Hello family and friends! Not a lot of time today, I'll explain why later, and I'm also on an Ipad with an American key board and I just got used to the Finnish ones and now my typing is all off so sorry is this letter is all over the place and full of errors.
Anyway, this week was great! That's of cool things going on so here they are in no particular order:
-This month's issue of the Liahona has an article about Finland! So everyone go read it right now! The opening paragraph is about Suomenlinna which is in my area! It's the fortress I talked about maybe 2 weeks ago and sent pictures home about so that was cool to read about that.
-This weekend is general conference! I'm super excited! We have some awesome less-actives and investigators and potentials lined up to come with us! We get to watch it in Haaga broadcasted in Finnish, but the missionaries get to watch it in English because there are so many foreigners here that it's broadcasted in both languages. So I've been focusing on writing down questions about what I'm struggling with and my investigators are dealing with too. So I challenge you to do the same thing. Somehow questions always get answered no matter what the talk subject is about. Funny how that works huh?
-So last week I got a letter from the lady who was re-activated in Jyvaskyla. She gave me the name and number of her daughter who lives down here right by us! So we called her up and she invited us over for dinner tonight! So I'm super excited to go over there and get to know her! Her mom also wrote me and said that she hoped I could share the gospel with her (she's a non-member) So I'll letcha know how that goes!
-So my dear companion Sisar Curtis got picked to do a TV special on missionaries for this TV program called YLE. The majority of Finns don't even know that sister missionaries exist even though they've seen elders all the time. So Sisar Curtis and Sisar Nabatnikova (another sister missionary from Russia) Did a tv special where a reporter followed them around all day Thursday. So that means that I was on splits with Sister Ladd! We had fun getting to know each other and teaching lots of less-actives. I like working with other sisters a lot because I'm able to learn from them, without actually being their companion haha so that's pretty cool!
(Sisar Ladd and I)
-On Friday we went over to our investigators house to help her clean and when we got there she said "Today's a beautiful day! let's go explore Finland!" uhh okay! So she wanted to drive us up to Porvoo, which is not in our area, but then we convinced her to go to Seurasaari and then the temple! Seurasaari is this island in our area that is basically an outdoor museum. the whole island. You park your car and then walk across the bridge and you're in the museum! It's pretty cool actually, they took all these cool old buildings and historical things from all over Finland and brought them into one place! So now we can just walk around and see all these sights from all over and it's way cool. Then, afterwards we went to the temple! We walked around and taught her all about it and why it's important to us so that was really special and fun and I know she's able to feel the spirit on the temple grounds so I'm glad we could give her that experience.
(Cool windmill)
(With Sisar Curtis at an old telephone booth at the museum)
-On Saturday we visited a sister in our ward who is a cat lady who also hoards. (mom, you would die.) It's pretty impossible to move in her house, but she's a less active and LOVES us coming over. So we went and basically out goal is to just take a bag of trash away with us each time and so far, it's working! So yeah, lots of funny adventures happen there. And also, she speaks Finnish, Swedish and English and switches between all three whenever and doesn't realize it. And then she gets mad at us if we don't understand... So yeah, I've learned a couple more swedish words and also learned to just smile and nod.
-Well yesterday we got a call from the other sisters that one of them was sick, but they needed to go to church with their investigators. Soo we went on splits and I ended up staying home with the sick sister and doing area book work. I was super bummed I missed church, but I was surprisingly productive so I guess it all works out in the end.
- This week is Interim! So basically all the newbie missionaries who have only been in the country 6 weeks come to Helsinki to meet with president for training. So we have 2 sisters living with us this week and we get to go on all sorts of splits all week! Sister Schellenberg (who came in my group) and her companion Sister Owen and with us and we're having lots of fun! So yeah, meeting other missionaries is awesome.
Well, this week was our fasting week and we were specifically praying and fasting that we would know how to work with all the less actives we have. There are literally 50+ names on our ward list JUST IN OUR AREA that no one knows anything about... and the other 3 companionships have the same. So yeah, we've got our work cut out for us. Well this week we were able to contact a LOT of less actives and actually sit down and teach 7! That was our goal! So yeah, things in this area are definitely looking up! Im super excited to help them progress and learn and get back to their state of conversion that they were once in.
So that's basically my week! Lots of awesome things set up and pretty cool goals reached last week! Sisar Curtis and I set the goal to teach 37 lessons last week ( I think the most I've ever taught on my mission in one week was 23) So we set our weekly goals and then adjusted our daily goals each day to help us reach it. Well, we ended Sunday night with 38 LESSONS! Yep, pretty miraculous if you ask me! And this week, since we have the help of 2 more sisters, we have the goal to teach 50! So I'll letcha know how that goes too!
The work is sure moving forward fast and we as missionaries just love trying to keep up with it! I love you all so much and I hope you have a most wonderful conference this week! (And A Happy April Fool's Day tomorrow)
Sisar Crandall
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