Pear Ice Cream

Sometimes I forget that all of you aren’t here with me to experience the quirkiness of Finnish culture. Have I told you that they have pear flavored everything? Its incredible its one of my favorite things of all times, pear juice (yum), pear flavored rice porridge (yes!), pear ice cream (delicious), pear candy, pears in general, pear popsicles! The list never ends. Also another things about the Finns they are always very timely, usually 5-10 minutes early for everything, they don’t smile normally or talk on the streets to others, and so they are super surprised when we just say a smile hi. They love their summer cabins ''mökit'' they spend as much time there as possible. They are said to not be romantic people but very poetic people. They love dogs and cats, its insane. Finns normally speak English extremely fluently and are in general just smarter than the rest of us. They aren’t very open at first but once a Finn becomes your friend, it’s a friend for life. They also LOVEEE talking about the weather, and they just are so excited when the sun finally shines. Everyone deserts their jobs and homes and goes to there summer cabins by a beautiful lake for basically the whole summer. They take ''loma'' (vacation) very seriously. 

This is my personal opinion but the people in the North are incredible, and more open and friendly. I would definitely come back to Oulu to live here if I had the opportunity! It’s amazing!

Also recent realization is that I love AMERICA! Ahh we have run into a couple Americans and they are all so much more open and talkative and friendly, its super nice to be around those people after the Finnish solitude. Love that place (=

Well this week went faster than anything else. Due to some crazy things happening I have turned into an insomniac and it has been so hard for the beginning of this week I just spend sleepless nights, burning hot, tossing and turning, but I received a blessing from President Watson, and I have just been sleeping like a rock ever since. I love this gospel; I love the Priesthood and the literal power that comes from Jesus Christ. Power to take away fears, and build strength and love. Its so hard losing sleep as a missionary but seriously through obedience to still wake up and work out and do studies the Lord has given me extra strength throughout the whole week to stay awake and happy and teach our investigators with the Spirit. Never have I realized how much I really on this gospel for literally EVERYTHING. 

Also, happy pioneer day everyone. It’s amazing to think about how much the pioneers did just based off their strong Faith in Christ and the restoration of this gospel. It’s astounding. 

This week, our investigator took a surprise trip up to Rovaniemi to cut wood for his grandmother for the summer! Super sweet, so we taught him on the phone and felt good about putting his baptismal date to the 2nd of August. Our other investigator P. is this 18 yr old super shy guy that feels the spirit and has this surprisingly strong faith in God. We set a baptismal date with him as a goal and he had some questions about it. WE LOVE QUESTIONS! And we were able to explain just how simple and amazing baptism is, that it is a complete new start, the thing that we cant forgive ourselves for, the things that keep holding us back, those things that we were so proud of in our past. We repent, sincerely in kneeling prayer in private to our Father, and then He gives us this huge gift of erasing all the bad we have EVER done from our past. And we take upon ourselves the name of Christ which means we stand in His place whether people admire us for it or mock us for it, We bind ourselves to the Lord, and then on top of erasing the past sins, he gives us a new start and the Holy Ghost to help us feel more joy, more love, warn us from danger, helps us remember things that alone we forget, helps us learn and teach better, and changes our hearts to WANT to do good. 

All of that for free, because our Savior Jesus Christ already paid the price and all we have to do is come to Him and ask for help to overcome these challenges of life. 

I love this gospel, did I say that already (= man, and don’t even get me started on how amazing the Book of Mormon is!

This week we had mission leader conference and were able to go into the sacred Helsinki temple. It felt like a breath of fresh air! It was amazing. I want to go back there as soon as possible. The peace in there is out of this world...literally it’s from Heaven. 

M. our investigator is getting baptized this Saturday and literally the whole ward just adores him, he is so sincere, slightly goofy but amazing and really searching for truth. It has been a pleasure to see him grow and develop this big light of Christ inside and shines now through his eyes. 

Well I got to go but I love you and take care!

Sis. Hubner