What’s up everybody?
We are on fire over here in Mikkeli! Things
have just been amazing this week!
 |
| Lunch at McDonalds |
We have had a super fun week. Last P day we had
almost run out of food. We literally had no money left because we were waiting
for some reimbursements and so we were scraping. But the first of the month
came and we got some more money and we stocked up the kitchen! We even bought
2; 1 liter buckets of Finnish ice cream and ate that for lunch! It was super
fun! We have been all over the city this week. Most days we had to pack our
lunch and our dinner because we were so far away from home! Weird thing
happened to, I like hard-boiled eggs now! I bring them with me on those
kinds of days! We are teaching an average of 21 lessons every week.
 |
| Srylankan friends |
We have quite a few friends from Srylanka (I
really don’t now how to spell that!) but there are three fathers we are
teaching and their families are coming in a few months! Its sweet! A problem
though is we didn’t have any Books of Mormon in their language, Tamil. We
called into the office to order more so we could pick them up on Wednesday and
they said they didn’t have any. This morning we got a call that said they had
11! We are stoked to start getting those handed out! It was a mini miracle for
the day! These friends we have barely speak English and absolutely no Finnish.
So, we organized a Finnish class that is held at the church every Saturday! We
keep inviting people to it and then we try to give a church tour after! Its
super fun!
 |
| Teaching Finnish classes |
A cool experience we had this week. I was
ordering our train tickets to Helsinki last week and the clerk asked me a
question and I wasn’t really sure so I asked him to repeat it and a man
behind me explained it to me in English. Then after that he told me that I
spoke very good Finnish for an American and he asked me how long I have lived
in Finland and I said "8 weeks!" he was stunned! He said that he knew
people that have lived here their whole lives and don’t speak finish that well!
He added, "I heard that Finnish was a hard language but apparently not if
you are fluent after 8 weeks!" Fluent! Ha ha I’m just super good at faking
it! But it was a huge confidence booster! Then we traded contact info and he
said he would take us out to lunch next time he was in Mikkeli! Super cool guy!
 |
| Spencer's desk at the apartment |
We have discovered a sweet cookie recipe that
people here love. So, we have been making these cookies by the dozens and
delivering them to less actives or investigators! It is really helping us talk
to people who have previously rejected us coldly! Now, we are trying to
organize what we call a "Mass Cookie Drop!" We are gonna make a ton
of cookies with the ward and then split up into teams and go to every
Less-active person in Mikkeli and bring them cookies and invite them back to
church! It should be pretty sweet and we are excited to see how it goes!
 |
| Elder Jeffries, Spencer's companion |
Yesterday we had a broadcast from Sweden for
church. President Monson was going to speak at it but he stayed home this time.
I heard his wife passed away. Bishop Cause and Elder Ballard spoke to us. They
are great! It was super fun because we got to watch it in English with our Srylankin
friends. President Monson was not able to be there but he recorded a video and
they played that. When he came on we told our Srylankin friends that that was
the prophet and they were stoked! It really is pretty sweet to be blessed with
the knowledge that there is a prophet here on earth!
 |
| Splits with Elder Wessman |
We also found a man on a bench earlier this
week that was clearly drunk but we talked to him anyway. While trying not to
inhale while he spoke, he asked us why we are here and we told him that he
didn’t know? There’s a prophet! And its true! It was really fun to break that
fact down to the bones and realize that the church has been restored! He then
later went on to tell us that we were sent from Hell and I replied, "I’m
not from Hell, I'm from Arizona!" He laughed. Also on that note, when people
find out we are Mormon they ask us "So, you are from Utah?" and we
always respond "Actually we are from Arizona and Virginia!". Then
their perspective of Mormons only living in Utah is shattered! Its great!
Christ’s church is back on the earth and it
requires all of our help to tell everybody about it! We are privileged to be a
part of it and because we have been given much, much is required! Call the
missionaries and have them teach you about this church and the Book of Mormon
if you haven’t heard about yet. Once you are baptized tell more people about
it!
I know its true!
I love you all!
Love,
Vanhin Tippetts
