First Week in Tampere!!

First Things First . . . Kathryn's New Address:

Sisar Kathryn Crandall

​Muotilantie 72 A 4

Tampere 33800

Finland

Hello everyone!!

Well this week was quite an adventure! I'm in TAMPERE!! It's awesome! So I woke up early Tuesdaymorning, went for our usual run, packed like crazy (Thank you Sisar Johnston for all your help). We visited and said good by to Sisar T and then had a lunch DA with some members so say good bye to them too. They're the ones that you all met on skype back in May. So they've been really good to me in Helsinki. Then we RAN home and grabbed my bag and RAN to the tram to get to the train station on time. The other sisters and elders as well as H and G were all there to say goodbye. Man, there are some amazing people down in the Neitsytpolku ward that it was kinda hard to say good bye. But now I'm off to a new adventure! I traveled to Tampere by myself (so weird) and just had some time to think and journal and doze off on this almost empty 2 hour train ride. 

So then Sisar Jones met me on the other side in Tampere and our jouney began! Let me tell you, this week has been so fun! Sisar Jones is amazing. She's from South Jordan, UT and came to Finland the same time I did. So she was in Neitsytpolku for 6 months and then here in Tampere for 6 months so she's a master. She's also been Sister Training Leader for the past 4 months so she's showing me all the ropes! A lot of what we do consists of going on exchanges with all the sister companionships in the zone twice a transfer, once in our city and once in their city. So that takes up a lot of time. This week we have the Turku sisters coming tonight and leaving Wednesday morning and then the Jyväskylä sisterscoming Thursday night and traveling to Helsinki with us on Friday for ELDER BEDNAR'S MISSON CONFERENCE! We are SO excited. We've been working really hard to prepare ourselves spiritually and our areas physically. We have 3 hours with just him and all the missionaries in Finland (the members aren't invited) so we'll see what spiritual feast he has for us! I can't wait to tell you all about it next week!

(Sisar Crandall and Sisar Jones)

Well besides our fun week coming up, this week has been FULL of miracles. Sisar Jones is a really good missionary who really talks to everyone about the gospel. So not that my fire for missionary work was ever gone, but it's sure burning even more now! We push each other and we've been reaping our works! This week we ended it with 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS and a BAPTISMAL DATE! Yay! And the baptismal date came from a new investigator we met on Tuesday and taught again on Saturday! This ward hasn't had a baptism in a while, but they're SUPER willing to help out and come on lessons so we'll just get everything rolling here! It also helps being Sister Training Leader because our area is supposed to be the model area and everyone knows it so it puts a bit more pressure on us, but it makes us remember to pray always and talk with everyone. 

They also gave me the opportunity to introduce myself and testify yesterday in church. And all the members are SO nice here! And there were even a couple of visitors from Neitsytpolku and Jyväskylä so it was really great seeing some old friends again. There are also 2 WARDS here in Tampere which is pretty rare in Finland. So there are 4 missionaries in each ward and the work is going great!

Okay, back to the miracles. Well we met our investigator J on Tuesday at a bus stop and it turns out that missionaries gave him a book of Mormon years ago and he just hadn't read it yet! But we had a lesson at the church on Saturday with 2 members and they just shared all about how the Gift of the Holy Ghost has been a blessing in their lives and how we can only receive this gift after baptism so when we invited him, he accepted! And early that week, Sisar Jones and I prayed to know when our next baptism could be in this ward with the Lord's help. We came up with October 11th and that's the date he accepted! Miracles happen! 

Sisar Jones and I also had some crazy cool/hard experiences this week. They were super cool because we met an awesome man on the street and then an awesome woman at the door who was a former investigator. In both conversations the spirit was SO STRONG. Seriously one of the strongest feelings I've ever had. And we testified all about prayer and God's love and the woman ended up bawling and hugging us. Now I say they were hard because then both of these people said "no thanks, I'm not interested" and we kept testifying and trying to help them recognize the truth of what they were feeling, but they just weren't ready for it at this time. So that was definitely a learning experience that we can do ALL in our power, but it still doesn't take away their agency. But this week was a very successful one for us :)

Well I'm running out of time, but I love you all! I'm SO excited to be here in Tampere and I'll have a lot more to update you on next week! This week was a lot of meeting people and finding so I'm super grateful for that! I hope you all have a great week and keep being awesome member missionaries! 

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Crandall