Prepared for sub-zero weather

Mahtava viikkoa

Well I would like to start off by telling you that this winter is gonna put some hair on my chest but probably just out of pure necessity! It has been hovering just above 0 degrees all week and its not fun! It even snowed on Thursday and yesterday! I've busted out all the snow gear this week and I have realized my gloves probably arent enough so I may need to get some new ones! 

Well this week we set out to get 30 lessons. I have never worked so hard to achieve a goal in my life until this week. Every night we came home completely exhausted and my back is permanently damaged but it came to last night when we did not only achieve our goal but we taught a grand total of..... 42 lessons!!!!! We literally talked to every human being that walked even walked close to us this week! Im super proud of the fact that I achieved my goal and that now I know if I want something bad enough, with the Lords help I can do it! 

Well nothing to big happened at the beginning of the week so I will just start us out on friday night. Elder Durrant and I drove out to the airport just outside of Kuopio to pick up the Rawlings. We picked them up and drove them back to their hotel where President asked if we could come there at 930 the next morning to do interviews with him. So we went home and went straight to bed because we were so excited to have interviews! The next morning during personal study we got a call from President. So, I picked it up and said hello! President then asked, "Would you guys like to do some Pure Religion and Undefiled with me?" I said, "I dont know what that is but sure!" (James 1:27) He then proceeded to explain how when general authorities come to cities like this they try to find some people they can go visit while they are here. Well we had the mission president and Elder Jotenus (Area seventy over Finland) in town this weekend and the ward didnt set up anything for them to do. So, President asked Elder Durrant and I to pray about who we could go visit and then if we would go on splits with them to go do it! 

So, we meet at the hotel and have our interview in Presidents hotel room and then we head to the church. We get to the church and there is a car in the parking lot and a man gets out and hugs President and then introduces himself as Vanhin Jotenus!!! GENERAL AUTHORITY!!! So, after a quick team prayer Elder Durrant went with Elder Jotenus and I stayed with President Rawlings. President and I went to a member who was pregnant and super sick and hasnt been able to come to church lately. While we were in the lesson President asked if there was something we could do to help her while we were there. She said she had a problem with her dish washer maybe we could take a look at it. So, she opens her dish washer and says I cant really put these away, pointing to all the clean dishes. President Rawlings and I then put her dishes away and cleaned her kitchen. After that President asked if there was anything else and she said no but he said how about the little play room? (which was a disaster because they have the energizer bunny as a child!) Then President got down on his hands and knees and started cleaning up this little play room. It was incredible to see an extremely wealthy and successful lawyer who has already given up everything to be a mission president get down and do the work normal guys like me should be doing. She was super excited that we did that for her and then we left. 

After that we had about 15 minutes and that wasnt enough time to do much so I asked President about the Bible and why we have the Old Testament. He then started his response with "Elder Tippetts, how many times have you been to the temple?" haha any conversation started with that question you know is gonna be riveting! 

Well I joined back up with Elder Durrant at the church and we went on through our day. The next day was the conference and President and Elder Jotenus spoke. it was great but right before the meeting was about start we realized one of our investigators was not there! So, we started a full on sprint to his house to walk with him to church. We got there and he just woke up so we hurried him out and started going. This is when it started snowing. Well he saw the meeting and it was great.

Then with one of our other investigators we taught a lesson with President helping us and it was ridiculous!  

Basically what I learned this week is I will literally never be a general authority. These men are the most incredible people I have ever met! 

It was such a cool oportunity to see such great men in action and do it right there with them. It was humbling to say the least and also the best week of my mission so far! 

Rakkaudella,

Elder Tippetts

Us in the garden

Us in the garden, the girl with the red hair is our super member Marja. I felt like I was in the Shire when I was there! Barefeet and all! oh yeah and Durrant and I have our matching shirts on underneath our helping hands jerseys! 

Its 9 degrees outside...

... but dont worry thats in Celcius! so more like 45 or so! Still, freezing! Raining all week.

To start out we will complete the question and answer session.'

Yes my pictures are backed up.

I dont have a ton of time to package the card up but ill get it done soon.

I write religously in my journal. My emails dont even come close to telling all the adventures that happen here.

I use the iPod set up everyday!

New coat is sick. water proof and all.

I got the books thanks! There is an old story from the Finland Helsinki mission newsletter in the book I heard and it brings me to tears almost every time!

I really apreciate how you all think Im super amazing and stuff! If im good at anything its fluffing these emails up! but thanks fpr the package. Those listerine things are the best ever!!! I love them!

Weird how everyone is getting married! Tell Marin good luck and that she will never regret it [going on a mission]! Also My friend Joonatan Sohkonen is going to that mission. He is from Mikkeli! He is an absolute stud! I went on splits with him a bunch!

This week we literally did a million things and I dont even know where to start. After our short pday last wednesday we had our addiction recorvery class. That is always fun. Our investigator who was being baptized on saturday was in it and he told us he had smoked so we post poned his baptism until after general conference. It should be really good for him to watch it.

This week we have also been making preperations for the East Conference here in Kuopio. President Rawlings and Elder Jooenatus (not sure if thats how you spell it, he is an area authority over Finland) will be speaking at it next sunday. Elder Durrant and I are in the Choir for it and we will be singing there is a green hill far away in Finnish. We also are in charge of picking President up from the airport in Kuopio. Im super scared because I am the Driver! but that also means we need to wash our car! We also get to have interviews with President, yay!

I hope everyone else thinks these things are cool but this stuff gets me fired up! We developed a new form of planning this week called skelotoning! We use graph paper and make kind of like a bar graph with all the hours of the day and each bar is a day of the week. We then pencil everything on to that exactly how we would want it if everything went our way. Them as we double check each appointment it moves into the planner. We also are trying to make sure our investigators have daily contact with the church in some form so, we made calendars for each of them with every single thing that will happen everyday to accomplish that. Then we made a calendar for each member that will be helping us achieve that. So, we now know what we will do to be in contact with these people every day for the next month and a half! I get goosebumps just thinking about it!

We were so busy this week because we didnt get back to missionary work until wednesday evening. We still some how managed to teach 26 lessons! I want to get 30 in one week so bad its killing me! This is the week for sure due to better planning.

In the midst of the crazy week, we had church. While I was standing at the door like we usually do greeting people as the come in, The first counselour in the branch presidency comes up and says, "youve got the talk ready for today right?" I replied, "I didnt know I was speaking but yeah... I got it..." I was the last speaker in sacrament and I had 20 minutes. So, I said a prayer and decided to tell the white underwear story. It ended up being quite funny and spiritual thank goodness and it took up all the time! The white underwear story is a good one that will have to wait for me to tell you in person. Ive gotten good at telling it in English but telling it in Finnish was a little bit of a challenge!

Then after church we had nothing planned so we prayed about an area to go to and we went out to tract the whole thing. It was the first time we had some free time to find people. In two hours we taught 5 people and got 4 return appointments! 3 of which are families! We are super excited to Teach them!

I never thought I could be where I am now. Its crazy how the Lord can take raw materials such as Spencer Tippetts, teach him Finnish and then give him the reigns. Ive got a long way to go and its quite daunting how far it is but when I look back I can see where the Lord has carried me. I took some of Dallins advice though, Never look too far forward or else youll go crazy! Just focus on what you can do good right now!

I love you all and will see you next week!

Vanhin Tippetts

Best Week Ever!

> September 18, 2013
>
> I am on cloud 9 right now this week has gone so well!
>
> Answers to questions
>
> We share the car with the sisters
> I drive quite safely here. I am the lead driver in our companionship!
> We actually drive on the normal side of the road here!
> I dont receive blessings if I dont wear my sealt belt. So, of course I wear it!
> I did get a jacket, its sweet and should work real well!
> Not a lot to see here in Kuopio but usually we are too busy on Pday to do much anyway!
> The car looked great after we waxed it. I would have sworn it was black with chrome rims and had a jaguar leaping off the hood but the next time I saw it it was back to its old Opel self!
> I did receive the package, thank you sooo much!

Matkustamme Ouluun humomena!

Translation: We travel to Oulu

Hello everyone! I am writing today because I will not be able to write until next wednesday! We leave tomorrow after church to go to Oulu and wont be back until wednesday! Will send normal letter then!

Minä menen Kuopioon!

8/19/13

Hello everybody! It sounds like everything is going great back home. Keep up the good work everybody! Cant wait to see the cabin in person, it sounds sweet! Dad, whats funny about that phrase I sent you and the translation you got is there actually is no word for please in finnish. we just comand people to do things and its okay! 

Well, the big news. I received a call from President Rawlings on Friday night. He told me that I will be moving to Kuopio to be... ELDER DURRANTs companion! I will be joining back up with my beloved MTC companion to work miracles in, whats called by other missionaries, the greatest city in Finland! We are super excited to serve together and we will be "CO Senior companions". I guess that means we get to take turns bossing each other around! Kuopio is about a 2 hour train ride north of Mikkeli. I will be leaving tomorrow. The ward there also has 150 members which is huge! We also have a car! 

It is super sad that i have to leave this blessed city but im excited to go to kuopio! When we got to church one of my favorite people, Veli Lampila, asked me where I was going. I told him and he was devastated! So, he invited us over for dinner! YAY! Then as the word spread, more people invited us over for food! We wont have used our own food for three days! Its wonderful! 

Quite interesting how a mission works. They say "ok you will live here now for around 9 weeks and at 9 weeks we may call you and tell you to leave but while you are here love the people as much as you can!" Then after a short amount of time they RIP you out of the city and give you 3 days to say goodbye! Its heart breaking! Dont worry though because I have given my business card to everybody and I have received their address! 

This week Nestori told us he does not want to take baptism into his life yet. It was really sad but maybe he just isnt ready yet. We have been doing so much finding this week its crazy! Lots of tracting and street contacting! I come home every day completely beat! 

Oh! how could I forget! It got dark this week! I havent seen darkness for three months! it helps when it is dark because you can sleep! I know I will regret being excited for darkness in a month when the sun is only up for 3 hours every day. But, I hear you can see the northern lights from kuopio! 

Other than that not much happened. Things were pretty mellow this week, kinda rained a lot but thats okay. 

Thats pretty much it for this week. Wish me luck in Kuopio and keep being good! 

Olkaa hyvää

Rakaudella,

Vanhin Tippetts

PS say hi to Travis Walldrip for me! (Trevor wardrop)