Hope you all had a wonderful Kiitospäivä (Thanksgiving). We had a pretty normal, tiny meal, but I at least made mashed potatoes and gravy. And we had turkey sandwiches so it was almost all there. I felt pretty good about it until our Ward Mission Leader pulled out his phone on Sunday and showed me pictures about the 11 pound turkey they ate and kept ranting about how good their pumpkin pie was. Just can't win sometimes.
We had a really crazy week this week. We actually spent the entire week in Turku though, which was nice. We had a lot of cancellations this week, including two really promising new investigators who bailed a couple days after the first teach. I felt so bad for one of our members. He's retired, so we know he's free every day and we can always call him to come to teaches. We called and invited him to one teach on Tuesday, but that fell through so we called him back and cancelled. We knew we had a teach set up for Wednesday though, so when we called him to cancel the Tuesday one, we got him to come to the Wednesday one. Then the next day that one cancelled too! So we called him, cancelled, and got him to come to a teach on Thursday....which also cancelled. Somehow not frustrated beyond all belief, he agreed to come to a teach Friday, but that one cancelled too!!! The only problem was that...uh...we kinda forgot to call and tell this member the final time that that teach cancelled. So he actually did get to show up to a teach this week, the problem was neither the missionaries nor the investigator showed up....oops. He wasn't upset at all, thankfully, but he came up to us on Sunday and let us know, kindly, that he's serving in the temple this week, so we probably couldn't call him to come to teaches. I don't know that we'll have quite as many teaches this week, though. All our investigators just keep getting baptized, dang it! Our district had another baptism this week, up in Rauma, giving us three in as many weeks. So wonderful.
Speaking of which, we completed a baptism this week by confirming M a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was my great opportunity to perform that sacred ordinance. It felt great. I know she's prepared and ready to be a member the rest of her life. She loves the scriptures and this gospel. She received a triple combination from the ward as a baptismal gift a little over a week ago and she's already read the whole thing! I don't think I've ever even read the whole thing! She was like, "If you ask me what else I did, I'll say I didn't do anything, but it felt great to read" Not only that, she also just likes the church, the organization itself, and the people. We have a lot of wonderful saints here.
Dad, you asked about the ward here. It's actually a pretty decent size, but there are a lot of inactives. If everyone was active it would probably be a little bit bigger than our ward at home. For right now, we fill most of the chapel. There are a lot of families with kids, but our young men's program is lacking (gotta find some Aaronic Priesthood age investigators). The young women are excited because, even though M's daughters can't be baptized yet, they all plan on just being active members of the ward anyway until they can get baptized.
I gave a talk in church yesterday! It wasn't anything too inspiring, I just talked about the importance of always staying positive and choosing to be happy. I shared (or at least I'm pretty sure I shared) the idea that when we put our trust in the Savior and choose to be happy, then we have him in front, leading us along the path, as well as behind, supporting us. He is all around us when we will trust in him.
I love you family, have a great week.
Vanhin Hansen
We had a really crazy week this week. We actually spent the entire week in Turku though, which was nice. We had a lot of cancellations this week, including two really promising new investigators who bailed a couple days after the first teach. I felt so bad for one of our members. He's retired, so we know he's free every day and we can always call him to come to teaches. We called and invited him to one teach on Tuesday, but that fell through so we called him back and cancelled. We knew we had a teach set up for Wednesday though, so when we called him to cancel the Tuesday one, we got him to come to the Wednesday one. Then the next day that one cancelled too! So we called him, cancelled, and got him to come to a teach on Thursday....which also cancelled. Somehow not frustrated beyond all belief, he agreed to come to a teach Friday, but that one cancelled too!!! The only problem was that...uh...we kinda forgot to call and tell this member the final time that that teach cancelled. So he actually did get to show up to a teach this week, the problem was neither the missionaries nor the investigator showed up....oops. He wasn't upset at all, thankfully, but he came up to us on Sunday and let us know, kindly, that he's serving in the temple this week, so we probably couldn't call him to come to teaches. I don't know that we'll have quite as many teaches this week, though. All our investigators just keep getting baptized, dang it! Our district had another baptism this week, up in Rauma, giving us three in as many weeks. So wonderful.
Speaking of which, we completed a baptism this week by confirming M a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was my great opportunity to perform that sacred ordinance. It felt great. I know she's prepared and ready to be a member the rest of her life. She loves the scriptures and this gospel. She received a triple combination from the ward as a baptismal gift a little over a week ago and she's already read the whole thing! I don't think I've ever even read the whole thing! She was like, "If you ask me what else I did, I'll say I didn't do anything, but it felt great to read" Not only that, she also just likes the church, the organization itself, and the people. We have a lot of wonderful saints here.
Dad, you asked about the ward here. It's actually a pretty decent size, but there are a lot of inactives. If everyone was active it would probably be a little bit bigger than our ward at home. For right now, we fill most of the chapel. There are a lot of families with kids, but our young men's program is lacking (gotta find some Aaronic Priesthood age investigators). The young women are excited because, even though M's daughters can't be baptized yet, they all plan on just being active members of the ward anyway until they can get baptized.
I gave a talk in church yesterday! It wasn't anything too inspiring, I just talked about the importance of always staying positive and choosing to be happy. I shared (or at least I'm pretty sure I shared) the idea that when we put our trust in the Savior and choose to be happy, then we have him in front, leading us along the path, as well as behind, supporting us. He is all around us when we will trust in him.
I love you family, have a great week.
Vanhin Hansen
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