Week 73 in Lahti (Jingle all the way home!)

I have that weird feeling right about now where you say to yourself, "Is Christmas really already over again?" But, given the circumstances, I've decided that I'm not gonna consider Christmas as over until the snow melts(which, around here, means until May).

But wow - Christmas! Let's look through the photo journal:

This is my new companion! Elder Vawdrey, from Draper, came straight out of the MTC! We had a blast meeting at the mission home, and we're going to continue having a blast here in Lahti for the next few weeks!

Look at this beautiful man

We've been doing a lot of contacting around Lahti. We also had a ton of Christmastime appointments with members! I wasn't able to get a ton of pictures with them, but they got pictures, they're probably on the interwebbs and social medias somewhereabouts.

We saw the graveyard! And the radio tower was lit up, quite beautifully!

And the snow is absolutely gorgeous this time of year - the snow just hangs off the trees and the pictures don't even do it justice! I love it!

We got a bunch of gifts, too - among mine was finnish books, too much candy, some beef jerky, and - wait, a full-size shark tail?

It's an inside joke. Only some of you will get it.

Well, I'm now realizing that I completely neglected to take pictures with all the families we visited this week. Ah well. I remember a quote once, from a good movie - that sometimes, you don't need to take a picture of a beautiful moment. Sometimes, you just let it go. And that's not just an excuse for not taking any pictures - I really felt the spirit of Christmas this year, and I feel that we've done a little bit to bring Christ back into Christmas a little bit.

Now that the holidays are "over", I'd continue to encourage you to keep Christ the center of your life. It doesn't matter that Christmas is over and now it's just winter. Just keep reading the book of Mormon, and serve others, and do as He would do. Capiche?

Love you all!

-V. Bolingbroke