Week 94 in Mikkeli (Fishers of Men, as well as särkki, lohi, ahven, and haukki)

Good afternoon or whatever it is, friends! Wow, what a packed, wonderful week it's been. I've probably slept less than I have in a good while - not because of going to bed late or anything, but between long evening prayers, every-morning nature runs(or frisbee-golf runs), many meetings and conferences, and lots of people to be teaching, we're working with a full platter here in Mikkeli. It'd probably be better if I went day-by-day through our schedule - here goes:

Wednesday: District Council!

The Mikkeli District, which includes Savonlinna, Kouvola, Lappeenranta, and Mikkeli, is a way solid group of missionaries. We've been discussing the idea/mindset of talking to 10 more people - which has been an interesting change. It gives me the mindset of trying to find even more people to talk with than just the ones that I already do - which is a lot. Fortunately, our efforts to increase have been so far successful! 

Thursday: Frisbee golf in the morning! We got this

We got this awesome picture of me throwing a disc, and this awesome picture of me getting that same disc out of a tree. Ah well, that's why we practice, eh?

Also: Kebab dinners! Ah, the long-awaited french-fry-mystery-meat-crazy-hot-sauce combo.

Saturday: 

Leadership Training Meeting: we trained the District Leaders in our zone about some responsibilities, and talked about how we can improve specifically in the East Zone.

We had lunch at a chinese buffet, and discussed a lot of good things, especially about keeping energy/faith high in our districts throughout each week.

Sunday: 

Stake Conference in Helsinki! Our branch president drove us down on the 3-hour trip from Mikkeli to Helsinki, and we talked about less-active members and fishing. I got to visit my old stomping grounds, and we got a lot of inspiration from the leaders in the Helsinki Stake. 

I've actually been studying a lot in Alma chapter 5 recently, and I found it very interesting that our stake President actually talked a lot about that very chapter - and about how repentance is a lot like the change of heart that Alma talks about in that chapter. Question: why does Alma use so many questions in that sermon to the saints at Zarahemla?

Monday: 

Zone Conference! In our tradition, we went on a morning run, joined by President Aura!

Much training was had - about the Book of Mormon as the sickle of our harvest, about working in the Strength of the Lord rather than our own strength(which is something I'm still working on learning better), and training for how we can use technology to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon, and how we can use that technology - and our own personalities - in creative ways. 

Also got to reunite with my dearly beloved son, Elder Vawdrey. Love this kid.

We also started exchanges with the Kouvola elders - and I got to work with this goober, Elder Carter! He's an awesome missionary, and a great example to us!

Tuesday:

Exchanges continued, we went on a morning run/5-minute fishing run, and continued to do some great work. I got to work with Elder Harlow for the day - we taught a few lessons, and I learned that he's a super hard worker, way awesome at the language, and he has razor-sharp wit, too. 

Also our garden's doing pretty awesome!

Wednesday:

P-day, after a lot of stuff during the week. We went to the Päämajamuseo, the museum for the headquarters for Marshal Mannerheim, the commander-in-chief for the Finnish forces during the Winter War and WWII. Pretty cool how neat that was!

We also went fishing again, and we got three fishes! Actually, Elder Jordan got three fishes in about 5 minutes, but I'm a-practicing!

Wow, that was a lot. Can you see why I'm so tired? But in all honesty, I've loved the work. We've been working as a mission on improving our finding, and letting our personality show through is a great was to accomplish that. We've found one new friend this week already, and we're truly doing the work of the Lord. I notice over and over again that the more that people(we, our friends we teach, even you, dear reader) lay hold upon the word, then we receive the blessings. In Alma 5, Alma talks about why he has the Spirit of Revelation, and how he has obtained it. That's something I'm looking to obtain myself. I won't give you the specific reference for that - but it's there. Study it. Find out. And let me know what you find! (seriously - if you read this, please do give me an email about that - I love hearing from my friends and family!) 

Well, I love the Gospel, and doing this work to which I am called, after the order by which I am called(shoutout to Alma for that one).

Love you!

Vanhin Bolingbroke

Week 93 in Mikkeli (Make your mommas proud!)

Yes, of course - first shoutout omalle äidilleni, actually the best person in the world, the one from whom I inherited my ridiculously curly hair - I love her! She's one of my biggest supports on the mission!

Buuut, without further ado, mennään tähän viikkoon!(I actually wonder how much of this is understood, because google translate is horrible at translating finnish)

We had a contacting activity with our district, talked to many amazing people, and took a few fun pictures:

We have a really good group of missionaries here - a lot of young bucks(I can say that now because I'm an old fart in the mission timeline), and a lot of talent for the language and the missionary work, and a lot of love for the Lord, and passion for helping His children. They've been a serious strength to myself already, helping me to continue to think outside of the box. I love working with them!

Side note to comment on the beauty(both natural and man-made) of Mikkeli: Man, the finns are cool. In every city I've been in, you can see a beautiful, monolithic piece of art like this:

or the more quiet kind of beauty, like this:

and the thing is, they're five minutes by walk from each other.

In short: Finland's pretty sweet.

