LEAPING  

(Finland – Week 11)  

17 March 2015

Moi from the land of SPRING!! It's been sunny for SIX days in a row! A woman yesterday told me that in the month of January we had 3 hours of sunlight, this is a big deal. We just want to lie in it, in our jackets and scarves of course.

This week I played sähly for the first time which is indoor hockey with a wiffle ball. (Not so sure how to spell wiffle, wiffel?) It was intense. We had an investigator there with a variety of different sticks, I picked the red one rather than the white one. That's kind of like my knowledge of cars, there are white cars and red cars. My red stick did well. It was great for language practice! Apparently in Finland to say "go team" you say, "go team". Man I love it when that happens. Lots of Finnish words are English words with an "i" on the end. Apparently though "spooni" doesn't translate. Thus after just one embarrassing dinner appointment, I forever will remember spoon. Actually I think I might only remember fork and knife, oops.

I recently read this fun story of a man that couldn't walk in Acts 3:6-8:

 "Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."

I love to picture this man and his weak ankle bones leaping for the first time. How joyous the love of Christ is, it can heal us from everything! Weak ankles, broken hearts, stubbed toes, you name it. How can we not leap for joy at that? I've been leaping for joy at the sun we've been having, literally. I can't tell you how happy it makes people here. We all have things that truly give us joy, let's take a minute to thank God for giving them to us. I recommend leaping and praising.

Fun news of the week: having two companions instead of just one means we can buy and carry a lot more jogurtti. I love jogurtti.

Keep smiling! Lots of Love,

Sisar Mendenhall