Rakkaat family and friends,
For those of you who don't have Google translate, the subject line says "One year in Finland" Yep. One year ago this week I arrived in this BEAUTIFUL land. And man, what a crazy year it's been! I could spend DAYS telling you all about Finland, but maybe I'll just tell you about my week :)
It started on Monday with a dinner with the senior missionaries (They love to feed us) and then an FHE with the American family, The Andersens, and our recent convert H. It was way fun! We had a "fish" themed FHE and then ate rice krispy treats. They were DELICIOUS! One of the best things I've had in Finland because they tasted to American!! I miss marshmallows... But that's not the point! We talked a lot about enduring to the end and how we need to keep progressing our whole life and not fall back into old habits or routines. We read about Jesus' disciples and after Jesus left them and it was their job to run the church, they went back to fishing because that was their old job and that's what they knew how to do! So even though they had been with the Savior for three years, they still fell back into their old routine when there wasn't any more guidance. (And then they all went on missions, but that's beside the point) I guess what I'm trying to say is that one never gets too high up in the church or "too converted" to the gospel that they need to stop actively trying to be better and learn more. Pretty good lesson for us as well as H.
We've been focusing a LOT of service again this week. It's basically what we do if there are no investigators to teach. And the more I've been praying and looking for opportunities to serve, the more they pop up! Who would've thought! We were able to heart attack some members in the ward who really deserved our thanks and deliver cookies and sing to lots of people and clean lots of houses and windows and just go around doing good. And even though we weren't "teaching" as you might say, it's been some of the best missionary experiences.
But our teaching did go up this week as well! We found 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS! Yay! One is a woman Sisar Johnston talked to on the tram and we set up a time to give her a Book of Mormon and a church tour and we're super excited for her! and the other one was a MIRACLE! One of the biggest ones I've had on my mission. I think I used to be pretty dumb and blind sometimes to all the blessings of the Lord because they've been pretty obvious recently! Here's his story:
So we're walking through the train station to get some new bus and tram schedules (It's fall now so all the schedules changed) They we run into this man who kinda looks at our name tags like 4 times (pretty normal thing for us actually) and then stops us and says "Hey! I've talked to some of your brothers before! I met with them a lot but then I lost my phone and we lost contact! I want to meet with you two!" So it turns out he met with an Elder Ingersoll over a year ago here in Neitsytpolku (Elders lived in our apartment before last summer). So we were able to meet with him TWICE this week! We gave him a church tour and another Book of Mormon on Friday with H and it went great! He agreed to be baptized when we received his answer, but didn't want to set a date so we're working on that. He's SO willing to learn and read and already asked us to suggest good chapters and we're meeting with him lots this week as well so I'll keep you updated on that! His name is I.
We've also been focusing a TON on the Less-actives. And guess what?!! It's working! Hehe not that I ever doubted it would, but it's nice to see some results. S CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN! That's TWO weeks in a row! She's solid! She's an older lady and when we told a man in the ward who has been her home teacher for YEARS that she was at church (apparently they didn't see each other yesterday and he was out of town last week) he FREAKED out! He didn't believe us! He said they've talked about coming back to church 500 times and she's never came! And he was so happy that he hugged us! haha so that was super cool to see his excitement!
We just started meeting a lot with Sisar F. She's from Russia and speaks ok English and not a lot of Finnish even though she's married to a Finn so there's a little of a language barrier. But we went over and got to know her and she warmed up to us instantly! A lot of the other missionaries who have met with her told us she's sometimes "cold" just because she's an older Russian lady, but she LOVED Sisar Johnston. Sisar Johnston really does have a way of connecting with people. It makes them like her instantly and it helps so much in missionary work! So we get to go back to her again this week and we're super excited!
We also get to start teaching a less-active 7-year-old boy because his mom wants him to be able to get baptized in a couple months when he's 8. We have a lesson with them today and we sure had fun brainstorming fun games for that one!
Other than that we're just focusing on our ward activity "Music and the Spoken Word" Sisar Johnston and I are involved in 3 songs with some other people singing with us and one of them just being us two. It's cool to see the ward come together and have something to invite their friends too.
Well this week went pretty well! Nothing at all like we planned, but everything we needed! Love it how it always works out. This week we do have some awesome plans as well! We're going to the zoo! SOO EXCITED! We're also going to the temple this week! G's temple date from last Friday got switched to this Thursday so you'll have to wait til next week for that update!
But I love you all so much! I seriously feel so many prayers and so much love every week and I'm so grateful for it! Thank you all! I'm super excited to finnish this transfer strong! and in case anyone is every wondering, I LOVE being a missionary :) Hope you all have a great week!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Crandall
Hanging out at Munkkiniemi beach!
Me eating Sushi!
Birthday with G.
Us and H in the rain
Sisar johnston and I coming home SOAKED (Ok it rained a lot this week and it's raining right now too...)
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