Elder Hancock's Mission in Finland: Week 6 - I Can't Think of a Subject Line Because All Our Days Are Pretty Much The Same

Not that that's a bad thing, though. Every day in the MTC is awesome, and full of hard work and progression. I have a little less time today so I think this is the week I'll transition from daily summaries to highlights of my week.

So every day my Finnish continues to improve, which is interesting to see. Comparing my ability to before I left for the MTC, my ability has skyrocketed. It's not an easy language, certainly (Sister Martino, the MTC president's wife, said it's the hardest one here) but it's so much more logical than English. All I can say is that it's a language that once you pass the point of understanding, it just all makes sense. I love it. I've gotten to the point where I don't think I'd really feel the need to speak English if I went to Finland right now, because I can say pretty much everything I want to in Finnish now, it's just the understanding of native Finns that worries me a bit (although, my I-don't-understand-what-you-were-saying-please-repeat-as-if-I-were-a-three-year-old face has certainly improved as well).

I finished the Book of Mormon on Saturday, then decided that I would read it in every spare moment I got (which aren't very many, as you might have noticed) and see how long it would take me to read. I ended up finishing (I didn't intend that as a pun, I get that at least five times a day, please don't take it as one) the Book of Mormon in two and a half days. It was wonderful and having the flow of the story rather than spreading it out between a few months was so cool. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon like that before, I challenge you to do so. That book has so much power and blessings just waiting to be unleashed.

Our investigators have experienced a lot of growth. Improved Finnish means improved decorum, less fishing around for words, and much less sounding like a monkey. An actual monkey. Ooh ooh, aah aah. We've been having actual discussions with these people and helping them understand that Heavenly Father truly loves them. It's wonderful to see the change in people when they realize how much the Gospel can bless them.

The Danish missionaries left this week. They came in the same time as us, and we were really close. That was sad. Elder Anderson, if you're reading this, I love you. I forgot to get the rest of their emails. Tills vi ses igen!

I seem to play the piano in sacrament every week for some part of the service. Blessing or a curse? Hmm. I'll choose the former!

If you know Do-young Park, he was my best friend in 3rd grade, and he's here! He's serving in California, speaking Cambodian!

In other news, Elder Parrella of the Seventy (I think he spoke in General Conference this last October) (I just checked and he did) gave the devotional on Tuesday and it was amazing. He said just what I needed to hear.

I love you all, have a great week! I'll send a few pictures later, we're about to gob mob the lunch room.

Elder Hancock