WEEK 7 in FINLAND!!

Hey there Beautiful family Man oh man Life is a blast and this church is true haha!! 

Ok writing here on myldsmail.net reminds me of writing back in the laundry room of the mtc!! But I am ok with it because I am being obedient haha!! 
Man oh man this week was so so so dang long but really amazing!! Last pday we just chilled went shopping looked around and did nothing to much special but I bought that sweet hoody!! OK so mom to answer your question!! Tuesday morning we got to go to the Temple!! oh my goodness gracious was it AMAZING being inside the house of the lord again!! It was Russian week so me and Robby had to wear headphones so we could listen to it in English we looked like weirdo's with headphones on that's for sure!! But being in that celestial room again was absolutely amazing!! Just being there and conversing with the lord in his presence just brings such an amazing spirit to me!! So yeah we can go to the temple about once a change if your in the Helsinki area!! Guess what we did later that day we brought some investigators to the temple and taught them a lot of things and watch the video they had for the open house of the Helsinki Temple!! The Days have been beautiful the sun has been shinning! Being on a mission is awesome just focusing on what the lord needs you to do and gaining a better testimony is awesome! EJ you better believe I am soaking it all up!! Later on that night we had a teach with Sunny (she was the first girl we baptized) it was in English and I got to mainly teach this one and the spirit was so strong! We were teaching her about the plan of salvation and she was in tears and I just had experiences and things from my own life that went so well with this teach that it touched my heart as well! Footprints in the Sand such a great poem! Can't get enough of that!! 

Each day is a new and amazing adventure and as I wake up I can decide to have a good day or a GREAT day and knowing me I want to have a great day so I try to wake up in a good mood and just take life as it hits me and turn it great!! We should all do that and mom it sounds like you did that for sure at work!! Not opening your mouth... that was awesome!! Gave me chills because we both know we both would of just shouted right back... but with the spirit anything is possible I have had to do the many many times with the AP's but hey life does go on and I do come home so don't even worry!!

Wednesday was a great day also dang just everyday is great except one thing each day!! My hips and my ankle KILL I don't know what it is but man I am hurting but other than that kaikki menni hyvin (all goes well) we had another school teach and man these kids ask so many funny questions about G's and using protection when were married and you just see elder robby sweating bullets when they are asking these things cause I don't have the slightest clue how to answer those questions let alone speak finnish but it was fun none the less!! 

Than the main event picking up our new Companion!! Man Elder Pettus is a stud! He is from ST. George Utah he took state champion his Jr. and SR. year in Wrestling he has been in finland for about 4 months and we both speak about the same! His companion didn't really teach him much so now we are Speaking the Lanugage all day everyday so me and him can get the language down but man we have so much fun together! They put the three most athletic elders together in one companionship we all get along perfectly and just work so well together I have been blessed with great companions in the COUNTRY not so much the MTC but the country is what counts!!  So we took him back to unpack his clothes while we made phone calls for outreach on Thursday! Guess where we got to go haha yep you'd never guess we went to the temple again for institute night!! It was a combined with the finns and the Russians we stayed and set it all up then left! But before we left we got some amazing pictures of the temple and sun set I'll send them to you in this email wow Finland is gorgeous! Went shopping for the week and that's about it!! for Wednesday!! 

We studied on the Deck in the morning for comp study cause the sun was so hot! than went out contacting in the metro's we have to spilt up 2 go together and 1 goes by himself of course on the same cart just way down there so no one can see us!! Dad the metro's are very clean and there is no pornography at all! Finland is a very clean country the only place that has the crap around are magazine stores and we don't go in there so were good No need to worry about that that's for sure!! So American night is the BOmB we played Karaoke wow I totally won!! The Finns were rolling on the ground laughing there heads off!! At first me and Elder Pettus sang a Deut! A whole new World man oh man I wish I recorded it but everyone was in tears cause it was so dang funny than a few people went and it wasn't to funny and one went and it was really sad and it was getting akward cause no one wanted to go up so everyone was like we want to hear a song from Caffaro! So that was the main event cause everyone knows I love to have so much fun! So I chose the song Show me the Meaning of being lonely by the backstreet boys!! Man oh man I was having a hay day with that haha!! it was like American idol and we had the judges and they couldn't stop laughing at me when they were judging me man I had such a good time with that that's for sure!! 

Friday was a sweet day!! we finally had time to teach a contact it was a girl that we met on the metro's took her to the out reach center showed her around talked about our families than we in kind of just went straight into teaching the first lesson and when it got time to teach about joseph smith we put the restoration movie in!! How freakin cool is that! That DVD brings the spirit and teaches About joseph smith so much better than we can and than we bore witness gave her a book of mormon it went so smoothly I was blown away how affective our outreach Center  works so good! we had another one identical to that later that night but the the contact wasn't interested at all but hey we tried and planted the seed that s all we could of done!! That night the Tampere Elders came down and slept over cause of Chen's baptism on Friday so I met Elder Kelly, Cook, Olsen and Headberg man we have some great missionaries I wonder why they are not in the south!! We have some weird ones in the south! But I finally met elder cook! He knows kamille he went to viewmont highschool also so we talked about her for a bit he is a stud!! He is the North's Zone Leader! 

Saturday was fun Chen Yi's baptism everything went great Elder Pettus 2nd day in our city and he gave the baptismal talk!! E. Rob baptised man I am so blessed to have been apart of 4 baptisms in finland they are great!! After chen came out of the water he told Robby :It's a new life, I was so touched to hear that man you know when you have touched someones heart when they really feel it's a new life!! Than we asked him what he was going to do that night "I am just going to go home and think about today" man I was in tears he was so full of happiness you could see it in his eyes! how much joy will we have if we just save one soul unto the lord!! I have great joy in my heart this day family!! So after that all 8 missionareis went to this kabab place and ate and took pictures it was so cool hanging out with cool missionaries they!! We just have some really weird ones down here but we left the eating place and we were in a big circle saying good bye and we said a prayer right there on the street it was great I thought it was so cool!! 

Sunday was a fun day! I had to chance to give Chen the Holy Ghost man was my left knew shaking in front of all the people in our finnish ward but everyone said it was a good placing I can't remember my knee was about to give out haha man it was funny!! ok so we went tracting and it was robby's turn at the door and I poked his butt like funnly ahha not a word who cares but pettus said I think the lady just saw you do that!! SO we BUSTED OUT LAUGHING SO DANG LOUD and she came to the door we stopped and he started talking than I couldn't hold it in any longer and I started laughing than everyone started laughing haha at the door she started to smile and laugh too and ask why were were laughing we said en mä tiea haha it was so funny man great times!! But I love you all keep praying for me! I am gaining such great knowledge and wisdom that I feel so blessed that the lord is taking me and molding me into someone I should be!! I love you all Don't forget to write handwritten letters to me!! just sit down once a week and hand write me PLEASE

J. Caffaro

WEEK 6 in FINLAND!!

Ok here is the run down I can only send one letter a week on email and I have to move back to vanhincaffaro11@myldsmail.net cause the mission rules just changed this week!! So this is what i am going to do!! This is my last time using Gmail I was going to still keep on using it and just blow off the stupid rule but i will tell you in a little bit why I am going to be obedient!! WRITE ME HAND WRITTEN LETTERS wow its so nice to get hand written letters ask janae how excited she was to receive one from me!! mom and dad you should of got one also i hope you did!!!

OK dad so last week you asked me about the spiritual experiences and you asked again this week!! ITS ROUGH WHEN YOU are lacking them!! its not like the MTC but you'll like this week!! I was mad that i haven't received great insight or the spirit to guide me in my mission tasks!! I was hurting for the spirit i do everything right also and I was reading in Mosaih and I got even more mad when A wicked man like Alma persuceting the saints of the church got to see an angel and just have all that great stuff to help him and here I am representing the lord being his missionary thinking I should be helped out a bunch and feel the many blessinging!!! So I was really hurting and this was wednesday same day as mission president interviews!! So i go into presidents office and just ask him why?? Why am i feeling like this!! Man if there is a man that knows his doctrine it is Our president he told me this story how he had to go 8 months with out the spirit to test him for his calling and wow the story was so touching we were both crying and I began to feel the spirit in his office and he said the lord is testing us and seeing how we respond!! When I pray to him don't ask why questions ask What questions like what do you want me to learn... Humility, diligence , patience, obedience? It hurts heavenly father being with out your spirit will you blesss me with it so i can feel your love!! I know the lord is testing me now to see if i can make it through so he can truly bless me with his spirit that is why I want to be obedient to the email rule cause I want him to know that he can trust me with whatever!!! And after that I asked the president to give me a blessing!! I know I know that only the sister missionaries ask for blessings but I really needed it and it was so great to feel is love for me so that made my week so much more better!!

