Just keep knocking!

Hello family and friends! Another week another Tuesday! It feels like last Tuesday was yesterday but also a year ago. How is it that I've only been away for 5 months?  It hasn't even felt that long.  There's a saying I heard in the MTC that applies.  The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days.  It is very true, but lets talk about my days.

Last Tuesday after we talked, we went to Helsinki! We got to finally renew our bus cards.  So that was fun.  Then on our way home my companions bought themselves new rain boots.  So that was fun. Not me though.  I'm not quite ready to buy stuff by myself yet. Then that evening we taught a new person! He's half Finnish and half Moroccan.  He is so cool. He does Acrobatics! Like everyday! It is so cool! Then after his lesson (which went so good!) we taught our recent convert. (He's cool too) We taught him about temples and eternal families. We committed him to do family history and go to the ward gathering for it...and HE WENT! It was a miracle!!!

Wednesday we had district council and the Aura's came.  We talked about having hope as we teach.  I liked the quote "Hope keeps us alive, faith keeps our hope alive.  "Very true.  Then I had an interview with President Aura and he is so sweet.  He talked with me about my homesickness.  Its been really bad this transfer. Being away from home has really been hard as I've been in a bigger city with more people.  I find myself longing for things at home, I try not to let it distract me too much. That evening we taught a returning member and talked about Patriarchal Blessings.  She gets hers on Saturday!  It will be such a blessing for her.  She is just the sweetest.  So kind.  Then we ran to a lesson with our family from Iraq.  They gave us dates! Which is awesome!!! Then the member we brought (speaks Arabic) took over and talked about the hierarchy of the church and we just bore testimony and had to  run home because it was late, but it was such a good lesson.

Thursday was a pretty good day.  We had some time to find in the morning.  It wasn't really effective but we saw a gorgeous view of nature and I should have a picture.  It was pretty. Honestly the weather this week reminds me of Idaho.  Sunny. Windy. Chilly. Snowy. Sunny. Rainy. It was nice though. then we came home and did some companion *kieli (language) studies. Before going to a dinner appointment. It was with Vanhin Skinners grandparents. They are the sweetest! They have been in love since 14 and their 1st date was to go watch the movie South Pacific!♡ (She LOVES this movie) Then later that evening we taught our Chinese friend and he's still progressing.  He always says the cutest things. We got a text yesterday that said his tender mercy was when we called and told him we pray for him!

Friday We met some cool people in the SUN!!! even though it was windy. It was sunny!!! 🌞 I can start wearing my sunglasses now.  It was so nice. But then we had to weekly plan inside which kinda sucked but wasn't bad.  We just opened all the blinds! SUN! Then that evening we taught a new person!  He is 100% Finnish! So nice!  He has been taught before, but still so interested. We taught him for a bit too long because we had to walk to the church 30 min away, but our member's car was too small to fit us and her husband and child. So her husband waited without a phone so we could be on time!  Then we had our English class and 2 new friends came!  1 Finnish guy, and 1 Russian man and his cute daughter! Miracles!

Saturday was a ward coordination with the Elders and our ward mission leader where we talk about missionary work.  So good!  Then we had not 1, not 2, but 3 lessons fall through, so we worked on finding a lot throughout the day. A rainy day, outside, tracting, but we contacted one really cool dad who wasn't interested to learn but wants to read the Book of Mormon. Then that evening for sports our Finnish friend from English came and another Finnish friend who we met walking down the street who told us he would read the Book of Mormon like 3 weeks ago. It was so fun to just have fun and play sports just to play!

Sunday brought church and another dinner appointment.  It was very relaxed and pretty fun. It was with an older couple and they were really nice and very chatty. But unfortunately that was the only thing that worked out.  Our other few (3) lessons fell through. So we just knocked on a few doors and contacted a lot of people.  it was good though.  The Lord really did help us by putting awesome people in our path so we could bring them closer to Christ.

Then Finally Monday was district council again because Return and Report is this week for the new missionaries.  we talked about really committing people to follow Christs example.  Asking them the hard questions, but then promising blessings because God is just waiting to help.  So in our lesson that afternoon (with the Finn that came to English and Sports) we used what we learned.  AND he said that when he knows the Book of Mormon and  that this church is really God's true church, he would be baptized!  He wouldn't set a date, but he said yes!  It was an awesome lesson. I ate some old turkey at lunch and my stomach was hurting. And his lesson lasted 3 hours.  It was so long. So we hurried home for dinner and I laid in bed until I felt better then we went out to contact some people before we came home and got to relax.

This week was really good even though I was homesick.  As I turn to Christ.  I really feel his strength and he helps me do His work.  I know He loves all of you and I invite you to do something to help someone else feel His love.  I promise that as you do so, you will feel how much He loves them and you!
Have a wonderful week!!!
Love ❣ Sisar McCammon

Hissi - Finnish, Hiss Swedish = Elevator 2 henkilöä - finnish, personer - swedish = person.   I am assuming if you are in a trio you take the stairs! LOL!!!

