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