It's not hot but you are!

So not a lot to report on this week. I like the style of highlights that I have been doing. Or at least that I have been doing in my head so here we go again....

We had a p day Young Single Adult activity/ birthday party for sister Nielson and a member in the ward. It was way fun. We went to Chinese and then came to the church and played cards and I made a cheesecake. It was lots of fun and the cheesecake was a success! The pictures may not do it justice, but it was so good!

We went out to an area that our member drove us too, so we could teach English. It is the place where our friends who moved here from Greece live. It was so fun! We got to eat an authentic Turkish breakfast with them. I also taught them about the fortune teller folder paper thing. It was really fun and they enjoyed it as much as we did.

On Friday we took our mini missionary home and it was really sad to see her go, but we made lifelong friends with her and I am so grateful for Facebook and IG so I can keep in touch with all my friends here in Finland. The people her are so amazing and kind. It was further shown on Friday when we went to a member's house on Friday and helped her weed around her fruit trees and lay down some fabric to keep the weeds from choking them out. It was fun and she made the BEST SOUP!! It was weird to have soup because of how hot it was, but regardless it was some of the best soup I have ever eaten in my life. 👌 We also did this thing where for 2 hours in the afternoon we went finding at the same time as all the sisters in Finland and in Denmark. We ended up setting something up with someone who has been a potential for forever, and also we found this really cool guy who was interested to discuss with us! It was such a blessing to have a sisters praying for sisters time, where we really got to see the miracles of missionary work.

On Saturday, President and Sister Aura were in town for interviews so we got to go running with The President in the morning and then have interviews a bit later. It was so nice to be able to see and talk to them again. They really are amazing missionaries, and amazing people! We also had the opportunity for service. We got to a member's childhood home and literally cleaned the entire thing. We helped clear everything out and them sweep and mop and wash doors and cupboards. It was so intensive but so cathartic. When we went in, it was a house that hadn't been cleaned for 10 years. Now it is empty and completely clean. Well as clean as two missionaries could possibly get it.

Our wonderful Sabbath day was good for the two hour spiritual experience, but we also had a lesson afterwards with the man we met on Friday! It was so cool. He even offered to meet a second time and to make dinner/lunch for us and our member. It was so sweet and we are REALLY excited to go back. We also have been going to this Bible study on the last Sunday of every month and because it is Sister Nielson's last one, the host asked us to prepare what the Spirit whispered to  us. We were so honored. We decided to talk about conversion using the story of Saul. We went along quite well with the Come Follow ME. It was a really good discussion. I learned a lot about my own conversion and I was able to help others learn more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

On Monday we had an experience that goes along really well with the Atonement of Christ. We were doing some tracting in an area that has had a lot of missionaries go through it and not a lot of success. So we switched from apartment buildings to homes a couple streets over. We were tracting down this row of house and in number 7 there was a really fun and happy lady who wasn't interested but put us in a good mood. Then the next door down we met a lady who was so prepared. She was once part of one church but had left that church because of changes she didn't agree with , so she had been going to a different church. She said she was searching for the truth, so we gave her a card and a Book of Mormon and showed her the promise of the Book of Mormon. That anyone who reads it and prays about it will come to find out for themselves that it is true. they don't have to trust me and neither do you. I really know this promise is true. I wouldn't be here without it. I ask all of you to take the chance. See what kind of truth and peace you can find because it is there. You don't have to question because God has given us the answers already. Take a chance to find the answers that will last for eternity. It will really speak peace to your souls and I know that you will come closer to your Heavenly Father and Savior. I love you all so much and I know of the truthfulness of what I am doing, and what I believe in. I hope you have a great week, and can find some of the same answers I have.

Love,
Sisar McCammon


Running with President Aura

The Cheesecake Abbie made with homemade cherry topping! 

Saying Goodbye to their Mini Missionary

Halfway hump day!!!

Hello hello!

This week was so crazy. But crazy fun! Also crazy stressful. There is this program for youth here in Finland where an 16-18 year old will come live with a member for a week and come be a missionary from 9-9. It is so fun and we were lucky enough to get a Missionary! SO we have been able to actually converse with people in Finnish on a completely different level. It has been awesome! plus she is so bold and so amazing! Her name is Sister Järvi and she is from Turku. She is so excited to be a missionary and we have been fast friends. She is so good to be here and WE LOVE HER SO MUCH!! 💗 One thing that happened Monday with her was so cool. It was a thing where we were going to someone who was contacted by missionaries in the past and we went to see if he still wanted to learn. He did. He wanted to learn right then. His apartment was "messy" so he came outside and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. About the very basics of what we believe and where the church comes from and why we have the Book of Mormon. He was so interested and wanted to learn and had questions. And Sister Järvi did so good! She shared personal experiences and taught so well! It really touched him and showed him that the Gospel really can bless his life. It totally changed the lesson, it brought the Spirit so much.

