Photos from the MTC

The only palm tree on her mission. 

Looking for Justin Bieber

Picking up her Visa in L.A.

'Grateful that this family could eat us'

Well, this week has been a cold one. But I'm also glad to report that I have successfully gone from Monday to Monday without any major health issues. Except for I apparently have tendonitis in my knee and have to ice it four times a day, and am not allowed to walk up and down stairs. Obviously. Let me fill you in on a few of my favorite things from last week:

-Singing "Happy Birthday" to Justin Bieber in an elevator with a potential investigator.

-Going to Helsinki (I'm obsessed with that place).

-I didn't get much practice of Finnish this week due to the many lessons I had in Chinese, Cambodian, half-Swahili or some random African language, half-Vietnamese, half-Russian, and English (yes, random, I know).

-We had Sisar Xu (a mini missionary) with us this week, hence the Chinese lessons, and I felt like I was back in Taiwan.

-I got to go to the temple when I was in Helsinki.

-For four months I've been craving butter chicken and naan...definitely got it last week.

-We tracted into the most phyisically active 90 year old woman I've ever met in my life. She "doesn't even need her glasses all of the time, just sometimes."

-I had a Gilmore moment yesterday afternoon when I learned that I live on Vomit Street. Nice.

-Also last night in a prayer I was trying to say that we were grateful that a family could feed us, but I didn't know the verb for "to feed" and so I just said some form of the word "eat," (half the things I ever say in Finnish I'm just making up, haha) but then later realized I had said, "We are grateful that this family could eat us." Oh man.

We have been meeting with a man for some time, and he actually spent some time investigating from the elders, but we really needed him to start to take this seriously, and put in some effort from his side. We had a lesson with him on Thursday and were somehow able to commit him to baptism. I said a lot of things, don't really remember what, but I know I ended up being a lot more bold than I was planning on, and maybe should have been. I just really wanted him to understand that if he really wanted this change in his life, he was going to have to work a little for it. In fact, maybe I had a little panicked break down in the building after we left his apartment. Maybe there were tears. But we set up a lesson for him this week, and will also be doing a Family Home Evening with him and his children on Saturday. We invited him to church, but he hasn't come in awhile. So we were all quite surprised when he walked into the building on Sunday. The ward members immediately helped in welcoming him, and are thrilled that he will one day join them. We even noticed some friends for him, and already have them lined up to come to the next few lessons with him.

On Sunday my companions and I (also our entire district) are heading to Helsinki for four days for Leadership Training, and also one day for a language class for the elders in my group and myself. That means we're going to have a crazy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to fit all of our lessons in for the week. But I'm excited to see my elders, funny how that works isn't it?

-Sisar Clifford

Week 2 in the Field

This week was a good one, and it was a long week. Maybe it seemed so long due to the entire day I spent sleeping. I don't know what my deal is, I just can't seem to quite get better. But after the, oh I don't know, maybe 27 hours of sleep, I felt a lot better. This poor body of mine, it's never going to forgive me for what I've put it through the last few months.

 

Tuesday was a great day though, Sister Ehlen and I had a cool experience. We had a few options of what to do and where to go, and after praying, we decided to go visit a very less active. After making it to her apartment, there was no answer. So, we prayed again, obviously. We had brought a Proclamation to the Family with us, and we took a minute to study it before we made a decision where to go. Both Sister Ehlen and I felt good about walking in the same direction. After walking for a few minutes, we both knew that we had gone too far. So we turned around, and prayed to know where to go from there. We decided to take a right turn. Immediately after turning right, there was a little park-ish area with a little path and a young mother with two kids and a stroller walking down the path. So we went to talk to her.

Now, I'm far from fluent, but with the confidence that the Spirit brought I began to talk to her. I began saying something about families, I don't really remember, but she listened. Sister Ehlen took a turn, and talked about the Family Proclamation and shared a part of it with her. We each testified and asked if we could get her phone number and talk to her more about it another time. At this point I was a little confused, but what I wasn't confused about was the Spirit that was there in the little wooded area. She agreed, and even made an appointment for a few days later. I know that the Spirit touched her, and that is why she wanted to meet with us.

Our meeting didn't work out, due to a broken leg, but we have another meeting set up, and she ensured us that she is still very interested in hearing what we have to say. I hope and I pray that we will be able to help bring light into a concern that she has in her life, particularly in raising her young family.

 

On Friday we picked up a mini missionary for the next week! Her name is Jenny Xu. She is 18, in high school, and was baptized in December. She has two callings because she knows she can do so much! She is great! So we have been spliting up the time with her. On Saturday Sister Ehlen and I took a train to Hankasalmi to visit a member couple. It was beautiful. They picked us up from the train station and drove us up the nearest hill to over look the village. I think everyone should google this place. There is a beautiful wooden church, and then the houses surround it from there.

 

The couple that we visited live right on a lake, in the most perfect cottage. They said I could move in with them, so that was perfect. The husband was actually one of the main translators of the Book of Mormon into Finnish, that was really neat. It was a long day, but it was nice to get to know them, and eat some decent food. Decent, meaning food that wasn't cooked by me. Meaning, food that isn't cereal or a sandwich, or nutella.

 

Tomorrow we have a district meeting in Tampere, and then Sister Pendleton and I will head to Helsinki for her six month language school, and I will go to the temple! Woohoo!!

 

I've been trying to concentrate on the little tender mercies in my day. Today, most occured in the grocery store. Maybe it involved the music playing throughout the store, and maybe one of my companions humored me by translating the tabloid cover with me, the best one? "The Halaballu about Kate's Pregnency." And also, I surprise myself with the fact that I can understand a decent amount. Ok, like, a really decent amount. I understood a story some old lady was telling us about being a widow, and how the doctor thought there was cancer in her nose. Now, all we gotta do is figure out a way that I can speak as well as I can understand. So, wish me luck!