April 26, 2016 102 Copies of the Book of Mormon!!!‏

This week-Where to even begin?!

The Books

So Sisar Jacobsen and I just really love working hard. We work hard and we play hard and we laugh doing EVERYTHING. We learned 3 weeks ago that the record of copies of the Book of Mormon given in one week for our mission (the entire mission of Finland since the beginning of time according to the APs was set by out mission President Watson when he was a missionary here in Finland 40 years ago. The record was 92 books in one week. Holy cow. The record of just this mission for the past years since our President has been here is 60 books. We decided that with how much we love this work, spreading the Gospel and being together, we could beat not only the current mission record, but the entire Finland Book of Mormon record.

We goaled for 100 books. And we set some major plans to achieve it (you better believe the we took a week of planning it..a week of preparing...then a week of execution). We not only wanted to give them the book, but we wanted a testimony of a member written into each one. The power of testimonies.

Well...the little tricky thing that we found was that the week that we planned to give out the 100 actually was a Stake Conference so 2 of the 5 days we would be in Tampere because its a long trip and we stay for "mini splits" with the STYs. This wouldnt have been a problem except that the books that we give there do not count for out numbers...So turns out that we needed to give out not only 100 books, but in 5 days. Ya, I know. 20 books a day, where on average for us (which has been abnormally high for the area, was 4-8 a day)

Monday we went out with a fire-29 books. Tuesday pday-18. Wednesday-14. Thursday-30. Then finishing it off with the 100th book on Friday right before weekly planning. 

It was great because we got to see out Presidents face when we told him at Stake Conference. You better believe that surprised him. Apparently it has already been spreading around the mission like rapid fire. President said this went a lot further than we though the impact would go. So amazing. 

Its so interesting because with how much success we had, we could literally feel the adversary working at us. This past week, people were the rudest they have ever been to us. We didnt let it get us down although sometimes it was hard. The Lord placed such incredible people in our path which resulted in us getting 19 incredible potentials! We were astonished. We are more than excited to meet with these people in these next weeks to teach them. We have amazing feelings about the future and success.

We made sure that we were balanced in all things. Having fun, working hard, being healthy (we even woke up at 6 for nice long 3, 4 and 5 mile runs in the mornings) and writing everything down! It was so fun :) Balance is important.

The 100th Book

I think the best part of this whole week was how involved and supportive the members were. We announced to them our goal at the beginning and that we wanted a member testimony in every single book we gave away, and they were thrilled! We had a member who asked if we would drop off 6 to her home so she could write! There was another member who wrote in 10! Our investigator who is getting baptized this Saturday called us and asked for a daily report. She wrote in a book as well. Another member actually made a group text and she would update the YSA on our progress every day and even told everyone to pray for us specifically by day. The bishops family with their 5 children all wrote in one and it actually turned out to the the 100th book that we gave, to a man who we are going to meet with in 2 weeks! The list goes on and on with the support that we had. We could not have accomplished this goal without the help of this amazing ward here in Turku. There were blessings being poured upon us more than ever this week.

This made for the hardest week of my mission as well as the absolute most rewarding week. While there were literally multiple times we were actually spit upon-This has been a life testimony to me that when we set worthy goals, make plans and work our hardest in faith that God will help us to be able to achieve, anything is possible. I literally felt like we could move mountains this week with how much faith and determination we had. 

This week taught me so much of what faith and preparation can accomplish. I really believe that I will remember this experience for the rest of my life. How blessed are we to be here?! I also have learned that when we are on page with our companions and really desire to serve together and accomplish our goals, we can be unstoppable. I am so grateful for this change.

SET GOALS AND MAKE PLANS. Thanks for drilling that into my head mother Preach My Gospel.  

Sisar Cardon

Our planning with help of "brain food" sacred oatmeal

Our celebration with Ida the YSA who sent all the texts of support out.

The Tuomio Kirkko in Tampere we passed by while going for the train after zone meeting.
Such a fun little reward. 

Our Tiina who is getting baptized this Saturday!

The success jump on our Saturday morning run :) 

Tiina who is getting baptized THIS SATURDAY :) She is the most prepared of anyone I have ever met. She is giving up a lot for something so much better-and she knows it!