The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Wow! Hei Everybody! 

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas this past week! I really had a fantastic one here in Finland :) 

This week was awesome! Sister Wunderli and I wanted to keep a goal of "Two Feet in Finland" (with it being Christmas week and such). So we set a goal to pass out 30 Mormonin Kirja's. It was definitely a challenge because we've never even come close to 30 before. We were on our best missionary behavior, getting out as early as we could and staying out as late as possible, while still being obedient. We were running around one night with 20 minutes left and three more Book of Mormons to place to reach our daily goal, so we prayed hard and talked to everyone and in those 20 minutes we actually ended up placing four! It was so great to see the miracles that came from us doing everything we were supposed to and working harder than ever before. 

One thing that also made it really fun is, in the spirit of Christmas, we wrapped all of the Book of Mormons like presents. We had unwrapped ones to show people, but people are definitely more willing to hear your message when you tell them you have a present for them. It was way cool! We finished out the week with placing 32! Surpassing our already super-stretching goal! It really was so fantastic to see the blessings that came from us really focusing on doing everything we are supposed to. 

On Christmas Eve, I had a TRADITIONAL FINNISH CHRISTMAS. It was seriously the best thing ever. I've always loved my Finnish Christmases back home so I knew I would be in awe here, and I definitely was! We had the most traditional meal you could ever think of with all the casseroles and fish you could ever want! 

Then at 6:30 there was a knock at the door. Joulupukki came walking in bringing gifts to our host family. Joulupukki speaks perfect Finnish because, well, he's a Finn. Then he turned to me, in perfect English and said "How are you doing Emili?" I was completely taken back. A) Nobody calls me Emili out here, B) I haven't told anyone that my name is Emili, and C) I have no idea how he would have found out that my name is Emili. Wow. Joulupukki is the most magical man I've ever met. If there's any of you people out there who don't believe in Santa, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. Santa/Joulupukki is alive and well! 

I then got to Skype with my family on Christmas day! It was so great to see them again! Everyone is doing fantastic and I'm so glad I got to Skype with them. 

This week has been a magical week to be a missionary. I've seen how amazing the members are and how they just want to make this time amazing for the missionaries who can't be with their families. I've seen how Christmas is the perfect time to share this wonderful message about Christ. It's really the best time to be a missionary.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support and Christmas wishes!

Love,

Sister Jones 

 

 Christmas Eve right before Joulupukki came! 

Joulupukki In the Flesh. 

The Presents that Joulupukki brought me :)

Christmas Eve Selfie getting lost on the busses

 

Hyvää Joulua!‏

Hyvää Joulua everybody! Christmas is coming up so fast and I can't even believe it! I'm so excited to be in Finland for Christmas! Its amazing!

This week was insanely busy but so amazing! First off we had Interim, which was wonderful! I loved seeing all my buddies from the MTC back together for four days. It was perfect! We picked up right where we left off, (but we were all even cooler and closer than before). It was really great! It was sad to think that it was probably the last time all of us would ever be together, at least while we were on our missions. We also got to spend four days learning from President and Sister Watson. It was really great and totally inspired Sister Wunderli and me to be better missionaries than ever before. 

As a closing to interim we went to the Helsinki Temple. Now I've said it once and I'll say it again, that temple is the most amazing place in the whole world. I'm obsessed with it. It was my dream to originally go through the Helsinki Temple for my endowment, but that wasn't really an option especially with me going back in a few months to serve my mission here. But, I finally went through the Finland temple. Living in Utah we are definitely accustomed to some amazing temples, but The Finnish Temple really takes the cake. The prettiest one I've ever been to. I just want to keep going every day. It really just made me so happy and grateful for this amazing Gospel and that we have the opportunity to go to temples like that. 

Well after a week of amazing learning and growth, it was time to come back home and get back to normal missionary work.

We met some really cool people this week. We found two new investigators and we are actively searching for more people to bring to the Gospel. Christmas is the most perfect time to be doing missionary work because when you tell people you have a gift for them and you whip out a wrapped Mormonin Kirja (Book of Mormon) nobody questions it and takes your loving Christmas gesture. Needless to say, the work is moving forward during the wonderful Christmas season.

THANK YOU ALL for all of your love and support. It really means so much to have so many people supporting me throughout my mission and especially this holiday season. Don't forget the real reason we celebrate this magical holiday. Watch the new video the church released called, "Vapahtaja on Syntynyt" or if you speak English, "A Savior is Born". It's really an amazing video that embodies every reason why we celebrate this holiday!

I love you all! Have a Merry Christmas! 