Selfie with President and Sisar Aura and the Elders in their area.

The beauty of Finland!

Abbie and Sisar Wulfenstein at sports night! Thanks to a returning member for this picture!!!

Arabic Town...is that a thing!?!?

SO what a week! It  was so busy but so good! I love you all so much and it really showed this week. I was bit more homesick than usual. But the Lord really does help when we put Him first and be obedient and ask for help. As an update on a couple of our friends:

The people we are teaching are good. We extended a baptismal date to our friend B. He is going to baptism on May 4th. It will be really awesome! We are making him a baptismal calendar tomorrow, so hopefully that helps him to progress and be ready to make that covenant with God. I also know that God will help him too because he is choosing the right.

We also moved G's date back to April 27th. And he is really excited for that. He is working on Sunday's right now for a couple weeks, but we have faith that he will be ready when he starts coming to church again. It will be great.

The family we are teaching, we also tried to give them a soft baptismal invitation, but they apparently have no interest in becoming Christian. If we can get them to read the Book of Mormon though, they could do it. Their hearts would change. We just need to get them there. They love Christians and believe in God, and kind of Jesus Christ, but they don't really believe in him. It makes it a little different, but we might just have to change some things to get them there. They are still children of God, even if they don;t want to go to baptism.

We were teaching our friend S yesterday and we were teaching about tender mercies from God. We explained what they were and talked about some tender mercies that we have seen. Then we asked him what a tender mercy for him was. He said "You are the angels God sent to me to save me. That is my tender mercy." It was the most special thing and he was so sweet and sincere. It was something that reminded me that the work here is important and I am making a difference in people's lives.  He is progressing so well, and he is so ready for everything. It's awesome!

We also traveled to Iraq this week. Twice. We went to teach one family and they don't speak much English or Finnish, and our translator wasn't there. So they made us dinner, but while they finished, they put on Arabic Christian rock. And then they fed us good Iraqian eats. It is called Dolma and is probably the best foreign food I have ever eaten. Look it up. (I looked it up and I can't believe she loves it, who knew!) The other time was last night. We went out to dinner with the elders and a recent convert to get kebab. It was so good! I thought for sure that we had left Finland. It was to yummy! It was in this place that all the Arabic people have built restaurants and stuff. Kinda like China town but Arabic. We were literally the only white people there. It was crazy. I literally thought we were kidnapped like in Now You See Me 2. It was so fun though!

Those are the experiences that stick out the most this week. And every morning is the same. No matter the good or bad, I get up and I get dressed. I exercise and get ready and plan and eat and study, then go out and do the Lord's work. I know he is there and guiding me every step of the way, I also know that he is helping each and every one of us. We are all his children with so much divine potential and love. He loves us so much. I know this and that's why I am here. I share His love. I hope you all can find a way to feel his love a little bit more this week.

With all my love,
Sisar McCammon!!

 Abbie and Sisar Wulfenstein on exchanges. I think her nametag says Hollingsworth.

 She bought herself a souvineir of Finland! Cute!!!

 I think all Sister missionaries have this happen but apparently a new convert had a small crush and gave Ab this mug.  They got it figured out though. 

 Remember her 7 euro ice cream, yeah I got the pic this week.

A Few pics of Finland

Amos Rex Art Museum in Helsinki click here if you want to see aerial views.

Pictures of the outside of their church.

How does the Spirit speak to you?

Hey just a quick rundown of a couple spiritual experiences this week. I've decided to cut down on the random stuff we do throughout the day, because they aren't as important as the special experiences here in Finland. So here are a few that happened!

I was reading about accountability in chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel. Wow. I read one of the scriptures, Hebrews 13:17-18, and I felt really impressed to share it with our Ward Mission Leader, but when the time came I was a bit nervous, but Sister Hansen leaned over and said that everything good comes of God and that I should go for it. So I did and he and his wife were both so touched that we pray for them and they smiled and told us that they pray for us too, and are really appreciative of what we do. It was a moment that I was glad to have shared, and has really helped to start to recognize better, how the Holy Ghost speaks to me. It was so special and and I was really glad that I listened and shared the spirit with them.

One spiritual experience happened when we were on splits and couldn't decide whether to take a bus or walk through the mall. They were both equal amounts of time. I didn't really want to wait for the bus and kinda felt that we should walk, so we went inside. We were walking through and I just said hello to a couple of men, and they stopped. We had just had a kind of bashy/negative experience with a man at his door which bummed us out, but these two men were so nice and so willing to talk and were super interested to talk to us some more. It was sweet! They both took a Book and we were so blessed to have met them. It really helped build my confidence in following little feelings from the Spirit because it really made the day better.

