More Pictures!

We were happy to receive more pictures this week. The first one is of Dallin and several guys from the same dorm building (and some from our Colorado Stake). On a temple trip, Dallin bumped into these guys. Elder Covey (from his student ward), Dallin, Steven Allred (Tuscany Ward), Justin Schoof (Dallin's roommate & fellow Finn) and D.J. (Smoky Hill Ward).

The next one is of the 4 Finns. Elder Empey, Elder Ranzenberger, Elder Schoof & Dallin.

Lots of language studying is the main theme again! Dallin very much enjoys his teachers (former Finnish Elders). He is learning a lot, working hard and loving it! Well, other than the food.

Here are a few excerpts from his last email:

Finnish is going well. It gets harder everyday because the grammar starts to pile up but I'm understanding it all, it's just a lot to remember. Our Finnish lesson actually went really well. We were really nervous and then were even more nervous when our teachers found out that there were a couple of real life Finnish people there! So, we got to teach a couple return missionaries along with the real Finn. We could understand most of what the return missionaries were saying, but we couldn't understand really anything of what the Finn said. But nonetheless, we were happy with how well we did, considering it to be our first time. We have to teach again tomorrow night so we've been working on that a bit. So far so good. I have learned a lot of new Finnish words actually. I learn about 30 or so everyday. What words do you want to know? Joulupukki is Santa Claus. I did hear that a snake bit Hildi. I hope she is doing better because I need to teach her some finnish commands when I get back. Istu!! (sit!!). Oh this is exciting! I can now roll my r's. I'm still practicing but none of us could roll them when we came in, and we've been practicing and now we can. It's pretty sweet.

The food is, well, edible. Some things are pretty good, other times not so much.

I don't know if there's anything I really need, honestly. We can get most of what we need at the MTC bookstore for a discounted rate, just for missionaries, which doesn't really make sense because only missionaries shop there.

Dallin very much enjoys his companion, Elder Ranzenberger. They get along very well and work hard together. He has a great perspective and is encouraging Cath & I to attend the Temple often...good advice!

He has requested a few things to be sent to him while he is still in the MTC. His U of U Sugar Bowl shirt (I am so proud!) and a bag of jelly beans.

He loves letters! DearElder.com is a great way to write to him while he is at the MTC. Please be sure to send him notes!

To Cross The Street is Sweet!

We are expecting more pictures from Dallin some time this week. We have added some excerpts of Dallin's last two emails.

He escaped the Swine Flu (so far), but came down with Pink Eye. He is also a District Leader. Here is his description of what happened:

So here's a story. I wake up Sunday 98% over my cold I had last week. But guess what. I wake up with a pink eye. I wanted to scream but that's not a missionary thing to do. So Elder Ranzenberger and I got to go on a field trip to the doctor's office a couple miles away. We even got to go to a Rite Aid to fill my prescription! It was so weird to be out of the MTC boundaries but it felt good. That alone almost made the pink eye worth it. It's pretty much gone now so it's good. However, everyone else in my district (the other 3 Finns) all have colds. Elder Schoof had a nasty cough that most likely spread his cold to the other two because he refused to go to the health clinic. Gross.

So I am now the District Leader for the 4 of us. Elder Schoof and Elder Empey are the new zone leaders because our last zone leaders left for Estonia on Tuesday at 3 in the morning. They were way good elders so it was sad to see them leave. Because of my pink eye, I missed my first meeting as District Leader so that was kinda inconvenient. But like I said, we got to leave the MTC and that made it worth it.

As of last week, Dallin and the other three missionaries that checked in the same day are the only Finnish Elders in the MTC. This week, 9 additional check-in. Apparently, Estonian is sort of close to the Finnish language, so the Finns and Estonians are in the same District.

Finnish continues to go well. Dallin gave us a few more language lessons:

Here's some Finnish stuff because it's so fun.

This emphasizes the importance of pronunciation because the end result can be quite different if something is pronounced just slightly wrong:

Saammeko tulla tapaamaan sinun miehesi?

