The Most Special Day of My Entire Mission Thus Far

Rakkaat ystävät!

My my, it's been a crazy week. We kicked it off with a hectic P-day, which wrapped up with us on a train to Tampere for exchanges. I had a great day on Tuesday with Sisar Jones in Tampere. The two of us took a train to Tojala, which is a 20 minute trip from Tampere, where we went to a member family's house to help clean up apples out of their yard. This family had 18 apple trees in their yard! 

Our job was to sort through the apples on the ground: the good ones went in one bucket, the bruised ones went in another to be collected by someone who would take them to feed deer, and the mummy apples got left on the ground to get raked up. There is this weird apple disease that the Finns call "mummy disease," and it gets into the apples if they have a break in the skin and rots them from the inside out. It's pretty gross. The work was pretty rough on our knees, and my thighs were pretty tired by the end of it from allt he squatting, but it was a lot of fun and the family gave us two entire buckets of apples (which are delicious, by the way) to take home!

The one lame thing that happened was that I forgot my camera out there and didn't realize it until we were back in Tampere. Luckily we have Zone Conference this week,and the sisters will bring it to me.  Sisar Jones and I split a pizza at a Kebab shop for dinner, and taught a lesson to one of their investigators with a baptismal date. 

The best part of the day was a special sisters' broadcast in the evening. Elder Ballard and Elder Bednar from the Quorum on the Twelve Apostles spoke from Germany to all the women of the church in 39 countries throughout Europe, and all the Sister missionaries were given special permission to attend (it was finished way past normal curfew). It was a really special meeting, with all the speakers speaking directly to the wonderful, strong sisters in Europe. We really have strong stock over here. It was so special to me that I got to participate in this meeting where all the speaker really just commended all these women for their strength and expressed the love of the Church leaders. Even though I'm not really one of these women, it made me feel so connected to them and strengthened my love for the people I'm serving. 

Wednesday morning, we caught a train back to Turku where we had a language lesson with a really great Finnish woman. We've been meeting with her for a few weeks now and hope to be able to start teaching her soon. But it's been really great language practice to have a real Finn teaching and correcting and giving us (gasp!) homework to focus on. We then had a super last minute meeting with a wonderful part member family we've been working with, and played "10 Commandments Bingo." Way fun!

Thursday was pretty uneventful. We had weekly planning and a lesson with a recent convert about the Law of Chastity. It was pretty great. He even asked if he was allowed to talk about it with sisters, which was pretty funny. We did the best we could to keep it un-awkward. Our only other appointment of the day cancelled, which was actually great because we took a bus we probably wouldn't have taken otherwise and ran into a current investigator we haven't had contact with in like a week, and a former investigator who just got so busy, and whom we haven't seen in months. So it was a blessing in disguise. 

Friday was probably the most special day of my entire mission thus far. We had a Mission Conference (meaning every single missionary in all of Finland coming together in one place) in Helsinki, and Elder David A. Bednar was coming to speak to us (!!!), along with Elder Kearon from the Europe Area Seventy. We were told in June that this would be happening and I've been stoked out of my mind ever since. 

It was really busy, long day that started with us and all other Turku missionaries on a train to Helsinki, where we then took another inner-city train with a ton of other missionaries to Haaga, where we met in the church building. It was packed with missionaries from all over the country and it was so fun! I got to see all my friends from my MTC group, and I got to see Sisar Howell again too! After we were all done socializing, we got situated in the chapel where we were asked to study quietly while we waited for Elder and Sister Bednar, and Elder and Sister Kearon, to arrive. A lot of excitement in the air, let me tell you. Well, when they arrived, we all stood as Elder Bednar walked in, which is always so special to me. You could just feel the Spirit in the room increase a couple degrees.

The meeting was an incredible three and a half hours, where Elder Kearon, Sisar Kearon, and Sister Bednar spoke, then Elder Bednar talked a little. He taught a lot about the relationship between prayer and agency. Basically, the only way to have true power behind our prayers is if we truly intend to act on what we are asking for help with. He introduced this concept of praying always that I really liked: "Prayer is when we're working on the stuff we've been talking with Father about." In other words, we say a prayer for help, then that prayer continues after we say 'Amen' as long as we are working to do and improve upon the things we have prayed about. That makes so much sense to me. 

The rest of the meeting was basically a Q&A session with Elder Bednar where he would ask us questions and have us respond, then had us ask questions and he would respond. Or rather, someone would ask a question, he would answer, then maybe he would ask a follow up question or have a little one-on-one with the person asking to help them answer their own question. Or something like that. It's kind of difficult to explain, but it was really interactive and basically we had a three and a half hour discussion group with Elder Bednar and 100 missionaries.

I even had the chance to ask Elder Bednar a question I'd been pondering, and let me tell you, there is nothing more powerful than getting to have a little conversation with an Apostle of the Lord in which he is able to discern your personal needs and answer in the way the Lord wants you to hear. So it was pretty cool. And I've never felt the Spirit so strongly in a room, speaking directly to me the things I needed to learn to help me become a better missionary, and a better person. It was such an incredible experience.

The rest of the week really pales in comparison. After the meeting with Elder Bednar, Sisar Ross and I went with another pair of Sisters to a little Mexican restaurant owned by Church members (half-price, baby!), then hopped a train with the rest of our district back to Turku. 

Saturday the other ward had a baptism, a young couple with a baby who just got married two weeks ago so they could get baptized. They are just incredible!

Saturday evening, Sisar Ross and I got contacted on the street by a bachelor party! The groom was dressed in a bunny suit handing out carrots and stickers and the group stopped us, asked us to write down wedding advice in a little notebook, gave us both stickers, chatted a bit, then sent us on our way. Missions, man. Lots of crazy stuff happens. 

Sunday was great day. We had an awesome lesson with a recent convert from Espoo who is living in Turku for a couple months, then an unexpected lesson with a potential who we dropped by. 

It's been a whirlwind of a week. I've learned so much, and my mind and heart are due to explode from all the wonderful things I have been able to hear and learn and gain from the Spirit this week. I wish you all could have the chance to be in such close quarters with an Apostle to learn from and talk with him. These men truly are called of God to be His teachers and mouthpieces to the world. I have such a strong testimony of that. 

I hope you are having wonderful weeks, wherever in the world you are.

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

My MTC district together again.