TylerandCompany: Week 17: Sunsets, Sunlight, Swerving and a New Best Friend

First week of the new transfer! I hope you all get to spend some amazing time with your families this week, and for all the people in school, I hope finals and tests went well!

Spiritual Thought:

I love sunsets, I think most people do really. But I wonder if for some people sunsets were a disappointment. A sign of true faith, potentially displaced. Promises unanswered. I wonder about those nights leading up to Jesus’ birth. What it must have been like for those people in the Book of Mormon. A people who had never seen Jesus. Never walked with him. Never talked with him. But yet were so fervently waiting for him. Waiting outside each night, watching the sunset, but instead of joy at the setting sun maybe they felt some disappointment. Because those people literally had a death date. I wonder if they ever thought it was too late, if maybe Jesus wasn't going to show up. If parents ever sat in bed at night, tired, after long days of kids asking if tonight was the night, only to watch another sunset. But then, in the last second, when death was so close… He came. “Came unto [his] own, to fulfil ALL things.” (3rd Nephi 1:14)

The birth of Christ literally saved these peoples lives just how it can for us. I know that Jesus Christ shows up. He really does fulfill all things. I've seen it in the first months of my mission, he hasn't ever left me helpless. These have been some hard months, but looking back, I see that he was there, through it all. In all the lessons, Christlike examples, softened hearts, miracles, promptings, and lonely times when the only thing I had been able to do was pray. He was always there. It is who he is. He always shows up, just in time.

Short Version of Email: Jesus is always there when we need him! Spend some time with your family this week for me! Elder Goodrich is super cool! Driving in Finland is wild. Spent my transfer day in Tampere.

Finnish Word of the Week: Tietokone - - Computer, but literally translates to “knowledge machine”

Daylight Counter!

I decided to put this in for fun each week. I'm counting the number of hours per day it is light outside!

This week–5 Hours 4 minutes

5 Amazing Things This Week:

1: I got a new companion! His name is Elder Goodrich. He is the 5th oldest (as in time spent in Finland) missionary here! I'm excited to learn a lot from him.

2: I started driving this week. Driving in Finland is no joke not to mention all the snow and ice everywhere.

3: We got to go to an organ concert this week at another church in Lappeenranta. It was pretty cool.

4: Transfer day was really fun. Elder Boone and I rode a train to Tampere where we met up with a bunch of missionaries. I met a lot of new people and got to explore the city throughout the day.

5: We had a great language night this week and 8 people came even though it was dumping snow! I hope they felt our love for them and want to come back next week. I think we had fun.

Tender Mercy of the Week:

It had just snowed a lot; Elder Goodrich and I were waiting to cross the street. We saw a man trying to move his wheelchair but it was very stuck in the snow. We went over and offered to push him to wherever he needed to go. He gratefully accepted and we got to talk with him while we pushed him home. (which was quite a walk, 20 min at least) It was good to talk with him and I admired that he had been going at it, in the snow, alone.

Where I am/Who I'm With: I am serving in Lappeenranta still. My companion is Elder Goodrich. He's pretty cool, he ballroom dances, sews ties, speaks very good Finnish, and is a really good missionary. I'm excited to learn from him!