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

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.

Letter #28

Dear Family

Wow what a crazy week. It was probably the best and worst all at ounce!! It was great! But wow, from missing another train, to people walking up to us spilling their life story, this week was a doozer. :)

So it all starts on Monday night, we went out to meet some people and this guy stops us on our bikes. (Which is unusual because most Fins dont answer back to a hello, let a lone talking to you) And he said he
wanted to talk to us and use his English and spill what was going on in his life. It was pretty cool that he wanted to talk, but it was a lot of detail and he didnt want us to say anything. When we tried to talk to him he didnt want to listen and he told us to just listen to him.

Tuesday, we had a lesson at night with an investigator who has a baptismal date and we also had a train to Tampere later that evening. When the lesson was over, we had 11 minutes to get to the train. Now, let me tell you, heres the situation all righ, the investigator lives
3 killometers away from the train station. Its mostly a down hill ride, and we had our extra bag of clothes and stuff to spend the night at Tampere. We had 11 minutes in the snow, on a bike... WOW we booked it. We got to the train station at the SAME time the train got there,
but we had to lock our bikes, go down the stairs, ru underneath track one and run up the stairs to track two, I was skipping three steps
going up, (and as intense action music was playing, and time slowed down.. with beads of water falling gracefully down our faces as we ran up the stairs..... jk) oh, it was snowing a bit too, but I get up the stairs first and I am 5 strides away from touching the train and it starts to go....... Its all good though. another train came in 20
minutes so it was no biggy, but wasnt that a sweet story. It happened that dramaticly too. :)  a few Finns made some "oh so close" comments. it was good. :)

On another day, we tried a former investigator and this was good. It said on his record that he lived in a "sketchy place". This, is an understatement. It was TOTALLY sketch. But this was probably the coolest part of the week. So we said a prayer before we went inside and knocked on his door. His door looked scary and when he answered he said we could come in. We go in, and there was alot of tabacco and alcohol and other things and there were very inappropriate pictures on the wall. We asked him some questions and he said he wants to change his life. And I can NOT explain the love I felt for this man who in his mind has hit rock bottom. The love was not mine, I know it was the love God has for each of his children. that was more powerful to me than the evil in the room. And this man felt it, we showed a picture
of Joseph Smith seeing God and Christ and telling him about it and he said "wow, I can feel the Holy spirit from that." so we asked if we could replace the bad pictures with good ones and we did. We also set up a baptismal date with him. He wants to change his life and health
and I think he can do it. We went to his house an hour and a half before church to walk him to church on Sunday. He came and he liked it.

There was alot of other cool things that happened this week but due to the amount of time I have already spent, this letter/email will have to come to a close. My testimony of this gospel and living according to its principles and teachings has grown SO much. I love my Savior soo much and I love serving a mission. I love you all and I am so grateful to be alive in this church!!

Rakaudella
Vanhin Waite


Sis. Meghan White- ITS OFFICAL!! PITSBURG!!!!! AAHHH!!! Oh ya!!! are
you speaking Pennish? haha, that is SOO COOL!! but you cant start
being a STEELERS fan!!! Oh, they are the dreaded rivals of the Colts.
Thank you for the Package!!! Wow, your awesome! I love the candies and
letter. I am trying the everyday thing you sent, and it is Awesome!
tell your mom thanks! Thank you. Wow that is so cool.

Skyler Gull- CALIFORNIA!! NO WAY!! Rock on!! I dont know where
Roseville is but, where the sand begins, the mission ends. That is SO
cool. I love ya man. :) :)

Letter #27

HEY Yall!! :)

What a GREAT work this is. Ups downs and ALL AROUNDS!! Its Awesome!
This was a VERY good week. I cant believe it is already 20 days into
the NEW Year!! where does the time go!

So we got a new investigator this week. He had a REALLY hard time with
the idea of a great Apostacy. And he didnt really let us explain much
about it but he agreed to a following lesson. He said he would try to
watch a movie we gave him, the Restoration movie. The second lesson
came. And we had plans to explain Prophets and Christ´s ministry, but
he didnt get a chance to watch the movie. We watched the movie, and
wow, the Spirit was SO strong. At least I can feel it. Everytime we
watch it with investigators the more and more I feel its importance.
Especially the scene where he begins to walk to the sacred grove. I
can feel the power in the room when that movie is playing. And I know
its true. I sat there in a Spiritual high just wondering "How on EARTH
can you not feel this?" But at the end of the lesson, this
investigators confusion and disagreements seemed to be solved. And
what was amazing is he said, "I guess I have to read.." It is a
testimony to me that Joseph Smith really did see the Father and Christ
when I read the BOM and also watch that movie. I like movies.

