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Monday, November 25, 2013

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.

Monday, November 18, 2013

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

Thursday, November 14, 2013

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

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Darkness by 5pm


Its crazy seeing all these pictures from friends in missions other places how warm it looks. Well its getting cold, no snow on the ground yet but its really dark starting at 5pm or sooner depending on the day. It feels weird contacting people when it’s so dark because I feel like we are out past the time we should be, so that will be an adjustment! 

Today our investigator is taking us shopping for good winter coats for good prices, its hard to tell what will actually keep up warm considering that most Finns are not outside as long as we are normally. Last P-day I saw a down skirt for 120 Euros, looked so warm I probably would have bought it if it wasn’t so expensive! I have decided I will look like the Michelin man the rest of my mission if that is what it takes to keep warm!

So this week was a great week. We have really been focusing on getting members to our lessons so that they can become friends with them and so when our investigators have questions they have a friend to talk to and feel comfortable. Some members are totally on board but others are not so much. 

We set a couple baptismal dates this week, and it was so great because our friends are getting their mind on baptism and what that means and actually look for answers in the Book of Mormon and in their prayers! President Rawlings has given us the council that they wont start progressing until they have a baptismal date, we don’t ask when they are ready, we ask so they can get ready! That has really started to change the mindset of this mission. 

Also I have been really focusing on what the spirit feels like and how to be more sensitive to it, so that when we are in the lesson we know when to ask them to follow the example of their Savior Jesus Christ and accept all the blessings he has promised us by going to the waters of baptism. It is such an amazing experience to read the Book of Mormon every morning and reading these stories of Prophets of old preaching the gospel and converting thousands by the power of the Holy Ghost and then leaving our apartment each morning and doing the exact same, (hopefully the thousands come soon (: ). I am so grateful to be a little part of this work. 

Its crazy how much you can love a people that you have never even met before. I want the best for them, I pray for them jokäpäivä (everyday), I think about them all the time, I study for them, I am learning this insane language for them, I am worthy of the spirit for them, I gave up 18 month of my life so that I can help others as I myself have been helped. It is my greatest wish that they too can feel the effects of the Atonement, that they can fill their lives with this joy and light that is much needed in Finland. I work my heart out all for them, that they can return to their loving Father in Heaven.

  Its so powerful to think that we might be the closest thing they see to knowing their Savior, and that he has put his trust in us enough to represent him everyday. I hope and pray to be like the Prophets of old speaking by the converting power of the Holy Spirit. 

I pray for you all, that we can put on our Celestial Glasses and look at the big scheme of thing and seeing that our brothers and sisters are out there close to drowning in the water and we're lucky enough to be on the safety of the life raft. With that picture of course we would help them, and give, especially our friends, this light and lift them out of the water to the safety of the raft. 
I pray we will all have the courage to give this ''lift'' to our friends especially in their hardest hour.

A missionary once said to me, ''this mission is what you make it'' this life is what we make it, so why not make today amazing. Why not step out of our comfort zone to help a sister or brother in need.

Stay safe, and I love you

Sisar Hubner




P.s. Picture is of our last companionship with an elder that just finished up his mission