Turn Around Week

Happy New Year!! 

Write The Blessings Yourself

This week was such a good week!  It was mine and Sister Fronk's turn around week and we are so excited about it! What is a better way then to start the new year by making it the first day of the last day of your mission!?  This week I got the flu right before New Year's Eve which was not fun at all, but since I was sick in bed, it gave us a lot of time to think and plan for the next year.  The first thing we did was write down the blessings that we want for the next year.   Sister Fronk's family has this tradition that each year they write down the blessings that they would like to receive in the coming year.  There is a quote that they use from President Heber C. Kimball that says, " I have often said, you may write the blessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, and it will all come to pass on your heads if you do right."  I love that quote!  So we did just that, and yes we did that only 5 days ago but it is amazing to see the blessings already coming to pass for us!  So I encourage everyone to do that this year!  Instead of just writing the goals you want to reach, write the blessings that you would like to receive and have others receive, whether they be friends or family, and we have a promise that it will come to pass if we do right.  It may not be this year, but it will come to pass :) 

A Companion's Rescue

New Years Eve was also a lot of fun.  Though I was still recovering from the flu and wasn't sure if I could handle going to an appointment we had at a members' house, we decided that since my fever was gone and I was a little better that we would go.  When we got there, we discovered that they were actually feeding us dinner and we had just eaten!  I honestly was so worried that I was going to die!  The food was really good though!  They gave us tacos and I have to say that I love how alike the food is here to the food back home.  I finished the first taco even though it was pretty hard to eat anything and was honestly so proud of myself :)  But then she came around and gave us all another tortilla and I wanted to cry.   I didn't want them to know I was sick, though, and have to worry or anything so I just got the next one ready and started  to eat it.  The whole time I was praying that I wouldn't throw up and about half way through I honestly thought that I couldn't take another bite.  Then came the moment when my companion came to the rescue!  I honestly love her so much for this!  Even though she was about to die because she was so full she took the taco from my plate and ate it! Haha that is when you know that you have a really good companion!  She really is the best! They found out that I was sick anyway so it was kinda all for nothing but that's alright.  I was glad that I went though.  We got to set off some fireworks and share a message with the family so that was really good this week!

I Love Teaching the Gospel

This week we also had some really amazing things happen!  I have to say that there are moments that you just love teaching the Gospel more than anything else!  This week we got to meet with this Chinese inactive couple, Yan and Lin, in our area.  I love them so much! They are honestly the cutest couple in the world! It was so neat because the wife had just recently been baptized this year and the husband about a year or two ago. So they are both pretty new to the Chuch.  When we taught them we got to talk about the temple and I love talking about the temple to people!  They really didn't know that much about it, and so when we talked about how they could be sealed together for all eternity, it was the most amazing thing.  It made them both so happy and the wife started crying!  It was so cute and we are just so excited for them and are now helping them prepare to go to the temple this June!  And they are coming back to church!  It is so amazing to see!  

The Amazing Effects of Prayer

This week we also got to see the amazing effects of prayer.  We have really been trying to make our prayers more specific and to really get our area growing because it has been rather slow and hard to meet with some of our investigators because of their busy schedules.  We also teach a lot of investigators in English and have been really wanting to teach some Finns!  We decided that we really wanted to find a young 17 year old Finnish girl we could teach and so we decided to pray and ask for help in finding this new investigator.   The next day we were looking over our area book and happened to come across two potentials who we had met within the past month on the train and we immediately felt really good about calling them! So we did just that!  We gave them a call and were able to set up appointments with both of them! It wasn't until later that day that we realized that both of them were 17 year old Finnish girls!!  Our prayers had been answered!  It was amazing! 

Those That Are Ready

We also had another similar experience this week! So like I said, it has been really hard to meet with our investigators and really has been rather discouraging for us.  So we have been really praying that we will be able to find investigators that are really prepared and wanting to learn about the Gospel.  So just yesterday, we had an appointment with a former investigator that the elders had been teaching a few months ago.  The lesson went SO well!! The spirit was so strong and it was amazing because we didn't really have to ask any questions to get him involved.  He would just ask and ask and ask questions and really just wanted to learn!  He also has such a strong testimony in the power of prayer and prays so well!  Then at the end of the lesson we didn't even really have to ask to set up a new appointment; he just set it up for us!  It was really such a amazing experience for us and we are so excited about him!  It just goes to show that this really is the Lord's work and that we need to do our best, pray to him, and he will answer and help us find those ready and prepared!

I really am so blessed to be a missionary here in Finland and have so many blessings!  I even got to go to the temple this week for the third time since I have been to Finland and I love it!  Just another small blessing that I have been given here! The Church is True! 

Thank you for all of your support! 

Love,
Sister Knapp

p.s.  Just a funny story that I thought I would add...

Well, I must say that if you told me I would be spending 4 months with someone 24 hours a day I would have thought that was insane!  But I have the best companion in the world  and best friend in the world who I love spending every single day with!  Our funny story:  So this last week we got home from an appointment and I was STARVING! So I decided that it was lunch hour so that we could eat.  But Sister Fronk decided that it was personal study time since we had missed it that morning and that she wouldn't do it without me, haha.  But I wanted food!   So I did the one thing that I could think of.... I sat my companion on her chair and tied her to it with a sheet!  I then placed her scriptures in front of her and went into the kitchen to eat!  Haha, I thought that it wouldn't actually work and that she would get out super fast but it turns out that she really was stuck and couldn't get her arms around the chair to get out!  It was the funniest thing ever! We died laughing about it, and I got to eat my lunch!  haha  :) One point for Sister Knapp!!