Hyvää Joulua

                                                          23 Dec 2013

So this has probably been one of the craziest weeks of my life. We had transfers and I am training, as crazy as that sounds, I received a priesthood blessing and I feel very at peace with this I know the Lord has great things in store and that is through us, and especially my new companion with fire from the MTC. So on Tuesday after finding all this news out just the Saturday before. We went down to Helsinki to go to trainers meeting and to pick up our new greenies. A+ to the APs who set up this wonderful transfer, because we picked Sisar Nielsen up at the Train station (she is my twin who is also training and who was my companion when I first got into the country), saw 5 million other missionaries that were being transferred and then we took the train down to Helsinki, met up with a ton of other missionary friends, and SIsar Nielsen and I got to catch up and share inspiring missionary stories and ideas for strengthening the ward, we woke up early and went on a run in the street of Helsinki, Finland. Man it was beautiful and felt so good to finally be able to run, even though I was basically crawling at the end.

Then we headed over to the trainers meeting, and I had a printed out Finnish Christmas hymns, so our big group of missionaries jumped on a tram and sang Christmas songs to our fellow Finnish tram riders, they LOVED it and even gave us a round of applause at the end. Then we went to the training meeting, and had my mind blown by our Mission President, wow he is just an inspired amazing man. He told us about the Temple and there is a common mis-conception that we go to the temple as another step to go on our mission that is not the case, we go on missions to implement what we have learned in the temple, to fulfill our eternal mission. I encourage you all, especially those of you who have already gone to the temple to really ponder what that means. Also another quote I love that he said was, ‘‘we aren’t hereto be realistic, we are in the miracle business.'' People say what we are doing is crazy or impossible, and you know what they are right, we cant make a difference, we cant change peoples lives, but they don’t know my Heavenly Father, who is the God of miracles, with him ANYTHING is possible.

After the meeting we had another meeting and met our trainee. Drum roll please.,.......

My new companion is Sisar Pack from Logan, Utah. She is awesome; she is very much like me and really works hard and applies counsel. We are having a blast, we go running every morning, we get all of our studies in, we pray hard for our people, we set goals and visions of how we can get Tampere 2 up and running, how we can get the members to have a missionary mindset and break free from the ''norm'' of society. When we were baptized we didn’t do it with a worldly perspective because all our friends thought it was cool, no we did it because we had an eternal perspective, we had a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father and wanted to serve him and to receive the millions of blessings this gospel brings into our lives. When we preach the gospel, we CANNOT have a worldly perspective, because the gospel has NO PLACE in this world, this peace and happiness from this gospel is not of this world, we cannot get caught in the trap of doing ''what’s cool'' because we will never succeed if we are trying to live up to the worlds standards, the world has really nothing to offer us except depression, dark thoughts, and disappointment. Who even wants that? I sure don’t, and I want EVERYONE to know how happy they can be and become from the gospel, the potentials they can reach by looking at themselves with their ''celestial glasses'' on.

This week has been really amazing. I LOVE HAVING A TRAINEE! Wow, its amazing if I show her the way, she will do what we have practiced and she has a ton of fire and focus. We have been reading a day in the life of a Finnish missionary everyday and talking about what we can do to get to that point. The best part is that my companion doesn't know what is the norm. So when we set the norm at preach my gospel style, then she is golden for the rest of her mission. When I have been trying to change the bad habits that other companions have left, and I tell her our goal, when I slip up she puts us back on tract because this is what I have been teaching her and what we have been reading from PMG. 

We have seen so many miracles happening; because this area has been put on the back burner we have 2 investigators and no progressing investigators. So we can start from ground up and really focusing on following all of counsel, spending time where it matters most to have effective missionary work. I showed my new companion talking normally and naturally role play and then also the Book of Mormon role play, we spent time in studying it out and practicing, we left the house and the Lord put so many prepared people in our path, by the end of the week starting from Thursday we had 5 new investigators. Following counsel and really investing time in the members is where we will see the miracles flow from! 

