Ed. note: McKay mentions the Juhannus celebration - according to Wikipedia, it is the Finnish midsummer celebration. Bonfires (Finnish kokko) are very common and are burnt at lakesides and by the sea. Often two young birch trees (koivu) are placed on either side of the front door to welcome visitors. Most Finns spend the holiday at their cottages in the countryside.
Here's McKay's email from this week:
This week was another rough one, not much happened. We did set a baptismal date with one of our investigators, though! It's super loose, one of those "if i come to know..." types of commitments, but we're at least excited that he's taking this seriously now. that was actually a great story. That morning, I knew I was going to be teaching him all by myself, because he's a Swedish speaker and we hadn't been able to find a member who could come along. I was really nervous about it, because, honestly, after having been in Jakobstad for so long now, I really feel like my Swedish should be better than it is. I was feeling a little discouraged, so I said a short prayer to ask Heavenly Father to make me equal to the task that day.
We had arranged to fix his broken porch first, and then teach him afterwards, so we got right to work when we arrived. Elder Oberhansley was a beast on the drill, so we got it done really quick. Our investigator was so grateful. He's handicapped and in a wheelchair, so for him to do this himself would take a couple of weeks. But we got it done in just a couple hours. As we were finishing the project, I started to transition into teaching. I asked him how his reading in the Book of Mormon had been going. Just at that moment it began to rain, just a little bit. He looked up, then back at the little of the porch remaining to be fixed and said, "well, if it's going to rain we'd better stop for today." So we began to teach. Then the real miracle came. I was able to take and understand all of his questions and concerns. I understood the stories he told about his life and was able to respond with my own, as well as testify of the Restoration and how he had been prepared to receive it. I helped him to understand why he would need to be baptized, and invited him to be baptized. Everything I said felt guided by the Spirit. The language was no longer a barrier because I loved this man and desired his salvation. The Spirit made up the difference. I'm very grateful to know that Heavenly Father answers prayers.
This weekend was Juhannus (Mid-Summer), the longest day of the year. It also means no tracting or contacting Friday or Saturday, so we decided to do the best missionary work we can do in that situation - service. We had a blast doing it, too. We helped this couple in our branch move three cedar trees to a different part of their yard. This brother had designed a little device for moving them too. We started by digging in around the base of the tree, then sliding boards underneath to act as levers. As we pried up the tree, one of us shoved a large piece of plywood underneath everything, kicked it into place, and then the whole tree could just slide around wherever we wanted to pull it. He was so happy when it worked, that he had his son come out and videotape the whole thing start to finish. It was so much fun.
On our p-day last week Elder Oberhansley and I played this ridiculously Mormon version of Monopoly. It was awesome. It's called Free Agency, which is ironic because in the game all you do is roll dice and do what it tells you. No agency involved.
Well, I think that's all from this week. We have two teaches set up for today, which could really end up being a miracle that gets our area going again. Love you all so much. have a wonderful week.
Love,
McKay
Yeah, I know the subject line doesn't make sense. Don't go to google on that one.
Hey everybody,
What I said up there, in missionary slang that only those who are as weird as I am can understand is "congratulations to everyone." Happy Birthday to Reese, Happy Father's Day and early birthday to Dad, and happy engagement to Erik. Hoorah. And congratulations to Maren and Mom for just being the wonderful women that they are.
This week was a bit of a rough one to be perfectly honest. Elder Oberhansley and I feel a bit like we've been hit by a train after this week. Most of our frustrations have come from the fact that so many people are traveling or otherwise occupied during the Summer in Finland that they find less and less time to meet with us. But that's not something we can control, so it's really not worth worrying about. That's one thing I can put on my list of things my mission has taught me: how to stop worrying about things that are outside of my control. When a door closes, find a window. The only problem is when you're in a room with no windows. Then I guess you just have to pray. We're pretty good at that out here, too.
Despite a lot of disappointment, though, this week was still one full of joy. Elder Oberhansley has a lot to do with that. He knows all the TV shows and movies I do, so we do a lot of quoting movies back and forth. It's just like a little taste of dinner time at home. I can just picture Dad sitting on the side of the table with that puzzled look on his face, trying to figure out how in the world we just had a complete conversation using short, memorized bits of The Office, The Princess Bride, and Community. Yeah, we're keeping each other's spirits pretty high.
