September 23, 2013

Dear Family,

. . . . . It is so true that your actions now carry into the future. When you talk about consequences sometimes you don't see the immediate effect but they come, good or bad. Character is composed of consistency. So when you are consistently good it pays off.

. . .  We are so blessed to live in the land that we do. The other day we were on the bus and I was looking out the window at all the homes and thinking about how my life would be different if I grew up in different surroundings. I got thinking about the details of it and what I came down to is that mom and dad would have made everything work wherever we were. No matter what our circumstances would have been I would grow up in a loving home being taught the principles of the gospel and how to function in the world. I would still have received all the blessings of our family no matter where we lived. So after thinking again about how blessed I am to have the family I do, I added to that list of blessings the blessing it was to grow up in Ely; a small town where my friends are like family. Where I have my freedom. Where I could play all the sports I wanted. Where I could be a kid and not have to worry about growing up too fast and taking on responsibilities that no 9 year old was ever meant to have. Our blessings are stacked!!!

Hey guess what? I found some little children's books in Finnish the other day so I picked them up. I might even learn a few new words by reading them! We are teaching a 10 year old girl, and this week we are doing make-overs which is going to be way fun. We are struggling to get her to open up to us, especially with baptism. We thought it might help if we had pictures of our baptism day to show her. . . . We are teaching another 11 year old girl and it is so great to be able to connect with her. This Sunday was great, we had all of our investigators in church and one of the less active families come with all the children! It was awesome! Slow and steady steps.

Sounds like you have a fun lunch coming up!   Ah all my favorite people at one lunch. Make sure to tell them hello and that I love them. I think of their examples often and share the things I have learned from them with my companion as well as in some of our lessons. Another blessing of growing up in Ely. Such great people.

Thanks for the football updates ha that is rough. good thing I will be gone for half of the time BYU has to think about that loss.

The days are starting to get shorter, it's starting to rain, and I heard rumor that it will get below freezing this week. WHAT?! Mom, I will have you know that my companion thought that big ugly coat was cute. She did admit that before her mission she would have never thought that. But after surviving a winter here she commented on it being cute. great. hahahaha

We had a good appointment with one of the families in the ward last night. We are serving in such a great ward. The ward has maybe 150 come every week, but I believe there are about 210 or so on the ward list. And there are 2 wards here in Turku. The boundaries are huge which is part of the reason church attendance is so low. People live pretty far away. The members are great though. They are all involved in mission work and willing to help wherever we ask them. Very dedicated people.  . . . This week we spent 2 days in Jyväskylä. It is such a blessing to be able to go around with her and learn all these new things. How other sisters do mission work, study habits, character traits, and how to work with them. My companion Kunz is great at pointing out peoples positive characteristics and she shares her thought with me whenever she thinks of something. It is SUCH a blessing to work with her every day.

Dad you said the city looks a lot like America. It does in some senses; I was surprised at how much it has in common. Building structures are slightly different, lots of apartments. Every apartment has a sauna and a paarvekei (balcony). Some of the streets are cobblestone. Public transportation is very common. Cars are smaller. Mostly all stick shift. No mountains. Then the country parts are really pretty also. Very green right now lots of trees, beautiful homes, fields. I have seen a lot of tractors here. We were walking along the street when we saw a John Deere. I turned to my companion and asked if that was a common thing to see. She said not really and that she had only seen about 2 or 3 before...we have seen about 11 while we have been serving together. We think it's a tender mercy Heavenly Father showing his sense of humor to his 2 small town country girls.

The language is still coming. Last week when I went on splits I went with one of the sister from my MTC district.  This means we have both only be out for a month, only learning the language for three. Which is fine when you have a companion to step in to save you when you get stuck in a conversation.  So we had planned to go to a few less actives but mostly tract that day, but we planned to have a lady from the ward with us. Well the morning before we went out the lady called and said she was sick and couldn't come with. We just had to laugh at our situation but we were both way excited to make it work together. That was the best day ever!! That day we taught more lessons in a day than I have on any other day. We got a new investigator.  Gave out some Books of Mormon to people who I am way excited to hear updates us.  We had awesome conversations with people and the Lord blessed us with understanding and the ability to form responses and teach. It shows how the gift of tongues is real and that the Lord is in on this work. It was a miracle and such a testimony builder for Sister Curtis and me both.

I love this gospel. I love learning. I love teaching. I love the people. I love my family! Thank you for all you do, I hope you have a great week!

Rakkaudella, Sisar Heggie