It seems like we've had an unusual amount of awkwardness in the past week or so. We've been helping a woman with two small children prepare for her move to Germany (her husband is there already, and they're just waiting for him to find a good place to live.) Her older daughter is 2, and when I pretended to eat her, she decided to return the favor- not an inherently awkward situation, except when you realize that my poor bum is exactly face-level to a toddler! Ahhh!! One of our recent converts, "Brigitte", aka the one who gives us TONS to eat every week, was gone this week, but told us to go visit her friend nearby. Well, we couldn't find her based off the information we had, and knocked doors trying to figure out where she actually lives. More than a couple scantily-clad folks answered the door in this process. Awkward. Reading through Mormonin Kirja, I found a new verb, "takata", which means "to cease, to give up, to quit". It has an alternate meaning, which is (I'd ask you to guess, but there's no way you'd get this one. Way too random.) "to varnish". So the same word you'd use to say that you stop doing something, is also the word you'd use to say that you've painted your nails. Finnish is awkward. We've had even more people tell us to leave them alone forever and remove all traces of them from the ward list this week. That's at least 6 since we've gotten here, at an average of almost 1.5 per week. Awkward. BUT we've come super close to coming in contact with everyone in our entire ward, which is pretty good. And it feels really good to know that we're trying. Other awkward highlights include playing the piano at district meeting with President and Sisar Rawlings in attendance. Nobody in our district plays so well, so Sisar Heggie and I practiced playing together- she does the right hand, I do the left. We're a pretty good team, although still a bit shaky at times. (We've found a simplified hymn book in our apartment, so that should take care of that from now on.) Also, my saying "aiki" which isn't a word to my knowledge, instead of "aika" in several prayers throughout this week, which is weird, since I've never done it before. SIGH.
Our friend Diana is amazing. She's caring, smart, energetic, and she has a very special light about her. Something else she has, is a summer job in a far-away town, an hour from the nearest missionaries. So she left last weekend, but we were able to stop by and say goodbye, and give her the challenge to read Mormonin Kirjaa each day. She accepted, and we'll keep in touch from time to time via texts, so that whoever is here in the Fall can pick right back up with her when she gets back. We've got 2 new investigators we're excited to work with- one we met on a bus, who is a language translator, which was an instant topic of conversation. (I'm pretty sure at this point that my post-mission career choice will be something along the lines of interpreting/translating/something with languages.) Another is a former investigator who had been too busy to meet in the past with the elders, but is finished writing his book, and can now meet with us from time to time. "Dave" has a lot of questions and is willing to ponder, so we hope that he can take some time to really think with his heart and let the Spirit testify of truth, and not rely solely on his brain. It's a rare investigator who, when you're about to explain a piece of art at the church depicting Christ's visit to Latin America, tell you he already read that part in Mormonin Kirja and can tell you all about it.
As we've prayerfully gone through our list of formers and potentials, we decided to give "Joe" a call to see if he'd like to resume meeting with the missionaries. As it turns out, "Joe" is awfully close to "Jon" in the phone's address book, and we set up, unbeknownst to us at first, an appointment with the 3-year boyfriend of one of our local young single adults. He's investigated several times and has come to church, but says he won't join. We've been wondering how to approach his situation, and we only realized it was him because we were at the YSA's sister's house, and she said that the man on the phone sounded just like Jon. Awkward. But also a miracle. An awkward miracle. (We have yet to get a hold of Joe.)
Also awkward- an investigator with whom the elders before us worked quite a bit showed up to church yesterday. You may wonder how this is awkward. We'e heard many good things about "Harvey", but he's never answered his calls, his house does not appear to exist (we've tried to find it and have no idea where it could possibly be) and he's convinced that we can't understand Finnish (despite our fairly high fluency) and only speaks to us in English. We heard that "that man in the blue shirt" wasn't a member after sacrament meeting, and when we went to talk to him, it slowly dawned on us that here was the man we'd been looking for! We tried explaining him that in light of his understandable concerns about meeting with young women as a married man, our bishop would be more than happy to have us all meet with his family, but he'd rather talk it out with just our bishop, and our quest to actually teach him has hit another obstacle. Awkward.
You know what's not awkward? PREACH MY GOSPEL! This week, I'm reading about virtue, and why it's so important for us to learn to control our thoughts. Our minds have been compared to a stage, whereon only one thing can be front-and-center. We have the choice to crowd out the bad my focusing on the good. For somebody who's done some study of theater such as myself, it was an immediate impulse to write in the margins, "Control your inner monologue!" What's your favorite Christ-like attribute from chapter 6? What can you do this week to better understand any apply it to your life?
I love you all. The church is true.
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
Bonus awkward moment of the week- We helped a lady here on a shopping trip from Russia (a fairly common occurrence) and Sisar Heggie gave me a "you know what to do" kind of look, and with a few notes scribbled on a sticky note, I sloppily explained who we are and what we do, and that we'd love to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ, as a gift. I didn't have the know-how to get her info to send as a referral to St Petersburg, but better a Book of Mormon than nothing. Plus, HEY! I placed a Book of Mormon in RUSSIAN! From small and simple things, are great things brought to pass. :)
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
A Somewhat Unconventional Week
This week's schedule was a bit topsy-turvy. Tuesday we had a
zone meeting (and the dreaded semi-annual language test! Dun-dun-duuuuuuuuun!)
in Helsinki, for which we woke up at 5:30 to get on the train. Most of our zone
lives quite close to the city itself- we missionaries in the Kouvola district
are the outliers, and Lappeenranta may be the farthest away. (Oddly enough,
Lahti, which is in a different zone, is closer to Helsinki than we are. It was
a bit surreal to sit in the train station there for about 10 minutes, looking
out to the exact apartment building that was so briefly my home, wondering how
Sisar Dayton and all of our investigators are doing.) It's always exciting to
see the new post-transfer lineup. There are maybe a couple missionaries from my
MTC group in the Helsinki zone this time around. One of the sisters in Helsinki
just happens to be Russian, and helped me with some of the (MANY) language
questions that were bugging me. We talked a lot about helping investigators get
started in the right way from the get-go, so that distractions are minimal, and
the influence of the Spirit is optimal.
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| Can you spot what's wrong with this photo? Old habits die hard, I guess. [It's addressed to the "Lappeenranta Elders"] |
After a couple of normal days, our sister training leaders came up
for splits on Friday. Sisar Heggie took one of them out by bus to do service
for a member, and my companion-for-a-day went with me on bikes to attempt to
contact some formers, potentials, and less-active members that live on a little
island just north of where we live. And you know what? Nobody was home. Not a
single person we searched for was readily available to talk with us. This
process of going out to an area to contact people usually takes longer than
anticipated, and I thought we'd never get through our list of names in our
timeframe, and well, partway through the afternoon I realized that we'd done
just about everything I'd writted out in our plan (It didn't help that one of
our lessons cancelled last minute). It looked like it'd be a downer of a day. I
felt a bit stressed, being the only one familair with the area, and still
barely knowing much of anything about it. I have to say, as a missionary, I
have not felt the constant promptings of the Spirit, telling me at every moment
where to go, and with whom to talk. I have rarely, if ever, gotten on a bus or
train and just known who I needed to sit by. I felt a bit useless, but it was
during those times of, "My goodness, it's only 2PM and I have no idea how
to use our time, this is a disaster!" that simply by standing there and
trying to figure things out, somebody worth talking to would walk past. The
Lord works in mysterious ways. I've found myself thinking of that phrase as
just an excuse people use to make themselves feel better when things don't work
out. But I'm learning that just because the Lord doesn't send you a glowing
burst of revelation and assurance, doesn't mean He's not preparing something
great to come your way. Sometimes that's how our faith is proven- not just in
the moments where we feelt discouraged, but also in the moments where we feel
nothing at all and are tempted to wonder if anything we've been taught about
revelation and the Lord answering prayers even works at all. It was a sweet
call to repentance, and a reminder to me that sometimes God answers prayers in
ways so small, that they are practically imperceptable, albeit real and
effective.
