This has been quite the week. Monday evenng last week was
the Huhtala boy's baptism, which was great, and immediately after it ended, and
we'd gotten a little food and some photos, there was a mad dash to the train
station. Sisar Ross had to stay behind at the church with the other Sisters
because the Restoration concert started at 6:30, and Sisar Huhtala kindly
escorted me to the apartment, where we somehow managed to manhandle my bags
into the car, then to the train station where I got on the train with just
minutes to spare. Blessed! It was really sad to leave, but I didn't have a lot
of time to mope. I got to Helsinki in one piece and stayed with the
Neitsytpolku Sisters, who got me off dark and early Tuesday morning to my
train. The train to Kuopio was delayed in Helsinki for an hour for technical
difficulties, after which the trip lasted 4.5 hours. But finally, I made it
to Kuopio, where there was another crazy couple of hours getting me settled in
and getting Sisar West sent off to Helsinki.
The work in Kuopio is going wonderfully. We have a couple
investigators, but right now we're mostly doing a lot of member and less-active
work. The members here are so cool! By the end of this week, we will have had more
DA's than we usually had over the period of a month in Turku. The members love
us so much and are so willing to help us. Not to mention everyone here is
musical or artistic in some way. I just got dropped into a massive pool of
kindred spirits. I've even been asked already to do a musical number in church!
The Sisters' area in Kuopio is really spread out (welcome to
the North!), so we have a car here to get us to areas that are farther away.
One area is out in Varkaus, a little town about an hour away, and we go there
once a week. We aren't allowed to proselyte there because it's so far away, but
we had a really cool miracle happen on Wednesday when we were there. One of our
appointments there cancelled, so we went to an ABC (a gas station/restaurant-y
kind of thing) to do language study, and we had only been sitting there for a
couple minutes when a man approached us and asked if we were from another
church. We told him we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and why we were here. He plopped right down next to us, and we had a
really long conversation about doctrine, gave him a Mormonin Kirja and a couple
pamplets, and set up an appointment for the next time we are in Varkaus. It was
a miracle to see how the Lord put us in that exact place at that time so that
we could meet this man. He was very interested, and we are excited to meet with
him again.
Other highlights of the week include, but are not limited to:
- Prepping for (and pretty much running) the unofficial ward
Halloween party at our BML's house, and eating lots of homemade caramel.
- Cleaning the apartment of a recent convert in our ward who
just moved, and spending about 5 hours deep cleaning the kitchen alone. It was
quite the process.
It has been a wicked fast week packed with more things
than I can account in such a short email time. And, our car is parked on a
meter, so we have to get going.
But, I really love the work here. I love what I'm doing
because I know it's true. This is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth
today. We have a living prophet and we have true scripture in the Book of
Mormon, as well as the Bible. We have the real and functioning power of the
Priesthood guiding our church. And I get to share that with the world :)
I love you all so much and hope you have a fabulous week,
wherever you are!
Stay shiny!
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Hillebrant
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| Caramel apples. Yum! |
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| Let it snow. |
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| Can you guess who we are supposed to be? |
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