A Week at the Mission Home!

Hey Everyone! What a great week I had over here in Finland! 

We went down to Helsinki to spend a week at the Mission Home for a lot of training! IT WAS SOOO GOOD! Seriously, President Watson is amazing! We were soo blessed to spend four days learning from him and it was just everything I needed! 

We talked so much about faith and how it can help us in our lives here and once we go home. It has really been so weird to hear people talk about "life after the mission" because I'm actually getting to the point where that's like something to think about. Soo weird. But I learned soo much about how to improve the way I do missionary work and how I can help others. It was so cool!

We also got to go to the temple again. WHICH WAS AMAZING AS ALWAYS! Seriously every time I go, I feel my Heavenly Father's love again and again and it really is just what I need to keep going. There is a special spirit there that you really can't get anywhere else. I am reminded when I go just how amazing our Heavenly Father is and how He really does have this amazingly perfect plan for each and every one of us, that through Christ and His atonement, all is possible. We are able to have everything made okay through our Savior. It was just a really special experience in the temple this week. WE ARE SOO BLESSED TO HAVE A TEMPLE IN FINLAND! And to make it fun, we went on the 10th Anniversary of the dedication! So fun to be IN the temple that I watched be dedicated 10 years ago in Salt Lake! So cool! 

Anyway! It's been a great week! We haven't been in Tampere that much, but yesterday we finally had the chance to go finding. I think we've gone finding like 3 times since I've been here, so it was really nice to just have the time to talk to people! Who would have ever guessed that you could miss finding people soo much! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your support! The work moves along! 

Also fun little thing for the week, IT SNOWED! TWICE! It hasn't quite stuck to the ground yet, but I guess that's in the forecast for this weekend! YAY! Talvi on tulossa!

Love,

Sister Jones

*When you have to change in the car and this happens.

* Us at the temple

* The Hämeenlinna Castle that we passed on our train ride back to Tampere :) I LOVE passing through Hämeenlinna all the time :)

Another Crazy Week!

Hey everyone! What the week we've had! Ha

So last time a wrote I was up North in Oulu, which was so much fun! After the meetings there, we went out with other missionaries and got dinner :) It was a blast! Then we trekked the five hour train ride home, just to go to bed.

The next day we had our Tampere Zone Conference. It was soo cool to compare the Oulu and Tampere conferences. It was really interesting to see how each got the same points across but the approach was so specific to the needs of the missionaries in each specific meeting. Such a cool experience, for sure.

On Wednesday we were back on another train on our way back up to Oulu! Ha Yep, twice in one week. Such a blast! I went on my first exchanges as an STL and it was sooo much fun! Seriously it was probably one of the funnest things! I loved it! It was sooo cool to work with the other sisters to see how they work and figure out how I can help them in their missionary work. I seriously felt like I learned soo much more from them than they could have ever learned from me. 

We've been insanely busy since we got back on Friday.So many people to visit and help bring them closer to the Lord! Its soo cool be a part of this awesome work!

Yesterday we went out to some member's homes who live in Valkeakoski (30 minutes outside of Tampere). With it being fall, we raked their leaves! It was so much fun! We got to spend time with the members and help them! So fun!

It was funny because we needed to change into our work clothes at one of the member's houses. When we got there we were told his wife wasn't home. So, we changed in the car. Ha it was quite the sight to see three Sister Missionaries changing in a tiny Toyota Yaris. BUT we successfully did it while maintaining full levels of modesty. Ha what a sight to see! 

We are headed back to Helsinki in about an hour so next week's email should be full of adventures as well!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the love and support!

Love,

Sister Jones

All the yummy ice creams

OULU! STUNNING



All the Sister Training Leaders at the Temple





Me and Sister Cooper in Oulu



Me and Sister Clark on our way to my first MLC




Me and Sister Cooper in Oulu

Terveisiä Oulusta!

So as I write this email I am currently sitting in the Oulu Chapel. Oulu is in the northern part of Finland, close to the Arctic Circle. We had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) last Friday and Saturday in Helsinki and President informed us that since there aren't Oulu Sister Training Leaders anymore (and since we are now over the North Zone), we are supposed to be at all North Zone meetings. So we got back to Tampere from Helsinki late Saturday night, went to church on Sunday and then right after church we packed again and went on another train up to Oulu (about a seven hour train ride)! So we've had a fantastic day of meetings and wisdom from President! We don't really have a P-day because of it, but that's okay! We got to go on a trip for our P-day this week :) Every missionary's dream right?? Ha

 

Since this week was MLC, it was so fun to go and spend time in the Mission Home with all the other leaders of the mission. It was really quite freaky when all the STL's, ZL's, DL's and AP's were all sitting there and President Watson says "This is all of the leadership for all of the missionary efforts and work for the entire country of Finland... It was a little insane.. But such a great exprience.

 

Also the BEST part of MLC was the fact that we got to go to the Temple on Friday. It had been about 10 months since I had last been to the temple and it was such an amazing experience. I was sooo incredibly grateful for that experience. I was sooo blessed with a feeling of peace and being able to feel my Heavenly Father's love for me and for all of his children. It was such an amazing experience. I am soooo grateful for it.

 

This past week has been absolutely insane and so busy. We haven't been in our area very much, but luckily Heavenly Father is truly blessing us as we strive to do our best. We've seen soooo many miracles and just soo many amazing things happen that we know are a direct correlation to us serving and doing our best with what we have. It has been truly amazing.

 

I love you all soo much! Thank you for all your support! I'm sorry I don't have a ton of time to write today, but our train is leaving soon. Just know that I love you all soooo much! You are the best!

 

Love,

Sister Jones

Another Week in the Life

Hey Everyone!

This week was such a blast! We've been sooo busy again and it's great! We've been teaching our wonderful recent converts and it's just great! 

This week we had a little bit of a different expirence. Since this is Sister Clark's last transfer, she went down to Espoo (Helsinki) for the day to do this "My Plan" thingy. It's really just a day meeting where you talk about going home and setting goals and such and then they have you go right back to work and not focus on home. I'm not too excited for when its my turn. BUT with her down in Espoo, Sister DuPaix and I were left to man our area by ourselves. Now we have only been here about a week and it was pretty crazy.. BUT no worries everyone! We made it to our apointments and talked to a lot of people WITHOUT getting lost once or even taking the wrong bus. I would say that it was pretty impressive. Ha

It was also fun because we had Sister Parker, who's serving in Vaasa, come and be with us for the day, since her companion was also at the meeting. So it was just such a blast! We had so much fun!

We had one of the best lessons I've ever had on my mission yesterday. We found this new investigator and he just was very blunt about not wanting to join any other church because he truly believes in his. So, as we were talking to him and testifying of our message, we could just feel the spirit right there along with us testifying to him as well. We watched his heart soften sooo much in the half hour that we were with him and it was just a testimony to me that as we prepare and boldly testify with love, the Lord will guide us to know what to say and that His Spirit will be there right along with us. It was truly amazing! And THEN as we were saying our closing prayer (which he didn't want to participate in), HIS WIFE (who doesn't want to learn), actually participated in our prayer instead. WHAT A MIRACLE! I can't accurately describe just how amazing this lesson actually was, but really it was one of those amazing missionary moments that I will never forget!

Also Genreal Conference was practically the best thing ever! So many powerful meetings! I really learned just so much from it. It really was sooo greattt!

I love you all soo much! Thank you for all your support and love!

Have the best week!

Love,

Sister Jones

Our name tags when we were on top of a scenic water tower looking over Tampere

Me, Sister Clark, and Sister DuPaix celebrating my 6 months left mark

Me, Sister Parker, and Sister DuPaix

And Week One in Tampere has Begun!‏

Holy cow! I'm seriously just exhausted (but in the absolute best way ever!). It has been an amazing week! I came into the Tampere area on Wednesday and we had a baptism on Saturday, we've just been so busy!

This area is absolutely on fire! In the past six months we've had seven baptisms here! Its sooo cool! I absolutely adore it here and all the people we are working with are absolutely amazing!

Soooo Sister Clark and I started our companionship by going to Espoo (Helsinki) to get our trainee! Her name is Sister DuPaix (Dupei) (sorry, but I only know how to spell it using Finnish pronunciations) AND she is absolutely adorable! She's from Wisconsin and she's one of the greatest! (Obviously she has to be with how crazy of a training situation she has in our trio!) She's amazing! Sister Clark and I are sooo blessed to have her!

Sister Clark is a great companion as well! She's from Utah and we get along way well! It's so fun to be able to learn the ropes from her! She's really a FANTASTIC missionary and I am sooo glad I've got a transfer with her! 

Tampere is such a fantastic city! It is very different from Kuopio but it's really so adorable! I finally get to live all the excitement that Sister Crofts would tell me about :) SOO STOKED! 

Honestly this week has been a huge adjustment week, and it has been insanely busy! But after looking at our schedule, this is probably the calmest time until our next transfer! Yay! ha It's fun! I'm super excited for this next little bit! 

Sorry this is so short, I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jones

I would send pictures but it's not working.. Sorry!