Marjaniemi is my new HOME!

Hey everyone! What a week! I got transferred and I had to leave my dear sweet companion Sister Kristensen! It was very difficult and sad to do. Plus leaving a car and an amazing ward was difficult too.  I am now here in Marjaniemi which is basically East Helsinki and there I so many people. I can't believe how many people. We don't even knock on any doors anymore because we never get there in time because we talk to too many people. 

But here's a list of my new friends!

There are:

G our friend from Nigeria who is set to be baptized the first weekend in April!

Sunny our Chinese friend who is so cool and we want him to start coming to church

Z our other, older friend from China who is so sweet and has lived here longer than I have been alive!

J our only Finnish friend who Sister Hansen contacted almost 2 months ago when she was here for a day

B our Nepalese friend who wants to be baptized, but is still learning that God is our loving Heavenly Father

S&S a couple from India who strongly believe in the Hindu religion but still like to meet and discuss and are interested, but we have to help them understand something way different

J who is a young girl from Vietnam who is super busy and is possibly only meeting with us because she has a crush on one of the Elders...

E who is a family from Syria who seem pretty interested but we haven't met them yet

That is all of them. I have taught G, Sunny, B, and S&S. The rest I have met thorugh our English class or sports time. Except J and E. I haven't met them yet. They seem pretty solid though. It is just weird that everyone who we are meeting with speaks English. (minus J) It's been an odd adjustment from speaking only Finnish to a lot of English. I can't say I particularly like it. But we will get onto the details now.

Last Tuesday, I transferred me and everything I own from Lohja (west of Espoo) to Marjaniemi (East of Helsinki). It's a much bigger city and I am in a trio now... in a small apartment. It's very different and I can't say that I particularly like it. It's really hard to accommodate three pretty particular people. We also have each done missionary work a different way and don't really want to change. It's hard too because it means a lot of decisions go unmade or argued about. Not a great transition but we are working on it. It also takes a lot more time to get everything done. We also got to teach an amazing! recent convert. He's Finnish and loves the church! He's a YSA (Young single adult) and comes to our sports night and it all around so cool!!

Which brings us into Wednesday.We had a hard time coordinating plans because of our differences and it took us a long time to plan and nothing to remarkable happened that day except that evening we taught Sunny who is so cool! We showed him the Restoration video in Chinese and he said he understands so much better now and he believes it. We just need to get him to church now! Today was really difficult too. I am very uncomfortable in my new home and that makes for a lot of stress and a lot of tears.

Then on Thursday I got to meet my district and have a fun couple of hours getting to know each other and talk about Missionary work! So much fun! We also were contacting in the evening and we talking to this man who told us to wait then ran off with his friends then we started to walk kinda after him after a few minutes then he came back and told us to follow him, so we walked with him then he told us to wait again and so we did then he came back and we talked. He was really interested and  told us to call him, but he had to go because it was his BIRTHDAY!! It was so fun and so weird! Then he hollered after us to put on our gloves because it was cold. 

Then on Friday I met our ward mission leader and he was pretty cool. His wife gave us chocolate and hugs and compliments then we had our meeting (100% Finnish) and that was hard, but we survived. We also go to weekly plan which took forever because again 3 of us and 2 of us don't know this area at all. Then we taught English in the evening which was weird. I don't know how to teach and it helps me remember exactly why I don't want to become a teacher. 

Then on Saturday, we taught G and he is so cool!! He is going to be baptized, but we found out that he isn't reading the Book of Mormon so we finally got him to decide to read. Then we got to play sports after his lesson. It's basically indoor gym hockey. Sähly. (sah-luu) It was so fun and I got so sore! I haven't worked out hard enough I guess. I don't know. It was super fun and most of our friends came!! 

Sunday was super nice because church and the sacrament was a life saver. I had to give a short talk about who I am and an experience and a testimony from my mission and life. It was good and afterwards, everyone told me how awesome I was and how much Finnish I know and that I was a miracle. They were all super sweet! It was fun then that night we taught S&S and they are sweet and very kind. They just have strong Hindu beliefs that are hard to testify that it's wrong, but we are trying. 

