On His Way to Finland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

Last Day at the MTC

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

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

This was from two weeks ago:

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

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

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

Here are some things from his letter last week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 More Weeks...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

laulu--->a song.

makea---> it means "sweet."

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

Lakkaamatta: without ceasing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Pictures!

We were happy to receive more pictures this week. The first one is of Dallin and several guys from the same dorm building (and some from our Colorado Stake). On a temple trip, Dallin bumped into these guys. Elder Covey (from his student ward), Dallin, Steven Allred (Tuscany Ward), Justin Schoof (Dallin's roommate & fellow Finn) and D.J. (Smoky Hill Ward).

The next one is of the 4 Finns. Elder Empey, Elder Ranzenberger, Elder Schoof & Dallin.

Lots of language studying is the main theme again! Dallin very much enjoys his teachers (former Finnish Elders). He is learning a lot, working hard and loving it! Well, other than the food.

Here are a few excerpts from his last email:

Finnish is going well. It gets harder everyday because the grammar starts to pile up but I'm understanding it all, it's just a lot to remember. Our Finnish lesson actually went really well. We were really nervous and then were even more nervous when our teachers found out that there were a couple of real life Finnish people there! So, we got to teach a couple return missionaries along with the real Finn. We could understand most of what the return missionaries were saying, but we couldn't understand really anything of what the Finn said. But nonetheless, we were happy with how well we did, considering it to be our first time. We have to teach again tomorrow night so we've been working on that a bit. So far so good. I have learned a lot of new Finnish words actually. I learn about 30 or so everyday. What words do you want to know? Joulupukki is Santa Claus. I did hear that a snake bit Hildi. I hope she is doing better because I need to teach her some finnish commands when I get back. Istu!! (sit!!). Oh this is exciting! I can now roll my r's. I'm still practicing but none of us could roll them when we came in, and we've been practicing and now we can. It's pretty sweet.

The food is, well, edible. Some things are pretty good, other times not so much.

I don't know if there's anything I really need, honestly. We can get most of what we need at the MTC bookstore for a discounted rate, just for missionaries, which doesn't really make sense because only missionaries shop there.

Dallin very much enjoys his companion, Elder Ranzenberger. They get along very well and work hard together. He has a great perspective and is encouraging Cath & I to attend the Temple often...good advice!

He has requested a few things to be sent to him while he is still in the MTC. His U of U Sugar Bowl shirt (I am so proud!) and a bag of jelly beans.

He loves letters! DearElder.com is a great way to write to him while he is at the MTC. Please be sure to send him notes!

To Cross The Street is Sweet!

We are expecting more pictures from Dallin some time this week. We have added some excerpts of Dallin's last two emails.

He escaped the Swine Flu (so far), but came down with Pink Eye. He is also a District Leader. Here is his description of what happened:

So here's a story. I wake up Sunday 98% over my cold I had last week. But guess what. I wake up with a pink eye. I wanted to scream but that's not a missionary thing to do. So Elder Ranzenberger and I got to go on a field trip to the doctor's office a couple miles away. We even got to go to a Rite Aid to fill my prescription! It was so weird to be out of the MTC boundaries but it felt good. That alone almost made the pink eye worth it. It's pretty much gone now so it's good. However, everyone else in my district (the other 3 Finns) all have colds. Elder Schoof had a nasty cough that most likely spread his cold to the other two because he refused to go to the health clinic. Gross.

So I am now the District Leader for the 4 of us. Elder Schoof and Elder Empey are the new zone leaders because our last zone leaders left for Estonia on Tuesday at 3 in the morning. They were way good elders so it was sad to see them leave. Because of my pink eye, I missed my first meeting as District Leader so that was kinda inconvenient. But like I said, we got to leave the MTC and that made it worth it.

As of last week, Dallin and the other three missionaries that checked in the same day are the only Finnish Elders in the MTC. This week, 9 additional check-in. Apparently, Estonian is sort of close to the Finnish language, so the Finns and Estonians are in the same District.

Finnish continues to go well. Dallin gave us a few more language lessons:

Here's some Finnish stuff because it's so fun.

This emphasizes the importance of pronunciation because the end result can be quite different if something is pronounced just slightly wrong:

Saammeko tulla tapaamaan sinun miehesi?

