Week 33, 12-30-2013

Another week, come and gone. Time just flies by. It still feels like yesterday that I was able to talk to you, but it has almost been a week now. Just like Jon and Jeff, I inherited the superman gene and I am just busting forward with power. I don't get home sick and I think it is because Heavenly Father has answered by prayers and continues to answer my prayers. And the fact I could banter with Kindsey again. We have a sister in the mission that reminds me a lot of Kindsey. Her name is Sisar West. So I have to remind myself that I have to be nice to every once and a while. But I pray for my family every night and I have been able to see the blessings that are given. We may be a world apart, but we are still very close indeed. We had a wonderful thing happen this week. Reino came to church all on his own this last week. We came in right before the sacrament, but instead of leaving after sacrament he stayed for pyhä koulu (Sunday school) We have been richly blessed here with members that are well trained in being missionaries. I am excited to start this new year with a running start. Reino, Sami and Luiza, Ville are some names that you can pray for.

Fun STory for you,

Elder Glasgow and myself were at the store earlier today. We meet a drunk fellow at the check out line. He shared some colorful words with us and decided he wanted to come talk to us closer......Building the drama. We had this young couple in front of us that paid little attention before, but as soon at this man wanted to pass through them the wife or girlfriend stood her ground and kindly told this man that he could move forward and place his items on the belt and when he tried to say more she gently reminded him that others we behind him as well. 

My thought was that Angels come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Heavenly Father protects his missionaries. I don't think this drunk man could have done much harm, but it was a simple testimony builder to me that others can be inspired too. I have heard other stories where some people will watch something happen and just try and ignore as best they can. I saw a bike crash happen like this. But to see this woman stand up for us was very heart warming. I made sure to thank her as well. Here are some questions for Bishop.

How is Max Knoble doing? 

How is Dean Larson doing? 

What can I do to help Porter? 

I have been blessed with such a wonderful family. Thank you for all you do for me. I have been well prepared by your example to come and preach the gospel to these children, our brothers and sisters. We are at a beautiful time full of miracles happening. I love an pray for you everyday.

Love,

VAnhin Sandberg

ps. I lied, letters are always nice.

Week 32, 12-23-2013 Twelve hours early

Dear Mom and Dad,

In answer to the questions,

I am doing great!

I received my package. Fleece.

Christmas will be spent with the Lintusaari perhe.

We will skype at the Lintusaari's house around 6 or 7. (MY TIME)

Reino is doing well. Keep praying for him and his family.

Ville is our new investigator. Prayfor him if you can.

The missionaries here in Finland broke 100 when I came into the country. If that helps.

Did I miss any questions?

Elder Glasgow....The Great and Powerful District leader. We get along great. I have been blessed with each of my companions. I have not killed anyone...yet. Just kidding.

Elder Glasgow is from Georga. He is an only child. He has been out on his mission just over a year now. It is awesome serving with him. Always nice when you are new to an area because everyone wants to feed you. So everyday this week is filled with meetings with members. We are going on our week mark tomorrow.

Funny Story,

Elder Downs and myself we given instructions from the APs to be in Helsinki by 8 last tuesday. So come tuesday morning we get ready and head off for Helsinki. We get there and we are waiting around seeing if any other missionaries will be at the asema. 8:15 roles around and we decide to call the APs.

"Hello Elder Green, We are here in Helsinki at the appointed hour. What next?"

You are already here?

"Yep, 8 o´clock."

I ment 8 at night.....

(Finland goes off of the 24 hour clock. So 8 sounds just like 8 to us.)

Good thing we always arrive 12 hours early for every appointment. I felt like Dumbledore at the MofMagic.

That was a fun adventure to start of our Companion transfers. I dropped Elder Downs off in Haaga and picked up Elder Glasgow. EVerything worked out just fine.

Second Story,

Elder Glasgow had a package waiting for him at the office. So on our way back from District meeting we decided we would swing by and just pick it up. When we got to the office we could not find is package. after 15minutes we found it under a table. We are about to leave when i noticed a box with disney stickers on it.

I didn't want to go looking at others mail, but I felt prompted to look. Funny I followed that, because It ended up being mine. If we had not found Elder Glasgows package and had to wait for Sister and Elder London we would not have found it. Tender Mercy.

I look forward to hearing from you on Christmas. I love you all and I pray for you everyday. Be good and Be Safe.

Love

Vanhin Sandberg

Quick third story,

Reino was feeling a little sick this last week and so he didn't know if he would make it to church. We know that if he keeps coming he will gain the testimony he needs to be baptized. Elder Glasgow and myself wanted to give Reino something for Christmas. We talked with another member and thought it would be a good idea to give him a Elävä Kristus framed for Christmas. We just wanted to stop by and give it too him. Well when we stopped by he was touched by our kindness to give him the Picture frame, and the Miracle was that He came to church the next day. Not only Sacrament meeting by SundaySchool too! That has never happened. I don't know if he came because of our gift, but it was a tender mercy to me knowing that Heavenly Father really does know what is best and that when we are praying always he is there prompting us at the right times. Miracles do Happen.

Week 31, Dec. 16, 2013 Transfers Vanhin Glasgow

Dear Family,

What a wonderful time it is to be serving our Maker Jesus Christ and our Eternal Father in Heaven. The miracle you shared testify to me of the truthfulness of this gospel. The past week we were able to have our ward Christmas party. We had a program shared by the primary children and we sang some traditional Joulu (Christmas) songs. It was a wonderful time for us to get to know the members better as well as to have some of our less actives come. The next day was sunday and Elder Downs and myself were asked to sing again. (They seem to like us) And I was also giving a talk.

I spoke about Jesus Christ. I shared the `Living Christ`by the Twelve apostles in 2000, as well as the message shared by the Shepherds. We as missionaries are sharing this same message. Jesus Christ our Savior Lives.

 We have also been able to make leaps and bounds with our Investigator Reino. We have learned of all of his concerns and are helping him over come them. One thing I that was really cool this week was after our district meeting. We had a district meeting about Prayer and how it is always good to go over that again with our investigators even if we know that they know the simple steps to pray.

We role played this in District meeting and later that night we had a teach with Reino.

At the end of our teach we invited him to pray. at first he didn't want to, but after doing exactly what we did in DM and showed him how easy it was to pray He was willing to do it. It was a wonderful tender mercy to see this happen.

We also had another change call this past week.

Elder Downs will be opening a new city in Malmi and I will be with another Elder called Vanhin Glasgow. (Hope I spelled that right) He will be our district leader so I will be the District leaders companion. I have been told that is the best companion position to be in. I will be staying in Kerava too. So I wont have to leave our Ward yet. :)

I don't have any new information about Christmas calling yet. We have been a little busy with the Ward party and changes, but I will have more information next week.

I love you all and thank you again for all you do for me.

I cant wait to hear from you on Christmas.

Love,

Vanhin Sandberg

Crazy Son loves the shock factor of things

Week 30 Temple

Dear Mom and Dad,

We had a wonderful week! Elder Downs and myself went down to Helsinki on Wednesday because Elder Downs was asked by Elder Anderton (language elder) If he would come and help with the Kieli Koulu for the 6 week missionaries. That left me and all the other trainers to go to the temple.

The Temple. This was my first time going to the Temple here in Finland. It was beautiful. The Temple offered to do a session for the missionaries in english so my mind was able to rest for a little bit instead of trying to understand the deep finnish. It was very kind of the temple to do that for us. We were also able to see the new video. I am still trying to wrap my head around it. As always I was able to find new things than before. Something I have come to notice here in Finland. We only have one temple in Finland. Some people have to travel from Russia and Estonia to come to the temple. Living here in Kerava we could go every week if we wanted to. We would just have to switch our P-Days. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to go to the temple. To be worth to enter into the Lords house and learn new things every time. I understood this a little bit before when I was preparing to come here, but now i can just feel it. I am preparing my brothers and sisters to come and enter the temple and receive the blessings here. Baptism is only the first step. It is so great to be apart of this work.

Reino was able to come to church. He only stayed for the first hour, but he still came. We are still working towards him receiving answers to his prayers and accepting a baptismal date.

I have not heard of Lucia, That is new to me. But I did meet a new missionary that knew Jeff when he was in Sweden. His name is Vanhin Strandberg. We were able to talk at his Interm training and Language school. That was another tender mercy this week.

Has Jeff bought Glögi yet? That is one of my new favorite drinks. If you can find it at IKEA buy it. It is like drinking Christmas.

In answer to your questions:

I did receive that primary package. I loved it.

As far as I remember we can email our friends. It changed while I was in the MTC, but I will check again this week.

I have some thermal underware, but I don't have a shirt. so that would be nice.

Thank you again for all you do for me. I love you. Be safe. Have fun.

Love Vanhin Sandberg

ps.

We are still finishing our planning for  Christmas, but I can tell you that we will be calling around 6 or 7 pm....I think. I will have more Info next week.

Week 29 Cookies and Missionary Work

Dear Family,

Update from Kerava,

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. Elder Downs and myself have been doing great! We are excited for the Christmas season to be here. With Christmas just around the corner it give us missionaries a wonderful way to share the true meaning of Christmas in a normal and natural way.

We have been working with our ward and have met almost everyone. We have continued trying to contact less actives and formers. One of our main goals this week is talking with everyone. I had the thought a couple days ago about this. This will help us even more in reaching our goal of 20 teaches a week. Things are looking great. I love it here and love to see how the Lord is preparing the people here.

In answer to your questions:

Sheet music would be best. I am not computer talented. I am a little old fashioned.

I hear from the Fearsome Four almost weekly. We keep in touch through email. Nothing big just a couple words here an there.

(Future thought, Packages that cost 60 dollars/45€ or more are harder to send through customs. Either the Office or myself will have to pay extra for it. Along with Fed-x and Ups packages.)

Alright,

Everyone loves a good story. This week we had a a special experience when we went to ward council.

Elder Downs and myself love baking cookies. This is a weekly treat we love to share. Well about two weeks ago we had baked cookies and wanted to take some to our members as well as some less actives. We baked a few and were able to take them to a few people. The next day was one of the craziest days. Nothing was working out. We didn't have time to do our weekly planning and our back up plan for our back up plan had fallen through. It was 19 and we had nothing to do....what do we do in these situations? Pray. I said just a small prayer in my heart that we would know what to do. We went to our area book and we found a section we had some how passed over before. It was a section of less actives. We had both felt impressed to find some one out of those names that we could visit. We only had time for one person as well. We also had just enough cookies for one last person...

I thought this was great. Our rough day was finally working out to our gain. So Elder Downs and myself found this one person and walked to their apartment. (because of Finnish Law, we are not allowed to tract or knock doors after 20:00.)

We were going to be cutting it really short with this last person we wanted to meet. We finally find it and knock on the door. a Woman opens the Inside door sees us and closes it with out a word.......

Sword to the Heart!

After everything we have done with this hard day and to finally finish it off with this. I will admit I was a little down hearted. I had no place to be mad, but I was disappointed.

Elder Downs and I decided we would just leave the fresh baked cookies there and just leave our pass along card too.

Walking home I don't think we even talked to each other. But we brushed the dust off our shoes and got over it.

       Now I want to draw your attention back to Ward Council.

Our Primary President was talking about some less actives that she had talked to that week and she mentioned that ONE of the less actives was touched by some cookies left at their door and that these were some of the best cookies they had ever had.

Come to find out after this less active was the Primary Presidents son. 