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| The nice thing about all the stuff that belongs to our apartment is that while some of it is quirky and even gross, we also have fancy glasses, perfect for eating torte with some milk in the fanciest way possible. |
Saturday we got on a train to Helsinki (again!) for stake
conference. We attended the Saturday evening session, spent the night with the
lovely sisaret in Pasila, and went back for more on Sunday morning. It was an
uplifting conference, and I loved seeing how many members from our small and
far away ward were there. Sisar Fox, a recent convert, sat by herself on
Sunday, so we decided to go give her some company and fill in the seats next to
her. She doesn't speak much. When we visit her, it's hard to know what to say
(even for Sisar Heggie!), and our visits are fairly short. But we can tell that
she appreciates us, and she lit up a little bit when we asked if we could sit
by her, and when I commented on how much I enjoyed the musical number as the
choir took their seats. We also got to meet the less active children of our
Relief Society president, who are interested in meeting with us when we can
arrange a time. We had lots of people to talk to, and I felt so happy for all
of the meaningful connections I've made with people during my time in Finland.
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| Did we inadvertently pack the exact same outfit for stake conference weekend? Why yes, yes we did. |
Sunday was Mothers' Day, which of course, meant SKYPE WITH
FAMILY! A member graciously let us use her computer, (We do NOT trust the setup
here at the church, despite the former Lappeenranta elders' claims that it
worked just fine at Christman) even though her family was gathered at her house
for a Mothers' Day party. They treated us like part of the family and asked us
each a lot about ourselves as the other companion chatted with family back
home. To be honest, I don't even remember much of what anyone said while I
chatted with them through the computer's camera, but being able to see
everybody and feel their love and support was the only part that actually
mattered.
Although our Wednesday was a fairly ordinary day, it was the
result of an unconventional experience from our second or third day in the
area. We got a phone call with a referral from the elders in Tampere. It was a
young woman who'd lived in Canada for a few years and made friends with a lot
of church members. She went to church, watched General Conference, and even
graduated from Seminary! She's now back in good ol' Lappeenranta, and we made a
note in our planners to call her the next day. As we walked down unfamiliar
streets after our appointments, we stopped the only persond around as she
walked her dog and asked for directions to the nearest bus stop. I'm not even
sure how we got on the topic (maybe asking how her English was so good?), but
she mentioned how she'd lived in Canada for a while, and was actually already
pretty familiar with our church. We took her phone number, and found that it
was already in our phone! You've likely deduced by now that yes, we
inadvertently contacted our referral on the street! We sent her some texts,
inviting her to YSA activities, with no response for a couple of weeks. We then
decided to give her one last shot and just straight-up ask her when we could
come by to talk about the Book of Mormon. She texted back with a time, as well
as her adress, and our lesson last Wednesday was one of the most spiritually
satisfying lessons I've taught in the field. It was very brief, but powerful,
and we look forward to meeting with Diana again later this week.
Preach My Gospel this week has reminded me of the importance of
being direct and sincere, while still showing love. We've focused on that a lot
as a companionship, even re-checking the text messages we send out to make sure
the people we work with know that we have an important purpose, and that it's
based on love for them and for the Savior. It makes a big difference when
people know that you're not just there to chat or be buddies, but that your
purpose is to help them progress and make and keep sacred covenants with
Heavenly Father. It also makes a big difference to let them know how sincerely
and deeply you care for them and what happens in their lives. The two things
are interconnected. We invite them to progress and become better people because
of love, and our bonds of friendship deepen as a result.
Who can you invite to progress towards baptism and the
ordinances of the temple? I'm not just throwing this out there to be missionary
girl in a faraway land. Take time to pray sincerely to know who is ready, then
get in contact with your local missionaries and put together a plan to help
bring this person to their Heavenly Father. We learned this week that 100% of
the baptisms in the Helsinki zone this year have been from member referrals,
and it's not a coincidence.
I love being a missionary!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Once Upon a Time
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| Easter Carnival in Lahti |
Lappeenranta so far has proven itself a great place to be. The
members here are STILL ooh-ing and awe-ing over the new sisaret, and we've had
a lot of support from them- meals, rides, advice, even helping us solve our
problem of we-turned-on-the-light-and-now-the-electricity-is-all-out-and-we-might-as-well-be-camping.
