Saturday, February 23, 2013

Letter #31

Dear Family,

Talk about a WEEK!! We had a zone meeting and a district meeting all in the same week. Dont do this, it takes 3 days and a Pday away from the work in your city!! (If any of you were thinking about doing this, rethink, and pray) But it was WAY fun. So I did splits with the Zone Leaders on tuesay in Oulu. Now I can say I have served in Hämeenlinna, Tampere, Joensuu and Oulu. Pretty sweet stuff.

Our District meeting on Friday was with President Rawlings in Kuopio. He is an inspired man. We talked about how the work is progressing so fast in Europe, and about how many missionaries will be comeing into Finland over the next few weeks. Its crazy!! And I am way excited. We talked about how important members help in the work is, and without them we go no where. It is so true. Gosh, this work is AWESOME!!!

Our Mission President has been counciling us as missionaries to pray always and to search for the children of God who will listen. The lord has said "My sheep, hear my voice." and so he has asked us to pray always in our hearts and minds to find people who are ready. It also says in the scriptures to pray always unto the Father. So, we did this, and it was the best day ever. We humbly prayed and I kept asking in my head "How can I show Gods love for this person?" right before I
went to talk to them. And we had a great day, and got 7 lessons. UNHEARD OF!!! And I have also come to notice that I feel closer by praying all the time.

I love being on a mission. Being a District leader over other Elders who are all older than me save 1, is really humbling. But the Lord has continued to bless me. And I am very greatful for this oppertunity to serve. There is no place, I would rather be.

I love you,
Vanhin Waite

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Letter #30

My dear Family and Friends, (and other acquaintances)

Wow what a week. So this week was way busy. Tuesday night me and Elder Anderton went to Helsinki, then in the morning Elder Christiansen and I went around Helsinki by ourselves and then got on a 5 hour train ride north to my new city, JOENSUU!! The apartment is way nice, I still haven´t unpacked everything yet but thats okay, its amazing how
much books I have. The weather here is strangely warm. There are lots of storms and I think it has rained or snowed everyday here. Pretty sweet weather.

On Friday I had my first District meeting. It was way fun! We played a get to know you game and had a spiritual thought. We have 4 missionary companions includeing us and 1 senior missionary couple. Its kinda big! :) Pretty fun stuff. but sense we are in the North we are SO spread out from each other. It takes a little over two hour travel time to get to one city where we usually do district meetings. Its crazy. But we are rockin it up. :)

One cool experiance we had with a member was when we shared a thought and a scripture with a elderly lady. We did it just at her door and she loved it. We told her we would like to sing to a hym. And immediately she just walked right passed us and to her neighbors door. The neighbor answered and said she was doing the dishs and didnt have
time. But our member insisted that she come and listen to these boys sing. So, we sang a hymn and both of the ladies liked it so much that they wanted us to sing a Finnish hym, that we dont know because its a genuine Finnish older song. So we apologized but what was awesome is this members enthusiasm to get her neighbors involved. And that is what we are trying to do is have the members help us share the gospel that we all love. Its great!

I love being here and I love hearing from all of you! I know the Book of Mormon is truely the word of God and that he loves us. It is amazing how the Spirit speaks so much more powerfully from the pages of that book than from any of the words we say. It truely is a treasure in my life. I love you and I hope life goes great. (especially from reading this, because I know your lives all revolve around my emails.... jk;)

Love,
Vanhin Waite

Monday, February 4, 2013

Letter #29- Wow! What a week!

What a WEEK!!!

Dear Family and Friends and the dog

                This is the week of changes and happenings! Gahl,
so... On Tuesday last week we went to a progressing investigators house (that's right, progressing) and he had some friends over. It turns out that both of these friends are not a very good influence on our investigator. One of them asked us rather loudly "Why on EARTH would two beautiful guys like you be doing in Finland! How old are you.... I don't believe it, with brown eyes like yours you could get any girl in Finland!...." and he kept saying stuff and than asked us why, and we told him that we wanted to serve and he would NOT believe it. He kept saying "who forced you?" and "What do you get out of this stuff.." So, it was a pretty scary/funny lesson because he was big and had a deep, and cool voice. OH, another scary thing, he offered me alcohol! He was like "You want a taste of Finland...." and he put it in my hand. So I drank it right up!! :) JK JK JK!! I did not!! I was scared though and so I said a prayer in my heart and the coolest feeling of power came over me, and I told him "No, I don't drink that,
and I wont drink it.... I don't put that kind of stuff in my temple!!" I didn't say that last part BUT its TRUE!! Wow it was a testimony builder to me that this gospel free´s us rather than binds us. And I am SOO grateful for the Spirit and the power it has to offer to us if we but ask. I loved it. I love being a Missionary and knowing that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and gave me my family who prays for me. I need it.

Oh, So to mix things up A TON!!! so as you all know I am in my 3rd change as a missionary and last change I finished training. But this change I stayed in Hämeenlinna with my trainer Elder Anderton. What a awesome and hilarious guy! So on Thursday we had change calls. Where the President calls and tells you where you are going if there is a change in the companionship. He called us and he told me that I am
leaving to Joensuu!!! Its in the North Zone and I will be District leader!!! AHH!! I am excited and I also have no idea what to do. Oh but what is also way cool is that I will be with my MTC companion, Elder Christiansen AGAIN!! I cant believe it!! ITs GOING TO BE SWEET!!! oh I am going to need a lot of help. Please Pray for me if you are reading this. Joensuu means "the mouth of the river" but in Finnish you switch things up a bit because you can and it is one word.
It comes from "joke" meaning river, and "suu" meaning mouth. To make it a river´s mouth, it becomes "Joen suu" but for the city just slap them together. IDK I said all this but, ISN'T that COOL!! And my Trainer stays in Hämeenlinna to train again and he is now District leader here. Its so cool whats happenin here!! :)

Sunday was the best day ever!! We had 5 people in Church that are basically investigators. It was awesome to see a whole row of people who are new there. And the first person I ever taught in Finnish finally came to church. It was my last Sunday with this ward and I love them to DEATH!! Me and Elder Anderton sang "Lead Kindly Light" in Finnish and then I gave my testimony telling everyone that I was leaving. I said that I will always remember them because they are my first ward and that I love them. OH, and 1 of our investigators is a
MASTER pianist and we asked him if he could play the piano for us. And he did, but, he is a master kind of in the Jazzier sense. So he added all kinds of notes and it was beautiful and loud. and You all should have seen the faces of the older crowd in the congregation. They didn't like it too much. lets just say that "Jesus of Nazareth Savior and king" the sacrament of song was really up beat. Oh, and our branch
president changed the last song because I was leaving to "God be with you till we meet again." we sang it WAY fast and it was really cool and everybody stood up. Gahl I love this ward. I love our Branch President a lot. He is SO funny and happy and Christ like. Perfect ingrediants of an amazing Branch President. Gosh I will miss Hämeenlinna.

I love you and I know this is God´s work. I love being here and serving a Mission. There is Nothing like it. I recently watched a baptism and it was soo special. I feel that as a Missionary you are more in tune with the Spirit, and when people say, "The spirit was strong" as a missionary your saying "Are you kidding? It was WAY STRONG!!! I almost burned up it was soo strong." If that makes sense. And watching the Baptism it was so cool. It was a missionary who did the baptizing and it also was his last Saturday in the country. He was my district leader and Zone Leader and wow, what an example he is too me. I love the guy. Well that's about all I have to blabber about. I love this work. And if I didn't make sense.... sorry. But wow life is just great.

Love
Vanhin Waite

Jayden Rucker- Thank you for the Up-date!! It is SOO crazy how much
stuff is going on!! I love you and keep hanging in there.