December 27, 2010

Hey,

 

I figured since I just talked to you all on the phone that I don't need to write too much in this letter.

 

It was good to hear from you all. I feel like the same person that I was when I left. But then, I talk with all of you, and I just feel and act and sound different. Do I sound different?

 

It was really exciting talking to you all. I loved hearing all of your voices. Everyone sounds so good. I can't believe it has already been a year. Whoa!

 

That's so great that Scotty and Ellie got puppies. I'm so excited for them.  I love the pictures. The puppies are so cute! 

Ellie's beanies are great. I would love a cool looking one for when I am home.

 

It sounds like everyone is happy which is great!   Elder Peck and are off to do some shopping. Probably won't buy anything but we're still going!  Elder Peck wants a new suit so we are going to check them out.

 

Have fun. I love you all. I will write you again next Monday.

 

Rakkaudella ja Onnellistä Uutta Vuotta,

Vanhin Behnke

On Christmas morning we had arranged for Brian to be in the Pori Marketplace at this particular spot on Christmas morning for us and the afternoon for him.  I had my eyes peeled on the webcam - it gives stills but updates every 8 seconds.  As soon as I saw them I had everyone come around my computer and they were so excited to see him.  Brian of course was wearing a Santa hat and jumping off of things.  Note there are 3 statues there, one standing on his head so that is NOT Brian!  He is the one jumping off that little ledge.  It was so exciting to see him and then we were able to chat with him that afternoon - what a GREAT Christmas!!!

December 20, 2010

Hey Family,

 

I figured since I am talking to you this weekend, I don't need to write you all a big letter.

 

Things are going well here. We got 3 new investigators this week and 1 with a baptismal date. The baptismal date isn't so solid. He seemed to be a "can't-say-no" guy and his wife seemed to be in chage and not super interested. They didn't come to church yesterday. Hopefully, we can get something going though.

 

I hope you enjoy that pictures of me being Joulupukki at our ward Christmas party :) 

 

Have a Merry Christmas! I will talk to you all on Christmas night at 9:00 pm (MY TIME)!

 

Enjoy this awesome Christmas week and the end of the Christmas season. I will be there on the next one. I promise!

 

Love you all,

Vanhin Behnke

Elder Behnke playing Santa or Joulupukki as they call in in Finland!

Joulupukki and Elder Peck

I guess Joulupukki even makes babies cry in Finland!  :)

This is what they ate, thinking some kind of bread pudding?

This looks yummy - must be a traditional Christmas cake.

December 13, 2010

Hey family,

I got the absolutely giantic package the other day. WOW! That thing was huge! I'm so excited for Christmas! I sent some pictures in some emails to you all. Hopefully, you can tell which apartment was Kerava and which is Pori. Let me know if you have trouble.

The ward isn't very big here. I'm not sure if there is a Christmas program but there is a Christmas party this Friday. Should be fun. We going to use the peanut butter cookie mix you all gave us to make something sweet.

I haven't gotten any letters from you all. I only got the package. Hopefully, you will get the package I sent in time. It isn't wrapped inside. Just a warning. Also, you should be getting random chocolate bars in the mail too. Postage is ridiclous here. It would be a 42 euro package with the candy bars inside or a 15 euro package and I can 1 stamp the candy home. Juts a heads up if you get just chocolate bars in the mail.

We got a call last week telling us that we are getting the car back. YEAH! But it gets even better! They told us to go pick up the car from Rauma and then take it to Helsinki to pick up a new car. SWEET! So we had a road trip to Helsinki and pick up a brand new navy blue Opel Corsa. A Beaut! I drove it off the lot. It's glorious! So now I have a car in Pori!

Quick heads. On Tuesday, December 21st, we are going to Turku for a disctrict meeting. At around 3:30, we are going caroling in the center. So, if the Emmelkamps or that guy is in the center then, I'll see them.

That's all I have for you all right now. Thank you

I love you,

Vanhin Behnke

The kebabs he loves so much! 

Out tracking......probably noon!  :) 

He says this is the "Tree of Life"

Christmas caroling in Turku

December 7, 2010

Hey,

I have no idea what happened to the letter I sent you all last week. There were no pictures on it. For some reason it wouldn't send. Anyway, here is another letter to you all.

Yes, I'm in Pori now. They took the car away from us. Dang it! :) Pori is pretty big. Decent size city. Abosuluetly HUGE area for us to cover. Small ward (YES!) full of old women. It should be fun. I wasn't disappointed to leave Kerava. It was fun though. I forgot to take pictures like you wanted. But no worries. I can get Elder Baccile to send me pcitures so I can send them to you all. I will take better pictures of Pori. I promise.

H cancelled her baptismal date, as you found out. It was a bummer. The morning of her baptism too. We were getting ready to go clean the font and Elder Hybarger had his white clothes in a bag ready to go. Then the call came. We went and visited her the next day. She really likes us. I have her address so I can write her. I took a picture with her. I'm not sure if you got it. I will send more pictures to you. Hopefully, Elder Baccile and Elder Slade can help her out. I think she will be baptized one day though. She still believes. On a brighter note, H.S.  was baptized yesterday in Lappeenranta. Elder Boyer got me a program and he is sending it to me sometime. Great!

That's a bummer that Dad didn't get to see Elders Hybarger and Butler. I got a letter from him today. He wrote it in Finnish. I will forward it you and you can see some more finnish. I'm glad you got to read Elder Butler's departing message. we haven't gotten the newsletters yet. I'm sure it was hilarious. He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I loved that change with Elder Butler. He wrote me an email too..... and it was hilarious haha.

HUNTER B HAS GOT SOME HOPS!!! I think I can touch the rim (not saying much though). I forgot that he played basketball. I'm proud of him.

That is the right address. I'm excited for the package. It should be great! How are all the Christmas plans going? We have a tiny tree set up as we blare the Carpenters and Nat King Cole all day. It's nice.

I don't have much else to say. Have a good week. I will talk to you all soon.

I just tired sending pictures but it won't work for some reason. I'll send the card home.

Pictures received last week from his last area.....Kerava!

Would even like a picture of the candy aisle to check out all the  candies, but couldn't get a picture of that either - he is KILLING me!!!

No, this was NOT his car!  :)  Only Brian would deem this necessary to take a picture of and send home - how about the beautiful Finland countryside - nope!

His "area" in Kerava

November 29, 2010

Well, no letter today!  It is sad because transfers came out and I don't know if he is staying in Kerava or had to move on to some other place.  Plus, was so anxious to hear about the baptism.

I guess we will have to wait until next week.

BTW, he did send pictures however - crazy kid!

HOLD ON.........just got an email from Lori Peck and her son, Vanhin Peck, will be Brian's new companion in PORI - it is about 3.5 hours northwest of where he is now.  I guess he is off the hook for stiffing me with a letter today.  THANK YOU LORI!!  So grateful to be connected to the BEST missionary moms.  She also tells me there is a webcam there - woo hoo - we will be doing some spying on him FOR SURE!

So stay tuned, I am sure we will be receiving a letter on Wednesday.

November 22, 2010

Hey Family,

I am absolutely amazed at how fast you got the package here wow. Yah, FedEX is horrible here for me. It was a forty minute quest away today in order to get my package. Well worth it. Thank you so much. Wow! There was a ton of stuff. Don't wory about grabbing anything else. This is great. Thank you. Some of the stuff is a little questionable like the hardcore techno song of the Pirates of the Carribean haha. Thank you though


H's baptism is this Saturday. Elder Hybarger is baptizing her. Elder Baccile is speaking at her baptism about baptism. I am giving her the Holy Ghost on that Sunday. It's pretty exciting. She has her interview with Elder Groberg (baptismal candidates need to be interviewed by either the district leader or zone leader before baptism) on Thursday. She is a sculpture. I know she has done some huge sculpture that is in Rovaniemi. I don't know too much about it.

Christmas. I have been thinking. Shipping will cost me a ton. I'm not too sure if if is worth it to send the gifts to you by mail. Plus, I don't trust the mail service after the last package I tried to send you all. i think it would be best if I just save the money that dad gave me and I can give you twice as much next Christmas and I can be there for it. I am thinking about sending chocolate again though because that is alwasy nice. I'm pretty bummed about it but I think it is best. What do you think?

Everything has gone electric here so no worries about the carbon monoxide. I'm good. That carbon monoxide thing was a pretty big deal when I first got into the country because 2 missionaries died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Romania. Pretty nuts stuff. But I'm safe  so no need to panic

I love the picture of Scot sleeping on the couch. Nothing has changed haha! How is he doing? How's Ellie? How's Gram? How are you two?

Transfers. I want Elder Baccile and I to stay together another change but I'm not sure. If anything, I think I stay and he leaves but I said the same thing about Lappeenranta so I have no idea. We will see. I will find out on Saturday so I can let you know next email. We will see about his jacket after change calls.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving. What did you eat? We are supposed to be in charge of the meat but I'm not sure what we will do. I will take pictures. It should be fun. I will try and do something fun for a Christmas card picture. I'll keep my eyes open for something really fun. 

I haven't been driving much. It's icy and I don't even trust myself on ice in an automatic. Ask James Breidel to tell you about a little scare that happened to us when we were drving for a basketball game and it was snowy. I may have to start driving though if Elder Baccile leaves and I stay. Should be exciting!

Update. I got a letter from Elder Pond. He wears his Ellie bracelt every single day. He says some people stare at him all the time and they all the members in Kuopio ask him about it. Cool. He seems like he is having fun up there with Elder Gorringe.

That's cool that the Emmelkamps are coming out. Where are they going in Finland? I would love to go to Turku and meet this guy. Hopefully one day I can but I think I iwll be in Kerava for a long time. Keep me posted on there travel situation.

Tell Todd and Abbey that I will write them soon. I haven't had time due to Elder Hyrbarger going home soon and him having to get all kinds of stuff before he leaves.

That's all I have family. I love you all and I will talk to you soon.

Love,
Elder Behnke

November 15, 2010

Hey Family,

Things are going great. H is coming along great. Her date is pretty solid. We want to try and get her to the baptism in Marjaniemi this upcoming weekend. We just have a few things left to talk about with her. We need to check up with her coffee stopping and go over a couple more commandments but it is going very well. She will be most likely baptised on Nov. 27 like we have planned. Great!


I forgot to tell you about the singing in church. It went well. It is so awesome to sing the same primary songs I sang as a child in english in Finnish. It's really cool. It was father's day here so we had the entire priesthood cookies. We made way too many cookies so we ended up making the entire ward cookies. It was fun. We have also been making banana bread for some of the ward members and they love. Finns have never even heard of banana bread. The ward loves us for our baking talents! :) 

I have been doing tons of service lately. Every other day we have been cutting wood for H so can can have fire wood for the winter. We have been cutting trees down in her backyard and cutting them up. Her tools aren't the best. She only has handaxes and some flimsy saws but we are doing it! My grip on my hand is dead! I'm really pumped about getting to chop wood for service. It's great.

I haven't been taking much pictures but I will try to take some more.

Christmas.  "Dad and I really don't need anything so if you could get by with not getting us anything" Well, nobody NEEDS anything. I'm getting you presents!!!!! I will try to get small things because shipping will destroy me. Thank you very much for the money so I can participate in Christmas this year!

I go the package. SWEET! The chocolates were downed in like 2 days. I looks like you all had some awesome times at the packer games. Awesome! Thank you for the pictures.

I don't have anything else. Thank you. I'm super low on time. I will write you more next week with pictures.


Mother.....You have done a lot for me lately, but I'm asking you if you can do me another thing.

We have a cd player in the car and we are completely burnt out of Enya and the music Elder Hybarger has and he is leaving soon. Can you burn me some cds so we have something to listen to more of in the car. Plus, chances are I will be in Kerava for a long time.


Love,
Vanhin Behnke


PS:  that picture of Ryan Kissinger on Halloween was SWEET!  He is a stud, great costume!