Changes!

Rakkaat ystävät! (I finally figured out how to actually say this. Hows that for 8 months of learning this ridiculous language?)

The air is getting crisp, the days are getting shorter, the sun is shining, and life is looking up! It's been a great (albeit a little stressful) week here in the blessed land of Turku! 

The work here has been a little funky lately. We're still having a tough time meeting with a lot of our investigators, and so we've had to keep spending time trying to find and contact people. The first couple days of the week were stellar, with lots of appointments and things to do. There's an awesome part member family that we've been working with for a while, and the daughters have been investigators. Right now we're only actively working with youngest, who is 9 or 10, and we've been having a really fun time coming up with creative lessons and games to play that will keep her focused. This week, we played Simon Says, which in Finnish is Kapteeni Käskee, or "Captain Commands," and talked about the Book of Mormon and how if we follow the words of the prophets, we won't get "out."

We also have been teaching this older guy who we found in our list of former investigators, and he is super slippery. He's a nice guy, and has been visited by over 20 sets of missionaries in the last 15 years or whatever, but just has a really hard time keeping commitments. Like, a REALLY HARD time. We just want to sit him down and be like, "WHY AREN'T YOU BAPTIZED YET?" He has so much potential, and now all he needs to do is DO something about it!

The there was a bit of a damp cloth thrown down when I woke up on Thursday with the beginnings of a old working it's way into my system. Suffice it to say it slowed things up a bit. Then double the trouble when it quickly became apparent that Sisar Ross was getting one two. The more the merrier. We must have been quite the pair in church yesterday, both with runny noses and sore throats, each going through a pack of tissues and lots of hand sanitizer. Hopefully we don't start an epidemic.

In any case, the rampant illness in our apartment slowed us both down quite a bit, but we still did as much work as possible. We did go to basketball on Friday and Sisar Ross played (this was before she got sick) while I watched. Then we went to get ice cream with one of our potentials, a really cute 24 year old girl from Thailand. On Saturday, there was an international market along the river, and we went to that to try and find a guy that had gone to church with the missionaries when the market was in Helsinki. He was a really nice guy, very charismatic and fun to talk to. He didn't come to church with us, but we enjoyed the conversation (and more blatantly suggestive comments than we've heard in a long time). 

And then changes. There was so much anticipation as we awaited our change calls. We had heard that President Rawlings wasn't going to call if no one was changing, so I think the wait was longer and more painful because we didn't know if we were going to get a call or not. So when the other sisters called us on Saturday morning asking if we'd gotten our calls, and we hadn't, we assumed nothing was changing. So Sisar Ross and I started making plans and talking about all the changes we wanted to make and things we wanted to do in the next two months ago.

AND THEN! Suddenly our phone went off, and it was President's ringtone. I wish you all could all hear his ringtone, because it is very intense, and when it rang, we both about had heart attacks. We didn't waste any time picking up, with a shaky "Good morning, President." But he told us he was actually just calling to let us know that neither of us would be going anywhere, and to keep doing what we do, and that was all! So there was a lot of dramatic buildup for not a lot of anything. As positive as I was that that there was no way I would be staying, I'm excited to keep on keeping on here in Turku, among the people and places I have come to love so much.

 

As far as other changes in the District go, Elder Wilson got transferred a week and a half ago to Helsinki to be a Zone Leader, and Elder Golling came to take his place. He only has one change left in his mission, and he will be the new District Leader here. Elder Ahlquist, who has been the District Leader here since I came to Turku, so 6 months, is moving to Oulu to be a Zone Leader in the North Zone. I'm sad to see him go, because we've been serving together for so long and have gotten to be really good friends, but he's off to bigger and better things! And Elder Johnson, who was with me in the MTC, will be coming to take his place! Sisar Schellenberg, who has been here since before I came, is also shipping off to Helsinki, and Sisar Pack is coming from Jyväskylä to take her place. Of my very first District in Turku, I am the only survivor, so I will know the area better than any of the other current missionaries here, and that will be fun :)

One of our goals for the upcoming change together is to do an overhaul of our Area Book. We want to get organized and we want to find people! The Lord has provided us with this method of remembering the people we have found and preparing those that are ready the progress in Christ's gospel. We want to make the best use of the resources he has given us. We've already started making a little progress, and it has made all the difference. We've found names of people from all over the city, some that were put into the book almost 10 years ago with no evidence of follow up! We've started making lists of people to contact and have already started implementing them into the work. We know things will take off when we can start really utilizing all our resources. The Lord really does know what he's doing!

I hope you all have a great week and remember how much the Lord loves you each individually!

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant