July 31, 2017

Transfer Calls were last Friday and you'll never guess where I am going! When President Aura called us he started with my transfer call. He said, "Sister Roberts, you have a wonderful life ahead of you and you get to choose your next companion.'' So I guess I have my next assignment! But seriously I have heard that joke about 20 times this week. Everyone keeps giving me dating advice and offering to set me up with their friends in Utah and it has been an interesting week.....

But all that aside I had to say a lot of goodbyes this week and this Thursday I will be flying out from Finland back home. There are really no words that I can think of that can describe what my mission has meant to me. This has been the most impactful, most difficult, and the most rewarding year and a half of my entire life. I have learned so much about myself and about the kind of person that Heavenly Father expects me to be and who I can be with his help. I have learned about other cultures, a new language, and I now know how to read a map and function without the internet! But most importantly I have learned that happiness comes when we have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. I have learned how to have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. 

My plans for after the mission: I plan on being ''an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.'' Like it talks about in the book of Timothy. I want to follow the advice of the Savior in the book of Mark chapter 5  ''Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.'' I am so excited to share what I have learned in my time here. 

In the Book of Mormon it talks about Christ and how He is our sure foundation-

 ''And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.''

I know with all of my heart that Christ lives and that He truly is the son of God. He came to Earth for us and although life is hard we never have to go through it alone. I have loved every moment of my time as a missionary. I am grateful for the Savior's atonement and that we can change for the better. I will not be coming home the same person as when I left on my mission and for that I am eternally grateful. 

When Paul knew that the end of his mission was near he said in Timothy chapter 4, ''For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:''

At the very beginning of my mission I met a missionary in the airport that was going home from his mission. He gave one piece of advice that has stayed with me my whole mission. He said, "When you focus on the time, it goes slow. When you focus on the work, time goes fast. When you focus on the Lord, time ceases to exist.'' 

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve God here in Finland for a year and a half. Words cannot describe the love I have for this country and for all the people in it. I know that this is God's true church and that I will continue to be a missionary throughout the rest of my life.