This week we have been focusing on this member family, and actually doing the role-plays with them and teaching them how to talk with people and lead into the gospel, they got really excited about it at the end but then said that they normally don't talk to anyone on the street or the bus. We brainstormed what we could do the better help them get to this point, and we came back two days later and we have given them a challenge to talk to people on the bus, just getting to talk to people and showing love and happiness. Then later when they are doing this and are comfortable just chatting with people, they will remember the role-plays and it will slide in perfectly. I really have a testimony of doing these role-plays with the members. If we don't teach them how to do missionary work, how will they ever become better missionaries?

On Friday, I received the sad news that my wonderful Grandma Hubner passed away. It broke my heart that I wont be able to give her a hug when I go home from my mission, but I know that she is in a better place now, that the Parkinson’s diseases has no grasp on her now, I know that she is looking over me now and helping me share the gospel, on the other side of the veil. I love her with all my heart and I’m so grateful for the example that she has given me. I treasure the ring that she gave me right before I left on my mission. She will forever be in my heart.

I love you all and encourage you all the read the Book of Mormon, feel the inspiration and love that comes from it, and then share it with you friend, you co-worker, that random kid walking down the street. The Lord said, '' if you love me, feed my sheep.'' What does that mean to you today? Please jump on this spiritual train especially this Christmas season and love you neighbor enough to get over your fear of the thought of rejection and share this message that is so precious to you, and you know can and will change their world if they accept it.

As my dad would say, ''Dare to be brave, Dare to be bold. And risk it all for our Savior Jesus Christ.''

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hubner

P.s. The first picture is of our ''family'' Sisar Egan, my last companion and trainer is sitting in the chair in the middle, she trained SIsar Nielsen, SIsar Foster, and me. Then the other sisaret are our trainees. What a cute family we got going on.

the second picture is of us at our family friends' house from the ward who participated in my surprise birthday party I threw for Sisar Egan, which included her finally being able to play a saxophone, get a hair cut and make riisi pirakka with us! Fun day full of surprises!

Transfer

Oh my good heavens. So we received our change calls this week, and we knew that new sisters were going to be coming into Tampere so we don’t have to serve in two wards anymore, which will be nice to really focus in on one.

So we waited all night for the phone call, nothing came, then we waited painfully all morning long, and then finally at noon President Rawlings called us and gave us the news, that I will be staying in Tampere 2, which is in the same apartment that I am living and know the area, but we really haven’t been able to focus on Tampere 2 because Tampere 1 we have found a lot of investigators. Anyways, Sisar Egan will be moving to the other side of Tampere,

And drum roll................I will be training a new companion fresh from the MTC! OHHHH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, say what? I just finished my own training, there are about 40 other sisters who have more experience and are way more qualified then me and the Lord has called me to train this precious new sister. Holy moly not going to lie I feel very intimidated, I am still very new to all of this, I still am getting to language down, but I have been praying really hard about it and I KNOW that if the Lord has called me to do this and if He knows that I can do it, then with his help I can do this. I think one of the big reasons that I am training is 1) I haven't been here long enough to learn what ''impossible'' is in this mission 2) I have been working so hard, and praying so hard to do what our Father wants, and finding those who He is putting in our path 3) I have a vision for Tampere 2 and with a lot of help from our Savior and Heavenly Father, and an awesome greenie who is on fire, I know that miracles will start happening.

Still in shock about all this information, the awesome news too is that my dear friend and last companion Sisar Nielson who is my twin, is also training! Wow, we are the only two sisaret from our age group that came into Finland 2 transfers ago that are already starting to train. One thing for sure is that the Lord definitely has a sense of humor! I pray I can do what He needs me to do in Tampere.

