Another crazy week in the bag!

Mondays are the best days to wake up and see Spencer's email waiting.  He continues to work hard and is just loving his mission.  I can only imagine how hard these next 2 weeks are going to be with his mission president whom he adores leaving and the new mission president arriving.  The experiences Spencer is having is just monumental for him.  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well sounds like a great week for everyone back home. I totally forgot that it was Fathers day. In Finland Fathers day is in November. 

I still sometimes am shocked that I actually live here. Every Sunday night we drive to the mission office where we put in the mission numbers. On the way we drive right through downtown Helsinki. There is a harbor with super nice Yachts and bridges and cruise ships, tall european buildings and cobble stone streets. It is seriously a dream. And whats great is its 10>30 at nigt and its still bright as day outside! 

We are coming up on the longest day of the year ehich means everybody is gonna be drunk! not good for us... dont worry we are prepared.

We are making all the final arrangments for President Watsons arrival. We have our second to last meeting with President Rawlings today so no Pday this week! President Watson will arrive on the 27 of june and president leaves on the 1 of julyand President Watson will take over at midnight. 

Everything should be still moving to Espoo. We saw the final signing papers for the new mission home. Espoo is a way nice city. Its where the Temple is. In fact the mission home is supposed to be 5 minutes away from the temple. There is also a huge possibility that we get switched to that ward so we will be closer to the mission home. We have no idea yet though because it is up to President Watson. President Rawlings decided not to move us. 

I have been writing Derek Hatch. He is in the MTC and will be coming next week. He sounds super stoked! 

This week we had the Helsinki Zone Conference and the Tampere Zone Conference. Both were incredible. We drove to all the zone conferences so we have had some fun rode trips recently. 

Cool story was the day after we got back from the last conference in Tampere, we looked at our schedule and every single thing had fallen through... We had commited to follow every small prompting that came to mind that day. It was just Elder Kiuttu and I for this day because Elder Heaney was on exchanges in Turku. We prayed that the Lord would guide us through this blank day scenerio. Well after choosing a few names form the area book Elder Kiuttu looks up and says I think we should go to the X family. We really had no reason to go there because it was a little out of the way and the sisters were teaching them. But, we picked up some chocolate to bring over to them and offer some help. Well, we did that and it was super nice. Then the very first person right outside of the apartment of the X family catches our eye. So, we stop him. Long story short we have an appointment with him on thursday! The Lord can really direct us when we approach every moment prayerfully.

This week Elder Kiuttu and I will be going to Oulu and Kemi which are the 2nd and 3rd northernmost cities in Finland. We have 2 days there and then we come back to do eork for a day when everything shuts down because of the crazy holiday then we buy tickets for the next transfer which means we have to pull an all nighter to get them all in time. 

We are haveing tons of fun! the church is true. 

Have a wonderful week. 

Love,

Vanhin Tippetts

Clip from Mother's Day Skype

WOW!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, I could die...

Just to explain last night and tomorrow morning. Last night we entered all the mission data and had to write a report. That lasted until 2AM... I didnt get to bed until 2:30! It was nuts. Before we did this we had our corelation meeting with president and it was good.

The next two months are going to be the craziest days of my life. We will be setting up a mission tour for the area president, we have a ysa function called festinord where 500 people from all over Europe will be coming to Finland. We are in charge of a piece of it.

We also will need to accompany our new president to all his meetings with local leaders and area authorities. In our meeting, we coordinated a ton of stuff.

This week is the 6 week interim training. It lasts 3 days and we are there helping president run it all. Today was day 1 and thats why Pday was off schedule.

Well tomorrow, we need to take someone to the airport but the flight leaves at 6:30am so, we need to pick up from the mission home at 4:00am... I want to cry! haha its super fun though.

My companions are Elder *** from texas. He goes home in three months. Elder *** is the same age in the mission as me.

Last week we had MLC or mission leadership council. I conducted. haha Then we went to the temple! It was super fun.

Well, after Thursday when all the people here for interim leave, we will then start on a road trip for 6 hours to Vaasa. We have a zone conference there for the north zone. We will be driving to Tampere and spending the night there with the Zone leaders there and then waking up early to finish the drive to the north zone.

After that we drive home have a normal weekend and then we turn back around to Tampere for their zone conference then back to Helsinki for that Zone conference. Its gonna be busy! But way fun because my companions are so cool!

I really am loving my mission. Its super hard but I feel like I am actually accomplishing something. This is the Lords work.

Love you all!

Vanhin Tippetts

Great Week!

Sounds like Spencer is busier than ever.  I just love to hear the adventures he has to go through. Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

My week was fun! On Tuesday I took a night train to Helsinki from Oulu that left at 11:39 PM. The night train has a bed and you sleep all the way to Helsinki. I got here and we went right to work. We had one Elder going home and another who got sick so also had to go home. We got them all ready and taught a few lessons. At night, we had the "last supper" with the departing missionaries. It was crazy to listen to this elder going home tell stories about his mission. He was a stud. And Sister Rawlings makes great food! 

The next morning we went to the airport at 5am to send the departers off. We stand there with President and Sister Rawlings and watch them go through security and when they are through they look back and we all wave goodbye to them. It was an strange feeling watching them leave. 

We have a great teaching pool and have two baptisms for next month. One of our investigators, who is getting married before his baptism, was at church yesterday. While in church, he fell asleep during a hymn and dropped his hymn book on the floor. Elder Kiuttu and I couldnt hold back from laughing. The bishop looked at us and started laughing as well. (the chapel has hard floors so it made a big boom) 

The ward here is nuts. There are former stake presidents and sons and daughters of former stake presidents. That guy Nillo Kervinen who was in the Ensign from Finland is in our ward. Tons of studs in this ward. 

My companions are seriously my best friends, besides Elder Hendryx of course. We have tons of fun. 

We are writing email a little early because we spent the night at the office putting in the key indicators numbers for the mission. After all the numbers come up the chain we put them into an excel spread sheet so President can have a lay out of what happened. We were up until 12:30 doing them. 

Pretty cool thing is I have my own phone! Normaly each companionship has just 1. but we all have our own. So, its fun to have people calling me to ask questions! 

Well, I am trying to write in my journal to keep a record of everything to fill in the blanks of my letters. I did get the package off it will arrive as One box because I taped the two boxes together and  shipped it as one. Way cheaper! 

Summer is in full swing here. 25 degrees everywhere! 

Oh in other news, another Elder is going home this week mid-transfer so since we are the only threesome in the mission, my companions will be taking turns being his companion until the next transfer. It will be crazy because we have a zone conference in Pietarsaari, Tampere and Helsinki coming up that we need to be at. Then we have week long training with the new group that just came in and Mission leadership council or MLC. 

Oh and I also went on exchanges in Tampere this week! That was fun. 

Well, great week and thanks for all the prayers! 

Love,

Vanhin Tippetts

Mother's Day Skype

Hello from Oulu

It was a wonderful Mother's Day getting to Skype with Spencer.  He was happy and seemed to be doing really well.  He sounds very busy but that is definitely a good thing! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, we just got back from ordering train tickets. I will be on a train for 18 hours this week! I will also be visiting every city in the Kuopio district in 2 days! I will sleep over in kuopio tonight. Do splits in Joensuu and then do a distict meeting in Savonlinna on Wednesday! Crazy! 

Skype yesterday was sweet! Its never long enough! We were talking about how we always feel bad after because we didnt say all the things that we should have. 

My birthday was... well? It was a red day yesterday so we couldnt do any work. We called the sisters and asked if they had the stuff to make a cake and they asked if we would just want a slice of cake. We said sure and then they asked us why we needed the cake.  We said that it was because it was the only fun thing we could do on my birthday.  So, I did get some cake!!  Haha it wouldnt be official without it! 

We are going to go get chinese food after this so that will be a good celebration. Then because we dont have time today, next week we will go to a viking resturaunt! When you all come we will eat there for sure! They have ox sausage... awesome! Last time I went I had Reindeer and Reindeer heart! 

I am loving my mission. I remember towards the beggining leadership was something that really interested me. Obviously it still does because I enjoy it but since I have become a leader my view has changed. Every young missionary aspires to be AP and if that was ever true it was true for me. But as leaders our number 1 priority is our proselyting area. Thats because there literally is nothing more important than the work we do. Sure its cool to be in charge and have extra privileges and what not but the real priviledge is to be a missionary and to bring people into the restored gospel.  There is no greater call than this. There isn't anything better one could do with there life than spread this knowledge. This however is not limited to just those who wear name tags.  All members of the church have been called. 

Want to set a goal? Lets all rescue 1 this week. Lets find 1 person each, whether they are innactive or non member, and bring them with us to church. Pray every day not for me or the missionaries to succeed but pray that we can all find at least 1 who will sit next to us in church. I'll be doing the same! Let me know how it goes in next weeks letter! (BTW this isnt just for my family, this is for anybody who reads this!) 

I love you all! 

Vanhin Tippetts 

 A few Pictures from our Mother's Day Skype.  It was his birthday so we held up a banner when he first came on.

Then we had a cake with candles and had him blow them out.

The family portrait.

The goodbye with a smile!

Unbelievable Experience

This was quite the email.  I think I am still in shock!  We are excited to share this incredible experience that Spencer had today!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Let me tell you about how my mind was blown today. 

President came to district meeting today and sat in on it. We then had our regular interviews with him.  So, I go in and sit down and I say the opening prayer. He looks up and asks me some questions. Then he gets quiet and says "How do you feel about your new transfer?"  I was in shock because I was getting a change call face to face with President. He says, "You will be going to Espoo (where the temple is) to be a Zone Leader over the Helsinki zone.  I almost cried... Then I shake it off and we continue our interview. It was hard to shake it off because I love Oulu and have only been here a month.  Well I asked president for some life advice because this was our last interview together.  We had a great conversation and I learned a ton! Then I told him how much I appreciate him and what he's done for the church worldwide. We were both crying telling each other how much we loved each other. Then he asks if we can have a closing prayer.  I say yes and he gives the most incredible prayer in Finnish.  Pretty intense. Then he looks up after the prayer and rather than standing up and hugging me like he always does, he sits back in his chair looks at me in the soul piercing kind of way.  Then after a long silence he says, "Okay, I am changing your assingment, I am calling you as my new assistant."  Then I thought I was gonna die.  So basically he decided that I would be one of the AP's for when President Watson gets here right in front of me... 

So my new companions will be Elder Kiuttu who is one of my best friends in the world and Elder Heaney who is also a super good friend.  We are a threesome so that one of us can be with the new mission president at all times. 

I am super scared and cant really eat right now.  But hey the church is true right? 

This is all I can write right now. I leave for Helsinki tomorrow so I need to pack. I will be in the Marjaniemi ward. 

Love,  

Elder Tippetts