Almost back to normal. Kinda

This week everything is going great! I am now enjoying my time in Lahti, in the elders old apartment, with the best ward!

Okay. So here's the run down of this week. Ready? I can't believe that it was just a week ago that I was in Tampere, and with Sister Holt and her wheelchair and Sister Feher. So much has changed. On Tuesday night we got a call from President Rawlings saying that Sister Holt needed to go home as her leg was not getting better, and she needed further care from home. She had less than 24 hours to pack everything and be in Helsinki to leave with the other departing missionaries. This made things crazy! and sad! I wasn't completely packed yet, and there were five sisters at my house, and we were all trying to help Sister Holt pack. And thank goodness for the Elders. We could never have gotten around or done anything without them. Finland, by the way, has the best elders in the world. Also, we didn't leave before giving her doctor a Book of Mormon though. So that's good.

Early Wednesday morning I got to head to Helsinki, after getting around 4 - 5 hours of sleep, to pick up my trainee!! Scary. But I'll now tell you about her. My new companion is Sister Schellenberg and she is 19. She is from American Fork, Utah and is the oldest of seven kids. She is ridiculously good at speaking Finnish, and I am pretty sure she's training me to do missionary work and not the other way around.

Now for Lahti. This is the first time in about 10 years that Sisters have been in Lahti. It's a university town and we live right in the Centre (or downtown if you will). The apartment is the only apartment in Finland actually owned by the church. It is also the most (quote by President Rawling) "run down apartment in Finland"  and has the smallest bathroom. The church owns it because an old lady that used to live there gave it to the church in her will. Sister Schellenberg and I both love it and think it just needs some TLC. My current District leader actually used to serve here in Lahti... and so he knows all the quirks... actually added most of the quirks to the apartment. i.e. light up shower head, glow in the dark stars on the bedroom ceiling, and knows why we have like 50 cans of pea soup in the pantry (those would be a member donation).

The ward in Lahti is pretty small. Reminds me of Tofield branch, where there are two or three families pretty much in charge of everything, and have always been in charge of everything. They are all really awesome and want to try to help the missionaries as much as possible. The first day in Lahti we had dinner with the bishop and he is really cool. Said that he's available to help teach milloin tahansa (whenever). As for investigators... we haven't met any yet. All of our appointments fell through last week and that kinda was not fun. Instead we went contacting and tracting, and got told that the Book of Mormon would be burned at the coming of Christ along with the Koran (sp?). Fun Fun. But seriously, we also had some really good experiences with people.

This week things should pick up. We have several lessons with less actives and investigators and am so excited to meet them all! Things are going fantastic, even if I am a bit scatterbrained and have really no idea what I am doing.

Anywho, I should go. Wishing you all a marvelous week from Lahti! 

Sisar Kastendieck