Rock Bottom: Where the miracles start

Guess what! This last week was amazing! Yup. And this next week is going to be even better. Why was it amazing? Partly because I'm a missionary, partially because things are looking up, a little because Lahti has Elders and mostly because Heavenly Father has been giving Sister Schellenberg and I miracles pretty much daily. 

So, last week when I emailed it was a few days after we had reached rock bottom. I felt like no one wanted to talk to us, none of our investigators were progressing, we were never in our area long enough to actually do something good even though I was trying the best I could. In other words I felt like the wheels were spinning and I wasn't headed anywhere. Really discouraging. And then Saturday came along with the baptism, and afterwards we met a really cool potential, and I felt happy again.

Monday, after emails we had a dinner appointment out of town. Really fun! We got to play "Kuka pelkää musta miesta?", which is just like British Bulldog with the four kids. We missed one bus, but were able to catch the next one. After we got back into Lahti we still needed to do grocery shopping. And so we did. at like 8 o'clock at night. As we were checking out and bagging our groceries we heard this voice behind saying "Hey, it's the sisters!" (it was in english even!). We straighted up and guess who it was? It was our way awesome potential from the Saturday! So cool. We talked with him for a bit, found out he's trying to quit smoking and drinking. Say what? he then told us to text him sometime, as we hadn't yet. Sister Schellenberg and I were both really giddy walking away from that contact. But just think about that for a minute. In order for us to meet him "randomly" that night so many things had to happen. We first of all, were doing groceries at a WAY different time than we normally did, second, miss the first bus back into Lahti, and third forget to pick up cheese so we had to go back, so that he would be right behind us in line. And a few other things! Miracle? I think so.

Wednesday Elders arrived in Lahti! Elder Jeffries and Elder Call! Elder Jeffries is from Virginia, and is pretty much like a perfect model missionary. Elder Call is a greenie, is very loud, American and has an awesome testimony. They were picking up potentials by the bucket load the first day they were here! We are so excited. Elder Jeffries plays guitar, as does the potential that we met those couple times. And Elder Call is way good at basketball, which one of their investigators loves doing. 

We were able to find out why one of our investigators was hestitant to go to baptism. Due to a bit of a language barrier she thought that to be a member of our church you had to wear Sunday dress all the time, you couldn't go to movies, listen to music etc. and she was worried that she couldn't keep all those rules. It was a huge relief because Sister Schellenberg and I had been way confused. We knew she had a testimony of the  Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, and everything but couldn't figure out what her big concern was. We have a lesson with her this week to outline the commandments a bit better for her.

Also, a missionary got back home from his mission this week. He was serving in Finland, and has actually been in my zone for the past change. We're way excited to have him back in Lahti. First, he can really testify to the Finns that missionary work is really going forward in Finland. Second, guess who's going to be going on a lot of teaches with us now? Perfect member missionary! Hooray! 

 

One other miracle I wanted to mention. Sister Schellenberg and I are terrible at asking for referrals. Mostly we're just terrible at remembering to do it. This week however, we started to get better. And we asked a lot more people than we normally do. Not quite up to the standard of everyone, but most people. And we did not get a single referral. Until last night at 9:30. We got a text from a member that said "Good News! Soittakaa minulle vielä ennen kuin menette nukkumaan!" (Which being translated is Good news! Call me before you go to sleep!)  We called and this member has a friend, who asked if he could come to church next Sunday. We have a meeting with this referral Thursday! A fun note about this member. Half of his family is inactive, and we've never met with them, although we've been trying to get over to his house to do service for the last month. Even though we've never been over, it's my personal belief that he wouldn't have called us if it hadn't been for our efforts to try to help. Just cool to think about.

So before I go I just have one request for all of you. Look for small miracles in your lives! They're there! 

Love you all! 

Rakkaudella

Sister Kastedieck

First Snow!

This was once again, a crazy week! But a great week! 

It involved moving, exchanges, organizing and baptism, change calls and even a bit of missionary work!

