YEAH!-Letter #6

Dear Family,

 

Tis good to be a Missionary. This week was really fun. at our TRC this week we talk to two elderly ladies who lived part of their lives in Finland. They spoke so quietly i felt like i was shouting at her. she was like "ykyfvmeeshshcooooshkaduuush" and than i was like "WHAT?!!" jk jk, i didn't do that. but it felt like it. yo:) Sunday was said because we said good bye to our "papa FInns". the group of Finn Elders and Sis before us. they left on monday mourning for the Big Blue!! Suomi!!! yo Tuo on tosi siisti!! so this week is not our "concecration week", where you only speak in your launguage, but i knda convinced everyone else to basically have every week be concecration week becouse i try and speak only FInnish. its hard. but its kinda coming. I can definately see the lords help with me learning it cause I have learned a lot since the first day. thats about it. i learned how to say 5 words first day, now its up to 8, im makin progress. :) jk

 

So I thought this was super funny and super sad. so the "papa Fins" had a general authority or two at the beginning of the 12 week stay, and up till now there hasnt been 1.  and the day after they left, Elder Neil L. Anderson came and spoke to us. it was Awesome!! it was our first Quorm of the twelve. We've had area 70's before but not a 12, and so it was pretty sweet. Elder Anderson started his talk by saying it was President Monsons birthday!! I didnt know that! so the rest of his talk was about Pres. Monson. it was cool. I also listened to a talk Elder Holland gave on sunday. we have movie nights here, we get our popcorn and blankets and snuggle with eachother as a companionship.... okay we do NOT do that but i love movie time. they are all really cool. Yes Mom, its a spiritual high here 24/7. YO! but he gave a podium burner as usual and my favorite thing of his talk was "your mission should change you like mine changed me. Do not return home the same as you left" it was cool. and Elder Anderson spoke about alot of cool things about Pres Monson and what he has said over the years. My favorite was "Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto God the rest." Elder Anderson gave a lot of really cool stuff and the meeting was very powerful.

 

The MTC is awesome, its way addicting. I haven't been to choir for the last 3 weeks(sorry mom). I've been really enjoying the hours of studying and I haven't really felt like leaveing studying. Idk. i love how hard the MTC is. call me a nut but its awesome. Its humbling to think i was saved for this day to serve the Lord in His "work and His glory." The scriptures are powerful. I love reading them. i challenge everyone who reads this to take time each day to read the Book of Mormon, because i will be here reading it with you. the same words, the same love, read it. you already know this but, now i know it to and if your not reading.... NOw you know :) :) yo. Thanks for reading and careing about this email. I love ya!! Tiedan, etta tama on totta Pyhat Hengen kautta, ja, mina rakastan kaiki ihmiset kuka lukea tama posti. terva. nahadan! 

 

Letter #5

Hey Family,

This week, like every week here so far, has been really good. I realized I haven’t told ya about how my weeks go so here we go. Thursdee's are probably the hardest days, I have service at 6:05 ant 19m. We usually clean bathrooms and stuff, but it’s all good, than we go to Breakfast. The food is very good. I am very happy I have food and I don’t have to make it OR clean it up. Then class from 8:50ish to 12:30. We see an occasional mouse run into the drain on the way to our building, haven’t named him yet.... but, then it’s lunch, than class from 2ish to 5:30ish, its not just class all the time, its language study or TALL time. (Technology Aided Language Learning) than dinner, than big surprise, more class. I think its safe to say I spend about 7-9 hours every day in the same 10x20ish room. But, like Rocket Man, I can entertain myself. But it’s been fun, I try to have fun at least and it is yo. :) 

But during class time on Thursday night is TRC! Its so much fun, because we try and teach volunteers from the OUTSIDE WORLD who come in. Way cool huh!! My first thought was... Who speaks Finnish? But it was sick because a very nice elderly lady came in and she said she grew up in FIN and moved here, we also taught a kid who spoke extremely well even though he didn’t serve a mission OR live there, he studied it at BYU, I was impressed. It’s someone different every week and it’s impressive. And fun cause its cool to try and talk. tee hee.

But Friday and Saturday are the same basically. Sunday its cereal in the morning, church meetings, and a SWEET devotional at night, Sunday is my favorite day. All day you study the BOM or conference talks that your family sends you ;) and you just grow in spirituality. It’s my favorite. My favorite part of the MTC is probably the movie night. It’s awesome to have a Devotional and than watch a Mormon movie like Testament of Christ or Legacy or Joe Smith Restoration. During these movies all the stuff you learn in the gospel is presented before your eyes. The pioneers’ sacrifices, what Joseph smith went through so basically, I like it all. Yo.

But Monday is pretty normal. Tuesday is fun because you have class in the morning and devotional at night. Tuesdee is probably my 2nd favorite day. :) :)

But Wed is p day and we go to the temple. Family, next time you go, touch the two pillars just in front of the doors on the right side if you are going IN to the temple. I touch them all the time because I know that people I care about walk by there and I love the thought of seeing ya go in :)

Okay, so about the language, it is SOO COOL. But... its hard. All sentences follow a subject than verb than object. Verbs conjugate to the subjects and objects conjugates to the verbs. The problem is, every verb causes a different kind of case to the object. Like "Loving" someone. You can’t love all of them so you can only love them partatively so you put the partative case on the object. There are no articles. So the, but and about are non-existent except, you put different endings on the word. Like gospel, "evankelliumi" you put "sta" at the end of the word to make it "about the Gospel". Evankelliumista. Yo.

Peace yall. I love ya

Steve: Yo hilariouse GIRL!!! I love ya!!! :) Thank you for writing!!!

Grandma: Happy BIRTHDAY g-ma!!!! I love ya! You shouldn’t give parker those bones. He don’t deserve them :)

Mom: I love you!!! And I miss you. Your very important to me:) :) :) always will be. :) 

Dad: you’re right on with the language. Thanks for writing and I think your learn Finnish better than I am. Keep it up. I love ya

Our First TRC- Letter #4

Sup my Homies down south!! I love ya guys from the top of my heart to half way down. ;) So I started to write down things to say in my emails throughout the week that I think would be good to know for you guys. :) My roommates are freakin fun to be with when we're all together. Two Elders are weird and insecure and immature and one of them insists he's cool, but when I told him marching band wasn’t cool he shut up. jk, I didn’t say that. then there are two Elders who are flippen sweet, and then me and my other companion are kinda in between. So there is us three, (Elders: Waite, McDonald, and Christiansen) than the other trio of Elders: Forsyth, Usevitch, and Burrly. Burrly and Usevicth are from Arizona and they’re the cool ones. The other is from Canada and will frequently let you know... yo. But its fun cuz we even each other out a lot. Usevitch reminds me of Uncle Brent. He's 6' 5" and freakin funny. 

My investigators' names are, Nilo and Andrew, and than Jiaqi. Andrew is my favorite, he’s English speaking. This week I had a meal that was all meat, and some veggie. Which leads me to say I will not disclose if I have lost or gained weight until I leave, so.... yo. :) 

We had our first TRC this week, I was WAY scared at first. But when we walked in it just all seemed to be chill. The first guy we talked to told us he got back from our mission 7 months ago and after that, we basically just had a cute conversation and he bore his testimony and... we didn’t teach much. We heard about it later from our teacher that we are suppose to teach but, when your passing the conversation ball like Mom told me to do you just cant stop the magic that happens. :) Especially if it’s not English. But we wont do it again. Yo. 

But before we got chewed out we had another "lesson" to teach. It was a little lady and she was way nice so it was fun. She totally reminded me of Jessica, petite, neat and pretty, especially with how fast she talked, scoosh boosh lamouush. It didn't sound like that but ya know what I mean. Except she was short. And turns out she went to our mission too. So it was fun. :) That’s about it. Thanks for listening and tune in next week for another edition of "What’s happening at the MTC nearest YOU." ha yo

Mom: I love you. How are you? You seem busy and how are your teeth? Thank you so much for the FHE lesson, you always got my back don’t ya, cuz I needed it. Thank You SOO much for the package, Cinnamon rolls that I ate, thanks for the suit and note. I love you and I am very glad you’re being taken care of. I teared up when I read your note, I miss you and love you.

Elder Waite

MTC Life- Letter #3

so... the mtc is great. and i've decided to write in all lower case to bug mom. i love you mom. well just another week in the big apple. the days are going faster now that my first sunday has gone, its majical that way. oh i forgot, on the way to LA i sat down on the plane and talked to this kid, he wanted to know more about the church so i told him. he seemed to know a ton already because he lives in salt lake. but he just had some freakin intense questions like, whats the church standing on abbortion and gays and other stuff and the little things to. but i though it was good. the main thing i was happy about, is that i got him to feel comfortable around me, a little too much cause he told me a lot. but it was freakin sick, and i just gave him a testimony. in english. that was new. :) the language is a killer. i feel myself dying everyday. jk. but i have about as much time as a nurse with a skirt on. its busy. in language class we can only speak finnish but i know the most important words. "cool", "thank you" "How are you?" and "tree". your probably wondering why i know that... its because its fun to say. the word for tree is puu, and you say it like poo, so its fun to say stuff like  puu hugger. tee hee. i love yall and i'm good. just stuff to do people to see and places to be. and thats whats happenen on this side of the valley, i love to hear whats happenin in your neck of the woods.

Friends: thanks for sending letters and packages. yo

Elder Waite