Unfinished Business (again)

[Ed. note - the parents of one of McKay's high school friends (Andie Tillett Robertson) stopped by the mission office in Helsinki. Brother Tillett served a mission to Finland]

Dear family,

There is no way to gracefully get into all the things I need to tell you about this week, so I'll just go for it, start to finish.

Monday, was a good Pday, hung out with Elder Ingersoll on exchanges and went out to lunch with him. His last Monday in the mission. I don't believe it. Time goes by so fast. He was a really good elder, too, we're going to miss him. That night we had two lessons with some star investigators. First, P, the one I told you about last week, to some degree. He actually lives in Haaga's area, so we brought along a member from Haaga who talked more than we planned for, so we didn't get to teach everything we wanted to, but he really bonded with P, who thanked us for bringing him along, so I guess it all works out. Later was A, the one we met last week after we got lost. First lesson, got to know more about her. She is a full-time painter, and has a lot of her own paintings up in the living room. Most of them are really nice landscapes of ocean shores. She has investigated tons of religions and so had all kinds of questions, many of which were tough to understand, but our member along pulled through for us and had some great answers. We talked about her being baptized when she knows the Book of Mormon was true, and she just laughed and said, "That would be way too fast, guys."

Tuesday, we helped an older, less-active couple wash their windows, which Elder Clegg and I have a lot of fun with. Actually did a pretty good job too, if I do say so myself. I love working with Elder Clegg. He just always wants to do his best, do it right, and do it right the first time. So solid. Afterwards we had a lesson in which we pulled out a 50 day Book of Mormon reading challenge for them. We picked the fifty most important (from our point of view) on the basic doctrines from PMG and assigned them to read one per day over the next fifty days. We're excited to see how it goes, and they seemed really happy with it too!

Wednesday, we had a zone training meeting. Elder Clegg and I have mixed feelings on the outcome, but I'll keep that to myself. Our zone leaders are really good guys.

Thursday, we taught P again. We went over both the Sabbath day and word of wisdom, heavy hitters for a man who smokes, drinks coffee, and who loves going out with his wife in their camper for long weekends. I'll admit, I was doubting just a little bit going into it. We started with the Sabbath and talked about why it is so important, especially with the covenants we make, to be in church each Sunday. He pondered the things we had just told him, and we asked him what he thought. He said simply, "well, if it's that important to the covenant, then I guess the important thing to do is arrange my life so that, as long as I'm not sick or on a long trip or something else, I can be in church every Sunday. yeah, I'll do that. Sure." And he looked up at us and smiled. Then, we moved on to word of wisdom. He's been sober for 22 years now, after spending plenty of years as an alcoholic, so alcohol wasn't an issue. Neither was smoking. He just said, "yeah, I should probably quit. I've quit before and I've been meaning to again, so I'll get on it. No problem." He wasn't so sure about tea and coffee, though, because there haven't been any proven terrible effects of using them. So, out of ideas, I turned to the missionary's best friend: the member. He gave a great thought about his friends and how some of them can't even function without tea and coffee, something he never knew was possible, and that he was grateful for the fact that he didn't have any substances that seemed to interfere in any way with his agency and freedom. P thought about that for a long time, then looked up and said, "you know, I really like what you just said. I think, if it really is true, then God will give me power to get rid of them, and to understand why." Goodness, I love this man. Every time I talk to him I'm astounded by the way the gospel resonates with him.

The rest of the night, I stayed home with Elder Murray while Elder Clegg and Elder Ingersoll went out to teach a few people. Elder Murray has been really sick for a while, and the doctors aren't exactly sure what is causing it. Will you all please pray for him? We need him to stay in this mission. He's too good of an elder to lose.

Friday was our second lesson with A, the artist. We had a really good time, and she was very excited to come to church on Sunday.

President also called us on Friday night. Change call night. He told Elder Clegg he was going to Joensuu. No surprise there, we all figured he was leaving so that the next language coordinator could be my companion. Then, he surprised us by telling Elder Murray that the new language coordinator would be his companion, not mine. Finally, it was my turn. Now bewildered, I ask who my companion will be. He paused. Then, slowly, he said, "Elder Hansen, you're going to wonder when I tell you about this. I've prayed a lot about it, and, honestly, I still don't really understand, so I want you to pray about it as well.....

You are going back to Pietarsaari."

