Surprise email March 30, 2014

Dear Mom and Dad, 

Surprise, We need to email on Sunday because Elder Stanley and myself been asked to go to a three day training with the 6 week old missionaries. There was just an odd number of Missionaries and we are close enough Helsinki to travel there so that is why they asked us.  But about Niilo, I sure do know him, He was my Branch Mission Leader In Rovaniemi. I knew him right before his was engaged and moved to Helsinki. He is an awesome fellow. Him and Veli Jarvis are some of my looked up too members. Along with the Branch President and the Zone President up there.

This is part of our Fun filled week.  We had a miracle week. 

Wednesday we received a call from the Vantaa Vanhimmat (Elders) telling us that they had a referral for us. His name was Gino, from Africa and He already has a baptismal date. 

Come to find out, Gino used to be a former investigator in Vantaa, but in the past two months he has moved to Keravan area. When Vanhin Batey went through calling some former investigators he came across Gino, and he accepted to meet. Not knowing for sure where he lived they found out that he was now apart of our area, but in the boundry or their HSL cards so they went and met with him and were able to set a baptismal date with him. 

That was the First miracle.

 The Second was when Tampere  Vanhimmat (Elders) called us asking if we could go and teach their investigator. My first thought was that, " We are in Kerava, and Tampere is calling us to teach there investigator....how will this work out, we are not even in the same zone?"

Come to find out their investigator had a surprize trip to Kerava, to visit her soon to be husband (Harri), who also lives in Korso. She (Aija) had originally had an appointment with the Tampere Vanhimmat, but because of her trip she was unable to meet with them, but she still wanted to visit with the Elders. So we were able to visit her and her soon to be husband, who was a referral that we have been trying to get in contact with for three weeks now. When we got a hold of Harri (The soon to be Husband) We had asked if he could meet today, but he told us that he may not be in town so we had planned to meet the following week. But because Aja came to Korso we were able to meet with both of them and receive Harri as a new investigator. Even in our lesson he asked us How well we knew Salt Lake City....Well, I am about 20 minutes from down town...."I stayed in America for three days one year with a Mormon family. I have nothing against your religion. Nothing bad comes from it."

3rd Miracle was being able to meet with a former investigator that was so pleased to have us come back. This Former investigator still remembers Veli Boyer and Hybarger (Both are now teachers at the MTC, Veli Boyer taught me in the MTC.) who originally found him. This family also became new investigators right after our lesson with Harri and Aja.

It was a Tender Mercy filled week. 

These are the People you can pray for, Harri and Aija, Nang, and Gino.

I hope this was a Pleasent surprise to find this email waiting for you. I thought it might be better then you not receiving and email.  I also forgot to tell you last week. Sorry

I Hope you have a wonderful week Love you tons!

love,

Vanhin Sandberg

This is the article from the April Ensign that I asked Jeremy about.

Conversion and Sacrifice in Finland

By Melissa Zenteno

What is it like to be a faithful young adult in Finland? One young man shares his culture and his faith.

The Church in Finland   4,715 Latter-day Saints

15 wards

15 branches

2 stakes

1 mission

1 temple, dedicated on October 22, 2006

By the Numbers  5,250,000 people (as of January 2012)

187,888 lakes

179,584 islands

2.2 million saunas

Facts   Capital: Helsinki

Language: Finnish (Suomi)

A few miles off the coast of Helsinki, Finland, is the sea fortress of Suomenlinna, built in the 18th century to fortify against invaders. Stretching across six islands, this stronghold represents the steadfast determination of the Finnish people.

But Finnish members visit a different building when they travel to their capital. The Helsinki Finland Temple is a physical symbol of their conversion and the protection they receive from living the gospel.

For Niilo Kervinen, a 24-year-old young adult from Rovaniemi, Finland, the 10-hour train ride to Helsinki is a small price to pay for the blessing of serving in the temple.

Before the dedication of the Helsinki Finland Temple in October 2006, Niilo and other members of his ward had to travel to the Stockholm Sweden Temple or to the Copenhagen Denmark Temple. “The trips would usually take a week during the summer vacation,” he remembers. Traveling by bus and sleeping in tents on those trips are some of the best memories he has.

Yet having a temple in his native land is a wonderful blessing. “When they announced the Helsinki Temple, I was so happy,” Niilo says. “The dedicatory prayer still resonates in my heart each time I go inside.”

This love for the temple sets Niilo apart from his friends. “Finns work hard and enjoy being active but leave little time for spiritual things in their life,” he explains. Although Niilo says he has always been blessed with good friends, as he grew older the distinction between how his friends lived and how he was taught to live became clearer. It was this difference that caused Niilo to seek his own testimony when he was 17. “I had to make a decision of where to stand and who to be,” he says. “With the blessings of the Lord and with the guidance of family and good friends, I got a stronger testimony of the Church.”

In speaking of conversion, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said, “I promise that as we come to a knowledge of the truth and are converted unto the Lord, we will remain firm and steadfast and never fall away.”1 Although traveling to Helsinki requires time and money, Niilo is committed to being a disciple of Christ. And for Niilo, that is no sacrifice at all.

More about Niilo

What do Finns typically eat?

Some of my favorite dishes include salmon soup and reindeer meat with mashed potatoes. We also eat a lot of rye bread.

What do you do for fun?

I like to snowboard, watch movies, or just enjoy a walk outside. I served my mission in Japan, so I study Japanese when I can.

What is dating like in Finland?

We don’t have a strong culture of dating. People generally ask someone out only after they already have a considerable amount of interest for them. Here, dating isn’t a mechanism to get to know someone. There are faithful young adults here, even if there aren’t many members. Sometimes young adult members travel long distances to go on a date with a person they met at a young single adult dance.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/04/young-adults/conversion-and-sacrifice-in-finland?lang=eng

Does a Mama Proud March 30, 2014

Vanhin Stanley and Vanhin Sandberg

A beautiful sunset

Vanhin Stanley having a bit of fun.

Dear Mom and Dad, 

Surprise, We need to email on Sunday because Elder Stanley and myself been asked to go to a three day training with the 6 week old missionaries. There was just an odd number of Missionaries and we are close enough Helsinki to travel there so that is why they asked us.  But about Niilo, I sure do know him, He was my Branch Mission Leader In Rovaniemi. I knew him right before his was engaged and moved to Helsinki. He is an awesome fellow. Him and Veli Jarvis are some of my looked up too members. Along with the Branch President and the Zone President up there.

This is part of our Fun filled week.  We had a miracle week. 

Wednesday we received a call from the Vantaa Vanhimmat (Elders) telling us that they had a referral for us. His name was Gino, from Africa and He already has a baptismal date. 

Come to find out, Gino used to be a former investigator in Vantaa, but in the past two months he has moved to Keravan area. When Vanhin Batey went through calling some former investigators he came across Gino, and he accepted to meet. Not knowing for sure where he lived they found out that he was now apart of our area, but in the boundry or their HSL cards so they went and met with him and were able to set a baptismal date with him. 

That was the First miracle.

 The Second was when Tampere  Vanhimmat (Elders) called us asking if we could go and teach their investigator. My first thought was that, " We are in Kerava, and Tampere is calling us to teach there investigator....how will this work out, we are not even in the same zone?"

Come to find out their investigator had a surprize trip to Kerava, to visit her soon to be husband (Harri), who also lives in Korso. She (Aija) had originally had an appointment with the Tampere Vanhimmat, but because of her trip she was unable to meet with them, but she still wanted to visit with the Elders. So we were able to visit her and her soon to be husband, who was a referral that we have been trying to get in contact with for three weeks now. When we got a hold of Harri (The soon to be Husband) We had asked if he could meet today, but he told us that he may not be in town so we had planned to meet the following week. But because Aja came to Korso we were able to meet with both of them and receive Harri as a new investigator. Even in our lesson he asked us How well we knew Salt Lake City....Well, I am about 20 minutes from down town...."I stayed in America for three days one year with a Mormon family. I have nothing against your religion. Nothing bad comes from it."

3rd Miracle was being able to meet with a former investigator that was so pleased to have us come back. This Former investigator still remembers Veli Boyer and Hybarger (Both are now teachers at the MTC, Veli Boyer taught me in the MTC.) who originally found him. This family also became new investigators right after our lesson with Harri and Aja.

It was a Tender Mercy filled week. 

These are the People you can pray for, Harri and Aija, Nang, and Gino.

I hope this was a Pleasent surprise to find this email waiting for you. I thought it might be better then you not receiving and email.  I also forgot to tell you last week. Sorry

I Hope you have a wonderful week Love you tons!

love,

Vanhin Sandberg

Hello our missionaries' moms!

Today we had your sons in the Primary telling children how to get prepared for the mission. Elder Sandberg let each child cut a piece of his tie (or someone else's old tie?) every time he/she was able to tell one way to get prepared. I bet the children will remember this Primary forever, it was so much fun! We enjoy having your sons in our ward. 

Also our son is on a mission. He left for his mission a little over a year ago - he is in Switzerland. I know you miss your sons like I miss our son. But I know we all are blessed for the service of our sons. Thank you so much for having raised your sons to serve their missions in our country.

All the best

Helena Tiits 

Toe Nail March 24, 2014

Dear Mama ja Papanua,

 So the story about my toe. We were playing Sählö. It is Kinda like hockey, but played on a court. Anyway, we were playing and i think It got stepped on...a couple times....Not sure, I just remember checking it after and having it blue, but It is growing back just fine. No worries. I thought it safe to share this one with mom after the fact. Don't you just love how missionaries do that?

Anyway, We were blessed with a miracle early on this last week. We received a partial referral couple weeks ago from one of our missionaries from Kerava. Vanhin Noso. (The same Noso that Annakaisa knows.) He had asked that if we had time, if we would go and try and find an old coworker. We had a general area of where he lived as well as his work place. So we went to work trying to find him, but to find his residence was some what difficult. We went through as many of the buildings as we could, but could not find him. We later tried his work place and it seemed to be closed for some time.

A few weeks later( or last week for us) We went one last time to his work place to try and find this fellow. The only thing we could do was knock on the door of what we had hoped to be the door to the company. Sure enough we had someone answer. We asked If they knew this Salomon. That is when Salomon comes out. We had found him. 

We shared our greetings from Vanhin Noso and chatted for a very short time. But because our visit to his work place was somewhat inconvenient we were just able to pretty much say hello before he had to return to work. Happy that we found him, we were a bit put out because we didn't progress to another topic such as another time we could visit or the gospel. As we were walking away we had a Van pass us that stopped and reversed. 

This is the miracle. there was Salomon, asking if we could get contact information for Vanhin Noso. He gave us his email, before he had to head to another Job.

If we had gone to his work just a bit later we would have missed him. We had such a short window of time that there is no way it was an accident/accedent.  This is in part why as missionaries we "Pray always" which means that we are constantly in tune with the spirit.

That is so exciting to hear that Vanhin Hegland is near the end of his mission. I can't wait to hear his stories. He is a wonderful example to us boys.

It is that time again. I am so deeply grateful for all that Heavenly Father has and continues to bless us with. I am blessed with a wonderful family. Thank you so much for all you do. I love you all and pray for your safety.

Love,

Vanhin Sandberg

Ps. Mom and Dad, Thank you for teaching us boys how to behave and act. We had a dinner appointment yesterday and the mother was pleased that I was willing to do the dishes. Simple things that we as missionaries don't even really think about., but I give credit to my parents.

March 17, 2014

Rakas Moma ja Papanua,

Tender Mercy of the Week,

 "Talking with everyone and going out looking for that "one" a day really does work.

We were able to go on splits last wednesday and one goal that we wanted to focus on is talking with everyone because that is a weakness that both Vanhin Stanley and myself share. 

So Vanhin Richards and myself started out with a blank day. Oddly enough I was excited for it. We started out super strong, We were not letting one person pass us by without us at least saying hello and trying to talk with them. It was so much fun. Although my fear of it had not completely left me We were expecting to talk with the next person no matter what. As we went through out the day doing this we were able to meet some wonderful people. I saw it as a blessing that we had only meet Kind people. 

The Miracle really came as we were heading back home. We were cutting it close to make it on the next train back to kerava, but we were still talking with everyone we could. As we were less than a block away from the station We came up behind two men, one was obviously drunk and I unfortunately judged him.

As we passed by we said our normal "hello" and continued walking. ( planning on not talking to this person.) 

That is when this fellow called us back, in english. 

He asked us if we were the Mormon Missionaries, we confirmed, and were surprised by his next comment.

"I knew it was you. I try and talk to the missionaries every time i see them because I really appreciate what you do."

If that wasn't humbling enough we later came to find out that He talks with the missionaries every chance he gets because they bring a special spirit with them and He always feels better about himself after he talks with them.

We talked with him for the next 20 minutes about his life and prayer.

At the end of our conversation he told us this, " I knew that you were supposed to find me and that we were met to talk. Thank you."

This is what made our entire day of contacting worth it. Ole lives up past Rovaniemi and was only in Järvenpää for a couple of days. But we found him,, or he found us only because we were at the right place at the right time"

Another fun fact, Vanhin Stanley found out this week as we were looking through Family Search that he is related to Mary and Joseph. And a small portion of his Line goes all the way back to Adam.

That was a first for me to see.

Penti is our New investigator. If you could pray for him that would be great. Reino is still coming along slowly.

Thank you again for all you do. I love and pray for each of you. I even tried to bake a cake for Kindsey and Beej, but I burned it. But Fear Not, I am getting better at cakes. Ice Cream fixes everything.

Love,

Vanhin Sandberg

Feb. 18, 2014 Transfers

So little time! As you have heard Tansfer week is this week. Elder Glasgow will be leaving me and Elder Stanley will be coming to Kerava. THis will be my third Change in Kerava. But this is nothing compared to another one of my favorite elders. He has been in Haaga for 10 months. and the last two changes he has been training. Just a bit of info.

Tonight elder Glasgow and I are heading down to Helsinki to pick up my new Comp. And then tomorrow morning Elder Glasgow will be heading to his new area.

Some of the stories I wanted to tell you will have to wait until next week. So I will need you to remind me. Here are the notes to remind me.

Ward FHE

Change call (The curse of elder glasgow)

Great Dal Moodie(prophets game)

Fufu!!!!!!

running after a man with the book of mormon bible.

Elder Glasgow had his birthday this last week. He is now 21. would you be willing to send him a little package? he didn't get anything from his family and I felt aweful. If you could write him just a short little note. He is one of the best elders. I cant wait for you to meet him. He is the example of Christ Like Love. I wish I could have stayed with him another change., but back to him. If you could send him just some thing small that would be great. 

Funny story about his birthday. 

His birthday was on Thursday our planning day so I had decided that I would bake a cake during planning and He. It was a recipe from my cook book from Kim and Beej. Anyway. We made this cake. It was cooking just grand until we pulled it out after its allotted time. It was creamy in the middle....Oh no I ruined his cake! But wait! Missionaries are bright fellows. We can think of something. So we decided to pull our the middle and put all the uncooked goo in the cup cake pan....then the cake would not come out of the pan. 

(Looking back we had the wrong pan all along....ei hyvä)

Scraping the sides we were finally able to get the cake out upside down.

after that we had to put the candles in the bottom because we had not top.

We put the candles in and lit them. (with 21 candles you have to make  wish fast because they start to melt.)

We blew out the candles and started to pull our the candles when we realized we had reuse able candles witha string thingy on both ends...That is when we realized that we put the candles in too soon after pulling the cake out of the oven. So we had candle wax melted all inside this little cake.

This was one of the best times we have had. We just laughed about it. because it was so silly. we ate it anyway, pulling out as much wax as we could. It was grand.

Short story i thought you might like.

We need to go and get my comp now...I am sorry that this is so short. and very fast. forgive all of my spelling mistakes. Know that I love you all and I pray for you every day. Be safe and good.

Love,

Vanhin Sandberg

ps. Elder glasgow was in dire need of new shoes so I gave him my second pair for his birthday. How does my money account look? Am I doing alright?

pss. I sent Kim's chocolate bar to our home address because I don't have their home address. I know that you know what to do. :)

I have just a little bit more time while elder Glasgow finishes up. 

The pictures are great!! I figured that Emmie had some kind of digested food on her. And Jeff's new glasses.........and justin going in to get his checked.................not sure how I feel about this. I may be the only boy without glasses...........Dad and myself. But dad uses his for reading the scriptures so it doesn't count.

TIme to go.

LOVE YOU!!

Vanhin Sandberg

March 3, 2014

Dear Momma and Papanua,

I am pleased to know that you were able to make it to the funeral and back safely. Our example as members of the church reaches far beyond our comprehension. "We morn with those that morn" That means all of our Heavenly Fathers children and even more so family.

 So this week was grand! We had a wonderful zone training with President Packers son, along with Elder Rockwood, Brimhall, and Dykes. We were taught the impotance of Family History, becoming better leaders, and the Spirit of Elijah (Family History again)

I was also given a special spatula from Sister Thelin, because see loves me as well as I am becoming known for my cookies.( Thanks to you)

Back to Family History, Do you know If I have a Family Search account? I don't remember....sadly. We are meeting with our Family History person this next wednesday. We met with him last week as well and It was a lot of fun. I forgot how fun FAmily History is. It was fun to pull out my chart and share it with others. Helps with the Name as well.  Also, could you send me some family stories?

Now for the story of the week.

Saturday Morning Elder Stanley and myself were on our way out to another area called Savio.  It is just under Kerava, but we were going to visit a less active memeber when we received a call from a member asking us if we could bring them two books of Mormon before 7pm. We were also told to call their spouse to make sure they would be home. So after we prayed about it we decided that we did have enought time so we headed back to our apartment to pick up an extra book.

When we got to our apartment we thought it a good idea to call the husband to make sure he would be home for when we brought the books. When we called him we assured us that we didn't need to really bring the books, but that he would receive them on sunday. We got off the phone with him and just thought about it...Ok...Why are we hear? What will be the best use of our time?

We prayed about it and felt that it was needed that we go anyway. After we had already been told not to come. So we head out there. very few people were out at this time so we arrived there very quickly. We come to the door and  receive a call from our member who had just told us not to come.

"Oi Dear Brothern, my wife needs those books tonight! Anteeksi, but is there any way that we can still receive those books?

"Of course, We are here now." At which point I rang his bell.

This is just a small testimony to me the importance in following the spirit, It was just a small thing, but we did the right thing. We even made it to our next appointment on time which was also a miracle.

Thank you for all you do.

I am also greatful for the example you have set for me. I have recenly come to understand what it means to have Charity of Sharing. Just a side note.

The Language will come. I have seen to many miracles not to believe. I have also been able to play the piano the last two weeks. another tender mercy. Joyce would be proud.

I love you and pray for you!

Vanhin Sandberg