May we come to meet your husband?

Sammakko tulee tappamaan sinun miehesi.

A frog is coming to kill your husband.

As you can see, the spellings are barely different for some of the words yet the meanings are totally different. We speak very slowly most of the time to make sure that we are saying the right thing. I'm sure I'll have some sweet stories when I get back.

He was scheduled to teach his first full lesson in Finnish last week. We will have to wait and see how that experience went.

Dallin continues to really enjoy working in the referral center. This is where he gets to call people that have expressed some desire to learn about the Church.

We are quite excited because it sounds like we will get a chance to talk to Dallin on his way out of the country. The previous Finns had a long layover and were given permission from their Mission President to call home. We are hoping this will work-out! We don't have a date yet, but will know in the coming weeks.

Dallin hits his 1/2 way point in the MTC this week (he is scheduled to be there 12 weeks). As the "papa Finns" left, he is getting very excited to get there.

Dallin really enjoys letters, so please send them. The best way is DearElder.com.

That's all for now.

MTC Pictures!

Well, we finally received some pictures from Dallin (Vanhin Grimm). I will put a few on the website here. The first is his name tag. We are all having a hard time pronouncing the words, so if you can do it, good for you!

The second one is of Dallin and the 4 Finnish missionaries that checked in the same day. Dallin is standing next to his companion, Elder Ranzenberger. The other two are Elder Schoof (one of Dallin's BYU roommates) and Elder Empey. The last one is of all of the Finnish missionaries currently in the MTC (9, 10 including Dallin).

His companion was released from his Swine Flu quarantine. I have attached an excerpt of Dallin's last email where he talks about this:

Elder Ranzenberger is feeling fine ever since he got out of Swine Zone. Elder Schoof and I, however, picked up a cold or some form of the flu at the tailend of last week so we've had sore throats and stuffy noses. When Elder Ranzenberger was isolated, they gave us some "tamiflu" pills to help prevent us from getting the flu too. So we don't know if what we have now is a cold or a watered down form of the flu because of the pills we had. It hasn't been too bad and I started feeling better today. I've still been able to work hard and focus, despite the sickness I think because God knows I have a lot to learn still and I can't waste time with stupid things like sickness. we refuse to get checked out in case they want to quarantine us. elder ranzenberger told us horror stories about that place so we don't want to see if we have the swine or not.

He has been able to see some of his friends and family that are currently in the MTC! He has seen Steven Allred and his cousin Lars a few times. He will have two more cousins at the MTC soon.

The language is going well for him. He continues to send us Finnish grammar lessons. It is a very different language than English! There appears to be a bit of a language issue at the MTC. The following is a pretty funny excerpt regarding this phenomenon:

so here's one thing that drives us (the finnish missionaries) crazy: the spanish speaking missionaries. as you probably know, there are a lot of spanish speaking missionaries because a huge chunk of the world speaks spanish. what bothers us is that they all think that every other soul at the mtc also speaks spanish too. all the time they start talking to one of us in spanish even though our nametags are clearly not in spanish. it's kinda sad because we can understand about half of what they say and none of us have taken a single spanish class; we just don't really know how to respond. so they'll talk, we can't respond, they get a little annoyed. seriously, they do. so we start speaking finnish to them. they then get really confused and will either give up or will start speaking english. it's a funny exchange but i think if i hear "como esta?" one more time i'm going to lose it.

Nice!

A pretty cool thing happened last week. There was a training session at the MTC with new mission presidents. President Monson and several other General Authorities were there for the training. Dallin got to see them, but not meet them directly. Because the G.A.'s were at the MTC, they combined their Sacrament Meeting with all of the branches at the MTC. Dallin sat down next to a couple and said hello. They started talking and come to find out, the couple that he was talking to was Julie Walker's parents (Julie is in our former Ward in Aurora, CO)! It was great to get a call from Julie with a message from Dallin through her parents.

It is hard to believe, but he has been in the MTC for almost 4 weeks already. Today was Fast Sunday so that leaves 23 more to go! :)

That's all for now...

First Letter!!

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

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

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

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

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

The following are a few excerpts from his email:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We will keep you posted with other news.