Last Change Call . . .

Hello family and friends!

Well this week we got our change calls. My last one... That was a pretty weird feeling. And you're all going to have to read the whole letter to find out what happened :) Well it all started on Friday when we didn't get a call from President. They've come on Saturday before, so we didn't think anything of it, but when it was late in Saturday afternoon and other people had already received ours, we thought something might be wrong. Also, other missionaries knew OUR changes before we did! So we called the APs and they talked to President and he had totally forgotten about us... Good thing we called! So President ended up calling us Saturday night and apologized (He has so much to do it really wasn't a big deal) So then we found out that I'm staying in Tampere!! That's what we expected. And Sisar Jones is off to Vaasa!! It's way up in the North of Finland and they speak quite a bit of Swedish there so that'll be fun :) And Sisar Dixon is coming to be my new companion. We were in the same ward and district back in Jyväskylä last January and February so we already know each other pretty well. We're still the Sister Training Leaders here and we're going down to Helsinki on Friday (on Halloween) to go to the temple and meet with President so that'll be fun! There are 4 sisters here in Tampere (2 in each ward) and all 3 except for me are leaving so I just became the one who knows the city the best and I actually don't know it at all... So this'll be fun! Tomorrow I'm in charge of sending off 3 sisters and all their luggage at the train station and then picking the 3 new ones up and taking them and all their stuff to their apartments. So it'll be busy, but luckily we were able to borrow the car from the Elders so it' shouldn't be too bad. 

But besides that, Here's what happened this week!

Monday we taught the fhe ysa lesson and then had a lesson with our new investigator! His name is L and he's from Zambia. We taught all about the book of mormon and prayer and I think we really got it. He even said "I've been to a lot of churches, but doesn't there have to be one church that has the whole package? I feel like I'm missing something." Yep! We've got it! So we met with him twice this week and his only problem is that he thinks he's busy, but we'll keep meeting whenever he can and helping him progress! 

Wednesday was our Relief Society activity and it was all about First Aid! They came and taught us a bunch of emergency procedures and the number for 911 (it's not 911 here in Finland just so everyone knows) And this information would've bees useful about 14 months ago... but oh well! It was really fun to see the Members having fun and practicing all the emergency procedures and just enjoying themselves. Finland needs a little more of that...

We also picked up a former instigator A. She's a Finn who met with sister about a year ago. SHe told us that she missed the Holy Ghost in her life and she knew that when she was meeting with the sisters a couple times a week and reading the Book of Mormon that she had that Holy Ghost feeling with her almost always. and she wants it back! We watched "Because of Him" And she said she got that feeling again immediately. She's so in tune with the spirit and I'm super excited to go teach her this week!

Sorry I know a lot happened, but I can't remember any of it...

This week we have Mission Leadership Council in Helsinki like I said and then we're racing back for the ward Halloween party Friday night. Lots of appointments Wednesday and trying to get Sisar Dixon up to speed so it'll be fun! I'm looking forward to a great week.

Well today is the first day of my last transfer. So I'm just focusing on finnishing strong! It really helps that we're pretty busy here and that we're out of our area about one day a week so we have to make up for it the rest of the week. I absolutely LOVE being a missionary and as we head into the holiday season it's only going to get better! I love you all! Thanks for all the support :)

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Crandall

Pictures:

Good bye lunch at Pancho Villa :) 

Yep! People just LOVE talking to us when we look like this! We can't help it if it's cold!

Freezing at the bus stop 

Winter's Here!

Hello Family and Friends!

Well lots happened this week but I can't currently remember any of them... Whoops. Good thing I journal! So here's what sticks out from this week:

Monday we had family night with the YSA! We watched the John Tanner story and our friend S came! She's from Thailand, but speaks Finnish so it went pretty well. And then we made Finnish waffles so that part is always fun as well :)

Tuesday it SNOWED!! Yep this week winter hit! I've worn my winter boots and coat all week and enjoyed the snow covered leaves a bit as well. It's definitely not "white" here yet, but it's coming soon! We also met with a former investigator A this week and she became a new investigator again! She loves the church and really wants to get baptized. She just lives with her boyfriend, but we'll work on that :)

Wednesday we had some appointments with less actives and they went well and contacted and studied and stuff like that, but at night we got to go play Sähly! We had a potential investigator and a less active and her non member boyfriend come so it was a pretty successful night!  (I looked up Sähly and it is like floor hockey.)

