Grace and Charity

Rakas ystäviä,

The week was much less exciting than last. We did A LOT of contacting because work with our investigators has been pretty slow. They haven't been able to meet, or in the case of the Iranian man, he was out of town and had forgotten his phone. 

We've been starting to do some work in areas that haven't really been touched lately. One thing we've been doing is going through old teaching records to find people and making a list of those we want to try and get in contact with again. Earlier this week we contacted one guy that has met with over 20 sets of missionaries in the last 30 years! We met with him on Saturday and he showed us a photo album full of pictures of missionaries he has met with! He really likes the missionaries and seems to believe a lot of what he has been taught, but for some reason has been unwilling to act on it. We'll see what we can do with him. Maybe it's his time!

On the downside, we recently put J the college guy back into the Lord's hands for a while. We had been teaching the same thing over and over because he just wasn't getting it and wasn't receiving answers. We had covered pretty much everything with him, and for his sake, we needed to let him go until he is able to notice answers or recognize the Spirit that is missing when he isn't meeting with us. So for now we are giving him a break that is much needed on either end.

We have also been going to basketball night a little recently. Many wards here have sports nights where anyone is invited, and it's a great place for people to bring friends, and for missionaries to bring investigators and potentials so they can be in the church building in a casual setting. We've attended twice this month, and despite my lack of interest towards sports, I have actually enjoyed myself and discovered that I am not too bad. Surprise!

Yesterday was a fun day. There was a woman that Sisar Ross knows who is spending some time at the spa in Ruissalo, an island just off the harbor here, and she invited us to come out and see her. So yesterday morning, we bused out to Ruissalo Spa to spend some time with this member, and she bought us lunch too, which was SO good. And, we got to do a member role play with her as well, so it was fun and productive.

Noting Better to Do in Finland than Relax at a Spa - Yeah, Right!

Then, in the evening after church, the bishop's family had us over for dinner and to start the member role plays with them. They are such a great family! Susana, the recent convert

who has come with us frequently on lessons, is an awesome missionary (she actually just got back from spending a week as a mini missionary with the sisters in Vaasa), and so is the piispa. It is going to be so great to have the whole family starting to do their own personal missionary work!

We also went to Tampere on Wednesday for Zone Meeting. In the meeting, we watched the short movie wbout Zion's Camp (You can watch it here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-090-zions-camp?lang=eng ) and compared it to missionary work. The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders talked a lot about Preach My Gospel and how we con more fully use it to become more effective missionaries. There are a few assessments in the manual that we can take to evaluate our progress is various areas of our work and our personal growth in the gospel and as representatives of Jesus Christ. One assessment is focused around Christ-like attributes, and how we can become more like the Savior. The leaders challenged us to do one of these assessments every week and choose something from the assessments that we would like to work on. I decided that I needed to work on diligence and having charity. 

I've already been studying charity, which by definition is the pure love of Christ, and how I can have it more strongly especially in relation to those I meet on the street. As part of this, and as recommended by President Watson as something we all should do, I've been trying to pray for charity every time I say a prayer. I hadn't really seen too much of a difference until just the other day when we encountered a very interesting situation.

We were walking down the street, and walked past an older woman hobbling slowly along on a set of awful Finnish crutches. We just said hello as we passed, but she asked "Oletteko Jehovan Todistajia?" (Translated: "Are you Jehovah's Witnesses?") No, we told her we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, and suddenly she got very passionate. At this point in time, Sisar Ross was in the middle of making a phone call, so she was out of the picture for a moment. The woman asked me what our beliefs are about how we are saved, so I explained that, well, everything is through Jesus Christ and if we do everything we can to become like him and follow him . . .

"No," she said, "that's wrong! It is only though armo!" Grace! Mercy!

"Well, yes," I said, "of course we believe that, but we also need to do our part, and . . ."

"No! You Mormons," she said, "think that everything is your doing! You try to earn your way to heaven and you all say 'Look at me God, I am better than everyone else because I DID all these things!'"

She the proceeded to ask how well I know the Bible and I said that I read it of course, but then she told me that I needed to read it again because CLEARLY I don't understand that we are only saved by grace, because it says so. Poor Sisar Ross was completely oblivious to all that had just happened because she was on the phone, but when she joined the conversation, the lady basically repeated everything she had just said, then proceeded to lecture us for a good 15 minutes about how we Mormons believe THIS and THIS and that's wrong because all you need is grace!

And, no matter how many times we insisted that, yes, we do believe that the Lord's mercy is in fact the center feature of everything we do, she only heard what she wanted to hear. I could tell that Sisar Ross was getting pretty frustrated, but she was handling herself very calmly. But what surprised me most was that, while situations like this would usually get me very frustrated and potentially angry (I don't particularly care for other people telling me what I believe), I found myself praying for the woman! Praying that the Lord would soften her heart and help her to feel His love and get SOMETHING from this whole conversation. That was so amazing to me! Because usually, in the past I would be praying for patience for myself and for help to be able to explain without getting upset, but instead my prayer was focused on this woman, and not myself.

And, I think that's the essence of charity - being concerned for others when you could be worrying about your own uncomfortable situation. Because that is the center of Christ's Atonement. He willingly allowed himself to enter into the worst suffering and discomfort imaginable just so He could focus on us and our needs, because He loves us more than his own life. We are more important to Him, and when we follow that example and make others more important than our own discomfort, we allow the love of Christ to permeate everything we do. I still have such a far way to go to become more charitable, but this was a testimony to me that through prayer and study, we can develop these Christ-like attributes and become more like our Savior. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week and find something charitable to do this week for someone else.

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant