Teachers of the Truth

Sent May 19th, 2015:

Rakkaat ystävät,

The Elders called us yesterday evening and asked if we could take their school presentation today. In Finland there are general religion classes for everyone, and missionaries are often invited to present about the Church in these classes. There is a general PowerPoint that we use and we can give out materials like the Book of Mormon and pamphlets. Now, neither Sisar Johnston nor I have ever done a class presentation, so we were pretty nervous - mostly because Finnish teens terrify us haha. Not really, it was just a little nerve-wracking. 

What you feel like when you have very little time
 to prepare a school presentation.

Anyway, there was nothing to fear. The students were really responsive. We just acted like ourselves, and it was actually a lot of fun. We went through the slides, as well as showed the Because He Lives video and a Mormon Message about the Book of Mormon. They had a lot of great questions, and even laughed at our stupid jokes. At the end of the presentation, almost every single one of them took a Book of Mormon and a card, which was awesome. What an adrenaline rush. It went so well, and I'm really glad I got the experience. 

We had a wonderful experience on Sunday, when H, the woman I told you about with cancer, came to church. We'd informed a couple Relief Society sisters that she was coming and during Sacrament meeting there were about 5 RS sisters on the pew with her. H stayed for all three hours and was very well taken care of by the ward for the whole time. It was awesome. We had another great lesson with her last night with one of the RS counselors along. She us a rock-solid fellowshipper. We've talked a lot with H about baptism and how it can give her a fresh start, and she has expressed interest. Now we're just working on setting a date.

We did a lot of contacting, which has yet to bear a ton of fruit, but we've had a great time doing it. Sisar Johnston and I love dancing in front of doors when we go tracting. The other day, we were dancing in front of the door and I started to knock again right as it was opening. It was awkward. But fun.

Spring is coming to Finland

Another woman we met tracting wasn't interested (well, actually a lot of them weren't haha) but when we asked if she was familiar with our church, she said "Oh yeah, I was a huge Donny Osmond fan!" I hadn't heard that one yet. But she was the nicest lady and laughed more than any Finn I've ever met. 

We also had Zone Meeting last week, and it was my first one as a Sister Training Leader, which meant sitting up front. Weird. Sisar Johnston and I even presented a role play as part of the meeting, and it wasn't terrible. So that's a good sign.

I just want to testify that the Book of Mormon is true. I finished it again yesterday and started again today. I never get tired of it and I always learn something new. It truly testifies of Christ and I have come closer to Him from reading the Book of Mormon that from anything else. It truly is the work of God, and if you haven't read it, you should. It will change your life. It's changed mine.

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

I never tire of Finnish clouds.

Sunset in Tampere

I'm not sure - a giant burrito, maybe?

"Speak friend and enter!" . . . "Ystävä?"

Taking on Tampere (pronounced Tam-peh-reh) - 12 May 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

Serving in Tampere is the life I always dreamed of. Well, not exactly, I actually wanted to go to Helsinki. BUT, that's only because I didn't know how much cooler Tampere is. I'm in a dream!

First off, we've got a beautiful chapel. The original burned down a few years back, so this one is pretty new. And it's huge. And a chapel means church tours and YSA activities and a family history center and so many other things we can invite people to. 

Second, buses. I forgot how awesome buses are. I've even missed the adrenaline rush that you get when you have to run to catch it just in time. They are great for contacting (which I'm still terrible at haha) and make that 8 o'clock no-door-contacting time way more bearable when we don't have set lessons. 

The big city vibe. I didn't realize how much I loved it until I was back in the throng. There are tons of people and so many new places to explore. Not to mention, more free public restrooms than in the small towns. 

Sisar Johnston. She is a rockstar. She is a great missionary and super funny. We get along really well, and are already really good friends. Also, she discovered that I snort when I laugh and she still loves me. 

We have awesome work going on here and plenty to do. This last week we found two new investigators. One is a young man originally from the Middle East who has lived here for 11 years. He's super interested and willing to do the things we ask him to do. Our first lesson with him was probably one of the best first lessons I've ever taught. We talked with him about Jesus Christ, because he doesn't have a super solid background understanding. When we testified of the Atonement, the Spirit was so strong and you could tell that he felt it. We committed him right away to read the Book of Mormon and pray, and it sounds like he will be able to come to church next week.

