February 21, 2017

'' My English is getting worse but it's not like it's being replaced with good Finnish''- A quote from an unnamed missionary this past week. Truer words have never been said! Here is a rundown of last week! We started off with a Zone Conference this past Wednesday and it was great seeing the whole zone together again. Sisar Watson issued us all a challenge to step up our morning workouts and Sister Adams and I did just that! We started to go jogging in the morning and I have so much more energy now and I am actually awake for our morning planning that we do afterwards. And the mornings here are gorgeous, it's covered in snow and Finland is basically all forest anyways so if we head out just a bit from where we live we can go running through the snow covered forest and it is beautiful! 

We also had exchanges last Thursday in Lahti. I got to spend a lot of the day with one sister who is one of the few converts in our mission. She's from Lithuania and I got to hear her amazing conversion story and hear about the church in Lithuania. The church has only been established there for around 20 years and the country has only had it's freedom for about 27 years. So everyone there is a convert and has amazing faith. 

When we got back we got to go to a baptismal service! I love watching people get baptized and how incredibly happy they are. I know that this church is true and that it is only through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that we can have joy. I am so grateful for the Bible and the Book of Mormon that teach me more about the Savior and how I can be more like him. I know that God has a plan for each of His children.

February 14, 2017

Sisar Roberts and Adams after their first Zone Training Meeting together!

So much has happened and I don't have much time to write about it! I will summarize! The Zone Leaders and us held the Zone Training meeting last Tuesday and it went really well. I know the Lord helped me a lot because I am not a fan of public speaking! Sisar Adams and I taught the Zone about proper pronunciation for Finnish and then we demonstrated a role play about how to follow up with investigators and members after helping them share the gospel with their friends on social media.

(It's an activity we've been doing a lot recently.) 

Then the next day we headed off to the mission home again for a leadership training meeting! The day after that I headed off to central Helsinki for the day to do work while Sisar Adams had to stay at the mission home for ''My Plan''. It's a meeting all of the departing missionaries now go to in their last transfer. Then, on Saturday we held my first ever exchanges with the Tampere 2 sisters! It was cool because I got to spend a lot of the day with my former companion Sisar Pugmire and I got to know her amazing new companion. 

On Sunday I gave my first ever talk in Finland! I was asked to introduce myself to the ward and share why I decided to serve a mission and how it has helped me. I started off by saying that I still remember the amazing missionaries that taught my parents and how grateful I was to them and that it took me a long time to actually decide to serve a mission. But I am super glad that I did! After I sat down Sisar Adams and I had to plan our lesson that we were teaching in  third hour (we hadn't had any time to prepare) and then we taught third hour in church and it went surprisingly well! It was definitely because the Lord was helping us! 

Something cool that happened this week was that we got to teach a deaf woman yesterday. We had met her the day before at her door and this time we came prepared with a huge white board from home! After we started to meeting we started to write out questions to get to know her better. She started saying how she knows that she doesn't have much time left because she's really old and has already lost her hearing so we read with her from the scriptures about how Christ overcame death so that we can all be resurrected. We wrote out that she has a loving Heavenly Father and that He has a plan for her. It was such an amazing lesson. It had to be super simple because it took a while to write it all down (especially in Finnish) but the spirit was so strong and we hope to go back soon. 

Also, today is Ystävän Päivä! In Finland it's not ''Valentines Day'' it's ''Friends Day'' and they celebrate friendship. It's actually really cute. The bakeries went crazy and it was literally a struggle to only get one pastry. Finland knows how to bake. Hyvää Ystävän Päivää!!! Happy Valentines Day! 

Sisar Roberts and Adams needed a short rest from tracting 

We love our tracting days! Seriously!