AXED!

Voi että, what a week!! I don't know if I haev the time to share everything about it, at least enough to give it justice! First things first though, I'M BEING TRANSFERRED!!!!!  I really am so sad to leave . . .I love this area and this branch!! They didn't make it any easier on me yesterday when they all found out. After church, after the closing prayers and right before they were all about to head home, the members all got together in the chapel, put me in the front, they all stood and sang to me 'God Be With You till We Meet Again.'I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that I almost cried. I have never felt so loved by so many people like that before, besides my family of course, but, they have become my family too, and I am sad to leave them. They presented me with a CD of a Finn that sang some church hymns, and we said our good-byes. AHH!! They make this soo hard!! I guess I should tell you where I am going . . . . . Espoo, Finland . . . just on the outskirts of Helsinki . .  . .so it's HUGE. I've never served in an area that big before: big buildings, cities, buses, trains, metros, people EVERYWHERE, etc, even the temple is in my area! :)  My new companion is Elder Pope, from Bountiful, Utah, and been in the country for only a few months . . this'll be his 3rd change in the country. I leave to Espoo tomorrow, so I've been packing like a mad-man ever since I got the call. AND . . . . .OLAVI GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! It was yesterday in Lahti, an hour away. Around 35 people showed up. Everything went very smoothly. Nothing much else to say other than everyone was all smiles, the Spirit was great, and Olavi is a stud, ready to take the next steps to eternal life. He even stood up during the program and gave a bow, haha. I'm so happy for him, and so grateful that I was able to still be here to see it.

Another thing worth mentioning about my week . . .hahahaha. . . . .ummm . . . look at the title of my e-mail. . .AXED .. . . yup. Soo, we were doing service for a less-active family, by chopping wood for them . . . .the wood was hard, so we were swinging hard. Next thing I know I hit the wood, the ax bounces off, keeps swinging . . . . and went straight for my shin!!!!  A few stitches later here I am with a 3 inch gash in my leg and a probable life-long scar.  :P  Blood was everywhere and I even got a bit whoozy and all light headed and turned white for a couple minutes before snapping back into things and they drove me to the hospital. The part that hurt the most was the shots they had to put INSIDE the gash, everything else was fine. I'll send pictures . . . . :D  Yay, for service!! The good part was, it that I was able to talk to the nurse about who I am and stuff and she was quite amazed at our Finnish, seeing how she had already dealt with a few foreigners that day. It all went smoothly and pretty fast, and it's healing nicely. I also met a former investigator in the ER and got to talk to him as I waited. . . but now I can say ''I BLED FOR MY MISSION!'' . haha. . . none of you better blow this out of proportion when you tell others!! Seriously . . . DON'T . . . I had enough of that when a guy hit me once, haha.

Well, I better finish things up here, still gotta attach pictures and everything. I'll write you next week from Espoo! I'm sad to leave, but excited for the new adventures awaiting me. Like Nephi of old, I say with him, ''The Lord has commanded it, I must obey.'' I love you all and thank you still for everything you DO and have DONE for me. Best Wishes and God Bless!!

Rakkaudella,

 

Vanhin Watson

I'm an UNCLE!!!! taas, haha

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!!!!  I went to write you a letter, but I thought you'd be in Virginia and I didn't have the address on me and then we were away traveling!! In Finland it's on a different day, coming up I think, so I'll have to send it then. :P

Wow, I'm an uncle . . . taas (again)!! I'm glad everything went well! Congrats  to the Dixons!!

It's been another busy week, with an even more busy week this week. It all started when we went to Helsinki for a Zone Conference, the last time I was probably able to see President Brown and his wife . . sad. As usual it was awesome. They taught us about 3 Life Lessons: Taking care of 1. Yourself  2. Your Surroundings  3. and Your Finances. I will really miss them and I'm curious to see how things will go when the new mission president arrives, President Rawlings. There's going to be a lot of changes going on in the mission in the next few months. We have a lot of missionaries leaving and hopefully a lot of new ones coming in. 

 

Olavi, our baptismal man, is good to go. We met with him and scheduled everything out and now, the baptism is going to be held this coming Sunday in Lahti, a city about an hour's drive away, because we don't have a baptismal font here. My old MTC companion, Elder Fuchs, will baptize him because he was the one that found him just over a year ago.  We're all excited!!

 

We had Stake Conference yesterday. We traveled to Mikkeli, about an hour's train ride away, and watched it being broadcast clear from Salt Lake City!! Yes, it was a special one, broadcast to all of Scandenavia. President Eyring presided, and Elder Bednar, Elder Per G. Malm (70), and Sister Julie B. Beck were all there and spoke as well. It was a really good meeting, awesome talks. Elder Bednar spoke about Zion's Camp and the effects it had and how we can apply the same principles in our own lives in our own personal Zion's Camps. He spoke about, and praised, the leadership of the church, admiring their examples and warrior-like attitudes. It was really powerful. Pres. Eyring spoke about increasing our faith in a living prophet, giving his own personal experiences and testimonies about the ones he has known. Sister Beck spoke about prioritizing our life into 3 categories: 1. Essential things (church)  2. Necessary things (home, work, school, etc)  3. Nice to do things (hobbies). It was fun to watch and feel of their power. The members there in Mikkeli thought I was a Finn serving a short-time summer mission because I look like one and I look so young. haha, yep, still look like I'm 16. 

We made a trip to Kotka again, our visiting city, in an effort to contact some less active members and potentials. 

For most of the week I've been kinda sick: sore throat, cough, head-aches, etc. At one point I even lost my voice, something you kind of need as a missionary, especially as a Sr companion speaking a foreign language. haha But, I'm on the recovering end now and almost back up to par.

This week contains the longest day of the year! It's a huge holiday here, we even have an earlier curfew on two of the days. Everyone goes out to the forests and lakes and cabins and stuff and they light HUGE bonfires and celebrate all night over beer and makkara. While that is all happening though, we'll be inside. In fact, that same night we might get Change Calls! Everyone thinks I'm leaving, but I don't know, I tend to stick in places for a while if you haven't noticed, haha. We'll see. God only knows. 'Thy will be done.'

 

Well, sorry this is a shorter e-mail but I'm still a bit under the weather and my thoughts are all mixed up. But I'm always glad to open your e-mails and see that all is well. Thank you for your prayers and uplifting bits of joy you give me each week. I love you all and wish you all a Hyvää Juhannusta!!! (Happy Mid-Summers Day!)

Rakkaudella,

 

Vanhin Watson

I thought I was called to Finland!!??

I thought I was called to Finland?!? The whole week the weather has been clear and sunny and temps close to 90. My companion and I are always outside and when we went to Helsinki earlier in the week so he could go to Language School, everyone was commenting how tan he was . . . haha . . . . We're both pretty burned. We even had to take an emergency trip to the store to by some sunscreen and aloe vera. With the Europeans STILL living in the stone age here without air conditioning, we had to by a fan last week and it's been on whenever we are home. Yay for sweat. yaaaaaaaaaay :P jk Luckily, yeasterday night and today it's been POURING rain, and I mean POURING!

Anyways, it's been one of the best weeks of my stay here in Kouvola this past week. I'll get right into it and tell you why. . . . . . .We found a ton of new people to teach, one already a new investigator, we set a BAPTISMAL DATE, we had splitz with our District Leader, and we taught all of our investigators, AND still went to Helsinki so that Elder Edelman could go to Kieli Koulu. No, I wasn't able to go to the temple this time, I got off the train in a city called Kerava and worked for the day there with Elder Christensen, while his companion, my companion's MTC companion, hopped on the train and they went down into Helsinki together. It's always weird doing missionary work in a city other than your own. When I got back to Kouvola it really felt like I was at home again.

