New Investigators

Docks in Naantali

March 24, 2014

hello everyone! So we had a pretty good week here! On Tuesday we did splits with the other elders in Turku and it went really well! I was with Elder Strandberg for the day (a swedish elder) we got in contact with some former investigators, this couple of a Finnish girl and African guy and they have a little  4 year old girl and she's adorable. They said that they have been trying to decide what church to go to because they want to set a good example for their daughter and the dad is Catholic and the mom is Lutheran. We had a good conversation about how the church blesses families and stuff and so they are down to discuss some more about it. So, it was a successful day of splits! On Thursday Anderson and I finally met with this Turkish guy who we met like three weeks ago on the street and he said he would like a Turkish Book of Mormon, but every time we have tried to go back he wasn't home. But,  finally this time, we were in his area and he wasn't home… so right as we were walking back to the bus stop to head home he came walking down the street! He was way chill and was excited to see us, he said we could come by any time and talk about stuff with him, and he was like "If I'm not home I work in that restaurant right there so just come in there and talk!" It was way cool.  Oh, also we did some little activity with the young men of the ward and went on splits with them on friday night which was cool! The leaders just wanted us to organize a lesson that we could take them too so that we could show the boys what missionary work is like. Well, we had one lesson with a less active and one with an investigator set up but both of them fell through so the boys saw what missionary work is actually like haha. So, I took my kids to try a couple referrals and we contacted one of them and invited her to come watch general conference so it was pretty good. I think the boys liked it!

Well then yesterday we had a great day at church! There were some really good talks. One member of the bishopric (the one whose daughter I met in the MTC) gave a talk about giving thanks to God because he has given us more than we will ever be able to see or realize. He told this cool story of a young teenage kid who wanted a cool car from his dad. His family was super wealthy and so this kid expected to get this car for his birthday. But when he opened up his birthday presant it was a Bible. The kid was super mad and stormed off and gave his dad a bunch of attitude. Years later the teenage kid turns out to be a very honest successful businessman and he is very grateful that his dad taught him when he was young what was really important in life. He goes to visit his dad to thank him but his dad suddenly dies unexpectedly and he doesn't have a chance to thank him. He goes back and looks in the Bible that his dad gave him and sees that behind the note his dad had written in the Bible was a little key to his very own car. His whole point was that God gives us the things we need before the things that we want. But he also showers down blessings after we have learned what we need. But we should remember to thank God for everything he gives us ASAP and to always look for the meaning between gifts from God. It was a way cool talk and everyone was crying by the end. We then taught our gospel principles class to the english speakers in the ward which is always fun! So, overall it was a great week! Three new investigators and hopefully more on the way! Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Tampere Chapel

Hello! 
Well.... so we had a good week, but also a little bit of frustration with the actual missionary work haha as always. So we went up to another city called Tampere on Tuesday and we had zone conference and then did splits with the zone leaders the next day. The zone conference was pretty good. We talked all about using family history stuff it was way cool. We did this thing where president Rawlings was like alright, everyone turn to you companions and start telling them a story about one of your ancestors and why it's important to you, and then I want you all to feel what happens in this room. So everyone was telling each other stories and there was just such a good feeling and spirit in the room, a bunch of people were crying and stuff and it was very cool. Then President Rawlings said that "that spirit of Elijah is coming forth guys." People care about their families and using family history for finding and teaching people can be huge for the mission" But so anywho the next day we did the splits and we were with one of the zone leaders named elder Durant who is just like the nicest guy ever and it was super fun! We had a good day of teaching and contacting people.

Winter is back!

 So anyways, we came back to Turku Wednesday night and then did weekly planning on thursday and we had the best planning session of all time. We were both feeling really good about all the stuff we learned in Tampere and we came up with like a vision for our area and made goals and stuff and we were super pumped to start applying some of this family history stuff to our work. But we had a few slow doays of missionary work where literally not a single person answered their door... also it got cold again, theres snow on the ground and it's like -6 and so ..... ya...... kind of a bummer hahaha but we're going to keep working hard and doing our best!So then on Sunday we had a good day! We taught the gospel principles class and then we gave a little lesson to the young men in the ward all about missionary work! It was super fun, they were all a bunch of crazy 14 year old kids and there's about 7 or 8 in the ward, but it was way fun! We are doing a little activity on Friday where all the young men and their dad's are going to come out with us missionaries and we will show them what it's like to be a missionary so it will be fun! So then our one investigator who we gave the church tour to last week said he would be coming to church and we were talking to him like an hour before it started and he said he was coming but then just never showed up. But hopefully we can get in contact with him this week sometime. Also in church this one girl who is a recent convert (the one who added Mitzi on facebook haha) gave a talk and she brought two friends to church! One was a Swedish girl and one was German. So they needed me to translate sacrament meeting for them which was super hard because I start thinking in Finnish and then start talking in English and miss stuff so it was way hard but I did it successfully! It was pretty cool! My first time translating for Sacrament meeting haha but it was fun! Well there is a snow on the ground again and is like -6 C outside so that isn't fun, I was getting used to spring weather, but everyone says it will last for about a week and then warm up again so we will get two springs haha Well I can't believe I've already been in Turku for almost four weeks! We're almost halfway through the change, pretty crazy. Well that is everything for the week! I love you all! Have a great week!

Lovin Turku!!

The Wooded trails of Turku

Hello everyone! Well I have had a pretty great week here in Turku! It is getting sunnier and more beautifull every day and I love it! The temperature keeps rising but the wind here is super strong since we're right on the Baltic sea but I love it, it gives a cool beach feel. Turku is a beautiful place and I'm starting to get to know the city and people pretty well! The outskirts of the citry is very hilly and is just covered in cool hills and cliffs and forests and it's beautiful. Well we did a lot of the same this week, a lot of contacting and finding and meeting with members but it's starting to pick up a little bit! We gave another guy a book of mormon on the street this week and got his number and we have a few other potentials that we have some high hopes for. Well we did our normal basketball and then went to FHE last monday which is always fun, we've got some super cool YSAs and they are all really good at inviting friends and stuff like that. We had a sweet dinner appointment with this family this week and it was super crazy, turns out their daughter is on a mission in France right now and she was in the MTC at the same time as me and she was one of the Finn's I met in the MTC! Pretty crazy haha they all loved that. After we ate with them the mom took us over to their neighbor's house who she has talked to a lot about the church and she said that it was a bad time becuase she was about to leave but that we could come by some other time and all talk so that was pretty cool! 
So there's this guy who Elder anderson met with one time before I came to Turku who was a referral but the guy wasn't super interested, but he actually texted us a few days ago and said he wanted to talk again and see our church and stuff! So we we're in his area all day on Saturday and we told him that we could meet him any time, he said that we could meet up after his son's hockey game but then he got the time wrong so he postponed it and then his phone died and it didn't work out so we were thinking that we wouldn't hear from him again and that he would just blow us off but then that night he texted us again saying sorry but that he wanted to see our church. So yesterday, he came to the chapel and we gave him a church tour, we were doing it right as the first ward was out of church so there were a few members still in there and one of the members came in and chatted with him and bore a little testimony and it was great! The guy really liked it and said he wanted to start coming to church! So we're going to try to visit him this week and then get him to church next week. So that was way cool, it was a really nice experience and that was the first church tour I've done, but I think he really enjoyed it.  So also yesterday we went over to a family's house to eat dinner with them. They are like 35 ish and they have 6 kids and it was awesome! Their kids are hilarious, they're all super cute haha their baby was crawling all over us and they have a 7 year old daughter who is like the Finnish version of Indie she was adorable. She is super tiny and very sassy and was cracking us up the whole time. We ate with them and then the dad (who is the young men's president) told us they are doing this thing in like 2 weeks that will be a missionary night for the young men. They are going to come to some lessons with us so that the young men can see what it's like to be a missionary so we are excited for that it should be fun! Well this week should be good too and busy! Tomorrow morning we are waking up and taking a train to Tampere for a zone conference. We will be there all day and then spending the night with the zone leaders and me and Elder Anderson are doing splits with them on Wednesday and then coming home Wednesday night. So it should be cool Tampere is a super nice city so I will take some pictures! Well that is pretty much the whole week! I love you all! Have a great week!

