Sisar McCammon on a Mission to Finland: Six Weeks in Finland and its AMAZING!

Hey everyone!! I can’t believe how time has flown! I have already been in Finland for 6 weeks. Starting week 7 now!! It’s crazy to think that I have been gone for that long! It’s been crazy this week!!

We had Return and Report this week which is where the newest group to Finland goes back to the mission home for about 2.5 days and we talk about missionary work and how it’s been going so far and how we can improve. But more than that, we get to hang out with our MTC district. But because our group was so big, we only got to see half and the other half is this week. Kinda sad, but we had so much fun!! We got to go to the temple, which is so beautiful! And we went on a walk and saw a little bit of the area around the mission home. We also got to eat lots of good food and not just missionary food. It was super sweet!! I also got to see Sister Godfrey!! Which was a blast and a half! And it was an all-around good time! I also felt like Sister Kristensen and I grew A LOT closer! Because we had 8 girls and one shower where we were in the house, the Auras allowed us to use their showers or there was another shower room or something, but we could use that as well. And there were two showers in that room. But Finns really have no shame because that wall that was between the two showers was about chest height. So Sister Kristensen and I faced opposite ways and just showered really awkwardly in the same shower basically. And I am still not quite sure how that is missionary appropriate, but yeah…

On Thursday we came home. Well we went to a member’s house to help her dust her bookcase (SERVICE!!) which was kinda hard because as a bookworm I wanted to ready everything, but I couldn’t. But I found out that she had classical music from a composer who I love! And she let us listen to it quietly while we dusted and talked with her! She made my whole day! The best part was that she had the Symphony that is my favorite of all time, and I almost cried. I was so happy to hear that blessed music again. It was also nice because we can actually listen to classical music as missionaries. It was amazing!! She also fed us and that was super amazing. For desert she had this fruit pie thing and ice cream and it was amazing! Then we unfortunately had to leave, but we went straight to a lesson and it went so well, and we wanted to go back because we felt the spirit so strongly and I know they did too, but they weren’t too keen on meeting again. But it was okay, we had a good lesson anyways.

Not much on Friday, but on Saturday, we visited a less active, from Venezuela and taught her some Finnish and English and she tested my Spanish knowledge, but she’s super kind. Where she lives, we can’t visit as church representatives, but she has been reading the things we give her on the down low, and she seems to really like them. She also really seems to have a testimony and conversion to Jesus Christ. Which is amazing. She just doesn’t have a car unfortunately. Then we drove from her house, down to Tammisaari which is a Swedish speaking town a few kilometers South of us. Which is the quaintest town ever! We tried to find a café to eat at, but we couldn’t find one near the library where we would study after lunch, so we asked this man, and he was so cool. He makes violins for a living, and he showed us his shop and all of his work in progress instruments. He was awesome! But he showed us to this cute Café where we at lunch. Then we hiked back up to the library, which was closing, so we drove to the train station and planned the lesson we were having with a less active there. Which was awesome. We went to her house and she’s this really old woman who speaks Swedish and pretty good English. She gave us afternoon tea basically is what it was, and we talked about her life and ours and she’s an amazing artist. She showed us some of her work and it’s remarkable. Then we talked about Come Follow Me and she had one already. A member from the ward had already visited her that week. It was awesome! We couldn’t stay long, and we tried tracting in Swedish but that wasn’t easy because we don’t know much. Just like three phrases. So we were going to go home, and we stopped one more man, but Sisar Kristensen stopped him in English and it turns out he was from America! Seattle! Where she is from! So we talked to him, and gave him our card, and told him to find the Book of Mormon online, and he can listen to it. He had eye cancer and can’t read well. He promised us he would because he was super curious. We also got his number and gave him ours so he could call with questions. It was awesome!

Sunday was as always good. Church then meeting with a less active man at a member’s house which went swimmingly. He has so many questions and we are trying to help him learn how to find them through revelation. It’s so fun though! We also learned that he can speak French so he talked to Sisar Kristensen in French for a bit. Then we ran to a lesson with Pen and he is good! He turned down baptism again claiming to not be ready, but he doesn’t sound like he wants to set a goal either, so I hope everything goes well with him.

Yesterday was good as well. We had district council and swapped memory books or v-books is what we call them here. So mine will finally be written in. And then afterwards we did missionary stuff that I can’t fully remember then we and dinner at a member’s house. They are the sweetest and we love them so much! They do so much for us, and they fed us homemade pizza! It was legit! And they have the cutest family! One of their sons is preparing for a mission in one month three weeks and three days, if I remember correctly. It was awesome to talk with him about missions.

And that was my week. It went well with lots of stuff. I hope you all enjoy this long rambley letter. I hope that you all have a good week and to make it even better… I have a scripture you should read! 1 Nephi 8 and 11. They talk about the tree of life and what the symbolism is. It really reminded me this week of why I am on a mission. To share the Fruit of the Tree with everyone. It’s an amazing gift from God to know about Him and His plan for us and I would encourage you all to read it and study it a little bit this week. I love you all and I miss you!!

Rakaudella, Sisar McCammon

Helsinki Finland LDS Temple