It seems there is more for me to do there. Feels a bit like going home, to be honest. Six more weeks in Jakobstad. [ed. note - Pietarsaari and Jakobstad are the same city - Pietarsaari is the Finnish name and Jakobstad is the Swedish name - it's the bilingual area in western Finland where McKay spent nine months earlier in his mission.]

Saturday was a great baptismal service in Marjaniemi. We've basically just been trading weekends with them for a while now, it feels. One week our baptism, the next week, theirs. It's incredible.

Sunday was so much fun in church again. "A" was there, and we sat with her in sacrament meeting. Elder Ingersoll gave his farewell talk and we had a really good high council speaker. The whole time I was cheering because every message seemed, in one way or another, just tailored to A's needs. After the meeting, she leaned over to me and said, "you know how I laughed when you guys talked about baptism earlier this week? Well, I feel like God has been pushing me this direction this whole week and, well, I really feel like I would like to be baptized. How does it work?"

Lucky for her, we get sisters into this ward this week, so they will come to visit and help prepare her for baptism. At the end of the day, I'm sad to leave this area, because things are going so well right now. Things are really building. Elder Clegg and I are leaving behind work we can be proud of, and people who will surely continue to progress with more than capable missionaries. And I am going back to PIETARSAARI.

love you all,

Elder Hansen

Regional Stake Conference

Hey everybody!

A lot of unfortunate scheduling conflicts prevented investigators from thinking they could meet with us this week, but one man, "P", is doing wonderfully. He grasps gospel concepts faster than almost any investigator I've ever met and he can explain them back to us in his own words. This week, as we prepared to teach him, Elder Clegg and I focused on when to give the baptismal commitment. We studied and practiced together and found a spot that seemed to feel right. In the lesson, everything went smoothly. In fact, because of that preparation, it went smoother than we had planned. As we were teaching about baptism, the Spirit directed us toward Mosiah 18:8-10 instead of the other passage we had planned to share. "P" saw immediately what impact that type of covenant could have in his life, and immediately started talking about "when I am baptized" instead of "if I get baptized. We practically didn't need to invite him at all! We bore testimony that he could prepare for baptism soon and that by that date he would feel ready. He seems to really trust us, which I am truly grateful for.

This lesson was also the first time we visited him in his home, and got to know his wife. She's just a wonderful lady, very optimistic and happy. She politely declined from joining in the discussion, but still, very, very nice. And she said we could come back, so I guess we made a good impression, right?

This man just continues to amaze me, though. After the lesson, we mentioned that we ought to get moving because we had to catch the bus back and it doesn't run very often. He just looked at his watch and was like, "well, I'll just take you home." (literally, in Finnish, what he said was, "I'll throw you home" which I thought was funny). Then he drove us all the way back to our door! It was nice to just have some more time to chat with him and get to know him. I'm really excited for what happens next.

We got lost this week again. That's actually one of my favorite experiences as a missionary, ironically. Getting lost. The point where I don't know exactly where I am is usually the time Heavenly Father has put me somewhere for a reason, I just don't recognize it at the time. After I (boldly going where no missionary has gone before, mostly because the road I was leading us down didn't lead to anything but a small swamp) managed to get us lost, Elder Clegg pulled out the map, we got a route planned back, and started walking. Along the way, we stopped and talked to a woman. She had researched a lot of different religions, but hadn't ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (We found out after the conversation that she had heard of Mormons before, though. Go figure). After we explained a little bit about our church she asked, "Well, what are your articles of faith?" So, we listed them off. You never know when memorizing those kinds of things is going to come in handy. Seriously, thank you Primary! After a little while she said, "Hey, it's too hot out here, I'm going to give you my card and you guys can come visit me next week and tell me more. I'm excited about this!" Kinda funny the way He knows what He's doing, right?

This weekend was a regional stake conference for all the Nordic Countries, with Elder M. Russell Ballard visiting. President Monson was scheduled to be present as well, but with the recent passing of his wife, he didn't make it. We had some great messages, which I didn't get to hear too much of, something about the audio was hard to hear, plus it was a little choppy with the English to Swedish/Finnish translation being in real-time. It was all focused on getting members to do better missionary work, and I think it went well. The best part, though, was getting to see all the people from the Espoo Wards that I got to know so well while I was there. A lot of the young adults I knew there have gotten mission calls to Australia, Canada, Salt Lake City-East, Ukraine, and Lyon, France. There you go, Dad. A few more of them are going to finish the army service soon and get their papers in. By the end of the year, the Espoo II ward will have eight missionaries out, and the Helsinki Stake will have 30! The Stake President joked in the general session Saturday night that they had set a goal to have as many missionaries out from the stake as were currently serving from abroad in their stake. Then the First Presidency decided to mock that goal by lowering the age limit and sending tons more missionaries to Finland. I'll be interested to see if any youth in the near future get called to serve here.

Anyway, time to go. Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Hansen

Elder Patrick Kearon

Elder Kearon

Dear Family,

 

The biggest highlight of this week was a visit from Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy, now serving in the area presidency in Europe. For those who don't recognize the name, he's the one who spoke about "the sting of the scorpion" a few years ago in general conference. He was incredible! He's quite young to be a general authority, and he's very, very humble. Elder Murray [who is from Scotland] even liked him, even if he was from England, ha. He for a short time had an assignment in the Northwest US, so when I told him I was from Portland he asked, "oh which stake?" And I blanked. Family, I honestly wasn't sure which stake I was from! Sad, right? I think I finally told him the right one, and I blamed it on the fact that my parents had moved a couple times while I had been gone. I got to take a picture with him, which was nice. Elder Ingersoll and I are convinced he'll someday be an apostle, so I'll have one of those pictures people always like to show off. Sweet.

 

I loved the conference, overall. He was a wonderful teacher. He spoke a lot from his own experience and talked about the missionaries who had taught him when he was baptized at age 26. Mentioned a lot of good things about maintaining the image and matching the message we preach. But more inspiring than that was when he told about three years later, now serving as Branch President, and the missionaries came to his door to meet with him. He said that when he opened the door, he literally almost took a step back because he could feel, tangibly, the power coming from this missionary companionship on the other side of the door. He talked a lot about the miracles this young missionary performed just because he "didn't know how to say no, and he worked with a branch that just didn't know how to say no." They decided to double the size of the branch that year, and they did it, essentially because they were all too young and inexperienced to see the potential obstacles. Kind of ironic isn't it? I liked the way he talked about the power we have when we decide something. He said some things that match what Elder Clegg and I have concluded after a few discussions. That is that, in essence, you can decide to be excited and passionate about anything. Even tracting. I wonder if I really underestimate the power of agency.

 

Unfortunately, Elder Kearon also quoted Elder Holland saying,"It takes a truly inspired conference to last past Tuesday." (or in our case, since that conference was on Thursday, past Saturday). The real test is finding a way to maintain that inspiration all the way to the end. And really, past the end of my mission, to be honest.

 

This week was a great one in terms of teaching, as well. "P" a man who really just wants to find happiness in his life, told us he had a long discussion with his wife about it, and he has her full support if he wants to learn more about this church and build his faith. (I really hope that support lasts through the tithing discussion). We met with him three times this week, and all of them were spectacular! We asked him to read 2 Nephi 2 for one lesson to prepare to talk about why we're here on earth, and when we asked him in the lesson what he thought about the chapter, he said, "well, I think what it's saying is that we all have our agency, and it's our choice to decide whether we're going to choose good or bad." Thank you, my friend, that was our lesson for today, we'll see you on Friday. I love this man! In Sunday School, we talked more deeply about the Atonement and how to use it in our lives, and he was sitting there marking up his scriptures and loving it all. Sadly, we've learned that he lives in the Haaga ward boundaries, so we're going to need to transition him there and let those missionaries begin teaching him, but he's such a good man. I really hope he'll be baptized, no matter where it is.

 

"A", another man that missionaries have been teaching for a long time, also made a great step forward this weekend. Saturday, we talked with him about fasting to have the determination to live the Word of Wisdom. He wasn't quite sure if he could, but he was so close. I'm not sure what more we can do, but he agreed to fast about it with us. He was like, "oh yeah tomorrow is fast sunday." He's not even a member yet! But, he did say that he had a dream once where he got baptized in Neitsytpolku, at the chapel, and it's summer now.....

 

Life hasn't been all fun and games, we've had some people be pretty rude to us downtown. One guy shouted some nasty things to us out his car window as he drove past, and Elder Clegg had a drunk man follow him for a long way shouting at him for not giving him any money. One time, though, I actually thought I handled it pretty well. The tram was packed to capacity and Elder Clegg and I were standing in front of a chair. A woman with her dog got on and said, in a less than polite way that "hey there's a chair there, so if you guys don't want to use it, I will." He and I hadn't even noticed the chair that folds down out of the wall of the tram. So, we make room and she sits down and I decide to ask her how she's doing that day. She takes one look at the nametag and says, "oh, you guys are a couple of those 'false doctrine' preachers." To which I just smiled back and said nothing, not in the mood to fight today. After a few seconds, we happened to make eye contact again and evidently her first comment wasn't enough for these two boys, so she said something that roughly translates to, "You guys are far away from God." I just looked down, smiled again and said, "Look, Ma'am. I'm really sorry we didn't see the seat there." To which she just laughed, and we got off the tram at our stop without anything more said.

 

Anyway, I love you all, gotta go. Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hansen

The Holy Temple

From a recent mission conference - McKay is in the back row, just left of center

Hey everybody,

The temple never felt more holy than it did for me this past Tuesday. Monday, as we were in the office waiting for turns to email, President walked up to me and whispered, "you know, if you were out working right now, I could give you permission to go to the temple with "A" and the others tomorrow."

The next day, I had to restrain myself from sprinting up the steps of the temple into the main double doors. I scanned my recommend and walked around the corner to find "A" sitting right there on a couch in the waiting area. She ran up and gave me a big hug, which I returned. I just about lost it right there. You can't imagine how incredible that moment was for me, to be standing in the temple with someone we watched accept the gospel. It had been such a long road. The last year or so has not been easy for her. None of the time while I was there was easy for either of us. But, in the end, there we were. I walked from there into the dressing room and also found the branch president from Jakobstad there. It had evidently been he who had called the mission president to let him know they would be coming down to the temple. I owe him a big one. After changing, I saw the branch mission leader come walking in. He also gave me a hug. The session was in Swedish, so poor Elder Clegg had to endure the headphones. I didn't realize two weeks ago, when I did a session in Swedish, that I would be sitting in that session that day. How could I have ever known that was practice for one of the greatest days of my life?

After the session, we had the chance to talk for a while in the celestial room. Things still aren't perfect for her, but they're much better than they were. Apparently her kids still talk about me all the time. Yes, my pride was about through the roof at this point. We went out and took some pictures before they went to go eat and Elder Clegg and I had to run off to an appointment. It was hard to say goodbye again, but they all made me swear to come to Pietarsaari when I come back to visit Finland. As we got back onto the train to leave Espoo, Elder Clegg said, "well, back to the real world." To which I responded, "Maybe for you, friend, but I'm still up in the clouds."

The rest of this week hasn't been easy. A lot of things have fallen through and it's seemed tough to get things going. Coordinating with so many new missionaries is tough. But no matter what happened, I could just pull out my camera and look at the picture of us outside the temple, and just smile. Is there anything that really matters compared to that?

We did have one great miracle this week, though. We said hi to a woman as she passed us and she wheeled around and said, "Are you guys from that church?!" We told her we were and she got very excited. She told us her sister was an active member in another country and that she wanted to come visit our church. Then on Sunday, she came! She had to leave right after sacrament meeting, but she said she would also come next week! Man, if only everyone we said hi to was that great.

Gotta go, sorry this one's a little short. Love you all.

Elder Hansen

Ice Hockey MM-Kisat

McKay just sent this picture from a few months ago

Hey everybody!

"This is our Super Bowl," said one Finn, speaking of the Ice Hockey World Championships that concluded yesterday with Sweden taking gold on their own turf. I'm inclined to agree, trying to do missionary work while the game is on is just laughable. I was shocked when one family invited us over to eat while Finland was playing, then turned the game off until we left! To his credit, he was still pulling a McKay-in-priesthood-session style move by checking the score on his phone the entire time we were there, but still, that meant a lot that they would still invite us over. The US beat Finland in the third place match, and we actually got some comments on the street from people about it. Pretty gracious, the Finns, they try not to be too bitter. I almost feel bad that we beat them. I mean, we just show up for these games because we can, but for them, it's, well, the Super Bowl.

This week started with President interrupting our P-Day game of Monopoly by suggesting that I get the language tests done and graded by the end of the week. That put a lot of stress on me, but thanks to Elder Murray getting sick and being stuck inside for two full days, I'm making really good progress. I'm also learning more about Microsoft Excel than I ever thought I would as a missionary. But, that's the boring part of my life right now.

Monday night we had a lesson with a woman we were really excited for. She had been found by Elder Ingersoll a few months ago, but after a few tries and no answer at the door, he decided just to hand her off to us. As we sat down, she started off with one of those things investigators say that always make me cringe. "Hey, I just want to say right now, that I'm not necessarily going to want to do anything about this, I'm just kind of interested." That usually means we don't get a return appointment, that they've already decided against it from the beginning. So we talked with her and found out more about her life, her background, her family. Our member along talked a bit about his conversion experience, which was hilarious. Not so much the story as the way he came to tell it. She figured out he had not always been a member and that he had changed religions as a middle-aged man. She tried to find a polite way to ask, but after stumbling over her words a couple times just eventually asked, "Well, why?" By the end of the lesson, she said, almost out of nowhere, "So, guys, I think I really do want to know more about this. Where do you want me to start?" She's such a nice, honest lady, and I'm really excited to work with her. Almost all the questions she asks in lessons are like softball, just open the Book of Mormon and there's the answer. Plus, when we went back to the second lesson, she apologized for only having read nine chapters of the book and said that next time, she'd try to do better. Unbelievable.

Thursday morning we had a lesson at the chapel with a man Elder Clegg had found while on exchanges. He was an older man, about sixty, who met missionaries about ten years ago at work. He worked at a shipping company that did a lot of business with the church and, in particular, with missionary packages. He told us a couple stories of helping missionaries avoid paying huge customs duties on winter clothes and homemade cookies. Yes, mothers, they are worth more than gold, but that doesn't mean you have to write that much as the worth on the customs declaration. Anyway, he always remembered what wonderful young men they were. Always polite, always kind, always ready to help. And now, finally, so many years later he's beaten alcohol, gotten his life in order and is ready for retirement, and is meeting with those same missionaries to find out more about this church.

He had such a powerful experience at the church. He said he felt peace there that he hadn't felt in a very long time. Peace he's been trying to find again. Although he's beaten alcoholism, he told us he's not truly happy, just not unhappy. And he came close to feeling that kind of happiness again in the church. He also came close to feeling it when Elder Clegg had the courage to simply ask him, a complete stranger standing at a tram stop, how he was doing that day. When we talked with him about baptism, he said, "Well, I'd better talk to my wife about it first." I'm really excited for him. He's such a good man.

And, to top it all off, our investigator who lives, breathes, and sleeps ice hockey has elected not to be bitter about the game and is still letting us come over this week despite the fact the the US beat Finland. All is right in the world.

Take luck this week everybody!

Love,

Elder Hansen

P.S. Elder Edwards and Elder Bishop are both here to visit and they're staying with us for the whole week. Gonna be a blast.

P.P.S Elder Ingersoll may or may not be teaching me to wrestle. And may or may not have nearly broken my nose last night doing so. I shouldn't have told you that....

Happy Mother's Day again Mom!

Ed. note - We had a video conference call with McKay for Mother's Day, crossing four time zones. Was great to talk to him. A steady dose of various TV show dialogue references among the four siblings, with Mom and Dad exchanging bewildered and bemused looks. Yep, pretty much a microcosm of the past 22 years.

He said that he will be most likely be finishing his mission in the same area in Helsinki, which he has really enjoyed, and that he will soon be training his replacement as language coordinator.Here's the email he sent today:

Not much to say after yesterday. Dad, way to go getting skype set up four ways, you rock. [Ahem, pretty proud of myself]

Here's a copy of the report I sent to president:

Our biggest success this week was found in inviting others to read from the Book of Mormon. One investigator has not read regularly ever even after a long stretch of missionaries teaching him. He always finds excuses (reading the Bible instead, busy with family, watching ice hockey, etc.). This week, as we knelt in prayer, we found a passage of scripture in 1 Nephi 13 that exemplified how the Book of Mormon and Bible supported each other. We read it with him and the Spirit truly entered his home. As we talked, he began to understand just how much he already understands about the Book of Mormon. he agreed, finally, that it was time for him to invest more time in truly finding out if the Book of Mormon was true. The next step for us is to give him specific assignments each day to help him progress towards baptism.

The other example came from a less-active family who has had the same problem as the investigator above. They just won't read! So, this time we prayed and a certain passage came to mind. As we thought about it more and realized just how much it affected families, we realized how perfect it was, because we've been praying for her son who is having a hard time in his life right now. We bore testimony in the lesson about how much reading the Book of Mormon and living according to their covenants would call down the powers of heaven in behalf of her son, and they both agreed eagerly to read every single day this week! 

I love serving with my companion and everyone in our district seems to be doing great.

