Kaipaan jo Suomea ( I miss Finland already)

December 29, 2014

Well Folks, This is the last shebang. Wow, has this been an amazing roller coaster. I will forever and ever be grateful and indebted to the Lord for letting me serve in His army in the fine land of Finland. Reflecting back, I definitely am not the same Sisar Hübner that left on a mission. The Lord has shaped and molded me in the palm of His hands, and though I still have much more left to do and grow I feel as if He has given me wings to fly.

No longer do I feel tied down with fear, or worry. Just peace and love. Though I know the peace and love only lasts when the prayers I express daily to the Lord for strength in those areas. Isn’t prayer such a cool thing, if you have hope and faith, and are willing to do some work, the creator of the Universe, will answer. He will talk. He will shower down love because, that in fact, is His biggest wish. I love Him. I am grateful for Him and the gifts He freely gives us.

This week was an amazing Christmas. It was spent with all the people that I love and will keep in my heart into the eternities. They have changed my life, they have opened my love, and perspective. I have no idea who I would be without them. I’m so grateful that I was able to serve in Oulu, and Tampere. I love this beautiful land.

Last night it hit me, I only have a couple days left as a full time missionary in Finland. Then all the questions came to mind of have I done enough, have I learned enough. This blanket of joy just landed on me, that spread through me from my fingertips to my toes. That I am where I am supposed to be, I have my sights set on the Savior and coming closer to Him and focusing now and always on the people around me to help build them and bring them closer to this amazing, delicious, incredible, unfathomable, light. All because of Him.

Yesterday, my last time in church us four missionaries did a musical number in Finnish of Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd after which I was able to bear my testimony. I actually cant remember anything I said in my testimony but I did share the lyrics of the second verse with the congregation that I have grown to love and which lyrics I would like to share with you all.

 Dear to the heart of the Shepherd,

Dear are the lambs of his fold;

Some from the pastures are straying,

Hungry and helpless and cold.

See, the Good Shepherd is seeking,

Seeking the lambs that are lost,

Bringing them in with rejoicing,

Saved at such infinite cost.

This is the message that fill my heart. Of which I am eternally grateful that He had enough mercy to rescue me, I want to labor all my days to help Him bring in the others which have strayed.

I love being a missionary. I love my Savior.

Rakkaudellani,

Sisar Hubner

P:S. Watch out world---this sister missionary is coming back hitting the streets of the big US of A, weirder and awkwarder than ever but ohh so full of joy from the gospel......MISSION ACCOMPLISHED (;

 

After a freezing bike ride back home----brrrr... even the hair freezes,
but wow isn’t it beautiful!

 

My angels that I love!!

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Fun!

Hyvää Joulua!!! (Merry Christmas)

What an amazing time to be serving as a full time missionary in the blessed land of Finland. My heart is so full! I love the beautiful snow that is everywhere that lightens up the skies. I love our members that have given so freely to us in opening their houses and precious family time for us during this Christmas season. I love our recent converts that love the gospel so much and are willing to do anything to share it with their friends and family. I love the little contacts on the street that maybe don’t end with people setting up a time to learn more, but that still walk away with a smile on their face.

I have found the greatest joys lay within trusting the Savior enough to give my obedience to Him, and to pray for the love that He feels for His Children. I has opened my world to another spectrum.

Seriously a mission is the best thing ever. Just because the nametag is coming off soon doesn’t mean that it will ever come off my heart. I think the two biggest things I have learned is that I have had a little taste tester of the potential of How AMAZING the gospel is and feels- free from guilt, free from fear, free from feelings of doubt, tied to the Savior. It literally is the best feeling in the world and I want it now, all day, everyday, till the day I die....and even after that. I loved the talk from general conference "Which Way are We Facing?"

I have been thinking about the talk and video from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf about the man who saved up for the cruise and limited himself from enjoying all the free food, and parties because of lack of understanding. I keep checking myself and making sure that I am not living under my potential of happiness as a member, as a missionary, as a Daughter of God? Are we living as members the gospel through a worldly perspective, or through an eternal perspective- one really sucks and feels pretty small and lonely, the other has no bounds, no fears, just BLISS.

This week was another one for the books. First off we have a new friend from Panama that lived in NEW YORK!!! love that place--get this he even has a New York vibe! and he reminds me of Aunt Patricia and her kids! He is the coolest and came to church and LOVE IT!

We have been singing a lot to our friends and random people about the birth of Christ and seriously it just never gets old, and it has been opening doors that were never opened before because of HIM and the power of the Holy Ghost to open hearts! We also had our ward Christmas party this week and they did it a little different instead of having JouluPukki- the Santa Clause- but rather made it all about Christ and the nativity with traditional Finnish Christmas food it was so great, and one so many less actives came and the spirit just felt like home- so many smiles and just pure joy. Also our member friend invited his friend to come sing a song with him, and it was so cool because I was able to talk with her and she is now a new investigator and is coming to a church tour next week!

A lesson I have learned this week is that it really all is about the attitude and perspective we have. We get what we expect to get. It's that simple. Yesterday we had zone conference! Wow amazing. We spent an hour just sharing our favorite pick me up scriptures about the Savior. It was so beautiful to hear all the deep insights these wonderful missionaries of the North have. How deeply they understand the Atonement. It brought tears to my eyes how I am surrounded by the warriors of the gospel, defenders of faith, representatives of Himself, the very Christ. I felt so privileged to be a part of it. So many changes being made, a new zone in the east. Another zone is being made so that there is less travel time to get to meetings so we can focus on our work. Also p-day being moved to Tuesday so that we can hit the week with a full force on Monday  I love that idea. And there are so many other changes. Wow just amazing things are coming. I feel as if President Ralwings took this mission from sitting to standing, and President Watson is taking it from standing to running. So great! This will one day be the new BRAZIL! But a little north and a little colder (;

I love you all. I hope that any who are reading this understand that I love being a missionary. I know with ever fiber of my being that this is the true church and Jesus Christ is the head of it. I love my Savior beyond words.

Merry CHRISTmas. #share the gift

Sisar Alayna Hübner

Pictures:

Our future Christmas cards. WE LOVE THE MORMONIN KIRJAA

Me with the Watsons- our mission president and wife after the conference

On our way from the apartment to the church, love the nature!

All the north sisters… love them so much!!

Our hilarious Russian friends that I love to death!  V. is soooooo sasssy it kills me! She demanded to sing a solo at our Christmas party that she just decided need to be song and changed her clothes, she put on a tutu and a fedora....hahahaa I was dying! I don’t think the ward knows what to think of her! She is one of a kind!

Snow in the dark........basically all day…everyday… but ohhh so beautiful!

Dark Sky, Windows of Light

I don’t know if I have mention how dark it is here but to let you know. The ''sun'' comes out about 12pm, sometimes it just gets lighter but no sun comes, and then about 2.30pm it starts to get dark.

That's it. That is our time of light. But you know what is so crazy--it really hasn’t even phased me at all. Even though, the darkness isn’t the funnest, just like all the Finnish apartments have these paper stars of light that shine out, I feel like that is the gospel. It is my little star that shines the way of the road in front of me, one step at a time. Giving me hope that the road continues and gets better as it goes. 

Humility. What does that even mean? I have been thinking about this a lot. Through out my mission I think it has come to mean- at least for me- recognizing but not being debilitated by the knowledge that I do not have all the pieces to finish this puzzle. I must rely on the Lord. I must wake up in the morning remembering my purpose.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called by Him, to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting light.

3 Nephi 5:13

And then remembering my purpose remembering this isn’t my plan, I do not have the insight to conduct it. I must pray with all my heart begging the Lord to take my will from me and make it His, because even handing my will over to the Lord I can't do by myself.

This week was amazing.

A lot of our investigators has been sketching out on us and our one progressing investigator decided to go to Stockholm for the next couple of weeks. We were trying hard but the hope and probably the faith to find was lacking.

We got to Wednesday, and the zone leaders are hitting amazing success just like that all of a sudden. The AP's went on splits with them and boom, now they have the tools to make their areas boom. So they gave us all advice of how they are doing it in district meeting. The Key -change your attitude.

If you expect people to reject you, then they will. If you expect people and have faith that they will want to learn more, they will. Your perception will alter reality.