Monday was good. We met with B and he is so sweet! He even said he wanted to be baptized sometime in the future! It was awesome! He doesn't have a lot of religious background, but he is so willing to learn. We also met with a returning member and it's so sad to see her. She has started smoking again and she said she has two daughters who she wants to be good, but her example isn't great. It's hard to watch. She also fed us really spicy food! It was good but spicy!! 

That's the week! It's been really hard this week honestly. I feel super stressed and crazy emotional, and I don't know how I could do this for the next 10 weeks because all 3 of us have a hard time getting along. We'll see if it gets better, but I don't know. It's just extra stressful to be in a new area, new house, new circumstance, and not get along very well with the people you have to spend 24/7 with. hopefully, this next week will be better.

Anyways, I hope you all have a good week! 

Love, Sister McCammon!!

Well that sure isn't the most upbeat letter she's sent! Missions are tough. Companions can be tough. Hopefully she will become tough!!! On the upside her new area uses the church to do her weekly emails and they have cameras so I was able to video chat with her this morning at 5am! She was not in the best spirits when she began but she did seem to cheer up by the time we finished.  It was good to see her face and I really hope that being able to talk to us will help her through this tough time.  I was talking with a friend at the gyms and she said that when she didn't like her companion on her mission it felt very isolating so maybe this will be a big help. 💕- Tammie

The first pictures of her new chapel

Abbie with Sisar Hansen and Sisar Wulfenstein

The outside of Abbie's apartment building

The view from her Apartment

Marjaniemi, there doesn't seem to be the snow that they had in Lohja

Hyvää Ystävän Päivää!! Happy Friend’s Day (Valentines in the USA)

Hello all!! I hope you have all had great weeks! It has been pretty epic for me!! Lots of stuff has happened in the short time since I have written you last! The reason this is a day early (I figured I would say now because it’s pretty exciting) I GOT TRANSFERRED!!! I am going to Marjaniemi! It is east Helsinki so I’m going to the big city! I will be in the same zone, but I have to leave my little town of Lohja! I have had the best time here and it is sad to say goodbye! Everyone at church was so sad to see me go because I have only really been here 2 months which isn’t that long really. I just hope that whatever happens this transfer makes it worth it. Because this transfer in 10 weeks long. Not just 9 because The President and his wife are going to a training right on when transfers would be. So that should be fun! Anyways onto the week!

It was a pretty basic week honestly. We were in Espoo for district council on Wednesday, and because it was our last one, we had a party afterwards, and someone brought cake and another brought cheesecake. It was great!! Then Sister Kristensen and I went to the indoor mall/tori/center of town and studied because we had a dinner appointment in Espoo with our ward mission leader. Which was good. It was a little awkward because the leader and his wife are only a couple years older than us. They got married in September and so it felt almost like hanging out. Especially because the other Elders in our ward were there as well. Very odd. But it went well. It was fun, and we tried not to make it awkward. Then we came back to Lohja and had two lessons back to back. One in the library with D, who is so solid! He has been reading the Book of Mormon and has questions and it’s awesome! Then we had a lesson with a man named Rope who recognized us in English and seemed interested, but won’t read the Book of Mormon yet. We’ll see how he progresses. It should be interesting.

Hyvää Ystävän Päivää!! Happy Friend’s Day as it’s called here in Finland! It was so fun to see all the party’s for today. It isn’t as big as in America and it isn’t romantic, but fun! They throw candy out of a truck at school kids for some reason I don’t understand… Weird but I assume it’s their version of a parade??? But we had a lesson with the Knitter and she’s so cool. It is way fun to teach her because she is so interested!! And really nice. And her dad came at the end and gave us some chocolate from the truck. Way fun. We tracted a lot today. One man opened the door and talked to us in Russian, despite not being Russian. It was crazy. We also had a lesson with a man who was interested and had a lot of historical questions and the member we brought was so good to answer or help us understand them because FINNISH!!! It was good though. He unfortunately doesn’t want to meet until he reads the Book of Mormon, but hopefully he reads and wants to learn more!

