Weird Weather, Great Meat

Perhe! 

I love the hard work and determination of the Wunderli family. You all are champs! That is way cool that Nate qualified for the tournament this week, good luck! Keep me updated! And of course all the choir fun sounds great, I am excited to be going back to the best ward. Rachy- great that you are doing well and getting fit and I am glad the whole wedding was filmed haha I still cant believe that actually happened. Well, keep up the awesome work and don’t kill yourselves!

I had a good week, it was good weather for a bit and now it seems as if winter is coming back. There was the weirdest hail/rain/snow storm on Saturday and that did not make the Finns happy, though it was pretty entertaining to experience. I ate reindeer meat on a sandwich this week, so I can add that to my variety of great meat that you wouldn’t find in America! Besides that, the work is going well here. We recently got a new ward mission leader and he is awesome, I feel that we are making great steps to motivating this ward into doing missionary work! So far our main theme is "invite" and our main step is hosting more parties. Yup, parties are the genius of the church and they rarely happen here. But we are going to get it started! With each new step it is exciting to take part in the work of salvation as it moves forward.

 Within the past few days I have studied 3 Nephi 17, when Jesus is in America and He heals their sick and blesses the children. I am so touched by His tenderness and I often ponder upon all the times throughout my life and my mission when He has shown compassion on me and given me motivation to move forward and to reach my potential. He has helped me to forgive myself and to have joy, despite my weaknesses. He requires so little of us to whom He gives everything. That is my testimony of the week! I know that He lives. I am glad Skype will work out, I am excited to see you all in a few weeks! Stay safe, I love you all!! :) 

FROM DAD-

Hey Bear!

I’ll give a short report of the family events for the week and let them fill in the details.  Mom and Essie have been fully engaged with the Genesis choir ( actually has a new name and is now funded by the Church) – they are performing right now at a fireside (Mom just called me and said it was amazing).  Speaking of church choirs, our 7^th ward choir performed in an interfaith choir performance last Sunday at the Catholic Church up Creek Road.  It was AWESOME!  Rachel, Megan, and Essie all rocked solos in our amazing version of Glorious, while Mom, Nate, Mak, and I did our part backing up in the choir.  It was really fun to see the other choirs – Catholic, Lutheran, non-denominational Christian, and one other I can’t remember.  The International Children’s Choir performed as well – they’ve performed all over, including with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I don’t want to say our 7^th ward choir was the best . . . but we were the best.  But it was all super cool.  In other singing news, Mom, Rachel, and I totally rocked the karaoke room at the Westerner last night.  Good times.

In fitness news, Samie is still playing soccer.  She hurt her ankle, but healed fast and is back at it.  Essie is getting close to running in a half marathon in three weeks.  Mak is running track and is getting a lot faster.  Rachel is cranking away in her fitness plan and playing softball. Megan and I are still boxing, which I think has really improved my golf game. 

In Utah sports news, Mak, Essie, Samie and I went to Utah’s Red/White spring football game yesterday.  We’ve got a freshman quarterback who is only 18 years old who looks promising.  Hope springs eternal.  Can’t wait to get you back to the games in the fall!

But in even bigger Utah sports news, Nate qualified for the starting lineup on the golf team to play in the PAC-12 Championships starting this Friday, which is super cool because the tournament is being held at the Salt Lake Country Club this year, so Nate will have a big gallery following him.  Nate had to play a two day playoff this week against another teammate to see who got the last spot in the lineup.  I’ll let Nate fill in some details, but it sounded super tense with lots of ups and downs.

We’re all excited to talk to you on the 15^th!  We’re all so proud of you and always look forward to your reports. 

I love you!

Dad

Skype Time!

Family!!! 

As for Skype... well.... I guess I will see you in 3 months! Haha just kidding I am not sure what to do but you can email my mission president and ask him. I am sure he is not used to parents forgetting about mother’s day Skype calls ;) Only in the Wunderli household. Wow, I had no idea you were going back to Korea though, sounds awesome! I am sure Nate is stoked. I had a good week, a bunch of lessons fell through but we did our part and I didn’t get discouraged! On Sunday we even had 3 lessons, each in a different language (English, Finnish and Portuguese). But we only ended up teaching the Finnish one. It went well though, I really do love teaching! We had great plans, saw miracles, talked to awesome people, the weather was beautiful and I truly just soaked in every amazing part about being a missionary. Each day is a new gift and that is really what I focused on this week! Being a missionary is hard... but the more I think about life back home the more I realize that this work is the best! It is only as stressful as you make it and the stressful times bring me closer to God and help me to learn more about myself. I am so grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. I am grateful for the testimony of members, leaders, family members and friends that keep this great message moving forward. Oh it is wonderful! Well, that is all for this week, I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!! :)

FROM DAD-

Is May 8^th Mother’s Day?  Turns out Mom and I will be in Korea with Nate on the morning of May 8^th.  Then in the afternoon, we’ll be on a train from Busan to Seoul to catch a 6:30 pm flight home.  So we’ll have some logistics to work out with the skype stuff.

Bipolar Weather

Hei Perhe! 

The house is so different! Looks great! And wow, sounds like the whole house was sick! I just got over my sickness on Thursday, it took a lot of patience and I think I prolonged the sickness because I went out and worked too hard last Monday haha. What are you gonna do, souls need to be saved and I was itching to get outside! But after heavy congestion, exhaustion and a sore throat I thought id better take it easy for a few more days.

The weather is bipolar but today it feels like spring and it makes me so excited. There is still snow on the ground, which I don’t get but the days are getting longer and I am looking forward to a beautiful Finland summer!

In other news, as I was almost over my sickness (this is on Wednesday), my companion Sister Toomey was running in our apartment to get the phone when she banged her toe on the ironing board and completely fractured it. So, after going to the hospital and getting it wrapped up we had limited time walking outside because she was crippled and extremely slow haha but she is taking it well and it should be healed hopefully in a week or so. Now we are forced to stop and smell the roses, which isn’t too bad because we always seem to be is a rush running from somewhere to catch buses or trains. But we walk at grandma speeds now :)

It also was national Finnish Language day on Saturday, if you are interested in linguistics; Finnish is the way to go! It was just in the 1530s-ish when Finnish became a written language. I love this place. On a spiritual note, we had many great experiences of giving out books of Mormon this week. One particularly comes to mind of this Finnish woman who we sat next to on the train and after some talk we listened to here share of her confusion for the world and God and her desire to know answers. Well, naturally we testified to her of the book of Mormon and when she took one you could see her eyes light up with a chance of hope and clarification and she thanked us graciously. She left quickly after that for her stop so we didn’t get a chance to write down her number but the moment was still just as powerful. I haven’t seen very many huge miracles, grand successes, or people just dying to be baptized, but it is times like that when I am super grateful to be a missionary and help people in whatever little way that I can. That is all for this week, keep up the busy work at home! Love you all!!!! :)

Happy April!

Hey Fam! 

HAPPY APRIL!! Wow, I can’t wait to hear this Genesis choir. Sounds great. Glad to hear the crew is doing well! Not too eventful of a week because I was again struck down with sickness... No fun... But that didn’t stop me from enjoying conference! It was AMAZING and life changing. It came at a perfect time. I noticed a big theme of repentance and forgiveness. It is pretty important for everyone to know that no matter your situation, mistakes, imperfections and weaknesses, EVERYONE is given the chance at any time to turn to Christ and feel His love and strength that allows us to change. Some people feel like lost causes but we are divine children of a loving Heavenly Father and through our Savior we can overcome everything. Also, shout out to the best dad ever, Elder Christofferson´s talk about fathers perfectly complimented Elder Holland´s talk about mothers from last general conference. And I simply feel so blessed to have wonderful parents! Seems so rare in this world so give yourselves a pat on the back mom and dad! You are doing great :)

Overall I was re reminded to trust in God and His plan for each of us. I was so touched by President Monson´s short address. Choose Christ and you will never choose wrong. I can’t wait to read through the talks again once I get the Liahona!

So things here are going well, I am loving the opportunity to see miracles everyday and feel the weather change to spring!:) Well, have a great week everyone!! Love you all!! :)