Another story I forgot to tell you yesterday was a real miracle. Elder Clegg and I were out trying to find a less-active woman that we've never been able to meet. We walked up to her building, but there was a set of buttons that typically requires a code to open the door. I was disappointed, but Elder Clegg, just for fun, goes up and yanks on the door handle, and it flew open! So we went up and had a wonderful conversation with this woman! She was so friendly and she has a friend who's son just got called on a mission here! And he already speaks Finnish...we're all jealous. Then we leave, and after we walk out the door, another man comes up, punches in the code, opens the door, and walks in. Now I'm confused. So, I just have to try. I walked back up to the door, grabbed the handle, and...nothing. locked. Elder Clegg is officially a magician. 

Hey, love you all!

Elder Hansen

VAPPU!

Hey everybody!

So this week was Vappu, the Finnish Labor Day. Here in Helsinki it means a lot of things, but for missionaries it means the day we aren't allowed to even go outside unless we have a legitimate appointment because there are too many people running around with...more than a necessary amount of alcohol in them. Last year I was in Pietarsaari, and it was pretty quiet. We could have easily been outside and nothing bad would have happened to us. This year, down in the center of the biggest city in the country, there was definitely a lot more to be concerned with. So, where were we? Right in the middle of the biggest party in the country, of course.

The whole city lights up for Vappu. It all starts the night before, with everyone essentially congregating around the central train station and the tori (center market square). You can pick out all the college students easily, because they're all wearing huge, baggy, boiler suits in bright colors that indicate which school they're in. They're also decorated with more iron-on patches than a NASCAR has decals. 

Those who have graduated from high school are running around in their graduation caps (which are cooler than ours). 

Some of the kids are in big Halloween-style costumes with big balloons of anything from Angry Birds to Winnie the Pooh. The young single adults had a picnic in the park on Wednesday, so we decided to go and support them. IT WAS HUGE! This entire park in Helsinki was covered with people all dressed up in color and having a picnic and a party. Plus, one of the YSAs, a Chinese girl, invited about seven of her Chinese friends, and we got a great chance to socialize with them. Three of them are investigating, and we have a lesson/lunch appointment with them tomorrow! Now, technically, they're Elder Ingersoll and Elder Murray's investigators, but that's not really the important thing. It's a really strange dynamic living in a four missionary apartment and sharing the same ward. We mix things up a lot, but I like it. It really keeps us busy, and the fact that we live together means we're never too far away and we can be flexible if we need to. But yeah, bucket list number thirty three: visit the biggest party in Helsinki. Check.

Thursday was a big day for all of us, and unfortunately our coordination overall was lacking. We had a few appointments set up, as did the others, as did the APs, and I had another language school in the office (the first of THREE this month). The APs ending up stealing Murray, which took us down one companionship in Neitsytpolku and made us rearrange our schedule, but since it all worked out in the end, we're not too upset about it. This time, I tried all different things as part of the language school, and all of them worked out pretty well, everything from "missionary twister" in which they had to move each other around the room using commands in Finnish, to the end of day walk down to the beach. (They usually get really tired just sitting in the same room all day, so I've decided to start taking a walk to give their minds a rest. I can't really take credit for the idea though, I'm pretty sure the same tactic is used in nursery classes all across the church.) This group was very talented as far as the language goes, so I'm excited for them.

After language school, everything got crazy. Elder London requested me to go with him to pick up President's car and take it to Haaga, which I was happy to do, except for the fact that I almost didn't have a companion...that would have been interesting. Driving a car halfway across Helsinki alone. But I grabbed one of the young missionaries and we coordinated to get everyone at the train station. It all worked fine, except for the miscommunication about everyone, um, going to the train station...Some of the sisters got left behind at the office, so we had to floor it back there to drop off the van so the other sisters, who needed the van that night, could take them there. I'm still not sure how they did it (or if it was strictly speaking legal), but they all made it there safely and on time. I goofed up and forgot a lot of the supplies I was supposed to send back with them, which made me pretty upset with myself. But, overall, everything seemed to work out pretty well that day, and no one missed their trains.

Unfortunately, I also got some bad news about R this week. Bishop met with him to talk about what happens if he does move to a different country, and R made it sound like he's for sure out of here this week. His top choice right now is, I think, Iceland, or Greenland, to find work. I went over again what Bishop had told him, so he should be able to find the church wherever he winds up, but we're sad to see him go. He's been a pretty good friend.

We've had some great conversations with people this week, and one of them has turned into a lesson set up for this Thursday, which is yet another Finnish holiday (Ascension Day), and we're really excited. She was about to agree for this evening, but then she said, "well, actually, if you wait and come on Thursday, I'll have some time to read the book before you come." Can't ask for much more than that right? 

Love you! Can't wait to talk to you next Sunday!!

Elder Hansen