en ole kiinalainen (im not chinese) 05/22/18

first off i gotta say a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cute sister Sammi!! i can't believe you're turning 14 this week!!! that's crazy sauce!!! 

finnish word of the week: kiinalainen (key-na-lie-nen) - chinese                                                                                                                                                                                                                

so this week was a blast!!! we got to go to return and report!! woot woot!!! on monday the sisters from kupio stayed the night with us so we could travel to return and report the next morning!! it was so fun talking to them and seeing sisar kristinsen (a sister from my mtc district) again!!

so return and report is where all the new missionaries that just got to finland go back to the mission home with their trainers for a few days and learn a bunch of awesome sauce things!! we learned how to plan better and work harder and over all how to be a better missionary. it was SO fun seeing all of the missionaries from my mtc group!! We also got to go to the temple and it's SOO pretty!! i'll send some fun pics! 

finland has reallllly started to warm up!! the sun stays out until about 11 at night and wakes me up around 3 am haha soo things are getting pretty warm here!! also finns don't have air conditioning.....sooo the trams and trains get reallllly hot and kinda stink lol

this week we were contacting in student housing and a Vietnamese man answered the door haha and said "en ole kiinalainen" which means i'm not chinese hahaha but i think he meant to say "en ole kiinosta" which means i'm not interested!! haha 

this week we taught three investigators!! since we had some extra missionaries with us monday evening we went on splits and i got to teach a lesson with two of the three kupio sisars!! it was super fun!! we taught our investigator from Nigeria about the plan of salvation! also he walks an hour and half to church every sunday...EVERY SUNDAY!!! i'm excited to see what the future holds for him!! we also taught our investigator from greece!! this was his second lesson and he had a lot of questions about what we do on sunday so we gave him a church tour and he decided to stay for sacrament meeting at the end so that was awesome sauce!! 

have a great week!!

sisar larson

1. finland temple

2. finland temple trip

3. cool statue, Eino Leino...a famous finnish poet and writer

4 a fun return and report pic

5 a harbor on the ocean

Happy Äidinpäivä!!! 05/14/18

HAPPY ÄIDINPÄIVÄ MOM!!!! I am so grateful for my mom and the huge support she's been for me!! She's been an awesome example of how to work hard and trust in the Savior!! I love you mom!!! 

finnish word of the week: äidinpäivä (i-deen-pie-vaa) - mothers day!! 

Summer is FINALLY here!! Most all of the trees got their leaves this week and the weather is getting hotter and hotter everyday!! 

I had my first zone conference this week!! It's so fun and motivating to be with so many missionaries! Zone conference is awesome sauce!! Also, I got to see some of the Sisars from my district in the MTC so ya it was crazy fun!! 

I've been asked by some of you why I can't use my investigators names. I can't because of privacy laws in Finland!! Sorry everybody!! 

We have an investigator from Nigeria and he is just awesome sauce!! He doesn't know very much about Christianity so he has a lot to learn but he's progressing pretty well!!

This last Sunday was stake conference and we had two area 70's with us! Elder Johnson and Elder Gilmore! so after the meeting we were talking to our investigator and Elder Johnson came up to us and talked with him!! I think our investigator was a little intimidated but it was still way cool haha...

We also invited one of our other investigators from Estonia to live the word of wisdom this week!! She was super nervous about giving up coffee so we offered to give up sugar and go through this together!!! so that's what we're doing!!! I miss eating yummy finnish treats and it's only been one week but life is good!! hahaha 

So a few emails ago I told you all a few of the countries that people we meet are from!! My list has grown a lot since then so I thought it would be fun to share all of it with you!! so far I've got...Canada, Russia, Germany, Spain, Holland, China, Japan, Ecuador, Egypt, wales, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Romania, France, India, Nigeria, Estonia, Iraq, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Australia, Somalia, Cambodia, Greece, Poland, Scotland, Philippines, England, Sweden, Lebanon, Gambia, Ethiopia, Peru, Brazil, and Ghana! 

Miss you all!! 

Sisar Larson

1. skyping my cute family!! 

2. train stop in helsinki

3. a cool church

4. last sugar we ate

Moi everyone! 05/07/18

Finnish word of the week: ruotsalainen (roo-oats-a-line-en) - swedish

The beginning of this week was really rainy and cold. Vappu was crazy sauce, but everybody still went to the park in their winter jackets and had a picnic haha. 

the good news is things are finally starting to warm up in finland!! woot woot!!  

Earlier this week Sisar Huber and I visited a less active in our ward. On the walk over Sisar Huber tried to explain her situation to me and told me to be super careful.

When we walked in the door I thought we were in Harry Potter. There were stacks of books and really random thing everywhere!

So we're in the lesson and our less active sisar is speaking crazy fast so i'm trying really hard to understand what she's saying, then out of nowhere she yells in perfect english "the winner takes it all! the winner takes it all! and I am the winner!!" hahaha we're not really sure what she was talking about haha but she was fun to visit! 

The work here in Finland is going good!! All of our investigators are progressing pretty well!! We meet somebody from a different place everyday! Also almost always when I introduce myself to somebody they point to my name on my name tag and say "oletko ruotsalainen?" which means are you swedish? haha 

anyways love and miss you all!

love sisar larson

1. vappu picnic

2. rainy finland

3. sisar huber and i at a park

4. Finland

happy vappua everybody!!   05/01/18

finnish word of the week: vappu (vaw-poo) - May Day

these past two days have been crazy sauce!! june 30 and may 1 are vappuaatto (vappu eve) and vappu. so everybody in finland celebrates graduation from high school and college and so on. on vappuaatto we had over 35,000 people in our area celebrating!!

they all gathered around a statue and washed it then put a graduation cap on it. then everybody parties and drinks and things got super crazy last night haha!

everybody was also wearing these things called party pants hahaaha they have stickers and stuff all over them. i'll try to get a pic this week so you can see what they look like next week!! on vappu everybody has a picnic and stuff so since today is our pday we're gonna go check it out!! i'll let you all know how it goes!! 

finland is awesome sauce!! it's still cold and rains all the time. the trees don't have leaves yet but i love it here!!

the sun is up before we are in the morning and usually wakes me up before our alarm does haha and then it sets right before we go to bed!! 

this week we had exchanges!! we got to go to espoo! it was very different from the city!! people are a lot nicer haha and we got to see the temple so that was crazy fun!! 

talk to you all next week!!

love sisar larson..

1. vappuaatto

2.graduation hat

3. vappuaatto

4. finland temple

        04/23/18

 meeting people from all over the maailmaa  

terve!!!!

 

finnish word of the week: maailmaa (my-el-ma): world

 

this week has been crazy awesome and i am really short on time today sooo this email is gonna be a short one!! 

we meet so many people from all over the maailmaa!! so i thought it would be fun to make a list!! here are a few places...Hong Kong, Cambodia, Greece, Malaysia, Iraq, Iran, Taiwan, Australia, England, Scotland, Somalia, Romania, India, Nigeria, and sooo many more!! 

we have had some awesome experiences this week!! our investigators are all progressing and doing really well!! a few of them came to church on sunday and they said they loved it!!

the other day sister huber and i were walking past a graveyard and we had a feeling to walk around the back of it. So we did and there was a little park hidden behind some trees and a man from india walking around with his young daughter! we both got the impression to talk to him soo that's just what we did haha he was so excited to hear the message we shared with him and he even set up an appointment right then and there for us to meet with his family!!!

woot woot!!! this has been a great week!! i love being a missionary!! 

 

love sisar larson

 

i am out of time so i'll send pics next week!! 

finland helsinki mission 04/17/18

terve!!

finnish word of the week: lentokone (lent-o-cone-ey): airplane

soo after a flight to dallas and a long flight to london we finally made it to finland!!!

 the flight was SO long hahaha london was super foggy so we couldn't see anything!! we couldn't leave the airport. the airport was HUGEEEEEE biggest airport of my life oh my goodness

our mission president and his wife are both awesome sauce!

they took us to the temple and it's so pretty!! i'll send a pic of it!! after the temple we went to the mission home and stayed the night.

the next day we had lunch, met our trainers, then left to our areas!! my trainer is Sisar Huber!! she is just the cutest!! she has been in finland for about 4 months and she speaks the language SO well!!

we are serving in Helsinki!! we have all the cathedrals and the ocean and lots of touristy stuff in our area!! it's awesome sauce here!! 

we use public transportation to get everywhere haha it's way cool!! we talk to so many people that way!!

people here talk SO fast haha i have a hard time understanding everything that they're saying

 i can't even speak finnish i think we learned the wrong language in the mtc. haha!

but my trainer is so awesome and she helps me a ton!! I've learned so much from her! 

it's totally different here...culture shock is real..  i'm smack in the middle of the city. the pics i sent of the ocean were like thee islands with resturants on them. 

before i left the mtc i ran into a friend from idaho, HYRUM!

it was so fun to see him, he was called to serve in india...

