Letter #87

Dear Family

This last week was really AWESOME!!!! thank you for talking to me!!! I really enjoyed it!! oh man, last phone call and 45 days left!!! i counted this morning. :)

Well, last week we had an amazing spiritual week. I feel Every week has a spiritual highlight but this week I will tell you about this one because I relized I dont talk much about the spiritual things on this side of the Atlantic. :)

We had a lesson with this really prepared individual this week!! The lessons were awesome in the which this individual said when we talked about baptism that "my heart wants to but my head is not quite up with my heart...." and we talked about following those spiritual or "hearty" feelings. haha this person is really cool and loves the ward. It feels like a "family" said the individual.

Well, there were other sweet ones this week. like, a cool zone meeting and we met with a couple of sweet members. other than that. I am still breathing and loving life.

Have fun this week and be safe.

Rakkaudella 

Vanhin Waite

Letter #86

Dear Family

This week was good. I got into Rauma alright. We dont have any investigators at this point so we are starting up for ground 0. ahah. I love missionary work and life. 

We had a stake conference this week in Tampere. Its a bigger city in inland-Finland. there a member of the European presidency Elder Kierron came and spoke. It was really cool because he has a british accent and it was fun to hear him speak and then a fin translate on the stage next to him. But he said some really cool stuff. Like the Atonement can change us, let it change us. If we have grudges or hurt or anger we hold on to, drop it. If we have a habbit or two which hinder our spiritual development, stop it. He also spoke about local leaders and that when someone we know is called to be the ecclesiastical leader than we need to give them space and our love. pretty sweet stuff.

Well turns out Rauma is a small city again. haha I love small cities. but we actually have a ward here. Its pretty cool. I love it here!!

I love you all. be safe and have fun!

love

Vanhin Waite

Letter #85

Dear Family,

This week was good. worst part was moving. thats right. for my last change on my mission I had to leave my favorite place EVER!!! i love Lohja!! but its okay, Im glad I didnt get too atached and cried. but, I am now in a beach town called Rauma. I am way excited!! i dont got much time but I love you and have fun this week!!!

But I am super stoaked to be in Rauma. My 6th area and 9th companion. Elder Glascow. he is from Georgia. Love ya all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!!!!

Love 

Vanhin Waite

Letter #84

Dear Family

 

This last week went really good. We found a couple of cool people to teach. Our baptismal date got cold feet and didnt come to church and we keep meeting just great people!!! its really cool!!

 

So this week we attended a 7th day adventist church service and turns out it was their 80 anneversery in Lohja. the city in which I currently reside. It was really cool because there were other church representitives there and we had no idea it was a aneversery thing. And they had a say something like a greeting from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.It was cool to speak for a second time on the pulpit there in their church. Pretty cool. but I got a testimony there that the gospel we have is the complete and full and living gospel. Its almost as if its true or something:) I am glad to be a Mormon.

 

I loved General Conference last week!! my favorite thoughts were the this life is the time to perform!! make every moment count!! :) I want to do just that!!

 

This is a great city to be in I love it!! we have change calls coming and i hope I stay here!! i want to go home from here!! that´d be sweet!! I love you all and have fun this weeka nd be safe!!!

 

Rakkaudella

Vanhin Waite

Letter #83

Dear Family

So, this week was really good. And AWESOME because of General Conference. I loved the talks there. We also had some good success this last month and we have been really blessed.

So, I ´ll start with the boring!!  we had a average of 3 new investigators a week last month for 5 weeks. We had a average of 2 investigators in church last month. We had a average of 6 investigator member present lesson. We got 2 baptismal dates, one is pretty sketchy, the other pretty good. And this last week we found 3 new investigators, had 4 in church(well they watched conference) 2 wiht us!! :) So the work goes good but, still looking for the baptized ones!! :)

I learned in General Conference that if I do anything in life. DO it 100%. YOu only got 1 life. dont watch it go by. ALso I learned to desire the more important things in life. Like money, career, cars and money. JUST KIDDING!!! like family and serving others. I loved the idea in conference from Elder Ballard pray for the one daily. and Pray to NOTICE ways you can help and BE WILLING to help. and be HONEST in EVERYTHING!!! oh, and "blame keeps wounds open, and forgivness heals them." Pres Monson.

We watched conference with 2 of our investigators. Both were not expecting everything they saw. (Lack of explanation on our part) but BOTH of them LOVED it. It gave them a ton to think about. I was really grateful for Elder Eyerings talk on the Saturday morning how he started "to all you that have been invited by missionaries.." and our investigators were like "wahoo!! thats me!!"

So we talked to a bunch of baptists the other day and they LOVE bashing. So they say that we cant be saved by our works and everything they say we like, agree too kinda like Christ saves us yeah, but he like threw out an example like "..if i was helping a old woman with service, its not me helping her its God because I dont have that kind of love for her like he does." I said "those are two different things, your love and Gods, you dont have God like love yet, but how would God have shown His love for that woman if YOU didnt help her." he didnt say much but I thought it was such a dumb thing. "Faith WITHOUT works is dead." end of story. Even if Paul says "shout for salvation" or something like that. OH but than he pulls out our Book of mormon, opens up to 2nephi 26 or 25 or 27 and shows the verse about the lamanites skin changing blacker to not tempt the Lords people and justs has us read it and didnt say anythig. I just looked at him and said, "where you going with this??" yeah people are interesting.

Well, that about sums up the sweet week!!! THANK you grandma for the letters!!! your awesome!! Thank you mom for the card!! I love the cat. haha I hope you all have a good week!! and apply what we learned in General Conference!!!! love you!!

Vanhin Waite

Letter #82

Dear Family!!!

 

Last week was really crazy because the library computers which we write home to you didnt work. So we had to go and use some other ones but, because of time, couldnt write much. It has been busy busy busy lately and it is still as awesome as usual!!!

 

So we have been finding people like crazy and also doing service!!! I dont know exactly how we ended up in so many non member service projects but, they keep coming!!! no complaints!!! We play badmitton with htis older guy here and there, he is hilarious!!! but I cant believe how intense badmitton and frustrating it can be all at ounce.

 

one of our investigators told us that her parents dont want her to go to church or anything with the mormons. They are scared of us apparently. Thats okay though. I have to say with all the awesome service like, gardening and moving people and lifting things, we have spent more time outside of our missionary clothes than in them. pretty sweet.

 

Our baptismal date came to church!!! for the 2nd time, that means we are going somewhere. she is SO funny!!! i like her!!! she is still looking for an answer but, I think it will come!!! and we also found some really good people that are interested a ton!! 

 

I love you all and I think my mission has been the best!!! I love the spirituallity and the work that is involved. I love you and pray for you!!!

Love

Vanhin Waite 

Letter #81

Dear Family.

 

This week was probably one of the best weeks of my mission. So for the longest time we had been doing dilligent and good missionary work, and it was hard to see the results of our work. But it was this week when I realized, "hey, we are doing what we are suppose to do. Because we are getting to know 100s of people. So we play badmitton with one group of guys, we have a language school with another set of people, we play floorball with another set of guys and everything we do like, emailing you all right now I am surrounded by the same three different guys and we have cute little chats. This week we found 5 new investigators and all 5 came to church. That is a HUGE blessing because the members were just blown away with the investigators there and are getting fired up for missionary work. We have been really blessed here in Lohja and I am SO grateful for it!! I love missionary work and all the fun things that belong with it. Go team!! we also had a great lesson with one of our investigators which is a older lady, but we actually talked with her about family history work and missionary work on the other side of the veil. She commited to be baptized in April if she feels its true. That is all we ask. :) :) :) Thank you for your love and support. i LOVE YOU and miss you and things are going great!!! have fun and be safe!!

Love

Vanhin Waite

Letter #80

Dear Family

 

This week we were blessed again to have people come to church!!!!! 2 more investigators!!! but the awesome thing was is that they were 2 completely different from last week!!! I love it!!!

 

So missionary work is going great!! we find people here and there and everywhere. We also drop people here and there and everywhere but that is just the nature of the beast. I love Finland and the wheater. It is really warm for march and i like the warmth.

 

One of the things we do with some non member is play a sport called sähly with them. It is basically floor hockey but with a wiffle ball. It is SOO fun!!! the non members love it. I love it. we all love it!! these kind of activities are just Awesoem to get people to come to.

 

I love you family and I hope life is going well. Spiritual experiances are a lot on a misson and i love it!! have fun!!

 

lvoe

Vanhin Waite

Rakastan teitä!!

Letter #79

dear Family

This week was really good!! we found 2 new investigators and they both came to church!!! pretty succesful!!!!

So on Monday of last week met two people who immediately became investigators and the funny thing is that they both came to church. We invited them early and set up rides for them. To help them feel more comfortable in the individual car ride they were going in Elder Hunter and I went on a little exchange with the two guy members that drove. We explained to the guys in before hand that they would be our companions for the short amount of time. They both had great experiances in church, we had informed the Elders Quorem and Relief sociaty leaders of the investigators coming. The Lord blessed us for sure with succes in the "walking with them to church" as we followed council. We´ll we walked with them to the car, from then on it was a smooth ride. :]

yeah I love this ward. And i LOVE the city that I am in!!!!!  I love you and have fun be safe.

rakkaudella vanhin waite

Letter #78

Dear family

 

This week was okay. But Finland beat USA in HOCKEY!!!! YES!!!!! thats what I am talking about. So we lost/dropped three investigators this week and because it was a skiing vacation not very many people were home. But the weather out here is awesome for february. It feels like spring.

 

So we were tracting and a drunk guy answers the door in just his grey small briefs. He was  a older gentleman and he let us inside. Well lets just say it didnt go too long because ounce we got in the guy talked to my fairly new companion all drunderly and Elder Hunter didnt feel right about the situation and he said "Im out of here" in english and shut the door behind him really fast. So I was like "so we have to go right now, but we´ll come back and talk about your dead wife and life another time when your all clear." (because we did get to know a little bit about him) He didnt want us to come back he wanted us to talk right then. But I left and it was a great learning experiance and also way funny. 

 

I am grateful for my mission. It truley is the refiners fire. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon because we also went to a baptist church this week and they we´re all "GO BIBLE!!" and very interesting meeting. When we sat down in the meeting I heard a couple people behind us mention "mormons...". I am grateful for the restored Gospel and the chance to share it. I love this church. 

 

Have fun this weeka nd be safe!!! 

Love 

Vanhin Waite