Documenting the First 2 weeks

Kathryn's companion . . . Sister Howell

Traveling to the Finnish Consulate . . .

And the rest of her fun pictures . . .

Happy July 4th!

Terve!!

Hello there! Well I've now been here at the mtc for two whole weeks and the time is sure flying by! Here's how everything is going,

Finnish, I read outloud from the Book of Mormon all the time, but i have no idea what im saying and all of you would probably laugh if you heard me because it just sounds like jibberish! But finns do roll their Rs so spanish helped with that. ive got most of the pronunciation down, but sometimes i have to say words really slow (Especially when theyre 20+ letters long like the word P day, valmistautumispäivä) I have no idea what im saying half the time but its coming along great! I absolutely love my teachers. Theyre both RMs from Finland and are sooo extremely patient with a district of all girls. Im just impressed how many questions they answer from me like no big deal because theyre that nice! I also got about 15lbs of grammar and finnish material (no joke, we weighed it) and we kinda laugh at the spanish missionaries who think their preach my gospel and dictionary is spanish weigh a lot. Not sure how im fitting these all in my suitcase but ill sure need them! We had a SYL (Speak your language) day all day yesterday and it was tough, but i was surprised how many words i knew in finnish once i was forced to say them! So yeah, were doing that every wednesday now and im really excited to be progressing at this alarming fast rate! Dont get me wrong, its extremely difficult and i have to pray waaayyy more often and waaaayyy harder than usual but its gettin there!

MTC, Well the MTC is going good! The food is pretty gross actually but I got a bunch of healthy snacks from my wonderful mother that will definitely last me the remaining 7 weeks! Which is a good thing because the food here and lack of fruits and vegetables has made me pretty sick and tired but I've gotten over it now. There's no options like at the other MTC so instead of it being just cafeteria food, its now cafeteria food with one option 3 times a day or else you go hungry. so yeah, I'm not complaining though! I'm alive and well!

Oh so another cool thing is my badge! Were the only country and language that has to have Jesus Christ on 2 lines because its so long! So here's what it says,

Sisar Crandall

Myöhempien Aikojen Pyhien

Jeesuksen

Kristuksen

Kirkko

I just love putting it on everyday and wearing it around all proud! And we actually get to go off MTC campus on P day so we do actually get to be around non missionaries and then it's even cooler to be wearing this badge!

So some funny stories. A lot of Finnish words sounds alike and sometimes the literally difference is one A at the end instead of 2 As so its pretty hard to distinguish. So, a girl in my district mixed up the word for personages with the word for carrots and then the word for vision, naky, with the word for sausage, nakki. So, she proceded to tell her investigator that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were two heavenly carrots who visited Joseph Smith in The First Sausage. Yeah we laughed pretty hard about that one. Then, another girl in my district mixed up the word for God, Jumala, with the word for ice cream, Jäätelö. So one day when there was no ice cream in the cafeteria, she told the entire MTC that there was no God! Ei Jumala! So that one got us laughing too. Fortunately, I havent had any too embarrassing mix ups (That I know of)

Well this week I went to the MTC devotional and ran into all my old friends at the Main MTC! I saw Elder Hakes, Hermana Pearson, Elder Tanner Smith, Elder Willis (A bunch of wardies) and it was awesome! As much as I love them im really glad im at this MTC so I'm not distracted and can just focus on my Finnish!

Speaking of, I decided that there was a reason I was sent to finland (obviously) but i didn't think I'd figure it out this early! So what i realized is that I'm a very prideful and stubborn person who likes to rely on herself. So, the lord got my mission papers and knew that the only thing big enough to make me humble myself was the hardest language in the world! We've taught about 5 lessons in finnish and only 1 in english but I have the spirit so much more in the finnish one because I have to solely rely on it! I cant keep talking or anything to make up for it i just have to sit there and struggle to bear my testimony and i must say, its great! I've learned a lot and it makes my english lessons sooo much better because I know how to teach with the spirit now!

On another random side note, mom, rememeber that watch we bought, well this week I found out it glows in the dark. haha the little things mean a lot when youre on a mission!

So  yeah, life is good! Thanks so much for all the letters and Dear Elders! (If you don't know how to dear elder, just ask my mom. It's way easier and free and I get them daily instead of just on p day or something) I feel everyone's love and support and I'm just excited for everything that's going on! Keep me updated on life and I'd love to hear from you all!

Nahdann!

Sisar Crandall

The First E-Mail! June 27, 2013

Hello there!

Well today is my first P-day!! Yes P-days are on Thursday and it's a great middle of the week break. I've been here for more than a week and have already been a host for some of the new sister missionaries here so it seems like I've been here forever! So I am at MTC West campus. We live at Wyview and have our classes at Raintree. We eat in a make shift cafeteria that used to be the Raintree pool house and our food is shipped over from the main MTC campus. Our basic daily schedule goes like this: We have to be up by 6:30 at the latest. Breakfast starts at 6:45. We can be late to it, but we have to be in our classrooms at 7:15. Then we have class for 3 hours with our teacher. We have two teachers who are RMs from Finland. Their names our Veli Arnesen and Veli Stewart. I love them so much! They're so patient and kind which is really needed when we're learning Finnish. Our district is an all girl district! Yep they no longer have enough elders for all the sisters! There are 2 finnish districts. Mine has 6 sisters and the other one has 6 sisters and 3 elders. So yeah it's a pretty big deal to have 15 missionaries going to Finland together. Okay so after our 3 hours of class we have language study with our companion and then additional study to study whatever we want. Lunch is then at 11:20 until about noon. Then more class! We have another 3 hours of class with whatever teacher wasn't there in the morning and let me tell you, we need it. Dinner is then at 4:20 (Super early I know) and I always end up taking some food to go to eat later at my apartment. We then usually have gym time after dinner and I've been ballin it up with the Chilean Elders. Okay funny story, on the first Gym time we got, Sisar Schellenberg and I played with the elders and I totally made this sweet hook shot over Elder Mundell and it was great. So now we all joke that the Lord is blessing my basketball skills as well as my language skills. Well after gym time is TALL (Teaching assistant language learning - I made that up, but it's something like that). It's just a computer program that teaches us vocab words and how to pronounce them and it helps a lot because we can record ourselves and then just listen to how close we are to the native speaker (usually not very close). After TALL we have additional study time and language study until 9:30 when it's personal time. That's when I can read letters and journal and get ready for bed. Then it's lights out at 10:30 and I do it all again the next day! So yeah i'm super exhausted and fall asleep very quick and I love it! Oh I also don't get a temple walk because we're at West Campus and I'm super bummed about it (actually really really sad) but i'll get over it. We do get to go to Brigham's Landing (shopping center) if we want to on p days and we can get jamba or any random food we want there.

Okay so my companion's name is Sisar Howell. She's from Bluffdale, UT and has done 2 years at BYU. We're very similar and get along great! We have companionship inventory where we can talk about our problems and just kinda sit there and laugh because we don't have any! The other 4 sisaret in our district are great too! I just love them all.

So Finnish. Yes it's true what they say, it is a VERY difficuly language. But somehow, I'm doing surprisingly well. We (My companion and I) have taught 3 (Yes, THREE) lessons all completely in Finnish. It's a struggle, but eventually we can get our point accross to our investigator. One thing that's good about Finnish is that every letter is always pronounced and there's only one sound for each letter. So as soon as you memorize them, you can pronouce anything. However, there are also double consonants and double vowels in every word that always messes me up. Like sometimes a word with end in "soon" and I'll pronounce is like the English word "soon", but it's pronounced like the English word "son" because one "o" sounds the same as two "o"s, it's just held out longer. Oh also there are no propositions and it gets really annoying. words like to, from, about, toward, for, in, and THE don't exist! So my sentences are very choppy and it's starting to affect my english when a randomly just say "Church is true" without the word "the" or anything. So yes, Spencer, it looks like we'll both we struggling in that area. My Spanish also will randomly come out and people look at me weird when they know I'm going to Finland and keep saying Gracias instead of Kiitos. But oh well, I really am doing fine in the language and I'm not too stressed about it or anything.

Okay sorry this is a long email, but I've gotta tell you about my first week!

Wednesday: I got checked in and went to orientation. We learned some basic MTC rules but this campus is way more chill than main and everything's more fun. The food isn't very good and there aren't any options (No salad bar mom!) And we just kinda eat what we're given. I've had cereal every day for breakfast, but don't worry I always have a muffin, orange juice, and an apple with it or something. So that was basically my whole day, just unpacking and getting settled! I also met my zone. I'm with the Estonians, Albanians, Hungarians, and of course the FINNS! We all have a blast with our crazy languages together!

Thursday: Not much new happened today. we got our classrooms all set up and found out our teachers will only speak finnish unless they're not able to act something out (Camille & Ashley. the very little sign language i've learned from switched at birth has actually came in handy!)

 Friday: We taught our first lesson today and could used finnish phrases that we had written down, but the pronounciation was killer. It's gotten much better since then.

Saturday: We had to teach another lesson to our investigator Esko and could only use a couple finnish vocab words we had written down and our english outline, but no phrases.

