Change Calls: My First Actual Change

Moika!!! 

Well, this has been a pretty fun week!  And really I think the best would be to start will what happened each day and explain it that way because then hopefully I can remember it all. :)
What Missionaries Do For Fun

Monday after discovering that we were not supposed to be back in Espoo, we made a quick rush back to the apartment in Helsinki before President would even know.  It was pretty smooth of us I must say and then we finally had more clothes and things to keep ourselves busy while we were hanging out inside all day!  And that is basically all that we did! I read more of the Book of Mormon and got all the way to Mosiah in just a short few days!  It was the best and really actually a ton of fun!  Yes, that is kinda what we missionaries do for "fun"! Just kidding, we do a lot of other fun things like throw snowballs at each other, lose things on trains and call other missionaries further down the line to run out and grab stuff, run for trains and buses... and miss them.... and a ton more. :)  I'll explain later.

Last district meeting with this group 

Missionary All Nighter! 

Tuesday was fun.  We got to go to district meeting back in Espoo.  We tried to ask President Rawlings if it was alright for us to go but he didn't answer so... we just went anyway!  We love our district and we knew that it was going to be one of the last times that we would get to be with them.  But then there was that awkward moment when we discovered that our mission president was there giving interviews and was really surprised to see us.... oops! haha  We both got to get interviews and he told me what the doctor had said about Sister Fronk and the results!  So really she is having seizures and isn't actually passing out.  They just need to do another EEG scan when she is sleep deprived and then get some medicine and she will be fine!  That is a relief!   I am really excited for her to be better.  So tonight we get to stay up all night for her EEG!  So I get to pull an all nighter and keep her up all night on a mission with permission!!  :) SWEET!!! It is going to be really fun!  Plus, it is our last night as companions.
The Three Finger Hold
Anyway (back to Tuesday) after district meeting we had to go back to our apartment in Kilo because Sister Fronk couldn't make it to the train station, so the Lohja elders ended up driving us to our apartment.  Elder Hunter finally realized that something was wrong with Sister Fronk and kept looking back at her and asking if she was ok. I kept having to tell him to keep his eyes on the road because he was driving! I don't know how he had just noticed because she had a big seizure right in front of him!  Oh Elder Hunter! haha  But then when we got to the apartment, I was carrying all of her stuff and she was trying to stand up outside the car but was falling forward. So Elder Waite was trying to hold her up with three fingers, because he's an elder and she is a sister...but she was going to fall on her face!  So I had to tell him that he had permission to touch her--not sure what good permission from me does--but it worked!  Actually, better than I thought because he ended up bending down and picking her up and carrying her into the apartment where he plopped her on the couch, completely out of it, and then left!  Haha it was pretty funny. Sister Fronk was so upset about it later! But she needed help, so I feel fine about it!  It was just embarrassing I guess... haha.  Then later we went to the temple and taught a less active family, which was really amazing!  Then we went back to Neitsytpolku (Helsinki).  

Exchange with Sisar Ross

Exchange with my MTC Companion

Wednesday I got to go on exchanges with Sister Ross and Sister Gasser!  It was really fun to be able to see my MTC companion again! I love her so much! Plus I got to hear all about her mission so far and the work that they have been doing and everything. And I got to experience some miracles with them! They had this potential investigator who just wanted a CD of the Tabernacle Chior and so they took her the CD  and she ended up letting us in.  We were able to teach the first lesson and she asked for a Book of Mormon and told us that we could come back the following week!  So that was really cool to see. We also went to a less active's home and her son is actually not a member and usually doesn't come out to listen to anything, but he came out and listened to the whole lesson and joined in on the prayer and everything!  It was really cool to see that!  

Giving out Valentine's cookies with Sister Fronk

Train Difficulties & Miracles

Thursday I was back with Sister Fronk and we ended up going back to Espoo because both her and I really missed it and knew that one of us, if not both, would probably be leaving Espoo soon. So we took all of our stuff  (including Elder Ahlquist's 17lb package) with us... 2 backpacks, a small suitcase each and this big package!  Let's just say it was the most interesting difficult trip back to Espoo ever! And that is when Sister Fronk ended up leaving her shoulder bag on the train!  It practically had her life in it!  So we hurried and called the Espoo sisters further down the line and they ran out and got it off the train!  A miracle!  That night, we invited a potential to a ping pong activity that was happening at the church and she said she could come but then ended up not being able to because her roommate didn't have a key and she needed to wait until they got home. Super sad!  But hopefully we can do something later with her! 

Valentine's Day
Friday... YSTÄVÄNPÄIVA!!!!  So Friday morning Sister Fronk was really struggling and so I got to spend the whole morning making heart shaped sugar cookies! Later that day we printed off little notes to put on the cookies with a scripture on it (Moroni 7: 45-47.)  It was super fun and then we went to people's doors and to people on the street and wished them a "hyvää ystävanpäiva" and gave them cookies.  We got to sing "Love one Another" to some of them and it was super fun! Plus, it really made people feel good when we were giving them cookies. (Though someone flat out rejected my cookie on the train... rude... so I went to a different cart and gave it to someone else! :) haha
Change Calls
Later that night we finally received our change calls!  I will be staying her in Espoo and my new companion Sister Egan will be coming to Espoo.  Sister Fronk will be going to Haaga which is right next to Espoo. So we are all close by and I am still serving with Elder Waite, Elder Hunter, Elder Crofts and Elder Kääria!  So that will be really fun! 

With our investigator Anna

Finally Teaching Anna

Saturday and Sunday were really good! We still continued to give out belated valentine's cookies and that was fun.  We also got to teach Anna before church on Sunday!  FINALLY!! We were so excited! She is so wonderful and we love her so much!  The lesson went really well and we had 2 members there who are now her really good friends which was awesome! She has now come to church 5 times and yesterday she prayed for the first time.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and we are meeting with her again tonight!  We are so excited!  She loves coming to church and doesn't want to leave!  She has even had people call her in between classes at church and she will tell them that she can't talk because she is at church and that she will call back later!  She is honestly amazing!  Yesterday, we also got to go visit a less active member who is in the hospital and sing to her and to some of the cutest old ladies ever in the hospital who were all so sweet!  It was super fun!  

TOIVO!! Cutest little boy in the world!  (I still want to name one of my kids after him! haha)

Well, the church it true!!  I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Finland and share it with so many! Thank you for all of your love and support! 

I love you! 

Rakkaudella, 

Sister Knapp

I Love Finland!

Moika! 

Time Drags When You're Locked Inside

I don't really have a ton to report this week, so this email will probably end up being shorter than usual!  This past Monday and Tuesday I got the flu again--throwing up, fever, and everything!  Talk about not much fun at all!  We really didn't get to do anything those two days and were stuck inside just hoping that I would get better in time for the Zone Meeting that was being held on Wednesday that we both were helping to conduct.  To be honest, this week has honestly been one of the LONGEST weeks of my life.  When you can't go outside and work, the time just seems to drag on.

Zone Meeting Blessings--Heavenly Father Loves Us!

Fortunately, we were able to go to the Zone Meeting on Wednesday! Haha, and the Zone Leaders were kind enough to even let me do the Statement in front of everyone! Every morning and before every meeting one person (or as a companionship) gets to say the following statement:

"We can stand in the place and stead of the Lord Jesus Christ in administering salvation to the children of men, He preached the Gospel.  So can we.  He spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost. So can we. He served as a missionary.  So can we.  He went about doing good. So can we.  He preformed the ordinances of Salvation. So can we. He kept the commandments.  So can we.  He wrought miracles, such also is our privilege if we are true and faithful in all things. We are his agents, we represent him, we are expected to do and say what he would do and say, if he personally were administering among men at this time. " - Elder Bruce R. Mckonkie. 

My district in Espoo:  (not in order) Sister Fronk, Elder Crofts, Elder Kääriä,
Elder Waite, Elder Hunter, Elder Gustafson, Elder Ahlquist, Elder Call,
Elder Ryan, Sister West and Sister Venz

Following the statement we all get to recite D&C 4 in Finnish!  So, I may not have it memorized completely in English! But I do in Finnish!   The meeting ended up being super good and a lot of what we focused on was how we are all children of God and how much our Father in Heaven loves us.  It is so easy on a mission, and at home, to lose sight of how much your Father loves and cares about you. I know that may seem funny to lose sight of that on a mission but when you may not be seeing the number successes that you want and feel like it is your fault in some way, you forget where we came from and how proud of us he really is!  He knows each and everyone of us.  One thing that I have been thinking a lot about is how he knows each and everyone of us and how he sees us.  I have been wanting to be able to see more clearly how my Father in Heaven sees me.  Sometimes, I personally struggle with feeling like he may be disappointed in me. That I am not doing enough, I may have slept in, or been sick, or just been grumpy and frustrated with people around me and tend to think that he must be so frustrated and mad and disappointed in me himself!  But really that is completely false!  Our Heavenly Father is a loving Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to be happy. He knows us perfectly and we are his children.  If you really think about it, him being frustrated or mad at us would be like a parent getting mad at their child who is learning to walk for falling.  You just don't do that!  He knows we are going to fall, but he is always there to pick us right back up.  He loves us and wants to help us and when we are doing the best we can.  Though we may stumble and fall, if we just get up, lift up our heads to him we will find he is really just looking at us and smiling as a proud father would.

 Sister Gasser, Me, Sister Ross, Sister Nabatnikova, Sister Fronk, Sister Ladd

Helsinki House Arrest

This week was also rather crazy later in the week as well.  My companion has this thing where she passes out a lot, and we finally decided that we needed to do something about it.  So we called our president and the doctor and the following day we were told that we needed to pack for 4 to 5 days and that the zone leaders were going to rush us to the office in Helsinki where an ambulance could take her to the hospital so they could look at her head and speed up apparently this lengthy process to getting her to a neurologist.  Talk about exciting!  The elders ended up having to leave an appointment they were in and come and pick us up and drive us there.  Then the ambulance got there (more like a minivan) and they talked to her and me and then took her to the hospital, and I was left with the sisters in Helsinki for the night.  Fortunately, she was out of the hospital that night and she has an appointment with the neurologist later this week or next week.  But for the next few days we were under 'house arrest' in Helsinki and the president wouldn't let us go back to Espoo! Let's just say it gave me a lot of time to study the Book of Mormon!  But when Sunday came around we really wanted to go to church in Espoo... So we got permission and went and never ended up going back to Helsinki!  We just love Espoo too much! (It looks like that is changing today, though, and we are headed back to Helsinki to help in the office for the week.)

 Me with Elder Brown and Elder Green (the Assistants to the President and first missionaries I met when I got to Finland), and Elder Anderton who are all going home this week!

But It's Free!

We had the coolest thing happen on the way to church though!  We got on the train and we really didn't feel like talking to anyone and were about to go and sit off by ourselves when Sister Fronk and I saw this lady that Sister Fronk felt like we really needed to go and talk to.  So we went and sat accross the aisle from her not having any idea what to say or if we could even do it, when she started talking to us to make sure this was the right train for her!  Perfect!  So we started talking to her and she started talking about her church and we naturally started talking about ours.  She had known a Mormon family and had seen the Mormon Tabernacle Choirr before and everything but had no idea what we believed and really wanted to know!  So we told her all about it and ended up giving her a Book of Mormon that she just hugged and asked us to write our names in it and number and then she insisted on giving us $20 for it.  We tried countless times to give it back to her and to explain that the book is free, but she insisted, saying that she knows it is free but that she wants us to take the money and buy some candy, haha, or just give it to the poor if we want to!  This lady was seriously the nicest lady in the world!  Sadly, she isn't in our area but she wants to learn more and wrote her phone number really big in our planners and gave us her email too. So miracles do happen!  

Transfer Calls Are Coming

So this week is transfer calls so we got to take a lot of pictures at zone meeting with the departing missionaries going home and just the missionaries in the zone because who knows where we will all be soon.  But I've got to say that whatever happens,  I have loved serving in Espoo and have served with some of the best people (my district) I have ever met:  Sister Fronk, Elder Crofts, Elder Kääriä, Elder Waite, Elder Hunter, Elder Gustafson, Elder Ahlquist, Elder Call, Elder Ryan, Sister West and Sister Venz.  They are all truly amazing.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve with them.   They have each taught me so much and really have helped me to grow. I love this area, I love this people, and I love this country! 

I love you all!  Thank you for all of your love and support and prayers!  You are all wonderful! 

Love,
Sister Knapp

Learning Through Embarrassment :)

Well, 

This week was definitely one for the books, haha!  As crazy and embarrassing as it all was, it was a lot of fun!  I have to say that this was just a really good week!  I don't think that I have laughed so much in a week as I did this week! 

Serving "With" My Friends

Monday was great!  Writing home and all that jazz is seriously always one of the high lights of my week!  I love being able to write home and receive emails and hear about everything that is going on back home and in friends' missions. It is seriously one of the coolest things ever to be out serving at the same time as SO many of my friends!  I love it!  

With Sisar Fronk eating out :)

"Searching For Joy"

Well, one profession that Sister Fronk and I have started up is coming up with "Book Titles" for missionaries' missions from stories that they tell or things that are going on!  So, for instance, once Elder Waite and Elder Hunter were talking about how they feel really separated from the ward out in Lohja and from everyone else because well.... they are!  So they are "Lost in Lohja".  We also had some sisters come and tell us how they were trying to find a former investigator named Fabrizio and how they used it as a door contacting approach, haha, by asking if Fabrizio lived there.  So "Finding Fabrizio" is their book title!  (though they haven't found him yet).  Well, we finally came up with ours!   We were with Gisel, a new convert, who is absolutely wonderful by the way, and she wanted to introduce us to her friend who isn't a member and also from the Philippines and her name is Joy.  So we were looking everywhere for her in this big mall and couldn't find her anywhere and we just started joking about how we are all "Searching for Joy".  So that became our title for our mission! And guess what!  We found Joy!  We also got to have a great lesson with her in the middle of this big mall that made her cry because the Spirit was so strong and now she is our new investigator!  So the spirit really can work anywhere :) 

Go Hide in The Woods

Tuesday was super great too!  The Lohja elders were at interim training in Helsinki for the week and so they weren't going to be in Lohja all week but there were sisters in the ward that our relief society president really wanted us to go visit that lived out in Lohja.  Well, it was the perfect situation because we got to "move in" for the day and take over their stomping grounds.  The only problem was that the elders forgot to tell us that it was Lohja's personal 'go hide in the woods'  holiday and practically no one was around!  We had gone to what seemed to be a ton of homes to find that no one was home!  So we decided to go and visit a half Finnish, half American family out in Lohja that has the cutest little 5 year old boy in the world, Toivo, that everyone just loves to death!  And guess what?!  They were home!  The best part of the whole day was that when we went and knocked on their door, before the door even opens, we hear "OH MY GOSH!!" from this overly excited little boy who is just in shock to see us! haha  He ended up showing us practically all of his belongings.  He is the cutest!  It was so much fun!  We also got to visit the family that the Relief Society President wanted us to visit, Sister Blair, and they have 2 of the cutest little girls that just love to run and talk and so we decided to divide and conquer.  Sister Fronk took over talking to the mom, while I took over distracting the kids!  It was perfect!  I love visiting Lohja!

Elder Ahlquist (center) in my district and from my MTC group accidentally forgot to wear a tie one day and went all day with out a tie and with his top button undone and he didn't even notice until the end of the day!  So the kind elders in the district all showed up to District meeting without ties.... hahaha.   I get to serve with some of the best elders ever!  They are great! :)

Running Crazy!

Wednesday was completely and totally crazy busy all day, much to my over planning things with not much time in between... whoops.!  We were on exchanges and I was left in our area to run things!  Talk about pressure to know how to get everywhere.  Plus, that day we happened to have lessons at each corner of our area, which I have now learned might not be the best idea.  We ended up running a lot to lessons,  barely missing 2 trains (seeing them pull away right in front of us when we were already running on a tight schedule), watching a bus do the exact same thing, somehow getting on the wrong bus, managing to get us lost and finally having to call a member for directions to their house. But through the miles of running, the wrong turns, and missed trains.... It was SO much fun and we had some awesome lessons so it all worked out great!

With Sister Ladd on splits

Lesson Learned!

Thursday was just plain embarrassing but makes for an awesome story.  On Wednesday night we ended up getting home really late because of traveling from exchanges and lessons going way to late and everything.  So Thursday...well, let's just say I was exhausted and not the perfect missionary and may not have gotten up on time and then didn't Jaksaa (feel like) to get dressed so I stayed in my pajamas through our studies and I figured that since it was planning day and we would be inside a lot that I had time to get dressed later.  Well, lets just say that Heavenly Father had a great way of teaching me a lesson! So we were in the middle of this really great companion study when all of the sudden some people bang on the back door.... Oh No! The first thing that popped into my head was "Angry Drunk Guys" but then I looked at the my companion's face of terror as her face went pale and she said  her thoughts out loud, "Trainers.... Temple... Oh No!"  I grabbed her knees as we noticed people starting to open the back door and said, "Sister Fronk!  I am still in my Pajamas!" haha.  Immediately I followed Sister Fronk's great idea "Hurry!  Get in the room!" which led to me diving over a couch and rushing into the bedroom... it was so bad!   Sister Fronk covered for me, telling them that I wasn't feeling well.  It happened to be like 5 of the trainers who were all going to the temple because their trainies were in language school and they wanted to see us.  One was this elder that Sister Fronk had served with for a long time, along with practically everyone in my district, who I had heard a ton about and really wanted to meet but guess who decided not to get ready on time?! After they finally left Sister Fronk was dying because she had no makeup on and was so embarrassed.  I was dying because I didn't get to meet the famous Elder Werjefelt that everyone talks about!  It just goes to teach the both of us, but especially me, to get ready on time and wake up! hahaha It was a good lesson learned.  Fortunately they stopped by again after the temple so I got to meet them all :)  It was so embarrassing to get a million "get better soon's" even though I was just fine!  We were both way embarrassed about the whole thing! 

missionary night with the young women

The Luckiest Missionary Ever

Friday we had Mission Leadership Counsel and so we got to go to the temple! I love being able to go to the temple!   This was the fourth time I have been to the temple while on my mission and I just feel like the luckiest missionary ever! Some missionaries have been out a year and still never been inside the temple or only seen it once and I get to see it everyday!  It is seriously one of the best blessings ever.  The training also was really good and we learned so much and I was so grateful for it.  It gave me a new perspective and I am just so grateful to be  apart of this amazing work. Afterwards, we got to go and conduct a Young Women's activity focusing on missionary work and that was the coolest thing ever!  Every single one of them is wanting to serve a mission and had so many questions for us and it was just great! They were awesome and it was so cool to see how much they look up to us. We had some of them pulling out cameras and taking pictures of us while we were teaching. haha.  Its really amazing to be apart of the work and to see how the work really starts to grow and go forth! 

Email Hijack!

Hi! I'm Sister Fronk and I have stolen Sister Knapp's email so you can know the truth about her. She is about the most gutsy, hilarious, wonderful person ever! She is doing so well at being a missionary in Finland, which isn't easy. She works really hard at the language and has a natural gift for it that really impresses.

Funny Answers

FREEZING!!!

Saturday and Sunday were both really good.  Saturday we did a lot of contacting and tracting because we are still trying to really get this area open and let's just say it was freezing!  But fortunately eventually our feet just went numb and then we were fine!  No worries, we didn't get frostbite or anything. But we did get to teach Hai our recent convert who is really struggling with jobs and housing and everything and guess what happened!  Sister Fronk managed to get a bloody nose right as we got there! So she told him ,"And now Sister Knapp is going to give you a thought that will lift you up and make you feel better".  Talk about pressure!  But it all worked out :) Sunday was a really interesting day. Our investigator Anna came to church for the fourth time this month!  She is amazing!  And now she is going to institute too! The only problem is that she is still really busy so she never can meet during the week really but we are hoping to be able to do so at institute this week before she leaves town.  She says she can meet next week so we are excited about that!  It was really funny to find out that 3 people tried to give her a Book of Mormon on the same day we did.  Haha, we just have some awesome members!  Sunday was also really exciting because my companion has this habit of passing out on occasion but she never does it in front of other people, just with me.  On Sunday she decided (I guess she really didn't actually want to, haha)  pass out in front of the ward in the hall right after sacrament meeting!  At first Gisel and I were just holding her up and she usually pulls out of it really quick.  The elders were asking if she needed to be moved to a chair but I  just said that she was fine because I didn't want to draw attention to her since she would hate that, but she didn't start to pull out!  So I had to get Elder Waite to help me pick her up and take her to a chair.  So we did but she was still having a tough time and all the members were really worried..  So I had to try and explain what was going on to them in Finnish!  That was rough!  But she ended up coming out of it and being fine! After church, however, she really needed to rest a lot and so she did and I got to study the scriptures to help prepare for the upcoming zone conference.  It was the best!  Plus I had been praying to know how I can better help my companion and take of the stress load that she has and I even got my answer while studying!  Heavenly Father really does have a sense of humor :) ...

Hai and Sister Fronk

D&C 75:10 -12

"Calling on the name of the Lord for the Comforter, which shall teach them all things that is expedient for them-- Praying always that they faint not; and inasmuch as they do this, I will be with them even unto the end.... Behold, this is the will of the Lord your God concerning you.  Even so. Amen." 

I have to say that I love this Gospel and I am so grateful to be here in Finland! I apologize that this is so long!  I love you all!

Love,
Sister Knapp

How To Get Happier (And It's Not What You Think)

Moi!

Standing on a frozen river!

Funny Train Experience

Well, I have officially been on my mission for 5 months!  I wish I could say that it flew by but it really feels like the longest 5 months of my entire life! But I hear that time starts picking up after you make it through the first 6 months so hopefully that is all true! But this week I got to almost witness a fist fight between a drunk guy and a passenger on the train! It was so funny and kind of scary!  This extremely drunk guy ended up getting on the train but because he is really drunk he wasn't actually allowed to be on the train. The train wouldn't move until he got off and the worker was a woman just trying to get him off on her own when he started walking down the aisle to the front. A passenger jumped up and grabbed onto his shirt to stop him. but that made the drunk guy really mad and he started yelling that he wanted to go to the front of the train!  Apparently he started yelling some really mean things at the passenger who stopped him (that I didn't understand.)  The passenger just shoved him back and they got into this yelling and shoving and spitting fight that was getting close to being a fistfight.  Meanwhile, the whole train gets really loud because this NEVER really happens in Finland and so everyone is talking about it. There were a bunch of teenage boys on the train who want to get in on the action so they all start getting up and coming down to join the fight. Meanwhile, I am trying to hold my companion down because for some reason Sister Fronk had this belief that she could get up and help!  Not a good idea!  We are supposed to stay AWAY from drunk guys not go marching up to one, especially when they are in a fight with someone else! Plus, we are so entertained by the whole interaction that we are trying our hardest not to have the biggest grins on our faces while everyone else is worried, haha!  Fortunately, the lady was able to get the drunk guy to get off the train and it was finally able to start moving again. :) Then things that drunk people do.  I just don't understand why people would ever want to be drunk.

The tree that stopped my fall

The Strange Things That Can Turn a Day Around

I have to admit that it was just a pretty exciting day all around.  One day I was having a pretty rough day and I was pretty upset with everything, so as we were walking up to Hai's home (our recent convert) to meet a member and teach a lesson, I was just looking at the ground feeling a little sorry for myself and not really paying much attention to anything.  Kinda lame.  But just as I finally reached the top step of a set of stone stairs, I slipped!  My shin ended up landing on the corner of the stone step and it was right on the edge of a hill...so I started rolling down the hill until I ran into a tree!  I have to admit it was pretty exciting, even though it hurt really bad! That's what I get for being down. After that, strangely enough, I was a lot happier!  Funny how things like that work! 

The damage it did!

