Missionary work is hard

 Good morning from Finland! 

Now I have found that this blog is the most fun to keep, at least so far. Thank you to the people reading it. If no one read it, it would be more difficult for me to continue. But I think I am writing this mostly for myself, to remember and keep somekind of missionary work journal for myself to look back on.

Missionary work is really tough. I remember when I was street contacting people in Jyväskylä on my mini mission... One person THREW the Book of Mormon on the ground and yelled at us. A lady argued with us a long time once when we visited her. I knew this could happen but I still got very shocked.

Nowadays missionaries can use facebook and they have it a little easier to invite people to come visit church and we often have many fun activities at church during the week. I want to support them and also I get to eat, play games and hang out with all the people at church. We have game night on Tuesdays, Pancake evening on Thursdays and on Saturdays we watch The Chosen (a series about Jesus Christ). I have severe depression and anxiety but these activities have helped me a lot. I do not want to stay at home and feel alone and sad anymore.This is a real miracle in my life.

I love all my new friends at the activities at church. 

Another difficult aspect of missionary work is the emotinal stress you can feel during your mission. I was too serious about my job as a missionary when I was on my mini mission... I also had the predisposition for getting a psychosis, my biological parents also had had mental health issues. Nowadays I feel really good, I have the right medicine and I rest a lot so I don't get stressed out. 

It's a tough schedule to go to bed 10.30 pm and wake up 6.30 am every day. To keep everything going. I just could not cope with it and got so stressed I could only sleep 4 hours a night. That is way too little for me. The stress of living with two strangers also took its toll. We do not always get along perfectly with our companion(s) and it can all be a little too much.

I am grateful for my difficulties during my mission because even though I became very very ill, my mssion have lasted most of my life, because I have kept on with the missionary work and always tried to help the missionaries.Once a missionary, always a missionary...

More later!