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!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment