4 priesthood holders and they are the Branch President and his two councilors and then the Ward clerk who is about 18 years old and getting ready for the Army. One of the councilors lives in Seinäjoki and then the other one lives about 35 minutes away. The Branch President lives about 1 hour away by car so we don't get to see him too much. We have some other nice people in the ward and several widows. It definitely has some serious character. All the men are older except the clerk and so they get caught up talking about King Nebuchadnezzar dream a whole lot. I will definitely have some great stories about it when I get home. This last Sunday I was one of the 2 speakers and I talked for a little over 20 minutes about charity so I felt pretty accomplished about that. Something about talking in front of 15 people is a lot less terrifying. 
I found out on Wednesday that here in Seinäjoki they haven't had an investigator nor found anybody to teach nor taught any lessons in the past 9 weeks. So that was pretty sad but I wasn't gonna let that stop us. So anyways Friday we go out and in the morning we knocked on this old mans door and he let us in. So we taught him the restoration and set up a return lesson. So we were pretty pumped to have found 1 new investigator. So anyways we kept going and in the evening we were tracting a big block of conjoined houses. So like five minutes before we were going to stop we met another guy and I talked to him in the doorway for a minute and asked if we could come in and talk to him. He said sure so we went in and taught him the restoration as well and set up a time to come back this week. So we ended that day with 2 new investigators, so that was a good day for us. 
We are hoping to pick up some investigators this week. In fact today we are heading to Kristiinankaupunki which is a city like 2 hours away to visit some less actives. It is going to take up basically the whole day but we figured it was better to sacrifice a pday than to waste some other day. We are pretty hopeful so I think things will work out. Or at least we are praying they will.
It is getting pretty cold here. I thought it was almost spring but boy was I wrong. It is about 20 below today so that should be fun. My feet almost froze last night as we were in a far area and I forgot my toe warmer things. But we made it home and I warmed up my feet on the heater and everything is good now. We better get going so we can go catch our bus but take care and have a great week!
Elder Lewis

Miracles and transfers!

Hello! 

So pretty funny cool miracle to start. On Sunday we went tracting and found this pretty cool guy from pakistan who is working at the nuclear powerstation and has a daughter and a wife here. So we were pretty pumped about that, but it gets better. Two minutes ago this same man walks up to the computer next to us in the library and we talk to him some more and set up when we are going to come visit him this saturday. Like I am staring at his face as I write this. haha cool. This week was a good one though, on Sunday we had two investigators in church and so that was really cool. Our one new investigator who is super cool and like 23 came and then our other one who we have been meeting with now for a good 2 months. She loves church and actually attends all three hours and just eats it up. 

Well onto the big news, I will be heading to Seinäjoki. I am pretty torn and sad to leave Rauma but I am excited for Seinäjoki. It is the city that we would always go to when we were in Vaasa because it is like 34 minutes away by train. The branch there is really small. I love Rauma so much and I already miss it but I am also very happy that I can most likely end my mission in a place that is nice and tiny and I can really get to know the members and see some of the impact missionaries have on them. So things will be good.  

This week has been pretty fun as well. Our investigator that we taught for a little bit that was from Ghana is now back and so we set a baptismal date with him so that was very exciting. He is super cool and has been pretty humbled by his former life and his life now in Finland. Our only problem is getting him to church because he lives about 35 minutes away from Rauma. It has been pretty cold this week. I finally broke out my big winter jacket and now I have been using that. It has been around -10 for the last 2 days or so but it should be getting warmer. Seinäjoki is more north so we will see if I have to pull out the big coat there as well. 

Elder Lewis