And so the last change call came..

I'm headed back to Helsinki! I'm going to be serving in the Neitsytpolku Ward! YAY! I'm literally soo insanely excited to be back in Helsinki :) 6 months way was farrr to long to not serve there :) I love Helsinki with all my heart so I'm just so excited to go back! 

I definitely am heartbroken to leave Tampere. This city is just so sweet. All the people here are just too adorable. I'm going to miss them soo much. I am also going to miss being a Sister Training Leader and working so closely with all the Sisters in our Zones, but I guess my time has past and its time for one last hurrah in Helsinki :)

This week was so insanely busy. Ha I don't think I've ever been busier and I've been busy lately. ha We had interviews with President last Tuesday after emails and right after that Sister Adams and I went to this really cool water tower to look over all of Tampere. We got ice cream and went out on this water tower and ate it when it was -10 outside. ha But we got some really cool pictures so thats a bonus :) ha

I also cut Sister Adams hair this week. 15 cm off. Yep. ha Its so adorable for her :) I really like it and it was fun to play around on her hair. No worries everyone she likes it too.

We also went out to Valkeakoski this week. We were able to visit with quite a few members. We got to practice teaching to this girl who is less active and it went really really well! Her friend was giving a talk in church yesterday and she came! It was seriously one of the coolest things ever! Ha

There are soo many other things to say about this week, but it seriously was a great week and I am excited to see what the last 9 weeks have in store! 

I love you all! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Sister Jones

 

 

 

Us and the ice cream

Coolest picture ever

Me and Elder Jones and our companions :)

Elphaba and Glinda

Elder Minson took the cameras

Classic District Pic

Dinner at the Members

Us with Sisar Andersson

ZL/STL photo

Post Change call snack

 

The Lord knows best

The time is seriously just flying by its insane!

This week we went up to Oulu for exchanges! Exchanges are probably the best :) I love them so much! The Sisters up there are so sweet! It started out really fun because Sister Adams and I planned to eat dinner on the train, neither of us had ever eaten at the restaurant car, so we go and they won't let us use our MSF cards because they don't have a chip in them and they don't believe us that they still work anyway. So we ended up having to get dinner at this way cool Italian place in Oulu :) It was awesome! ha 

We then had a fantastic exchange! It was so much fun! Every time I go on exchanges I'm amazed at how amazing of Sisters we have in this mission. They are sooo impressive its insane. I just am so excited for the future of this mission because these sisters are just all so amazing!

We came home and had about 3 hours before our next exchange started.. It was pretty insane. BUT It also was a great exchange. I learned sooo much about trusting in the Lords timing and that he truly has a plan for all of us. There were soo many instances during that day that really strengthened my testimony that the Lord is truly in charge and he knows what is best.

We've been finding some really cool new investigators and the work is definitely moving forward! It's been a fantastic week!

I love you all! This Friday we get change calls and that means I'm finding out what will be happening for my last transfer.. Time is flying and I love every minute I get to spend as a missionary.

Love,

Sister Jones

 

My yummy food in Oulu

Me and Sister Adams in the magical wonderland that is Finland

 

Zonneeee Meeting Week

Okay sooo I'm kinda a little hyper as this is being written, soooo We shall see what happens.. ha

Anyway! This week we had our insane Zone Meeting.. The one that came out of nowhere. BUT IT WAS SOO GOOD! We had an amazing discussion about Repentance. President wanted us to talk about the doctrine behind it instead of the process. It was a little weird at times because we thought "Are we even talking about Repentace if we don't mention the steps and such?" Well it ended up being on the most spiritual discussions I've ever had. 

I asked the zone the question of "Why was Jesus Christ willing to make his Atoning sacrifice for us so that we could live with God again?" Now. Ponder that. I had no clue what the responses would be, but there were some truly amazing ones. One that really struck me was the one Elder Vennerholm gave. He read a scripture from John 15:13 which says "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." That struck me so hard. I was blown away at how

powerful of a response that was. That pretty much sums up how the rest of the meeting went.. Yep.

This week we also had exchanges in Turku :) I got to be with Sister Nelson and Sister Harris. Sister Nelson was also trained by Sister Wunderli and it was so much fun to get to be companions with her. Even if just for a day :) It was such a great day in such a great city!

Well, that's pretty much my week.. I love you all soo much! Thank you for all you do!

Love,

Sister Jones 

 

The blondest district in the mission

Me and Sister Nelson

Me and Sister Harris

 

And now the snow is here :)

So FINALLY after a sudden heat wave, we've got snow and its absolutely beautiful! I love Finland! Its so amazing! Gah! Its the best!

This week has been such a blast! It started off with me getting my hair done last Tuesday and let me tell you, it was such a blast! The guy that did it was seriously soo funny and he did such a fantastic job! Now I don't know how many of you know this but I'm really terrified to just let anyone do my hair, but I had total faith in this guy! He did a great job and it was just so much fun! 

It was also Sister Adams birthday on Tuesday so our investigators threw her a Syrian Birthday Party! It was probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen. They invited their whole family over and made all this traditional Syrian food! Sooo much fun :)

We also went to Helsinki this week for MLC! I love going to Helsinki! Its my most favorite place ever. We had a great set of meetings and a FANTASTIC temple session! We were there and President had received work from the brethren that we are now to have Zone Meetings once a month and Zone Conferences every 6 weeks. He then also told us that we would be having a Zone Meeting in 6 days.. Well that was exciting news.. ha We've been panic planning the past couple of days. BUT it should be a great meeting tomorrow :)

This past weekend was the HUGE YSA 3 day New Years Party and it was in Tampere! Funny thing is that last year it was in Marjaniemi! So I've been at it 2 years in a row. ha We were really only at the church when we had lessons or meetings so we obviously didn't participate, but I got to see a BUNCH of my friends from my previous areas! It was so fun to see them! I get to sit in sacrament with one of my best friends from Marjaniemi and I just about died. Its was so awesome!

Well, thats about all this past week! I love you all soo much! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Jones

 

 

Sister Adams, Me, and Sister Cardon! All of our trainers were a trio in the MTC so we had a take a picture :)

We saw our mini missionaries! They are now cute YSA's!

 

Onnelista Uutta Vuotta!!

Hey Everyone! It was so fun to Skype my family the other day! It was so great :) 


We've had a busy week as normal here in Tampere :) We had Zone Conference week, so on Tuesday we had our conferences here and then on Wednesday we were on our journey up to Oulu for the North Zone Conference. We spent the night there and on Thursday was the conference. It was pretty funny because Oulu at the moment is a sheet of ice, so I slipped on my way over to the church. I didn't think much of it, but when I checked to see if I had gotten hurt, I had a giant hole in my tights and a nice gash on my knee.. I tried to tough it out, but it didn't work. I needed some intense band-aids.. Ha no worries though, now its totally fine :) I'm practically healed! But the conferences were really good and it was so great to learn from President Watson.


Then it was Christmas time! We had some amazing members who invited us over for all 3 days of Christmas. On the 24th (the big Christmas day here) we went and had traditional Finnish Christmas with an adorable family! On the 25th we had church and it was a fantastic service! We had a lot of people from off the street come in since it was Joulu Kirkko  and it was really cool! 


We then went to another families house for dinner and we skyped and had such a fun Christmas Party and program :) It was the best thing to jump right back into the work on Christmas! It was so much fun as well because they had 3 of our recent converts over as well, so we got to spend Christmas with them as well.


Yesterday we went to this older couples home and had such an amaizng time! Seriously! It was so cool because they remind me so much of my Mummo and Pappa that it was like i was just back at home :) I loved it! 


We've taught a couple of lessons and we have some more tonight :) The work is moving forward and I've so glad that I've had the past month of my mission to be sooo focused on Christ. I'm so grateful for his example and all that he has done for me. 


I love you all soo much! Thank you for all the warm Christmas wishes!

Love,
Sister Jones

All of us Sister in Oulu

Us posing with the cool ice rinks

Us being posers. Always.

Hyvää Joulua!

Christmas is in full swing this week!

I've just felt the Christmas spirit in all its amazing glory this week! Finland is truly a magical time to be a missionary! And to be serving in the mostest magical place in the world just makes it all the better! 

This past P-Day we got to go to the Joulutori! Which let me tell you was a DREAM COME TRUE. It was a winter wonderland and it was the coolest thing of my entire life. We were there and we had Moose Makkara and we met Joulupukki! Honestly it was such a blast! Funny thing was, we were looking at all the adorable shops and the only things I wanted to buy were decorations for the house that I don't own.. I think I'm getting old.. Haha but it was the coolest most Christmasy thing ever :)

So I went on a date! HA NO! I chaperoned a date. No joke. There is this cute old man in our ward who was trying to be sneaky and invite a recent convert over so he could "tutustua häneen" (get to know her) So he thought it would be really sneaky to invite the missionaries and her over for dinner.. It was so awkward.. Sister Adams and I made dinner for them while they talked and got to know each other.. It was just kinda really awkward the whole time and Sister Adams and I decided that if thats what dating is like, when we get back home, that we NEVER EVER EVER want to go on another date for the rest of our lives.

But this week is Zone Conference so we have that tomorrow and then we are off to Oulu on Wednesday for the conference up there on Thursday.

Its such a magical time to be serving our Heavenly Father and sharing the wonderful, joyous message of Christ. 

I love you all sooo much! 

Love,

Sister Jones

All the Joulutori pictures