I love you Family!! I love this work. It is REALLY cool. I love
studying and learning. its great! I hope everything is going good. and
no, it hasnt got too cold here, so far the lowest was -25 C.  But,
other than that, you all are colder than me. :) :) for now...

I love you all and I love this gospel.
Love

Elder Waite


Fresh Market- Thank you!! I love them!! How did you know I love
Cheetos? You are GREAT!! I love ya Karen. Thanks!!

Bro Watson: I loved the Talk. I wasnt there but you know. I heard
about it and I totally agree about being tough and gentle. all that
jazz. I loved It!! Love ya! Oh, funny fact, I got a letter from Jake
that he wrote four months ago. I though that was WAY Cool!! Have a
sweet week!! Hows work?

Letter #26

DEEEEEEEEEEAR FAMILY,

Contrary to what usually happens every week, this is not Elder Greg

Waite speaking. IT'S HIS COMPANION!!!!! (Elder Caleb C. Anderton)

HOW ARE YA?  I can't believe that Elder Waite went along with this

crazy idea!  I did have to do a little convincing, but I figured we

write our families every week for a whole 2 years, we may as well mix

it up a little! (I'm also assuming that this is allowed, legal, and

does not break any of the 10 or any other commandments and that

neither your son, nor myself will be subject to church disciplinary

action..... If anything does go wrong you can all blame me. It was my

idea!) ;)

Naw, I'm just kidding. :) Man this is fun! I've never done this

before! First of all can I just say that Elder Waite is AWESOME! He is

an amazing missionary! He's an extremely hard worker, probably the

most diligent language studier that I've met in my whole life, he is

full of love for everyone around him,  and we have SO much fun

together! He's now officially the companion I have been with the

longest (thus far anyway), and we both have come a long way since both

arriving in Hämeenlinna! I really didn't train him in our first 12

weeks together. He trained me, and it is still going on every day.

He's taught me so much about myself, about being a missionary and

about this Gospel.  We've formed a friendship that I plan to keep long

after our missions are over. (We've already got plans to watch a

couple movies together or go out on a double date or something like

that sometime in the future). We're stoked!

 I hope to someday meet all of you! Gosh he loves you guys!

(Especially you, Mom). ;)  He loves you so much. You all are such

great examples to him. By the way, He opened that book this week where

you all read different parts of the Christmas story and MAN IT WAS

AWESOME! That is one of the coolest Christmas presents I've ever seen!

He loved it so much! ( I'm sure you'll hear more about it from him

later). Thank you for being the awesome family you are!

Quick funny story!  So He's probably told you about how we make a

different pizza every week. Super fun tradition! The second week we

started putting cheese in the crust, then the next week we tried meat

AND cheese and found out that THAT was even better!!! So that's the

kind of pizza crust we've made pretty much every week since. Well

since Elder Waite got 4 bags of Cheetos for Christmas, and we wanted

to mix it up, we had all these wonderful visions of CHEETOS in the

crust of a pizza! We were picturing biting into some soft pizza crust

and then hitting the crunch of the cheesy delicious Cheetos and

thought it would be awesome. So we tried it! ....... I do not

recommend it to ANYONE who is in the mood for a good pizza.  The

Cheetos absorb almost all the moisture from the crust and get soggy,

then somewhere in the baking process they dry out, so the finished

product is somewhat the consistency of packing peanuts with a lot of

salt......... But man it was worth a try!  We're pretty sure we are

the only ones that have ever tried that! (Or maybe just the only ones

brave enough to admit that we tried it...) ;) Anyhow, awesome

experience. Still pretty good pizza.

There are so many MORE fun stories I could tell you about our

adventures that we've had, but I don't have to much time. I do want to

tell you of a few miracles we experienced this week:

We were blessed with TWO Baptismal dates this week!!! One is the a man

who was introduced to us by a member of the primary presidency of our

branch! We have taught him only a few times, and he still has many

questions, but he said that he has felt thus far that this church is

true and that he feels the spirit in sacrament meeting. Elder Waite

and I were both so stoked! We're excited to see him progress toward

baptism within the next few weeks! The second is the man from Brazil

who is studying here. He's been here for a couple of years and speaks

Finnish quite well, and he too agreed to a baptismal date! There is

nothing more joyful than watching God's children come to know Him

better. I'm so grateful to be able to share this time with Elder

Waite.

