Saturday, 19 January 2013
Week two
January 16, 2013
Hey everyone!
This week has been very great! Except, the fire alarm went off again on Tuesday night... at midnight... another pipe had burst. I hope they fix that problem soon. On another note when we were getting back into bed this week, after having spent an hour in the gym, Sisar Fronk said "Wow! We get to go to bed twice in one night! How awesome is that!" She's pretty optimistic
I got some sad news today. One of the Sisaret (sisters) in my district is being reassigned to the Spokane, Washington mission. She feels so overwhelmed by Finnish. And I'm so sad so see her go. She's really, really inspirational to be around and I'll miss her, but I guess that's life.
What else.... I've taught a few more lessons. Tomorrow morning we get to start teaching in English! Hooray! Although... I am kind of nervous. I'm so used to being like "I want to teach this... but I don't know the language sooo...I'll teach it next time". Now I'm afraid I'll go too deep or something while trying to explain a principle. I can't do that in Finnish because I don't know enough.
My companion got sick over the weekend so, that was no fun. But she's better now. It wasn't anything too terrible. Just an extremely sore throat and now she's back at 'er.
The last couple days have been really quiet at the MTC, tons of people left Monday and Tuesday... including some Hungarian sisters who were in the room right next to us. Sisar Gasser (oh, the a is pronounced like the 'a' in 'father'...she's sensitive about that ;) ) was really sad. Her parents had been mission presidents in Hungary when she was in high school and so she loves Hungary and can speak the language pretty well. The quietness ends today though. We got 850 new missionaries today. This is really the beginning of the influx of missionaries. By the end of August they're expecting to have 6000 missionaries at the MTC! And they say capacity is like 3000.... so we'll see how that works out.
I wish I could tell you guys more about all the people here... but I don't have time.
Sisar Kastendieck
*Note: Just a reminder to go to dearelder.com. You can write up an email which they will print off and send to her by noon the next day. It's FREE so you should take advantage of it while she's still in the MTC.
Week 1: MTC Adventures
January 9, 2013
Hey!
My first week has been mostly great, a little stressful and kind of adventurous. Upon arriving at
the MTC (Missionary Training Center) the first thing they told me was that there was a flu virus
going around and a ton of people were sick and in bed. So we weren't allowed to shake hands, or
hug anyone. That's all passed now though, but I guess it was big enough to be in the news down
here.
The first day was great. There are four sisters besides me going to Finland and my companion
is a solo sister going to the Baltic mission (so... Estonia, Belaurus, Latvia area). She is learning
Estonian. All six of us sisters share a room, which has actually worked out pretty well. We all
seem to get along very well.
In my district (a district is a small group of missionaries working or training together) there are
the five of us sisters going to Finland, and three Elders. We all seem to agree we must have
known each other before we came here; we just feel like we've always known each other.
(Sister is “Sisar” in Finnish and Elder is “Vanhin”).
Last Friday we started practice teaching in Finnish….. to a Finnish man named Esko, and
we weren't allowed to use any English. Just Finnish, and we'd only been learning Finnish for
24 hours or so. Since then we've had to teach him two more times, and have another lesson
scheduled for tonight. It's incredibly hard, but everyone has gotten better each time we've taught.
The hardest part for me is that I can't understand what he's saying back to us.
And you'll never guess where we went yesterday... as a district. So... we had to go to the Finnish
Consul to get our fingerprints and what not done for our Finnish visas... and it just so happens
that the Finnish Consul is in Los Angeles. So yesterday, my whole district got to go to L.A. for
the day! It was really fun. The visa stuff only took like half an hour but, we still had time before
our plane came to take us home. So we went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate outside right by
the ocean! It was Fantastic!
Oh, and I have a story to tell about yesterday morning too! So... the night before when we went
to bed one of the girls in my room was like "what would happen if the fire alarm went off? Could
we hear it?" Well.... The next morning at 4:15 guess what happened... That's right we were
rudely awakened by the fire alarm! All the sisters! I guess a pipe had burst and set off a sprinkler
in the basement. So everyone had to evacuate. The five of us sisters going to L.A. missed our
first bus to the airport, so we barely made our flight. The Cheesecake Factory was our first meal
of the day... at like 2 in the afternoon! Oh and we drove past the temple in L.A! Super cool!
Anyhow... The MTC is good, I work hard for 16 hours a day! It's crazy.
Sisar Kastendieck
p.s. will post pictures later, having a few technical difficulties.
