Transfers, New City, New Responsibilities

August 25, 2014

Goodbye to the Turku Elders!

Hello!! OK so I had an insane week. So, Tuesday morning I got a call from president Watson and he said elder Wilson do you have a second? And I said yeah of course president what's up? And he said "you will be leaving tomorrow to come down to Espoo to serve as a zone leader" So I literally had to go home and pack and I left the next morning at 9 AM and moved to Espoo. I have no idea why haha it was super super random. Everyone gets their normal change calls this friday, but I just moved a week earlier for some reason so it was super weird and I was way sad to leave. I just called all my friends from the ward there in Turku right after her called and saw a few of them on Tuesday and then I left the next morning. But, Tuesday night since I was leaving the other Turku elders came over and slept at our place and they brought a bunch of food with them. We knew they were going to make us dinner, but when they came they brought an enormous pot of crawfish and muscles and stuff haha it was hilarious. So we had a crawfish feast and at a TON of food it was awesome! I was SUPER sad to leave Turku like that. I loved the members there so much so I wanted to be able to say goodbye to them all but sometimes that's just how it works out I guess. So, I'm in Espoo now which is a city right next to Helsinki, it's pretty much just the Helsinki suburbs but there are two wards here in Espoo and it's a really nice place. We live in a part of town called Kauniainen and it's all really nice big houses and cool cars, haha it's pretty sweet. My companion is elder Bascom who is from Atlanta Georgia and he's a way cool guy. He's been out only 2 months longer than me. We're having a good time here though. So, I'll be serving as zone leader of the Helsinki zone and then also president told me that I'm going to be trained as the next mission language coordinator. So pretty much the current language coordinator who serves in Helsinki will come up here to Espoo or I'll go down to Helsinki pretty often next change and he will train me on all the stuff I have to do for that calling. It's basically just like a language teacher for missionaries that need extra help and then he also gives the missionaries their language tests and grades them and that kind of stuff. So, that should be pretty cool I'm excited for that. Next change is Elder Down's last change (the current language coordinator) so after he leaves I'll just take his place. So anyway, lot's of new responsibility and work, but it's ok I'm excited to chill with elder Downs a lot he's way cool. So I got down to Espoo Wednesday, we had a district meeting that day and my district is way fun because Elder Wood (my former companion) is in it so that's fun that I get to see him. Then on Friday we had a meeting called Mission leadership council which is where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and the APs get together here in Espoo and we all go to the temple and then go to the mission home afterwards and have a big meeting about what kind of stuff we want to focus on as a mission for the next month. So I got to go to the temple again! My second week in a row! Then chill at President Watson's house all day Friday. I didn't really know what to do or say since I've never served in the Helsinki zone before, but it was a cool meeting. Then yesterday we had church and we had an especially awesome sacrament meeting. My new ward here is great and we had one sister missionary who serves here as well who is going home tomorrow so she gave a talk, and then a native finnish girl here from this ward gave her farewell talk because she leaves on a mission this week! IT was an awesome Sacrament meeting. We also have some really cool investigators here! We have two investigators with baptismal dates that are progressing well and they were both at church yesterday! ONe of the investigators is this 18 year old kid who's step mom is a member and his dad just got baptized a couple of weeks ago! So there is really exciting stuff happening here in Espoo and I'm lucky that I get to be here right now! Well I think that is it from the week, this week we get to do splits and stuff like that so it should be a ton of fun. Well I love you all so much! Have an awesome week! 

Crawfish and Mussels Goodbye Feast

ONE YEAR MARK

August 18, 2014

Elder Wilson - 1 Year Finished

Hey! So yes it's true, I hit my one year mark this week! Pretty crazy. I don't really know how to feel about it. I feel like the mission is all kind of a time capsule. Sometimes I feel like it's gone by insanely fast and I haven't even been gone long at all but it also feels, at other times, like that was a whole different life so it's way weird. 2 Years is a pretty long time, but it's all on the downhill slope now haha. We had a great week last week with elder Stephenson's interim training and all that good stuff. We went down to Espoo on Sunday night and met up with some elders that gave us some transportation cards so that we could use the buses and stuff and we went over to the elders apartment that we would be staying with and it was way fun! I was surprised when I got there, my former companion elder Wood was there at the apartment and he spent the night there on Sunday night as well because they had some district activity the next day so it was way fun. I got to talk to him for a while and we all hung out and played some beach volley ball in the morning so it was sweet! I hadn't seen him since I left Seinäjoki like six months ago so that's always fun to see old buddies around the mission. So anyway we had interim training on Monday and Tuesday and that was all at the mission home with president and sister Watson. It was way good, they talked about a lot of the doctrine behind different parts of missionary work such as finding or teaching skills or whatever and we did role plays and stuff like that. So it was pretty fun to get to know President Watson a little better and be with a bunch of other missionaries. Then Wednesday the new missionaries had a language shool thing and all the trainers had a language school as well but it was more like, how to teach the new guys better and how much to correct them and stuff like that, so it was good. So after language school we all got to go to the Temple!! It was super sweet! It was my second time going through the Finland temple, but man it was so cool. It is an awesome temple and insanely beautiful on the inside especially. It was way nice to just be able to relax and enjoy the temple for a day. After the temple we just headed back to Turku. The rest of the week we were busy with just normal stuff, we had some planning and district meeting and all sorts of stuff. On Saturday we did some service for the family that we helped move a couple weeks ago. They are doing a full refurbishing of the new house so we were tearing out floor boards and helping them mix concrete and fix a bunch of stuff so that was way good. They are a super cool family, they have six kids and this super adorable little baby who is fearless and breaks free from his mom and runs and jumps into piles of installation in the floors without floor boards and does crazy stuff like that all the time so we had to watch him closely hahaha Then yesterday we had a great day at church. We had a ward conference actually, so the stake presidency was there and there were some way good talks and everyone enjoyed it. I translated in Priesthood for a couple members that don't speak finnish and the stake preasident did the whole lesson and it was super cool, all about how dads can be better dads and how to strengthen families and stuff like that. After church we went over to a members house for dinner and it was way fun. They have a son that is like 23 and is super cool, we hang with him a lot and he goes to lessons and stuff with us and he's actually getting married to some girl from Utah next spring, she's coming to Finland in like a month to visit and stuff and then they will move back to America when they get married. They're a way cool family though, I was talking to the dad for awhile about my sweet 2010 Ford GT Mustang and all that good stuff. He's pretty in to cars and motorcycles so I was telling him about dad's Jaguar and he was like, he sounds like a good person to meet sometime haha so I think we have a place to eat dinner when we all come visit Finland together. Well that's about it for last week. This week we just have all the normal stuff going on and then on Thusday (my one year mark) I'm doing splits with elder Ahlquist (who is from my mtc group) and we're going to celebrate our one year day together! Well I love you all! Have a great week!

AUGUST 10, 2014

Hey everyone! Well this week went by super fast! It is a little weird to be emailing a day early, next time we have a normal p day, like one week from tomorrow I will just be back on the normal time and schedule for emailing. Well this week was way good! On Monday we just did the normal P day stuff and the other Turku elders got a mini missionary, just this 17 year old kid from a nearby city who was with them for the week so they brought him to basketball on monday and that was way fun! We had a good day on Tuesday of normal missionary work. We had a lesson with our new investigator on his friend that is a member and that went really well. Unfortunately he will be out of town till next week though, but it was a good lesson and he said he would read the book of mormon! Wednesday we had a zone meeting up in Tampere so we had to wake up early to go to that but it was really good! I got to eat lunch with some buddies afterwards and we all had a good time. It's way weird all of my former companions are going to be leaving soon or are already gone. I got a phone call from my trainer last wednesday night, Elder Christiansen, because he was flying home the next day. It was super weird. I remember sitting ont the train with him to Seinäjoki my first night in Finland and him saying that he had 10 months left and that it was still a really long time. But now ten months later he's gone. Super weird how the time just flew by. Then elder wood only has one more change after this one and then elder anderson leaves the following change. So they're all dropping like flies, it's way sad. Well Thursday we had a good day, we got together with the other elders and their mini missionary at this way cool member's house and I made a giant batch of pancakes! It was awesome! Everyone thought they were delicious. Also, a way cool thing happened while we were at this guys house. This guy that I met at fest di nord who is from England called me. This guy is way cool, he's like 22 and got baptized like 8 months ago and he is already his ward's ward mission leader and is planning on going on a  mission himself. So anyway this guy called me and gave me some information on a referral he had for us! Apparently whil he was here during fest di nord he was at a restaurant with his other british friend and this older lady came up and asked them what they were doing in finland and stuff and then all of a sudden she just said "Are you guys mormons?" And they said ya how did you know that? And she said that when she was a really little girl she remembers two guys that came over to her house a few times and talked to her parents and stuff and that the two british guys just reminded her of the mormon missionaries. So they started talking about the church a little bit and they started telling this Lady that God is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us and this lady just started crying. She was feeling the spirit super strong and so they talked a little while with her and then the British guys explained that they were leaving finland soon, but that they had friends in Turku that could talk to her about this stuff. So now we have this ladies info and are trying to set up an appointment with her! It was an awesome story. So I really hope we can get in touch with her. So then the rest of the week was just normal missionary work! We leave in a couple hours to head down to Espoo where we'll be stayiing this week. We're going to have the training stuff at the mission home which is in Espoo which is right next to Heslinki so I'll be there all week and then get to go to the temple on Wednesday and then come home that night! I'm not really sure what we'll do there mom since it's a new mission president but the trainers just sit in the meetings with the new companions the whole time so I'll find out. Well that's all the exciting stuff from the week! I love you guys so much! Have a good week!

