February 4, 2016

Oooooookay so I don't even know what to write because I feel like my last P-day was about 2 seconds ago. Every day is the same. The other day in my investigator lesson was the first time I was able to respond to a question without referring to my notes and have like an actual, albeit very brief conversation in Finnish about modern day prophets. Go me! Of course with my confidence sky high for the next day I thought that it was going to be the same experience. The Lord decided that I needed to be humbled again and I was reminded yet again that I don't speak Finnish. I basically gaped at Timo (fake investigator/teacher) for 20 minutes and it was just a really bad lesson. It reminded me of a quote from someone that I heard in sacrament "Two people can do anything as long as one of them is the Lord." I need to remind myself that with out the spirit I won't be able to get very far here. 

So let me tell you a story of how I was accidentally swearing in Finnish for a little while. We have this online language program called TALL that we get on occasionally that allows you to use these headphones that record how I say phrases and sentences and it will play it back so I can try and match their correct Finnish accent. Soooooo Vanhin (Elder) Christian was practicing the Finnish word for Satan and a couple of us found it funny and started to say it too. We are supposed to chant the word until it sounds natural. So we were doing just that. Apparently saying the Finnish word for Satan out of religious context is the equivalent to saying the F word. It doesn't mean the F word, it's just that bad. So for a solid 10 minutes we were being super dumb. In Finnish you are supposed to say "paholainen" (the evil one) or say vastustaja (the adversary) and if you say their word for Satan or their word for devil it's just BAD BAD BAD.It's kind of a He-Who-Shall-Not-Be named situation, but for real. When I found this out of course I felt awful but I was laughing way to hard at the time to apologize to our traumatized teacher. Don't worry! I have repented of my evil ways! 

 We've been reading out of the Book of Mormon in class and it's been so cool to see how the translated sentences and the different wording will change my perspective on a verse. The other day Sister Johnson (my fav. teacher) had us all reading 2 Nephi 32 and I really liked the Finnish verse 20. In English it talks about pressing forward steadfastly but in Finnish that's "ponnistella eteenpain lujina" or struggle forward steadfastly. We talked about that in class for a while. I think the Finns got it right, life is hard and we do have to struggle forward steadfastly but the great thing is we never have to struggle alone. I testify that we are never alone. 

 We had an amazing devotional on Tuesday. It was by Sister and Elder Zwick of the 70. Sister Zwick told us this really amazing personal experience of how her oldest son was born physically and mentally impaired and was unable to serve a mission because he couldn't read or write even though he very much desired to serve. When their younger son got called on his mission to....I think it was Hong Kong, they ended up having to go there a week before their son's release date for business and they asked the mission president if they could pick up their missionary son at the end of the week and take him home. The mission president agreed on the condition that the two brothers would have to serve together that entire week. The family was thrilled and their oldest son got to be set apart as a full-time missionary in Hong Kong for a week and work with his brother. The two brothers handed out Book of Mormons and prayed everyday to find an English speaker so that the oldest brother could bear his testimony. On the final day they found a tourist couple from New Jersey on the train who spoke perfect English. The older brother was thrilled and handed them a Book of Mormon and said, " I can't read this book but my family reads it to me. I know it's true and it makes me happy. I know that if you read it you can be happy too." He left them his contact information and the Book of Mormon and walked away. A couple weeks later the family got a phone call that from the couple that they had read the Book of Mormon and had since been baptized.   

I know that the power of the Holy Ghost is real. I know that there are people waiting all across the world to hear about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I testify that this church is true and that it is led by Jesus Christ. I believe in a God who loves us enough to guide us in these latter days. I believe in the power of prayer. ( I don't think I've stopped praying since I got here.) I love this church. I believe that God can help us reach our full potential if we put our faith in Him who knows us best and loves us the most. I believe in the gift of tongues. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessa Aamen. Sisar Roberts