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!

Biking with Snow Tires!

Hello everyone! So mom you asked me a few language questions in your email this week so I will answer those first. Yes I definitely feel like I'm still learning a lot of Finnish every single week. As far as new vocab  and stuff I'm starting to slow down a little but I feel like I understand new grammar principles and get a better accent and all that continually. I have had a few dreams where I'm speaking finnish to people but it's not like I'm jsut fluent in my dreams haha even in my dreams I still kind of think things out and say them how I normally would so it's super weird! As missionaries we kind of speak Finenglish all the time, like there a lot of sweet words in finnish that we just straight up don't have in english so we will throw in words like that all the time but we usually just all speak english together. I kind of think in finnish for like certain words and especially when I pray. I haven't said a prayer in English in months and it would just feel super weird if I prayed one in english. I think in Finnish when I pray now because it just feels more natural, so stuff like that is really weird. Like when I was in my interview with our mission president a few weeks ago I literally forgot how to say Branch president in English so I just said Seurankunnan Johtaja because it was all I could think of hahaha so I feel like my brain is a little confused all the time but it's good, things that I thought were super weird about finnish a few months ago now just make sense and then I think about how we say it in english and it seems weird to me haha But what's cool about finnish is theres always more to learn. Nobody ever gets to a point here where they can say ya I know everything. Like even Finns don't understand their own grammar and they make grammar mistakes sometimes that I catch hahaha it's just a super complicated language but it's fun. 
Well we had a pretty good week here in Seinäjoki! Unfortunately all of our members were down in Helsinki doing a temple trip so we literally couldn't teach our new investigator that is a 50 year old woman so that was a bumer..... the problems with having like 3 members haha but we did have a pretty good week of getting other random lessons on the street and contacting people. We had our 30 year old investigator guy in church again yesterday! I think that was his third time so it's great! We're excited about that, he seems to be very sincere and giving it a real shot. He said probably the best prayer I have heard an investigator give last week and he seems to be doing well. We also have been teaching that vietnamese girl that me and Christiansen found because the sisters were supposed to teach her, but they haven't come to Seinäjoki in like 2 and half weeks so they asked us to teach her so on Saturday we went over to a members house and taught the girl and her roomate and we think both of them have some potential so that's going pretty well! 
We got to do a little service this week as well this lady in the ward was moving in to a new apartment so me and elder Wood were there with like one other lady from the ward and the ladies ex husband who brought a trailer so pretty much me and wood had to carry all the furniture down three flights of stairs and load it all up hahaha so it took about five hourse but it was good. We got her all moved in to her new place and she was excited so it was a good day. We had a disctrict meeting up in Vaasa on Friday so we went up thursday night to sleep over and we had all the elders in the district there! We played a massive Lord of the Rings risk game and it was awesome! So that was super fun and the other than that we just had a pretty normal week! O after our district meeting we went to this american burger place and it was pretty good! It felt like I was back in America for a minute haha unfortuantely Cheeseburgers is something that Finland doesn't do very well, I miss Five guys and all that good stuff but we have been eating some pretty insanely good ice cream. They have caramel apple and blueberry pie ice cream and it is delicious. Well this week we have some exciting stuff as well! We head out for Oulu tomorrow and we have a zone meeting up there on Wednesday so I will get to see elder Christiansen and all my other buddies up there so it will be fun! The weather has warmed up the last few days and today it was all the way up to 0 C!! It felt like a sauna we were burning up on the bike ride over here haha it snowed a town the last couple days as well which is super cool and everything looks pretty. But anyway that is the week! I hope you are all doing well! I love you all!

A New Year and New Opportunities!

Hello all! Well well what a week! 2014! The only full year that I will spend in Finland haha how weird is that? Well I had a pretty good week! We had a district meeting here in Seinäjoki here on New years day and so on New Years Eve the Pietarsaari and Vaasa elders came over and spent the night and we had a massive risk game. It was fantastic. I'm honing in my skills and will be even more unstopable when I return. Well after the District meeting we played some more games with the whole district with was fun! But since we had those two days of no proselyting it means that missionary work was pretty slow again this week. Pretty much all of our investigators have dropped us in the last two weeks, the burmese family moved and havent answered any calls but we actually ran in to the dad on the street yesterday and he gave us the new address but its pretty sketch because he doesn't really speak finnish well and didn't seem to sure on the address so ... we'll see if it's correct but we're pretty disappointed with that whole thing. They were super solid we don't know what the deal is. Another investigator left town for two months and another one is in the hospital for two weeks so..... yeah.... haven't seen the sun in a long time.... it's been super cloudy which is good because it keeps it a little warmed but it blocks out the sun so ... haven't seen it in like a week hahaha so yep. A little dark and dreary but it has still been insanely warm. It is usually sitting right at about 0 celsius so not bad at all! We're hoping it stays that way all winter! They say it is the warmest winter in Finland for the past 50 years or something like that so I'm loving it! 
Well we were getting a little discouraged with our area kind of falling apart on us this week but two days ago we had a pretty good day! We didn't have anything planned and nobody we tried to see was home so we did some tracting and contacting and ended up finding three pretty solid potential investigators including one kid who was way cool. He answered the door and was talking to us a bit and then we mentioned the Book of Mormon and he got all excited and he was like O wow you guys are Mormons?! I thought you were just Jehova's Witnesses!This is interesting! and then he put on his coat and came outside and talked with us for a bit haha so we gave him a book of Mormon and are going back on Saturday! It was way cool, so hopefully this week our teaching pool will start to increase. Everything else has been pretty good though! Me and Elder Wood are still getting buff every night with his set of weights haha and this week should be good because we can actually go out every day! Today is actually a Holiday but we're still allowed to go out and work tonight. Then tonight we are going to Vaasa to sleep over there because tomorrow we have a district meeting in Pietarsaari. Then we come back tomorrow night and have a normal week. Well I was feeling a little bit down this week because everything has been kind of falling apart on us but I have been reading in the New Testament and I finished the book of Mark yesterday. In Mark 8:34 Jesus says that "whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me". I really loved that verse. We all have hard things that we go through all the time. Life is never easy, but we are only expected to do our best. To take up our own personal hardships and endure them faithfully. Our cross can be pretty heavy sometimes but as long as we trust in the Lord he will always help us out. Every time I've been on the edge of kind of losing hope out here I have felt Heavenly Father answer my prayers and we have seen some pretty miraculous things. So just keep on pressing on everyone! I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week!
Love,

Elder Wilson Moi Moi

Merry Christmas

The highlight of our Christmas was skyping with Elder Wilson!!! He sounds great and is doing well. He spoke a little Finnish for us and entertained us with his adventures!!

I don't remember the week exactly haha but I'm pretty sure it's been 9? Well we had a crazy week! So Elder Wood got in on Wednesday, he is a super cool guy from Oklahoma. He's been here about a year and he's super in to working out so he has all these weights with him so we have been working out together every day haha so it's fun! Thursday night we headed up to Oulu for our zone conference. It was a lot of fun! We slept up there in the chapel with all the other elders and even got to play a little risk! Then had zone conference all Thursday which was great! President Rawlings is amazing, he just talked to us all day about stuff but then we missed our train to go back home haha so we all slept in Oulu one more night then headed back Friday Morning. 

I got to meet some of the new elders that just came in so that was fun! One of them is being trained in Pietarsaari which is the swedsih speaking city so the poor kid doesn't even know if the people are speaking Finnish or Swedish with his companion hahaha Unfortunately, missionary work was a little slow last week and will be this week as well. Almost all of our investigators are out of town or have guests over for Christmas. The Burmese family has been in the proccess of moving to a new house so they have been busy too but they are still doing great. The twelve year old reads the book of mormon every single day and prays every morning and night! They are slowly all progressing and learning more so things are awesome with them! Other investigators have been dropping like crazy though which is sad but we're working hard out here and trying our best. We have a couple solid potential investigators that we want to check out this week as well. So tomorrow we are taking a train up to Vaasa around 2 and we are going with the Vaasa elders to our Branch President's house to spend Christmas Eve with them! I'm so excited! They have like 4 kids and a few grandkids so it will be super fun! We will get to see a real legit Finnish Christmas. I haven't actually had the chance to eat reindeer yet but I have eaten some moose wich was pretty dang good haha They do a lot of Elk and Moose hunting up here so the Pietarsaari branch mission leader killed a bunch of Moose and gave them some meat and they let me try it, it was delicious. So then on Christmas day we are going to this members house who lives in the Vaasa branch, he is this super cool swedish guy and he has a couple kids and he will let us skype and everything from his house so I will skype at 5 pm my time mom! So then on the 26th its called boxing day so we're also not allowed to proselyte on that day either so we are going up to one of the members houses in our branch and we will hang out with them most of that day. So this week will probably be a little slow with actual missionary work but it should be a lot of fun! We're even going to play some risk in Vaasa haha so I can't wait! Well I can't wait to skype all of you! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic Christmas celebration! I am going to open up all of my christmas gifts tonight too so that I can tell you how much I love it all on skype, O and I got a package from Aunt Shelly so tell her thank you so much and that I love her! 

HYVÄ JOULUA! 

Christmas is Coming!

He got his Christmas package!!

Hello! 

