The Opening...

This was a long time coming, I know. But Laura's computer is AWESOME, so i decided to upload the video of me opening my mission call on her computer - and I had it on my digi, so it was WAY easy! So, for all of those who want to see it, check it out, for all of those who don't want to see it, never mind, for all of those who have seen it and want to see it again, go ahead.... just make sure you ENJOY :)

So, the day came when I recieved my call in the mail. I had just gotten home from seeing Elizabth Ross off on her mission, and we were talking at the airport and wondering when Marianna and I were going to get ours. Little did I know, mine was literally on it's way. I got home, and was running late for a basketball game, as I ran outside the postman came, I grabbed the mail and saw 'Sister Ellen J Carmichael' on an express post envelope, I ran it inside, and yelled 'I just got my mission call' - laura was the only one home, and couldn't believe it, so i threw it at her, and ran to basketball... it was the loooooongest game EVER. I came home and waited for mum, dad and hannah to come home, nan and pop happened to just 'show up' so that was nice that they could be there - although pop was SO over waiting for me to open it.. anyway the time finally came, and here it is.....

Something you only think you will ever see in Cartoon movies is this:

You think it only happens in cartoons - when they have massive icicles coming down from the tops of buildings or off the trees... but I can asure you it really does happen. This was something that would always blow me away. Especially when it was hanging of rocks/cliffs that would usually have water running down them - Even though I saw it, i still can't believe that it can get SO cold that running water can freeze... whats with that??

A day in Finland

As most everyone knows the weather is extremely cold in Finland at times. As long as you are well prepared - as in you have enough clothes, you have your little heat packs and you have some food then you should be ok to last a few hours without dying.

Here are a couple of pictures from one of our days in Finland. As you can see from the pictures it was no doubt FREEZING!! My companion, however, tried to stay as warm as possible having only parts of her body outside of her clothing that was really neccessary - in other words her eyes!

Here is Sister Kieffer - trying to keep warm! as you can see it's snowing and there is absolutly no sign of civilisation outside, except for us - as yourself this... would you be outside in this weather or would you be inside in the sauna....?? yeah, just what I thought!!

A close up... but, below, a little closer... this is what happens when your eye lashes freeze and then you get onto a warm bus and your eye lashes UNFREEZE - you really should wear waterproof mascara whenever possible!!

Umm..yes, so this is Sister Welling - i guess you could say that she had a hard day at the office... or outside.. she said she has never known Finland to be so cold except for when she was a missionary - i think the problem was that as a normal person you don't have to be outside for so long - you can avoid the weather outside by staying inside if you want to!! But as a missionary - you have to be outside doing the Lords work - no matter what!!!

You'll be right wells!!

Sister Kieffer and I  - braving the snow!! I miss that jacket I have on.. it was really cool (well it was warm, but it was just a really awesome jacket!! - but SO huge!!)

a set of keys, a car and a missionary district....

this is REALLY long, but I promise, it's well worth the read!

It's was a p.day and as a zone we decided to take a little trip TO SUOMENLINNA! We were going to play 'capture the flag' - so we got permission from the mission president and off we went.

It was a pretty cold day and there was snow everywhere (and ice). We headed off to Suomenlinna (Finnish Castle). Suomenlinna is this little island about 15 mins from Helsinki. You need to catch a little ferry over. It was awesome. So we all met up, and boared the ferry for a p.day day trip. HOW FUN!

We went over, we visited the museum there (well the sisters did, the elders didn't come til a little bt later)... then we played flags. This little island is actually quite big, and it's awesome. People actually live there, and there are quite a few tourist things to do over there. On the Island were little hide out holes and things like tha

t, and massive tunnels through to the other side, and they used this in a war (I can't remember exactly, but I think it was the war when the russians won some of the the finnish land - but don't quote me on that, I'm not a historian and this isn't the point to the story. So this Island is awesome - and if you ever go to Finland make sure you go there!!!

So, we played flags and had fun, then it was time to head back to the ferry - there were only 2 more for the rest of the night - so we had to hurry. We deci

ded we were not going to make it for the first ferry, but 2 elders decided they were going to run and 'make it' - yeah they missed it. As for the rest of us, 

we quickly walked to the ferry station and waited for the ferrry. Then, all of a sudden one of the Elders realised he had put the car keys down and didn't pick them up - so they went back to where they thought they put them and they weren't there. They were trying to work out what to do and trace back their steps. The ferry then arrived and we all decided they had better get on the ferry and worry about the keys the next day. The elder

s that 'owned' the car had 2 sets of keys (the elder that lost the key didn't even drive the car, and why he had the keys I don't know). The only problem... one key was lost and the other key was in one of the Elders bags... and the bag was in the car... hmm... problem - YEP! We tried to get a spare key from the mission office, but found they didn't actually have one.... so we wondered what we should do....

Ideas were flying out there like:

We could just break the window...

We could just leave the car here and come back for it...

We could smash the windscreen -it's cheaper

We could break into the car

All these many wonderful ideas.. but the idea that everyone liked was:

We could break into the car.... so it was settled, when the ferry landed we would break into the car, get the keys out and everything would be fine.

When the ferry arrived half the zone 'took off' and couldn't care less - the Espoo District stayed behind to make sure everything was ok. There was about 7 of us 2 sets of Elders and us - 3 sisters.... 

After quite a few attempts at breaking in, it couldn't be done.... 'damn it' - I said 'Sister Carmichael!!!!!! - The Americans said...  'What NOW' we all thought... 

Then, like a miracle, someone remember the back window 

was slightly broken and would always 'fall down' - 'we could try and pull the window down' - The elder said!

YES... lets give that a go.. So the elders pulled and pulled and they could NOT get the window down far enough... the lock was also one of thoese little locks that couldn't be undone, and they only realised about half way that it wasn't really going

 to work because even if we could reach our arm through we couldn't unlock the lock - the lock was one that didn't have a pull thing on it, it just went down into the door and that was it....

Then another idea - which, we all thought sounded impossible, but there was nothing more we could do but try it...This was the idea:

The Elder had the spare key in his back pack which was in the car. The backpack was in the back, on the floor, behind the passenger seat - the 'broken' window that would fall down was behind the drivers seat.... Someone mentioned: Why don't w

e try and get the backpack and then get the key? - No way, someone said, how they heck are we going to reach the backpack - the window comes down and inch - no one has an arm that small AND that long Elder...

The more we thought about it, the more we realised it could probably be done, so the Elders pulled the window down as far as they could, and my companion (sister welling) reached her arm in towards the back pack.... she couldn't reach it... OBVIOUSLY - she isn't inspectergadget, although he would have come in Handy right at this point.. but then again, so would have McGuiver!

So, then we managed to find a coat hanger, or something, and we stretched it out to make a small 'hooking' thing... the window was a tight squeeze and m

y comps arm was sure to fall off because it was so cold outside - there was no one I was letting my bare skin feel the coldness!! 

We tried and we tried to reach the back pack - it was getting there, slowly and every time we could either reach the bag and the hook wasn't strong enough and it wouldnt lift it, or the window was sliding up, or something that just didn't help the situation....

We tried for what seemed forever, then eventually, she hooked the bag, slowly brought it up - she was in pain from this, her arm was squeezed through a window remember, stretching as far as she could... the bag was hooked and it was slowly coming 

up towards the window.. now she had to slide her arm out, hold onto the hook and bring the bag toward the window without it falling.. slowly slowly... we're

 almost there..... and... it fell! But only onto the seat....  so we could hook it again with less difficulty this time.... then we hooked the bag again and eventually brought it to the window... one of the elders reached his hand in and grabbed the bagged... it was hanging there and the keys seemed SO CLOSE.. my comp had a rest and the elder held the bag in mid air for about 5 mins, then, it was time to start again. This time, my companion had to reach her arm through the window, unzip the bag and find the car keys - all while the elder struggled to hold the bag up with only his hand through the window - stopping at his wrist... my camp put her arm through... unzip the pocket, searched for the key... couldn't find it - it was now when the elder REALLY needed to remember exactly where it was.... 'it's in the front pocket, to the left and then there is anothe pocket - it's in there'... so, to the front pocket, to the left and search for the key.... FOUND IT! She FOUND IT... SHE FOUND THE KEY.. ok, hold onto the key, slowly bring your arm out and then drop the bag.....

This took about 2 hours to complete and is recommend that you DO NOT try this at home - especially on Mt Wellington where weather conditions could 

possibly be 'almost' as cold.... ok so add like -20 to the weat

her there and you have the temperture in Finland!!!

Travelling back to Helsinki from Suomenlinna - you can tell we all look pretty excited!! - Can you work out who the Missionaries are that can't get into their car when they get back??

Looking in the back to see the positioning of the backpack!

The Elders trying to pry the window down as my companion in the back ground begins to prepare!

I have another photo to put here, but blogger won't let me download it at the moment - but it's a good one - my companion arm is in the window!

And, finally - my Companions arms the day after!

Lost photos...

I don't have very many photos from when I forst arrived in Finland because they were on a computer at the Chapel and one of the Elders deleted them - i was really mad!! I had asked one of the elders to copy them onto a disc for me because it was going to take him 2 seconds and me like 3 hours because I couldn't understand finnish. So he did my comps and then he didn't do mine and then he deleted them a little while later - so all that GONE.. but I do have lots of videos.. so I guess that is ok. But I don't have many of just me and my first companions time together as they were all deleted. This is the best photo I could find (so far) of me and my trainer.

We are on a train, probably heading to Helsinki or something - I can't remember. But anyway. This is me and Sister Kieffer.

A little about her:

She was from France. She had about 4 months of her mission left when she started training me. We Served in Espoo - which is where the Temple is built. Our second or third change together we were given a Finnish companion. We were a lot a like and got along really well. We had our differences of course - and one being language. She spoke French. I spoke Australian. She learned English AND Finnish in the MTC - yes I know AMAZING - I couldn't even learn finnish! She didn't understand me alot of the times when we were first togther, and she didn't tell me this until a little while later - we often mis understood each other, and this is probably why. But Sister Kieffer was awesome - she made the BEST crepes EVER - and she was always watching out for me! 

This is Sister Kieffer, Sister Welling and myself - Sister welling was my second companion, she was from North Finland, she was awesome - we were in a threesome for about 6 weeks and then Sister Kieffer went home :( 

This photo was taken late January, in Espoo, it was FREEZING this night and we were stuck at a bus stop for about an hour, it was dark, cold and there was NO ONE around - actually one person walked past I think. Anyway, it was so cold that we could see our breath (well, that was like an every  day occurance in Finland) I guess we took these photos to entertain ourselves while waiting..... and waiting for the bus!

South Zone

This is a picture of the South Zone in Helsinki. I think this was actually about my 3rd or 4th Zone conference, but it was the only one they sent home - even though they took one every Zone conference and told us it was being sent to our parents... hmm... :)

Arriving in Finland

I arrived in Finland October 10th 2006. I met my mission president and his wife at the airport and then the Elders that I arrived with went with the assistants to have a look at the Temple, do a little paper work and then head to the Estes home for a meal and then to sleep. 

Here is me and the Estes - The morning after I arrived in Finland - yes I look like I am about to die because I am SO tired!

Sister Estes, Sister Carmichael, President Estes