Week 28 - We ran through a forest this week?

Hello everyone! Not much to report from this week, but I have a couple stories.

First off is we missed a bus one evening, and there was another one coming in twenty minutes but it was on the other side of this mountain. So I was just like 'let's go!' and we started running through the forest up this hill. Turns out it was a lot futher than I thought and we ended up having to run through bushes, trees, mud, a field, a swamp, and came out in the middle of nowhere on some highway. I had been praying throughout this twenty minutes of running that we'd be able to find the bus stop, and there was nothing in sight when we emerged from the swamp onto this highway. So I was like 'well what do we do' but then literally ten seconds later a bus came out of nowhere and I flagged it down, and it accepted our bus passes and everything and took us back to our apartment! That was for sure an answer to my prayer, and if we had gone any slower we would have missed it. I'll attatch pictures of how sweaty and dirty we were (oh well).

Another thing is one night when we were eating dinner I just wondered out loud 'I wonder what it would be like to be Elder Näslund?' (he's a Swede who works absolutely insanely hard) and Elder Winder was like well, we'd just be running everywhere and talking to literally everyone so I went 'hmm let's try it!' and then we both dropped our bags and left the apartment at 5:20 and ran, like actually ran to the nearest apartments and talked to everyone on the way, and ran in between the apartment buildings taking two or three steps at a time on the stairs. One time I went back to try and get these people who had already said no to take a Book of Mormon like ten minutes after. We went hardcore until 8 (which is when it would be illegal in Finland to solicit) and were so exhausted. But we got out two pass along cards and a book so at least there was that.

Finland's a very interesting place. I definitely love being a missionary, but Finns are very quiet and not much interested in religion. However we press on and even if I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to baptize anyone as a missionary I continue to emulate the Savior and go about doing good. Keep the faith, everyone, and I love you all!

--

Elder Hancock

Us after running through the woods

Sad guitar photo