The second is an older woman, probably in her 50s or 60s, who has cancer and is struggling to find happiness. We taught her yesterday and she was so cute. She told us how lonely she is and how hard her life has been, and she was just eating up our attention and love. This gospel will change her life, and she is pretty interested to gain faith in Jesus Christ. We have another appointment with her on Thursday. 

I'm loving life in Tampere and am super excited to serve here. I'm so blessed :)

Keep calm and stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Gettimg ready to leave.

Last comp selfie.

Saying good bye.

My "travel companions".

Skyping with the family. 

Introducing Sisar Johnston, my new companion.

There really is no good explanation for this.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes Take 7 - 4 May 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

And so transfers are upon us again.

I will be transferring to Tampere on Tuesday (i.e.: tomorrow) to join Sisar Johnston as a Sister Training Leader. Sisar Lafferty will be staying in Kuopio and be joined by Sisar Andersson, a native Finn from Tampere. So it's exciting news all around.

I have mixed emotions about the transfer call. I'm really excited to go to Tampere, but I'm of course sad to leave Kuopio and the incredible branch here. Yesterday after the prayer at the end of Sacrament meeting, they all stood up and sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again to me and Elder Briggs (who is going home this week) and it was so touching. I didn't realize how much I would miss Kuopio until then.

Being Sister Training Leader is going to kick me in the butt in exactly the way I need it to. When Elder Bednar came to visit, he said the reason he was an Apostle wasn't because he was holier or more righteous than everyone else, but rather because the Lord needs to keep a closer eye on him. That's kind of what I feel like right now, haha. I'm really excited to serve with Sisar Johnston  - she is an excellent missionary and I will learn a lot from her. I'm also very excited for the traveling I will get to do as an STL. I'm not sure of all the cities that we will go to, but I do know we will get to go to Turku!! So I'm pretty stoked. Now all I have to do is finish packing . . .

Our hike to church.

Where we meet for church - our regular chapel building has been under repair since I got here.

Another view of our "church"

Now for the funny story of the week: On Tuesday after e-mailing, we hit up the Puijo Tower, then had grand plans to go to a museum as well. 

View from the Puijo Tower.

Those plans were cut short when I accidentally locked our phone and my keys in our apartment. Sisar Laffery's house keys were in the car, which was also locked. So. We knew the Elders were out to lunch at a member's home, but we decided to walk across the center and wait at their apartment (good thing we had the code to their garage). We sat in their stairwell for two hours. During that time, we went across the street to a kirppi (secondhand store) and bought a game to keep ourselves entertained. The building is also home to some kind of hotel office, and as we were there at the end of the work day there were quite a few people leaving. They were clearly confused when the got a look at our little camp. Apparently we made some of them uncomfortable, because at one point two men approached us and asked what we were doing. We sheepishly explained the situation. They just laughed and said that there are a lot of drunk people hanging around at this time of year (Vappu - Mayday - was coming). they had clearly thought we were drunk and were going to come kick us out. It was quite the strange situation. Luckily, the Elders showed up not too much later, and we were able to get everything sorted out.

In the Elders' staircase. This may be why they
thought we were drunk.

I'm excited for the new adventures that await me in Tampere. Whatever the Lord has in store, I'm ready for it. As Nephi once said, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

More snow April 30th!

The beloved Yaris.

The District 7.

This was my appartment.

Nothing Better Than Awkwardly Moving Forward - 28 April 2015

Rakkaat ystävät!

It's been a good week. We had lessons with most of our investigators, which went well. None of them are committed to baptism yet, but we're working with them to get to that point and we've been working to find people who will meet with us and who we can start fresh with. 

Sisar Lafferty had a birthday this week, and we celebrated with missionary work! Also, I got her a little present and made her a giant cookie . . . from the dough we had made to give to our investigators. But she did get a treat, and I think she had a good day :)

We've been doing a little tracting to liven up some of the areas in which we had nothing, and it's actually been a lot of fun. You don't realize how awkward of a person you are until soemthing like this happens:

*we knock on door and woman answers*

Me: "Moi! I'm Sisar Hillebrant and this is Sisar Lafferty. What's your name?"

