Not FINNISHed Yet: Roller-Coaster Week

Rakas ystäviä!

We had a pretty roller-coaster week this week. A lot of good stuff happened, but the work has been slow. We had a really tough time setting up appointments with investigators this week. We met with J the red-haired college guy - we had a good lesson with him (I think but I'm not sure because I still understand about 0% of what he says, but it's cool), but we had to move his baptismal date. He prayed with us to choose another day, but didn't feel like he got an answer so as of now he does not have a baptismal date anymore. He's having a really hard time recognizing answers, and it doesn't help when he isn't keeping the Word of Wisdom. He tried last week, and made it to Wednesday, but he is going to try again this week, so hopefully that will help in the answer-recognition department. Other from him, we do not have any other progressing investigators. We are teaching a couple others fairly regularly, but are having a hard time getting them to keep commitments and come to church so their ability to progress is really limited. I am just really lucky and blessed that I am a positive person because even though this week has been tough, I know everything is going to work out, especially as I try harder to be more consecrated.

A fun thing that happened this week is that the two wards here in Turku held a surprise going-away party for the Mortensens, the awesome senior couple who are going home next week. They have been such an incredible blessing to the wards, and the YSA, and to us missionaries. Sisar Mortensen has come with us on lessons in the past and she is just one of the most lovingly blunt people on the planet. She told the same guy at least twice not to be afraid of humbling himself. She is just hysterical. Elder Mortensen is a master of the Finnish language, and he has given us language lessons, and helps us learn different ways to say things. They feed us all the time too. And you can tell how big of an impact they've made here by how much the wards love them. The party was just so fun. The fact that the party was kept secret was a miracle, but the Mortensens were blindfolded and led in and were met by thunderous applause. There were musical performances - I sang "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles with the daughter of an inactive woman and a less-active guy in the ward who is an INCREDIBLE guitarist - and good food and good friends. It was just a fraction of everything the Mortensens have done for Turku, and they deserved it.

One cool miracle this week happened last night. Like I said, we were having a really hard time getting lessons set up with investigators, so we did a lot of contacting - formers, referrals, less-actives or recent converts, and even some tracting. We were teaching a lot, but were just not having any luck. On Sunday evening, we had been doing the same thing out in student housing, and we finished up and left about 15 minutes earlier than we had meant to. So, we got back to our apartment, dumped our bikes and went to do a little street contacting before call-ins. At an intersection, Sisar Howell felt inclined to cross the street rather than just go straight, and we were walking down the street on the other side when we ran into two young men waiting for the bus. We struck up a conversation and the guys were way friendly, and we ended up setting an appointment with them at the church for the following evening. We were praying all week for help finding and had even fasted that day (more for personal needs, but I guess it put us in the right spirit) and the Lord blessed us with two new investigators, or at least strong potentials, at the last moment! It was so cool to see how He had put it all together - if we hadn't been a little early, we wouldn't have gone out to contact. If we hadn't crossed the street, we wouldn't have met those guys, and certainly not before their bus came. The Lord truly has his hand in this work that we are doing, and as we strive to do all we can to follow His direction and always be praying and listening to the Spirit, we will have great success. We are His missionaries and He will not let us fail!

One last thing i want to mention is the talk given by Elder Ballard during General Conference about member missionaries. He talked about really using the Preach My Gospel manual as members. I can't even begin to express how important member missionary work is. I am a terrible example myself, but I didn't get it until I was actually a missionary. Members are so important to missionary work. Let me repeat that: MEMBERS ARE SO IMPORTANT TO MISSIONARY WORK. Without members, we wouldn't get half the referrals we get, and we wouldn't get to meet with half our investigators because they are male and we need another female with us. Also in general, it is SO IMPORTANT to have members in lessons to testify and friendship the investigators. If you don't have a copy of PMG, GET ONE and READ IT. Know what the missionaries are teaching and how. You will become a priceless asset in this incredible work of salvation.

So that was my week. Hope you are all enjoying yours, and as always, I appreciate your prayers and thoughts. Rakkastan teitä aina! (I love you always)

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant