PHOTO TAKEN by NATE WUNDERLI in BUSAN, KOREA March 2015

Perhe!! 

Monday rolls around and then I  remember that the next day is pday and realize that i have no idea what to write... So we will see how ADD this email is haha! 

First thing is first, Meegs you are a BABE. My branch mission leader (Jonathans old comp) showed me those pictures yesterday just to show me how he is following mom on instagram... What a small world... But I hope prom was fun! Wow and I am sure Mexico will be fun too!! Anyway, this week. 

We live close to a university and it was party week this week so everyone had their party pants on (like, literally, all the college students wore these scrub-type pants all week it was weird!), but it was not the best week for missionary work. Regardless though, Miracles happen everyday, it is crazy! It is the small things that you have to watch out for because God provides right when we need it.

Our 3 athiest friends came to church again (crazy!) and we had a lesson with them afterwords stating our purpose here and it was quite the discussion! They did not seem to get how science and religion dont cancel each other out. They kept on talking about cells and the 5th element and all these things and we were just like "ya, that is super cool, I want to know all about that stuff! but, what is the point....?" haha, they wanted to open OUR eyes and told us if we learned all the things they know then we wouldn't worry about religion anymore. Not sure that is how it works... Later one of the guys texted us and told us he wasn't trying to be disrespectful and it would be great to go out to coffee sometime and not talk about our religious and scientific differences! Haha we had told them so many times but it is so hard for people to understand missionary life! Needless to say we will not be seeing them again.

Yesterday we had a really busy day yesterday with 4 lessons, and I love being busy! It makes things so much better in missionary work! And all the lessons went really well, one girl we taught had 3 of her friends over and they were so interested in learning about our church. The spirit was so strong and at the end one of the girls even asked how this has helped us in our lives. Talk about a perfect question, it was hard to just sum it up to a few sentences! My testimony has grown so much as I am easily able to see my strengths and my weaknesses. Sometimes God has to knock you down before he lifts you up but it doesn't mean He ever leaves you alone.

We are also teaching this lady who we think just got out of prison and someone once tried to murder her... She has such a sweet spirit and soaks up everything we are saying but we are being pretty cautious with her. She just has a really hard life and background but we are hoping to help her in some way! We have finally found some service opportunities in the ward which is a blessing because Finns normally do not like to be served! So we are excited for that.  

Happy Easter this week and happy conference weekend! Easter is a HUGE holiday in Finland, it is so interesting! Anyway, I love you all!! Have an amazing week!! Church is true, dont you forget it!

Love,

Terra

Tuesday March 24, 2015

Moi!!  Always a good week in Finland! Lets see, what are the updates...

First, do you remember the I mentioned who said his purpose in life was to convince us that we are wrong?  Well he came to church with his 2 friends. The ward loved it.

They walked in smelling like smoke and sat respectfully through Sunday school and sacrament meeting. He said he wanted to come because he wanted to show that he was respectful of other peoples views. His eyes were sure opened!

Another exciting thing, we saw the northern lights!!!!!  On Tuesday night you could see them in the northern Finland cities! It was very faint but sooo cool! Me and my companion were freaking out haha.

Also, Dad, do you know a family member whose last name is Richardson? He is the grandson of Fritz´s twin I think and I met him at my zone conference. Apparently we are cousins or something! Small world...

It was a good week.  It had been warming up a lot until yesterday when it started snowing! It was really amazing though because yesterday morning I was not in the best mood. I was kind of sad about things. I didn’t let it get to me too much but it is hard constantly talking to people who think you are crazy (which we are but not for the reasons they think...:))

Anyway, I prayed so hard for Heavenly Father to help me have faith and have a better attitude about things. When the lady we were going to teach wasn’t home we were left with nothing to do except find people to talk to.  Normally at that point I would feel very discouraged but all of a sudden just had this super happy feeling that came from nowhere.  Me and my companions were knocking on doors laughing at ourselves and how wet we were. It was missionary work but it was so fun! The lesson of the day is always look towards God for strength and see how the enabling power of the Atonement changes you. It is amazing. I am learning a lot out here and am glad all you at home are doing well!! 

I love you all, have a great week! :)

Family,

This week went well! I understand how people say that missions are back and forth as far as emotions go ha-ha. But Finland is such a great place to be right now! We talk to so many different people from all different cultures and with all different views, it is awesome.  I am still pretty nervous to talk to people because I know I wont understand how they respond to what I say but slowly I am warming up to it. 

A cool experience that taught me a lot is about this guy whose name cannot be disclosed because of Finnish privacy laws.... He came up to us last week as we were walking and asked us why the heck we were speaking Finnish. I didn’t have to understand what he said to know he was drunk but after telling him why we are here and stuff my companion asked him if he wanted to learn more. I kept on thinking she was crazy! Of course we don’t want to set up an appointment with this guy, I honestly was a little scared ha-ha. Regardless, my companion set up a time and place to teach him. We were all skeptical but the day came and out of our 3 lessons we had planned, he was the only one who didn’t cancel on us. So we met at a gas station and taught him! Turns out he is a single dad who never really had a home growing up and was just interested about what makes our church different. I have developed such a deep care for this man I don’t even know! It's crazy! He had a lot of good questions and you could feel the spirit throughout the lesson. We set up another appointment with him and I could see that something changed within him when we were talking. It was a neat experience but it is hard to fully explain.

My favorite part about talking to people is discovering all these views that people have. A lot of people here believe in "science" and one guy kept on telling us how one of his missions in life is to convince people like us that we are wrong. I love sharing my testimony with those people!

Finland is great. It is still so beautiful here, we go on morning runs and we run by a frozen lake and see the sunrise- it is breathtaking! There were so many colors in the sky that reflected on the lake. Wow.

Mission life is definitely something to get used to! God works miracles; I could not do this without Him and Christ as my Savior. What is awesome is that He is EVERYONE´s Savior, regardless of what you believe!

I love Him! And of course I love you all too!! Have a great week and keep smiling!! :)

Love,

Terra

FINLAND!!!

Wow, I cannot even begin to tell you all how great of a week it has been! The journey was long but I made it here alive! We spent the first night at the Mission Presidents house after we visited the temple and the next day we got some paper filled out, had a long meeting, and then got assigned our place and companions!

If you want to look it up on the map, I am serving in Vaasa right now! A little about the area: it is BEAUTIFUL! We live in the town but if you go more to the suburban area it is pretty amazing. Also, there are a lot of Swedish speakers here, and a mix of all random cultures, it is pretty awesome. The ward is small but it is a great and filled with a lot of awesome people which is good because we have a plan to work with the members a ton and having them help us find and teach people!

Also, I have 2 companions again! And to credit the Lord, my companions are amazing. One of them has only been out for 2 months and the other (the trainer) is going home after this transfer! And they are such hard workers and super fun.

My first day was mostly contacting which was hard because obviously I don't understand Finnish and Finns are very reserved people. They walk with head phones in ALL THE TIME. It makes things difficult.  Throughout this week I have learned more what missionary work is all about. We found a lot of people to teach this week and ran into a lot of interesting people as well. We were talking to this one guy this week and he looked at us like we were crazy when we told him that the true church has been restored. He was like "you actually believe this stuff??" haha Yes we do and in fact, it is the truth! I am glad I have a strong knowledge of the truth because you can so easily doubt what you know out here. 

Most people here say they are Lutheran but that doesn't mean much. We also run into a lot of Pentecostals!  I am trying to learn from my companions and understand more. Surprisingly enough I understand about 50% of what people talked about at church. So that was cool! It is simply amazing what God has helped me to accomplish and how much patience He has given me! I just have an increasing desire to share the gospel and I am trying to gain a greater charity for everyone. I am so grateful to be

able to be in Finland!! I will hopefully be able to send a few pictures. 

The first ward I've been assigned to is the same ward as Jonathan Moes companion! haha He is our ward mission leader and was texting Marilee just yesterday!  We snapped a picture. Funny funny! 

Love you family, have a great week!!