9/27/10 French, Nepal and A "Billet"

Savonlinna Lake at Sunset

Hey family,
Well this week has been the best in a while. Well, some success in the work. So this week, we meet with our new investigator by the name of "B". That's French for "welcome". Anyway, this is the guy that we met forever ago and gave him a French Book of Mormon. He was the one who ended up reading half of it and is still going. Crazy. But we needed a couple of supplies in French, and also, we needed to find some time when he could meet. Thus, it took so long to start meeting or teaching him. So, really we are just working with him and helping him start to pray about the BoM so that he can get his answer. Our other investigator from last week, "D", the Finnish/English speaking Nepalanese man. He came to church, and it was great. He even brought his friend who was visiting him for the weekend. I was soooo surprised. So right now, he is still at the same point as "B", looking for his answers from Heavenly Father. So we are just sitting pretty so to speak at the moment. They are on track, and we are still trying hard to find some more people.

Annikin lane...reminded him of Star Wars

So, your adventures have sounded pretty awesome. I would have loved to go to the car show and check the Bugatti Veyron out. Oh well, I'm doing more important things here. AND, I will be watching General conference in Kuopio probably this next week. We are staying with the district leader, and having a "billet!!!"... that's a party. No, not really we will be behaving ourselves. But, both me and Elder Slade are super excited to go to gen. conf. I don't remember being this excited ever for gen. conf. to roll around..... odd how the mission will affect that.
Also, the new rims ought to look pretty good. Send me a picture if you get a chance when you get them on the Jeep. Thanks. Good luck with your fingers this week. I hope you get all five back, too. And remember, I am praying for those fingers, as well as the whole family's safety. Thanks for your support.

love, Trev

P.S. That was a really cool idea to send me Emily's mission blog from the last week. If that is a regular thing, let me know. I would like to keep updated.... if not, no biggie.

9/20/10 Shotgun Talk & New Investigator

Family,

As for what has been going on here.... a lot has happened in the past week. Last week I said that this week would be the best I've had in a while. and it has...

This week I started out by just doing the normal stuff, but I had a meeting with one of our investigators. "P", we went over to his house and taught him about baptism. We then asked him if he would be baptised in like a month, and of course he said no. We expected that. So we then used the situation to ask him what would be holding him back, and trying to help him see his concerns about changing his life. Really though it felt and he acted like he just didn't fully desire to do anything. so in the end we asked him to come to church and he said he would.( later in the week, he ended up not coming which by this point is a good indicator that we should give him some time and come back in about a month or so to see if he is ready to start acting on what we are teaching. Some good news though is that we have been in the process of meeting with some other man"D", who is a Nepalese man. We were able to get ahold of him this week, and he said that he was really busy, but he would be at church and we could discuss the gospel then. Funny thing was, that he actually did it. He came during sunday school, and we taught him a little of the gospel. He was really open and agreed to meet with us some more and start reading the Book of Mormon. OH, he speaks English well , and he can speak Finnish well enough to get by. He is buying a restaurant here in Savonlinna. Anyways it was really good,and the best part was that I could tell he was feeling the spirit, despite some other factors,( that is another story). Thats about how the work here is going.

Another thing, this week was that we had a special training meeting in Oulu, and it was really good. President Brown focused on teaching by the spirit, and receiving revelation as you are teaching. It was really good, and I have been trying to work on this for a long time so it was nice to get that form this meeting. Another thing was that pres gave us a challenge to re read the B of M before Christmas, while marking 4 things: Christ and his references(names), his attributes, his words, and the doctrines of the BofM.... all in different colors. His challenge was aiming at giving us more spiritual power that would come from the Book of Mormon. Personally, I was and am excited to do this. I definately felt like this would help me have a stronger conviction and more powerful testimony.

Lastly, this Sunday I gave a shotgun talk... I found out sat. night that the person who should be giving a talk was out of town for his son ( another story) and so I gave a long winded thought as a talk. It wasn't very good. ....lol. I laughed at how dad this week, in his letter, said how great his talk was..... sort of ironic.

anyways thats this week. Thanks again for writing and I love you all.
trev

ps oh, I got the retainer fixed already.... it was 25 euros. but I have the receipt... so I'll try and get the form filled out. bah... I'll have to talk to you next week about it more though. Pretty much, its under control at the moment. oh and I wanted to ask, but you can answer in your next week email--- What are the girls sizes and yours? I would like to be ready this Christmas on gifts and I thought I should know. lol. I'm guessing you are a medium and what is that in euro numbers? 40? or an american 8?..... anyway, just curious.

oh lastly, I got a letter from Elizabeth today... I was quite surprised.... thought you might like to know. lol. It was good to hear how she was doing. Yes, I did get my present off to Emily for her birthday.... last week in fact..... me beaming......:)
I'm on the ball ....oh, yeah.....
ok well, I got to go..... love you !

9/13/10 Birthday Cake & Awakening Finland

Fam,

Oh yeah, I did make Elder Slade a german chocolate cake and change calls came. We are staying put. nothing terribly new. I also fixed one of his ties for him and made him breakfast too. Unfortuantely, that was the best part of the day....lol... rotten luck. Also, I soon realized that you can't hide a birthday cake from your companion when he lives with you.... lol.

Hey, so that's ok about the dental stuff.... I am going to take care of the re glueing thing and like I said last time you can find out the stuff about the dental insurance. I don't think it will be a problem just yet.

(We test drove a car this week for fun.) So are we getting new cars? an audi a 6 supercharged sounds pretty cool. Is it faster than the Jetta? that's what I want... lol.... faster and quicker. You should definately keep me updated on what kind of cars you end up looking at. Oh and I will most definately have a couple of parties at the house when I get home. Hopefully my friends/college dudes/dates won't think it's tacky being at the parent's house. ...lol Send me a picture of the new sectional when you decide on one. I would like to feel at home if I can when I actually get home.

I did get Kate's "kisses email" from Celeste, but i dont know if i can open it just yet. ...but I'll figure it out in a second. Thanks for telling me 'hi' from Elizabeth... How did you see her? I'm assuming you met her at a golf match for Jason. BTW, how did she seem like she was doing? I haven't heard from her for a really long time. Oh, and I haven't ever gotten a letter from Cecilia. I was hoping that I could eventually get in contact with her someday. I might even be able to say a couple of things in Swedish with her. ...lol.

So this week... the overview of it all.... is that we still don't know what is going on with "M" We did find a congo french guy.... we just haven't been able to get over to him. We are still waiting for our supplies in French to arrive as well, so we can't really teach him until those get here. We get those this Friday, so maybe next week I'll have something more to say about him. "P" our other inv. from way back... we are trying to get ahold of him and ask him how he is doing. We are getting a lot of support from the ward members. They are getting behind us more and more the longer we are here. It helps to be in the same area for a while. We even got one sister to now believe that there is a new awakening coming to Finland and Europe. We had a good DA with her and were able to testify strongly.... so hopefully, we can get this ward to change the Savonlinna area with us. ;)

Lastly, I will send some picts next week when I remember to bring my converter with me. I forgot. ....sorry. Also I'm trying to get caught up on letters so I'll write you another letter when I can..... maybe on that bus ride I have one this week. Once again, thanks for all your prayers this week. I can tell that they are helping out alot, the members seem to be more open to what we have to say.
love
trev

9/6/10 -- Wisdom Teeth and Home Teaching

Hey Linda,

First off I wanted to ask you some stuff.... It's about my dental stuff. So, my retainer has once again broken. lol. It's terrible how many times its happened. So, good news is that I'm in Finland where I can see a dentist. Anyways, I was wanting to know if our insurance would cover it or if I would have to just fork over the money with my credit card. I have a $800 limit so I think I could cover just a glue and tweek job if it didn't get covered by the insurance first off. I really wouldn't mind having a bracket broken, but I noticed that my front two teeth are getting a slight gap in the middle. I don't know why they are doing that. It should just be an easy glue job like last time, but this time I have two brackets that are broken.

Also, another item I felt like I should have checked maybe just through you, is about my wisdom tooth. It is coming in (one crown is poking through) and I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't have any interference with my other teeth (make me loose my other tooth next too it). I've tried feeling around with my tongue, but I can't tell for sure what is going on. If you could go to Gunnel and get my last x ray records maybe Celeste could tell if it will be a problem. I haven't really had a problem with it, but I just wanted to check before it would become a problem, now would be the time to have it removed if I needed to....

that's about all for now. I'll be getting on again at 5:00 pm, my time.... 8 am yours. we can chat then and see what we should do.
tell you more about this week later. bye.
trev.

2nd email: I just noticed that my teeth don't have such a large gap like they did a day ago. wierd.
I am also not in a rush to get my wisdom tooth looked at but if I can I'll have the dentist look at it.

Hmm, sounds like a eventful week.... for you all. What with the sod laying and yard work at Arica's. Well, this week for me has been quite the opposite, a little dreary. It's been raining almost every day and "M" still says she is still sick. So we have been patiently waiting for a chance to meet with her, as well as working really hard at finding someone new. OH, this week had a little funny story...well not really but this week when I was out on the steets I tried approaching this young man. As soon as I got his attention, he saw my name badge and freaked out, and started running. Only then did I realize he might be handicapped. I felt a little ridiculous. Another thing about the missionary work, is that the bishop has asked us to help out with the home teaching, (we only have two priesthood holders) and so that should give us a good chance to get the members to spread the gospel with their friends. I think that it is going to help a lot. Well, that's about all for the week.

Well tell me what is happens next week. oh, and I didn't get the pictures of the grass being laid, but i can imagine pretty well. I've done a few in my days. lol.
love you all and hope that dad's fingers get better.
Trevor.