Then Friday was the day. The dreaded day of transfer calls. They came pretty early in the morning, but it was good. It was fun to get them. Sister Kristensen stays. I leave. My new companions are Sister Wolfenstein and Sister Hansen. It will be fun. I will tell you more about them when I know more. But we got those, we also weekly planned which was sad because I did it all for someone else. Very sad day. Well sad and happy. I also made Shepherd’s Pie all by myself for dinner and it tasted really good, so I am really proud of that! We also met with Pen again today, and he loves learning so much. He believes in everything we tell him, and tells us that he feels the Holy Ghost, but he still isn’t ready to act yet. I hope he acts on the answers he’s receiving soon though.

Saturday we got to go out to the lake and we contacted people there which was fun and we got some photos taken like little cuties! Then after a good walk to check out some streets, we had lunch and saw the sun! SO BRIGHT! We drove down to Tammisaari which means Oak Island.  It is south of where we live by 45 minutes and we had a meeting with someone interested. He will be called the Seattle-ite. He is so interested. He has so many questions and it’ll be a slow process to teach him because of how far he is and how busy he is, but he loves what we teach, so I think it will be good for him. Then we also got to meet with to less active people. One is a part member family with the cutest daughter! Then the other one is an older woman who is the sweetest thing. She is only less active though, because of how far away church is and she can’t drive. Plus she speaks Swedish since Tammisaari is Swedish speaking town. She is so amazing and so kind and I just love her to bits. She has such good friends around her who take good care of her too. I love it. We were at her house a little late, but she has such strong faith, and it was awesome to see her. I absolutely adore meeting with returning members. They love the missionaries so much!

Then Sunday was so sad! It was my last day in this ward! We sung in church the song I am a Child of God. The four missionaries did, and I gave a farewell testimony which was sad, and afterwards, everyone said goodbye. It’s always sad to say goodbye to friends! And we thought we had a dinner appointment and we left for that, but they said they were sick so she made us food and we picked it up from their house instead. They are such a sweet family. Also as we were leaving the church, I had told one of the members that I lost my water bottle and couldn’t find it, and he said he would try to find it. I was sad because I wouldn’t have another opportunity to get it, so I was sad as I was leaving that I had lost it. But we hadn’t gotten far and he called and he found it!! I was so happy! This member in particular is so awesome! He used to be the Ward mission leader before I got here and he still tries to help out as much as he can! We also got to tract in an area that I had never been to before, and we met a man who has 9 KIDS!! And he was interested. He let us in and we talked to him and he asked questions and we testified and said we could come back! So exciting! We had another lesson with Pen after this and that went well too. He said he could feel the Holy Ghost testify that what we are saying is true and he is reading every day! He is just awesome!

And now today! We found out we can talk with home a little bit better and differently now, which should be fun and we’ll see what new adventures are to be had with that. I hope that you all have such a great week and that you can feel and see all the ways Heavenly Father blesses our lives every day. Even the smallest things are a miracle. Like a tree growing from a tiny seed. I hope you all find ways to recognize that this week! I love you all!!

Love, Sisar McCammon

From Tammie: This week our Church announced a new guideline that missionaries can now call, text or video chat home weekly if they choose to. Abbie is not in an "electronic" mission so this new change will be much more of a challenge for the missionaries in Finland. Since they only have basic no internet phones without international calling a phone call or texting won't be possible.  And I don't know what the situation in her new area will be, but the one she just left they went to the Library weekly so no access to video or voice on the computers there. And they can only contact us during their Preparation Day (pday) hours.  Which are basically in the middle of the night here between monday and tuesday morning. Not really a fun time to video chat.  I really thought maybe the president would give them a Sunday evening 15 min per missionary rule or something so that it seemed more plausible but that doesn't seem to be the case. We are pretty much relegated to Google hangouts. Abbie is 9 hours ahead of us so 11 in the morning when she heads to the library is like 2 am here. But its not consistent when she goes so it could be anywhere from 1am-7am. I can't just sit around the computer and wait all night for her to get on.  So we figured out a trick.  Google hangouts has a call feature so last night when she was at the library she hit it about 3:45 and it woke us up.  Its an automatic response to say hello and then hello again when no one answers and then on the instant message she types...shhhhhhhhhhh! LOL!!! Ooops apparently the sound worked on her end! It was good just to have a back and forth instant conversation. We didn't really say much, typing back and forth for 20 minutes doesn't really produce that much information actually! She said she will be in a bigger city now, they'll use public transportation, there's a metro system and buses.  No more car but no bike either! She'll miss the car, that's for sure. We were worried about her transferring so quick she really liked her companion and area and being homesick Bill and I were worried that it would make it harder. She seems to be taking it in stride, change is hard for her but that is one constant on a mission!  She had a good conversation with the mission president about her homesickness and I hope he can help her and keep up with her a little bit to help her through.  She's been out 4 months everyone tells me that 6-7 months a switch flips and things get better.  Lets hope her next two months are awesome!  She really would like to call so maybe she can work it out with the mission president to find a way. We'll see.  I really would like to see her not need to call home.  Losing herself in the work instead of thinking of home. That will come though.  I love this girl.  She sent lots of pictures this week, its hard to pick just a few. She uploaded about 70 pic and I narrowed it down to this.  Enjoy!

 Laundry Day

 Selfie love!

 Looks Delicious!!!

 Looks like a beautiful day...and a beautiful church!

 Assuming these are pictures at the Lake she talks about.

 The Swedish town of Tammisari

I read her companion Sisar Kristensens letter and she said me and Abbie went for a run that morning and one of them fell, she's not allowed to say who because she's sitting right next to me! LOL!!!

Moika kaikkia!!

Moika kaikkia!!
I hope you are all doing fantastic and feeling spring in the air! We definitely have the past couple days. We have had so much rain this week! The roads and sidewalks have been so slick! And they plow the snow here kind of. Everyone has to have winter tires, so they leave a layer of snow on the ground for that, and that means when it rains, EVERYTHING is slushy. It’s kinda miserable to walk or drive through it. We haven’t gotten stuck yet though, so that’s a plus. It’s also been kinda cloudy which means it’s been warmer. So we have had temperatures about 0 Celsius this week. It’s been SO WARM!! We were out street contacting one evening and were talking to some teenagers (in English because the girl lived in the UK from birth to age 7 and the boy likes English) and the boy said “It isn’t even cold outside.” Then proceeded to take off his coat and roll up his sleeves. It was crazy! Above 0 is still cold! Although I have been able to wear one less layer underneath my giant coat! But anyways, this week teaching wise and meeting wise, has been really good! We have had a lot of good opportunities arise. Let me share some of them!

                      Wednesday was our district council day where we got to meet with other missionaries and chat about missionary work. It was pretty cool and we had the zone leaders there this time, so that was fun. Which means we had the assistants, sister training leaders, the zone leaders, and our district leader. There was a lot of leadership. We usually have a lot because the APs and STLs and DL are always there, but the addition made it seem like a lot. We also took a district picture (so cool) and I took a picture with Sister Kristensen and one of the ZLs because he was SK’s first DL which makes him my granddad according to crazy family tree things missionaries do here. Anyways! The funnest thing we did was throw marshmallows at each other and try to catch them in our mouths. It was really fun and one Elder was really good at it, so one of the other sisters laughed and said “It’s like a yoshi!” Referring of course to the animal in Mario games that flings his tongue out like a frog! It was a great analogy! We also met with Pen on this day and taught him about the Sabbath day. He still refuses to come to church, but he is really interested in modern revelation and a prophet, so it’s really fun to talk to him. He has a lot of questions!!

                      Thursday we met with Luar and taught about prayer and personal revelation because he has a lot of questions about deep stuff. So we are trying to help him understand the basics before we dive super deep into the crazy stuff. He’s the sweetest though! He gave us some chocolate along with the member whose house we were at. He is the sweetest man and he cares that we are well taken care of. It’s really sweet. I also have come quite a ways in my understanding of Finnish. I understood a lot of what he says, but he talks way faster than I can translate. Then later at a dinner appointment, I actually made conversation. In Finnish. It was crasy. We also have a new person we are teaching. His name will be D from here on out. This is his nickname in real life too. Which is kinda funny because he told us to just write D and that he would tell us his real name when we taught him. He’s so funny. I don’t know much about him yet. He seems really curious about God and our relationship to Him. So it will be really interesting when we teach him better that we are literally God’s spirit children. It should be a fun lesson!!

                      Friday, we met with The Sock Lady. We met her on the street a few weeks ago and just barely met with her and she is fantastic! She has one son and two grandchildren, and she is awesome! So kind and so curious! She loved hearing about our stories just as we loved hearing about hers! We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and built her faith in him, and she seemed to like it from what I understood. Then we were going to leave, but she stopped us before we could and this is where she gets her name. She gave us socks!!! Socks she had knitted by herself! They are blue and white and amazing!! She gave Sister Kristensen and I a pair and then also a pair for Sister Kristensen’s niece! It was awesome! We were in awe at her kindness! But I guess when you only have one son and his kids are little and you knit a lot, it makes sense. But it was still so awesome! We also met Frenchie today in the mall. He hasn’t been going to church but he told us he would if we would answer some questions he would send the next day (side note: he never sent any questions and he went to church so… win?) We also got let in to this older couple’s apartment to read a scripture and pray with them, and that was way fun. I understood very little of what they were saying, but they were really nice and told us we were always welcome to come back! So nice!

                      Saturday was fun because it was a America culture afternoon thing. We have two ladies in our ward from Venezuela and Sister Kristensen and I from USA, and we met a lady when we were knocking on doors and she is from Mexico and she came! She also made some Mexican food for us! It was so cool! I think we could even get her to teach us! She really liked us and I could get my Spanish practice in because I know some and it’s was easier than Finnish. So I was the one translating this afternoon for Sister Kristensen. It was so nice to understand for a change. Plus we got her interested in the church! She is probably coming to church this Sunday!

                      Then on Sunday we were going to stay to the picnic after church, but we got a call from a member and she invited us to her granddaughter’s birthday party to friendship her daughter, so she can hopefully become active again. We got to talk to her a little, but the one son wouldn’t stop talking to me about some medieval history and Christian history, and it was kind of annoying because I couldn’t get him to stop, but we met a woman from Russia there. And she was interested in meeting sometime and learning more. I hope we can meet with her, but I don’t know yet if we will be able to because she is in the Elder’s area. We’ll see. She was pretty cool and spoke English. I miss understanding everything. Then we had another lesson with Pen and we taught about commandments and prophets again. Some more about church as well. And the member we took saved us so many times when we didn’t understand his questions. She was a miracle worker. I also talked a lot and got to set up our next appointment. Lots and lots of fun!!

                      Monday we went and visited one of the Sisters from Venezuela and she is a bit worried. She is living at a refugee housing place, and there is the possibility of her relocating and we a little worried. We don’t even find out for another month, so it’s worrying. We got to sit and visit and teach some English and learn some Spanish from her. It was a good time! We did a bit of finding then went to a Lohja family home evening. It’s all the families in our area having a get together with their families. We played some games and laughed and had fun. Then we ate lots of deserts and chatted and just had an all around good time! It was lots of fun! That’s really all we did. Besides finding. It was a full day though!

                      That was our week! It was full of meeting with people and trying to help them grow closer to Christ! It was really quite good. I felt the Spirit of the Lord guiding us and lifting us when many people were shutting their doors. It’s been a rough week for that, but I know this is the Lord’s work and he really does help me do this. I love all of you and I am so thankful that I have you all supporting me and sending me prayers. Thank you! Love you all!

Until Next week!

Love, Sisar McCammon

PS - we get transfer calls on Friday to see where we are going next and February 19 is the day we leave if we get transferred. So p day might be on Monday next week if I get transferred so have the letter ready for me just in case. Love you!!!!

 Abbie Finally got her Valentine Card I sent thanks to all who wrote a note for her! 

 Abbie's District

 So she said in her letter the weird family tree of missionaries...this is her ZL granddad

 Random Elevator Selfie while tracting

 Not many pictures this week so its a Library Bathroom selfie!

 Snow that they are shoveling off the library roof

View from the Library window.

Turns out I can cook!

What a week this has been!!! We met with Pen this week and it was so cool. He has so many questions and loves to discuss!! He even had read three times the amount we asked him to. He said he would read for 15-20 minutes then rest his eyes (because he can't see very well) and ponder then do it again!!! It was so awesome!! We asked him to come to church so he could discuss more, but he didn't want to yet. He is still a bit nervous about organized religion, but we are working on it. He knows it's true, we just need him to act on it.

We couldn't meet with Laur this week unfortunately. His mom was in the hospital so we rescheduled. Speaking of hospital! One of our less active members was in the hospital because of a possible blood clot that might have had something to do with her heart. We hope not!! We saw her yesterday though, and she seems to be doing better. I think she got a stent put in, but as I am neither good at Finnish nor medical things, I am glad I don't know much. But she seems to be good.

We also met with two other less actives. We taught one about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she said that it really helped her to learn about it again, because it made more sense to her. She said that it helped her head. It was sweet.

Another less active we met with has just had surgery, so we went to her house and helped her clean but she has cats and I am allergic to cats. It was a very sneezy day. It was so fun though. And she calls us her daughters and that she is our Finnish mom. She is really the sweetest and it felt good to be able to help her clean her house, then lift her spirits afterwards with the gospel.

Much more than that we didn't do this week. We had a week full of finding knocking on doors and talking to people. It's been really full of that. Also visiting members. We had dinner on Sunday with one family who fed us licorice ice cream. It is vanilla ice cream with a licorice ribbon running all throughout it. It sounds really disgusting, but it is actually not as bad as you would think. Eat it with a little bit of brownies and it's perfect!! Masks the taste!! Then last night we visited another member for family night and it was so fun!! We had sheet cake pancakes with ice cream and jam and fruit!! So it sounds normal, but they kept calling them pancakes, but they were definitely not American pancakes. But they were good and they were super kind to invite us. Earlier this week, on Wednesday we had brought the mom of this family a dew flowers just to show our appreciation for her. It was probably the best thing we ever did. She had had a terrible day at work and things in her home life were going not amazing. It was just a lot of hard things in one day to have to deal with. And then we came along, and Sister Kristensen wasn’t really sure if she even wanted to go over to her house and give them to her, but it was definitely a blessing that we went. It made her day so much better. More than the flowers, but to know someone was thinking about her and that we were grateful for her. It was such a special thing.

Then on another day we were talking to this lady at a bus stop on our rush home because of curfew. Anyways, we stopped to talk to her, and it turns out that she was from Estonia. It was really cool because we had only talking to her for a few seconds when this family in our ward passed by and luckily, the dad is from Estonia!!! So they spoke to each other in Estonian and Sister Kristensen got to listen. I on the other hand was speaking to the wife who’s from Venezuela (speaking English) about this American luncheon we’re having here in Lohja. We knocked on one of her friend’s doors so we asked her to invite her friend. It was awesome to see them and have that happen. The Lord was definitely on our side.

We also had another interesting contact happen yesterday. We were tracting and just before we left the area to go home for lunch, we walked down this street and saw a weird flag attached to a car trailer. We stopped by the car and had the man roll down his window to ask, and he was a roofer!! So we talked to him for a while and obviously we started talking about the church, and he was so interested! He asked so many questions and we had the answer to all of them! I was so happy we could help him! It was such a blessing to be able to find him and talk to him. We even gave him a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation because all his questions were like “What’s the purpose of life?” “What happens after death?” so it was sweet!!! It really was a blessing.

The last thing I want to talk about is a goal I set this week. I wanted to read the book of Alma in 10 days. Which meant (from where I Started) I needed to read 16 pages a day. It definitely isn’t easy even as a missionary. But I know the Lord is helping me. I know this book is true and I want to share it with everyone here. It’s hard sometimes, but reading the longest book in the book and so quickly is building my testimony about missionary work. Alma was one of the best missionaries and he is such an example. I know as we set and keep goals to read the Book of Mormon, the Lord strengthens our testimonies and helps us to find people to share it with. Even if you don’t think someone is ready, it’s worth it to say something about your experiences reading it. I love this Book and I know with all my heart it’s true. I love it and the fact I get to share it every day. I love you all and I miss you! I hope all of your weeks are amazing and you so much fun!!

With love,

Sisar McCammon

ps. It turns out that I can actually cook! I made hamburgers the other day and they were actually cooked and delicious!!!  I haven't seen the Northern Lights yet, but I heard that they aren't really seen this far south. unless it's maybe at like 1 in the Morning when I am asleep. They are rarer than we thought I guess.