March 27, 2017 ~ Week 75

Hey family and friends, this week was a good one. We got transfer calls and I will be staying here and in Oulu and Elder Henry is going to becoming to serve with me and Elder Bekmezian is going down to Espoo. I am pretty bummed to see Elder Bekmezian leave but I am excited for Elder Henry to come. I have been in a the same district as Elder Henry before and even have had an exchange or two with him so it will be a good transfer next transfer.

The work here in Oulu is going great! We haven't really found a ton new investigators but the ones we have found have been prepared and are progressing towards baptism quickly. We have a lot of potential in our pool of investigators and the branch is loving the ones that have come thus far.

We also had zone conference this past week so President and Sister Watson came up to train us and it was great. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ due to Easter quickly approaching. President Watson gave us a challenge to intently study Christ every day and to ponder his words at least until Easter. We were promised a greater Easter season with a better sense of who Jesus Christ is and a deeper meaning of his Atonement in our lives. To give us an example of what it means to ponder and study about Christ he took us to Matthew 11:30 where Christ says "For my yoke is easy and burden is light". We looked at it as a zone and pulled some thoughts out about it and then President has us look at the word light in a different way. He told us to look at it, not having to do with weight, but rather illumination. Thus we did and it was cool to see the new meaning this short verse has, a burden can give us light, or in other words knowledge, understanding, enlightenment. It was a cool insight that we had and now it's the quest to recreate that kinds of experience and realization in my own studies.

For a cool experience we had this week we noticed how the Lord changes our plans and puts us in certain places to find his prepared children. I was on exchanges with our district leader in our area and I had some names for us to follow up with up, although I quickly realized that we did not have enough names for the amount of time that we would be spending outside. I did remember however that we had some names on the opposite side of the area that we could follow up wit but we didn't have much time because we had to come back for a lesson which was where we were originally. Anyways we walk a long ways, talk to a lot of people on the way and then follow up with our potentials and then walk back. It was all seeming pretty fruitless until we got right in front our investigators building and met some lady walking her dog who had seen missionaries many time but never actually talked to them but has wanted to. We got her address and phone number set up an appointment and then met with her. She is a very impressive investigator thus far keeping commitments and being very interested in the message we have to share. So that was a cool thing that happened too us this week! 

The work is going oh so well, I love you all and hope that all is well back home! Have a great week!

Love,

Vanhin Robison

p.s. P-day is next Monday as well

This is us on exchanges  

April 3, 2017 ~ Week 74

Hey there family and friends! This week I got my new companion, Elder Henry, from Highland, Utah. He is a funny man with great work ethics. We have already seen a lot of success and are excited about this transfer.

On the transfer day, I spent time with a lot o fother different missionaries as they were waiting for their new companions and I was waiting for mine. We bounced around a lot between my area doing work and the train station. Amidst all of that, we were able to get some good work done.

We have one investigator in particular who we are working with who is super awesome, we actually have 3 that are progressing really well at the moment. One of them is going through the Book of Mormon really fast and praying about it every day. I imagine that within a few days they will have a baptismal date. Our other really awesome investigator has already received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true but now we are just kind of waiting for that to sink into to his heart. He keeps keeping commitments so one day he will make the connection between the Book of Mormon and the rest of our message and when he does he will be baptized in the future soon there after! And finally, our other investigator is doing well. We intended on just teaching a very simple overview of the Plan of Salvation but it kind of got more intense than we were planning on. He was just very curious as to why this life is so important and what we become after this life, haha we got some questions where we just didn't have the answers haha. But we said we'd study it out and get back to him. It was an interesting lesson haha.

We also this week had a cool experience, similar to one that I had back in September when I was in Kokkola. We had stopped by this family's home to see if we could share the new Easter video with them #PrinceofPeace. Unfortunately, the husband was at work so we were not able to come inside that time, so we resumed our finding efforts. Not even an hour later we get a text from one of the family members explaining how they had become active and are experiencing a crisis of faith and would like to take the missionary lessons. My companion and I were filled with joy that he had humbled himself enough to seek help and that he entrusted in us to do so. We met with him immediately and found that his crisis of faith was not something that I had the capacity on my own to fix, but the spirit filled the room as we testified of the Book of Mormon. I just hope that I said the right things but from what I heard from General Conference I think that we told them the right things. I guess you can never go wrong when you invite someone to read the Book of Mormon. But yeah that was our cool experience of the week.

General conference was awesome, it is honestly one of my favorite times of the year. As President Monson spoke to us this year I could really feel that he is Godäs chosen man to lead His church. I love any time that we get to hear the voices of reassurance and upliftment from the prophets and apostles of God, and we also got to hear voices of warning, telling us what we need to do to keep ourselves safe. I love the counsel from Elder Clayton in doing the small and simple acts of obedience every day.

Have a great week!:)

Love,
Vanhin Robison 




The bike store was open in our apartment last week we tried to fix old missionary bikes haha



We had the biggest grapefruit ever this week. That is next to an orange by the way.

March 27, 2017 ~ Week 74

Hey family and friends, this week was a good one. We got transfer calls and I will be staying here and in Oulu and Elder Henry is going to be coming to serve with me and Elder Bekmezian is going down to Espoo. I am pretty bummed to see Elder Bekmezian leave but I am excited for Elder Henry to come. I have been in the same district as Elder Henry before and even have had an exchange or two with him so it will be a good transfer next transfer.


The work here in Oulu is going great! We haven't really found a ton new investigators but the ones we have found have been prepared and are progressing towards baptism quickly. We have a lot of potential in our pool of investigators and the branch is loving the ones that have come thus far.


We also had zone conference this past week so President and Sister Watson came up to train us and it was great. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ due to Easter quickly approaching. President Watson gave us a challenge to intently study Christ every day and to ponder his words at least until Easter. We were promised a greater Easter season with a better sense of who Jesus Christ is and a deeper meaning of his Atonement in our lives. To give us an example of what it means to ponder and study about Christ he took us to Matthew 11:30 where Christ says "For my yoke is easy and a burden is light". We looked at it as a zone and pulled some thoughts out about it and then President has us look at the word light in a different way. He told us to look at it, not having to do with weight, but rather illumination. Thus we did and it was cool to see the new meaning this short verse has, a burden can give us light, or in other words knowledge, understanding, enlightenment. It was a cool insight that we had and now it's the quest to recreate that kind of experience and realization in my own studies.
For a cool experience we had this week we noticed how the Lord changes our plans and puts us in certain places to find his prepared children. I was on exchanges with our district leader in our area and I had some names for us to follow up with up, although I quickly realized that we did not have enough names for the amount of time that we would be spending outside. I did remember however that we had some names on the opposite side of the area that we could follow up with but we didn't have much time because we had to come back for a lesson which was where we were original. Anyways we walk a long way, talk to a lot of people on the way and then follow up with our potentials and then walk back. It was all seeming pretty fruitless until we got right in front of our investigator's building and met some lady walking her dog who had seen missionaries much time but never actually talked to them but has wanted to. We got her address and phone number set up an appointment and then met with her. She is a very impressive investigator thus far keeping commitments and being very interested in the message we have to share. So that was a cool thing that happened too us this week! 


The work is going oh so well, I love you all and hope that all is well back home! Have a great week!
Love,
Vanhin Robison


p.s. P-day is next Monday as well
 

This is us on exchanges
 


 

March 21, 2017 ~ Week 73

Hey family and friends. This week was a well balanced week in terms of the missionary work. We were able to able to visit some members homes to share a message with them, we visited former investigators and potentials to do some further follow up, we taught some lessons to investigators, attended a few church activities and even found new people to teach.

With that, we found our new investigators this week in a peculiar way. We were in one of our tracking areas and we had a few options of doors that we could knock, a few looked like they were home but one in particular we knew was home because he and his wife were on their balcony smoking. We decided that we had better take the more sure option that we were going to be able to talk to people so we talked to the ones on the balcony. I don't do that often (talk to people while they are on their balconies that is) but it ended up in a lesson and 2 new investigators so I may do it a little more often. It was a good night, to say the least.

