Working in Turku

Hi

My new companion is a great guy named Vanhin Kääriä. He is from Sweden. It is really new to all new missionaries but he has been coping with it really well and we have worked hard. It has been fun to have his fire while working. I have realized that as a missionary gets older, they sometimes build walls of "this is how this works, and that all there is" but it has been great to have his freshness.  Vanhin Kääri  has a personality that is very easy for me to get along with and he is very pure intended with everything he does.

This week we had the big conference down in Helsinki with all the missionaries. Elder Kopishke from the Quorum of the 70´s was there. I really liked him. He talked in a way that made us want to be better, but not in a stressful way. Sometimes, as a missionary, I feel like there are so many things I can be doing and should be doing better, but it is too much to handle all at once. And he made it seem nice and easy. There is always room for improvement, but It’s important to remember that it is a process. And it was really fun to see everyone. We got a picture with my MTC group. It is almost strange how good of friends my MTC group is. We are all such good friends that many of them will be rooming together at BYU when we get back, and I probably would be to if I wasn’t going to USU.

We have been working hard to find people because our teaching pool is a little low. We found one that is from Nigeria and very sincere. He took the Book of Mormon and was really excited to read it and pray. He said that it very well could be true and that he wanted to know. It was really cool.




We had an awesome teach this week with on old investigator who is now a current investigator with a baptismal date. About a week before we were going through the area book and we came to a name we thought we should call. So we called and set up a teach. We met with her and she told us about how the very second we had called her, she was thinking about churches in general and wishing she could find a way to be in contact with the missionaries again. And then, we called. She told us we were definitely led by the Holy Ghost. It was really cool to have an investigator show us how it all connected and that we actually were led. The member with us turned out to be a very good fit and we set a baptismal date for July 21. She is a very sincere woman and very in tune with her spiritual side. It was a really great experience to meet with her.

Everything is great here. It is a really beautiful time of year and I am especially lucky to be here in Turku at this time. I’m so thankful for all of you and all that you do. Thanks for the love and everything.

Love you all.

Vanhin Merkley