I hit my 9 months this week which is basically halfway. It was weird. Halfway. I have been gone for 9 whole months. So sister Nielson and I went out to a restaurant for dinner. It was so good. Way worth it. We were going to go to one that ended up being closed. I wish I would have taken a picture of us, but dinner was so good! The best crispy chicken sandwich in the world. But happy halfway to me.. 🎉

On Saturday we were having our normal English class when we see this man knock on the door of the church. SO we go talk to him and he is looking for the Finnish school, to learn Finnish. And we ended up getting his phone number and getting to talk to him. We are going to help him and reinforce his Finnish. Just practice is all. So that was way cool. Sometimes the people come knocking on our door! Granted he didn't know it was a church, but it was almost a Utah mission moment. So that was really fun.

Oh yeah. Thursday night, I got asked to speak in church, and because of the craziness of our mini missionary, I forgot. So Saturday night, I got to write the first half of my talk, then Sunday morning finish up, then deliver it in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. So that was fun. It went pretty well. I was really nervous about it, but everyone said it was good and were really nice about it, so it must have been good. I am a little embarrassed though. I forgot the word for heaven. Of all the words I should know, I should know the word heaven, and I forgot it! It was silly, but I asked the counselor in the bishopric and he was happy to help. it was nice.

The last thing that happened this week was a quote from one of our members. She had driven down to Helsinki to see a former mission companion. And didn't sleep the night before much, so she went and didn't feel very good and her companion wanted to take a picture, but she said "I don't want to take a picture, I look like Elton John!" It was so funny, because she is so cute, and it was so funny to hear her say that. It made me laugh and made my day. I loved it so much! Made my day!

It was a good week. Lots of ups and downs emotionally but lots of fun. I know that I have been helped by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much. I know that most of you that read this are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. But for those of you who are not. Please meet with missionaries. There are so many things you don't know about our beliefs and I promise you that it will bless you to just learn a little bit more. I know what the Church has done for me. It isn't just another Christian church. It really is the only true church on the Earth, and Jesus Christ is leading it. We are different because Jesus Christ is here. I ask you to please read the Book of Mormon and pray about you. You really will come to know it is true. Even if you are a member. Read the Book of Mormon and pray to confirm that it is true. It will strengthen you beyond measure. I love you all!

Love,
Sister McCammon

A member gave them a "warm" fish.  They took it home and put it in the freezer because they didn't have time to eat it.  They didn't realize that it was cooked! LOL!!!

A few pictures of them with their "little Sister"!

Ducks and Fresh Finnish Strawberries

Hey Everyone!
This week will be a short email week because we like to talk in my family! But there isn't much to say about the week anyways. We are going through our records from everyone that we have information about, so that has been taking a lot of time. We are going digital with our technology, and the Finns have REALLY REALLY strict privacy laws. So as we go through all of our records, we are calling people to see if they are still interested and if we can get them our privacy notice. If all is good then we send it to them and can add them into our digital records. It is quite a process, and it takes a lot of time. It is pretty fun though. It is a really big blessing though because we didn't think we were going to get to do it until the end of the year. It takes a lot of time though, so we are slowly working our way through.

Some highlights of this week:

On Thursday we went out to a far away area with a couple of our members to follow up with some people. It was really fun! Then on the way home, one member decided to take us to another member's STRAWBERRY STAND and buy us fresh strawberries! It was so good! Nothing like fresh Finnish strawberries. Then he took us out to dinner! He is the best and loves the missionaries so much! It is amazing, and we are so grateful for how much he helps us. He is an amazing missionary!

On Friday I held a duck (picture included). That was a really big highlight. It was at one of our member's houses. It is their pet. It was awesome. They are the funnest people! Then that night, after we got back from helping them out, we got our good Sister Training Leaders in town! We got to meet with them and go out and talk to people with a new companion. It was fun! My MTC Companion is on of them and Sister Nielson's MTC companion is the other. So it was way fun for us to all be together!

On Monday we held an English class and had a blast with our friends! They are all foreigners, and they are so smart! They learn so quickly and they are so nice!!  It is so much fun and we love spending time with them!! Then that evening we got to meet with a newer family in the ward and strengthen them. After they joined the church 5 years ago, I am not sure how much the missionaries have stayed with them because thhey live so far way, so it was really fun to get to be with them and learn more about them! The members here are so amazing and so strong! I love getting to know them, it always strengthens my testimony. I love it!

I think those are the biggest highlights. It was a bit of a slow week. Not much to report, but it was good. I felt a lot of the Spirit of the Lord this week. He is with me just as much as He is with all of you. I hope you can all feel His love and my love this week!