We also got to make a trip out to Munsala this week. Finally! It was so great to go see "A". "T" wasn't home, and we're pretty sure it was because we were coming. He could really use some prayers right now. "A" has received all the new member lessons, so she'll now start preparing for the temple. When I asked her how she felt about it, she just said, "I feel like I have a lot of work to do." She's a champ. Never have I seen so great faith, nay, not amongst all the (insert anyone else's name here)-ites. The kids were crazy, as usual. They've gotten more crazy since they've known me for so long and aren't shy around me anymore.
Vaasa came to visit for splits this week. They brought a volleyball with them, so for exercise in the morning, we ran down to the sand courts not too far from the apartment and played for about an hour. We spent more time swatting mosquitoes than the volleyball, but it was still really fun. That day was a really spiritual one for me in terms of the work, too. We have set a vision for the type of people we want to find in our area, and so now we spend all of our time in areas and activities that will help us find those people. It seems like common sense, but it was a bit of a revelation for me. It really gave our work more purpose and energy, and I really felt better the whole day.
President Rawlings came to do a presentation on the Prophet Joseph Smith for our branch Sunday evening. We had a great turnout. Unfortunately, Elder O and I got to see just how great of a turnout all at once. We got there early so we could be there to help set up and were just sitting and waiting for everyone else to come. It seemed strange that no one else was there so close to the time the meeting was to start, until we heard banging on the door and realized that, when we had come in, it probably would have been a smart idea to unlock the doors so that others might also come in. Oops. Felt pretty dumb as I was just sitting there while our Mission President, his wife, our Branch President and half the branch had been sitting outside waiting for us. The presentation was amazing. He went through all of the things Joseph Smith accomplished in just the 16 years he led the church before he was martyred. Truly, he has done more save Jesus only for the salvation of men in this world than any other man who ever lived. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to share what I know with others. And I'm so grateful that I get to have so much dang fun doing it.
I love you all,
McKay
Moi!
This week started off great with yet another five hour train ride to Helsinki for mission conference. I'm getting to know all the stops and sights along the way very well. I felt like Elder Oberhansley's tour guide. "On the right, you'll see the lovely Hämeenlinna castle across the water. As we continue, you'll see the apartment where the Kerava elders used to live, and, oh wait don't look that way..." (yeah there are some pretty bad ad campaigns up in Helsinki right now).
The conference was wonderful. Elder Kopischke and his wife really love missionary work and all the missionaries. When he started, he held up his scriptures and his iPad, loaded with Preach My Gospel and said, "Elders and Sisters, as you can see, I have no agenda today. This is all I brought with me." Then he had each of us take a few minutes and write down a question we thought the Lord really wanted us to ask ourselves. That, he said, was our agenda. He promised us that if we listened by the Spirit, our question would be answered. He was right. I got my answer. He also then challenged each of us to follow the same procedure every time we went to sacrament meeting, or any other time we found ourselves attending any type of church meeting, and promised us that the result would be the same every time, so long as we are prepared. Took my understanding of personal preparation to another level. Really great meeting. After lunch, before the afternoon session of the conference, we took a mission picture. As you can imagine, even with very obedient missionaries, it was a bit of a logistical nightmare. But that was part of what made it so hilarious. Great to see all those old friends from around the mission.
Most of the week was pretty slow as far as teaching goes. We're really working hard to try to build up the teaching pool again (It was actually zero at one point this week). A lot of our success has come from simply following counsel. President Rawlings taught me in the trainer meeting, that the "governor" we can place on the impressions we receive from the Holy Ghost is the teachings of prophets and apostles and the scriptures. The Holy Ghost will never tell us to do something that is out of line with the teachings communicated to us from Heaven in other ways. That knowledge led us to our two new investigators this week, S & E. We were heading out to tract last evening, when the thought came to go try them instead. The last time we had visited, they had been less than excited to see us, and hadn't made much effort to set a return appointment. I honestly felt like going to them might just waste our time. But the prompting came again. I thought about it for a moment, and thought about what President Rawlings had taught me. As I pondered, I thought about the instruction that has come to us from the Brethren to try to teach a total of twenty lessons every week to either members or non-members. Tracting did not seem to yield a high likelihood of helping us teach someone. So, Elder Oberhansley and I decided to go to S & E. We had a wonderful discussion! We talked about the plan of salvation and they expressed themselves, their doubts, fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams in a way these two never had in any previous discussion. We talked seriously about our purpose as missionaries, and their need to be baptized. They will need to think about baptism, but they are very excited for us to come over and share more of our message with them.
Had a great chance to serve again this week, doing some work for older members in our branch. We stained a big awning in their backyard. Elder Oberhansley worked as a painter for a few summers prior to his mission, so he was stoked. He thought it was the best day of his mission so far.
Church yesterday was great. We both spoke. Elder Oberhansley spoke great Finnish and had some really great thoughts about following counsel and obeying immediately. Talked about how Nephi's first words after receiving the instruction to build a boat were, "Where can I find ore to make tools?" No doubts, just action. It's something I really struggle with. I just wish he could've spoken a bit more about it, because after about three minutes he sat down, leaving me the remaining 40! I felt like a high council speaker! It ended up going really well, though. I had planned for about a 20 minute talk, knowing that I could shorten it to 10 or hold it out for 30 if I needed to (thanks, Dad). I even cracked three jokes and all of them were successful. Yep, I finally got a good joke in Finnish, very proud of myself. I talked about how the Book of Mormon answers the "questions of the soul." If any of you have not read and studied that page in Preach My Gospel, I would highly recommend it. Gives really concrete examples of how the gospel blesses all aspects of our lives, not just the parts we see on Sunday.
Gotta write to President. Love you all very much. Keep being wonderful. Glad school is almost over. Livin' the dream.
Elder Hansen
Terveisiä kaikille, [Greetings to all]
So, week one of training has been a lot more than I could have expected. My new companion is Elder Jordan Oberhansley, the oldest of three boys, from Ashton, Idaho. He finished high school and worked for a while before leaving on his mission. This is his first experience living on his own, away from home, but despite a few moments of pure shell-shock and jet-lag, he's getting along about as well as could be expected for a new missionary. He only kinda blew up the living room. Kinda. No, really it was just a matter of picking the wrong adapter. There was only a small flash and the puff of smoke dissipated after a couple seconds, but we're still without any power in our living room. I'll keep you posted.
Training is awesome. All of a sudden, all my ideas are good and all my jokes are funny. But, in all seriousness, I love training so far. I love the feeling -- that I now finally fully understand -- of desiring someone else's success so much more than my own. As Lehi put it, "I have none other desire, save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls." As a trainer, my hope is that Elder Oberhansley becomes much better than I ever do, so that when I leave the mission, I know I'm leaving it going in the right direction, and that it will be in more confident, capable hands. Elder Oberhansley is well on his way. His Finnish is great coming right out of the MTC. Definitely above the average level of a missionary his age. Plus, he's just really easy to get along with. Doesn't require a lot and I don't always have to tell him what to do. He can think for himself and improvise when he needs to. I'm really looking forward to the next few changes.
The members always love having a new missionary come. Our Branch Mission Leader invited us over for dinner at their house Friday night and they had a great time introducing Elder Oberhansley to all their Finnish food. My favorite one to see new missionaries try is Piimä. It's like buttermilk. Really thick and very sour. The Finns like it, and drink it because it's really good for you, but I had one drink and refused to ever drink it again. I think Elder Oberhansley is with me on that one after his first taste. But, hey, at least the members got their laugh so it's all good.
Sunday was great, too. The members can't say Elder Oberhansley's name at all. They had him bear his testimony in sacrament meeting, and when the first counselor was announcing the program he said, in Finnish, "After the sacrament, we have asked our new missionary, whose name I absolutely cannot pronounce, to come up and introduce himself and bear his testimony, after which the time will be yours." These poor Finns.
On the investigator front, we actually had a bit of a disappointing week. We were dropped by two families and had to drop another investigator who would just continually miss appointments. I think Heavenly Father is just using it as a way to tell us, through these people, that there are more prepared people out there and we need to go find them. I trust that He will continue to work with these people, to prepare them to be baptized, but in His own way. We have other work to do, we just have to let Him help us find it.
A great ray of sunshine was cast on our week by A. yesterday. Despite all her troubles, she comes to church every week. Most amazing faith I've ever seen. She also brought her two small children, which doesn't always happen. I love those two. Her young son, just under 1.5, came up and gave my leg the biggest hug ever when he saw me. Made my heart melt until one of the members pointed out that he had left a giant drool-bomb on my pants. Great. But, oh well. It still made my day.
We leave today to head back down to Helsinki for mission conference. First mission conference in like four years in this mission, so it'll be awesome. President Kopischke, the Area President, is coming to speak to us on what might be his last mission tour before he is released and the new area presidency arrives. We're all very excited. I'll let you know how it goes.
Love you all,
Elder Hansen
We got an unexpected call from President Saturday morning. Usually when he calls on Saturday, in means you're staying, and if anything it's just the business of adjusting leadership/other assignments. Not in this case, though. Elder D is being made senior companion in Mikkeli (near the Russian border) and I will be staying in Jakobstad for at least three more months training a new missionary. I'm so excited!!!!!!
I figured I probably ought to get that out first, but the best part is, that wasn't even the best part of our week. Not by a lot.
We've done a lot of service this week. It feels really good to spend that kind of time with the members. Working side-by-side with someone helps you love and appreciate them so much more than you already do. Plus it helps make up for my pretty pathetic exercise in the morning. (stretching is still important, right?). With all the members we've served, we've shared a spiritual thought about service and tried to get them to start praying for their friends, neighbors, and family members to accept service from us as another way to open doors and hearts to the Restored gospel. Finns are really stubborn about accepting help, though. They have this complex built into their culture that if someone does something to help you, you have to give something in return. So, we'll see if anything actually comes from it, but the spirit of service is helping us gain members trust, if nothing else.
In addition to that, we helped an old man clean up his apartment this week. One day, we started to feel like we weren't where we needed to be. We had just been let in to teach a man while tracting, and had planned to continue the street afterwards, but it simply didn't feel right. We prayed and decided to head off to another area close by (well, everything's close, really, in Jakobstad). While we were riding, we past by some apartment buildings and felt really good about them. Locked. Bummer. We talked to one man who had just come out of the building. He was in a hurry, so he took a card and not much else. I was really disappointed. I felt like I had really misread the influence of the Spirit and brought us to a place in vain. So, we began to ride off again. A man began walking the other direction, slowly, as though in pain. His clothes were dirty, as were his face and hair. His countenance had virtually no light or joy in it. A bag full of beer cans dangled limply from his hand as he walked. We stopped and talked to him. He told us his life just wasn't happy at all right now and that he just wanted to go home. We walked with him home, just trying to talk to him about his family, the gospel, anything, and we got nothing. When we got to his door, we went in for just a minute. His place was a mess. I cannot explain how sorry I felt for this poor man. His life was not where he wanted it to be, and from what he told us, there was no way out. We told him we would come the next day and help him clean his apartment and his eyes got huge. He was amazed that we would come of our own free will.
The next day, we spent about an hour cleaning his apartment, continuing to try to talk to him as we worked. We saw actual happiness in his eyes as he looked around his newly cleaned place. He thanked us so many times. He even promised to give up drinking! We'll see how it goes. We told him we would also like to come back and teach him in order to help him spiritually. He told us we were welcome anytime. He's a bit of a longshot right now, but I've seen people change before. The gospel has that kind of power.
Our Chinese investigator, B, and his girlfriend A left for China this week, so we won't see them again for a month, but we saw a lot of progress in him in this last week. He definitely won't be ready for baptism right after he gets back like we hoped, but he's very happy with the church. He promised to read and pray every day on his trip to China. I'm excited that I will still be here when they return.
Probably the biggest news of the week is that our investigator who had a baptismal date last week now no longer has a baptismal date....because he's already a member!!! When we introduced the Book of Mormon he said it all seemed familiar, especially the picture of Moroni burying the plates. Then we started talking more about the church organization and when we said we had a prophet and twelve apostles his jaw about hit the floor. He started jumping up and down and yammering away to his wife in Romanian about how he had finally found "his religion" again. Apparently he was baptized in Romania in 2008, but he didn't understand everything and now needs to be re-taught and reactivated, but he's very excited about it. His wife (well technically girlfriend because they still aren't married officially in Finland) speaks a little Swedish, but not enough, so he'll be translating for her while we teach. She loosely set a baptismal date for the 30th of June.
Thanks for all your emails. I love you all very much. I can't wait to tell you about all the miracles we will see here over the course of the next two changes, training in Jakobstad. Have a great week.
Elder Hansen
Hei taas!
Zone conference in Oulu this week meant a lot more travel (I'm really starting to like traveling on trains), but the Lord really blessed our time while we were actually here this week.
Monday:
We started off the week right with a lot of finding and teaching, even in only the few hours of work time on P-Day. As we were on our way back home for the night, a stern impression came to find just one more person that night. So I called back to my companion to look left as we came to an intersection. I would look right, and between us, I knew we could probably see someone to talk to. As it turns out, to the left, standing outside her apartment building was a young woman about twenty. So we rode over and talked to her. She was waiting for a friend to come pick her up, so in that short time we pulled out the Book of Mormon and quickly explained our message. Her friend pulled up on her scooter just as we finished testifying of the Book of Mormon's impact in our lives. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
Tuesday:
We had a couple of appointments with people we've had a tough time getting a hold of. The first was a Vietnamese man, who has consistently forgotten about our appointments despite our best efforts to remind him. This time, we waited at the church for five minutes and when he didn't come, we gave up and left. Just as we arrived home (five minute bike ride from the church) he called and told us he was on his way, but that he was having trouble finding the church. So we hustled back over, helped him to find it, and had a wonderful discussion with him. He's Christian, but somehow just doesn't have a great grasp on how the Atonement truly applies at a personal level. He's dealt with a lot of discouragement in his life, and made a lot of decisions that he's not happy about. We set aside our plans for teaching the Restoration and focused in on his needs. He completely changed. He started asking questions and trying to find truth. He left with the Book of Mormon, promising to read it. He speaks Swedish, and we really believe he could be a great strength to this branch.
The second was with an African lady who's really funny. When we showed up, she was like, "oh hey, yeah I'm just giving the baby a bath." So we sat in her house for fifteen minutes while we waited for her to finish giving him a bath, then lotion, oil, powder, and clothe him. Our member was a champ, though. Just sat there patiently the whole time, and even made a joke with the investigator about how he has six kids and completely understands. Gotta love members. the actual teaching part went really well, except that we had run out of English Book of Mormons, and thus had none to give her. Yeah, E missionaries. (baseball reference anyone?). But she still somehow agreed to let us come back.
Wednesday:
Kinda turned into a hectic day, just dashing all over the city trying to visit potentials before we left for zone conference. We ended up finding a good chance to serve some members in the evening though, so it ended on a high note.
Thursday:
More service for the members, then train to Oulu.
Friday:
Ultimate frisbee for exercise in the morning. So great. It's been forever since I've gotten to play. BOOM! I did take a pretty good knock to the head, though, which gave me a bad headache the rest of the day, but stuff happens. Plus I got a surprise package from the Fishers, so it sorta all evens out :)
Zone conferences with President Rawlings are great. I always leave with so many things I can do better. Honestly, it hurts a little bit, because I always know I have to repent and do so much better, and that involves a lot of personal change. This gospel truly was meant to "afflict the comfortable." But as long as I actually follow through and do it, I know things will work out for the better and I'll be happier in the long run.
Saturday:
6:30 am train back to Jakobstad. Yaaaayyyyyy......not. I actually slept better on the train than I did in the Oulu chapel though. Saturday was packed with appointments, one of them being the African lady we had promised to give a Book of Mormon to. The problem was, we still didn't have a Book of Mormon in English! So, we started to just search everywhere. Every closet, drawer, and shelf, under the beds, in the bathroom, whatever. No dice. We called our BML to see if he might have one, but he didn't answer. So, a bit upset with myself, I sat down to just wait it out, and opened up my package. Inside was a note, signed by all the Laurels at home. They had thrown in some candy too, which is great because my candy drawer has just run out (yes, Mom, I'm sorry but I do have a candy drawer...). Then, at the bottom of the box, I saw something that made my heart stop. Still partially concealed by packing peanuts lay a small, familiar-looking blue book. The Book of Mormon. In English. Ladies and Gentleman, no magician or work of man can rival the mysteries and miracles of our loving Father in Heaven. I no longer believe in coincidence. Unfortunately, the African lady bailed on us, but I took the miracle for what it was and gave thanks to God.
That afternoon we stopped by a potential that we've felt good about a number of times, but every time we go he's out of the house. So this time, when he wasn't home, we thought to ourselves, "why are we even here?" We had already tracted that entire building, but we decided to just knock on a few in there anyway. The door immediately to our potentials' left was our first door. A man answered, and as soon as he heard we were representatives from a church, he let us in. I'm always a bit skeptical about anything that easy, but once we started talking, his sincerity and faith in Chirst were so apparent. He is here from Romania, trying to make a better life for his wife and one year old son, who also live here. His Swedish was about as good as mine, so I was able to teach him most of the first lesson. He happily agreed to let us come back the next day and teach him more. He said our closing prayer. VERY INTERESTING. He made us all stand up and then essentially shouted his prayer to Jesus. Ok, so there's a little work to do. But hey, I've seen worse.
Sunday:
We went back to the Romanian, B. He was really excited for us. We taught him about the Restoration. He's Pentecostal, which I'm pretty sure is the dominant religion in his country, but when I taught him about Christ establishing his church, he wanted to know so badly why we had so many churches. We explained the apostasy and the role of Jospeh Smith in the Restoration. He finally asked us, "So what's the name of your church anyway?" We said this is the Church of Jesus Christ. He thought about that for a second. Then, he looked right at me and said, in English, "I'm in." He now has a baptismal date for June 30. Please pray for him and his wife to be baptized on that date.
Later, we met with that part member family and our investigator, M. It had been a while since we had met with him. We started by following up on his reading in the Book of Mormon, planning to transition to baptism right away. As we talked, though, it seemed apparent that he wasn't reading the Book of Mormon to gain a testimony, more that he felt that if he gained enough information from it, he would eventually come to know it was true. We disregarded our original plan and zeroed in on that one point. We taught him how vital the Book of Mormon is as a whole, and that we must ask Heavenly Father if the Book itself is true, not only things inside it. I told him that the Book of Mormon gives us only two options: either it is true, or it is not. It cannot be more simple than that. He thought about that for a long time afterwards. We committed him to pray that night and ask directly, if the Book of Mormon was true. we will be going back tonight to follow up. This could be his time. The Lord's hand is at work here.
I love you all so very much. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Elder Hansen
Just a short email from McKay this morning, since it sounds like they didn't have much time, and we just spoke to him yesterday. For a quick video segment from the call, scroll down to yesterday's post.
Here's today's email:
No hei,
We're in a bit of a hurry today because we have a TON off stuff to get done today. There's so much we need to get back in order in our apartment. Being gone for the better part of a week takes a lot out of us -- I guess you could say today is a spring cleaning day.
The members here were almost as excited as we were for us to call home, as you noticed from the fact that they kept coming in to listen. I take it as a sign that they really like us and are invested in us. We appreciate so much all the members here do for us. They all asked us afterwards what was going on in our families and what kinds of crazy stories we told about the Finns.
One really funny story from last week that I forgot to mention in the skype call. We knocked a door and a younger looking girl answered, around 17-18 years old. Very typical teenager. Elder D gave her our message in the same wonderful way he always does: very excited and enthusiastic. I thought it went great! But, unfortunately, she wasn't interested. She did say we could come back, though, and that her boyfriend might be interested. As we walked away from the door, we could hear her talking fairly loudly on the phone to a friend about the two weird Mormons who had just knocked her door, and rather sarcastically mocked our "big eyes and big smile." Elder D and I just laughed. That's right, we do smile big. Because we're happy. We have no reason to be ashamed just because our message sounds cheesy or doesn't seem real or isn't popular. It's true. I am not ashamed at all to say that I know it is true. Why should I worry what others think? Lasting joy and happiness are not fairy tale ideas. It is not naivete to believe that God exists and that he loves us. The beauty of the message of the Restoration is that it invites all people to come unto Christ and receive incomprehensible, yet still perfectly tangible, literal, blessings from a loving Father in Heaven. As science continues to prove, almost daily, sometimes what's impossible becomes possible just by shifting our perspective and being willing to try it a different way.
OK, off the soapbox now. Love you all so much. It was so awesome to talk to you yesterday. Have a great week.
McKay