May we come to meet your husband?

Sammakko tulee tappamaan sinun miehesi.

A frog is coming to kill your husband.

As you can see, the spellings are barely different for some of the words yet the meanings are totally different. We speak very slowly most of the time to make sure that we are saying the right thing. I'm sure I'll have some sweet stories when I get back.

He was scheduled to teach his first full lesson in Finnish last week. We will have to wait and see how that experience went.

Dallin continues to really enjoy working in the referral center. This is where he gets to call people that have expressed some desire to learn about the Church.

We are quite excited because it sounds like we will get a chance to talk to Dallin on his way out of the country. The previous Finns had a long layover and were given permission from their Mission President to call home. We are hoping this will work-out! We don't have a date yet, but will know in the coming weeks.

Dallin hits his 1/2 way point in the MTC this week (he is scheduled to be there 12 weeks). As the "papa Finns" left, he is getting very excited to get there.

Dallin really enjoys letters, so please send them. The best way is DearElder.com.

That's all for now.

MTC Pictures!

Well, we finally received some pictures from Dallin (Vanhin Grimm). I will put a few on the website here. The first is his name tag. We are all having a hard time pronouncing the words, so if you can do it, good for you!

The second one is of Dallin and the 4 Finnish missionaries that checked in the same day. Dallin is standing next to his companion, Elder Ranzenberger. The other two are Elder Schoof (one of Dallin's BYU roommates) and Elder Empey. The last one is of all of the Finnish missionaries currently in the MTC (9, 10 including Dallin).

His companion was released from his Swine Flu quarantine. I have attached an excerpt of Dallin's last email where he talks about this:

Elder Ranzenberger is feeling fine ever since he got out of Swine Zone. Elder Schoof and I, however, picked up a cold or some form of the flu at the tailend of last week so we've had sore throats and stuffy noses. When Elder Ranzenberger was isolated, they gave us some "tamiflu" pills to help prevent us from getting the flu too. So we don't know if what we have now is a cold or a watered down form of the flu because of the pills we had. It hasn't been too bad and I started feeling better today. I've still been able to work hard and focus, despite the sickness I think because God knows I have a lot to learn still and I can't waste time with stupid things like sickness. we refuse to get checked out in case they want to quarantine us. elder ranzenberger told us horror stories about that place so we don't want to see if we have the swine or not.

He has been able to see some of his friends and family that are currently in the MTC! He has seen Steven Allred and his cousin Lars a few times. He will have two more cousins at the MTC soon.

The language is going well for him. He continues to send us Finnish grammar lessons. It is a very different language than English! There appears to be a bit of a language issue at the MTC. The following is a pretty funny excerpt regarding this phenomenon:

so here's one thing that drives us (the finnish missionaries) crazy: the spanish speaking missionaries. as you probably know, there are a lot of spanish speaking missionaries because a huge chunk of the world speaks spanish. what bothers us is that they all think that every other soul at the mtc also speaks spanish too. all the time they start talking to one of us in spanish even though our nametags are clearly not in spanish. it's kinda sad because we can understand about half of what they say and none of us have taken a single spanish class; we just don't really know how to respond. so they'll talk, we can't respond, they get a little annoyed. seriously, they do. so we start speaking finnish to them. they then get really confused and will either give up or will start speaking english. it's a funny exchange but i think if i hear "como esta?" one more time i'm going to lose it.

Nice!

A pretty cool thing happened last week. There was a training session at the MTC with new mission presidents. President Monson and several other General Authorities were there for the training. Dallin got to see them, but not meet them directly. Because the G.A.'s were at the MTC, they combined their Sacrament Meeting with all of the branches at the MTC. Dallin sat down next to a couple and said hello. They started talking and come to find out, the couple that he was talking to was Julie Walker's parents (Julie is in our former Ward in Aurora, CO)! It was great to get a call from Julie with a message from Dallin through her parents.

It is hard to believe, but he has been in the MTC for almost 4 weeks already. Today was Fast Sunday so that leaves 23 more to go! :)

That's all for now...