Monday, August 26, 2013

Terve Jyväskylästa!! (Hello from Jyväskylä!!)

(Before I get to the letter, Kathryn said that this is her address for the next 10 weeks.  You can ALWAYS send letters to the mission home, they will just take a few extra days:

Polkkakuja 5 C 27
40520 JYVÄSKYLÄFinland




Well I made it! I'm in Finland now!
Jyväskylä to be exact. I really wish I could see you all try to pronounce that word.  haha It kinda sounds like you vas coo la (In English). Its amazing here! And so beautiful! I feel bad for my friends in South America and Africa because my apartment is so nice! Everything looks like it came out of on Ikea magazine and its all white and clean and European and I really am spoiled. We have a sauna in our apartment! Everyone does! So yeah, life's good.

Okay so I'm in a threesome! Most of the sisters are because there are so many new sisters and not enough trainers! So its me, Sisar Dayton who was in my district in the MTC, and my trainer Sisar Ballif. We all are hilarious and laugh all the time. And everything is funnier in Finnish so that helps a lot.

Well, there are now 7 missionaries assigned to the same ward in Jyväskylä. 5 sisters and 3 Elders. Us three sisters are kinda in a new area so this week was hard because we have 0 investigators and have to start from scratch. W'eve just been working on setting up appointments and getting referrals because theres not much else we can do!

Well I got all of your emails and stuff, I just don't have much time to read them so I'll print them off and read them and respond to anything next week. The internet is surprisingly slow here for being such a European city.

Well this past week was crazy. I said all my goodbyes last Sunday and flew to Chicago and then London and then  Helsinki. Miraculously, every missionary arrived with all their luggage and easily got into the country so that was awesome! We then went to the Helsinki temple and hung out on the grounds. Its beautiful! We just sat there and tried to take in the fact that were in Finland now! Then we went to the mission home where about 20 of us slept that night. We had an interview with the mission president and as soon as I shook his hand he said Hold on a sec. And then he turned around and wrote down a city and then said I know where you're going. So that was super cool! He knew right where I should go without even talking to me! Not sure how leaders do it, but they're always right!

The food here is absolutely delicious. I'm easily going to gain weight here, no doubt. We had a lunch appointment and then a dinner appointment. Bad idea. Both places had wonderful food and the dinner appointment was originally for all 5 sisters in the area, but only us 3 went so we sure ate a lot! The member there also gave us Reeses. haha it was funny to see American candy even though I've only been here a week. Oh! The Chocolate! Finland has amazing chocolate! There are a billion different kinds! Ill be sure to send some home because they're wonderful! My favorite so far is pear with almond. Sounds super weird, but it is by far the best chocolate I've ever had in Europe or America.

Well the language is difficult of course. We had church in Finnish and I was able to understand the talk one of the missionaries gave because I'm used to slowed American Finnish but the other speakers went right over my head. We talk to the members a lot and when they realize we've been here less than a week they're so impressed that we can even have a basic conversation with them! Every single person I've talked to always say that I speak good Finnish (compared to most Americans I guess) for only being here a week so thats always a confidence booster. This is my trainers last transfer so she's really good at the language so we look to her in emergencies if we don't understand what's going on.

Well I'm sure I have more to write but I'm out of time! Ill try to include some pictures if I can though. Thanks for all the wonderful emails and letters of love and support! I'm so lucky! I loved talking to you all on Monday and special shout out to Uncle Lamar for showing up at the right time!

Well, this work is great and I learn more and more about how amazing God is with his timing and everything else that goes on in a mission!


Talk to y'all next week!

Sisar Crandall



Her first views of Finland



Sister Dayton and the Finland Temple


 Goodbyes at the MTC





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