Winter's Here!

Hey family and friends!!

Well, this week sure has been one of change and learning!

It started off Monday with me buying some winter boots. I didn't really think I'd need them for a while but there was a sale and I wanted to get them sooner rather than later. Well, I NEEDED THEM! It snowed this week! And all of the Finns were warning us that talvi tulee (winter will come) but I didn't really understand until now. It snowed a bunch and then quickly turned into ice so I was really grateful for some good boots. I also had to break out my winter coat this week, but I got pretty toastly in it pretty fast. So I was plenty warm, don't worry. Then, Finland likes to do this thing where they put rocks all over the sidewalk because they have something against salt. So now there is a weird mixture of rocks and ice and slush and snow all over the sidewalks that makes it pretty hard to exercise in the mornings, let alone walk to the bus stop, but we still go running everyday! I wonder how long that will last, but it sure helps wake you up when it's still pitch black outside. I'm glad I have companions who make me get outside. The whole day just starts off right when we do.

Well, then on Tuesday we went to Turku! We had exchanges there and I went out with Sisar Kunz. She's out Sister Training Leader (Sister Zone Leader) and it was way fun. We even went and visited a former investigator from Mexico and got to use some of my spanish! My oh my I've forgotten a lot of it... I had to struggle for like 10 minutes just to invite her to church! But she thoroughly enjoyed me saying a couple sentences in Spanish. (The rest of the conversation was in Finnish). So that was fun!

Then, on Wednesday we had our non-member neighbor invite us to go see this old church in Jyväskylä so we went! It's closed in the winter, but the grounds and the cemetary around it are open so we went and visited it and it was very cool. Attached are some pictures. On the day we went, it was still fall and nice and sunny and beautiful. The pictures of the snow are from Thursday, so it literally became winter overnight! 

Thursday we had district meeting and it was Elder Anderson's birthday so we celebrated with some very American 7 layer dip that was delicious. It's the little things that make us missionaries happy.

Well, the language is still improving daily! I sometimes have a hard time switching from Finnish to English though. Like this week someone asked me "Oletko sinä greenie" (Are you a greenie?) And I was like uhhh  mitä? what? And it just didn't register in my mind that the word greenie was in english and I didn't understand at all... And then later at the store, Sisar Ballif said they bought a suklaamufinni And I was sooo confused because I knew the word suklaa meant chocolate (you learn that word pretty fast here) but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what mufinni meant. (Yeah, it means muffin.) So maybe I just make this language harded for myself, but we laugh at it all the time and it's great!

The rest of the week involved tutoring and decorating and cleaning up for a wedding that was held at the church and overall, it was a great week!I also got Camille and Mom's and Dad's letters this week! Thank you so much! And I got a bunch of pictures of Camille and Hyrum and I loved them! Keep them coming! 

This week I've really learned that the Book of Mormon can truly change people. We had another missionary in our ward come home from her mission in Temple Square and she gave an amazing talk about it. I love hearing these type of stories because I experience them first hand! I see people completely turn their lives around because they know this gospel is worth it. So just remember, you're never too busy for the gospel. Make a priority of scripture study and family prayer and missionary work. The blessings will be repaid far more than you can ever imagine!

I hope all is well wherever in the world you may be! I'm praying for you all and I appreciate your love and support! Stay happy, healthy, and warm and I will too!

Rakkaudella,
Sisar Crandall

P.S. I forgot to mention that this week was transfers and nothing happened in my companionship so im for sure in jyväskylä until at least Nov. 21st when my trainer goes home. I'll letcha know as soon as something changes! But for now my same polkkakuja address should be fine! 

K love you all!