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

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