Week 25 in Savonlinna (The Elders' New Groove)

"Oh no..."

"Lemme guess.. We're going biking tonight?"

"Yup."

"Probably gonna freeze to death?"

"Most likely."

"Bring it on."

"BOOOOOOYAAHAAHAAAAAAAAAHHH"

(Name that movie)

I'll let these pictures, and my recording (click Here), tell you how our week went...

Here are our statistics during the week:

-Temperature: -20 degrees celcius

-Snow angels made on the river: 2

-Pots of boiling water thrown off of the parveke: 2

-Frozen American Missionaries: 2

-Awesome pics and memories: too many to count

Well, that's our week for you! It's been a cold, but good one! Lots of work, and lots of cold, but lots of fun! Love you all, stay strong, stay warm!

Sincerely,

Vanhin Bolingbroke

Week 24 in Savonlinna Eteenpäin kuin mummo lumussa)

Yes, that is an actual Finnish saying. You can Google translate that one, it should work out fine.

Good Finnish Morning, everyone! My ears are frozen, but my heart is warm!

As usual, let's go through this week via recording:

But, let's give a few highlights from the week!

-We biked a ton. 20+ kilometers in one day, in fact. Given that my bike is still somewhat broken, that's not the funnest. Or the most comfy on your legs. But hey, we love it.

-The work is going well, we have a bunch of potential investigators! We'll see how they go!

-Exchanges were in Mikkeli, Elder Judd and Henderson are awesome! They're also the only human contact we get who speaks English...

-We ran church, again. Branch President was out of town, in Lahti, so we hosted, presided, conducted, blessed the sacrament, prepped the sacrament, I gave a talk, etc...

-President and Sister Aura(Our Mission President and his Wife) are coming on Saturday and Sunday to do work with us!

That's the gist of our week here! As usual, a bunch of awesome pictures!

Love you all, stay strong!

-Vanhin Bolinbroke

Week 23 in Savonlinna (Hurskastelevaisuuksissaankohankin, I dare you to Google Translate that one)

For the record, no, it doesn't translate. And also for the record, yes, that is one word. It's also a good example of the nature of Finnish - it doesn't quite translate to English, but here's the best translation I can come up with:

Isn't he/she too pretending(supposing/making a show of is the literal meaning) to be in(in the process of - kind of like 'doing') a repentant(pious)-ness(state of being)?

Don't you just love this language? I do.

On a side note, we've had a pretty good week! We're still working on a new baptismal date with our investigators(we have two guys who might be setting up one soon!), and we've been freezing our butts off. Great stuff. We haven't taken any pictures this week(I know, I'm sorry, Mom, I'll do better next week), because it's been so cold that we don't want to take out our cameras, because that means taking gloves off. Also, nothing happens in the winter. My pictures would just be of snowstorms, the frozen lake(okay, I actually need to get a pic of that - it looks awesome), and two little American icicles.

And, as always, here's my recording for the week!

Again, apologies for the lack of pictures - if you were here, you'd understand. I love you all, stay warm(unlike us), and stay strong!

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke