Dallin's Mission

Excerpts from letters

2011-01-20T12:33:00.002-06:00

January 17, 2011

Family,

So I am now in Kajaani. It is a very cold place. It is away from the ocean, therefore it doesn't get the warm air from whatever ocean current that goes past and it's out more towards Russia. We are on bikes. This is the first city in which I am on a bike (not counting the three weeks on bikes in Kouvola). It is a branch here; there are about 30 active members. I also got sick last week and had a mild fever on Saturday. I really like it though. I almost feel more ''free.'' We can work much more in our own city and because we are always on the street, we get to talk to a lot more people than we would if we traveled by car. Even though the ward is small, they are so excited about missionary work. They have activities twice a month specifically designed for members to bring their friends/neighbors/family members to learn about the church and the Plan of Salvation. Last year there were three baptisms in the branch, which is really good, especially considering the size. This year they want 10, which is so possible. One lady we are teaching right now should be getting baptized in February. She is really busy with work and is pretty stressed with a bunch of things so it may have to get moved back a bit. We'll shoot for February.

Yeah the guy in Oulu got his citizenship papers sorted out the day that I left. Pretty much a miracle. He had his interview with the appropriate priesthood holder and he is all set and ready to go for baptism. He should be getting baptized within the next couple of weeks or so. I talked to him on the phone before I left and he was really excited. He is going to be a good member.

It's fun being a district leader because I can be a bit more hands on with the district members. I get to teach more often because we have district meetings every now and then and it's just nice because I get to apply all of the things that I learned as a zone leader on the zone level and apply them on a smaller/more concentrated scale. I am excited to see the results and success that will be coming.

January 10, 2011

Family,

Well, change calls came on Saturday. I am getting transferred to Kajaani, a city a couple hours away from Oulu. I leave tomorrow and will be companions with Elder Shumway, who has been out a little under a year. I'll be the district leader of the Oulu District, comprising of cities Kajaani, Oulu, and Rovaniemi. I was pretty shocked to get the call. I thought for sure that I would be here for at least another transfer, if not two.

The one investigator is still waiting for his citizenship. He wants to get baptized so badly but I think he is realizing that there really isn't anything anyone can do except wait. He is such a good missionary too. He invites friends to activities and gives copies of the Book of Mormon to everybody. He is so solid.

One of our other investigators made it to church yesterday. She is a young mother with two kids. We have met with her once and have been in contact with her for the last few weeks. I think that she really enjoyed the meetings (she stayed for all 3!). The members did a good job being her friend and helping her to feel welcome.

We are going to visit the family again tonight. We aren't really sure how willing they are to change their ways, but we'll go and see what we can do. They are super nice and will probably feed us dinner again. The one guy is Muslim and loves telling stories about the history of the Middle East and Islam and such. Really good people.

January 3, 2011

Perheeni,

It's nice that the Holidays have been celebrated and that things are more back to normal. It was really special to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Finnish style. We had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the Finnish culture. For New Year's Eve and Day we had to be in the apartment by 6 pm and weren't allowed to go tracting at all. We had a couple of appointments and didn't do too much else. On New Year's Eve we made some bread to give away, did a little cleaning, had a teaching appointment, and that's about it. On New Year's Day we ate breakfast again at the Calls place. Sister Call made ''sticky buns'' or as we would call it pull-apart bread. I wonder if other families are just more creative with their food names... :) After that we went to the Brower family for cake and to talk for a while. After that Elder Peterson and I delivered the bread we made to members/less-actives and such. It was pretty fun. We just spent our evening planning and discussing things we need to work on.

Excerpts from letters

2011-01-20T11:54:00.002-06:00

December 20, 2010

Our star investigator is so ready for baptism, he is just waiting to see if he gets his Finnish citizenship (he isn't from Finland). He should know by the end of the year if he gets it. Pray for him to get it because without it, he cannot be baptized. It's a pretty complicated situation so I won't try to explain it. He just needs his citizenship and then he's getting baptized! Last week he introduced us to one of his friends who is also basically converted already. He read a bit from the Book of Mormon and was so shocked by it's power. The way he said it is that when he reads it and when we speak about it, it is as though is heart comes out and is soaking it all up. The Book of Mormon changed both of their lives. It is important to remember that it's not the Book of Mormon itself, but it's the Spirit speaking through the Book of Mormon, testifying about Christ and Heavenly Father. My testimony of the Book of Mormon's converting power has been strengthened so much by meeting people who read it, feel the Spirit, and decide to change their lives. Imagine if we as members of the church would read the Book of Mormon more earnestly and frequently. Wow, that's a lot of power.

December 13, 2010

Last Friday was zone conference meeting with President Brown. We spent a lot of time preparing for that by picking people up from the train station, setting up stuff at the chapel, organizing some dinner things. For dinner we made pizza. A lot of pizza. We made about 14, in a kitchen with only one oven. It was a miracle. The conference was so good. It was a special Christmas conference centered on Christ and his Atonement/life. It was really really good. I have never felt so strongly about my personal relationship with Christ as I do now. The ''personalness'' of the Atonement is so amazing. I have never felt so close to the Savior before. It was really interesting because a year ago at the last Christmas conference, much of the same material was presented. This time however, I was influenced much differently and more powerfully. It was so interesting to see how that happened. We tend to change over time and so do our needs. That's one of the awesome things of Christ's Atonement. It doesn't just cover our sins and guilt, but it covers EVERTYHING. Any kind of pain, suffering, sorrow, and just anything that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement. That's something that I have learned. There is a reason that there is a special spirit around Christmas time, and it's not just because of the gifts and lots of food. It's because it is a time to remember that the Savior of each and every one of us was born, marking the beginning of his mission in mortality. I really like it.

December 7, 2010

Things are going great. Elder Peterson is my new companion and is great. Yes I am still a zone leader, but in the North Zone! Oulu is a really awesome place. I had visited here a few times in the past for conferences and what not but I never thought that I would actually come here to serve. The branch is awesome. They are missionary gung-ho and do so many good things. Yesterday a lady who was baptized a couple of years ago invited us to meet one of her friends who is having some pretty hard times. It was a good meeting and now she is an investigator. That simple! There is a really good spirit here and tons of potential for success. In fact, there has been tons of success in the north this whole year so it's a huge blessing to come up here and be part of it. Last year there were 12 baptisms in the whole north. This year there have already been 30 and counting. It's awesome.

Oulu is much smaller than Helsinki. I kinda like the smaller city feel. Despite the fact that it is smaller, there are us, a sister threesome, and a senior couple here, 7 missionaries in total. It's fun to be with them.

There are some pretty good investigators too. One guy was met just a couple of weeks ago and is progressing so quickly. The plan is that he is going to be baptized on the 18th of this month but that may have to change because of family difficulties. We'll pray for the best and it will hopefully work out.

It is a bit colder here and it has been snowing the last three days pretty much nonstop. They don't speak Savo here, they speak a northern dialect that adds syllables to words. It isn't too different than ''book'' Finnish though and not everyone speaks it very hard so it's not too bad to understand. That and I have been a missionary a lot longer now so I can pick it out a bit better. In fact, given my age in the mission and places that I've been in I want to try and adopt a bit of the dialect. I will be able to visit Kuopio again for splits. We should be going next week, which will be the first time that I will be back in Kuopio since I left back in February. Elder Ranzenberger is still in this zone and he is training a greenie, which is really cool. We have a Christmas conference on Friday where President is going to come and teach the zone here in Oulu. There I'll get to see/meet a lot of the missionaries that have been in the north, including Elder Ränzenberger! Because our mission is so small (only about 60 missionaries) we all know each other or at least have met each other/know of each other somehow.

It's quite a bit darker up here. In fact the sun is already starting to set (it's currently 12:46). The sunset will take a long time though, a couple or three hours or so.

We have a car and live really close to the University of Oulu.

November 29, 2010

Dear Family,

So, I'll start with the transfer information. I am getting transferred to Oulu, way up north. It is going to be really cold and really dark. Cool! Yesterday at church was really sad. I have been here for about 7.5 months or so. That's a long time. When our Bishop got up to conduct the meeting, the first thing he says is, ''We have bad news. Elder Grimm is getting transferred to Oulu.'' Many of the ward members here became like family. And it's right before Christmas. A lot of members invited us over to eat throughout the week so we will have a number of appointments with them. They are really good opportunities though because every time we eat at a member's home, we get to encourage them to do missionary work and strengthen their testimonies. We also have a number of investigators to meet this week. It's going to be a busy week. I leave on Friday. After our zone leader council meeting on Friday myself and Elder Peterson (who is currently in Oulu and will be my new companion) will be taking a night train up. He's a good missionary. He is in the group that was after me in the MTC, eli we were in the MTC for a few weeks with his group. I like him.

Last week we had a cool experience with one of our investigators. He was up until 4 in the morning the night prior to our visit reading the Book of Mormon. He read from 4 Nephi all the way up to Moroni 9, leaving the last chapter unread. We read it with him and he really liked it a lot. Even though he hasn't come to church yet he has changed so much simply from reading. The challenge is that he believes the Book of Mormon to be true because it teaches the same doctrines as the Bible, but he hasn't yet identified a strong spiritual witness about its truthfulness. He has told us aboue the good feelings he gets when we talk about it and when he prays but it's a bit of a challenge helping him to connect the dots that that is God telling him it's true! He might be able to come to the ward Christmas party though and that would be a big step.

November 15, 2010

Missionary work continues to go really well. Everyone in our zone is really energized after having the week of training meetings. There are a good number of individuals in our zone alone who are waiting to be baptized. Our focus right now is shifted more towards the members. There is so much potential with the members of the church it's crazy. As missionary work goes faster and faster, more and more members are feeling the spirit and are wanting to take part. We have a number of dinner appointments coming up scheduled by members with whom we have never had the chance to visit yet. I can't even wait for Christmas to see the impact that it has on the work that is already going forward so quickly. There's something about Christmas that really brings the spirit into people's lives and softens them up. And it's a good excuse for us to make people happy. I mean, in the summer time we can't sing Christmas songs while we are tracting, but around Christmas we can!
November 8, 2010

Dearest Perhe,

Today, we made pies. Six pies, in fact. This week we have the training meetings again so we are keeping up our tradition of baking something for one of the lunches as a surprise. The time we made cookies. The second time we made cookies and banana bread. This time we were determined to step it up. So, we made pies. Apple pies. They are so good too. It's kinda like service. And it's fun.

We had our zone leader council meeting with President Brown last week. Everything in the mission is going really well. By the end of the year there will be many many more baptisms than there were last year. It's not about the numbers, it's about the fact that more people are willing to accept the Gospel and change their lives. It is really neat. I have talked a lot about how well things are going because it is so exciting.

November 1, 2010

Yesterday was our fast Sunday because the coming Sunday is Stake Conference. Our church meetings were really awesome. There a lot of really good testimonies and there was a great spirit during the meetings. A week ago was the farewell of a guy going on his mission. That family is really neat. Yesterday the mom came and invited us over for Christmas! Yeah! We already have a Christmas place! I really hope I get to stay in this ward as long as possible, to be here for Christmas and hopefully even after it. It feels like we have a very good relationship with many members and I would love to stay in it. That said, I will go wherever I am told to go. At least I don't have to worry about it for the next five weeks.

Excerpts from letters

2011-01-20T11:33:00.002-06:00

October 25, 2010

Stake Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks. Last night we received a call from a member of the stake high council. He called President Brown, who gave our phone number to him. Apparently there is a special meeting for those who will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood soon and their families. They asked President to speak but he isn't going to be able to make it but President said we could do it. We need to start preparing for that one! It'll be fun, as long as we prepare properly and pray a lot.

October 18, 2010

Our investigators are doing ok. One reads the Book of Mormon like crazy (so far he's read over 400 pages), but he doesn't think he's ready yet to come to church. Another is really good at keeping commitments and commandments for a while, but then kinda stops again. He progresses, and then slows down, and then progresses, and slows down. It's ok, we are being patient.

October 4, 2010

We had an ok week. We had a district meeting in Kerava, about 45 minutes away. It was good. The highlight was, of course, General Conference. It was very very good. We watched the Sunday Afternoon session today at the office with a few other missionaries. I really enjoyed all of the sessions. We watched them at the Haaga chapel. They have it in Finnish projected onto a screen in the chapel and then in English projected onto a screen in the overflow area. All of the missionaries were in the English section and so were many of the Finns. It would be cool to listen to it in Finnish but one of the best things about conference is hearing the actual voices of the general authorities. With the translation that bonus is lost. We brought a bunch of sandwich stuff and just ate at the chapel. It wasn't anything too special but the point was simply not to be hungry. It was fun to see Elder Causse give the prayer because we met him! Yeah! Did you listen to Elder Nelson's talk? I guess it was in Priesthood Session. What he talked about is exactly what members need to do to help missionary work! He is so right! Besides, how can you argue with an Apostle?

September 27, 2010

Family,

We had a pretty good week. The training meetings were all great and it was a lot of fun to have Elder Ranzenberger with us. He and I still get along really well and we had a few good opportunities to teach together. It was really good.

Today we went to Helsinki with the Espoo I elders for a few hours. We walked around and looked at some stores and stuff. We didn't take any pictures because we weren't really doing site seeing. Elder Leppard and I are looking for some good winter gloves because last winter my hands were always freezing cold and I don't want to deal with that again.

Our investigators are doing pretty well. One of them stopped drinking coffee, which is awesome. Another is reading a lot out of the Book of Mormon. Another is praying to know if God is really there. Each investigator is so different from another. They all progress differently and have different needs and experiences. Two of them came to church yesterday and I think they like the fast and testimony meeting. Church is a little bit more stressful when you have investigators there, though. Trying to make everything perfect and make sure that they are being taking care of is a lot of work.

We are excited for General Conference. Watching Conference for us is like watching a football game, but better. The elders from Hyvinkää are going to come down for the weekend and stay with us because Conference isn't shown at their chapel. Because of the time difference and such, we get to watch one session Saturday night and then all day Sunday is just conference sessions with an hour or two inbetween for food breaks. We don't get to watch the Sunday afternoon session because of the time difference so we might go watch the Relief Society meeting on Saturday to make up for it...

September 13, 2010

We had a number of opportunities to discuss with members missionary work last week. Some of the members are so excited and are trying to arrange meetings with their friends and neighbors. That's the best way to do it! I think I've said before, in a perfect world, the members do all of the finding and the missionaries can do the teaching. The best thing is that some of these potential investigators are families. There is nothing better than teaching an entire family. This ward is made of almost exclusively of families. For a family to join the church the transition would be so smooth.

August 30, 2010

Yes, our investigator, was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday as scheduled. It was actually pretty cold (about 12 degrees C) but she said the water wasn't too bad. Several of her family members came to the service which was really great. The location was so perfect because of how peaceful and pretty it was. It was totally silent when she and the brother to baptize her walked into the water. There was a good Spirit present and everything went very well.

AUGUST 23, 2010

Perheelleni Missourissa,

Last week was our super intense week-long training meeting with President. Never before have I learned so much stuff in just a week. My head was pretty sore by the end of the week. The great thing is that it is all 100% applicable in any life situation. As a missionary or regular member or regular person or whatever, the principles apply. Because the meetings were all day every day we were only able to do teaching/missionary work in the evenings. Even so, a lot of good things happened.

The baptism is scheduled for this Saturday and all is going well. The most stressful part/biggest problem was finding a place to have the service. She wants to be baptized in Lohja Lake so it was a challenge to find a place that would be suitable and would ''please'' the most people. A little stressfull but now it has been taken care of so it's all in condition. Yes we will take lots of pictures.

These next two weeks are going to be insanely busy. We have district meetings we to visit, splits we to do, people to teach, and about a thousand other things. They are all good things, luckily, but we're going to be pretty tired. Oh well. Missionaries are supposed to be tired. We'll take it easy topside.

Last Monday we did a lot of baking. Banana bread, cookies, and pizza. We brought the cookies to one of the training meetings and gave a loaf of banana bread to President and Sister Brown. Mmmm.

August 16, 2010

Family,

Soo another week. We were, as always, crazy busy with all of the different things to do. We had splits on Wednesday with the Espoo I elders and then again on Saturday in Hyvinkää with the Hyvinkää elders. On Friday was Zone Leader Council with all of the zone leaders and President/Sister Brown at their home. We always go to the temple that morning with the others. That's always an awesome experience. The mission is starting to cruise forward. The number of baptisms is going to be quite a bit higher than it was last year, due to the great training from Elder Causse (the French seventy) and with the Spirit softening up the Finnish people

August 9, 2010

Family,

Last week was pretty intense. We had a lot of stuff from zone conference to a baptismal service to attend. Zone conference was awesome, as always. We didn't have to do a presentation this time because it was President presenting a new teaching program that came straight from the First Presidency and Twelve. Preach My Gospel is still the same and we still teach the same things, but the program is to teach missionaries how to teach. I'm pretty excited for it to come into full action soon. It's a pretty big deal.

Our investigator wanted to visit someone else's baptismal service to see what it's like so we attended one in Haaga (it's in Helsinki) on Tuesday. It was really good and she loved it. She is still doing great. There's not much to say except for that she is a good example and inspiration to us and to all the members who meet her.

Excerpts from letters

2011-01-20T11:07:00.002-06:00

July 26, 2010

Family,

Wee!! Our investigator has a baptismal date!! She will be baptized on the 28th of August in Lohja Lake. We are very excited. At the last teach we had planned to talk about baptism with her and see what she was thinking and she more or less brought it up herself and said she wants to be baptized in August. So, we picked the 28th. She has to get some eye surgery in the middle of August, thus the reason it will be so late in the month but that's ok. She is so ready. She keeps trying to teach her boyfriend the gospel and she accepts everything like crazy. We taught tithing earlier last week, which can be a stumbling block for many, but the Spirit told her don't worry about it, so she said she'd do it when she is a member.

We didn't get a change call so Elder Leppard and I get to stay together. He is only my second companion with whom I have will have been with for more than one change! Pretty weird. I can't believe that I've already been in Espoo for 3 months and after this change 4.5 months. Crazy.

Last Friday we were on a train to Kouvola for a district meeting and we got a call from President Brown. As you may know, every three months, missionaries in Russia have to renew their visas. He called and told us that such an event was happening, but one missionary's visa did not go through and has to wait until Tuesday. He asked us to take care of him for the next few days until his visa is good to go and he can go back to Russia. His name is Elder Haynes from Arizona. He's been a missionary for only 6 months, a little bit younger, and is trapped in Finland with us. I like him. He doesn't speak a lick of Finnish (who does?) and got to experience church, the lesson where our investigator set her baptismal date, a dinner appointment and Finland in general. We've all been having fun. He should be going back tomorrow.

July 19, 2010

Family,

So. It has been really hot lately. And humid. All of the Finns are amazed at how hot it is. First we have the coldest/longest/most intense winter in 7-10 years and then we have this crazy hot/humid summer. It's nuts.

Things have both slowed down and accelerated at the same time. Almost everyone is on vacation but the number of baptismal dates across the mission is shooting up and continues to climb faster and faster. Kinda strange how that works but we're not complaining! Our investigator close to baptism surprised us by coming to church yesterday. She is now back from vacation so we can get right back to it. The last thing we have to teach her is tithing and it was pretty convenient because they talked a lot about tithing at church yesterday so she's already learned the introduction to it. We're shooting for a baptismal date with her after we've taught it.

July 5, 2010

On Friday we had our zone conference with Elder Caussé. It was so good. He talked about exactly what we needed to hear to help get things going around yet another corner so we can baptize everyone. At least those that are baptizable. Friday night was a leadership meeting with us, President Brown, Elder Caussé, the stake presidency, and the other stake organization presidents. It was a sweet meeting. The whole meeting was how the members can be better missionaries and better help the missionaries. As soon as the few suggestions are enacted, everything will go forward that much faster. On Saturday was the Zone Leader Council up in Oulu. We jumped on a train from Helsinki at 7:30 and arrived at 2:00. It was a long ride. I got to see Elder Ranzenberger for a minute as he and his zone were just finishing up their meeting and leaving to the train station. A fun mini reunion. The council with Elder Caussé was also awesome. We have a good list of things to work on and make happen. He is such a good teacher it was awesome. He knows the scriptures so well and knows how to teach to people's needs. I really enjoyed being around him and trying to soak up knowledge. After the meeting we took a night train home. Let me tell you, that was an experience. It's hard to explain in words so the picture will have to suffice.

June 21, 2010

This morning we had a teach with our investigator who is so close to baptism it's ridiculous. She has narrowed it down to the first week in August when she could get baptized so she's going to pray about that and get a specific day. We'll follow up with her on Thursday about it. She is such a good example to her friends. She has taught one of her friends that alcohol is not good nor is coffee. This morning she told us that he has stopped drinking alcohol and today was the first day for him without coffee. It's kinda funny because he's very skeptical about the church and gives her a bunch of anti stuff but he is now trying to live the word of wisdom. It doesn't matter to her though, she knows what she told him to cut it out because it won't change her mind.

Next week is a mission tour with Elder Causse!! (He's from France). It's going to be so sweet. He's going to visit each of the zones for a day. We'll have basically another zone conference where the whole zone comes together at one of the chapels where he will tell us things and teach us things. We're all excited.

June 14, 2010

Wow what a week. Elder Nikiforov is now back in mother Russia and I'm with the elders in the Espoo I ward (my ward is the Espoo II ward). We'll still be together until tomorrow when my new companion comes. My new companion is Elder Leppard, from England. He's my papa Finn from the MTC so I already know him pretty well, and then he was in the Kouvola district when I was district leader there. He'll be coming from Lahti where he was district leader over the Tampere district. He's a good missionary and I'm excited to be with him.

Last Saturday was a baptism over in Haaga, a part of Helsinki. The three of us went and several of the other Helsinki missionaries were there as well, including the sister missionaries who taught the girl that was baptised. It was a very nice service. It was the first baptismal service that I had been to. There were several people who didn't speak Finnish there so they asked me to translate. I spoke into a little microphone and the people needing the translation wore headphones to listen. Let me tell you, speaking, listening, and translating are 3 completely different things. Listening is the easiest because it just makes sense in your head. Speaking is a bit harder because you have to put together the grammar principles and words yourself. Translating is a mess because you have to listen and speak in two languages at the same time. It was fun though and it went pretty ok.

June 7, 2010

A letter written to our ward:

My name is Elder Grimm and I have the privilege to serve in the Finland Helsinki Mission. I am the oldest of the Grimm children and have been in the field for approximately one year. Serving a mission has been one of the best (if not the best) experiences of my life. I would like to share a simple lesson learned in just the past few weeks. The question is, ''From where do we get our joy?'' Often we think that the more ''stuff'' we have, the more joy we obtain. I have learned that lasting joy or happiness can come only from the eternal things. Our television will eventually break; our car will eventually run out of gas, permanently. However, families can be together forever. We can enjoy life in the Celestial Kingdom FOREVER. The lesson I learned, to put it another way, is that we must be so careful to determine our sources of joy. A car or television or anything else of that nature is not bad, in it of itself, but if we seek happiness from these things, we will find ourselves in a never-ending search for more. Seek things of eternal consequence, not of immediate gratification. I am so happy to be a missionary. Thank you for taking care of my family. The church is true!

May 31, 2020

Another week come and gone just like that. We were insanely busy but it was good. The one investigator with the baptismal date decided to postpone it for a month so he can get more faith first. He's a good guy so we'll stay with him as long as is necessary. He was at church for all 3 hours, a first for him. Our other investigator was also at church for the full 3 hours. Last week when we visited her, she had invited her friend/neighbor over for the lesson. We ended up teaching him about the Book of Mormon and she was testifying along with us. It was great. Hopefully we'll be able to meet him again this week sometime.

May 17, 2010

Stake Conference was good. It was at this big conference center place the church rented in Helsinki because there aren't any church buildings that are big enough for stake conference. President Brown spoke, of course about missionary work. He did a really good job. Elder Nikiforov was trying to translate into Russian for a temple missionary couple from Russia. He was pretty done afterwards. Translating really makes your head hurt, especially since Finnish grammar is so different from Russian or English or any other language, for that matter.

Excerpts from letters

2011-01-20T10:14:00.002-06:00

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.

Making up for lost time

2010-02-18T11:25:00.005-06:00

We have been getting pictures (finally!). Dallin is now in Rauma...a city on the far Western coast of Finland. It appears to be a bit warmer (a relative term) than in Kuopio. Up until today, it had been around 0 degrees fahrenheit compared to -15 in Kuopio. Having said that, today, it was around -12!

Dallin got a pretty toasty coat from one of the families before he left Kuopio. Apparently, another Elder had left it a few years ago, so they gave it to Dallin. He has now had 2 bouts of frost bite, but has reported that no parts have fallen off (good thing).

He is now a Sr. companion and is doing well. His junior apparently speaks very good Finnish and they seem to be getting along pretty well.

They have been teaching several investigators. We don't have a lot of information on the investigators in Rauma, but he says that they are "close" to baptism. Please pray for his investigators!

It is hard to believe he has been out over 8 months now (33%!).

The picture of the sign on the door is pretty funny. They have been tracting a lot in apartment buildings because of the cold weather. The sign in the picture was on one of the doors. They meant to say Mormons Stop (meaning, I guess, don't knock on our door). They obviously struggle with spelling Mormon in English. Dallin said that the Finnish spelling was wrong as well.

He was in the Arctic Circle on Dec. 23rd. In Finland, that is when Santa leaves and Christmas Eve is when everyone opens presents. So he got to see Santa Claus leave to visit the kiddies.

He is doing well and has said that he has gained about 15lbs. He needed to! He has been bragging that it is all muscle weight because they have been working out in their apartment. Connor is now motivated to increase his muscle mass.

More later...enjoy the pictures.

more letters home

2009-12-07T08:09:00.002-06:00

December 7, 2009

Hi Family,

Another week come and gone and time is going pretty quick. In just three days will be my 6 month mark (not that I'm counting, it's just important to know the date all the time and it's not like you can just forget important days, like when I entered the MTC and such). I have yet to receive my package. Today is the tenth business day so I really hope I get it today so I can enjoy it all day because it's P-Day. If not, I'll definitely get it this week in time for our road trip to Joensuu.

We spent last weekend in Savonlinna. We actually went up Friday night because Sunday was Finland's ''Itsenäisyyspäivä'' Independence Day. On Independence Day we're not allowed to go tracting or anything so there wasn't really any work we could do, thus the reason we went up on Friday to get more than just a Saturday afternoon's worth of work. It was a really good trip. We met with a lot of members and got to know them a bit. They want missionaries so bad in their own city. We'll see what happens next change if they get some. It's pretty cool because Savonlinna has a real life castle! It's pretty sweet. We just drove past it because we didn't have any time to go and play around inside of it (because we're missionaries). Maybe in the future I'll be in Savonlinna and will get to take a P day and check it out and take a bunch of pictures.

This week is going to be a pretty standard week. We are going to Joensuu Saturday through Sunday, but other than that we'll be here doing our normal thing. Our investigators are doing ok. Right now our most exciting person is our blind investigator. A few weeks ago we were considering dropping her because she wasn't progressing but she suddenly took off and is praying about baptism! If she keeps progressing like she has been things are looking pretty promising. The other investigators still all have a lot of potential, we just need to help them realize we're not just neat guys who talk about Christ. There's a LOT more to it than that. We do what we can.

I just thought of something: my Schwab Check card expires in March, so I'm not sure what I need to do to get that taken care of. The Visa card expires soon too, FYI.

That's fun you get a new calling. Maybe you shouldn't raise your kids to be good and then maybe you wouldn't have to worry about having responsiblity :)

It's so weird because it doesn't even feel like Christmas time. Days just come and go without really any mind to what time of the year it is. To think that I started in June when it was warm and sunny is weird. Maybe it's a good thing because time is just kinda a blur. Doing the same stuff everyday really has a numbing effect on everything.

So we're still not entirely sure what the deal is with Christmas calls. We're meeting with our Branch Mission Leader this week to figure out where we will be for Christmas. I'll let you know next week how that'll go down.

It's lame because we don't have any snow at the moment. The Finns are all angry about it and so are we. There was that crazy warm streak that melted everything and it's settling back down into the normal cold/freezing temperatures it should be at. Hopefully we'll have snow within the next week. We do get to go to Rovaniemi again for a District Meeting. I think the plan is to go up on the 23rd and we'll be able to see Santa leave to go around the world and stuff. It's going to be sweet! And they'll have snow!

Wow Bri is getting married eh? That's cool. If you happen to see her/talk to her tell her I say congratulations. It's good to hear that Brandon got married too.

Hmm the stores we shop at aren't really that exciting. We shop for food once a week on our p day at this store called Prisma. It's basically like the Finnish Wal-Mart. Not too exciting. For other shopping (like for souvenirs and such) there isn't much in Kuopio. There's a department store called Sokos which is a pretty big chain here that has all sorts of stuff. I don't know, all we really buy is food. We did buy a vacuum (from Prisma) a few weeks ago because ours almost exploded. 100€ later we have a new vacuum! It's got serious suction power. The grocery stores do have a much bigger selection of dairy, sausage, and candy though for sure. It's kinda cool. Tell me if you get the package I sent. Hopefully it'll get there before Christmas.

Oh one other thing. If you'll be able to track down David Mauler's address in Denmark I would appreciate it. That kid hasn't written back to my last letter when he was still in the MTC and I've been expecting a response so I need to get on his case. Thanks. I haven't heard back from Young Tai either...

Ok time is up again so I guess I have to go. Christmas is in less than 3 weeks! It's kinda funny because we get our change calls the day after Christmas and then change day, when everyone moves, is the next week. So whoever gets a change will be in one place for Christmas and in another for New Year's. Kinda funny. Well I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,

ELDER GRIMM

November 30, 2009

Family,

I'm glad the basement is making progress. Hopefully the water test thing doesn't destroy the house or something.

No I haven't been in a sauna but I have seen what they look like. They were banned for missionaries a few years ago after too many bad incidents happened. As for piano, no I haven't had to play any songs/hymns for anything. Yeah I've played a little bit for fun at the church or something but not really much else. There are actually a lot of Finns, maybe just the members, who are very musical. They take care of all the music so we don't have to worry about it, or at least that's how it is in Kuopio. In fact, they have a special musical number every Sunday by different people from the ward. In fact, this new family just moved in a couple months ago and the dad is one of the best players I've ever heard in my life. He's pretty quiet but he's way cool. He and his wife are very young but he's already a doctor and they're probably loaded. We'll find out for sure on Thursday because we're eating dinner at their house!

I haven't gotten the package yet but our mail doesn't come until about noon or so so maybe today. If not, for sure this week which will be sweet because we're going to Savonlinna this weekend and it would be sweet to have some new conference talks for the drive. I actually haven't mailed my package home. We had some stuff come up last week so we didn't really have time, but today we're doing it for sure. It may or may not get there for Christmas but we'll see! The mission home address is perfect for the alternate. They'll either forward it to me for however many euros it would cost or they'll hold on to it and bring it to me at the next Zone Conference which is in about 2.5 weeks. Either way I'll get it!