Wonderful Members in Turku

Finnish 7 layer bean dip

Big city of Turku

Turku Chapel

Hello everyone! Well I had another awesome week here in Turku! Man this city is super cool, I am loving it here! I have gained such an appreciation for the ward members and their missionary efforts here they are super good examples to me and just very dedicated. Well this week was more of just trying to find new investigators. By far the hardest part of missionary work, but we have nobody to teach so that's what we have to do all day haha. It is rough but we're starting to see a little bit of success. We gave out three Book of Mormons and have an appointment to give another guy a Book of Mormon in Turkish! so I think that little by little we'll start picking up investigators here and there and start building up this area big time! It has a ton of potential so I think by the end of the change it will be super productive. Well on Wednesday we had a district meeting and then went out to eat together because it was one elder's birthday. Then every wednesday we have a little meeting with our Ward Mission Leader and so we did that and he's a way cool guy! But ya mom you asked if we see the other misisonaries a lot, ya we see them at basketball and church and district meetings and stuff so like almost every day we see other missionaries haha it's super different than up north. We also do family nights here, all the YSAs from both wards come to the chapel every monday and we do a lesson and have food and stuff so it's super fun and they bring friends sometimes so all the missionaries go to that. So all that kind of stuff is way different here but in a good way! There's so many things we can invite investigators to and there's so many ways the members can do missionary work too! All the young men in our ward are super cool, they are all planning on doing their year of army as soon as possible and then going on a mission right after. Finns are very hard to convert or convince of anything but when they are already members they are super solid and very motivated. Well we didn't do anything super exciting this week, just kind of hard work finding people but we had a realy good Sunday yesterday! The sisters had an investigators in church and Elder Anderson and I taught the gospel principles class so she was in there. She's like a 22 year old girl from England. We taught a lesson about the Holy Ghost and how his promptings are usually very subtle and we don't ever notice the impact he has until later on in life. Towards the end of the lesson she made a comment and told us that when she decided to come to Finland for college she just like had a strong feeling that she should come here and so she got on an internet chat thing and the first people she started talking to that live in Finland happened to be members of the church. They were her host family when she first came to Finland and she was like "I'm starting to think that the Holy Ghost led me to Finland to find out about all this stuff" It was way cool! So then after church we went over to a members house to eat and they have a 16 year old daughter and 14 year old son and they were way nice and we all ate and had a super good spiritual thought/discussion and they started asking us about how they could do member missionary work better. We suggested that they write their testimonies in book of mormons that we could give out to people. In response they gave us 8 book of mormons that they had already written their testimonies in haha it was super cool. Then at the end the mom invited us to come back again next Sunday and they are going to invite their neighbor to come as well who they have been wanting to give a Book of Mormon! It was awesome and the first time a member has actually done something like that that I have seen! We are super excited for that. Well that's pretty much the week! I love you all and miss you! Näkemiin!

Gorgeous City

Turku Week 1

Hello everyone! 

Well Turku is a super big city compared to Seinäjoki, it seems massive to me, but I love it. We live in the center, it's like the Finland equivalent of living in downtown Los Angeles or something haha our apartment is super nice and the city is beautiful!  There is so much cool architecture here and everything is beautiful. Well not only do I like the city a lot but I love the ward! There are a bunch of really good families and young people! Theres a couple super chill 18 year old guys and one of them always wants to go on lessons with us and stuff and is just a super solid member. There's families everywhere and everybody loves the missionaries. They all have us over to eat all the time and are super sweet to us. All these old mummos (grandmas) are just feeding us like crazy it's awesome haha so everything like that is great. Elder Anderson is way cool and we get along great! Everything like that is awesome, the actually missionary work is a little slow though, but I think that missionary work with such a big ward will be a lot easier and much more enjoyable! We also have received two referrals already which is awesome! I never got referrals in Seinäjoki. So I think our area could explode, we just need to put in the effort. Our areas are just like the northern borders of the city and some random further away neighborhoods.... basically what happend is this whole area is brand new, they split the Turku 2 ward into two sets off missionaries and so we don't have anyone in the area book really, it's kind of like were opening a new area. The other set of elders in Turku who live in the turku 1 ward were both with me in the MTC! so it's super cool, I'm glad I get to see them again. 

Finnish Disney Store

My trip here to Turku was a little weird, I left Tuesday evening, then stayed a night in Tampere with the zone leaders there, then took a train Wednesday morning by myself to Turku. It was a little weird to be on that train by myself but it wasn't too long and I was kind of just bored haha. 