We have a few promising referrals from members, and even investigators, and
Sisar Heggie and I both feel incredibly loved and cared for.
On a weather-related note, there is a giant freak blizzard
today, so that's fun. Glad I never got around to switching out my winter bike
tires!
We made a goal to visit all of our members within the first two
weeks. While our branch is small, it's still a big task, and we haven't reached
our goal, although I figure we've already met a lot more people than if we'd
never set it in the first place. As we contact people on our membership
records, we've met what we feel must be a very high number of former members
whose names just happen to still be on our list. Finland has, on average, a
very high activity rate in the church, but this little city probably lowers
that figure a bit. It's been something I've thought about a lot lately, because
there are basically three ways these people respond.
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| An impromptu birthday cake made from a snack cake and a match, my last day in Lahti |
1) They remain bitter about whatever it was that made them want
to leave the church. One man's mother was wronged by a church leader decades
ago, and although he still believes in the teachings of the church, he wants
nothing to do with it. When he told us his story there was so much hurt in his
eyes over the actions of an imperfect person years and years ago.
Another woman made sure we knew how laughably incorrect
she felt our teachings were. These people have let negative experiences consume
them, finding no peace or rest to their tired spirits. It makes my heart heavy
that I sometimes feel this way about people or events, as well. How much
baggage to I carry around, that I've simply gotten used to? Probably way too
much. This is an eye-opener for me.
2) They politely dismiss us and explain that they're not
interested and that they're not sure why their name is still on the list, but
thanks for clarifying, and they understand that we're just trying to do our
job. No damage done.
3) They come back. There are at least two sisters in our branch
who are ex-ex members. So they either left the church, or were excommunicated,
and were re-baptized later. One of them is this old lady who we visit on
Thursdays who insists on giving us way more dessert than we can handle and laughs
at all of our silly jokes. (Last Thursday was a Finnish holiday, and we were
almost crying for all of the donuts, pastry bread, mämmi which she still had
left over from Easter and we thought she just asked if we liked it in passing
conversation, and yogurt she gave us! It's probably the only way she knows how
to show us her love, since she's so old and moving around is difficult.)
Another asks us about missionary work often and offers her services whenever
we're in her area. And one is our new investigator, who felt unprepared to be a
church member, but who feels the need to bring it back into her life. These
women have learned from their trials and difficulties and learned a lot about
Christ-like love in ways that, as we have seen, have broken other people. They
make me want to be a more loving, stronger person.
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| First day photo! The elders left us a "Welcome to Lappeenranta, Sisaret" message on our area map! |
These Once-Upon-a-Time members have made me evaluate who I am,
what I stand for, and what's most important to me. I've felt an overwhelming
love for my Savior and His gospel as I work with each of them (sometimes to get
their name removed from our branch records).
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| Mämmi is essentially rye in the form of pudding. It's infamous around here, and it's an Easter tradition. This is my first taste of it, with cream and sugar. Delicious! |
And now, a silly story:
We have a visiting city about an hour's bus ride away. We went
there for the first time last week, and while we were walking, we met an old
lady carrying groceries to her house. Sisar Heggie insisted to her that we
help, so we all went up to her apartment to help her put her things away. I
thought something was weird when we were walking and she was surprised when we
told her that, no, we aren't currently in Helsinki. But as we visited with her
at her house, and she'd asked us about 4 times in 10 minutes if we'd like some
coffee, it really hit that she has some memory issues. Long story short, about
8 "Would you like some coffee?"s, 4 "Oh, no! I forgot to buy fruit!"s,
another 4 "Would you like some slippers? The floor's slippery!"s, 3
"Where are you from?"s later, and it was time to go. We sang her a
song, read her a passage from the Book of Mormon, and told her we needed to
leave. With a devistated look on her face, she told us she'd hoped we could
stay longer! We wrote down her address (she asked us 4 or 5 times if we had a
pen) so we could come back some day. She was thrilled. After many promises to
stay in touch, we walked out the door to the street. As we left the apartment
building, we looked back to see her waving at us from the window! She smiled
and waved at us until we were out of sight altogether! She made our day, and we
probably made hers. We can't teach her the gospel, but we can use language
study time this week to write her a letter so she'll get a surprise in the
mail, now that we have her address!
