March 29, 2016

This past week has been so good! Today we are getting a car! Apparently the Vaasa sisters before us had it but there was sort of a car crash... but now it's repaired! We pick it up today and I don't know how long we'll have it. It's a lot easier to talk to people if we are outside walking but for now it's ours and we'll try and use it effectively. Only the senior companion can drive so I won't be driving I'll be navigating.... if anyone knows me well they know how directionally confused I can get. Pray for me!  But at least all of the snow has melted so that won't be an issue. There are barely any mission places with cars in Finland so I was really surprised when we got the call. Also, today we are giving a tour of the church to a bunch of high schoolers. In Finland they have to learn about all religions in school which I think is really cool and so they do these yearly tours and the missionaries show them around and answer questions about what we believe in. They are coming from a Swedish speaking school so we'll be teaching in English so I'm a little bit relieved. Europeans speak so many different languages!  

We had a zone conference in Oulu so we had to take the train there last Wednesday and we stayed two nights with the sister training leaders there. They were so cool and President Watson had some really good advice on how to use our resources better and we are starting a new Easter initiative and we got new pass along card that say '' Seuraa Hänta ja lödä uusi elämä'' or ''Follow Him and find new life''. I had a neat learning experience as we tried to talk to this Finnish woman who was out walking her dog about the new video the church has produced about Easter, called Hallelujah. She immediately said she wasn't interested and I was ready to walk away but Sisar Kwok kept talking to her and tried to get to know her. She told us her beliefs and she even told us that two Elders had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon before. After a couple minutes of talking to her Sisar Kwok again asked her if we could drop by her house later and show her the short two minute video about Easter and maybe explain a little bit about our church. She agreed and gave us her information and we are seeing her tomorrow. I learned an important lesson that you should keep talking until they walk away! I know that even though not everyone is interested there are people that are willing to hear us out. I can't say very much in Finnish but I can bear my simple testimony that Christ is our Savior and that he loves us. I can tell people that we are God's children and that we can be with our families forever through the restored gospel. That's about it, but luckily the Holy Ghost can help me out a lot. It also helps that Sisar Kwok is awesome and she always knows what to say to people. 

March 22, 2016

I am in Finland!!!!!! Out of all of the places I could have possibly been assigned to (and there were 4 possibilities) I got the most northern city! I am in a lovely city called Vaasa! It's on the west coast and there a ton of Swedish influence here as well. There is a college nearby  and there's a TON of international students. Like a ton. A lot of the students are from Asia or Africa and just from all over the world. We've taught about 6 lessons so far and 4 have been in English. Most of our investigators speak English and I was kind of worried about being able to practice the language but my new companion Sisar Kwok is amazing. She's Asian and she awesome! She's from Utah and this is her last transfer on her mission, she's so cool. We are the only Sister missionaries in Vaasa and in our entire branch! We have one pair of elders here as well so 4 total missionaries in Vaasa. 

So the privacy laws in Finland are some of the strictest in the world and I can't really ever write down someones full name or really even describe them without consent so if I'm being super vague from now on that's why. The members here are so amazing, I can't usually understand what they are saying but they are so kind and loving. Their testimonies are so strong. We had a lesson in Finnish yesterday and I couldn't really understand anything but I was able to bear my testimony and explain that Jesus Christ has blessed my life.....at least I'm pretty sure that's what I said. Sisar Kwok gave me an encouraging head nod so it was probably understandable. I had to realize this week that I will not be able to understand Finns for some time, Finns speak really soft and kind of mumble a little at the end of their sentences so you really have to concentrate when you talk to people. We went around contacting people on the street as well as tracking (knocking on doors) and it was kind of nerve wracking at first but Finns are such nice people and a lot of people actually took the time to talk to us even if they were not interested. We are actually pretty busy with our lessons and usually teach about two lessons every evening. What's not fun is when someone cancels last minute and because there are so many college students here people are very busy with projects and studying. 

