Week 73 in Lahti (Jingle all the way home!)

I have that weird feeling right about now where you say to yourself, "Is Christmas really already over again?" But, given the circumstances, I've decided that I'm not gonna consider Christmas as over until the snow melts(which, around here, means until May).

But wow - Christmas! Let's look through the photo journal:

This is my new companion! Elder Vawdrey, from Draper, came straight out of the MTC! We had a blast meeting at the mission home, and we're going to continue having a blast here in Lahti for the next few weeks!

Look at this beautiful man

We've been doing a lot of contacting around Lahti. We also had a ton of Christmastime appointments with members! I wasn't able to get a ton of pictures with them, but they got pictures, they're probably on the interwebbs and social medias somewhereabouts.

We saw the graveyard! And the radio tower was lit up, quite beautifully!

And the snow is absolutely gorgeous this time of year - the snow just hangs off the trees and the pictures don't even do it justice! I love it!

We got a bunch of gifts, too - among mine was finnish books, too much candy, some beef jerky, and - wait, a full-size shark tail?

It's an inside joke. Only some of you will get it.

Well, I'm now realizing that I completely neglected to take pictures with all the families we visited this week. Ah well. I remember a quote once, from a good movie - that sometimes, you don't need to take a picture of a beautiful moment. Sometimes, you just let it go. And that's not just an excuse for not taking any pictures - I really felt the spirit of Christmas this year, and I feel that we've done a little bit to bring Christ back into Christmas a little bit.

Now that the holidays are "over", I'd continue to encourage you to keep Christ the center of your life. It doesn't matter that Christmas is over and now it's just winter. Just keep reading the book of Mormon, and serve others, and do as He would do. Capiche?

Love you all!

-V. Bolingbroke

Week 72 in Lahti (A bus, a burger, a snowy week, and a few other quirks)

It's the most awkward moment when you get on your email and you realize that you took a total of TWO picture this week...

1:

2:

Well, this was a funny one. On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Aura! I was really glad to talk with him about my personal conversion and work ethic in Lahti. However, that evening, Elder Owens fell ill. He was bedridden for a few days, and we both went insane. Thursday, Friday, most of Saturday were spent in the flat, and while Elder Owens took some well-needed rest and recuperation, I busied myself by updating papers/calling people/doing every single bit of missionary paperwork that could possibly be done. After I did that in about 5 hours(I'm a bit of a workaholic...), I got to work and cleaned every inch of the apartment. I mean, we do have a small, two-person flat, but when it's a missionary home, it tends to get... dirty. Sometimes. After a few hours of that, I laid on the floor and went crazy from claustrophobia.

Nah, it wasn't that bad. But I was able to get some good housework done, and we had some fun while Elder Owens got better.

But hey - we got some pictures from a dinner a while back that we had with a member family!

They took us out to a place called Bus Burger - one of the best american joints this side of the atlantic!

Featuring an actual school bus from New Orleans(They really like the fact that school buses in the U.S. are bright yellow)

And these burgers were actually really good.

Like, they weren't just another European ripoff of a burger, but someone actually studied burgerology in America and brought it to this place.

Awesome.

What else happened? Oh yeah...

We got transfer calls! Silly me, I forgot a bunch of my stuff, and the recording that I made of the call is sitting at home... forgotten. Oops. But, suffice to say that I'm a dad! I'll be training again! A new missionary will be coming to good ol' Lahti, and I dunno who he is yet, but we're gonna have a blast together! I'll be heading down to Helsinki/Espoo tomorrow to pick him up, and Wednesday, we'll be back in Lahti! I'm so excited!

In any case, we had a pretty simple week. Ah well! Hope you all know that I love you, and Merry Christmas! Next email will be after that(it'll be on Thursday after Christmas), so we'll have more then! Love you all!

-Vanhin Bolingbroke

Week 71 in Lahti (Caroling, Caroling, through the snow...)

Christmas bells are ringing! I'm feeling super cheery again with the season coming up, and our week has awesomely reflected that. What happened this week?

Well, you may remember that last week, I received my family's Christmas package, wherein was a cute little reindeer onesie, that matches with my family's onsies.

Love it, right?

But GUESS WHO HAD THE SAME FREAKIN' ONSIES.

THE LAHTI SISTERS

ALSO SENT FROM AMERICA VIA CHRISTMAS PACKAGE

Knowing my mom, she's definitely plotting something with this.

But hey, we took the opportunity and took district photos that day!

Turned out superbly.

Well, we also took another trip to Hämeenlinna this week! We were able to arrange a bunch of lessons and meetings with members, and we took a busy day teaching and meeting! We also got stranded at the wrong end of the city about half an hour before our train was scheduled to leave, so we turned a 40-minute walk into a 15-minute jog-sprint-jog. I'll tell you, the cold won't even bother you when you're running in a suit and wool coat. My legs(and my shoes) are absolutely trashed. Our train had an hour layover in Riihimäki, so we contacted and saw the sights and got some dinner and took some nice pictures.

In other news, I've been using those weights I got from Tampere. Gettin' swooooole.

Next, we had our ward Christmas party! I got a few good pictures on my camera...

One of our members, an awesome photographer, got a bunch of other pictures, but we're waiting on that email. Super fun ward party, we love these people! Got to see Joulupukki, too!

A few others:

An old, wrecked water silo that we saw whilst contacting.

Super cold day.

Yesterday night, we went caroling with the Jäkkös! Visited a bunch of friends and elderly ward members, and we got to sing some purty nice songs! They're the best!

Ooh this is also a really cool cityscape view of Lahti we saw while contacting the other day.

All in all, it was a wonderful week! We did a ton of fun stuff, and a ton of good work! I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season, and that you can participate in Light the World! It's really helping us out here, to bring Christ back into Christmas a little bit!

Hyvää Joulun Odotusta!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke