First, a very brief
2013 in review:
I opened 2013 in
Geneva, Switzerland. Over the course of the year, I was in 7 countries, not
counting airports. I flew on 17 flights. I attended church in 3 languages, and
spoke in church in all 3 of those languages. I got the surprise of my life when
my bishop in Geneva asked me to re-think missionary service, and he was right!
I got my papers in February, came back to the States in May, and got my mission
call to the Finland Helsinki Mission on June 1st. I went to the Seattle temple
for my endowment on June 8th. I left for the MTC August 21st, became a 3rd-time
aunt on the 22nd, and arrived in Finland on October 23. I spent the last couple
months of the year in Oulu with some fantastic people. I've been blessed with
an enormous amount in 2013, and I'm excited to spend the entirety of 2014
serving the Lord full-time.
This week was a hard
one. It went by faster than I can even believe, but a lot happened.
December was a month
where we were able to find more investigators and more potentials than we
previously had. However, January is turning out to be the time when nobody
wants to make solid return appointments. I know that there's somebody out there
right now, waiting for Sisar Vath and I to come bring them the gospel message,
but it's hard to see many results of our work right now, which has been
especially trying for me this week. We made a particularly difficult decision
after much prayer and discussion, to give Rosie some space for a while. She has
a testimony, more than she thinks she does, but life is getting in the way, and
her progression rate has slowed down dramatically. She lives quite far away,
actually, so hopefully a blessing of this is that we can now use what used to
be travel time to explore other areas and find somebody who is more prepared to
make commitments and covenants. We love Rosie, and we can see her being
baptized, but now is not the time for her to be prepared to make those changes
and commitments.
On P-Day, Sisar Nyman
and I went boot shopping together while our companions wrote letters at the
other sisters' apartment. We went all over, looking for the right boots at the
right price, that would be durable, stylish, and fit well either with thick
winter socks, or thinner fall socks. I'd found a pair my first day in Finland
in the basement of President and Sister Rawlings' house that were left behind
by a departing sister, but they were already a bit worn, and by December, I
felt self-conscious just wearing them in public. As things often go, the last
place we had time to look had the perfect pair of boots, at a more-than-perfect
price, and unsurprisingly, Sisar Nyman and I went home with the exact same pair
of boots, and matching shoe polish kits. We waited this long to go shopping
because there are a lot of sales after Christmas, and we didn't want to take up
more than one P-Day looking for boots, so being able to find the boots we found
with the time constraints we had was a blessing and an answer to my prayers.
God cares about little things like this. He knows how important it was for me
to find what I needed on that day, and it worked out just in the nick of time.
When I zip up my nicely-polished, wool-lined winter boots, I think about how
Heavenly Father takes such good care of me.
We continue to work a
lot with members and to teach them how to be better missionaries. We're doing
more roleplays with them, so they can feel comfortable talking to people about
the gospel in everyday situations, and about inviting others to church, or to
meet with us. The members feed us very well here, even when we don't expect
food, which shows their love for us and our work. I'm getting more used to the
food here, and I even ate an entire bowl of fish soup the other day, and it
wasn't so bad! An older sisar who lives alone, the one who made us all socks
for Christmas, asked us during a visit if we'd like a snack. She put a couple
hotdogs on each of our plates, then decided she might as well finish off the
package, so our "snack" ended up being SIX hotdogs apiece, pickles,
beets, an egg for Sisar Vath (I hate eggs, so I passed), herbal tea, and cake!
THEN she told us to take home all the chocolate from her candy dish. Another
elderly sisar had her 96th birthday, and when we visited, she gave us an entire
spongecake pastry roll, fruit, juice, and pieces of other cakes, as well as
some cookies, and a couple of knit doilies sitting in her drawer (to remember
Oulu). I am always blown away by the thoughtfulness and generosity of the
members here.
We're not sure how
this week will go- planning has been hard since we let Rosie go, and since we
can't solidify appointments very easily. But we have faith that the right
opportunities will come up for us. We've been trying to explore more of one of
our areas where we have no members, potentials, or investigators. It's a slow
start, but the Lord needs to bless the people in Area 5 as much as in all the
other areas, so we're doing our best to get to know new places and new people.
Sisar Vath has been an amazing blessing and support to me, and I feel like
we've never been closer. Her silly sense of humor makes long bike rides down
people-less roads enjoyable, and her faith is inspiring in those moments when I
just want to break down and ask why I'm even here. But there's somebody waiting
for Sisar Hansen here in Suomi, so the work goes on.
This gospel is the
greatest gift I've ever received. I am filled with more hope, understanding,
love, peace, (insert virtue of choice here) because of it. It's made me who I
am today, and will continue to shape me throughout my life. I am the best
version of myself because of it. And this mission, although it pushes me to my
breaking point sometimes, is helping me to see this all more clearly than ever
before.
Sisar Hansen
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