No niin!

Sounds like Spencer continues to stay busy. His email was short but the content was great. Sure love this missionary.  By the way we are down to single digits tomorrow.  Just saying. 99 days and counting!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, it sounds like things are going swimmingly at home! 

Well, What a week! We set records all over the place! Elder Teixeira told us we need to be the highest performing missionaries in the field. So, we performed! This week we had 15 lessons with investigators alone! The current mission average is around 2.5 per companionship! We didnt have a single dull moment this week because we were soo well scheduled. Our days were full of running around teaching and picking up and dropping off members! 

There is apparently a huge church media campaign about to happen throughout the states. It involves time square and YouTube! It should be crazy and will last the whole month of December! Keep your eyes open for it! 

Wow, not much really to tell you other than we are working like crazy to baptize people! The work is moving so fast here! Finland used to be a place where it was hard to baptize people but its changing right in front of us! 

We had one thing happen where our member got sick before a lesson and cancelled. So, we were gonna go without a member to our lesson. Then President Watson called and said, "I just released a missionary from Oulu and he wants to go on some lessons with you." Wow miracle! So, we brought this member with us and went to teach the lessons but they werent home. So we said a prayer and he chose one door in this huge apartment complex to knock on and we went, they answered and set up a return appointment! Wow!!!! Miracles! 

Our investigators are doing well. We should have a white Christmas this year!! We have 3 people getting baptized in December! 

Life is good! Have a great week everyone! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Wow!

This was a pretty short email for having such an exciting week.  They had a mission tour with the area seventy President Teixeria and his wife.  Spencer mentioned a little about it.  Earlier in the evening I actually received an email from Sister Teixeria.  I will share her email and then Spencer's email.  Both were wonderful.  

Dear Tippetts Family,

President Teixeira and I we just arrived from touring the Helsinki Finland mission. We visit your son, Elder Tippetts in his very clean apartment and plan the week with them last Tuesday evening. During the rest of the days we traveled with him, his companion and President and Sister Watson visiting all missionaries in Zone Conferences.
You should be proud of him! He is faithful and obedient. He is doing great. He is an outstanding missionary! Thank you for all that you are doing.
May The Lord bless you always.
With love,
President and Sister Teixeira

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, sounds like every thing is going just great at home. I am sorry about the recent change of policy with chatting. President asked us to stop so we did! 

Dad, happy birthday! How does it feel to turn 30? That cake looked mighty good! I have to be honest Finnish food is getting kinda boring and that cake has my mouth watering. On fast sundays I find myself fantasizing about eating KFC. Maybe not the most focused thing to be doing. 

Anyway, what a week! Elder and Sister Teixeira actually did come and plan with us in our apartment! Pretty rare experience! It was wild how powerful these two were! Well, I would like to explain in more detail his visit but I will have to tell the details in person one day! In our planning meeting he asked us to "Think higher" and "consider all the possibilities" he told us to raise our goal of 3 new investigators to 6! A crazy goal considering we were to be out of our area for 2 days! Well after some great meetings with the Teixeiras we came home and got to work! oh we also taught two of our investigators with Elder and Sister Teixeira! that was cool! 

We worked our tails off until sunday night we had 5 new investigators. We worked until 9 oclock and decided to go home because it was too late and no one was out. So as I was backing the car up elder Richards was standing outside and stopped the only walking man and started up a conversations. I got out of the car and jumped in. Long story short the very last person we talked to this last week turned into our 6th investigator! WOW!!! We did it! 

The Spirit was strong all week as we were knee deep in the work of the Lord. Wow, I love being a missionary! This week I was especially tired. but it will one day all be over and I wont regret a thing! 

Love you all and have a great week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Yeah!

Day light savings changed and Spencer's email came in an hour earlier tonight.  Love his emails. This one had great details.  I loved every word of it.  He had one busy week.  I think he is looking forward to a calmer week this next one.  These 88,000 missionaries are amazing.  So glad I get to call one of them mine!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well here we are again! Mom, we actually moved to a new ward. This Sunday was our first sunday in church with the new ward. Espoo is about 45 minutes away from east Helsinki where we used to live. We got a new apartment and everything! Its bitter sweet though because I loved the east Helsinki ward soo much! 

This week started off with transfers! We had all the tickets purchased and the plan made. We got all the tickets out and called all the companionships in the mission. In the mean time on Monday we were moving and picking up trailers. We had to rent a trailer and borrow one from the Temple grounds keeper. Then on Tuesday we had 2 vans and 2 trailers and we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. 

Note about trailers, my backing up skills have gotten a lot better on my mission. Who would have thought? 

13 new missionaries arrived and we took them to see the temple and go to the mission home. We had an amazing meal prepared for us by Sister Watson. I always tell her that its like a cruise ship when we eat there! 

Oh and all while we were doing this 110 missionaries were moving around Finland on trains! It was cool that we were doing two things at once! 

On Wednesday morning, we took the new missionaries to the Magistrate in downtown to get signed into the country. Then we brought them to the office to do orientation. After that we brought them back to the mission home for lunch and the big meeting. 

During this meeting is when president announces the trainers to their trainees. It's always fun for us because we get a sticky note with all the companionships on it the night before! Then we had to deliver 26 missionaries to Helsinki Central. We had more people than we planned for so we had to borrow the mission presidents car! It's a little nicer than our Toyota! After we got everybody to the train station we raced back to the mission home where all the departers were. We had dinner and then the truncky talk with them (president gives them marriage advice and stuff and we just sit there.) Its good stuff to know I guess and I'll be an expert one day because I've heard it soo much! All in all the transfer went perfectly. No one got lost or missed a train! 

Then early the next morning we took them all to the airport and sent them away! Then we went home to lick our wounds to prepare for MLC the next day. Friday we had MLC and it was a huge success! We got to do the temple with an english video! We had lots of new changes from President Watson that are really hard to explain but are super cool! Also in the midst of all this I got a new temple recommend. It's in Finnish! 

Then Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! Haha!  We did almost everything possible that can be done as a missionary in one week! It was quite the week. I am really tired.

For all intents and purposes, we have a completely normal week this week. The week after however will be nuts! Elder Teixeira will be coming to do a mission tour. Also to top that week off we have stake conference and I am singing in a missionary choir! I'm scared for that! 

Our new ward is pretty cool. They had us come up and bare our testimonies. I told them about my family and how they do missionary work. I get way too much pleasure out of standing up in front of people and doing things. It was fun. 

Well kind of a normal week this week I guess? haha Thats all I got! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Hello

Love Sunday evenings.  Spencer had a great week and sounds like this next week will be busy and full of adventure. I just love all the wonderful experiences he is having.  He is learning such valuable things on his mission that he will use the rest of his life.  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week we did tons of work! We made some last minute preparations for the Mission tour this week. It required tons of time on the phone! My phone has a counter of how many minutes I was on the phone. Last month I alone was on the phone for 17 hours! My companion was probably the same! This month I have been on for 5 hours! I remember when I was younger, Dad would always ask me to call and set up home teaching or something like that. I would dread it! Now, I can have soo much going on after a few phone calls! I have really learned how to organize things on my mission. I love it! 

We taught a lot of lessons and it all ended up with 3 investigators in church!!! In our ward we had 10 Non-members! Thats because our friends family came! It was soo adorable and the ward loved them. We are in one of the biggest wards in the country so it is really cool how we all work together with them! 

For the mission tour we will have two meetings. One with the Helsinki and Tampere Zones in Helsinki. The other will be in Oulu. We will be flying with the group up to Oulu. The group being the Watsons and President Teixeira and his wife! That will be fun for sure. In the Helsinki Conference, I will be singing Israel Israel God is calling in Finnish with my companion and some others. I'm nervous because I don't see myself as a good singer but I'll be fine! 

We got to meet a bunch of the members this week. We had 4 Dinner appointments! I have never had that! The members here really are world class. There is a recently returned missionary who has got to be the coolest person alive who loves to go on teaches and go to lunch with us. Elder Richards has a doctors appointment today in the Helsinki city center so while we are there this returned missionary is taking us to lunch! He soo cool! 

What else? I am happy and alive and going strong! Thanks for getting me to this point in my life! 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

It Has Begun...

We love Sunday evenings! Sounds like Spencer is doing great and continues to love his mission. Looks like he is going to be very busy this transfer of 13 arriving and 13 leaving. Orchestrating all their activities has got to be quite the chore. Spencer thrives on this kind of stress though. We even got a few pictures this week. Yeah! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well you know how when you are on a roller coaster and you get slowly to the top of it right before you just plummet to the earth and spin and flip and go crazy. Yeah, so that happened this weekend...

I am staring at a giant tidal wave. Bring it on!!!!

This week we were in Espoo on exchanges and then we flew to Oulu to do the same.

While in Oulu, we taught an Investigator. While starting the lesson it beautifully articulate Finnish, I explained why before my mission I was I was addicted to TV and it would really help me if they turned the TV off while we taught. They said no. We asked one more time and she replied, "It doesnt bother anyone!" So, I told them that what we have is very important and will change their life. So, if this tv program is more important to you we have other places we could be. hehe They turned the tv off. I remember getting a little fired up but I realized that the restoration really is the most important thing to talk about with missionaries. Anything else could potentially be wasting time. The Gospel is so important. Much more important than the less important things! haha

Then all the change calls went out and everyone was excited. Saturday we posted up at the office and bought all the tickets for the transfer. You know how I love doing that! Ill send a picture of my General Patton esque planning!

Starting today we are going to rent a trailer from a local trailer rentaria and get the temple van and its trailer. This is in preperation for the 13 arrivers we have tomorrow and 13 departers we have the next day!!! It's gonna be huge!! This is what we live for though! We have been training. haha Im super excited but nervous about how it is all gonna go down. We also have to prepare a baptism in the middle of all of this!!!! Oh and we have MLC (missionary language conference) on Friday to top it all off!

These are the weeks where it is crucial to remember to take vitamin D!!!

Since we are leaving our ward, I had to say goodbye to everyone. It was soo sad! Marjaniemi has definitely been my favorite ward so far! I got a welcome back from the S family. They said when we come back we can stay with them! They are awesome!

Ah! I love my mission. It just doesn't get better than this. I also found 6 names on my family tree to take to the temple! There is tons to do with the family search website.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!
--
Elder Spencer Tippetts
Finland Helsinki Mission
Neitsytpolku 3 A 4
Fi-00140 Helsinki
Finland

P.S. We also found out that Spencer and his companion Elder Richards will be moving to Espoo. It is the city where the mission home and temple are. They need to be closer to where the president lives. The mission home moved back in July but they stayed living in Helsinki. They knew this move was coming and had been planning on it.

Here are a few pictures he sent:

This is Spencer with his companion Elder Richards.

Yeah!

Well here we are again! Mom, we actually moved to a new ward. This Sunday was our first sunday in church with the new ward. Espoo is about 45 minutes away from east Helsinki where we used to live. We got a new apartment and everything! Its bitter sweet though because I loved the east Helsinki ward soo much! 

This week started off with transfers! We had all the tickets purchased and the plan made. We got all the tickets out and called all the companionship in the mission. In the mean time on Monday we were moving and picking up trailers. We had to rent a trailer and borrow one from the Temple grounds keeper. Then on Tuesday we had 2 vans and 2 trailers and we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. 

Note about trailers, my backing up skills have gotten a lot better on my mission. Who would have thought? 

13 new missionaries arrived and we took them to see the temple and go to the mission home. We had an amazing meal prepared for us by Sister Watson. I always tell her that its like a cruise ship when we eat there! 

Oh and all while we were doing this 110 missionaries were moving around Finland on trains! It was cool that we were doing two things at once! 

On Wednesday morning, we took the new missionaries to the Magistrate in downtown to get signed into the country. Then we brought them to the office to do orientation. After that we brought them back to the mission home for lunch and the big meeting. 

During this meeting is when president an announces the trainers to their trainees. Its always fun for us because we get a sticky note with all the companionships on it the night before! Then we had to deliver 26 missionaries to Helsinki central. We had more people than we planned for so we had to borrow the mission presidents car! Its a little nicer than our Toyota! After we got everybody to the train station we raced back to the mission home where all the departers were. We had dinner and then the truncky talk with them (president gives them marriage advice and stuff and we just sit there.) Its good stuff to know I guess and Ill be an expert one day because Ive heard it soo much! All in all the transfer went perfectly. No one got lost or missed a train! 

Then early the next morning we took them all to the airport and sent them away! Then we went home to lick our wounds to prepare for MLC the next day. Friday we had MLC and it was a huge success! We got to do the temple with an english video! We had lots of new changes from President Watson that are really hard to explain but are super cool! Also in the midst of all this I got a new temple recommend. Its in Finnish! 

Then Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! haha we did almost everything possible to be done as a missionary in one week! It was quite the week. I am really tired.

For all intents and purposes, we have a completely normal week this week. The week after however will be nuts! Elder Teixeira will be coming to do a mission tour. Also to top that week off we have stake conference and I am signing in a missionary choir! Im scared for that! 

Our new ward is pretty cool. They had us come and bare our testimonies. I told them about my family and how they do missionary work. I get way too much pleasure out of standing up in front of people and doing things. It was fun. 

Well, kind of a normal week this week I guess? haha Thats all I got! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

ps. I know the Metsätähti family, she looks like she is from their family. 

Hello

(Actual date to 9/28)

Love to get our emails from Spencer.  It was a really short one but we bask on every word. Sounds like he is back to missionary work full speed ahead.  It is nice that things have slowed down a bit so that could happen.  It sounds like his Finnish is doing great too.  He has never once complained about how hard it is.  I am in awe how well he knows it.  The Lord truly does watch over his missionaries and gives them the help they need to be successful.  The power of tongues is real.  Enjoy!

Hello everybody! Sounds like an adventurous week! 

I'm kinda tired right now because we stayed up late doing our monthly report for the area. It was very tedious. However, I wrote all the summaries which ends up being basically a 1000 word essay about the progress of the mission. It is good writing practice that you can't really get on a mission.  I really enjoyed making it really spicy! 

Pretty good week. It appears as if the craziness of bringing a new mission president and putting on one event after another is finally over! We had 7 full (AP days, so they weren't exactly full but still!) days in our area!  This week though, with all this time was great to do some rebuilding. We found 4 new people to teach and taught 22 lessons! It felt great!!! It felt good to know that I can still do the missionary aspect of the work as well as the administrative part. 

We taught *** this week who is easily one of my favorite people I have taught. She is rock solid but is having concerns about what the Gospel will do to her family. We taught temples and eternal families and commited her to pray so, its only a matter of time! We are working on getting her a friend because friends are really the only thing that holds a sincere person from joining the church. 

I had language study every day this week! I can't even believe it! I have had more language study this week than I have my entire time in Helsinki! I never stressed too much about Finnish on my mission as far as worrying that I wouldn't learn it entirely but, the Lord has blessed me for sure because I can say and do almost anything I want in Finnish! Really cool! I can see how if I keep working on it until the end though I can get really good.

Also today, I will be writing a report to President Kearon of the Area Presidency about the challenge he gave us. I'll have to put my writing skills to the test! 

On Wednesday we will also be leaving for Jyväskylä to do exchanges with the Zone Leaders there! That should be fun! 

Well love you all and hope you have a great week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland