Rakas ystäviä!
Hope y'all are having a great week and that all is well in
the Americas on this fine day. Here is a rundown of what went down this last
week.
Last Monday for YSA (we get to go when we have an
investigator there, and our 18 year old girl goes whenever she's in town) we
played ultimate Frisbee, and it was so much fun. I can tell you that I am a
great thrower, but I cannot catch the Frisbee if my life depended on it.
On Tuesday, we went to visit the Huhtala perhe (whose permission I have to put their name and photos online) for dinner and to do
some gardening. We pretty much just re-potted flowers because Sister Huhtala
had broken her toe, but the plan is for us to come back this week to go with
them to deliver potted flowers and a spiritual message to some of their
neighbors. Four referrals from one family? I think yes :)
 |
| Planting seeds in a more literal manner |
We have also met twice this week with our favorite Chinese
recent convert. He tries so hard and has such a great, growing testimony (he also
says the funniest things. Example : "The elders look so nice in their
suits. I think if I was a girl I would have hard time not falling in love with
them. Good thing I don't have that problem.") He taught the Gospel
Principles class on Sunday this week about the priesthood and he did such a
good job. It is so wonderful to see these people who have such a new testimony
really putting all of their effort into continuing to grow their faith in Christ.
We had a lesson with J the college guy on Saturday. We're a
little worried about him, not because of his progress per say, but because he
is currently in the middle of a school rush, so we can't meet with him as often
or reliably, and we don't think he's keeping all his commitments. He didn't
come to church on Sunday, which is strange, because he didn't really give us
any foreknowledge about it. We know he has a sincere desire to learn, but it
seems his priorities may be focused somewhere else at the moment.
We had a neat thing happen this week, when we knocked on a
door and woman around her 30s answered. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her
and she was very grateful when we gave her one and would be happy to meet with us again.
We came to her apartment again on Saturday and she had a friend over and we
talked to the two of them together. We introduced the Book of Mormon to the
friend, and when she flipped through it and read a little of it, she said she
felt the Spirit and offered to pay for a copy! Of course we told her it was
free, and she was exited to read it, and we are so excited to start teaching
them. They are two very special people and I'm excited to get to know them
and help show them the way to follow Christ.
Today we went to the other sisters' apartment for exercise
(Sis Howell ran and I rode my bike next to her because I'm lame and really just
don't like running) and to pick up a blender we wanted to borrow. Well, I
locked my bike (there's a peg that sticks through the back wheel), then realized
I did not have my key. So to get home, I steered the handle bars and Sisar
Howell kept the back wheel lifted. we may or may not have looked like bike
thieves. Also today, Sisar Howell was using said blender when the lid
decided not to work and green soupy glop splashed all over the wall and
cupboard. Suffice it to say we did a little more cleaning today than
anticipated.
We and the elders in our ward are ready to get to work on a
big thing in our ward. We met with the bishop on Saturday evening and explained
to him a few things we need help with. The first is working with less actives,
and did he have a list of specific less active members he would like us to work
with?
The second was that we want to really start hard-core implementing something called Active Member Plans. Basically President Rawlings has given to us 5 "role-plays" that we do with members to help them learn how to follow the counsel to do member missionary work. They are as follows: 1) The Invitation to pray - we ask them to pick someone in their life that we can pray about with the members to know how we can help bring the gospel to this person, then plan to come back and discuss and implement the revelation we receive regarding these people. 2) The Word Game - we play a game where we have slips of paper on which are written random words. Each person has 30 seconds and has to relate as many words as possible to the gospel within that time. The idea is to show them that talking about the gospel normally and naturally is easy! 3) The Book of Mormon role play - we teach the members how to give away a Book of Mormon so that the recipient is excited or has a reason to read it, then we set a date with them for when they would like to give away the book. 4) The Invitation role play - we help the members practice inviting a friend to church then set a goal with them of when they are going to do it. 5) Family History role play - we teach the members how to use family history to get their friends excited about doing it, and then set a goal to help them invite friends to do family history. We want to start doing this with as many people as possible to build a figurative army of member missionaries.
On Sunday we met with the bishop again and he gave us lists of members who would possibly be interested in doing this. Then he gave us a list of less actives he wanted to make a priority, plus a list of part-member families to work with and a list of people who might need regular visits form the missionaries to get an extra spiritual boost. We and the elders then went through these lists and split it up between the two companionships. This week we are going to contact as many of these people as possible and get as much useful information as we can, and then report back next week so we can start working with them together with the bishop to really build up and strengthen our ward. It is an exciting time in Turku 1st ward!
The second was that we want to really start hard-core implementing something called Active Member Plans. Basically President Rawlings has given to us 5 "role-plays" that we do with members to help them learn how to follow the counsel to do member missionary work. They are as follows: 1) The Invitation to pray - we ask them to pick someone in their life that we can pray about with the members to know how we can help bring the gospel to this person, then plan to come back and discuss and implement the revelation we receive regarding these people. 2) The Word Game - we play a game where we have slips of paper on which are written random words. Each person has 30 seconds and has to relate as many words as possible to the gospel within that time. The idea is to show them that talking about the gospel normally and naturally is easy! 3) The Book of Mormon role play - we teach the members how to give away a Book of Mormon so that the recipient is excited or has a reason to read it, then we set a date with them for when they would like to give away the book. 4) The Invitation role play - we help the members practice inviting a friend to church then set a goal with them of when they are going to do it. 5) Family History role play - we teach the members how to use family history to get their friends excited about doing it, and then set a goal to help them invite friends to do family history. We want to start doing this with as many people as possible to build a figurative army of member missionaries.
On Sunday we met with the bishop again and he gave us lists of members who would possibly be interested in doing this. Then he gave us a list of less actives he wanted to make a priority, plus a list of part-member families to work with and a list of people who might need regular visits form the missionaries to get an extra spiritual boost. We and the elders then went through these lists and split it up between the two companionships. This week we are going to contact as many of these people as possible and get as much useful information as we can, and then report back next week so we can start working with them together with the bishop to really build up and strengthen our ward. It is an exciting time in Turku 1st ward!
As always, it's been a wonderful week of missionary work and
building the Lord's kingdom on the earth today. I know that Heavenly Father
lives and loves us all, and I know the Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
Through His atonement and His love, we can do all things!
I love you all!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hillebrant
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