Cheesy Toaster

Yes, by the name of this e-mail I do have a story to go along with it. So there we were just making some toast. It has a cool pop up grill feature that I decided to use while my comp had his bread in below, so I could melt the cheese. Well, his popped up, knocked mine over and into the toaster, making us the proud owners of a cheesy toaster . . . . .took me a while, and a bit of smoke, to clean up. :P

There are so many stories to go along with this week that I fear I cannot tell them all. We've been seeing a lot of success here in Joensuu recently, basically everything but baptisms, haha. On Tuesday we were stuffed with a lunch appointment with a member, then we biked on full stomachs clear across the city to another member who insisted to feed us chocolate and ice cream . . . hey, I'm not complaining, but my stomach was . . . . Personally, I chowed down 5 ice cream bars. After that, we biked back to the center to a teaching appointment with a member and her kids who aren't members . . . .and they brought desert. . . . . . . after all this I am proud to say I have NOT gained weight on my mission . . .actually lost some. :) haha

Our Chinese investigator is probably on a plane back to China right now. We were able to meet him a couple times and really see a change in him in just a week. He left with a belief in God, a knowledge that he can live with his family forever (which he was really happy about), and a basic background of the purpose of life and the gospel. Hopefully he finds a way to the church in the future.

I wish I could go on, but there's too much to say. By no means, when I say every week that I'm always in a hurry, does that mean you all need to shorten your thoughts and e-mails, haha . . . . . I can read faster that I can type. And I really appreciate everything you say and tell me every week!! Kiitos teille.

Bullet points of the week:

-Caught in a rain storm while tracting . . . . .even with an umbrella and rain coat . . . .SOAKED.

-A Jewish man who plays his guitar and sings in the streets really likes us

-We got let in 2 times this week, with 2 new investigators, one had a bunny roaming the house

-We had District Meeting in Kuopio on Friday, learning more about this new Simplified Curriculum the church has released. Good Stuff! We got back to Joensuu just in time to see an outside demonstration of Ai-ki-do, where 'N' was a participant. She's been doing it for 7 years. She's about the size of Layne and she was throwing grown men around her back, haha, then in turn they threw her around like a rag doll . . .crazy stuff.

-Today, a member is going to teach us how to knit socks, haha, yay! She already made me a pair. :)

Well, transfer calls are this Saturday, we'll see what happens. Still send me letters to the Helsinki Address, as always, unless I tell you otherwise. If it's a package, then tell me beforehand and I'll tell you my real address next week, if I'm still here or somewhere else.

I miss you. I love you. I'm really trying to write you all soon in letter form so I can say more and answer your questions!!

Fall is in the air!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

No Moiiii

Hey Howdy Hey . . . .We've been seeing ads for Toy Story 3 everywhere, so i was just in the spirit of things . . .crazy though to hear, because I was something like 6 years old when the first one came out right? Daaang.

Every missionary gets a chance to serve China in some way during their mission . . .such was the case this past week. We met a pretty cool Chinese dude while out contacting and have now met with him twice. The second time when we walked in he had the Book of Mormon up on the Internet and was reading, and listening along! Unfortunately he leaves back to his mother land at the end of the month, and he doesn't speak Finnish, and very little english . . .which has been a blessing for us because it has helped us teach simple, VERY simple.

It's been quite the unique week, we had at least a teach or two every day and some funny stories and good experiences to go along with it. As you know, I don't really have the time to write all of it, but just know that I can testify that in the 8 months I have been here, the work has progressed a lot and we are seeing a lot more success. The next step, and our challenge and barrier, right now is BAPTISM. 'N' is ever so close. And we have a few potentials.

Some cool things that happened this week:

-A man tipped his hat to us, yeeeeah

-A member gave us 2 huge tuperware containers of Gooseberries (first time for me) and a bag of Beats

-We had a little helper while tracting one day in a neighborhood . . .a little boy decided to follow us around on his bike and watch us at work. He'd tell us if the people were home or not, or where they were, haha.

-an older couple in the branch took us out to eat at a Pizza Buffet, and as we were doing our shopping afterward, we were overcome with upset stomachs and livers. It must've been funny to see 2 Mormon Elders rushing through the store because we were dying to get home and make it to the bathroom first, haha.

-Finland has Hedgehogs . . .and just in the last 2 days, while tracting, we've spotted a couple. We laugh because they are funny to watch, because the way they walk looks like Spiderman climbing a wall.

- . . .that's all I can think of right now.

It was soo good to hear from all of you this week. I enjoyed the stories and the updates, and pictures (thanks Eden). I felt so close to you all this week, and especially as I was reading your e-mails. Thank you.

The work is moving forward all around and it's great to see. The excitement and the awakening is here. I'm an eyewitness. Love you all. Good luck to all the back to schoolers, the workers, the sistas and the brothas . . .and Fritz, haha. Heippa

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

Diablo

There has never been a week on my mission yet where I could just say, oh, just another week come and gone. Each one has it's own stories and adventures. This week we have a few stories to tell. . . .

Our last P-Day when we went out for the night we met a former contact walking the streets with his bud. Eventually, they split, and we got talking to the friend and ended up walking to the church with him, giving him a church tour and a Book of Mormon. He was very grateful for it and loves learning new things, so he was fascinated with our religion.

On Tuesday we had a District Meeting in Savonlinna. Elder Gorringe, from my MTC-group is our District Leader, and Elder Pond, also from my MTC-group is his companion . . .so it was cool seeing everyone. As the last surviving member of the original Kuopio District, I was really able to see how much this district has grown and progressed since I first got here. We looked at some numbers and stats to see where we are, where we've come from, and where we want to go. It was a good meeting. As we waited for our train home we did some contacting in the streets of Savonlinna and we had a couple funny experiences. A drunk man stopped us as we were crossing a walking bridge. He wouldn't let us leave and just kept talking and trying to speak English (All drunks here speak English, it's like a switch for them, haha). We went to shake his hand, and when I did, he said OW! and low and behold his whole arm was purple and swollen and broken, haha, drunks.

The other day a less active member called us up and wanted to meet and have us discuss a bit about the Plan of Salvation. It was pretty cool, we all learned together and were able to have a nice discussion. Thing of how hard it is to teach the Plan of Salvation in English in detail, then transfer that to Finnish, haha, it was pretty cool to feel the blessings from the Lord in letting us get into, and survive and pull off, a deep discussion about the Millenium and the Degrees of Glory and Perdition and all that, haha. What's even cooler is that later that day, Investigator 'N' called us up and wanted to meet and speak a bit about the same things!! Already prepared, we brought that member along to the teach and were able to teach a good lesson. She's so close to baptism, SO CLOSE!!! AH! We basically laid it out infront of her that she can do this NOW, and she doesn't have to wait for life and it's adversities to clear up. We promised her as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ that if she goes through with this, uncomprehendable blessings and help will come. She's really thinking about it. She's close. Oh, just yesterday she called us up way excited because her dad had just called her and said that he had a dream about her, where she was running towards him and she was really happy.

We had 2 other good member teaches this week with 2 investigators who are getting close to setting a baptismal date. It was cool because in both teaches they and the member really hit it off well and have become good friends. :)

We got let in twice last week. One was just a guy chilling on his bench in his backyard with his shirt off and his baby in his lap. Once we said we are missionaries he immediately ushered us over to come sit down. We talked about the plan of salvation and he seemed to take everything pretty well. Almost everything he already believes in runs in line with our church. The closing prayer was in the middle of him giving his baby a bath inside (it moved there). haha

The other let in was a young man who we go back to tonight. He's pretty open and has some good potential . .so we're excited. At the end of that teach he gave us both some Diablos . . . . which is like a yo-yo on steriods (see picture for details), haha, pretty sweet.

I crashed on my bike the other day, the first in years. Over the handle bars and everything. I got scraped up pretty good and some road rash on my upper arm, and bruised up my knee. Fun Fun. :P All is well though. Was wearing my helmet! haha

Well, it was good hearing from a few of you this week. Glad all is well. Fall is almost here . . . so wierd. This summer has been too short, way hot, and way to good to be true. School is already back. Mummos are still the scooter riding lovable ladies. Diablos are sweet. The apartment is clean. I love you. The church is true. There's so much more to write, but no time. . . . .Moi Moi.

-Vanhin Vatson (how Finns say my name, can't say their W's)

Simplified Curriculum

It's been quite the week, as usual. Yesterday just topped it off because we had 50+ people in church, more than double than what we usually have. Turns out, a member in Helsinki who is originally from Joensuu got married, and they were having a reception here, so there was a bunch of guests. She got married to a member in Utah, so there were some Americans there too. Anyways, it was so cool to see the chapel full of people . . .and in that congregation was 3 of our investigators!! 'N' as usual was there. She is still the amazing person that she is. She wants to be baptized so bad, but she doesn't want to destroy her relationship with her family be doing so, so she is working on that. The other two that came only stayed for sacrament meeting, and they seemed to enjoy it, hopefully. Because of the choas in all the people, nobody really fellowshipped them and they just kind of came and left un-noticed by the members. But, they are good investigators and we're glad they came.

