Excerpts from letters

May 3, 2010

Family,

Yes we got change calls on Saturday but I'm emailing you today because it won't work out later in the week. So, I am getting moved, again, to Espoo. Espoo is basically part of Helsinki, kinda on the western side. My new companion is Elder Nikiforov from Russia! He only has 6 weeks left before he goes home so I'll be getting another new companion in 6 weeks. The two of us will the Helsinki Zone Zone Leaders. Luckily, he's been a zone leader for forever so he'll be able to train me up pretty well. Once again, I think President was in a funny mood again when he made the decision to now make me a zone leader. It's kinda sad to leave Kouvola because I was only here for 6 weeks. The ward was pretty shocked. They all thought that Elder Fuchs would be the one to leave because he's already been here for 3 changes. But it'll be a lot of fun. Elder Nikiforov is a stud and we get to travel around and do ''zone leader stuff.'' Whatever that entails, I'm not totally sure but we have a car again! It kinda stinks because I just got my bike like 4 weeks ago and now I won't really need it at all for the rest of my mission...Oh well, I'll sell it to someone and then the problem is solved. There are actually 2 wards in Espoo and we're in Espoo 2. I actually think that that's the ward the Nielsons from Colorado go to. I guess I'll find out on Sunday!

Speaking of Finnish, it's going pretty well. I really think we know more than we want to give ourselves credit for as missionaries. Of course, it depends on the topic of conversation and some people just use really weird words that no one knows but overall I do ok. Everyday we hear words we don't know so we try to learn them but you kinda can just infer a lot of the time what the mysterious word means using the context of the conversation. It's a lot of fun though. I hope I can find a good way to keep it up when I get home. It's a beautiful language and only Finns/Mormon missionaries/random Italian exchange students can speak it. We still speak a lot of English together but we do also speak Finnish together too. I can't give you an exact percentage because we speak A LOT of Finglish (Finnish + English mixed together).

April 19, 2010

Anywho last week was a pretty crazy one. We had one normal work day because the rest of the days we were traveling or something. We were in Lappeenranta on Tuesday for splits, Helsinki Thursday night/Friday for a District Leader Meeting, Wednesday was District Meeting here in Kouvola etc...It was a really good week though. We were able to teach a few times and some good things happened.

This morning we had a school present with the Relief Society President from the ward. It went fine. The teacher was asking a lot of pretty intense/''deep'' questions that are hard to answer even in English. For example, ''Do you believe that only Mormons go to heaven?'' I answered by saying what Joseph Smith told that one reporter guy, ''No, not even all Mormons go to heaven.'' (something along those lines). I continued by saying HOW someone can get to heaven by describing Christ's Gospel, eli 1. Faith 2. Repentance 3. Baptism 4. Gift of the Holy Ghost 5. Enduring to the End. I described each step but pointed out that when God wants someone to work in His name, He asks them to. In other words saving ordinances must be done by the right authority and power. He then asked, ''So you believe that the Catholics, Orthodox, Lutheran...don't have authority to do these things?'' That was a much easier question. ''Correct,'' says I. Then there was a pretty strong silence/feeling in the room. Now, as missionaries it is 100% ineffective to go around talking about other churches and why we're right. We only teach about the things that have blessed us and how others too can get the same joy and blessings. But when someone asks a question that simple and direct, a simple and direct answer is needed. It was a pretty good presentation overall. Afterwards the teacher said he asks those kind of questions because his students hardly ask questions and he wants them to think about these kind of things. I'm glad he was brave enough to do so.

So yesterday was one of the best church times I've had since coming to the country. It was ward conference so the Stake Presidency and other Stake leaders came to visit. We had planned for another investigator to come but she kinda backed out a day or two before. However, a little bit to our surprise, the husband (of the older couple we are teaching) came to church. It was so good. The speakers said things which were exactly what he needed to hear. The Spirit was great and the members, as always, did a great job taking care of him. We're going to teach him again on Thursday with the same couple from the ward that came last time. We're excited for it! He's doing really well.


April 12, 2010

Family,

Conference was really nice. We went to Lahti and stayed with the missionaries there because conference isn't broadcast in Kouvola. It was fun. No one else from our ward came to Lahti. One of our investigators was going to go to conference somewhere but she wasn't sure yet. Apparently it wasn't in Lahti! Honestly we're not totally sure she was able to go. We tried calling her but she didn't pick up so we'll have to wait and see what happened. We get to watch all of the sessions except for Sunday afternoon. We have to wait for the conference Liahona for that stuff.

There's not really much to report on teaching for last week because we didn't get to! All of our investigators were gone/busy because of Easter and there are very few less actives that actually live in the Kouvola area. Almost all of the less actives live in the two cities we visit: Loviisa and Kotka. These two places are in this ward but are both a little bit of a trip away (45 minutesish). It didn't work out for anyone in those places to meet last week so yeah.

I'll tell you what though, Finns love their holidays. If it's not a holiday, things go normally, stores are open, people go to work, people are outside...However, if it is a holiday, it's like everyone goes into hiding and the city shuts down. Friday was a ''Pyhä Päivä,'' a ''Holy Day'' and so was Sunday. Apparently today is too because everything is still closed and no one is outside. The members told us today is also a ''Pyhä Päivä'' being Easter Monday and all. On Friday and Sunday we were told not to tract because the last thing we want to do is make people angry. Today, though, we're kinda scared to go tracting because everything/everyone is still in ''Pyhä Päivä'' mode. We'll see what happens I guess. If I don't write on Monday it's because we got mugged by an angry Finn for disrupting his Pyhä Päivä.

March 29, 2010

Suurinmoinen Perhe,

It is nice to be here in Kouvola. Elder Fuchs is a stud and keeps me in line :) It's also nice because there are more people here to teach so we spend more of our time teaching and not walking around/tracting.

So as district leader, I am semi-responsible for the missionaries in this district. And by semi-responsible, I mean they still take care of themselves, of course, but at the end of every week on Sunday, they text me their numbers for the week which I record into the area book and then I pass the information up to the Zone Leaders and then they pass it up to President's assistants who then pass it up to President himself. I also conduct District Meeting for our district which is held a certain amount of times depending on the proximity of the cities to each other. For example, in Helsinki where everyone is close, they have district meeting every week. In our district, we're going to have one every other week (about). Elder Fuchs and I also get to go and do splits in the other cities in our district to check up on the others and see how they're doing. That's more or less all it is. So far it's fun. Luckily, the missionaries in this District are outstanding and take care of themselves very well.

Things are all going very well in Finland. This year has been dubbed the ''Year of Change.'' Anyone that says that Europe doesn't baptize a lot of people needs to come and see what's happening here. The numbers are off the charts good and are improving so rapidly it's unbelievable. But that's just it, we have to believe and that's why it's working.

March 23, 2010

Dearest Family,

Yes I got transferred. I am now in Kouvola, a city pretty close to Helsinki. My companion is now Elder Fuchs. He's been in the country for 3 months and is way cool. Guess where he's from. Austria!! And his companion before me was a Swede, so last night it was me (the American), Elder Fuchs (the Austrian), and Elder Karlsson (the Swede) all together. It was quite an international experience. I am here because I am now the Kouvola District Leader. In the Kouvola District are the cities of Kouvola (duh), Lappeenranta, and Hyvinkää. I guess President was in a funny mood or something when he made that decision.

The ward here in Kouvola is supposed to be pretty sweet. Not very big, maybe 50 or so, but still pretty good. I've met a couple of the people in this ward when I was in Kuopio because they have kids there that they visited and they were way cool. Kouvola is slightly smaller than Rauma but I don't think it's quite as spread out. Our apartment is right in the city center, above one of the clothing stores. It's really nice because everything is very close and accessable

March 15, 2010

In other news, last week was Zone Conference in Tampere. It was really good, if not my favorite one. Yes we ate reindeer at a member's house a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty good, kind gamey but good. No we actually don't eat a whole lot of fish. I've only had it a couple of times; both times it was really good though.

Last Friday we had splits with Elder Pettus and his companion from Turku. It was pretty fun to be with Elder Pettus for a while again. This is his last week and then he and his group all go home next week. Pretty crazy. When we started together, he still had like 7 months. Now he only has like 10 days. This coming Saturday is change calls. We're pretty sure I'm leaving and Elder Powell will be staying. So, next week, when you don't hear from me on Monday wait until Tuesday/Wednesday!

Our investigators are doing alright. The 19-year old prayed for the first time with us. It was kinda funny, we would commit him to read something from the Book of Mormon and then pray afterwards. However, he would read a little bit but not pray and then wonder why he hasn't received an answer about God. So, we figured we would have him pray with us right then so he did. Now we know that he knows how and he doesn't have any excuses not to pray! He would be a sweet member if he keeps reading AND praying to get his answer. Our other main investigator is from China and is a really good kid. He's been taught basically everything so now we're just going through the Plan of Salvation in a bit more detail. His parents back in China want to talk to him about joining the church before he makes a decision so we're just kinda waiting for him to do that. He can't go home until the summer so in the meantime we chill here and keep teaching him stuff.


February 22, 2010
Family,

Rauma is good. Last week was one of those weeks where we spent most of our time trying to find new people to teach. On Friday and Saturday, we had no teaching plans whatsoever so we spent those two entire days tracting and street contacting. The missionary work wasn't the hard part; it was that it happened to be -30 with wind chill both days. If nothing else it makes a good story. We were in Tampere on Wednesday for District Meeting which was fun. President Brown taught about pride from President Benson's talk, ''Beware of Pride.'' So good.

The new apartment isn't anything too special. It's actually attached to a home that is owned by a member from the ward. She and her husband live in the same building and there are some random people that live on the second floor. The apartments are all totally seperate with their own bathrooms and kitchens and everything. However, our apartment is a one roomer, the smallest in the mission. In other words, our beds, desks, couch, dressers, everything is in the same room. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it for next week.

Yes the big 20 is next week. That means I'll no longer be a teenager. Kinda weird. Elder Powell turns 21 in April so he's already used to it. I think to celebrate we'll go tracting or maybe teach a lesson. We'll be in Helsinki on the night of the 3rd through the morning of the 5th so I guess that's kinda like a birthday party, without cake, presents, candles, ice cream and stuff. Yeah the address I gave you last week will work just fine. Don't worry about anything fancy, or anything for that matter, it's exciting enough just to get a piece of paper in the mail box so anything more than that could trigger a heart attack or something.

Yes so in Kuopio they speak Savo. In Rauma they speak...Rauma. The Finns joke that there's Finnish, and then there's Rauma: 2 different languages. Non-Rauma speakers don't even understand the Rauma speakers. The nice thing, though, is that unlike in Kuopio where everyone is just hard to understand, only a few random people actually speak the Rauma dialect. In other words, it is MUCH easier to understand people here. Elder Powell, who has been here for about 5 months, said that he's only run into like 2 or 3 people that spoke the full Rauma and that they were impossible to understand. Everyone else, though, is quite a bit easier.

Yesterday after church we went and ate dinner with member who is actually from Germany but is working here while his family is still in Germany. He speaks a little bit of English and zero Finnish. Even so, he is in church every Sunday and we try to translate for him. We don't do a very good job but he's a way sweet guy. It was kinda funny because while we were still at church, he was talking with one of the Finnish sisters from the ward. Now, he speaks just a little bit of English and the sister speaks only Finnish, nothing else. As you can imagine, it was kinda fun to listen to their conversation as they were talking about 2 completely different things but were very nice to each other.
Example:
German Member (in English): ''Thanks for the cookies!''
Finnish member (in Finnish): ''Was it nice when your wife visited last week?''
German Member (again, in English): ''Yes, the cookies were very good!''

Classic. But the message is that it's way cool how members from different countries with a language barrier still try to love each other and be friendly. It's so great.