"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.