Also we had a Joulu Juhlat, Christmas party and we had a little part in it, so we decided after a while of thinking and consulting other missionaries about their plans was to do the cup routine (from pitch perfect) and sing oh come all ye faithful. Wow we finally got the elders to grow their coordination and we preformed and oh my, the ward LOVE IT, they thought it was the coolest thing ever! And pispa, the bishop took a video of it and hopefully I can send it some day. It was way cool.

Also we had three of our friends that we have been teaching come to church with us, and it really was amazing experience for us all, we really have been trying to focus on the little things like praying daily so they can get their own answers to their prayers and gain their own testimonies, daily scripture reading and getting their spiritual fill and enlightenment from them, and then church attendance.

I have to run but I love you all and hope you are safe and pidää hauska this Christmas season and think about what the Savior Jesus Christ means to you and how you can share this Christmas light with others,

Hyvää Joulua!

Sisar Hubner

Itsenäisyyspäivä!!!

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivä!!! (Happy Finnish Independence day) We weren’t allowed too contact people on the streets because many were drunk, so we ended up caroling in the center that night, it was a very.... interesting night for us all. But it was interesting that when we sang the Spirit of God, we had the most people stop and listen, in comparison to the other Christmas songs.

 

Our makeshift Christmas Tree

Wow what a crazy, hard, awesome, snowy, busy, cold, inspiring week. Might sound crazy but it was all the above. Being on a mission is like being on a rollercoaster with your eyes closed; you never know what’s coming next! First off I want to say I love my mother with all my heart. ! She is a saint, if you don’t know Mama Hubner, then you probably should get to know her because you are missing out. She sent me a camera charger that came a week later with bonus smirf sticker..... Nothing better then smirf stickers!

This week was overall, inspiring. I have been doing some deep thinking on how to become the missionary that the Lord intends me to become. How do we get the members on board doing missionary work, and how can I show my love for the Finnish people better?

This week had a rough start but things have really been looking up. There is no witness until after the trial of our faith and I really felt that this week. We don't give up when we are getting no results, we keep pushing on and showing the Lord that we are ready when He is and that we are all in, 110%.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to become better at this language and how to speak it often. Its easy to get into the rut of speaking English with the companion and then others, but I have been trying to figure out how to break that habit, because if I don’t speak and work on it all the time, then I wont be ready to help my investigators progress. Also after our Piiri kokous (district meeting), I have been trying to do more SYL for the past month and after we had a really inspiring meeting our zone leader was talking about how we need to work harder on this language and put our hearts into the work so that we aren’t saying empty same words, but that it is coming from our heart, that when we testify the spirit is with us and testifies that we know this is true and that they can know for themselves if this is true. And I realized that I want to be fluent in this language so that I can speak from my heart in this language that the Holy ghost wont be restrained because I don’t know the words, to let my personality come through because I specifically was called to Finland because of the person I am and the person the Lord can help me become. I made a goal to be speaking almost 100% Finnish by the New Year. After church on Sunday during call-ins we talked with the Zone leaders and they had the same idea except starting today 100% Finnish. We prayed about it and as Tampere missionaries we are doing a Finnish full immersion. We are showing the Lord that we are ready to work hard, and bring people into this life-changing gospel. We are called to Finland, to speak Finnish to these people so that they can hear the gospel in their own language. It will be hard at the beginning but so worth it for the sake of our investigators and friends here. 

So basically no English here on out for the next year of my life (= other then when we absolutely need English or are teaching to an English speaker. 

We have been really working with the members on helping our investigators come to church events. We had a Joulu konserti this weekend and spent a decent amount of time organizing rides and ways to get our friends to the church. We ended up be late, to the concert, were stuck in a broken car, but the members took over and really looked after our investigators. 3 investigators ended up coming to church, and for the ones that had not seen the church before we were able to take them on a tour of the church with the members that had brought them to church. It was really a great experience for everyone and we really felt the spirit. 

One of our members that we have been working with, never was involved in missionary work until we came into the area. We started by just talking to her at church, then she invited us over for lunch and we got her thinking about missionary work and what she can do. We role-played how to talk normally and naturally about the gospel. Then took her out with us the next week and once she got the flow of things, she was talking to people on the bus like a champ and with really conviction in her heart, making the Finns listen more coming from a Finn. Then just last week she invited us over and also invited her neighbor. We talked about the Book of Mormon and have scheduled to come back this next week and talk about what she has read and how is applies to this Christmas season. Way sweet, I realized we need to be spending a lot more time with the members and telling them the vision we have for Finland, if we don’t teach them how to do missionary work, they really won't ever learn. Miracles are happening all over Finland it’s an amazing experience to be here at this time!

I feel like my mind has been opened up so much from this past weekend reflecting on how to get the members involved and get Tampere to the next level. It is obviously through following counsel, it never ceases to amaze me how I come up with a really great idea and then I realize that this is what our Mission president and PMG have been saying from the beginning..... We have to start role playing with the members, then bring them out for an hour or two, talking to people on the street helping them catch the vision of how missionary work is not scary, and then soon enough they have invited us over and invited a friend to come along. We can start small with the people who are excited to do missionary work and then when the other members see the results then they will hop on board to, this is going to be the key to getting this area onto the next level of missionary work. President Rawlings prophesied to us that by this time next year when we are getting Ipads, if we have done our part in getting this place and people ready by doing the basics of Preach my gospel, then Finland will be the most effective mission in the world and thousands of people will be brought into the gospel. But if we don’t do our part now, the mission will actually decline from what has been happening and will start going down hill. WOW, I am going to make sure that I do 100% all in my power to be the missionary the Lord wants me to be so that we can get Finland to become a place of miracles. 

I love you all. 

The pictures the first one is of our zone from turkey bowl a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately our team lost but I did make two touchdowns. woot woot

Also the last picture is of Anna who has really become one of our closest friends out here in Finland, I am so inspired by how caring and giving she is and notices the little things that people do for her and is always looking for ways to help and uplift others. I hope I can become the type of person that she is, she has taught be a lot through her example.

Faith

Well Folks, this past week was way rough, probably one of the hardest on my mission mainly because we have been working hard to follow counsel and yet we keep seeing our investigators who we care so much for and love and prayer for them all the time many have told us that they don't jaksaa (to feel like) or what they have is enough. It has been hard to see them using their agency in a way that won't bring them lasting happiness, and we see them struggling with addictions and depression and yet they won't even try this new life style, that will bring them so much peace and joy. Sisar Egan and I have not given up faith or hope, our hearts have just been a little sad for our friends who don't want to progress. We are trying to follow all the counsel and continually improving so that we can become the missionaries that the Lord needs, and to show to the Lord that we will follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and be lead to those people who are prepared to and to pray for more courage when our own is not enough. 

We were given the wonderful chance to fast this Sunday and really show to the Lord our faith and ask him for his help. Because we remembered that we normally do not receive many blessings until after a trial of our faith. It gets harder before it gets better, because the Lord knows what we can handle and what will make us better. We have been going through the refiners fire and definitely feeling the heat, but we keep pressing onwards because we know how much this gospel means and how this can change people's lives. I have seen so many miracles in my life and I am here in freezing Finland to share this light with the Finnish people. We were below our number for finding new investigators and even though we worked really hard this week to find, for some reason we came up short. It was Sunday night after church, we knelt down and prayed to the Lord to help us find ''the one.'' We walked out of the church and asked the Lord to put the prepared people in our path and help us have the courage to talk to them and the Holy Ghost to know what to say to them. The first person we stopped, was so surprised that we actually wanted to talk to her, and we had a great conversation about finding lasting happiness and our purpose in this life, we set up a return appointment and she was so excited that we had met that as we turned to walk away, she ran up and gave us both hugs! From then on out the rest of the night was amazing, we got a few awesome potentials and some really good teaches. The people we stopped and talked to were way more open then they had been from the past week because they felt our love and our happiness and wanted to talk to us. It really was a miracle! We asked the Lord to help us then asked for courage to do it, and He literally handed us miracles!

Also shout out to my amazing cousin Taylor! I love her soooo much and want her to know that no matter what I am always here for you! Keep fighting the good fight tay-tay (=

Hey! So one picture is my crazy desk every morning because I'm studying from so many books and writing so many notes!

Funny note of the day, my companion Sisar Egan, was reading in Ether 3:1 where is talks about the brother of Jared taking stones out of a molten rock and we were wondering what that even means. So we looked down to the footnote next to that part, and it said TG Skill. Laughed so hard at that, if anyone wanted to know, Brother of Jared for sure had skill!

Our First official snow that stayed! It so beautiful and also very cold! Its about -8 degrees Celsius. I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit but its VERY cold!! (Brenda again....17 degrees Fahrenheit).  And its just going to get colder, So excited to put on all the layers that I have (= love you all!!

I love you all so much! Our Mission President gave us a prophecy that if we get the basics down of Preach my Gospel and have faith to find and bring people to Christ and to finding this everlasting light, then by this time next year when we get iPads and computers, this mission will be the most efficient mission in the world and thousands will be brought into the church.!! Way awesome, we are trying our hardest with the Lord's help to be ready for that day!

Stay safe and stay happy. I love you

Sisar Hübner

P.S. 

 

We had our first legit snow that has stayed, and it even got down to -11 degrees Celsius! Way cold! (Brenda here....that means 12 degrees Fahrenheit)

 The other picture is of me with my advent calender, its of Despicable Me and it reminds me every morning of my favorite little minions!

This is a picture of me before I got my cavity filled! Thought you would enjoy it!

Thanksgiving

First off I just want to say I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! I was reading this talk from Elder Holland and he was thanking his family for all they did while he was on a mission and for the faithful members of the church and for all the hard work he sees being put into this gospel and sharing it. It was such a great talk and brought tears to my eyes and then I thought of my wonderful parents. I'm sorry if I didn’t express this in the past.

Me in our cute apartment

Thank you so much for raising me to the person I am today, Dad thank you for working so hard and having money saved and ready for me to go on a mission. I guess I didn’t even think very hard on how much of a blessing that is, that I was called to the work here in Finland and you had already saved for it in advance so that as soon as I turned 19 I could leave. Thank you to my mother, for always supporting me and giving me encouragement and love when I needed it to most, and even now you always know what to write in your emails to me that makes me proud to be your daughter and part of this wonderful work. Thank you to my beautiful Sisters, Tasha, Gretchen, Necolina, Arianna, and Saigey I love you all to Jupiter and back, thank you for your letters and emails and Love. I hope you are all succeeding in all your endeavors. Thank you to all my other friends, past companions, other family, and anyone else out there who is reading this. I am who I am today because I have learned and taken away bits and pieces from you all. Keep fighting the good fight and remember a smile goes a long way!

So this week we were invited over to this half American family's house for Thanksgiving Dinner! Oh my, hallelujah the best foood I think I have ever eaten, and they had this massive house with a beautiful Finnish lake in their backyard, a library in their house and tons of pictures of their ancestors on the wall. Going to their house was quite the adventure, a couple hours of our day was sucked out, because of this but it was worth it and it was funny because every time we tried leaving Sisar S. would say, ''NO you cant leave before we sing, or no you cant leave before desert!'' IT was very funny and great to feel the love and the spirit as this huge group of Half Americans and Finns gathered around to eat and give thanks for their blessings.

Funny thing of the week is that we met with our recent convert twice and the first time we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ again about repentance and asking not only the Lord for forgiveness but also the people that we have offended or hurt, and she was really surprised and said that she needs to do that to her husband, so the next time we met she says, I did it. And explained that that night after we left when her husband came home he said that there was something different about her and she said that she was sorry and that she the doctor gave her medicine and that its really working and that she was sorry and that she is a changed person now and wont get mad at him anymore. He told her that she even looked different and even her eyes had a different light. He said that he wants to met her doctor and she got so excited and said just wait. She told us that she’s so excited that her husband wants to met Christ and that one day she will bring him to church and tell him that her doctor is there. Hahah She is seriously soo funny and applies counsel right away, I wish other member would act on the counsel they have been given quickly and not waiting a couple years and then forgetting what the counsel was.

This week we really wanted to be consistent at finding investigators, because we will find a ton one week and then the next not so many. This week we found a couple solid new investigators and we hope that it will stay there. Also my new goal is to find future priesthood holders that can be the future husbands of the really awesome single ladies who are around age 30. It’s easier to find those people to sit next to on the bus when we have a clear mind. 

We have been working on continually bringing members on with us to lessons and training them so that they are on the same page as us and feel like they can contribute at the same level during teaches, on the busses, and on the streets. We have been working with Sisar L. who came with us to a teach last week with a new investigator, then we went over to her house later that week and did the role play of inviting someone to be baptized, at first she thought it was really weird that we were role playing it, but then she got really into the role play. Then we asked her at the end if she knew anyone who needs help or more joy in her life. She gave us a referral that is her friend next apartment building over. So a couple days later when we went to contact the referral and had time, we realized her building was locked so we went back to Sisar L. and asked her what she thought we should do. Sisar L. puts her shoes on, tells us to follow her and turns out she had a key to her friends house, walks into her house, tells her the Sisaret are here and want to talk. We had a great discussion with her and Sisar L. and she told us to come back and want to learn more! New investigator with a member present, everyone is very excited for our next meeting. I have gained a testimony of finding as we teach, and actually understand what that means now.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week and thanksgiving! Its so great to see pictures and see the stories from all my friends serving missions all around the world.

Tiedän että Jesus Kristus on meidän Vapahtaja, ja tämä on hänen työ, rukoilen jokäpäivä että voin pitää iankaikinen perspektivi ja huomata mitä nämä ihminen tarvitsevat ja kuinka voin osoita heille mun rakkautta ensiksi ennen kuin mä oppetan heitä.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and this is his work. I pray that I will keep a eternal perspective and see what these people really need and how to show them my love first before teaching them! I’m so grateful to my ancestors who joined into this gospel and for giving me the opportunity to have grown up in it and have the privilege to teach others about the amazing joy that comes from living it!

Stay safe, keep calm and preach on my friends (=

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hubner

P.s. The last picture is of me with this rug on the wall, that when our church was burned down 5 years ago by a pyromaniac. That rug was the only thing that was not burned in the fire. And now they have it in the apuyhdistys huone (relief society room) way cool!

Here is a picture from a while ago when Sister Nielson and I were on the train eating Finnish treats (Riisi pirakka) and drinking pear juice.

Week of Referrals and Miracles

First off this week was wayyyyy amazing.  My testimony of following counsel and the power of prayer has really grown. 

Sisar Egan and I have really been working together to do all things cheerfully and help people not only hear but see the happiness that we are talking about this gospel bringing. I have realized more and more when we feel light and happy it is from the Lord when we dread going outside, or starting a new day, that is not the Holy Ghost and that is not from our Heavenly Father. We need to pray to find the miracles each day, to love the person in front of us, to see the person that they can become. 

We have really been focusing on praying for families and asking people for referrals. We went over to a member’s house and listened to her amazing conversion story. Up until this point we have never had any success with asking for referrals but this week we have really been trying to apply all the counsel that has been given to us. So after her inspiring conversion story and we asked her if there is anyone that she knows that we can help or bring more joy and happiness to their lives. She got very excited and said that she had been working with some people that are ready now for us to contact and she gave us a list of 9 referrals! Mahtava! It gets even better from there after they fed us food, and we were about to leave she got very excited again and said that she wanted to contact one of her friends with us. So we all went over to her friends house, who has this beautiful family, and we had an amazing discussion.   They had a lot of really good questions and turns out they have come to church before with the member that we were with. They agreed for a time we could come back and bring them lunch. I have learned that when we truly follow all counsel the Lord has given us, he will provide a way and will answer our prayers. We ended up with 10 total referrals for the day, 1 contacted, a family of investigators and a member that is so excited to come out with us next week to find more investigators!

