Good day friends and family. This week was transfer week, though it came a little earlier than expected. we normally get our call on Friday and then leave on Tuesday, but I got my call on Thursday and left on Friday, just 24 hours later. it was quite the day! Thursday night we met with our most promising investigator and she accepted a baptismal date for September 2. It was very sad and difficult to have had to say goodbye. we have gotten to watch her grow a lot in testimony over the few weeks that we've known her. Then the next Friday morning we taught our other extremely promising investigator and he almost accepted a baptismal date. With him it's not if, but when he will be baptized. Both of these people are Finns so that is a great blessing!
Sunday, July 25, 2021
July 31, 2017 ~ Week 93
After is lesson the assistants picked me up and took me to my new area which boarders my previous one and is only a 15 minute drive by car from apartment to apartment. I was sad to leave my other two companions but I am very excited to work with Elder Smith. He is a younger missionary but a workhorse and genius. He's from Lehi, Utah. It appears that I will have started and finished my mission with an Elder Smith as my companion:) In speaking of Elder Smith, my trainer came back to Finland this past week, he tried to visit but things got a little busy for him. Turns out that his brother served in Holland and there he was with Rob and Amy Teske, my old baby sitter, cool connection:)
My new area is great, we live in Vantaa, the next county (if you could call it that) above Helsinki. We live in Myyrmäki and travel by bus and train. We had a large area to cover, geographically and population wise. We have endless amounts of work to do and we are grateful for that. We are always busy talking to someone. My biggest challenge this transfer will be to make sure that I take the time to enjoy my surroundings while going 100 mph. The ward that I am in is called the Helsinki Second Ward or the Haaga ward. It is the biggest ward in Finland members on record wise and it's a great one!
This past week I got to go on exchanges in my old area where I served a year ago called Pasila. It was cool to be there but I was only there for 5 weeks so it didn't leave the deepest impression, other than it was my second city, but I am now serving in my 8th city. We went to Pasila because that is where the district leader is and he was giving a baptismal interview at the same time they were supposed to have had lessons so we came down to make sure the lessons happened.
It was a great week! I am grateful for the revelation that President Aura received for me in assigning me to be here! Have a great week!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
Saturday, July 24, 2021
July 25, 2017 ~ Week 92
Hey my family and friends, just when I thought that maybe we had used up all of our blessing that God could give us He still gives more. We found a lot of new investigators this week! A few of those include a mother and her 10 year old daughter, a man from Pakistan and a married couple with whom we set a baptismal date the first lesson. It was great but unfortunately we got a text from them right before church on Sunday saying that they were not going to make it to church because they were on a plane to the Philippines and return in 3 weeks. Needless to say that their baptismal date is postponed until they return.
I also had cool experiences where Heavenly Father has blessed me with answers to my prayers. One of the experiences was on Sunday when I got a call an hour before church asking if I could fill in for a speaker who was not going to make it to sacrament meeting. I gladly accepted and was given the topic of "my conversion". I immediately had a scripture come to mind and began searching for it but could not find it anywhere. I offered a quick prayer that I would be able to find it if Heavenly Father wanted me to use it and continued my search. I did not find it so I settled on Luke 22:32. As sacrament meeting was starting I quickly reviewed my jumbled thoughts and read Luke 22:32 in the Finnish Bible to make sure it was all in order when I realized the Finnish translation was not the same as the English Translation and that it no longer worked with my talk. So in literally a final minute attempt I found the original scripture that i was looking for 3 Nephi 9:20. The end of the verse describes my conversion " him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not". That is how I see my conversion, little by little over time until I can say that i know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that this is His gospel.
That was just one a few cool experiences that i had this week and unfortunately time restricts me from adding me to this. I love you and hope that you have a great week living the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
1. My district
July 18, 2017 ~ Week 91
Hello family and friends! For those of you who participated in the annual Robison family reunion it looked like it was a blast! I hope that there was a warm spirit of unity and love abounding in the Spirit of the Lord.
This week we got to teach a lot of people because last week we found a lot. It was a great blessing to teach of the message of the restoration and say that I know it is true! I had a super cool experience this week in teaching too. I had been praying recently for an increased testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration an this week Heavenly Father answered my prayers on multiple occasions. On one of the occasions we were teaching our new Finnish investigator about the pattern of dispensations and as were were coming up to Joseph Smith the spirit was building. I was blessed with the privilege of being able to teach about and recite the First Vision. The spirit filled the room, and I could see in her complexion that the Spirit touched her heart and oh how the spirit filled my heart and testified to me that what I was teaching is true. Since that lesson our investigator has progressed leaps and bounds particularly in reading the Book of Mormon.
