Autumn in Finland

Hey guys.

This week was sweet. First off, I bought a guitar. It was super impulsive, we walked into a hand-me-down store to buy an umbrella and I walk out with a 60 euro guitar. I don’t think its a super nice one, but its in good condition and it came with a free case. It’s a Finnish brand called Landola. Although, its already been bought and if its a crappy brand its a little too late. But I have loved it. I play every night after our planning meeting. I walk out on our little balcony and play while the clouds roll past the moon. Its been really really awesome.

Fall is here in Finland and it is gorgeous. Mom, you would love it. The leaves are so pretty, and occasionally we will be walking through green fields with the orange and red trees all around us, and a dark gray of cloud to give it a perfect autom. autam. auttamn. ataum. autam. autumn. (How the jimmy do you spell that word...) feel. It’s really pretty.

Funny lil story, and hard to explain, but I’ll try... We were trying to get to a members house. We knew they were on the 2nd floor but they were not answering our phone calls and we couldn’t get in the building. So, we start throwing our bus card at the 2nd story window to try and get them to notice. I throw mine bad and almost get it stuck on someone’s porch... "Phew that was lucky... we should probably throw something els--" "Dang it!!" My companion had gotten his bus card stuck on the ledge of the window. And then, the members call us and tell us that we were at the wrong window. I felt sheepish. We had to explain the idiotic situation to the members... And decided we will try to get it after the teach. After the teach, the unknown woman who owned the window was not home. Plan B, go to next level up, with the rug of the apartment and try to sweep it down. I feel double sheepish trying to once again explain the situation to this random guy, all the while holding a huge rug in my hand. We tried swooping the card off the ledge but the rug was too awkward. Eventually, the random guy doo-hickeyed up a stick that knocked the card off the ledge. Yaa!!! We walked away with no dignity left intact, but at least we got the card back.

This week also, a man from my old area asked me to baptize him because he had not seen me for a while. He is from Vietnam and the most humble and nice guy ever. He is the one who downloaded the scriptures onto his ipad by the 2nd teach. The baptism went really well and afterwards he told me: "Wow, thank you so much. I feel so good and clean right now" it was really awesome and I am so happy for him. The gospel is the best.

Man, family and friends, I miss and love you all. I really do. I’m having a really great time out here. Keep being cool.

Love, Vanhin Merkley