Boom- and we started doing that and so amazing things have been happening. Being persistent with setting up times to come back and share more. Centering all that we are testifying about Christ and His birth and life and atonement, and gospel.

President Texeria came a couple weeks ago in mission tour and told us these extremely inspirational stories about exact obedience and going from less than 6 teaches of   investigators to the next week 20. That has been our goal, 20 teaches a week to investigators in the past most parts of Finland are struggling with that, one week we hit 20, it felt so good, but it definitely wasn’t no picnic.

We had to do splits in Vaasa, which takes a 5 hours south train, and so that is a pretty big chunk out of our week, but when we came back, we had about 3 teaches to investigators.  We got back Friday, our investigators have been sketching out a little bit, so we did some insane finding and we got 15 teaches to investigators, and 9 new investigators all found in 3 days. That is pretty amazing!

The best part is that, we really know and understand how much work we have to put into prayer because it is not possible with out His help and His heart softening power.

Pretty amazing stuff. The best part is that it can and will continue to be miraculous if we keep having faith and going for it. We are agents to act for our selves and not wait to be acted upon. How exciting is that?

One lady we met on the street A. is from Brazil and we can't figure out if Finnish or English is better for her, we had this amazing discussion on the freezing street and she ended up crying and telling us about the amazing experience that ever since her son was born she just knows that God is real and so is Jesus Christ and she knows that there must be a bigger plan. She was so prepared for this message and invited us over. 2 days later we went back and watched "He is the Gift"- she was so bummed it was super short, she wanted it to last longer. She was so grateful for the Book of Mormon that we gave her in Portuguese and also her husband was interested and we gave him a book of Mormon in Finnish. Such an amazing little family. She also gave us some names and addresses of other friends in Oulu that are from Brazil that we can visit! Sadly they are leaving for a long Christmas vacation and then she is going to Brazil for a couple of months next year )= but the good news is that she gave us her address in Brazil that the missionaries there can go visit!

I love being a missionary! The time is running out and I am just so grateful everyday for these blessing to be serving in Oulu, Finland

Rakastan teitä hyvin paljon

--Sisar Alayna Hübner

P.S. us and the pink sky!

Our FHE group before our friend A had to leave back to France )= we will miss him, such an inspiration to us all of Faith

Nordic Fire

  Dec 8, 2014

Well before I get anywhere father on this letter I just got to say that......

I FINALLY SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!

basically my life is complete! Yay it was seriously the best! Basically we were just leaving the church and we were talking about the second coming and what we can do to prepare,  with this awesome member and Sisar Woods said '' the gospel is just like Light'' 

''HEY WAIT IS THAT THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?!?!?!'' sure enough it was the northern lights! super cool!

Well this week was another great week. My last fast and testimony meeting in Finland )= I at first didn’t feel like baring my testimony but then Chuc our friend that just got baptized asked, hey so are you going to say your testimony today? Then you know the feeling that the spirit basically drags you up to the pulpit and no matter how many billions of times you have testified on the pulpit it seems just as nerve racking as if it was the first time. I basically balled like a baby when I said how much I love my mission and Oulu. ya I'm basically a big baby but, whatever I love these people soooo much. I literally think Oulu has the most concentrated amount of amazing people in the world. hands down.

well last Monday right after we had finished emailing we bike sprinted over to our member's house to teach our investigator T. turns out the member (this bomb awesome professional chef, made us this mint chocolate mousse cake.....it was literally the best and T. was just literally eating it up, making all sorts of funny noises while eating this delicious cake. Hahahaaa, turns out that is all investigators need spiritual food and physical delicious cake! Anyways he had been apprehensive to set a baptismal date the day before, but then we gave him 2 Nephi 31 about why Christ was baptized and why we should be baptized. We asked him if he had an opportunity to read it, he said sheepishly,´..........well yes and like um, kinda, basically, so like, hmmm, well, what I think about baptism, welll, hmmmm, I actually prayed about it and the answer was really surprising to me, I think I need to be baptized and the church is true.

enough said. hahahah, literally we were speechless, it was like the best moment of my life. we asked him to pray about Joseph Smith specifically being a prophet and he was like well ya I can pray about it, but I’m pretty sure I already know the answer is yes. (= !!!!!!!

there you have it folks. it really is that easy, read with real intent, come to church and pray and the Lord will give you the straight up answer!

