Koti tehtu mehua ja keks (Home made juice and cookies)

Moi :) This week was another good week. And it was made even better when I got to read emails and letters in the mail full of loving and supportive words. Thank you! It is so fun to hear and see how everyone is doing in emails and pics. You guys rock!

So probably the biggest blessing from this week would be our investigator with a bapstimal date. He is progressing so well, and in our last lesson with him he simply and powerful bore his testimony of many things throughout the lesson. He talks of how he is excited to get the priesthood and how much he has seen Heavenly Father helping in his life. He says that he wants to follow all the commandments because he knows they will bring him closer to God and that there is a reason we have them. It is so simple and true. It also has brought me so much joy to see the members reach out so lovingly, although there is a language barrier. Wow, lessons with him will definitely be a highlight of the mission.

Another highlight of the week was meeting with a very sweet woman Sisar Herrmann and I found tracting last change. We had tried to stop by a couple times before but it never worked out, but this week we stopped by and she immediately brought us in and was so loving and kind. She gave us delicious home made juice and cookies and sincerely listened to what we had to say about the Book of Mormon and our church. She was excited to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and was grateful for our message. Her and her little son also showed us these cute books about bible stories that they love to read together. Such a sweet and faithful family. It was really cool to see profit out of tracting that I personally did.

Something I learned during personal study this week: When reading Helaman 4:20-26 I found it so interesting how many times it says that the Nephites could see the differences between them and the Lamanites. "they saw" and recognized how far away from the Lord they had become. In Alma 32:35 it talks about the spirit and truth being discernable. Sometimes it is difficult to see the hand of the Lord, but I hope to keep my eyes open for it always, because it is there and we will see it.

I hope school and work and other parts of hectic life are going well for all of you. Thank you for your prayers :) I love you!

-Sisar Clark

pic- the night after the punianen kuu (red moon) or indian moon .... it was too cloudy to actually see the red moon, but we thought this was a pretty close second

Ihmeellinen viikko (miraculous week)

Hello everyone :) this week was truly a miraculous week in so many ways. So miraculous I almost hesitate to tell you everything in fear that my emails in following weeks will just be too boring. So I'll only tell you everything if you promise to still support me in boring emails in the future haha. So for starters we had 6 (yes that is correct....SIX) investigators in sacrament meeting this week! It was a circus and probably hilarious to watch Sisar Bruce and I not quite sure what to do with ourselves and so many investigators. While partaking of the sacrament, I just sat in awe of how much loving patience Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us and are how willing they are to help and bless us abundantly in our weaknesses. In addition, we set a very solid baptismal date this week as well! And in all our lessons with this investigator, Sisar Bruce and I are practically speechless when we see how prepared he is. This week he told us of how he normally doesn't give his number to churches or come when invited etc. but just felt like he was supposed to for ours. He talked about how when we invited him to be baptized he just knew he was supposed to. And then he tells us of how when he started meeting with us he stopped smoking and going to clubs because he realized they weren't helping him come closer to God....(this was before we even taught the Word of Wisdom). Wow Heavenly Father has prepared these people in incredible ways! Anther jaw dropping quote "Ya, I think I want to get married in the temple." Not only were there miracles in the missionary work, but with me personally as well. I felt very blessed to stay positive in difficult times and blessed with energy and happiness. Wow....this week...I don't even know what else to say. Thank you for your prayers....they obviously are not going unanswered. Prayer is powerful.

A scripture that the mission is focusing on this change is D&C 123:17 "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we standstill, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I think this scripture really describes this week. I have absolutely seen his arm revealed and feel so blessed at this time.
I hope you are all doing well. Chris! Happy Birthday this week!! :) Chase and Sarah good luck with your move this week. I hope all goes smoothly and you are able to feel at home there soon. Thank you for your emails, prayers, love, support, and examples! I love you all so much and pray for you often.

-Sisar Clark

Kolme Kirkossa taas! (three in church again!)

Hey everyone it is great to hear from so many of you. Thank you for your emails! I can't believe that Hayden is already old enough to do baptisms for the dead! What a wonderful experience for him. It is so fun to imagine sweet Savannah toddling around and playing with Roxy. And Callie the #thugmormon pictures in Zion make it look like you had a great time running; I'm only a slight bit jealous.

This week was another week of learning and growing, therefore a successful week. Sunday was exciting day when we had three investigators in church again! We have seen a lot of progress and growth within our investigators and feel very blessed to share this message with them and help them grow closer to Jesus Christ. Also, it is so so wonderful to see how supportive, aware, and helpful the members are in the missionary work as well. We (eli Sisar Bruce and I) ended up having to teach a Sunday School class kind of on the spot and thankfully the members in the lesson were so willing to participate and share their testimonies. That with the help of the spirit helped us squeeze by in that lesson. They have such strong testimonies and dedication to do what is right, even if it is very inconvenient. I'm really grateful for their examples. 

Fall is setting in now and the leaving are changing colors and falling off the trees. It is very pretty and great weather again. I'm very grateful to serve in such a beautiful (one might even say magical) place. With a new companion comes learning many new things and working through new challenges. I'm grateful for the things I'm learning and I'm very grateful for the truth that we know: We are Heavenly Father's children. He loves us. We can pray to him and find peace and guidance. Jesus Christ is our Savior and loving brother. He knows what we feel and is reaching out his hand.

I'm looking forward to General Conference and another good week in beautiful Suomi! 

-Sisar Clark

Minä jään Keravalla! (I'm staying in Kerava!)

Hey everyone :) Hope your week has gone well. Probably has been pretty busy lately, now is when school is starting up and everything again right? Good luck everyone! Also, Happy Birthday Chase!! I know you have been working your tail off recently so hopefully you get to fully enjoy a nice adventure filled, but mentally relaxing day.

So we got change calls this week! Sisar Herrmann is going to Turku and I'm staying in Kerava :) Sisar Bruce is going to come finish and training. I've loved working with Sisar Herrmann and will miss her, but I also look forward to learning new things from Sisar Bruce. Also, wow I'm so grateful I get to stay in Kerava. Seeing Sisar Herrmann tell everyone good bye has made me so grateful I don't have to leave yet. The ward and people here and so wonderful, words just don't explain. 

We had splits this week with the Sister Training Leaders and what an adventure that was. My companion ended up getting super sick that day (actually it was a huge blessing to have it happen on splits day though) so I ended up having to take the reins on all our lessons and everything. It doesn't sounds like that big of a deal, but I was shaking in my shoes pretty much all day. I felt pretty inadequate Finnish wise, navigation wise, and just in general. But, it felt so great by the end of the day to look back and think "Wow, I did it! With Heavenly Father's help, I did it!" Of course everything was so far from perfect, and I'm sure the Sister Training Leaders were thinking it was a disaster of a day haha, but I was feeling pretty blessed and grateful by the end of the day, it was a big success for me. 

Two big blessings from this week:

1) The power of the Book of Mormon is incredible. One investigators that hadn't progressed very much recently read the book of mormon. We called her everyday and every time she suddenly just lights up and tells us all the things she learned from reading that day and how much the spirit helped her feel better the rest of the day. We are very excited for her.

2) We walked into church on Sunday to find two "self referrals" (or people that have never meet the missionaries, but just came on their own) seating in the back waiting for sacrament meeting to start. They said they had read about the church online and just wanted to come visit! :0 wahhh!! We gave them a Book of Mormon etc. they said they wanted to go home and think about it some more before they started meeting with the missionaries, but they said they had a really good and pleasant experience and will probably come back next week. They were both so sweet and sincere. That has probably been my favorite part of my mission so far; seeing people with such sincere, humble desire to learn and find the truth.

One unique thing to Finland is the word "jaksaa". First off, you must know that Fins are very truthful, and it's not rude or anything, they just say it how it is. So, jaksaa pretty much means to feel like or to have the energy to do something. For example, if you are at a dinner appointment and they ask if you want more food you can simply say "en jaksaa" (I don't feel like it) and it is completely polite. haha sometimes I just chuckle a little in my mind still when I say it. But it also is totally acceptable to call in to work for a sick day or tell someone you don't want to come to church that week (as a missionary you hear this one a lot ha) and use the excuse that you just don't jaksaa to come. Oh the wonderful things of Finland ha :)

I hope all is well at home, I love you all!

-Sisar Clark

pics

1- a classic Finland sky....I'm always in awe!

2- Mustikka Piiraka (Finnish version of blueberry pie.....Fins do it way better....it is the best thing on this planet....especially when certain ward members make it for you......definitely my favorite Finnish food yet)

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

"Nyt on vaimo" (Now, I have a wife)

Hey everyone :) This week I had the wonderful blessing of going to Interim. It is pretty much like a three day long general conference sessions with the Mission President for all the trainees and trainers. It was wonderful and spirit filled. I learned SO much :). I'm excited to go out and work to apply what I learned. There were many funny stories shared and great memories relived as all these sister missionaries got back together haha. One sister told the funny story of a man they were teaching that would continually talk about trying to find a wife. They ended up dropping him as an investigator or something, but ran into him a few weeks later. The first thing he said to them was "Nyt on vaimo"....(I pretty sure the story is a lot funnier when she tells it) but for some reason the phrase stuck and now we all just keep having the phrase stuck in our head. ha But on the bright side, I definitely know the word for wife now. 

As fun as it was to see old MTC friends, eat incredible mission home food, and learn so much about missionary work, the best part of Interim was going to the temple! Wow, such a strong spirit there. There is nothing like the spirit of the temple. The work was successful this week too! We recently received a lot of new investigators and are looking forward to helping them progress to baptism. (the more I write the more I realize this probably sounds just like any other missionary's email home ha...sorry everyone..)  I saw the Lord's hand in the work this week when we went to deliver a BOM to a wonderful (not finnish...so she needed a different language...that's why we were "delivering" it to her) young mother. First, her door was locked, but a cute little girl walking her dogs came around the corner and let us in. Then, she wasn't home, but we ran into her on the way down the stairs! She was very sweet and we are going to meet with her this week. Wow, I was very grateful for the Lord's help with that. Sisar Herrmann and I both were talking about how we can see the light of Christ in her and are excited to meet with her more. :) 

One thing I learned a lot from this week was Nephi's example. He had the spirit with him for his whole journey back to Jerusalem to get the plates, but that doesn't mean the spirit was whispering in his ear every two second of what to do and where to go. The first time it talks about the spirit specifically telling him what to do is when he kills Laban. Just because we don't her the Holy Ghost telling us every two seconds where to go doesn't mean we don't have the spirit. We must do our best and act in faith, then if we are in trouble or in need of extra guidance the Holy Ghost can warn, guide, protect, and help us. I was really grateful for this example! I hope all is going well at home :) Thank you for your prayers!

-Sisar Clark

Tämä vikko on ollut hulu! (This week has been crazy!)

Hey everyone :) I loved getting pictures from the party this week! Wow how all the nephews and nieces have grown!! It's incredible! So fun to see and hear about all the fun adventures! And Callie! Happy Birthday!!!! I love you all so much :)
Don't have tons of time to write, but wanted to just share a smidgit (spelling? sorry) of the blessings from this week. It was mass chaos early in the week...way too many things to even list...but needless to say, I was pretty stressed and a little overwhelmed. But in these crazy moments we saw more blessings than ever before. Here are a few:

- I had the opportunity to give a 9-10 minute talk in sacrament meeting this week. I was very stressed about it because....well Finnish...and felt very nervous up until the meeting started. But I said a prayer to be calm and was amazed the peace I felt all throughout the sacrament and when giving my talk. It was a simple, but powerful example to me of my Heavenly Father's love and care for me specifically.

- We had an investigator in sacrament meeting to hear my talk!...and he was very very kind after and seemed to really like it! ....and our incredible ward members just swooped right in and were so helpful with fellowshipping him and sitting next to him classes! and just Chruch in general was very uplifting, spirit filled, and a peaceful place after such a crazy week. (Could anyone ask for a better Sunday?)

- One morning I randomly woke up with a thought "Call ____(so and so)"....I didn't even remember who that was....but I asked my comp and she said he was a potential we had tried to contact a few times right when I got here, but never got in contact. I told her we should try again....he answered!!...he wanted to meet...he set up a time....we meet with him tonight! Very excited! I know that was not just a coincidence.

- (probably my favorite blessings this week...but hard to choose) We met with a couple this week from "spirit directed tracting" that could not be more prepared to hear this message and had the first lesson with them last night. Literally, Sisar Herrmann and I walked out of that lesson was pure amazement. It was incredible to hear all the ways the Lord has blessed their lives and prepared them. Wow! I know this couple will be a special part of my mission. The spirit was so strong! Oh ya and one of them doesn't speak Finnish, so we teach in English....that helps me be able to express my self a little more. (all this followed by the beautiful sky to see on the bike ride home....picture attached :))

- I have seen the Lord helping me having the confidence to speak up so much more this week. And because of it, I think my language has improved as well. But the secret is not focusing on the language....and just focusing on testifying and pushing myself that way. Atleast that is the secret for me right now ha. It is incredible how much more you can speak up and put yourself out there when you remember how special everyone is to our Heavenly Father and that this is his work; focusing on the people rather than your own weaknesses.

That is about all the time I have this week, but thank you for your support and prayers. They are definitely being answered. I love you all :)