MOIKKA. Is it just me or is time FLYING by?! I can't believe it's already August! I got to Finland last year in August! Time is going too fast! I can't think about it because I get really sad and start freaking out! I just gotta live one day at a time and enjoy every minute. Which is exactly what I've been doing.
So in case you all don't know, missionary work is sometimes really, really hard. Sometimes we get rejected, have people yell at us, have people drive past us giving us the middle finger, a woman last week ran outside and was taking pictures of us on the street so we went back and were like "why are you taking pictures of us?" and she just started yelling at us and said she had called the police and all this other crazy stuff. Basically, the mission is full of lots of trials and hard times and disappointments, but it has been the MOST AMAZING THING EVER. I never want it to end. My faith has grown so much. My understanding of life's purpose has grown immensely. I have witnessed more miracles than I can count. I have felt myself come closer to Christ. He has changed me. He continues to change me everyday. I love waking up and putting his name on my heart for all the world to see.
We have witnessed sooo many miracles this week! We met with one of our friends for the first time. His name is D and he's from Vietnam. We had an amazing first lesson with him and really just discussed the importance of daily scripture study, prayer, and attending church every week. We also set a baptismal date with him as a goal for this month! It was amazing. We had another lesson with him this week and the night before our lesson, we told him to look up mormon.org. He said he would and the next day at our lesson we asked him if he did. He said he watched the movie called "Finding Faith in Christ" and that he feels like Jonah in the movie, that he has a lot of doubts, but that he really just wants to find faith in Christ. He came to church and after Sacrament meeting, I asked him what he thought and he said that two of the speakers just really had the Spirit with them. We met with him again and he commited to live the commandments and said that he just really wants to be a good person. And he had read a chapter (2 Nephi 31) about baptism the night before and he was like "yeah I read about baptism and I learned that if I really want this happiness, I need to get baptized because baptism is like a gate. It's the first step" ummm YES! Usually people we meet have a hard time understanding that, but he totally came up with it on his own (the Spirit told him). Gosh he's so cool! And the Lord is working in his life so much. We were talking with him and I felt I needed to ask him how he feels when he prays and he said that he feels warm in his heart every time he prays and after he prays or reads "the book" he always feels so happy and he doesn't even know why. Ahhhhhhh! You guys, God answers prayers! And He wants to help all come closer to Him. But we must make the decision first! Pray for D! He's so cool!
Another huge miralce, our friend T commited to STOP SMOKING! She's so awesome! Smoking has been one of the major things holding her back from baptism. And we had had a lesson about it earlier this week and she wouldn't commit to stop. So we were like ughhhh. And then yesterday we taught her again and as we were planning for the lesson, we were like "well guys, if she's not willing to do this big commitment, we might need to leave her in the hands of the Lord" but then we went and she agreed to stop! She said she had been praying about it and she really wants to! And she reads the Book of Mormon every night! She can't go to bed without reading it and she is in 3 Nephi now! WICKKAAA WHAAAAT?! She's just cruising! It's so cool to see. So that was a huge miracle and we're excited to keep helping her progress to baptism!
Another big miracle was finding A, our new investigator from India. After our lesson with D at the temple, we had an hour left before we had to go home. We had some people close by that we could go visit so we prayed to know what to do. Immediately I got the feeling we needed to go walk by Lidls, a grocery store up the hill which was strange cuz we didn't have anybody to go visit up there. Before I could even say it outloud, my comp said the same thing! I love comp unity and the power of the Spirit! So we followed the prompting and found the coolest lady! She moved here from India 3 months ago, is a super strong Christian, and has actually tried to go to our temple twice already because she has been looking for a place to worship. She kept saying "it is by the grace of God that we met!" We had a lesson with her at the temple guest house where we show the video that was shown at the Finland Helsinki Temple open house and she brought her husband and one of her daughters! Basically, we found a FAMILY. Basically the Lord led us right to her! Gosh, on my mission I have really come to understand a little more about how God really does know us! He loves us soo much! How grateful I am for this knowledge!
So it's been very warm lately! Apparently it's a been lot warmer than it normally is at this time -which is crazy cuz in June it was still FREEZING. The Finns just keep talking about how this is the weirdest weather ever! How this year has been so abnormal. I just keep telling myself not to complain about the heat because way too soon, the sun will be gone and it will be freezing here again! Oi Finland is so beautiful this time of year! And Finland has a law that anyone is able to eat anything growing on the side of the road, in the forests, etc so this week we've eaten CHERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, AND RASPBERRIES while walking to lessons and visiting people. Uhhhh talk about heaven! It's been so fun!
More miracles happened yesterday, when a less active family we've been working with CAME TO CHURCH! YAAAAAY! They are the cutest family! They have a little girl and they're having another baby this month. Also, a less active who is married to a nonmember who has the two cutest little boys ever came this week after we went and visited them this week so that was awesome! Sooo many miracles I can hardly handle it!
God lives. Come unto Christ. I think I've already sent this home but you've got to listen to this song! https://www.lds.org/youth/
Rakkaudella,
Sisar Nielsen
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