BIG changes

[Ed. note: McKay's Grandpa Chuck passed away late Saturday. We sent a note to the mission president, who called McKay with the sad news. In his response to our email, he gave us an update on McKay, including the transfer news. Below is McKay's email for this week]

Hey everybody!

This week practically the entire mission will be on trains moving to new areas. We had a lot of leadership go home this change, so we needed a lot of people to replace them. Really exciting! I guess President already spilled that I will be going senior. The missionary coming to replace Elder L is Elder D, one of the missionaries who was one transfer behind me in the MTC. So, we're both still pretty new, but so far President has been doing that a lot - putting missionaries who have been in the country for about the same amount of time together instead of splitting them up so much. I'm excited. And slightly terrified. Good to know I have so much support from all sides.

Elder L and I had a really fun week together this week. We were both very sure he would be leaving after this week, so we tried everything we could to make it the best week we'd ever had. I'm not sure if it really was, but it was fun and we saw some miracles.

We finally got to get back out to Munsala and visit A and T. It was way nice to see them again before Elder L left. We actually got to spend a lot of time with their neighbor and friend, and her husband who is not a member. He (the husband) has usually just stayed out of the conversation when we talked about the gospel, but this time Elder L and I got to have a really, really good discussion about prayer and what his views on religion are. He's never really seen it as a happy thing, he said. It was mostly a punishment and "fear God" mentality when he was growing up, so he saw no value in it for him. Elder L testified perfectly, and quoted 2 Nephi 2:25 - "Men are that they might have joy." That is the voice we raise as members of this church. This life is one of joy. We invited them to come and play floorball with us Friday night and they got really excited. The whole family came! The parents and their two small kids. Their son (around 10) was the most excited out of all of them. When they got there, they told us he had been waiting all day for this. Unfortunately, most of the crowd that usually comes was sick or out of town, so it was just the six of us, but in a way that helped it be a little less-intimidating for the husband, I think. We had a blast and their son scored the winning goal as time expired! He was so pumped. There is no greater joy in this life than seeing pure happiness in the face of another and knowing that you somehow helped put it there.

Friday night we got the call that Elder L would be leaving. Not a surprise. Then he handed the phone to me and I got the news about going senior companion. I knew it was an option, but I was still a bit surprised. I'm very excited for that. It's going to be great.

Saturday we met with a member family with whom we have been praying in behalf of their friends. The mom of this family has given a Book of Mormon to her friend, but didn't really know where to go after that in terms of inviting her friend to learn. She told us she had prayed for a long time about how she could help get the missionaries into this woman's home, but she just didn't see how it could work. Well, Elder L had a different idea, and I believe it was absolutely inspired. He asked if they would be up for inviting this friend over for FHE at their home, and inviting us to share a message as part of it. I love the idea. We're not sure how long it will take to get it organized, but this whole member family is really excited about the idea too!

Sunday night we met with B, and we've planned to teach him all the lessons before he goes to China in June, and then teach them all to him again after he gets back, so he can be ready to be baptized. He's absolutely hilarious, I love meeting with him.

I got a call from President late Sunday night, informing me that Grandpa Chuck had passed away. That news was hard to hear. To have lost now both Grandpas in less than a year, and both while as a missionary, makes my heart feel pretty heavy. The blow is softened, however, by the beautiful plan of our great Creator. Through the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement, all will live again. Grandpa Chuck is now in the loving care of our Father in Heaven, where we know he will receive a great reward for his faithfulness here. But perhaps what he left behind will be even greater still. He left a behind a life of caring. An example of concern and love. He blessed the lives of children and grandchildren, who will in their turn, go on to bless others' lives for eternity. He gave freely to us all, and desired only our love in return. That love I gladly give forever.

I love you all, it's only a little over a month till Mother's Day! Say hi to the ward from me.

Love,

Elder Hansen

Happy Påsk, Glad Pääsiäistä, and Hyvää Easter!

Unscramble that one. HA!

 

Happy Easter family!

 

We're having a wonderful Easter weekend out here. In Finland, Easter extends to Monday which is probably awesome for everyone here, but for the missionaries it's the worst because it's a "Red Day," which means no tracting, no contacting. The only work we can do is teach if we're invited and work in our apartment.

 

Thank you all for the wonderful package. I love the jacket, and the candy is something I didn't really know I missed until I finally had some. Unfortunately, Elder Linden never eats candy, so all of it goes straight to me. Yeah...I'm at like 86 kilos right now...oops. TIme to start running again in the morning. With all the travel, we haven't been good about our morning exercise, and I definitely felt it this morning when we went out to run. Plus, it was super cold again! We just can't break out of this limbo Finland is apparently trapped in between Winter and Spring. It will feel so nice for a few days, then dump a few inches of snow in a couple nights and send us clear back to the middle of January.

 

Oh random note. The whole idea of an Easter egg hunt is completely foreign here. I tried explaining it at dinner last night and the members didn't really get it (probably because I did it in Swedish). However, they go trick-or-treating on Easter here (they don't do it on Halloween)! They all dress up as witches or bunnies or chickens and go out on Saturday. Super funny.

 

I had the wonderful opportunity to go down to Helsinki this week for my six-month language school. Can you believe I've been in Finland for over six months?! Great chance to catch up with my MTC district. They are all such wonderful missionaries and we have so much fun together. I actually think we may have frustrated our language coordinator a little bit, because we spent about twenty minutes laughing about funny memories from the MTC before we could get an opening prayer said. Everyone from my district is doing wonderful. Elder Hoggard is still in Turku, so I got to hear some wonderful news and stories about E and her girls. I miss them so much. It made me feel so good to know they're all still doing so well.

 

The other great part of Helsinki is that we got to stay with the Assisstants and go play sählyä (floor ball) in the morning. It's really fun, but the way the missionaries play, it might as well be lacrosse. Once, when Elder Linden had a wide open net in front of him, I tried to slide head first and knock the ball away with my stick. It was almost cool. Not only did I NOT make the save, but Elder Linden also ended up falling on top of me and my elbow still hurts a little bit. So much fun.

 

On the train back from Helsinki a man from Seinäjoki came up and took the seat across the aisle from me. When he saw we were missionaries he got really excited. He has met missionaries before, and actually investigated for a while, and now was curious to hear what our church believes about Easter. I felt a wonderful spirit as I took the chance to share my testimony of the Savior. That He lived, that He died, and that He rose again the third day are truths I cherish. I know that because He lives, we will all live again. He really liked that. He's visited a lot of churches, but none of them really had what he was looking for. He wants a church that deals with the issues we see around us today, not just what happens after this life. Gosh, could I have begged for a greater miracle?! But, before I had the chance to teach him about living prophets, modern scripture, personal revelation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ or any one of the other thousands of things the church teaches about how to deal with the issues of today, a drunk man came and sat down near us. As soon as he heard us talking about Easter and the Savior, he turns his head to the ceiling and just starts shouting the Master's name and saying that he knows he's going to heaven, and then tries to take this poor man I had been talking to by the hand a few times. That effectively ended our conversation. Our stop was coming up and this nice man decided he really didn't want to deal with a man who was so drunk and escaped to the restaraunt car. Oh well, he got spiritually fed and Elder Linden and I have a funny story to tell about a drunk man. Unfortunately there's still a part of me with some slightly unfriendly feelings for the drunk man and his timing.

 

Saturday was also a Red Day, so we went to help our Branch Mission Leader with some service in his yard. First he had us feed the hens. I picked one up! Way fun. Then, he had decided to take out a few big trees, so while he manned the chainsaw, we hauled everything away. It was a blast. The very last tree was so close to being a disaster. It was so big that we were worried the wind would blow it over onto the chicken coop as soon as we made the cut, but we decided that if we pushed hard enough, we could get it to fall the direction we wanted to. Try as we might, however, the wind was just too strong. Luckily the tree missed the actual hen house and ended up just smashing some of the fencing around their pen. Still bad, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Definitely one of those slow-motion moments while I watched the tree fall.

