Like the Army of Helaman  

(Finland Week 67)

19 APR 2016

This week we went to interim! That's the three day training for new missionaries at the mission home. We enjoyed lots of good food, very blessed food. I was asked to bless the food on one of the days, I said a great long prayer, one of those prayers where I'm sure people are wondering when we are going to actually EAT the very blessed food. I prayed for lots of great things, and ended, and realized I never actually blessed or thanked for the food. They had me pray again. Thankfully, God is patient and hears all of our prayers, and no one starved.

At interim we talked about our first memories of the Book of Mormon. I thought as far back as I could, and I remembered one night reading Alma 56 as a family. This is an amazing chapter about the stripling warriors, how they were so brave and strong in their faith. (They knew from their moms :) Yay moms!) Really though I remember it because I didn't understand what was going on. Armies and people were moving and someone was attacking someone and whatnot. My parents had us act it out so that we would understand. I remember running around the couch as the army of Helaman with a sibling and we were fighting as Antipus' army was on the other side and excitement was happening. It was a lot of fun. I thought the Nephites were super smart. Now that chapter means a lot more to me. It taught me never to fear as long as I was doing right, for then God would protect me. This meant a lot in big things like when my dad would be deployed, and in small things like "wow I have a super huge test and am way stressed". When we put our trust in the Lord, it all really does work out. Here is a great passage from Alma 56, verse 47, about the faith of the stripling warriors, "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death;...yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." I know that Heavenly Father really does exist, and He is watching over us daily.

IN OTHER NEWS, MY LITTLE BROTHER JUST GOT HIS MISSION CALL TO NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK!!!  I'M SO EXCITED AND PROUD AND I'M CRYING A LITTLE. YAY TAYLOR!!! LOVE YOU LITTLE BRO!

Here is a picture from interim, and a picture of me eating sardines.

 

Have a wonderful week!

Rakkaudellani, Sisar Mendenhall

My companion (and pulla) are on fire!

(Finland – Week 66)

11 April 2016

This week we answered the age old question, "What happens when you put pulla in the microwave for way way too long?" Well, it catches on fire, puts the smell of incinerated microwave parts into every room of your apartment, must be doused in a pot of water (thankfully you hadn't done your dishes yet), and prompts you to leave all of your windows open all day. No worries about all the open windows, we turned off all of the radiators, we're responsible!

My trainee right now never ceases to amaze me. She is so brave, she speaks great Finnish, and she teaches me every day. She reminds me of 1 Timothy 4:12,"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." I thought I would be teaching everything, she is young in the field and new to Finland, but she is teaching me maybe more than I am teaching her. She has a great attitude, is happy to do new things, and is very happy to change to be better. Lots of times it's hard for us to try new things, we might mess up, we might not follow through, we might not enjoy what we chose to do. My companion has taught me a lot about not worrying about these things. Trust that the Lord will qualify you to do whatever you need, and then go for it! Jump in with both feet! With your clothes on! We don't have to know every step of the way before we can start. As long as we know in whom we have trusted, Jesus Christ, we can always go forward wonderfully.

 I love my companion, I'm really grateful she was put in my life to help me. I invite you all to look around you, and find out who's life you were put in to help.

Have a wonderful week!!

Love Sisar Mendenhall

Super sorry, I can't attach pictures for some reason. Next week!

We went and listened to a Prophet's voice!  

(Finland – Week 65) 

05 April 2016

Pro of Finland: leave your keys in the outside of your door overnight, and you'll find them there in the morning!

Pro-tip for life: don't leave your keys in the outside of your door. 

CONFERENCE!! My Dad last conference said that he didn't need to ask if I enjoyed conference, missionaries always love it the most. He was right! I hope that everyone was able to watch and re-watch and soon re-read the inspired words.

A few of my favorite things:

• I love how one speaker spoke about the tools that we have to invite others to Christ, and to fix our own lives when they get all jumbled. All of the tools are already provided, we already have everything we need. No one is ever truly lost, and no problem is ever too much. We can't always see how, but with Christ it will work out.
• Service! Service can be small things, it's all about people! People are amazing, literally each of us is unique, we should search for the things we can constantly we doing to build other people. "Love is making space for someone else in your life." Neill F Marriott
• "Choices determine destiny." from the prophet Thomas S Monson. We have the power to move our lives in the best direction, let's take advantage of that and choose to always move ourselves along the path back to our Heavenly home.

My absolute favorite is hearing the strong testimonies of Christ given by modern apostles and the prophet. They remind me of these powerful words found in the Doctrine and Covenants, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!" (D&C 76:22)

I wish you all the best! Have a wonderful week!

Rakkaudellani, Sisar Mendenhall

Here is a lovely picture of us in our elevator (with our keys), and of a Finnish lake.

HYVÄÄ PÄÄSIÄISTÄ!  

(Finland – Week 64)  

29 Mar 2016

So, I'm sure you are all wondering where my blog post was last week, let me explain:

• We got so lost that we just never made it to the library in time. (Just kidding! But our getting lost the other day made us a great friend that walked us to our destination, which was 5 minutes away. I love Finns!)
• I took candy from a stranger and had severe food poisoning. (Just kidding! The stranger's candy was delicious and helped my teeth! So she said...)
• I ate too much mämmi and went into a rye-induced coma. (Just kidding! But I did eat more mämmi at dinner than all of the Finns, combined...)
• I was kidnapped. (This one isn't true either, in fact, this one didn't even happen. But all of the other things did.)

Really, there just weren't enough computers at the library so I had a tablet and couldn't type fast enough. Sorry everyone! 

By the way... My new companion is awesome! She's so brave, and we are having a wonderful time together. This is a picture of us eating strawberry and chocolate peeps, a delicious gift from my parents. Funny thing, the only pictures I have of us are with food. Needless to say, we get along quite well.

HAPPY EASTER!!! Wow I hope everyone got to see the "Hallelujah" video on followHim.mormon.org. It's such a beautiful reminder of our Savior, and that everything it truly possible because of Him. We have had a lovely time telling everyone about our Savior this past week. The resurrection truly is my favorite story of Jesus. I love every story, but reading about Him speaking to Mary and His apostles after He is resurrected is my favorite, "And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay...And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word." (Matthew 28:5-6,8) I love how much joy this message contains, He did it! He broke the bands of death! He is truly the Son of God! He wasn't there, He was risen. And because He is risen, every single one of us can become better, can improve, and can be lifted to a better place. I also love that these women ran to tell others the good news, I'm so grateful I can share the good news with others.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Rakkaudellani, Sisar Mendenhall

Hands of the Lord   

(Finland – Week 62)   

14 Mar 2016

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:34-40)

This is how I felt this past week, so completely taken care of by the hands of such good people. We received transfer calls this week and after many months, I will be leaving the wonderful city of Espoo. I have truly loved my time here, because of the most amazing people. Sunday was a little hard to say goodbye to lots of people I love, lots of people that took me in. On Christmas, on New Year's, on every kind of day from summer to fall to winter and finally to spring (yes! We have seen some green in Espoo! It was quickly covered by snow, but it's there.) These wonderful people have treated me as one of their own. Their service has helped me come to know my Savior better, because they have taught me more of what He would do, were He here with us right now. Let us all do our part to be the Lord's hands, to help all of His children return safely home. And then when we all do arrive, we can hear Him say these wonderful words above that we read from Matthew.

I will be going to... DOWNTOWN HELSINKI WITH A TRAINEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW I AM SO EXCITED!!! (I might have cried a little bit when I got the news...) This is my last transfer, and exactly what I wanted to do. Train in the area with the most people in all of Finland! I will get to meet so many people, and learn so many things from my new companion. It's going to be a wonderful transfer. I literally jumped out of my seat when I got the news. I hope I don't cry when I get my trainee, that might freak her out. Katsotaan...

Best of luck to you all!! Love Sisar Mendenhall

Check out our Moses parting the Red Sea cupcake, and the traditional chocolate-nougat-eggs-in-a-real-egg-shell eggs!

"What work of  love was wrought for me in the stillness of Gethsemane!"  

(Finland – Week 61)  

08 Mar 2016

Terve!

Car adventure of the week: we didn't have our gas card yet last Saturday, but we were sure we had enough gas and wouldn't need it so we told everyone in the office that they could go home. Kids, always check your gas before you tell everyone in the office not to worry about your gas card for the weekend. To our dismay we learned that we were abysmally low on fuel. No worries! I had my card. Well they didn't accept my card. We then had to concoct a righteous scheme to obtain our gas card on Saturday when no one was in the office. Thankfully one of the senior missionaries just happened to be in the office! We never even had to push the car.

Wow it's been another good one here in Finland. My Mission President's family has been visiting for a few weeks, they're wonderful! They helped us wash our car today (see attached picture). They also sang a beautiful song for us called "Gethsemane" by Sally DeFord, it goes like this:

Gethsemane lay still and dark; creation watched in silent awe

As Jesus suffered His Father’s will to satisfy unyielding law.

He knelt in earnest prayer alone. His friends, o’ercome with sorrow, slept.

Beneath the burden of grief, He groaned; beneath the weight of sin he wept,

And with his blood so freely spent, He bought my soul; He paid my debt.

What work of love was wrought for me in the stillness of Gethsemane!

“This bitter cup wilt thou remove? Yet not my will, but Thine be done.”

Behold His anguish, and weep anew for love of Christ, the sinless one.

With His wounds my own are healed; my ev’ry pain o’ercome in His,

My shame, my weakness, my grief untold find ranson in His priceless gift.

For with his blood so freely spent, He bought my soul; He paid my debt.

What work of love was wrought for me in the stillness of Gethsemane!

This song is a beautiful reminder of what our Savior has done for each of us. And it was so wonderful to hear their children sing this song! It reminded me of a verse in Mosiah 3:19, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love," Christ was the perfect example of being humble and submissive to His Father, He knew His Father knew best. And I am so grateful that He completed the will of His Father! Because of that, the words to this song are true. So really, being childlike is not being childish, trusting in our Heavenly Father and turning our will over to Him is truly the most mature thing we can do.

I wish you all the best! Have a wonderful maaliskuu!

Rakkaudellani, Sisar Mendenhall

Juicing and Driving

(Finland - Week 60)  

01 Mar 2016

This week, we got a car! It's pretty crazy, I am way more uncomfortable driving now than I was in Vaasa, but we've been safe so far! We also had great fun with a juicer this week at someone's house. The bottom spun by itself so all you had to do was press the orange down. I've been upping my morning workouts lately and obviously they have paid off. I pressed too hard and instead of the top part that juices the orange spinning, the bottom part holding the juice went crazy and almost spun off of the counter. Luckily, no juice was lost and it was delicious.

"And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ,whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole." Enos 1:8 I came across this verse this week in personal study, and I love it! I love how the gospel makes us whole. It doesn't just clean us or make us better, it makes us whole. Even if something has a lifelong guarantee, it's not an eternal fix like the gospel is. The healing power of Christ erases even scars, so that we can be at peace and have happiness. 

Leap day! A whole extra day of missionary work!

I wish you all the best! Have a great week! 

Love Sisar Mendenhall