New Year -- 2010

Our new investigator, John, with Elder Henderson

Dear Family,

The reindeer ornament that Arica, Celeste and Mom received from me for Christmas is actually a "joulupuki" or santaclause. The direct translation is Christmas goat... lol. Its completely Finnish, and it was just something I thought the girls could decorate their Christmas trees with and it's a candle holder for Mom. I'm glad Dad liked his ties and Jason his cologne. I received your last package with the tree in it. We set it up so that was quite nice. I can probably bring it with me and save it to use next year. Actually for Christmas, we went into the forrest and cut down a live tree. We were able to decorate it because a member gave us some old ornaments she didn't want anymore. Thanks for the socks, too, they are quite warm. I'm wearing them right now.

I didn't get transferred this month so I am not moving. Change day was on Dec. 27th, in between New years and Christmas. So, I'll be here in Kajaani for another 5 weeks or so at least. I really don't know if I will move to another area or not. Tuula is gone out of town for the holidays but she is coming back Thursday. Perttu has been busy with his two kids... He has agreed that he needs to get baptized but wants to do it in the river... so he wants to wait for summer. lol We have another new investigator! John, who is from Afganistan, was converted to Christianity but hasn't ever been baptized. So we are working with him. He agreed to be baptized on the 23rd of January, but we will see when it really goes through. Also, he bore his testimony yesterday in church! No way. He totally felt the spirit and loves it.

Lutherin Church in Helsinki

I sent off a SD card just barely, but I need to warn you... I forgot to copy down some recipes and then delete them. So I have some food recipes on it. Other than that I was hoping you could share pictures with friends and family. The big white building in the picture is the huge Lutheran church in Helsinki. I will take lots of pictures, so don't worry about that. We (the missionaries) can't go cross county skiing with members... its forbidden like the forbidden fruit. grrr....We did hear about the shooting in Espoo. Sad.... it was a Croation who thought his wife was cheating on him. Terrible thing...the members told us on New Years Eve about it. Also, I didn't get to take any pictures of the New Years Eve stuff that went on here. But it was somewhat interesting because they had a gathering in the town center where the major (mayor? not sure if this is what he really meant) talked about what the coming year could bring. Also, they had some town fireworks and had some really young girls dancing to get the crowd riled up for the speech. It was all pretty fun. Well thats about it for the week.

By the way, I have been really tired as of late. Not that I haven't been tired this whole time but I really just have been tired this past week. no real reason why. Other than that things have been going well, and I have been keeping a good journal so that I can tell you all what has happened on my mission when I get back home.

bye for now, Trev