Stepping foot in Savonlinna

Hey everyone!

There are many wonderful adventures that happen to you when you serve the Lord. Wonderful as in...exhausting, stress-inducing, nerve-wracking...but wonderful nonetheless!

First things first, last week we had Zone Conference in Mikkeli with President Watson. It was so amazing, I love hearing about our mission and learning how to be a better missionary through such an inspired leader. We are really trying to use the "Because of Him" video in contacting and tracting, it has been translated into Finnish, so it's been a really powerful tool! If y'all want to see it, it's on YouTube and it's titled "Hänen ansiostaan".

Anyway, the fun started after Zone Conference.

In order to get to Mikkeli for the conference, we needed to take a 2 hour bus ride that leaves at 6:50 in the Morning, and in order to return we usually take 2 hour train ride back. But because we were rushing out the door, we forgot our train tickets. So we had to end up staying a tiny bit longer to take the bus. We catch the bus and with only about 20 minutes left on our ride we get a call from our Zone Leaders asking us if we had left our keys at the chapel. Turns out that we had forgotten our keys in Mikkeli and wouldn't be able to get into our apartment for the rest of the night.

After a lot of phone calls with President, we decided the best thing to do would be to spend the night at a member's house (who actually wasn't home the whole night) and take the 5 am bus in the morning to go to Savonlinna, where the Zone Leaders would be for the day.

Little did we know that the route that the bus took went through every back alley known to man and a trip that would have usually taken less than an hour and a half ended up being four hours.

BUT, now I can say that we were the first two sister missionaries ever to step foot in Savonlinna, an area that only has 10 members. We were still able to an older less active woman, so it wasn't a total bust.

So folks, the moral of the story is to just not be a forgetful sister missionary and always check for the keys!

I love you all, take care!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Kwok

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Say hello to Rikki Jr.

SO MUCH SUN THIS WEEK.

It's been heavenly.

Aside from the amazing weather, this week has been pretty great! I think it's funny that I say that because there are a lot of days within the week that actually make me want to curl up in a ball and stop trying to plan anything for anyone ever again...

But then the week goes by and I realize that being a missionary is actually quite awesome.

First things first, we picked up an investigator named E! E is just incredibly receptive to the Spirit and such an overall wonderful person, we've been teaching her for only a week and she's already so progressed so much! She's pretty much everything I want to be when I grow up. Which might be a problem because she's only 16 years old. But, really, she is that incredible people!

On another note, I got my first official bible bashing lesson this week, which was pretty awesome. I knew it was going to happen because right when we walked in we saw a massive bible on the kitchen table and a notebook next to it that had the words "Joseph Smith" written on it. It was painful to experience because no matter how many times we would try to pull things back to basic gospel principles she would change the subject and start talking about how we didn't believe in the same God or same Christ.

We have another appointment set up with her this week, pray for us people.

Also, because the slush in the street has cleared up, we brought our bikes out from the storage garage a couple days ago. Sisar Owen would always talk about how her bike, "Rikki" (which is the Finnish word for 'break' I think?) would always fall apart in the streets of Helsinki. Since I inherited my bike from her former companion, I've decided to name it "Rikki Jr." I can already tell that so much good work is going to come through this bike, the brakes are basically gone and it makes this strange scratching noise whenever I ride it. Haha I am so excited!

That's it for this week!

I love you all!

Make good choices in life!

Sisar Kwok

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Spring Cleaning.

Hello everyone!

*So I know that it can be sort of exhausting reading all these constant missionary emails, so I am officially going to start spring cleaning on my email list! If any of you would like to be taken off of the weekly update please let me know! I won't be offended, because I know how it feels to be bombarded with 50 different emails from 50 different missionaries each week. Love you all!*

That being said, I am now in Lappeenranta! I love it here already, our apartment is really close to the city center and the harbor is about a 5 minute walk from our aparment building. Lappeenranta is a "Kesä-Kaupunki" (summer city) which means that during the summer the population doubles and that the rest of the year it's pretty dead. The Finns here are a bit different from the ones in Lahti, a little less keen on talking to strangers, but we've been doing a lot of good work with the university students that stay here.

My new companion is Sisar Dowd and she's pretty funny. She loves Disney and loves singing, which makes sense. They sort of both go hand in hand :)

An investigator that we've been working with is A. A is the sassiest Finnish man I know, he's always crossing his arms and saying "I don't know, stop asking me questions" or "I can't remember who Joseph Smith is, how do you expect me to remember who Joseph Smith is?" But secretly I think he likes meeting with us :)

His wife is a member and has been a big help in getting A ready for baptism, we set a baptismal date with him last Wednesday which we are very excited about!

Funny story of the week:

Because LPR is so close to the Russian border, there are some people here that don't really like Russians. I didn't know the extent of this dislike until Sisar Dowd and I decided to visit a less-active in the area. We knock on her door and when she opens it the very first thing she asks is,

"Where are you from? America? Are you from America?"

