Kävimme sairalassa tällä viikolla (We visited the hospital this week)

Hey! Happy Tuesday to you all! This week we made an exciting trip to the hospital to make sure Sisar Richards isn't going to die. Our doctor was from Zimbabwe and has lived in Finland for 26 years. It was fun to try and explain everything in Finnish. We definitely learned a few more words.

Our investigators have all made some pretty big steps this week, some forwards and some backwards. One of my favorites would probably be a woman (first off teaching women is SO rare so that is pretty cool in itself) we found last week from a tracting referral. She have super strong faith in Christ and relys a ton on prayer to help her. Everyone in her family is atheist besides her Muslim brother and yet she just courageously follows the Holy Ghost to what she says "feels right and good" She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it right now (more updates hopefully to come :)). Another major highlight of the week, we holding back from just beaming while sustaining our recent convert in sacrament meeting as worthy to receive the priesthood! After he said that it went "nöyrästi" (humbly). He is SO great. He was trying to hold back his smile too while talking about it hehe.

Well I hope things are going well at home. I love you. I love thinking about my brothers and their families and my sisters being such awesome strong members and support to the missionary work all over the US. Thank you for your loving and steadfast examples!

-Sisar Clark

Kävimme sairalassa tällä viikolla (We visited the hospital this week)

Hey! Happy Tuesday to you all! This week we made an exciting trip to the hospital to make sure Sisar Richards isn't going to die. Our doctor was from Zimbabwe and has lived in Finland for 26 years. It was fun to try and explain everything in Finnish. We definitely learned a few more words.

Our investigators have all made some pretty big steps this week, some forwards and some backwards. One of my favorites would probably be a woman (first off teaching women is SO rare so that is pretty cool in itself) we found last week from a tracting referral. She have super strong faith in Christ and relys a ton on prayer to help her. Everyone in her family is atheist besides her Muslim brother and yet she just courageously follows the Holy Ghost to what she says "feels right and good" She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it right now (more updates hopefully to come :)). Another major highlight of the week, we holding back from just beaming while sustaining our recent convert in sacrament meeting as worthy to receive the priesthood! After he said that it went "nöyrästi" (humbly). He is SO great. He was trying to hold back his smile too while talking about it hehe.

Well I hope things are going well at home. I love you. I love thinking about my brothers and their families and my sisters being such awesome strong members and support to the missionary work all over the US. Thank you for your loving and steadfast examples!

-Sisar Clark

Hän rukoili ja tuli kirkkoon! (He prayed and came to church!)

Hey fam :) it was great to hear from a few of you this week! Thanks for the updates! In honor of Hayden's birthday this coming week I thought I'd share a great dream I had the other night: Post mission Hayden and I were just hanging out and playing a stellar game of who can name the most Book of Mormon prophets. Pretty sure Hayden won. And then he continued to excitedly express how much he loved the Book of Mormon for about two minutes. haha it was a great! So hope your birthday brings as much joy as that dream did Hayden! :)

This past week it snowed for three and a half days straight (still pretty warm though like 0 or 1) and then this Morning the sun has been shining like I have never seen it before. Wow not a cloud in the sky! I had completely forgotten the energy the comes from seeing the sun woo! That feels great.

We are working with an investigator who is preparing to be baptized next week and it has been definitely a more unique situation. He is a former investigator and was (By elders) taught quite a lot, but recently texted the missionaries saying he wanted to be baptized. Being taught By sisters is not his preference and he doesn't like to be in frequent contact ollenkaan (at all) so the process has been a little slower etc. but I thought I'd update you a little so that in following weeks when I say we had a baptism is doesn't come as a complete surprise out of no where ha. He is a little older than most of our investigators and it has been really cool to see how determined he is to do what is right all on his own.