Seeing  the Light From Us

We also had a really interesting contacting experience this past week.  We were walking through this area in Kaukalahti saying Hi to everyone who was walking by when we started to noticed that all the people we were talking to just didn't seem to be all the way there.  The first thing I thought was "Did an addiction recovery class" just get out?  We were coming up with all sorts of explanations, haha.  It was so weird because everyone was completely out of it and they would come and get really close to us and look at our name tags and say "I'm atheist" and then they would walk away.  Or they would start telling us about their day.... It was so weird!  Once we got passed that crazy experience we continued walking all the way to a former investigator's house, who ended up not being home, but we met her neighbor who was outside and she was so cool!  She was so nice and we talked to her for about 45 minutes and even though she wasn't interested in the church she told us that we were representing our church well because we are really trying to learn Finnish, be happy, and just always willing to help anyone we can.  She said that people can just see light from us! 

We see beautiful snowflakes like this all the time!

Not a Member... YET!!

The beautiful Finnish sunshine

This week we also had our investigator who is 18, Anna, came to church again! She comes ever week and she honestly loves it!  The hard thing is that she is so busy with exams that she still has no time to meet with us but she is wanting to meet next week sometime after all her exams are finished!  We are super excited about it!  She is also going each week to the Young Adult Class with the bishop's daughter.  Two non-member boys walked into church this week for a school assignment and so they all went around telling how long they have been members and why they are a member of the church.  When it came to Anna she said that she wasn't a member YET.  :) When we talked to her on the phone later that day she talked about how two boys had come and visited OUR church and then she corrected herself and said your church.  We talked to her more about the Book of Mormon that she received that day and she told us how much she wants to read it and pray about it to know if it is true :) She seriously is amazing and we are so blessed and spoiled with her!  We love her so much and know that she is going to be baptized. It is amazing to see her come from not believing in God to believing.  We actually went back and looked at exactly what we prayed for a few weeks ago. We prayed for a 17 year old girl, who would be baptized, really love the Gospel, and be a kingdom builder and we were blessed with Anna!  It is amazing how God really answers prayers. :)

Beautiful Finland

 I love you all!
Love, Sister Knapp

The Most Dramatic & Craziest Week Ever! (But Still the Blessings Come)

Moi! 

Dramatic Sisters and Those Poor Zone Leaders!

I have to say that this has been the most dramatic and craziest week of my entire mission by far.  Sure, I have only been out for 5 months but hopefully it is the only time I have a week like this one!  So this past Sunday morning Sister West had to be rushed to the hospital by the Elders Crofts and Kaaria at 3 in the morning.  We ended up finding out the next morning that the couple missionaries were going to go to the hospital to watch over Sister West, while they figured out what was wrong, (One thing that we learned is that Finnish Hospitals are really laid back and take forever to get things figured out and taken care of.)  Sister West's companion, Sister Venz, was going to be coming to be a third companion for the next couple of days.  That started  a pretty crazy Sunday because we had an investigator, Anna, coming to church for the first time, but we also had Sister Venz coming back from being at the hospital all night who was exhausted and needed someone to stay with her! So we made the decision that I was going to stay at the church on member splits, because as a Sister Training Leader Sister Fronk really needed to be with Sister Venz, but Sister Fronk also had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting!  So we really had no idea what to do.  Fortunately the elders didn't get back with Sister Venz until right after Sister Fronk's talk and so she basically just ran out the door right after giving it and left me with the members in the ward and Anna, who spoke only Finnish and I can't really speak Finnish and I didn't have anyone to help!  Fortunately, Elder Waite could help out and it went really well and Anna loved being at church! After church Sister Fronk and Sister Venz had to walk to the church to pick me up and then we went back to the apartment and tried to start setting up member splits for the next week for members to come and watch Sister West, who did end up getting her appendix out, and to go out with Sister Venz.  Talk about really hard!  Anyway, the next day President Rawlings needed Sister Fronk to go to the hospital and be with Sister West while she recovered from her surgery.  So I was with Sister Venz for our P-day.  We were both a little frustrated because we didn't know why Sister Venz wasn't the one at the hospital with her companion, where she really wanted to be.  In addition, we were planning on going to visit her but were told that we couldn't and that the zone leaders were going to go instead.  That made both of us mad at the zone leaders and come to find out that just about everyone ended up mad at them!  Haha, those poor zone leaders having to deal with all of us dramatic sisters!!  Sister Fronk ended up being there all day and all night and most of the next day.  Somehow they managed to break the hospital rules and have her spend the night there, which they don't normally allow.  For the next couple of days we couldn't find members to be with Sister West and Sister Venz and so we had to do splits.  I have to admit that I liked it because Sister Fronk knows this area of Espoo so she went on splits with Sister Venz and I was on splits with Sister West, which meant  I got to just read my scriptures and keep her company.  Not a bad job!  :)  But then Sister Venz and Sister Fronk came back and Sister Venz was upset because she wanted to be with her companion.  Haha, long story short, more drama followed.  Meanwhile, Sister West was feeling stressed because everyone was upset with each other.  It was so bad!  But luckily we were told to just return to our normal work and Sister Venz was able to pull everything together and get members to do splits with them for the last few days of the week!  She is awesome that way!  So everything ended up working out! 

I'm Freezing Almost All the Time!

Finland is also starting to get so much colder! All of the rivers are starting to freeze over which is really cool to see but the sea hasn't frozen over yet.  I am way excited to be able to see that!  Apparently that becomes a Finnish past time where people are wanting to go out and walk on the frozen sea!  I don't blame them, I think it is pretty cool!  But really I am freezing almost all of the time. Which makes it so much harder to jaksaa (Finnish word that basically means 'to feel to' times 10) to go outside and work.  This week was a really hard one for us because we ended up having to drop, or ended up being dropped, by more than half of our investigators that weren't really progressing so we are kinda having to restart and reopen our area.  That is really hard when it is so cold outside and you don't want to be outside knocking on doors or contacting people on the street!  It is really good motivation to find people to teach, though, so that we can be inside! :)  

Glowing With the Light of the Gospel

We got to experience some really, really cool things this week too. We got to go to the temple with Hai to watch him do baptisms for the very first time!  That was such an amazing experience!  I love the temple here in Finland! I have been fortunate enough to have gone for myself 3 times already and to get to see Hai do baptisms and I get to go again next week! I have to admit that it is one of the prettiest temples that I have ever seen!  The inside of it is so beautiful!  Fun fact though:  we were looking in the book Daughters in My Kingdom and the picture of the baptismal font in that book is of the Helsinki temple!  How cool is that!?  Anyway, it was so cool to see him to baptisms for the dead!  Afterwards, he was just glowing!  So even though he loves to argue with us and give us a hard time we know that he really does love this gospel and feels good because he was seriously glowing!  Now I know what people mean when they say that they are just glowing with the light of the Gospel :) 

If We But Ask Him

We also had two of our investigators come to church this past week!  The Finnish girl, Anna, ended up coming to church again because she loves it and really enjoys learning about God and about the gospel!  Its really funny because she is really busy so she cant meet during the week.  I will admit that I never expected that I would have an investigator who would come to all three hours of church every week even though we can't seem to meet with for 30 minutes during the week! She is so amazing and she is going to come next week, plus she is coming to a family home evening that we are having tonight at the Hentunen's because she is friends with Roosa!  We also talk to her about meeting outside of church and she really wants to but she can't until after her exams.  After those are over she says that she wants to meet a lot so that she can learn!  I am so grateful for prayer!  It was through prayer that we were able to find her.  We really wanted to find an investigator who was 17 and Finnish and who would want to learn and could be baptized and the Lord provided us with this investigator!  It is amazing!  The Lord has so many blessings that He is just waiting to give to us and all we need to do is just ask Him in faith and then He will give it to us!  It doesn't always come in the exact way that you expect but He does pour out His blessings upon us if we but ask Him. :)  

It Was Such a Good Sunday!

The other investigator who came is a guy from Ghana and he is just awesome!  I think I talked about him a few weeks ago. He is great and it was so cool to see him at church (even though he could only come to the sacrament meeting) but he was loving it, and he brought his friend with him!!!  Talk about having the missionary mindset!  And now his friend is coming to the next lesson which is amazing!  We are so excited about this investigator because he really knows the power of prayer and really knows how to pray and so if he just prays with real intent and really wants to know if this is the true church then there is nothing that is going to stop him!  It was such a good Sunday!  :)

Being Spoiled

Today has also been a really fun day!  Not only did I finish the Book of Mormon this morning but we have already had a lunch appointment with some members!  I know that both of those don' really go together but those are just two things that I thought were exciting.  I love the members here!  They are so sweet and so nice to us and I will admit that members really love sisters!  I mean, don't tell the elders that (even though they already know) but they just love sisters and we are still kind of this novel thing! There weren't sisters in Espoo for a really long time (until this past year) and now there are 4 of us!  But they are so nice to me and always comment on how my Finnish is getting so much better which makes be feel so good because I really don't think that my Finnish is very good at all, but it helps when members are encouraging you to speak it.  I just love the members here in Espoo! I love Espoo!  These members that we were with are so sweet and actually live right next to us and if they don't see us at least once a week they start wondering why we haven't stopped by, haha They also like to spoil us missionaries and so they take a set of missionaries out to this buffet for lunch once a month.  They are so cute!  Let's say that I never thought I would be eating pizza with a fork and a knife.  In fact, I never thought that I would ever learn to eat with a fork and knife, haha!  Americans just aren't very proper that way.  Anyway, I just have to say that I love the members here and really I just love Finland. :)

Your Prayers Are Answered Everyday!

Also I love this gospel.  I love seeing the many blessings and miracles each and everyday as people learn and grow in the Church. The Church is true and the Book of Mormon is true and I am so grateful that I have it in my life.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I am eternally grateful for His atonement.  I am not the perfect missionary.  In fact, I am far far from it, but I am so grateful that through the atonement I can become better and stronger and happier!  I love each and every one of you!  Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers in behalf of me and the people of Finland!  I promise that they are answered everyday!  I love you! 

Love, 

Sister Knapp 

Finnish Missionaries And A Chinese Spring Festival

Moi!! 

This has probably been one of the craziest weeks ever! But guess what everyone?!  There is finally SNOW in FINLAND!!!  I never thought that I would have to wait until the middle of January for it to finally snow and to not have the white Christmas that we usually have.  I mean we were walking around in short sleeves and no jackets on Christmas day! That has kinda been what the weather has been like lately here, but maybe not quite so warm, until just this past weekend!  It was crazy how fast the temperature dropped. It went from being kinda cold to down right freezing within a day!  I am about to experience the Finnish winter!  And I have talked to Finns about how cold it is here and they say it gets even colder so hopefully I don't die!  

Mission Fast

Well last week we had our mission leadership council meeting where we decided that we would to the mission fast that we are all really excited about!  Each district throughout Finland will get a week to fast for their area and the mission as a whole, so each companion will fast one day and the entire fast will last about 11 weeks!  We were all really excited about it and got to present in zone meeting this week.   So we met with the elders and planned the zone meeting which actually went really well!  I still have to admit that I don't like having to sit up front in these meetings with the zone leaders and Sister Fronk, haha.  I am the companion tag along who gets to sit through all the long meetings because my companion is sister training leader. :)  Plus, I get to enjoy all of the awkward eye contact moments that you make when sitting up front!  But at zone meeting we discovered that our district would be starting off the fast because most of the leaders are in our district and so President had us set up a last minute district meeting!  That was rough because there are people who have to take a train for an hour to get to us and others who have to drive 45 minutes. But we managed to pull it off and then found out that they had decided to switch and have a different district go first. It was the craziest few days full of meetings that I have ever had! 

Making Chinese Chicken in a Very Small Kitchen!

I also got to go on splits this week but instead of going somewhere else both of the sisters came to our area!  So I got to be the leader in what we were doing and everything! I have to admit that I actually quite enjoyed it!  It was a ton of fun at one of our lessons!  Hai invited us over because our lesson fell through again and we had a member with us and Hai needed to show us how to make some chicken for the Spring Festival that we were having at the end of the week.  But the crazy part was that Hai has this really small kitchen and there were 4 of us there trying to learn how to make the chicken, when our investigator who is his roommate decided that he would come out too!  And I am the only one who knows both of them and the member!  So I was trying to talk to all of them and learn how to make chicken.  Meanwhile we were all squished in this tiny kitchen!  It was crazy!  Luckily, my companion for the day was helping a lot and we would just switch places and take turns talking to different people and practically running around the kitchen!  It was crazy but so much fun!! 

I Love Chinese People!

After that we got to go and visit Yan an Lin again this week except only the Yan, the wife, was home this time!  She is the cutest, sweetest person that I have ever met in my life! I love Chinese people! She doesn't speak English super fluently but every time we come over her English just gets better and better!  We are also going to help her with learning English and we are really excited about that!  She always gets super excited when we come over because she doesn't have a job or school or anything and her husband works all day, so she spends most of her days at home or shopping.  We got to teach her a lesson on prayer and talk to her about her baptism this past year which was really amazing! Plus, she made us dumplings!  They were SO good!  She is really just the cutest and sweetest person and we are just really trying to get them both back to church every week :)

Picture is of our little Chinese group that helped make the food for the Spring Festival!! (With some Americans, Filipinos, and Vietnamese add ins) :) 

Spring Festival Celebration

Well this week we had our Spring Festival! So we have a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese people in our ward, so we decided that we were going to do a Spring Festival this year, but we had to do it early because a lot of people were flying home for their own spring festival.  So we got it all put together and invited anyone and everyone we could that lived in Helsinki, Maranjemi, and Espoo! We actually weren't expecting a huge success but to our surprise we had about 70 people come and most of them weren't even members!  Plus, we had a Book of Mormon table with all of the different languages and people were taking them and we were able to talk to them about it.  It was really cool!  We also had an investigator come, one of the 18 year old Finnish girls, Anna!  She is so cute and it was so perfect because she is actually friends with a member and with an investigator who came that has been investigating for awhile! It was awesome because that investigator just started teaching her everything and at the end of the day we were able to invite her to church and she came!  It was amazing and the party was a HUGE success for almost everyone!  

Sister Appendicitis

We also had an exciting last couple of days as one of the sisters, Sister West, had to be rushed to the hospital at 3:00 in the morning by the zone leaders!  Those poor elders didn't get any sleep and we had no idea about it until the next morning! Apparently she had appendicitis and so we got to go and visit her in the hospital and she had surgery last night! Crazy! The hospital doesn't allow people to be with her after 6:00 pm so we had three at our apartment for a night, which was kinda fun!  But we are really hoping that she gets out of the hospital today!  This week was crazy but we saw so many blessings this week with our investigators and it was amazing!  The Lord helps us out even with things don't go as smoothly as planned! 

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love, 

Sister Knapp