 

One last thing before I go. The Finns have this traditional dessert for Easter they call Mämmi. Go google it and find a picture. I can't say I hate it, but unless you pour tons of cream over it, it's horrible. But, on the other hand, I tried moose tongue for the first time this weekend and loved it! So go figure.

[Click here to learn more about Mämmi]

I love you all so much. Take care of each other for me. Always take time to remember just how good life is.

 

Rakkaudella,

 

Elder McKay

Vaasa!!

Coming to you all from beautiful Vaasa, Finland. Yeah, we had a surprise emergency transfer because a missionary got sent home, so now I'm district leader in Vaasa. A little freaked out, but I think I can handle it.

No....just kidding. There's my April Fool's day joke though.

Hello again everyone,

Heavenly Father: haha you missionaries in Finland thought Winter was over...April Fool's!!! (Pushes Snow button)

Heavenly Father has a wonderful sense of humor. He got into April Fool's almost as much as Elder Linden did by dumping Finland with a pile of snow again this weekend. Not fun. I have no idea how it hit in Pietarsaari though, so I'm a little worried to get back. The one true part of my joke was that we're in Vaasa right now. We left P-Town on Wednesday so Elder Linden could go down to Helsinki for a meeting and then we stayed through the weekend for conference because there's no way to watch it in Pietarsaari except on a personal computer...which we can't have. SO, basically we've been in Vaasa the majority of this week with more travel planned for the next two weeks and little Pietarsaari is feeling a bit neglected right now. Gonna have to work really hard in the days we're actually there.

Not really much time to talk about the week. I have to write my report to President and we have to share time with Vaasa right now so here's some of the major highlights:

• Got stranded in a tiny town called Oravainen on Wednesday while trying to get through a crisis. (note: when someone else gives you information about bus schedules, always, always double check their work before you get on the bus)
• Taught a whole room full of Chinese girls who spent most of the time arguing with us. In this corner, weighing in at three american missionaries: Faith!!! And in this corner, weighing in at seven Chinese girls, The Communist Party!!!! My splits companion is a hard core republican conservative too (like seriously, he might be more into it than Mom) so it was pretty funny to watch his reaction when they talked about communism.
• General Conference. So much about less-actives. Definitely going to direct our missionary work in the weeks and months ahead. Elder Holland was my favorite again, Elder Bednar was a close second. Elder Scott picked a very interesting topic: Dreams? anyway, loved it all, but we didn't get to see the Sunday Afternoon session, so we'll have to wait to read it in the Liahona.
• This morning I got to spend all of Personal and Companionship study fixing Vaasa's shower that broke right when I tried to start it. Felt pretty proud of my handyman skills though, after I finally figured out what the problem was.

Sorry for the short email. thanks for all your love and support.

Love,

Elder Hansen

Throwback to January

I woke up one day this week to see it snowing everywhere. All the beautiful thoughts of spring coming soon got trampled by Finland's giant boot heel. SPLAT! Actually, it wasn't all that bad because when we went out to run everything was perfectly still. The most peaceful silence I think I've ever heard. I actually had to stop for a second mid-stride just to listen to it. So cool.

Terve!

So great to hear from you all this morning!

Monday:
Went to a second-hand store just to look around and see if we could find anything random and fun. I didn't find anything except for a couple of cool old-school motorcycle helmets I tried on. They were way too small, so I'm pretty sure I about lost an ear trying to get my head out of one of them. Later we had dinner with a German member in the ward. He showed us all these pictures of motorcycles he's built while we were waiting for food. He's a super cool guy.

Tuesday:
We taught our new investigator, J, a woman from Vietnam. She's pretty cool, but the language barrier is pretty large unless we have our Vietnamese member there as a translator. They're way stoked to get to know each other. The Vietnamese member loves making us food, so we basically just have to buy milk for this week and we can live off all the food she loaded us up with. We're planning on buying a ton of Kinder eggs with the leftover food money.

