my kindness shall not depart from thee

Awesome song title in the subject there. If there is any way you could send me it somehow, that'd be awesome!

Hey y'all . . .I've noticed this past week how foreign we sound as missionaries sometimes, haha, at least to the native Finns . . . . all about the pronunciation. :P

Well, there was no baptism, and so far we haven't set a new date yet. We had two teaches with her this week and at the second one we just couldn't see any interest anymore. We don't know what has happened, but it seems that she just doesn't get it anymore. This Tuesday we have a teach with her and he grand-daughter will be there, so we'll see how that goes . . . if it still doesn't seem like anything is going to happen, then we might drop her for a while to let her notice how important our presence and teaching was. Soo, yeah, that's the story for now.

BUT . . . there is a bright side to this week . . . .we have an amazing investigator. The step above golden and elect, haha. She was a referral from that we met and contacted and now, we are already thinking of extending the baptismal commitment in our next teach. We're actually pretty upset that we didn't earlier. :) She is a 23 year old young lady who I cannot write enough about. She's way nice, loves the church and the Book of Mormon already, and came to church yesterday and loved it too. When we first met her a week ago today, she said she had a 'thirst' throughout her life for something better. She said she would pray, then she laughed and, a bit embarrassed, she said that every time she prayed the Mormons either showed up for she saw them or something like that, hahaha. YES. You should see her Book of Mormon, when she first pulled it out we were shocked. She has post-it notes everywhere! :) Well, low on time, but she loved church, even cried in Relief Society she said. Yup yup, definitely been prepared for us to meet her.

Well, yeah, low on time, but, it's been a crazy week. We had splits . . . my first one where I wasn't comps with the DL. But, I got to go out with a MTC bud, Vanhin Gorringe. He's doing great. Awesome elder. Good to see him.

It's been raining basically all week. So we got soaked a few times on the bikes. Wow, i really have to go . . . but, here's some random things about this coming week and last week:

-a few cool contacts with phone #'s received

-contacting a famous German Artist here for a show

-teaches with 2 other investigators

-gave away a Book of Mormon in Tamil, (this is the Sri Lanka man) he's doing well, he prayed and is looking for the answer!

-setting goals to overcome habits and improve his life with a less active member

-giving service to our branch president by helping him plant potatoes at his mökki, aka summer cottage

-Zone conference this week, already, and we're taking an 8 hour train there, then a 10 hour trian back.

-hopefully 2 new baptismal dates this week!!!

-and a partidge in a pear tree

I love you all. i love this opportunity to serve. I loved that e-mail about vetrans day from Dad and the pictures of grandpa Watson. I love biking in a tie. I.Love.You. Moikka

Vanhin Watson

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!!

Mornin' Glory

Hey everyone, thanks for all the wonderful e-mails this week, I had a few laughs and moments of appreciation and thought, so thank you!

First off, there still was no baptism. It was pushed to this Saturday, but even then, when we recently spoke to her she said she still wants to delay it. We are meeting with her on Tuesday, so hopefully we can pump some confidence into her and get her in the font. We have no idea what is holding her back, she's definitely ready. She's been coming to church, and the members seem to love her, so, if nothing happens on Tuesday, then we may pull things back for a while and give her some time.

It's been quite the busy week. We had our highs and our lows, the laughs and the confusion, the anti's and the wonderfuls, all in all, it went well. :) With having bikes now we have been able to get around a lot better. We biked out to an area to go tracting and we had to go through a forest and WOW, it was beautiful. We took pictures! Hopefully I'll have time to attach a few. It really is getting beautiful here. It's really green and flowers and blosoms are blooming . . . it's awesome. I realized that I've now seen Joensuu in all the seasons but Fall, haha . . . . .maybe I'll still get the chance :) . . . only God knows.

Our bikes got stolen, yup, stolen, by our own building manager. He sent us all notes saying we had to put our names on everything in storage or outside or else they'll be taken away and shipped off. Of course, we forgot, we go outside and they were gone. We call the man up and find out where they were, then called up our Branch president and he gave us a ride and we got our bikes back. We then had to bike from there, all the way to a teach we had scheduled. We were late, but all is well now. haha

We had a few new teaches this past week. One was with a young man from Sri Lanka. We ordered a Book of Mormon for him in Tamil, his native language, and he is way cool. Another teach was with another mummo . . .gotta love 'em. :) She was nice and everything, but she was already forgetting things we were saying, so she just fed us some gummies and cookies. Always a reward with those mummos. :) Another teach was with 2 young college guys. In the end, they only wanted to ask questions and learn more about Mormons, but they didn't have a sincere interest. Nice guys though. We are also teaching a young college man who is really interesting. He struggles socially and has a lisp and stutters (haha, think of that, I thought finnish was hard, think of trying to understand it with a lisp and stuttering), but he asks great questions and is really nice. Then, tonight we should have a teach for the first time with a referral we just got 2 nights ago. A member in Helsinki has a friend here and gave them a Book of Mormon. This woman has read a bit and has been marking it up and loves it, AND, she's agreed to meet with the missionaries!! I love members! We've only talked to her on the phone, but she sounds way legit and we are really excited abut her.

