Bike Trippin

So basically I may or may not be an extremely awkward missionary and very accident-prone. Just like we had fun times bike dancing for every bodies fav time, there is also the tragic bike tripping of the week. Let me explain. So being in Tampere we have the privilege to ride bikes everywhere. The ward has given us bikes so we don't have to pay for it, which is reallynice. I have my own claimed pink ghetto bike that I use but Sisar Thayne kept saying that her bike was hurting her knees, out of the kindness of my heart I decided I would swap with her till we got the seat raised.

So now I am riding on this dinky bike that has a way super low seat, mutta ei se mitään, even though I definitely have longer legs then Sis. Thayne. I can handle this. So far it has been going okay, but this week my luck finally dropped. So we decided to go far out to Lielahti (in the Elders area) but over there were some Less-active Women members or in other words church members who haven't been seen in church or other places for a while. We decide to try and go about doing good and make some yummy banana bread and see if we can't make their day a little bit better.

Also I just so happen to always seem to wear my glasses on the day that is rains a ton, while biking in the cold isn't the funniest thing out there...Any ways we have tried about 3 of the less actives and nothing is happening, but Sisar Thayne and I are trying to keep our spirits up and stay happy. I mean after all anything is possible with the Spirit right? Wrong, personal stupidity will not always be buffered by the spirit. So I'm feeling pretty invincible and we are biking along the street and need to get onto the sidewalk. So everything is pretty slick with the rain, and there is a decently high curb. But just like when I was learning to drive, faster is always better than slower, right? So I speed up and try to jump the curb, turn out I was going at the wrong angle too, I hit the curb, bike goes flying in the opposite direction and some how I end up landing on both my knees at the same time (all of this is going super slow motion too) and the slow whip lash to a face meets side walk smack. Hahahaa wow, it was actually super funny, and the pic I attached does not do it justice whatsoever. I get home and take my thick leggings off and my knees are still bleeding 3 hours later and have huge 2 massive goose eggs! Battle wounds from the mission life.

To end the biking story of the week, then we will get onto the spiritual highlights. So after we were done teaching our family from the Congo, we had a little bit of time before our next sopimus (teach), and sometimes when we have extra time we go out praying always to find ''the one'' that the Lord has prepared. This week our focus has been a younger woman around her 20s that can build the ward here in Tampere and get the young women here excited. So we jump on our bikes and see this 20ish looking lady walking her dog (have I mentioned that everyone and their dog has a dog... its insane I’m pretty sure this country has more dogs per people than any other country, mutta kuitenkin. At this point I have switched bikes to a slightly higher raised bike that is a little more difficult to ride on. So we try to casually come next to this lady and start talking. We pull up and its me, Sis. Thayne, then the dog walking lady and we ask Miten Mene, (how is it going) she’s not too interested but we are trying to just talk with her, and slowly bike at the same time. Not the best at multi-tasking and trying to speak Finnish... and I slowly start losing my balance, and try to stop myself, but I just slowly fall into Sisar Thayne who pulls back and I just start progressively tipping over, too high on the seat to stop myself. The Dog walking lady jumps out of the way and starts laughing hysterically. Hahah, well we weren’t able to give her the gospel but at least we were able to give her a huge laugh of the day (=

Onto the spiritual side, this week was a harder week, but we have really been praying always to know who we can help each day, to let them understand that they really do have a loving Heavenly Father who cares so much about them. This one day we were walking down to the bus and normally we take the 18 but I see the 1 come and I feel like we need to jump on for some reason, so we get on it, and I see this lady from Sinegal that we have talked to before. So we start talking and she explains that she has had such a hard time in Finland and is so happy that I got on the bus and talked to her. She explained more about how much her son means to her and she wishes he could stay at home forever. I had the opportunity to testify to her that there is a way to be with her son for eternity. I started talking about the Mormonin Kirja, the Book of Mormon and how is has changed my life to know that through this restored gospel, and living prophets we know that Heavenly Father has a plan and has made a WAY for us to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity with our spouse and our husband. She said that she would love to receive one in French, and we set up a meeting for later that week.

 Later on that day it was raining and cold, and we kept getting rejected and felt like we just weren't finding anyone. Then I turned to Sisar Thayne and suggested that we should pray for more love and then jump our attitudes up. She agreed and we prayed and starting trying to talk to people with a smile and

 It was incredible, so many people stopped and we were able to either make them laugh or smile. It makes such a difference when we let the light of this gospel shine through our eyes. It literally is my light that gives me so much happiness and fires me up to talk with and love every person we come across. While we were walking we caught up to this man, who was walking the same direction as us, and we cheerfully said, ''MOI!'' and he was so caught off guard and got super excited and asked if we wanted to walk with him, we said sure but we were headed to our church if he wanted to come take a look. He said Sure! So we walked all the way through the center and learn more about E. who is from Cuba and lived in Florida for a while and is married to a Finn now, so he lives here. He was explaining how depressing life is here in Finland. When we got to the church we invited him in, and gave him a church tour, and his whole countenance changed. He got so quiet and kept saying Wow, this building is so beautiful I have never been in such a beautiful building, he asked if he could pay us for a Book of Mormon in Spanish, and was so surprised when we gave it to him for free, he asked if he could come to church on Sunday.

It was incredible to see how our day changed my a fervant prayer asking the Lord for more love. This gospel is my light. I have seen it change so many lives from being depressed and empty to seeing this light come on in their eyes and countenance, and through their smile. It is the most satisfying feeling to pray to help that ''one'' for the day, and come home at night and look back and see how the Lord placed that person on our path. It’s worth it to try and get out of your comfort zone to lift some one's hand that hangs low.

Love you all stay gucci and Hyvää Kesää teille!

Rakkaudellani,

Sisar Hubner