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.