Not FINNISHed Yet: Ch-ch-ch-Changes Take 7

Rakkaat ystävät,

And so transfers are upon us again.

I will be transferring to Tampere on Tuesday (i.e.: tomorrow) to join Sisar Johnston as a Sister Training Leader. Sisar Lafferty will be staying in Kuopio and be joined by Sisar Andersson, a native Finn from Tampere. So it's exciting news all around.

I have mixed emotions about the transfer call. I'm really excited to go to Tampere, but I'm of course sad to leave Kuopio and the incredible branch here. Yesterday after the prayer at the end of Sacrament meeting, they all stood up and sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again to me and Elder Briggs (who is going home this week) and it was so touching. I didn't realize how much I would miss Kuopio until then.

Being Sister Training Leader is going to kick me in the butt in exactly the way I need it to. When Elder Bednar came to visit, he said the reason he was an Apostle wasn't because he was holier or more righteous than everyone else, but rather because the Lord needs to keep a closer eye on him. That's kind of what I feel like right now, haha. I'm really excited to serve with Sisar Johnston - she is an excellent missionary and I will learn a lot from her. I'm also very excited for the traveling I will get to do as an STL. I'm not sure of all the cities that we will go to, but I do know we will get to go to Turku!! So I'm pretty stoked. Now all I have to do is finish packing . . .

Our hike to church.

Where we meet for church - our regular chapel building has been under repair since I got here.

Another view of our "church"

Now for the funny story of the week: On Tuesday after e-mailing, we hit up the Puijo Tower, then had grand plans to go to a museum as well.

View from the Puijo Tower.

Those plans were cut short when I accidentally locked our phone and my keys in our apartment. Sisar Laffery's house keys were in the car, which was also locked. So. We knew the Elders were out to lunch at a member's home, but we decided to walk across the center and wait at their apartment (good thing we had the code to their garage). We sat in their stairwell for two hours. During that time, we went across the street to a kirppi (secondhand store) and bought a game to keep ourselves entertained. The building is also home to some kind of hotel office, and as we were there at the end of the work day there were quite a few people leaving. They were clearly confused when the got a look at our little camp. Apparently we made some of them uncomfortable, because at one point two men approached us and asked what we were doing. We sheepishly explained the situation. They just laughed and said that there are a lot of drunk people hanging around at this time of year (Vappu - Mayday - was coming). they had clearly thought we were drunk and were going to come kick us out. It was quite the strange situation. Luckily, the Elders showed up not too much later, and we were able to get everything sorted out.

In the Elders' staircase. This may be why they
thought we were drunk.

I'm excited for the new adventures that await me in Tampere. Whatever the Lord has in store, I'm ready for it. As Nephi once said, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant