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