So, after Church yesterday, our investigator, the one who has been investigating for just over a year now, Olavi, came up to us and told us out of no where that he finally wanted to be baptized!!!!!!! I'm so excited for him and I know he will make an awesome member. We set the date for the 29th of this month, but it may have to be pushed to earlier because he wants the Elders who first found him to be there too . . . and one of those Elders is about to head home . . . on the 30th actually . . .so that'd be kinda hectic for him. But, kuitenkin, it's going to happen!!!!! Since we only have a small rental space here for a chapel, we don't have a font. So it'll happen at a lake by a members' cabin. There's a good chance that I might not be there to see it. I have been here for 5 transfers and I could be leaving the day or 2 before if I get a change call. But, we'll see, maybe Pres. Brown will let me stay to see it or maybe I'll just stay for a 6th transfer, haha. As, Olavi was walking away after church, we watched him walk away and it was like a scene from a movie . . him walking into the horizon . . . and I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the man who wants to follow Him.

So, with one on his way to the water, we had to find someone to fill his spot, and we found him! A young man who let us in when we knocked on his door. He will be a perfect example of how the gospel can change lives. His hair was long and greasy, the place was a mess and smelled of BO, claims he's seen the devil's face, and to make things worse, PORN ALL OVER THE PLACE. He's willing to listen though and after some questioning and teaching, we know he's interested. I had to ask him though to take down the porn in a certain spot so that when we come again, we can look at him and not at it. . . . which, thankfully, he did do. We also found a young man at a bus stop with gum stuck to his shoes, a girl cleaning a hallway, and a whole lot more this week. We've been blessed. We've been praying and fasting for this to happen because we haven't found anyone new in a while.

Well, I'd better go. As the scriptures read, Seek not to counsel the Lord, but seek ye to take counsel from His hands. Whether that be in the form of His servants here on earth, heeding to the scriptures, or focusing and DOing His will rather than our own, I know it to be true. In the end, His path will be the only one without a dead end.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

drunks

It's been another good week and I can't believe that I am already back here writing you again. Since time is always short, i'll try to fill you in as best as I can . . .

- We had a few funny encounters with some drunk people this past week. The first one was when we walked in someones backyard . . . because in Finland, most of the front doors are in the backyard. . . and there were 2 HUGE ladies sun-bathing in bikinis . . . muchs to our disgust. We soon found out they were both drunk. One of them hurried and offered us frozen strawberries and beer, and then out of nowhere, gave me a huge, squeezing hug. I was soo grossed out. But what happened next was even funnier, she then hugged my companion, and gave him a couple kisses on his neck. Yeeeah . . . we got outta there. haha The other encounter was yesterday, just before we were going to head in for the day, I stopped a nice looking lady carrying her groceries. Immediately after we stopped her we noticed that she was drunk. She did some weird motions and told us that she hopes we go to heaven, then went behind us and out of nowhere, kicked us in the butt. After she finally let go of our hands we left, but not before she gave my companion a kiss on his hand, haha.

- Well, while I'm telling you random stuff . . haha. . . . we were at McDonalds in our visiting city the other day and we saw a group of young boys, probably 12 years old, that bought literally around 20+ cheeseburgers and piled them up in front of them and chowed down. . . . I almost took a picture. They still had 9 left before they picked them up and left.

- It was graduation weekend here in Finland this past week, so there were parties everywhere. 2 members in the branch had their parties and invited us and anyone in the branch that wanted to come. It wasn't really a party, more like a luncheon, but it was good missionary opportunities and we had fun. I've never had so much cake in one week of my life . . . and they gave us more to take home with us.

Despite my rambling, we did have quite a spiritual week. We had 2 really good teaches with our college roommate investigators. I already told you about the blessing we gave one of them, then, when we met again, we used an object lesson involving 3 cups. The inside of the 1st of the cups was dirty. The outside of the 2nd of the cups was dirty, and then the last cup was clean, in and out. Just like How Elder Robbins of the 70 talked about in Conference, we related BEing and DOing to this object lesson. The first cup represented a DOer, just going through the motions, but doesn't have their heart in it. The second cup was a BEer, a hypocrite who knows truth but doesn't live it. Then the last cup was both, just like Christ, our goal. All in all they really liked our lesson and we had a few scriptures like 3 Nephi 27:21,27 and so on. Then, right at the climax of it all we switched it and related it to them and baptism. It definitely opened their eyes, but they still won't set a date, but they are closer!

Church was also quite spiritual. The branch presidents baby boy got his baby blessing so a TON of members and guests came from around the country, literally doubling or tripling our branches size . . it was packed and it was awesome! The whole meeting just felt more powerful and spiritual. It made me wonder what it is like back in America, where the wards are even bigger! In testimony meeting, our investigator, Olavi, was the first one to stand and went up!!!!!! He shared that he wasn't a member yet, but he wanted to share his testimony about the power of the priesthood. He went on to share about a recent priesthood blessing he received because he messed up his knee skiing. He told how his knee healed miraculously much to the surprise of his doctor, and now, his other doctor that monitors his diabetes is even telling him that tests are showing it's looking as if he doesn't even have diabetes anymore!! He's had it for years!!!! My comp and I were about to stand up and explode in excitement, thinking the next thíng he was going to say in front of everyone was that he wanted to be baptized, but, not so . . . .yet. :) We have some awesome investigators! and an awesome branch!

We've done lots'o'findin recently, we need to keep finding, need new investigators. It's been great weather though! The missionary tan is back, haha.

One last experience I'll share before I must go. In Kotka, we were sitting in front of a library studying when a man approached us and let's just say he's somewhat of an Athiest missionary. He tried to get us to put God aside and all these 'books' and just live life and trust oneself and be happy. He must've tried for 20 minutes, but we testified that we know what we have is true and we cannot deny it. He got our phone number and still wants to discuss, but we told him it'd be on our terms, we'd do the teaching. The experience only did the opposite to me than what was intended. My testimony grew. I am so thankful that I know we have a loving Heavenly Father, and everlasting happiness is available to all who turn to Him.

Love you all! or should I say Y'ALL like like my southern companion, haha.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

Kiireinen Viikko

In an attempt to write my emails a little faster this time I have written down a few of my ideas in advance . . . .haha. . . .lets see if it actually works.

It was another week to write about in my journal, which seems to get more and more difficult to write in and catch up on. We had a lot of events and stuff to do. I'm writing a day late because yesterday we had 2 more school presentations where we were able to stand up in front of 2 classes, same teacher, and teach them about our beliefs. A few of them even accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon afterwards so that was cool. So with our day dominated with that, we pushed our P-Day to today, but even then, we have a DA to get to here in an hour and a bus to catch. So my hands will have to start typing faster here . . .cuz they ain't right now. . . .

A random experience that made my day about a week ago was when we were walking down 'main street' and a little 8 yr old girl sprinted up to us and tugged at my shirt from behind. I looked over and there was a girl from the branch! I have no idea why she was there, probably with some friends getting ice cream. She just saw us and wanted to say hi, then sprinted back to her friends and pointed to us and said as they all ran away, 'Look! There's the missionaries!' I don't know why, but she made my day. :)

So, we've eaten A LOT during this past week. We've had dinner appointments, eating out with our district for district meeting which was held here in Kouvola, then we had a trip to Kotka, our visiting city, so we ate lunch there, then the Elders quorum had a Sauna Night at a members' cabin and took us a long. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to sauna, but we helped grill some makkara and watched as a bunch of naked men walked by us down into the freezing water to swim, then walk back into the sauna and repeat the process. It was quite a funny thing to watch, haha. It's probably the most traditional finnish thing to do, and they think it's the funnest too. Yes, we took pictures, but I'll spare you on that one, haha. While we were there, we did some service together and cut down some trees and stacked the wood. It was all in all a good day, and good to see the branch members get together and work and laugh together.

I mentioned we went to Kotka, our visiting city. I haven't been there for a while, so going back was pretty cool. It's a really cool city and probably bigger then Kouvola in my opinion. There are parks everywhere so it was all green, and ónce it stopped raining it was a beautiful day. We visited some less active members, which really seemed to enjoy us stopping by. We're going back this weekend to do some more work there and also go to a members graduation party, where a bunch of non member friends and family will be. And on Sunday another member is having his graduation party and it'll be the same story. So there are a couple good missionary opportunities right there.

