Helsinki is Beautiful!

This past week was really fun. I had my first Zone conference and am now in Helsinki for training. This means I get to see Sister Fronk, Gasser, and Egan! I haven't seen them since I went up to Oulu, so when we saw each other it was a pretty happy reunion. And even better I get to stay with Sisar Fronk and her companion for the next few days! And I also get to see all the Elders from the MTC... but I see them a lot. Two are in my district, and the other is in my zone. But it's still fantastic.

Anyhow, back to last week. Last week I got to eat a LOT of fried bananas, compliments of Sisar Vath. It all began Monday when every single appointment we had fell through, as did our back up plans. It was also windy and cold... and maybe a bit rainy. Not fun. So at the end of the day I said we should just go and eat some ice cream to make ourselves feel better. and Sisar Vath said, "And I can make fried bananas!" Then the next day, we had a good day. But we also had some Sisters coming up from Kuopio (Sisar Francis and Sister Foster) for Zone conference so, we decided to give them a treat. And they liked them so much we had them the next day. And then a couple days later we made dinner for a less active family... and made them again. And we are making them again tonight. 

This week we met a great former investigator. She's an older lady, and was a bit lonely and sick  that day. When we visited her we asked if she was Tanja, as we always do with formers, to make sure we have the same address and they haven't moved. And she was so touched, and amazed that we knew her name. At the end of our time with her we asked if she could say a prayer before we left. She did and she told Heavenly Father how grateful she was for us missionaries who knew her name. It made me think of the first vision, when Joseph is called by his own name by the Father. In our mission statement it says that "we can stand in the place and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ" and I really felt like we did that day.

Zone conference was really alright. But I like the training I've been receiving this week better. Over the last couple weeks I've been thinking about how no one is really interested in religion nowadays. It's true too. If you show up at someone's door and say you're a missionary and have a spiritual message, they pretty much block you out. What the President told us yesterday is that, they can see we are representatives of the church, we wear our name tags where ever we go! Just talk to them. Tell them that we can help strengthen families, and find peace. And to also just start serving people from the get go. Last night I was able to apply those principles while on splits and it really works! We were knocking on doors, and we had a really great conversation with a family from Serbia, and then as we left their door, we turned around and there was some people moving into the apartment across the hall. And so we started helping them. And they were super appreciative. We never said that we were missionaries to them, but said we could come back later to see how they were settling in. 

So I have more training now. It should be good. I can't wait to see what else I can do better! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Sisar Kastendieck