Thursday consisted of weekly planning and then meeting with L. She's our investigator from Columbia. We showed her the church and she expressed her desire to get baptized! She doesn't quite understand priesthood and authority yet, but she knows she needs baptism. She's so cool! And we've become really good friends now. 

Friday we had a weird experience.... Earlier in the week we went and stopped by a less active Sisar Jones and I had never met nor knew anything about. He was home, but busy, but gave us his number and said we could call sometime to come meet and that was about it. Well on Friday we went to visit Sisar H who is an older lady in our ward who is in a wheelchair. So she always has an assistant at her house when we go. Well we walked in and this less active man answered the door! How crazy! Sisar Jones had never met him in the 8 months of her being here and the sees him twice in 2 days! So yeah, I think he's getting the sign. We were able to watch a talk of general conference with them and it went great! That's kind of been our way in with the less actives recently. Everyone loves general conference, especially now that it's online and in Finnish. So we've had about 4 appointments with less active members we usually struggle to meet with to watch general conference. We just watch a talk or two and then talk about them, but then they want to watch more after we leave! One less active member even asked us to show her how she could send the link to her mom in Ukraine. So yeah, you can always bank on the prophets :) It works pretty well for us as well because now we've been able to see some of the talks from the sessions we missed.

Saturday was super busy as well! We had an appointment with our investigator A from Bangladesh. We talked about prayer and the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy in Bengali (his native tongue) There's a slight language barrier, but he's already Christian and was going to a Christian church here in English so I think we'll be okay. We also met with our ward music coordinator who is kinda a less active. We're planning a restoration concert entitled "Tulkaa Kristuksen Luokse" (Come Unto Christ). It's going to be a lot like the Music and the Spoken Word that we did in Neitsytpolku, but a lot of people here in Tampere play instruments so that should make it pretty cool! 

Sunday - great day! L came to church! We went and picked her up in the morning and she loved it! And stayed for all 3 hours! We're watching the restoration movie with her later today so it should help some of her questions. Then we had a lesson with V. He's the investigator with a LOT of questions. He's Lutheran (as all Finns are) and struggles with the idea that he would first have to say that the Lutheran church isn't true in order for him to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true because there are contradictions between the two. We had Sisar And Vanhin Jouttenus come with us (he's a member of the area 70 I think) And tried to teach simply, but it's hard when he has such deep doctrinal questions. So we just focused on the fact that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion and by the end I think he understood that he needs to pray about it. We'll see how it goes next week.

Well this week was a great one! I'm really loving Sisar Jones and Tampere and being a missionary and everything. Transfer calls come this Friday and that means Transfers are next Monday/Tuesday. so send any mail to the mission office. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm staying here in Tampere, but you never know what President Watson has up his sleeve! 

All is well here in the North Pole. Christmas lights are already up all over the city even though it's still fall. But when Halloween and Thanksgiving aren't holidays, people have no reason to not just jump to Christmas in October! Sisar Jones and I love it though :)

Well I hope you're all happy and healthy :) I'm praying for you all and that we can all do what the Lord needs us to today. I love you!!

Rakkaudella

Sisar Crandall

p.s. Sorry if this is short. The pictures will make up for it.

First day we had to wear our winter clothes!

There are so many leaves!!

Zoomed out version of the above picture...

Just look how beautiful Finland is!

Out on the dock :)

Beautiful Tampere Skyline

So many leaves!!'

I LOVE FALL

IT'S SNOWING

This is basically what it looks like everywhere everyday of this week. So cool.

Miracles upon Miracles

Terve! 

Ok so much to tell you all this week so this letter will be all over the place but here goes!