This week we have been focusing on talking to everyone and taking the time to make sure when we have a great opportunity of 20 min to sit next to someone and share the gospel on the bus, and invite these people to change their lives. As nerve racking and as awkward as it is sometimes, we were determined to follow counsel. We were in one area this day with a member and trying to decide if we should stay in the area or if we should get on a bus and go back to the center. We prayed together on the street and we all had a strong feeling to hop onto the bus that was coming. As soon as I got on, I knew I needed to sit next to this young man, (we were praying to find future priesthood holders) we started talking and the discussion turned to religion and turns out that he has visited our church a couple of times before. We had a great discussion on prayer and luckily we got off at the same stop and he said that he would love to meet again and discuss more! We prayed for a future priesthood holder and we found one!

As we have been focusing on talking to everyone, it sometimes is harder on the streets near the center where it is more busy, but we were on our way to meet a member and we see two guys walking down the street. So I whisper to Sisar Egan, ''Lets give them the word.'' We stopped them and start talking and turns out they know a little bit about our prophet, and that they are open to learning more, we swapped numbers and later that night they texted us asking when we can meet, so we invite them to Stake conference, and the next day one of them came! After conference, he asked if we could sit down and talk more about what we believe and our prophet, we grabbed a member and our new investigator asks if his two friends that are waiting outside can come in too. So we ended up having a member teach on the spot with these 3 investigators and set up another time to meet and discuss. So in total just from this experience we found 5 new investigators and they are all future priesthood holders! When we listen to counsel and follow the Lord, He really will bless us. When we do what we promise the Lord is bond to his word, and He never fails. 

So we last minute called a member to come to our two investigator lesson and she agreed and came to it, one investigator has been investigators for years and doesn’t have a testimony of Joseph Smith but is basically a member and has even read all of Preach my Gospel before! Anyways, after that lesson we met another investigator at our friends house and watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and committed him to baptism and he said that he wanted to follow Christ's example and become clean through baptism, but because of his religious background he shared with us that if his family finds out, then he will be in a lot of danger, and it is against our rules to teach if they will be in danger. So now we can't teach him anymore, due to his safety and it broke my heart because he really does want to follow the example of his Lord and Savior. I know that one day he will be able to join this gospel without living in fear that his life might be taken away. 

So two funny stories of the week, one, we got a call from the mission president and he says, ''is this Sisar Hubner’’. I say yes. He says '' I just received word from your parents...'' my heart literally dropped to the floor! I thought that he was going to tell me that someone in my family died or something terrible happened. After a long pause he says, ''your parents said that you have a tooth problem that needs to be fixed.'' Oh my goodness almost gave me a heart attack, and turns out it just about fixing my tooth! Hahahhaa so funny, I didn’t recover from that one for a good ten minutes. 

Other funny story this cute 18 year old girl from our ward came out with us for the day to come to lessons, and we saw this cute old lady looking sad and staring out the window so I say, hay lets go up and talk to her. So we go up into the building and try and find her door, no answer, so we try the next one to see if we got the wrong one, and this old man answers the door butt naked........our poor member, is now scarred for life, hahahha he said to not come back, and you know what I think we will listen to him! 

Anyways got to go, I love you all, the picture is an old one from last transfer with Nielsen, my camera is dead so no recent pictures for a while

Tempere For Life

I don’t have very much time to write but this week has been pretty hard. We are struggling to get support from the members, they are terrified to share the gospel and have very little hope in us finding people. Excited for Stake conference this week when its going to be all about member missionary work. 