I am glad that I had that one spiritual experience because I know if I endure it well I will recieve all he has to give read D&C 121-123 and if your not feeling happy or your not feeling good choose words out of those chapters how you would like to feel!! Joseph Smith wrote the most beautiful words in the Most hellish places it is truly amazing how the lord works!! I am so happy to be serving and gaining so many experiences whether tehy be spiritual or for my life it is great i can see teh change it brings to me. Another thing is fasting, when we fast our body craaves and needs food, true right? WELL DUH OF COURSE but when we go with out Spiritual things like reading and other things we are like fasting and we dont really notice the need of the spiritual crave as bad as we notice the crave of food!! So i take fasting and reading and everything more to heart this week has truly been awesome!!

I was saying my prayers and i just finnished and the phone rang!! It was AP MOCK and that means there is a change going to be happening!! OH NOOOOOOOOOOO are you ready he asked for my companion that meant he was leaving I was so mad and almost crapped my pants cause that means I am in charge of THE OUTREACH center in Finland so mock played a joke on Elder Robinson and then he told him the truth You two are both staying in Helsinki I was so excited but now we are getting a 3rd companion...haha we are in a three some!! I dont know how that is going to go I heard this guy is way cool so I am stoked thats for sure!!

Another thing that happened was Sunday we went to a great fireside and wow the spirit was so strong even though it was all in finnish the ladies singing i stand all amazed and i know the my redemmer lives WAS OUTSTANDING it brought tears to my eyes it is so great how the Lord has done so much and we try to repay him and everything but with each breathe we take we still owe him so much but what we can give him that he doesnt have is our HEART AND OUR WILL and with that he can mold us into Master Teachers Gods. During companionship study me and Elder Robinson were reading a talk its called the 4th missionary haha wow ITS HAS SOME DEEP DOCTRINE i advise you all to read it Goodness it stopped me and Robby in our tracks and brought tears its great. it was a mission president giving it to his is missionaries his name is Laurence Corbridge something like that man oh man it was great!! Things like put your desires and wants on the back burner our just like you put your clothes into a box and when you get home you might not want them anymore that might just be like what our wants our!! its great but i am sorry if that was a little to much for you all but if your strugling with things ask what questions instead of why it is helping me a lot that is for sure!!!

We went tracting this week and we knocked on this old ladies house and she asked us to come in we taught her the whole first lesson i talked alot in finnish about the Joseph Smith and my testimony and it was great she didnt want a book of mormon but we got to pray at the end and it was a great prayer that E.Robby gave man it seems like things are going good for me!! Sometimes my ankel feels like it is BROKEN dad it kills at times and my hips kill at times too but man oh man Just keep on walking that's all i can do the lord is with me!! Everyone Your letters and prayers and thoughts mean A HEAP MAN haha SIGN KA ya dead mon haha YA mon.. HA HA sorry just reminded me of that moive COOL Runnings!! You guys are the best keep me in your prayers i will get the language. I wanna write more about the interview so dad I will hand write you and mom another hand written letter!! Ok seriously hand written letters are best we watch out the door for the posti lady to drop it through our slot we get so so dang excited we know the exact time she comes!! So dont let her let us down send me some Posti it means a lot to hear from you guys even if you have to type it and send me a little not i am fine with that!!! Pictures in the mail will be great i still need lincoln's home address that would be great i love you all so very much!!!

Love Johnny C

WEEK 5 in Finland!!

MY Family I love you guys haha!! So today I have been running around going to doctors appointments for my face!! Guess how much it cost me to just sit in the doctors room for 20 minutes? 75 euros so that = 125 dollars holy COW isnt that crazy and dont even mention how much the medicine costs Its outrageous!!! But its all good cause the Mission pays for it all!! So sounds like everyone had a great week man was my week nuts and crazy went by so dang fast!! Yeah dad Change calls are this Saturday i cant believe i have been here this long but i am loving it life is great no complaints just that it is FREEZING in september its like 42 degrees here they say it is the coldest September in 30 years, haha NICE huh!! Ok So this last week was a blast we had this huge service thing this whole week is was for the European Dance and Fitness compettion haha not a typical place you would find missionaries but with finland we do ALOT Of service!!

So on Wednesday I had to go on splits with the zone leader because we had to go out and interview meeri the 85 year old that got baptized on Friday and after that we had to head over to the AIRPORT to greet the athletes that were going to the dance thing! Wow it was fun!! Ok so there were so many dancers from so many different countries like Czech, Republic, France and Holland. So it was getting late and I didnt want to get on a public pass and stop at every stop so we jumped on the athletes bus it was basically all girls so I was sitting up front and they have a chair with a microphone for tour GUIDES!! YEP you can guess what i did!! WELCOME TO FINLAND I am Johnny and will be your tour guide for the next 30 mins, I am not a real tour guide but lets have some fun haha So i was cracking jokes right and left trying to figure out what to say about finland and everyone was laughing so hard!! and when we finally got to the hotel i got a standing Ovation it was way legit!!

