"Golf-peli & Palvelu" - Golf & Service

May 17, 2010

Hey Mom and family,

hmm, well this week has been a little dead. We haven't gotten any investigators yet and are still doing a lot of searching. I'm sure your prayers have been helping and I think they might need to continue. This last week we were able to get some service done for a member family, and we have been trying to get some more for non-members as well. Good news is that we found a Chinese girl who agreed to meet with us on Tuesday. She doesn't speak (Finnish or English?) very well, but I have a certain feeling about her. I think she will be our next investigator.
I have met Elder Slade once, but next time I see him I will have to talk to him more. Thanks for the heads up (Elder Slade is from Cache Valley). Sometimes, Elder Bradshaw and I talk, but only a little maybe every 3rd week. I have not heard anything about “P”. But I'm pretty sure he is doing well. Maybe I can send him a letter or something and see how he is doing.

It’s good to hear that Kate is speaking and Garret likes to have you around.,..lol. By the way, you are going to have to teach me how to take care of children when I get back. I know so little and I was always afraid to hold little newborns. Yikes, I feel like I would break them on accident, they are just so fragile.

As for me and Elder May, we are working on our relationship. Elder May is still a little quiet but we thought we would work on our team working skills. Tell Dad thanks for the pictures. I am planning on sending some pics via email soon.
Love, Trevor.
PS We went golfing this morning with the bishop. So I'll tell you about it in a letter or next week.

Elder May, Bishop in Seinajoki, Elder Christensen

Elder May: “Finland is full of surprises, in the winter it can get to -30 Celsius, and +30 Celsius in the summer, and last week we were in jackets one day and the next we were putting on our short sleeve shirts - it was crazy. The Finns are telling us that it never gets this hot in May, and it will last about a week then go back down, but it has been pretty warm and we have been sweating bullets. But we are having a blast and it is getting so beautiful, the leaves have started to grow and flowers are blooming. Every now and then, Elder Christensen and I can smell the ocean when a big tropical storm blows in. I love Elder Christensen. This week we have really focused on strengthening our companionship unity and it's doing wonders. We are both happy and more excited to do the work. At the moment we still do not have any new investigators, but we have a couple of potential people… it’s just extremely difficult to set something up with them. And we have district meeting with President Brown this week and we are figuring he will have some magic bullets he can give us …in other words, words of counsel and advice.

So a little about the pictures, last week Elder Christensen asked our bishop if there were any golf courses in the area… he was just curious. And before I know it, we are going with our bishop golfing on p-day for an hour and half. And me, never having been golfing was a little hesitant, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We went and drove some balls first while Elder Christensen taught me some tips, then we did a short 3 hole course, and we can say that I still need lots of practice but it was fun to spend time with our bishop and strengthen our relationship with him. And I testify that only through the gift of tongues are we able to speak this language, we hear and learn new words every day, it just seems to be like the never ending story. And I love summer because it is so much easier to speak to people than in winter.

Last Friday, we had splits with the district leader and his companion who was Elder Bate. I learned some great things from Elder Karlsson, such a blessing it is to be able to work with other missionaries. See how they do things, talk to people etc.

And so this convention thing we went to in our city's center didn't really go the way we thought it would. When we got there we found out that preaching was forbidden so the only things we could really talk about /advertise was food storage and the service the church does around the world with all the catastrophes. But I felt that the most success came from our tent neighbor - Elder Christensen got to talk to her for a while and tell her about our church and the Book of Mormon. Even though she didn't want to take a book, it was a great opportunity and who knows, maybe down the road she will be more interested.” Elder May