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!

April 19, 2016 OLDEST CASTLE IN FINLAND!!! AND our BOMB AWESOME TUKIJA!!‏ (Supporter)

Its been a great week! We just see miracles after miracles every day! 

Our investigator, T, is the most prepared person I have ever met. She really has such a strong desire to learn and she really knows from countless experiences that this is the true church that Christ established. I have not seen such a desire to learn. She has literally asked for almost the entire gospel library and before lessons she says things like "so I researched that in 1 year from my baptismal date I can go to the temple?" and "so at my baptism, two men need to watch it to be witnesses" and she even studies what we plan to teach her BEFORE we meet so she can ask us questions. She is such a diligent and driven Finn. I love her and we can feel so much of Gods love for her!

People really do come prepared to us--its also amazing to see how much of this happened for a reason. Turns out that the elders acutally did have her contact information but every time they tried to contact, she wasnt home or her number didnt work, then for a referral that we got after she referred herself another time, we called, she answered that day and we taught the following day. I just feel so strongly that ALL of this happened for a reason and I am amazed that just in 4 weeks she is so ready to be baptized. You should see my journal entries...I never want to forget these amazing things!

Sisar Jacobsen and I are doing great. We have so much faith that sometimes I think we literally could move a mountain...except there arent any here in Finland-maybe a lake.

Sisar Cardon

Oldest Castle in Finland -  built in 1200

The white ghostly legs and HUGE door.

Back tunnel escape

 

Great Pictures of Dressing Up

Worlds BEST selfie
(our backs and necks were literally sore because of how heavy this stuff was)

chains on

April 12, 2016 Kevät tulee!‏ (Spring is coming!)

What a great week! I cannot believe how fast time flies by. I feel like we just came and emailed yesterday. (totally not the first missionary email to ever say that)

Well, that is what happens when you get lost in the work. Thought on that: "getting lost in the work" is really not only forgetting yourself but its being on a spiritual high. When our spirits are lifted and close to God, it is as if taking a step out of time because God is outside of time. It is one of His creations, and coming spiritually close to Him literally is like us taking a step out. I feel that so much as a missionary, but especially this transfer as we have gotten SO lost in the work. 

Setting goals: In complete honesty, I do not think I have ever in my entire life set goals and actually completed them like I have this transfer. With the amount of faith and diligence we are putting into the work here, its as if there is no possible way that the goals we set wont be achieved. The important thing is also that we are not trying by ourselves to reach our goals. We have family, friends, companions, etc. but most of all, we have the Lord and the Holy Spirit. 

A wonderful quote my mom wrote me this past week that I loved hearing was "you can count the number of seeds in a flower, but you cannot count the number of flowers in a seed". I love how this not only applies to missionary work so much, but really all the deeds we do in life. Every act of service has an impact. 

Its been a fabulous week and a week of miracles. :) 

Cool Story: This week we set an insane record...We passed out 12 copies of the Book of Mormon in 2 hours. If anyone told me that would happen just months ago, I proably would have been the "oh ye of little faith". SO FUN REACHING GOALS. 

Sisar Cardon

more pictures from April 5, 2015

April 5, 2016 You are never gonna believe this...‏

What a week! First things first thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes, letters, emails, pictures and packages. I am so blessed to have you all as cheerleaders!! I wish I had the time to write you all back mile long emails and thank you notes but I just dont, there is too much work to be done here! Love you all!! s\o to Elder Pärkkä for the sweet Swedish package, to my other half Andria for the BEST Japanese treasure package and BoM, and Kristen for the Jello and party in a bag plus others, Kelly for the literal party explosion and gifts and all the others. You all are the best!!

So funny funny funny story for you all. (trust me there are about 10 billion more where this came from but I don't have time) Last p-day we took our p-day time to go on a walk with a Finnish senior missionary who is 71 years old. She reeeeally wanted us to come with her to train for the half marathon but we are so busy we had to do it on p-day. When we got with her she showed us the map and informed us, after we had just had in mind that we would be walking a small poriton of the trail, that we would be doing the entire half marathon!! Yes, its true. We walked for over 4 hours, the entire trail. It was splendid, but we SO DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING. When we got home that night we had so many blisters and did our nightly planning sitting on our kitchen counter with our feet in ice water. 

We have done so much work this week! (I feel so happy to be able to say that every single week). Its so amazing what a good relationship and healthy companionship can accomplish. I am so grateful for what I have been able to learn from past companions to get to this point. I don't think I have ever felt like I have accomplished this much work in my whole mission. Its amazing. We had a day where we passed out 4 books in the 30 minutes before going inside. This isn't the first time this has happened. We had a goal, we knew we didn't have much time to pass out with the appointments that we had that day, but we brought out 4 books and had the faith that by the time we went home, they wouldn't be in our bags but in the hands of some of Gods waiting children. Its amazing the miracles that happen when we have the faith and the goal of actually accomplishing it. 

My companion and I were definitely close friends in the pre earth life. I feel so blessed and so happy. I didnt think I could feel like this as a missionary. I feel so blessed!

I loved loved LOVED conference this weekend. We really are so blessed to have such amazing servants of God speak to us. One of the many things that stuck out to me this conference was President Dieter F. Uchtdorfs talk in the Sunday morning session. His story about the giant Lutheran church that burned down during the war, was later built back up again, with some pieces of the old remains. This is how our lives are. We have times where we stand tall and strong, and times where things seem to all be fallen down and burned and rubble. But, the important thing to remember is that there is ALWAYS hope. We can always be made tall, beautiful and strong again because of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. We still have our scars, but they are to remind us of the hard journey that we went on. I am so grateful that even in the hard times, when we have faith in God and love those around us, actaully, when we have Charity for those around us, the highest degree of love, we will be made whole and find true joy. p.s Michelle Lynn you have a conference lookalike Mary R Durham....yes.

I feel so blessed this week. 

Sisar Cardon

 p.s we missed 3 busses one day and we were stranded...
for wayyy tooo long..in the middle of nowhere. so fun!!