The Sport of Laundry Watching    

MTC - Week 8

Terve! HYVA JOULU!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Christmas truly is the best time of the year! I love it so much that yes, I will be singing with just two other people in front of thousands of missionaries tonight. But it's just one line of a song, so I'll be ok! Our angel choir has grown to 16 but we are divided into 6 singing groups. It sounds pretty cool and our costumes are way fun, so really all is well, no bumbling angels today! Well, I guess the performance is in a few hours, I hope there won't be any bumbling going on.

We are all moved into our new house! It's pretty great because the beds and closets are close enough that it's like we have a two-floor apartment! The ground floor, and the level made by each top bunk and closet tops. There isn't really room for a soccer game, but if we had a mini chess board there's room enough for that. Maybe even a full-size chessboard if we go on the second floor! Even though it's crowded, I'm really going to miss it because my roommates are just the best. Really it's amazing to look back on everything we learned together, and how much we've laughed together. My MTC stay has just been wonderful, everybody should go on missions so they can come feel the spirit of the MTC!

Ok, so the subject of my email refers to an intense yet delicate art, and it only occurs once a year. The one time this phenomenon happens is the day before Christmas (today) because if your P-day is on Christmas (like ours is) you go do all of your P-day things the day before, but every missionary that has P-day on that day still has their P-day. (On other holidays you're just supposed to get up super early, like we did on Thanksgiving.) So double missionaries! We got to the laundry room at the beginning thankfully, and then watched the peaceful battle ensue. You'd see missionaries lapping the machines, taking mental notes of which had the fewest minutes left. Some missionaries starting countdowns much like one does on New Years Eve. Others camped out with study materials and snacks. Some tried forming alliances "I'll rotate your laundry if you let me use your washer next!" Really, missionaries were getting super creative! The most awesome thing though, was that people weren't getting mad. You go anywhere else with lines, with not enough of what is needed, and with people on a strict schedule and I'll bet fights would break out. There's no way a bunch of teenagers could be so peaceful if they weren't spending their time trying to come closer to Christ. The whole situation should have driven people crazy, but it didn't. That peace is really what I love about this gospel. Even when you know things are not the best, you can find peace. Even if what you need peace in is as silly as laundry, the Lord is willing to help.

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!! And one of my favorite Christmas scriptures is Luke 2:10-11 "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." What is the first thing the angel says? Fear not. Why not? Because Christ the Lord is here. We need not fear when we have Christ. I realized the other that the scriptures tell us to "fear not" quite a few times in connection with Christ. That is just as true today as it was then. I am so grateful for my Savior, and that during this time much of the world is celebrating Him. I don't want to think where I would be without Him. I know He came to this earth, He suffered for our sins, He died, and then He lived again. He did all of this for us, because of His love. I love my Savior, and I hope you all take the time to think about Him this wonderful Christmas day!

Last note: I have travel plans! I fly out Monday!!!! Suomi here I come! that means I probably won't be able to write or email until two Mondays from now. But I can always still receive mail... :)

Love you all so much!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

-Sisar Mendenhall

Saunas and Singing    

MTC - Week 7

Terve!!! 

This week has been so great and just filled with little fun things! No sarcasm there, these things might not seem the best, but here at the MTC we make them the best.

First of all, I really want to go to Finland, and the MTC knows, so they brought a little Finland to me! Finns LOVE their saunas, and our whole dorm building has been converted into just that. The heaters in our building have been broken (as in they will not turn down) for two weeks and wow are they cranking! So even though it's December all the windows are open at all times, and if you want to take a shower, you get up way early or be prepared.

Secondly, our building is being renovated/torn down, we don't know, so we moved across campus! Our room was built for four (there are six of us) so it's a good thing we all get along so well. You know what though, I'm happily sacrificing closet space because... THE HEATERS WORK!!! YAY!!!

My companion and I have amazing unity, at least our investigator Monday thought so. That's because we stood and left in perfect unity, moving as one, waving as one. My notebook somehow got way tangled up in my companion's sweater and we didn't want to stop teaching so we just acted like nothing was different, and exited en masse.

I got to host again this week! They had too many Sister hosts and not enough Elders, so I had to help a few Elders too. I think they felt really weird having me carry their bags.

This is the story of how I became involved in a duet in front of hundreds of people: The other day a memo was sent to my teacher that I had to call the front desk, immediately. Those calls generally aren't so good. I walk to the hall phone prepping myself for the worst and hear, "Hey Sister Mendenhall! We need you to visit with the MTC presidency to talk about your part in the Christmas musical production." *Stunned silence ensues* I don't know how many of you heard my musical talent before, let's just be nice and say it's rather limited. Like, think of those TV auditions you watch and just want to give the person a hug afterwards. My comp and I head down, wondering what interpretive music they must be planning for Christmas, and go to the designated room to find just Sister Nally, and Sister Roach (the MTC Relief Society president and first counselor) sitting at a table like they are ready to hear our audition. We almost bolted. We walked in terrified, and then Sister Roach said, "Sister Mendenhall! I was just visiting with your grandparents last night and promised I would say hello!" PHEW! Huge sigh of relief there. We visited for a bit, she's way fun, and then Sister Nally says, "Sisters, you look very angelic, will you be the angels in the Christmas pageant?" YES, I was always the donkey, a wiseman, or a sheep (or even Joseph one year) in nativity scenes at home. Then she says, "Ok the two of you will just have one musical number." Whoops! Well, we really did want to be the angels, so we stuck with it. You all will hear part two of this story in a few weeks. It will probably be entitled: "The bumbling angel" or "Sisar Mendenhall solos in the choir--on accident". But I really am excited, they decided to have 12 angels, and I found a very strong singer to partner with, I can work with that:)

Truly though, this week has been fantastic. The power of a positive attitude is huge and my companion has optimism by the ton. We've loved the hard things because in hard things where do we turn? To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I've been thinking a lot about Christmas, (ONLY ONE WEEK I'M SUPER STOKED) and the symbolism of Christmas. So the Christmas tree is the evergreen because of several reasons, but what I think is so cool about it, is that it really is green and lively all year. All year we have Christmas trees! All year, every day and every hour, Christ is there "to lift up the hands that hang endlessly down" (Elder Neal A Maxwell). This gospel is truly a message of hope. Of hope for better things in this life, and in the life to come. "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh and anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." Ether 12:4. Hope nowadays is used to mean something you don't actually think will happen, but that you want to happen, when really in the scriptures it's used to mean something that we really expect to happen. Right now I hope that I will be able to speak Finnish well, not because I don't actually think it will happen, but because I have faith that Christ can work miracles. This hope anchors me in strength when faced with what would normally be an impossible task (namely learning Finnish...). There's always something each of us could use a little more anchoring in, so go ahead and find your anchor! It'll make Christmas even more meaningful.

I love you all! Have a fantastic Christmas!!

Love,

Sisar Mendenhall 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE FINN FAMILY!!!

A REAL FINN   

MTC - Week 6

Terve ystavatni!!!

I love Finnish!! Sometimes it feels like Willie Wonka explaining calculus in Alice's wonderland, but it's starting to really make sense! Like why wouldn't "purple" have 17 letters? It has to be conjugated the right way or obviously the force would be unbalanced. My companion and I have started practicing Finnish by translating hymns and it's super fun. It is kind of tiring, the other day my companion said, "I think I would seriously die without food." She is absolutely brilliant, that just shows how tired our brains get. We have Speak Your Language (SYL) days during which if we do not speak in Finnish (or if taking to missionaries that don't speak Finnish if we don't translate everything we say to them into Finnish) we have to write every English word we spoke in five different sentences. Our charade skill level gets +50 points every SYL day. 

At the MTC we eat every meal in the cafeteria. So because we have eaten many many meals there, my companion and I have developed fabulous getting-up-from-the-table routines which have sparked a fad. Much like synchronized diving, getting-up-from-the-table routines are critiqued on unity and complexity. Our newest routine involved the cups song (with Finnish words of course). Also at the MTC there is a thing for holding open doors. To avoid contention my companion and I both open a door, then run really quickly through the door that the other has opened so that both of us can feel good for serving. 

