Wow it has been such a great week. Transfer week. Guess who is staying in Jyväskylä... Yep you guessed it--- ME!!! It's funny because I was almost so sure that I would be leaving after having been here for a little over 6 months. I think I had thought that I might not like it if I stayed another transfer, but when we got the phone call from President, I was just super happy-- running around the apartment like my normal crazy self. So... I will be staying here with my same companions, Sister Saarinen (the Finn) and Sister Adams (the Idahoan). Sister Saarinen could potentially get her visa to go to America in the next two weeks in which case she would be leaving us, but if not, she will stay for another 6 weeks here in Finland, and because our transfers are 9 weeks, hopefully that would mean she would be with us for the rest of the next transfer! :) We'll see what happens. I think she is ready for the warmth of St. George though--
This week it got down to -30 Celsius which is I think about -22 Fahrenheit. It was pretty frosty to say the least, but we stayed warm enough luckily. There hasn't been much snow, but this week it's supposed to snow some finally.
We had splits this week and fortunately for me, my trainer is still one of the Sister Training Leaders. She is leaving for home this week, and so it was really nice to spend time doing missionary work together for the last time before she goes home. I love Sister Seegmiller. She taught me so much.
Well because there are three of the Sister Training Leaders, and three of us, we decided to all split in three ways, so therefore we could do more missionary work.... well let me tell ya. We placed 21 Books of Mormon in one day. Can you believe that?? Crazy right! It was so awesome. The best part of all of this, is that splits day was the coldest day that it has been so far. I was literally outside for about 7 hours of the day. Definitely had some cold toes and hands, but we did so much missionary work! Wow what a super solid and fun day!
Well this week we got 2 new investigators who we taught both twice. BUT... sad news, they both decided to not keep learning about the Gospel. It was rather rough because I got so so excited, but that's alright. We have lots of potentials this week that we set up appointments with that we're hoping will yield some great results. Tonight we have two scheduled! Also, a former investigator that we were teaching a little while ago who we dropped for a bit, is coming back to Jyväskylä and we're going to pick her up and start teaching her on Friday. Coolest story I think for the week--
So a few weeks back, we decided to go through the Area Book again and just search to see if we could find anyone that we just really thought we should go to. Well low and behold... we found this teaching record of a former who for some reason, no one has gone back in over a year or more. There wasn't really a huge reason of why they shouldn't and so of course we pulled it out and said we would go. Well while on splits, we went to her house and finally found her home and set up a return appointment with her. Well we taught her last night and it was SUCH A GOOD LESSON. It was awesome. So when we were all getting ready to leave I decided to ask her about the previous missionaries. Then I finally asked so why did they stop coming-- to which she responded, "I don't really know." How crazy is that?? I am just super happy that we found her and are teaching her now. It's really great to have some investigators and to be teaching people.
So one last story for the week. We had a lesson with our recent convert family on Sunday and we talked all about Baptisms for the Dead and the temple and committed them to getting temple recommends from the Bishop. Well baptisms for the dead is not something that I have explained too many times on my mission and needless to say, I really struggled for words and grammar principles during that lesson. We had a member along, and I think because I struggled so much, she was just trying to cover up the damage that I had done. And so... needless to say I just felt less than adequate about my Finnish after that lesson. It was kind of frustrating and stayed on my mind for a bit until the next morning. I was just still thinking in my head... wow you've been on your mission over a year now and you still struggle so much with Finnish. I was just sort of beating myself up, which I shouldn't have. Well anyways... later that day, we were all on the bus and I decided to talk to this lady. We showed her one of the short videos of Christ that our church has made and talked about what Christ meant to her and so on. Then we were talking about coming to teach her and what not, and she just was super Lutheran and didn't think she wanted that. So it's just awkward to just stop talking to people after they've just really told you they're not interested, and we still have a bus ride. So I decided to ask her about school and what not. Well that proceeded to her asking about us. So best question ever. She asked if we both were from Jyväskylä. To which I responded that I was from American and her mouth literally dropped about 3 inches with a big gasp. She was like no way.... how in the world did you learn Finnish so well? So anyways long story short...... She thought I WAS A FINN!!! Can you believe it???!!!! It was the best compliment I've ever gotten. I felt a lot better about my Finnish after that! Oh Finnish...
Well that's about it for the week. Glad I finally got to write a decent email this week! I hope everyone is staying warm and happy. It's such a great time of year. I am so grateful to be serving a mission and for the happiness that comes to my life each day from sharing the Gospel. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives and loves each one of us. He knows us personally and is there at our beckoning call always. Hope you all have a super week!
Love you lots!!!
Rakkaudellani,
Sisar Jord
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| The Sunsets here are unreal right now! :)) |
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| just me... trying to stay warm! :) |
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| Okay so this picture is super scary of me, but it's pretty funny so I had to send it. Needless to say... I was really cold. |
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| My trainer-- Sister Seegmiller. Can you tell it's slightly cold here? Funny thing is-- we were so happy to be outside and just laughed about the icicles that covered our eyelashes and eyebrows and the frozen fur around our coats. We stayed pretty warm and it was just so much fun to be together. :) She comes home this week. Homecoming is Sunday!!!! |
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| SPLITS DAY! Me and Sister Crofts! :) Add caption |
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