Week 15 in Savonlinna (Gandalf's always watching you)

Good morning, brethren and sisters!

So guess what? I had a genius idea a few weeks ago, to start using my trusty voice recorder for my emails! It was going great, I was having fun with it, aaand, my recorder broke. Darn. On the flipside, I know what I'd like to ask Joulupukki for Christmas! Because the recorder's broken, I'll shortly go over this week, as well as a few quirks of the missionary life!

As you may know, we spent most of the week in Espoo(it's pronounced like snow), at the mission home! We had this thing called Return and Report! We went to the temple, and had lots of training - it was honestly so fun! President and Sister Aura are amazing people, and I learned so much!

We also had District Meeting in Mikkeli on Wednesday, during which we found a bunch of foam swords, and spent the next ten minutes beating each other to death with said foam swords! That was exciting - I learned that Elder Henderson is scary with a large foam sword.

Sunday was interesting - church was interesting! Unfortunately, our members are a bit at odds with us. They've been learning to trust us more, but we've been planning a concert, and they don't seem all that excited about it. I think they're very focused on traditional ways of doing missionary work - but Elder Scott and I truly believe that things like this concert will bring people to our church, and to this gospel! Our young, American style of doing things might be what Savonlinna needs right now!

Monday evening was awesome - we had another Kieli Kahvila! (English Cafe)

We got to talk with some really cool people - a South African entrepreneur living in Finland, a Finnish girl who knows 7 languages and plays 5 instruments, and a couple from France! Everyone seemed really interested in why we serve missions, and so we told them a ton about us! It was such a good opportunity!

As for missionary life:

We have a little grey santa dude who hangs around and watches us so we don't fall asleep during study. I call him Gandalf. ​

​I've also realized that dishes are the bane of my existence. They never end. Ever.

Honestly, that's kind of all for this week! I apologize, but the recorder's broken, and I didn't quite expect that - but I still love you all! Hope everything's going well at home! Stay strong, carry on, and remember, God loves you!

-Vanhin Bolingbroke​