Wednesday:
I had a monumental event in my mission. Member Splits. What? Yeah, there's a part in the missionary handbook that says it's okay to take a Melchizedek Priesthood holder with each of the companions and split up if you have more appointments than you can handle at a time. Every time I've read that, I've laughed a little bit. But Heavenly Father saw fit to open my eyes a little bit. We actually pulled it off. We taught one investigator, a less-active family, an active member, and had a meeting with our branch president all in about two hours. It was awesome. I went on the teach with M, our part-member family investigator, and it was one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. He has just recently come to recognize what the Spirit feels like and it's a very exciting feeling for him. He's said he's been trying an experiment at work: he now prays before he starts each morning for guidance and direction from the Spirit. He's felt so much more alert and says he's been able to notice and discern so much more easily while he works. When trying to describe what the Spirit felt like, he kinda got lost for words. Our branch president, who was my companion for the night, helped him out by just patting his hand over his heart. That became our sign the rest of the night. When the Spirit became so strong that none of us really knew what to say, we would just all start touching our hand to our chest. Probably sounds really weird, but it was so cool to be there. We're sure he'll have a baptismal date soon.

Thursday:
Splits in Kokkola. Really fun. I got to speak some Swedish too, which I didn't expect. One woman we tried to talk to on the street just waved us off saying she didn't understand any Finnish because her native tongue was Swedish, so I just said, "Well, I speak Swedish." She got really excited and let me explain the Book of Mormon a bit and she took a pass along card. She was s super sweet old lady, I hope she actually comes to church one day.

Friday:
Had a dinner appointment with a family who decided to celebrate Elder L's birthday early. They used to live in Bolivia, so all of them speak Spanish, English, Finnish and Swedish, and they sang him Happy Birthday in all four languages. Really cool. I definitely want to learn more languages during/after my mission. Played floor ball as a ward activity again, and made the mistake of stepping in front of one of Elder L's shots. Yeah, took it right in the face. Not fun.

Saturday
Elder L's birthday. We did missionary work. Lots of walking on muddy streets. Got lost a few times.

Sunday:
The pianist showed up late, so we got to sing the opening and sacrament hymns a cappella. The joys of a small branch. Actually a pretty neat experience for me.

Testimony meeting. I got to translate! It was really hard. Our Vietnamese member and her Chinese boyfriend always come, so I got translate from Finnish to English for them. Elder L translated most of the Swedish, except for when he spoke, then it was my turn to translate his Swedish! I didn't do too bad though. I'm basically a pro now. A got up and bore her testimony. So sad. T doesn't come anymore, and usually it's just too much work in the morning to get her two small children ready, so she comes alone. She stood up and said that even though life has been hard, she's so glad she's found the truth she's been looking for all her life. I admire this woman's faith so much. I stand in awe of the true converting power of the gospel.

So, had a bit of a panic attack this week. I realized that last Tuesday marked six months since the day I entered the country. Six months ago, I was walking down a long, deserted street with Elder Christiansen. We stopped and talked to a woman and her daughter. We gave them a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment. Over the next two months, we watched her grow in the gospel, come to know of its truthfulness, quit smoking and coffee, and finally be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was E. Such a special day to remember.

I love you all so much. Have an awesome week.

McKay

Bounce back week

Hei!
We bounced back this week and things have been a lot better. All of our crises are still brewing, but so many great things are happening, or about to happen. I can't actually say what they are, because I can't even really see them yet, but they are there. I can feel it.

The Bulgarians have kind of dropped off. So, we'll see about that.

The cool story from this week, though, is that we had our semi-annual district meeting with the mission president. They're always super intense and really long (11-6 plus interview time) but it's all the new, important training and information about the mission that we really need in order to move the work forward, so we love it. We talked a lot about really earning the trust of the members so we can have their help in this work. There are a lot of eternal principles there. If someone really works hard and demonstrates commitment to something, others will believe that he or she is capable of performing that task (in our case, miracles). President really opened my eyes to little things we can do better. It's funny. They were all obvious things that no one seemed to have thought of. Definitely a humbling experience and very important to remember that sometimes you just need a second pair of eyes to see things from a different perspective.

