Snowballs From Heaven

Moikka!!! 

Smallest Glimmer of Hope 

It is definitely not summer here in Finland.  I have to admit that I got the smallest glimmer of hope that it was going to be an extremely odd winter and we were going to have an early summer.... That was definitely not true. It SNOWED!  I guess that might not be the biggest surprise for everyone back home but it was definitely a surprise to me! I was not expecting it to snow again because it had been so warm!  I even had a day where I didn't wear any tights!  That is like a really big deal!  The sun was shinning and it was just beautiful. Then one night I could not sleep because I was absolutely freezing.  It turns out that it had snowed ALL night long and ALL day the next day and the day after that.  This meant walking through the slushiness and getting hit by "snowballs from heaven" as the trees let go of all the snow that they had collected right on top of you.  It wasn't too bad though.  It is kinda crazy because when it snows a lot here they have tractors that come and knock the snow off of roofs because apparently people die every year from the snow falling of the roof and onto people. Not good..

Living In a Freezer

Sister Egan in the bathroom and me behind in the sauna

Anyway, one exciting thing is that the heaters in our apartment decided to stop working this past week...uh yeah..... cold, Cold, COLD!!!  We are basically living in a freezer!  The only heat that we get in our apartment right now comes from the heated tiles in our bathroom. This means a lot of time is spent in the bathroom.  After much contemplation with my companion we decided that we had no other option but to deep clean the bathroom... I mean I literally got on my hands and knees and scrubbed every inch of that bathroom... and then pull our mattresses in there and sleep in the bathroom and sauna.  Yes, this really did happen!  It was the best night sleep I had gotten in 3 nights!  So let's just say that we really hope we can get the heaters fixed sooner rather than later! 

Shortcut to Heaven

Can I just say that Ha i(our convert) is one of my favorite people in the world?! Even though it does require me to eat really weird foods, some of which I would never want to try in my life time, I really just love Hai.  Hahaha he is so funny. So this past Monday we got to visit with the Hentunens for family home evening and of course Hai came with us.  Our discussion was going really well and we were talking about trusting the Lord and about Jacob and the stones and boats, when all of a sudden Hai jumps in and says " that seems a bit risky....." hahaha. So we said, " Yeah, that is a bit risky, so why did they do it?!!"  His answer: "I guess because you just trust God and hope that tomorrow you get somewhere.  And if you sink.... It is just a shortcut."  Haha  that's right!  Shortcut to Heaven right there!! hahaha  We about died laughing.  Oh Hai!!  

Look!  No Tights!

You Know You Are a Missionary When...

This week was really rough because all of our investigators decided that they didn't want to answer any of our phone calls or text messages.  I really don't like it when that happens! Fortunately, one of them did and we were able to do another movie night this week.  It was crazy though because we planned to do it on Saturday because there is mutual night on Fridays and so the church is really crowded. It turned out at the last minute our investigator that could come along with the Hagaa sisters' investigator could only come on Friday though.  So we had to make some quick calls and were told that they only use 3 rooms and that we could easily use one of the rooms in the church and the TV. Well, Friday we got to the church and it turned out that that was not the case! Almost every room was being used and so was the TV!  Plus, a lot more people ended up coming because some other missionaries brought their investigator too. So we ended up having to squish 12 of us into our tiny library and watch the movie on the computer.  It ended up going really well though. They loved the Joseph Smith movie and we were able to give both of them the Book of Mormon. So that was great. We also had a bunch of food left over, including 2 bags of chips that we did not want at all. So while Sister Egan and I were in the room cleaning up and talking to Gezelle (another new convert), Elder Smith walked in and asked if there was anything they could do to help. We immediately tried to get him to take the bags of chips but he wouldn't.  Instead, he turned to Gisel and asked,  "Gisel do you know anyone who would benefit from this bag of chips?  I have had many bags of chips in my lifetime and they have really blessed me."  Oh boy!! haha You know you are a missionary when you are trying to get a referral using a bag of chips!!!  

The Crazy Things That Happen

Crazy things always happen at the movie nights. Last week we had it in Haaga and their Muslim investigator came and watched the movie with us.  She absolutely loved it and was so filled with the Spirit that she didn't know what to do.  So she immediately stood up after it ended and told everyone that she needed to give us all a blessing and asked us all to close her eyes... umm... So we we all did and for like 2 minutes it was completely silent and she didn't say ANYTHING until she finally said, amen.  We later asked the Haaga sisters about it and apparently she annointed us all. Oh the things that happen on missions!  

Thank you for all of your love and support!  Mä Rakastan Teita! 

Rakkaudella, 

Sister Knapp