Dearest family,
That´s never fun, poor little kyle. I could crack a joke here... but I'll just show a little compassion ;) haha. Sounds like all went well, Thank goodness for prayers, that sounds like it could have turned out to be quite a nasty scar. Hope he just keeps getting better.
Happy birthday yesterday! Sorry my birthday package did not get sent of in time, but you can only do so much haha. Hopefully it will get to you this week sometime. Also, today I am sending my memory card and it has a lot of pictures, hopefully if i remember I will show you a tour of the new apartment. The apartment here in Jyväskylä is awesome. haha It even has it's own sauna, but unfortunately we can't use it... ohhh well!
I love this place so much, It doesn't have quite the teaching pool that Pori did, so we don't get very many teaches a week... but it will soon! we just got a new investigator this week, his name is M. I'll share his story with you guys real quick because it is so amazing! so there we were, one of our investigators (A and S) we had a teach lined up with them and we brought a member with us (V) and we went to the teach, but for some reason they didn't answer, we didn't know really what to do because we really wanted to get a lesson with V. I always feel really bad when stuff like that happens because it's hard for the members to come out and all that. But we just pressed forth with faith! Then we decided to go visit a potential investigator in the area. He wasn't home. So we were pretty sad that we had wasted V's time. But we pressed forward with more faith. Then we were all walking to the bus stop (I don't actually know why Elder Slade and I were) and I decided, let's at least contact while we have a Finn with us who can correct our bad grammar. So we did. I stopped this particular man (M) and talked about God's love and how knowing our purpose in life can really help us, and how the gospel can help him. He said "my life is kind of a mess right now, I'm ready to hear the gospel" I didn't think I heard him right so I asked the Finn (V) if that is really what he said.. He said yep. So then we all walked to Mikko's house and talked a little about him and the gospel. Then we had a teach about families and happiness in this life. It was a miracle, I was so glad that V was there because he was about the same age as M (30) and he testified about his family and I really felt how deep and truly he meant it. It was pretty incredible. Moral of the story, the Lord provides. He is the master of timing and the master of planning. Although we weren't able to go through with our plans, he used our plans to help accomplish something bigger. It is incredible the things like that that happen every single day. I love it!
This ward is incredible! I love talking with them, I found out the secret to making Finns think you really know the language. You just ask them a question, (a good one) listen a little bit, and then talk a little and they basically think you are Finnish! haha this ward is so kind and so thoughtful! Yesterday in Church we had this lady come up and she asked us if we needed some giant wool socks, because she has too many. So we are going to get some super cool Finnish socks :) and then we get like 3 or 4 dinner appointments a week! yum! What else.... Oh yes, so yesterday I was talking with some of the youth in the ward, and they play this game called Sähkly (floor hockey) and they play every Tuesday, but as missionaries we can only play on p-day, so I was talking to them and we lined it up for today. So at 4 o'clock this afternoon I will be playing Sähkly with the youth. I'm pretty excited, because I miss playing sports! Tender little mercies :)
So we had this dinner appointment with this American family this week (the Ames) that was my first dinner appointment in English. They were great. They are about 26 and they have a little baby girl named Adiline or something like that. They were super nice. He is a smart man, and very dedicated. I really like them. He talked a lot about college and we talked about what Elder Slade and I want to be when we grow up. He gave some advice that really might help me figure out what I want to do with my life. He said don't ever be afraid of doing a little work because there is a lot of room on the top, because not very many people are willing to do the work to get there. Then I started thinking of president Dieter F. Uchtdorf's last conference talk "two things for any economy" He really stresses the necessity of work and an education, college is both. Brother Ames talked a lot about science and it really interested me. Maybe I will go into medical physics because it sounded just like something I want to do! But anyways, that was my little tender mercy of help for the week, because when I left on my mission I didn't really know what I wanted to do.. but now I'm getting closer to knowing! :)
I love Jyväskylä!!!
"For the fruit of the gospel to blossom and bless our lives, we must be firmly attached to Him" Elder Jeffery R. Holland. I really liked this quote because it kinda goes along with some of the things I talked about in the last few emails about making Christ the center of our lives. I love my mission so much, I would not trade being out here for anything. I have learned how we can make Him the center. Love it!
I love ticket to ride, I played that game at college I think.. I don't remember who with though... maybe my roomate Dallin... It's a fun game!
Love you all so much, thank you for all you do for me, You guys are the best! Keep pressing forward with steadfast faith in Christ, because that is what really is important, no matter what circumstances we are in.
Love you all!
Vanhin Nielsen
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