Christmas in Finland is pretty similar as in the States but they, of course, have their own little tradition things. They actually celebrate on the night of the 24th and Santa comes in person to deliver the gifts. I'm not exactly sure yet how that goes down but I guess I'll find out. As with most big holidays here, the Finns celebrate by isolating themselves from the outside world. Kinda like what I like to do. So on the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th, everything is going to be dead. On those three days we hang out at members' homes and do whatever they do for those days. On the 25th also we get to do the calls home. Because we still don't know whose home we'll be in for the 25th, we don't know when we'll be able to do the calls so I'll keep you posted. People don't really decorate for Christmas. Some people will put some lights up or candles in windows but that's about it. In the city center they put up a huge Christmas tree with lights that change. It's pretty cool. They make a bunch of food just like we do and do gifts and stuff. Elder Pettus said last year at Christmas the members they were with gave them socks and soap and stuff like that which was very nice. It's kinda funny because there isn't really anything we need that we can't get with our MSF and as missionaries there's only so much we can do anyway. I guess it's easier that way.

We actually have 6 investigators at the moment, the most I've had since coming here. They all definitely have potential, the trick is meeting with them more often than we currently are. The perfect situation would be teaching them at least 2-3 times a week but it's hard because people are so busy, we're lucky to teach them once a week, if that. It's getting better though for sure. We have 2 families, our blind lady, a guy from Africa, an older lady who lets in the Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentacostles too apparently, but it didn't seem like she liked them very much, and also a lady who teaches music at a school here. They're all very nice and good people, we just need to help them act on what they're being taught.

Sorry but my time has run out. Ask the questions I didn't get to answer next week and I'll start with those (ie daily schedule and such).

Love you all lots and have a suurenmoinen week!

Hyvää Joulua

Love, Elder Grimm

letters home

2009-12-07T07:57:00.003-06:00

November 23, 2009

Hi Family,

First off I did shake Santa's hand. It was after the picture and stuff and we didn't even know they were filming us until after the whole thing was over. I have no idea what the word was that he said. If you notice though, his English was very good but he had an accent. That's what the Finnish accent sounds like when they speak English. It's just kinda broken sounding and isn't one that would be cool to have, unlike Scottish or English or something. Yes I've been told that I'm the tallest in the mission and Elder Pettus happens to be the shortest in the mission. Kinda weird.

We did take pictures at the Arctic Circle line, but there was snow so you can't really see it...I sent pictures last week so you should have them hopefully this week or something.

Right now we don't have any Finnish missionaries. We did have one when I got here but it was his last transfer so he's done. We do have missionaries from Sweden, Russia, England, and one from Latvia. We had one from Canada but he's done as well. Everyone else is American.

For Thanksgiving, we don't have any plans to do anything. The further north you go the more ''Finnish'' the people get. We don't have the money or the time to do anything special on our own. Apparently Friday night a family will be doing a ''Thanksgiving'' dinner or something at the church I think. The daughters and their son speak English alright but the parents don't. We'll be in Oulu for our District Meeting Thursday night and Friday so we might not be back in time for the dinner thing anyway. We'll see.

I'll give you the instructions for how to call and stuff when Elder Pettus and I figure out what times we'll be available to do the calls. Basically you will be calling to us. The rate number thing they give us to give to you is supposed to be less expensive or something so I'll give that to you when we know what we're doing.

I think I had to apply for some of the Utah scholarships but I don't really remember. That was like 2 years ago! Which is more time than I have left here! I honestly don't remember when I heard back from BYU either. If Danika can get her application in by the early deadline that'll be very smart. Yeah I had to get a Bishop AND Stake Presidency interview. Mine was with President Jones.

Our apartment is pretty simple. Ours happens to be very old. The apartment itself isn't too bad but the bathroom is the worst bathroom I've ever seen in my life. Dad remember my bathroom when I had to live in Heritage Halls? Times that by like 7 and then you have our bathroom. The problem is there isn't really any way to clean it. Stuff is just stained and cleaner doesn't do anything. However, other missionary apartments have some sweet bathrooms. That's just part of living in Kuopio. It's different to because the showers in Europe, or at least in Finland, are different. It's hard to explain so you might have to wait until I can get pictures sent or just when I come back.

We switch off eating together or just whatever we want individually. We usually do a 2-3 meals a week together, like meatballs and rice or chicken or something like that. This week we're going to make some Taco soup out of the recipe book that Sister Brown gave to all the missionaries at my first Zone Conference.

Oh yeah we got the change information so I can tell you how everything is now. There weren't a whole lot of changes/transfers made. Only 3 new missionaries came in and like 4 went home. Next change, however, there are 8 coming in and none going home so there will be changes like crazy! Everyone in my group is still in their greenie city but I'm the only one that is still with my trainer. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe I need the extra training. Probably. They did switch up the Zones and districts as well. There are now 3 zones instead of just 2. We are in the ''North Zone'' (go figure) and are in the Oulu District. Elder Empey and Elder Ranzenberger are in my Zone still but Elder Schoof is now in the Tampere Zone. Elder Empey is also in the Oulu District with us so I get to see him on Friday too. Other than that President had to call a new AP (assistant to the President) because his old one's mission is over. It's crazy to see some of these people going home because when I got here they still had like 3 months left, but I've been in the country for 3 months already. It's going pretty fast. With Christmas coming up it'll go even faster!

I'm sure whatever is in my package will be sweet. There's not really anything that we need here we can't get with our MSF so anything from home just makes life more fun. I did finally get a couple letters at the end of last week. One was from Seth and he sent me some pictures so that was cool.

My license will be a European Union license but will be marked as being from Finland. They look pretty awesome.

The basement is looking good. I'm excited to check it out.

It's ridiculous. We had a pretty good amount of snow and then it all melted away last week because it was and is so warm. It's ok I guess because the members tell us that they'll have a meter of snow come January/February. I guess we'll have to wait and see where I'll be when that time comes.

Well my time is running short because I read both emails so I hope I didn't forget anything. I probably did so just ask them again next week and I'll remember. Sorry siblings I didn't respond individually. Next week! It sounds like you're all having fun and doing well in school. Keep it up. Don't fight either. The last thing I'll need when I get back is stress because of tensions. Start now and be happy and nice!!

Love you all lots!

Elder GRimm

ps We're mailing our Christmas packages today so they should get there within a month (hopefully)!

November 17, 2009

Hi family,

So I'm not really sure what the deal is but I must not have received the email you all sent to me. I got the one from Lars and the one that asked about my journal/photo album (by the way yes I am keeping a journal and right now I think I'm set with the album I have, I haven't added any pictures to it yet because I don't have any to add).

Hmm ok so I guess I'll just tell about what's going on here. So we had change calls on Saturday and, much to our surprise, neither of us are getting transferred. We won't find out who else is going where until Thursday when we receive the change information in the newsletter. It's kinda nice because we don't have to worry about packing or moving or anything and the members here are cool. Three different families have already offered to have us over for Christmas so we'll have to figure that out somehow. Since I'll be here for Christmas I'll give you our address so you can send the package straight here:

They'll put a notice slip through our mail slot and then we just go to the post office and pick it up there.

So we have a bit of snow here now. It makes the city look really cool and when we drive through the forests it's way cool because everything is covered with snow. We're going to Joensuu this weekend so I'm looking forward to that drive.

Last week we met Joulupukki! Hopefully you were forwarded the picture we took with him. If you notice we gave him a Book of Mormon and he's holding it on his lap. Rovaniemi was a sweet city. It was a lot of fun staying up there for a couple of nights. I managed to get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done when we were at Santa's Village. It was so sweet. This morning we went to a picture print store so I can get you some pictures finally. I'll mail them out today or tomorrow. Next Monday we're planning on sending our Christmas packages home so be ready to get it in like a month or so.

So the one investigator who was about to join the Lutheran Church turned out to be not as interested as he seemed to be. But, we did meet another guy from Africa from the same neighborhood who came to church for the whole 3 hours, is coming to play volleyball with the members tomorrow and said we could teach him again. We'll see where he goes. He's lived in Kuopio for 6 years and speaks Finnish better than I do. Hopefully he'll be a good one.

We have an appointment with our blind investigator tomorrow. We decided it's going to be the ''do or die'' lesson. If she isn't willing to act on what we teach her and try and find answers to these things we can't really do anything. The sad thing is is that she loves it when we come over. Maybe if we drop her for a while and then in the future some missionaries make contact again she'll be ready. We'll see what happens tomorrow!

I've got a great streak of not getting mail going. If it continues through tomorrow it will have been one month. Maybe I'll set a new mission record!

Hey how did that activity the sister missionaries did with you turn out? The one that had you pick a few people and then after 21 days one of them would be ready? I'm curious because that's something we've been trying to get better at is encouraging the members to do missionary work. It's hard though because it's scary asking for referrals and trying to help them do the work. We basically tried the same thing that the sisters did with you on Sunday and then yesterday we tried a similar thing as well. Luckily the members here are cool so they were pretty willing to try some stuff. The hard thing is to help the members realize that we're not there just asking for names and friends, but we're there to offer them any help they think they need. We have this really good little DVD called ''Finding Happiness'' that we show them. It's only 5 minutes long and we use it sometimes to show to people who may be interested in the Gospel. It basically gets people thinking about life's purpose, family, and where they can find those answers (from us). Maybe you've seen the DVD before but yeah. That's something we've been doing lately.

Yesterday we had 2 Dinner appointments. One was in a town called Leppävirta, about 50 kilometers away. We were there to help a member do a school presentation to a class of students. That's part of the curriculum in schools here: to learn about Christian religions. The presentation basically covered everything we believe and such in a nutshell. It was fine. Afterwards we ate at the member's house with his family. It was pretty good. Then, only an hour after we left there, we had another dinner appointment. I thought I was going to throw up I ate so much food. The problem is that a)the food is good and b) they say (this is the translation) ''if it tastes good take more.'' So if you don't take more you are implying that it doesn't taste good. We survived though.

Well that's more or less all that's going on right now. I bought a sweet backpack when we were in Rovaniemi and I'm glad I did. The one I brought was great, it was just really big. This one is much narrower and designed for walking and stuff. It's a really nice one too (the brand is called ''Haglöfs'') so it'll last through the mission and it's sweet looking so I'll be using it at college as well (it's red and black so it will match well at the U).

Yup so I guess I'll hear from you all next week. Love you all lots!