I had a similar experience with another investigator and her family later that week. Needless to say this week was full of spiritual experiences, helping me to solidify my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. We were going to Porvoo and a member called and said that he needed our help moving so we quickly adjusted plans and helped him. We moved his washing machine from his old house to his new one. We didn't have time to install it for him that morning but he said he would if we just left him the tools. We agreed to come back that night just before we had to be inside to collect our wrenches. When we came by that night they invited us in for cake because it had been his birthday a few days ago. We went in and also inside were his nonmember in laws. we sat down and had cake with them. Though they usually scatter before the missionaries can say hi we were able to visit with them and share a small message about the importance of families. During a ll of this the member whom we knew was inviting them to baptism all night haha. He is a bold member missionary! For me it was such a joy to be able to get to know 3 more people and consider them my friends.
It was a great week for me, I hope it was the same for you! Have a great week!
Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Robison
1. The Finnish Bay
3. The 3 stooges or musketeers, whichever you prefer
July 11, 2017 ~ Week 90
When I have a week like this I often sing one of my favorite songs from one of the best greatest musicals 'A Fiddler on the Roof'. The song has the familiar tune of 'wonder of wonders miracles of miralces'! The Lord truly worked miracles in our section of the vineyard this week! I feel that it was not because of anything that we did either, we were just in the right place at the right time "being lead beforehand, not knowing what [we] should do".
Our major miracle day was on Saturday when in that day we got 3 new investigators but we really got 5 but we didn't set a return appointment with 2 of them. Of those 3, two are a part of a family. The story of how we found them goes like this. A month ago we got a referral from other missionaries in Finland and we followed up with it promptly. This referral which we will name 'E' lives next to a recent convert and our baptismal date investigator 'A'. We followed up with E but she told us that she would be out of town for a month so we thought ok we can wait until then to teach her. We just had her on the back of our minds as we went to teach A with our member who is from Italy. When our lesson with A fell through (which actually resulted in A and her less active roommate to come to church on Sunday) our member turned to us and said well now what are you going to do Elders? We shrugged our shoulders and said well we only have like 5 more minutes left of tracting time and he said "well get a move on it, you never know, a miracle could happen". So that's what we did. We turned back to the building where our recent convert and A lives and remembered that we had E living there as well. We decided to knock on E's door thinking that maybe her trip was cancelled or that we misunderstood. She opens that door to our surprise and even more to our surprise let's us in without really saying much other than our names. We came in where her husband and son were waiting on the couch. We sat down and got to know them , come to find out hat E's husband was baptized as a 10 year old and quickly became less active. We also realized that he was the nephew of a recently activated family in Espoo. We taught them all the restoration and now E with her 9 year old son are investigating and the father relearning the principles of the gospel. It was a miraculous event!
In addition to all of this we found more investigators and went to the zoo! It was a spiritual and crazy week! I love my mission!
Have a great week!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
July 4, 2017 ~ Week 89
Hello family and friends! Happy 4th of July! I hope that you all have a great day and enjoy the freedoms of the country to which we belong!
We had a change in mission Presidents this week. After 3 years of extremely dedicated service and devotion President and Sister Watson have returned home and President and Sister Aura have come in their stead. We will get to see them tomorrow at a zone conference that will lst 2 hours for the purpose of meeting President and Sister Aura.
This week we had a lot of great things happen! We would have ended that week with 6 new investigators found, but not all were willing or able to set up a return appointment so we settled with just one. It was kind of a let down but from this we can see that Heavenly father is preparing his children to receive the gospel, we just need to work a little harder. We also had a strong start to this week finding a very promising investigator who has a wife and kids that are interested a well. My dream of teaching a family is about to come true! The husband is from Africa and the wife is a Finn so we teach them in Finnish too!
We had two exchanges this week, it was a crazy busy week! Lets just say that we are blessed to be able to serve with these missionaries here in Finland, we have gotten some of the best, most dedicated missionaries! It is true they come from all walks of life but it is awesome to see that when you start to get to know some one when you get to know their story you love for them instantly grows. It is amazing what understanding does!
This week I got to see a sad sight, a poor young woman who has had her life over taken by drugs and alcohol and at that moment being escorted by her boyfriend who was also caught up in the same life style, but he was more sober than she was. We met them on exchanges as we were coming home. They were on the sidewalk in front of us making their way home and she collapsed passing out. We rush over to go and help out, but we couldn't really do much. We probably should have called an ambulance for them they were in that bad of shape. However seeing them just made me so happy for the principles of the gospel and gave me a desire to share it more with others. i would have taught them right there an then but they were not in a state to hear and act on it seeing as they couldn't even act for themselves at the moment.
Anyways have a great week!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
Some of the missionaries from my MTC group
Us with President and Sister Watson
The tripanionship
The essence of Finnish summers
Friday, July 23, 2021
June 26, 2017 ~ Week 88
Good Morning, we welcome the sunshine here in Finland as it's been hiding for the past few days behind dark billowy clouds! But we had a great week of finding as well of getting to know other missionaries better and our companions better. Friday and Saturday we were in the apartment all day because of Juhannus (midsummers), which is a holiday as sacred as Christmas in Finland. On this Holiday we celebrate the midnight sun, meaning that the sun doesn't go down all day in the northern parts of Finland. Here in Helsinki it goes down, but in the north it doesn't. It was also kind of a bummer too because you wouldn't be able to see it due to all the clouds. But for this holiday all the Finns leave town and go to their summer cottages and won't be coming back until the end of July.
This week we went to Espoo for exchanges and had a fun time there with those Elders. A tri-panionship on exchanges is always a bit awkward to deal with. Oh yeah, I may not have mentioned this last week but we got another companion in our companionship. Elder Jaccard from Pleasant Grove, Utah is with us now. We had some mid-transfer transfers because a missionary waiting for his visa finally came into the country after serving in St. George for a week of 2 waiting for it.
In our ward we have started a sports night as an activity to strengthen ward relationships as well as to find new investigators and to just get people to the church. We weren't planning on playing because we were on a tight schedule s we showed up in our suits, and then ended up getting roped into playing a game of sähly (floor hockey) and it got pretty hot pretty fast.
Well that has been my week this week, not the most exciting week but a busy one going from place to place. Also President and Sister Watson leave this week on Saturday Morning at 6:30 am and President and Sister Aura come in that morning to take over. It will be a crazy time, just happy that I am not an assistant!
Have a great week! Love you!
June 20, 2017 ~ Week 87
Hello Family and Friends, I am writing you this nice rainy Tuesday day but next week I will be writing you on Monday because that is when preparation day will be. This week was full of fun and adventure. We got a call from President Watson on Saturday informing us that we will be having another missionary join our companionship, Elder Jaccard will be coming here today to be with us for the remainder of the transfer, we are excited about that! Although time goes by much much faster in a tri-companionship which is defiantly not something that I need to speed my mission along.
Also this week we had pur last zone conference help y President and Sister Watson, it was great. I was upliften edified and blessed by that training. I felt as if I was illuminated all night pondering the doctrines taught about baptism and repentance. I loved the training and have loved being under their leadership these past 1½ years. Luckily they live in Orem so it won't be the last time that ii see them! President and Sister Aura, Finland's first Finnish Mission President and Wife will take over on July 1st.
The work in Finland moves ahead, we got 4 new investigators this past week. 2 in Helsinki and 2 in Porvoo. We consider ourselves very blessed. The 2 in Porvoo are two seperate older ladies, both having their mother tongue of Swedish having lived in the Swedish speaking parts of Finland during their childhood, but also they speak perfect Finnish too. The other 2 in Helsinki are 2 African woman, I was not on the lesson when they became knew investigators because I was on exchanges with another missionary at that time, but I have met them before. We are very excited for the blessing of finding these people to teach and to help the work in Finland move forward!
We celebrate Juhannus or Midsummers this week. Wednesday night is the longest day of the year (sunlight wise). In the north where I came from weeks ago the sun will not go down all night, but unfortunately that will not be the case here in the south, although it will still be bright outside. This means that after Wednesday the days get short (the sun goes down sooner) but we wont really see the effects of that until September due to our sleep schedule as missionaries. Also this means that all of Helsinki leaves for the week going to their summer cottages and hanging out at the lakes and what not. We have received to instruction to be inside during these days unless we are visiting members and teaching investigators.
Anyways it was a great week! Thank for all of your prayers, we can feel them here in Finland as we continue to work hard! Have a great week!
Love,
Vanhin Robison
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