Monday, September 9, 2013
Kuopio!
8/26/13
Well, pretty sweet week. It started with Pday in Mikkeli and I am so glad that package made it home. it was about 45 euros. So, after saying goodbye to all the people I had grown to love in Mikkeli I boarded a train towards kuopio! After loading three suit cases and a Bike onto the train I searched the whole train to see if there were any other missionaries on board. I was all alone! so I sat down and enjoyed the ride as best as i could! Two hours later I heard "seuravana Kuopio" I had arrived! So, I unloaded all my stuff onto the platform and looked around for some suited friends with name tags and I didnt see any one! So. I waited a little bit then thought maybe I should go outside. so, I locked up my bike to all my suitcases and started walking around the train station... by myself. then my common sense kicked in and told me to go back and wait with my stuff on the platform. good thing i watched all those survival shows! A few minutes later Elder Durrant showed up with Veli Ahblad. They then took me to the apartment. I unpacked and went to bed.
We went forward with a normal week of missionary work but on steroids! we taught 28 lessons this week, which is an all time record for me! This is magic land out here! People have seriously been prepared!
We had district meeting also and we went on splits with our district leader and his companion. I was with the district leader who was in the Helsinki Zone with me. We both had never been to kuopio before and we had no idea where we were going! we stopped many people and asked them for directions. after each time I made sure to give them a pass along card! That was crazy!
We have a car! It is an Opel something or other. not sure. I asked for a BMW but I guess we just dont want to look to flashy or something! ;) Its super fun to drive here. but You cant turn right on red...
Cool story, Elder Durrant and I were tracting and we knocked on one door, waited, then proceeded to the next well after both doors had been knocked on the first opens at the same time the second opens!!! So, Elder Durrant and I without speaking each choose a door and talk to them seperatly. The both shut the doors in our faces... but I believe we have discovered a new tracting technique! haha Double Jeoprody!
We went to church on sunday and the chapel here is huge! it fits like 100 people! haha Our chapels at home dwarf every church building in Finland but its okay because its true here to! BTW Kuopio is a branch because there arent enough people up here so it is the Oulu District not stake. Well at the beginning of church the second counselour asked me to come up and introduce myself. so, I went up and said all the stuff about me and my family. I mentioned that my dad is a putkimies and that my mom on parras aiti koko maailmassa! Then i mentioned how i was "born" in mikkeli and a member stops me and asks something. Me, not expecting to do a question and answer in the middle of sacrement meeting replies, "maybe?" Then she breaks into english which always makes you feel real smart and says are your parents Finns? I said no, they are americans and continued. I later realized where the confusion came from.
Overall crazy week. We are super excited about the work here in Kuopio. Thank you so much for all the support from home, I love you all!
Vanhin Tippetts
PS. Can you send me the "little missionaries book of insperational quotes and stories" book? thanks! Also, I need to buy a new jacket, is that okay?
Kuopio on niin mahtava!
9/1/13
Well howdy y´all! Great report on the week. sounds like everything is going great back home!To answer some questions: I have not seen the northern lights yet. It just got dark here for the first time about two weeks ago. For about a month the sun didnt go down.The members are great! They all love missioanries. There is one retired couple that lived in Mikkeli who moved away while I was there. It was a sad goodbye but when I got here I remembered that they moved to Kuopio! So, they had us over for dinner last night! super fun!We are doing quite well as far as missionary work goes. We found 5 new investigators last week which were all crazy miracles. Right now we have 14 total investigators and 5 of them are actively preparing for baptism.The Kuopio apartment is a little rough around the edges due to neglect from previous missionaries. The materess that I was supposed to use had bed bugs and caused the last elder to get scabbies. So, I put a call in and a few days later I had a brand new materess! Its super nice. The bed is actually just a stack of box springs and what not so there isnt actually a frame or anything. For that reason I call it my alter because I feel like I am being offered up as a sacrifice when I lay on it! We are making improvments slowly!No new jacket yet, I havent had time!I got a call that my package arrived but the sisters left the office right before it got there! So, I found someone who could bring it to Zone conference in Oulu in two weeks! Which is a crazy journey, 5 hours! That is one reason we dont do mission conference with the whole mission. Its too expensive and takes forever!This week I introduced my companion to a store called Lidl. It is the closest thing to Costco they have here. Its cheap and in bulk! So, we have been eating quite well. Also sad to report I have gained a little weight since I got here. Having a car doesnt help in the slightest!We had District meeting in Joensuu this week. We have to drive there because the sisters dont have anywhere to stay the night so we do the trip in one day! It is about a 2 hour drive with speed cameras the whole way! Talk about stressful! We also have a senior couple in our district and they are super great to have with us!We are trying to start a branch in a city called Iisalmi that is an hour and a half train ride north of Kuopio so we go out there a lot. We had it all scheduled to go out there with train tickets and all. That morning however, my companion came to me and said he didnt feel good about it. so we cancelled it and realized we had nothing to do. So, we went out and started working. We said a prayer that we could find someone. Well, we went to talk to two men who said to come back later. We taught them and both became investigators!On saturday, we went to do the same kind of thing but we were not having as much success. So, we found a spot and said another prayer and asked where we should be. After the prayer I looked up and said that we need to be in this area. Then Elder Durrant said well theres this one guy I remember that said he wasnt interested but we could go check anyway! So, we went and knocked on his door. The man opened the door and started talking to us when... his friend comes around the corner!!! Then the friend starts to talk to us when we get invited in! Inside is the original man and his wife and one son and then the other guys friend! All three of them became investigators! That brought us to a total of 5 new people this week!I would love to tell you there names of course but it is illegal...Yesterday in Elders quorum the 1st counselor in the branch presidency asked if we had any ruoka sopimuksia or dinner appointments. I said no and then explained how members receive blessings based on how much they feed us. Everyone laughed and then we schedule two dinner appointments for this week on the spot. Boo yaa!Pretty great week overall. I learned that it is possible to leave a mission as a chuckle head. It is also possible to leave as an absolute stud. The difference is a choice that a missionary must make early on to allow the mission to change him. I hope and pray that I wont just go through my mission but that it will go through me and change me! I got a looong way to go!Rakkaudella,Vanhin Tippetts
Hello hello!
The most homesick day of the week... PDAY! haha Tippetts family is killin things over there! Im glad to hear we are exorcising our constitutional rights in every sense of the term! I havent realized how much I love American until I moved here! Finland is great too though.
This week... I tried Munki! It is a Finnish traditional doughnut. As I write this I cant help but think of the Finnish missionaries in the states writing home saying, "I tried a churro! Its a traditional American dessert!" Either way it was nuts!We played soccer with the young men. I scored 4 goals, two with my left foot! That brings my career total goal count to... 4!As, I was walking in the story earlier today I walked past a display with Iron Man 3 on Blu-ray! It was freaky! I remember when the comercials came out now its on dvd!We taught a man who is 80 years old and says he remembers when Helsinki was bombed! Not sure how that all lines up!About my district, In Kuopio there is one set of Elders and one set of Sisters. Then two hours north is Savonlinna which has one set of Elders and two hours south of Kuopio is Joensuu where there is a senior couple and a set of Elders. We have a District meeting in one of those cities every week.In Kuopio, We share the car, its name is jerry. I drive most of the time.So, lately I have been all about productivity; getting as much possible done in a day. While Elder Durrant is the lead cartographer and route specialist, I am the lead member and missionary splits coordinator. We figure more work can be done with two companionships in a day so we try to be apart from each other as much as possible! not because we dont like each other of course! Now, there is something called a double jeoprody. It is when you are tracting and you knock on one door and no one answers so you move to the next door but then the first door opens and the second door opens as well. So, the companionship must break up and teach each person at the door! This week, we were on splits with the district leader and we decided to see how many doors we could tract. So, we intentionally did double double jeoprady. If all four of us get invited in we coordinate with the people there and ask into whos apartment they would want to meet in, then we all go into that one! Sadly, that never happened. But, we knocked four doors at a time! We tracted two 8 story buildings with 78 doors in under 33 minutes! haha It was epic!While contacting in the giant center of Kuopio three men flagged us down and became investigators. Pretty cool. We had a follow up lesson and church tour yesterday.We have a total of 17 investigators and 3 are through Family history!With one of our investigators who has a baptismal date for two weeks, we taught him and he said he had quit smoking. We were so excited. we asked if there was anything else we could do for him and he said throw away my ciggerettes for me. We offered and he said no need ill do it. So, I suggested we go do it together (just to make sure it actually happened) We went outside and tossed it into the garbage can! We took pictures too of course! I will send them home after his baptism when it is legal!Things are crazy over here in Kuopio! I need to repent though because I havent done any missionary work since I got here. We have been too busy having fun! I guess thats what missionary work can be!now, we must go wash the car. We are waxing it too, wish me luck!Remember to do what the prophets said at the leadership confference. Missionaries shouldn´t have to fill out their day planners! Give them meaningful things to be doing every hour of the day!Kirkko on totta!Rauho ulos y'allRakkaudella,Vanhin Tippetts
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)