Here We Go! Home Soon!

Yes this really is the last email from our Missionary Elder Spencer Tippetts in Helsinki Finland.  He truly has completed the best two years of his life so far.  We couldn't be more proud of the wonderful missionary he has been.  What an amazing mission he has had.  One that has touched our lives in so many ways and I am sure has touched many of yours. Enjoy!  2 days left! 

 

We will be welcoming Spencer home this coming Thursday March 5th at 5:50pm on British Airways Flight #289.  We would love for any of you that would like to come.

 

He will give his mission report that following Sunday March 8th at 11:30am at the Monterey Building (7145 E Monterey Ave, Mesa, AZ 85209)  There will be an open house at our home that evening from 6-8pm.  Hope to see you that are able to come! :)

Dear Family & Friends,

 

I see my life broken into two parts; pre-mission and post-mission. The first part is now over, and the second one begins! AAAAHHHHH"!!!!!!!! Wow, Í have sooo many emotions flying in my head right now! 

The end of my mission is here! Sometimes it went by fast and other times it went painfully slow! I am grateful for every second of it! Its true, when you sacrifice for others you find yourself. I hope to be able to sacrifce for others for the rest of my life because, that is where true happiness comes from! 

Stories I will need to tell... Putting a fire out, tracting in porvoo and Elder Bednar. And others that may come to mind!
Tomorrow I will leave to Helsinki and spend the night there. Then on Wednesday, we check out (from the mission, not from missionary work!) and go to the temple. Then its time for exit interviews and dinner! Then Thursday morning we embark! 

See you all soon! 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

God does help us, especially when we do our best too.

These short emails from Spencer are killing me. I will take anything though.  I had asked him if he wanted me to get any food items he had missed while being on his mission and this is what I got:

• I would like some Honey Graham Ohs. I am keeping a list of the fast food I want to eat so I don't think about it too much.
• Oh also with that cereal, the chocolate bundt cake from Costco we always get for birthdays! I have been dying for that!

He ended by saying he would tell us everything else in a week. Yes Spencer returns next week. We could not be more excited.  Not sure if this is his last email or not so we shall see.  His next p-day will be a busy one since he will be packing and heading to Helsinki for his departure. Enjoy!

***Spencer arrives on Thursday March 5th on British Airways Flight 289 @ 5:50PM.

8 days friends, 8 days!!!

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, sounds like your week was really good! 

We finally broke our record of member present lessons! We got 6! We have been stuck at 5 for weeks! Its a new record! I love breaking records. 

One problem is we have over 10 lessons with members present but the people never become investigators! Oh well, we will just keep working. Things are looking even better for this week. Hopefelly everything works out well. 

We also had a record number of people in church! We had 4! It was awesome, I was beaming the whole time! 

One highlight of the week, we went on splits with the District leader. It was inspirational to say the least! We did lots of good work! 

I learned this week in my personal study about when Captain Moroni was on the banks of the river Sidon and Zarahemnah and his armies are cornered. Moroni says that God delivered the lamanites into their hands. Zarahemnah denies what Moroni says and tells that it wasnt God that saved them but it was the Nephites armor and nice weapons. I thought that maybe Moroni did get his army so well prepared that they would have just beat them like crazy. However, Moroni did everything he could to ensure victory and then gave it to God. He also gave God all the credit for the victory. It was a great insight to the character of Moroni. If we want Gods help we need to do everything we can and then we will recieve the deepest and most rich blessings. God does help us, especially when we do our best too! 

Have a great week everyone! 

Love, 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

He did send a few pictures.  Boy does it look cold. He is sure going warm up when he gets home next week. Going to be a major shock to his body!

Keep your shoes as evidence

Dear Spencer:

The days go by so fast it seems.

The Lord has blessed us all these last two years (and almost 20 days) since we dropped you off at the MTC.

I will never forget that day. It was so rushed. We took pictures as slowly as we could yet we knew the time for you to check in would come. We had no idea that it would happen in such a flash at the curb-side. As we drove away, not a word could be spoken. No one in the car knew what to say. We were so full of joy and the Spirit and yet our hearts were torn to be separated.

This may be my last letter to you while you are yet a missionary. I just want to say that you have lived up to and beyond my every expectation. The Lord has rained His blessings down upon us and given us the strength to endure your absence and we know that soon you'll be home again. What a blessing! Words cannot describe the joy we feel at the prospect of seeing you again so very soon.

My advice...

Keep your shoes as evidence.
Kiss the ground when you leave.
Hug and thank your mission president for us.

Gaze at the land and memorize the scene knowing you'll never gaze at it again through missionary eyes.

Have joy and know that you have been the missionary you always dreamed you would be.

We love you so much and look forward to seeing you soon.

Love,

Dad

Spencer will be giving his mission report

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to share with you that Spencer will be giving his mission report on Sunday March 8th at 11:30am at the Monterey Building. ( 7145 E. Monterey Ave.) Just in case any of you would like to come hear him speak. His mission has been an amazing experience.

Love,
Tonya
(Anxiously Awaiting His Return)
14 days! :)

Yellow, how ya blue´n

Spencer's email had a little more to it then last week.  For that we are grateful.  Spencer continues to work hard and attempt to accomplish the most he can in his remaining time left.  We love his enthusiasm of hard work.  Enjoy.  15 days left! :)

Dear Family & Friends,

Where do we start? We had a lesson with this family we found last week and because these types of families dont come very often we wanted to make sure we had the best member with us. So, we called up the stake president! He is soo amazing. I can confidently say he is a better missionary than I am! We invited them to be baptized and it wasnt going very well. So, he just went for it and invited them to church! It was super cool to go on a teach with him! 

Then we had another lesson with an older couple and we needed a really good member. So, we called the Stake Patriarch! The lesson went great and he testified of the importance of baptism! 

We are for some reason bumbing into the same barrier of member lessons. The goal this week is to just break that and then its open space after that! 

Maybe its my old age but, I have developed a love for raw tracting! Just knocking on doors until you are too cold to continue! I get such a rush! We have been finding tons of investigators that way. 

Our members are also setting us up with their friends. We have an appointment with one member familys friends on march 2nd! That will be super fun! 

We are sharing the spiritual thought at the YSA family night tonight. We had our most solid investigator (who we found while knocking on doors!) coming but he called today and cancelled!!! I almost cried. He said he doesnt want to meet anymore. So, thats the heart break of the day! Elder Kontinen and I decided to go to Subway and splurge a little bit. Subway in Finland is actually more of a nice resturaunt. Same quality food as in America just nice resturaunt price. 

I have been studying the ministries of Ammon and Aaron. I like these two a lot because they had problems like I do! Mine are for sure not as bad and my middle name is the same as their name! But, What I noticed is the whole time they are teaching king Lamoni and his father respectively, they are serving and doing things for others. Not only are they teaching the Gospel but they are just plain doing good in all the spare time. I believe that is a attribute of Christ. They are always willing to stop and do something for someone else even though they might have been tired and hungry. I hope to develope those types of traits in myself. 

I have hard times on my mission but for some reason I am still happy about it all! I maybe am even a little proud of some of the hard stuff. Either way, The times when I have forgotten myself the most are when I have had the most joy and have found myself! 

For real this time, have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Tippetts 

This week was soo hard!

It sounds like Spencer had a tough week but always seems to have a positive outlook about them.  He is in a tough area so it is really to be expected.  At least he is teaching and planting seeds.  With hard things comes great blessings!   Enjoy! #30days!  :)

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope you have all had a good week. We are emailing early because we are leaving to interim training tomorrow in Helsinki. We are very excited for that because its 3 days with President and Sister Watson. 

This week was soo hard! I love looking back at it because it was crazy how many rejections we got! But, if I have learned one thing on my mission it is to never give up! If we didnt just keep going despite the failures, we would have missed out on the greatest blessings. 

We were cold and tired but we kept going and we met a family from Italy that is soo excited for us to come back and teach them! We also found 7 other new investigators. 

Church was really good yesterday as well. It was kind of funny because we were mentioned three times in members testimonies! We keep running into the Stake presidents daughters friends and giving them cards or something. Then in her testimony she said that she had been praying for more opportunities to shard the Gospel! Weird how she started praying then we started meeting all her friends who then went and asked her more about the church. 

Elder Kontinen is extremely afraid of speaking in front of people. So, when I could feel his nervousness I leaned over and said, "Ill go up with you!" So we bore our testimonies and it was great. He did really well. I have a hard time being sensitive to him though because he speaks Finnish fluently! haha I give him a hard time for that! 

We ate kebab today. It was alright...