What other things did we do?

We had a meeting with a guy at the park, but it was raining, so he was late. We were not late, so we took some pictures:

Picture with my camera:

Picture with my companion's camera:

Food stuffs:

Kale chips! Courtesy of my Aunt Lexie for the recipe.

Our goal to only go shopping 4 times this transfer(it gets more intense when you realize that transfers are 9 weeks around here, not 6) continues swimmingly...

Morning run pics:(yes, these are four different mornings.)

Land of a thousand lakes: Beautiful morning weather and a few laps around the lake, anyone?

Overlook of the bay of our city: The same large cathedral-style church can be seen in the background.

Different lake: You have no idea how much I wanted to do a backflip off of this diving board into the water...

Deserted highway: Man, our city's pretty gorgeous.

Fun stuff:

We're making a garden! We're planting radishes, kale, peas, and a sunflower. One of the sisters in our district is a botanist, so she's been freaking out that we're making an actual garden. The radishes have already sprouted!

And we bought some flowers to beautify everything!

And last but not least on the picture montage, we went fishing today during our P-day time! Our branch president is pretty awesome and loaned us some gear, as well as a favorite fishing spot of his in Mikkeli, so we headed over. No fish were gotten, but I had a few bites, and we got a few nice photos:

It was quite relaxing.

Well, enough with the pictures: We've had a lot of miracles this week: we were happy to bring three friends to church this week! The ward members were amazing in being friends to them, and we were able to teach, right after church, a lesson to one of them, with Jyri, a young man who just got his call to Sweden! We also spent a lot of time finding yesterday, and we made some ambitious goals to find some people, and we found plenty of them! We didn't hit our goals, but we found three people in ways that we didn't at all expect! We also have been planning and studying for a training meeting coming up on Saturday, and I've felt a lot of inspiration already coming as we prepare. 

Kind of like Mormon says, "I cannot write the hundredth part" or all that's in my heart. I've grown, even more in this past week, a true love for this work, and rain or shine, we give our all to the Lord. 

As for a short spiritual thought: We've been studying 1 Nephi 8 and 11 a lot this week - the vision of the Tree of Life. I took specific notes in my Book of Mormon as to the things that Lehi sees, the things that the people do, and where the objects are in relation to each other. It's opened my eyes on the subject. My big question has been, right now, what does the Tree of Life represent? Well, Nephi begins to tell us when he says in 1Ne11:22:"Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things." But why is that? What does it mean? I've started on a few thoughts - but I invite you, dear reader, to figure out more by study and by faith. 

Well, I think that's just about all for this week. I love this work! And I hope to keep doing it, and to keep succeeding to the best of my ability! 

Love,

Vanhin Bolingbroke

Week 92 in Mikkeli (Out of the stone age and into the age of my phone being smarter than me)

Welcome, folks, to... Smartphones in the Finland, Helsinki Mission. 

What does that mean? 

It means that now, the only pictures you'll see from me will be selfies. (I may or may not be joking)

It means that my phone will be smarter than me(Pish posh. The phone doesn't have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, we may know the truth of all things. Therefore, I am smarter than my phone.)

It means that we have another great tool for the use of the missionaries here!

Yes indeedily, we have put into application(ba dum pshh) a network(haha haa...) of new smartphones, and they're rolled out! But let it not be said that such an event should be without its share of miracles. As we had it, I wasn't intending on buying a phone - anyone who knows me knows that I'm a miser who doesn't like to spend money - but Elder Jordan and I decided that it would be best for our companionship and for the missionary work here in Mikkeli if I got a phone. But then, at church, our Elder's Quorum President offered me an old phone of his! We picked it up(with a great amount of gratefulness in my heart) and checked, and turns out that it just fits the requirements for our missionary-use phones! Little miracles are pretty awesome - and I intend to keep using this one, not just for selfies, but for the good of the missionary work in Finland!

Speaking of all those selfies that I've been referring to, I concur that we defer to the camera for looking at my pretty face this past week. 

Here we haveth... our morning runs. We've got a beautiful area around here, and we seem to get lost in a different section of forest every single morning.

Here we haveth... wait, another castle? We stumbled(not literally) upon this one driving from a little city called Ristiina - we had a lesson there, during which we had a friend commit to considering baptism, and we found the castle after that! So, we had to take pictures.

This last one looks way cool, but what you don't see is that right after taking this picture, I put my hands down on the mossy rock floor... right into a large patch of stinging nettle(which I didn't know existed in Finland until I got shanked by it). Ah well, I don't need the use of my right hand, right?

Here we haveth... a nice picture of our church! Mikkeli is really a beautiful city!

P-day activities... Lokki Viestikeskus. An old transmission station during World-War-2-era Finland - and the source of a lot of cool history(as well as a bunch of creepy mannequins)!

Aaand finally, we're making a garden! Behold:

Results will be seen in the coming months.

Well, I think that's all of my pictures/ranting/scrapbooking for the week. We've had a ton of miracles here, and I'm so glad to be able to give this time and myself to the Lord. Have a great week, love you!

-Vanhin Bolingbroke