Abbie's Uncle Jason and his family put together a sweet package for her.  The pancake mix is so she can be ready for the family get together on Labor Day this year.  We always have a pancake breakfast at Grandpa McCammons house for Wellsville Founders day.  Now she can join the fun it'll just be in Finland!!!

Rakkaudellani, Sisar McCammon

July Begins

What a week!! I hope you all had a fulfilling week and enjoyed wishing America Happy Birthday!! We had a pretty normal week too. It has been really rainy and really cloudy all week, so it has gotten quite cold and smells like a paper factory town. So pretty normal stuff for Lappeenranta. Because it has been averagely average. I'll do a highlights reel.

Tuesday was zone conference in HELSINKI!! It was so fun! I got to see Sister Kristensen again and the Auras and all my missionary friends. It was so fun. The only downside was that our train there was delayed by an hour or so, so we got there a little late. Then I had a n interview with President during lunch that went waaaayyy over, so I missed quite a bit of zone conference. It was all good though. It was good what I did hear. We really focused on personal conversion. It as a really good topic. Our mission scripture right now is Alma 23:6. It talks about how the people Ammon and his brothers taught never did fall away. They received a testimony then acted on it all the time. As a thinking question: how converted are you to Jesus Christ? Is there something more you could be doing? Maybe that isn't be more busy, but maybe it is read one more verse in the Book of Mormon. Or apply the teachings you learn a little more diligently. Busier isn't equivalent to better. So it was a pretty good conference. I definitely learned a lot and definitely need to change a lot.

Wednesday we visited a home bound member and she is amazing and I love her. She loves having us over and getting to talk. It is the best part of missionary work honestly. To brighten up her day whenever we go. Then we went and visited with a part member family and got to help them feel the Spirit. It was really nice. That was probably the coldest day yet. They live pretty far away, and it was pretty chilly. It was so nice though. Their house was warm and thye fed us cookies and juice. They are the sweetest couple. We got to wish the husband a happy birthday because he turned 90 recently! He is so cool!Then we went to the BEST BIBLE STUDY EVER! I didn't understand a word, but our friends are back from the north and there were so many poeple and the wife made dinner with rice flour because my companion is gluten free! It was awesome! Also Proverbs in the Bible. A+.

Thursday or INDEPENDENCE DAY!    It was pretty actually average. Nothing happened till that night. We had our "Finnish Language hour" where we taught our American member a little bit of Finnish and ate potato chips, Snickers, and drank 7up. With red, white and blue straws. And flag napkins. And an American Flag in the window. So nothing too special, but as American as 2 missionaries with limited resources can do.

Friday we went to Imatra and were tracting and stuff out there. It was fun. There is this huge river there though and we were sitting a couple 100 meters away and heard this really loud classical music being blasted from that direction. SO we went to investigate. It was a huge dam in the river just letting a whole bunch of water through. Just flowing. ANd there were so many people just standing and watching while being deafen by the music being played over the sound of the water. Very odd for the Finns but it was so cool! really pretty too. then later we came home.

Saturday we had a member drive us out to a couple friends who want to learn English, so we got to teach them. Well they are basically fluent so we were helping them practice by speaking and listening and learning new words. And it was so much fun! They moved to Greece and met missionaries when they were first living there then when they moved here, the missionaries referred them. So when we were there, they called the missionary there and we got to talk to them! it was way cute! Then we went home and that night after some tracting we had a surprise meeting with the ward mission leader because he couldn't meet at the normal time,so we had our meeting. And he BROUGHT ICE CREAM! AND CANDY! He is literally so cool. It was an awesome meeting too. He shared John 3:16-17 and talked about how we just need faith to be saved and I could see that he was a really good missionary. So along with what he said, I just encourage you all to remember that Christ didn't come to tell us that we could be doing more and we aren't good enough, but He tells us everyday to turn to Him and He will take care of it. We just need to have faith in Him.

Sunday was church and I got to translate for testimony meeting. SO that was fun. Finnish skills coming in clutch. But the better part was a spiritual/revelatory experience regarding Mosiah 24:13-14.  It talks about how God will ease our burdens so that we can stand as witnesses of Him. When I read that, I thought of the difficulties of my mission, and in reflecting, I could see specific moments where I really received His help. Then I really felt the need to BE His witness. Then that night in a rainy, cold tracting block, we were over by a less active couple's house, so we went and knocked on their door. Luckily, the husband was home. His wife is having some medical problems, and it has been hard for them both. I remembered Mosiah 24 and was able to testify to him that God really does help. It brought the Spirit and we were able to commit him to read a little from the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see how God gave me a specific opportunity to testify and realize what I was doing. It was a special tender mercy through some difficult times. GOD HELPS US! I really have come to know that through my mission. You probably all know that I am homesicker than a dog, but Heavenly Father helps. If He will help in homesickness He will help you in anything. He will. Trust in Him and have faith in Christ.