Love you all

Sisar Larson

4 more days  04/05/18

terve!!

finnish word of the week: suomi (sue-oh-me) - finland

T-4 DAYS UNTIL WE GO TO SUOMI!!!!!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! 

we just got a new member of the mtc presidency this last sunday and he served as a mission president in suomi. so he talked to my district yesterday about suomi and i am SO pumped to go!! i never thought this day would come! 

this last sunday we had the opportunity to watch general conference!! it was so powerful watching all the missionaries sustain our prophet Russell M. Nelson. i wish you all could of heard the missionaries gasp and cheer when temples were called in their missions!! i'm so grateful i get to be a missionary at this time!! 

during priesthood session sister Elaine S. Dalton spoke to the sister missionaries!! it was amazing!! she told this awesome sauce story about how her husband and her were running one day and they came to this hill so since she is a competitive person she started running quickly up the hill to beat her husband.

part way up the hill he raced past her so she stopped running and yelled "okay!! i will wait for you in the car honey!!" she turned around and felt her husbands hand on her shoulder then he said "don't you know, you never make a decision to turn back or quit when you are on a hill."

then they finished their run. i love this story because hills are opportunities to make you stronger!! don't ever make the decision to quit on a hill because you can do it! go on!! have hope in the savior and you can do all things!! 

love you all

sisar larson

pics

1. the zone

2. 6 of the 7 sisars

3. mtc

4. last pic with some of the mongolians

guess who spoke in sacrament meeting!!  03/29/18

moi!!

finnsih word of the week: synnti pukki (sew-n-tee poo-k-ee) "a sinful goat"

okay so you're never gonna guess what!! so you know how every week I talk about how the finns haven't spoken in sacrament meeting?? soo this last week our district was joking around as we were writing our talks about synnti pukki. It has multiple meanings and it's just a weird word haha so i was like okay i'll use it in my talk if i have to speak. soo i wrote it in thinking i wouldn't have to speak on sunday then sunday comes and guess what... i'm the only finn that has to speak lol so i get up there and i said it hahaaha all the finns were cracking up and everybody was asking us what i said after haha it was awesome sauce

guess what else happened!!!!! we met a native finn here at the mtc!! but we could hardly understand him!! he spoke really quietly and he was speaking spoken finnish!! so right now we're learning written finnish and next week we learn spoken finnish!! ahh which is crazy sauce cuz we only have a week and a half left!!! 

our swedes and nords left this week!! it was so sad saying goodbye!! not gonna lie it's hard watching so many people progress from the the mtc, but we only have a little over one week!! ahh i'm seriously so excited for finland!!!!! 

anyways love and miss you all!! 

sisar larson

apostle #3!!    03/22/18

this weeks finnish word of the week is : viikko (vee-ko) - week

MOI!!!!!

how are you all?? i know i say this almost every viikko (week) but this week went by soo fast again!!! ahh i can't believe how quick pdays come and go!!! we have 2.5 more weeks until we leave for Finland which is CRAZY SAUCE!!! i'm so excited!! there's a chance we get our flight plans tomorrow so cross your fingers they come!!!! 

sisar smith and i are doing great!! she is the BEST companion ever!! tuesday sisar smith had to go to the dentist cuz she ate a wall in her sleep, jk idk if she ate a wall but she did chip her tooth in her sleep hahaa. so it was fun leaving the mtc for a lil bit. 

our danes are gone!! it was sad saying goodbye!! but the new danish district came in on wednesday!! there's only one elder haha we also have to say goodbye to our swedes and nords on monday!! EVERYBODY is leaving us!!! but i'm so excited for all of them!! 

also the finns still have not spoken in sacrament meeting haha and this sunday is the last sunday we have to do it soooo i have a filling lots of the sisars are gonna speak!! 

we had our third apostle speak to us on tuesday!!! Elder Renlund!! he gave a really awesome talk!! he shared a quote i love but i didn't get to write the whole thing down! so i'll share with you what i wrote..."the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. HE (Christ) is the joy." and i love this koska minä tiedan etta jos me keskipistemme miedan elämä jesus me voimme löytää onni!!! 

minä rakastan teitä!!

sisar larson

pics

1. sisar hansen and I

2. our cute lil finnish district!! 

3. veli (brother) edwards! one of our teachers

4. cutest zone ever with our danes that just left and there's a random guy we don't know too haha

oli hauskaa viikioa  03/16/18

Moi!!

finnish word of the week: hauska (how-ska) - fun or funny 

how are you all?? this week went by SO fast oh my goodness time is flying by!! i can't believe how close finland is but at the same time finland doesn't feel real haha

the daines in our zone leave on monday for denmark! super sad but super exciting!!

nobody from our district spoke on sunday haha we're all getting a lil nervous!! 

next friday we get to skype members in finland and teach them lessons!! i'm so excited!! 

we've learned SO much finnish this week!! wowow did you know that finnish has 15 cases?? and we've learned about 10 so far!! 

sisar smith and i got a new investigator this week!!

soo when i say investigator i mean one of our teachers portraying one of their investigators in finland. haha he's the most chill person EVER!! so we were teaching him and he was acting kind of depressed so sisar smtih asked him if he was okay and he said ya i'm just peaceful and some other stuff and i must of had a weird look on my face or something because when he looked at me he let out this little squeak of a laugh and i BURST into laughter hahaha i just wasn't expecting anything that had happened in our lesson and the person our teacher was portraying is the complete opposite of him so i was literally crying from laughing so hard and that made my companion laugh so since we were both laughing our teacher started to laugh and long story short we had to take a time out haha sooo ya that was a hauska experience haha 

Bishop Waddell spoke to us at our tuesday night devo!! it was SO good!! he talked about our role and how important of a tool the book of mormon and spirit are!! he encouraged us to seek the spirit always and wow just such a great talk!! 

anyways i gotta go!!! love you all!

sisar larson

1.view from our classroom

2."texting" one of our investigators 

3. prettiest comp ever

4. laundry rooms

halfway there!! 03/08/18

terve!!!

finnish word of the week: penki - a bench

sooo this week went by crazy fast!! we reached our halfway mark this week!! which is crazy sauce!! i feel like i've been here forever but at the same time the mtc is flying by! finnish is going good!! we learn a lot each day! our teachers encourage us to speak our language as much as we can so the sisars and I will have random lil conversations about random lili things haha 

sooo one evening our zone was walking back after class to our residencies and sisar smith and i were chatting with some of the elders and one them ate it SOOO bad on what we call the henki penki (a bench) hahaha it was SO funny!!! we laughed about it ALLL night long!! 

so i think i've told you this before but sisar smith, johns, hansen, and i all share a room and they have allll tell me i sleep talk hahaha in finnish and italian and obvi english too lolol

so everybody in our zone has to prepare a talk for sunday because you dont know if you're speaking until they announce the speakers after the sacrament!! guys!! none of the finns have spoke yet so i'm convinced imma be speaking this next sunday haha 

elder m. russell ballard spoke to us for devotional tuesday evening! he did a Q and A with us!! it was so cool!! i learned to study, pray, and trust. that even though i may feel inadequate and i need to trust in the lord!! pray to have the spirit with me at all times, and trust that i will receive help in times of need. i love being here!! i love this language, the people, and most of all my savior!! 

love and miss you all!! 

sisar larson

pics...

1.sisar johns, me, sisar smith, sisar hansen

2.sisar hansen and i

3. package from the fam

4. cousin, Sister Cortney Larson

5. my cute companion sisar smith

minä rakastan soumeski!!  03/01/18

Terve!

I. LOVE. FINNISH. oh my!! guys!! it is the best language everrr!! it's finally clicked this week and everything is making sense!! i mean we still have a lot to learn but so far everything is just awesome sauce!! also i thought i would do a finnish word of the week just for fun haha so this weeks finnish word is hyvä (who-va) which means good! 

every wednesday evening we teach trc. trc is rm's from finland that we get to teach kinda like a family home evening and it's soooo fun!!! the returned missionaries that come are all super fun and outgoing with us so it makes for a really good lil lesson!! 

guys.. i'm a pro at volleyball now. jk, not even close to a pro but i'm improving!! i have some gnarly bruises as proof! i'll send a pic! 

sunday evening byu mens chorus sang a bunch of songs for us at devotional!! THEY'RE SO GOOD!!! oh my goodness!! i died!! and Tad R. Callister spoke to us tuesday evening about evidence that the book of mormon is true and not to underestimate the power of the book of mormon!! it was really cool to hear!! 

guys our district has been asked multiple times this week what asian language we're speaking hahaha i dont think finnish sounds very asian but i guess other people think it does!! 

so sisar smith (my companion) has a cold so that's been sad. ummm i'm trying to think of some other stuff to tell you guys but this week hasn't been super crazy or anything.... 

