Letter #66

Dear Family! 

This last week was great!!! Our friend was baptized and what an experiance!! It is definately late fall here and I am excited for the Holidays!!

We were extreamly busy last week, and one cool part was a potential we tried. SO the cool thing about Finland is if you drive just 5 or 10 min in any direction away for the city, your in the middle of the forest. ANd this refferal lived out in the middle of no where. long story short, we couldnt get our car through one of the dirt roads, and had to walk, but... we didnt know we would have had to walk almost 2 kilometers and it was raining, pretty hard. it was dark and we find this address but no house. in the middle of the field and all there is, is a mail box just sitting in the middle of nowhere. then we looked around and our first thought was no way, was this somebody sick but quite funny joke to get the missionaries to come all the way out there but then we see it.... on this hill about a 100 yards on the other side, embedded into a bank of trees slightly concealing it was a enormous manor. we were like, no way. so we went up there, soaked and cold and miracualy got inside!!! pretty funny experiance and we loved it.

But our friend got baptized this saturday!! i gave the Holy Ghost talk. Man, this guy is amazing!! 

it gets dark around here at about 4 30 and now it is getting pretty cold. No snow yet, and I always think this is the most miserable time without snow but, we´re still having fun. I am excited for the holidays and I love you all!! have fun and be safe!!

Rakastan teitä!!

Rakkaudella Vanhin Waite

Letter #65

Dear Family

Hey this week was good. I love you all!! This week was really good. We have a investigator who is really progressing. The work is great!!

Sorry, I have to make this short. But one cool story was we totally met a less active and we had a great discussion. She talked to us about missing the Temple and wanting to go back. We talked to her and she wants to come back!!! We are pretty excited about that. 

Also, I am excited for CHRISTMAS!!! I love you all and I hope this week goes well for you all!! 

Love

Vanhin Waite

Letter #64

Dear Family

Okay, I have to be fast but I am ALIVE!!! no worries there. We had change calls this last week and I got shipped out of my city after only 18 weeks. I love you all and life is great!!

So, last Saturday we got the change calls and I was to leave Kajaani and go to Espoo which is all the way down south in Helsinki right next to the Temple!! I am very excited!! But after we got the information we met with a member in Kajaani, told him the news and he said "your going to Espoo? Really? I am too!! but for the Temple!! Can I give you a ride???" So I made a few calls and turns out it was okay, but he left on Monday. Which is our P-day, so I didnt get a  chance to write then, but better late than never. It was a long car ride but I learned a TON of Finnish. man, it was a 6 hour language study. my head hurt. haha   But all in all, WAY busy and I got here and were running. Big city traffic and everything. :)

I hope everything is going well in the world. Life here is hektic and AWESOME!!  I love this work! But before I left Kajaani we had a real sweet lesson with our investigator who said he would like to be baptized within the month. So I hope it goes through. He knows the Bom is true and the word of God. This is also the same investigator who told us the first time he met us was "I was born a Catholic, I will die a Catholic."  :) I love the Gospel.

So now I am actually in a real ward. This is my 4th area, and my whole mission I have loved and enjoyed small little branches with 2 hour church. My last branch had 40 people with 17 or 19 active. WAY FUN!!! I loved it. But now I am in a ward of 350 with about 130 active. big difference. I love this gospel though. The Spirit is the same. I got to go but I write next time.

My new comps name is Elder Crofts. He is from Pleasent Grove. so I am getting around Utah county still. haha, I love you all and I wish you the best week!! have fun!!! 

Love 

Vanhin Waite

Letter #63

Dear Family

This week was pretty good. We didnt find anybody new to teach this week but had some pretty good success every where. We had 4 non people/investigators come to our small half rented building chapel to watch general conference. 3 were investigators and 1 was a former investigator. they all LOVEd it!! It was awesome for me to see that, there was a total of 11 people in this tiny building and 4 of them were not members. we watched it in english in one room and finnish in the other. 

I had a learning experience during this conference time. The hardest thing I think for investigators in Finland is to have them believe it is worth trying or coming. We find people to teach, but having them act on that knowledge is a bit different. So lots of people come close to baptism but, dont quite make it up to snuff. 

So we have been working with this wonderful couple that wants to change their lives from the alcholo and drugs to a better. We have been teaching them the Gospel and the they wanted to come see General Conference. So we biked with them only to arrive at the church building 20 minutes early and nobody was there. the technology wasnt set up, and since 2 of the four investigators that showed were women, everyone else that were coming were men, naturally one of the women asked if there would be coming other sisters. So, me being kind of a perfectionist at this point, was freaking out on the inside. we found out that a ward sister WAS coming(I was VERY grateful, I told her so) and although the whole thing didnt look as "professional" as I would have liked, because I thought the branch would have been, a little more "on the ball" you might say.it was perfect. I felt that way because on the inside "do they want to grow more in membership?" "Do they want a bigger branch?"  BUT!!! Those thoughts and feelings dont help at all. Besides,  Conference was great!! I only relized during conference that my frustration on the inside was not what the Savior wants. I know this story sounds "dramatic2 and not too organized. but long story short there was a time were I felt like "freaking out" or "crying" and I know now they are one and the same. Conference was AWESOME because the Spirit made up for it, and I know now my freaking out on the inside was only doubting the power of the Spirit in testifying of the truth.

After all that, I do want you to know I NEVER freaked out openly. But to say it wasnt stressful for me on the inside would be a lie. I wanted to share that amazing and personal experiance with you because I know that the Gospel is true. A Investigator afterward said it was amazing and loved the music. All of the investigators loved it. I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!!

Until next time on:Dramatic personal insights of the Missionary Elder Waite!!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!! I love this work and lets all APPLY and LIVE conference. 

Lvoe

Vanhin Waite