I love you! Once again thank you for all that you do and for sending

me this wonderful companion. He really is awesome. Remember to brush

your teeth and tip your waitresses, and always remember to pray. :)

Posotutely sincerely yours,

Vanhin Caleb C. Anderton. :)

(the following is from Greg:)

  

Meghan: Thank you sooo much for your packages. I got both of them and

I LOVE them. Thank you. And tell your mom and Mike thanks for writing

and sending that "White Family update" I LOVED IT!! Thank you!!!

Letter #25

Dear Family

This week for District meeting we went on a tour of the Hämeenlinna
Castle!! It was SOO cool. I loved the old foundations and they had
rebuilt some rooms to how they would´ve looked like. It was way cool.
We also found a really acustic room, and you know me, I started
singing. Then we all were just like, "lets sing!" and so we sang about
5 hyms in the castle. Nobody stopped us, but nobody clapped
either..... but it was waayyy cool. I felt like I was in the medevil
times. yo :)

It is pretty amusing, all our investigators except a few have left
Hämeenlinna for Christmas and New Years. But I know the Lords work
still continues. This week we have been teaching a family in our ward
Finnish, and they dont know english. So we teach Finnish to them, in
Finnish. Talk about hard. (haha) But they are soo sweet. They know
alot of words and I think they do understand quite a lot. We helped
them write their testimonies in Finnish because they wanted to share
them in Church. Isnt that awesome?:) I am very greatful for the time I
had in the MTC, they prepare you soo well languagly. I am very
greatful for the power of prayer. Because I know prayer has helped me
draw closer to my Savior, and with Him people can understand me. I am
very grateful for the gift of tongues. A mission is an AMAZING
experiance.

Happy New year everybody! I love you and I pray for you.

Love
Elder Waite

Letter #24- Happy New Year

Dear Family ja kaikki muille, (and to all others)

It was AWESOME to speak to you!!! I loved it! wow its amazing how much one forgets what his family looks like...... JK!!! ha ha!! you all are beautiful!! It was really really good and cool to hear and see you!! I loved it!! I will make some questions and a list of things to talk about next time! sorry i didn't tell much, i wanted to hear from YOU ALL!!! :) I love you!!

So, Christmas was really fun!!! I loved it!! On boxing day we went up to Tampere for a dinner with our Branch President. Him and his family are AWESOME!!! Casseroles (laatikoita) are really Finnish, especially at holidays and eating reindeer, (poro) but what I thought was funny is that all the dinner appointment we have had, they all said "Your probably sick of the Finnish food, because we are..." :) so we never really had a Finnish meal but all of the food is Great!! I loved it. Oh, so at the Branch Presidents house, he said its tradition for him and his family, on the day after Christmas(Boxing Day) to make pizza`s because they are tired of eating laatikoita. It was SOO much fun. Also, it is very common to put tuna on the pizza`s, its pretty good. After dinner we played a game that I thought was WAY fun!! Its called "Munchkins", and its kinda hard to explain, but it was way fun.

Lately I have been amazed at how well the MTC helps you learn a language. Because we have been helping people learn the language, and I can see why it is soo hard. Its tough to teach!! Because your just like "okay, this is how it is, blah blah blah" and then they ask, "Wow, why? What?" and then you cant say much else other than "I don´t know, it just is." :) Jk, they are not that bad, but it is pretty fun to teach it. I think I learn more by explaining. Kinda cool...

So the miracle this week, happened on an amazingly warm Sunday morning. We had met with this non-active member in the ward earlier this week and we had tried so hard to get him to come to church. He agreed to come to church after our lesson with him and we tried setting up a ride for him but nobody seemed to be able to take him. We finally got a ride set up for him and we were so excited because it was Saturday night and all seemed to go well, and so we called to confirm it with him. In the phone call Saturday night and after we had told we have a ride for him he said "Mä jään pois kirkosta." (I stay away from church) In our hearts we were like "Noo, we got you a ride for you and you said you would come!!!" But we questioned sincerely and lovingly encouraged to come to church, but after the phone call we felt pretty sad. But we didn't call off the ride for him yet. The whole time this was happening we have been praying in our hearts because we knew the Lord would help us and we prayed this member could come to church.  The next morning, Sunday morning, the morning of truth, we called him and we just said that the ride was still comeing and if he would come, and he didn't seem to have any problems with it!!! And he came!!! in a tie, vest and  white shirt!!! We got soo excited and happy when we saw him walking up the steps to church!!! What a miracle!! While in church a lot of members welcomed him and loved him, it was an amazing experience. He said to a lot of members when he saw them "it was these boys and their singing..." 

I love you all and I miss you. But this is a pretty sweet work!!

Love, Rakaudella

Vanhin Waite