Frog Legs and Coke

This week was just sad. Sœur Hiltunen and I were afflicted with the common cold and therefore had difficulties contacting people without them knowing we were diseased. Fact about missionary work: If you can't find people to teach, you won't teach anybody. True story. We taught a cumulative of six lessons this week. Hahaha……………….yeah…………

On the bright side, we've seen some cool miracles among the less active members in the Clermont ward. We passed by a woman who hasn't been to church in a couple years and she invited us right in, sat us on her couch, gave us coke and chocolate, and told us her life story and how much she wants to come back to church. Yeah, don't know how I deserved that one.

FACTS I LEARNED:

-Finnish fact: Santa was born in Finland. 

-Frog legs…..taste like chicken. 

-Seriously, who thought to take a frog, cook it, and eat it? 

-Humans are capable of making strange discoveries.

Great scripture: Alma 37:44-46. 

44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

 46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.

Can I just tell you how frustratingly easy it is to get lazy? Lazy in studies, lazy in concentrating on the people, lazy in prayer. I stumbled upon this scripture and immediately was drawn to the phrase, "do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way." 

The first implication to consider is how easy it is to listen to the words of Christ. The other is that is it also easy to fall away. Everything is so EASY, yet it takes initiative on your part to choose which direction you want to go. I have a testimony of both points made by this scripture. We all have a choice in who we are, what we think, what we feel, and what we do. It is an active and simple choice to listen to Christ, and, in the end, makes you happier. The gospel is so SIMPLE, folks. Don't you love that? Makes my job so much easier :) I hope that each of you see the blessings in your life and are happy. Take care this week.

Sœur Green

Adventures in Royat

How I Learned to Love Adaptation

Things are just dandy in the middle of France. Other than the fact that I have a faucet for a nose and a subwoofer for a brain, the work is going well. We ended up having three investigators at church, one being a preacher from a protestant church and two of them being his friends. ALL INTERESTED IN OUR MESSAGE. Strange, but I ain't complaining. Sœur Hiltunen and I are getting all our work organized finally and it seems like things are going a lot smoother. Lots of cool miracles are happening and in the queue as well. God is spoiling us.

FACTS I LEARNED:

• Washing your hands after riding the Lyon Metro is more than necessary. It's unwritten law.

• Clermont has the most amazing young adults. They're teaching me how to be cool. My future husband is totally going to be French. I know that you're just SO excited to hear that, Dad :) Too bad I'm not kidding...

• Finnish Fact: every child in Scandinavia has one of two sweaters when they are young: a strawberry one if you're a girl and a blueberry one if you're a boy. Photo Cred: four year-old Sœur Hiltunen

Clermont was really easy to adapt to. I don't know why, but I feel like I've been living here all my life. Maybe this is God's way of helping His missionaries get more work done. Not only do I feel like I've been living here forever, I feel like I've been a MISSIONARY forever. I feel like this is all I've ever done and will do. I know that, logically, that's not the case. But, something got switched on in my brain during this transfer. I just want to WORK. 

I just want to briefly bear my testimony of what millions of people all over the world, in many different countries, in many different languages, confess to be truth. I know that God exists. I know we are here for a reason. I know that Christ has given us the enabling power to mold ourselves into incredible beings because of his selfless acts he fulfilled on this earth. I know he will come again. I know that prayer is real. I know that God listens. I know that we can all have this same knowledge and capacity in this life. I love you and I pray for you. 

Sœur Green

Creepy statues riddle this city.

Down the street from us. As a film history fan I give this wall my stamp of approval.

Prison Break

Great miracles are happening here in Clermont. We've been having a lot of anti-miracles, but we all know that with anti-miracles comes a learning experience and then something so friggin awesome you can't even type it in words. We've got some new friends we're teaching and two of them are progressing like crazy. See below for details.

FACTS I LEARNED:

• I have lost the ability to type on an American keyboard. I'm typing this like a two year-old right now.

• Finnish Fact of the week: Angry Birds originates from Finland. You're welcome.

• Finnish word of the week: kiitos (kee-toos). Translation: thank you.

I am going to be sharing three stories this week because I can't choose just ONE.

1. We were passing by an older member of our ward here whose wife is in the hospital suffers from all kinds of problems. He's been really lonely, so we thought it'd make him feel better if we paid him a visit. We were simply standing in his doorway singing him hymns and talking about his life when this woman comes up behind us and says, "You don't have the right to be in this apartment building." ...to which we replied, "We're visiting a friend. He's a member of our church.'' ....to which she then contorted, ''Well, explain that to the police when they get here. I already called them five minutes ago." Okay. Since when was it illegal to make old lonely people happy?!?! With that, we left him with a prayer and then booked it the heck out of there.