every week we get to write a talk for sacrament meeting on sunday because you don't know if you're speaking until they announce your name!! guys!! none of the finns have spoke yet and i just know it's gonna be me this next sunday!!!! hahaha 

anyways i miss and love you all!! 

sisar larson

1. volleyball bruises 

2. sisar smith and sisar nielson arm wrestling 

3. veli (brother) spiers one of our mahtavaa teachers 

4: our classroom and some of my notes haha

minä rakastan olen lahetyssaarnaaja! 02/22/18

Moi!!

wow! week 2 has been sooo good!! last pday was a bit crazy so I didn't get to tell you all about our zone! our zone consists of missionaries going to sweden, norway, denmark, netherlands, mongolia, and us!! mongolia is here for 10 weeks, us 9, and everybody else 6. our zone is mahtaava!! for exercise time we all play volleyball and it's SOO fun!! haha so ya..that's a lil about my zone! 

finnish is SOO fun but SOO hard!!  Veli (brother) ryan could tell we were getting kinda stressed one day so he taught us a lesson on how to manage our stress but he taught it in finnish so it was actually kinda really stressful lol. 

also i forgot to tell you all i saw sister shinsato last week!!! i was walking to lunch with my district and i heard somebody yell sister larson so i turned around and she was running full speed at me!! it was so happy to see her!! and i saw sister cordner yesterday!! i was waiting in the hall for my comp and i heard a voice that sounded like hers haha so i looked over my shoulder and she was just there!! haha i totally cried when i saw her hahaa but ya! some of you were asking if i've seen those sisters so i thought i'd tell you once instead of writing it multiple times!! 

Elder Holland gave a devotional tuesday evening and i have never felt the spirit stronger in a talk!! my favorite part was when he talked about Joseph Smith. i can't remember exactly what he said but i remember thinking this... Joseph Smith had an elementary school education and he translated the BOM. he wouldn't of been able to do that without the gift of tongues!! the gift of tongues is SO real! i notice it in each lesson sisar smith and i teach, i notice it when we study and guys it's just so incredible!! and i'm so very grateful for it!!! 

anyways i miss you all SO much!! keep sending me updates on your lives!! i love reading them throughout the week!! minä rakastan sinuä!!! minä rakastan olen lahetyssaarnaaja!!

sisar larson

 p.s. pics from last week aren't working! hopefully next week i'll get them to you!

TERVE!!!! HELLO!!! 02/14/18

you guys!! i miss you all so much! before i tell you about how awesome this week has been i've gotten the same question from a lot of you! so you guys have been asking me if i can read emails throughout the week and i can but only when i have time and i can't respond until pday! also i know spelling and such might be bad but i don't have enough time fix stuff so sorry in advance!

so we have 7 sisars in our district (people going to finland) so no elders. all the sisars are very smart and just really awesome people!! my companion is sisar smith! her dad served in finland so he taught her some finnish and it's been super helpful for both of us! i love having her as a companion! sisar johns and sisar hansen share a room with us! the four of us have grown so close in the past week! i love each of them so much!! also i've seen SO many people from lp haha it's crazy sauce!! 

you guys! finnish is SO hard!! 48 hours into our stay st the mtc we taught an investigator in finnish. the lesson wasn't the best but we tried!! monday was the hardest day this week. after teaching the investigator, veli (brother) ryan got a little frustrated with us because we were writing out word for word what to say! so he had us put all of our notes and books away and practice teaching each other. we all struggled through it and by the end of class we were all crying haha. tuesday morning we go up at 1:30 and left to cali so we could get our visa's. we were all still super bummed from monday but when our shuttle driver picked us up we got talking to him and we taught him about the gospel and he accepted a book of mormon! guys we talked to a bunch of other people about the gospel and even placed one more book of mormon on our flight home!! it was just the experience we needed after monday. Wednesday veli ryan told us we couldn't teach the investigator with our notes anymore. i don't think i've ever been more scared than i was right before sisar smith and i walked into the lesson. when we started teaching words kept coming to me and the spirit was so strong!!! guys the gift of tongues is so real!! \

soo pics aren't working and some of you have asked what finnish looks but i can't use umlats on this computer so here is kinda what it looks like

mina rakastan ollemalla myohmpien aikojen pyhien jeesuksen kristuksen kirkkon lahetyssaarnaaja!! 

love and miss you all

sisar larson

p.s. pics aren't working this week so be prepared to get a million next week