Just a fun little story reminding us that Heavenly Father is always in charge.

I love you and thank you for all you do for me.

Love your Son, Brother

Vanhin Sandberg 

Will you ask Annakaisa Who she knows in Kerava?  I have asked a couple families if the know her and George, but because I don't know her sukunimi it makes it a bit hard.

Bishop Sandberg,

How is ED doing? I went with the missionaries a couple times to teach a man that lived in the Browns old house.

Week 24 Service,Tracking a B&B

Dear Moma,                                                                 

                                                          10-15-2013

No niin, So little story to start off my email. Yesterday we were going through our normal routine. Scriture study the whole bit. We got a call from a member in our ward in the middle of companionship study and he asked if we could help him this morning.

Of course we can. We love service. (We don't think he knew it was our P-day) So we were ready at 10 am ready to go. (10:00 is language study) We headed out to his house and we raked his entire lawn after he already had once. We then took all the leaves and rubbish to the land field. We were with him about 4 hours. After Helping Veli Kervinen I let elder Speirs email. We then had bible study at 5/17:00 until 19:45.We talked after bible study. After bible study we headed back to the church for me to email...at the same time that i was suppose to email Elder Gourley and Sisar Gourley were having FHE with the YSA. So my email time did not work out so well. And that is the Story of yesterday.

We still had to get food for this week this morning so these last two days have been a little crazy different.

How is everything back home. So Kindsey decided in her sleep that she wanted to change the wall paper. I will pay her a Euro if she licks the wall next time. ;) BUT i need proof that it is really happens.

Elder Hampton, I have heard of him but i do not know him.

All is well here in Rovaniemi, We are down to no investigators again, but that means that finding is going up. We have also been working harder to meet with our formers as well as meet with potentials. Our branch is also being a great help. There is a real desire to do missionary work here. Elder Speirs and I have talked about it. We feel that Rovaniemi is on the edge of just exploding with missionary work. We are meeting so many really cool people that seem to really be interested. We set a new goal to have 5 teaches a day, With investigators, potentials, new converts, members, new converts. Teach when we Find and Find when we teach. We also have started a list of people that we are praying to find that our branch needs. We are building a stake here in the North Zone. I am excited to see where Rovaniemi will be in just a couple of months. It has already changed from when i first came here. And that is really fun to see.

We had a fun experience Sunday night when we went to visit a former. We had a former in our area book that lived in the boonies of Finland. (20 minute bike ride north) (Dirt roads) It was later in the evening and this would be our last house we would stop by be for heading home. After biking for about 25 minutes we find the house. In our Area book it had said that one of the children was interested. We didn't know about the family, but we decided to stop by anyways. We get there and the father of the house hold answers. To my surprise he invites us in. This has only happened three times since i have been here.

We come in and we start talking about stuff and we ask about church and what role that plays in their life. "Yeah, we believe in God and Jesus Christ....but are you not going to check in?"

...."no?"

That is when the husband and his wife began to explain that this was a B&B (Bed and Breakfast.) We had a good laugh about it. We ended up teaching the First lesson to the Owners of this B&B and they are now potentials.

Not sure how many Missionaries can say that they tracked a B&B.

Question for my Bishop.

I heard that Porter and Jessie are now in our Ward. How are they doing? How is Dean Larson and his wife? Do they still live behind us? If so could i get their contact information?

Look up the Mormon Message ´Earthly Father, Heavenly Father´ Changed my life.

Thank you for all you do. I was thinking yesterday about the miracles that happen every day and How little I really see them. Every day is a gift from our Father in Heaven. In just a couple minutes I was able to count over thirty miracles. That is nothing near what could be written. I love you and pray for you. Have a wonderful week.

love,

your son

Vanhin Sandberg

The Land Field

Relaxation or Meditation?  
Jeremy fell asleep while Vanhin Speirs was e-mailing
so he took the opportunity to take some pictures.