Our Sacrifice to the Lord

25 Jan 2014

Moi ystävieni ja perheeni,

I’m writing this on Saturday because we are leaving for Helsinki on Sunday for Training for my Companion! Way exciting, time flies I feel like it was only yesterday that I picked her up from Helsinki!

I have been thinking a lot this week about fully giving up our will to the Lord. About giving our whole sacrifice to the Lord, and not just giving the parts we want or coming to the alter to give our ''lamb ''sacrifice to only back out and end up not putting it on the alter to the Lord, or just giving some tufts of it's hair to the Lord. But one hundred percent, each day completely handing our will over to the Lord and letting him guide and direct. It seems so hard sometimes, but in the end it is easier because He know who we want to become and He knows our potential and what we need now to get there. 

We have been working with the Less active family who part removed their records from the church, and at first they were not very receptive and pretended not to be listening when we would give our spiritual thoughts, but pikku hilja (step by step) they have been warming up. We have been going there every week, and having them help us with our Finnish while going through the lessons, and they are helping up while we are subtly teaching them. Anyways this week we really have been seeing the Lord's hand in softening their hearts, We went over there on Monday and the Mom who is the hardest, had made us Liha pirakka (meat pastry) and was so sweet and invited us to their concert and even sang for us! It was so amazing; we left their house walking on clouds. We might not be able to change all of Finland, or even most of Finland, but we can start with one. Bringing more joy into their lives, and more room for the Love of their Savior. It reminds me of the story of the man on the seashore throwing the dried out Starfish back into the Ocean. It happens one at a time. 

We organized splits this week with some of our members and my companion was a little nervous to go out but she plucked up her courage and it was a great experience for her! Also I had the opportunity to go out with one sisar from the other ward, who as soon as she is done with Lukio (high school) she is going on a mission. It was so great to work with her and although the lessons did not go quiet as planned the Spirit was with us and she was so grateful to have the opportunity to come out. It missionary work is possible and can be fun in Finland, then it is possible anywhere else. We went to a teach with this lady that I had met on the bus. It was an amazing spiritually powerful lesson, we both poured our hearts out to her in testimony of the Restoration of the gospel, she was asking all the right questions and agreeing with us. I testified from the bottom of my heart the truth of this message and of God's love and I invite her to take the Book of Mormon as a gift and ask for herself if what we have said, and what this Book says is true. She straight out said, ''No I do not want that book or even wish to try, the Bible is good enough for me.'' I felt like she had just taken a dagger to my heart, it hurt so bad, we had just opened our souls up to her and she just threw everything we said on the floor. I started to tear up and said in Finnish, ''this is the only gift we have, the only thing in the world that matters to us, and it is the pure love of Christ the message of His atonement and restoration of His power. It is the most precious thing in my life which is why I have sacrificed 18 months of my life to devote it to telling other.'' I could see the pain in her eyes as she once again rejected our testimony. We left her place with my heart hurting and eyes crying because I know how much this can bless her life and yet she wouldn’t even try to find out. I wanted to ice my heart over then and say, that’s it, I’m done putting my heart out there just for people to break it. But then I felt this overwhelming warm peaceful feeling that I had made the Lord proud of my work, because I worked with the Spirit and opened my heart so that she could feel the Love that I feel from the Savior. I decided, if this is as bad as it can get with a heart broken but the spirit of the Lord with me, then all of it was worth it. To not give up, or get discouraged but pray even harder for the Lords help. Because this message is true and it is life changing, eye opening, heart softening. It has changed me, and changes me everyday the more I understand and learn from it. Then on the way home we met a man I have talked to before from Honduras, that his wife from Russia just had a baby and by the way he wants to meet and talk more about our message!!! It was so amazing!

I’m out of time, but I have so much more to tell. Learn to Love life, every aspect of it, even the hard parts, because in the end that is what makes us who we are, the hard part make us stronger, and more determined. 

I know Jesus is our Savior, He lives and this is his restored gospel.

Sisar Hubner