Google Maps

So anyone who is interested...go to www.googlemaps.com and put in Trevor's address. It will show you where he lives and there will be a picture of his apt and views from his street. It is fun to see what he sees every day. Also, he is fairly close to the famous castle in Savonlinna....he is right next to a large lake and it's very beautiful right now. The restaurant down the street has more pictures available for more landscape views.

Elder Slade and 1st Week in Savonlinna

Elder May, Elder Bailey, Elder Henderson, Elder Christensen in Seinajoki before transfer...

Hey Family,

So.... um yeah, this week went pretty well. My new companion is Elder Slade and we actually do have some good things in common like both of us are from Cache Valley.... so we as you put it... we "hit the ground running" for our first week. Cool, I didn't know that you had already talked to Elder Slade's mother earlier last summer.

We started off on Wednesday doing some normal missionary activities here in Savonlinna. We found a guy on the street that seemed interested and got to go and teach him on Thursday. Only one problem, he was drunk as a skunk. So we told him that we would come back today when he wasn't drunk. I guess we'll see how this goes. Sadly, he might not be ready today. As for the rest of the investigators, there aren't many. There is an older lady who isn't really looking to be baptised. Her grandson just got cancer, and she is afraid that changing churches would shake up the family further.....sigh....I wish everyone could see that the gospel would make their lives better not worse.

Sorry I don't write faster ...oops write you more later.... sorry weird library here. ...grrr. I really only have time to write the family and Pres Brown an email every week so I mostly do letters to everyone else....I'll write more in a letter.

love you, Trev

2nd email sent later on Monday...

Ok, so I'm back. the emailing here in Savonlinna is a little weird becase they don't have reservable computers here, and they are only available for 15 minutes at a time. So... I am actually here at 5:00 pm trying to finish up.

Pendilino Train in Finland

So for the change this time, I actually had less stuff to move than what I had last time when I moved from Kajaani. One huge thing missing was my bike. Unfortunately, my bike is still in Seinäjoki because they wasn't a place for it on the train. When the office bought my ticket, they bought a "pendilino" where there aren't bike places. It would have been extra awkward. That and I really couldn't handle having a bike plus my baggage. I barely made it as it was ..let alone adding a bike. So... that means that Elder May is trying to sell my bike in Seinäjoki. I tried to do it myself before I left, but half of the bike shops were closed for holiday or something. That and no one would take it. grr... So I'm using/buying another missionary's bike from Savonlinna. Its not the best, but at least I can re-sell it when I leave. I am just going to say I hate using bikes on the mission. They cause so much problems. As for the typewriter, it fit nicely into my bag and so I had two big ones and a small carry on. It was still hard to move 3 bags though. The best thing would be to have just a big and a small or two big luggages.

So what I arranged to do with Emily is to have her write me emails like she was doing normally, and then I am writing back with snail mail. I usually do this with everyone that emails me. Not my favorite thing to do, but look at how much more email you get every time, Mom. lol It's practically what I just did in this last sitting. Also, Emily got her mission call... and she told me just that..... she didn't say where she was going. I guess she will write me a letter and let me know. I am dying to know. She said she told you, but didn't want you to spoil her surprise, so don't tell me.

Thanks for the emails and the packages ( the last one still has not come from Elder May....) ;) I'm sure it will. Until then, I will keep taking lots of pictures. Tell me about your trip to Lake Powell, eh? I would like to hear about how it went.

love you all, Trev

Some Pictures from Savonlinna

Ice Sculpture Event in the Winter

Summer days playing in water by the Castle...I guess our missionaries won't be doing this! lol

Finland's top ten are among the oldest city in Savonlinna (founded 1639) is the Saimaa Lake District, an internationally famous tourist center. Natural beauty, St. Olaf's Castle, baths and inland waterway transport have attracted visitors to the city over a century. Also, culture has been strongly involved in the picture. The first opera performances were back in St. Olaf's Castle in 1912. Today, St. Olaf's Castle and held there in July opera festival in the city operate façade.

Castle for opera and orchestra concerts....maybe the missionaries can take in a concert or two?

Going to Savonlinna - Transfers again!! 6/14/10

Savonlinna, Finland....means "Castle of Savonia" and was founded in 1639. It is in the Saimaa lake region. There are 27,726 people in the city.

Hey Family,

Yeah, so I didn't get mom's letter package yet. And it is change calls this week. IN fact I am going to Savonlinna. so I will get you the address when I get there. I am leaving tomorrow early in the morning. I've heard that in Savonlinna they have opera house and a lot of lakes. It's supposed to be really beautiful there so I will be taking some pictures. Hope you're happy, Mom! More pictures coming your way. Anyways I am going to have elder may send off my package there.

hmm, so a little bit about this week. It went really well, I was able to do a lot of work with elder may and also had district conference here last friday. On friday we did some mass trackting with everyone 10 missionaries... It was pretty sweet to have us all there doing missionary work together. so on monday we found a new investigator, K is his name, He is about like 40ish and divorced. He is a little slow on the progression, but he has started reading the book of mormon and a couple pamphlets we gave him. Which is really hard for some people to do. I'm not completely sure how much he really understands what it means that joseph smith is a true prophet( but I guess we will try to teach that more clearly and bluntly this next teach, its today.) Also that girl,K, that we were trying to meet with... we finally got her to meet us and teach her. She had a lot of questions about receiving revelation our first meeting, so we ended up teaching the whole lesson on just that this time. The best part is that she realizes that we eventually want her to get baptized and wants to meet with us so she can learn more. She is definately searching, I think she just doesn't realize it or see it. I have a feeling that she will definately get baptized in the future if she just tries some things we have taught her about receiving answers/revelation.

Lastly this sunday Elder may and I had a cool experience with a mother and her daughter. T age 45 or so and M 25ish. Sorry.... back up a little. So after I had packed and gotten dinner elder may and I went out tracting, even though we didn't feel like it.. We came to the planned area and met this lady who after a breif conversatoin told us all of her neighbors weren't interested. This was sort of a bummer, but we went to the first door we saw and started to knock doors. The first door opened up and T was there. We talked for a little bit of time about stuff and then asked to come in. She said yes and we went in. Upon ariving we asked her daughter to join us and we then asked them some questions about their religious background. Suprisingly the mother and the daughter opened up a lot and told us about some really big experiences. Such as seeing M's deceased father's spirit. At this point we taught them a little about the plan of salvation and relized that our time was up and set a return appointment. It was really amazing to just find two people ready to hear the gospel.
so yeah this week we got some new investigators and the fammine is over. I ll have to tell you more in a letter. lol.

Elder may and I have been doing a lot better this past week with our missionary work. We had a good week with each other. So I did write P this last week. I still have yet to hear back from him, but I think it should be soon. As for the festival in helsinki for the youth. I think he may be going. I know that a lot of the young single adults go there to find husbands and wives,but I really don't know too much about it. Thanks for the info.
I hope this week I was able to give you enough info.

Love, Trevor

Knocking on Doors (June 7, 2010)

hey dad,
WEll this week has been pretty good. A lot of finding time spent in front of doors and on the roads, but all in all good. I have also been able to work more on the language. this past sunday we had a couple from canada who were visiting their relatives here. Elder may and I got to do some translating for them during sacrament meeting, so we sort of got to see exactly how much we understood really welll. Also this week we were able to visit oulu for zone coference and that was really fun to see almost half the mission..

I was able to teach a girl this past week. It went really well because this girl is quite interested it finding answers to some life questions like who to marry ect. So we were able to teach her a little about the spirit and how to dicern it. We might be able to meet again with her this next week, but its not too sure.

As for me i am doing well. Not at all too discouraged. I just keep working harder and harder throughout the week.Thank you thought for the words of encouragement. I'm sure they will help this week when the going gets tough.

Sounds like you have been doing a lot of fun things this past little while. skiing and all that. sure wish I could go skiing here in finland.lol. well tell me how your wonderful week alone with mom is. I hope this week your two get a chance to relax and enjoy the fact that all the kids and thier schedules are gone.

Thanks again for the emails and especailly the pictures. i'm going to go print them off probably today.

see ya
love '
trev.