Terve!

Oh beloved family! The gospel is true and the Finnish sky is finally blue! Spring is here. :) The volcano in Iceland has affected the air traffic. We didn't get any mail for a while and people had to take boats to travel in and out of the country. Talk about a bonus for those poor struggling boat companies! If anything this volcano was an answer to their prayers.

O.k. you probably want to hear about the baptism. Sunday morning we all gathered in a members house in Lohja. There we sang and Elder Nikiforov held an excellent speech, then we all drove 5 minutes to the lake and at 11:30 he was baptized by a great friend. The shore was absolutely beautiful that day. Heavenly Father showed that he is very happy when people make holy covenants with him. Then Elder Nikiforov and I sang a song and we had a closing prayer. It was the best baptism service I've ever been a part of. :)

After the baptism everyone had an hour to drive to church where T____ was confirmed.

We also had an old lady at church who has already read the BOM two times! We went and taught her a while ago and the when we came back she had already read it! haha She's old but that doesn't stop peoples faith in Jesus Christ.

On Friday I had a baptismal interview with an woman that the Helsinki Elders have been teaching. She is 82 and was baptized on Saturday, bless her heart. She is already doing missionary work. Right as we were getting ready to say the closing prayer the doorbell rang. She went and answered it and in came two beautiful young nurses. Without a second of hesitation she stated that they were just on time to hear the closing prayer. Oh, you should have seen their faces. :) They just stood in the doorway not knowing what to do as I___ made her way back to the sofa to pray. Elder Burt (we we're on splits) and I noticed their hesitation and wouldn't put up with it. We stood up and greeted them and invited them to come sit on the sofas and pray with us. After a little brief on how we pray I___ said one of the most sincere prayers I've ever heard. The nurses didn't know what to do. The room was completely silent as they marveled over the strength of this 82 yr. old's spirituality. The spirit told us, 'TEACH'! and that's what we started to do. The younger one of these nurses was very interested. Because of her willingness to listen and learn we were able talk about a lot with her. We only had half an hour but by the time we left she had promised to come to church in two Sundays. WOW! The Lord is working miracles. He organized that perfectly, they came to the door at the perfect time. Not interupting the interview, but early enough to hear the closing prayer which softened their hearts. Praises to the Lord on high for his mercy among men. We witnessed a work of the Lord trying to help his children come back to him. I'm excited to see what comes from that.

This week we went to Tampere (my 'hometown') for a meeting with the Stake President Joutenus, all the ZL's, Mission Pres. Brown, and the area president Kopiske and his wife. It was powerful. We counseled about the mission and where we want it to go. I wish I had time to write you about that. :( we'll just have to leave it to my journal.....

I love you. Keep the prayers coming. He hears them and your faith is helping the work so much here in Finland. Thank you,
Sincerely,
Vanhin QUinn