Rakas ystäviä!

"There is no age barrier when it comes to Christ-like service." -Bonnie L.Oscarson

This week has been long and busy, but it flew past in no time! Who else loved General Conference (for those who do not know what that is, check it out here)? Man, they were just laying down the law! Everything was straight-up doctrine, SO good for us to remember and also for investigators. Because of the time difference here in Finland, we saw all the sessions except the Sunday afternoon session, and we'll have to watch that one at some point on our own. But get this! Both the Saturday and Sunday morning session were broadcast at 7pm on their respective days, live stream! Which means as we were sitting in the church building at 7 in the evening in Turku, Finland, the speakers were in the Conference hall at 10 in the morning in Salt Lake City, Utah and we were watching it live! AND, my family was watching it at the exact same time, halfway across the world! How neat in that? I always thought it was cool that Conference could be broadcast worldwide, but I never appreciated it until this weekend. How cool is it that we can be tied together across continents not only by what is said by our beloved General Authorities, but also by the technology by which we view them. It just gives me shivers to think of the millions of Latter-day Saints combining the power of their spirits as we watched and prayed together. 

Also, fun fact, the guy who directed the music for the Orem Institute choir is the choir director in the MTC, and he is hysterical. Way cool guy.

Earlier this week, Sisar Howell and I were in Helsinki, Sunday night through Thursday, at 6-Week Interim Training for new missionaries. We came in Sunday evening and stayed the week with Sisaret Ladd and Nebatnekova, who are serving in one of the Helsinki areas. Every morning (except Wednesday because I stayed home with Sisar Nebatnekova, who was not feeling well) we went to the church to play sähly for our morning exercise. Sähly is basically just floor hockey played with whiffle balls and is super popular in Finland. I pretty much played goalie the whole time because I forgot to bring tennis shoes. The goalie is allowed to kneel n front of the net (it's really small), and I succeeded in scuffing up my knees enough over the three days that I managed to bleed all over the floor on day 3. Needless to say I am a pretty intense goalie. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were packed full of President and Sisar Rawlings talking, and lots and lots of roleplays. Not only did they teach us about missionary stuff, but also all about how to clean our apartments, do laundry, shine shoes, and clean our faces.

They really covered it all. The theme of the week was Doctrine in Action. How do we live what we teach, and how do we help our investigators do the same? President Rawlings used the story of King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon. King Benjamin speaks to his people in chapters 2-4, then at the beginning of chapter 5, the people are ALL COMPLETELY CONVERTED and believe everything he said, to the point that they had NO MORE DESIRE TO DO EVIL but to DO GOOD CONTINUALLY. What was so special about what King Benjamin taught that could change these people so completely? Well, it wasn't what he said. It was the fact that he LOVED his people and he showed it by SERVING them all of his days. How do we as missionaries help people come to the gospel? The same way! When we show those we serve that we love them, we build trust and a real relationship with them, so they come to know that what we say is as sincere as our words. Those three days of training were thus spent teaching all us new missionaries how to teach with love and with the power of the Spirit.

Day 4 was Kieli Koulu, language school. We spent that day with the missionaries assigned as Language Coordinators, going over language study plans and reviewing grammar. It was so fun to see all of my MTC friends again and just to spend time with so many missionaries. In the evenings, I also got to go on splits, first with Sisar Ladd, then with Sisar Nebatnekova and see a little of Helsinki. On Thursday evening, we took the train back to Turku, and when we got there, it was such a nice feeling. It's funny how Turku has really come to feel like home.

On Friday, it was back to work. We spent the weekend contacting and teaching. One cool highlight of the week was our lesson with the red-haired college guy, whom I will now call J. We were a little nervous because we were going to be teaching him the Word of Wisdom, and he drinks coffee, has a shelf-full of old alcohol bottles and likes to smoke pipes recreationally. So we weren't really sure how it was going to go down. We had to invite him a couple times to live the Word of Wisdom because at first it was a straight-up no. But we persisted, and he eventually agreed because he had a busy week coming up and he said he would try to do it this week. We asked him to say the closing prayer, and this is what he said: "Thank you for this new challenge the Sisters have given me." !!! Where did this guys come from?? The only answer is that he is one of the elect, whom the Lord has been preparing. After all, he was found by a miracle!

Saturday and Sunday were General Conference, and J the college guy came to two sessions and wants to watch more online because he didn't get to hear the prophet speak. We are really excited about his progress, and we are excited to see what the next week brings. Also, to support him in his Word of Wisdom week, I am going without chocolate and Sisar Howell is completely sugar-fasting. We want to provide some moral support for him and maybe create some good habits for ourselves!

Thank you as always for all your prayers and letters. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Yes, it is getting warmer! No longer wearing my winter coat.