People here in Turku have a bit of a different accent than up north, it's a little bit harder to understand. They speak super super fast and they don't say the last syllable of words so it's a little funky but not too bad. My district is just the 8 missionaries in Turku so it's pretty cool we all get to see each other all the time and play basketball and whatnot so it's pretty fun. It's way different though than in the north, Up there district meeting meant you travel for an hour and a half and sleep over somewhere but here we all just meet at the chapel real quick so it's super different. We also have a senior couple that lives here in turku and they're awesome I love them. The man, elder Mortenson, served a mission here as a 19 year old and then was a super succesful doctor in Utah his whole life and he still speaks really good Finnish and stuff and they are just way cool. 

Mom you're probably right I don't think it's worth it to send the basketball shoes, I will just use my Nikes or buy new ones, thank you though! Well mom I loved all those pictures you sent me so much! hahaha they were adorable! Those little bowties were the cutest things I've ever seen hahaha and man I can't believe baby Rosie is so big and chubby already! I miss all those kids! I plan on only speaking to baby Rosie in Finnish so that I have someone to talk to in Finnish all the time when I get home. And from your emails evey week it sounds like I will refuse to ever let Sammy drive me around when I get home hahaha that is pretty terrifying. All the Finns we're going crazy that Finland slaughtered the US in hockey haha they were loving it. I've developed an interest in hockey out here, Finn's go crazy for it and they talk about it with us all the time. 

Well on Saturday we went over to the place called Naantali which is this little town on the Northwest side of Turku and it's right on the ocean and O man.... it is the most beautiful place I have seen yet in Finland. It was so cool out there! It is just this little town and it feels like you're in a little beach town in Hawaii or California or something but then there is a huge church that is like 400 years old and it's just super old scool European looking. It was beatiful they had all sorts of cool stuff out there including a funky little finnish Disney store that I took a picture of haha 

Well the weather is a lot warmer here and it's delightfull! They say it's the warmest place in Finland! I'm super glad to be here haha it does get pretty windy though since it's right on the water which makes it a little chilly but it feels insanely warm compared to the north! 

Well that is pretty much the week! I love you all!

Elder Anderson and Elder Wilson

It's Transfer Time, Off to Turku!

Some of the sights I will be seeing!

Hello everyone! 
Ok so exciting news! I am being transferred to Turku!! Turku is an awesome city, the second biggest city in Finland and it has two big wards there! I will be serving in the Turku second ward with a guy named elder Anderson! Elder Anderson is elder Wood's former companion and says that he's super cool! I keep lucking out with super chill companions, but I am so pumped! There are 8 missionaries in Turku, two sets of elders and two sets of sisters. We called elder Anderson and he said that we always use buses and walk there so I won't have to use the girly bike for a while haha. I'm hoping I stay there for a long time, a ton of people have told me it's like the most beautiful city in Finland in the summer. Well I will be heading out Tuesday night on a train, spend the night in Tampere and then continue on to Turku Wednesday morning! Well even though I'm excited to be in Turku it was kind of bitter sweet saying goodbye to everyone in the Seinäjoki branch yesterday. I got up to give a little departing testimony and as I looked out at everyone I just felt like strongest desire to help this little branch. They are all such solid members even though they are in a pretty tiny and rough situation. Most of them drive an hour to church every Sunday and they try they're hardest to give us referrals and stuff and it's really cool to see how dedicated they all are. There's one family that live in Lapua which is like a half hour outside of Seinäjoki and the parents were converts, both of their sons went on missions and for years the missionaries have been going up to Lapua once a week to try and teach people up there with the member who lives there. This guy has literally introduced me to every one of his friends up there, gives people Books of mormons and does everything he can despite never having had anybody actually be interested. It is just a very powerful example to me to see how much the gospel can change these people's lives and how much they care about it. It has been a lot of fun in Seinäjoki and I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for it, it is my birth city as we call it,  but I just got to keep pressing forward. Well our two potentials we found last week weren't home when we went back on saturday but they both had a family member home and they said we could come back so they are still looking good! Our investigator that is a 55 year old woman is a super solid investigator and we had a great lesson with her this week. She gave a super heart felt prayer at the end and was even crying a bit. We could tell she was feeling the spirit for sure and she is probably the most promising investigator I have seen on my mission thus far. 
Well thanks for all the pictures and everything mom! It looks like you guys all had a great week back home! Man I miss all the little kids! They are all looking so big and old it makes me so sad! I hope Mandy and Max had a great birthday and that everyone is doing well! Mom as far as packages and stuff I can pretty much get mac n cheese and stuff if I really wanted it, it's pretty expensive, but it would be a lot more expensive for you guys to send it all the way here haha so I don't think I need anything in particular! But, I love you all and will be sending lots of sweet pictures of my new city next week! 

The Power of Prayer

Catching up with his MTC Buddies

Conference in Oulu

Hello everyone! Alright well we had a pretty fun week here in Finland! Mom you asked me about our study schedule, so we just do an hour of personal study of like reading the scriptures in english, then during our hour of language study we read the scriptures aloud together in Finnish to work on pronunciation and we pick up vocab and stuff like that. Well we get our change calls on Friday! Pretty nuts, I've already been here about two changes, thats 4 months in the country! Can't believe it, time is starting to fly by. I am pretty anxious to get the call, I suspect I will probably leave Seinäjoki but you never really know, If I do leave Seinäjoki though I would hope to stay in the north zone or go down to Helsinki or something like that, but we will just have to wait and see! So, next monday will be the last P day of the change and then everyone will move to their new places next Tuesday. Well this week was a lot of fun because we got to go up to Oulu for a zone meeting. I got to see elder Christiansen and my mtc companions Elder Hugie and Stegeby so it was awesome! We all slept in the chapel up there and played games and whatnot and then we came back down to Seinäjoki the next day. At our zone meeting the zone leaders talked alot about the nature of God and Satan. We talked about the feelings that come from God and the feelings that come from Satan and how we can resist the negativity that the adversary would want us to experience. It was a really good discussion, it lead in to this whole idea of praying always and how we need to all be praying always as missionaries and also as just regualr members. When we pray always we are keeping that connection with God and with the spirit open at all times and it is a lot easier to feel spiritual promptings that way. So, we really tried to implement this whole idea of praying always this week and we had a pretty cool experience through it! On Saturday we had a blank day, meaning we had no appointments, and nothing to do. So we tried one area in the morning and nobody was home, so it was like 4:00 and we hadn't taught any lessons and we felt like we were going to be out all day with no success. But we decided to go to another area and try a potential over there who is never home. We talked to people on the street on the way over there and had a couple good chats with people but nothing great. so we get to the potentials house and she wasn't home so we started making our way back and both trying to know what to do and then I just looked up and saw this housing complex and a very clear thought just came to me that we should tract in there. Usually when I get little thoughts like that I am a little heistant to say anything because usually they never work out, but this time it was just super clear and I just said immediately to Elder wood that we should tract here. So, literally the very first two doors we knock both people answered, accepted book of mormons, and said that we could come back! That literally NEVER happens and it happened two houses in a row! It was super cool we were really pumped. Afterwards wood said that he had felt like we should stop as well but he just didn't say anything, but we were both super glad we had been trying to receive some guidance. So hopefully those two will become investigators! 
We had some other good lessons this week as well. We tracted in to this family a couple weeks ago who said we could come back sometime and they seemed kinda interested, but not really so we went back on Monday and the dad came out and talked to us for about an hour. They are this cool young family with 5 kids. The dad knew the bible super well and was asking all sorts of deep questions but we had a good conversation with him so we went back yesterday but unfortunately he had been researching the church on the internet and came accross all sorts of anti info and so he was just asking all sorts of crazy questions and he wouldn't take a Book of Mormon. so we told him that the only way for him to really find out what we believe is be reading the book of mormon, not reading stuff on the internet. He agreed but still wouldn't take a Book of Mormon but said that maybe he would find it on LDS.org and read the chapter we suggested to him, so that was a disappointment but what can ya do. 
Well everything else has been pretty good here, the weather is warming up which is SO nice but unfortuantely it's just all slushy and muddy and nasty everywhere so we come home super gross every day, but once all the slush and stuff melts it will be amazing! Well tell Mandy that I say happy birthday! I wish I could be there for her little birthday bash but I love you all! Näkemiin!