No rest for the wicked...or sthe missionaries

Things are going pretty great! This week included 3 or 4 unplanned dinner appointments, giving away flowers, installing a light, moving a couch and culminated in one investigator and two less active members coming to church. Oh and a 10 minute hailstorm.

 

So first, let's talk about the dinner appointments. One thing I've learned as a missionary is that old ladies love the missionaries. They love to have them visit, often because they are lonely. And then they like to have you eat all of the food that is in their house, and won't let you proceed to your next appointment until it's gone. Sister Schellenberg and I had appointments with about three older ladies this week, and they all fed us. A LOT. It's really fun though, to see how much you brighten their day. I guess it also helps when you give them flowers.

 

We also had an apartment inspection this week. It was really fun. And we were tipped off about it about a day before it happened. A senior couple came up from Helsinki and checked it all out. They liked the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, but noticed we were missing a couple key things. We then went to a kirpistori (second hand store) and bought some things that the apartment didn't have. For example, floor rugs, and a couch (well we had a couch it was just broken). They also gave us a new light fixture for our room (which I installed by myself! I thought you'd be proud dad.. even though it was really easy).

 

As far as missionary work goes, it's been good. Hard as always, and I always am trying to be better, but good. Sister Schellenberg and I have not been very succesful in the finding people to teach department, but we are getting better at talking to people on the street. Hooray!  

 

Sundays are funny days for missionaries. While the rest of the Mormon world gets to use this day as a day of rest, a day for families, a day for spiritual nourishment, the missionaries just keep working. I love going to church and partaking of the sacrament. I really love it, especially when we can ride to church with an investigator and see two of the less actives we've been working with there with us, like we did yesterday. Church goes for three hours, finishes. But, missionary work is not over. Yesterday Sister Schellenberg and I ended up having a planning meeting with some ward leaders, visiting another sister in the ward (no unplanned dinner appointment this time), and then walking home. We still had three hours of studies left (we only get personal study in before church) and also weekly call-ins. On the way home we got stuck in a hail storm, which was fun! And then studied, and made goals. Which is great! I just sometimes wonder how the day of rest applies to missionaries.

 

Over my mission I've really learned to not compare myself to others, and to be content with who I am, while still striving to be better. It's helped to save a lot of stress, but at the same time I want to accelerate more at being an awesome missionary. I know I can't change all at once, but I want to change faster than I have been while not going crazy. Don't really know where to go from here.

 

These next couple weeks will be fun! We have splits this week, with the sisters from Turku. We then have Zone Conference. Then next Monday Sister Shellenberg and I get to travel down to Helsinki for her 6 week interim training! So, my emails might not come until a bit later. And following that it's general conference! Things should be great! Can't wait to learn and become better!

 

Rakastan Teitä!!!!

Sister Kastendieck

Another week, another couple miracles

This week was hard. Mostly because I felt really distracted for a good portion of it. Don't know why. But that's okay. I'm better now! But really and truly, I love my mission. There's been a couple times in my mission when I've looked back and thought, "Wow, the Lord has sure taught me a lot" and then I think "what in the world does he want to teach me next... I still have a bunch of my mission left"... and then I think "and then the rest of my life... and then eternity". So I guess in reality I've probably changed such a tiny amount that it's negotiable. If you look at it with an eternal perspective.

So this week, Sister Schelleberg and I have definitely seen miracles. 

Firstly, we both made it a goal to try to talk to everyone, or at least more people. The first couple weeks here we hardly talked to anyone, as we were worried about getting to appointments on time and what not. We decided to change that last week. So we started to talk to people. And it seemed for the most part like no one really wanted to talk to us, but we kept talking. And then on Friday we were walking home, and it was almost 9 so we we're in a hurry. We walked past a couple and just said "moi" and kept walking. The wife stopped, called us back over and we started a conversation with her. In the end we taught her how to pray and it was a great experience. When we put in our effort the Lord really does make up the difference. That being said, we still have a lot of people we are missing on the street and everywhere. Vähitellen though. Little by little. I really do want it to become 100% natural and normal for me to talk to people. Sometimes I really think that it's almost unnatural that no one talks to each other. We're all brothers and sisters after all! Why do we ignore each other half the time?

Another miracle. One of our investigators was turning into an eternal investigator, when we heard her niece was being taught by the Kouvola elders. The baptism is probably going to be here in Lahti, and so our investigator can now attend, and really feel the spirit. She's been hard to teach because she already does all the things we teach in church, for example, she already fasts, prays, reads scriptures. But we're hoping that through her witnessing this baptism she'll be able to feel the power of the restored gospel. Okay, that last sentence was really cheesy, but seriously she needs to see that priesthood power isn't just something we talk about. It really is necessary!

Sister Schelleberg and I have really been talking a lot about baptism lately, and why we baptize people into our church. We've discussed how we don't baptize to increase our numbers, or to be bigger and more influential. Sister Schellenberg then said, "we baptize because it's God's plan. Not because of our church. But because it's really the only way to happiness". I liked that. The church, and the programs thereof is really a huge toolbox of things for us to endure to the end together. The gospel is what we live to receive happiness. Maybe I don't understand it completely because I'm having a hard time describing it in words, but it's fun to think about.

Anyhow, I think that's all for today. Don't stress out about life. BE happy. Remember who you are and what you stand for! Te olette parhaita! Kirkko on totta! 

Rakkaudella,

Sister Kastendieck

It gets dark at night?!

This probably isn't going to be the longest email. Just a quicky. I changed things up this week and did personal responses first. 

This week was long. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what happened. Nothing overly exciting I guess. Quite a few of our appointments fell through, but we got to meet with a bunch of the older ladies in the ward. Visiting old ladies is actually one of my favorite things to do on my mission. They are really quite fun to hang around. And sometimes they have surprise tea parties with you, or make you eat a whole huge plate of cookies before you do anything else, or just talk about how they thought they were going to die the a few days ago... but didn't. They all love missionaries though. It's fun. 

One of the challenges of serving Lahti is that all the buildings are locked. I suppose this needs some back up story. In Finland. most people live in kerrostalot, or apartment buildings. In most cities if you live in the Center, you have a locked building that you can get into only with the key, but as you get further out from the center there are more and more buildings that you can just walk into and go tracting. Not so in Lahti. Everything is locked here, so if we find ourselves with free time on our hands we have to go contacting. I think this is a bit of a cruel joke Heavenly Father played on both Sister Schellenberg and I as we are both terrible at contacting people on the street. But it's fun anyway. We meet some really cool people, some of which may or may not be intoxicated. But that's life. Mission life. 

Things are fairly slow here for the moment, but steady. And every week we get a bit better. And every week the hills we have to ride up and down all day get a bit easier. (there's a lot of hills in Lahti... it's killed for the first couple weeks).

Fall is beautiful here! I've never actually seen so many maple trees, and they are gorgeous in the fall! Also, it's weird because it is really dark at nights now. It's almost dark when we get home in the evening. Really weird!

Anyhow, got to go. I'll tell you more about actual missionary work next week. 

The church is true, and so is the gospel! It's fantastic because you can always learn something new from it! 

Love you all,

Rakkuadella,

Sister Kastendieck