Pikku hilja (a step at a time)

Hei everyone! I hope that your week went well :) Mine definitely did. Although many of our teaching appointments that we were very excited about fell through, we were able to get in contact with a lot of promising potentials from the past few weeks instead!  So one potential I talked about previously in my emails gave us her number and address, but the number didn't work, and her apartment building is locked most times during the day. We were so sad, because she has such a sweet spirit and we thought we may not be able to get in contact with her again. But, never fear! Miracles happen. On one of our random stop bys to see if anyone is near by to let us in (she lives on the way to many other people we visit, so we just randomly try once in a while), we got in!! and she was home!! We figured out what was wrong with the number and will most likely be meeting with her this weekend :)

This week gave me more hope language wise. I was able to see baby step improvements with the language (hence pikku hilja...which might be spelled wrong ...sorry ha) that I normally can't see. Sometimes I feel as though I can understand pretty much all of what people say, and then there are the random conversations where I come out not having a clue ha. Always an adventure, but Finnish is a great language. I love studying and using it. I hope to keep finding ways to improve faster, because I could always use that.

So one funny thing about Finland: everyone is super patient with their dogs. When they go for walks they just let the dog take the lead, sniff anything/everything, take its time. And its not just some people...everyone does this. Finland is just such a calm peaceful place. It's not like the "Hawaii chill" but it just has a pleasant, focused, steady feel. It is starting to get darker earlier and sometimes it is still dark when we get up in the morning. Kind of weird.

I was offered drugs for the first time this week. haha that was a funny one. Good news is a even if I didn't fully understand everything he was offering (because those just aren't really the first words in my word book to learn), I understood enough to know what the correct answer was. (dodged that awkward situation..phew ha)

This week in personal study, I was reading in Alma 26:22. I love how is says "prayeth continually with out ceasing" because many times we hear of all these wonderful and exciting missionary experiences, but not much is said about the fervent and earnest prayers behind them. I have been pondering a lot about the importance and power that prayer has. If you have any insights I'd love to hear them :) And of course I am praying for all of you, and although you don't write much, mom does so don't worry I still have some idea of whats going on. I know that everything isn't perfect, so I hope you know that I am praying for you. I love you all, and I'm so grateful for our family. What a blessing it is! Thank you for your examples!

- Sisar Clark

ps our pday is most likely on Monday next week due to transfers so write early if you want to write :)

pic= this sign says "Jesus will come! Are you ready?"....we thought it was pretty great