I'll get all the suspense out of the way as far as change calls go. Sister Schellenberg and I are both staying in Lahti! Hooray! We are really happy. We just had finally gotten to really know the ward, and were starting to really get into the groove, and we were worried that we would be separated. I am also happy to be able to stay some where longer than three months! Being here for two changes makes Lahti the city I've served in teh longest, and also it's the longest I've stayed with one companion. Lahti is also receiving Elders again! Way exciting! So much is going to be done now. Just wait. This city is going to explode.

A lot of this last week has been involved in moving. Tuesday a whole crew... okay three people, came up from Helsinki to help us move. Two of them were senior missionaries from the office, the third was my former district leader who had served in Lahti. Moving took most of the day. But it was fun. We also had a great lesson with this young daughter of a new convert! This little girl got baptized on Saturday. I'll send you pictures next week!

Wednesday we went to Tampere for district meeting, then to Turku for exchanges! I was really excited to go and see another finnish city! I actually didn't get to see much of it, but I met another new finnish convert who joined the church while she was nannying in the states. She actually reminds me alot of Savannah.

Friday we came back. Saturday was the baptism. The baptism was mostly organized by us, while we were out of town. Okay I lie, it was mostly organized by my companion, because she's great!  Sister schellenberg and I both gave talks... in Finnish... oh dear.
After the baptism we met a really cool potential investigator this week. We had been walking to the centre from the chruch, and decided to go up a path we had never gone down before. While walking there wasn't any one around. And then we saw one man a ways down the path. Sister Schellenberg slowed down, and we started talking about how beautiful the view from the hill was. One we had stopped and taken a picture, the man was really close and so it was really natural and normal to talk to him. He stopped, and said he was one his way to go rehearse some music, but we ended up talking to him for over 20 minutes. He promised to read the Book of Mormon, and said he has a family that prays together! He also said he doesn't really like churches, but we'll work on that. Really promising! Things are looking up!

Sunday, was another great day. Today we got lights in our apartment. One funny thing about Finnish culture is that they really love their light fixtures, and so when they move out of a house they take their lights with them. Sister Schellenberg and I have been suriving on using just the entrance light and stove lights these past few days. Which is okay. But it's great that the office has granted us light fixtures for our bedroom and what not. Now we can see what clothes we're changing into in the morning.

Anyhow, got to go. Love you!

Sisar Kastendieck

Things just got crazy!

I have so far decided that there are two laws that rule the mission universe.

1) No matter what you do, the week before change calls come will be the most insane week of the whole change.

2) You never have enough time to do anything.

So first off. This last week. It was mostly really good. I had a kielikoulu (language school)! Which means I got to see most of my MTC district. Not all of them. Just the ones in my zone. It was really fun though. Even if it took me out of my area for a whole day.

Sister Schellenberg and I have seen a quite a few small miracles of how the people are being prepared. For example, we have made it a goal that at most of our dinner appointments (we receive quite a few every week) we would like to have either one of our investigators present, or for the members to have a friend over with us. I was a bit afraid when we made this goal, thinking that members would be quite reluctant. On Saturday we were invited to a DA and my companion straight up asked the member if she could have a nonmember friend at the dinner with us. Straight way the member replied, "yes! I actually have a friend I've been wanting to introduce more to the gospel. She even came to church a couple years ago to watch me give a talk". 

We've had a lot of good time to do service this last week. We've had two families move into the ward, and it's been really good to get to know them. One of these families is a recent convert from Kouvola, who is friends with  an investigator here. We are really excited to have her here, especially since the new convert and our investigator speak the same mother tongue. And to make it even a bigger miracle, the live in the same building, one floor apart!  The other family, which just moved in, are amazing member missionaries and we are excited to start working with them!

As far as crazy things go. Here's the low down. Last week Sister Schellenberg and I found a new place for the sisters in Lahti to live, since Elders are coming back and moving into our current apartment. We found out this morning that we are to be out of our current apartment, tomorrow morning. I  guess it's a blessing that all of our plans, backup plans, and  backup backup plans fell through, because now we have to pack and deep clean a whole apartment before tomorrow at 9 am. 

In addition to moving this week we are headed to Turku for a day for exchanges, have district meeting Tampere and are trying to put together a baptism for our new convert's (who just moved in) eight year old daughter. We'll see how this works.

Anyhow, I should go. Good luck with the wedding! Onnea! Olekaa Onnellisia! Get along! Play nice!

Love you. 

Sister Kastendieck

p.s. Look! pictures! 

Let's get down to business!

So this last week was ridiculously busy! Again! It never seems to let up so long as your a missionary. Ever! Which is good I guess, always moving forward, always learning more, always attempting to brign people closer to Christ.

As you probably have all heard, I was in Helsinki last week. Helsinki, a great place to visit, I love going there. Don't know if I'd ever want to serve there. I think it would lose some of it's magicalness if I did. Sister Schellenberg and I had the privledge of being trained by the mission president and his wife for three days straight! We did role plays, go talked to, took notes, learned how to shine shoes, wash our faces and spread the gospel. (No joke about the washing faces one... in case you're wondering you're supposed to cleanse twice with soap or cleanser stuff, use toner and then moisturize/sunscreenize (morning and evening). Also... exfoliate twice a week). By the end of the three days, we were pretty pumped to get back to our area and get to work. The fourth day in Helsinki was Sister Schellenberg's 6 week kielikoulu, and the temple was closed. I mostly endend up hanging around the office, while other missionaries got to go on splits and set baptismal dates. sigh. Although, I was able to see Sister Fronk, from the MTC, and email you guys AND say goodbye to my district leader who was transferred down to Helsinki to replace another missionary who went home. We then got to go home.

Friday, we got to have district meeting in Lahti! A rare occurance! We could just bike to the church, and not be on trains for a total of four hours! A real blessing! We had a really good, inspirational meeting in which we were able to talk about setting goals. We set some really good ones and by this time Sister Schellenberg and I were more eager than ever to share the gospel and to get started on our goals!

But, we still couldn't very much! We still had weekly planning AND conference over the weekend. All of which went well. I was only able to watch 2.5 sessions of conference (plus the relief society one). We were even able to bring conference to one of our investigators, who doesn't understand Finnish or English very well. In the end, I got to watch the Saturday afternoon session twice, once in english and in once in portugese. Aika hauskaa! I really love conference though. It really hit me, just how special it is to listen to the words of true apostles and prophets. Who else gets to do that? Well, everyone should! But, how many generations of people have gone without it, and how many there still are who don't have it.

So, now today, it is really time to get down to business. To implement plans, use training and bring people to Christ!

Wishing a hyvää viikkoa kaikille! Rakastan teitä aina!

Sisar Kastendieck

Hooray Helsinki!

Sorry my email is so late this week. I have had a pretty crazy last couple weeks here in Finland.

I guess it all started with my birthday! I turned 22! And we had absolutely no appointments set up for that day, which means we spent the day walking around Lahti, trying to get into contact with some former investigators, and less actives. Out of the eight people we had set up to drop by... only one was home... and she claimed she didn't speak Finnish or English. This is somewhat confusing, because she's been taught by missionaries before. But whatever. We also dropped some flowers and a note by an investigator's house whose had a really busy life lately, and another member's who's had a really hard life lately. It made both of their days! It was great to be of service.

Later that day some sisters from Turku came, to do exchanges with us on the next day. Really fun! Sister Schellenberg ended up going a splits with a missionary from her MTC group. They were amazing together! I think The Lord really blesses the younger missionaries. I had an almost cool story. I was wearing my Canada mittens that day (it was hailing...borderline snowing that day) and  a car pulled over and said she had seen me walking around and wanted to know if I was from Canada. Of course I said yes. Sister Kunz (my companion for exchanges) and I told her what we were doing in Finland. And then... she just wanted to sell me Amway. SO almost cool.

Thursday then was Zone Conference. Fun, but exhausting. 

Friday.... Lots of appointments.

Saturday. We had a baptism!!! But not really. It was the Elders' from Kouvola. BUT the lady that went to baptism is moving back to Lahti in a couple weeks. She started investigating while she lived in Lahti, moved away and is now moving back. So that is great! The ward is really excited.

Sorry I dont have tons of time. I need to head. Love you all have a  great week! 

Sister Kastendieck