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.