Excerpts from letters

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

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

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.