Another really cool thing that happened this week was that we have a friend D. that basically fell off the face of the earth. He is a doctor and was here studying for his PhD. So basically our member found out that something was wrong with his scholarship and he had to go back to Zambia, and she got back in contact with him over email! thank goodness for technology, we turn out he just came back last week, and he came to the church and we MET WITH HIM! and then he came to church yesterday and stayed for Sunday school and wow! so great our recent convert A. basically just testified like no other about the book of Mormon and how great baptism is, and we set a baptismal date with him right on the spot! He was like, wow, I guess I really need to read the book of Mormon everyday and pray about it huh?!?

it was incredible

well I'm out of time! I love you!

thought of the week, we talked about the second coming of Jesus Christ. the moral of the story is, it doesn’t really matter when He really comes, what matters is that we put it in our minds that He is coming next week and that we live and prepare as if He is coming.

Take care, SHARE THE GIFT!!

Sisar Hubner

SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN THE POSTING OF LAST WEEKS’ EMAIL (below).  I WAS IN NEW MEXICO HELPING GRETCHEN WITH OUR NEWEST GRAND-DAUGHTER, ADELE JOSEPHINE POULSON.  She is SOOO precious!

He is the Gift                                                                                            Dec 1^st, 2014

So basically... The gospel is True. The church is awesome. Christ is Christmas. He is the gift.

 http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Check it out. It will blow your mind and help discover, embrace, and share the gift this Christmas holiday. 

This week was pretty much hectic and amazing. We threw together this Thanksgiving party, started arranging it on Monday, Thursday tons of members can and brought all their friends, all our investigators came and brought friends, our less active that hasn’t been to church is years came. In total 17 non-members came. It was amazing we made the pumpkin pie with the help of our chef friend, and the sweet potato casserole (heaven....YUM!M!) the elders bought duck, turkey, and ham. There was literally so much food it  was the best thing ever. We started it off with singing Kiitos Sulle Jumalani (Thank you, My God) I think it might just be a Finnish song, it was so cool to be gathered together all different cultures and faiths and come together to thank our Father for all the great many blessings. It was just spectacular!

Then that night we jumped on a plane and flew down to Helsinki, I had the most amazing conversation about the gospel with this lady I was sitting next to!!! #loveplanecontacting 

It was so great to see our sisters in Espoo and the next day we had MLC, missionary leadership council. So many great things are coming to Finland, we are trying so hard to get 20 lessons a week to investigators, at least 10 contacts a day and share HE is the gift this season, and giving away at least 2 books of Mormon a day. A lot of high goals to raise our sights. This is His work, I’m so excited to step it up and see the miracles come. 

We went to the temple that night. It will most likely be my last time, because when I go home it will be closed due to New Years Eve. It was hands down the best session. I just wanted to stay there for life. I LOVE THE TEMPLE! IM GOING THERE ONE DAY (= okay already have but still Imma keep going every possibility that I have. 

We came back, had to take a train, and then a bus, about an 8-hour trip......yikes 5.3o wake up....that hurt. but it always feels so great to be back in Oulu. This is my home. 

I just wanted to share that from today although it was p-day and we really wanted to get some stuff done we got a last minute phone call from our member asking if in 2 hours we could go with her to a school presentation to talk about the church.... How can you say no? we showed He is the Gift video and Because of Him. They just loved it and all wanted to come to our Joulu party. those videos  just pulled the spirit in so strongly. At the end the class were basically jumping at the opportunity to take a free book of Mormon it was fantastic. though we lost a lot of P-day time, the Lord helped us reach our goals and share the gospel also answer the call to serve. But honestly I feel so refreshed from that, nothing like giving your day to the Lord for Him to give it back, better then ever

I’m out of time

I love you all. He is the Christ. Share the gift

Sis. Hübner

p.s. sis woods and I eating our yummy turkey day dinner.


Below is a picture of the pedal that I snapped........yikes getting to fat these days!