January 25, 2010

IT'S COMING!!!!!!!  I can understand more and more as days go on.  I still have no idea what the meaning of most things said are but I am picking out a lot more stuff.  With time and patience, I should be ok here.

Ya, I'm having fun.  It's been just work all the time though.  Even P-Day isn't a break.  We're going bowling today though so that should be fun.  I bought mittens and a beanie.  But it was a really cool beanie.  I don't know if I can wear it but it was really cool so at least I got a sweet beanie in 2 years to wear.  But the gloves are really nice.  They are leather with sheep fur inside.  They are good.  Also, I'm buying a dictionary today so that might be the next thing you see.

I got the guys chainletter, don't know if I told you or not.  So I got updates from McKay, Nathan and Kanpp.  They are doing good.  They want to include you in the chainletter :) - I told McKay to plan it out.

No pickled herring.  But we went to this place and had kebabs.  Kebab is my dream.  It is soooo good.  I also had this mint ice cream that was the best mint ice cream I have ever had.

I speak this Sunday.  Brother Lampila who is a returned missionary from Finland and Elder Beard's old companion is translating my farewell talk for me.  So I'll at least have that in Finnish but I am still here for another change, I have to give another one.  Hopefully, I will know more Finnish by then.  They don't give me a topic - I just get to choose.  So that's good.

I really want to check out the castle.  For the most part, P-Day is laundry, cleaning, grocery store, then P-Day is over.  We planned our time pretty good so we got bowling time - woo hoo!

We don't have a car because this area is small and brand new.  Plus cars are expensive.  Bikes would be sweet.  But we're just foot soldiers right now.  It takes forever to get anywhere.  We'll see what happens.

Zone conference this week and splits. We have splits on wednesday and elders struthers and watson are coming into Savonlinna. Then, we are driving back to Joensuu with them and spending the night there. Thursday we get up and drive to Oulu for zone conference. We stay with the zone leaders there. Friday is zone conference. Saturday we drive back. So that's whats going on this week.

We went this guy walking home from tracting and he wants us to come to this religious seminar where they talk about religion and things. This can either be really awesome or really, really, bad haha. We'll see that should be fun. It's tomorrow.

I love Sisar Voima. She is the most awesome lady of all time. She calls practically related. She is awesome! So so nice. 


I know what I want for birthday and christmas. As a gift, I want you to tell me "Brian, we are giving you X amount of money. Go buy some stuff" The stores here are awesome. There is this store called Dressman. Its got argyll everything. So sweet.

One of these p-days, i might switch with another day. So i might not be writing you on a monday but a different day of the week. One of potential investigators is the goalie on Savonlinna's professional hockey team. So we might go watch one of his games. That will be sweet.

ATTENTION: I have now started to regain my weight. This is important and exciting news. I didn't tell you this before. I have lost 17 pounds since entering the MTC. The weight has reached a standstill and is coming back. WOO! Things are looking up. I entered that MTC at 164 and reached a low of 147. Currently, I'm back to 148. Brick by brick haha.

I took some pictures. I'll send those to you sometime. Have you heard from the guys at all? If they are ever around you and complain about giving a 20 minute presentationin school. Just tell them at least its not in finnish ahaha.

I got an email from Chris Larson. What a stud. He's a great guy. It's so crazy to think about the guys from our ward. Duncun and tagolic, Mike Larson and korean, Chris Larson and armenian, soon to be Holub and spamish i think plus Christian and Greg all around the world. It's cool.

Story: We were going to visit an unactive memeber. Ahe lives in an apartment and the doors to get in are locked. Her door is right by the outside door. We buzz her to talk to her. her doesn't answer but instead just comes out to see who buzzed her. It's pitch black out, -22 so we are and bundled up with scarves over our face, we both in all black, she opens the door and sees these two guys. She stares bug eyed for a second, we wave, and she sneaks back into her room and slams the door. Either she hates missionaries or she thought we were going to rob her haha.

Well fam, I'm going to hit the lanes. Oh ya! Love you all and take care

Vanhin Behnke