Wow I have so much to tell you guys it's been a crazy week! So, last Monday it was insanely cold it was like -16 and a blizzard outside but we headed over to Pietarsaari and we did splits over there on Tuesday! But it was super weird since Tuesday the weather has warmed up its been getting up to 0 most days so it has been so nice! But, it was really fun doing splits in P town. I was with Elder Werjfelt and he's an awesome guy. I didn't get to talk much most of the day because all of the lessons were in Swedish so I just sat there haha but we drove up with a member to this elderly ladies house who lives about 45 minutes north of P town in this sweet old house that overlooks this big clearing and then its just forest all around, it was incredible like right out of a movie. And she made us a whole meal of stew and then at the end she gave us these legit home made Swedish Pancakes.... O wow.... I almost died, they were the greatest things ever. 

So, all that was fun then Tuesday we had a district meeting back here in Seinäjoki and just did normal missionary work, but then Saturday we got our change calls! I will be staying in Seinäjoki, but unfortunately Elder Christiansen is leaving me, he's going up to Oulu to serve as a zone leader so I'm excited for him, but I'm bummed that were splitting up! So I'm getting Elder Wood, he's coming up from Helsinki and he will finish my training and all that. So, it will be interesting, I technically have three weeks left of actual training, but then after that I'm just a regular full blown missionary haha so it will be cool! I will have to show Elder Wood all around Seinäjoki and set up lessons for us and all that so it will be a cool experience! I am also excited to have a new group of missionaries in the country, so I won't be a part of the youngest group anymore haha it will be fun! Well everything else has been pretty normal here, our branch is hilarious they were all so sad that Christiansen is leaving, they were all giving him hugs and stuff and they all gave us Christmas cards and a little calendar, they are all super sweet. We picked up a couple new investigators this week which is cool, one of them is this Russian guy we met on the street last night and we're going by tomorrow to give him a Russian BOM and our Burmese family is doing great! They read the book of Mormon together as a family and they pray pretty consistently! They didn't come to church yesterday because they had some school event they had to go to but they are doing awesome! 

So this week will be hectic! Elder Wood shows up on a train at 10AM and then Christiansen leaves on that train so they will just swap. Then Thursday we will go up to Oulu because we have a zone Conference so I'm excited for that! President Rawlings will be up there and all that good stuff. So, for Christmas, the one couple in our branch that lives in Seinäjoki is going to Espoo for Christmas and we were planning on going there for Christmas, so instead me and Elder Wood will go up to Vaasa and spend it with the Vaasa elders at one of there members house. We will probably go up there Christmas eve and stay all of Christmas day. In Finland Christmas Eve is the big day, that's when Joulupukki (literally means the christmas goat but it means Santa) comes and knocks on the door and give gifts and all that good stuff. Then Christmas you just eat a lot of Turkey! So I'm excited for all that! It will be an awesome week! Man I was super sad to here about Elder Bowen mom that's crazy... I hope everything goes smoothly and he can get back out to Canada quickly, that would be super hard.... And Dad thank you very much for looking up the fighters hahaha that made my day! Can't believe those guys were in the title fight that's crazy! Well alright I love you all! Have an awesome week, can't wait to skype! 

-Rakkaudella (with love)

Vanhin Wilson

Seinajoki Library

Back to Helsinki!

Back to Helsinki for training!

Splits in Swedish no less!

Hello everyone! 

Ok well we had an awesome week! I've got so much to say so this may be a little all over the place, but here we go:

So Sunday night the Vaasa Elders picked us up in the sisters car and we all drove down to Helsinki! It was like a 4 and a half hour drive but it was fun! So, we changed our plans, instead of staying in Espoo we just all stayed at the AP's apartment in Marjaniemi which is just on the east side of Helsinki. It was way nice and the assistants are super cool guys! It was super fun we woke up at like 5:40 every day and went to the chapel and played Sähly. Sähly is a super popular sport in the Nordic countries, it's basically just floor hockey with a wiffel ball, its usually teams of three and you have a goalie and whatnot but it was super fun! Finn's go crazy for Sähly haha the missionaries that live in places with a chapel and where they play Sähly a lot buy their own sticks and whatnot haha it was super fun. 

