Proud to be an American

Helsinki Temple

Well hello! Man I am so proud to be an American. I miss that place so much. What a blessed land. Elder McKnight and I are listening to Motab sing patriotic songs about America while I write this. Well I will tell you right now about my thanksgiving- So the day before THanksgiving elder  McKnight used a recipe that his mom sent him to get some chikcen soaking to make fried chicken. So then on actual THanksgiving for lunch I made dad's classic waffle recipe while elder Mcknight fried up our chicken and we made a legit chicken and waffles feast! We went all out and bout the 5 euro maple syrup that was the real maple syrup from Canada and everything. It was super delicious! Probably as good as it could get for missionaries outside of America. So we enjoyed out feast of chicken and waffles and then got back to normal missionary stuff thinking that our festivities were over but then that night the sisters that serve in our same ward gave us some leftover thanksgiving food that they had made for some members earlier in the day so it turned out to be a pretty solid Thanksgiving. 

The rest of our week was pretty good though. We had splits with the APs which was fun they're both cool guys, one of them was in the mtc with me so it's always fun to hang out with them. So they came here for the day and our days went well. We have a few good investigators right now but one of them had a flu all week and then there is this other African family we taught once last week who we were supposed to teach again on Saturday but they all got way sick too so everyone's been sick or out of town which is a bummer. But hopefully this week we're able to see them again. We still had a way good week though. We found a bunch of new investigators again and have a lot of things set up for this week so it should be good. On Friday last week we had our MLC meeting so we were at President Watson's house in Espoo for the day and that's always fun. I got to see some other missionary buddies and sister Watson even made us a little thanksgiving dinner so that was delicious! At the end of the meeting though we got to go to the temple which is always sweet. I even saw a couple of members from Turku while I was at the temple so that was super cool I love seeing members that I used to know! Then on Saturday and Sunday we just had normal days full of missionary work but they were really productive and we found a lot of cool people. We talked a ton at our MLC meeting about the new initiative that the church came out with called "He is the Gift" which is a sweet short video that the church came out with for Christmas all about how Jesus is the center of Christmas and we should always remember that. So we've just been writing down the link to the video on our pass along cards and we've giving out a ton of those cards lately. People are much more open and will to listen to a little message about Christ in December so it's a good time for missionary work. It is starting to get pretty cold though. It's been below 0 the last few days but there's not a lot of snow so it's just pitch black all the time and way cold and windy. But on the bright side the workout plan that Elder McKnight and I have compiled has been very effective and I'm packing on some pounds for the winter. I've got a sweet meal plan as well that I've been going hard with so we're getting in to pretty tip top shape. (other than occasional chicken and waffle meals) 

This week will be fun though, tonight we're going over to Espoo to do splits with the elders over there so I get to hang out back in my old stomping ground for the day. I'm pretty pumped for that, then later in the week we just have district meeting and all the normal stuff but that's all for the week! I love you guys so much! I hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas! I love you!