We had Zone Conference last week in Oulu, which meant a long day of traveling there and another traveling back. The church has come out with a new Simplified Cirriculum that will help us as missionaries become better teachers, because quite frankly, we're not too good at it, haha. Never done it before in our lives, no experience, etc . . . so this Zone Conference was based entirely on introducing all this new material to us. For those of you that have been in PMG missions, you'll remember the PMG DVD's with 'The District' and everything . . . .now there is another set of DVD's with 'The District 2.' (Tons better) All of this focuses on helping us extend better commitments, ask better questions, teach more simply and powerfully, etc. . . .and it's all found in PMG, so it's nothing new in that sense. With all this new material, there are a few changes in the system across the world. Now, Zone Conferences are just 4 times a year, Interviews with President are 4 times a year, District Meetings haven't changed, and there is a lot more training involved among the leadership and the missionaries. I'm excited for all of this, it's really been on my mind, and my goal to be a better teacher, and I'm glad the church has come out with all of this to help us. It all takes effect immediately in the mission field across the world, then they will start teaching all this new stuff in the MTC's starting next year.

As far as the work goes here recently, we're still doing pretty well. We've been getting more referrals, we're still finding at a good pace, and now, we're trying to get people in the water. Since Elder Causse came to Finland last month, and challenged us to extend the baptismal commitment more frequently, we've picked up 32 baptismal dates in the mission. The new awakening has hit. it's amazing.

A few of you asked about package request items . . .honestly I've forgetten most of them, but here's a few:

- A cool tie is always good :)

- Any songs? since I have that MP3 player, you can send me some songs on a thumb drive (USB drive) . . .Layne, you've prob heard of 'Eclipse' . . .there's also an album called 'Primary Colors' which is by a group called 'Inside Out' and anything else you think is good

- surprise me . . . .just not with a years supply of a bunch of the same thing (I'm still working on that Mac&Cheese and Peanut Butter) haha

- I forgot :(

Well, I'm going to try and send pictures this time, so I have to go. Love you all more than cool cloudy days . . .please send more of those. . . Still HOT here. Moi Moi

Love,

Vanhin Watson

P.S. In the first pic, we had a long layover at one of our train stops. So we were eating lunch by the water on a bench and these two wasted guys decide to come up to us, haha.

kiitos teille

Don't have much time today. A member is feeding us in a half an hour and then we are teaching her two kids, ages 10 and 12, who aren't members because the father is against the church, but the mom is a member and wants them to be baptized, so recently they have been meeting us at the church and feeding us a little then we teach and preach and do what missionaries do. The kids love us though, its pretty cool. One of them drew us a picture and made us cards.

We got let in this week. Pretty funny story behind it too. You see, every time we teach our awesome Investigator 'N', when she prays, she prays for us and for us to find people, and, every time, literally, we either get let in tracting that night, or get a really awesome contact. Such was the case on Thursday. It was another hot day (it's been ridiculous here, soooo hot) and this lady answered the door naked . . . mummos, haha . . . .she said it was so hot, but she went and got dressed and let us in. She committed to come to church on Sunday, and she did, and now she's our new investigator. During that let in teach, she thought I was a Finn. :D She must've liked my Finnish or something because whenever my companion had a question about what she was talking about, she'd look at me and expect me to tell him, haha. Boo-yah. She said I spoke pretty well.

There was a huge juggling convention here last week. It's international, held once a year in different countries, so we got to see some things happening outside as we walked by, pretty amazing stuff. Anyways, this leads to another cool story . . . .an American, a member of the church, was here in town for the event. We just so happened to tract into the door of the place where he was staying. The lady that answered just said hello in english and started laughing and told us to come in. confused, we entered. Everybody started laughing and getting out their cameras to take a picture of us. We then found out that 2 of them were members and one of them was american, and the Mormons just happened to show up while they were there, haha. They were visiting that particular home because it was kind of a half family reunion, half reconnection party. The American told us that the Finn who lived there helped get his mom, a Finn, through college (where she converted to the church) and get a scholarship to America where she stayed and raised a family, now all members of the church. That women was a key role to her life. He told us stories and we could tell he really thought is was a miracle we were there and he could share it with us. He gave us some advice and encouragement and stories and we left. It was the first door we tracted that day.

Gotta go, but so much more to say, dang it. Like how we got stuck with an investigator while he was drunk with all his buddies with smoke fillign the room . . .and much more. Guess it'll have to wait.

Pres. Monson once said, or quoted this phrase, ''Decisions determine destiny.'' By small and simple things, great things are brought to past. So true.

Rakastan teitä. Moi Moi.

Vanhin Watson