Sunday: We got to go to Church and RS and sacrament meeting and it was great! It was a definite needed break from Finnish (My brain literally hurts at the end of each day) Then in the afternoon we went to the Worldwide Leadership Broadcast entitled "The work of salvation" at the marriott center. It was great! I strongly encourage everyone to go look it up online right now. And shout out to my good friend Chris Ludlow for saying the opening prayer! He sat right in front and has Elder Holland talk right to him and it was great! I saw lot of friends there and it was just awesome :)

Monday: Well on this day I was in class and apparently stood up too fast to right something on the board beacause next thing I know I was on the floor. Yep super embarrassing but I passed out. I felt so bad for our teacher because he already puts up with 6 girls in one class for hours a day and now I had to pass out while he was there! The medical people came and I was fine but the still made me travel to main campus and go to the doctor. The doctor said my blood pressure was low and I need to eat more protein and salty foods. However, that's kinda a problem because we don't have the option of food main campus does so he said he'd work on that so hopefully the good will get better soon!

Tuesday: This day was awesome! 5 sisters and 3 elders going to Finland got to fly to LA to meet with the consulate to get our visa! (Everyone else went on Wednesday) We left the MTC around 5 am and for home around 9 so it was a very long day but it was so fun and another needed break from Finnish. We just landed in La, was picked up bu a driver, taken to the consulate, signed a paper and gave them out fingerprints, ate some Rubios and Johnny Rockets (Life is rough I know) and flew home! (all totally paid for by the church btw) so that was cool!

Wednesday: Only my and Sisar Dayton were in my district today so we got lots of time with our teacher and it was awesome. I feel very confident about my Finnish now and even taught a lesson with no finnish notes! It was great!

Thursday: Today I got to go to the temple, but after this it's closing for 6 weeks so hopefully I can go again at the end of my MTC experience. I loved it and saw Hermana Pearson there and almost cried!

So I just wanna say thanks for all the many letters of love and support I've received! Shout out to the Beechers for the cinnamon rolls, my district absolutely loved them! And also Shout out to the Winklers for the Krispy Kremes! They were so good and of course I shared but everyone was still super jealous. I've gotten a lot of letters and I can just feel everyone supporting me! I love you all and I can't wait to write next week!

Kirkko on totta!

Sisar Crandallt

Entering the MTC

The morning of June 19th, Kathryn was excited to enter the MTC and actually made everything fit!

We took a few pictures at the temple that morning.  She was happy and anticipating her time to enter the MTC.

And finally, we dropped her off . . .  No tears.

We got her first letter that Saturday.  She sounded so happy and excited to already be teaching the first lesson in Finnish.  She flies to Los Angeles on Tuesday to meet with the Finnish Consulate to get her visa approved.   Her P-days are on Thursdays, so e-mail her accordingly. (kathryn.crandall@myldsmail.net)  From now on I'll mostly just be reposting her emails (once she can reach a computer).  Send prayers . . . love you Kathryn!

Here I go!

Well, today I got set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I will be serving a mission in Helsinki, Finland for the next 18 months. I will be in the Provo MTC until August 20th learning Finnish, and then I will fly to Helsinki and start serving! I am so extremely excited for this opportunity and I can't thank my friends and family enough for all of their support! If you would like email updates of my mission, email my mom at patricec@cox.net and she'll gladly add you to the list! I love you all!! The church is true! See y'all next Christmas!

Life Lately

Life lately has been crazy and has consisted of friends, school, and of course FINNISH!
So, here's what I've been up to:

Sledding with some friends!

Roller Skating date with the Roomies

My 6 Valentines <333

BYU Basketball games! Go cougars!!

And of course, dropping my best friend off at the MTC!! I got my first letter from her today and I couldn't be more proud!! Love you Hermana Evans!!

Called to Serve

It's here!!!!!

Sister Crandall,
You are hereby called as a Missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Finland Helsinki Mission.

Yes folks, this really happened. I was shaking before I opened it and I'm still shaking a couple days later just from the thought.

I will be speaking the Finnish language. Which, of course, is the hardest language to learn. Literally. Ever. On the entire planet. Well at least that's what I've heard. And this is seriously the scariest part of the entire experience. I type in simple words into Google Translate everyday and then stare in awe at the fact that I'm supposed to (and eventually will) be able to understand that.

And of course I already feel like I know everything there is to know about Finland just from reading blogs and talking to people/former missionaries, but if anyone knows ANYTHING, seriously anything, that would help me, let me know!! I'd love to talk/hear experiences!
Here's a great Finnish blog my sister showed me:
http://ourfinnishmission.blogspot.com/

And here's a list of sister missionary blogs that I read for fun/advice:
http://hermana-alvarado.tumblr.com/post/40750747538/sister-missionary-blogs

Well, I would just like to thank all of my family, friends, bishops, leaders, and EVERYONE for being such a great support for me and at my opening and just through this entire process!

Guys, this is crazy. Just from some of my best friends/family from high school/college, the gospel is being spread to Chile, Korea, Sierra Leone, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Italy, Argentina, Philippines, Paraguay, Japan, Ukraine, Columbia, Brazil, and of course FINLAND!

In the words of my roommate Caroline, "The Church is TRUE!" I can't wait to serve!!