Hyvää syntamäpäivää! Happy Mothers Day!

Hyvää syntamäpäivää! Happy Mothers Day! Sorry i guess i gave you the wrong number..... haha. It was sweet to talk with you all. It is so weird to combine my mission life and home life. It confuses my brain to think "those people are still alive and doing normal stuff?" I forget that the world is still going outside of mission life in Helsinki. It was really fun though. You all sound great.

This week we have a baptism. I am excited. We have another set for two weeks later... Finland is really doing quite well in terms of growth. I am excited to meet the new mission president... He will be coming in just a few months now.

I am liking contacting more and more.... What helps me is my mindset. Sometimes I feel like I am a Christian Nut who goes around annoying people. But if I focus on the few other people who are looking for something more in their current lives, it is worth it to annoy a lot of people to get to those few. Just the other day we talked to a man and he said he was Muslim and wanted to change religion because he did not feel it was right for him. Haha, he told us he had been wanting to find out more about Christianity and was eager to meet again. So, tracting and contacting are worth it for those few people who are wanting a change in their lives.

I have the book Life of Mahatma Gandi. It is super dope and has all of his teachings. I am sneakily reading it every morning when my comp is in the shower haha. I am half way done.

I have sort of come to a conclusion about Joseph Smith. It is hard to believe a lot of these events because I was not there and if they truly happened they were miracles. And humans have a hard time understanding miracles. So it comes down to either it happened or it didnt... and I dont know if I will ever know for sure. But what I do know is that the doctrine that comes from Joseph Smith is very powerful. If you live how it tells you to live, you will be a good person and make the world a better place. And to me that is as much truth as I need. I have really realized on my mission that the lds churchs message is not about "if you dont join, you will go to hell". In reality it is "Life is hard. But this gospel can really help". Thats how I see it. The principles are true. If you follow them, you will be a better person, this is all I really know for sure.

I love you all. Thanks for all you do.

JOHNMERKLEY