Great week!

Wow, everybody sounds great as usual!

I got two awesome packages today! One from my beloved mother and the other from Brooke Brown! Thanks so much! Se todella toi hymyn! (The translation was great! psBrooke)

Dad you are a funny man!

Mom, there is an especially large mansion in heaven waiting for you!

The rest of you, stay on moms good side so you can stay in the mansion from time to time!

This week we had some great things happen!

On wednesday we all saved some P day time so that before district meeting we could have the first anual Tampere Turkey bowl! It was super fun. I threw a touch down and ran a few first downs! No, free throws though!

We went to teach an older gentleman in our ward this week and he opened his door and welcomed us right in. He tells us to sit down and wait there and that he is going to pick up his wife and will be back in 10 or so minutes. We were confused because he was just leaving us there alone. So he shuts the door and leaves and I look at my companion and say we cant just sit here! So, after going to the bathroom we suit back up to go knock on doors while we wait. As we are slipping our shoes of we hear our member walking back up to his apartment. We both say, "Here he comes!" We then take all our layers and kick our shoes off and run back to the couch and sit down and as we sat down he opens the door. He came in and saw us and has no idea that we had even moved! It was kinda funny!

A super fun story this week. We had suprise splits with the Zone Leaders and I stayed in our area with Elder Heaney. That day we had planned to meet with our Bishop to see what he wanted us to do in the ward. We met with him and he had some great advice for us and now we have some good direction. Afterwards he asked if we wanted to go get something to eat with him. Naturally we didnt really resist! We go to their form of an American restuarant called Daddys Diner. Pretty cool place, looked like 5 n diner. The waitress comes to us and asks us what we wanted to drink and the Bishop asks, "onko teillä Root Beer?" I immedietly perked up! Then the most amazing thing came out of the waitress´s mouth... "Kyllä." Not 2 minutes later a nice, cold, tall, frothy glass of Root Beer was sitting in front of me! I almost cried! So, yes I, after 7 months of searching have finally had Root Beer in Finland!

This week one of my favorite members in the ward came up to us and invited us over for Christmas! I almost cried again! I am quite an emotional guy now! In Finland they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. The member said that Santa Clause would be coming to there house to deliver the presents while we were there! Super exciting! Kinda cool that its not even December yet and we got that day all booked!

We went to our investigators house to see how she was doing. Her son answers the door and says she isnt home. We start talking to him and we realize he is 16 and the perfect age for our group of young men that play Sähly every week. So, my companion asks (in finnish, this is all in Finnish) "Do you play Sähly?" the boy responds "sorry, what?" and my companion says back, "Alright!" There is no way I can make this as funny as it actually was but we got a great laugh out of it!

I was asked the question if Finland is a poor country this week and its interesting. Finland is one of the most expensive missions in the world. Its 7 euros for a medium sized bottle of mouth wash!

I thought for sure the Lord would want to humble me by sending me to a third world country. Instead He sends me to one of the most 1st world places. I have realized that He definitely knew what He was doing because I have never been so humbled in my life. Finland is the perfect place for me. A beast of a language and a very hard hearted people that I love so much. I have a testimony of missions and I am so glad that I get to be on one!

Have a great week!

Vanhin Tippetts