Love,

Sister Jones

So at interim we got a Finnish companion for a couple of days. Her visa got delayed so she's now serving in Finland! Super cool to be in a trio for three days :) And don't tell me this temple isn't amazing, even in the dark

s

Minä olen Suomalainen!‏

Moi! Greetings from the land of Santa Claus! With getting ready for Christmas, everything is just picking up speed! The work is moving forward and its amazing!

This week was an interesting one for sure. We weren't able to teach our investigator who was supposed to be getting baptized this week, so yesterday when we finally got in contact with her, she told us she isn't in a place where she can deal with church anymore. Her personal life is really complicated and she's had super hard experiences. So needless to say, she dropped us, six days before her baptism. She's still super amazing and we are constantly praying she'll see the importance and how the Gospel will help her with her life.

We also met with Z. He's the Muslim that we had also set a baptismal date with. We came to the conclusion that he really needs more time to come to the truthfulness of this message before he gets baptized. So we postponed his date to sometime later in January or February. So that's kind-of a bummer.

Either way all is well! Sister Wunderli and I had a great week with a lot of contacting and giving away a lot of Book of Mormons and showing people the new Christmas video. I highly recommend watching it! 

In the midst of all this kind-of bumming stuff, Sister Wunderli and I tried to just have fun and not stress. So obviously when you want to have fun and not stress you let your companion cut your hair. (No worries Mom, I cut HER hair) So yeah, this week I put my experience of cutting my grandpa's hair once when I was 12 to good use. AND GUESS WHAT? It actually looks good! Ha what a blessing that I didn't wreck her hair. Ha 

We also celebrated my one month in Finland mark! We celebrated by going to this super sketchy Chinese Restaurant that we live right above. It kinda was hard to order because well, its all in Finnish and we didn't really understand much of it. Luckily I knew what roasted/fried was so we could get fried rice but other than that we pretty much just had to guess. ha 

We also got Kebab this week. It was just a hard week so we ate out wayyy more than we should have. But KEBAB is amazing! It's the best. Its like some weird meat that they just shave off and put on your plate with rice. Super good. I highly recommend it if you are somewhere where its available.

We had Mission Conference this week! It was amazing! We got together with two of our zones and we were taught by Elder Dyches of the Area Presidency of the Seventy. He was so cool and he helped us learn so much. We definitely took a lot from that conference that we are implementing into our daily missionary efforts.

This week was also really cool for me. I was just walking on the street talking to people like normal, and we were talking with this guy and he asked me, "Oletko Suomalainen?" (Are you a Finn?) Gah! He thought I was a native Finn! I pretty much was so excited and had a heart attack! I'm Finnish and I love being here serving my mission! 

It was a challenging week that's for sure, but it was also a great one! I'm headed to Interim tonight, where the Greenie's all go to the mission home and spend four days there just learning and being taught by President Watson. Its going to be fantastic to be with everyone again!

Thank you all for your love and support! Sorry this was a long email but it was just a great week! I love you and miss you all! 

Love,

Sisar Jones

 

Me, Sister Wunderli, Sister Adams, and Sister Jordan (Red head who's Sister Adams trainer)

 

Happy Independence Day! ‏

               

Tervetuola! 

Hei Everyone! This week was a great week! I'm so blessed to be in the most amazing country! I love it! So no, its not the 4th of July, but it was December 6th -- Finnish Independence Day! Yay! Ha it was so cool to wake up in the morning and see Finnish Flags flying high! Kinda trippy though, since it wasn't American Flags and that's what I'm used to. But it was really cool! 

We've been working really closely with our investigator who is getting baptized next Saturday! We've pretty much seen her every day this past week and let me tell you, I LOVE HER! So we had the Word of Wisdom lesson which we figured wouldn't go super well because she's a heavy tea drinker. And like we figured, it didn't. Ha. So we left. We talked to her later and she said she had made tea (this is where the story gets really good) and she started to drink it. It started to make her feel weird, so she drank some milk and she felt soooo good after that. Now she doesn't drink any tea anymore! Ha bless her heart!

We were over there a little later and she had her big tea glass and she tells us that she just couldn't give up her tea after all, and that she was going to drink it right then, in front of us. After Sister Wunderli and I told her how important it was for her not to drink tea, she started laughing. Not just laughing but like cracking up. She showed us the contents of her cup. Water. Water. Just Water. You think I would have caught on since I grew up with Timo Jones as my practically joking father. I'm sure that's the exact thing he would play on the missionaries. I just know it.

