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

life is like a box o choc-o-lates . . .

Wow, I love you all so much. I love reading your e-mails and when I'm done reading all of them I am so sad, it's like watching the best movie you've ever seen and then it just ends out of no where.

This week has been . . . . missionary work, haha. I would take the usual approach to these e-mails and tell you day by day about what we did and what happened, but it literally takes up all the time I don't even have, so I'll keep it short, but goood . . . toivottavasti.

I'm sure with each of you on your missions you found yourself saying the same thing at every contact, at every door, to every person. This past week, I've tried to defeat that norm and change it up, allowing by mind to open, and my heart to be in tune to what the Spirit knows what that particular person should hear. Missionary work is all about teaching short, simple truths, because that is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, is it not? I have come to found that it's actually a lot easier said than done, haha. My goal has been to try and keep it short and simple, not long, confusing, and saying everything, or anything I know about the topic I chose to teach to the person in front of us. My brain is not as gifted in the area of coming up with these short, simple, truths in a understandable way, so I did what I should have done from the start . . .I turned to the scriptures and the resources in front of me. wow. I have a testimony that when one 'seeks' they shall 'find.' The Lord helps those who help themselves . . . a quote I know, but don't know who it is from. I studied up various subjects in the gospel and things I could say that would be powerful, yet clear and short . . . because as most missionaries have come to find, you only have 10 seconds after you stop that person to get their attention and their interest.

This past week was all over the place. We had fun trýing to contact some referrals that we received. Most of them didn't even live in the same place that we had written down, so the hunt was on. Some good stories came out of it, along with some laughs and some scares. One couple let us in. Another talked to us at the door, while their little baby daughter snuck through and started running off and around. The mom asked me to fetch her. If any of you know, missionaries can't hold babies (legal issues, accidents, etc), so I was in a rut. I tried cornering her and motioning her back to her parents but she thought it was a game and started running around the car and away from me, all the while my companion is still talking to the couple at the door. Finally I cornered this baby as she was running toward me, then, it happened. . . . .I saw my mission flash before my eyes as this baby girl tripped and face planted right at my feet, bursting into tears. I hurried and picked her up and brought her to her parents where she quickly stopped crying to my relief and everything was ok. whew.

As we were going to visit an investigator, we were walking to his building when the cops pulled up and dropped him off. He had a huge gash on his head and blood on his knees. Turns out he got in a drunk fight in the woods . . . . Tervetuloa Suomeen.

Antother thing before I go, there have been some huge music festivals here in Joensuu this past week, bringing in 20,000 more people to this 52,000 people city. So it's been hectic. Drunks, athiests, blasting music, people camping in the parks and in their cars, etc. Fun Fun.

Investigator 'N' works in the film producing business, so she was away all week, but she came to church yesterday and is doing well. We have some new ideas we are trying to put into action with her and get this baptismal date set.

Well, out of time. Eden, Seth, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I sent you both a lil somthin somthin, but Eden, you won't get it for a while obviously.

Well, I love you all more then air conditioning, home-made cookies, and a fan, which we still don't have. Turns out it's a EUROPE-WIDE drought of fans because this side of the world is burning up. Luckily it's been cooler lately, but hey, I've found out that on a mission, yes, there is such thing as back sweat. :P

Moikka . . . . safe travels to all.

Vanhin Vatsön

kittos

Wow . . . Monday mornings are the best . . . .I guess for both of us, haha, I get to read all of your wonderful e-mails, then the same morning but hours later, you get to read mine. I'm so blessed to have all of you. As always, it was both refreshing and nice to read and hear from all of you.

Well, I forgot my planner . . .the first time on my mission so far. That thing is my life. Without it, I'm like what Dad looks like when he sees all the bug splatters and dirt on his new car. :)

It's been quite the week . . .I think . . .my planner knows. . . . anyways . . . We picked up another new investigator. He's a nice, single, middle aged man who's also an artist of some sort, he paints and takes photos and stuff. We met him contacting, got his number, then called him up at the beginning of the week and invited him to a church tour and he came! It went pretty well. He was asking questions and even let us teach him again yesterday. Sure, the first 45 minutes were him showing us all of his paintings and photos, and us getting plastered in Dog hair . . . literally, but we were able to teach him at the end and build a friendship with him.

Our Investigator 'N' is still the same as ever . . . .won't commit to a date valitettavasti. She always says, 'In time'. She said that she wants to be baptized, she's already made the decision, even a year ago she said she knew, but she is still waiting for an answer on WHEN. So, that is a work in progress right now.

Remember a few months ago when i told you about the 'interesting' member here who lives an hour away and we spent 6 hours there at an event she put together for her nonmember neighbors? Well . . . . .sheeeeee''sssss baaaaack! We had another one the other day, but fortunately this one was a lot better. It was kinda a ward activity because most of the branch was there. It was outside by a lake. We made makara and sang hymns and socialized and . . .alll in all, it went pretty well. It was a beautiful day and was an awesome location. Before we all could leave though, she just had to shwo us her 'special rocks' in her yard, haha. Awesome member, great missionary too. Our Investigator 'N' was also invited and came too and had a good time.

Kieli Koulu . . .Language School . . .was last week. We went down to Helsinki and spent the night with the veljet there smack dab in the city. I guess you could say I was in shock of how big Helsinki was, haha, compared to Joensuu. It was really cool. It was really nice to see my MTC again and see how they have been doing. Right after we had to catch the train home and it started raining HARD, even the Finns were in shock of how hard it was raining. People were hiding under bus stops and buildings because everyone was getting soaked. We stepped off the tram and literally ran for 10 seconds to the main train station. . . . .in suits and all (my nice grey, pinn-stripped one) (haha, Dad, I can see the look on your face now) . . . .anways, we got DRENCHED. It looked like we just jumped in a lake. haha, good times, goooood times.

On the train ride home I had a good laugh. On the trains, on one side of the isle the seats face one direction, then on the other it's the opposite. So the whole ride your basically just starring at someone whenever you look up. People already stare at us anyways, but since we were wet we got even more stares.

Well, I can't remember anything else right now, so I'll leave it at that because I have to go. I found a quote recently while reading a talk by Emerson that I really like, 'God is, not was, He speaketh, not spake.' Always like a good quote. :) I have a whole wall of them actually, by my desk.

Thank you all again. We got birthdays, travels, and fun times coming up . . . . .be safe, have fun. Don't change and grow up too fast without me. :P Love y'all. Hyvää päivän jatkoa! Moikka.

Vanhin Vahtsön

wow

Well, you all can imagine the shock as I opened up my e-mails a few minutes ago. Wow. I didn't think it'd be so soon. But it's incredible the peace that has come over me in these few minutes. When I left on my mission I left knowing that there would be a chance that I would return without any living grandparents, but I know and I'm so eternally grateful that I will have the opportunity to hug them and see them again regardless. It's actually quite strange, just this past week I started drawing a picture of her with the intent of sending it to her before she passed away. Of course I haven't had the time to finish it, but when I do I'll send it anyways.

Well, on that note, I'll tell you a bit about what happened this past week. Joensuu is starting to get a lot of success. We were let in 4 times on two days from tracting. 2 of those times we taught two people present. We almost got let in 3 other times but for good reasons we didn't, but they are all comebacks. With all these people added together, we would have received about 10 new investigators this week!!!!!! That's huge . . . . .here, haha. But, for now only about 4 of them really count. But the Lord's blessings have been bounteous this week.

Our investigator 'N' is still doing well. STILL no baptismal date . . . . she said, 'it will come with time.' ug So the next teach we are going to teach a bit about procrastination, haha. Yesterday she fed us and then we were able to have a teach. Her member friend from Helsinki, the one who referred her, was also there, which was nice. So she is still a work in progress.

We traveled up to Oulu to hear from Elder Causse of the Area Presidency and a Seventy. It was a really good experience and we learned a lot. He talked a bit about Desires, Being Bold, working with members, and then he opened it up to Questions. He even talked a bit about the temple in Italy ( for you Shannon and Layne) because apparently everything is going a lot smoother than expected. :) At the very end he played a musical number on the piano . . . .wow, he is very good at it. He played a rendition of Come, Come Ye Saints. It was awesome. It's cool to see a general authority in action and seeing his talents. At our lunch break inbetween just a few of us ate with him and answered his questions and asked some as well. I'm not sure, but he was a stake president in Paris around the time that Lindsey served there. You know him sis? Anyways, that was fun. Literally right after the closing prayer we went to the train station to catch our train. We slept the night in Kajaani with the elders there, then caught the 6:20 am train to Joensuu the next morning. But that night it was Elder Bradshaw's birthday! A couple really recent converts through him a birthday party and we were able to tag along. This converts were literally baptized a couple months ago and they are awesome. They are mother and son. The son really likes old fashioned Rock n Roll, like Beatles, Elvis, etc, . . . .he even dresses like it too. He has a toddler son who was there and he had his mini guitar and was jumping around while his dad played us some songs. All in all it was very nice of them and we had a good time.

Now, back in Joensuu. It's HOT. It's been in the mid 80's for a while now. Without air conditioning or fans, we have all of our windows open all day . . .so I woke up with a few mosquito bites, haha. The other day, before we left to Oulu, we were tracting out in a farther away area, just walking along, when all of a sudden we heard a HUGE, LOUD BOOM and cracking and stuff. It lasted for a couple seconds, then it faded away. We looked at eachother scared out of our minds and realized that we were almost struck by lightning, haha. The tag protects I guess, haha. The next morning we decided to do some yard work at our church building before we hopped on our train, because the building was looking horrible: weeds everywhere, lawn not fully mowed, trees and bushes over-grown, etc. So we made it look nice. :)

Well, that's all I got for today. It was great hearing from you all this week. Safe travels to all, and tell everyone hi for me! Wish I could be there for the funeral, but I know I am supposed to be here.

-Vanhin Watson

p.s. Give the Audis a Kiss for me :P hahaha

Elder Causse

Hey Fam!

Unfortunately I will be back to my normal rushed self from now until further notice because the local library was finally finished with it's remodeling and now we are back to e-mailing here, rather than at the one computer in the basement of the church. Here I'm on a sign up sheet for a computer for a certain time slot, and the lady before me went over . . . .so here I gooooooo . . . .

We had a pretty good week. We got some good teaches, and some phone numbers. This week was splits, so Vanhin Peterson and Vanhin Gorringe (from my MTC group) came down ffrom Kuopio for the day. We all made bread together and started giving it away to some of our investigators and potentials, and a few members. It was pretty fun and a cool way to show our appreciation for these people. I was able to go out for a while with Vanhin Gorringe which was really nice. He's quite the awesome missionary. We were able to go home teach an older gentleman in our branch. Ahh, can't explain everything, sorry, but there's more to be said . . . all in all, fun splits.

Investigator 'N' is still doing really well, just can't get a baptismal date out of her yet, haha. She's basically a member. It's amazing in our teaches, sometimes it seems like she is teaching us, haha. Her family is being a huge burden to her right now. They don't approve of anything and can sometimes be really mean and hurtful. 'N' pulls through and its really cool to watch her withstand all the fiery darts because of the strong foundation on which she is built. Her member friend from Helsinki is coming up this weekend. He's the one that referred her to us and they are really good friends. We're going to have a teach with him there so toivottavasti we can get her pumped up and get a date.

This weekend Elder Causse from the Area Presidency is coming to FINLAND. He's doign a mission tour, so on Friday . . . . more travels . . . .we trek up to Oulu, hear from him Saturday morning, catch the next train. Stay the night in Kajaani with the Veljet there, then continute the trek home (missing church) to get back to Joensuu. Crazy stuff huh. Then next week I have Kieli Koulu in Helsinki, then the following week we have Zone Conference back in Oulu.

Saturday was a holiday here in Finland . . .Juhannus . . . .basically celebrating summer. Because everyone gets wasted and goes to the woods and parties and stuff, we had to go in early Friday and Saturday. In that time I prepared and wrote my talk that I gave in church yesterday! It was tough, but apparently I pulled it off . . .IN FINNISH . . .and still took 15-20 minutes, haha, WOO! I talked about Adversity and Personal Revelation. It went pretty well from what I hear. I was trying to direct it at 'N' who came to church, even after the rough weekend with her family, and she said she was glad that she came because she could calm down and feel the peace. :)

In the other free time in the Holiday Shutdowns my comp made some delicious banana bread and then we made some chocolate chip cookies together. We gave some to our whole apartment complex, haha. Basically doorbell ditched a few cookies and a note saying 'Hyvää Juhannusta!' at every door. A couple hours before we were supposed to head for the Holiday Shutdown, a member called us up and invited us to have makkara (hot dogs basically). We said yes, so he came a picked us up with his buddy and gave us a ride to where we thought would be his house . . . . oh no no nooooo . . . .it was a 20 minute car ride of death I tell you. He drove like a mainiac, running red lights, speeding through the city, through the center, and out to the country side. By this point we were confused and quite terrified, haha. They ended up bringing us to a spot by a lake with crystal clear water and we built a fire and had makkara, haha. It was awesome. But we needed to be in my 6, so we hurried, and he sped us home. We ended up being late a bit. No time to explain more . . . looks like you'll have to wait till next year, haha.

We have a bunch of potential investigators that we're striving to work with now, since 'N' is our only main one. We want to 'orchestrate their conversion process' as President Brown put it, and work them down the pipeline, so at the other end, out pops a baptism. We need to fill the pipeline here. We can do it.

random things that I don't have time to talk about:

-Naked Mummo . . . . .DON'T want to talk about it

-Gypsies

-Contacting into a famous German Artist, Peter Michael Tschoepe

-an investigator giving us an ornament and a doll

-gave a blessing to our branch president who wasn't feeling good

-yup yup

I love you all. Thank you for the e-mails and updates. It's always fun reading them. I really have to go. Eden, good luck! Mom, safe travels. Dad and Seth . . eat healthier, Layne has reported that your grocery shopping has left her with no options, haha. Tell grandma a letter will be on her way as soon as I can send it. Moi Moi

Vanhin Watson