Week 6

Hei minun Perhelle ya ystavalle!

I just want to let you all know how much I LOVE being a missionary! I feel like I am so spiritually fed every week, and even though its like an emotional rollercoaster someday with the language and stuff, overall its more happiness and strength that I feel from the spirit everyday more then I have ever felt in my life. So there have been some really great spiritually moments, hard moments, and extremely hilarious moments with my district!

First off thank you so much for that awesome package, I also loved all the food and the cute little minion and otter, I miss my real minions though (Aria, Saige, Camilla, and Gerrit). But I put them up in our classroom and they are our mascots now! Also every week at devotionals there has been at least one reference to Finland it is so amazing, and so inspiring especially when they talk about the missionaries there! It is definitely a happening place from what I hear!

So I guess I have started this saying in our district of "oko, hyvä, kiitos" which means okay, good, thanks and literally everyone say it after every statement now, so if you want to sound like our amazing district you might want to start saying that! Hahaa, kidding but its is funny the random stuff we come up with in the Finnish language. Its like every SYL (speak your own language) päivä (day) is extremely hilarious because if we don’t know how to say it in Finnish we try and use all our limited words and act out what we are trying to say so everything seems way more funny then it is. We also adopted Sister Christina Hubner's game where on SYL day we draw to see who has the "mahtava poika" (awesome man) don’t ask why we named it that, well actually we name everything that because when we do something awesome we call it Mahtava poika because it sounds funny to say, anways some one draws that person and it is in secret and then when we have SYL day the "mahtava poika" tries to speak as much as they can in Finnish and at the end of the day we vote to see who had the mahtava poika, and if you didn’t have it but you spoke a lot of Finnish and made people think you had it you get more points which adds up to a prize at the end, so it makes SYL a lot more fun because we are trying to win the prize, and it helps us speak more Finnish.

This week we taught our investigator who is preparing to get baptized this Saturday and he asked us in Finnish is there is anything he needs to bring, and I was trying to say "No, we will have your white clothes for you to wear for your baptism" but instead I mixed up the words valkoinen (white) with the word keltainen (yellow), and told him "We got him a yellow suit for his baptism" its was really funny after I realized what I had actually said and he was trying really hard not to laugh. Gotta have fun in the MTC and not stress out about this language or else it will be a miserable couple of weeks learning the language!

On a more spiritual note at Sunday devotional this woman told us about this missionary.

 So there was this young man who had put his papers in for his mission and his father, his uncles, and his grandfather had all gone to Japan on their missions and he was half Japanese and spoke the language and he was so excited to get his call to Japan as well. He finally got his mission call and he was called English speaking to California, and he was so disappointed and was even considering not going because he felt like he had been called to the wrong mission. Anyways, after long talks with his parents they had told him that the Lord knew what he was doing when he called their son to California. So he begrudgingly went still feeling like he was in the wrong mission. One day him and his companion walked past a Asian Market so he went in and started talking to the guy who worked there in Japanese, and the store worker got so excited talking to him and said that he had a Book of Mormon, but was at home and he wanted to get it and show it to them. So they waited for him to run home and get it, and he came back with the Book of Mormon and said that when he was younger he lived in Japan and the missionaries had given it to him but he had lost contact with them. So this Elder took the Book of Mormon and opened it to the front where he read a testimony that was written in the front, was actually written by his Grandfather, and had been given to this Japanese man many many years ago. The Elder was so touched and knew at that moment that he had been called to that mission for this specific reason. The Japanese man that they had met invited the Missionaries over to their house because they had been waiting so many years to hear this message, when the missionaries finally came over the walked in to the Japanese family's house and there was 30 people in there that had been reading the Book of Mormon all these years from when the Elder's grandfather introduced the Book of Mormon and were waiting many many years for the missionaries to come and teach them the rest and baptize them.

What an amazing story, we all have been called to the mission for a specific reason and somewhere along the way it will be made known, that someone specific has been waiting for me to tell them about this amazing gospel.

