Sisar McCammon on a Mission to Finland: 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!!!!