*Note: Rachel would love to have letters from any and everyone! You can go to dearelder.com and write up an email which they will print off and send to her by noon the next day. It's FREE so you should take advantage of it while she's still in the MTC.
Hey!
My first week has been mostly great, a little stressful and kind of adventurous. Upon arriving at
the MTC (Missionary Training Center) the first thing they told me was that there was a flu virus
going around and a ton of people were sick and in bed. So we weren't allowed to shake hands, or
hug anyone. That's all passed now though, but I guess it was big enough to be in the news down
here.
The first day was great. There are four sisters besides me going to Finland and my companion
is a solo sister going to the Baltic mission (so... Estonia, Belaurus, Latvia area). She is learning
Estonian. All six of us sisters share a room, which has actually worked out pretty well. We all
seem to get along very well.
In my district (a district is a small group of missionaries working or training together) there are
the five of us sisters going to Finland, and three Elders. We all seem to agree we must have
known each other before we came here; we just feel like we've always known each other.
(Sister is “Sisar” in Finnish and Elder is “Vanhin”).
Last Friday we started practice teaching in Finnish….. to a Finnish man named Esko, and
we weren't allowed to use any English. Just Finnish, and we'd only been learning Finnish for
24 hours or so. Since then we've had to teach him two more times, and have another lesson
scheduled for tonight. It's incredibly hard, but everyone has gotten better each time we've taught.
The hardest part for me is that I can't understand what he's saying back to us.
And you'll never guess where we went yesterday... as a district. So... we had to go to the Finnish
Consul to get our fingerprints and what not done for our Finnish visas... and it just so happens
that the Finnish Consul is in Los Angeles. So yesterday, my whole district got to go to L.A. for
the day! It was really fun. The visa stuff only took like half an hour but, we still had time before
our plane came to take us home. So we went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate outside right by
the ocean! It was Fantastic!
Oh, and I have a story to tell about yesterday morning too! So... the night before when we went
to bed one of the girls in my room was like "what would happen if the fire alarm went off? Could
we hear it?" Well.... The next morning at 4:15 guess what happened... That's right we were
rudely awakened by the fire alarm! All the sisters! I guess a pipe had burst and set off a sprinkler
in the basement. So everyone had to evacuate. The five of us sisters going to L.A. missed our
first bus to the airport, so we barely made our flight. The Cheesecake Factory was our first meal
of the day... at like 2 in the afternoon! Oh and we drove past the temple in L.A! Super cool!
Anyhow... The MTC is good, I work hard for 16 hours a day! It's crazy.
Sisar Kastendieck
p.s. will post pictures later, having a few technical difficulties.
*Note: Rachel would love to have letters from any and everyone! You can go to dearelder.com and write up an email which they will print off and send to her by noon the next day. It's FREE so you should take advantage of it while she's still in the MTC.
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Preface
Today is the start of a new year, and the first day of an 18 month journey and so it seemed like a good time to finally get this blog rolling. As many of you know I will be serving an 18 month mission in Finland Helsinki for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm a little nervous, a bit more excited and mostly tired (what else can I expect though). I have ever been outside of North America, and have not been on a plane in over seven years, I do not Finnish and am not used to waking up to alarm clocks. Over the next few days, weeks and months I'll be doing all these things.
The start of my mission began this morning around nine o'clock when I was officially made a missionary by a leader of my church. In about an hour or so I leave for the airport where I will catch a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. I will remain in Utah for a period of 9 -12 weeks, learning how to teach people, learning the language, and getting used to the missionary way of life, at the Missionary Training Center (or MTC) in Provo, Utah.
Now, a note about the title of my blog. I think most people know what it means, but at first glance my thought the word "exploits"was inappropriate for this. Just to set the record straight, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word exploit as "a bold or daring feat"... which I think is appropriate in this case.
Anyhow, I have to finish packing a few last things before I leave. Wish me luck!
The start of my mission began this morning around nine o'clock when I was officially made a missionary by a leader of my church. In about an hour or so I leave for the airport where I will catch a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. I will remain in Utah for a period of 9 -12 weeks, learning how to teach people, learning the language, and getting used to the missionary way of life, at the Missionary Training Center (or MTC) in Provo, Utah.
Now, a note about the title of my blog. I think most people know what it means, but at first glance my thought the word "exploits"was inappropriate for this. Just to set the record straight, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word exploit as "a bold or daring feat"... which I think is appropriate in this case.
Anyhow, I have to finish packing a few last things before I leave. Wish me luck!
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