I'd better hurry but I'll tell you real quick about a teach we had last night at the church with our two college room-mate investigators, Rosa and Maisa. There was a good spirit there and these two young ladies should be setting a baptismal date soon, because they are sooo ready! Maisa asked us if we pray for the sick, so we said of course, and even explained priesthood blessings. She then asked us for one because apparently she has some sort of sickness and she really wants it to go away. It was quite the surprise to us but we went through with it and I gave her a blessing right then and there because she was so willing and so sincere. The blessing was nothing special, nothing eloquent said, but, like I said, there was a good spirit there and both of them are progressing well, even telling us they know it's all true! After they left, Elder Edelman and I knelt down and thanked Our Heavenly Father for that experience and asked Him to confirm our words to them if it be His will. I really hope they recognize it, have the faith, and pull through with this.

Well, more to write but no time for it. Taas it was good hearing from all of you. I love you and wish to all a blessed week ahead.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

scattered sunshine

I feel like I should just say AMEN to all your e-mails and leave it at that. Seriously, Thank you for all of your updates, thoughts, advice, and love. It is such a good start to a week to hear from all of you.

So, week one with a new companion and . . . . . . it's gone great! Elder Edelman is an awesome elder and the work here has been so much more enjoyable and rewarding with him being here. We've been going running every morning since he arrived, so hopefully that'll help me get rid of these balls of fat on my cheeks I've developed while I've been here, haha. It was a transition week if we can call it that. I got him all caught up on what I could and we tried to just jump right into the work. We did, however, get a few cancellations that slowed us down a bit, but, that just opened up more room for FINDING! The weather has been great all week and every day there are hundreds of Finns sporting ice cream cones, walking down the streets . . . so jealous, haha.

A member that recently returned home from her mission a month or so ago from Sweden, who is also a recent convert, was able to accompany us on a teach with Olavi. She was so happy to be in a teach again and do the work she loved so much. She was a big help and we're definitely going to try and use her more often in teaches. Even though she lives about 45 minutes away, she's willing to help whenever she can. In the teach with Olavi she shared her conversion story and really brought a good spirit to the teach, and a new friend for Olavi in church . . .some one to relate to . . .her being a convert.

Our Italian investigator, Ottavia, left this past weekend back to Italy. We tried to contact her all week and we just couldn't get in contact. We finally tried her one last time on Friday, she wasn't home, so we went to knock on doors in her area for a while, then we tried her one last time before we were going to head home for the night. . . . worrying that she could be lost forever, since we didn't have any of her contact info to give to the missionaries in Italy . . . . and she was home! It was a miracle and an answer to our prayers. We showed her a short film called Finding Happiness, In Italian, and she loved it, and told us she is still interested, so we got her contact info and we're going to try and turn her over the missionaries in Italy. She was such a pleasure to teach, I hope she continues the journey in Italy.

Yesterday we had a DA with some members that live about an hour out. A temple missionary couple that was visiting came along with us and, even though it dominated our day, it was fun to be out and about with them and converse with these pioneers of the gospel. I think the temple couple even sent an e-mail to Mom and Dad with pictures and everything . . .so I guess if you want pictures of me you'll have to ask them. :P

There will be a lot ahead of us in these next 6 weeks. We are excited to be on the Lord's errand and hopefully things will go well. I am confident they will. I know that God's kingdom is once again established on the earth, the heavens are opened and the plan is revealed. Our Savior stands as our guide and points the way to eternal happiness, the happiness I can only taste while about doing this work. I love you all and wish you all another happy lovely week ahead.

Congrats Spencer! Good Luck Dan!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson

p.s. Yeah, I can never share EVERYTHING about my week's experiences, so forgive me on that. Things are going well though and I'm glad to hear the same goes there as well!

Hei!

Sooo . . . yep, I'm still here in Kouvola . . .for my 5th Change. Looks like I am still needed here. Maybe it'll be like Joensuu and I just won't leave till I get a baptism, haha. Elder Balls left just a half hour ago to Savonlinna. I spent 3 changes with that man, and a good 3 changes it was. He was actually pretty bummed to leave Kouvola, it's a really good place with an awesome branch and things have been starting to take off here. Now, my new companion is Elder Edelman. He was actually my replacement in Joensuu when I left there! So he has been in Finland for about 6 months now and I can already tell that I'm going to like this guy. It's a bit of a tender mercy actually, haha, because I already feel like I am going to need to up my game with this guy just to keep up with him. I can already tell he is a good Elder and I am excited to get to work with him. Oh yeah . . .he's from Georgia.

So, about this past week. . . . .Well, first off, it's been wonderful weather here recently . . . except for right now . . .it's raining. . . . but most of the week has been bright and sunny, and it's finally getting green. Last P-Day we went to a local park and tossed around a frisbee that I got in a package a while back. It was pretty fun and we felt really good for the rest of the day, and even the next, because we spent more time outside and were able to run around a bit . . . .not to mention us working on that tan. Yep, our missionary tan lines are coming back. haha

Well, Zone Conference was Tuesday. It was awesome! Sister Brown spoke about Peace and Faith, the Assistants spoke about Elder Robbins' recent conference talk . . like to BE and to DO, which was really good. The Zone Leaders spoke about Finding, and Pres. Brown spoke about the Plan of Salvation. I'm going to miss Pres. Brown, he is such a good teacher and leader and he has done a lot for the mission. A year ago this mission had to find 91 new investigators on average to get ONE baptism out of it. Now, we have to find around 10 to get ONE baptism. I'm telling ya, the awakening is hitting Europe . . Finland especially. I really feel like the awakening is hitting Kouvola as well, and success is on it's way.

Our investigators are doing well, in fact, most of them are progressing. Our roommate duo is still doing awesome. One of them came to church yesterday while the other one was sick. Again, the members did very well in fellowshipping her. It seems like they are having a hard time connecting the fact that there is ONE true church though and ONE priesthood, because of the experiences they've had in other churches. so we are working on that.

We had a good teach with Olavi too. Lately he has been saying how he feels like his faith is too weak, so, we had a teach on Faith and actually used Elder Edgely's Nov. 2010 Conference talk, Faith-The Choice is Yours. Olavi just feels inadequate and wants to be perfect before setting a date, but he is ready and hopefully he'll recognize that soon.

We found a lot more potential investigators last week. We talked with a man, collecting money for a certain foundation, for nearly an hour the other day. Turns out, he knows A LOT about our church and our beliefs and he wouldn't accept the fact that we claim we are Christian. He's working on his Master Thesis here and has studied Theology for quite a while too. Bible Bashing gets us no where, so, even though we wanted to, and so did he, we just testifies about the stuff we do know and ended up getting his number. That is just one of the few stories we have for the week.

Hockey Season is back. Finland played Sweden last night and dominated them 6-1. I was woken up in the middle of the night by all the cheering going on. I got up and looked outside and people were crowding the streets, cheering and celebrating their win, cars honking and all. It was insane. I can't believe my companion slept through it all. haha. The whole week actually there have been hockey games going on, so no one wanted to talk to us at their doors because the game was going on.

With the warmer weather, people set up shop in the center and start playing their instruments and 'one man band' set ups. For example, we had Indians playing those peter pan flutes, a Latvian playing an accordian and a trumpet at the same time, and a cowboy playing the banjo, harmonica, and drum at the same time. Very entertaining.

Well, I better get going. It sounds like a bunch of stuff is going on back home these days. I hope all goes well! I don't really know what else to say other than, Goodbye, God Bless, and can't wait to hear about all your adventures next week.

I'll leave you by telling you about how this morning I finished the Book of Mormon again. This time, is was a huge project because I was marking everything and studying it more in depth, like highlighting the church doctrine on one color, the Christlike Attributes in another color, Christ's name in another color, and the stuff He says in another color. It was a big project, and I've never read it that way before. But it really helped me draw closer to it and to my Heavenly Father. I know that that book is true. I hope you all are reading it often, even if you are reading another church book or scripture, we have been counseled to ALWAYS read the Book of Mormon. It is the keystone of our religion. I know it is true.

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Watson