After we said yes, she sighed a sigh of relief and then tells us that she can't let us in because she is going to take a nap.

haha gotta love em'

Anyway, I love you all!

Let me know how things are doing!

Take care!

Sisar Kwok

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Well...It happens sometimes.

Terve minun rakkaus perhe ja ystävä, Suomen kieli on vaikea, mutta, olen yritamassa oppia lissa joka päivä. 

Ok, enough of that, my head is starting to hurt. 

So you know how in my email last week, things were picking up with J? Well...things didn't go as well this week. After a lot of cancelling and unanswered phone calls, Sisar Owen and I were just about to call the police out of fear that J was dead. We don't usually react this crazily to all of our investigators, it's just that J is a lot different when it comes to responding and it scared us a little. 

Fortunately, J is not dead, he just has a girlfriend now. (This totally shocked us, I mean relationships with others? I had no idea those things still existed ) -- So we are trying to get him back on track with everything, it might just take a little bit longer. 

Other than that, our district has been working on finding investigators out of a more direct approach, rather than the whole awkward "The weather is so nice today, oh that is a nice scarf, hey want to talk about religion too?". It can be scary at times because we only have about 10-15 seconds to make a lasting impression upon people, and sometimes I feel like people automatically shut themselves off whenever we try and be so direct. 

But I trust that when we implement this into our finding habits we really will find those who are searching for this gospel. 

Have a great week everyone! Happy Chinese New Years, eat some Chinese food and do fun things! 

Rakkaudella 

Sisar Kwok 

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Going and Going and Going!

Another week gone by! 

So this week has been a little slow for some reason, it's really strange because almost all of our investigators can never make it to church because they say they'll be in Helsinki for the weekend...right.

But!

We are still finding elect people here, it's just sad to have to let some go.

J, however is still progressing really well! The ward is just swallowing him up!  It's amazing to see how the gospel can change someone inside and out and it's miraculous to see how it can help people really understand their purpose in life.

Valentine's day was pretty amazing too!

There was a baptism in the ward (for one of the primary children), a wedding and so many baked goods!  There is a traditional pastry here called "pulla". T
​he Finns make it for all kinds of special occasions, it's basically just dough with cardamum in it, but they make a lot of different variations from it. I guess it's traditional to make pulla for Valentine's day because all people would feed us was pulla! 

Anyway, we met a Baha'i couple who invited us back for a discussion last week, it was so...interesting. The man was very nice and kept asking us if it was ok to eat cake, or to eat crackers or drink herbal tea. The "discussion" actually just turned out to be him and his wife wanting to talk to us about their faith, but it was fun while it lasted! 

We also have been getting SO much more sun! Which is such a blessing, because I am getting way too pale! 

That's about it for this week, I hope you all had a fun Valentine weekend!

Make sure to tell people you love them :)

Rakkaudella, 

Sisar Kwok 

Sunset view from our balcony. 

 

Sadly, I don't know who Mannerheim is... but he has a pretty awesome statue in the city. 

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Interim!

Hi everyone!

There are 3 things that I have come to learn from being out here in the frozen land of Finns.

1. My reflexes in catching myself (or my companion) before slipping have really heightened to mastery level. Basically like Spider-Man.
2. There is such a thing as walking to slow to get off a bus. Especially when trying to contact. (The doors closed right in front of me and I almost lost my companion, scariest moment of my life) 
3. It is never a good idea to try and bake muffins out of curdled milk.(I don't really want to explain this one, it brings back too many bad memories)

But anyway, this past week was interim! We got to spend three heavenly days at the mission home in Helsinki! It was so neat to see everyone again and learn from each other. Some things that President Watson talked about was our focus on member present lessons. The Standards of Excellence for our mission is 21 member present lessons per week, per companionship. That is crazy, considering that our ward here in Lahti is comprised of a number not very much bigger than that. It's definitely a challenge, but we trust in the Lord and know that as long as we work hard we will eventually reach our goal. Missionary life is a constant rollercoaster, and I know that even before I left for my mission, people would always say that. But it's not until you are a missionary, living obediently, working hard that you realize how true that statement is. I don't think I've ever felt such a wide range of emotions in one day than right now.But life is good. Life is always good! 

Funny quotes:

"Sometimes, I just really wish you knew how to do acupuncture" -Sis Owen to me (the "Chinese companion")

(after saying hello to someone on the street)

 "Who are you?!! Do I know you?!!"

 "No we just like saying hi!" 

"Oh, where are you from? Russia?" 

"No, America" 

"Oh! America! Bonjour!"

Haha I love the Finns, they always look so surprised whenever you say hello to them! 

Me being me, I left my camera at the mission home, so I won't be getting it back until tomorrow, but I PROMISE I will be sending out pictures next week! 

Happy Valentine's day too, here they call it Ystävän Päivä (lterally, friend's day)

I love you all deeply! Remember how much deeper Christ loves you! 

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Kwok 

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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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