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| We don't like fish |
I've thought a lot lately about Christ, and how big a role He
plays in our lives. It's impossible to calculate the impact of His life, and
everything He's done for us, and does for us. Hopefully I understand a little
bit better every day how He is a part of all that I do and hope to become.
As for Preach My Gospel, I read today about how everything we
teach should relate back to the Restoration, since that's our unique message
that we share with the world. Anything whatsoever can relate to this topic. For
example, we have a code of health that was revealed to us by a modern prophet.
Families are important to us because we are God's family, thus He sends
prophets to guide us on our way back to Him. I still struggle a bit when people
say their dogs are important to them- Um....Heavenly Father loves dogs, too??
But I'm by no means a perfect contacter yet (unlike my genius companion), and
that's something I can practice and hopefully get better at.
Speaking of contacting, the Russian is going fairly well. I can
now read almost anything (and there are a lot of Russian language signs around
town. My poor companion has to stop for me to read all of them!) I don't feel
like I know enough phrases to actually talk to people yet- Sisar Heggie stopped
a Russian lady the other day so I could say hello, and when I asked her
"How are you?" I had no idea how to respond to whatever it was that
she said, and she eventually got tired of trying to speak to me, and left. I'm
gathering enough phrases on sticky notes to be able to hopefully send referrals
to St. Petersberg and give away some copies of the Book of Mormon. Luckily,
there will be a Russian sister at our zome meeting tomorrow, and unluckily for
her, I have a long list of questions all ready.
I hope you all have a great week this week, and are warmer than
we are here in Lappeenranta! May you find time to ponder on those things that
are most important, and find the courage to do what's right despite forces that
urge you to do otherwise.
Rakkaudella,
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
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| I can't believe I get to serve in Lappeenstranta. I LOVE IT! |
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Big 2-5 ("I want to bring you a fish!")
It's hard to even start. SO MUCH has happened this week! It's insane! First of all, somebody decided that my birthday was the perfect day for transfers in this mission, so I spent my big 2-5 heading out to my new area, and trying to get adjusted to a new place, new companion, and new responsibilities. On the train, Sisar Heggie gave me a stack of "V-Book" (a lot of missionaries here keep a vieras kirja, aka guest book, and have members/investigators/missionaries write memories inside) pages from Oulu (put together by Sisar Nyman, who is still up there for at least another transfer!) I looked at them, smiled, and said, "Wow, it's almost like it's my bir....AH! Wow, it's ACTUALLY my birthday!" The mission has a way of making you forget things, especially if your birthday is change day.
PS- I read in PMG about God as our Heavenly Father this week. It's a doctrine that's very near and dear to my heart, and one of the most important things we as missionaries help others to understand. Seriously, what did you read this week?
Monday, April 21, 2014
"What do sisters like to eat?"
First of all, things
are looking up here in Lahti. We've had a couple of wonderful lessons with Hank
this week, one of which he practically taught himself as we asked him questions
about faith and baptism, and he discussed with us what he learned from his topical
guide research. Oh, and there's also the fact that HE PRAYED!!!!! After weeks
and weeks of trying, he finally prayed out loud with us to close our lesson,
and it was beautiful! He prayed and said, "Thank you for sending the
sisters to open my eyes to spiritual things." I LOVE HANK SO MUCH!!! He's
been one of my dearest friends on my mission, and perhaps the investigator who
has had the biggest impact on me. He's a wonderful person, and it's exciting to
see him progress over time. Our friend who showed up to church all those weeks
ago in a rainbow hoodie also continues to show progress. He looks happier every
week at church, and his black corset was particularly becoming yesterday. Our
investigator from Estonia, Ellen, is one of the most tender-hearted and sincere
people I've ever met. She told us that, "Maybe this is silly, but
sometimes I wonder if I came to Finland so I could read the Book of Mormon and
learn about the church from the missionaries." Not silly at all! Yesterday
she had a very profound spiritual experience at church, and the next step is
getting her a date to be baptized so she can claim the blessings of the gospel!
It's been a privilege to be a part of seeing the work take off here. I've been
able to look back on the past two months and really see how we've found the
elect, and how things have really shaped up quite nicely over a relatively
short period of time.
Thursday morning we
were doing our weekly planning, wondering how we would work around so much
uncertainty in the next week's schedule, when the phone rang. It was President
Rawlings, giving us our change call a day or two earlier than expected. No more
uncertainty here, as tomorrow morning I'm getting on a train and heading out
east to Lappeenranta! "But wait!" you protest, "There are no
sisters serving in Lappeenranta! That's an elders' area!" It WAS an
elders' area, but now Sisar Heggie (coming straight from Oulu, after serving
with my dear Sisar Nyman!) and I are replacing the elders, and completely
starting over fresh. In mission slang, we're "shotgunning" the area,
which is something from my list of things about change calls that make me nervous.
We'll arrive by train tomorrow morning, the elders will show us our apartment,
help us get settled, and then they'll head out themselves, and it'll be just
the two of us working a previously-unfamiliar area! We will be the first
sisaret in the Kouvola District, which is the south-eastern part of the
country. And the part about my change call that made me squeal? Lappeenranta's
area includes the Russian border. As some of you may know, I had a secret wish
to get my mission call Russian-speaking. With us being so close, President
Rawlings suggested that it may be wise to start picking up Russian!
Aaaahhhh!!
The Lappeenranta
elders have, no doubt, been working hard to prepare the area for us sisters. I
remember when Sisar Vath and I left Oulu, we had a larger-than-average list of
things to do and write down for the incoming sisters taking our places. The day
after we got our call, they called us, and the first thing I hear is,
"What do sisters like to eat? We're going to go grocery shopping for you,
and we need to know." Perhaps more than taking over an area, I should be
concerned about inheriting an apartment from elders......
Sisar Dayton will stay
in Lahti for her third change (Lahti will be her Finnish hometown), Vanhin
Keddington will stay and train, and Vanhin Stimpson had his dream come true,
and he will spend the spring up in Rovaniemi. He said he screamed when
President Rawlings gave him the news. I'm a little bit sad to leave this place,
but mission life is all about change, and I'd rather be the missionary that
leaves every change, than the one who stays put half of their mission. I'm
proud of the work I've done in Lahti, and this place and these people have
helped me grow immensely. I think it's your second area, not your first, that
has the greatest impact on growth.
This week in Preach My
Gospel I learned that planning out missionary work and setting goals is an act
of love, as it shows faith in Heavenly Father and a willingness to do His will,
and love for others, as we take seriously our responsibility to share the
blessings of the gospel with them. What did YOU learn?
Thanks for all of the
love and support! It's wonderful to know that no matter what happens out here,
I am not alone.
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
Monday, April 14, 2014
This Is Me, Following Up
[note from Karlan's mom: Tuesday, April 22nd is Kar's 25th birthday. If you would like to send birthday greetings, her email address is karlan.hansen@ldsmail.net]
A rough week it has been in Lahti. Finns tend to be shy people, but the past few days they've been particularly reluctant to talk to us about much of anything, let alone the gospel. I do have to say, however, that despite some of our investigators dropping off the radar a bit (and Reggie unfortunately dropping us as quickly as he was found!) we got THREE new investigators this week! Two of them were referrals from the elders, who we've finally got return appointments with. One of them only speaks English, and in a pinch, his LDS neighbors came with us on our teach, despite having very limited English skills. They quietly sat by as we taught, and we were thankful that, thanks to their presence, we were able to teach in the first place.
This week will be a biggie. Change calls (again!) are this weekend, which will determine what I will be doing on my TWENTY-FIFTH birthday, aka, change day. Easter is this weekend, and Finns celebrate it on three different days, so we'll have to plan extra carefully to have appointments set up on "red" days, where we're limited as to what we can do. We'll likely have our last district meeting as the same six people, which apparently calls for a juice-and-pulla "tea party". We've got more going on than I can possibly keep track of (thankfully, this is why we have planners!)
A rough week it has been in Lahti. Finns tend to be shy people, but the past few days they've been particularly reluctant to talk to us about much of anything, let alone the gospel. I do have to say, however, that despite some of our investigators dropping off the radar a bit (and Reggie unfortunately dropping us as quickly as he was found!) we got THREE new investigators this week! Two of them were referrals from the elders, who we've finally got return appointments with. One of them only speaks English, and in a pinch, his LDS neighbors came with us on our teach, despite having very limited English skills. They quietly sat by as we taught, and we were thankful that, thanks to their presence, we were able to teach in the first place.
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| Conference candy. I won't tell you how much I got, or how sick my stomach was after I'd eaten it all! |
It's hard serving in a mission, where, despite best effort, there aren't a lot of visible results. It means that we all have to have extra faith that God has a plan and a purpose for the people here. It means that we rejoice over numbers that missionaries in other part of the world would consider failure. It means that we have to work extra hard to build relationships with members, so that they'll trust us to help them bring the gospel to their friends, which is the best way we'll find people to teach and to be baptized, and eventually, go to the temple. It's hard. It's really hard. But I'm doing what the Lord, for whatever reason, wants me to do at this time and in this place. This is not a mission for wimps, and remembering that, and seeing all the excellent missionaries that surround me, I am humbled and strengthened all at the same time.
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| District P-Day at Hameenlinna's famous linna ("castle") |
As I promised, this week I'm following up on the Preach My Gospel challenge I gave out a week ago, which we also extened to our Relief Society sisters. What did you learn this week? I've been reading a lot from chapter 10, which talks about teaching skills. People grow the most when they have the skills and motivation to learn on their own time. The questions we ask can be particularly important in helping others ponder about the things they've learned on their own time. Our pal Hank has trouble reading, so he asked if he could listen to the Book of Mormon, and while we couldn't find a CD for him, and there's nothing online in Finnish, we did find an old set of cassettes in the church that he took home with him! He listened to the entire book of 1 Nephi in one night! Hopefully we're helping him to seek out his own answers when we're not around. It's something we can work on for sure, but we're seeing progress, which is very gratifying.
Another note- Sometimes Finns are embarrassingly nice. In the past week, a certain sister from our ward has fed us, come to the aforementioned English-language lesson, made pulla with us as an early birthday treat, and insisted that I take home TWO pairs of the socks she'd hand-knitted, and had just sitting in a box, waiting for somebody to claim them. Shy? Sure. But Finns are warm-hearted and loving people. I'm so glad to serve here. :)
This week's goals include working more with members, finding even more investigators, establishing the intent of our current investigators, and wearing only ONE pair of tights outside! Spring is coming, and I look forward to my one warm season in the field!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
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| Making pulla. My apron appropriately says "The Diet Starts Tomorrow!" |
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| My Finnish is still improving-for a party we put together for our investigators, the chip dip instructions said to use "kerma viili," and I got some regular viili from the shelf, thinking, "Hey, what's the difference?" Viili is a very sticky, slimy dairy product that was never meant for making dip. Apparently a big difference! (It tasted quite good, for the record.) |
Monday, April 7, 2014
It's That Time Again!
First of all, before I get into the more spiritual things, I'll share a silly story from this week. We were teaching an investigator, Jerry (name of course changed from the original, as I do with all Finns mentioned here. President Rawlings got after those who use real names in their blogs, so it's a good time to clarify this point, so nobody can accuse me of using unauthorized personal information.) and I had a nasty case of the hiccups that would not go away! He asked me to say the opening prayer, and I hic-ed my way through the entire thing, making it hard for anyone to keep much of a straight face afterwards. I stayed pretty quiet for a while during the lesson, only speaking when I felt like it was really important, because I didn't want to be a distraction, but that itself turned out a bit distracting, and so he eventually gave a glass of water (our member present cheered me on- juo! juo! juo! drink! drink! drink!) and that was that.
Also, the one day we didn't go out and run in the morning, we ended up barely making, or barely missing, all of our buses, so we ran all day anyway! Sheesh!
Sisar Dayton and I have been extatic the past week, telling everybody about it. All in all, we had THREE investigators come, which is the most we've ever had at church meetings in one weekend! Jerry came, which was a miracle, since he's never been to church in Finland (the sisters from another country originally taught him and went to church with him, and he splits his time between here and there, so they teach him via skype in between our meetings with him in anticipation of his return to their neck of the woods- complicated, huh?) He seemed a bit overwhelmed, but he has a good member friend to help him understand things better, and we'll of course talk about it next time. Hank came, and we felt like all of the talks given during the session he watched were absolutely perfect for him. He said he came with a question- "Is this religion the right one?" but wasn't sure he felt an answer. He likes to take things slow, and thinks things through a lot, so hopefully we can help him understand how much God really did answer his questions and concerns last night. He really loved the choir-they sang some very powerful numbers.
Also, our BRAND NEW investigator, Reggie, came! Funny thing is, he's our new investigator BECAUSE he came to conference! As it turns out, the elders stopped him on the street, invited him to come watch, and he came. To Every. Single. Session. He told the elders that it was amazing, how it was almost as if the speakers were speaking just to him! (The way conference should be!) They took the time to teach him about the Restoration of the church between sessions, and he's apparently watched the "Restoration" DVD TWICE already! He's either been specially prepared, or he's got a few screws loose, but we talked for a bit, and he just seems to be a bit shy and twitchy, that's all. Since he lives in our area, he's been put in the hands of us sisters, and we have an appointment with him today where we'll review conference with him, and invite him to be baptized!
There were a lot of really strong themes this conference. Love. Standing up for your beliefs, even if you stand alone. Making and keeping covenants. Using the power of the Atonement to change for the better. The inevitability of adversity versus the power of agency. We are all united. I wrote down 7 questions in different colors, and then went back over my notes after conference, and color-coded them to see how many times I'd received answers to each question. The results were amazing! I got multiple answers to every single question except one very specific one, and since the time difference makes watching conference a bit awkward, we still have one more session left to view sometime this week, so I'm sure question #7 has an answer there!
A lot of our church leaders spoke very boldly this conference, which I loved. We need to decide where we stand in this life. Are we on the side of the Lord, or are we with the world? This is one of the biggest things I've pondered over and over about throughout my missionary service so far. How often do we claim to follow Christ, while holding onto things of no value, or worse, things that ultimately drag us down and prevent us from reaching our full potential? How easily we forget the Savior in all of our everyday business! I was struck with the realization that, even as a missionary, I don't keep Him in my thoughts nearly as much as I should! I wonder if one of my purposes on this mission is to learn the habit of always remembering Him- mission life is hard, and yet I still sometimes forget how weak I am, and what the true source of my strength is. Definitely something to repent of! Luckily, I have reminders almost daily of ways I can improve and come closer to Christ, and maybe one day I'll finally get the hang of this being-a-converted-disciple-of-the-Lord thing!
I'd really love to hear what you all learned from conference, and what you favorite themes were! Write some comments! Send me an email (or better yet, a letter!) Even better, of course I'm going to ask you what you all learned from Preach My Gospel this past week, and then follow up next week, and let you know what I've learned! I love the emphasis on member missionary work that lets those who never served, or who served long ago, feel the joy of serving the Lord through spreading the gospel. I hope you're all excited about it, too, although I know it can be even scarier without the name tag than it already is while wearing one!
This is an exciting time. Lahti has a lot of potential to become a city rich in the gospel. There hasn't been a convert baptism here in years, and we are so close to changing that, as we pray and work and seek inspiration to find "the one" every day. I'm learning to love others in a way I never thought my imperfect self could, and I know that this truly is the place the Lord needs me to be, even though all of the purposes aren't entirely clear from my limited view.
Kiitos from all of the support and prayers- I'm trying to not let any of you down because I can feel how much love is often sent my way!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hansen
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