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. Elder L developed some kind of stomach sickness over the weekend, so the missionary medical doctor in Germany put him on a straight banana, rice and potato diet (literally nothing else) for 24 hours and ordered him to stay in bed. I felt really bad for him. But he's up and running again now, and I used the time to study Swedish for about four hours, which was awesome.

Sorry for another fluff email. The blog is probably hurting for some good stories by now...I promise to start remembering the funnier stuff that happens during the week.

Jag älskar er så mycket.

Äldste Hansen

Thanks for all your inspiring emails

March has been declared the month of gratitude in this mission, and I want to continue that by thanking you all for your wonderful emails (and to any of you who read the blog for your wonderful letters). They have a wonderful way of lifting me up. I love you all.

Hei taas!

This week was a pretty long one. I'm going to be very honest and say that it was one of those weeks where I had to simply put my nose to the grindstone and keep pressing forward. But I think it's in those situations we learn the most about ourselves. I learned so much about faith and patience this week. I've always wondered what role faith truly plays in times of trial. I've been thinking a lot recently about how I can change, how I can be better. And the things we've had to go through this week really have transformed me. Seriously, we've been biking so much I think my thighs have turned into the Hulk's. They're going to bust through my AMERICAN pants soon. haha

Here's the rundown:

Monday:
Met and taught a man whose wife is a member. He's been taught by missionaries many times before, but this time, it sounds like it might be different. He compared himself to a ship and talked about how hard the man at the helm has to turn the wheel to get the ship to turn. He said "I think I'm just a really, really big ship." So, we'll see what happens. We told him that baptism is NOT our goal for him. What? weird right? Well, yeah. The TEMPLE is our goal for him, not baptism. Baptism is just a step. That really seemed to make him think.

Tuesday:
We had a bit of a crisis. Our teach with A and T didn't really go as planned, we ended up just showing A "The Testaments." I love that movie. Dad, do you remember when we watched it on Temple Square and then ran bawling all the way to the Conference Center so we weren't late for general conference? gosh we're so weird.

Wednesday:
Had a bit of a scattered day, really hard to find people to teach. Called everyone we could think of, but it just ended up being one of those days.

Thursday:
Zone leaders came down from Oulu for splits. Had a great time and did some great work. I love working with older missionaries because I learn so much every time. This time the missionary I was working with told me, "Do what works for you. Just because other missionaries do something and it works, you shouldn't feel obligated to switch to their method." I thought that was pretty good advice, and there's probably an eternal principle in there, but I want you all to find it for yourselves, because it's supposed to be your way!

Friday:
Packed day. Got to visit a less-active, which Elder L tells me never happens here because they just don't want to be contacted, and our message went really well. Then it was a long bike ride to Larsmo for a dinner appointment. Great time there. Some members from Turku were visiting, a young family I was actually pretty close with, so it was great to see them. They were shocked when they heard me speak Swedish. yes, I felt slightly vain in that moment.

Then biked back to Pietarsaari for sählyä (floor ball) with some members, less actives, and their friends. It was a great activity, and we had a ton of fun, but we're not sure how effective it will actually be as a missionary opportunity, so we might only go one more time.

Saturday/Sunday:
See Wednesday.

In other news, one of the Bulgarian couples had a new baby this week, a boy. It meant we couldn't really meet them at all, but hey, we support families here. Hopefully we can meet the new one this week.

That's all I can think of for now. Love you all.

Elder Hansen

I can see grass!

That's right, I saw grass this week for the first time in months. Elder L and I stood there and just stared at it for a few minutes. It was that beautiful. I also just learned that the driveway to our apartment building is dirt not asphalt. Who knew?!

Hey everybody,

Yep, the weather was probably the highlight of this week. Reached above nolla [zero] for the first time since I came to Jakobstad. Elder L didn't believe me when I looked at the thermometer and told him what the temperature was outside. Unfortunately, it was back to -14 when we went out to run this morning.