We ran into some anti's this past week as well. :( We ran into one at the same place, twice in the week. The first time I felt so horrible, I was shaking a bit, I had aches, aww, it was bad. There was not a good spirit about her and it took a while for us to recover. The second time we just said that we had to go and said good day and left. The other anti was right after the first, and we just said the same thing. We felt really bad, but, as President Brown said in his weekly letter to his missionaries this morning, they aren't rejecting us, they are rejecting the person whose names we wear on our chests, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The experiences with them just made us stronger, and made us realize the blessings in our lives more.

Well, I'm low on time, but, sorry to hear about the van, haha, poor thing. When Dad said Audi I smiled real big. The blessings left for the van when Layne got home, but the new ones are coming from me with the Audi, hahaha. There are Audis everywhere here. I actually rode in one to our DA yesterday with a member who gave us a ride.( a DA with steak . . .again) It actually might be the same one you were talking about dad. :) I'll send a pic. Soooo nice. Brand new too. hahaha

Well, send grandma my love. I'll try to write her today. Layne, congrats on the talks, I heard they were awesome!!

I have to go. I wish I could write you all but it's so hectic on P-Days. I'll try. :) I know this is the true and everlasting work of this eternal gospel. I am so lucky to be here, with the family I have, with the mission I am on, with all the blessings that come with it, all because my ancestors chose to join our Savior's true church. Thank you everyone. Love ya more than AC and Seth's awesome tie that I saw in the pic Layne sent me. I want one!! :)

Moikka, Vanhin Vahtsön

tosi kuuma Joensuussa

Hey Fam:

Well, it's been quite the long busy week, and, it seems like Spring\Summer are finally here . . . all in the same week. The leaves are finally on the trees, the sun is out and cooking, and there are ice cream booths everywhere. :)

It was Vanhin Ranzenberger's birthday on Tuesday. Turned the big 20 . . . and he's going to be a senior in college when he gets home . . .already . . .something I just found out yesterday. So, our investigator with the baptismal date remembered and we had a teach with her that day. Afterwards she surprised us with cake and a quiche-looking-delicious-thing. It was very nice of her, and our branch president and his wife were there too. That night, by his dad's request and credit card, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a place called Amarillos . . . kinda like a mexican grill . . . being americans, we got hamburgers. :) haha It was really good though and a cool place. That night, I bought him another little cake and we ended the day with that.

We had District Meeting on Wednesday . . . my first one where my companion wasn't the DL. We took a 3 hour bus to Kuopio, had a awesome meeting with Pres and Sister Brown there, then hurried and got some pizza, ran to the bus station, and barely caught our bus back to Joensuu. We ate our pizza on the bus probably much to the rest of the passengers' dismay, haha.

The big news is that we finally got bikes!! Our Branch President gave us an old one of his that's been sitting at his mökki, summer cottage, for years. Then we found another used one for a cheap price. Sorry dad, I was tempted to used the credit card and buy a nice one, but something told me 400+ euros was too much, haha. That was only the next cheapest one . . .it gets higher. But the bikes are pretty cool. One is blue with a huge red leather tool basket\pouch on the back . . .might call it Clifford. Then the one I am using is white, might call it Pegasus. Only one brake works and it's pretty old, but it works just fine. :) It's been so nice to finally have bikes. We get around a lot faster, and it beats walking around in the heat. Speaking of which it has been pretty HOT here. Out of nowhere it became summber and boom, 27 degrees celcius . . .I think that's around 80 F. Now that sounds nice right? Well, try it with a backpack and sunday clothes, haha. I have a pretty sweet tan-line where my dress shirt stops, a lot higher than a t-thirt tan line, haha. We've been sweating our guts out, but it's fun. I know the South America\Equator Missions and all that would laugh at us, but try living in -35 for a while then 80 just hits ya. :P

There was a huge market going on by the river this past weekend. It was really crowded, but a cool cultural experience to see. I've taken a lot of pictures lately, but we're e-mailing from the church building because the library is closed. I'll try and send some soon.

We were tracting yesterday night, and at some houses the door is in the backyard, so we walk around and there was a couple having a grill party. They told us to come and join them. We were able to give them a book of mormon and teach a little bit and they even fed us a bit. It was sweet. The wife sounded legit, she said she'd read and everything. :)

We've been doing really well with the younger generation lately. Given away a few Book of Mormons and getting good chats with them. It's a nice change from the mummos, but we still get those too. :) The scheduled baptismal date for our investigator is this Saturday. You can tell she's nervous and wants to hold off, but we've really been working with her hard and hopefully it'll come through! The East coast of Finland doesn't get much baptisms, so this would be huge and get some motivation for everybody else.

