Alot of tracting in Joensuu

Hey

This week was a good one. We are working hard. The work is going a bit slow here in Joensuu and a couple of our investigators have dropped off the map for a while, but we did a lot of finding and found some pretty cool potentials. We had a lot of teaching appointments and have a lot of investigators who are doing well, but not quite ready for baptism. A lot of them have addictions to alcohol and tobacco. The mission has really shown me the hideous face of these addictions. I feel really bad for people who want so badly to quit, but are at a point where they do not even think it is possible. I have heard so many say things like " I don’t even like it anymore but I just cant stop." It is terrible. The word of wisdom is absolutely from God and such a huge blessing to members of the church. The addiction path is a very very slippery slope. So, in other words " Kids, don’t do drugs."

We did a lot of tracting this week. There are always so many funny things that happen while tracting. For example: We knock on a door. A mom comes, and there is a cute little kid standing behind her. I awkwardly start the conversation by saying "Terve. Kuinka vanha hän on?" (which means: Hi. How old is she?) The girl just sort of looked and me and it wasnt until after that I realized how creeped out I would be if some random guy rang my doorbell and asked how old my daughter was. Haha. Im still trying to figure out the line of normal things to say to people.... I can now cross that one of as "not normal"

My companion and I get a long great. My companion is a great guy and we get along fine. He is one of the most hard working and obedient Elders I have met, but he also has a lot of humility which makes him really easy to get along with. I am more of the jokey guy and he is more of the serious guy so it works well together because we find the balance of both. He is just a shy nice super hard working kid and we are having all sorts of adventures. This week I hid in the bathroom and scared him really bad which was great because he screamed really loud like a girl which is way uncharacteristic of him. I was seriously laughing for 5 minutes straight after. Something else we have been doing during the in between times of tracting is talking about star wars. My companion is a big fan so I had him retell all of the original star wars to me because it had been so long since I had watched them. It took a solid couple of hours but he did a really thorough job. Now it’s really great because we can make all these funny star wars references.

That’s about it for this week. I love the city and the ward and everythings rollin along well. I will hit my year mark on Thursday. The last year has been such an interesting one, but Im so grateful to be where I am. I have learned a lot of good things and am excited for the year ahead of me.

Thanks for all the love and whatnot. I think about you guys often. Stay safe.

Love,

Vanhin Merkley