So Sisar Wunderli and I were asked to sing at a Filipino Party last Saturday. Yes you read that correctly: A Filipino Party. In Finland. In December. We got to the party when they told us and found out it really started two hours later. Cool. Oh well. It ended up being a lot of fun and we got free food. Life of the missionaries :) Ha

This has been a great week! We have Mission Conference this Thursday, which means that nine out of the eleven of my MTC group will all be in the same place! I'll get to see Sister Adams and a bunch of my buddies again! I'm so excited! We also have Interim, where ALL of my MTC group will be reunited, starting Tuesday of next week so my next P-Day will be on Monday! Just like the rest of the missions! Yay! ha 

I'm so grateful to be here! I love Finland and Finland during Christmas is definitely the most magical thing I've ever experienced! Now just pray that we get some snow ;) Ha! 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Sisar Jones

P.S. I forgot my camera again and I didn't take any pictures... I'll be better this week Mom!

The Week I Started Learning French

 

This week has been absolutely wonderful! First off HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of those in America! Sisar Wunderli and I celebrated Thanksgiving with a traditional feast of chicken, potatoes, brussel sprouts and Glögi (it's a Finnish drink, don't even question it!) Yep, pretty darn American if you ask me. Ha just kidding. Its hard to celebrate holidays that don't exist in the country you're serving in. Oh well, it was still a fantastic day!

 

We have a new investigator who is seriously the sweetest thing you've ever seen! We taught her about a week ago and she didn't seem very interested. Like the good missionaries we are, we invited her to be baptized and she really had an issue with that. She's already been baptized and didn't see the point to doing it again. So we invited her to come to church and she said she would come but she didn't have a ride. So we arranged for her to ride with the bishop and his wife. We came to find out that she's had an extremely difficult life and has just really, truly, struggled.

 

We thought we would take over some corn bread that Thursday and just drop in and say hi. So we did and let me tell you, the miraculous change that had occurred in four days was unbelievable. She was so incredibly happy and just so upbeat! We weren't planning on teaching a lesson so we were getting ready to go and she says "So, I want to be baptized before I go on vacation." Just totally out of blue. Like it was amazing! 

SOOOO she's getting baptized in TWO weeks! Yep we've got another baptism under our belts! This is the coolest part about my mission so far, seeing the literal change that the Gospel and the ward members can have in just FOUR days on a person. Its amazing! She's just the cutest and I love her so much!

One thing that makes her really fun is that she speaks French and a little more Finnish than I do. So we sometimes have a hard time communicating. So, obviously Sisar Wunderli and I decided the best thing to do was, well, start learning French. It's working out great. I now can teach the Restoration and Plan of Salvation in French. No worries, I can still sorta teach those in Finnish too. Ha, It's been a great week!

So I totally forgot my camera, so no pictures this week :( Sorry Mom! 

But really though, it's been a fantastic week filled with recognizing how AMAZING the Gospel is and how great the impact is has on my life! I love this Gospel and I'm so grateful to be out here serving the Lord in Finland, speaking English/French/Finnish :)

I love you all and miss you! 

Love,

Sisar Jones 

The Place Where The Sun sets at 3:00

(Hey Everybody! Oops this was supposed to go out last week... Didn't press "Send"... Oops!)

So this week was quite the week! Sisar Wunderli and I had such a good week! We did a lot of Metro/Street contacting and had quite a lot of success. We met a lot of people who were pretty interested (okay, interested for Finns), and we handed out a bunch of Book Of Mormons! 

We taught quite a few lessons. One was to a Jamaican man. He's SUPER SUPERSTITIOUS and it was pretty funny. I had to call him and talk to him on the phone first before I was allowed to come over and teach him. He LOVED the Joseph Smith/Restoration lesson sooo much but he doesn't think he needs to pray about it because if its true, he'll be interested in it.. We're working on him. Ha! He's really cool though.

We committed "Z" (the Muslim we met a few weeks ago) to a baptismal date! YAY! And guess who was the one to ask him... ME! Ha I know this is common missionary stuff but when you're a newbie its really super exciting when they accept. I guess it is throughout you're whole mission but I'm only two weeks in sooo I don't quite know that yet, so hopefully everything works out and he gets baptized!

Sunday was really interesting. We were doing our usual metro contacts and we sat across from this Finnish man. We start out by introducing ourselves and that we have a cool video for him to watch. He then starts talking in English to us about how he "knows" that there isn't a God or Jesus Christ. Now I've met a lot of Atheists on my mission so far and none of them have been flat-out like that. So when he said that, my heart just sank and the spirit left immediately. My heart broke for him. He tried to kick us out of his little booth thing, but we stayed. Ha

Talking with him and all of the other Atheists that I've met made me realize something... The message of the Restored Gospel is everything. Without it we have nothing. This message is soo true its ridiculous. God is soo good and he loves all of his children so much that one day, that man on the metro, he'll be able to have a fair chance to accept this Gospel or not. Its really just opened my mind to how important this message is. 