FEST di NORD

August 4, 2014

FEST di NORD GAMES

Hello! We had a super fun week here this week! Fest di nord was awesome and was super successful, but it was crazy haha they needed all the help they could get there. Pretty much we were at the school where the whole thing was hosted for 3 days this week all day long doing random stuff. On Tuesday we helped all the people coming to fest di nord get to their rooms and check in, then that whole day we did one station of this big Amazing Race activity they did so we just chilled up on a cliff on the ocean all day while groups would come up and do a little game we had for them and then head off. So, it was tons of fun! I got to see a couple swedish guys that served here in Finland that recently went home so it was super fun to see them again! There were over 600 participants at this fest di nord it was huge! Everyone had a great time I think so it was a really good thing. So, then Wednesday The APs and the zone leaders were here in Turku staying with us and they did the mini mtc at fest di nord while all of us other missionaries washed dishes and did random stuff and then that night even all of us Turku missinoaries set up lessons with people that speak english and we took a couple of the guys that were at the mini mtc to lessons! So, elder Stephenson and I took out two guys, one Finnish kid who is like 18 and blind and is actually from Vaasa and I was at his house on Christmas so that was way cool to see him again! And then this guy names Lewis who is from England and who got baptized like 8 months ago! He was so cool! He is a rock solid convert and is like 22 and was just called as his ward's mission leader, and wants to serve a mission of his own in a few months. A way awesome guy! So, we took those two out to two lessons with one member and one recent convert member that both speak english and then went back to fest di nord. Then Friday we just did normal washing dishes and making food (which included making 600 sandwiches which I have pictures of) and then serving food at the fancy dinner they had that night.

So it was a ton of fun! Mainly we were just doing random tasks and running around all day and then translating for the older Fnnish ladies that were running the whole thing that didn't really speak english so it was an adventure haha I gained a much bigger appreciation for people who organize youth conferences and stuff like that now because it was a ton of work! Everyone was stressed out of their minds and everytime something went wrong or something needed to be done they were like "MISSIONARIES GO DO THIS GO GO GO"  It was way intense haha but in the end all the Finnish ladies were super grateful for us and calling us angels and stuff so it was pretty cool. On Thursday we weren't needed at fest di nord so we just did normal missionary work and we did splits with the zone leaders since they were here and it was a great day! We found a new investigator which was sweet! Pretty much for the last several months one of our less active members has been talking about this friend who gives him all sorts of anti mormon information and stuff like that so I was like you know what why don’t we just meet this guy and talk things out. So, we finally set up a lesson with this guy and the less active and at first the guy was just trying to bash but then I just said, hey usually when we talk to people we start with a prayer so is it ok if I pray? And he agreed. Then after the prayer it was completely different. He just let us start talking and teaching and he opened up to us about a lot of stuff and was super receptive and listened. It was amazing. Like a complete 180 degree turn around. So, we set up another lesson with him for Tuesday and he agreed to read from the book of Mormon so that was awesome! We're way pumped about that. Then on Saturday we just helped this family in our ward move in to a new house then Sunday had church and ate dinner with some members and stuff so it was all an awesome week! We had a great time! I'll send pictures and stuff of fest di nord. Well I can't believe that little sammy is 16 now! sounds like you guys all had an awesome week! I love you all so much! happy birthday again Sammy! bye! 

Finland Gets Hot?!!

