October 28, 2013
Perhe,
. . . . .
     This week we were in Helsinki again for meetings with President. While we were there we got to attend the temple.   . . . We have been talking with a lady who belongs to the Free Church. She invited us to an activity at her church so we went to it. It is good to see people who believe in Christ but it is definitely a different feeling than it is in our church. It's still a good feeling but you can tell something is missing. It was better than being out on the street hearing and seeing all that goes on but still, something missing. I couldn't help but compare that to the kingdoms of Heaven. the world is the telestial kingdom. Beautiful but not to its potential. Inside the church is like the terrestial kingdom. People are doing good things. They believe in Christ but still have not accepted His gospel. They are missing the authority and gift of the Holy Ghost. And then I took that and compared that with the feelings I had while we were in the temple. What a huge difference!!!! We are so blessed to have this gospel and the knowledge and blessings we receive from attending the temple.
       It's been a great week. Recognizing and responding to the spirit has been one of the biggest gifts I have obtained and continue to work on. My companion never fails to make me laugh every day and teach me something new about missionary work. She is open and accepting. Her mind is open to understand people and learn where they are coming from. Our companion unity is such a blessing! We're looking forward to another great week.
     I hope all goes well with you all! I love you, take care.

Sisar Heggie

October 21, 2013

Moi! Kerto Veli Bridge että mina sanoi terve! Ask him who he knew here, I asked Veli Karhunen if he remembers an Elder Stewart, he has lived here awhile.

   I am so blessed! The people here are so obedient and hard working and diligent! They were already great missionaries and after general conference we have seen even more member missionary work. Great things are happening.  We had a very busy week last week. The way things worked out we ended up having splits 3 times last week in our area so we had 8 different sisters in our area with us at different times. It was crazy! And we got so much work done. Slightly stressful planning that much but it was worth it. The Lord is blessing us with people and families to teach. We had change calls this week and luckily I get to stay :) I know the Lord knows what is best so I was trying to be ok with whatever happened but didn't want to leave my companion yet so I was really excited when I found out we were staying, we have a lot to do.
   This week we were out at bishop’s house doing service. His wife needed help in the yard and we were digging a hole. She handed me a pitchfork and said that should work....I don't remember the last time I dug a hole with a pitchfork but I don't imagine it went very well. Sister Kunz was laughing (shovel in hand) as we started in on the hole and about 5 minutes later bishop’s wife came back with a shovel for me. The hole got a lot bigger a lot faster after that. Ha it's amazing what service will do. Not only are we a lot closer with the bishop’s family but we had a blast and couldn't stop laughing for about an hour.
  Yesterday we were preparing for a lesson and found a story about a man who was praying to find someone for the missionaries to teach by a certain date. The day was getting closer and he still hadn't found someone so he prayed that the Lord would put someone in his path because he was so busy with church callings and work already that he didn't have time to go out and find someone. After teaching institute one night (3 days before his deadline) a girl came up to him and asked if she could receive missionary lessons in his home. We discussed the story and how the Lord makes up when we are doing all we can do. Shortly after talking about this we got on the bus and were busy planning, missed our stop and so we got off on the next stop. As we were getting off there was an older man getting off at the same time so he smiled and motioned for us to go first (smiling is a rare thing between strangers in the Finnish culture). We were going to be a bit late to our appointment at this time so we started walking when my companion dropped back and started talking with him. Turns out he has seen missionaries around and has been praying for the opportunity to talk to us. He gave us his address and asked us if we could come teach him. WOW!! So thankful for my companion following the spirit. She is such a great example to me.
   A new member just moved into our ward. She was nannying in New York for a year, met a member family and the rest is history. She got baptized about a month ago and just got back to Finland (she is from Turku). She is a lot of fun and we are way excited to have her!
. . . .We finally saw our first snow here but it didn't stick. It is starting to feel like Finland and I am beginning to believe all the things people say about how cold it gets. Not too bad for October though :) ….
   Tons of good things are happening. The Lord blesses us when we put our best foot forward. Like I said, the members are working hard, we're working hard, and the Lord is working hard. People are ready to accept the gospel. Life is wonderful. I'm so grateful am serving a mission. I äm so grateful I am in Turku working with the people here. I hope you all have a great week, love you!!!

Sisar Heggie

On the way to the Bishop's house 10/13

 

October 14

Dear Family,

  I am happy to announce that you all have seen more snow this year than I have!!! I'm just enjoying the balmy weather here in Turku. Thanks to the sea and islands right by us. Someone explained why Turku is warmer...something to do with all the water...but that makes no sense to me. Either way, Turku is definitely a blessed place. I love the people here. We just got done with the musical "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream coat". It turned out to be huge. All the members were good about inviting lots of people and we had a lot of investigators and non-members attend. It was fun to see all the talent here as well.
   This week I had another opportunity to eat fish. I am determined to learn to like it. But dad your genes are sure making that tough!! Also, how do you go about eating it without getting all the little bones in your mouth and "casually" spitting them out? It's a fun challenge. That family is so great. I wish I understood more Finnish but what I do catch they are hilarious. Such strong testimonies as well.
  Yesterday my companion and I were teaching Sunday school and the lesson was on Eternal Marriage. One brother who has a sail boat and loves sailing commented after testifying that his 40 years of marriage are the best experiences in his life that "Marriage is like sailing--some days are sunny, nice wind, and sometimes we have storms". No one gets by easy. It was a fun lesson, and even more fun to teach to investigators learning things for the first time.
   Sunday morning during our studies my companion and I found out that we were supposed to make something sweet for an activity that night. Our options were quite limited but we decided on banana bread...only problem was we didn't have any sugar. So what do you think we did? What a Mormon American would do. Borrowed from the neighbors :) It was a good excuse to talk to one of our neighbors (and learn more vocabulary). Only other problem...sugar cubes are not the same as baking sugar. Don't worry we got creative and made it work and the banana bread tasted good :)

Love Sisar Heggie

October 7, 2013

Hello Family!
    Life sounds as exciting as always! Glad you got to enjoy your traditional caramel popcorn! It's hard to find the ingredients for it over here so I didn't make any unfortunately. Fortunately, they have this wonderful candy called Susu. It's worth it to miss out on the popcorn. Funny you asked about my internet connection this week :) We usually go to the library and if not then we just use the computers at the church after we play some p-day basketball with our investigators. Today my computer has been giving me fits so hopefully you get this email!

    It has been a great week. A lot of wise counsel from the President this week and I got to see everyone from my MTC group! They are all doing so well in their new areas with their new investigators and picking up on the language. The adventure of splits continues this week as we have over a couple sisters.
     Conference was great!! It was fun to hear investigators talk about seeing the prophet for the first time. With the time change we watched Saturday morning session Saturday around 7 then Saturday afternoon session we watched Sunday at 3 then Sunday morning session followed at 7:00. So I still have one more session to watch!! It's like how mom would hide presents in the closet for Christmas and forget about them until a month after Christmas and it was Christmas all over again!
. . . .
  The weather is still good here in Turku! When we travel to other cities I am reminded of how much I love my city. Definitely need a jacket but not too bad! We do get a few dinner appointments and that is a lot of fun...last Friday we had a double DA....wow. haha the members are so good to us.
. . . . .
     Conference was so good. I loved the talk on tithing and the subtle blessings of paying it. Gratitude for what we have and living a satisfied life. It couldn't be more true.
     We are teaching a mom and trying to help her see the importance of baptism and think it is through focusing on the blessings of the gospel, especially from the temple and eternal families.  . . .
     I am loving life! So many good things to be learned in this life. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father who knows me so perfectly. Who knows how to strengthen and comfort me. I love this gospel and am so grateful for the knowledge I have of where to find truth. Thank you for your love and support, I hope you have a great week!!

Sisar Heggie

September 30, 2013

Hey Family!

Good to hear from you! Thanks for the news of the week. . . . . We were teaching a lesson at a member’s house and so I started off by talking about character (intending to discuss Christ-like character) so I asked them what came to mind when I said "character". They started giving answers like Donald Duck . . . I was way confused and my companion was trying to find some way to connect their answers with the lesson when the mom spoke up and said she didn't see where this was going ha then we figured out I used the work cartoon instead of the word character so that was pretty funny. My companion was trying to find some sort of Christ like characteristic Donald duck possesses to tie the lesson together.

. . .We got a baptism date with our investigator (I was reminded this week that I’m not supposed to use their names according to Finnish law) so we are way excited. The makeover with her was fun but it wasn't going how we planned at first. She had fun and at the end we shared a scripture and I started to talk to her about my baptism day. We kept talking with her and eventually set a baptism date. Cool miracles going into that with inspiration and listening to the Spirit. They have talked with her before about baptism but this is the first time she has opened up! We're really excited. This is going to be such a blessing in her life. . . .

Another miracle day of splits this week. My companion decided again to have me go with the junior companion. She was telling me how the whole time she had been there she hadn't been able to give out a Book of Mormon. Through guidance of the spirit we were able to contact 2 people who we gave books to that day. We role played for that morning and the teaching went a lot like the role play. That was awesome, amazing how the spirit can guide role plays when you take it seriously. What a blessing.

. . . Funny that I was in my companion' home town when I found out about the age change. Little did I know I was in my trainer’s home town!!

. . . And this week we have our 6 day training with my district form the MTC and President. We are all in Helsinki until Thursday night. It was way fun to see them all again today. President is a genius. What a wise man. I feel a bit like my apartment is a hotel room. Stop in a couple nights and leave again! But it's for good reasons. I just miss our people. We have a less active family we have been working with. Amazing how I have grown to love them more and more. They are doing awesome. Great week. Lots of training this week. I hope you are all doing well. Have a great week! 

Love Sisar Heggie

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

September 16, 2013

Terve Perhe! . . . . . Finland is great. I love Turku so much. My companion is Sister Training leader so we have been able to travel around a bit to other areas and go on splits with them. It is fun for both of us to see how other missionaries do mission work. Our companionship is funny because both of our personalities are pretty similar.  We will take the lead when a leader is needed but neither of us like to call the shots on everything so as a newbie it has been fun to be in this equal companionship where both of us pull our weight. She is a great trainer, and the more we do the more I realize that. .

Good to hear Riley is doing good, I was thinking of him and Tanner this morning. How is the project going at grandma and grandpa's house?

. . .  Which just reminds me how blessed I have been with the people I work with. I love my MTC district and was a bit hesitant coming into a new district here in Turku but I have grown to love them here almost as much. It is amazing the people I learn to love! . . .  People have their faults and weaknesses, we all do! It is only a matter of getting to know them and their strengths and being able to understand them and look past the weaknesses. I have become great friends with people I would never have dreamed of becoming friends with before.  It is amazing to see charity playing its roll in my life. It truly is a gift that comes by the power of the atonement. One of the first families I met here came across to me as hard to love. Well, I love them!! I care so much about them now and I'm excited every time we go teach and every time I see them take steps toward Christ in their lives!!

. . . It is cooling off a bit here but I came in the best summer I think! We were riding our bikes and we were stopped at a cross walk and as I was waiting for the light I realized that it is September in Finland at 8:00 at night and i wasn't even wearing a jacket! Pretty good I would say.

Life is good. The spirit is so strong in everything we do!! I see awesome things happening all the time and sometimes I forget to recognize that Heavenly Father set that man on that bench at that moment that we would be walking by, or that lady on the bus while we were on, etc. We were on our way home the other night and walked by a lady in her yard. We said hello and kept walking then felt like we should go back, so we did. We had an awesome conversation with her and got her number so we can meet up with her again. I have learned a ton about faith and prayer. The more specific we are with prayer the better Heavenly Father can help us. He is always by our side but I realized when I ask Him more specific questions I recognize the answer better.

It is always so good to hear from you all. I am doing so good. Thank you for your prayers in my behalf and know that you are in my prayers as well. The Lord has blessed us with so much. Thank you for all that you do. I love you!!

Rakkaudella, Sisar Heggie

 

Castle in Turku