The Perfect Missionary  

(Finland – Week 12)  

24 March 2015

Moi moi! 

It's almost been five months since I went into the MTC! Crazy how time flies! 

My companions made cinnamon rolls this week with improvised flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and frosting. They were absolutely delicious. Shout-out to my dearest mother for an impossible-to-be-undelicious cinnamon roll recipe. Also shout-out to my parents for teaching me how to clean a kitchen. I remember Dad telling us to do chores through the scriptures, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52) "Favor with man kids, that means you have to clean the toilet." I clean the bathroom here every week Dad. 

This past week I finished up my twelve weeks of training! Thus I am now a perfect missionary. No mistakes, fluent Finnish, 100% confident, and always led by the Spirit. Haha, no. That will never happen. I still make a lot of mistakes, last night I swapped "to meet" and "to kill" (and that was not the first time I've done that), I still am working on exact obedience, and I'm still not where I want to be at the end of my mission. But all of that is exactly ok. My trainer always told me to compare myself to who I was, not who I want to be, because my ideal isn't realistic quite yet. One of my favorite things that I learned in all this training is that the Lord has already invested a lot in me, and in each of you. We all have bodies, life, and a chance to do and become great. We already have so much confidence from the Lord that we can achieve these goals. If you're anything like me, you hate doing something wrong when you know you've done it right before. But imagine, if you were already perfect, where would the joy be in the rest of your life? I would be scared to try anything new because I already had perfection in my sphere. So don't worry about being perfect right now, and be confident in the Lord's confidence in you. Think about that, the most powerful, supreme, loving Heavenly Father has faith in you, an imperfect-bound-too-mess-up-again being. That's a lot of love right there. Go do great things, He's got your back. 

1 Corinthians 1:27 "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;"

Also as an important side-note: check out these socks, and sing the Finnish anthem whilst looking at the epic flag and BLUE sky. 

Much love to you all! 

Sisar Mendenhall

LEAPING  

(Finland – Week 11)  

17 March 2015

Moi from the land of SPRING!! It's been sunny for SIX days in a row! A woman yesterday told me that in the month of January we had 3 hours of sunlight, this is a big deal. We just want to lie in it, in our jackets and scarves of course.

This week I played sähly for the first time which is indoor hockey with a wiffle ball. (Not so sure how to spell wiffle, wiffel?) It was intense. We had an investigator there with a variety of different sticks, I picked the red one rather than the white one. That's kind of like my knowledge of cars, there are white cars and red cars. My red stick did well. It was great for language practice! Apparently in Finland to say "go team" you say, "go team". Man I love it when that happens. Lots of Finnish words are English words with an "i" on the end. Apparently though "spooni" doesn't translate. Thus after just one embarrassing dinner appointment, I forever will remember spoon. Actually I think I might only remember fork and knife, oops.

I recently read this fun story of a man that couldn't walk in Acts 3:6-8:

 "Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."

I love to picture this man and his weak ankle bones leaping for the first time. How joyous the love of Christ is, it can heal us from everything! Weak ankles, broken hearts, stubbed toes, you name it. How can we not leap for joy at that? I've been leaping for joy at the sun we've been having, literally. I can't tell you how happy it makes people here. We all have things that truly give us joy, let's take a minute to thank God for giving them to us. I recommend leaping and praising.

Fun news of the week: having two companions instead of just one means we can buy and carry a lot more jogurtti. I love jogurtti.

Keep smiling! Lots of Love,

Sisar Mendenhall

Transfers and Talks

(Finland – Week 10)

10 March 2015

Rakat Veljet ja Sisaret,

Transfer time! Crazy to think that I've already been here 10 weeks, and that I've only been here 10 weeks. The time has gone by fabulously and although my last companion has gone home, her legacy lives on, I took almost all of her clothes. I'm still in Haaga (pronounced with soft a's, like in avacado) and we have had a surge in interest, we almost don't have time to meet with everyone that wants to see us! My new companion is adjusting well, but we do have some lapses in communication, the other day I wasn't very clear so she mixed up who was the investigator and who was the member. That lesson started rocky but it ended well.

So this week a boy in the ward was baptized and guess who they asked to give a talk? My last companion! But of course she was going home so they asked me to do it instead. Thank goodness it was for an eight year old, then my simple Finnish sounded intentional. It went really well, the baptism was great (baptisms are always prime times to feel the Spirit) and ward members are trusting me a lot more with Finnish, it's really great to feel their trust, it gives me hope in improving more and more! I love celebrating small successes, they truly illustrate how the Lord's goodness is all around us, taking time to recognize it is the trick. My mom shared with me a few really cool scriptures on this principle this week, the first is in Psalms 145:9 "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works." Simple, to the point, the Lord is over everything. I've been thinking a lot lately about how we can panic, agonize, and stress over something, and the Lord will take care of it. Or we can calmly and happily be patient, and the Lord will still take care of it. The latter is obviously much more enjoyable. Let us all try to "cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." (D&C 123:17) True trust in the Lord is very difficult, but when we find it it is invaluable. 

Plot twist! My companion and I will be getting a third companion! She comes in tomorrow, is brand-new, and a Finn! So we will have her in her first transfer, me in my second transfer, and my other companion in her third transfer! Hopefully that means it will be as easy as 1-2-3.

Also, look at this crazy weather!!! It's beach season! In scarves, coats, and boots of course. 

I hope you all are doing well! Much love from Suomi!

Sisar Mendenhall

A Happy State

(Finland - Week 9)

02 Mar 2015

Rakat ystävät,

Well, we were given cake, mousse, pastries, brownies, chocolates, I thanked someone for being "well-behaved" (I was going for kind, apparently the word I used is commonly applied to dogs not people, oops), our friend answered the door to a house that was not his house, we mixed up the word "socks" for "kisses", we were given a motivational speech by someone on the street, and that was all just Thursday! Needless to say it's been an interesting week, all the best ones are. It's also transfer week! Here transfers are nine weeks and it is time for my beloved companion to go home. But that's ok, I know she'll write me letters twice a week, always read my blog, and thoroughly enjoy this passive-aggressive sentence. I'm getting a new companion Tuesday evening who has been in the country only two months more than me, it shall be a Finnish Fiesta! (I can't remember how to say party in Finnish...)

Today my companion and I were talking about this wonderful scripture in Mosiah 2:41, "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." This is awesome, it's a "happiness guaranteed" that is actually guaranteed. Sometimes though, we look at that and wonder, does that mean if my life isn't perfect, I'm a bad person? That I'm not dedicated in my pursuits? That I'm doing something majorly wrong? The answer to all of these questions is, no, it doesn't. The beauty of the light of Christ is that we can see it even in the hardest times. Sometimes we have to turn our heads from what we're currently focused on, but when we look we will always find. Thus we can always find our happy state, even in hard times. The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to be used and infused into our everyday lives. The more we lean on it, the more happiness we can find. It probably won't be easy a lot of days, but it will always be there. Christ does not abandon His sheep, we are all of His flock, let us stay as close to Him as we possibly can. The closer I draw to Christ, the more I honestly see myself in a blessed and happy state. 

Have a great week everybody!

Love Sisar Mendenhall