Setting Up For Fest De Nord

Trying to Remember Guitar Skills

What the hey, how can sammy be turning 16 this week?! I can't believe it! I’m sure the entire week will be a pretty miserable experience for everyone involved, ha ha.  But, still I wish I could be there to celebrate with you guys! Well, I’m insanely jealous that you guys got to chill in Hawaii all week. sounds like it was awesome and that Sammy got an early birthday present from that bird haha Don't worry sammy a bird pooped on my head a few months ago here. Just right on top in all my hair and stuff it was pretty gross, but I'm a survivor I'm sure you'll shake it off haha. Well it's been super hot here! It’s been over 30 Celsius every day for like a week and it's pretty miserable because there's no air conditioning here anywhere. So, in church yesterday I was literally sitting there amongst a few hundred people in like a sauna with sun streaming in through the windows and trying to translate all of Sacrament meeting with one of the speakers talking about the histroy of the Catholic church during the apostasy and all of these different Ceasars of Rome, so it was pretty miserable. I was just dying. So, I never expected to deal with the heat in Finland haha but it’s made me glad that I'm not in  a country that is hot and humid with no AC all year long. Well, mom that training that you have to do in San Francisco or Philladelphia sounds awesome! Sounds like you'll be a super posh psychologist with all sorts of training throughout the world in no time. I miss learning science and secular things haha I’ve literally forgotten everything about chemistry and math... pretty bad. Well, we had a pretty good week here we had a ton of people at basketball on Friday like 15 people it was awesome. A couple of less actives and one less active brought a friend so that was sweet! Everyone had a good time there and one of the less actives that was there came to church on Sunday which was great! We spent a couple days helping members set up for Fest Di Nord which is this week! I'm super excited about Fest Di Nord. I think I’ve mentioned it before, it’s like a giant EFY for young single adults throughout the Nordic countries, but this year they have people from all over the place coming, there will be people from 27 different countries and like 600 people there so it will be awesome. So, this week we were working at that almost every day and the APs and the zone leaders are coming to help too and President Watson will be there as well, so it's going to be awesome. We are doing a mini MTC with people one day and then later that night going on splits with some people and we will have a car we can use and stuff so we’ll take a few guys out to lessons and stuff like that. So, that will take up most of the week, but it's going to be the funnest week ever. We'll mainly be hosting people to their rooms and then working at different stations while they do activites and stuff so we'll do all sorts of cool stuff, and the whole thing is up in Naantali which is sweet so we'll be chilling out on the beach or on cliffs on the ocean most of the time. That was pretty much the excitement of the week though. Oh, the new senior couple that just got here last week was at our district meeting and church on Sunday and they are way cool! I like them a lot. They've been living in Murray for the last thirty years but elder Puikkonen was born here in Turku and met elder Mortenson (the last senior couple) when elder Mortenson was serving his first mission in Finland a long time ago and he served in Turku. So they are like lifelong friends and remind me so much of each other it's way funny. Well that's all to report on this week. I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week and an awesome birthday Sammy!!!

District Meeting Fun

Elder Wilson teaching a lesson got some help from the kids

11 Months Out

July 21, 2014

Elder Wilson had to buy some new pants.

