1st of December

Wow, cant believe how fast time flies out here on the mission! Cant believe it is already December. So down in Helsinki we got our first snow, but it melted so not a big woop. The depressing this is that is that the sun goes down at 3 pm now haha, so you think its time to go in for  dinner, but its all lies.  Many of the finns are to big on the sun going down either I have found haha. 

But this week was super good. We found 3 new investigators, one being this cool girl who is a Jehovah Witness, but she is super open about religions and truth. 

I dont know if I am just attracted to Singers or what, because right now I am teaching another well known DJ in Finland haha, which would bump my singer investigator list up now to 3.  But hes really cool, he kind of looks like Ludacris.  

Funny story, this week we didnt have any Dinner appointments set up with anyone for thanksgiving, because obviously there are not that many americans here, and not many people will celebrate thanksgiving, so we decided to go to Mcdonalds to celebrate.  When we walked in they needed some people to do a taste test for there new burger and so we got to have this secret burger not on the menu, and got it for free and got free Big mac combos. Pretty big stuff when your a missionary. Free food is everything. Its either fight or starve our here.  But the burger was really good, and I had to fill this survey out in Finnish which was pretty ridiculously hard haha.  So yes. Mcdonalds did give a Dinner Appointment for thanksgiving.  

But if you havent seen it already the church rolled out a new video on Christmas.Mormon.org, its called #asaviorisborn, or in finnish #vapahtajasyntynyt. But me and my companion are coming up with some clever Christmas contact approaches which should be fun:)  But go check it out if you havent seen it.  

But thanks for all the love everyone! 

Elder Ford

November 24th 2015

Terve minun perheni ja ystavani. Olen kiitollinen siita etta minun perheni, hyvä ystavani, elävä profetta, Jeesuksen Kristuksen Sovitus, ja kaikkia han on antanut minulle.  

Hello, My friends and family. I am thankful for my family, my good friends, living prophet, Jesus Christs atonement, and all that he has given for me. Happy thanksgiving week to my friends and family back home!

This week has been really good.  We had a zone conference and there I overheard 2 elders  who gave out 60 book of mormons in a week, and so this week Elder Hansen and I are going to try to give out 60, so that should be fun.  Yesterday we got to give out 7, and we met a ton of cool people. We had a really good lesson with this guy that we tracted into and he is literally the perfect mormon setup family haha.  We showed the Because of Him video, and the Family video on beta.mormon.org.  If you havent visited that website you should.  Really good.  Anyway, we have had a ton of new potentials, we have been finding machines. Right now we have 7 lessons set up, and last week we didnt have any so its progress. Not much has happened besides that then finding. We also had Stake Conference which was really great. My President spoke at it, he still has his Finnish pretty good.  But it was a great stake conference and I got to see many friends from the Neitsytpolku ward. Flippin sweet.  We have been doing this new tracting approach I have been sculpting over the past few changes, its basically we give a Survey, and it works suuupppeeerr well. I have had countless investigators because of it.  

So I have been really pondering how Gods plan is set up and the psychology behind a lot of it lately, and when you get to the mechanics of Gods plan it truly is amazing.  The way the Gospel is set up, not only gives us an eternal prospective and hope, but it also allows us to be the very best we can be in a temporal sense, and reach our full potentials now. I have learned so much over my mission. Its really nice now because now I am to the point where I can understand most everything that people say to me in Finnish instead of struggling to follow along. Its weird seeing myself back in the MTC where finnish and chinese could have sounded the same, but now its just like there speaking English to me.  Anyway, the atonement is amazing, this gospel is amazing, and it transforms our lives.

Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving week, takes advantage of everyday that has been given them and have a wonderful week.

Also Fun fact the estimated cost of solving the world hunger problem is $195,000,000,000.

So the cost to end world hunger each month would be $16,250,000,000.

If 20% of the world population donated 13.54 dollars, and gave it to fast offerings the worlds hunger problem would be solved.

Rakaudella,

Vanhin Ford.

Hey Fam! New area

Well I have to write this super quick because it has been a very busy Pday so I dont have a lot of time, but thats ok because not much has happened this week, because my companion has been sick for 3 days so I have been stuck inside the house... But good news is I got a lot of gospel study in! So my new area were basically starting from scratch which is always exciting, right now we dont have any investigators but hopefully that will change soon. Tomorrow we have zone conference which will be good, and then we have a dinner appointment thursday with a nice member family.  Works going good, press forward, have faith in the Lord!

Love 

Elder Ford

3/11/2015 Ups and Downs

Well this week definitely had its ups and downs. Unfortunately our investigator Urs baptism didnt go through. He felt like he wasnt ready yet even though he was pretty confident before so that was kinda of a bum. BUT, this week we also did find a new investigator. His name is Tilson, and he is a rapper that grew up here. He is SOO cool.. He has a baptisimal date of November 28th, and he says that he believes the Book of Mormon to be true and he feels gods love and light from it. His rapper name is Toinen Kadunpoika, which basically means another kid from the street. You can find him on wikipedia. He is SO cool, I have never heard any finnish rap, or any finnish music I have liked except  his. He has it bumpin. But he says he wants to be baptized sooner then the 28th so well see how things go. So even with the slump of our investigator the Lord has continued to bless us for our work.  So kinda funny that I keep running into all these music artists and getting the opportunity to teach them. Also I havent been teaching Andy cause right now hes in Australia Touring so havent been able to get in contact with him.    Also Jean Louis baptisimal date is now for November 21st and hes feeling really good about that.  

But Halloween was really good. We got to go with our investigator to a cool Halloween display and I got a genuine fur hat which is so warm at a yard sale thing they call kirpis here for 10 euros. Normally its 150 euros. Its made in Finland. No china crap.  SO WARM. except it looks like there is road kill on my head.  

Raukadella,

Elder Ford

27/10/2015

Really Solid week this week!  Going to the Helsinki Temple was really great and doing endowments was awesome, the temple is so beautiful here.  

So Urs set baptism is this week. Were running into a few issues so pray that everything goes well! The whole ward knows about it, and hes going great for it, but of course when people are about to go to baptism the adversary works hard on them.  He is doing so great, he came to church last week and some of his insights in the Book of Mormon are so deep!  Jean Louis is going to get baptized in November. We had to push his date back not because of testimony issues but some Visa issues hes running into and he wants more time to prepare. He said though his goal is to get married in the temple which is what all of our goals should be. But this past week we got three of our investigators to church which was great. Were in the biggest ward in Finland with about 150-175 come every week, and it gets SO full.  So its hard keeping track of everyone.  

Another really cool thing happened this week. I got to give one of my investigators a priesthood blessing of comfort because right now hes going through a REALLY hard time so that was really great to do. You could really feel a peace come over the room, it was really great. We also found a new investigator this week. Her name is Olga and we tracted into her using a tracting method I call the survey tracting. Basically you just do a survey of 8 questions about the gospel and she said she wanted to learn more about the pelastussunnitelma, or the plan of salvation. Another great blessing is I have really felt my ability to speak and understand finnish go up this transfer, and I am able to much more easily and fluently speak which has been a great answer to my prayers.  

Thanks for the prayers, love, and support!

Rakaudella,

Elder Ford

20/10/15

Great week this week. Sorry I dont have to much time to email today because I am going to the temple for my Pday. But it has been a great week. Yesterday we had Zone Conference which was great, lot of great discussions, and we have a Senior Couple in our ward who is from California who is AWESOME and we helped Sister Brazer (the senior sister), help make a lot of the food. She is like the grandma I never had, and she cooks amazing to.  

Urs and Jean Louis are both continuing to do good. They were both planning to get baptized on halloween. We pushed Urs baptisimal date a week back because he was in the Netherlands at a Computer conference for the weekend and he wants to finish the whole BOM before he gets baptized.  We had several lessons with other investigators and they continue to do awesome also.  We had a finnish investigator come to church yesterday.

Yesterday we got to play Flashlight tag on Suomenlinna (old military fort island) with the YSA which was really fun.  We also got to go to an amusement park with one of our investigators which was really fun, and we had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation.  I forgot my camera, I was going to send some pics home so sorry. 

 I have a testimony that this Gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ. Prayer works. The atonement is real. Trials are meant to strengthen us and draw us closer to god. 

Rauha Ulos

(peace out)

Elder Ford

13/10/15

Crazy week this week. Vanhin Broadhead and I have been so busy its been crazy. This week we had 17 member present lessons it has been crazy trying to organize it all. The most member presents in this area for any set of companionships has been 8 haha.   Both of our investigators who are getting baptized in the next 2 weeks are both doing very, very well. Urs is planning on getting baptized on the October 24th, and then we have another baptism the next week, his name is Jean Louis. We have been meeting with them both regularly and the transformation I have seen in both of them is amazing. Urs our astrophysicist investigator recently got back from a trip in Germany because he was teaching people how to fly space ships, but he got to watch General conference on his phone on the plane.We also got to have a 2 Dinner appointments for Jean Louis and Urs over at Members homes. We first had a Dinner over at a members house, there the Goodrich family. There both from Utah, but they work here for a government contracting company. There SUPER cool. Then we had another dinner over at Sister Yu*s house. She is a super cool girl from China who was baptized 5 years ago, served a mission in california and is now going to school here. She has a super strong testimony.  

Other then that we have been super busy teaching all of our other investigators. The ward here in Neitsytpolku is really awesome and has really stepped up big time helping coming to lessons and fellowshipping.  Funny story. We met this guy on the street last week who was the south african ambassador for Finland, and he didnt want us coming to his home so we just went to the south african embassy. We then taught him there and gave the Book of Mormon to all the other workers there so we ended up handing out like 5 Book of Mormons and everyone was really excited to read it. 

Also there has been a lot of protests in Finland because there are so many immigrants fleeing to Finland because of all the unrest in the middle east and people arent happy about it.  

But the Lord has really blessed our efforts in this area, we have been able to Find people on our way to teaching lessons so Im really grateful for that.  

Rakaudella

Elder Ford

6 October 2015

So it got a lot colder this week. A LOT. It kinda stinks, but hey, what mother nature wants to do it wants to do.  Wow, Conference was so great, there were a lot of great talks and calling of 3 new apostles! Not going to lie, I was hoping that one of the new apostles was going to be black, but o well. Also, keep praying for President Thomas S Monson, not going to lie, he wasnt looking to hot and in the morning session of general conference he looked like he was going to pass out. But our prophet and all the great apostles and seventies had great talks. I especially liked President Uchtdorf talk about the Simplicity of the Gospel. Living this simple and beautiful gospel really is the key to happiness and overcoming heartaches and pains!  Its how we reach our highest potential. I had a lesson with my Investigator Urs a couple days ago, and was explaining how the gospel is a way for all of us to reach our highest potential. Its the secret to eternal life, and its so plain and precious for all of us to live by.  Whats even better is we had 3 investigators come to conference. Saturday session we had our investigator Juha drive us and another one of our new investigators to the conference, and then Sunday we had a man named George come to the sunday conference. They really loved it!

Also this week we were able to find a new investigator whos name is John Louis! He is from Guadalupe, which is an American owned colony in the Caribbean! He is a really cool guy!!! We have already had several lessons with him and he has a baptismal date of October 31st. He said after conference he cried because loved it so much, and after that he gets a call from his 10 year old daughter who lives in France, and apparently she has been investigating the church with her mother and has been going to Church and really loving it. So that was insanely awesome.  Hes doing really good. 

We havent been able to meet with our other investigator Urs because he has been in Germany teaching people how to fly space ships. So if that isnt cool enough, I dont know what is. But we were able to locate Chapels in Berlin that he could watch conference at.  All of our other investigators are doing great, some are hard to meet with, but we continue to find and find a lot of success!  Thanks for all the love and letters from home, and I hope everyone was able to apply things from conference because they give us the spiritual nourishment we need for the upcoming 6 months!

Rakaudella,

Elder Ford

29/9/15

Wow another week flown and gone by. Cant believe September is already over, and its already starting to get cold in Finland! So funny all the finns said this summer was terrible weather but I felt like it was just like a summer back home, but o well. 

This week was great, we were able to set a Baptisimal date with our investigator Urs who is from Germany. He is SO cool, he is an astro-physicist and is so smart. Probably one of the most interesting people to talk to. But he is doing very very well.  Our investigator Andy who is the rock star actually posted a thing on his twitter about the Book of Mormon and he has a ton of followers. Advertising at its finest right there.  Also our other investigator who had a baptismal date, Mikola has been having a lot of concerns lately, so we had a meeting with him last night and addressed a lot of them and he has recommited to keep reading the Book of Mormon which is great.  

We also found a new investigator this week, his name is Juha, and he is one of the most sincere humble Finns I have met. He is very open to God and other religions and he actively goes to church every week. Its very hard to find a finn like that, because most of the time when you say the word Jesus Christ on the street people go running for the hills. I cant tell you how many times I have asked someone if there Christian and they say yes, and ask if they believe in god and Jesus and they so no. Such a big culture thing here just to say your christian. But he is a great guy.

Its been hard to meet with all our investigators lately, not for the lack of time on our part, but for theirs. I feel like finns have the same mentality as the joker in "The Dark Knight". The Joker says "If everyone follows the plan everyone is all safe and happy, but if you take the plan away EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MINDS". Most finns have there schedule so set that they know when there doing laundry so I will text and be like hey, can we come over and teach a quick lesson, and Ill get a text back saying "O sorry, im really busy now Im putting my laundry in the washer". Oh, and dont get me started with Sauna night. NEVER mess with finns sauna night, that is sacred to them. No time for anything else when there is sauna night.  

But we have been able to meet with most of our investigators which is good and our two less actives that we got to reactivate came to church again so its been great. The work continues to go forth.  

Make sure your prayers go out to the Apostles and Prophet during this time, especially for General Conference because there is a lot of big decision to be made in this upcoming conference! 

Rakaudella!

Vanhin Ford

I'm famous! The Lords hand in the Work 22/9/2015

So sorry I am running out of time emailing, even my 101 words per minute cant make up for the time. This week has been insane. Right now we have 13 investigators were teaching, and we could have 3 more new investigators by tonight. However, we will probably be dropping some by the end of the week. But we are always busy, busy busy.  We also got our Less active in our area to come to church this week, she is a super sweet single mother of 6. She brought all of her kids and it was wonderful and then last night we had Family Home evening with her. If you think controlling a family home evening back in America is hard, try it with 6 kids screaming in Finnish haha! But we did a really cool analogy with a rubix cube which helped keep the kids focused. we had another lesson who was a less active we reactivated. But this week we found 5 new investigators, each with a wonderful story on how we found them. The coolest is a guy, he is from India, and converted to christianity 10 years ago. We foudn him after having a really good dinner appointment with a Sister who is from China, but came here to Finland for college, got baptized here, served a mission in California and just got back. She is so cool. But we found her after leaving the Chinese restaurant.  The work right now is going really great! The hard part right now is meeting with all of our investigators consistently. Its really hard for them to meet more then 1 or 2 times a week, but our teaching pool is so big right now that we still have a ton of lessons. The Lord has truly blessed our efforts, and whats more exciting is general conference is coming up! 

Also another funny thing happened. We were teaching our famous investigator in the park, turns out the paparazzi found us and he called us up last night telling us that we were in the Finnish magazine with him. He was so mad it was hilarious. They blurred me and my companions face, but pretty funny stuff.

The pic: The article in the Tabloid about us. Basically what its talking about is two young dressed handsome (yes they said handsome) mormons are converting him. Haha! Funny stuff.  

The other pic: We do a foreigner food challenge once a week and have to try something new, and we were also mixing a ton of sodas together to see what it tasted like. Banana soda is super gross.

14/9/15 Me olemme Jumalan lapset‏

Tervetuus taas!

This week has been crazy! Last week we had 5 people coming to church but unfortunately 4 of them dropped, but we still got a Less active Veli Palonen, and our investigator Mikael to come which was really great!  This week the coolest thing happened! A while back my last companion Elder Smith and I were walking to go Email when all of the sudden a man calls us over asking us to tell him about joe smith.  He was sitting outside drinking and wanted some company. We told him about Joseph Smith, and we asked if we could have his number, but he said that he was to popular and that his number cant just be given out.  So he gave us his address. A little while later we tried to get into his building but it was locked, so we just dropped him. A week later I was walking down the street with my new companion Elder Broadhead and we see him again, and he asked if we could bring him a Book of Mormon. So we did just that, and I told him about Institute held every Wednesday at the church building! Well, turns out he decided to show up randomly telling us how much he loved the book and wants to know more. While were teaching him we keep getting a lot of weird looks from the YSA, and when he leaves they start freaking out asking us if they knew he that was. I had no idea how famous he really is, but he is a huge celeb here in Finland, and around the world and has been touring worldwide in his band for 37 years!He plays in the band Hanoi rocks and Iggy Pop. I wish I could tell his name, but Finnish law prohibits me tell it because this is being posted up on my blog:( But, he is almost done reading the book of mormon and he said hes going to start it over next week. haha, he also invited us on his private boat and said he would take us to Israel when hes going in a couple of months, and get us back stage passes to his upcoming concert in helsinki. Yay for missionary rules!!!, but its all good. Pretty crazy stuff! Hes doing so amazing.