Love,

ELDER GRIMM

Santa gets a Book of Mormon

2009-11-14T21:04:00.004-06:00

The missionaries in Finland presented Santa with a Finnish Book of Mormon

(notice the book in his hand)

Dallin was in Rovaniemi this past week for a district Conference. After his meetings on Wednesday, they went to the Arctic Circle and saw Santa. A nice sister sent this picture to us as well as a link to a video of them presenting the Book of Mormon to Santa.

If you watch the video, you will notice that all of the missionaries shake Santa's hand except for Dallin. Hmmm, hopefully Santa will still visit him at Christmas.

It's so fun to see Dallin since we have only seen one picture of him since he arrived in Finland. He is on the left on the back row (the tallest elder). What a handsome elder!

Aaron tried to post the video to the blog but so far it hasn't worked but you can go to this link to see it: http://s879.photobucket.com/albums/ab359/diannecall/?action=view&current=41-005.flv <http://s879.photobucket.com/albums/ab359/diannecall/?action=view&current=41-005.flv>

Finnish Chocolate, traveling, and Santa

2009-11-11T10:36:00.006-06:00

FINNISH CHOCOLATE

Disclosure: Dallin writes to each one of his siblings at the end of the general letter. I don't include these since they are personal to the kids.

Still no pictures. Hopefully soon.

November 9, 2009

Family,

Yes another week has come and gone and yes I've already been out for 5 months! Crazy. We were in Turku for Zone Conference and it was awesome. We did splits and I went with one of the newer greenies who's even younger than our group. It was the most fun tracting I've had ever AND it was really productive. We gave away a Book of Mormon/got his phone number, got someone who said we could come back and a third lady who ''promised'' to call the missionaries. Not too sure about the last one but the first two people I listed were pretty good. It was fun. I was able to hang out with Elder Ranzenberger a lot. He thinks he and I are going to be put together next change. That would be sweet.

Yeah so about the changes. We get our change calls on Saturday so we'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind staying here at all because then I would get to stay with the ward that I already know through Christmas. But whatever. Elder Pettus and I think that he's going to get transferred because he's never been with a companion for more than 2 changes and he's already been here in Kuopio for like 4 months. I guess we'll have to wait until Saturday! Either way though I won't be able to email on Monday because we have a ''school present'' thing that will be during the day so even if we don't get a change we won't have our Preparation Day until later in the week. You can still email me by Monday though just in case because things can easily change.

Our blind lady is doing fine. She's a pretty slow progressor but we've been very straight and direct with her the last couple of teaches so she knows exactly why we're here as missionaries to try and pick things up. I think she's just had the idea (like so many people do) that we're just good people who talk about Christ but they don't always realize that it's a LOT more than that.

So get this. We found a new investigator last week. He's about 25 years old and is married, a perfect candidate, he AND his wife. What's interesting is that he's planning on being confirmed into the Lutheran Church this month but after we met and talked with him about the Book of Mormon, he's pretty interested in it. Hopefully we'll be able to crash the confirmation party and bring him into the right church. We've been praying hard for him so we'll see how it works out.

We take turns driving the car. I don't have to get my license until next summer so I'm good for a while. They do have a few different rules. Overall the roads are pretty decent and such so it's nothing too crazy.

Yes, the mission home is the place to send the package BUT depending on when you send it, I could give you my address once I know where I'll be for a while and then you could send it directly there. I'll know next week and I'll tell you where you should send it.

Hmmm, letters...I kinda don't remember what those look like. I'm currently on a dry spell and haven't gotten anything in about 2.5 weeks. I'm feeling some this week though so I'm not too worried about it. Yeah Jaimie still writes. In fact, she's the most consistent. I'm still waiting to hear from Dave and Jess. I'm not sure what they're doing these days.

Yes non romantice Josh Groban stuff is ideal. That said, all of his stuff is pretty romantic. I mean seriously, have you heard his voice? No but seriously February song is good and so are the other non romantic ones. He has songs that are hard core, clearly romantic and some others that are just inspirational (ie February Song, Don't Give up, You raise me up...) and those are good. I hope that helps clarify. If not ask me for more clarification. As far as General Authorities, I really do like Uchtdorf and Monson but they're all good. The older stuff is perfectly legit too.

This week we're going to Rovaniemi! AND because of train schedules and how freakin far away it is we get to stay there for 2 nights! Elder Empey from my MTC group is there and so is Cason's twin, Elder Heelis. It's going to be sweet. District Meeting will be great and then we get to go to the Arctic Circle where Santa lives! Did you know he is fluent in 17 languages (I think it's 17)? My Finnish is getting better every day. Maybe we'll baptize him.

It's been pretty cool. We've had a few warmer days and it's been snowing a little bit but it's still in that awkward inbetween time. It just needs to get freezing and snow already!

Shoot I'm almost out of time so sorry to the siblings for getting a shorter message.

November 2, 2009

Hi,

Last week was pretty freakin busy, only because we were in Kuopio the entire week but then we went to Savonlinna on Saturday/Sunday. It's a cool little town. Write down the ''Savonlinna'' story so when I get back I can tell you all that went down because it's way too much to try and describe/tell in this email.

On Wednesday we get to go to Turku for Zone Conference! We've been looking forward to it since the last Zone Conference 6 weeks ago. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah we ate lunch with our new Branch Mission Leader. He wants to eat lunch with us every week at the University of Kuopio where he goes to school. When we met him there he told me that Danika had sent him a message and he thought that was cool. He's a stud.

We had another lesson with our blind investigator. She's making progress, slowly but surely. We did meet a couple of people last week who seemed really interested so hopefully we'll be able to meet with them this week sometime when we're not in Turku.

It was pretty freezing all last week. It's definitely more humid here than in Colorado but I don't think it's nearly as much as in Missouri. I don't even notice it that much at all. But it's still freezing. I did buy some mittens with my MSF about a month ago for like 4€ and I also bought a scarf with my MSF for like 7€. The gloves I brought are pretty warm, the mittens just keep my hands a bit warmer because my fingers are kept together. Depending on what we're doing I'll wear one pair over the other. Other than that I don't really need anything. We did find this shop that sells these really nice white shirts, European style, which means the collars are ''wider'' and they are pretty sweet. This store sells them really cheap, only like 30€, where most places they're like 50€+. I might get one and have that be my ''nice event shirt'' for Zone Conference and stuff because my other shirts are already showing a little wear. They're doing great thus far though, I can make them last for sure. I am considering getting a different backpack, one that's a bit smaller, lighter, and just easier to handle for our daily activities. I don't know if I want to or not because the bag I have now is in great shape and I like it, it's just a bit large. To get the backpack that I want would cost about 30€ and I'm not sure if that is an MSF expense or if that would come out of my own pocket. I don't know. They don't have the right one in Kuopio anyway because there are like NO shops here at all so I guess I don't really need to worry about it for a while. Don't worry, I'm not spending lots of money. I have a hard time buying a candy bar let alone anything else. Anything I get is well thought out and necessary!!

Finnish is still plodding along. It is weird about the ''thinking in Finnish'' thing because a lot of the time when we're talking to people, you just understand what they're saying. I don't have to translate the words into English in my head, they just make sense and I know what's going on. It's weird. I've had a couple dreams in Finnish. Also weird.

There's really nothing I can do about getting pictures to you unless I get transferred or something. None of the computers we have access to are any good and to print them off at a shop is pretty expensive. Don't worry I'll figure something out! The computers at the church are currently being worked on and hopefully being replaced, then I might be able to email pictures. We just don't know when they'll be ready for use again.

Ha Halloween here was a joke. Basically it's just an American holiday. I hear that in Helsinki or in bigger cities they actually do stuff but up north, definitely not. It was actually some other holiday on the 31st. ''All Saints Day'' which is basically like our Memorial Day, but it's not only for veterans, it's for EVERYONE who has died. Kinda cool. In Savonlinna we were walking past a graveyard and there were candles everywhere on the tombstones. It was pretty cool looking.

We had our DST thing a couple weeks ago. We got to ''sleep in'' an extra hour! I, honestly, did not sleep very well the last hour of the night because my body clock wanted to get up so bad.

October 26, 2009

Moros Perhe,

Yeah so I forgot to tell you last week that we were going to Helsinki for a couple of days for a ''Language School'' thing for the missionaries who have been out for 6 weeks (myself and my MTC group). It was pretty fun because I got to see them again, especially Elder Ranzenberger. He's the best. We were met at the trainstation by a couple of the Helsinki elders who told me that Sister Nelson had been asking about me so they suggested we stop by because they lived pretty close. It was fun to talk to her for a bit and stuff. Don't worry about that going to my head. I don't even know how they found out anything about me and I know my Finnish/missionary skills are still very much in the developing phases. VERY MUCH SO.

Yeah we travel a lot. Elder Pettus and I do especially because we have two visiting cities, each of which is like 2 hours away by car. We're going to our second visiting city, Savonlinna, this weekend. Between our visiting city travel and any conferences/meetings we have, we do travel quite a bit. Pretty much every week we're somewhere different for at least a couple of days. We get to go to Rovaniemi (the city on the Arctic Circle where Santa lives) on the 12th of November for District Meeting! It's going to be sweet!

I haven't been able to go to the temple yet. In fact, I haven't even seen it yet. While we were in our language school thing our companions got to go though.

Transfers aren't until the week of 16th of November, so we still have some time together in Kuopio.

The work is going pretty swell. Our blind investigator came to sacrament meeting yesterday which was awesome. She's still our best investigator and is coming along. Last week we tried to be pretty direct and forward about praying about the Book of Mormon and she said she would so we'll follow up with her this week. We have some people we're hoping to meet with this week so hopefully we'll get some new investigators from it. A couple of them seemed pretty promising.

Finnish is still coming along. Every day it gets slowly better and better. Yesterday we learned some slang from one of the members. Yeah.

That's good to hear that David and Jess went to the temple. They had told me they were going to go this month but I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM THEM! If you get a chance, tell David and/or Jessica that I would love to hear what's going on with them. Seriously.

So dad bought a mini chain saw. That's ok because it was fun doing it all manually because it builds character. Speaking of building and weight, I am getting heavy! I came into the MTC weighing about 165. I left them MTC weighing about 169. I am currently 179-182, depending on the time of day. I for sure think part of it has to do with the food, but I also think it has to do with the fact that we actually exercise every morning where I do push ups and sit ups and stuff. I'm definitely getting stronger/bigger, so Connor, if you don't want to get owned, start bulking up bud. Remember mom, when I said I was going to come back HUGE? It's well on it's way.