Well today is my 11 month mark as a missionary! Pretty insane! Next month is the big one and then it's all down hill from there. We had a good week, it seemed to go by especially fast. But we got to do lots of fun stuff! Last Monday we had a normal p day and then played basketball then for family night we did this way fun activity that was like water balloon volley ball, where you pass water balloons back and forth with towels and anyway we had like 20 people there which was awesome! I got to talk to this one non member guy for a while who is this awesome guy that used to live in California and rode motocross and stuff so we were talking all about motorcycles and California and stuff and turns out he really likes working out so I sent him the big workout plan that Jefferies and I made. So, that was a super good experience. Hopefully, he keeps coming to YSA stuff. So then Tuesday we were able to set up lessons with two less active guys, one of them I just called out of the blue from the ward list and asked if we could come get to know him better and he said he wasn't really a member anymore, but agreed to let us come over sometime! Unfortunately, both of the lessons fell through, one guy had to leave Turku for something then the other guys phone broke and couldn't get a hold of him, but hopefully they will both be willing to meet this week. Wednesday we had a fun district meeting, elder Alqhist got a little mini ping pong net and paddles from his parents so we all played some ping pong which was pretty fun then all ate some cake afterwards for one of the sister's birthdays. Oh, also the new senior couple is here in Turku! I haven't met them yet but will meet them this week. They are both Finns originally from Turku that have been living in America for like 30 years, but that should be cool. So, we may help them move in to their apartment this week a bit I'm not sure. Well, on Friday we did splits with the other elders which was way fun. I was with Elder Barnheart for the day who's a way nice guy and we had a good time. Went to a pizza buffet for lunch and everything. Had a lesson with some guys from Nepal that was pretty fun, they are just college students here and I felt right at home hanging out with Nepalese college students again.Then we just had basketball and after basketball we taught a Finnish class at the church! We are going to do Finnish classes every Friday from now on and just invite members and investigators that are trying to learn Finnish. So, I was asked to teach the class and just this Chinese guy was there who is a member in the other ward, but it was pretty cool! It's actually way fun to teach, and when you teach even the most basic things it reminds you of how crazy hard Finnish is, like there were so many points throughout the class where I would come up with an example sentence or he would ask a question and then I would just have to change it or not answer his question because it seemed so basic but brought up like tons of grammar rules that he doesn't know, so it was kind of hard to teach it haha, but it was fun. Saturday I made the Wilson's legendary pancakes with a bunch of members and some of the guys that have been off at the army so it was tons of fun! We made a huge bach and feasted. They all loved them so much, they think it's crazy that we put butter on pancakes, but they all enjoyed it haha and don't worry dad I kept the recipe confidential, it's still in Wilson hands. Thanks so much for sending me the recipe though! After the pancakes we walked around with those guys at this little world fair going on in Turku and got some crazy fish again and all sorts of weird candy, but it was fun. Saturday night there was a baptism! The sisters had this cool 24 year old African guy that got baptized and so we were there and the whole service was in English which was super weird. And we got to sing hymns in english which was the weirdest/best part! But it was a sweet baptismal service and everyone had a good time. Yesterday an older couple in our ward invited us to go eat with them after church which was sweet and they also always give one of our members a ride to and from church, this member is this awesome Nigerian guy that got baptized last here. So, anyway they invited him over to dinner as well so it was us missionaries, older Finnish people, and a Nigerian guy. Quite a group haha especially since the Finns speak like no English at all, so I was just translating back and forth between them the entire time, but it was a ton of fun. Everyone had a good time. But, that was pretty much the week! I hope you all have an awesome week, I love you so much!

Another Week in the Life of A Missionary

July 14

Hello! Well How's everyone doing?! Well this week was pretty good! It started out with a fun P day last week! After emailing you guys we bought groceries and then I bopped in to H&M to buy new slacks because my last ones ripped way bad haha so I had to retire them. So, anyway I found a super sweet super euro pair of pants for like 30 euros and I love them. Everyone has been commenting on how posh they are and all the other elders are jealous so I will include a picture of the new pants of course. After that we just played basketball and had a family night with ysas so that's always fun. Then Wednesday we went to Tampere and had a zone meeting which was great! We talked about coming up with visions for our areas and made plans and goals and stuff like that, so that was cool! After zone meeting I got to go out to lunch with the other turku elders and elder anderson (my old companion) and it was a ton of fun. Throughout the week we actually found a couple pretty good potentials. We talked to this one woman on the street right outside of her house who said that her husband had gotten a Book of Mormon from missionaries a really long time ago and they read a little bit back then, but haven't read it since, but she said we could come by sometime to explain more about it so she was way nice! Another day we did a little tracting near a members house that we were going to for dinner and we gave this young guy a book of mormon and he said we could stop by again some other time. A couple people have some referralls for us as well that we are trying to get appointments with so that is always promising! So, there's some good stuff happening for sure. On Friday we had a great basketball night, we had two less actives come out and one member brought a friend so it was awesome! Then yesterday we had a good day of church, unfortunately our investigator had to work again so couldn't make it, we may just have to hold out till the end of August or something till he can come I don't know, I sure hope he can find someone to work there in his place so that he can come at least a couple times a month. But he's doing well though, he's a way nice guy and pretty dedicated to reading and praying and learning about the gospel so he's doing well. But this week we are hoping to go out with a lot of home teaching companionships to get in contact with some less actives and hopefully use the ward more in teaching less actives, we think that would be more effective than just us missionaries showing up at their doors. Well anyways that's the whole week! Today we just have a normal P day of going to buy groceries and basketball and family night and all that stuff! So I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!