I am almost 100% sure that Finnish food is better than American food. O MY GOSH IT IS AMAZING. They don't really have any processed food here but just fresh fruits and vegetables and just fresh everything. By the way I ate reindeer!!!!! We had dinner at a members house last week and it was so yummy. They also have the best jams here and the bread here is amazing. If it wasn't for all of the walking and biking I would be so fat. I also bought this Norwegian salmon (it's super cheap here) and I have cereal that is basically chocolate and nutella. I'm pretty sure I'll be a food snob by the time I get home. I even like stuff here that I didn't like at home like potatoes. Finns know how to cook. 

Something new I did this week- biking uphill, on snow, in a skirt. Not as hard as you might think and almost all of the roads are thawed out now so it was mostly pleasant, but man was I out of shape. I would have taken a bunch of pictures this week but that requires taking off my gloves and when it's -7 C that's not so fun to do. It hasn't been that cold all of the time but it is pretty frosty right about now. Everyone keeps telling me that I came at one of the best times of the year because the sun is out and it's "warm weather". Apparently the days here are starting to get longer and by the summer the sun will still be out when I go to bed! 

The people here are amazing. My new companion is amazing and the Mission President and his wife are amazing people as well. I'm so happy to be here and we are actually going to a zone conference next week in a city called Oulu for a couple of days. That should be pretty fun. I am so excited to finally be doing missionary work. Please pray for me to understand Finnish! It has been so amazing to share the gospel to people in this beautiful country. I know that this gospel blesses lives and I cannot wait to talk to more people. 

March 15, 2016

I'm here and I'm safe and everyone is amazing. I can't really write but I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 10, 2016

TRAVEL PLANS!!!

 

We got our flight plans!  I have no time to write today because I have to start packing! Turns out Ihave to pay for my luggage ($100) and they reimburse me later. I have learned so much in the MTC but it is definitely time to go. I feel ready and I'm not nervous at all. I'm not looking forward to the 22 hours of traveling but we have a layover in the Netherlands and New York so that'll be exciting. I'll miss the people but I am SOOOOO excited to go to Finland. I have such a strong testimony that this church is the one true church on the earth and that we have a savior. Isn't that the best news ever? I cannot wait to share that with people. I know that this church is for everyone regardless of background and circumstance. I know that if I'm worthy of it and I put in the work the Holy Ghost will guide me to where I need to go. I cannot wait to be a "real" missionary. It makes me so happy to be able to invite others to come unto Christ. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa amen. 

March 3, 2016

 

Moi! This week was kind of tough. The Swedes and the Norwegiens in our branch that got here a week after us left last wednesday. We've been seeing all of our Danish friends group emails and they've sent really cool pictures of Denmark and yeah....But on more postitive note we got new Norwegiens and Swedes yesterday! I got changed to the Sister Training Leader for the Branch so I was able to meet all of the new arrivals and help take them on a tour of the MTC. It got me out of grammar class so I was very happy. The weather here is beautiful and I no longer have to wear my wool tights and and winter jacket. It now feels like the best of a Florida winter. 

In our Sunday devotional we got hear from Brent H. Nielson and he's the executive director of missionaries and he served in the best mission- Finland! It was really cool to hear from him and we stayed afterwards to shake his hand. 

Yesterday we had TRC skype again and it was the neatest experience. Sister Carter and I talked with a woman named Sallaa (I'm not sure on the spelling) and she was amazing! It was so wierd because she talked SO fast even though she knew we are still learning the langauge and instead of us stressing out the spirit was so strong. I could understand the gist of what she was saying, just a couple words in each sentence but we were still able to talk with her. It was kind of a shock because I'm used to understanding 90% of what my teachers say and then I had to see that once I get there it's going to get really hard again. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how with His help we can do hard things (like learn Finnish). Finns are just the sweetest people and we just felt so much love for her and long story short we were able to have a 30 minutes discussion with a Finn! The Holy Ghost likes to make me cry so after we finished I started crying because I was just reminded that I'll be there soon talking to these amazing people. It was so cool because this could have easily been a really discouraging experience because there was ALOT I didn't understand when she talked with us but at the same time the spirit was so stong. I just felt like Heavenly Father was reminding me that I can do this with His help.

