"Uutta vuotta" ---What? Is this "Happy New Year"?

Dear Dad,

Ok I am going to try and answer some of your questions right below where they are asked like I do with mom. This way I can remember all of what you asked. lol I forget things so quickly.
I thought it was really quite funny that grandpa didn't have anything backed up on his computer. But that must have been a fun process to pick out which files he needed. So now that grandpa has an ipod, do you think he will use it or will he just have it sit around.... I think you may need to get him some music via jump stick or something so he will use his ipod. Thats probably the reason I didn't use my ipod as much as I would have. It took me so long to get music onto it.

hmm, so Park city must have been quite fun!! I would have loved to go... also we just got like 5 inches of new fluffy powder in Kajaani just yesterday. Too bad we aren't allowed to go skiing on the mission. I did make it back from the Christmas dinner with the Kovanens. It was really nice of them to invite us over, and I have already thanked them quite a bit... but I will try to get you their address or email address so you can thank them yourselves.

That new years eve party sounds like it will be a really fun thing! I'm sure Jason will like having his friends over in that new bonus room. I remember how nice it was to have a place for my friends to go so we could do what we wanted without bothering the family. Also, I wanted to thank you for going over our family conversation that we had with Emily...I'm sure she liked that a lot. And also, thanks for trying so hard to get her in on the line even if it was just for 8 or so minutes. It was nice to be able to talk to her. Thanks for being so nice to her for me.

Well, news update really quick.... the rest of the week went fairly ok. After Christmas, we took the next day to deep clean and organize the appartment. We also ended up going to a rest home for handicaped people and singing for a couple of the people there. That was probably our only service that we have done for a couple of weeks actually, so that was nice. This Sunday, we had a neat sacrament meeting. We had our branch president bless his newborn son, as well as our Christmas oriented program thingy. I ended up singing in the makeshift choir "Oh Holy Night" and "I Am a Child of God". Then after that, we went to a little dinner party that we were forced into going to...and then the rest is boring...

And ...now here I am. So I want to wish you a "Uutta vuotta" and an awesome party. Have a good week and tell Jason to have fun. (Carol, I tried to look up these words, but I'm not sure if Trevor used them correctly...translation please!)

Terveisin,
Trevor

The Christmas Phone Call

Mission Zone Conference, Christmas 2009 --Trevor is 5th from the right

As instructed, we called Vanhin Christensen at 8:00 a.m. Christmas morning. It was very hard for me (Linda) to not get all choked up when I heard Trevor's voice. It's an emotional thing for a "mom". Trevor was at a member's home about an hour away from Kajaani. Apparently, Kajaani (pronounced Kiani) is a town much like Preston, ID. It has a small city center with stores with farm land surrounding it. There are outlying towns around Kajaani and some of the members live from 1-2 hours away. Sometimes, Trevor and his companion travel by bus or train to these areas to do tracting. So if they find investigators, they may not get back in that area again for a few weeks since it costs them about $150.00 (US$) to travel to these outlying towns. Sometimes the members will come into town and pick the missionaries up and take them out to tract. Wow! that would be like traveling to Provo and back for the day.

Most of the members in Kajaani are older widowed or single women. So Trevor and his companion visit them on their bikes. Also, the most recent investigator was a young man from Beijing, China. He is attending school in Finland and was very interested in the "peace" the gospel brings to his life. Since he didn't even understand about Christianity, Trevor and Elder Henderson had to begin their discussions at a very basic level....in English. So far, it seems that it is truly a world-wide church since they have taught Finnish, Chinese, Swahili, Cambodian, and Croatian investigators.

On Christmas morning, Trevor and Elder Henderson went to the members' homes in Kajaani and sang a Christmas carol to each of them. The dad of the family they visited for Christmas dinner drove to Kajaani to do his home teaching (they live an hour away from Kajaani) and then picked up the missionaries (Trevor and Kurt) to join the family back at their home. The father and son both served missions in England. Most people don't really speak English in Kajaani, but this family does because of their mission experiences. We are so grateful for good members watching over our missionaries.

Right now, there is about 30 minutes of daylight. On December 21 (Winter Solstice) the sun never came up and it was completely dark for the entire day. Trevor is approximately 30 kilometers from the Arctic circle. He hasn't seen any Northern Lights yet, but the temperature was -20F on Christmas Day. He said it wasn't that cold riding his bike, but he was using his skiing clothes and gloves. (Smart boy) Trevor said the food in Finland is pretty bland...not as spicey as American food. The chocolate is very good however, and he put on some weight indulging in treats when he first arrived in Finland. (Smarter still...)

Trevor told us to say "hi" to all our family members. We actually had Helen & Glayd and Janice & Gary listen in on 3-way calls so Trevor was able to talk to them as well. We even had Emily (Trevor's special friend) join in on our call so they could visit. One hour was not long enough to really get all the visiting we wanted with Trevor. But, we are grateful that he is doing well and learning the language. He is truly being blessed by our Heavenly Father and he is happy doing the work and sharing the gospel.

Merry Christmas -- "Iloinen Joulu"

Zone Conference December 2009-Having a Little Fun!


(email received on Dec. 21, 2009)
Dear Family,

You can call me on Christmas Day at 5-6 pm (Finland time) which is 8-9 am your time. I will be expecting you at 5 pm to 6 pm --we only get like an hour of calling time. I put a gap in between my hour and Elder Henderson's time so if something happens we can still get in contact. I will call you if you don't call in the first 15 minutes. Um yeah, I will be at a members house so I can give you on the land line when you call me. ..that way its cheaper. They may not have a land line though. I'm not sure.


T (our investigator) is not doing so hot with our discussions right now. She just recently got sick and her boyfriend just had to get surgery. She canceled the baptismal date. But, she still loves the BOM and we are trying to keep her reading. She is telling us it is getting harder to read it. lol . ...go figure. But we are trying to get her to set another date to be baptized. Our other investigators are not doing much right now.

I have CDs that I am putting pictures on. We have a photo shop her in Kajaani, but its a little expensive. Your Christmas package just got returned because I put an areosol can in it. But I'm sending it out again soon... maybe today. Sorry, I will try to send some photos to you soon.
I may get transfered right after Christmas, but I'm not sure.

I just got your Christmas packages last Friday at zone conference. The mission office didn't call me when the package arrived so I didn't know they were there yet. I will look for your other package, and I'll eventually get it so don't worry about it. The posti store told me that things would be about a week late because so much mail is coming through around Christmas time.

Rakastan teitä kaikki. pysykää terveisia ja lämmin. (I love you all. Stay healthy and warm.)

Trevor

The Book of Mormon and the "Spirit"

Dear Mother,
Well, this week has been quite busy...lots of investigator stuff to do. We have an investigator that is quite interested. Her name is T and she has been looking for the right church for some time, and she also told us she has had a spiritual experience after meeting us the first time. Here is the story. So we taught her at her door tracting, for maybe 15 min. Then she told us to away, and we did. She told us that after she shut the door, the Spirit hit her and she felt really bad that she told us to go away and she almost went to go get us back. But she didn't. Then later the next week, Elder Henderson contacted her with another missionary on splits and ended up giving her a BOM and asked her to call us back in a week. She did call and she had read about 100 pages already. She really likes the BOM, and we have taught her twice (2 discussions) and she has come to church to see if it is the correct church. That's about it so far. We have a teach this coming Tuesday with her and we hope we can commit her to baptism. We have some other investigators, but that's probably the most exciting one.

Oh nooo... I didn't think that the tape would go through a machine thingy in the mail. I will try to make another one. but that last one took me a couple of weeks. so it may be a little bit... maybe a New Years gift. Thanks for all your prayers and lovely imaginary gifts...lol. I really appreciate your support and love while I am up here in the North. Btw, how are things coming at home. I forgot the number that you need to call me at for Christmas... that and I don't know when my call time is allowed. But I am going to send it to you in a letter and also in a email next week. That way you can know how to call me. Rakastan teitä kaikki ja toivotan että te olette onnellisia tätä joulua.

Rakaudella,
Vanhin Christensen

PS I'm sending the Christmas gifts off today!!!!! Hope you all like them. Trevor.

Website for St. Lucia Day...a Scandinavian Christmas celebration...very interesting to see inside their church and see the program.
http://svtplay.se/t/123386/luciafirande_i_svt

"Anteeksi" --- Sorry

Dear Family,

Ok, I'm not spending a lot on christmas gifts. But, I wanted to get you all something from Finland if I could. It will take me a little bit of time to make some videos. I will try and send those to you all next week, and they should get there just before Christmas. I am going to be able to call sometime on Christmas Day. We don't know when quite yet though --anteeksi. Also, the calling card will work and you can plan on calling me, not me to you. So, I think you will have to call our cell phone, and you will have about an hour. And if I am at a member's house, I can probably give you the number to their landline. Not all people have landlines here in Finland, though. Everyone here has a cell phone. I will email you either next week or the following week with more information.

I will try to ask about the pen pals for the Young Women. But I am not so sure the girl will know that good of english to write letters back and forth. I'll have to check with the family. The girl here in the ward hasn't been in church lately. She has been sick for a couple of weeks---anteeksi.

Our work with the P's has slowed down. We're not sure they are really interested in moving forward. I will try to see if they would care to email Carol Armstrong. (Carol is from Finland and has ancestors that may be related to them) They have told us they are quite busy with school and work, but we will see. The Swahili and Cambodian families ...we haven't been able to get ahold of this week. We got another investigator this week. He is a single father about age 23, I think. He is quite interested at the moment, and he has been reading the BOM quite a bit. I think that he is our best investigator so far. Also, we finally got a Croatian translator at church this last Sunday. The translator helped us talk to this old Croatian lady who has just showed up at church the past couple of weeks. It turns out she has a lot of family problems and is financially unstable, so she decided to come to church and ask for help. We met her son and his family and found out about them and had them come to sacrament meeting. However, the mother and the family aren't on good terms, so its a little up in the air how things will turn out. Hopefully, we can teach the grandma and the family and help them out that way. Also, the father and mother of the family have a drinking and smoking problem. It is so bad its causing them to not have enough money to help the grandmother. Well, thats about it for our investigators.

I haven't gotten to go to the temple here in Finland just yet, but maybe if i get moved into the Helsinki area, I might be able to go on a change day. My companion went a couple of weeks ago when I was in the language classes in Helsinki. Umm, my new bike is good. It is a little hard to stop, but it rides well. Your package has not arrived just yet at the mission home, but it should.
Thank you for trying to support me more by going to the temple and especially your prayers. I am feeling just fine about the mission. Mostly, I'm doing great. It is a little depressing at times when I can't talk so well to people on the street. Mainly my frustration comes because they want the information right then and its really fast talking and communicating. I haven't quite gotten down the speed with the language. I always have to pause and say, "anteeksi" and try to think of the word I want to use or don't remember. But if I am with the members, I can comunicate just about what I need to or want to say. However, my chit chat still lacks quality and speed. Luckily, I have a knowledgeable trainer who knows when to bail me out....Elder Henderson!! lol

well g2g thanks --- "kiitos" (bye)...
hugs, Trevor

P.S. Yup, I have a picture of Thanksgiving dinner with Elder Henderson and I. We got the table cloth and table decorations. The dinner from Sister Henderson was great.