The seed is already growing!

Moi rakkat velijet ja sisaret! 

This week has been sekaisin! (crazy!!!!) 

A lot of emotions too haha, but we got through it! 

First off, one of our progressing investigators T. that we hoped would get baptized next week, just dropped a bomb by telling us that she was heading to an addictions rehabilitation center for up to 4 months in Tampere. Of course we were happy to know that she is getting help for her addictions, but it was hard to know that we won't be able to contact her at all for at least a month or more.

On the plus side, at a lesson with T. we met J. who is the perfect example of someone who felt the spirit from the first lesson but is too scared to accept it. We invited him to come to church and even found a ride for him, but 5 minutes from the time he was supposed to be picked up, he calls us saying he's not going anymore. But of course, my companion being the awesome missionary that she is, basically coaxed him into his OWN car by the time she was done talking to him on the phone. 

And then we had 5 investigators at church. WHICH IS CRAZY for Lahti! Sisar Owens and I ended up having to do emergency member splits because we needed to do a class in Finnish and English. 

Anyway, later in the night, J. sends us a text us saying:

 J: I appreciate your efforts and for the love that I have felt at church today, but I know that I can't be baptized into your church.

Us: How did you feel at church today J?

J:Very good, but I don't understand why faith is so important.

Us:What do you think faith can help us with?

J: I know that if we have faith in God we can overcome hard things, and he can give me strength.

After that we just ended up calling him and having an amazing lesson over the phone!

We focused on Alma 34 and how faith is like a seed, the best part was that while he was reading the section about good seeds growing to us on the phone, he just paused and whispered, "It's already starting to grow."

I am so excited for J!!! 

Anyway that is about it for this week, tomorrow I head to interim training with the rest of the missionaries that went through the MTC with me! So excited! Can you believe that I am already halfway through my first transfer?? 

Hope you are all doing well!

Rakkaudella 

Sisar Kwok 

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Free gum and Reindeer!!

Hi everyone! 

​

Pictures are finally working again! Yay! 

A lot of fun things happening here in Lahti, for instance, I went on splits with the STLs on Saturday, 2 investigators came to church, and most importantly, we helped a dear invesigator clean her house (it was much needed, imagine an episode of "Hoarders") while we were trying to help her vacuum, we noticed that there was no suction going on and so we had to take the vacuum apart and clean it out. In the vacuum tube thingy we found:

A bottle cap.

A playing card.

Lots of cigarrettes. 

and many other things that I probably don't need to mention.

That floor was so clean when we were done! 

Anyway, I got to try reindeer yesterday (in Finnish it is Porro)! It was so cool, it tasted really similar to lamb and beef. Also, my trainer has an obsession with gum. This is really sad because we aren't allowed to eat gum in public. So while we are studying in our apartment she will eat up to 5 pieces of gum at a time. She ran out yesterday and was super antsy but then guess what? While we were cleaning our beloved investigators house, we found a box that was full of gum, almost to the top! When we asked her where she got it, she said

Her:"Oh, that gum? They were throwing it away at the Saksala store down the street." 

Us: "Oh...why?" 

Her: "I think there was some sort of default or something, but they ended up just giving it to me"

Us: ".....so..."

Her:"Take some!"

Us: "OK!!"

There is no shame in missionary work people! When people give you free things you say thank you and take it gratefully! Sisar Owen was so happy! 

That's about it this week, thanks for your prayers and for your kindness! I hope you don't follow our examples and take shady gum from others! Be nice to people! 

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Kwok 

Sisar Kwok's Original "Third Week of Finland" (limited edition)

Just to shake things up, I've decided to compose this email to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas. It's not Christmas, but there is still snow on the ground, so this song is still valid.

 Feel free to sing along :)  

On my third week in Finland Sisar Owen and I saw:

ONE new Burger King (This Burger King is 1 out of 3 in the whole country. People are pretty excited) 

TWO NEW BAPTISMAL DATES!!!!!!!!!!!!

THREE lost bus cards :(

FOUR awesome new investigators

FIVE harmless drunk meeennnnn!! (there are many more than five here, but i didn't know where else to put this so...) 

SIX dogs a barking

SEVEN pigeons a flying (there is house behind our apartment that seems to just house pigeons, there are literally whole swarms of them that just fly around and distract me during personal study)

EIGHT old women telling us to wear hats

NINE knitted articles of clothing (knitting is a BIG DEAL here)

TEN fingers and toes (still intact) 

ELEVEN degrees below...

and.....

 

142 Nordic walking sticks!!! (the people here use Nordic walking sticks religiously, it makes a lot of sense because there is so much ice here, but it also makes it look like the whole town is skiing in the city)

Have a great week everyone! I hope the new year is going well! Keep up your goals! 

Don't forget to pray! Read the scriptures!

Sisar Kwok 

Amputating appendages, but we are still doing great!

Hi everyone!

It's been a great week, a lot of Finnish, a lot of slipping and sliding, but still doing well!

Things really picked up! As a companionship we've found 6 new investigators within this week which is really great! One of them is a girl named R, she approached us on the bus and we were able to discuss a lot of really great things, I am so excited to teach her!

Other than a lot of finding, President Watson stopped by on Sunday to interview us! It was so great, I love President, they always say that your mission president will be like a second dad to you and I agree!

A couple of days ago we hit a solid -18 degrees. It was awesome. Sisar Owens and I were at a bus stop waiting for a bus and she turned to me and said, "I am legitimately afraid that we will have to amputate our toes off tonight."  But don't worry! It was really not as bad as it sounds!  

Interesting story of the week:

Seeing as I can't speak Finnish very well yet, we decided to try walking into a chinese restaurant in the city to see if anyone spoke Cantonese. We ended up teaching the woman working there in three languages, Finnish, Mandarin, and Cantonese. The woman was actually from mainland China and did not speak any Cantonese. I just thought she said she did, so here I am spouting off in Cantonese, and she's just looking at me like "Who is this girl?"

Let's just say that it was really really awkward, because no one had a clue who was speaking what or what was being said. BUT at least she knows now that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her! 

I love you all!

Email me, I'd love to hear from you!

Sisar Kwok 

(also this computer doesn't have an SD card reader, so maybe pictures next week?)

"elder, that is NOT the language they taught me in the mtc"

HALLELUJAH I finally made it to the land of the midnight sun!! 

Holy cow has this week been crazy, first off i want to apologize for the lack of capitilization in this email, the shift button is really tiny on this keyboard and i figured it would be easier if i stopped trying to correct every other word. 

my new companion is sisar owens! she is great and so enthusiastic about getting to work, the area i am in is called lahti. it's pretty big area and there are only two companionships covering it, us and the elders. the funny thing is that out of the four missionaries in the area, two are being trained, sometimes it's a struggle! 

The language is crazy, you know that one scene of "the best two years" when elder calhoun goes to buy bread and when he realizes that he doesn't understand the cashier his face just drops? That was my face. For the whole week. I don't understand a single word that people are saying. It's really humbling! 

I got to bear my testimony on sunday at the lahti ward, they are amazing people with great faith. there's only about a hundred or so members and it's awesome! 

the rumors about it being really cold here are true, we were finding a contact last night and my eyelashes froze over. I could see the ice crystals and they kept sticking to my face whenever i blinked. last night it was probably around -15 degrees celsius. YAY missionary work! 

the sun also sets really fast! probably around 3:30ish to 4 and it doesn't come back up until 9 in the morning, it definitely has made me more grateful for the sun back at home! 

Anyways, i have lots to say but not a lot of time so I'll just share a really funny story, one night when were knocking on  a couple of doors, this old man opens up and gives us the weirdest look, so Sisar Owens explains that because it's Sunday, we were hoping to sing him a church hymn. He answers by saying,

"I'm on a lot of drugs right now and I have a really weird "olo"(sensation or feeling?) i'm just going to go to bed now"  

And then he just closes the door on us, it was so funny, we were laughing so hard haha. 

This week was new and wonderful but also pretty hard, every single appointment that we had planned fell through, either by us getting dropped or people not answering the door. It was easy to get a little discouraged, but I am excited to get to know the people of lahti better.

I'll send some pictures soon! 

Rakkaduella 

SIsar Kwok 

Laxatives... 'nuff said.

Terve kaikki ihmiset,

Wow this week was eventful, but also not eventful. If that makes sense.

They say time doesn't travel the same way in the MTC and whoever "they" is, is absolutely correct! 

But anyway, I bet you are all wondering what that amazing subject line is talking about...\

After a long day of classes my district ends up walking back to our dorms together, while I am walking I overhear this conversation happening between two of the elders behind me. 

"Elder, it doesn't matter how many laxatives you take, the result is going to be the same..." 

So of course, I turn around and say, "what?" 

And then one of the elders just looks at me sheepishly and says, "The food here is difficult, ok!" 

Haha, I was laughing so hard! 

Anyway...on a more uplifting note, my companion and I were able to teach several lessons this week without any vocab or notes! WOOHOO, that is a huge step for us, and definitely a big confidence booster for me! I know that I'm not fluent, but at least I won't starve in the streets of freezing Helsinki! Speaking of freezing, our teacher showed us pictures of her mission, and I was so excited to see all the snow! What is up with this weather? Hopefully we get snow on Christmas day! 

Anyway, that is about it. Oh, if any of you get the chance you should look up the Christmas song "While Shepherds Lately Knelt." I don't know if it will be on Youtube or anything since it is a choir song, but I hope it is because it is BEAUTIFUL. 

Take care of yourselves! I love you! This week the post offices will be closed, so if you were thinking of sending me mail, I might not be able to get it until Saturday! 

Also, this is my last p-day at the MTC! So if you were thinking of sending me packages, it'd probably be best to send it to the mission home in Finland, the address is on my facebook! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Sisar Kwok 

"I think I would die without food."

Terve perhe ja ystävä 

Happy Valummistaustumispäivää!!!

That is how you say Preparation day in Finnish!

So this week has been fun!

We did our first skype call, we got to teach a lesson with an actual Finnish person in Finland. Hahaha, just imagine us staring blankly at a computer screen while our investigator, Jennu, is spouting out rapid fire Finnish. It was definitely interesting! You could tell she was trying so hard not to laugh as we did our best to speak. Teaching is awesome haha.

Anyway, with that being said, I think my poor district is suffering from missionary-training-centeritis. This place is definitely wonderful, but we are so ready to actually do real things! We are also so ready to just be active and go outside!

For some reason, everyone's mothers think that we are starving and so they send us so much food. One of the Sister's mom sends her a box of food every single week, no joke. It's paradise, but we are also getting so fat! 

Yesterday, we were in class eating crackers and one of the Sister's, with her mouth full of gingerbread cookie just says, "I think I would die without food." It doesn't sound very funny when I type it out, but oh my goodness, we were laughing so hard! 

Anyway, that's about it! I love you all and I hope you are all doing well!

Read the scriptures and pray, I have a testimony that it will bring peace into your life! 

Merry Christmas! 

Hyvää Jouluä!!!

Sisar Kwok 

Pictures- 

Sister Powell trying to get over her food coma