11 Months Out

July 21, 2014

Elder Wilson had to buy some new pants.

Well today is my 11 month mark as a missionary! Pretty insane! Next month is the big one and then it's all down hill from there. We had a good week, it seemed to go by especially fast. But we got to do lots of fun stuff! Last Monday we had a normal p day and then played basketball then for family night we did this way fun activity that was like water balloon volley ball, where you pass water balloons back and forth with towels and anyway we had like 20 people there which was awesome! I got to talk to this one non member guy for a while who is this awesome guy that used to live in California and rode motocross and stuff so we were talking all about motorcycles and California and stuff and turns out he really likes working out so I sent him the big workout plan that Jefferies and I made. So, that was a super good experience. Hopefully, he keeps coming to YSA stuff. So then Tuesday we were able to set up lessons with two less active guys, one of them I just called out of the blue from the ward list and asked if we could come get to know him better and he said he wasn't really a member anymore, but agreed to let us come over sometime! Unfortunately, both of the lessons fell through, one guy had to leave Turku for something then the other guys phone broke and couldn't get a hold of him, but hopefully they will both be willing to meet this week. Wednesday we had a fun district meeting, elder Alqhist got a little mini ping pong net and paddles from his parents so we all played some ping pong which was pretty fun then all ate some cake afterwards for one of the sister's birthdays. Oh, also the new senior couple is here in Turku! I haven't met them yet but will meet them this week. They are both Finns originally from Turku that have been living in America for like 30 years, but that should be cool. So, we may help them move in to their apartment this week a bit I'm not sure. Well, on Friday we did splits with the other elders which was way fun. I was with Elder Barnheart for the day who's a way nice guy and we had a good time. Went to a pizza buffet for lunch and everything. Had a lesson with some guys from Nepal that was pretty fun, they are just college students here and I felt right at home hanging out with Nepalese college students again.Then we just had basketball and after basketball we taught a Finnish class at the church! We are going to do Finnish classes every Friday from now on and just invite members and investigators that are trying to learn Finnish. So, I was asked to teach the class and just this Chinese guy was there who is a member in the other ward, but it was pretty cool! It's actually way fun to teach, and when you teach even the most basic things it reminds you of how crazy hard Finnish is, like there were so many points throughout the class where I would come up with an example sentence or he would ask a question and then I would just have to change it or not answer his question because it seemed so basic but brought up like tons of grammar rules that he doesn't know, so it was kind of hard to teach it haha, but it was fun. Saturday I made the Wilson's legendary pancakes with a bunch of members and some of the guys that have been off at the army so it was tons of fun! We made a huge bach and feasted. They all loved them so much, they think it's crazy that we put butter on pancakes, but they all enjoyed it haha and don't worry dad I kept the recipe confidential, it's still in Wilson hands. Thanks so much for sending me the recipe though! After the pancakes we walked around with those guys at this little world fair going on in Turku and got some crazy fish again and all sorts of weird candy, but it was fun. Saturday night there was a baptism! The sisters had this cool 24 year old African guy that got baptized and so we were there and the whole service was in English which was super weird. And we got to sing hymns in english which was the weirdest/best part! But it was a sweet baptismal service and everyone had a good time. Yesterday an older couple in our ward invited us to go eat with them after church which was sweet and they also always give one of our members a ride to and from church, this member is this awesome Nigerian guy that got baptized last here. So, anyway they invited him over to dinner as well so it was us missionaries, older Finnish people, and a Nigerian guy. Quite a group haha especially since the Finns speak like no English at all, so I was just translating back and forth between them the entire time, but it was a ton of fun. Everyone had a good time. But, that was pretty much the week! I hope you all have an awesome week, I love you so much!