June 27, 2011

Hei Family,

I am leaving Pori. I'm heading back to Espoo. My new companion is Elder Fuchs! His mother is from Austria so I highly doubt she is on the Missionary Mom's or speaks english for that matter ( just so you know :) ) We will be the zone leaders of the Helsinki Zone. So I'm heading back to Helsinki which could be sweet. There is tons to do there on p-day where in Pori I just wrote letters haha. I'm kind of bummed to leave Pori. I definitely loved it here but I have been here for a while (though it doesn't feel that long) so I don't mind that much leaving. The work here is just going crazy. The shame is leaving right now at it's high point. Elder Baccile is coming down to take my place though so that's good. Espoo should be fun though and a lot better now that I don't need to take two buses to get to my area like the last time I was here with Butler. Now I can just walk out the door. 

I'm not sure what my address is in Espoo but you can just send it to:
   Brian Behnke
   Neitsytpolku 3 A 4
   00140 Helsinki
   Finland

That should get to me just fine. It will just take an extra day. So you can send stuff to there until next week when I can send you my Espoo address. 

My week has been great though. We had a district meeting on Wednesday here in Pori. We all pitched in and made salmon soup. It's so super good. I gave a message on humility. It was a good time. The on Sunday we had 11 either investigators or potential investigators come to church! The most I have ever had before this was 3 haha. It was pretty awesome. It was a really fun Sunday.

That's sweet that Ellie won her match. I'm really excited to hear how she did on her own. That sucks about Scott's house. Why did he move there if it was such a dump? Hopefully he can go find a better place that he will actually want to stay in. How is everyone else doing? How are things going at Gram's place? Is Scott's work still going good? 

I don't have much else to write. I hope you all have a fantastic week and I will talk to you again when I am 21. I will then be legally able to drink in America and rent a car. I will officially be an adult. So I got that going for me :)  

I love you all,
Vanhin Behnke

June 20, 2011

Hei Family,

Sister Juutinen was so excited when you wrote her back. She texted us at like 6:30 this morning haha. I gave her your email address because I figured you would love to talk with some people out here. I hope that was alright. She was very nervous to write to you in English. 

Our couple we are working with are fantastic. It is a big honor that he wants me to baptize him but chances are I'll be gone.  We will see. They are fantastic!

Everything is going well here. I just heard from Nathan. He is a stud. That is great that he is back. Whenever you talk to him next, you should tell him to send me his address. How was the wedding shower? What kind of stuff did she get? What all did you do?

I don't know if I need anything right now. Just hold off on sending anything until I know where I am. Chances are I leave next week. We'll see what happens. Everything really can happen with President putting everything in order for the new president to arrive. I think I leave my wonderful town of Pori though. We are going on splits tomorow with the Rauma missionaries (Pearson and Budd). We are going to another DA with Sister Salmi. That should be fun. Then on Wednesday is Distric Meetng I am making salmon soup for everyone. It should be good. I will take pictures. 

That is all I have for you. Thank you for the email. Have a fantastic Father's Day! What are you all going to do? Let me how it goes.

Love,
Vanhin Behnke

June 13, 2011

Hei Family!

I just got my first set of my going home papers today. I filled everything out already. I have my home address as Grandma's address. Hopefully, your phone number is still the same. If not, your email address is on there. I checked the box that you all are NOT coming to Finland to pick me up. So everything about my flight information is now taken care of. I will be flying in to DIA (just in case some new massive airport was built in Highlands Ranch :) ). Let me know when you get my flight information. I want to know.

Super cool that Nathan is home. Those 2 are studs. You should have them send me some emails with addresses attached because this chain letter takes about a half a year to get around haha. 

Our DA with Sister Salmi this week with Elders Groberg and Lytle was really good when they came down for spilts. We had lasagna with pickles and pineapple inside. It was really good! The salad was a salad with red onions, pear, grapes, apples, tomatoes, and this lemon itailian sytle dressing. Really good. And Ruisleipä (dark rye bread)

Things are going really well here. We have 14 investigators. It's awesome! Most I have ever had! I remeber when I girst got to Finland and all I wanted was a phone number. Just a spark of interest from something. I didn't even care to teach anyone just a number which was super hard to obtain. Now things are just rockin.' We are teaching a family who can't speak any finnish and knows only a tiny bit of english. They are from a small country near Indonesia. We use very simple, slow , short English and use pictures. It's a ton of fun. 

I spoke in Church again at a ward activity for members and non members. I spoke about how God is the same yesterday today and forever. I pretty just read 2 Nephi 29:7-11 and talked about it. It was simple but good.

Story: Elder Larson and I are riding to a teach with this couple and this guy rides up to me and says, in english, "I don't want to be rude, but GO BACK TO SALT LAKE CITY!!!" Whoa so we stopped the bikes and talked to this guy. He was just yelling at us telling us to go back to Utah. So I said, "I'm from Colorado." Larson: "I'm from Canada." The guy didn't know what to say. I think if he knew that Colorado was right next door to Utah he would have had somekind of comeback haha. Then he moved on to say that Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon are all frauds. So I asked if he had asked God about ti or Read the Book of Mormon and he said No. I told him that that was the problem and then he went off saying how Finland doesn't need us here and that The Bible has always been enough and to just go back to wherever we came from. We just said alright man and left and then he called us disciples of the devil.  It is a fantastic day. I want more of those days.

That's all I have for you. 

Vanhin Behnke

June 6, 2011

Hei Fam,

How was Ellie's birthday? Was it super fun? What are you all up to this week?

Helsinki was really good. It was a fun meeting. We played football every morning. I woke up at 4:45 in the moming to Elder Lytle sitting on my bed putting on my shoes for me haha. Football was a lot of fun though. I saw Elder Burt again. The first time since my 6th week in the country, Whoa! But the meetings went really well and we got pretty much the last of President Brown. One more meeting with him and then he is gone and President Rawlings comes in. I won't have too much time with th new mission president but I should get a good dose before I leave.

The investigators are going good. We have about 9 right now. It's the most I've ever had. 4 look like we might have to move on from but the others are doing really well. It's a very exciting time right now for us in the mission right now. It's a great thing to be apart of.

I have nothing to write really this week. Not much has happened. I speak in a investigator night class thing on Sunday and have like a 5 minute speech. That should be good. Not looking too forward to it but it could maybe be a good experience.

We are going on splits with Elders Groberg and Lytle this week. I am pretty excited for that. We have a DA together with this member who is hilariously fun and makes fun of us because we are American!

I'm coming home soon! Warning: I'm not trunky, it is just a fact. You should go download the song "Gone til November" by Wyclef. Just listen to that. It's perfect. Scott knows the song. have you made any plans for anything for when I get home?

I am getting a lot of emails. Sweet! I don't feel so forsaken anymore. Everyone sounds like they are doing well and nothing seems to have changed at all since I've been gone. Perfect! :)

I am excited to see pcitures of Scott's apartment. Is it cool? 

That's all I have.

I love you and will talk to you next week.

Love,
Vanhin Behnke