February 18, 2016

Terve!

I have made a decision. I have decided that in the future when I have kids, instead of putting them in the time out corner or grounding them I will make them learn a Finnish grammar rule whenever they upset me. I will have the most obedient kids in the world and they will be bilingual. Parenting goals. Also I plan on giving them weird Finnish names. I've heard that after being in the MTC for over 5 weeks you start to get really weird. I concur and my district and I are total spazzes. But that's okay I'm still having fun! 

Okay so here is the coolest thing EVER. Elder Rasband spoke at our Tuesday Devotional!!!!! Everyone has the option of singing in the MTC choir every week so technically I sang for an Apostle! We sang " Nearer my God, to thee" and it was so good. I can't even put into words how strong the spirit was. The MTC staff were being stinkers about telling us who was coming but they had alluded that an apostle was coming all week. I didn't see him walk into the room but I felt it, we all stood and the room was silent. I had never heard our group of on average 18-23 year old missionaries be so quiet in all of my time here. All of our speakers here have been amazing but you could just feel that his portion of the spirit was greater. When he spoke he referenced his talk that he gave in 2010 "The Divine Call of a Missionary". It had been handed out the previous week and we had been asked to study it in preparation for this devotional. If you have any questions on how missionaries are called to their respective missions, read this talk. If you don't you should read it anyways because it's so cool. I had a general idea but this cleared up any doubts that I had about the process. Elder Rasband didn't preach to us from the podium, he grabbed a microphone and walked through the crowd and asked our opinions on the talk and answered individuals questions. He made each person he talked to look him in the eye and then he would ask them, " Do you know that you were called to your mission by revelation?"   He went on to say that since being called an Apostle 4 months ago, assigning missions has been the hardest responsibility because he would ask Heavenly Father to know perfectly where each person would go. I really loved his talk and at the end of the discussion he returned to the podium to briefly bear his testimony and close the meeting and he said to " Never again doubt your mission." He also said that if we remember nothing else form his talk remember these words that " The leaders of the church are no strangers to the voice of the Lord." They know what they're doing and I know that one of the Apostles received revelation that I need to go to Helsinki, Finland. =) 

So here's a less awesome but still a really fun thing that happened yesterday. My district got to host! That means that instead of learning super fun Finnish grammar we went to a quick orientation and then were assigned to welcome new missionaries! We had to pick them up from the drop off area and then take them to get their name tags, take them to the bookstore, take them to the residence (and carry their luggage for them the whole time, I'm so buff now it's not even funny) and then take them to their classroom where they immediately start their first class. I hosted 3 girls and I was sooooo tired but it was a really fun day. Also the fake investigator we have been teaching- Timo finally committed to be baptized yesterday! I was so excited! I was just thinking that if I'm THIS happy from a fake investigator I can't even imagine how that feels out on the mission field when it's real life! It's been such a good week! 

Our bff's here, all the Danish sisters are leaving Sunday night for Denmark!!! We came in with them so it's way weird, also we had an awesome valentines party with them. We stayed up till 11 (so rebellious) and ate incredible amounts of chocolate. It was awesome but I probably have cavities. It has gotten kind of hard making friends and having them ALL leave before us. I appreciate the help with grammar but I guess I need to work on my patience. I want to be in Finland NOW! But yeah, patience would be good. 

Our teachers make us do these role plays in class where we each take turns pretending to be an investigator and they teach us. It's a super humbling experience because we get to hear how a lesson in perfect Finnish actually sounds. It's so cool! It's also cool to put ourselves in the shoes of the investigator for a change. Anyways, it was my turn to play the investigator yesterday and I totally messed up. Sisar Ross (one of our teachers) began by asking me how my day was and I responded "Hyvä, mutta täänän kuolema oli vaikea" which means "good, but today death was hard". I am such a loser, the whole class was cracking up for like 5 minutes. I meant to say "Hyvä mutta täänän koulu oli vaikea" which means " good, but today school was hard." YEAH the words for school (koulu) and death (kuolema) are very similar. Go figure. 

I had an awesome week and my testimony grows a little every day here! I have a testimony that this church is true. I believe in Apostles and a modern day Prophet that guides us today. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It's not a sacrifice, it's an opportunity to show God how much I love Him. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa aamen.