Meet Sisar Cain....

 Sister Cooper and I took a train down to Pasila in Helsinki area last Tuesday 11/22 and the train lasted from 1430-2030. It was a fun, long ride. Once we got to Pasila we got on a commuter train that took us to Haaga. I was very grateful that I had just served there and could navigate well because we had all her luggage, my suitcase, and a bike. But it was fun! It was super weird getting off the train in Haaga because it felt like I had only been gone for a week and then come back home. I was way excited for Sister Cooper to serve in Haaga. We got to the apartment and it was so so, so fun to see Sister Nelson and to catch up with her and laugh at all the old jokes anew. I spent the night there in my old apartment and then in the morning Sister Nelson and I left Sister Cooper and Sister Capps (so sad) to travel by train and bus to the mission home.  Sister Nelson is shot gun training an area in Turku so we had all of her luggage as well. It felt like old times taking the buses and trains together. Then at the mission home we had our meeting and then got our new companions. I was beyond blessed to get Sister Cain as my new companion! She is from St. George, and I’m pretty sure that she is training me. We are the same age and she went to Desert Hills High School so we bonded over a hate of the 'warrior nation' cheer ;) She has one year of school done in the piano program at BYU. She is amazing and so prepared and very good at Finnish. We have a lot of fun together and I feel so blessed to have her as my companion.

Transfer week and birthday pancakes!

This is the pancake house in Oulu where we celebrated my birthday

We got transfer calls this past week. I will be spending the next two months here in Oulu and I will be receiving a new companion that will be arriving from the MTC tomorrow. I am blessed to train again, and I am very excited! Sister Cooper will be going to... drum roll please.... HAAGA! How exciting is that ?! She gets to go to the area I just came from, I am so excited for her to be with all of the amazing people there and her new companion Sister Capps. She is going to love it! I am so sad my baby is leaving me, but I know we will be together again. We already have plans for February 2018 to go to the temple and IHOP, so I am pretty stoked for that. We will be taking a train together down to Helsinki tomorrow (6½ hour ride), and staying in Haaga together. Then Sister Nelson and I (I GET TO SEE SISTER NELSON AGAIN!!) will be leaving to go to the mission home together on Wednesday morning to get our new companions. I’m so excited! Then I will be taking another night train home that night and getting back to Oulu at 0800 the next morning. Transfers are always crazy, but so exciting. :)  

We’ve had a great week this week! We got to talk to 150 people over the course of the week, so that was a blast! We also had some great lessons and have gotten to say goodbye to some members and investigators for sister cooper. Other than that it has been pretty normal.

The district! The two elders on the right are the zone leaders (in our branch in Oulu) and the two on the left are in Kajaani and the in the middle is our district leader

At the ward relief society activity we made riisipirakka. It was so much fun, and so good! We took some of our investigators. 

My birthday in the mission field

It was Father's day in Finland last week. Happy Father's Day Dad!

Sister Cooper is an angel this morning for my birthday she surprised me (I was in the shower) she had balloons and all these cute hearts that she had written on the back of and a few gifts that she bought sneakily. It was the cutest thing! I wanted to cry, she is so thoughtful. i am truly so blessed to have her. We bought some cake and ice cream for later and we are going to a Finnish pancake house for lunch today. We are excited to feed our faces! We are also going shopping for some warm winter boots for me so I don’t have to wear six pairs of sox with my boots any more.

A visit from the Londons

Sister Cooper, Sister Carter, Lynne and Rick London

This week we taught 9 lessons and we went and visited this couple that used to investigate and just talked with them for a while for service. We talked about charity and sang some hymns to the wife who is very sick and bed ridden. The branch is great! About 100 people come every week and they are solid members, mostly converts. The area for the ward is very large, I am not sure where the boundaries are. There are two more areas that are more north and they are Kemi and Rovaniemi and Elders serve there because they are small areas that need priesthood and only one set of missionaries. The northern lights were great for everyone else in October, but we had clouds all month so I may have missed them. We keep praying we will see them. My bike has snow tires that work great on the ice, so don’t worry about that Mom. 
It truly is the best to have the Londons here! We got to see them this week when they brought some supplies we needed as well as the my birthday package. They are amazing people! I think they are liking serving in Finland again. 

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

It has been cold here, but we stay pretty warm. I have got some great winter stuff that I  inherited and I am trying to see if the boots I have will work. (I haven’t been cold yet) so we shall see. We are just getting stoked for the cold! Biking in below 0 weather is going to be a great adventure!

I have truly noticed on my mission thus far the correlation of reading the Book of Mormon and people growing their relationship with our Heavenly Father. Those that read progress and desire to learn more and truly find the joy of the gospel. Those that don’t read, or forget to read don’t progress and nothing else in the gospel makes sense. I feel that is how it is with us too, not just investigators. Reading the Book of Mormon daily is essential for us to receive the guidance we need to progress. I have just been pondering on that a lot lately. I love the Book of Mormon and could never deny that is is from our loving Heavenly Father.