This week my companion and I...SYKPED A REAL FINN IN THE REAL COUNTRY OF FINLAND HAVING A REAL CONVERSATION FOR 40 MINUTES!!!! We ran out of the skyping room and just prayed in thanks for the gift of tongues. We had so much fun talking to our Finnish sister and cannot wait to get to Finland!! We said words wrong of course, but with some laughs and help we were able to communicate our message. The biggest thing they teach here about the language is that you have to just try and have faith that the Lord will provide. And then He does and it's just the best!! Lots of times when we want to help someone, or help ourselves, we think we are just too far behind to even start. Maybe we are far behind, but most likely we just need to stick our necks out there and give helping a try. If we show the faith to say, I need help, the Lord is so happy to give us the help we need and want. I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!! And I love it because, "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ...that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." 2Nephi 25:26 Such a great time of the year!! I love my Savior, and I love you all!

"What's a fish's favorite Country? Estonia." --Said by the Estonian Missionaries next door. The real answer is Finland. Finland is every fish's favorite country.

Onnellinen joulu!! (Happy Christmas!)
Sisar Mendenhall

Pictures: Enjoying the December heat, and my view 9 hours a day (which I love because the gospel and Finnish are both pretty amazing)

     

Thanksgiving + Christmastime = the PARAS!! (BEST!!)‏   

MTC Week 5

Terve!!! I would start off by saying I love you all but I learned that Finns almost never use "to love" so... Mina pidan teita!! (I like you all!!) Also, fun Finnish fact, the difference between a conjugated from of "to meet" is only one letter away from meaning "to kill", don't kill your neighbors, meet them and like them. 

Thanksgiving was tosi mahteva! (truly awesome). The entire day was packed with funtivities that included a devotional with Elder Bednar that was Q&A style. They passed out hundreds of cell phones and has us text in questions that he answered from the pulpit. This devotional was being broadcasted to several MTCs throughout the world and they were able to send in questions as well! It was so fun. Even though the question my companion and I sent in wasn't answered, we still learned a ton. Later that day we had a humanitarian program, and then a humanitarian project packaging meals to go to the Utah food bank. That was so fun, us lahetysaarranajia (missionaries) packaged over 300,000! We had a huge lunch and my companion and I didn't want to miss any of the food. We decided to hit separate lines and take double so that both of us could have everything. Unfortunately, we ended up hitting two lines that were actually serving the same thing. So we met up and had quadruple of what we wanted. I think our table and the next had to help us out. Dinner that night was super fun, We ate sack meals in the hallway with our whole zone. We then got to watch...Meet the Mormons!!! Ah that movie is most excellent! Seriously if you haven't seen it, mene (that's the command form of "to go" btw). After that we had "a surprise waiting outside", and ran out to find the whole place decked out in Christmas lights!! It's so beautiful, I don't how many you can see in the picture, but there are a lot and it's glorious. 

With the start of the Christmas season we had a speaker come and share a video called "Share the Gift" I hope all of you have already seen it, it's so beautiful. It's all about how Christ truly was the first gift of Christmas. The video then tells us to DISCOVER and EMBRACE the gift of Christ. We were asked to think of how we have embraced the gift of Christ, and I thought of one of my earliest memories. It was a pretty simple thing, I asked my mom if Jesus actually looked like all of the pictures. She told me she didn't really know what He looked like, but she did know that He is the Son of God. He lives. He loves us. And because she has faith in Christ and has felt His Spirit, she would know if she saw Him. That has stuck with me for years, that happened when I was really little. I saw that's the first time I discovered Christ. Now I work everyday to embrace Him. I want to be like Him in everything I do, and I know that by trusting in Him, that goal is possible for everybody. I love Christmas! So for this Christmas, think about how you have, or can, come to know Christ, and then embrace Him!

Other fun things this week: BYU's Vocal Point came and sang a bunch of Church hymns, my companion almost died from excitement. In choir we sang a really epic arrangement of "Away in a Manger", think of Lord of the Rings background music, it was way cool. I got to host this week!! That means I took missionaries from their parents at the MTC curb and threw them into their classrooms (with love and support of course) it was so fun and great to see the excitement of the Lord's newest                                            missionary servants!

The pictures: Our mini tree someone's mom mailed in, and our excitement about the nativity statue!!! (Sorry, my poor selfie skills couldn't get the whole nativity.)

I like you all so much!!! Thanks you for your letters! I super-liked those too! 

Sisar Mendenhall