2. We had just finished having a lesson in an apartment building (where it was legal to be there) and as we were going down the stairs, Sœur Hiltunen turns to me and says, "We have to go knock on the door across the way.'' So we did. And now we are teaching an awesome person.

3. The other day was ridiculous. All four of the lessons we had planned with people fell through within two hours through text messages. I woke up to a bunch of messages on our phone telling us they couldn't make it or weren't interested. So, plan b: walk in the rain and wind all day talking to people on the street who weren't interested either. Around five o'clock, I thought Sœur Hiltunen was going to murder me. We were so tired and had been rejected all day long. We hadn't eaten or sat down for hours. AND THEN WE MEET CHRISTINE. She is an older woman who lost her husband not too long ago and was on her way home with some groceries in her hands. We stopped her and asked her if we could help and then started talking for a long time about religion. She said she had no faith whatsoever (surprise) but that she's still searching. We told her, "Well lucky for you, that's why we're here." She opened right up to us and invited us over for dinner and hot chocolate.......um, WIN???? We sang her hymns until dinner was ready and at the end of the evening, she teared up and said, "thank you for bringing light into my home. I've been sad for years. Will you please come back?"

Church is true. That's all I can tell you after the experiences I had this week. I love you all. Thank you for being wonderful. A la prochaine!

Sœur Green

Family Home Evening at our favorite Tahitian family's place.
Reinacting the story of Daniel. Sœur H was Daniel and I was an evil prince.

And here was our little lion.

And our King Darius

Ua here vau ia oe

Sœur Hiltunen's mom sent us Valentine's gifts. Woot!

My Big Fat Finnish Wedding

This week was worthy of several painful shrieks of, "Why me?!?!?" to the heavens, but we didn't return to apartment Sunday night until we found someone who was serious about being taught by us. We had started the week with twelve planned lessons. Did ANY of them happen? I'll let you use context clues. However, did we find a sincere investigator who wants to read the Book of Mormon and come to church? Yes. At 8:15 Sunday night, 15 minutes before we had to send in our weekly numbers to our mission leaders. Our numbers did not reflect our efforts this week, but I know that we at least had quality, and I'd personally take that over hundreds of numbers that count for nothing.

Fun story of the week (and I mean so incredibly fun):

context: We were at a less-active member's home teaching her about the Restoration.

Woman: Sœur Hiltunen....your eyes are so blue and gorgeous! (goes on for five minutes about how beautiful she is and then notices that I'm kind of sitting there and hearing all of it) Your eyes are nice too, Sœur Green, but they're not the same as hers.

*INSERT A STRUGGLING LESSON HERE ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO COME TO CHURCH*

Sœur Hiltunen: So we made this for you to stick on your fridge and remind you to read your scriptures. *turns around to stick a paper to the fridge*

Woman: That hair! You have beautiful eyes, beautiful hair...you're going to find yourself a nice boyfriend when  you go back home.

Me: Haha yeah......................

Woman, to me: Don't worry about looks. It's what's on the inside that counts. You're beautiful because you're nice.

OKAY. I know I'm not gorgeous......but seriously, this woman was acting like I was the hunchback of Clermont-Ferrand who was neglecting my bell ringing duties by coming into her home and clouding her presence with my unattractiveness. Ask me about my self-esteem.

FACTS I LEARNED:

• Finnish word of the week: Hei hei. Translation: Bye bye.

• Finnish fact of the week: 90% of Finnish homes have a sauna attached to it. If I told you this already, it's because I'm not keeping up with what I write on here.......

• Old French ladies think I look like Quasimodo. But f'real.

This week may not have been as successful as I'd like to report to you, but I will tell you of some incredible experiences we had with some of the members here. So, oddly enough, there is a Finnish couple here and they invited us over to their home to bask in their Finnishness and eat all Finnish food and look at Finnish art and sing songs in Finnish while wearing Finnish clothes and swapping stories about Finland and talking in Finnish (I didn't have a whole lot to add to the conversation, quite frankly). And the way they talked about Finland and the culture.....It reminded me of the dad in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I was literally serving in Finland for a day.

These two people are the only members of the church from their families and their testimonies are so incredible, I can't even come near that level of spirituality. They were so kind and their countenances were so bright, it was almost blinding. You can tell they've had to sacrifice so much for the things they believe. They were literally modern-day pioneers. Meeting people like that make me so proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Examples like them should be more prevalent in the church. Remember to not only believe the gospel, but live it as well.

I love you. So much. Thank you for the thoughts you send and for your support. It really makes moments like these lighter. Que Dieu vous bénisse!

Sœur Green

Sunday afternoon: the last edible thing in our apartment.

Traditional Finnish socks you wear in the house (wearing shoes is an abomination)

"I am a Child of God" in Finnish

Mille Feuille: Heaven on Earth