Not much else happened. We are so ready to go. We probably annoy our new roommate alot because we sometimes will say stuff in Finnish without really realizing it and we forget that not everyone here is learning our language. We try to SYL (speak your language) whenever we get the chance and that's not saying I'm any good but it's legit hard to pray in English now. I had to do it the other day and it was the most awkward thing of my life. One of the good things about all of the new missionaries is that we get to see just how far we've come. 

 I know this church is true and I love this gospel. I know Christ is my savior and I know that Heavenly Father loves me. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa aamen.

 

 

February 25, 2016

We met a real Finn!!! He got to the MTC last week and he's headed to the Ukraine, Russian speaking. He already knows like 4 languages and speaks English better than we do because Europeans are legit. Whenever we see him we always ambush him with questions and practice our Finnish, it's been sooooo fun and his accent is adorable. It makes me super motivated to be better at the language and it feels good being able to understand what he says most of the time. But we have no idea how to have a real conversation in Finnish that's not about the gospel. So every time we talk and he's being normal I just want to tell him about the first vision (which I have the first paragraph memorized in Finnish, go me!) 

 

So this week we got to hear from the Primary General President and that was a really good talk. I was in the choir again and we sang " A child's prayer" it brought back a lot of memories. They had a whole bunch of the MTC presidency's grand-kids come and sing the first verse, it was the cutest thing of my life. 

As of last Sunday I've been assigned to be the new Sister Training Leader for the district and basically what that means is that I go to meetings and interview the girls in our district to make sure everyone is doing okay. 

Our friends the Danes left Sunday night and people are always asking us when we are leaving. It's really fun. It doesn't help that we had our first skype lesson with real Finns today. We had TRC today and that just means that we teach a lesson to a member of the church to help us practice and today we skyped a real Finn (she spoke 5 languages because FINNS ARE LEGIT) and I want to be there NOW! As you can tell I have been blessed with so much patience. 

We have Danes that came yesterday (we hosted again too). We got two new Elders and a new Sister who's actually our new roommate as well. Her name is Sister Landeen and she's a solo sister which means she doesn't have a companion. And because she can't be alone Sister Carter and I are now a tri-panionship and we walk her to class and pick her up from things. She seems really sweet and it's a welcome change when everyday feels kind of the same. I'm really excited to get to know her. 

 

We get our travel plans next Friday!!! I cannot wait! I have loved my time here and I don't really understand the grammar but I feel like I'll learn a lot faster there. Apparently my branch leaders know the Watsons (my mission prez) personally because before they were called to Finland they worked at the MTC. I've heard nothing but great things about them and apparently they can't wait to meet us either! 

Fun Finnish facts:

The simplest way to say "to meet" is- tapaa (you just hold out the "a" sound longer)
The way to say "to kill" is - tapa  So if I'm not careful I might accidentally say "nice to kill you"
Isn't Finnish awesome? I think so.
Also the word for missionary is "lähetyssaarnaaja" it's actually really fun to say.
I don't know if that is one of them but a lot of the gospel words are Swedish because the gospel was introduced there first.
Also the word "husband" in Finnish is "aviiomeis" which literally translates to- marriage man. I don't know why but we all thought that was hilarious.

Life is good. I love being a lähetyssaarnaaja and I'm learning a lot. I have a testimony that the Lord knows each of us personally and loves us all individually. Coming on a mission has been the best decision I ever made and I can't wait to share the gospel. I love my Savior and I love His church. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa aamen. 

February 18, 2016

Terve!

I have made a decision. I have decided that in the future when I have kids, instead of putting them in the time out corner or grounding them I will make them learn a Finnish grammar rule whenever they upset me. I will have the most obedient kids in the world and they will be bilingual. Parenting goals. Also I plan on giving them weird Finnish names. I've heard that after being in the MTC for over 5 weeks you start to get really weird. I concur and my district and I are total spazzes. But that's okay I'm still having fun! 

Okay so here is the coolest thing EVER. Elder Rasband spoke at our Tuesday Devotional!!!!! Everyone has the option of singing in the MTC choir every week so technically I sang for an Apostle! We sang " Nearer my God, to thee" and it was so good. I can't even put into words how strong the spirit was. The MTC staff were being stinkers about telling us who was coming but they had alluded that an apostle was coming all week. I didn't see him walk into the room but I felt it, we all stood and the room was silent. I had never heard our group of on average 18-23 year old missionaries be so quiet in all of my time here. All of our speakers here have been amazing but you could just feel that his portion of the spirit was greater. When he spoke he referenced his talk that he gave in 2010 "The Divine Call of a Missionary". It had been handed out the previous week and we had been asked to study it in preparation for this devotional. If you have any questions on how missionaries are called to their respective missions, read this talk. If you don't you should read it anyways because it's so cool. I had a general idea but this cleared up any doubts that I had about the process. Elder Rasband didn't preach to us from the podium, he grabbed a microphone and walked through the crowd and asked our opinions on the talk and answered individuals questions. He made each person he talked to look him in the eye and then he would ask them, " Do you know that you were called to your mission by revelation?"   He went on to say that since being called an Apostle 4 months ago, assigning missions has been the hardest responsibility because he would ask Heavenly Father to know perfectly where each person would go. I really loved his talk and at the end of the discussion he returned to the podium to briefly bear his testimony and close the meeting and he said to " Never again doubt your mission." He also said that if we remember nothing else form his talk remember these words that " The leaders of the church are no strangers to the voice of the Lord." They know what they're doing and I know that one of the Apostles received revelation that I need to go to Helsinki, Finland. =) 

So here's a less awesome but still a really fun thing that happened yesterday. My district got to host! That means that instead of learning super fun Finnish grammar we went to a quick orientation and then were assigned to welcome new missionaries! We had to pick them up from the drop off area and then take them to get their name tags, take them to the bookstore, take them to the residence (and carry their luggage for them the whole time, I'm so buff now it's not even funny) and then take them to their classroom where they immediately start their first class. I hosted 3 girls and I was sooooo tired but it was a really fun day. Also the fake investigator we have been teaching- Timo finally committed to be baptized yesterday! I was so excited! I was just thinking that if I'm THIS happy from a fake investigator I can't even imagine how that feels out on the mission field when it's real life! It's been such a good week! 

Our bff's here, all the Danish sisters are leaving Sunday night for Denmark!!! We came in with them so it's way weird, also we had an awesome valentines party with them. We stayed up till 11 (so rebellious) and ate incredible amounts of chocolate. It was awesome but I probably have cavities. It has gotten kind of hard making friends and having them ALL leave before us. I appreciate the help with grammar but I guess I need to work on my patience. I want to be in Finland NOW! But yeah, patience would be good. 

Our teachers make us do these role plays in class where we each take turns pretending to be an investigator and they teach us. It's a super humbling experience because we get to hear how a lesson in perfect Finnish actually sounds. It's so cool! It's also cool to put ourselves in the shoes of the investigator for a change. Anyways, it was my turn to play the investigator yesterday and I totally messed up. Sisar Ross (one of our teachers) began by asking me how my day was and I responded "Hyvä, mutta täänän kuolema oli vaikea" which means "good, but today death was hard". I am such a loser, the whole class was cracking up for like 5 minutes. I meant to say "Hyvä mutta täänän koulu oli vaikea" which means " good, but today school was hard." YEAH the words for school (koulu) and death (kuolema) are very similar. Go figure. 

I had an awesome week and my testimony grows a little every day here! I have a testimony that this church is true. I believe in Apostles and a modern day Prophet that guides us today. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It's not a sacrifice, it's an opportunity to show God how much I love Him. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa aamen.