We also picked up some other investigators this week. All of them are doing great, we have a teaching pool of 8 right now so things are really busy. We also got to meet with a Less active single mom who has 6 kids and committed her to come back to church. She is an amazing lady!  But this week has been awesome with many miracles!!  

Also a good article to check out, 

Why I Stopped Phoning It in on Sundays onlds.org

The pics are of a roman orthodox church in Helsinki, and this is what Me and my companion make everyday for lunch haha. its super cheap and easy to make!! 

Raukaudella,

Elder Ford 

6/9/2015 Vanhin Ford‏

Rakas Lapset,

Its been a really great week this week!!! My new companion is Elder Broadhead from Ohio. He is a boss, and we have been tearing it up this week it Neitsytpolku!  Last sunday we had 3 of our investigators in Church. Our investigator from Canada who is married to a finnish woman, our Eritrean investigator, and a new investigator we found tracting. We also got to set a baptisimal date with our Canadian investigator for after conference! So hopefully all goes well. Its crazy that General conference is nearly hear again. Wow, this 6 months has gone soo fast!  General conference is great, because it literally is better then Christmas when your a missionary. Haha, I was talking to a Finnish ward member and he was telling me how all the Americans treat General conference like a movie because they all bring candy and snacks, in a way he brings up a good point, but you cant go wrong with General conference Candy! 

This week it got way colder, literally one day it was summer, and now fall is here. But with that, since the Neitsytpolku ward is the largest in Suomi, they have a ton of YSA activities and institute, and we have been blessed with getting investigators to all of them. The work is going really really good here. The Lord has really blessed us in our finding.  

This week there was also a huge vintage car show in downtown Helsinki, and I didnt have my camera on me! There was sooo many nice Ford Mustangs and Lamborginis, I really wanted a picture by a Ford. I failed the number one rule of scouting. Be prepared.  But it was really funny, as we were crossing the street from that, these guys came up in this old classic BMW car blasting Venga boys from the speakers, and his car was hooked up with a megaphone, and he starting yelling GO AMERICA into it as we were crossing the street.  But.. Go america. 

We also got to meet with a less active this week and he said he would come to church again, so were really happy about that. The work is really moving forward here!!  

The pic is some sweet dragonfruit that my companion bought for 5 euros. But its not actually sweet at all. it tastes like nothing! 

Oh... if anyone wants a finnish tounge twister. here ya go.

Appilan pappilan apupapin papupata pankolla kiehuu ja kuohuu.
Pappilan paksuposki piski pisti paksun papukeiton poskeensa. Pronounce each vowel and letter as is.  

Raukaudella,

Elder Ford

Change week! 31/8/2015‏

Wow, cant believe 8 months ago I came out on my mission. Its incredible how fast time can fly out here. Some days feel like months. But some months feel like days. Super weird.

But the time for changes has come! My new companion is Elder Broadhead, who is from Ohio. He still isnt here yet, I will get him tomorrow but Im staying here in Helsinki which is pretty great! There is a lot of wonderful things in this area, and I love the ward.  This upcoming change is a 10 weeker so wish me luck!! This week has been great though. Wednesday there was a massive YSA barbecue that we had our German investigator at. He is such a cool and intelligent guy, hes a astrophysicist who studies the Auros up in Northern Finland (the northern lights). But he is so great to teach, he has already stared reading D&C.  But the barbeque was really fun and we had a massive game of American Football going on which was pretty sweet.  Right now we also have quiet a few investigators, the problem is that with the summer ending soon everyone is trying to squeeze out the last of it so there never home to meet. But the summer is ending soon so everyone is settling back down. Thats the one good thing about Finnish winters is everyone is home all the time because nobody wants to get frozen outside so we have the opportunity to meet a lot more often haha.  But other then that not to much has happened. We had some lessons with investigators, and found some new investigators, but the baptismal dates we had dropped so hopefully with the start of the new change things will pick up!  But I have definately seen the Lords hands in our finding! We have found a great many new people, and im so thankful for that!!  

Also, Saturday night there was this massive midnight run in Helsinki, and the street my apartment was on was one of the biggest parts of the race, and there was a huge DJ set up outside and thousands of runners, and thats all I could hear as im trying to go to sleep. Long night.  

