How To Get Happier (And It's Not What You Think)

Moi!

Standing on a frozen river!

Funny Train Experience

Well, I have officially been on my mission for 5 months!  I wish I could say that it flew by but it really feels like the longest 5 months of my entire life! But I hear that time starts picking up after you make it through the first 6 months so hopefully that is all true! But this week I got to almost witness a fist fight between a drunk guy and a passenger on the train! It was so funny and kind of scary!  This extremely drunk guy ended up getting on the train but because he is really drunk he wasn't actually allowed to be on the train. The train wouldn't move until he got off and the worker was a woman just trying to get him off on her own when he started walking down the aisle to the front. A passenger jumped up and grabbed onto his shirt to stop him. but that made the drunk guy really mad and he started yelling that he wanted to go to the front of the train!  Apparently he started yelling some really mean things at the passenger who stopped him (that I didn't understand.)  The passenger just shoved him back and they got into this yelling and shoving and spitting fight that was getting close to being a fistfight.  Meanwhile, the whole train gets really loud because this NEVER really happens in Finland and so everyone is talking about it. There were a bunch of teenage boys on the train who want to get in on the action so they all start getting up and coming down to join the fight. Meanwhile, I am trying to hold my companion down because for some reason Sister Fronk had this belief that she could get up and help!  Not a good idea!  We are supposed to stay AWAY from drunk guys not go marching up to one, especially when they are in a fight with someone else! Plus, we are so entertained by the whole interaction that we are trying our hardest not to have the biggest grins on our faces while everyone else is worried, haha!  Fortunately, the lady was able to get the drunk guy to get off the train and it was finally able to start moving again. :) Then things that drunk people do.  I just don't understand why people would ever want to be drunk.

The tree that stopped my fall

The Strange Things That Can Turn a Day Around

I have to admit that it was just a pretty exciting day all around.  One day I was having a pretty rough day and I was pretty upset with everything, so as we were walking up to Hai's home (our recent convert) to meet a member and teach a lesson, I was just looking at the ground feeling a little sorry for myself and not really paying much attention to anything.  Kinda lame.  But just as I finally reached the top step of a set of stone stairs, I slipped!  My shin ended up landing on the corner of the stone step and it was right on the edge of a hill...so I started rolling down the hill until I ran into a tree!  I have to admit it was pretty exciting, even though it hurt really bad! That's what I get for being down. After that, strangely enough, I was a lot happier!  Funny how things like that work! 

The damage it did!

Seeing  the Light From Us

We also had a really interesting contacting experience this past week.  We were walking through this area in Kaukalahti saying Hi to everyone who was walking by when we started to noticed that all the people we were talking to just didn't seem to be all the way there.  The first thing I thought was "Did an addiction recovery class" just get out?  We were coming up with all sorts of explanations, haha.  It was so weird because everyone was completely out of it and they would come and get really close to us and look at our name tags and say "I'm atheist" and then they would walk away.  Or they would start telling us about their day.... It was so weird!  Once we got passed that crazy experience we continued walking all the way to a former investigator's house, who ended up not being home, but we met her neighbor who was outside and she was so cool!  She was so nice and we talked to her for about 45 minutes and even though she wasn't interested in the church she told us that we were representing our church well because we are really trying to learn Finnish, be happy, and just always willing to help anyone we can.  She said that people can just see light from us! 

We see beautiful snowflakes like this all the time!

Not a Member... YET!!

The beautiful Finnish sunshine

This week we also had our investigator who is 18, Anna, came to church again! She comes ever week and she honestly loves it!  The hard thing is that she is so busy with exams that she still has no time to meet with us but she is wanting to meet next week sometime after all her exams are finished!  We are super excited about it!  She is also going each week to the Young Adult Class with the bishop's daughter.  Two non-member boys walked into church this week for a school assignment and so they all went around telling how long they have been members and why they are a member of the church.  When it came to Anna she said that she wasn't a member YET.  :) When we talked to her on the phone later that day she talked about how two boys had come and visited OUR church and then she corrected herself and said your church.  We talked to her more about the Book of Mormon that she received that day and she told us how much she wants to read it and pray about it to know if it is true :) She seriously is amazing and we are so blessed and spoiled with her!  We love her so much and know that she is going to be baptized. It is amazing to see her come from not believing in God to believing.  We actually went back and looked at exactly what we prayed for a few weeks ago. We prayed for a 17 year old girl, who would be baptized, really love the Gospel, and be a kingdom builder and we were blessed with Anna!  It is amazing how God really answers prayers. :)

Beautiful Finland

 I love you all!
Love, Sister Knapp