Another exciting blessing from this week was our investigator (the one who we gave a church tour and they awkwardly started bringing in the casket) came to church and prayed! It is so exciting to hear them tell you that! We taught him the plan of salvation recently and he seemed really intrigued and excited about it. We set a baptismal date for April 2 with him this week too! It has been such a new experience to teach someone without literally any religious background. He is pretty great!

This week I studied Jacob 4:14 and thought it was Super interested that By looking beyond the mark they become blinded. Although planning and looking ahead to what I want to become is important, I have found that I do a lot better when I just focus day to day on simple ways I can improve and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It makes me think of Elder Uchtdorf's talk in conference about the simplicity of the gospel. There is such a peace in the clarity of the gospel. I'm so grateful for it.

I love you and hope that things are going well. Good luck this week! I am praying for you!

-Sisar Clark :)

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Hyvää Runebergin Päivää ja Ystävänpäivää (Happy Runeberg Day and Valentines Day!)

This has been a great week in which we celebrated this wonderful small holiday called Runebergin Päivää. We celebrate this poet by eating a delicious torttu his wife created. (see picture) And to follow a great holiday like that on Sunday we will be celebrating Ystävänpäivää! The direct translation is friend day and that is exactly what it is: not romantic whatsoever, but rather a day to celebrate the good friends you have. Definitely my kind of holidays! So hope you all have a great Ystävänpäivää and also Ana I hope you have a great birthday on Sunday as well :).

This week we had a once in a life time experience of giving a church tour before a funeral was taking place in the church building. This was our investigator's second time ever being in a church building of any religion. As we were showing him the chapel and explaining the sacrament etc. they started bringing in the casket and everything....it was so awkward haha voi että (oh brother). That will be a memorable moment haha. 

My companion has been pretty sick this week so we have spent a lot of time inside. I have gotten a lot better with speaking Finnish on the phone after a few days of just doing that. But in all seriousness, this week was a cool week. In church I can pretty safely say that I understood every single thing discussed and felt very comfortable with the language. (I know that doesn't seem like that big of a deal that half way through my mission I felt like that...but it was motivating to see the progress that has happened over the last nine months). 

I'm praying for you and am so grateful for your thoughts and prayers. I love you!

-Sisar Clark

Hän oli kuolemaisillaan kahdeksan kertaa (He was about to die 8 times)

Hi Family :) This has been a really great week for me. I felt really blessed to be reminded of the importance of humility. One way humility is defined in Preach my Gospel is putting things of the world above things of God. To me that means we shouldn't put our strengths above the things of God, but also we should not put our weaknesses above the things of God. I felt a lot more peace as I strived to boldly talk to people and teach despite my own weaknesses remembering the promised power that we as missionaries have from our Heavenly Father. I'm really grateful that we can continually learn while on missions and in our lives because I think I need to relearn this (and much more) many times. 

This week has surprisingly been really warm (around 1 or -1) and wet. But now it is getting cold again and snowing....everything is ice. haha we walk like little 87 year old women every where. I gave a ten minute talk in sacrament meeting this last week. It went alright considering that I didn't have enough time to really write it out super well. We taught our recent convert more about priesthood and asked him to prepare to receive it and he humbly responded, obviously a little intimidated by it, well if it means that I can serve and bless people, then yes. (all of his answers and thoughts are always so great :)) Also, this week we found a new investigator street contacting and were able to meet him later in the week. He and his girlfriend were both there for the lesson. We learned that this man has almost died 8 times from drug overdose and has tried to quit 5 times. He is only about 20 years old. Him and his girlfriend were obviously heavily addicted to smoking and alcohol (but has been dry from above mentioned drugs for 2 months) and were shaking pretty badly when they weren't smoking during our lesson. It is pretty hard and scary to see. They don't have much religious background at all, but seem to just be grasping for something steady in there life. We are praying really hard for them. Seeing there situation really just makes me grateful for my life. Wow, suddenly all my "problems" become so much smaller.

I'm so grateful for this blessed opportunity and I'm so grateful for the Lords help in this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week :)

-Sisar Clark