August 16, 2010

Hello family,

The langauge is coming along. It's hard. I'm not exactly a killer at this langauge but I wouldn't say I'm behind either. The mini missionary was a big help. His name was Nico Lahdenperä and he is from a city in the north called Kemi. He was funny. He knew very very very little english so we spoke Finnish the entire time which was way good. He taught us a bunch of stuff. He was way funny.We would make fun of each toher in Finnish. "Vanhin Penkki, Miks sä tykkäät pojista?" Elder Behnke, why do you like boys?" People say penkki, or benkki, because penkki sounds close to my name and it is a Finnish word. It mean bench or seat (not very cool). He was great though.

That's great about the shirts you made. Ellie is going to have a lot of fun. That's way cool that she is getting after tennis like that. Hopefully, she sticks with it.

What's the word on Scott's buisness.? Did he get the job again? Did he get the church job? How is work going for you? How's Gram?

Fantasy transfer. I think Elder Schoof and I stay another change here. It will be Elder Schoof's 7th change. WHOA! Have you heard anything about Elder Higginson? I hope he comes back! I want to re-train him haha.

I got your package. Sweet! Funny story about the package. I was riding through the city on SILVER WING (the name of my girl purple and white mountain bike) when a lady starts yelling at me "Behnke! Behnke!" I looked and it was the FedEX lady haha so I signed for it right there and got the package. I loved the package! Robert's story is hilarious. Drew wrote me. Heck ya! I thought for sure he would never write. I got the schedule, a little confusing on what to do but I think i got under control. I'm not sure what you want me to do with the See's candy list. Go ahead and send me the package. I'm not in the leadership training meetings because I'm not a leader. No worries about the package so go ahead and send it to me here in Lappeenranta.

Story number 1. Elder schoof and I were riding to a teach which was about an hour nike ride away. We got there, taught, and then left. About 5 minutes later, Elder Schoof's bike broke and he couldn't use the pedals but the tires could still turn. It was like 8:22 at night and we have to be in by at least 9:30 if we had a late night teach, which we did. Luckily, Elder Schoof was wearing Elder Beard's old belt for some reason. So he took off the belt and we tied around the back of my bike and I towed him home the rest of the trip. We were going down the highway and every car is staring at us. Every runner and dogwalker is stopped and just looking at us. It was pretty funny.

Story number 2. We went down to Mikkeli this weekend. Mikkeli is our visiting city. We stayed the nights in the chapel down there. We were shopping for food and we were waiting in line and the guy in front of us is staring at our tags and walks over to us. He is all excited to talk to us because he saw the Jeesuksen Kristuksen on our tags. He is from Nigeria. he wanted to meet. We meet with him and now he is a new investigator. He said he has a lot fo friends and he is brining them to the next teach with have with him.

Things are going well. We have 5 investgators at the moment. Looking good in LPR. I definitely want one of those burgers. I will try to find them. I'm stoked.

That's all I got today.

Heipa
Vanhin Behnke

Pictures from Zone Conference - August 9, 2010:

Their "funny" picture

What a great group of missionaries, they all look so happy!