Well, time is up already. It was so good reading your e-mails today. Send grandma my love. I'll leave you with a scripture I came across recently in my studies, I can't remember the exact reference, but it's in the Old Testament in the book of Haggai. It says, Consider your ways. It's really something I'm trying to do more these days, evaluate and see how I can do better.

Well, I love you all and I hope you all have a good week in your air-conditioned homes . . . cuz Finland ain't got 'em. Don't know why, haha, but it makes the apartment pretty hot. We have to open all the windows. Well, Moi Moi!!

-Vanhin Watson

Hei taas

Well, less than 24 hours ago I was talking to all of you, woa. So I don't have much to say right now at least. But it truly was a miracle that we were able to talk last night. I was trying for an hour and a half hour to reach you but it just didn't work. Our phone was dying, my phone card wasn't working, and Iwas trying every way possible to reach you. I was ready to give up and just try and tell you all in my e-mail today, sorry, talk to ya on Christmas, or try and reschedule for another time or something. It was so good to talk to all of you though. I missed your voices. . . . .the only english I hear besides at district and zone conferences and from my companion.

Well, this past week was pretty busy, but productive. I got my new companion, Elder Ranzenberger. I am his first junior companion, so that means we both will have to up our game, especially in Finnish. So far we've done pretty well. We stopped a college guy in the street and gave him a Book of Mormon. We had him read Moroni's promise before we split and we could feel the Spirit so strong and we knew that he could feel it too, awesome. We stopped another college guy Saturday night and talked to him for a bit. He actually called us when we were planning for the night and said that he and his friend were interested in hearing our message and asked us to head over. It was already after hours, so we couldn't, but we have his phone number now so we are going to try and set something up. :)

I already told you about our investigator with a baptismal date . . . a little set back, but we know that she knows the church is true, so hopefully this new goal we set with her will come through. May 22!

Well, not much else to say for now other than that I love you all and it was good hearing from you. Thank you for the uplifting, the encouragement, the support, and the advice. Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day Mom!! Rakastan tietä. Kiitos. Hei Hei.

-Vanhin Watson . . . . . the lone Watson Family representative in the mission field :P Good luck Layne :)

Voi että!

Well, I'm going to tell you now that I am not going to write much this week because THIS SUNDAY I'll be talking to you!!!!

First things first, the time for the call on Mother's Day is heaven-sent, haha. I talked with my new companion this morning (he's not here yet) to schedule out with each other when we are calling our families. We agreed that he go first at 6 PM Finland time, then I go at 7 PM. You can imagine the smile on my face when I read the e-mail from dad saying that I should call at that exact time!! hahaha I KNOW, it has been changed to a half hour later . . .but still, haha. I can't wait to talk to all of you!!

Well, I'm staying in Joensuu for another change!! I'm excited that I am able to stay for maybe a bit longer. God must know that there is someone here waiting for me. :) My companion Elder Falk, is leaving to Tampere to be a Zone Leader there with my last companion\trainer, Elder Struthers. Then, I am receiving Elder Ranzenberger, haha, sweet name huh? He is from Utah and was Elder Falks last companion. BUT, Elder Ranzenberger will not be the District leader like my last two companions, so that means a lot less traveling for me, haha. It also means we are loosing the car. It's going to Kuopio where the new District Leader is. It's gone already actually, we just came from handing it off to them then walked here. So, that means I need a bike!! We are searching for one today. We actually have an appointment about an hour walk away tonight. We didn't think we'd be loosing the car that fast, haha. Yay for walking . . . at least the weather is getting nice.

Last week was Vappu, a Finnish holiday here a lot similar to Labor Day in the states. We had to be in early Friday night, because of the partying and drunks walking around, then, we couldn't leave the apartment till noon on Saturday, then had to head in again at 4. During that time we had out we had an open house at the church. I'll tell you more about it later. When we were inside we just had our planning meeting and did some spring cleaning.

Well, gotta go! I can't wait to talk to all of you in less than a week!! Sunday 7:30 PM Finnish time, got it. I'll need to buy a calling card this week.

Before I go I want to tell all of you how much I love you and appreciate you and your love and support. I know I was meant to be here in Finland, serving the people, and being a missionary and representative of this the true church of Jesus Christ. Layne, job well done! Thank you for your service and example of an awesome missionary. I hope you, and Dad had awesome birthdays.

Thanks everyone for the updates. Jealous of Dad and Shannon being in California! Talk to you soon. Moikka.

Vanhin Watson

I attached some pics of some recent happenings. One is a picture of what the Taxis in Finland look like. Another is from District Meeting last week. Then the other is what some of the college kids dressed up like for Vappu . . .haha, I'll explain later