Winning the lottery

2/15/11

Hello all. How are you. This week has been good. On thursday we talked finnish for two whole hours in class, and we all understood most of it. So ya its pretty cool, but then i heard two of the teachers speaking to each other and i understood 1 out of every 50 words so that kind of brought me back to earth. haha. We are going to teach our first lesson in Finnish this week. Its pretty scary but awesome at the same time.

I have been getting a lot into four square this week. It is soo fun, anyone who is reading this and is planning on going on a mish i say to you now: play four square. it is boring at first but after a few goes it gets way intense. There is a rivalry between the Finns and the Argentines. haha its pretty funny. They live in our same building so we are always talking trash when we see them, haha.

There was a talk this week about complete obedience and how we need it to reach our full potential. And i agree that obedience is good and all that but the way he was saying it kinda bothered me. But then our second counsy was talking about it after and he said make sure not to let the pendulum swing the other way, it is important to keep your personality and not completely deny yourself. And i thought he was spot on, we need to find the balance between not being selfish but still watching out for ourselves.

The days here are long and i am always tired. I sometimes get in moods where i just do not want to be here. but they do not occur very often anymore. I have already been here 4 weeks and so when i start getting annoyed i just keep telling myself: 8 more weeks til Finland. 8 more weeks til Finland... and it usually goes away. Finland will be hard, but the adventure of being there will make up for a lot of the hard stuff.

I got the families package (and kates). Thanks it was awesome. Getting mail is like winning the lottery, but getting a package is like winning the lottery twice. Everyone here loves their posti. I also got dads usual valentine which is always sweet. Thanks.

All in all. Everything is good here. Companionship is getting along, were teaching well, were learning. I am reading the BOM like a mad man. we have a goal for 18 pgs a day which takes me forever but i am really liking it. The Finnish is slowly coming as well.

But thanks for the letters and dear elders, I love them (*refer back to the lottery comment)

Kittos. Love you all.

John Merkley