Week 10 - Savonlinna (So a Russian, two Finns, and two American preachers walk into a coffee shop...

Goooood morning, America! It's a gorgeous day here in Finland, with rain, clouds, and not much else! This is your host, Elder J.B. Bolingbröök, and I'm in love with this country! I haven't seen the sun for five days, on account of the grey blanket that we call 'clouds.' But who needs sun when you have Vitamin D pills?

It's good to talk to everyone - I've been away for so long! Let's start by picking up right where I left off - at the MTC!

At 6.50 in the morning, our bus left to... drop us off at the trax station in Provo. From there we were on our own to get our big, bulky luggage to the airport. I'll keep the flying story short, as I don't remember a lot of it, being sleep-deprived and all. I'll share my favorite part of the flight: Getting off the plane! Finland is full of rain and clouds and trees, and it's beautiful! At the Helsinki airport, we met President and Sister Aura, as well as some of the other missionaries - we spent the night at the mission home, and next morning became legal in the country(boring paperwork and all), and then got our companions and our assignments!

I know you all have been losing so much sleep over not knowing where I'm currently at(I'm looking at you, Mom), but never fear, all will now be revealed! I've been assigned to... drumroll please... Savonlinna! And no, I'd never heard of it either! My companion is the goober with the fluffy dark hair in the first picture - we're awesome. Elder Scott and Elder Bolingbrääk.

Now, Savonlinna is a little Finnish town in somewhat Southeastern Finland. It's a gorgeous, quiet place, and we live about 100 meters from the church! It's just like being in Utah again! (I didn't take too many pictures, but I'll get more next time around!)

Now, I've given an overview of my first week on both video and recording, but I'll share some of my favorite happenings:

(Disclaimer: because of super-strict Finnish privacy laws, we're actually not allowed to mention/take pictures of native Finns without their written permission, so I'm required to keep some people anonymous for the time being. Super secret spy stuff. It's classified info.)

We have two investigators with baptismal dates! It's quite a miracle, because the missionaries have been working on them for months before me, but they both committed last weekend to be baptized! One's a 17-year-old Russian girl, and the other a 38-year-old Finnish guy. They're both already great friends, and very sincere. They both have a ton of questions, which we answer frequently(Elder Scott answers, I try to understand what they say) I'm extremely excited for them!

We also host at the church building two different events, aside from regular church services. We have English Hour and Sport Night, on Thursday and Friday respectively. Foreigners love being able to practice their English on actual Americans, and so we invite anyone in the area to practice English with us! Sport Night is similarly done, with games and activities for the evening. They're way fun!

Church was great - I got to meet the majority(eleven) of our members! They're very strong in their testimonies, and they're so humble and dedicated! Although they have one shortcoming: None of them can pronounce my name right. I figured this out, that the oo sound - think book, look, etc. - doesn't exist in Finnish. So you know what they call me instead? Vanhin Boli-boli. Hey, if it works!

Now, regarding the subject line: The first Mondays of the month, there's this thing called Kieli Kahvelä - language cafe! The lady who runs the operations has tables for all local languages - from Finnish to English to Italian and everything in between! She loves that we, native English speakers, sit down and talk to people! It's a win for her, and for us! We had a great time last night, talking to a Russian lady, and two other Finns.

I've not a lot of time, so I'll close up for now - the drive is still open with pictures and videos! I love you all, and I'm thinking of you! Stay strong!

-Vanhin Bolingbrachk​

P.S. - I've just realized that the WiFi at this church building is pretty abysmal, so some of the videos may be uploaded this week. I'll figure out a way to do things more efficiently!

P.P.S. - I just realized that I've taken next to no pictures/videos of us and Savonlinna. I apologize, I hope you all can forgive me until next week!