And I went back homeeee :)‏

Hey Everyone!

This week was such a blast!! So we had a Mission Tour with Elder Johnson and Elder Sabin of the Seventy and their wives! It was soooo great to hear from them and get their insights about everything! They are in the European Area Presidency so it was great to hear their thoughts and ideas specific to the challenges and things that we have here in Europe! 

And to make it even better! The meeting was in Helsinki! I GOT TO GO TO MY HOMEEEE!!! It was such a blast! I loved it! We got to see about half the mission and I was finally able to meet some of the people I've only heard about! So fun! 

We got to Helsinki late Thursday night so we got to go have a sleepover with the Neitsytpolku Sisters! AND GUESS WHAT!! They now live in the apartnment above the chapel, soooo if I'm assuming correctly, which I probably am, its possibly the same apartment that my dad lived in when he served here! SOOO COOL!

It was a great meeting and then we had train rides upon train rides back up to good ole Kuopio! 

This past Wednesday I had the AMAZING opportunity to go and visit one of my Mummo's dearest childhood friends! It was so exciting! We go up to her door and I say "Riitta Havasalo, eli Riitta Jones on minun Mummoni!" Her husband hurried and said "Tulkaa sisaan!" She was sooo excited to meet me and I her! It was just so exciting and such a tender mercy from Heavenly Father!

It was such a great week! Full of wonderful adventures! I love you all! Thank you for all the support! 

Love,

Sister Jones

Neitsytpolku

The Week of Gelato!‏

WHAT A WEEK!

It was such a blast! So this week in the Tori there was an International Festival with little tori's from all over the world! And there was this one that was really amazing and it was this little Gelato place! So we decided on Friday that we would stop and get ice cream before we headed in for weekly planning and let me tell you. BEST GELATO EVER. It was seriously just like it was in Italy and it brought me right back.. SOO GOOD! And we ended up making friends with the cute girl who worked there and it was just great! We went back later that night and then again on Saturday. We wanted to go and say by Saturday night, because it ended Sunday night, but our schedule didn't really allow us to go back..

So Sunday right after church, we ran over to the Tori and went to say bye. Now we say bye and that we don't have time for ice cream, cause you know.. Sabbath, and well she won't hear of it, so she ends up giving us tons of ice cream to take on the go. SHE WAS ADORABLE! We were again walking through the center later that night and we saw them packing up and got to help them and talk to her for a little while! SOOO AWESOME!

Another amazing experience that we had this week, was the same woman who's house we've been cleaning, asked us about why we decided to serve missions. And I was able to explain my whole story of really being converted and how it has blessed me. It was such an amazingly spiritual experience and it really brought the spirit into their home. I was able to simply and powerfully bear my testimony to her and I know she felt something. When she heard my decisions and choices that got me to be on a mission, she started crying. She just talked about how she felt peace and it was truly one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had on my mission. Its really been so amazing to see the spirit working on people and softening their hearts. Its truly amazing!

I love you all! I am so grateful for the gospel and how much its blessed my life. I'm grateful for Christ's Atonement and that through him all is possible!

All my love,

Sister Jones

At the Muumi Pancake house (WAYY BETTER THAN IHOP)

Gelato #1

Gelato #2

Us with the Gelato Girl, Veronica!

Finland is STUNNING

Gelato #3

I LIVE HERE!

Gelato #4

Hey Everyone!

This week was great! Its really been so much fun!

So last Tuesday we were out tracting and I HEARD THE JÄTSKIAUTO! (Ice Cream Truck) And I started running! Ha Poor Sister Bradbury didn't know what was going on so she had to start chasing after me, cause you know, sight and sound, and well, I chased down the Ice Cream Man.. Yep. He was wayyy cool and gave us a sweet discount on the Ice Cream :) Yay!

This week was also quite eventful because we have been doing service for one of our members neighbors. She's really needing help with cleaning her house so we go over and help her. This past Saturday our job was to clean her sons room. He just moved out so we had a lot to do. So we started moving furniture around and we had to climb all over and it was sooo funny! So I ended up crawling under the bed and organized stuff and well, I'll include a picture. It was really funny. 

We ended up getting out pretty late and so we stopped at the members house so we could use their restroom before we got back to work. And we hadn't eaten dinner yet and they could tell, so they were the sweetest and they ended up giving us dinner so we wouldn't have to go home and make it ourselves. Really they are the sweetest :)

Yesterday we went on a roadtrip to Varkaus! It was such a blast! We got to visit some of the members who live out there who don't really get to see missionaries since we are the ones over their area and we live an hour and a half away.. So they were all soooo excited to see us! One of the older members was just so excited that the moment she saw us, she gave us a huge group hug! It was adorable! 

It was a great week everyone! Thank you for your support! I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Jones

Me with my ice cream

Us with the Jästkiauto

The awkward position I was in for like 20 minutes while cleaning..

Varkaus Selfie

 

A cute family from Germany who have been in church the past couple of weeks 

Mini Me Week!‏

So this week was absolutely amazing! I got to be a Mini Missionary Trainer! So one of the coolest things that we get to do here in Finland is have Mini Missionaries! So what that means is that a youth ages 16-18 gets to come and be a missionary for a week with us! They are a missionary minus the setting apart! So I was one of the missionaries in the mission chosen to be a trainer for one of these little guys. So Monday night I get to meet my little mini me. Her name is Sister Reiman and she's from Espoo :)

Let me tell you! Mini Me's ARE THE BEST! She was the absolute most amazing mini I could have ever asked for! It was a week full of adventures! Yay! 

So for her P-day with us we went berry picking with a family in the ward! It was such a blast! We probably got like 3 Liters of Blueberries! IT WAS AMAZING! It was probably the coolest! Seriously we picked tons of berries and we just had a blast and it was super relaxing! 

Wednesday we had District Meeting and my little Mini Me was sooo awesome in the Role Play! We just kinda threw her in it and she took to it like a professional! She was great! We later had a lesson with a recent convert and she just fit perfectly in and really was such a natural at missionary work!

Thursday morning we got a text from a 1 801 number and I was soooo confused! Thinking my parents or someone had gotten my phone number and were in Finland... But it ended up being that it was a former missionary who served here and he and his sister were visiting and wanted to take us out to lunch. So on Friday we went out to lunch with them and it was soo much fun! They were so sweet and just like wayyy cool! He told us a bunch of people to look up in our area book so we could go find them. So we will see what happens! 

Sunday was our last day with Mini me and it was a GREAT DAY! We were able to talk to 29 people and pass out 7 Book of Mormons! It was such a great ending to a great week!

Then yesterday we woke up at 4:15 to get Sister Reiman on a train at 5:30 so she could get back to Espoo. We came home and slept and I ended up being sick the whole day, so I slept for most of yesterday!

It was such a great week! I was so blessed to be able to serve with Sister Reiman this week. Seeing her excitement to share the gospel really was such a testimony to me that this work is true. And that I am soo blessed to be able to serve as a missionary!  ALSO I TURN 11 MONTHS OLD TODAY! SOOO INSANE!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jones



Berries



District Picture with the Minis!

In our Elevator Picture

Group Picture

By the lake

The Adventures of Sister Jones and Sister Bradbuny‏

Hey Everyone!

So this week was quite the adventure again! My new city, Kuopio is amazing! I love it!

So it started out with the Talo Mies (landlord) coming to change the names on the apartment door. He found out about my arrival since Sister Bradbury and Sister Christensen got locked out of the house the day before I came and he had to come rescue them. Anyway, we got to get our names put on the door :) When we went to check the Landlord's work, he had put "Jones / Bradbuny". We thought it was maybe a mistake (since my companion's name is Bradbury, not a furry animal).. But no. It was everywhere. Everywhere. Ha bless his heart. So now our door legitimately reads "Jones Bradbuny" I laugh every time we walk into the house.. It's swell :)

We also went and visited this less active member, and seriously it was great! She's not like the happiest person in the world generally, but when we walked in she just had the BIGGEST smile on her face! She was so excited to see us! It was such a sweet tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. She ended up giving us pot holders that she knitted and she had several with this really fun combination of colors. She was so excited and giddy when she was picking which ones to give to us. It was such a sweet little experience!

We also went and helped this woman clean her house and she wanted us to help with cleaning her massive rug. So her fiance had soaked it down and was scrubbing it. Our job was to pick it up and hang it to dry. Since it was soaked, it weighed a freaking ton.. When Sister Bradbury and I start rolling it up, we got super soaked and started squishing it and it was way funny. Trying to lift it back on the rack thing was a joke, we got even more soaked and it was seriously such an adventure. SOO much fun! ha 

So yeah that's been this week! Its been wonderful and it so awesome to see the work moving forward! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jones

Jones and Bradbuny

Cool cave right by our house

Special missionary walking picture. Bless.

And its the first letter from Kuopio!‏

Hei Everyone! So this is my first email that isn't coming from the Marjaniemi Chapel! Its so weird to be in a new city BUT this place is amazing! 

It was so hard to leave Marjaniemi but I'm so excited that I get to serve here! So my new companion Sister Bradbury is AMAZING! Seriously she's such hard worker and is just soooo excited to get out and get to work! We've laughed sooo much in the past week its ridiculous! I'm stoked to get to spend the next 8 weeks with her!

So we've already had a TON of adventures sooo here we go!

So first off, driving a car. WHAT? Its seriously the weirdest thing I've ever done. Finland has different rules and different signs than we do back in America so its been kind of an adjustment to get back to driving. But no worries, I HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SPEEDING TICKET YET! Ha no worries, I actually really follow the speed limits here! Who's surprised? But we got to go on road trip my first full day here because our area is sooo spread out that we have to travel a ton to get to many places.. So that was so fun! We spent the day visiting Less Actives and moving the work forward! It was awesome!

On Saturday we also found out that I have an AMAZING eye for finding berries in the forest. So we decided that it would be a GREAT idea to carry a small bag with us so we can pick berries! Well, on Sunday we really put it to use!  We picked sooo many berries! And we didn't even make a dent in the little berry patch we found :) It was a super fun like 10 minute break when we were tracting! 

Yesterday was QUITE the adventure. So we had this awesome day of finding planned but then the Talomies called us and told us he was coming over and it kinda messed up our day.. And we had to call the Elders to come over so we wouldn't be alone with the man, so he messed up their day too.. But when we were finally able to get out, we went and talked to a bunch of people and it was awesome! But then we had to go to the Hospital.. So when we were working out in the morning Sister Bradbury felt a kinda pop in her lower back, and being the trooper she is she tried to tuff it out all day, despite the fact she couldn't really walk... 

We called Sister Watson and she suggested that we go to the emergency room. Sooo we drove over there and walked through wayy too many wrong parts of the hospital and finally found the Emergency Room. We then waited FOREVER and then they called us in. This lady yelled at us for not going to the x-ray room and then said that is non nurse man would check it out. So he's asking Sister Bradbury all these questions and what ever (Key Point- This is all in English) and then they both start talking Finnish, thinking we don't know any Finnish, and start talking about how they don't want to do this in English but they don't jaksaa to get a translator which they said would cost 100 Euros. So then they tell us in English that they don't think that anything is wrong and that it would be 500 Euros if she wanted to see a real doctor. Then they asked us about like why we are here and such, so I started speaking to them in Finnish and well, they were shocked. They then started talking Finnish to each other about how they didn't like us and such. I was peeved. 

So we left. And went and got ice cream because we were both a little frustrated. Mainly I was, because Sister Bradbury didn't know what was going on when they were speaking Finnish. But all in all, Sister Bradbury is a little sore/stiff today, but she should be totally fine in the next couple of days :)

Wow. So that's my like novel for the week! I love you all! And I hope you have the best week! I'm super excited to see what this next week brings!

Love,

Sister Jones

Me and Sister Andersson our last night together

Our FIRST berry adventure

At the Train Station sending Sister Christensen to Espoo

Me and Sister Bradbury in the hospital parking lot