So then for Monday through Wednesday we went to the Mission office every day till about 5 and President Rawlings just gave us all sorts of instruction, it was great! We did a ton of role plays, like how to invite people to pray or be baptized or whatever and so he taught us a lot of teaching skills and also just gospel stuff and it was amazing. He is an incredible guy. I've never even heard of a person being so dedicated to missionary work, he works insanely hard, he is an awesome mission president. Every night we would go back to the Marjaniemi area and go on splits! So I went out with the AP's a couple times and then twice I went out with a new elder like me, so it was just us brand new missionaries walking around the streets of Helsinki haha it was super fun! It was a really good experience because I realized that I can't really speak great finnish yet but we got around all night having good conversations with people and teaching lessons and stuff and we did it! It was way cool, for the first time I felt pretty comfortable and independent in a way. So that was a lot of fun. Then on Thursday we had our Kieli Koulu (language school) which was good. The way it was set up was basically: there are three zones in Finland and each zone has a missionary that serves as the language coordinator. So these language coordinators work together and they make the twelve week training program for all the new missionaries coming in and they call missionaries periodically in their zone and do little language tests with them. So basically they are really good at finnish haha so all the language coordinators were there and they split us up in to three small groups and just answered some of our language questions but mostly we just talked about our language study plans and how we can be more effective with our language study time every day. 

So then we took a train back up to Seinäjoki that night! The next day, Friday, was Finland's Independence day and we also had a district meeting in Kokkola which is like 2 hours away so we drove up with the Vaasa elders to Kokkola and it was like a straight up blizzard outside hahaha it was frightening. I've never seen it snow so hard in my life. So then we came back to Seinäjoki on the train that day and went out to some lessons! We taught the Burmese family that evening which was great but we had to take our one member with us because the dad and brother weren't home and it's just a little awkward because the member is this older Finnish guy and he speaks really really fast so I don't think they understood most of what he said haha but it was good! Then Friday we had another great day of lessons and we met this guy on the street and we ended up giving him a book of mormon, then he called us like an hour later and let us come over and we taught him the first lesson! It was super cool, that was the first time something like that had happened haha it was just so fast! So hopefully he will turn in to a solid investigator!

 So then yesterday we had another great day! The Sisters that live in Vaasa that served here in Seinäjoki just before us came down to Seinäjoki because they were going to participate in our sacrament meeting and our christmas party which was last night. So we had the sisters there AND 4 of the Burmese family came to church!!!! We were so pumped! It was like the first time that one of OUR investigators who we had found and are teaching actually came to church so we were SUPER excited. We think it went well and that they really enjoyed it. During Sacrament the sisters told us like an hour before that we were going to do a song as well hahaha so I introduced a christmas song in sacrament and then we all sang it for the ward and then the sisters and elder Christiansen spoke so it was a really cool sacrament meeting. So after church me and Elder CHristiansen took the sisters car up to this less active lady who lives about 45 minutes away and gave her the sacrament and then her and her husband both asked for blessings which was super cool because the husband is a non member! So I gave a blessing to the sister (in english because she is from sweden and speaks better english than finnsih) and then Elder Christiansen gave a blessing in finnish to the husband because he's a finn. So it was a super cool experience. Then we hustled back to Seinäjoki and had our christmas party which went great! We had like 25 people there! One family from the Vaasa ward came and their kids all did musical numbers and they were adorable haha Finnish kids are so stinking cute, and they all speak Finnish and Swedish it's awesome haha and we had a less active lady there and a few non members so the party was bumping! It was just a great day all in all! Unfortunately, I made the mistake of getting a big plate of the food they were serving though and it was straight nasty haha it was this classic finnish dish and it's just like plain rice pudding with some other gross stuff on it. So I was trying to choke this big fat bowl down for a while and then realize that everyone else put sugar on theres because it's so gross when it's just plain but mine was just plain and it was horrible hahaha but other than that it was super good! 

So we had a really busy week but super rewarding. We only got to do work here in Seinäjoki for 3 days but taught 12 lessons and got 2 new investigators so it was fantastic! So tonight we are actually going to do splits in Pietarsaari where are district leader is. Unfortunately Pietarsaari is the straight up Swedish speaking city in Finland haha so I will be very quiet tomorrow but luckily I will be with Elder Werjefelt for the day and he is a Swede so it's no big deal! I'm super excited thought I think it will be fun! 

Ok so here's a really cool quote for you all for the week. This quote is our Mission statement, we say it at the beggining of every district, zone, or any other type of meeting.

"We can stand in the place and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ in administering salvation unto the children of men. He preached the gospel, so can we. He spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost, so can we. He served as a missionary, so can we. He went about doing good, so can we. He performed the ordinances of Salvation, so can we. He kept the commandments, so can we. He wrought miracles. Such also is our privelege if we are true and faithful in all things. We are his agents, we represent him. We are expected to do and say what he would do and say if he were personally administering among men at this time." 

-Elder Bruce R. McConkie

As human beings were are obviously not perfect and never will be. We are entitled to make mistakes here or there but as children of God we have the ability to be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. We all have the privelege and honor of representing Jesus Christ at this time. As members of Jesus Christ's true church we can see miracles. We are seeing miracles happen all around us here in Finland and they are happening throughout the world.

Well I love you all so much! Have a great week!

A lot of shoveling pictures from Seinajoki!