Also this Sunday we sang in the choir again the song "How Great Thou Art" and they choir director shared with us the story of this song, I don’t have enough time to tell it but it is definitely worth looking up, especially about the 2nd verse! Also at choir the Choir director shared with us this story and it just hit me so hard about how much the Atonement means and how much the Lord has done for us in a different way then I have ever thought about it before. I hope you can all feel the same spirit that I felt from when I heard this; I hope my story does it justice.

So our choir director was a seminary teacher and there was one really rebellious kid that the only reason he was at seminary was because his parents had made him. One day the kid said, "why should I ever care about the Atonement Christ already did it, and I can do whatever I want because I can repent whenever" and this really bugged the seminary teacher and he wanted to come up with a story that would make the kid realize how much the Atonement has affected him and how much the Lord has done for us, so he thought about it a couple days and then told this hypothetical story to the kid to help him understand better.

He said "imagine that you go on a trip with your friends to a different country and are touring around for a month and are having the time of your life and right before you leave all your friends want to spray paint their names on this wall that supposedly every tourist does, but the punishment is pretty severe if you get caught, so originally you decide you wont do it, but then your friends finally pressure you into doing it because Its a once in a life time sort of thing. So right after you spray paint your name on the wall, you get caught the big lights come on and the police of this country catch you, and only you. And you just feel guilty because you knew from the beginning that you should not have done this but you did anyways. So the police that catch you say, hey we are so tired of this keep happening so we are going to make an example of you and nail you and your hand to this wall and it will show everyone else to stop doing this, we will feed you food but you have to stay here with you hand nailed to the wall the rest of your life. This point you just want to shrivel up in a whole because you knew you shouldn’t have done this and now you have to pay the price. But then our country and their country talk and work something out that you can go free, if someone in your family comes and takes your place and has to get their hand painfully nailed to the wall, but they can rip it off after that and you get off the hook and they wont have to stay there their whole life. But they still have to get their hands painful nailed to the wall. Then you really start feeling extremely terrible, because now this not only affects you but someone in your family. Then your older brother calls you and says " I will go and do this for you because you mean that much to me", how bad would you feel seeing him walk off the plane knowing that because of your dumb decision he has to sacrifice his hands for you and right when you go to apologize to him of how bad you feel he says, "It is okay, I will take care of you."  Your brother pays the debt, makes the sacrifice, how will you think of your brother the rest of your life? Would you have his picture up in your room? Would you worship the ground he walks on, never stop saying how sorry you are and how thankful you are to him. Then what if your friends started using his name as cuss word, how mad would you be, this man saved your LIFE, and they are trashing his name (Our Lord and Savior's name is the number 1 most common cuss word today), how would you react, how much would you defend your beloved brother who gave up so much for you? I know I would be livid if anyone talked about him that way. Then think about how much our savior has done for us. He not only gave up his hands, he gave up his own life for us and much more, and how much do we stand up for him now, when people mock his very name?

I dare say this story has changed my life, and yesterday I was reading in the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 28:32 and it says., "For not withstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts"

He knew that he would be rejected, yet he still came to this earth and gave up his life, and love the people even the ones he knew that he would be betrayed by, and still his gives them a second chance to repent and come unto him.

I have so much more I want to write to you all, but I am running out of time. Sorry I couldn’t get the pictures to work this week, but there will be more next week! One last thing at devotional this week it was so amazing, and I felt the spirit so strongly! We watched a little video clip from Holland (such an inspired man!) and he said:

"The Atonement will help you maybe more then your investigators, when we are cast out, doors slammed in our faces, spat at, and mocked at, know that someone much greater went through even more, we have reason to stand tall, because we can stand close to the Best example that ever lived, be proud to know that you stood up for your Lord and Savior, and you proudly wear his name on your name tag."

Then at devotional review our 1st counselor to the Branch President said this, " You have made commitments to people before this life that you would find them and give them this message of the gospel. Don't waste any time."

Such a powerful week! I am out of time but I hope these messages that have touched my heart so much will touch your hearts as well. Challenge for this week read Alma 36, what an amazing chapter, we used it this week to help teach our investigator about becoming free from our sins and guilt through repentance and the Atonement!

Minä rakastan teitä! (I love you all!)

Sisar Alayna Hubner

P.s. Saige remind me to tell you the story of the 12-year-old boy who was a missionary!

Finnish Missionaries in the New Cafeteria