My first time in Switzerland!

Transfer 3, week 4

Our week started with exchanges. Monday night we took a train to Lyon and this time we went to stay with the Villeurbanne soeurs, soeur Crowley and Soeur Benitez. I spent the Tuesday with soeur Crowley and we had some cool experiences. For example, we visited this muslim family who's mom is super nice, so happy and smiley and she ADORES the sisters. Anyways, we were about to leave and we thanked her for her smile and she started opening up to us about how her baby, one of the twins, suddenly died a few months ago, and how that really hurts her but she needs to stay strong for her 4 other children. The most touching thing she said was 'God is equal. He gave me two babies and let me keep one and took one for himself.' The way she said it was so beautiful, I wish I could think like that in my trials!

We also taught an African man named Jungle and he was so awesome! He could be the leader of an african tribe haha. We taught him the restoration and at the end of the lesson he said all casually 'God knew that soeur Hiltunen, soeur Crowley and frére Jungle would be  here today at five o'clock talking about Jesus. God knew this would happen.' He called himself FRÉRE, brother. Hahaha, so awesome. I wish I could teach him again!!

On Wednesday we had zone conference in Geneva!!! My first time in Switzerland! We didn't see much though, the Gare, the tram and the chapel. But the conference was amazing, we had five zones together so I got to see a lot of friends, for example soeur Rönndahl, my beloved MTC companion!!!! I love her so so so so much. I also found another finnish person, Elder Ihalmo! Our conversation was really short though, we both felt awkward speaking finnish. (Por contre, my french is getting A LOT better.) We had a member of the quorum of the seventy visiting our mission and him and his wife gave really good talks. I just love zone conferences... We also got Swiss chocolate. Best part of the day. 

Sunday was daylight saving. Did we remember to change the time on our clocks? No. So we were half hour late to church. But it totally happened for a reason!! We had two miracles on the tram. A few days earlier we had contacted a woman from Chechenia who doesn't speak good english but she speaks russian. We got on the tram Sunday morning and she was there!! And soeur Green had russian pamplets with her. The second miracle was that a man we had met in the tram stop two Sundays earlier and invited him to church but couldn't come that day. He also couldn't come now but he told us that this morning when he woke up he was thinking of us and that there's a reason we met again. He said he would try to come to General Conference next week but we'll see.

D&C 112:10

 10 Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.

- Soeur H

This week has been a great contacting week.

Transfer 3, week 3

Our week started with an exchange with the sister training leaders soeur Bentley and soeur Hutchins, I spent the day with soeur Hutchins, hunting less actives in Venissieux, super muslim area of Lyon. And kind of red zone. So no contacting there. We only found one of the people we were looking for but it was a fun day anyways. The weather was amazing and soeur Hutchins made us pancakes for diner.

We visited so many less-actives this week. Our weekly visit the Payés was nice, it was Rhian's 10th birthday and we made him cookies and a card. Frére Saez got two visits from us, one was a quick pass by and the other time we went there with Sr Villiene so we could actually go in. He's such an adorable old man, still remembers the sacrament prayers by heart. He proudly recited those to us. Sr Villiene also took us with her to see a young less active mother who's from Russia. She has the cutest little son named Micah who only spoke Russian. The Villiene family also fed us twice since we didn't finish their lasagne the first time... It was really good though, they always serve the best meals. 

Soeur Bartin got her weekly visit too. It was so funny, we were at the door and she tells us to come to the living room really fast because there was a nature document that was filmed in Finland on TV! We watched the last to minutes of the program and this is the funniest part... The first thing after the program was a commercial of a documentary on Babylon!! (To those of you who don't know, we call wordly things 'Babylon'). So ironic.

This week has been a great contacting week. I feel like my French has progressed a lot because I've been talking so much. I was really scared of talking to strangers when I first got here but now I actually enjoy it! Even if they're not interested in our message it's fun to talk with them about their lives and other things. And at the end they normally start asking questions about the Church. We've also had a few people contact us on the tram, we've given out three Books of Mormon like that and fixed a few RDVs.

We were finally able to hunt down our beloved Chinese recent convert/less active Yan Min! She's been travelling and is also busy with school and hasn't been to Church in ages. We've tried calling and visiting her but no. She doesn't pick up or she's not at her apartment. On Saturday night we were yet again on our way to her apartment to see if she would be there. We were just about to step out of the tram when we saw Yan Min standing on the platform in front of us!! She was on her way to school so we took the tram with her. She promised she would come to church but she didn't. So Sunday night after eating an awesome dinner at the Weeks' house we went to see if Yan Min was home. She was and we spent a little moment with her. We helped her a little with her English assignment and prayed with her and she seemed so happy at the end of our little visit, she also asked us to come back next week!! Makes me so happy that she's not avoiding us.

Soeur Gribissi came to church for the fourth time in a row which means she is officially reactivated. She's well integrated and really wants to go to the temple in July when they have the ward's temple trip. At least we're having some kind of success even if it's not baptisms!

ALMA 5:14

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

Spring Break

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry you haven't gotten anything new to read for a looong time. I've been super busy so I haven't had the time to write letters here. But so have the girls so I don't have that many to write.

I just found four letters on my desk so I'm going to be posting them here during this week and next week.

I hope you all are enjoying these letters and pictures they sent. Please leave comments below if you like me to send them any questions or just your thoughts. :)

Have a wonderful summer! I hope the sun is shining where you live! (It's not here...)

- Jasmi

A view of a castle from a train window. 

The spring is here

17 March 2014

Transfer 3, week 2

The spring is here. The sun's shining every day and there's flowers everywhere on the trees and we don't need to wear coats! It's amazing, amazing amazing! Missionary work is so much nicer when the weather's like this. Nicer but NOT any easier.

Our mission president came up with this idea of a questionnaire that will make our contacting more effective. There's four questions like "do you think there are serious problems in the world" and "do you think it would be good to have God's help" and then people respond and often it sparks a really good conversation. People are still often really rude but at least we can buy two minutes with them and give them the chance to feel the Spirit.

We had two great rendez-vous with the Sri lankan family. First time we taught them The plan of Salvation and the next time the restoration. We also gave them a soft baptismal invite and they're thinking about it. They are still so awesome. They have amazing questions, like babtising babies and reciting prayers etc, natural questions for Catholics to have and they're always really happy with our responses. The mom really likes the Book of Mormon, she's already in Mosiah and loooves king Benjamin. This is such a special and loving family and I'm 100 % sure Heavenly Father loves them SO MUCH. I just wish i stay in Clermont long enough to see them get baptized.

We had a mangez-vous with soeur Gribissi, the less-active who's now pretty much activated. We gave a lesson on forgiveness and used Christ as an example. He went through so much but still was willing to forgive everyone and even asked the Father to forgive (Luke 23:34).

Saturday was a sad day. We got dropped by two people who we thought we could help progress. But apparently not. Luckily soeur Burton made us rolls. That were the most delicious rolls I've ever eaten.

Yesterday evening we went to pass by a potential. She is sooo nice to us and very spiritual. We talked to her and prayed with her and she asked us to call her later in the coming week to set up a rendez-vous. She's got two little dogs and the other is named Uppsala! Haha, so random! She thought it's a town in Norway though but anyways, such a cool name for a french dog! And the best thing she told us was that there's mafia in Clermont!!! My day was made.

And just for everyone's information, my new favourite flower is MAGNOLIA. Everyone here has magnolia trees here and they are so so so beautiful this time of the year.

- Soeur H

First McDonald's lunch outside

Picture post transfer 2, week 6

We stopped to see an old, beautiful casle

Staying inside makes you go crazy

Transfer 2, week 5



This past week was looooong. Soeur Green got sick at the end of last week and whatever she had didn't go away until the end of this week. So we spent a lot of time inside. Too much time. Staying inside makes you go crazy.

We had a few good experiences with members though. We had mangez-vous with two families in the ward and had so much fun with them. The members here are so great, their testimonies are so strong and the way they live the gospel is a great example to me.

We got a few new amis this week! Who knows if anything will come out of them, the other is an old portuguese woman who's a practicing catholic, we're quite sure she  hasn't realized that we're not catholic... And the other is an african man, who's met with missionaries before and Temoin Jehovas visit him every now and then. Hopefully spirit will touch their hearts when we teach them.

And we had two amis at church both week ago and yesterday. AWESOOOOME. They're African and we've been teaching their friend who told them about church and they decited to come and see what it's like. We taught the other man this week and haha, that was interesting! He's a protestant preacher, he showed us this sketchy looking certificate he had, and started preaching to us about faith in the middle of our lesson. The funny thing is that he's not trying to fight us or our believes but apparently just wants to show off his knowledge about religion. He's really cool though, he loves being at church, after every talk in the sacrament meeting he comments on how great the talk was and he absolutely LOVES singing hyms! Totally off key but whatever.