This week our super awesome investigator came to church for the first time. He has been out of town every weekend since we have started teaching him, except this week so he came! The branch just loved him right up! This investigator also had a super cool experience this week with the Book of Mormon. He was gone the previous week and we kept daily contact with him to see how he was progressing and doing. One day we asked him if he read and prayed about the chapter we gave him to read and he responded with "yes, I got a warm feeling". My companion and I were freaking out we were so excited! We didn't know what to do because we've never really had this experience before so we decided that we would discuss it with him in our next lesson. So the time came this week when we could discuss it and we asked him "what was your experience when praying about the Book of Mormon?" and he said that he received a warm, peaceful feeling and a voice in his head saying "it's true, it's true" over and over again. I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty awesome to hear! We are excited for him and his potential.

I also experienced this week that as we talk to people and understand them a little better we start to have charity for them. For example, we were on a train this week and a somewhat of a shady character sat down by us and was playing this annoying metal music. We eventually started a conversation with him and it was cool to see that as we came to get to know this man our feelings and perceptions about him changed. We were filled with charity and it was a great lesson. So if you feel like you are having a hard time loving someone, just talk to them and get to know them more, it has definitely helped me out!

The church is true, but to keep us in that knowledge focus on the Book of Mormon and prepare for the conference! I love you and hope that you have a great week!

Love,
Vanhin Robison

March 14, 2017 ~ Week 72

Hey family and friends! I hope this week was an uplifting and exciting week! I will start off my email this week with a story. This takes place here in Oulu on Friday morning. We had just arrived in Oulu only hours earlier on a plane that came from Helsinki. We were down there for exchanges with other missionaries. Anyways we decided to spend our morning following up with people from our area book that is not kept up with in terms of former investigators and potentials. So we went to follow up with people and some odd things kind of happened. First was that we talked to this guy, we tried to talk to him, he wasn't really listening or responding, and then he finally said: "You know, I just can't stop laughing, because you look like the Saunalahti missionaries." Now, these Saunalahti missionaries come from a commercial for this phone company here where two young men in shirts and ties walk around selling and advertising their phone company, basically acting like us. We would be annoyed or offended at this particular guy making this comment but unfortunately, it's not the first comment we've had like that haha. So we continue to follow up with our former investigators in this certain area and we come to a home. A man opened the door and let us in, we were super confused because there was no introduction and no questions asked on either side, but inside we went. We sat down and he preceded to speak telling us that he was a "dry Mormon". We were so shocked and confused. We hadn't reviewed his teaching record at all like we should have but turns out this man has investigated for a long time and that he was so close to being baptized but had only one concern and that was that he was afraid he wouldnät endure to the end. We had a good conversation about that but he still wasn't used in his worry. He agreed to let us come back but it won't be for a while because of other things that he needs to take care of. But yeah that was our unique experience of the week, pretty cool though that we were able to meet him.

After that, the week just continued the great work. We have finally been able to meet more regularly without investigators and one of them is so cool and sincere. We taught her about Fasting and How to donate fast offerings earlier in the week and challenged her to fast this Sunday (it was fast Sunday for us this week due to broadcast and she did it! We meet with her that night and she came up to us at the end of the lesson with a bag of food, enough for two meals and said "I don't have a bank account online yet for the church so I thought that I would pay my fast offerings this way" and gave us the food. It was not expected/I'm not sure what we were supposed to do so we took it and the Lord blessed us with an opportunity to put it towards its real use. Today we followed up with a former investigator and when we knocked on her door we realized that she was in a bad situation. She was in bad health and the elevator in her building has broken, leaving her unable to leave her apartment because she can not climb the 5 flights of stairs, and it turns out that she has been like this for a week now and as you could guess, the food is running scarce in her apartment. We told her we would figure something out for her and come back. As we left we realized that we had just yesterday received two meals of food from an investigator as their "fast offering" and that this was its real purpose. We scrambled home and bring the food back to her. Such joy filled our hearts as tears filled her eyes. I love how God gave us an opportunity to help someone in that way.

That is all I have to report this week, other than spring has hit it seems here! We reached positive temperatures today for the first time in a long time and the sun shined! My eyes can no longer tolerate the powerful rays of the sun but that's ok! Also, I felt the warmth of the sun for the first time since mid-fall. In the winter if the sun is out you can see it, but it literally has no warmth when itäs rays hit you, itäs weird, but I'm glad to have it's warmth back! I just fear the temperatures will plumb it again.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Love,

Vanhin Robison

Traveled to Helsinki (being in airports make you trunky no matter what though)

Graffetied a coolege dorm hallway while tracting (our addition is just the little quotation)

We built a gigantic snowman!

We still have plenty of snow!:)

Exchanges in Kajaani

Finland the Beautiful (view from our apartment's study room)

March 7, 2017 ~ Week 72

Hello, my family and friends! This week was a fun one. We got to help out at a Finland wide YSA event that was held here in Oulu and I was able to catch up with some old friends that I have met here in Finland which was really nice considering that I didnät think Iäd see them again before I went home. We were there to help make the food so we were put in the very back of the kitchen that was hotter than Iäll gets out. The saying "If you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen" has been given a new meaning to me here in Finland.

But along with all that fun, we did get some missionary work in. We traveled two hours east on a train to Kajaani and had exchanges there with some great elders. I was shown how soft the car has made me these past few months because what was a normal day of walking at the beginning of my mission turned out to be way harder than I remember. We walked forever, I swear we walked across Kajaani and back a few times. Despite all of that I enjoyed my time as we talked with everyone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can bless them in their life.

Yesterday my companion and I were tracking in an area that was full of families, young families and we got to testify about our favorite thing, the gospel blessing our own family and how it can bless them. I really tried to make each contact as personable as I could and it was great to feel the Spirit backing me up. I really thought of each blessing I promised before I said it and gave me a new our look on how the Spirit works and where it is most powerful in our personal ministry.

This week I was also reminded of the importance of the Book of Mormon. Over the course of my mission, I have come to see that there are many many things in this world that can grab our attention and distract from things that have little or no importance and cause us to look beyond the mark. Luckily for us, with the work hastening and the adversaries influence becoming more and more prevalent, God has truly given us safety for the soul. I love the promise given in 1 Nephi 15:24. Itäs my second favorite promise in the Book of Mormon behind Moroni 10:3-5. It says "And I said unto them that it was the word of Godö and whoso would hearken unto the word of God and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish, neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction." What a promise! It adds so much counsel and comfort to a world that makes us very unsure of the future.

Sorry for the random thoughts but this is just a short summary of what I experienced this week! Have a great week! 

Love,

Vanhin Robison

February 28, 2017 - Week 71

 

This week was a super fast week! We flew down to Helsinki for a meeting at the president's house and also attended the temple! The flight was very fast, only 50 minutes which was nice! We also got to see an abundance of Heavenly Father's love for us! We had a few doors literally opened for us this week as we were following up with uncontacted referrals and potentials. It seemed that every time in the midst of our problem solving and decision making Heavenly Father just made our lives easier and opened the door or placed someone in our path, it was cool to see and humbling to experience.

We also have this very humble investigator that we have been teaching and he is doing very well. I love that when we teach hi we really focus our lesson on one or to needs that he has and the atmosphere of the lesson is changed to where the teacher and listener are both edified. We got to give him a church tour and the spirit was definitely present in the chapel as we taught about the sacrament. There were also other members there his age that were able to introduce themselves to him.

On Saturday the sisters also held a baptismal service. It was nice and the first one I have attened in a while. The work is hastening and we are being blessed with people who are ready to receive the gospel. I wish I had some cool or funny stories to tell at the moment but I don't. Luckily they are all contained in my journal!

That is all for my week I love you! Have a blessed week!

Below are photos of beautiful Finland and a few missionaries in the north and a picture of the temple when the sun was at the brightest point of the day:)

February 21, 2017 ~ Week 70

Hey family and friends! This week was great! We are saddened to see the lose of our 3rd companion this week. He left on Monday to return home after completing his 2-year mission. Finland will sure miss the great Aussie as we already do. It was unusually quiet when we got home after taking him to the train station. It's amazing how another person really changes the whole dynamics of a companionship. But by the end of the night, we had settled back in and learned how to do missionary work with just 2 people again.

This week we got to witness a cool event that happens practically every day, but if we aren't careful we will miss it. Luckily I found this gem upon reviewing my day when writing in my journal later that day. It was a brisk night as our day was coming to an end. We stop a man along our way who is taking a smoke and we talk to him. He was very uninterested at first, but as we tried to make conversation with him the mood lightened and we were able to teach some restored truths in the process. With that, the spirit touched his heart and it was softened. We had a great conversation with him and at the end, he even was considering coming to church. It was great! It may seem like a super small thing, but it gives us the necessary motivation to find the next person who is a little more prepared!

The church is true! I love you all, have a great week!

Vanhin Robison

February 14, 2017 ~ Week 69

This week was great! It was super busy but pretty fun and it is just flying by right now! On Tuesday we had zone training (2 hours long), hence our P-day was on Monday and then after that we hopped on a night train down to Helsinki for a mission leadership training consisting of all the Assistants, Sister Training Leaders, Zone Leaders and District Leaders in the mission to have a day-long meeting with President and Sister Watson to be trained in leadership things and after that we got to go to the temple! We took a night train back up to Oulu that night and arrived on Thursday morning. Thursday and Friday were full work days and then Saturday we had District Conference for the Oulu District. 6 Elders came to that with their branches and stayed the night at our apartment so we had 9 in total. Sunday finished District Conference and 8 other Elders came up late that night for Zone Conference (6 hours long) the next day (because they would not make it there I the morning by train), so, all in all, we had 17 Elders in our apartment that night and it was nuts! We had the entire floor covered with matress' but it was good to be able to get to know the missionaries a little more!

We found a new person to teach here in Oulu and he is awesome! He is studying here and he's real easy to get along with and really looking for the joy and happiness that can come from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! He keeps commitments and I believe is experiencing the power of the Holy Ghost is doing so.

Another cool thing was that in Zone Conference President spoke a lot on family history and how we are not using it enough as a mission and he challenged us to all use family history more in contact. So that night we tried it and it worked! The man was very interested and we got his information so that we can set him up with the Temple and Family History consultant. After the contact as he was leaving, he said that if we had talked about religion he wouldn't have talked to us! It is always good to see we have received divine counsel when you try it and it works!

The work is going very well here and we are enjoying to warm spell here in Oulu! Have a great week!

Love,

Vanhin Robison

All the Elders in our apartment

Elders everywhere

Night train room

Febrauary 6, 2017 ~ Week 68

 Hey all, sorry for not writing last week, time got away from me! But since I wrote last I moved to form the tropical south to the rigid north of Finland and I am loving every minute! I got double blessings as I am in a tripanionship (one companion from Utah and the other from Australia). We are just having a blast too! The work is going great and the weather isn't too cold! We have an awesome branch which is really supportive of us and our work!

This week I have studied a lot about humility and have come to find out that a lot of our humility has to due with our prayers and their sincerity. So like a good missionary I set goals and made plans that would improve my personal prayers and I found that the biggest help has been pondering before I pray and praying with a pen and paper right next to me. I have found that when I prepare, for whatever it may be (partaking the sacrament, praying, studying, etc.) the Lord consecrates my efforts and the results are doubled. The Lord is waiting to bless us. I have also learned the importance of daily repentance and how to do it. It has really changed me as I have tried to repent daily about something, even if it seems small. 

I am learning tons on my mission about these kind of things and it has really improved me! But the best without s doubt is when I see others make the same realizations! The mission is great!

I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm! Have a great week and i will talk to you next week! 

Love,

Vanhin Robison

My companions

On the train

The view outside our study room