Sisar McCammon on a Mission to Finland: 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