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Thursday, December 26, 2013

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!



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