All is well in Finland! Sisar Wunderli and I are gearing up for another super busy week this week! Fun fact about Finland: currently the sun rises at 8 am, the sun sets at 3 pm and we still have a month until the shortest day of the year! Sweet. AND IT'S SNOWING! A Finnish Christmas is definitely upon us!

I'm super grateful to be here and I love this country and these people so much! I miss you all and love you!

Love,

Sisar Jones  

A Greenie in Finland

 

Moi! Minä on Suomessa!

The day finally came! I am in Finland! Can you believe it? I'm actually here! So first things first, I'm serving in Helsinki in an area called Itäkeskus. Not going to lie, its pretty sketchy. But it's all good! The Lord's work must move forward throughout all the earth! My companion is Sisar Wunderli from Sandy, Utah! We are over the Helsinki 1st Ward along with two sets of Elders. Guys I'm in an actual ward, IN FINLAND! I really love it here so far! Finland is such a magical place and I'm just soo excited to be here!

So here's the deal: Finland has some pretty insane privacy laws. So I can't exactly share too much personal info about our investigators or else its sorta illegal... Just so you all know.

My first night when we arrived in Finland we drove around Helsinki seeing the beautiful scenery and such. It was super cool because I've never really seen Finland in the dark. It gave me a new perspective of everything. It took a while for me to figure out where I was but I eventually got it and I was just so excited! We then went and walked around the temple in Espoo. MY FAVORITE temple ever. It's so incredibly beautiful it's like insane. Ha I love that place. We stayed at the mission home that night and then had meetings in the morning just to get us all acquainted with Finnish laws and customs. We then met our trainers and we were off to our areas!

Our very first night Sis. Wunderli had us going around doing street/metro contacting. I was soooo freaked out! It was ridiculous (but what greenie wouldn't be?). I didn't actually say anything to anyone but it was good to just be out there doing missionary stuff.

So we have this investigator "P". P is an atheist, but he says never say never. He's a classic Finnish man and very stubborn. Ha! My second night here we taught him and his lessons are all in Finnish. Cool. Newbie who doesn't know the language teaching a lesson in Finnish. We also taught the Plan of Salvation which definitely has the hardest vocab out of all the lessons. I was sorta struggling through my part and he could tell, so he offered to have the lessons in English. I told him that it was okay and that I needed to learn Finnish anyway. The lesson went really well I think. 

The next day we taught an ENGLISH lesson with "Z". Z is a Muslim who has no idea who/what God is. So we are pretty much starting at square one with him. It was his first lesson with the missionaries so it was all new to him as well as me. It seemed to go well. We were able to give him a Mormonin Kirja in his language and he seemed so excited! It was really weird to be teaching in English because I've never done that before. It was cool though!

We've done a lot of street and metro contacting. We've also done a lot of tracting, just trying to find more people who are ready to hear the gospel. I've officially stopped many people on the street, started a door conversation and started a metro contact. ALL IN FINNISH! Sisar Wunderli said she didn't even attempt to Metro contact until last transfer and she's about to hit her year mark.

It's been interesting talking to people. Yesterday we had a lady yell at us on the Metro about how religion is a personal thing and that it's very rude for us to be out talking openly about it. Sis. Wunderli said after, "If you have the cure to cancer, why would you hide it?" But really though, we have just an amazing message and we know its true so why would we just keep it to ourselves!

This work is moving along quickly and I'm so excited to be apart of it!

I love you all and I miss you so much!

Love,

Sisar Jones

Me in front of our apartment building!

Emili is officially in Finland and is very happy and cold. Today she will be assigned to her first area and get her first companion in the mission field.

 

All the new Finnish Missionaries at the Finland Temple

The Legend of the MTC

Hei! 

So this was a fantastic week here in Provo! Starting off with Friday, we GOT FLIGHT PLANS! We leave Monday morning at 6:30! Yay! Honestly its early, but its sooo much better than the people who have to leave at 3:30 am. I can say that because when we went to Cali we had to leave at 3:30, but its going to be great. Only two super-easy layovers and we get to Finland Tuesday at 4:10 pm. Super perfect and easy! I can't wait!

With the last 10 days being here for the same amount of time as English speakers, I decided to do something legendary every day I have remaining here at the MTC. Some of my legends included, running a 3 minute mile, buying weird juices, and being the best foursquare player ever. The 3 minute mile was pretty impressive because I really hate running. Also, nobody actually witnessed my 3 minute mile because my companion was in the bathroom. Maybe there's no concrete proof of it, but if you ask me, I'll tell you I ran it.

So this week was Halloween! If there was ever a perfect holiday to be in the MTC, it was definitely this one. Sister Schoendorfer and I dressed up and went trick-or-treating to all the other rooms in our residence building. Everyone loved it! We shared messages in our mission languages, with Sister Schoendorfer speaking Hungarian, it just gave us awesome practice for our mission. We may or may not have collected a pound of candy each from all the trick-or-treating, we're not saying. All in all it was the PERFECT Halloween and I had such a great time!

Sunday was fantastic! We had a mission conference that was all about families. Later that night we had a devotional. Granted it made me really miss my family but it made me so excited to go find Finnish families that are prepped and ready to hear the Gospel! It also made me EXTREMELY excited to be in Finland, the land of my family, and get to hopefully spend time with my family that is there!

So lets get real here for a second... I'm not going to lie... I'm extremely terrified to go to Finland on Monday. I don't feel prepared enough to go serve and speak a completely different language. Granted I've been here for 9 weeks studying harder than I ever have in my life, but I still don't feel ready. Luckily whenever I get super bummed out that I'm not fluent in Finnish, I'm reminded of the scripture that says "The Lord qualifies who he calls." He called me to Finland for a reason and starting Monday I get to find out what that reason is.

Well that's all I have for this week ladies and gents! I'm headed to Finland on Monday and I can't wait to start this new chapter of my mission! Leaving the MTC will be hard because I've grown to love this place so much! I'm so grateful for all the prayers and support I've received this far! I love you all! 

I'll talk to you again when I'm in the Homeland!

Love,

Sisar Jones

Sister Schoendorfer and I on Halloween

I'm Finally a English Speaker

Moi!

Okay so I know this title is a little deceptive but I'm finally an English Speaker! So I've been here in the MTC for officially 7 weeks now. I've seen many groups of the 12 day English Speakers come and go and well, its finally my turn to only have 12 days! The group that came into the MTC on Wednesday will be the same one I leave with on the 9th! Granted I'm still speaking Finnish and going to Finland but I'm almost out of here! Eleven more days!

So this week was a great one here in Provo! Both of our investigators, Kariina and Renee, are getting baptized! Kariina is getting baptized in a week and Renee in December. Granted they are both our teachers so they aren't actually getting baptized but its still super exciting to see them progress while we've been teaching them!

Well I guess I wasn't praying hard enough to not have to give a talk in Finnish because on Sunday I did. In our district we have a running thing to see who can say the most "tosi's" in a single talk. Tosi means "true" in Finnish. Its quite fun to see if people do it because we're all just trying to make these talks in super broken Finnish a little less stressful. So, I got up there knowing the Elder after me was going to blow everyone away but I did my best. I actually had the most convincing talk with the most tosi's to date. Sadly my record was shot when Elder Brown got up and said "Minä olen Dobby. Minä olen House Elf. Minä en tiedä evankeliumin ja Suomi." For those of you who don't speak Finnish he said "I am Dobby. I am a House Elf. I don't know the Gospel or Finnish." That was then followed by 15 consecutive tosi's in a row. One thing about Elder Brown is that he's amazing at doing a Dobby voice and he said ALL of that in his Dobby voice from the pulpit. It was such a wonderful stress reliever. Ha! 

Tuesday's in the MTC are General Authority Days! Yay! We have a GA come and speak to us every Tuesday. And every Tuesday my district and I sit front and center HOPING and PRAYING that it is an Apostle, namely Jeffery R. Holland. We thought that this week just might be our week! We heard that the devotional was to be broadcast world wide so we knew it was someone high up. The choir song changed last minute to be Elder Holland's favorite hymn so obviously we were CONVINCED it was him. When the Apostle came out it ended up being Elder Neil L. Anderson. Now, no lie, I was bummed for about 2 seconds and then I was just so excited to be hearing from an Apostle so its all cool. The thing that stuck out most from his talk was when he told us that "Heavenly Father loves you." Now that is something I have mastered saying in Finnish and I say it like 20 times a lesson, but when you are hearing that from an Apostle's mouth who has met and personally knows Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, that just takes on a whole new meaning. It was amazing, seriously amazing.

All is well in Provo! I get my travel plans tomorrow and keep me in your prayers that I got my visa! All the people going to Sweden didn't get theirs so we are all freaking out a little here right now! Oh well!

Have a fantastic week! I love and miss you all! 

Sisar Jones

The Sister in my Zone

The Six Week Hump

Moi! Mitä Kuuluu?


What a crazy, LONG and amazing week here in Provo! 


So to start off, last Friday was insane! Sisar Adams woke up with some crazy stomach pains and ended up needing to go to the Emergency Room. Everything's okay now and she's doing better. I almost started a mutiny against the night shift at the front desk because, lets be real, they are no help at all. No worries though! I have not started said mutiny yet and probably won't because we leave to Finland in 2 weeks! But at least I know I have the support of my Elders if said mutiny comes to pass.