Elder Ford

August 25th‏

Terve!

Dear Family and Friends,

Another great week in Neitsytpolku. Cant believe that this week is the last week of the transfer! Transfer calls are this saturday! But this transfer was a shorter one, 8 weeks, because of the new missionaries coming in, but the next one is going to be 10 weeks!! Whoo! But yesterday we had the opportunity to bring two of our investigators to a YSA activity and watch Meet the Mormons. It went really great, except I have literally seen Meet the Mormons 8 times now. Its getting a little ridiculous, but a good movie non theless.  It was our investigators Mikola`´s birthday, so we brought him some Good old fashion Rootbeer and star bursts haha. Those things arent easy to come across in europe, you have to go to import stores and buy them! Its super weird, in europe the Club soda is huge (carbonated water), and then the only other soda is Coke, Diet Coke, Orange Fanta, and Sprite Zero. Not sprite, but sprite zero. Thats it. Dont ask me why.  But the two that came to that were Mikola and Sonja, there both super cool. We met Sonja not to long ago, we tracted into her. she is this super cool 20 year old girl that served in the finnish army, and then backpacked a ton in South America... alone! She has a ton of sketchy stories that just remind me of the daily life I hear of missionary friends in south america haha.  We have had a ton of great lessons this week with several other investigators where the spirit was definitely present. The hard thing about finnish summers, is because the finnish summer is so short and the winter so long everybody takes advantage of the summer and travels everywhere and is always so busy, so consistent teaches with people is not easy haha. But the Lord has really blessed us this change and we have been teaching quite a bit which has been really great.  

Do great things. Be great. Everything is possible through the Lord.

Love

Elder Ford

Elokuunta 18/8/2015

Dear Family and friends,

Really great week this week. The Lord has really blessed us in downtown Helsinki, many mercies are everywhere..  We were able to set another baptismal date with one of our investigators in September. Its actually his birthday tomorrow to, so were making him some apple crumble, my companions own recipe!  It ll be great.  We also found 4 great investigators this week. One is from Germany, and the other is a gymnast from Finland, and then we have two more Finnish investigators.  

I also got to do Splits with my Trainer this week. He is a Zone Leader down here, and so we got to do splits for the day which was really great! We found a lot of potential investigators and ton 3 member present lessons that day, and taught a Finnish Class to english speakers. Crazy, but very productive day.  Then the next day we had Zone meeting which was very powerful and you could feel the spirit so strongly in there, especially when everybody bore there testimonies about the Book of Mormon.  

My companion and I also taught in Sunday school the Adult class in Finnish which was a bit nerve wrecking haha, and on top of that it was on last second notice.  We had to teach about the Priesthood for 45 minutes, but we put a lesson together last minute and all went well.  

I just want to leave with my testimony saying I know this Church is the true Church of Christ. True, this the gospel of Jesus Christ may not solve temporal short challenges here on earth, it has promised us with eternal happiness if we are true and faithful to the covenants we have made. There is no greater promise then that. God gives us challenges, hardships, and trials because he knows that it is really through the refiners fire that we can become our potentials.  The Book of Mormon is the true word of God. Through it we can know and come to understand the Fullness of Jesus Christ Gospel. I love how in the first few chapters of Nephi, when Nephi said "Being led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things I must do." So to, it is with our lives sometimes, we don t always know what to do perfectly, but if we look to the Book of Mormon, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ it has given us a map. Sometimes on the journey we may not know exactly what may happen, however we know the path we must take.  Its all possible because of a loving Savior, Jesus Christ. The atonement is real. It changes lives.

I love you all

Elder Ford

11th august 2015

Dear friends and family,

This week has been great. We have found 3 new investigators we are teaching and we were able to set up a baptismal date with our investigator from Eritrea, and she came to church!  We also had a really good lesson with another of our investigators whos from Canada, Mikola, and had a Dinner appointment over at Bishops house, where there was a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation, or Pelastussuunnitelma in Finnish. We also found a 3 new investigators from our area book. The first one named Maiju we got to have a really great lesson about Gods love for us, and we got to do it with a Former Finland missionary named Dave Rogers, who is going to UVU!  It was a really great lesson, and you could feel the spirit so strongly.  The next we have been calling this guy named Mikko from the area book for weeks who has been in the hospital and we keep asking if we can come over to the hospital just to check up on him and he kept saying no. Finally, when he left the hospital he called us and set up an appointment for last Saturday. But he ended up canceling a few hours before.. So we decided to do some tracting with that open time. As we were walking I saw this random door that was off away from the others in an apartment complex and we decided to knock it. Turns out it was this man who we were trying to meet with, and he let us right in where we taught the first lesson. His friend was also there and became a new investigator! Gods hand was definitely present!  

So lately I have been doing some studying up in the bible to get myself even more friendly with it. In Finland, everyone has "read" the bible. Most dont know the bible that well but everyone has opened its front covers at some point, but everyone translates the bible different here, so in personal study I have been making this quick reference guide for myself for key scriptures in the bible for easy to access scriptures. So many people here in Finland think you are saved simply through Gods grace, but its simply put in Mark 16:16, you need baptism haha! So I have been working on that a lot lately. 

Also the summer in disappearing!! Its starting to get dark at 11:00 pm, instead of 1am haha!  Crazy how short the summers last here. Apparently this has also been the coldest summer in 50 years in Finland, but it just feels like a Utah summer back home, but apparently Im told there much better then this! But cant complain, its still really good.

The lords work is moving well here! 

Thanks for the support everyone!

Raukaudella

Elder Ford

Kakara

Dear Family and friends,

The title of the email is titled kakara. That is my new word I learned this week in Finnish.  It means brat. You learn new things every day. 

I dont have a ton of time to write this email because Im going to the temple right after this! But it has been a good week!  We continue to work hard and find new people! We found this awesome guy that was born in the Ukraine, but lived in Canada, and moved here and married a finnish woman.  He is super open and nice. Other then that nothing crazy. The other elders in our area baptized a way awesome guy from the Ivory coast! He is 20 years old and one of the coolest guys I have ever met!

Love you all! Sorry for the short email, but the temple calls my name!!  

Elder Ford  

Lahetyssarnajia

Dear Family and Friends,

Great week this week. A lot of great people and a lot of great conversations!!  We found two new investigators this week which was great. One of our new investigators is from Eritrea, which is a country I didnt even know existed.  We had a powerful first lesson with her.  So one thing I have been thinking a lot about with Finnish people is that they dont like to be served, but they LOVE serving. So one thing we have been asking a lot of finns, is we have been teaching a finnish class to english speakers, and now were asking a lot of finns if they can come and help us teach the class, and feel the spirit of service. In my head there are two types of people who arent religious, but then join religion.  Ones that are compelled to be humbled by there circumstances, and feel the difference gods light makes through the darkness, and then ones whos lives are fine and perfect and dont need god because they see no reason because there life is great. What they need and yearn for is to serve people, because in everyone there is the light of christ. Thats why people who arent even religious find joy out of helping there fellow man, because Mosiah 2:17 "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God".  So when we give people whos lives are great the opportunity to serve then they to feel the love of christ.  

Crazy, I just realized that at the end of this month Ill hit my 7 month mark! its crazy how fast time flies out here. But the work is going good here in Helsinki, the Lords hand is prominent in many ways! 

The pic is of this pizza kebab place that we found that sells 5 euro pizzas. Almost as good as Little Caesars.  

Love

Elder Ford

Again, the new mission office address because some were asking is: 

Elder Weston Kevin Ford

Finland Helsinki Mission

Upseerinkatu 3 C

02600 Espoo

Finland

Good ol¨¨Helsinki‏

Dear family and friends,

Well, I have been serving for almost a week now in Helsinki! Love it, so many great people from around the world and so many great finns!!! The ward down here is absolutely amazing and I absolutely love the piispa (bishop)! Such a wonderful guy. Basically the whole bishopric is 30 year old guys with 2 kids.

My new companion is Elder Smith, he is from Centerville, Utah. He is actually my first companion out here from Utah. He is a super cool guy who is going home this October.  Him and I served together in Jyväskylä in the same district. But this week we have been working super hard and have talked to tons of people on the street. We have so many new potentials, its awesome. A lot of great things are going to happen in the Neitsytpolku ward. Now were just trying to follow up with everyone in the most efficient manner.  

But Helsinki is such a beautiful place, it has an old look with a super modern look. Really cool.  Right now the world gymnastic cup is going on in Helsinki, so there are teams from everywhere around the world, a ton from south america.  It makes me wish I would have kept studying spanish in school haha..  