The weather is really starting to make it difficult to bike. The snow has started to melt away, but it leaves behind solid, thick sheets of ice all over the road. To make matters worse, I temporarily lost my bike key and had to ride Elder L's old bike for a few days. It's...hard to explain. This is a bike he put together himself out of spare parts from old missionaries' bikes. It's frame is purple and blue, rusty, and too small. It has no hand brake. The back wheel is actually bent out of shape so the whole bike shoots out to the right everytime you pedal. That bent wheel also generates friction, so you have to continue to work even going downhill just to keep it moving. So imagine me riding that beast, going down a hill about 100 yards long on a steep grade over solid ice just clinging for dear life and you know essentially what I did all week. It was great!

So Monday we met a man from Libya, who fled during the massive civil war that started last year and is here as a refugee. Way cool guy. He has a baptismal date now! He says he's Christian, but we still had to get approval before we could teach him. Apparently that kind of thing has to go all the way to the Quorum of the Twelve. I didn't know that, but it makes sense because if we teach people and they get put in the wrong situation because of it, they could be killed. Yeah, apparently the world isn't as good of a place as we thought. The best part of his story, ironically, actually comes from when he bailed on a teach. He wasn't home when we knocked on his door, so we left. On our way out our Iraqi recent convert calls us and says, "Hey, I saw you out my window, you want to come up?" So we went to go share a short message with him. I've actually picked up a little German from all the time we've spent with him. (He speaks Arabic, Curdish, and German, and Elder L speaks some German, so our lessons with him involve a lot of pictures and charades - really fun). So that was great, but it gets even better! As we're leaving his place, we see K, the Bulgarian godfather, sitting in his car on the street. So we go talk to him and tell him we have an appointment with his daughter and son-in-law soon and invite him to come too. We had, luckily, just gotten ten Bulgarian copies of the Book of Mormon from the office, so we gave one to him and ran home to get the rest to bring to the teach. We show up, and there's three Bulgarian families there waiting for us! Then Sunday, three other families came to church! This one family, the daughter and son-in-law are kind of leading everyone into this. They love it. Unfortunately we want to teach them all at the same pace, so those two have heard the message of the restoration three different times now. I feel bad for them. We're gonna move on to the Plan of Salvation soon. But this family keeps getting bigger and bigger and they just can't wait to keep inviting more people! Our ward was shocked that we had six investigators in church on Sunday.

Probably the greatest highlight of my week though, was Saturday night. We had a teach with the man from Libya, at our Iraqi recent convert's place, so they could speak Arabic (the Libyan's English isn't as good as we would like). the Libyan bailed, so we had another opportunity to sit and visit with H (Iraqi recent convert). H left Iraq after his parents and brother were killed for being Christian. He's now here as a refugee, and this week we find out whether he gets to stay or whether they will send him back to Iraq. You would expect him to be incredibly stressed. But instead, he had made us a full Iraqi meal, with this special kind of bread and yogurt and cheese. Very, very simple and humble, but it fills you up fast. He's recently discovered Susan Boyle on YouTube, and he loves the video of her singing "I dreamed a dream" on Britain's Got Talent. Played it over and over until I basically had it memorized and he laughed his head off every time. There was just such a wonderful, indescribable spirit in that room as we sat and talked about everything except what will potentially happpen this week and raised this good man's faith and spirit. We know how much he loves this gospel. He badgered two sets of missionaries in two cities until he got a Book of Mormon in Arabic and got baptized about three weeks later. One of the most happy, humble men I've ever met.

Well there was probably more I had planned to write but I can't remember now. To all those within the sound of my voice, I love you from the bottom of my heart. I want to close with a story a very good friend wrote to me in a letter this week. Sitting in church one Sunday, a thought from a speaker stuck her. She turned to her little six year old cousin and said, "Hey, Heavenly Father loves you!" To which her little cousin replied, "I know that, I've known that since I was five!" Kids.

I know Heavenly Father loves me. And He loves all of you. I've known that since I was five.

Elder Hansen

[PS - just got a quick separate note about transfers from McKay -- he and his companion are both staying in Pietarsaari/Jakobstad, and they are both very happy about that]