Sunday we had a member of our Branch Presidency get released and put into another branch here in the MTC. Brother Freestone is so cool and is going to be missed very much but I guess the Swedes need him. Ha


Yesterday was the most amazing day. We had our first Skype lesson with members in Finland! GAH! We taught ACTUAL Finns! It was so cool! So I was totally freaking out before and then Susanne Hiltunen popped up on our screen and she was the sweetest lady ever! And it was such a tender mercy to know that SHE'S FRIENDS WITH MY MUMMO! Like What?! Super random! We we were just getting to know her and I mentioned my Mummo is from Finland and she asked what her name was so I told her and she was so excited to find out she knew my family! She probably wasn't as excited as I was but it was still such a wonderful tender mercy to talk to her and feel a connection to home. 


This week was one of getting better and really trying to learn Finnish since we leave so soon! Gah!


Thank you all so much for your emails and letters, they mean so much to me! I love you all and I miss you!


Much Love,



Sisar Jones

Sister Shoendorfer and me at the temple. This is pretty accurate to our relationship. Ha

 

Terve!

So five weeks down here in Provo Utah! Only four more until I'm headed off to Finland! November 9th can't come soon enough! I'm so excited to get to Finland!

So this week Sisar Adams and I were kept very busy. Between doing all of our normal lessons and such we also had a lot of work to do with our new Hungarians. So honestly it was a pretty standard week with a lot of clerical work. Ha

So one thing that's really hard about being in the MTC is seeing all your friends come and go. This week it was Sister Gunderson's turn to head to Russia! Ha Its been so nice to have her around with this whole huge adjustment of a mission thing so it was sad to see her head off but she's going to be doing amazing things in Russia! And who knows maybe I'll see her on one of her visa trips to Finland! 

So this past Friday we, the whole Finnish District, decided we would have a Language Fast where we spoke only Finnish all day. We started off super well and surprisingly our Finnish was a 100 times better than we thought it would be, but slowly English crept in and we ended the day on a completely English note. But tomorrow is another Fast day so we'll definitely do better this week.

Sunday we hit our 5th Sunday, meaning that we have to give sacrament talks in our mission language. The curse/blessing of the MTC is that they don't tell you who is giving talks until you are being called up. Everyone thought I would be the one to give a talk since Sisar Adams was teaching in Relief Society BUT Sisar Adams ended up being called on to speak. I'm probably going to be speaking on Sunday so fingers crossed they call two Elders! Ha just kidding.. Kinda..

On a cool note, our investigator is getting baptized! Ha Her name is Kariina! She's really cool. We like to tease her that her "Best Friend" is on a mission in Calif so needless to say, she's really cool and we're chill. Ha

So officially I don't speak English or Finnish anymore. I spelled "yet" like "jet" the other day.. If you know Finnish the J make the Y sound. So that's cool. Ha. Bless my heart. 

Other than that its been a standard week of class and teaching. I love it here and I'm so grateful to be out here serving a mission! Thank you all for your prayers, love and support! I love you all! And I miss you!

Love,

Sisar Jones


Sisar Adams' Mom made Pulla and sent it to us all! Yay for Finnish treats!

A Week Without Sleep

A Week Without Sleep

Moi Everyone!

So holy cow definitely my busiest week so far here at the MTC! But also the most rewarding! 

This week started out last Friday with Sisar Adams and I teaching our investigator Kariina with "members". Actually it was just Vanhin Bowden and Vanhin Vennerholm. That was honestly the coolest thing ever. The spirit was so strong and definitely there. We left that lesson feeling better than ever!

Saturday was General Conference! OH MY GOSH. Conference on a mission is the coolest thing I've ever experienced. My parents will be pleased to know that I stayed awake for ALL sessions of conference. We also finally got to watch the General Women's Meeting and it was amazing. I finally understand what everyone was talking about when they said President Uchtdorf's talk was life changing. I loved it all.

Sunday was more General Conference. I think I speak for everyone when I say that my heart was breaking when we all saw President Monson struggle to stay up there. We talked about it with our Branch Presidency and they made a wonderful point. Do we all ever appreciate how much the prophets do for us until they are in times of struggle? It really made me think about how much we take President Monson's health for granted. But all in all it was an amazing conference. Sunday night we had a "Special Devotional". Special was the most perfect word. BYU Vocal Point were the Guests of Honor that night. Granted I'm not the biggest Vocal Point fan, but they did a pretty good job and they definitely brought the Spirit.

