Yep! Transfers came this week and I'm leaving Helsinki!! President Watson called Saturday morning to tell me that I'm off to Tampere to be the Sister Training Leader up there with Sisar Jones!! Pretty big news!
So this week has seriously been a rollercoaster! We've been super busy (which is always good for a missionary) and I don't even know where to start! So here are some major things that happened this week:
-I saw Uncle Kevin! So I'm just walking with Sisar S (the reactivated one) And Sisar Johnston to church and then we walk down the hall to go take a picture because it's my last Sunday and then I come back into the chapel and see Elder Downs talking to a man (in English). So I'm like "Oh, who's the English speaker?" And then after staring at him for a long time trying to wrap my mind around it I convinced myself that it IS Uncle Kevin! So I'm super shocked and I totally go up and give him a hug and then he said "Here's a hug from your mom" and then I kinda teared up a little... but in a good way! It was SO good to see a familiar face. And it was a PERFECT way to spend my last Sunday here in Helsinki! Just basically a tender mercy that reminded me that the Lord is always there and sends me constant reminders of his love. So thanks Mom and Uncle Kevin and President Watson for working that one out. It was way cool.
-We also had fast and testimony meeting yesterday because of Stake Conference next weekend so I was able to bear my testimony and thank the ward for everything. This is a REALLY hard place to leave. I didn't think anything could live up to Jyväskylä, but I guess you just fall in love with the people, ward, and city no matter where you are. Life of a missionary! But this ward really is AMAZING! I had to take a million pictures with everyone I wanted to say goodbye to and still a lot of goodbyes tonight, but I'm so excited to head out into this new phase of my mission! And I'm really grateful to the Lord for giving me this chance to serve with some other sisters and learn from them. I think it'll really help my focus and finnish strong :)
-We worked a lot with the Less Actives and recent converts again this week. Sisar T is doing well and I get to go say goodbye to her tomorrow morning. (I catch a train at 13) I'm seeing H and A tonight for one last FHE. We've also been working a lot with the N family. She's a single mom with 6 kids under the age of 14. The dad isn't a member and won't let the kids be baptized and it's really difficult to drag all 6 kids to church so a lot of times they just don't come. And recently we've been trying to just do ANYTHING to invite the spirit into their home and help them to stop fighting. So Sisar Johnston and I have been pretty creative to just help this family have a whole family home evening together without any fighting or yelling or cussing. So we went over Sunday afternoon for me to say goodbye and to have an FHE with them. And we played with NERF guns! Sisar Johnston made this cool board with numbers all over it and whatever number you hit, you had to say that number of things that you were grateful for. It started off kinda rocky with the kids not really wanting to participate (I think one boy said he was grateful for his bed like 6 times) But then something changed! And by the end of it, the kids were listing hundreds of things they were grateful for! And every kid at one point said they were grateful for their mom and I know that was something she hadn't heard in a long time, maybe never. And by the end she was crying and it was just really cool to actually physically SEE the difference the gospel makes in family life.
That's something else I've realized this week. The families or members or have daily scripture study, daily prayer, family home evening weekly, and come to church are just in general happier than the ones that don't. Of course we all have challenges either way, but the influence of the Spirit sure helps with that! Also, Visiting Teaching. I have a huge rant about it, but the Elders just had an awesome reactivation because of a solid Home Teacher so yes, it really does make a difference and it really is missionary work so keep that up as well.
Our investigator I is doing good. We met with him yesterday and H came with us and we were able to cover almost the whole Plan of Salvation without too many problems so that's good!
Well I currently have a million thoughts running through my head and a thousand experiences I want to tell you all about, but there's just no time! So I'll send some pictures of the dear members here and the rest is in my journal for later :)
I love you all! Keep up the amazing work and thank you for everything!
Sisar Crandall
Girls night with the sisars . . . uuuuuh, We're getting split up, and Hanging in Helsinki
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