Sataa Tule! (and change calls)

Dear Family (and everyone else who reads this!),

In the Finnish language 'it' doesn't rain. Rain just happens. It's weird. You can't say 'Se sataa' (it's raining) like you would in english. You can say "sataa kovasti" or "sataa vetta" or "sataa ulkona" or "sataa tule"  (traslated respectively rains hard, rains water, rains outside, rain comes) but "it" never rains. In any language, rain came this week. And adventures with the bike continue. This time I got to ride my bike with an umbrella. I still haven't bought a rain coat, and umbrellas work fine, so that is what I have been using. Finns also sometimes use umbrellas with there bikes so I don't feel totally weird or anything. 

Anyhow, change calls came this week! And.... I am no longer staying in Oulu. Kinda sad. My trainer Sisar Vath is staying and training a new missionary. And I am headed to Tampere! I'm mostly excited. I get to serve with Sisar Holt, who was my MTC companion's trainer. I was able to meet her when I went to kielikoulu at the beginning of last month, and we both enjoy the Court Jester so I think it's going to be a lot of fun. At the same time though I am really going to miss Oulu. Yesterday I was in church and looking around at everyone and was thinking how much I'd truly miss the branch. This is a bit weird for me. I've only been here 3 months, hardly enough time to get to know people, but they've become my friends! 

Also, this week I got to go to the town of Kuopio for exchanges! It is BEAUTIFUL! (well, all of Finland is. It's funny, whenever someone talks about a place in Finland they'll say "oh it's so pretty there!" regardless of the place, and it's always true. It always is really pretty.) Along with getting to play sählö again, I found out one of the Elders in my zone shares my birthday, and I got fed a lot of ice cream by members. I guess this is because we told all the people we were visiting that we didn't need anything to eat, but they still wanted to give us something, so they fed us ice cream. We also went tracting and met an older lady who seemed so happy, and we were telling her about how the gospel brings us joy, but surely we were preaching to the choir because she was so joyful. She then proceeded to tell us that half of her children had died, and one was in the hospital. So, that just teaches you not to judge by the outward appearance, although it is amazing that she could have all those things happen to her and be that joyful, without the gospel perspective. 

Things in Oulu have been a but slow, It seems like none of our investigators are really progressing. Our investigator who was going to be baptized last month, seems to be facing a lot of opposition right now. Sisar Vath says it's because Satan doesn't want him to make the right choice. I have to agree with her. Yup. That sneaky little devil, ruining everyone's happiness. It's just not nice. Hopefully though, things pick up soon again. We have a couple potentials we want to visit before I leave for Tampere tomorrow! 

No niin ( alrighty then)! I should go! 

Love you all. Hope everything is great! 

Sisar Rachel Kastendieck

I don't even really remember this past week.

The subject heading says it all. I honestly don't really know what happened. I know we've been busy. And I know we've been working really hard at finding people, but other than that... I don't really remember. Sorry.

Yesterday was cool though. So, church was not the normal sacrament meeting. They had one of those area stake conference things where it's broadcasted for all of Scandinavia. President Monson was supposed to be there, but wasn't able to come. So Elder Ballard came. All the talks, to me, at least had the same message: A lot of the church's heritage comes from the Scandenavian countries, do your missionary work, and more missionary work. I got to listen in English, and was on splits with a senior missionary, while my companion was listening in Finnish. It's always nice being able to go to meeting where you understand everything, and your head doesn't hurt from trying to pay attention. But, yes, everyone was commanded to do missionary work. 

So, this week is going to be interesting! I get to go to Kuopio for exchanges. I'm really excited for that. Supposedly Kuopio is really beautiful. Not that Oulu isn't, but a change in scenery is always nice. Sister Vath and I are making lunch for after district meeting. More cambodian food. I'm kinda getting tired of it, but everyone else loves it. So, I guess that's good.  And then, there is also change calls at the end of the week! I really want to know what's going to happen, but have to wait at least until Friday to know! Maybe even Saturday, or Sunday! I can't wait that long!

Oh, and last week I had a couple cool experiences on Saturday. We had spent a lot of that day visiting people from our area book, with varied results. We had one last name we wanted to visit before heading home. We were in his building, looking up what floor he lived on when a man walked into the building. He asked what church we were from. We told him. He then asked what time our meetings were. We told him. He wasn't able to come yesterday, but promised to come the following week. So, if that wasn't great enough what happened next was even better. So, the former in that building wasn't home. We went to go get our bikes to go home, when we noticed a man and his tiny daughter playing outside. We started to talk to them. And right off the bat, he asked what church we were from. We told him. He then said he'd heard of us and the Book of Mormon, but didn't know too much. So, we showed him the Book of Mormon with the questions of the soul and asked what questions he had. After pausing to read them for a minute he declared 'well, all of them!'. He took the Book of Mormon, and said we could call him again in a week's time. It was amazing to me. Two people in a row who were so interested! That almost never happens! Okay, it actually never happens. Except then. Really Cool!

Anyhow, I had better go. Love you all!

Sisar Kastendieck

Oulu is Beautiful in the Spring/Summer

Things are really good here! The lilacs are blooming along with everything else, and everything is green! And really hot (like 30ish degrees I believe)! Everyone keeps expecting it to get cooler. it is rarely ever this warm for this long (going on two weeks now). Also, I'm pretty sure the sun never sets. Or if it does, it doesn't for long. All I know is when I go to bed the sky is still daylight blue, and when I get up the sun is high in the sky.And when I get up at one in the morning to get a drink of water, the sun has already risen... although the sky is still a bit purple. 

So, that man who was supposed to be baptized... We got in contact with him!!! We sent some friends from the ward over to his house and he talked to them. Turned out, I guess the stress and quickness of everything stressed him out too much, and so he smoked again. And then he was really ashamed and wouldn't talk to us. Luckily for him (and all of us) there's the atonement, and he is now meeting with us again and still really wants to be baptized. So, things are good there. It will just take a bit more time. And I think he really is ready to take the covenant, well except for his smoking that is, but that will be taken care of in good time.

What else. Oh yes, the conference with President Kearon! So good! I got to play piano, forever. All us missionaries had to be in our seat nearly an hour before it started. So I got to play prelude. Which is okay, only I was using the Finnish hymnbook, and sometimes I don't really know what hymn I'm playing until I start playing it. Or I think it's one hymn, but it's really another. That's always interesting. Also, they changed what songs we were singing for opening and closing, without telling me. This means I practiced the wrong songs, and didn't know the number of the songs in the Finnish hymnbook. But,  it turned out alright. It was really nice to play.

President Kearon was great! He was such a real person and talked to us, as though we were his personal friends. It made me happy. We discussed a lot about faith. Faith to find, faith to change, faith to overcome fear. It was amazing. Someone told me last week "A lot of good can be done when you don't care who gets the credit" or something along those lines. So, I had never heard that before, but guess what! President Kearon quoted that exactly, and it was one of my favorite parts of the day! And now I've heard it twice in less than a week. Must be true or something. 

After the conference I went on exchanges, with someone who is newer to the country than myself. That was fun. And I don't think we offended anyone too bad. Actually, I felt like Sisar Foster was teaching me a lot about missionary work. She was really open, and even though her Finnish is not stellar, she still talked with everyone. It really inspired me. And so, I've been trying to the same. At least saying hi, sometimes getting a bit further, it's a bit difficult on bikes, but really fun. After exchanges Sisar Vath and I found a lot of really good potentials, just by slowing down and talking.

So guess what!! I may only have two weeks left in Oulu! I hope not, but change calls are coming at the end of next week! I know I will not be with Sister Vath, (unless President creates a trio or something) because they need seven sisters to train, and there are presently only seven companionships of sisters, who are not training. So ya. 

Stay great! 

Sisar Kastendieck

So, about that baptism...

So this last week was weird to say the least. As for the baptism... it didn't happen. Here's what did go down though. Sister Vath and I met with our investigator EVERY day last week. We taught him everything, he accepted everything, he had quit smoking and drinking coffee, he was reading his Book of Mormon daily. On the morning of his interview he called us, checking that he had the right time, and said he would be there a quarter of an hour early... and THEN.... he never came. We tried phoning, his phone was off. We tried visiting, that day and the next day. He was home one of the times, but didn't answer. We left him a note. We haven't seen or heard from him since he called us that last time. So, it's was very anticlimatic, and a bit disappointing. We're still trying to get a hold of him, but we don't have much hope. Sister Vath and I feel like we did our best, and that everything is still good and in the Lord's hands. I just wish I knew what happened between the hours of 11 AM and 3 PM on Saturday that made him not come to his interview. But what can you do? Well, I am kinda tempted to camp out in front of his door and demand an explanation when he comes out. Anyhow, he's had baptismal dates before, but he's never gotten that close. Perhaps next time. He'd be a super good member if he does decide. And he already has lots of friends in the branch. We're getting some members to try and visit him this week too.

We did still go to the Elder's baptism though. They had a Vietnamese investigator get baptized. He speaks english, and is really cool. It was really good. I got to play the piano, which wasn't so good, but it went well.  Oh, and Sister Vath made cheesecake for it. Delicious. 

Other than that, my week has been pretty normal. This week we have a Mission Tour coming. Elder Kearon of the Seventy is coming to speak to us! So, because it's so expensive to travel by train and everything, we don't really have mission conferences in Finland. So instead,  Elder Kearon is coming to speak to each separate zone. This means that I get to see Sister Francis (my old trainer) and Sister Foster (my baby Finn) this week. AND  I get to go on exchanges with Sister Foster. This could be interesting, considering the language and I aren't quite on good terms yet. My understanding is getting better, my speaking is still really awkward. It takes me forever to say things. And then I usually use the wrong grammar, or put the wrong ending on. All well. It should be good. I'll let you know  how it goes.

Also, change calls are coming in a couple weeks. Soon I will no longer be a trainee, which means that probably either Sister Vath or I will be leaving Oulu. Sad day, but happy also. There are I think six new sisters coming in from the MTC next month (that's the happy news)! It's crazy how fast time flies. 

Anyhow, minä rakastan teitä! Te olette mahatavia! I should go now. I hope everything is good with everyone. It's pretty good here.

Sisar Kastendieck