On Tuesday we had exchanges in Turku. It was my first time I had been back there since last October so it was great to see it again! It's an older city that really is just beautiful. I got to work with Sisar  Hillebrant who's been in the country about 7 months and she's awesome. And guess what?! We rode bikes! It's the first time I've even touched a bike on my mission! We just haven't used them in the cities I've been in, but in Turku they ride all the time! So yeah, those bike riding muscles were pretty sore the next day but it was so fun! 

We met with our investigator V this week too. He's been investigating for a while, but not really progressing anywhere, just kinda "learning" about our church. But we reset expectations and the lesson went great! So now we're all studying what we're going to teach the next time ahead of time and hopefully we can all progress and learn together. He was the one we were praying about how to help him so I think this was our answer. 

We met 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS this week! 

One is E who is an older gentleman who is a former investigator. He didn't learn much the first time he investigated so we gave him a Book of Mormon and talked a lot about Moroni's promise and at the end of the lesson he prayed! So we're excited for him!

Then we met A. He's a man from Bangledash we talked to on the bus on Saturday and he came to church on Sunday! So cool! We ended up going to both wards of church yesterday because that was the one he could come to and the 2nd ward doesn't have a translator so I translated all of sacrament meeting for him and for another member from Holland. Kinda makes my brain hurt but luckily a missionary spoke and another man who used a lot of scriptures so it wasn't bad. We're working on getting him a Book of Mormon in his mother tongue, but he's already Christian so that helps a lot!

And last but not least! L! She's an AMAZING woman from Columbia. About 25 years old and married to a Finn. Seriously the most prepared person I've probably met in my whole life. We met her on Thursdayand met with her twice last week and have 2 appointments set up for this week. She was ECSTATIC to get a Book of Mormon and has such a strong testimony already! Her spirit is just such a contrast from the Finns we usually teach because she is so connected with God. I love it! So I'll definitely keep you all updated on her.

Our other investigators are doing pretty well.WE're teaching M who is an older Finnish man. He has a testimony, but won't come to church because he's too "busy" so we might give him a break and come back in the winter. 

We met with B who is an amazing woman from Czech. She's reading the Book of Mormon everyday and meeting multiple times a week with us and praying about Joseph Smith right now and just waiting for her answer. The faith that these people have is just amazing. 

We also met with a bunch of less actives but one close to my heart right now is a woman from Peru. She doesn't speak a lot of Finnish even though she's married to a Finn so I get to use my Spanish and we just have a lot of fun together. And she always makes us Peruvian food so it all works :) 

Zone meeting was also this week! Sisar Jones and I and the Zone Leaders were in charge of teaching it. We had met with the Stake President who gave us the vision for this zone: 20-30 baptisms by the end of the year. That's a pretty high goal! But with the Lord it's all possible! And with the rate we're going with our investigators, it's super possible! So we'll keep relying on the Lord and doing our part and keep seeing the miracles all around us.

This week was a great one and I think a huge part of it is that the ward is having a monthly fast for missionary work and everyday we call whatever member fasted and tell them about a miracle that happened that day and thank them for helping us out. It's really built up the member missionary relationships just this past week and it'll continue the rest of the month so I'm excited to see where we can all go together!

We also got asked to help out at a Single Adult Activity (30 and older) and got to see a TON of members from Jyväskylä and they were all happy to see me and i was just kind of a tender mercy because I seriously never thought I'd see any of them again. 

Well I've got lots of goals I've been working on and trying to apply lots of things from General Conference so I hope you all are too! I love you all so much! Keep up the great week and keep seeing the Lord's hand in your life! This church is true and the gospel truly is good news :)

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Crandall

Bikes in Skirts are ridiculous...

The leaves now totally cover all the sidewalks. You can't even see them!

Waiting at our favorite bus stop

haha gotta love bike helmets with Sisar Hillebrant

JKL and Conference!!

