Week 43 in Helsinki (I literally haven't seen darkness for like, a week now)

Theme of this week: Finland is crazy awesome in the summer, because you go to bed, and it's light. You get up in the morning, and it's light. Midday, it's even lighter. You'd think that a guy would take a hint and put on a bit of sunscreen, but that's boring. Iiiinstead, I went and got sunburnt! Aurinko on paistanut minut. Luckily, it was during frisbee day with the ward, so I was wearing shorts and an athletic shirt, so it got my legs too. Awesome. It reminds me of swimming again!

But ah well, such is life as a missionary. BUT, let's take a look at what happened this week!

​I've taken up scrapbooking. As missionaries in Finland, we keep 'vieraskirjat', or 'guest books'(but we just call 'em V-books), which basically means that we do entries for our district at the end of every transfer. Cool Finnish cultural thing. But I decided to do a huge entry for everyone this transfer, so I've begun to use all my spare time in scrapbooking. Awesome. (Also, I dunno why, but I look really ticked off at the beginning of that video...)

​Tried to take some cool pictures from the bus window in downtown Helsinki. It looks so much cooler in person, trust me. Wonderful man we've begun teaching! We love his mustache, and he loves the Gospel. (Pretty good trade-off, in my opinion). ​I took much better pictures at Finnish Hour this time around! Such a fun group!

​This is what happens when your companion speaks Arabic...

Other happenings from the week:

-We got 'bible-bashed' from this interesting Indian dude. We're used to people throwing anti at us (it happens about 2-3 times a week, usually), but this one was especially funny. Apparently, according to our friend, 1: we all come from India. 2: The Jews actually came from India. Heck, Abraham himself came from India. 3: God himself, actually came from India. 4: The Mormons can't be right because they don't claim that their religion came from India.

Super intelligent guy... but that was the main theme of his argument. Ah well.

-We met an Estonian guy and his Russian friend. We taught them a bit, and he translated for her, as she didn't speak Finnish or English. And he had a pug!

-Yesterday, we had pizza with a man, who was, in my oh-so-eloquent words, high as a kite. Showed up for our appointment and he could barely stand up, so we directed him to a chair at a nearby pizza parlor, got a bite to eat, tried to talk with him. In his drunken fervor, he really wanted us to come to Africa to convert his village. I'm excited to meet him when he's not this high...

But hey! That's our week for you! Don't forget that this isn't an in-depth, step-by-step of my week, just some of the... funnier experiences.

Love you all! Stay strong, don't get burnt too badly!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingburnt

Week 42 in Helsinki (Do the splits!)

Okay, first of all: I've concluded that there's some sort of time warp thing going on here, because I swear, It has not been a full week since I last emailed to you all. Something's not right here.

Let's see where we're at!

HARD ROCK CAFEEEE! I feel like all the older generation is gonna love me for this: Helsinki has it's own Hard Rock Cafe! ​

We got some shakes and desserts('cause a single burger is twenty-six freakin euros) and of course, commemorative shirts! So awesome.

We went on splits to Tikkurila! Elder Jacobsen and Christensen are awesome, and we had such fun work up there! I also tried to fix their fan, but unfortunately, those electronics were too complex for the Ikea-toolbox that I had in my posession.

I've been trying to take some more pictures, so here's some random ones:

​We got lost trying to find a potential...​

Highway right by home

Took some pictures of the gang after Finnish Hour, but we missed a few people(also, I'm accidentally right in front of Anuleena... oops. I'll get some better ones this week)

​Downtown Helsinki

Super cool staircase in the Helsingin Yliopisto Kirjasto

I... think that's all for the week! Helsinki in the summer is so fun, and even though we've only got a few more weeks in the transfer(It's coming up way too quickly), we're making the best of it!

Love you all! Stay strong, enjoy summer!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke

Week 41 in Helsink (Äidienpäivä and a bunch of meetings)

Firstly, in case you haven't heard it from everybody else, Happy Mother's Day(Finnish: Äidienpäivä)! I was so happy when we got to call home to our families! That skype call went by waaay too fast, but hey - good to know that my family still hasn't changed. (Except for the fact that they got a dog without me. Yes, mom, I'm still salty about that.)

Let's go over our week!

-Zone conference! There are more pictures from the mission on FB, for sure, but the only one I took on my own camera was with the one and only Bond, Elder Bond!​

​(Shoutout to Justin Roylance, coming to Finland in October! We decided that once a year, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles picks one Weber High theatre student to serve in good ol' Finland. Bryce Naylor, Casey Bond, Blake Bolingbroke, Justin Roylance - who's it gonna be next year?)

-Stake conference! Since Finland doesn't have a stake center, we rent out a concert hall for big meetings such as this one. Awesome meeting, tons of great thoughts shared! Aaand, since Elder Jordan and I are the Helsinki Elders, we had a bunch of people staying at our apartment for the meetings!​

​Always good to see some familiar faces!

-It's finally warm! Because it's warm, we've finally taken our suit coats off!​

​Ah, nothing like being able to roll your shoulders without a suit coat and a eightypercentwooltwentypercentcaaaashmere coat on your back. The warmth is amazing.

As always, tons of great lessons have happened this week! Also, my mom and dad requested more cityscape pictures of Helsinki - we're going down there today, so expect some good ones in the coming week!

That's all for now, folks! Love you all, stay strong and happy! And enjoy the sun - I know I am!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke