September 27, 2010

Hei Perheni,

The news is saying that this winter is going to be the coldset winter in a thousand years!!!!........ so I got that going for me :)   

I got a ton of stuff for the winter. I don't need you to send me anykind of clothing. I'm good. If not, it would be best if I brought it from Finland anyway. So do not worry about sending me clothes.

So, this past week I was in a city called Kouvola with Elder Cassity. Elder Cassity is a stud. He reminds a lot of Drew Boettcher but not, if you get what I'm saying. It was a lot of fun. We talked about how much we loved our moms :)   We had a ton of success in that 4 day span. A new investigator, like 4 teaches, a grip of future appointments, and a baptismal date. Kouvola is going really well right now. 
       We had a teach with a Jehovah Witness. Whoa. That was unique. He didn't believe in the Book of Mormon (obviously) and he didn't believe in the Bible we had, so we had nothing he wanted to use. He had his New World Translation Bible which he said was extremely accuurate. haha. We said ok and we tried to use the same references from the regular Bible with his bible and it was ridiculous. Talk about losing plain and precious things. Our scriptures didn't even make sense to him. In short, the New World Translation Bible is not true :) Don't convert to JWism. 
       We taught a man who knows more about the church than we do. He knows it is true and said he will join after he reads more. He has already read the Work and the Glory. Practically a member already. The cool story about him is he was walking down the street and dropped something. He later went back to get it and then came walking "2 angels" as he called them and talked to him about the gospel. He couldn't remember one of the elder's names but he remembers one of them. He said he was stopped by Elder Fuchs and his companion. I was pretty stoked to hear about that. I told them that Elder Fuchs was my good friend and he said with a huge smile on that he was also his good friend. Really cool story. Go Fuchs! What a compliment!
        Elder Cassity also called up a former investigator and she wanted to meet. We go over there and she was completely uninterested. We talked to her for about 45 minutes and we weren't getting anywhere. She said "All you want to do is just baptize, baptize, baptize." We both, at like the same time, said "Well,... yah" haha. It wasn't going far so we tried to leave. She told us we couldn't leave until we ate with some of this bread. She brings out 3 kinds of breads and make us eat it. It was just weird. 2 of them were pretty good. 1 loaf was horrible. Elder Cassity takes one bite and hides behind a box while I'm soaking mine in honey trying to dull the flavor. It was an adventure.

I don't have much else. 

Christmas. IT'S COMING!!! It may not be close to you all, but it feels like it is just around the corner here. I don't want anything excpet, letters, Grandma's fudge, Mom's turtles, and Dad's box of football cards (just get a super cheap box, I just need the feel of it). There is so much cool stuff here. Money would be nice, But I want those first 4 things. Don't buy me any clothes to send me. These things are what I want. Dad, am I allowed to send things or no? I don't know what you all want me to do.

Ellie also told me that she got a passport. I really hope you don't plan to pick me up after the mission. It's going to be cold and I can't do anything as a missionary. I'm also pretty stoked to fly home with my group. I'm just making sure. 


I love you all. Take care. I'm excited for the letters you sent.

Rakkaudella, 
Vanhin Behnke

p.s. i talked to Elder Higginson on the phone. He sounded glorious

September 20, 2010

Hei Family,

How is it all going over there? Did Scotty get the job?

The weather. There seems to be a lot of demand to know about the weather here. It rains almost daily. We had an hour long bike ride to an investigator in the pouring rain. It was great. I'm trying to learn all 7 verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief with Elder Schoof on those huge bike rides. The investigator is an older woman and has a lot of troubles comprehending and remembering. We will teach her, and then she won't really remember us visiting the next time we meet with her sometimes. She's great though. She believes it's all true. She's also making me socks which I'm pretty happy to get. :)
The 4 day Leadership Training Meeting is this week. they are taking all the senior companions down for it. So, I am going to Kouvola for this week. I'll be with the Elder Cassity which I'm really super syked for! I really like Elder Cassity. It's going to be to be pretty cool. I got your letter. The package is going to have to wait in Lappeenranta until I get back. I'll just call up the FedEX lady and let her know what's up. We're tight.

Yah. I'm trying to make everything more fun. The 300 idea was mine and Elder Schoof liked it. I'm just trying to spice up a same type routine day. You like to know the fun things I do. I don't think I have many. I have a huge bowl of ice cream for every weekly planning meeting. Sometimes I like pretend my bike is Seabiscuit and ride past Elder Schoof while I narrate it like Tick-Tock McClaughlin; "And it's Seabiscuit, around the outisde. He's passing War Admiral. War Admiral is behind him now. It's Seabiscuit!!! Seabiscuit!!!" And then I cheer as I get up on my pedals and my clutch my "horse whacker thing" like I won. I'm pretty dorky :) Speaking of bikes. I fell off mine hardcore the other day. I ran into a bike a flew off and smacked my head and side. My hands were completely gashed up and covered in blood. Luckily, i was wearing a helmet (Thank you white handbook missionary rules (( obedience ;) ))) and my helmet took the skidding instead of my face. Now, today is Monday, and my hands are completely healed. GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT!!!!

Things are going well though. We have been teaching a lot more effectively. We just need to find more investigators. 

Oh ya. Please say thank you to Deb Holub from me. I really loved and appreciate the card she sent. She is a wonderful wonderful person. The best. As for letters, I haven't had time still to write Drew back and I did get letters from Todd and Abbey. I haven't heard from Chris in a awhile but I'm sure he is doing just fine. 

Things are going. I love you all. Finnish is still hard if you were wondering. Take care and I will talk to you all next week.

Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Behnke

September 13, 2010

Hei family,

Things are going well here. we leave for Helsinki tomorrow for a specialized training meeting. It should be fun. The weather is nice. It has rained a little bit but I like it. new investigators and our "guy" is in Helsinki for 2 weeks. How is everything over there?

I got the Bailey report. So I know that he is dating some nice young gal. What a stud. I give him before my year mark in the field before he gets engaged. I did hear about Elder Bryant. That's crazy! He was just here. He'll probably be a father before I get home!!! Haven't seen Elder Higginson yet. Dang it. Elder Schoof and I have to go somewhere for General Conference. It's a toss up between Mikkeli and Lahti. I got chance to see him if that's where we go. I'm trying

As for cooking. I haven't cooked since Savonlinna. Elder Butler and Elder Schoof love to cook and don't trust me. :) So I haven't gotten any better at all yet. I

How is Scotty doing? Did he get the job?

I did get he Kozak's treats. I forgot to write about that. They were awesome. They were gone in 2 days. Feel free to always send more. :)

As for not teaching Muslims. In their religion, if you convert to another religion it has a high chance to disgrace their family. By disgracing the family, they are allowed to kill you. In the muslim culture, death is really not something to fear and the radical muslims do some pretty nuts things (terrorism). It isn't so much that we arenät allowed to teach Muslims but if their family is on the radical side, bad things can happen (in example, a missionary gets blown up by a suicide bomber; true story). They are ok to teach if the their family isn't like that. If they were to except the gospel here, they probaböy would except it after this life as well. So we just got to keep our heads on.

I loved the pictures you sent.

Donna Head got her package. Super. I hope they all liked it.

The Less Active LOVED the card dad sent. Dad came up big. I knew he would :) He has a request. He wants to know if he can get the latest edition of the Pro Sporting News NFL Guide or somethinbg like that. I'm sure dad knows what is up.

I have a question. We have been teaching about tithing a little bit. How has tithing helped you all?

That's all i got today.

Love you all

Vanhin Behnke

September 6, 2010

Moi Perheeni,

I hope I didn't scare anyone with the "answer my questions in the next email" thing. That was just a heads up. Everything is just fine:) No worries.

Big News. We have a baptismal date here in Lappeenranta! I'm pretty happy about it. (He is a big finn! He is about 6'5" like 300 pounds. He has long hair and super nice. We met him on the street a couple of weeks ago. He was walking down the street with his headphones on and he just stopped and took of his head phones and just stared at us waiting for us to talk to him. We did and BAM! the date is on November 6th which is prettyfar away but still really awesome. Another investigator is knitting Elder Schoof and I socks. Also, we are now officially "in" with all the kebab guys from Vatan Kebab. YES!

I got a phone call the other day from a Finnish woman telling me she was going to be at our apartment in two minutes. We had no idea who it was or what was going on. We went outside and it was the FedEX lady, YAH!!! So i got your package. At the moment, Elders Schoof, Linn, Slade, Groberg, Gamblin, and Baccile all have Ellie bracelets. Thanks for the socks. Great present. I haven't noticed it until you said something Mom. Dad has always thrown in some random piece of choclate. I'm always like what he does he send me haha. That's funny that it's all been apart of his plan. What a crazy guy :)

We had a special missionary conference yesterday and Elder Rasband and Elder Texiera came and spoke to us. Pretty cool. Elder Rasband is in line to be the next apostle and you can tell. There was such a difference when he spoke than everyone else. Cool. I got to see Elder Christiansen and Lytle again. They're training, together, hahahaa! The greatest possible thing they could of ever wanted just happened to them. That's really awesome. I got to see Elder Falk for the last time. The man.


That's all I have for you at this time. Take care! I love you all!

Moikka,
Vanhin Behnke