Kathryn's Tampere Address -- This is different than I initially gave you . . .
MuotiAlantie 72 A 4
Tampere 33800
Finland
Wow this week has seriously flown by! And I thought last week flew! But one thing I've learned is that time speeds up out here on a mission! We did a TON of work this week and there are so many miracles happening here in Tampere it's AMAZING! Multiple times this week I stopped and stared as Sisar Jones and I just looked at each other and thought "Is this real life?" "Did that really just happen?" AND I LOVE IT!! So Let's recap this week shall we?
Monday- Awesome Busy P-day full of meeting with a less active from Peru! So I got to use my Spanish!! She can understand Finnish pretty well, but struggles speaking it. So whenever she couldn't think of a word, she would just say it in Spanish and then I had to tell her the word in Finnish so she could learn. One of the hardest things I've had to do recently because all the languages get super mixed up in my brain, but it works! And then fast forward to Sunday, I had an entire conversation on the bus with a man from Cuba in Spanish! (He didn't speak English or Finnish) And I was able to tell him we were missionaries and give him a card! So TWO chances to use my very limited Spanish this week. After our lunch with the Less-active (she made us delicious Peruvian food by the way) We went to check out a cool church in the center So see the picture of that.
Tuesday- ZONE CONFERENCE So President and Sisar Watson came to Tampere! We had an awesome zone conference and some "Zone leadership counsel" meetings with all the zone leaders and district leaders and us :) Yep we're the only sisters in those meetings so that's kinda fun. Zone conference was awesome. It was the first one with President Watson so it was interesting to see how he does things differently than President Rawlings. We talked a lot about Hastening the Work in all aspects. Like working with members and investigators and referrals and less actives and recent converts and balancing it all out. And it went great!
Then we had exchanges! So from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening we had the Lahti sisters with us! I was with Sisar Rochette and Sisar Jones was with Sisar Curtis. And we rocked it! SIsar Rochette only came into the country 2 months ago, and she's AMAZING! She's really working hard and progressing way faster than I ever was at that age and it was really fun to get to know her better and learn from her and just teach together for at least a day. We went to a member's house to pick apples and had a blast and then hit some members and formers.
Thursday- MIRACLE DAY! Okay, let me tell you a little about our investigator named M. He's kinda been investigating the church on his own, but on Monday he called us up to meet and then again today! We gave him a church tour and taught him the whole Restoration and he agreed with it all! But then the real miracle came on Sunday. Well on Thursday we invited him to church and he said he was busy and couldn't come. WELL HE CAME! Sacrament meeting for our ward starts at 10 and he showed up at 11 just as it was getting out. Well we told him there was another ward at 14 and he said he'd come back then. AND HE CAME! But the real miracle came as he was talking to another member and M told him that he had prayed about the truthfulness of this church and after he finished his prayer, he couldn't stop smiling! Sisar Jones and I looked at each other like "Wait, did you just understand that in the same way I understood it?" And that's what he said! So yeah, he's awesome and is taking his time and working through some things and we'll just keep helping him the best we can! He said we could pray for him so any prayers on his behalf would be appreciated.
Friday- Mission Leadership Council! MLC IN HELSINKI! So last minute we got a text from the Assistants asking us to come down to Helsinki this Friday instead of next Friday. So we rearranged our schedule a little and work up at 545 to catch a train to Helsinki! I LOVE HELSINKI! Holy cow I missed that city so much. We were able to hit a Burger King (Okay I know that sounds really lame but BK is a really big deal here in Finland because the first one just opened in Finland in Helsinki and it's delicious) and we went to the temple!! The session was PACKED and for the first time I had to sit on the man side. The session was also in Russian so I had head phones on and it was fun to listen to some things in Finnish and then in English and just do whatever I felt like. Anyway, then we headed to the mission home in Espoo. IT'S HUGE! The mission home just moved so this was the first time I had been there and it's way cool! So we had a wonderful lunch there and I got to see Sisar Lund (my former companion) and some other sisters from my group. 5 or the 6 sister training leaders came in my group so we're all going home soon and they'll have to call a lot of new ones so that'll be cool to see what changes with that.
We talked a lot about being disciples of Jesus Christ and what that really means. It helped a lot and we're excited to implement it on exchanges with other sisters this week. Speaking of exchanges, we're with the other Turku sisters on Wednesday and then the other Tampere sisters on Friday. Sisar Jones and I are hardly together! Which is a bummer because we get along GREAT! We seriously just love and laugh all the time. Being her companion is so fun! She's a pro at talking with everyone and we had such miraculous experiences that make this week so fun! I just love her :)
Saturday - We had our Ward mission leader meeting and planned our next ward activity! It's kinda like the Music and the Spoken Word concert we did in Neitsytpolku, but it's all about the Restoration! And the ward immediately jumped on it and I'm super excited for that!
Sunday- Church! We taught Young Women's today! First time I've been in there in years... And I loved it! We taught all about keeping the Sabbath day holy and fasting. M came and then after church we met with our other investigator B. She's from Czech and is amazing and we're meeting again on Wednesday!
So yeah, it was an awesome week, just like every week is! We're super busy and we're having a blast being missionaries! I know some people read these letters who have their mission calls and I just want to tell you that the best stress reliever is following the spirit. Everything will work out. Being a missionary is FUN! So if you're stresses or worrying or not having fun, you're doing something wrong. I love you all so much! Well, We're off to a lesson with our investigator V So I'll let you know how it goes next week! Have a wonderful week and keep smiling!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Crandall
Pictures:
Burger King Shakes
Us at the temple
The sister training leaders at the temple with Sisar Watson
Trying "Musta Makkara" for the first time. Google it.
Me and Sisar Rochette
Sisar Jones and I at the church
No comments:
Post a Comment