Monday we had to say farewell to our AMAZING Hungarians! They helped me so much with getting used to the MTC and feeling comfortable. They left at 3 am and they were our roommates so needless to say I didn't sleep much that night. Once they left  the Finns were the only ones in our entire zone! Ha Sisar Adams and I got a phone call (because yes we have a cell phone that only calls the front desk) saying we were having a sister come in from Serbia and that she would be coming sometime during the night. So me being the worrier I am, woke up every half hour to make sure we hadn't missed the call that she was here.. Again no sleep. 

Tuesday the Serbian Sister finally came in the afternoon and then we had a devotional from Sister Linda K. Burton, General Relief Society President. She gave a wonderful talk about appreciating the prophets.

 

Wednesday we were on Traffic Hosting Duty! So much fun! We got to direct all the cars to drop their missionaries off. It also made me sad because I saw hundreds of parents driving away crying. I really didn't need a visual of what it was like for my family to drop me off, but it was pretty fun all in all. So hosting was during our study time so we didn't have anytime to prepare a lesson and we were teaching Plan of Salvation. There is so much new vocab that goes along with Plan of Salvation and we didn't know any of it. So instead of gym time we took our stuff outside and planned our lesson. We had dinner and then it was right to teaching we went. Let me tell you, God blesses those who follow his commandments. Granted Hosting and planning STL stuff isn't a commandment but its our assignment and we felt His blessings during that lesson. Somehow we were able to get through pre-Earth and Adam and Eve. We are so insanely grateful for all the blessings God poured out during that lesson. Later that night we ended up welcoming 11 new sisters! We are also the Sister Training Leaders for another zone because they didn't have any sisters. They are so cute and seem to be adjusting really well.

Anyway, obviously it's been an insane week! But so rewarding! I'm so grateful for all the support and love from you all! I miss you and love you!

Moika!

Sisar Jones


This is Sisar Adam's and my cute Serbian Sister



Traffic Duty!

A Different Kind of Week

Moi!

How is everyone doing? This week was definitely an adventure! On Sunday Sisar Adams and I were put in as Sister Training Leaders! We are officially the "oldest" sisters in our branch! Granted our branch consists of us Finns and the Hungarians who leave on Monday... so it definitely wasn't a surprise to be assigned as STL but either way we are so excited!

Saturday was a really great day for my Finnish. So granted I've been struggling with speaking in our lessons but I had this really strong prompting to say something to our investigator, Renee. I had no idea how to say it because I just don't have the vocabulary yet. So I tried my hardest to piece some words I knew to hopefully get my point across and I think I did it. Sisar Adams told me I said it really well and that it actually fit what we were talking about. I was pretty excited.

So Monday, like many of you, we were able to watch Elder Scott's Funeral. Granted I was excited because my brain was hurting from Finnish and I was excited to get a break, but it ended up being the coolest thing ever! I never thought you could learn so much from a funeral. I loved it. And let's just talk about how Elder Holland gave the opening prayer. Umm seriously it was amazing. Ha

On Tuesday we had Elder Claudio R. M. Costa of the Seventy come and talk to us as a MTC. Can I tell you something? That was the most AMAZING devotional I have ever been to. He was so kind and loving and sweet. He said with his broken English "I don't got faith, I got knowledge, and that's so much more powerful." It was definitely the sweetest thing I've ever heard! His whole talk revolved around missionary work, as many of the devotionals do, but again I highly recommend anyone who can to watch that devotional! And at the end he said he wanted to give us all a big hug but it would take too long so he stretched out his arms from the pulpit and hugged us all at once. The sweetest thing ever. 

So our district plays this game called Spikeball every day during gym hour. So lets be honest here, we all know that I am definitely not into sports. That's just general knowledge. But I AM SO GOOD AT SPIKEBALL. Its unreal how good I am. I should probably be more humble about it all, but I'm just too good to be humble. Ha! Just kidding I'm not THAT good but I'm still pretty awesome at it.

But anyway, THANK YOU ALL for all your love an support! I'm having a lot of fun out here and I can't wait to be in Finland in 5 and a half weeks! Yay!

Love you all!

Love,

Sisar Jones


All the Finns at the Temple



Sisar Adams and I at the Temple

A Week Broken

Well week two here in good ole Provo. What a week. Here's all that went down.

So Thursday right after I sent my last email I had to go get a flu shot. Now if you know me at all you will know just how much I detest shots. So luckily when I was in the clinic they had a little bear that I got to hold while I got my shot. Missions really do bless us because I DIDN"T CRY! ha I was so proud of myself. So Friday I woke up so sick. So I'm 90% sure I got some form of the flu from my flu shot. So this entire week has been one of not being able to talk.. I'm feeling great now, but I still sound like I smoke 30 packs a day.. Ha

So for our district service we are in charge of setting up for devotionals. I specifically have the job of vacuuming the rugs. So I did my job like a good little missionary and I pulled the plug out of the wall and well, the little prong things stayed in the wall.. So well thats cool. I broke the MTC. Ha BLESS.  