Woman: "[insert Finnish name here]"

Me "Nice to meet you! *shake hands* We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Have you ever heard of our church?"

Woman: "Uh, yeah, a little."

Me: "Cool, what do you know about us?"

Woman: *obviously uncomfortable* "Not much, but, uh, I'm not really interested."

Me: "Hei, no worries. We just have a little video we'd like to share if you have a minute."

Woman: "Uh, no thanks."

Me: "OK, no problem. Maybe we could come back sometime in the future!"

Woman: ". . ."

Me: "Well, uh, I mean not in the near future or anything, but . . ."

Woman : *slowly shuts door*

Me: ". . . yeah, ok, bye . . ."

So that's how it goes. But luckily not all contacts have been so uncomfortable. We've actually found a bunch of cool potentials this way. Of course most of them aren't free until after Vappu . . . but alas, what can you do?

Awkward as we are, the work still moves forward. It's a good thing God is the one in charge, and not me or anyone else. I think that is the way to know whether or not the church is true - the fact that so many people are touched by the Spirit of it despite the awkward efforts of us kids out in the mission field. The Lord's work truly is His work, and we just get to help. I'm so grateful to be His missionary and to share the gospel with all who will hear.

Have a great week and stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Sunshine in Kuopio.

Spring time is coming.

And then we had a snowstorm on April 23rd

Meet the Melbys.

Sisar Lafferty's birthday cookie.

My Burden is Light - 21 April 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

This has been a very eventful week, which included, but is not limited to:

- A visit to the art museum.

- Splits with the Sister Training Leaders. I learned so much from them about boldly approaching people on the street, and we met some really cool people. Something I really admire about these two lovely Sisters is that they really don't fear being a little awkward - which I thought I was doing OK with until splits. They just had so little fear. I want to be like them when I grow up, haha. We had a really great splits day and capped it all off with a liter of Aino ice cream and americallaiset munkit.

- Finding two more investigators, an older man we met on the street and his wife, both of whom are very religious. They are both willing to hear more, so we were able to set up another appointment with them. That made 4 new investigators for the week, including the two we found last Monday. Miracles.

- Singing a duet with a member in Sacrament Meeting. She'd called on Tuesday and we threw it together pretty quickly. We sang All Creatures of Our God and King (I don't remember what it's called in Finnish), and I alternated singing the alto and tenor an octave up (thank you Sisar Ross for teaching me how to read the tenor line), and it went really well.

- Two long train rides and a Zone Conference in Oulu with Elder Nielson of the Seventy and his wife. I can't even begin to cover all the things we learned. Mostly we talked a lot about the doctrine of the Atonement, how it applies to us and then how it applies to our investigators. We also covered a variety of other topics, including the difference between the Spirit and the Holy Ghost, the Infinite atonement, and what "endless torment" really means. Let me just say that my mind was blown a fair few times. It was a remarkable meeting. Elder and Sister Nielson are fantastic teachers, and I wish we could have spent so much more time with them. After the fact I felt spiritually filled and refreshed. During the Conference I aslo had the chance to see four of my MTC "brothers", Elders Hanson, Smith, Johnson, and Parker, among other good friends. It was a really good day that we finished off in the Oulu Sisters' apartment (there were 9 of us) with Jaffa floats.

As I studied in preparation for the meeting, I was especially impressed with the imagery of the yoke that the Savior talks about in Matthew 11:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I think of myself yoked (like a pair of oxen) to the Savior, for that is what He is inviting us to do. When we take upon us His name through baptism and especially through the use of the Atonement, we place ourselves side-by-side with Him and He helps us to carry our load. That's a pretty incredible promise, especially considering how much stronger and more capable He is than we. I imagine that I really am not doing much in comparison to Him, and that often He is effectually dragging me behind Him. But when life seems difficult and it's hard to move forward, I can take comfort and joy in the knowledge that the Savior of the world is carrying my burden with me. Think about that.

Have a great week and stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

A Lot of Things Happen, But They're All Pretty Small

                                                                                                                                   March 31st, 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

It's been one of those week where a lot of things happen, but they're all pretty small. So here two of the bigger things:

1) Saturday, we were contacting in a neighborhood and weren't sure what to do. I wanted to just knock on a couple doors there, and Sisar Lafferty wanted to drive up the hill a little further and try some doors there. She left it up to me, and I felt impressed that we needed to do what she wanted to do. So we went up the hill and saw a name on one of the mailboxes that stuck out to us, so we tried it. The woman we talked to was pretty interested in learning about all religions, had talked to missionaries before, and invited us back.

Monday, we went to see her. We had a really great lesson with her and her husband. They are a really wonderful couple, very friendly, and still potentially really interested. But they don't want to set anything else up until after Easter. So we'll see what happens next week.

2) Later on Saturday, we were in another part of the neighborhood trying out a particular apartment complex. We really felt like something was holding us there. We tried a couple doors, to no avail and spent a few minutes just talking and looking around. Finally we knocked on one last door. The woman who answered let us talk for a minute, and expressed that she didn't have a super strong belief in or understanding of God. Her little daughter came to the door, and we mentioned that the gospel would bless her family and that they could be together forever. That got her thinking, and when we asked if they had a few minutes now for us to share a message, she let us right in. She's a single mom with three daughters. Both Sisar Lafferty and I feel very strongly that this is the time for them, and we're really excited to keep teaching them.

I know that the Lord leads us to places for a reason. These experiences teach me that. There are people who are prepared for the gospel. He knows His children and He knows when it's their time. We just have to be open for the Spirit to guide us to them.

And as the Easter holiday approaches, remember the reason. Among the brighlty colored eggs and the plastic grass, do you see yoru Savior? He lives so that we too could live. He rose from the tomb so that we can rise again. Because He lives, there is no despair, no pain, no hurt that cannot be taken away. Watch this video (Because He Lives) and consider, what have you received because He lives?

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

#BecasueHeLives

Hmmm!!! Riisipiirakka!

April 14th, 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

Here are some highlights from our past week:

- Between last Tuesday and today, we met with E twice. We finally asked him a big question: Are our visits even making the slightest difference in what he feels is his spiritual progression? We were nervous for his answer, but our fears were abated when he said that the visits certainly aren't a bad thing. Then his wife sealed it all of by telling us that, if nothing else, we have made a huge difference for her. I know that E may be moving slowly, and that is sometimes frustrating, but to know that his wife, now really active once again, has benefited so greatly from us coming reassures me that I'm doing my job with them.

- We learned how to make riisipiirakka with a woman in our ward. It was a lot of fun and pretty easy, and now I can make them all the time at home. (Riisipiirakka is a rice pie with rye crust. Click this link for the recipe if anyone would like to try.)

- We stopped in on a less active woman that I've never met before. She told us that she doesn't really like it when people from the Church (missionaries, visiting teachers, etc.) visit her, but ended up letting us in anyway. We just got to know her a little, and while she wasn't too keen on discussing gospel topics, she said she'd be willing to teach us how to knit socks!

- One of our former investigators came to church with a ward member who lives near her. We haven't had any contact with her in months, but her brother recently passed away and she said we could give her a call and come see her. That's progress! It sounds to us like she may be open again.

- We found a few way solid potentials, and two new investigators. We got in touch with a former investigator who had at one time a scheduled date for baptism, and he and his friend, who came to the lesson, both expressed interest in learning.

So it was a decent week and I'm pretty happy about a lot of the good things that happened. Miracles are coming to Kuopio. I can feel it.

In the mean time, I continue to enjoy the message of the video, Because He Lives (and, if you'r interested, in Finnish). I know I've talked about it a lot, but we've had quite a few chances to share it and every time I watch it, the message is more powerful. Jesus Christ loves, and because  He lives we can have peace and joy more full than we've ever before experienced. Watch the video, and watch it again if you've seen it already. Ponder what the message means for you. And share it, so everyone can know what Christ can do for them,

Stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillerbant

#BecasueHeLives

#KoskaHänElää

Making riisipiirakka.

Sisar Lafferty making riisipiirakka.

Ta da... the finished product.

Viili (Finnish yogurt ) Like eating slime, Not worth it!!

We have to take a ferry to get to the family's house where we made the riisipiirakka.