And then...

Hey Everyone!

So this week has been pretty great :) 

It was very eventful! On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference and a World Wide Missionary Training Meeting. After the past couple of weeks, this was just the thing we needed to get back into the mission game! After having a great zone conference, we got to hear from all the wonderful Church leaders. They haven't done a conference like this in over 10 years so I'm so grateful I got to be a part of it. AND it was pretty cool that they mentioned the Finland Helsinki Mission for watching it when it was live in SLC at 10 am and we were watching it live at 7 pm. Yay for shout outs! But really though, it was so good and we were able to learn so much from our leaders. I loved it!

 

Thursday was interesting, very interesting. We had dinner at a member's home and they offered to drive us to the next place we needed to go. We thought we told them the right place but it was definitely wrong, so we decided to just get on the bus and find our way back. Ha! So we get on this bus and we scan our cards, we turn around and I KID YOU NOT there were 40, 40 army men on this bus. Just army men. That was it. No other civilians. No other women for that matter. And so we rode the bus for 20 minutes with a bus full of army men. Yes. This really happened. Yes, it was awkward. And no, we don't know if it was totally allowed or not with mission rules :) Ha

Also this week we taught my hair lady! When she did my hair we didn't know how to bring it into a gospel conversation so we didn't. BUT two weeks ago we met her on the street and gave her a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment! So yesterday we had that appointment! YAY! My hair lady was really interested and now she's our newest investigator! Super cool! She's pretty much a golden Finn, so this is gonna be awesome!

So it has been a really great week. Really just getting back into the groove. It has been amazing to just kinda start over. I'm so grateful for all of you and all of your support! It means the world to me! 

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Jones

The Priesthood is Amazing‏

Moi! This week has been a really great week! We are still teaching lessons which is so, sooo good! It's been a long time coming in this area so it's fantastic to finally see it starting to pick up!

We taught the sweetest lady who let us in tracting about 2 months ago (still the only lady to let us in while tracting), but either way, she's the cutest! She reminds me a lot of my mom so it's really fun to go and talk with her. We read with her from the Book of Mormon, which terrifies me because I don't read Finnish very well yet (I'm working really hard on that though). BUT I did it! I read in front of a native Finn and I didn't totally slaughter the language, YAYY!

This week has been really interesting. Sister Wunderli and I have really been doing great! Our numbers are all still going up and we are really doing so well. But, something has been really missing and neither of us really knew what it was. After much conversation and deliberation, we decided to ask the Zone Leaders for a blessing. Man, the Priesthood is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. 

We asked them but they were on splits yesterday with the other Elders in our District, so we were going to have to wait until today. Let me tell you, just the knowledge of being able to get a blessing was what got us through the day yesterday. We still had amazing lessons and talked to some really cool people, but for some reason that was the only thing that got us through. 

So today (actually just about a half hour ago), the Zone Leaders took time out of their insanely busy P-Day to come give us blessings. This was probably one of the most amazing blessings I've ever received. It was 100% what I needed to hear and it showed me just how much my Father in Heaven really loves and cares about me. He knows me perfectly. He wants to help me whenever I need it. Even though everything isn't 100% resolved, I feel like I have so much more guidance and clarity because of this blessing. 

So I guess that's how I'll close today. The Priesthood is the most amazing thing and the power and strength it brings is so real. I'm so grateful to be here as a missionary serving the Lord. I'm so grateful that I am surrounded by Elders who hold the Priesthood and are worthy to use it. I'm really grateful for the challenges that God has put in my life that are here to make me stronger and a better missionary. I'm really so incredibly grateful for all the wonderful examples in my life of worthy priesthood holders, and a mom who ALWAYS suggests that I get a blessing when I'm struggling. 

Despite the challenges and difficulties, it has really been such an amazing week, full of love from my Heavenly Father!

I love you all so much and I miss you! 

Love,

Sister Jones

 

 



My District :)



 

And then I'm grateful I'm still in Helsinki‏

So, transfer week! I'm staying in Itäkeskus for at least nine more weeks but probably 18. Sister Wunderli and I have another transfer together! Yay! I'm so excited to stay with her! Our area has been dead for about six months and now it's starting to pick up! We are finding people and actually teaching lessons! We haven't really taught a ton of lessons since I've been here, and I guess it was even slower before I got here, but now we have at least one lesson everyday which (for Itäkeskus), is quite impressive. Ha!

Well this week I became extremely grateful for being in the warmest place in Finland. Thursday was cold. Absolutely cold. I've never experienced such cold in my entire life. With temperatures reaching a high of -20 C and a low of about -27 C (-4 F and -13 F) this was a whole new experience for me. When it is that cold, if you breathe in through your nose, your snot will freeze and your nose will be frozen shut. Fact. Also, your hair will freeze and you will become a living Elsa. Fact. When it's that cold, you don't dress to "stay warm" you dress to NOT FREEZE. I have never before experienced this and honestly I'm still having nightmares about it. It was quite traumatizing. But no worries, it's warmed up here to about -12 C, so it's not as bad as Thursday, but the fear still remains with it coming back at any moment. 

This morning was fantastic! We woke up to one foot of fresh new powder. Man, trekking through the snow has now become quite fun. It's definitely quite a workout when you have to walk through the woods a lot since you are making your own paths, but its quite amazing and beautiful! I love it!

Even though this week was cold, the work is still moving! We've got some really cool people lined up that are progressing really well! We have this one investigator who read 18 chapters in the Book of Mormon in five days. He's golden! Ha!

It's the best time to be in Finland and I love it so much here! It's fantastic! Just keeping praying I won't freeze. Ha I love you all and I miss you!

Love,

Sister Jones

Okay, so I understand that this picture makes me look a little crazy, but this is just how cold it is. My eyelashes are frozen and my hair is quite frozen. It's been insane. I'm trying to recreate my Dad's mission picture of when he was here 30 years ago.

 

Timo 30yrs ago

 

 Me trekking through the insane snow. 

 

Me and Sister Wunderli walking to the church today!

New Year, new... ?‏

So this was the week. I finally did it. I CUT MY HAIR OFF! Haha. So yeah, I decided to start the year off with a fresh look. Short, Blonde hair was the way to go. So yeah, that's a thing.


So if you know my obsession with my hair, you'll know that there are very few people who are allowed to touch my hair since I'm scared of getting a bad hair cut. Now every single one of those people, besides myself, lives in Utah. I'm 5,000 miles away. It wasn't going to work. So I went into this salon that I thought looked trustworthy. I talked to the guy who was going to do it, and well, he doesn't speak ANY English. None. None at all. So there's our first problem. Second problem, I don't know hair terms in Finnish. So that's also an issue. But I went for it anyway. I told five centimeters off of the length and just "Kaikki Blondi", or "All Blonde". So that's what happened. It actually ended up looking really good and I really like it. So yayyy for me taking a risk and just doing it! Ha


It was still a good week with missionary work as well. We've been trying to get new investigators since our current ones haven't been really progressing nor really meeting with us. So this was a week of finding. We tracted, contacted, called everyone in the area book that we were supposed to and well, nothing happened. No new investigators. It was kinda hard because we had made a goal to get 4 new ones and we didn't get a single one. BUT this week is going to be great! All of our hard work is paying off with teaching new people everyday this week! We're excited to see where this all goes!

Its been a pretty standard week in Itäkeskus. I actually have been pretty sick the past couple of days so its been kinda hard just staying in. I luckily get to sleep, but Sister Wunderli has to keep herself occupied all day. She's a champ.


This Friday will be my first change call! Gah! I can't believe that I'm already done with my first transfer in Finland! I have seven transfers left and I don't know what I'm going to do if they all fly by like this one has! Its crazy to think that I hit four months this week! Times flies for sure!

I love you all and thank you for all your support and encouragement! I miss you!

Love,
Sister Jones

 



Before Hair Cut

 

After Hair Cut