Another one was when we went tracting. We had already gone there last week and got to meet this man who had met sisters before and a less active member who was interested again. But we decided to go again and try to follow up with her, but she wasn't home, so we were walking around and talking and tracting, and met these two men. They were from Russia and were so nice. They wanted to take the lessons from us (hopefully for the right reason) but they were pretty interested and wanted to come to English hour too. So that was something super nice and way cool!!

We also have a new person we are teaching!! She is the husband of one we got last week. They are from Iraq but they converted to Christianity like 3 years ago and want to build their faith in Christ, so they are awesome. It was so special to teach them last night and try to help them come unto Christ. I also bought $7 Ben and Jerry's. That was a spiritual experience. It was the new flavor like Love is... or something. I don't know. It was so good though. We got to share some ice cream and cake with the STLs and that was super fun. It was so fun to do splits with other missionaries. It was so fun to see how other missionaries do work.

I also learned this this week. Do your part and then God will do the rest. He is aware of us every single step of the way and he helps us. When we turn towards the lord and let him make up the difference, miracles happen. Miracles can be anything. Especially when we attribute things to the Spirit. We recognize the Lord so much and become much better and happier to focus on Christ. He loves us so much and I have felt so much love from Him and through his Atonement. I know He loves me and I know He loves each of you individually and loves your family. I hope you all have a wonderful week and find a new way to focus on Christ as He is our Savior and Friend. Have a great week!!

Love Sisar McCammon

We got to talk to Abbie again it was nice to see her.  She is feeling much better!  Her bubbly self was back. She told us one more story.  She really is seeing the Lord working through her and it was so fun to listen to her talking about her experiences. In high school Abbie took Spanish and liked speaking it.  The other day they were heading out the door and she said she thought to herself I should take the Spanish Book of Mormon with me today, I could look through it on the bus to see how much I still understand.  So she tucked it in her bag.  On the bus the were talking to a lady from Ecuador and she was struggling with English and she didn't speak Finnish. Abbie reached into her bag and handed her the Spanish Book of Mormon and handed her the book.  She told her in Spanish, "I know the things in this book are true." The lady was so happy to have something in Spanish to read and was touched that Abbie gave her the book and her testimony.  Abbie said it was interesting to realize that it was just a thought, but she knows the Holy Ghost helped her be prepared to meet this woman today.


She doesn't take many pictures in this area. This is just a little companion fun!

Letter by Proxy!

This week Abbie didn’t have a lot of time to write. They got their later than expected and were going to the temple for p-day so they had to hurry. But I did get to talk to her and she gave me a rundown of her week and I took some notes.  Hopefully I can do her words justice, and remember because it was the middle of the night! It was so good to hear her tell these stories!  Much more emotion behind it than just reading it!

She had a really good week.  Honestly I know a lot of people don’t really like the new rule of being able to talk once a week, but I think for Abbie it helps.  I asked her how her week went and she said it was a good week.  We discussed how hard it is to talk to other people and how she feels like she has to explain everything and give a life story to help others understand but then they just tell her to snap out of it.  Its good for her to have a place to vent her frustrations and someone who will just listen to her.  I think it helps to lighten her load.  She said for her it helped and didn’t make her more homesick at all.  She likes being connected, and quite honestly so do I.  Even if it is at 1 am!!!

On Tuesday after P-day was finished they met with their Syrian family.  She said that he moved here about a year and a half ago and would go into Christian Churches asking people to pray that his family would be able to join him.  Even though they were raised Muslim they love Jesus Christ.  It is a whole family.  The mom and Dad a set of triplets and a son and I believe she said another daughter.  There is a new convert that was baptized on Feb 9^th and he if from Iraq so he is able to help them teach this family because language barrier is an issue.  But this new convert is so excited to be able to help.   On Tues. mornings at 10am at the Church they have a Family History gathering for the members. They ran into an Irish lady on the bus that was talking to them and she said she loves family history and uses Family Search but it makes her crazy that people keep changing her family tree and she wanted to find out why. They told her they weren’t sure they didn’t work with that program but she could go to the church at 10 on Tuesdays and get help.  Abbie said they were so excited because she actually came.

On Wed they had Zone conference which she said was good they focused on Love. She told me they had a focus for each letter of love but yet again I didn’t write it down! It was good I wish I could remember.  I have written down that they taught the Syrian family.  I remember her saying more but I can’t remember what.

Thursday – She said they do a lot of finding.  Talking to people on buses and the metro and they come in contact with a lot of people who are interested but she said it frustrating because it seems like they don’t ever follow up on the people that seem interested.  They have to do better.  For example they came across a young man about 25ish and they asked him what he was Grateful for.  He told them that he was grateful for God.  He took a Book of Mormon and told them he was going to read it and gave them his number.  As of this time they hadn’t contacted him yet.  She was hoping it wasn’t a missed opportunity.

Friday – Oh man my notes aren’t a thorough as I thought!  They went to a members house to clean and give her service (I can’t remember what Abbie said but it was like a bad back or hurt leg or something.)  She has a couple of little kids.  Abbie said it was fun.  Later that day they taught their Chinese investigator, the language barrier with him is also tough.  He uses google translate on his phone quite a bit.  They were teaching him about the restoration and had 3 little figurines that represented God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.  She said it was such a special spiritual moment when they were teaching him and they used google to help him understand the meaning of Holy Ghost.  She said he was just beaming with understanding and the spirit was so strong.  On Friday they also have what’s called English hour where they teach English.  She said they have from 6 to 11 people there usually.  The young Iraqi man (he’s about 27) that was just baptized was there and was so proud of himself for inviting the Syrian family.  They had a good class she said.

Saturday – They showed up with the Vinhins to help a Sisar in their ward move to a new apartment.  Apparently it was just a bigger place in the same apartment complex.  But the elevator was broken. She wasn’t really ready for them so they waited around a lot.  They finally told her they’d have to leave soon because of appointments so they hurried and moved a bunch of boxes before they left.  Then they went and changed and had to hurry because they had a lesson at the church and since it was fast Sunday the next day they had to hurry and grab food to take with them.  The man they were teaching has a baptismal date set but I didn’t write down when that is.  She said they were late, but the Elders were there at the Church when they got there, but their guy wasn’t there yet so they hurried and ate something.  Abbie said the peanut butter sandwich wasn’t a great meal to start a fast with!  He was late so their lesson didn’t quite go as planned but they taught him about Faith.   After the lesson on Saturdays they have Sports night.  Its for members and non-members alike.  Anyone who wants to come and play.  Abbie loves it.  She misses going to the gym so much that this is a fun out for her.  They played indoor Floor hockey called Sähly pronounced Sah-lu (make sure the h makes a small sound she said!)  a.k.a Salibandy.  They played that for a bit and felt a little like someone might get hurt and so they changed to Volleyball.  With her record though maybe its better if she stays away from that too. LOL!

Sunday – Church in their new area is at 10 am.  The Iraqi man just has received the Aaronic Priesthood and this was his first Sunday passing the sacrament.  He was so excited and borrowed a suit from the missionaries and Abbie said he took it so seriously, it was very cute! After church they went and finished helping the lady from yesterday move her stuff.  Abbie said she has cats and so did the apartment they moved her too and her allergies were bad.  After they went back home so Abbie could wash and take an Allergy pill.  They went back to the church to teach a lesson to a man from Nepal.  They were showing him the pictures in the book of Mormon and talked to him about Alma and baptism and asked if that is something he was interested in and he said yes!  They were very excited!!!  They also had a scheduled lesson with the Syrian family but the dad wasn’t there so they didn’t teach a lesson.

Monday they did some street contacting, they use a large poster of Christ and stand around it.  Abbie said this is not her favorite.  It feels like they are selling something and she doesn’t like it.  Everyone has their favorite way to contact I suppose.  But she said she wanted to share with me how the spirit worked for them this day.  They had a lesson they were supposed to go to and so they were at the metro station getting ready to go and they ran into a lady they was a member but hadn’t been active for a long time and they talked to her for a while and will be making contact with her to help reactivate, but it was making Abbie anxious because they had to leave for their appt.  She said the spirit told her it was fine and this was where they needed to be.  Then they started to head to their appt and came across another person who came up and told them he had been taught by the sisters a year or so ago and wanted them to come back.  When they got to their appt they were so late but ended up being fine because the person they were meeting with had cancelled and sent them a text but forgot to hit send.  But she said they would have got it they might not have been in the right place to contact those other two people.  She said it was an amazing feeling! She sees the Lords hand in what they are doing! 

I love this girl!  But more than anything I love the Lord!!! What an amazing opportunity it is for these youth to witness the Lord working in their life.  At no other time in our lives do we work as hard as missionaries do with the sole purpose of bringing others to know Christ!  What a blessing and a strength if they focus on the promised blessings. In studying the Sermon on the Mount the last couple of weeks I have realized that I have work to do in living the higher law that Jesus gave. I love Matt 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  Abbie is doing just that!  She is full of light and shining for those in Finland to see!  Then in Matt 6:33  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”  There are people out there Asking, Seeking, and Knocking waiting for the gospel.  I am so thankful Abbie was willing to take up this cause and preach the gospel to those searching.

Thank you all for being willing to give love prayers and support to Abbie!  She loves you all and asked that I passed on to you her gratitude.  This has been a good week for her.

Love, Tammie

Zone Conference pic

 Helsinki Zone

 Abbie and Sisar Wulfenstein (one in her trio)

 Reunion with Sisar Kristensen at zone conference

Not sure about the rest of the pics just Finland!