We saw miracles and got minimal sleep

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, Pretty good week. We saw miracles and got minimal sleep! Just the way we like it around here!

We had exhanges in Jyväskylä with the Zone Leaders. It was fun. We got a lot of work done.

Then we had a sick elder that went home come back!!! I told him when he left 2 months ago that I would pick him up from the airport and I did! He looks great and is ready to work. Because of his arrival we had to have an interim transfer. So a few people moved but in the process, one elder didnt show up in Helsinki when his transfer to a train to Vaasa happened. We got super scared because he didnt have a phone so we had to wait for a call from him in order to find out what happened. Well after 2 hours we found him and he only had his bike. The conductor had told him to get on before Helsinki central to catch his next train. Well all his stuff was on the platform when he got back on the train to get his bike. Then the doors locked and the train drove away, leaving all his stuff on the platform. Long story short all his stuff is lost. So he has been staying with us until we can get his stuff back. The earliest will know is today. He has been with us since Thursday.

Fun week. We have 5 week interim training for all the new missionaries at the mission home which should be fun!

Any way, not much time this week. Have a great week everyone!

Love you!

--
Elder Spencer Tippetts
Finland Helsinki Mission
Neitsytpolki 3 A 4
Fi-00140 Helsinki
Finland

The days seem to be long but the weeks are short

Love getting our emails.  It definitely sounds like things are a bit back to normal after working so hard for the amazing mission conference they put on.  These missionaries are amazing.  I love hearing how they all work together.  Sure love this missionary! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are at the beginning of a new week. The days seem to be long but the weeks are short. I have to say the pictures of Luke are getting better and better! I cant wait to meet him. Pretty cool that Sister Bednar called you this week. I knew you would be really excited when she offered to do that!  

This week was long and tiring but nothing crazy happened. We traveled the country with the Watsons which was really fun. We started with the Tampere Zone conference. We got up early and drove to Tampere with the Watsons. We had a powerful meeting. Looking back on the week, President Watson was really on his game! Then we ended the day driving home and having dinner at the mission home. Helsinki Zone conference was on Wednesday and was equally good. Then from there we left to the airport and flew to Oulu. We did the same thing there. I'm basically an expert at what President was trying to teach because I heard it three times. 

 

Then we flew back to Helsinki and did some planning for the next days MLC or Mission Leadership Council. During this we got a text message that said the Tampere zone leaders would be arriving at 11:00pm in Helsinki Central. So President asked what we were doing and then asked if we wanted to stay the night at the mission home. Haha, a free stay at Chateau Watson! (the name I have given the Mission Home) We accepted. So we had a really fun night sleeping over. Then we went to the temple and it was Russian week so we had to use translators. I decided to do it in English to see what it was like. It was really refreshing to try it! 

Then we had some problems with the Oulu groups flight plans after the meeting so we cancelled the flight and had them stay at the mission home. The next morning we got up early to take them to the airport. That was just another thing that took us away from sleep! haha But they all got there safe! 

We finished the week off with some church and did some missionary work last night. It felt soo good to talk to people. I felt really good when we stopped a lady and she did not want to talk but by the end she probably thought Mormons were alright. I felt soo normal and natural and the Finnish was flowing! I always think it is cool how the Lord took me for a time and when Im done I'll be a little different. One of those differences being I speak another language!!! Pretty cool to think about! And check this out! Look how cultural our family is, We speak Thai with mom, Tagolog with Dallin and Finnish with me and we all speak the international language of English! It will be cool to see where Taylor and Cameron go! Anyway, kinda cool!

We did numbers last night and it was pretty fun because the office elders were still there working on something. We got to the office early so I could share my idea. My idea was to have a blank meeting agenda so all I would have to do is write the names of the people on it when I planned a meeting. I thought it was a pretty good one and went to show Elder Chapman. He thought it was a good idea and then in 20 minutes made it way better... I love that working together we can make it happen. Elder Chapman and Elder Kiuttu are for sure some of my best friends out here! 

Well, pretty good week. Hope you all have a great week! 

 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Visit from Elder Bednar

I can not even tell you how amazing the experience that Spencer had with an Apostle of the Lord this past week.  I cried through the whole email.  The entire email is about the one day but it was one day to remember!  You can read it for yourself.  I can't wait till the day we will get to talk to him in person about this experience because I am sure there are many more details that he has left out.  What an opportunity of a lifetime it was!  Enjoy! --Tonya

Dear Family & Friends,

So lets talk about how this went from the hardest week of my life to the most rewarding week of my life! 

I am going to save all the documents that we used to plan this mission conference so one day I can explain how well planned it was. We organized all the travel which meant that everyone had to arrive in to Helsinki Central at the same time so someone could be there to give them transportation passes. We had three arrival groups. Two at the train station and one from the airport. Their names were team hope, team faith and team charity. I came up with those! 

We did a practice run through with Elder Kearon from the First Quorum of the Seventy two weeks before and he pointed out every detail down to the burnt out light bulb in the room. President and us spent hours together at the chapel as well as mapping out our exact route from the airport to the chapel. We had a bathroom reserved for Elder Bednar. I was in charge of that one. I made the "Reserved" sign from the font that the church logo is! I know, thats how good I am!  We realized too that the soap and hand sanitizer was in finnish in his bathroom as well so we even made English labels so he would not get confused! 

I dont think its possible for me to explain how intense we planned this thing over email so just know that we didn't miss any detail. I plan on putting this experience on my resume because it was incredible. 

So, day of the conference. All the groups begin leaving to the church. We (Elder Kiuttu and I) stay behind with the Watsons. We went to the airport and nailed down some perfect spots right in front of the door. The Watsons went in to greet them when they came through security and we stayed with the cars. We waited and waited and we were soo nervous it was ridiculous! Then they came up the escalator and there they were!!!! Kinda weird because I have grown up watching this man on tv for a long time and now he was getting into the car of whose door I was holding open. He stopped and looked at me and introduced himself and I shook his hand! He had that blue class ring on like he always does! Sister Bednar asked me where I was from and then proceeded to ask me if I knew someone from Gilbert. They then got in the car and we got the Kearons into our car and we launched! 

The Kearons were in the car planning with us any final details. We had water and granola bars in the back of the cars so they were munching on those. We arrived at the church and got our guests into the building. We had planned for the doors to be shut to the chapel so that no one would know we had arrived. We shuffled people into a prayer meeting and we got into position. Elder Kiuttu and I entered the chapel before the speakers so we could have that experience of when an apostle walks in. The doors opened and you could feel everyone freak out because they thought it was Elder Bednar. But it was just us the Assistants. We went to our spots and waited. A few minutes later the doors opened again and they all came in. Everyone shot to there feet and you could feel the excitment. Not gonna lie having an apostle in a room with under 150 people is pretty cool. 

The meeting took form of a question and answer session with Elder Bednar. He is quite a funny guy. We were never told that it would be like that but we had a wireless microphone set up so I could run around and have people hold it when they asked questions. One of the million details that we were prepared for. The meeting was awesome! He talked about teaching by the spirit and also learning by faith. He taught about how we need to seek our own answers to questions and thats how we can receive conversion. One thing he asked was if any of us had ever felt like we have talked ourselves into believing the teachings of the church. He taught how to determine the difference. 

It was just incredible. 

The Bednar's then had to leave straight to their flight which wasn't a commercial airline but a corporate jet. So we went to another airfield. We got them there and we all went inside the terminal and waited. We waited in the room for 30 [to 60] minutes and just chatted with an apostle and his wife. I had a joke that I was so stressed about this that I was gonna take a cruise to Sweden the next day. They laughed!!! Then I went on a ferry to a castle but thats another story.

To demonstrate how they are normal people, a group of military police came in and they were huge!!! One was especially giant. Elder Bednar came up to us and asked, "How are your martial arts skills elders?" He then followed by saying, "Ill take the big one and 3 others, you have the rest!" It was pretty funny. 

President Watson then asked about something Elder Bednar alluded to early about how to prepare for General Conference. Elder Bednar without thinking began to explain that if we pick a topic and study it out and pray about it, every talk at General Conference will be about that topic even if thats not what the talk was about. The Lord will guide through the conference and teach us what we need to know. 

"It was soo amazing to think that one of the living apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ was standing in front of us. Talk about history. Christ's earthly ministry and the ministry of the apostles is the most common knowledge we have today. This is the current ministry of Christ and his current apostles! Wow! 

They left and afterwards the Kearons congratulated us on a  job well done and they explained how you could feel the preparation in the room that had happened physically for the meeting as well as all the missionaries personal preparation. Sister Kearon said it was different from all the other conferences they attended that week. We were beaming! We then took the Kearons to the airport and dropped them off. As they were leaving Elder Kearon says, "This is how it works elders; we are gonna see each other again. It could be at the Conference center or another place but when you see us you give us the drill. You say, it was Finland, we were the assistants, it was Elder Bednar... until I remember because I will remember your faces just need a refresher!" It was funny and sincere. I also had to send a text to Elder Kearon so I have his phone number in my phone. He said I am exempt from the rule about calling General Authorities. Haha pretty sweet.  

So, it was an amazing day and then because I have had stress attacks every 15 minutes for a month the office elders and Elder Richards and I went on a cruise... to a castle. 

From this event I recieved soo many blessings. I have become a logistics expert! I have been an event planner! A profesional chauffeur! A public figure (a picture was taken for the Finnish Liahona and I was standing next to Elder Bednar)! My stress limits have been increased a million times over. I feel like I can handle anything now! I also learned about how I am going to have a burning witness of the restored church until the day I die. That will be done by constantly seeking out answers to my questions. 

Overall, unforgettable day. 

Have a great week! 

-- 

Elder Tippetts

Wow! Great Week!

Love getting our emails from Spencer.  Change calls happen.  He got a new companion.  I know how much he loved his last companion so I am sure it will be an adjustment.  Him and Elder Kiutti did some amazing work together.  I guess their mission president saw the need for them to divide and conquer new adventures!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, this week was a crazy one. I really learned how to make a plan then sit back and not stress about it while it happens. 

We had the main transfer which went swimmingly. In the whole system of moving there was one elder alone at a train station. I was worried when I planned it but there was no way that I saw to get around it. So, I left it there. Then that morning we were at the train station picking up our trainers when I saw the missionary that was to be alone and another missionary. I asked this other missionary why he was here because he wasn't supposed to be there. He missed his train! The next train left at the same time as our alone elder! So because Heavenly Father knew the plan better He planned it out for me! No one was alone during the whole transfer! Yay! 

This week is mission conference. It will beon Friday at noon.  We will be picking up Elder and Sister Bednar and Kearon. This conference is the biggest logistical Bellagio style water show I will ever do in my life!  I can't even begin to explain what we've done!  There is a plan for every missionary to arrive at the chapel at a certain time. 

With the mission conference happening we have been spending tons of time getting the building ready and planning. It's going to be incredible and no one will have any idea what happened before. 

Well, now for the juicy stuff. I got a change call. The Elder Kiuttu and Tippetts dynasty has ended and it will now be the Elder Tippetts and Richards dynasty. Elder Richards is from the center of the Lords kingdom on earth, Salt Lake City!!!! Elder Kiuttu will be running the office with Elder Chapman. The couple that is in the office has to go home for medical reasons so they will be taking over there. 

It will be super exciting to get back to being just an AP. We can just blow our area up! 

A miracle is that we still have three people with baptismal dates. AND all three of them went to stake conference yesterday with Elder and Sister Kearon. 

At the stake conference we saw  the Kearons walking in so I stopped them to introduce our investigators to them. He looked at me and said, "Elder Tippetts! So good to see you!" He remembered my name! 

Well, I am definitely being taught how to deal with large amounts of stress. It's incredible because the gospel can help with all that. Somehow Jesus Christ experienced exactly what I am going through. I love that! 

Thanks so much for loving me! 

Have a great week!

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Where did August go?

Yes we love Sunday evenings.  Best time of the whole week.  Sounds like Spencer is feeling stressed but still seems to be managing to make everything work.  He has an amazing companion so the two of them work quite well together. I am always amazed with what they accomplish together each week.   It is so fun to hear their preparations for Elder Bednar.  What an amazing experience it will be.  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

What happened?! August just blew by! But boy did we have a week last week! 

Last night was for sure a highlight of it. President Watson called us before church and asked us if we could pick him, sister Watson and Elder Kearon (first quorum of the seventy) up from the airport! So, We did. As he was walking up to the car, he saw me and shouted, "Elder Tippetts!" I mentioned how we met last year more than 18 months ago at the begining of my mission. He said that he remembered me! He remembered Elder Kiuttu as well. So, Either President refreshed his memery or he actually remembered our names! 

Well, we took the exact route we would take with Elder Bednar to the Haaga chapel. We got in and Elder Kearon was crackin all kinds of jokes, so naturally I was firing back! I had em all goin! We arrived at the chapel and went over every detail for the mission conference. I mean every detail... Elder Kearon pointed out a burnt out light bulb and said that needs to be replaced before Elder Bednar gets here. He gave us a ton of stuff to be working on. So all pretty crazy.

In the car over I explained about the work in our area and mentioned that we have had 30 baptisms in the last 3 years. He interupted and asked how many of them are active. I said 3. He got very quite and said, "That cannot be. Will you visit the 27 before Elder Bednar and I come and bring them back?" The spirit burned within us as we accepted the commitment and we knew it came from a servant of the Lord. 

Small joke Elder Kearon made, Our key got stuck in the door of the chapel and we couldnt get it out so Elder Kearon saw and came to help. He said as he struggled with the lock mechanism, "My days as a safe cracker are long gone but Im sure there is a talk in here somewhere!" It was great! Literally everything the man said was gold! 

We are all very excited for the mission conference.

Answers to questions. We have 111 missionaries in the mission after the new group gets here. Yes sending our sisters from the MTC home was quite weird. I did get some contacts. We discussed getting pictures with Elder Bednar as a mission and We might or might now depends on time. We will pick them up take them to the chapel and as soon as amen is said at the end we get back in the car and head back.

This week was change call week so Elder Kiuttu and I spent some time organizing the whole thing. I have to send you a picture of the diagram we make. Its crazy because no one can be alone throughout the whole process. It takes basically an entire day. But its finishes so now we just need to wait until the first emergency happens and then we can let the going crazy begin! 

We had an airplane stress attack that just wasnt fun at all. The office bought tickets and told us the were for wednesday and we could just pick them up from the airport. Well we got there and long long story short the flight left the day before so we tried to get new tickets blah blah blah I almost had a heart attack because Im wasting the Lords money. It was awful. So we drove to Tampere instead to replace some cars there. Elder Kearon asked us multiple times if we were happy and finally I asked how can I do all the crazy things I do and still feel like a representative of Jesus Christ. He then gave an incredibly simple answer he told me to "attack morning workout and attack breakfast and attack my show, get clean, shave, attack getting clothes on. Then hold the pages of the scriptures gently and with intent, read and study the scriptures". The way he said it spoke right to my soul! It was great! 

Our investigator Piret is doing great. She has tons of questions so we asked her to write them all down and give them to us. She gave us the list and we realized almost all her questions had something to do with the Law of Chastity. So, we asked her if we could answer all of those in the next lesson and she was super excited. She is progressing really well. Now, we just need to get her to church. 

This week our bishop rallied the ward to not just shake hands with people but seek out and become someones friend. It was epic! 

This week however was quite officy. Which I rather enjoy. So does my companion though. So, I love it as long as we work on two different things. When that happens We get tons of stuff done! One thing I did was re organized the mission materials room! I could feel the label making gene I inherited from my father vibrating as I placed Swahili Books of Mormon on the shelf! I was in the zone there. It likes better now. This is only temporary until our new senior team arrives. Which might be a while. 

We started the WOW diet! It is only healthy things. We switched to almond milk which is way better than normal milk. We had salads and soy stuff and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It was great! And we saved money! 

Although my mission gives me the most ridiculous tasks that are really stressful and hard and I want to cry almost every other day, I really do love it. I catch myself thinking sometimes, "I hope the rest of my life isnt this hard..." Whether it is or it isnt I am becoming really good at being alive. This months "Message from the Assistants" was about how some would die for Christ, but it is more noble to live for Christ. So I will live for Christ until the glorious day when I will meet him in person. 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Great Week

Spencer's email came in early tonight.  Just so you understand what he is talking about when he said: "Good to see me in church" part.  A member of our bishopric borrowed our life size cut out of Spencer to help him with a sharing time in primary.  Here is the pictures he saw!  Also we can't tell you how excited we were that Spencer got to meet up with his best friend Abraham.  Never dreamed they could make it happen but they did and it was a joyous reunion.  Enjoy!

Brother Breinholt and his companion Elder Tippetts:

                     

This was the picture they took inside the airport.  Spencer got to visit Elder Hendryx for about 90 minutes.  It was a goal they made in the MTC.  Here is what Spencer said along with the picture:

Setting: MTC 2013 

Elder Tippetts- "We wont see each other for two years!"

Elder Hendryx- "Shhh. We will figure out a way!" 

The impossible has been made possible. 

Dear Family & Friends,

Well I am just as tired as usual and I see no end to it! This week has been long but nothing new there. Cool to see Brother Breinholt! Hes my hero! Good to see me in church! 

Saw Elder Hendryx this week. His trainer was here in Finland a week ago and told us Elder Hendryx would be AP next transfer. Elder Hendryx commented that we have had all the same callings since teachers quorum! 

This week we learned that not only will Elder Kearon of the Seventy be coming with Elder Bednar but both of their wives will be coming as well... We will still be picking them up! The fact that their wives are coming doubles the scariness of it! 

We have super specific rules we have to follow. We have to know the route from the airport to the chapel perfectly and be prepared to use an alternitive route. We are not allowed to speak to them until they speak to us. Things like that. Pretty crazy! 

I got sick this week with a cold. It wasn't fun because we didn't get much sleep so everything really stacked up on itself. 

A sister missionary was sent home for medical reasons this week. So we had a departure dinner at the Watsons with her. When we drop off departers their plane usually leaves at 7amso we have to be up pretty early to get there on time. 

We got in contact with one of our favorite investigators this week named Piret. She is awesome! We love her a ton. Her son is 9 and is learning too. We got him a picture Book of Mormon so he can understand it a little better. 

MLC was this week so we took a whole day out of the week to do that. We went to the temple that morning and I got do do an endowment finally! It was in Finnish and it was really cool sitting back and realizing I can speak another language. 

Elder Kiuttu got sick with a crazy stomach flu. He hasn't eaten for 24 hours. It was so bad we stayed for just sacrament and then left to go home. I cleaned while he slept.  Also because Sister Watson told us that apple sauce was the best thing for him to eat. So I made fresh homemade apple sauce for Elder Kiuttu! I was so proud of myself! 

Today we have our weekly meeting with President Watson. We have a lot to talk about because change calls go out this week. 

We picked up the sisters from our MTC group yesterday to take them to the mission home. We have their departing dinner tonight. Super weird that our sisters are going home!!!! 

This week is the dreaded week before transfers so we are buckling up! Saturday is completely spent planning the logistics of the transfer. It takes a super long time and then we have to buy all the tickets and send the information and itinerary to everyone and then call them and tell them what they will be doing! On top of all of this, President Watson will be in Germany! He will be running the show from mainland Europe while we do stuff here! After we plan all of this change we can plan travel for the mission conference. Thats gonna be quite exciting.

Anyway, pray for me. Im runnin´ low but today we get like 3 hours of P-day so thats nice! 

 

Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Wow! Great Week!

Love to get our emails on Sunday nights.  Spencer is busy as ever and loving it!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well I happy to report that the church is still true over here! We have been working hard. Good to hear about all the happenings at home. I'll pretend like I didn't sense my family getting a little truncky for me to get home! ;) 

This week has been another week full of stuff and empty of sleep! 

The week starts last Sunday. We had to help transport all kinds of people for the big interim training at the mission home this week. So, we did that from 5-10 on Sunday and then did the mission numbers. Needless to say, We got in late... ThenMonday morning started interim. We had to be up extra early to help President set up the mission home for the meeting so it was 5 oclock for us! Then the meeting started at 10. Oh man this was the best interim I have ever been to! It was soo much fun doing it with President Watson for the first time. Normally we just sit in front and make comments throughout the meeting but this time we actually taught role plays and other missionary skill things. It was amazing! The meeting was held in the living room of the mission home so everyone was sitting on couches until we had a role play, then they broke off into seperate groups. It was super cool. 

Well Monday night I went on exchanges with Elder Hatch. He is actually serving in the same ward in Tampere that I trained Elder Chapman and Elder Parker. One of my favorite wards in Finland! We had a ton of success! Which helped us out later in the week because we were out of the area.

Tuesday meeting festivities continued and it was great. Then Wednesday we had the language training day. We had the three language coordinators at the mission home teaching different groups. There was also a sister from Finland who is leaving for England but is with us for a few months that doesn't speak English very well. So Elder Kiuttu and I were made the honorary English language coordinators! We taught a class on English for her. I taught her lots of idioms like "Its just a drop in the bucket!" haha I taught the real one don't worry! 

Well then Thursday we went on exchanges with the Tampere Zone leaders and it was a blast as usual. 

We returned on Saturday morning at an extremely early time because we needed to be home on Saturday but we didn't want to cut our exchange short. We had the transfer meeting with President and it was intense. 

Things are extremely complicated with transfers this go round. I wish I could tell you how cool it might be!  But we also got a small change call. The office secretary is sick and might be going home. Also our fleet manager and office worker is going home on Friday! So we are super short handed in the office. Well, our new job is to help out in the office as much as we can. We had a crash course last night in the office responsibilities. I'm already stressed out of my mind so it should be fun! 

Then yesterday was church and we had the normal miracle people walk into church and the miracle lessons pop out of nowhere. It was great and of course this was peppered in with people getting sick and us taking them home. 

Fairly eventful week. This week is MLC so it will still be busy. I also get to go to the temple.

Well, I pray for all of you and hope you are all remembering to study Preach My Gospel and the scriptures which are basically the same!  BTW Does anyone know who wrote PMG? Answer: The 15 living Prophets and Apostles. Any other books with that author list been written in recent time? Part of following the Prophet is to follow his teachings. PMG is a great way to do that! 

Love you all and have a wonderful week! 

Ps:

Espoo is considered its own city but is part of the "Greater Helsinki" area. and the temple is actually in Espoo and its official name is the Finland Helsinki Temple. The mission name will also remain the same even though all our HQ stuff will soon be in Espoo. 

People have been speculating that the assistants would move to an Espoo ward. (there are two) But there are various reasons why we haven't moved, however we could move in the future. For now we still live in Helsinki. 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Bonus: Pictures

Loves his eagle shirt!

Wondering!

This is Yogen. They baptized him! 

Serious contemplation! 

Spencer was able to go on splits with Elder Hatch who is from Gilbert too!