Then the rest of that week me and Elder Robinson were the Mop Boys for the competition we had to watch like step dances aerobic dances, HipHOp dances and we got a shout out the anouncer was talking to us before the thing started she got our names and said could we have Johnny and Robby come on the stage they are very important so everyone started cheering for us way funny times. Then WOW HOLY COW a French DUDE was hitting on me big time!!! He slapped my butt tickled my stomach I was going to kill him!! ok read this in a french accent : johnny are you going to come to the club tonight you could be our personal tour guide! i was like uhh no sorry the girlfriend wouldnt like it haha!!! So we did that on wednesday thursday friday saturday!

Friday was a really good day we had a baptism with Meeri she is 85 years old! It was a struggle for Veli Kousminen and Elder Robinson to get her under the water but they ended up getting her thats for sure!! Things are good! Church is really hard to understand and speaking is way hard also! Yesterday I had to go on splits with another Elder the Russian from the MTC we went out tracting and the first door I knocked on it opened and boy was I sweating bullets i said almost everything i knew in finnish and than said sorry do you speak english!!? Wrong idea.. she spoke english but i have never ever done a door approach in english talk about even more sweat running of my face wow English door approaches are harder than in Finnish! Its hard not being able to understand people its really frustrating at times but hey now its all good i have only been in finland for a month!! Like EJ says Put your head down and keep walking haha with my smile of course !! I read the scriptures every morning and its great to just read and ´ponder the words the lord has given us it really is a great blessing for our lives if we read them each day because they are for our days and our times So if your not doing it BROTHERS AND SISTERS GET ON IT haha i know i never did it before my mission but they have some really amazing stories in there is seriously is great I love you all know that i am doing way good and having great but challenging times Its wonderful to know i have you all back at home rooting me on Keep it up!!!Love you All J.CAffaro

WEEK 4 IN FINLAND!!

Elder Caffaro was super stoked about the little squirrel!!

Elder Caffaro and Elder Robinson posing for the camera.. as usual!!


Johnny super confused,.., when isn't he though?



Good old maryjanes!! yummy...


Beautiful Green Finland!!



WOW, where do I begin... Ok last monday was a crazy day but its all good we had to help this ward member move houses and he gave us some B3 vitamins and Elder Robinson turned bright red it was so funny!! I think monday was the lowest day of my mission so far but its all good i know that we need the lowest days to make our best days amazing so I was ok!! Elder Robinson is a stud and helped me out alot that night great advice he gave me!!




Tueday was good we went out and taught the 85 year old woman made us ice cream and gave us cheese to take home with us!!! CHEESE IS SO good here but we dont buy it cause it is expensive ha! We taught her about the prophet Joseph Smith and I told a lot about it and the first vision it was really cool. Than after that we had a DA (dinner appointment) man oh man I love DA's I am gaining weight by the day I am loving it!! So we were going to play football on the beach with some investagators but it was raining way to hard so we went back home and made up the rest of our pday and just wrote letters it was fun.




Wednesday of course was JANAES birthday happy birthday again hope all went well LOVE YOU we went out and gave this ward member a blessing in Finnish I had to do the sealing part and it was in Finnish I was going nuts but it was a way fun experince, Than we met with Euoro he is what we call an eternal investagator haha but it was fun to teach him. Went to institute and made our phone calls for the out reach center haha I am loving having this whole cell phone thing cause we are texting all the time its great fun!




Thursday was zone conference it was fun President Brown taught us some pretty good stuff i met some more missionaries and just a great time. I had a lot of fun there. Told about the 2 wolves story and the wolf that wins is the one we feed. THE BIG show was thursday night AMERICAN night haha i love it me and Robby were incharge of it! So we played wheel of fortune great game everyone had a lot of fun.




Friday was way fun we went and gave a school presentation about our church because in Finland you are required to take this class on religion that makes you learn every religion so we did that fun time talking to 18 year olds why we are here and all that great stuff. WE had kirsi teach us later that day cause she is ready to be baptised but she cant cause her parents but its ok it will happen soon i have faith. Than we had another baptism this week it was the sisters baptism so I had to give the closing prayer I did a really good job I was way happy!! So the 85 year old lady is gettting baptised this Friday and our Asian friend Chen Yi is getting baptised the 20th so we are just cruzing! It is such a blessing to be serving the lord right now and be small hand in this great work!! I am so very greatful for being on my mission I have grown so much in 4 months time I cant wait to see my growth in 2 years time things went really good this week learning more and more that the lord is always with us and during the hard times he is carrying us just like that Poem Footprints in the Sand its a great poem.




Saturday was great we had 2 DA's (Dinner Appoinments) that day holy cow I have never been so full in my whole entire life the second DA was a 75 year old so she made a lot of food! but after dinner i gave the spiritual thought on families and i have a picture of our family in my bag that I show people on the metros and stuff but it was a great lesson Meille on Kaunis Perhe haha no joke everyone loves looking at us haha i love our family so much you guys are the best no joke!! i am greatful for each of you each of you has blessed my life in so many different ways YOU ALL ROCK i love you and keep praying cause i know the lord will bless me if i keep doing the small and simple things and show him that i am 100 percent dedicated!! Finland is dope by the way just thought i would share that with you haha love you all and keep praying wow time is going by way to fast haha

Vanhin Caffaro THE BEST ATHLETE haha everyone knows that haha

WEEK 3 IN FINLAND!!

Well If it isn't time to write another letter again. Ok so answers to questions first... The time difference is 9 hours not 8, it is 230pm here and 530 am there haha good to know right?! A change is every six weeks and there are about maybe 50 people in the mission. In helsinki we have 2 classes a week one on mondays and another on saturdays its kind of hard because the older missionaries just ask hard questions but oh well its no big deal. 

DANG!  The whole gang is back home that is not fair at all.... you can't be having BBq's without me I am the one tha makes the BBQ's fun, haha. EJ, I am sorry that I have a nice apartment and weights and stuff when i get changed i am sure i won't have that nice of a apartment so i will suffer too haha just not as bad. Finland is GREAT!!! Dad it  getting cold yes already in august crazy huh thats is why is am busting out the sweater..  BUT FREAK NADER HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAHA i cant believe you are 21 Crazy crazy!! 

Ok so this week was really boring no joke we didnt really do anything we contacted and I got 3 numbers it was fun I speak in Finnish as much as I can than bust it in English. We only had one DA (dinner appointment) this whole week... how lame is that and it was yesterday but it was really good, WOW THE FINNS MAKE YOU EAT!!! I have never ever cleaned my plate so many times and just when I was putting the last bit of food in my mouth they put more on than i have to eat all of that also. American night was a bust this week all our people bailed on us we only brought 6 people as a companionship and there were about 22 total people we usually have 45 ish.But that's than we had service on friday had to help out this world wide european dance thingy and get it started cause it starts the next week. Than we went to our baptism that was set for 5 oclock it was way cool. But guess who had to give another talk at the baptism??? YEP ME... on the gift of the holy ghost. I took pictures of my talk so you can read I wrote that by myself but some finns helped and Elder Robinson did also but I got up and did a great job i think, i hope!! ha I just coundn't say a few words. But the baptismal service went really good other than that, except the ward members didnt do so good of a job coming. LAME PEOPLE haha take a few hours out of your life and come to a baptism... its deluxe son it an't that hard!!!!! Then we met with Lotta she  cant stop smoking and she believes in the church its just she cant stop and its killing me voi etta voi etta!!! The finnish IS HARD... EJ, you want me to suffer dang straight I am suffering big time not picking up this language as i would like to I wish I can learn it quicker or speak it or understand it a lot better but wow it is a for sure humbling thing Spanish is nothin sorry... EJ, KEVIN AND DAD haha. I can't believe how fast time is going its nuts, its already September.. Love it!!! Than we went tracting again crazy people... this old lady came outside WITH NO PANTS ON we were like ok we'll let you go... so funny me and Elder Robinson were laughing our  heads off!! 

Church is fun I look forward to it every week nice eh? haha. Shoot there really isnt much to say about the week its raining a lot here yep mom rain rain go away.. HA They say its going to be a rainy freezing winter in Helsinki, wow that would not be fun!! So I am glad everyone is doing good! I am too just had some rough days in the morning studying just thinking about yall but its all good, I love it here and I can conquer anything i put my mind to it!!! So guess what they are opening up Rovennemi this next change keep your fingers crossed either I want to go there or stay in Helsinki!! Thats for sure I love you guys all of you are in my prayers and thoughts individually pray for you each and every night and I know you do the same for me!!! We are the best thats for sure!!! Hey now did you know that I havent gotten a single letter in the mail from any of you dang people whats up with that? Mail is good ya know I am not in Uruaguay however you spell it!! Time is a flying which means I need to learn the language faster sorry there isn't so many interesting details this week. Oh yeah we have another baptism this friday or saturday the WORK is cruizin thats for sure Keep up the work everyone!!!

 Love Vanhin Caffaro