I'm glad you're going to the temple pretty often. That's a good way to get some sweet blessings. I wish we could go more often but oh well, nothing we can do about it.

We're just waiting for the snow to come down. It's hovering just above freezing so any snow we do get just melts off pretty quickly. Elder Pettus and I did get our socks from the bishop's wife in Joensuu last weekend. They are legit. I took a picture of them so I can show you sometime. That was probably our last time in Joensuu together so it was a nice way to leave: with our awesome socks.

October 19, 2009

Moriens Perhe

Ok so another week down in the month of October. Yesterday was Seth's birthday, so we celebrated by going to Joensuu! Just kidding, but we were in Joensuu again this weekend. I gave a talk to all 18 of the members and it went pretty smoothly.

Last week went by super fast because we were only in Kuopio for like 4 days. It was pretty sweet being in Oulu for District Meeting. Oulu is WAY bigger than Kuopio is. As always, it was sweet to see other missionaries and talk with them a little bit. The only bummer is that we didn't get into Oulu until about midnight the night before the meeting so we didn't get much sleep so the the train ride home we were out of it for pretty much the whole thing.

Yeah I've been taking my vitamin D tablets. I hope they're helping, I'm sure they are. That's probably why I'm not sick.

Oh I'm glad the chocolate made it to you all fine, even if it took almost 2 weeks. I had written a little note with a description of the chocolate that I was going to put in your envelope but I sealed the envelope before I put the note in. The Fazer bar is the standard, most famous Finnish chocolate and is pretty good. The Panda stuff is pretty good, a slightly different kind of chocolate but it's pretty good too. I'm glad the Robinson's got the letter. Dallin is the really the only person other than Seth, Jaimie, and the Wetherbees who wrote to me so I figured he earned a chocolate bar. Hopefully he'll keep writing!

As far as P-Day goes, we don't really do a whole lot. We email, we buy our food, sometimes we'll go shopping but not too often because there isn't really anything to do/see in Kuopio. We did do a bit of shopping today, though. I bought Danika's Christmas present and I found the Dark Knight for only 10€ so I bought it. In other cities there is more to do but that's about it for Kuopio.

My Finnish has really been getting better. When we were in Joensuu I was actually able to have a conversation with the Bishop and his wife for the first time so that was neat. Every week it gets better and better. Thanks for the prayers.

Elder Pettus and I are doing pretty well together. We're both excited to have a good rest of this change. We've gotten to know each other quite a bit better over this last week so that will only help our work get better.

Rough week, splits, conference and jam

2009-10-13T09:03:00.004-05:00

Dallin had a rough week but as always is optimistic.

Moriens

Alrighty another week down. Last week was probably the hardest week I've had since the start of my mission. We did a lot of work, went to a lot of places but our results were very limited. That's ok though because I have to remember that, especially as a missionary, we don't always see the fruits of our labors. In our book, Preach My Gospel, it talks about how no good work goes unnoticed. I guess those are just bonus points for the future or something.

This week should be pretty awesome. Last week we got the Suomen Valo, which is the newsletter that we all get with the change information and announcements and such. We are now in the Oulu district, the furthest north one. I'm with Elder Empey in the same district so I'll get to see him of Friday when we go to Oulu for a District Meeting. Our District Leader and his companion are coming down here Wednesday night to go on splits for Thursday. That'll be sweet because splits are always fun.

Church yesterday was awesome. We are really starting to click with the members so that's sweet. We've been tracting/teaching with them as much as possible. One guy is actually President Brown's secretary for this area of Finland even though he's only like 25. He actually served his mission in Denver when we lived there so he knows the area as well as the missionaries we knew (Elder Beckett...) He's a total stud so he's the best to go tracting with. I'm pretty sure he'll be the first Finnish General Authority someday.

Yeah so for Conference we got to watch all the sessions except for Sunday night because they don't show that here because of the time difference. We just watched it at the church. They had a room set up for English so we watched it and all of the youth (all 4 of them) came and watched it with us in English because they speak English pretty well. Yeah it was pretty sweet.

My Finnish is still coming along. I can more or less hold a conversation on my own, depending on the topic of discussion. I can't express myself fully by any means but it's coming along. We've been speaking Finnish much more often with each other too so that has really been helping a lot. Keep those prayers a comin'! Tell the rest of the family thanks for the spiritual boosters.

Yes in other news I now like a lot more foods I previously did not like. Let me list them: jam, bananas (just straight bananas), fruity yoghurt (not with chunks), that's about it thus far. Yeah crazy I know and my tolerance will only increase.

The Language is coming along

2009-10-05T15:05:00.002-05:00

Letter from Sept. 28th:

Another week come and gone already. We were in Turku Wednesday night to Friday afternoon for Zone Conference. It was pretty sweet. Turku is quite a bit bigger than Kuopio and we were with the whole North Zone which was pretty sweet. There were about 20-25ish missionaries so it was cool. I got to see the Elders Ranzenberger, Empey, and Schoof. They're doing well as far is I could tell. Elder Ranzenberger is over is Vaasa, just across the water from Sweden, so everyone there speaks Swedish. He said he hasn't taught a single lesson in Finnish, only English. We had some cool meetings at conference and then we had a finding activity for a couple of hours. We were all assigned areas to go around Turku to do street contacting. The people there are totally different than in Kuopio. It was crazy. The craziest part is that I understood MUCH better what they were saying in Turku. In Kuopio I can get a vague idea of what's going on, with very few specifics. In Turku it was the total opposite. It was crazy and cool at the same time. Of course I didn't understand everything/everyone but overall my level of understanding was WAY more. They just speak differently. It's interesting. I think I mentioned it before but in Kuopio a lot of people speak ''Savo'' which is the accent spoken in the east. It's hard.

Letter from Oct. 5

We are also now part of the Oulu District, which is sweet because it's the farthest north district in the country. So for District Meeting in a couple weeks we get to travel up there to Oulu or maybe to Rovaniemi (where Santa lives). We're excited for that.

Conference was pretty sweet. We even managed to bring one of our investigators (who happens to be blind) to a session. She liked it so that was good. I'm already excited for the next Conference sessions.

Finnish is definitely getting better. We were in Jyväskylä on Friday for companion exchanges so that was really cool. Once again, I understood people WAY better there but it is coming along here as well. Thanks for the prayers, without them missionary work would not happen here.

First Area is Kuopio

2009-09-26T09:30:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the delay in the update. Dallin's first area is Kuopio. It is about a 5 hour train ride north of Helsinki. We might as well let Dallin tell you about the area, so here are some excerpts from his last few emails:

This one is from September 7th:

It has steadily been getting colder and colder each day. It was rainy for a few days last week, including Sunday, so that was a party trying to stay dry while walking around. We do now have a couple of investigators! One is a former investigator that we found in the Area Book thing (it just has records of everyone in the area basically). She needs to stop smoking and then she should be ready for baptism so we'll have to see if we can't get that process rolling a bit faster. The other ''investigator'' is actually a little family we tracted to. We set up a return time and taught them the first lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. They said they would read and pray about it so we'll see how that went next week when we go back. We're still unsure how interested they really are but if they read and/or pray about the Book of Mormon that should trigger something. We do have another appointment tomorrow with another lady. We also tracted to her and she said we could come back tomorrow (tuesday). What's interesting is that when she opened the door her countenance was totally different than all the other people we had talked to that day. She was basically ''glowing.'' Hopefully that's a good sign. It just felt good to talk to her so I'm excited for that tomorrow.

Our apartment is pretty small. Kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom. Pretty standard. I don't know when I'll get some boots. It's really an optional thing if I want to get them or not so we'll see if I decide that I really need them or not. My shoes have been great so far, though. I haven't heard anything from the other 3 yet. We'll see them at our zone conference in a couple of weeks though so that will be fun. Our car is fun. It's really small and a manual, like every other vehicle in Europe. We take turns driving and it's kinda fun. My US license is good for like a year so I won't need to get one for several months, luckily so in a year I'll get it, probably.

Yesterday was my first day at church in Kuopio. The ward was quite a bit bigger than in Joensuu and they were all nice. A family invited us over for dinner last night so that was nice of them. We had something similar to spaghetti, but with different noodles and different sauce. I started putting what looked like grated cheese (you know like parmesan) but it turned out to be salt. So I had a lot on my food but I couldn't just waste a whole plate of food! It was rough eating it but I made it ok. I ate a lot of bread with butter in between bites to help with eating the saltiness.

We have a super busy week this week. We have a lot of stuff to do, with District Meeting with President Brown and District Conference (it's like Stake Conference) and other appointments and stuff. I'm actually looking forward to it because last week we had no appointments or anything, just proselyting and trying to find people. We did go and help a Brother cut wood at his kesämökki (summer cottage). It was pretty fun. We're going back to help him on Friday and probably next week too.

September 14th (Cath's B-Day...great present!):

!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Make sure everybody does what mom says and makes her do nothing that would be stressful!

This last week went by really fast which was nice. I think it's because we were so busy with meetings and scheduled appointments and stuff. We had our district meeting last wednesday and President and Sister Brown came in for that. Then on Saturday and Sunday was District Conference (like stake conference but ''district'' because we're not in a stake). President and his wife were also here for that. Conference on Saturday was pretty much all afternoon and evening. We had a couple meetings, ate dinner at the church with the wards, and then there was a ''talent show'' thing at the church in the evening. It wasn't really a talent show but some musical performances and poem reading. It was a lot of fun even though I didn't understand any of the poems, especically because they were mostly hard core ''Savo'' which is the dialect that is spoken in this part of Finland by some people. Yesterday (Sunday) was the last conference meeting and then we ate lunch with the ward again. We spent the afternoon trying to meet some people to teach. It was the birthday of a girl in the ward (from the family that we chopped wood for a couple weeks ago, which we also did last week too). So they invited us over for cake and to talk with them for a bit and then we went back out to go tracting and stuff. It was just a crazy week but it's good because it helps time pass and it helps us feel like we're actually accomplishing something.

The work in general is really starting to pick up. There's a chance we'll have a lesson every night this next week which would be awesome because we're usually teaching maybe 1-3 lessons a week. If we can get 5 or more that would be way sweet. We did get another investigator last week, the ''glowing'' lady I was telling you about. We had a good discussion with her about our purpose and the Book of Mormon and such. She did tell us that she is a strong Lutheran and doesn't want to change, but she's still interested and she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so when we meet with her again this week we'll follow up with that. If she did read and pray like she said she would then hopefully she'll have that desire to change and learn more. As long as she's interested in what we have to offer than it's worth taking time to help her out.

So last Monday I bought 3 sweet Finnish ties for a pretty good deal. I got the three of them for 25€ (depending on the exchange rate that's about 30-35 dollars I think). They're pretty awesome. I'm actually wearing one right now.

So, this was the story of the week:

So here's the story of the week. Last night we were tracting and a nice couple let us into their house to hear our message. They were both Pentacostle and listened to our lesson without really any disputations or anything bad. They weren't very interested in the message itself but they loved the fact that two young kids were in a foreign place teaching about Christ and the Gospel and such. We were getting ready to leave and Vanhin Pettus asked the wife if she would say the closing prayer for us. This is the point of the story. So she starts praying fine (of course it's in Finnish so I can just get the vague gist of the whole thing) and it's going fine. But then her voice changes and she starts speaking something that even I know isn't Finnish. She kept repeating whatever she was saying in whatever ''language'' and she was getting quieter and quieter until she ended. We thanked them for their kind hospitality and then got out of there. Basically she started ''speaking in tongues'' during her prayer and it was...interesting. Elder Pettus said that that was only the second time he's had the experience to hear someone do that. But yeah. Creepy. That said, they were very nice people and it was just nice to be let into a home just because that does not happen often at all. So yeah, there's my experience of the week.

September 21st:

We spent the weekend in Joensuu so that was fun. We had a dinner appointement there and it was some chicken soup stuff. It was pretty good. Last Thursday we also had a Dinner appointment with a family in the Kuopio ward. They live like 50 kilos away so it took a little while to get there but they live in a way sweet area in the forest. There is an awesome lake right behind their house and their property is sweet. We had salmon and salad and stuff with them. It was the first time I have eaten fish here, but it was probably the best fish I've ever had in my life. It was sooo good.

We didn't get to meet with the "glowing lady" last week because she was busy but we're going to try to this week. We found another 2 investigators last week so that was exciting. So far the progress of the investigators is slow but that's basically because we've only been able to meet with them once. We keep trying to set up return appointments but they always want to do them like 2-3 weeks down the road. That's kinda how Finland works in general: slow motion. That's ok though, we find more people to teach in the meantime so we stay busy. Eventually it'll kinda roll over and then we'll have several more teaches a week. On average we're getting about 2-3 teaches a week. However, with the new mission plan that is being introduced to the stakes and districts here (and throughout Europe I think) we should be getting 20 teaches a week because the members will play a much more involved roll and we'll more or less just be the teachers. Hopefully it will catch on quickly so we can really build up Finland with the help of the good members here. They're all really awesome.

We have zone conference this week in Turku, which I am really excited for. It's the north zone so I'll get to see a lot of other missionaries including the ones in my group from the MTC. It's usually pretty cold now during the day. We wore our gloves for the first time this week and it was totally worth it.

Sorry there are no pictures yet. Dallin has not been able to transmit any. The computer they are using at the church is pretty old and does not allow he and his companion to connect their cameras. Hopefully, we will have some come in the mail soon.

Landed in Finland

2009-09-06T18:33:00.003-05:00

We received a letter from Dallin's Mission President, David Brown. Enclosed was a picture of Dallin & President and Sister Brown. Looks like he got a haircut before he left the MTC. It is a fun thing, but Dallin's Mission President was our Stake President right before we left SLC.

Dallin's P-Day is Monday. We received an email from him and I have enclosed a few messages from that email.

Finland is an adventure, that's for sure. The people are very...reserved. That's not a surprise because we heard a lot about Finland at the MTC but yeah, it's for sure different. I still don't understand anyone. I can pick out 1 in every 7 or 8 words or so so that's good. Yesterday was my first day at church. Even though we live in Kuopio, we actually have another city called Joensuu in our area. It is our ''visiting'' city that we visit a couple of times a change. We went down there Saturday morning and we stay with the piispa (bishop) of the Joensuu branch. He and his wife are pretty funny. He speaks some english but I don't think his wife does. He liked to try and speak English to me but I responded in Finnish as best as I could. Elder Pettus does the same. It's good to speak to the members in Finnish, even if they speak English to us. The branch was a whopping 18 members, including us. It was a totally different experience but it was still good. The members are all nice and one lady even spoke nice clearly to me so I could understand. Piispa and his wife fed us so that was nice of them. Our dinner on saturday night were a slices of bread with mayonaise (how do you spell that?) meat and some sliced vegetables on top. They weren't too bad except we had no idea what some of the meat was on some of the bread. We ate it anyway, just quickly. Sunday dinner was a cheese pasta dish thing that was pretty good. They're the only Finns that we've eaten with so far. Apparently the Kuopio branch is only like 50 active members, maybe with a very high inactive rate so I don't know how often we'll be eating with them. For ourselves we just kinda make whatever. It's pretty similar to college like food but all the directions are in Finnish so I just kinda guess what they say and hope it turns out good. We drove back to Kuopio last night at like 7ish to get home by 9. It's about a 1,5 to 2 hour drive. The sun was setting as we were coming back and it was REALLY awesome looking. The sun was blood red and the sky was sweet. We got some pictures of the sky but we missed the sun. It was awesome.

As far as investigators go, we actually don't have any. There haven't been any in Kuopio for a while now so we are still looking. While we were in Joensuu, however, we tried to meet with someone we had on record in the area book. The area book said they were two guys from Afghanistan who were nice and interested. We went to check up on them but it was just one guy from Iraq this time. He was super nice and invited us in. He didn't really speak English or finnish but still let us in. He is Kurdish and Muslim. He gave us some way good juice and we tried to communicate for a bit until he decided to call his friend who speaks finnish and english. Basically his friend translated for us. We didn't really teach a lesson because of the communication barrier but he said he would like a Book of Mormon. We're going to try and find one in Kurdish, if there is one, and if not we'll get one in Arabic because he speaks that too. We'll bring that to him when we go back to Joensuu. I kinda want to focus on the inactives in Kuopio though because if there are more members, it makes missionary work that much easier, assuming the members help. Hopefully we'll be able to work with some less active members and/or find some investigators. All we can do is contact and tract and call people. We'll see what happens.

I'm still getting into the swing of things. I've pretty much got the schedule down, I'm obviously still working on my Finnish and I'm getting a better feel of when/how to talk to people. That's one thing I wasn't sure about and am still trying to figure out. I'm still somewhat unsure of who we're supposed to talk to and how many people we're supposed to talk to and how many hours a day we're supposed to do tracting/contacting. The first half of the day is scheduled study time so that's fine. So I'm still getting a feel for what is considered a great day of missionary work. Hopefully after a few more days it'll become clearer. We spend several hours a day tracting and contacting and such but maybe it's just different because we don't have any investigators. Only time will tell how things go I guess.

Temperature wise it's pretty nice here. It's getting cooler but it's not bad at all yet. It rained all day yesterday in Joensuu but other than that it's just been overcast, like in Seattle.

I have our email setup to alert me when I get a message from Dallin. I was able to send a few messages back and forth somewhat "live" with him on Monday. He does not have a lot of time, but it was fun to do that for a little while.

More updates later.

On His Way to Finland!

2009-08-24T18:21:00.004-05:00

Well, we are on a bit of a high right now. We just got off the phone with Dallin. He had a layover in Denver on his way to Helsinki (via Frankfurt) and was permitted to call us. We were able to talk with him for 2 hours. That time went very quickly!

He is doing very well and is excited to finally get to Finland. He said his time in the MTC went very quickly. It is hard to believe that he has been out for almost 3 months. He had an opportunity to see his cousin Kersti at the MTC right before he got on the bus. He thought that was cool.

He and his companion have already given a few pass along cards out to some people at their gate. He said that Elder Schoof and Elder Empey got their first rejections. Good news is that they are already at work!

His schedule will look something like this: They land in Finland around 5pm tomorrow night (local time). The Mission President and the AP's will pick them up at the airport and take them to the mission home for dinner and interviews with the President Brown. On Wednesday, they will spend time with a set of couple missionaries in the mission home that will get their paperwork in order (i.e. bank accounts, etc.). Apparently, that takes a while. They will be in training the rest of the day to learn about the country and the mission. They will likely head out to their areas on Thursday with their trainers.

It is expected that the four of them will be split up in four different cities: Rovaniemi, Vaasa, Kuopio or Tamperi. We will not know which one he is assigned to until our email next week.

We do know that his P-Day will be Monday, so we won't hear from him until a week from today.

They had a bit of a close call with their luggage. They found out that they could only take 1 carry-on, less than 18lbs and two free checked bags of 50lbs or less each. He had to put his small roller bag inside of the medium sized one so he would not have to pay an extra $100. Too bad I could not pass on my 1K status to him! His two checked bags came in at 49.5lbs and 50.5lbs, so they let them go through. His carry on was 17.5lbs. Good thing we did not send a package to him at the MTC right before he left!

We did send him a surprise package to the mission home that should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. It sounds like we probably should have sent deodorant. Apparently, they do not have very good product in Finland. I guess that will be the next package.

If anyone wants to send something to him, send it to the mission home. He also suggested that letters should go to the mission home also and they will forward accordingly. I have updated his address on the blog page for your reference.

That's all for now. Please write letters to him!

Thanks!

Last Day at the MTC

2009-08-23T19:16:00.004-05:00

Well, today is Dallin's last day at the MTC. He heads out for Finland tomorrow. We will have an opportunity to talk with him during his layover in Denver (it figures). We are very much looking forward to that.

In the mean time, we have some additional updates from his last few emails as well as an email from one of his MTC instructors.

This was from two weeks ago:

Last week in the TRC, Elder Ranzenberger and I had the opportunity to teach not just one, but two real life, 100% authentic Finnish people. What was amazing is that we actually understood most of what they were saying. I think I mentioned last week that Elder Ranzenberger and I are speaking Finnish all the time now, as much as possible so that certainly helped, along with the fact that Heavenly Father likes to help missionaries. It was an awesome experience and probably one of our best teaches, if not the best.

In the RC, Elder Ranzenberger and I love to take incoming calls from people who are calling in to order something. For whatever reason, we always seem to get a ton of people calling in with the wrong number by mistake. We make it a goal to give one of these wrong numbers a Book of Mormon or a DVD about Christ. So far no luck but we're trying. Yesterday, out of the 15 calls I answered in about 1.5 hours, 13 of them were wrong numbers. Crazy. We have been calling some of the same people back over the last few weeks. One lady I've been talking to for a long time is meeting with the missionaries so we're just kind of an in between support group. Her story is quite intense so I'll have to tell it when I get back because I just don't have enough time now. She's doing well though and wants to be baptized so in due time she'll get there.

Oh boy so today our district was selected to help be hosts for the new missionaries coming in today. Elder Ranzenberger and I get to help with traffic so that will be a party. It'll be fun to see all of the new missionaries coming in. The only bummer is we don't get to go to the temple today because it's a conflicting schedule. Sealings last week were really cool though.

Here are some things from his letter last week:

The MTC is just fine but I am ready to move on. Yes Finnish is hard. We have been learning "spoken" Finnish, which is what the people will actually say. It's totally different and kinda scary. For dinner/lunch/breakfast we eat some sort of meat item with a different sort of meat gravy/sauce, depending on the day.

Guess who i saw today? Tyler King. he's been here for a week now so i talked to him for a few minutes so that was fun. there are currently 12 finnish missionaries here. There are 3 elders in the group that replaces us in a couple of weeks.

Get this, President Brown and his wife (my mission president) are hard core UTE fans! Yeah! Monday was our last day with brother west, one of our teachers, because he was going out of town. He brought in a bunch of pictures and told us a lot of cool stories about finland so we keep getting more excited. Saturday is our last day with our other teacher, brother evans so he'll do something similar: show us his stuff/pictures and give us his last words, so to speak. It's so exciting to think that this is the last email from the United States for 2 years! Ahaha!!

Here are some thoughts from Veli Evans, one of Dallin's teachers:

Hopefully you have heard my name in emails from your son, and hopefully the things you have heard have been nothing but positive. My teaching companion and I had the privilege of teaching Vanhin Grimm while he was in the MTC for 12 weeks. During the last 3 months I have really enjoyed getting to see the spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth in him as a missionary of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

After teaching a group of missionaries I am particularly impressed by I ask each missionary if it would be alright for me to write their mothers and let them know of their current progress, etc.

Vanhin Grimm has been a lot of fun to teach at the MTC. He grasps things very quickly and has learned to speak Finnish quite well. Of the two companionships in his district his companionship is the most dynamic. They teach very well together and have learned to explain complex doctrines in Finnish.

He is the best Finnish speaker of the group and loves speaking Finnish all the time. His diligence has paid off because he is able to teach very well in the TRC each week. I always looked forward to interviews as well because he is always so happy and nice to talk to. His expectations for Finland are exactly where they need to be and he is so excited to go there!

He is very obedient and always seems to accomplish all of his goals each week. He sets extremely high goals and has a very unique way of motivating himself. This diligence is going to make him an awesome missionary in Finland when he arrives. I always tell my missionaries that they only send the best to Finland and I truly believe this. Being in the MTC with Vanhin Grimm has helped me become a better teacher and it has been a blessing in my life to get to know him.

Thank you for preparing him the way that you have. It is evident that he has a strong background and in the gospel.

As a parent, this letter was very much a "pay day". We will post some thoughts after our call with Dallin tomorrow!

2 More Weeks...

2009-08-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

Dallin is getting very excited to leave the MTC and head out to Finland. His travel day is Monday, August 24th. We are very excited about this because we are supposed to get a call from him that day during his travels!! We will post an updated address when we have one.

Dallin currently has 3 cousins in the MTC as well. Lars Spjut (heading to Russia), Kersti Spjut (heading to Canada) and David Grimm (heading to Mexico). He has seen all of them at one point or another. Kind of fun!

He was excited to get a letter from his Aunt & Uncle, Darryl & Karin. Please send letters!

Dallin told me how to say, "Snake! I will destroy you" in Finnish: Käärme! Minä hävitän sinut! Nice...

He has sent some additional Finnish words for us to stumble with:

tähti: a star (like in the sky). Suunitella: to plan

tietokone---> computer. It literally translates to a "knowledge machine."

laulu--->a song.

makea---> it means "sweet."

läskii. It means "chubbs" So you can say, "hey, läskii!" Don't really say that, it's kinda mean. But it is an awesome word one of the teachers taught to Elder Ranzenberger and I.

Lakkaamatta: without ceasing.

Dallin & his companion, Elder Ranzenberger have decided to speak only Finnish their last few weeks in the MTC.

Elder Ranzenberger and I actually made a goal to speak only Finnish for our last three weeks here. So far so good. It's certainly not easy all of the time but just in the last two days my Finnish has improved a lot. I'm excited to see how much better it will be in 3 weeks!

So because Elder Ranzenberger and I are speaking Finnish until we leave, we can say," Me puhumme suomeksi lakkaamatta!" We speak in finnish without ceasing! It's a good one.

Dallin has had some great experiences in the Referral Center (the RC):

I have had some more cool stuff in the RC. I actually just talked to a lady yesterday from Washington, MO. She was very adament about the fact that she was Catholic and just wanted a Book of Mormon so she could see what it is. It was a bit of a fun challenge for me to "teach" her without actually "teaching" her. I suggested she read the Introduction of the BoM because it sums up pretty well what it is. (it also happens to outline the logic chain that if the BoM is true, then Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was His prophet, and that our church is the true church.) Hopefully whoever calls her in a few months will be able to teach her more.

In the RC yesterday during a call back, we were able to teach a lady part of the plan of salvation and it was really good and then her nephew started crying and company came over so she kinda sorta hung up on us. That's satan for you, interrupting our lessons, but the important thing is that she felt the spirit when she prayed and when she reads the book of mormon. We'll keep working on her.

So, please keep praying for him and please send him letters.

More Pictures!

2009-07-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-07-19T14:09:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-07-05T17:38:00.000-05:00

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...

First Letter!!

2009-06-21T20:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we received our first letter from Dallin! It came in the trademark, small missionary envelope. This letter was his first assignment at the end of his first day at the MTC. He reminded us that he did not know the address of our hotel, nor the PO Box that we have been using since leaving our home. Fortunately, mail forwarding works.

There are 3 other Elders that are heading to Finland that checked in the same day. One of which was one of Dallin's roommates at BYU. His companion is from Kaysville, Utah and attends the school of the Prophets (U of U).

He reported that our friend from our Ward (Scott Sweeney) was correct about the food. His first dinner was some meat with gravy!

This letter was followed by two emails on Wednesday (his P-Day). We can now look forward to Wednesday emails from him while he is in the MTC!

Dallin's first email was somewhat of a chastisement that we had not sent him a letter. To our relief, he received the letter that we had sent along with a cookie delivery that we sent prior to him writing his second email.

The following are a few excerpts from his email:

"Finnish is something else but I'm soaking it up like a sponge. We're almost ready to pray in Finnish so it's coming along. My companion was quarantined on Monday for having Swine Flu. I know right. He's been here for 5 days and he gets quarantined for another 5."

"Finnish is among a few other languages that is actually on a 12 week cycle, not just 10. There are 3 other new "Finns" that are with me. My companion is in quarantine and then there's Elder Schoof and Elder Empey. I am feeling fine though. There are 5 "papa finns" who have been here for 6 weeks already. They are all helpful and nice; one of them is even from England. When we got here, the "generation" before them was still here because they were delayed by the swine flu stuff. They finally left monday, but because they were delayed, one of them actually got the swine flu and was in quarantine until monday. They let him out about an hour after his group went to the airport. He'll hopefully be able to leave in the next week or two. He's now been here for 14.5 weeks. Probably a new record."

"Finnish is going well. I totally like it more than English. It's only hard because there are lots of rules to remember. English and most other languages have about 6 cases or so. Finnish has more than 15. The grammar all makes sense though, at least to me. I'm thinking the gift of tongues thing is working. Everything just seems to make sense, which is nice. I think my companions are having a little bit more difficulty but it gives me a good opportunity to help explain some things because then I remember it better too."

"Dinner has lots of gravy, and so does lunch."

"Yesterday was our first day in the RC (referral center). It's where you go in and make calls to nonmembers who have called and ordered various church materials. We are supposed to call and make sure they received their material and then try and teach them some more. Ultimately, the goal is to get them to have the missionaries into their home. We spent part of the time in training and then they got us on the phones. After 3 answering machines and 1 lady who I didn't really get anywhere with, I called an elderly lady in Georgia. She had ordered and watched one of the church movies and wanted to talk about it, is what the comment box for her profile said. I called her up and ended up teaching her about the restoration and joseph smith and the Book of Mormon. She was fine with the missionaries bringing over a Book of Mormon to her so that was really a good experience. The missionaries should be at her home sometime this week so hopefully that goes well. We aren't really notified of how things turn out so we don't always know the fruits of our labors."

Obviously, things are going well. I guess Sweeney continues to be right...a week in and still lots of gravy!

I was also very happy to get another letter when I arrived back in Denver from St. Louis on Saturday...a Happy Father's Day, homemade card from Dallin! He signed it Elder "U of U" Grimm (I am so proud!).

We will keep you posted with other news.

Check-in Day

2009-06-10T21:57:00.001-05:00

We took Dallin to the MTC today. Given the cases of Swine Flu, we were not allowed to go with him into the MTC. It was very organized and very much like dropping off a passenger at the airport, curbside.

So, we did not have any time to take pictures at the MTC, so we left Cath's sister's place and went to the Draper temple. We have attached a few of these for your enjoyment.

We came to a series of "Happy Helpers" that directed us to a line up where a Sister and an Elder were waiting anxiously to take our "package". The Sister checked Dallin in and the Elder grabbed his luggage and was going to be his guide into the building to get settled in.

After some tearful hugs, we saw him on his way to officially start his mission.

We are happy, but sad at the same time. For us the "clock" has started. Cath said that we only have 24 more Fast Sundays to go!

We have Dallin's address here:

Aaron Dallin Grimm

MTC Mailbox # 336-H24

Helsinki, Finland Mission

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

I am sure that he will appreciate letters. In fact, he wanted us to be sure we told everyone to send lots of letters!

Setting Apart

2009-06-09T00:09:00.000-05:00

Well, Dallin was set apart on Sunday, June 7th by our Stake President (Aaron Todd). It was a nice event at the church building with just our family and a member of the Bishopric.

We leave on Tuesday to take Dallin to the MTC. His check-in date is June 10th (our 21st Anniversary!).

Danika and Connor have acted as Dallin's companion as he cannot be alone now that he is a full-time missionary. Tanner even waited outside the door of the bathroom at the hotel so he would not be alone (yikes!).

We are excited that this date is here. He will be a great missionary. More to come when we drop him off.