What a week! By far the fastest and tiringest of my mission thus far but I love it! We had packed days onTuesday and Wednesday because Thursday we went to JYVÄSKYLÄ! So good to be back in my old stomping ground. It's the first time I had been back since I left in February and man I missed that place so much! All the wonderful memories came back and I was able to follow up with some recent converts and less actives and they're all doing well! But anyway, back to Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday we helped a lady in our ward clean her windows, contacted a referral, and headed out to the Relief Society activity! We made voileipäkakku (sandwich cake) and learned all about the resources available on the church website (especially the ones available in Finnish) So a sandwich cake sounds gross I know but it's actually delicious. It's basically just bread layered 4 times with a filling mixture of pickles and leeks and mayonnaise and  stuff like that and then you "frost" it with some more filling and decorate it and eat it like a cake! It's apparently a super finnish thing to do and all the finns were astounded that we don't do this in America so I guess I'll have to show you all it someday!

Wednesday was full of appointments! A cute older member couple has wanted to have us over to eat, but she didn't jaksaa to make us food so she offered to take us out! Of course we said they didn't have to, but they insisted! So we headed to a cute cafeteria type restaurant with them and then went and taught our Chinese investigator L. A member (who I actually knew from Jyväskylä and then moved to Tampere) came with us and the lesson went so well! She prayed at the end and she's reading and praying everyday about the BofM! good stuff!

We've also been struggling to meet with some of the member families who are fully active because they're just so busy! But we FINALLY got an appointment with a member of the bishopric and his family. They live a bit away, so we borrowed the car from the Elders and drove on down there! I think I forgot to tell you all that we have a car here in tampere. WE only have it about once a week and Sisar Jones doesn't like driving so that means I get to! Yikes! Last month was the first time I had driven since last June so that took some getting used to but don't worry, I'm a lot better driver now that I'm a missionary... Anyway, we met with them and taught a cute lesson and had rice krispie treats with them (The dad is American) and they loved them! And then we hopped on a train to good ol' JKL!

Thursday was splits in  Jyväsklyä! I was with Sisar Seegmiller who just got to the country about 3 weeks ago. It was so much fun! We did some service for some members and met with some less actives and contacted a lot and ended with a member DA! It really was awesome to get to see old people and places again. I thought I'd never be back in JKL until I came back to Finland some day to visit. And it was even better to be there with Sisar Seegmiller and know that all the dear friends I have there are in good hands. We talked a lot about our goals for our missions and our lives and she's way ahead of where I was at 3 weeks in the country and her Finnish is amazing and I guess the more I go on exchanges the more I realize how better all these new missionaries are prepared and how much faster the work is going to move forward here! 

Friday was packed to make up from being out of our area on Thursday. So we have this new investigator L who I mentioned last week as a referral from a member. So this member is in a wheelchair and has an assistant to come help her every day I think so whenever it's L's turn to come, we go teach her! It works out pretty well because she's willing to listen and everything because we're able to teach her while she's at "work". This week we watched the Restoration movie and committed her to pray about the Book of Mormon. She's super interested to learn more and is about a 22 year old girl so we're super excited for her! Today we also had a last minute lunch appointment with a member and her non-member husband and were able to teach them all about prophets and conference. and then 2 appointments with less actives and one of them is helping us plan our upcoming music and the spoken word activity here so things are going well with them!

Saturday! We helped decorate for a part member's son's birthday party and they speak spanish so I got to practice some of that as well! I basically just understand and can translate into english or finnish fine, but I can't talk back in Spanish. It's kinda pathetic but the understanding is still there! Then we had an appointment with our investigator V. He's super interested in meeting and learning more, but doesn't really want to do anything about it. He's very specific in word choice and what we mean when we say words like "saved" "Heaven" and "grace" so our lessons are a lot of defining terms (all in Finnish btw) but he's getting there. We're not 100% sure what he needs, but we're praying to find out. And then, GENERAL CONFERENCE! The 2 wards here in Tampere organized a sisters' luncheon before the sisters' meeting which was shown here at 17. 

Then the Saturday morning session was at 19. We got to watch them all in English since there are so many foreigners here. So they just set up 2 screens and have one room be in Finnish and one in English and it works out pretty well! The sessions on Sunday were at 15 and 19 so we got home pretty late, but it was worth it! 

Sisar Jones and I have been talking about it a lot and we realize that this session (to us at least) was a lot about going back to the basics. Going back to strengthening our families and homes and keeping our covenants and getting to the temple. We're very excited to implement it all and to follow up with all of our members and investigators as well. WE LOVE CONFERENCE!!

And this week we have exchanges in Turku tomorrow and we come back Wednesday and then zone meeting on Friday and we're teaching! So I'll letcha all know how that goes!

Well I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support and wonderful insights about conference! I hope we can all apply the things we learned! Have a great week! 

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Crandall

All the pretty trees changing colors :)

Us and our companionship rock :) long story...

Homemade pizza!

SO GOOD

Back home! Jyväskylä!

Fall is here!

Contacting some potentials :

Voileipäkakku (sandwich cake)

Cruising down to good ol' Kangasala

Us eating Delicious Minetti Ice Cream on P-day

Ice Cream!

Home made taco bowls!

Wake me up when September ends....

Hello family! 

Well Missionary work is certainly interesting... I'm having so much fun and just working hard and I've never been so tired in my life! But Sisar Jones and I just had a nice half hour run (sprint... She's really fast) to the church so I'm bright and awake now! Life's going great and we're nice and busy here in Tampere! The Sisters in this zone are just amazing and are going to go so far in life! It's cool to get to work with them and see their goals and dreams and realize that they're a sure lot further along in the mission than I was at their age! 

Well Monday started off after email with a lesson with our investigator V. He had a LOT of questions about works and faith and mercy. Pretty deep stuff for me to explain in Finnish, but luckily that week I had just listened to 2 talks "Jesus knows I'm a Christian" by John Bytheway and "After all that I can do" by Brad Wilcox and it explained it super well and I think he gets it more now. 

Also on Monday/Tuesday, WINTER CAME. Holy cow it was freezing this week! I think the lowest it got while we were outdoors was probably 3 C. So Sisar Jones and I broke out our winter coats and boots! It's only September! But yeah, I guess I'm used to it now. I was back to my fall jacket later in the week but still had my big black one and my boots for a couple of days.

Tuesday was an awesome district meeting and we focused a lot of planning by the spirit. We're really focusing on using a whole half hour each night to plan really well and I think a lot less people are slipping through the cracks. We talk to a lot of people and get a lot of phone numbers and potentials and now we're making sure we follow up with every one of them! Then we had a lunch appointment with an older lady in the ward and then headed out to one of one investigators! This awesome couple, the M, who are some of the pioneer members here in Finland came with us. and the investigator wasn't home... which is weird since he's ALWAYS home and has never missed an appointment yet... Well then later in the week we had another appointment at the church and they came as well. And our other investigator who has never missed a lesson either didn't show up! So we felt SO bad that this couple came out with us twice and both the lessons fell through. So I'm just grateful for them anyway. It was fun to get to know them a little better while we waited, but I still felt bad... But they're so cool! After driving away from our investigator's house, we saw someone had  put a box of apples on the side of the road for people to just take for free (very typical here in FInland this time of year. I think I've eaten 100 apples the last 3 weeks...) So the wife told her husband to pull over and said "If this man is nice enough to put a bunch of apples outside, maybe he'll accept the gospel!" And she got out of the car and rang the doorbell! Well the man came to the door and it wasn't really a good time (I think he was like half dressed) but he said we could come back! So yes. There are some AWESOME members here in Finland and I get to work with them! 

