November 17, 2015 ~ Week 10 First letter from Finland

I believe it is week 10 becaue I could not send an email home last week due to traveling. But I have finally made it Finland! Whoop whoop! But first things first there are no apostraphes on the key boards here so thats why it looks kind of funny. Also there is no spell check so please be patient, also this is a no judging zone!:) And the most important rule, Finland has super strict privacy laws so that means I cant share much info about people. Basically the rule is if someone were to read this letter and be able to tell who I was talking about in Finland its to specific so things will be pretty general. But now lets get to the goodies! 

They say the temptations are really hard before you leave for your mission but they said nothing about it during your mission! For example my brothers put T. Swift, Glee, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra on my iPod so now I have to fight that constant temptaion for two years. Another example is that on the plane ride from Dallas to London each seat has a tv in it, and on the tv were games and music and also free movies and tv shows. Talk about temptation, putting that right infront of me for 8 constant hours with a nice little remote to hold in my hand. But let it be know I did not cave, I just watched the plane move ever so slowly across the US, the ocean and finally into England, adn then watched it circle England for a while too, but hey the food was good so thats a plus! And then we get to Finland! We land it looks kind of cloudy, no big deal and then we walk out to cars after meeting President Watson and His wife and the APs and it was dark out, like midnight dark. i take a peak at my watch and its only 5pm no big deal. haha! But I only have 7 minutes left and a lof to cover. So I am in Lahti! They call it the Chicago of Finland, but its nothing like Chicago! its super safe and clean! No trash anywhere! And we have 6 awesome investigators, one of which is going to be baptized not this Saturday but the next so the work is moving right a long in Lahti! And who says we dont baptize here!? About half of our investigators only speak English so thats way nice and the other half dont, they speak Finnish so thats cool too! I dont understand a thing people say to me but thats alright my companion understands it and then he gives me back the information in censored form. haha! People here dont look at you, if you try to talk to them they just walk by like they didnt hear you, and they may not actually hear us because some have headphones in but its all good! We have have a few potentials and thats good. weve had some interesting food due to the lack thereof in our apartment but dont worry that problem is fixed today! Well Im out of time and I will write more next week! I love you all! Keep working hard!

New Rad bike.

Sisters in Lahti and Elders of Hemanlinaa.

View outside Kyle's first apartment.

November 10, 2015 ~ Made it to Finland!

Hey mom! I made it and Im loving it here! Talk you next Tuesday!

November 5, 2015 ~ Heading to Finland!

Oh boy, in four short days I will be in Finland! Can you believe that? We fly out at 11:30ish from SLC to Dallas, then from Dallas to London and then we arrive Tuesday afternoon in Helsinki at 4:10! It's about a 20 hour day of travel. We will leave the MTC at 6:30 monday morning the 9th! Time sure has flown! But i can't begin to explain how excited/nervous/scared/stoked/every emotion there is! That's how I am feeling! The language is still hard and I continue to make funny little mistakes in our lesson that makes our teacher break character because it's so funny. For example, we were teaching the 10 commandments and our investigator had a question on why coveting was so bad. I had never thought about it so I didn't have an answer for her, so I gladly gave the reigns to my companion. He wanted to say something like, when we begin to want what other have we begin to not be grateful for what we have and we end up hating what the other person has. Although he forgot the word for hate, so without thinking I told him the word haiste, but when I said it it didn't sound right, but I shrugged it off. Well anyways he said haiste which means stinky. So in turn he was saying when we covet we become stinky. Not sure how doctrinally sound that was, but hey our investigator got a laugh. Anyways the word for hate is vihata, not sure how I mixed them up but hey, I now have another good story to tell! 

Since this is our last week in the MTC things became super busy real fast, suddenly remembering that all the stuff I had to get done before I left. So we've been busy running to the dry cleaners, getting pants hemmed, getting stuff laminated but that has also made it fun because I got to do something other than my normal schedule! Yesterday we got to direct traffic for the new missionaries coming in which was fun but it made it more fun that we got to wear our winter apparel! It was a little chilly outside, not to bad, but we still took advantage and broke out the hats, scarves, gloves and I got to wear a nice neon green coat that really brought out my eyes;) And they trusted me with a radio, so I got to have some nice conversations with other people from my district while directing traffic, watching poor mothers crying driving away. I have been here 8 weeks and it's still hard to watch missionaries parents drive away when they are crying but we must go forth in a righteous cause! I also saw Elder Nick Lutes from good ole' Ephraim get dropped off so that was fun to see him along with Elder Mackey! 

Umm not much else has happened except for the fact one day we were up in our residence changing after gym and others were showering and the lights went out. Not only did the light go out but the fire doors closed too. That was pretty funny to see one of the British Elders in my zone going to Albania, run like the wind to grab the door before it closed because he thought he was going to be locked out or something. But all is well and he wasn't locked out! But the Elders in the showers we a little scared considering that you couldn't see your hand infront of your face it was so dark! So they had fun trying to get out of the bathroom! 

Oh boy that's about it, I'm just happy to be here and happier to leave to go to my assigned mission in Finland! I look forward to hearing from you! Love you all!

Vanhin Robison

​This is our district with an Elder from Finland who is going to Sweeden that we've talked a lot with. Elder Mortunen (back row, with glasses next to the tall blondy)

MTC Traffic Squad

My Notebook on the Left and My MTC companions on the Right

My Bed on the Bottom and My MTC companions on the Top.  Complete opposites!

President Garr our MTC Branch President

That's ME ~ Elder Robison

October 29, 2015 ~ Week 7! Boy oh Boy!

Boy oh boy! Week 7! You know what that means, flight plans tomorrow! Whoop whoop! I'm so excited to go to Finland! Every time i think about it get so excited!! But it is also very humbling. We were Skyping a lady in Finland yesterday and teaching about revelation through prayer. I was super confident going in and found out i could understand maybe 1 in 15 words. Awesome huh? That's more than i could understand a few weeks ago so there is progress! But the real miracle of it all is that the spirit was still so present and I could feel it when she spoke even though I didn't know what she was saying!:) But another awesome experience came this week with one of our investigators. Her name is Karina and we asked her to be baptized a while ago but she didn't know if she wanted to or not and if the Savior was even able to help her anymore because of all her sins. So elder Reeder and I studied the scriptures to see what story we could relate to her to help her realize the power of the atonement. We decided to share Alma 36. In that chapter it is Alma talking to Helaman I think about his conversion process. We spent the whole lesson with her reading that story. After we finished she looked at us and said "I want to be baptized now. I know that the atonement is real now!" Whoa talk about awesome! The only problem was she hadn't talked with her parents about it yet. So that night she went home and talked to her family about it at a relatives birthday party. Turns out they got pretty upset and angry with her! When she was telling us that in our next appointment with her I was trying to think of how we were going to answer this. I then remembered (aka the spirit reminded me) of my personal study that morning. Usually I spend the hour studying a topic, but that day i decided to continue in my reading for continuity. i only read a chapter (Alma 1) and then went back to my topic studying. I read Alma 1 and was wondering what about his chapter is of great worth to us that it made it into the Book of Mormon. Well my answer came in the lesson. Once she told us her story I remembered Alma 1:19-20. It talks about how the saints were persecuted because of their faith. I told her that being a member of God's church has never been easy and it still isn't easy. Actually if it's easy it's probably not right. (Life's easiest paths make men and rivers crooked. - Austin Robison) And then I said but it will be worth it! God always up hold his saints who try and up hold his work and Him. She then told us she still wanted to be baptized so apparently sharing that scripture with her didn't scare her off! Good thing too haha because we ahve a limited number of investigators;) haha! 

But this week we also had the privileged of hearing from Elder Neil L. Anderson of the quorum of the 12! He was wearing a red tie, and I'm pretty sure I have only seen him in a red tie... but anyways he gave a great talk! He spoke about four words; Sacrifice, Opposition, Adversary and Deliverance. i don't have time to share what her shared about them, but just try to think about what he would say regarding missionary work!:) 

I'm trying to think of funny stories to tell this week and I don't really have one other than yesterday in Skype TRC i gave our member the wrong scripture to read. We were talking about prayer and i mixed up my scripture references and had her read one about rending someones garments or something. Whoops haha but we had a good laugh so who really cares right? haha well I care just a little but we got it all figured out! Turns out I make a lot of these awesome blunders in lessons. I would probably make them if I were speaking in English in too but because it's in Finnish it's even better:) Haha! Oh also there are some missionaries here from finland going to other countries so we talk to them a lot. Elder Reeder had one of them read his sacrament talk that he gave a few weeks ago. Turns out my companion conjugated a word wrong so instead of saying "ollut", which means something important but I can't remember what it is, he said "olut" which is beer. So good talk elder:) haha During that same talk he walks up the the podium, realizes he for got his scriptures so walks down off the stage to get them from our seats. goes back up and realizes he forgot his PMG so we walks off the stage again to get it after already starting his talk, all while a member of the MTC Presidency was there. Good times! Needless to say the member of the MTC Presidency didn't look pleased at all! Haha! Well that's all for this week! I hope you are still looking for ways that the Lords hand is in your life! the more you look the more easy to see how much he loves us! I love you all! The church is true! Faith not Fear!

Love,

Vanhin Robison

October 22, 2015 ~ Week 6!

Well the time is flying by and now we are left to only a few weeks left here in the good ole MTC! I think that the second coming could happen and you still wouldn't hear about it here! Haha but it's good that way we stay more focused! the language is coming along just fine, some days i really get and then other days I would rather not learn a concept that blows my brain but the work  must go on! 

The MTC is so cool because if you want, you can have 24/7 access to the spirit! The spirit here is super strong and i noticed that when we went to California, it was a different spirit! But the spirit here has the power to change lives as it is changing mine right now! It is a blessing and something that I've taken for granted my whole life! 

Yesterday we did our TRC but this time it wasn't with a person in the MTC. This time we got to Skype someone in Finland! Her name is Oona and she live in Turku! It was so awesome! She served a mission in France and now teaches French in school! we taught her the restoration adn every time you talk about the Joseph Smith story and recite the account the spirit comes in an instant! Same with asking if our Heavenly Father really loves us. We were in a lesson teaching our investigator and my companion asked if she felt God loved her and could help her. She said no. My heart dropped! this was the first time that I was actually told by someone that they think God does not love them and He can't help them. WHAT A LIE! God's whole plan is about us and HELPING us to be able to live with him again! I know this because when she said that it made me think, well do i really know if He does? Do I really know if He can help me? So i did what you are supposed to do, study it, ponder it and then pray about it. The answer brought tears to my eyes not once but twice, on separate occasions! But it doesn't even stop there, everything that happens to me i can see a little bit of his plan for me and seeing his plan for me how can i not feel His love? 

Fiesta Night at the MTC

But don't get me wrong this week wasn't all sunshine and roses. I quickly became aware that i was the least intelligent in our district, when it comes to grades, college completion and tests. I found out my companion took the ACT fell asleep during it and still got a 30. Retook it and got a 34, another girl got a 29 and was embarrassed by it. It quickly became clear to em that i was not as qualified to learn Finnish or even represent our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Even with these feelings of being under qualified i know that whom the Lords calls, He qualifies! I can not wait to see what He has in store for me! i can not wait to see what He has in store for all of you too! 

Now that i have concluded my pitty party, the MTC is actually super fun, if you have the right people! My district is so funny! None of us are a like but we somehow all get a long and we have so many laughs! I am actually going to be really sad when we get to Finland and get split up! Everyone in my district has taught me something and for that I am grateful! Pranks aren't aloud here so we call them jokes, and boy do we have a lot of jokes! We are always laughing! I think it is impossible to have  bad day in our district because they are all so good at picking each other up and turning everything into a fun situation! we also had our weekly fiesta night last night which is always good! That's all for now! I love you all so much! 

Love,

Vanhin Robison!

P.s. I am following up on last weeks email. How have you seen the Saviors hand in your life? 

Elders in our Zone.  Fins on the Top Row and Hungarians on the Bottom Row.

LONG tie day at the MTC.

October 15, 2015 ~ Miracles!

I believe in miracles! So for sacrament meeting President Garr randomly calls on two missionaries to speak. The catch is after your 5th week here you have give it in your native language, so lucky for us that was this week so we prepared our talks in Finnish. I was pretty calm and awaiting to see who the poor victims were going to be and turns out I was one of them. Awesome.... But if ye are prepared ye shall not fear! So I was prepared and by some miracle I was able to give a talk in Finnish with only 4 weeks of studying the language! Miracles do not cease to happen! But this past week we got new Hungarians in whoop whoop! They have 6 Sisters and 3 Elders! We also got new Armenians, Georgians, Lativains, Malysians and Lithuainians on our floor so we are no longer the only class on our floor! Although only the Hungarians are in our Zone. 

One of the Elders in our district got a package full of chips and salsa so we had another fiesta night! I tried to send a picture of it but for some reason it wouldn't load:( 

So everynight I sit down and try to see how God has put his hand in my life and there are almost to many times to count! The Lord is everywhere in our lives and I found that if we take time to look and ponder on them and thank him for them our lives become so much happier! So I challenge everyone to think and ponder about the blessings in your life and try to see how God has put his hand into your life. If you wouldn't mind I would like to hear from some of you about how he has touched your life! Doing this has increased my testimony so much! Infact i would like to hear from all of you! So don't be shy and see how God has put His hand into your life! 

I know you all are wondering about the language and I won't lie it's a challenge. probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do but because of the Lord and his infinite mercy he has helped me so much! For example, with His help I was able too give a talk in sacrament about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Baptism and even though people couldn't understand me the spirit was able to testify to them about the truthfulness of the message.We are able to teach lessons in Finnish with no notes,and we are able to see our mock investigators progress and come closer to Christ. I am able to read the Book of Mormon in Finnish and begin to translate some verses into English! What such great and marvelous blessings the Lord has blessed me with! It's been fantastic to see how the spirit can work in ones life and help shape them to become who the Lord wants them to be! I challenge you all to live worthily of the spirit and just see what He can do for you! This church is true! I love you all and can't wait to hear your responses next week through email or preferably through Dear Elder. if you don't know my address ask my mom for it!

From left to right. Elder Bowden (American Fork, UT) Elder Minson (Salem, UT) Elder Reeder (My companion from Riverton, UT) Me, Elder Buhler (American Fork, UT), Elder Vennerholm (Sweden)

Brother Freestone and me.  He is a member of the Branch Presidency at the MTC.

My District at the Provo Temple