Saturday was the best day of the week. We accidentally contacted this man who's door we had knocked on a few weeks earlier and who had been really rude to us. this time he was totally different! He apologized for not being nice to us and we talked to him about all kinds of things and at the end of our little 15 min conversation we were the best of friends with him! He's still not interested in the gospel but at least he has a good impression of mormon missionaries now! Later that evening we had a less-active miracle, we visited a lady we had never met before. She was so happy to see us and pretty much told us her whole life story and then gave us Coca-Cola and chocolate! She still has testimony of the church but feels unworthy to come back. She just needs friends who'll help her come back and the ward of Clermont is perfect for that.

À la fin, here's my fave scripture of the week:

MOSIAH 5:15

 15 Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.

- Soeur H

Heavenly father is being too good for us

10 February 2014

Transfer 2, week 3

Heavenly father is being too good for us. We had some crazy crazy crazy miracles this week.

On wednesday we went to pa by a potential ami who lives quite close to us. We got to his building but didn't find his name on any of the doors so we knocked on a few door and asked the neighbours if they know which apartment was his. The last door we knocked before finding the right one was opened by a young girl, probably about our age. I got this thought that I should ask her if she wants to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ but I didn't... She told us she didn't know where the man we were looking for lived and we left. But after that the whole time we were talking to our potential I had this feeling we should go back to that girl. We were leaving the building when I finally stopped soeur Green and said that we need to go back. We went back and knocked on her door and Soeur Green made me do all the talking because it was my idea... The girl opened the door and I explained to her quickly who we are and that we share a special message about Jesus Christ and His church and asked if she wants to learn more. She said she was a little busy at the moment but we ended up fixing a rendez-vous with her for next week! That was such a cool experience!!! I just felt like a full missionary who's being guided by the Spirit. I must be doing something right.

Thursday was a day full of tombez-vous. It felt like every time we take a member to teach with us the people we're supposed to meet don't come. It's embarrasing.

We were also supposed to meet this african lady who was a referral from the office. She lives an hour away from Clermont so we were going to see her at her cousin's house. We get to the building and realized we don't know the cousin's name! S we just looked at the mailboxes and picked the most African name we could find and knocked on their door. We didn't find our african lady but we did find ans african family of 7 who want us to come back and teach them next week!

Saturday night was the craziest. Once again, all our fixed rendez-vous were cancelled. We decited to go visit some less actives but they weren't home. We ran out of back-up plans. It was cold and rainy and windy. We still had to more hours before we could go inside and the thought of just going door to door or contacting on the street didn't really make me happy at all. Only thing that kept me going was thinking that this is Lord's work not mine, I'm not here to be comfortable, I'm here to work. things could be worse... But still feeling pretty miserable. We contacted this oldish lady and started talking to her about all kinds of things, she told us she hasn't found faith in her life but she really likes gospel churches because of the music. We told we have pretty songs at our church and told her we could sing her some and she was like yeah, why don't you come over to my house right now, drink some hot chocolate and you can sing to me! We couldn't say no. So we went and ended up staying for an hour (or two...) and she even made us dinner! As we were leaving she told us that we had brought this light to her soul and she would want us to come back and teach her more about our message. That was such an awesome night, walking home we didn't care about the bad weather anymore, we were just so happy!! I felt like I was fullfilling my purpose as a missionary. We gave a long prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father that night.

Book of Mormon Jacob 6:12

12 O be wise; what can I say more?

Á la prochaine, Soeur H

X

Hi!

Fun at district meeting PICS

Fun at district meeting

Zone conference with my companion and her pioneer dress, so classy can't stand it!

Sisters in Nice

This past week was a week of BOLDNESS!

 10 February 2014

BONJOUR, it's Soeur M! Or Soeur Metsätahiti (people think for some reason that I am from Tahiti... Oh well!)

Still in Bordeaux and life is great. This is the 3rd transfer that me and my companion are together and we really work well together, which is fantastic!

For this transfer we've had different themes for each week. Last week was the week of restoration and we tried to teach and testify of the restoration of the gospel every given opportunity. It was really fun having a certain theme and somehow we kept finding and seeing opportunities which were perfect for our theme.

This past week was a week of BOLDNESS! I thought before my mission that I was brave and bold but actually I wasn't. :D Being brave and bold is something missionaries need always practice onbecause that is how we're supposed to be; brave and bold. It requires A LOT of faith in the Lord though. :) This week we contacted a lot of people and personally I tried to fight my "fears" by contacting big groups of people. I love contacting, it's so much fun meeting so many different kinds of people and talking to them about their believes and lives. 

You always meet interesting people also. For examle this one guy got mad at me for not wearing any red even though I said I like that color. :D I also met a guy who believed in fairies and taught me all about different colored aura's people have around them. the french people are super funny, I love them! :)

This one day we were walking through Gambetta when this one guy basically dragged us in into a boutique and made his co-workers confess their sins to us. We were so confused but it was so hilarious. We were all just cracking up because nobody knew what was going on. :D

Our ami's are doing great, we have a couple of ami's who are preparing to e baptised and I am so happy for them. It's crazy how muchyou can learn to love someone so much and want them to choose the right. One of the greatest gifts given to us is free agency and we can never decide anything in anyone's behalf. We can just invite people with love and help them with all of our power and might. :)

I am so happy to be a missionary!

Love, Soeur M

P.S Jasmi is the best blog updater ever!

Crazy times at a museum!

Selfie

Contacting

Happy hippo in BDX

SO JUST BE HAPPY!

3 February 2014

Tranfer 2, week 2

This week we worked really hard and ahd some really good contacts and even a few miracle lessons on the street. But we're having hard time finding people who actually want to have lessons with us... Until Sunday night!

Last week we contacted this older man who had just lost his mother and was really sad about that. He wanted to learn more about God's plan for us and how we can be together with our families after death. We set up a rendez-vous at his house but when we went there he wasn't there. We left him a Book of Mormon and a little note. We tried passing by him a few times but he wasn't there. He lives quite close to us so on Sunday night we decited to go see if he's home, one last thing before going home. We went there and he answered the sonnerie and let us in! We couldn't go in to his apartment though because we didn't have another female with us but we talked to him in the hallway and gave him a lesson! He was accepting the things we talked about, like the Book of Mormon and restoration and was excited to read. We fixed another rendez-vous for Friday and now we'll just pray that everything works out!

We also taught our miracle less-active lady who did a 180 turn in one night. She was like a different person when we saw her. She seemed happy and all the cynicism was gone. We talked about repentance and she had been studying the subject on her own. She really loved the scripture we shared especially when she noticed she had marked them when she was young.

Saturday was really nice day. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with the adorable chinese girl and she had made us dumplings.

Then the highlight of the week! We went to eat chez the finnish couple in our ward. Finnish meat balls! And warm cranberry juice! From finnish Arabia cups! I was coutente. They're such a nice couple and their home is so Finnish. I just want to die!! I really don't need to feel homesick while serving in Clermont.

And one thing that I've learned this week. BE POSITIVE, HAVE GOOD THOUGHTS AND BE OBEDIENT!! That's the key to missionary work and the key to life. We're on this earth to have joy (2. Ne 2:25), and sometimes you need to seek for the little happy things in the dark times to have that joy but it's worth it. Christ suffered for us so that we could be happy. 

SO JUST BE HAPPY! SOYEZ HEUREUSES!

À la prochaine, soeur H

At the finnish couple's house

We went to primary

Nothing else to eat on fast sunday

And miracles started happening!

27 January 2014

Transfer 2, week 1

Soooo, my old companion died (finished her mission) and I got a new one, soeur Green. She is adorable, we have so much fun!! I have a feeling this will be an amazing transfer.

And we've already seen some crazy miracles!!

On tuesday we had anti miracles... Only one of our rendez-vous worked out. But that was an awesome rdv with a less active old lady who only has two teeth! So cute!! She loves us so much. he had all her scriptures ready when we came to her house and she showed us letters from missionaries and her old temple recommend and baptism certificate. Ohh she's precious.

Wednesday was full of tombez-vous*... Though on our last train ride of the day we had a few awesome contacts, handed out a Book of Mormon and found a long lost less-active member! Miracles.

Thursday also started with antimiracles. We had a lot of them. At around 5pm we were at the chapel after another tombez-vous, both of us feeling tired and a little discouraged. We knelt down to pray and decited to go and try to visit some people on the other side of the road.

And miracles started happening!

First we went to this family's door who's dad we have contacted a few days earlier and who had given us their address. The dad was home and would've invited us to come in but his wife wasn't home... But we fixed a rdv for another day!

Second, we went to see if this peruvian family from our ward was home, some members of the family are less-active. The dad, who's less-active, opened the door and invited us to come back another day. (we went and it was awesome! Soeur Green speaks a little spanish so she totally sparked them by praying in spanish! And we got invited back again wohoo!)

Aaaand the biggest miracle of the day: there's a less-active lady who me and soeur Kofoed tried to pass-by many times but she was never home. Well, we decited to go there again anf this time she was home. She looked a little confused and first we thought ahe didn't want anything to do with us but she invited us in. And we ended up talking to her for an hour! Or a little more... Hehe. She told us everything, how she's been inactive for 12 years, all the doubts she's ever had and also all the commandments she's broken... Soeur Green shared the story of how she gained her testimony and then we shared Moroni's promise (Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon). She told us she had tried to do that but never got an answer and that she denies the existance of the Holy Ghost. She also has a 12-year old son who was first just watching TV but then got really in to it and at one point he brought out an old Book of Mormon! We also ended up staying for dinner and had the best chicken ever. So yummy.

We left feeling good but thinking that it might take a loooong time before she'll be reactivated because she's in denial and found a lot of the things we said ridiculous. Although she did say she wishes she could be like us and be able to say that she KNOWS the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is true.

Well, two days later we receive a phone call from this lady. She tells us how she's been thinking about our words a lot and that she tried to find the scripture in the Book of Mormon that we shared with her but she couldn't. So she took out her hymn book and found he childhood fave hymn "Aimez vos frénes" (Love one Another), started singing it and suddenly started crying! She wondered if this is a sing of God, if God sent the sister missionaries to her because it's her time to come back to Church and she prayed and decited to come to church on Sunday!! AND SHE DID!! After 12 years of inactivity!!!! Just unbelievable. God id good. So good. And this is only the first week of the transfer. Too great!!!

Other than that, my french is still awful but getting better. OHH and we had blues conference and I saw all my MTC friends!!!!! <3 Though me almost missed the thing because we missed our train in the morning, but the Burtons saved the day and drove us to Lyon! They're superheros.

GROS BISOUS TO EVERYONE! <3 Soeur H

* people we fixed a rendez-vous with don't show up.

Blues conference

The PAWS!

27 January 2014

Woo I'm still in Nice!

I just want to start off by telling that my companion Soeur Bailey is absolutely insane. That kid is crazy! Never have I met anyone like her. First off she is from America so that explains a lot.. secondly, she is from New Mexico so that explains it even more. She even speaks New Mexican, which is english spoken in a spanish accent. One of the members here actually thought that she was speaking in an other language. I'm just going to tell a few things she's done so that you can understand who I have to live with.. So this one time my companion couldn't find her planner, we thought she's lost it for good. We were freaking out because we had a lot of lessons planned and new numbers of potential investigators in it. She was freaking out dramatically! She was depressed and went lying under the table, almost losing all hope. I followed her under the table and there we were and didn't know what to do with our lives. We said a prayer to find the planner. After her wanting to sink into the deepest depression.. we found the planner on her table..

One time she was talking to an Asian man and then they were waving their hands to say goodbye and then suddenly she just high-fived the guy. Not awkward. Oh and she falls all the time! Like no sense of gravity or balance in her head. One time she opened a peanutbutter can with her bare hands and got some legit warrior wounds on her hands. One day she bought a toy gun and surprise attacked Soeur Hodder by shooting at her. Yhen she bought a whisel. I do not know why. She also has this funny blue flowery grandma nightgown that she wears every night. So the fact is that she is going to be a princess one day so that is why she sometimes practises her performances to us.One night she sat on the floor in her nighty and sang the little mermaid. I know, she was born to be a disney princess.

Just this last Sunday she gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and as she was walking up she stumbled on something and almost fell flat on the ground in front of everyone. Talk about princess-like elegancy! It was funny though. The newest thing is called the PAWS! She makes me put my hands in hers and lock them together and look each other in the eyes. That's how we build companionship unity! Oh and one time we happened to be in the middle of locking paws when the bishop of our ward walked pass and laughed wierdly at us. Definitely building confidence in us!

Everyday is and adventure with Soeur Bailey and I love it! I've really been blessed to see her face every single day for the past 7 weeks. She is an inspiration for me and her enthusiasm is admirable. She touches people's lives and help to uplift their faith. She is an one of a kind missionary!

One of the greatest experiences we've had together was our investigator's baptism. He had a date fixed for him but we were thinking about pushing it with a week. But when we sat down with him in the beginning of the week, we all felt that we should keep the original date.This meant we only had one week to prepare for the baptism. After a lot of organising, we made it! The baptismal service was beautiful and so full of the Spirit. I know that God prepared Nic (our investigator) to hear about the gospel and to accept it. Nic made a lot of changes in his life and they were not easy ones. I feel like mt life was blessed by having this opportunity to see Nic change for the better and see how the gospel blessed his life. Happiness shines from his face and his faith and hope for the future are clear. Nice is a city of miracles!

- Soeur N

P-Day!