Its getting so dark here very early and its pretty cold, soon I’ll have to pull out the winter coat and put on a couple more pairs of thermal leggings.

Good news from the week

Power of the Holy Ghost:

We have an investigator who we set a baptismal date, but then she said that she couldn't follow through with it the next, and didn't want to be pushed. But we kept meeting with her and she would read all the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we would give her, and she would pull stuff out of it and apply it to herself. She always said that she wasn't comfortable praying because she didn't know if she believed in God. This week she didn't do the reading we gave her, so we went back and we read Alma 32 together and she was really touched, and said that she wants to grow her faith, and that the Book of Mormon explains it so simply. She also asked us how do we know which chapters to give her that really stick with her and is just what we she needed to read? We told her that we pray about it. Then we went on to teaching about the restoration of the Priesthood, I shared a personal story about how priesthood blessing have blessed my life and that right now we know that she doesn't know this yet but she can lean on our testimonies for a little while until she gets her own, and tied it back into faith and that she has to take the first step to find out if this is true.She said, ''actually I was going to surprise you guys today Im ready to try and pray and I want to come to church!'' She said this beautiful prayer and asked the Lord to bless us to find people and thanked Him for letting us met her and teach he!!! I love her to death! The best part was at the end of the prayer she said, ''Did you guys feel the holy ghost? Because when you guys pray, I just get the way of the Spirit.'' She is so amazing and I pray for her so much that she will gain a testimony of this gospel.

Also it was Father's Day yesterday in Finland! So Happy Father's day Dad! I love you and I am grateful to you for showing the way and having the priesthood and helping me be prepared to serve a mission! You are the most humble, amazing, and awesomest Dad in the whole world. Thank you for serving the Lord on a mission to Germany when you were younger, and Thank you for serving our Country for all these years as a doctor in the military. I want to be just like you when I grow up!

This week I was eating Salmiaki, this salty black licorice that all Finns love and I am trying to get used to it, and I was chewing on it and it totally pulled my filling out of my mouth! Sorry Mom, its looking like I might need to take a trip to the Hammaslaakari (tooth doctor). This week we made a deal with our investigator that if she came to our church that we would go to her church. So that was 10 hours of church yesterday and my brain was fried. So much Finnish, so little time. We were able to witness what the Lutherans believe and what their services are like, it was in a huge beautiful church, but it was hard to feel the Spirit there, and when they  were about to do the sacrament they started playing the drums and this crazy loud music, it was definitely different, but I am glad that we went because I feel like I know how to better teach these people!

 Heres another story from this week, we had a couple lessons set up and all of them had fallen through, we were about to get frustrated when we realized that President had just given us instructions on what to do when we have a blank day scenario. So we pulled the map book out, prayed about an area to go to, made a list of members, less actives, and a couple formers that we could visit and we left the apartment with a little more hope and purpose. We were able to visit an investigator at her work place, we tried to visit the member and former but neither were home, so we decided to tract 10 doors, we found one man walking down the street that looked so sad, so we went over to talk to him, and he ended up telling us about his living alone and how lonely and sad it is, and we started to talk to him about how we can find joy and lasting happiness, he invited us to come over the next week, and ended walking away with a huge smile on his face. Also while tracting we found another investigator that has a small family and said that he would read the Pelastussuunnitelma pamphlet. What started off as a frustrating blank day, turned out to be a really awesome day and we found 2 new investigators and were able to make some other people smile on the way. The Blank day Scenario really does work, Im so grateful for an awesome inspired president!

Also funny tracting story of the week, we knocked on this door and the 25 year old man opens the door half naked, and holding a spatula with browny mix on it, he was very surprised to see us as well so were we, there was a couple seconds of awkward silence, and he said I am so sorry now is not a good time but you can come back later. After he closed the door Egan and I were laughing so hard, and as we were walking away we heard laughter on the other side of the door. Hahaa got to love tracting!

Well I love you all, keep safe, and keep spreading the good word!

Sisar Hubner