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| In my new Marjaniemi apartment |
It has been a LONG week! I have never been more sad to leave a place in my entire life. Leaving Oulu was like having my heart ripped out. I have never felt more at home in a place. It is my home here in Finland and I never have loved the people so much as I did there. I made some of the greatest friends in the world and I miss them SO much already and it hasn't even been an entire week yet! But I am excited to be in a new place and able to continue serving here in Finland. My mission has seriously FLOWN by and I never what to leave this place! I don't want my mission to end and to leave the people that I love so much and a country that really has become my home. But I still have at LEAST 5 months so I still have plenty of time left right? But then again, if I stayed a missionary forever I would hope that I would get a transfer to Oulu for the rest of my life. There is not a better ward on the planet. They are amazing. So loving and so willing and ready to do missionary work. It was incredible to see the change in them over these past few months and to see how they changed from being people I knew and cared about to people who have being some of my greatest friends. I love them and miss them.
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| My new companion, Sister Dixon. I love her already! |
Good-bye Oulu
Monday was insane since it was the last day that I would really have in Oulu with sister Nyman and we wanted to see EVERYONE, which really wasn't possible but if it was I probably would have done it. We literally spent most of the day packing and rushing to as many members houses that we could which ended up only being 3. Kinda lame. But then we had family night and I LOVE family night. A big part of that is probably because it is in English and for some reason I always have struggled with the Finnish dialect in the north. But also because all of my favorite people in the world came to Family Night and we got to play a ton of games. It was crazy. When I first came to Oulu we had like 2 members at family night and then it was us 6 missionaries and the senior couple. But by the end we had about 20 people coming every single week and about half of them were not members! It was incredible and so much fun. You could tell that all of the investigators just really feel at home whenever they go there and it is so good for them! The hardest thing ever was being able to leave that family night at the end. It was almost unbearable and yeah... we might have been a little late getting home.
Travel Tuesday
Tuesday was a pretty crazy day. Sister Nyman left in the morning and then I was with the other sisters until I got to take a night train that evening. It was so sad having to say good-bye to Sister Nyman. She was a incredible companion and one of my best friends! She is one of the most loving and understanding companions that I have ever had. I am definitely going to be miss having a million uplifting notes hidden all over the apartment. The rest of the day I was with Sister Lund and Sister Hubner. They are some of the funniest sisters that I think I have ever served with. I would almost die laughing so hard that I was almost crying. So it was a good last day until I got on the train and had to leave Oulu. I love that place and then I had to leave it and I was alone on a train! Ah! So lonely! I have officially decided that I really really don't like night trains!
I Can Actually Understand the Finnish in the South
The next few days were crazy! I got my new companion Sister Dixon who is just amazing and we are having SO much fun! We are talking and laughing constantly which in some cases may not be good. Let's just say that people know we are Americans pretty quickly, haha. But we have had some awesome experiences. We met with our new investigator Lincoln this week and had a super good lesson that was kinda crazy all over the place but somehow the Spirit was able to make up for our shortcomings and stutterings, haha, and it became a really powerful lesson and we invited him to be baptized! He said Yes! He is going to be baptized on the 11th of October and we are super excited for him! I also have to say that it is so weird being in the south again! I can actually understand 10 times better the Finnish they speak down here and it makes it so much more fun to be able to actually communicate with people in Finnish. So that is definitely a plus for being down in the south.
Espoo Reunions
We also had Stake Conference this week. I really could not have come at a better time! It was perfect! I got to see all of my friends and members that I new in Espoo and it was so much fun! It was kinda bad because I was super disteacted literally trying to run all over the place and make sure to say hello to them all, but it felt so good to be able to see them again and to talk to them in Finnish (since I never really did that before). I love Espoo and I can't wait to be able to go on splits there someday and to see some of the investigators and people that I have met there. Goodness, I just love these people and this country. I really couldn't have asked for a better place to serve. The Lord really does know us better than we know ourselves and when we follow his plan for us we will find that He really does make it better then we ever could!
Thank you for all of your love and support!!
Love,
Sister Knapp
p.s. Here's a tour of my new apartment... It's huge!
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