Right now we have two solid investigators. One is a really cool finn girl, and the other is an American from Los Angelos, whos lived in Finland for a long time now.

One thing that I have been studying is the Journeys of the Sons of Mosiah and everything that they went through.  They experienced all the highs and lows one could get, but they did it with diligence and faith and because of that they helped many souls come unto Christ. Hopefully we can all be to as diligent as they were. They are living proof that no matter where we come from in life, we can all turn around no matter what. They were the worst of the worst, but they became some of the best of the best. Anything is possible with Christ.

Love

Elder Ford.  

IM GOING TO HELSINKI

Hey everyone!

So this week we got our transfers.. of course my companion elder bascom got his new companion, sister bascom... cause hes going back to Atlanta. Im so grateful for the opportunity I got to serve with him, I have learned so much from him, finnish, and spiritual.  Hes such a boss, and hes going to shred it up back at BYU!  

This week has been fast for sure. Said goodbye to a lot of ward members and investigators that I have come to known here in Jyväskylä!!  Its been great and I am so thankful for my opportunity! My new area that I am being transfered to is Neitsytpolku, which is really the richest place in Finland. Basically downtown Helsinki, right in the heart of it.  Its right on the ocean, super cool! My new companion is Elder Smith who was in my district last transfer! Super excited, he is so cool!  But this is my last email from Jyväskyla, been super cool!

One cool story is thursday me and Elder Bascom were in the finnish forest when we found a man sitting, resting.  We approached him and started talking, and found out he had visited Salt lake city and had a book of mormon. We talked to him for a little while, and then this other man approached us. Soon man 1 left, and we were talking to the second guy for like 2 hours. He was a very nice man and we got to place a book of mormon with him at the end. 

I also met with my Kenyan investigator for the last time. He is such a cool guy, he is one of the first people I met here in Finland.  We had a wonderful lesson with him yesterday and Im really going to miss him. He has so many cool stories from kenya. I now understand why Kenyans are such good runners haha!!  

The pic below is me and an investigator. He has been one of our great friends here in Jyväskylä and has shown us a lot of cool things!  

Other picture is of our district. I dont know why I am making that face.  

Me and my majestic horse.

Raukaudella,

Vanhin Ford

Transfer calls this week!!

Hey everyone!!

Great week this week!!  Crazy to think that transfer calls are happening this week, I cant believe how fast this second transfer has gone by! Vanhin Bascom is going home in 9 days!! Crazy, but I have learned so much from him and am so thankful for the opportunity to serve with him!!   For those of you that dont know, in Finland we do 9 week transfers instead of the normal 6. So crazy stuff.  This week we found this cool girl from China who says shes super interested in religions and for some reason christianity just draws her.  We had been tracting an old investigator and I decided to knock this random door when we were walking out. Right as I knocked on it the door knob turned and out came this Chinese girl giving her a heart attack haha!!  But she is very interested so were excited to begin teaching her! Yesterday we also found this old investigator in the area book that we decided to call, and he said we could come and teach him more! So after we had a DA at this awesome ward family we went over to his place and we had a great teach getting to know him, and testifing about the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon. He believes in God, but hes not quite sure why he actually needs God.  That brought me thinking, why do we need God. Obviously there are multiple reasons, but do we each have our own personal meaning to that in our own testimonies and conversions? Just food for thought!  

We also found this REAL cool graffitti wall, and we met this really cool guy who was doing some spraypainting! He is super cool! He just finished medical school here in Finland, and is a doctor, but decided he wanted to start going to art school because hes interested in that to! You can do that in Finland with the free college haha... Im actually quite suprised to see how many americans come here for the free education. There is an american lady in our ward who comes here for school! Shes super cool!!  

One of our coolest investigators also set up this firestation tour which was super cool!! Jyväskylä has this brand new firestation with all sorts of top of the line equipment. However, I was lost most of the time in the tour because I have no idea medical and firefighter terms in Finnish haha..  But super cool none the less!!!  

This week I have been studying a lot on the atonement and the amazing power it is, both through cleansing, and the enabling power. It really is a lifelong pursuit of learning. But the three main points that I try to focus on is the cleanings, the healing, and the sanctifing. All equally important and I testify that each one of us can feel that no matter where we are in life if we have Faith in Jesus Christ and try our best. 

Raukaudella

Vanhin Ford