Hello!!!

Hello!!!!  Wow time is seriously just flying by its so crazy. The days just wont stop. Anyways we have a lot to do today and well this week really and then its all over and its pretty crazy. Its funny how just as you feel like you are getting the hang of it they rip you out and send ya back home. 

Its actually been really really hot here, like the hottest summer they have had for several years. Its pretty humid too so we are doing what we can. No one has air conditioning here because usually it doesn't get this hot but its pretty rough, I have to take a cold shower before I get into bed and then I have a fan blowing on my face all night. The few short sleeve shirts I do have are pretty destroyed because I have just sweated buckets in them. I'm just loving life and doing what I do so don't worry about me. 

Chaos I call home

We actually had a really cool lesson with that one mom from Russia, her kids were running around and chasing each other and screaming and it was pretty fun and reminded me of home. Well anyways we got the kids to quiet down a little bit and in the end we actually got the boy friend to come over and we all had a family prayer with them, so that was really really cool. We are trying to bring the mom to a baptism in Vaasa this next week and that would be a really cool chance for her to see a baptism and get excited about it. 

Anyways so yeah our investigator was able to come to the baptism and she brought her boyfriend and her daughter and she really liked it. I taught the guy who was baptized last transfer when we were on splits there for a day but other than that I don't know him. But Anyways they really liked it and we are going to teach her this week. Also the other day I called a former investigator from vaasa who I really liked and just felt like I should call him. Well his Dad had just passed away and so we got to talk on the phone for a bit about the plan of salvation and it was really cool. We are going to meet up for some lunch next week when I go to Vaasa for district meeting. 

Also this week there is a big Tango market coming to Seinäjoki and so I just called President Aura and he is going to bring us one of these big roll up posters that are about 7 feet tall and has a big picture of Jesus and a scripture on it. Anyways we are going to contact a million people during the market so that should be fun. 

 

Honesty

Hello to the family,  

Things are going good here, the week has been a good one, I have enjoyed it. The weeks really go by so fast its weird to think that it is coming so soon. We went to the meeting this week for all the missionaries about to go home and it was really strange but also really fun. We had Juhannus this week which is midsummer and it was really fun. We grilled a bit and that was super tasty. I also lost my planner at this park and last night some guy biked up to us on his bike and told us that he had found the planner and had placed it in this box somewhere in the park and so that was cool. Honestly the people here are so honest its crazy, I think the poor man has been combing the streets on his bike for like the past 3 nights looking for us so he could tell us where he put my planner so it wouldn't get ruined by the rain. Pretty cool huh?

We also had a good lesson yesterday with that investigator from Russia. She is really pumped about the church but the boyfriend isn't and they kinda need to get married before we can baptize her so we are trying to help them with that. We also found a really cool mother last night who is raising her 2 kids all on her own and wanted to learn more about what we teach about families and how we can be together forever pretty cool I must say. Things are going well and we are just getting outside and talking to people so I really like that. Send my regards to Jake and Adam 

Stars are aligning

Hello 

Sounds like a good week. We had a pretty great one! well not out of this world great but seriously I am just loving life right now. Well we found a new investigator from the Philippines and she is way funny. and unique. She loves the BoM so that is cool. Anyways for some reason all the stars are aligning and should be finding another 2 to 3 other investigators this week. Since summer is now here people have a lot more free time and that is always fun. We are hopefully going to teach this guy today that runs a chinese restaurant just a couple buildings over from our apartment so if everything works out well we are going to start eating a lot of chinese food and get this guy baptized. 

We also had a really fun district conference this last week. So i got to see a lot of the members from the Vaasa branch. It was really fun and really cool to tell people thanks for all their love. So we had an area seventy member come and he talked about his conversion story, he was an exchange student in california and lived with members there. Anyways it was funny because the District president, President Aura, and himself were all converts in their youth like around their 20's due to being an exchange student with a mormon family so that was pretty cool. I got to see Jonathan Vennerholm, he was my companion my first christmas. He is now married and just got called to be the 2nd counselor in pietarsaari. So that was pretty fun I will send a picture. 

Now that it is summer we have spent a lot more time knocking doors in house neighborhoods so that is pretty fun. people are more open to talk and we have actually had several conversations were we sit down with someone on a bench and chat for a bit. Its pretty fun. So we are going to keep that up. 

Have a great week!

Heyo

We had a pretty busy week and this week seems to be busier. One of our investigators who we actually haven't met with for awhile came to church yesterday and she really really liked it. She cried during sacrament meeting and told us after that this is what she has been searching for. It was super cool and we talked about some of her questions for a bit. We are actually going to teach her tonight so that is pretty cool. hopefully it all goes well. We are going to go hiking today so that should be really fun and I bought a big ol chunk of samon at the store today because it was half off. I paid like 7 euros or so for about 850 grams of salmon so i don't know if that is good by utah standard but hey its pretty cool. That is about all I have for this week, I have been getting pretty good at the piano now that I play most weeks but I also don't get to practice too much so sometimes I have some pretty bad ones. Anyways I gave a talk this last week and it was good, I was the closing speaker so I got to finish with a good 25 minute talk or so. I talked about prayer and used the examples of nephi, enos and the brother of jared in the scriptures. Take care and enjoy the sun shine

I will just let the pictures explain themselves this week so you might have to guess some things​. The first picture is our banana bread challenge.

The jackets are off. . .

We had a zone conference yesterday and it was a lot of fun. We have a really fun district and we all ride the train together which is like 3 hours long so its so nice to catch up. Everything is going good. The jackets have now come off and boy do I love it. Wow it feels amazing. Things are going well here. We had in investigator in church this last week and that is the first one we have had in Seinäjoki for about 7 months so that was pretty cool. Anyways last night we bought a huge huge pizza on our way home and it was super tasty so I will include pictures have a great week!

Vappu

Good evening to all, 

Just joking it is actually the morning for me. Today is Vappu which is a holiday here which kinda signifies the beginning of summer and a lot of people get drunk but then they have a cool market in the center. So we are going to be going to that and I am planning on soaking up as much culture as one possibly can. 

Things are going well here. We have had a couple things set up here and there but most all our lessons were cancelled, In fact our lesson for tonight with these former investigators I knew just got cancelled via text as I was writing this email. But we are trying not to let that get us down. We actually found two cool people on the street yesterday and the day before and both wanted to meet later this week so we are pretty excited about that. One of them was blowing some bubbles out of his window from the 2 story so we stopped and yelled up to him and we started talking and he was a pretty cool guy from italy who wanted to learn more about what we have to teach about Jesus Christ. So that was pretty cool.  But things are going well and we are pretty hopeful for this coming week. Talk to you soon!

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