Rainy Day

Guess what! Today it is raining! A lot. It's fun. There's still snow on the ground, but it's warm enough to rain. 

So this past week was change calls! I'm still in Oulu... as I'm training, but my companion, Sisar Francis, is headed to Kuopio tomorrow to open the city for sisters! This means that I will be in my first traditional companionship since the beginning of my mission!  Still, I am sad to have her go. She is a great missionary and an awesome person! Things will be a lot quieter now that it's just going to be Sisar Vath and myself. 


Oulu is a great place. The work is really hard. I feel like it would be a lot easier if I could understand people, but apparently the Lord has some other lesson for me to learn. Finding investigators is difficult.  Most people already have their own opinion and can figure things out on their own, thanks very much. But in all honesty this week has been good.  Sisar Vath is a super good example and doesn't take no for an answer. She's really sweet and has tons of faith. Biking is better now. That is to say the biking conditions are better... Nearly all the ice is gone, and now there are just deep puddles and lots of rocks/salt everywhere. I did fall off my bike once... but only because Sisar Francis stopped suddenly and I ran into her. 

One of our investigators told us she didn't want to meet anymore, and another keeps inviting a not-very-friendly-towards-mormons friend over without telling us before hand, which makes it difficult to teach. Despite this though things are still good, we have another investigator coming to Institute this week, and we found a really cool potential yesterday evening. And some people are interested in the things we know, especially the plan of salvation, but are hesitant to be taught by missionaries.

Conference last week was really great! I never got to see the Sunday morning session, but my companion has printed off a few talks, so I'll get to read them tomorrow. One of the young men in the branch made the missionaries homemade root beer because he knew Americans liked it. He made at least 4 Litres and said he wanted it gone by the end conference. We managed it, but I think he drank most of it. He's super good, and he's leaves on his mission in a couple weeks! Also, a few weeks ago Sisar Francis had to go to the doctor. In the end Sisar Vath invited the Doctor to conference. And guess what! She came! With two friends. Nothing really came of it though, but they did say they liked the music.  Still really cool. We invited a lot of people and really didn't think any would come... except the members of course. But someone did. So people do listen to us! 

Umm... what else. Not too much exciting  Finnish is hard, and when I really start talking my grammar goes out the window. Hopefully that will change. I can usually understand the gist of what people are saying. Sometimes I can understand almost everything  other times completely 'olen pihalla' ( 'I'm in the yard'... Finnish way of saying completely lost). The members here are fantastic. The missionaries also. Food is great... mostly. I get to play piano in district meetings, which is always fun. I have now learned how to change bike tires. My companion has had two flats in since Easter Weekend, so I can change both the front and back tires... kinda.  Oh, right! In my branch there is a less active member who served his mission in Edmonton and area, and I think he's American. At any rate he speaks English, and we had a good conversation about Whyte Ave, and Cherry Grove, and all that fun stuff! And another Finnish member in my branch has been to Cold Lake because she has a friend who lives there, and thinks Alberta is really flat, and has been to the Calgary Tower (at least I think that what was said... that was a Finnish conversation). It's just fun.

Anyhow, I think I should go now. Love you all. Hope you have a good week. Be good. Remember who you are and what you stand for. 

Sisar Rachel Kastendieck

Happy Easter from Finland!

First off I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter/April Fools Day. So Happy Easter. Happy April Fools (Huulu Paiva to the Finns). 

Finland is great. Oulu is better. Being a missionary serving here is best. It is really hard work, but really worth it. Now where to start. This week has been very good. I feel like my companionship is really getting along. It seems that Austrailia and Canada has more in common than the USA and Canada, at least language wise. Which is interesting. My other companion is pretty much super sweet and always so postive. Things between us and her get lost in translation sometimes, we all have fun trying to explain meanings of words in english to her and she also tries to teach us finnish. Also, I guess most of my group from the MTC got sick their first week here. Everyone except myself and Sister Egan, my companion from the MTC. I feel really blessed. 

I have discovered for my self that there are worse things to bike on/through than snow. It is called slush, ice with ruts, ice that looks like slush, and slush that looks like ice. It makes going to every appointment a bit of an adeventure. I now have most kinds of ice, snow, and slush rated on a scale in my head from "super easy to ride through" to "AHHH!! I don't think I'll survive". Still it is fun. My companionship has been having a hard time finding people to teach, but it leaves us time to really get to know the members well. The members up here are all really great and love the missionaries (I think I mentioned that last week, but it is very true). Yesterday in Sacrament meeting they called at least 6 or 7 new branch missionaries! And they also now have a calendar for members to sign up for days they can help us missionaries. It is mostly fantastic. 

Of course with Easter this week we have been focused on sharing the message of how the Saviour lives today. I remember in the MTC, I think it was in Elder Ballard's address to the MTC, he mentioned how the Saviour is not an absent master, that he truly is guiding and directing his Church. I feel that this is very true, and have had it confirmed in the last week. I love the New Testament's account and the bold declaration of how "He is not here, He is Risen". But I think my favourite testament of this is in the Doctrince and Covenants 76:22-24... I think. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey's testimony really stood out to me this year. I love how straight forward it is. "That He Lives" there is so much power in those three words. And from that we can say "He lives and because he lives...(Fill in whatever you want ex. we have the church, we can return to God, we can receive forgiveness, we can live with our families forever etc.), or as one of the members put it... if Christ didn't live, there would be no purpose in anything. But because he lives, we have everything! 

So Easter up here is very interesting. The Sunday before Easter all the children dresss up like witches, and go from house to house, say a spell thing, recieve candy, and give that family a pussy willow branch decorated with feathers and what not. Kinda like our Halloween. I'm not sure where it comes from, but its really cool. They also have a traditional Easter desert called Mammi. A lot of people find it disgusting actually, and will only eat it with tonnes of cream and sugar. It's really not that bad though. It looks kinda like brownie batter that has been cooked a little bit. What it really is though is some goopy stuff made from rye... and it tastes like All-Bran cereal... But stronger. I'm not going to be jumping up at each chance to have it, but it's also not bad.

Also, for this week I was able to visit the Arctic circle. We had our district meeting in Rovaniemi, which is three hours away. We usually switch up where meetings are so that not everyone has to travel to the same cities, this week it will be in Oulu. So afterwards we went to Santa's workshop place, which is not the cheery place its cracked up to be (it was actually kinda creepy for the most part), and got pictures with him (Santa was nice though, and spoke Finnish... I could understand some of what he said even). Of course his house is on the arctic circle, so we wandered around there for a bit. Mostly its a whole lot of souvenir shops selling the same things at different prices. So it was cool, but really not that exciting.

Anywho, I had better go. My one companion still needs to email, so I will talk to you all later. Love you.

Sisar Kastendieck

Week One in Finland

So, with modifying emails and such, we basically missed the MTC emails. Rachel had a great time, really loved her district and caught on really well to gospel related Finnish. Conversation was a little harder for her but I'm sure she'll get it in no time. She made it to Finland March 20th and this is the first letter we got from her on her P-day:

This last week has been the longest week of my life. And most tiring. But it has also been really good.

So here is a quickish recap of my life since I last talked to you. So when I last really got to talk to you I was at the airport in Chicago. Funny thing happened there... we missed our flight due to a gate mix up. I guess a bunch of people on my delayed flight to Chicago were also connecting to England. So, they flight assistants told us all that our next flight had been delayed and go to this a certain gate. So we did, but the flight info was a bit weird. A couple of us were unsure that it was the right flight. But most everyone else said that it was for sure the right flight, and one even said he had checked. BUT when we tried to board they said it was the wrong one. So we did not end up leaving the States until 10:30 that night. The rest of our flights went smoothly though. So that is good. On the flight from London to Oulu a couple of the Elders and I sat in front of a bishop of one of the wards here. That was cool. 

We finally arrived in Finland, and found out our luggage had not made it through. Fun! So we put in claims for that. We met the mission president, his wife, and the APs. They are all really great. Then we went to the mission president"s home, did some short interviews, ate some food and by the time we got to bed it was 1:00 in the morning. And then we got to sleep in until 9:00! It was great! 

On Wednesday we had to go get some paperwork done, got to go see the temple, and found out our new companions and areas. I got sent to Oulu, which is the nothern most area with Sisters. My companions, yes I am in another trio, are Sisar Francis from Austrailia, and Sisar Vath, who is originally from Cambodia, but has lived in Finland for the last seven years and is now serving her mission here. Also, in my district is Elder Spiers from my MTC group. I think all the Elders in my group are in my zone even. But the other Sisters stayed in Helsinki and Tampere (I think Tampere is right) .To get to Oulu we took a night train, which was really cool in writing, and even when I was on it, but super cramped. I guess for that trip it is a good thing I didnt have ALL my luggage. 

We arrived in Oulu around 7:30 the next morning and things went crazy after that. Got my luggage that day, taught some lessons, got a bike, got to ride that bike on ice, met the branch president, and lots of other people. 

The next day was a district meeting in Kemi, which is about an hour and a half drive away. I like my district again! It is great, but I am still glad that I am not the only greenie in it. Afterwards we went to an ice castle which is built every year in Kemi. It puts Ice on Whyte to shame. You can actually stay there overnight, and people have gotten married there. OH! And random fact about Finland, the game angry birds was created in Finland, so they had a whole room devoted to angry birds. 

The rest of the week was a lot of lessons. We do not have tons of investigators at the moment. So we are working on that,but the Branch loves missionaries. And everyone here is really great. I cannot understand what they are saying most the time. I can tell that they are speaking Finnish, but that is about all. On Sunday they had me introduce and bear my testimony. That was a bit nerveracking. I survived though. I try to talk to as many people as I can... at least in the ward.  Which is mostly opposite of my normal self. It is weird what missions do to you. I cannot keep anyone straight, but I think its important to start now, even if I dont understand a whole lot. I think I will progress quicker this way. And it is nice getting to know people. 

So now, its P Day. And its a good break. Anyhow, here are a few things first impressions of Finland:
1) it is a lot more like Edmonton than Provo was. They believe in having nature and trees, surrounding everything, instead of cement and smog.
2) they are slightly more crazy than Canadians, as EVERYONE is biking all year round. Now that its starting to melt its really fun!
3)They know more about Canada than our neighbors the Americans do. 
4) in reference to point 3, maybe not THAT much more, as they always think can also speak French, as its our second language (but they do know where Alberta is)
5) They really do have better candy here
6) and better bread
7) Everyone knows english pretty well, which makes it difficult to learn Finnish. Beacause when they hear you struggling in Finnish, they switch to English.

So yup. That has been m experience thus far. I love it here. The gospel is just as true in Finalnd as it is at Home. Although I can not say much to most people here I really do love them. I have already met so many amazing people. Can not wait to see what the rest of my time here brings.

Well, I should go. Love you all. hyva vikkoa! 

Sisar Kastendieck

Rachel and her district at the Helsinki Finland temple

P.S. From Desirée: If any of you know how to make the copied email not be outlined in white, please comment so I can fix that.