I have been reading my journal entries from earlier on my mission and I read about a time when a man came up to us and said, "Christ chose to carry his cross to his death, so too we must choose!" Something like that and I remember thinking about that a lot. Chirst made the decision to do hard things so, in order for us to be like him, we too must choose to do things that sometimes seem hard. We can always be comforted to that, He went before us and has experienced it all! 

Have a great week! 

Love,
-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Hello again from Finland

Spencer's emails seem to get smaller and smaller.  I am hoping he is just working harder and harder to finnish all he needs too.  We are down to 35 days.  I am trying hard to remain calm except every so often I burst into tears with excitement.  Sorry it's the mom in me! 

P.S.  Spencer will be returning on Thursday March 5th at 5:50pm on British Airways.  He will give his mission report that following Sunday March 8th at 11:30am at the Monterey Building (7145 E Monterey Ave, Mesa, AZ 85209) Just so you can pencil these events in your calendar. Hope to see you that are able to come! :)

Dear Family & Friends,

We had a pretty good week! 

We found lots of new people and worked really hard. It has warmed up this week so its only 0 degrees outside right now. We almost broke out the short sleeved shirts. 

We have a lot of irons in the fire right now. One doesnt speak any languages we do very well so, we are working on having this person be taught through skype from temple square. Its kinda cool! 

President and Sister Watson came to Jyväskylä this week and we had interviews with them. It was well timed because I was having a rough couple of days. I related our area to walking up a sandy hill. Everytime you take a step you slid back a step and a half! I said that I guess if I can just start running faster eventually the sand will run out and I will just walk up the mountain! President affirmed that it is just hard work that is required. It was really special to see them because I got to be one on one with both of them and they both cried telling me how much they missed me. I cried too! I also told them that we will be visiting them in the summer! They are excited.

Lots of fun things going on this week. We had dinner with our Ward mission leader which was great. They have iPhone 6 plus. It was ginormous! I dont know how one is supposed to use that! Anyway, he is helping us a ton with the work. We also have many other appointments set up this week. Next week we go to interim training. Interim training happens every 9 weeks. I have only not been at 3 of them during my mission. I have always either been training or teaching at them! Pretty cool. It will be in helsinki at the mission home. 

Pretty run of the mill week. We walk on water (frozen) wherever we go and teach people about the gospel. 

Have a great week! 
-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Hello from Finland

Always look forward to waking up to Spencer's emails.  Sounds like he is working hard and finding success.  He will never cease to amaze me at how much he accomplishes in a week.  I love his attitude how it is always filled with a little bit of Spencer's humor.  Gosh I miss that son of mine. Enjoy!   #43days!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was ordinary but extra ordinary! We set new Standards of Excellence as a mission which are basically to have 15 member present lessons and 6 new investigators in a week. This week we had 4 member present lessons which was a huge stab to me because we killed ourselves to get things set up but they just didn't work! A positive thing though was we found 10 new investigators which has made this week get a little bit busier! We already have 6 lessons set up for this week with investigators so if we can just make sure these all go through then I am projecting by weeks end we can get 10 member present lessons. It will be the same amount of member present lessons this whole district had together, last transfer cycle. These goals that we set as a mission have been changing us soo much! The goal is just to not take any steps backward until we get there! 

As a mission we raised our vision to something higher than what was previously thought to be possible. As President says, "When the tide comes up, all ships rise." As a few have caught the vision, it has changed all of our perspectives. We have doubled in productivity statistacally as well as what one can actually see. It is quite amazing to be here right now. 

A quote that has been with me for my whole mission was from Elder Tadd R. Callister "with increased vision, comes increased motivation" If we change what is possible in our minds it becomes that way! 

It was a brisk -18C this morning so not too bad (-1F ish). We decided to take a short cut across the giant frozen lake to get to the church today! It was pretty cool! (haha do you get it? cool?) :)

We had some great experiences that I can't remember very well right now but I will do my best to re cap them! 

We searched the area book as part of the routine stuff and came across an older couple. We called them and ask if we could come over. They said yes and we went! Our member made sure to cover Abraham sacrificing his son as well as reasons for baptism by authority and how the church encourages us to get an education. We gave him 55 minutes and we took the other 5 to tell about our lesson. Over all it was delightful to be together with them. We are going back on Thursday. These are the types of missionary problems I am not sure if I will miss or not yet! haha 

We played basketball today which was fun. Watch out Cameron, I am getting good! 

Well, I think that is all the good stuff this week. We should really kill it this week! 

Oh and I also got to have lunch with Elder Kiuttu who is now serving in Lahti after the Zone meeting. It was great! 

Okay now I am done, Love you! 
-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Great Week!

Favorite day of the week!  Sounds like it is to the freezing time in Finland.  I get the chills just reading his email.  I am grateful the work is progressing in this area that didn't have much before Spencer got there with his new companion.   He is working hard to Finnish strong!  Enjoy! #50 days!

Dear Family & Friends,

Things are going well here. We are making progress with building up the area. I have taken some advice from dad to search the area book and find the names of people who have already had a seed planted in them. It has been working really well. We have found 11 Investigators from the area book so far! Not all of them unfortunately work out but at that rate of finding we should be doing well soon! Small worry I have is I may be too good of a sales person and I force people to set up a return appointment and then things dont go too far. At least they have a chance right? haha I just got to keep loving them! 

This area averaged around 1 lesson to investigators a week from the records in the area book. This last week we had 10! The Lord is really helping us along. 

Whats hard for me is adjusting to never having a free moment to having whole days blank. I got discouraged this week because things arent happening as fast as I want them too but with patients things will work out. 

Riding a bike has been a challenge for me because the last time I rode a bike everyday was at the beginning of my mission! My body hurts but I can feel myself adjusting! 

Time is short here to do all the things but it can be big! Wwe found a family that has 4 kids. They are really cool! 

I am tired but what I am learning is that the Atonement can help with fatigue. I seriously collapse at the end of every day because I have just enough energy to make there. It quite a blessing! 

Also I was quite cold this week. We biked to a far area and then we talked to this one man for like 30 minutes and I tried to set up a return appointment 5 times and he declined every time! Then I had the thought to tell him about the Book of Mormon and BOOM! He wants one, so we set up a time and then rode home. All the while I a freezing, even my Finnish companion was freezing. I didnt know If I was gonna make it home. We finally got home and I laid on the warm floor for like 15 minutes until I could feel me feet and hands again! Wow it was super cold! 

It also snowed maybe a foot today which made biking treacherous because it is coming down faster than they can plow it! 

The church is true everyone! Until next week, have a good one! 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Hello from Jyvaskyla

Waiting an extra day for Spencer's email was tough because we were so excited to hear about his new companion and new area.  His p-day changed to Tuesdays. Out of 13 new missionaries that arrived this transfer only one was a missionary from Finland and Spencer was the lucky one that gets to train him.  He wanted to train him so bad.  So now he is with a Finnish missionary who know the area they are in.  So great things are in store.  They have already had dinner appointments everyday last week.  One dinner appointment a week is a good week.  So I know he is getting fed well.  Beef him up before he returns. :)  

#57 days!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

So an overall awesome week! The transfer went well. Elder Kiuttu is training a new missionary so he was going to be down in Helsinki so we thought we could use his skills to help with the transfer! It came in handy! 

I got my new companion! His name is Elder Kontinen. He is from Finland! My first non-american companion! He is really great and we have hit it off. We speak a ton of Finnish together wich is really cool! His grandparents were in the Marjaniemi ward where I served for 6 months! He has served in the army for a year already and is just awesome! It will be a fun transfer for sure! 

We got to Jyväskylä and got a ride to our new apartment. We made ourselves at home and got started. This area didnt really have anything going on which is alright because we can get a fresh start. This week we set a baptismal date and found 5 new investigators!!!! Its awesome! We have had a dinner appointment every night so far! Elder Kontinen knows a lot of the members so he just calls them and we go over! 

It is quite the adjustment to come from my last area! We had tons of investigators and if we ever had a blank time we had some kind of administrative task to do so we would be out all day. Now, because we dont have as many progressing investigators its really hard because I have to in a sense be in the trenches all day! I guess its good for me, It builds character! 

We work hard and have a ton of fun at the same time! 

The same old stuff though so as far as reading material goes, I am not providing much! 

Its cool how the Lord can carry you through things. This transfer is going to be a challenge for sure. Of course I am more well equipped to handle it that before but, I still come home and cant do much more than get to bed! (Guess I havent really changed that much on my mission!) The Lord takes us as far as we can go and then just a little bit farther! 

Love, 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Pictures are always a bonus!

Me with the Van. and the lake frozen solid and people wlking across it to get to the center! It was -20 last night! 

Elder Richards, Veli and I at Veliś favorite resturaunt! Me making prime rib in a pan! 

Elder Kontinen and I at the train station.

Hello Everyone

We love Mondays!  Spencer is going to Jyväskylä and will be training.  We are so excited for him.  It sounds like one of the most beautiful cities in Finland.  We can't wait to hear all about his adventures there.  I still can't believe this will be his final area before coming home.  I must remain calm (66 days) but I am so excited!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are! I got my change call.

I will be training a new missionary in Jyväskylä! This will be my 11th companion in my 7th area! 

The new missionaries get here tomorrow but I won't be there to pick them up. Elder Chapman is the new AP!!! I trained an AP! 

This weekend was fun with skype and all. On Saturday we planned the whole transfer and we brought Elder Chapman down to help us. It's been fun to be his companion again for a couple days. He is one of my favorite companions. 

We have been working on the transfer mainly this weekend. It's going well. We have it planned that because I am in Helsinki but can't be with the new missionaries I will be running the transfer with guess who... Elder Kiuttu! yay! Just like old times! It will be boat loads of fun! 

We are going tonight to eat pizza with V our newly baptized friend. I'm sad to leave him but he will surely go on a mission to Arizona soon. Saying goodbye to the ward was surprisingly hard. I have been here for 2 months and we have done soo much! 

I will get my new companion on Wednesday. 

We picked up one of the rental trailers we will be using this week. While we were hooking it up we realized our nose hairs were frozen. It was -20 outside! It's real cold! 

I have been to Jyväskylä a few times and have been to my new apartment a few times. It will be an adventure for sure! 

Heavenly Father loves you a lot. I hope you can feel that! 

Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

P.S. The church is true! 

Here We Are

Yes its missionary Monday but soon to be Missionary Tuesday after the first of the year.  Spencer sounds like he is on fire.  I love how positive and how excited he is about the work.  We also can't wait to Skype with him in 3 days! Highlight of our Christmas for sure!  Even a few pictures to share! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well Christmas is here. What a great time it is to be a missionary! 

This week was pretty busy. We were traveling all over the country! All the conferences went great and we all learned a ton. We set new standards of excellence which are sort of like mission goals that each area tries to work for. They are super high so it will really stretch our faith! I am soo jealous of the missionaries that just got here because we are now figuring out how to really do things around here. Two months is still a long time so I am sure I can make a difference. In fact I am determined to make a difference! 

We had a baptism this week! His name is V.U. (abreviation) He is soo cool and what a blessing it was! His whole family was just overjoyed! Elder Richards and I have been baptizing monthly! These last two months we have had 2 baptisms. I'll send some pictures of them! 

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Preparation day, starting on January 6th will be on Tuesday. This is a mission wide change. I will now be writing on Tuesday. 

Change calls come on Friday... My prediction is Tampere 2nd ward where I was for 6 months but I have no idea!!!!! 

We had hordes of lessons this week which was fun to balance in between all the traveling. 

I also had an interview with President Watson. WOW! I love that man! He has seriously shaped my life in soo many ways! When the Rawlings left I thought it would be impossible to love anyone else more but wow its been soo fun! 

We have many appointments set up this week. We will be skyping at a members house. 

I have often wondered what it means when people say that "I know the Savior lives". I always think "you haven´t seen him, how do you know?!" As I was reading the Christmas story in the Gospels, I felt soo peaceful. It was like I had no worries in that one moment and I felt nothing but happiness. It was then that the realization came, "Hey! I know the Savior lives!" Like the He is the Gift video explains, we need to discover the gift, then we can embrace the gift and once we have done that we must share the gift. That´s what is really going to push me through to the end. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and loves us so much. Merry Christmas everybody! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

A few fun pictures from their Turkey Bowl

His Christmas Tree in his apartment.

A mom of one of his companions shared this picture with me. 

Almost Christmas

Spencer continues to work hard and is finding success in his efforts.  We love to hear how great the work is going in Finland.  It sounds like it is exploding in some areas.  So exciting. Enjoy!

Great week. Elder Richards and I were in Oulu and Jyväskylä this week and wow! Oulu is on fire right now They found 20+ investigators this week which is crazy for one companionship. Jyväskylä has been struggling and hasnt found anyone for weeks. Elder Richards and I came and we found 7 new investigaotrs in one day! It totally changed their view on finding and the found a few more this week. 

We have been really changing the way we do things after the Bednars and Teixeiras came. The whole mission is going crazy! Our record for the time I have been an Assistant was 93 investigaotrs in one week. We found 145 this week! We are starting to teach over 20 lessons to investigators with members present! this is unseen! 

Elder Richards and I have been having a blast balancing all our administrative tasks and our area. We will be having a baptism this week. Its super exciting. We also have 4 other people preparing for baptism! 

Fun story of the week we when we were going to follow up with an old referral in our area book so we drove. As we were driving down the street we saw a bunch of large houses. Similar in size to our neighbourhood which is colosal in finland. Elder Richards said, "its none of these houses but it must be that apartment complex up there." Then, as we got closer I said, "Elder, Thats not an apartment building." Behind all the trees we saw the biggest house I have ever seen! It had huge glass windows and 4 visible stories! SOOO huge! That was our house. So, we went and knocked on it and the rejected us. They have become too prideful I guess! haha But it took us 5 minutes just to find the front door! 

We are staying busy in the Work of the Lord. What a blessing it is! 

Love you all and have a good week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Hello from Finland

Love to get our emails on Monday mornings.  Spencer continues to work very hard.  There is a saying that the proof is in the pudding.  Well in this instance the proof is in his extremely worn out shoes.  Also we finally received the long anticipated picture of Spencer with Elder Bednar.  Pictures are always a bonus.  Love all the wonderful experiences this missionary of ours is having!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, not a bad week at home! Sounds like everyone is old and happy! 

Last week, we had many adventures! We ran a great training meeting with the Watsons for three days at the mission home! I cant wait for you to see the mission home here. Its quite insane! Its about as big as our house which is a mansion here in Finland! Its been said that if we had an emergency we caould have the entire mission there. Also its the biggest mission home in the Europe area! 

A real Christmas tree was set up at the mission home and I got put in charge of putting the lights on it! My hands were really sore but I remembered all the days right after thanksgiving when Tamye was over and we put up our tree. However I will never have a real christmas tree in my house! Such a nightmare! 

We have been busy teaching and baptizing this week. Just the normal stuff! 

Tongith we leave for Oulu to do exchanges there. Our flight leaves at 9pm! Including my flight home I will have flown 30 times while on my mission! Not many people fly that much in 2 years let alone while on a mission! 

Then we go to Jyväskylä for exchanges on thursday. Then we have our ward christmas party on friday! All the misisonaries in Espoo will be performing the cup rhythm from Pitch Perfect to the song Oh come all ye faithful! Its pretty sweet and should be all over youtube under #sharethegift! 

We dont have any plans for Christmas day yet. We should be making some soon here. 

I have been looking for a Nativity set. I have no way of figuring out where to get one though. Can you do a search and see if there is a place that sells them here in Espoo? dont try too hard but just see what a google search yields! 

Wow, I love being a missionary! Oh DAD!!!! Not to get truncky on you but as soon as I get home you need to teach me everything there is to know about excel! I tried making a new Key indicator analysis workbook this week and I was useless! I had forgotten almost everything and was just thinking the whole time how you would have this done in 5 seconds! I was really frustrated that I had forgotten so much! Anyway! 

Love you! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

These are some slippers an investigator made for me and these are my shoes. They arent so good for the rain!

This was when Elder Bednar visited his mission and he got to have some amazing one on one with this wonderful man.  It was an experience of a lifetime for sure!

Wow, The church is true!

Sounds like things are going great on the front! I cannot believe the cutness of luke. That picture of him and Dallin is ridiculous!!! I cannot wait to meet him at Christmas! 

This week was full of things as usual! 

We had exchanges with the Helsinki Zone Leaders in  Marjaniemi, my old ward! It was soo great being there! We had a lesson with the Bishop who is soo awesome but the lesson cancelled so I called him to tell him that we didnt need him anymore and then I asked what their dinner plans were and then invited ourselves over for dinner! It was a wonderful evening! We also did lots of missionary work as well but it was soo good to see some of my favorite members! 

We did the work and taught the word until Fridaywhen we had MLC. Wow!!! huge meeting that is gonna effect everyone! I cant tell what to you though!!! You will find out soon! I conducted the meeting. Whoever is conducting in the church always sits next to the presiding authority. So, I sat next to President Watson. tehe! Sister Watson made us a Thanksgiving dinner! It was soooo good! I almost died! Then we went to the temple and it was video 2! Now I have seen all the 3 english videos! Wow, what a great new perspective! We also got a 2 night stay at Chateau Watson (The Mission Home). Its my favorite place in Espoo, I will have to take you there sometime! 

Then we did more of the work and visited all kinds of people about whom we cant say anything in order to obey privacy laws! On Sunday we got our Christmas Eve reserved! Its with an awesome family, it will be soo fun to be there on Christmas Eve. Thats the biggest of the 3 days of Christmas! 

We have a meeting with President here in a few minutes and we will be planning the interim training for this week. There wont be a single down moment this week but its all good! 

Remember to share the He is the Gift cards and video and such! Help our missionaries to find people to teach. Im serious, members think that DA´s help the missionaries which they do, but what will help them the most is by helping them to find people who are ready to be taught. If you trust them, give them names! 

Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

No niin!

Sounds like Spencer continues to stay busy. His email was short but the content was great. Sure love this missionary.  By the way we are down to single digits tomorrow.  Just saying. 99 days and counting!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, it sounds like things are going swimmingly at home! 

Well, What a week! We set records all over the place! Elder Teixeira told us we need to be the highest performing missionaries in the field. So, we performed! This week we had 15 lessons with investigators alone! The current mission average is around 2.5 per companionship! We didnt have a single dull moment this week because we were soo well scheduled. Our days were full of running around teaching and picking up and dropping off members! 

There is apparently a huge church media campaign about to happen throughout the states. It involves time square and YouTube! It should be crazy and will last the whole month of December! Keep your eyes open for it! 

Wow, not much really to tell you other than we are working like crazy to baptize people! The work is moving so fast here! Finland used to be a place where it was hard to baptize people but its changing right in front of us! 

We had one thing happen where our member got sick before a lesson and cancelled. So, we were gonna go without a member to our lesson. Then President Watson called and said, "I just released a missionary from Oulu and he wants to go on some lessons with you." Wow miracle! So, we brought this member with us and went to teach the lessons but they werent home. So we said a prayer and he chose one door in this huge apartment complex to knock on and we went, they answered and set up a return appointment! Wow!!!! Miracles! 

Our investigators are doing well. We should have a white Christmas this year!! We have 3 people getting baptized in December! 

Life is good! Have a great week everyone! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Wow!

This was a pretty short email for having such an exciting week.  They had a mission tour with the area seventy President Teixeria and his wife.  Spencer mentioned a little about it.  Earlier in the evening I actually received an email from Sister Teixeria.  I will share her email and then Spencer's email.  Both were wonderful.  

Dear Tippetts Family,

President Teixeira and I we just arrived from touring the Helsinki Finland mission. We visit your son, Elder Tippetts in his very clean apartment and plan the week with them last Tuesday evening. During the rest of the days we traveled with him, his companion and President and Sister Watson visiting all missionaries in Zone Conferences.
You should be proud of him! He is faithful and obedient. He is doing great. He is an outstanding missionary! Thank you for all that you are doing.
May The Lord bless you always.
With love,
President and Sister Teixeira

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, sounds like every thing is going just great at home. I am sorry about the recent change of policy with chatting. President asked us to stop so we did! 

Dad, happy birthday! How does it feel to turn 30? That cake looked mighty good! I have to be honest Finnish food is getting kinda boring and that cake has my mouth watering. On fast sundays I find myself fantasizing about eating KFC. Maybe not the most focused thing to be doing. 

Anyway, what a week! Elder and Sister Teixeira actually did come and plan with us in our apartment! Pretty rare experience! It was wild how powerful these two were! Well, I would like to explain in more detail his visit but I will have to tell the details in person one day! In our planning meeting he asked us to "Think higher" and "consider all the possibilities" he told us to raise our goal of 3 new investigators to 6! A crazy goal considering we were to be out of our area for 2 days! Well after some great meetings with the Teixeiras we came home and got to work! oh we also taught two of our investigators with Elder and Sister Teixeira! that was cool! 

We worked our tails off until sunday night we had 5 new investigators. We worked until 9 oclock and decided to go home because it was too late and no one was out. So as I was backing the car up elder Richards was standing outside and stopped the only walking man and started up a conversations. I got out of the car and jumped in. Long story short the very last person we talked to this last week turned into our 6th investigator! WOW!!! We did it! 

The Spirit was strong all week as we were knee deep in the work of the Lord. Wow, I love being a missionary! This week I was especially tired. but it will one day all be over and I wont regret a thing! 

Love you all and have a great week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Yeah!

Day light savings changed and Spencer's email came in an hour earlier tonight.  Love his emails. This one had great details.  I loved every word of it.  He had one busy week.  I think he is looking forward to a calmer week this next one.  These 88,000 missionaries are amazing.  So glad I get to call one of them mine!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well here we are again! Mom, we actually moved to a new ward. This Sunday was our first sunday in church with the new ward. Espoo is about 45 minutes away from east Helsinki where we used to live. We got a new apartment and everything! Its bitter sweet though because I loved the east Helsinki ward soo much! 

This week started off with transfers! We had all the tickets purchased and the plan made. We got all the tickets out and called all the companionships in the mission. In the mean time on Monday we were moving and picking up trailers. We had to rent a trailer and borrow one from the Temple grounds keeper. Then on Tuesday we had 2 vans and 2 trailers and we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. 

Note about trailers, my backing up skills have gotten a lot better on my mission. Who would have thought? 

13 new missionaries arrived and we took them to see the temple and go to the mission home. We had an amazing meal prepared for us by Sister Watson. I always tell her that its like a cruise ship when we eat there! 

Oh and all while we were doing this 110 missionaries were moving around Finland on trains! It was cool that we were doing two things at once! 

On Wednesday morning, we took the new missionaries to the Magistrate in downtown to get signed into the country. Then we brought them to the office to do orientation. After that we brought them back to the mission home for lunch and the big meeting. 

During this meeting is when president announces the trainers to their trainees. It's always fun for us because we get a sticky note with all the companionships on it the night before! Then we had to deliver 26 missionaries to Helsinki Central. We had more people than we planned for so we had to borrow the mission presidents car! It's a little nicer than our Toyota! After we got everybody to the train station we raced back to the mission home where all the departers were. We had dinner and then the truncky talk with them (president gives them marriage advice and stuff and we just sit there.) Its good stuff to know I guess and I'll be an expert one day because I've heard it soo much! All in all the transfer went perfectly. No one got lost or missed a train! 

Then early the next morning we took them all to the airport and sent them away! Then we went home to lick our wounds to prepare for MLC the next day. Friday we had MLC and it was a huge success! We got to do the temple with an english video! We had lots of new changes from President Watson that are really hard to explain but are super cool! Also in the midst of all this I got a new temple recommend. It's in Finnish! 

Then Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! Haha!  We did almost everything possible that can be done as a missionary in one week! It was quite the week. I am really tired.

For all intents and purposes, we have a completely normal week this week. The week after however will be nuts! Elder Teixeira will be coming to do a mission tour. Also to top that week off we have stake conference and I am singing in a missionary choir! I'm scared for that! 

Our new ward is pretty cool. They had us come up and bare our testimonies. I told them about my family and how they do missionary work. I get way too much pleasure out of standing up in front of people and doing things. It was fun. 

Well kind of a normal week this week I guess? haha Thats all I got! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Hello

Love Sunday evenings.  Spencer had a great week and sounds like this next week will be busy and full of adventure. I just love all the wonderful experiences he is having.  He is learning such valuable things on his mission that he will use the rest of his life.  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week we did tons of work! We made some last minute preparations for the Mission tour this week. It required tons of time on the phone! My phone has a counter of how many minutes I was on the phone. Last month I alone was on the phone for 17 hours! My companion was probably the same! This month I have been on for 5 hours! I remember when I was younger, Dad would always ask me to call and set up home teaching or something like that. I would dread it! Now, I can have soo much going on after a few phone calls! I have really learned how to organize things on my mission. I love it! 

We taught a lot of lessons and it all ended up with 3 investigators in church!!! In our ward we had 10 Non-members! Thats because our friends family came! It was soo adorable and the ward loved them. We are in one of the biggest wards in the country so it is really cool how we all work together with them! 

For the mission tour we will have two meetings. One with the Helsinki and Tampere Zones in Helsinki. The other will be in Oulu. We will be flying with the group up to Oulu. The group being the Watsons and President Teixeira and his wife! That will be fun for sure. In the Helsinki Conference, I will be singing Israel Israel God is calling in Finnish with my companion and some others. I'm nervous because I don't see myself as a good singer but I'll be fine! 

We got to meet a bunch of the members this week. We had 4 Dinner appointments! I have never had that! The members here really are world class. There is a recently returned missionary who has got to be the coolest person alive who loves to go on teaches and go to lunch with us. Elder Richards has a doctors appointment today in the Helsinki city center so while we are there this returned missionary is taking us to lunch! He soo cool! 

What else? I am happy and alive and going strong! Thanks for getting me to this point in my life! 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland