Monday, October 8, 2012

First week in Espoo

The only problem with Espoo right now? Going south didn't get rid of the rain.

Hei everybody,

Unfortunately going to have to keep this one a little shorter than usual, because missionary rules are causing a slight inconvenience in the form of a library card that declares me still under fifteen years old, and my slightly less than convenient inability to leave my companions to go take care of it....

That's the way my day started this morning. Fitting with the type of week it's been. Left Pietarsaari after a couple of last goodbyes. Once I got on the train it was hard to look back, because I was looking forward so much to being in Espoo with Elder Linden and Elder Esplin. The train ride went suprisingly fast this time, and left me wondering how many times I'd be making that same trip the rest of my mission. When I got on the platform, the elders grabbed my stuff, threw it in the back of the car, and took me straight to dinner with a member family. Pretty great welcome to the area.

Friday was Zone Leader Council, which meant a trip to the temple in the morning! Decided to try a session in Swedish, and it went really well. It's really interesting to notice the things that stick out more when heard in a different language. Sometimes it changes my understanding of things just slightly. The funny part about this whole trip to the temple was actually that it almost didn't happen for us...Elder Linden and Esplin had to get their recommends renewed, because the thought had slipped their minds to request an interview with the President. Oops. So Thursday night we drove to the mission home. President Rawlings was in skype meeting with his mission presidency, so we spent some time helping Sister Rawlings in the kitchen, getting lunch ready for the next day. We had a great time, Elder Linden had some funny questions to ask that had been on his mind for a while, including everything from how can I improve my relationship to my Heavenly Father to are engagement and wedding rings both essential to what should we call our tri-panionship? Sister Rawlings gave some pretty profound answers - our favorite being her suggestion for our tri-panionship nickname: The Troica (or Troika not sure how to spell it, it's Russian).

We spent the night at the mission home and got up early to go play sähly with the assistants, the Tampere elders (who had stayed with the assistants when their car overheated outside Hyvinkää), and the Marjaniemi sisters. Not gonna lie, I felt a little sore afterwards. Probably need to take it easy in the future, but it was a lot of fun.

General Conference was amazing of course, made all the better by being surrounded by so many wonderful Finnish members. (Plus one member from Stockholm that knew Elder Linden! Fun surprise.) We had one man, not a member, just sort of wander in off the street and no one knew where he was from, so we got him a seat with some members and eventually got his information. He lives in Neitsytpolku's area, and he was interested in having missionaries come to visit, so we'll be excited to hear about what the Elders down there can do to help him.

Gotta go for now, time for grocery shopping and then Elder Linden is going to teach us to drive stick. Wish me luck. Pray I don't break the car.

Love,

Elder Hansen

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