So on Sunday we had Lloyd K. Newell come and give a devotional. It was called MTC & The Spoken Word. Ha it was so good! I highly recommend going and watching it if you can. He was such a cool speaker and had some amazing insights. 

We finished teaching our first investigator, Anna, and she was really great. Her real name is Rachel Egan and she's the coolest teacher we've had. Sadly thought she had to quit so she isn't our teacher any more. I really connected with the way that she taught. So I was bummed to see her go.

On Tuesday We had Craig Cardon of the Seventy come and talk to us. His talk was extremely deep and hard to understand, but he told us this really cool thing that Elder Scott told him. "God speaks to us with a still small voice, so when we have strong opinions it makes it harder for the spirit to teach us". Granted strong opinions are good but we can't be too strong as to block out the spirit. That was pretty much all I understood from his devotional. 

So its been a pretty uneventful week here in Provo, mainly because I sit in a classroom for 12 hours a day.. But my Finnish is coming along really well. I'm understanding most of what people are saying so now I just need to be braver and just speak. Its only week two so I'm feeling pretty good about everything.

So my companion got 24 Dear Elders in one day sooo step up your game everyone. Ha just kidding! Anyways I love you all and miss you like crazy. I'm doing well and I love hearing from you all each week. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Moika!

Sisar Jones


All the Finns with Sister Egan on her last day of teaching

What A Crazy Week

Hei Everybody!

So one week down in the good ol' MTC. Holy cow I was not prepared for what I got myself into. 

So to start my comp is Sisar Adams. She's from Idaho and is practically me just from Idaho. We're both Finnish and its kinda insane how similar we are. She's really nice and I think we will work well together. There are 11 of us going to Finland with Sisar Adams and I being the only sisters. Its really been fun and our district is really cool. We all seem to get along really well and I'm so gald we do. ha can you imagine 9 weeks with people who dont get along? So its all good :) 

So this week was insane. We get to class and our teacher doesn't speak any english to us at all. She knows english but only speaks Finnish to us. So right from the start I've been completely lost, slowly but surely thought I'm starting to understand Finnish better. Luckily. Forming sentences is really hard for me and thats Sisar Adams strong point. She's pretty fluent so I'm struggling to find my voice in our discussions. I'll get there though. I know that the Lord with bless me if I keep doing as I am supposed to and doing my best to learn the language. 

Tuesday was the best day so far! All of the Finnish Missionaries are required to go meet with the Finnish Consolate (no clue how to spell that) and they then deciede if you're able to go into their country. So Tuesday I woke up at 2 am and WENT TO THE AIRPORT! Ha yes I went to California on tuesday to meet with this lady. All she did was take my finger prints and say that they will let us know if we get to go to Finland. So yeah it was really fun to have a break from Finnish and be actual missionaries in Calif. We talked to this Islamic man from Turkey about the gospel and he told us all about Islam. He then invited us when we get home to go meet and get dinner with him and his cousin.. His cousin is Memmet Okur from the Utah Jazz. So I've got something really cool to look forward to when the Vanhimat (Elders) get home in 2 years. I was also able to talk to a lady about the chruch for about a half hour during lunch. Being from Utah and growing up with the missionaries as celebrities it was really cool to go somewhere and have people ask what my nametag said (its in Finnish so NOBODY could read it) and to see how that was the first thing people looked to when they saw us walking down the terminal. 

One of the Hungarian Elders, Fitzgerald Elder, told us he was from Australia. He has the coolest accent and it was so cool to meet someone from Austrialia. He kept telling us that wednesday, yesterday, was surprise day. He was freaking out when it came lunch time because that's when he was going to tell us the surprise. Well after making us promise we wouldn't kill him, he told us he's not actually from Australia, but Midway Utah. Ha He was so worried it was so funny. But the fact that he kept it up for a whole week was pretty impressive. Now its just weird to hear him speak normally. So thats my funny story for the week. There were proabably others but this one was probably the funniest.

Other than that its been 7 days of sitting in a classroom from 7:45 am to 9:30 pm every day trying to learn a language I really dont understand. I'm so excited to see what this mission has in store for me and I'm so grateful for all the support I have with me being out here. This mission is exactly where I need to be, I still haven't figured it out why yet, but I know I need to be here.

Love you all and miss you guys a ton!!

Love,

Sisar Jones


Sisar Jones and Sisar Adams




The Hungarian Sisters and I trying to take us picture of us Heel-Clicking last night.. It didn't work. Ha