Conference in Finland

April 7, 2014
Hello everyone! Ok so this week was pretty great because we had General Conference!! I got to watch all of it except I still haven't seen the Sunday afternoon session, I don't even know when I will get to watch it hopefully next P day when it's all online. But anywho Conference was awesome. As it got started it was just intensely spiritual and I loved it! It was so cool seeing how people all over the world experience conference in different ways, but it's so important to them. We had a tv set up in the Relief society room that was playing in english and then they had the Finnish translation set up in the chapel. So, we got to watch in english with members that speak english and even some Finns who speak way good english and prefer hearing it in english so it was awesome! So we got to watch the Saturday morning session on Saturday night and it was live and then all the other sessions on Sunday. It was way good, I desperately needed a big spiritual refresher like that. It's always so nice to just be reminded what it's all about and why we're all out here on missions and stuff. I especially loved President Monson's talk during the Sunday morning session, he said something that was way cool he said "If we truly love God, then we will love our fellow man" that is something that's a continual struggle as a missionary. It's hard to love people all the time when you get rejected hard core all day or something like that, but I just love that if we really love and appreciate God then the love of man will just come naturally. It was all exactly what I needed to hear. But other than conference we had a great week! 
We had this super intense lesson with our investigator that came to church last week. He's like 50 and is pretty depressed and has a drinking problem and he opened up to us during our lesson and told us that he's so depressed because he had little twin baby boys that died when they were a few months old and it was just heart breaking. We started teaching him about the plan of salvation and how we can all be ressurrected and live again. He said that he has trouble accepting the fact that God's plan included the death of Jesus but we just taught him about the atonement and that Jesus sacrificed himself for us so that this whole plan would be possible and it was just all super intense and very spiritual. Other than that we didn't have a whole lot going on this week, everything else we had planned kind of fell through on us and it was a slow week but overall it was great! O this less active guy we've been working with said that he finally feels that having faith is important and just trusting in his faith and that he wants to start over and come back to church and stuff and it was way good! Hopefully we start seeing some progress there! He is a guy that one of the teachers I knew in the MTC baptized when she served here in turku so it's way cool that here I am a few years later helping that same guy get back on track. But, yes that's pretty much all the excitement! It was a good week! This week should be good too! We have a zone meeting on Wednesday in Tampere and I'm pretty sure we will be taking a language test during it. Every six months everyone in the mission takes a language test and the score will tell you if you're on track and learning Finnish at the pace you should be. It also ranks all the missionaries in the mission so President will know who would be able to train new missionaries and stuff like that. So, we will see how that goes haha. Oh, also this week we are having a going away party for the Mortensons! The senior missionary couple that has been serving here in Turku for a year and a half. We are all going to miss them like crazy they are awesome. The ward loves them to death. So I can't wait for their party and all that. Well that is the whole week! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

The Work Goes On

March 31, 2014
Hello all! So we had another pretty good week! Some really good stuff happened, our area is starting to beef up quite a bit. So we didn't actually find any new investigators but we got in touch with quite a few less actives and recent converts who are down to meet and we got to teach a few of them and one guy came to basketball on Friday which was way good! There is this guy in the ward here who got baptized a few years ago and he was taught by one of the sisters that was a teacher in the MTC so it was way funny. I was asking him about her and he thought it was so cool that I knew her and stuff. He has fallen in to inactivity, but we got him out to volley ball and basketball this week and had a pretty good lesson with him! We also have this investigator who we gave a church tour to like three weeks ago but then he kind of fell off the map and wouldn't respond to us or anything and we had kind of given up on him but we were in his area on saturday and we decided to stop by and he was home and let us in! We had a super good lesson with him and at the end he prayed with us and everything! His prayer was very good and sincere and very eye opening for me, he started off his prayer by adressing God and then introducing himself to him saying his name and where he was from and stuff. And it was kind of funny but really showed me how crazy it is that most people in the world don't know Heavenly Father and they don't think he knows them. It's like we all have the greatest source of support in our lives that most people don't even know exists. And the fact that we can help people find out that he's really there and knows us is super cool to me. 

Lutheran Church in the center of Turku

Well so we offered to get this guy a ride to church the next day and he came! A member brought him and turns out they have a mutual friend from when they were kids so they hit it off and it went really well. He liked church a lot and even asked us if there were things he could come to at the church during the week haha Then at church this member brought a friend with them to Sacrament meeting who has been quite a few times so we're going to try to start meeting with him as well! So there are some good things going on! Well I am super excited for general conference! It is going to be a very different experience here in Finland. We watch the first session at the church on Saturday night and then we watch all the others on Sunday except we don't get to see the Sunday night session so we will watch it online some other time I guess. It will be awesome though, we have been inviting lots of people and members have been saying they will invite friends! There is this one recent convert in our ward who is from Nigeria and he's way cool and we gave him all the times for the sessions yesterday and he was like O awesome man I will play soccer with my friends on Saturday and then invite them to conference! So hopefully we get to meet some people this weekend during conference! Can't believe this is already my second general conference as a missionary. Pretty crazy. Well that was pretty much all the exciting stuff from this week! I love you all and hope you're all doing well!

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