And we had exchanges this week! Two of them! On Wednesday I was with Sisar Elliott from Turku here in Tampere and then on Friday I was with Sisar Thayne (from the Tampere 2nd ward) here in my area as well. And they both went great! SIsar Elliott and I talked to a lot of people on the street and taught 2 less actives about preparing to go to the temple. She's only been in the country about 3 months (2nd to youngest sister in the mission) but she's doing so well! Her faith is seriously so strong and it was just the missionary fire I needed that very cold day. We also ended the day by playing sähly and out less active and her non member boyfriend came! Seriously the miraculous highlight of the day! Sisar Thayne is way cool as well. The 2nd ward is SO different from the first ward so we have different challenges, but we talked about them a lot and what the other one has done in their ward to help. She's way cool. She's only 2 transfers (4 months) behind me in the mission and she's training so she's doing well. We had an appointment to go pick apples at our investigator's Mökki (i don't know how to translate that one...) and we knocked on her door and she wasn't home :( so after waiting for a couple of minutes, we started walking back to the bus stop and making other plans. But then our investigator came running off the bus from the other side of the street and stopped us right before we stepped on the bus and it all worked out! Pretty cool timing! So we were able to go help her. Lots of tiny miracles this week I can't even count them!

For example, we've been struggling to have the members do their own missionary work. They're great about coming out with us, but applying these skills into their daily lives is what we're working on now. but on Saturday we had a member ask US if we could come and teach her how to do missionary work and then on Sundayanother member came up to us and said she wanted us to come over and meet her friend that day! so we rearranged our schedule and went and she's a new investigator!

And Sunday was the best day of the week! Throughout the week we've been focusing on just loving and serving everyone. Whether that be in the form of service or heart attacking or little notes or cookies or anything, we did it! And this Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and 5 different people talked about how the sisters had done something for them that week. It was kinda funny actually because I was translating in Sunday School and in Relief Society for our mission president's wife, Sisar Watson, who was in Tampere visiting and someone said "This week the sisters made my day!" And I laughed and she made me translate it like "Uhhh this week we made her day..." This now sound really prideful but it was just super funny/awkward translating things about yourself... So I think the missionary/member relationships are really improving here. There's also a ward fast in the month of October where a member family fasts each day. And lots of people signed up for that so I'll let you know how it goes! Also, that couple that came to the two cancelled lessons made a comment in Relief Society about how it was so cool to go out with the sisters this week and even if it was cold and rainy and dark that they always have a smile on their face and are having fun. So I'm glad that she didn't focus on the cancelled lessons and was able to have fun with us anyway.

We also had a Dinner with a girl who's about to leave on a mission and her mom. She's so excited! And then on the way home I sat down and talked to a man who had these crazy tattoos all over his head and then he got up and left and another man came and sat down to talk to me which has NEVER happened in my whole mission. And he asked about what I was talking about and if our church had any activities to come to! Miracle! So we exchanged numbers and he's coming to Sähly on Wednesday! So cool!

Well sorry this email is all over the place, but I'm doing well! Lots of miracles and lots of cool goals coming up that I'm working on. 

Oh! One more thing! General Conference is this week!!! So when Elder Bednar was here, one of the questions he answered was "How can I prepare for General Conference?" And Elder Bednar's promise was that if you have a question and you pray and study it out this week and that you come to conference with it in your mind that EVERY TALK will answer you question. Not just one or two talks. EVERY SINGLE ONE! So I give that challenge to all of you. Put it to the test! And let me know all the amazing insights you receive! I'm SO SO SO excited for this weekend! Conference is way up there with Christmas for a missionary and we've had a countdown chain for a month leading up to it!

Well life's good and there's never much to complain about on the Lord's errand! I love you all and I hope you have a great, inspired week!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Crandall

Me and Sisar Elliott at a bus stop

Me and Sisar Thayne with our street sign (long story)

Sisar Thayne, Forrest, Jones, and me (it was pretty cold...)

Miracles on miracles here in TRE!

Kathryn's Tampere Address -- This is different than I initially gave you . . .

MuotiAlantie 72 A 4

Tampere 33800

Finland

Family and Friends!

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.

Cool Sunset profile picture

Me and Sisar Rochette

Sisar Jones and I at the church

Mission Conference and ELDER BEDNAR!

Well the highlight of the week was definitely up there in the subject line - WE HAD A MISSION CONFERENCE WITH ELDER BEDNAR!!

Sorry if these are a lot of details that don't really matter, but I just want to tell you everything!

So Sisar Dayton and Sisar Seegmiller came to our apartment from Jyväskylä Thursday night and slept there. Then us and all the Elders from Tampere and Pori and Rauma and some other places were all in Tampere and we took a nice early 7 o clock train to Helsinki! The conference didn't start until 12 and we were all at the chapel at about 9 so we had lots of time to talk and re connect with everyone and then study and prepare ourselves for Elder Bednar. Actually we had been preparing for about a month. He sent some talks or his for us to all read ahead of time and I've been studying those for the past couple of weeks. It was SO good to see everyone again! Some of my old companions I hadn't seen in 6 months and some elders from my original district (about a year ago) were there too and it was just so fun!

So then we studied and got ready and then Elder Bednar came! He was accompanied by his wife and then President and Sister Kearon and Elder and Sister Jouttenus and then the Stake President and his wife from Jyväskylä, The Koivistos. (I skyped from their house for Christmas).

We started off from just hearing from the Kearons and Sister Bednar and then Elder Bednar got up and just asked us "Okay what did you learn from my talks?" so we just raised our hands and had a discussion with him. It was WAY cool. He would just ask us follow up questions that really made us think and in a way teach ourselves. It's hard to explain so I'll just have to demonstrate for you one day. But anyway, and then he let us ask him any question we wanted! So hands flew up and we had some amazing answers and insights but the most curious thing was realizing that the answers to most questions we have as missionaries were the same. He answers were repeatedly 1) Keep your covenants and stay worthy and 2) just be a little better today then you were yesterday. That's all this life is about! I think it's a lot of things us missionaries (and probably more of the sisters) needed to hear. Stop worrying about all the little details of life and just repent and be a little better today and everything will work out. He taught us a lot about HOW to improve and know what to work on and I'm really excited to apply these things. I've decided to really study and pray and fast about what I need to do and then DO IT! I have a temple session coming up and then general conference the next weekend so I'm super excited to go through this changing process of becoming better.

So afterwards we had a mission picture and got to talk to everyone again and then headed back to the train station! After grabbing some Hesburger and seeing some friends from Helsinki (like H and G) We all hopped on a train! Sisar Jones and I have really been praying about how to help the sisters here in our zone and on the train ride back we were brainstorming and came up with it! Answers do come! So I'll have to tell you all about this idea later once we actually implement it.

Well besides Elder Bednar, this week was AMAZING! Here are some other things that happened:

-The Turku sisters came to go on exchanges. I was with Sisar Ross and Sisar Jones was with Sisar Hillebrant. Well Sisar Ross and I had a great day! It started off with a CHURCH TOUR! Which is super normal for us to give, but this one was to an entire high school class! None of them knew anything about the church and it was in Finnish which was kinda intimidating, but it went great! Sisar Ross is only one transfer behind me in the mission so she did great! Then we had some lunch and met with our investigator briefly and just showed him where the church was and then we headed out to visit Sisar R. She's an older lady in our ward who's in the hospital so we went to talk to and sing to her. And then we had a DA with a member family. There's super cute couple with a 1 year old daughter and Sisar Ross just connected with them immediately because the dad is from Turku (where she serves). Then we headed out to a Women's Broadcast from Germany to all the Sisters in the European Area! Elder Bednar and Ballard spoke again and it was awesome! Lots of cool notes on that as well.

-So we have an investigator named J that we set a baptismal date with last week and decided this week to give him to the Elders. So we had a joint lesson at the church on Thursday and then he stayed for the baptismal service of a little member girl in the ward. And he loved it! So even though he's the Elders' investigator now, we're super excited! He came to church yesterday and is progressing and  doing just great!

-Speaking of church yesterday, Sisar Jones and I sang a special musical number! We volunteered to do it and then realized it was ward conference and that ALL of the stake leaders and a bunch of other people were there, but it went great anyway! We sang "Niin Suuri Oot" "How Great Thou Art"

Sorry so so much more happened this week but I gotta go! Have a wonderful week and remember that I love you all so much! You're in my prayers :)

Sisar Crandall

Pictures:

MTC DISTRICT REUNITED!

MTC Companion- Sisar Howell

Sisar Jones and I in the fog