Monday was pretty good too. From Saturday our English class friends sent us one of their friends who doesn't speak much English. SO we got to teach her and another woman from the same place. It was so fun! And they are SO CUTE! It was so fun to help them! Then that evening we visited a Less Active couple. And again SO CUTE! They have two kids, but they are grown up and out of the house, so we just got to visit them and they are the sweetest ever. They were both so interested in us, and we in turn got to find out about their super cool life!! These people are awesome! Y'all should come to Lappenranta because seriously. It is so cool. It also is the greenest city in the world. SO come check it out. Also the people here are amazing!

That is all for this week. I hope you all had a wonderful week and I hope you continue on having an awesome week this week. It will be a good one! Love you all and miss you!

Love,
Sisar McCammon

Zone Conference

 Sisar Nielson (Her now companion, and her first companion) Sisar Kristensen IDK who's she's hugging!

This is a cool flower!

The Dam at Imatra from her letter

Lapeenranta is so pretty!!!

Looks like a shoe insole has lost the war! I think this is from her companions shoe she leaves in a few weeks to come home.

Into the Woods!

Our week was actually kinda blah. Tuesday was good with it being p-day. We actually taught two lessons. So that was something. It was good though. We had a good time. We even got to go out for ice cream after the one in the morning. With her! It was awesome! She really seems to like the missionaries and what we have to say. She really loves the Book of Mormon and it has been fun to share it with her. Our lesson that night was good too. We taught about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really cool because as we taught, I could feel my testimony being strengthened. It was really special and I really felt the power in what we are saying. It isn't just a message, but it is true. It is the word of God. It was really special.

Wednesday sucked. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep. Not just couldn't sleep because I was awake, but I WAS SICK!!! I was so wiped and just couldn't breathe I felt achy and just like I was dying. It sounds like an over exaggeration. But I felt sick. After planning, I went back to bed, and laid there but couldn't sleep. I couldn't breathe while laying down and can't sleep standing up. I spent a lot of time blowing my nose. After about 45 minutes, I just went and showered, and Sister Nielson was kind enough to tell me that we aren't going to go out that day. SO I basically laid there sick all day.

Thursday would probably have been similar, but we had district council. It was good. Our new district leader is my MARJAR friend!! He followed me from Marjaniemi. He is a really good leader. We had an awesome council, and travel has changed so we had time. It was awesome. After council we went to this International super market/fair thing. It is way cool. We have a couple members there that came from Ecuador. So we got to talk to them and invite them to church. They are so sweet. It was super special. Their stand is so cool too. After we invited them, we went across the way and ate dinner at this Mexican food stand. We were basic and just had tacos, but it was so good. It tasted like home. Especially because the stand said Mexico every where and there were Mexican flags, but when we asked were they were from, only one said Mexico... sounds like America right? It was fun though.

Friday we went and got to serve a member on her farm then came home and planned before going to the fair for dinner again and getting a kangaroo burger from the Australian stand. From a Brit. He wasn't even Australian. I felt like I was in Austenland. When Mr. Nobley spills that Martin is a "kiwi" and Jane just looks at him and says "You're not even from here!?" and he just says... "It's part of the commonwealth..." It was movie moment for sure.

Saturday we went tracting and discovered this street of farmhouses and tracted them. As we walked down this one path though, there weren't anymore houses, but we kept walking thinking maybe there was another and discovered a lake. It was cool. So we took pictures. Got a bunch of bug bites, but it was worth it.

Sunday was good though. We taught a lesson to such an amazing woman. She contacted us maybe a month and a half ago, and we have been in pretty good contact though. She is interested in what we have to say, and is really searching for peace that comes from outside herself. She isn't really religious, but she is searching, and she texted us after we left and told us how much she hopes she can find what we have. It was awesome. Then we had a non-denominational Bible study and it was sweet. It almost felt like the woman leading was a member of the church. She understands so well, and she is amazing. It was so crazy.

That's the week. I am really trying to get better at my homesickness and feeling better about my efforts here. So I have a question. If you tell my mom the answers or send them to me, I would love to know what you all think. What kind of things do you all do when you feel discouraged. Is there something that you do like cart wheels? Or a scripture that gets you remotivated? I would love to hear. It would really help. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister McCammon

Tracting Farmhouses and found a lake!

International Market Faire

Abbie working in the outdoors.  She's done that more in the time she's been in Finland than her whole life here in Idaho!  LOL!!!