Making up for lost time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.