Where It All Started In Finland

Hei! 

With my zone at Larsmo--Dedication spot for missionary work in Finland by Ezra Taft Benson in July of 1846 (see plaque below)

Traveling Finland

This week was a rather crazy week but I am realizing that I am seriously being so blessed!!  This week we had a Zone Conference in Pietarsaari! So the day before we got to take a 7 hour train ride down to Vaasa to help with a service project that all of the Youth of the Church in Finland came together to do.  It was so much fun and I got to see Vaasa!  But I have to admit the best part was that I got to see and stay with SISTER FRONK!!! I absolutely love her to death. It was so much fun to be able to see her again and talk to her.  Really we are sisters.  There is no other way to put it.  She is wonderful and such an amazing missionary.  It was so good to be with her again before she goes home.  It is crazy to see the time fly and have half of your companions all dying at the same time. Vaasa was beautiful and I got to go on splits with Sister Bitner (Sister Fronk's current companion).  She is an amazing missionary and it was way fun to spend time with her because we have both had Sister Egan and Sister Fronk as companions.  We also decided that we are practically the same person. :)

The chapel in Pietarsaari, the oldest branch in Finland :)

The Beginning of Missionary Work in Finland

Then the next day we got to travel on a bus with all of the missionaries in our zone to Pietarsaari and go see Larsmo!  I never thought that I would ever get the chance to do that.  Larsmo is the location where Pres. Ezra Taft Benson dedicated Finland for missionary work and is also where the first branch of the church was organized and is still there today.  It was amazing!  I can't believe I actually got the chance to be there and to stand where the history of the church was started in Finland, and to now be apart of it.  It really is such a blessing.  I love Finland.  

The school where the first meetings of the Church were held in
Finland.  With my first companion/trainer, Sister Fronk

Zone Conference & Goodbyes

The Zone conference was really good.  It was all about following the Spirit.  It really is the only way that the work really can more forward.  We really are instruments in the Lord's hands and the more that we recognize that and follow Him and the let the Spirit guide us, the faster this work will go forth. :)  The hardest was the end of the conference when Sister Fronk and Sister Gausser got up to give their farewell testimonies.  I really just bawled.  You can't find friends like you do on a mission.  There really is something special about being with the missionaries that you serve with.  They are amazing. I absolutely love each and every one of them.

Goodbye to Sister Fronk who finishes her mission this momth

A Day in Oulu

Well, to answer your request Mom, I will write about a normal day in the here. Wake up at 6:30in the morning, exercise and get ready for the day.  8:00 is Personal Study.  9:00 is Companion Study and Preparing Lessons. 10:00 is Language Study. 11:00 is Lunch.  Then we go to appointments for the rest of the day.  We bike absolutely everywhere and usually it is around 6 to 9 miles a day. We get to see a lot of Oulu which is absolutely beautiful!  Right now Sister Nyman and I have a ton of appointments everyday but we try and eat dinner before 6:00 and then we get home around 9:30 every night.  It is getting harder and harder to be home on time because the sun never goes down and it is always light outside!  We really just completely lose track of the time!  But we are repenting and trying to be better about that.  But that is usually how the day goes every day.  Not much changes.  Just the lessons and who we are meeting with. :)   

With my companion, Sister Nyman, at Larsmo

Thank you for all of you love and support :) 

Sister Knapp

Editor's note: I found a picture of the memorial online The sign is written in Finnish, Swedish, and English, and reads:

"On this sacred spot Finland was dedicated for the preaching of the restored gospel. Dedicated by Apostle Ezra Taft Benson 16 July 1946. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."