The Final Stretch

Rakkaat ystävät, 


Naturally, I've been thinking a lot about what has happened over the course of my mission, and it amazes me how much can happen in a year and a half.  It's funny, I never really imagined my mission ending. When you're in the middle of it all, the thought of ever not being in Finland just doesn't feel real. I still haven't quite grasped the fact that in less that 72 hours I will no longer be wearing a tag or a skirt (every day, that is) or the call of a full-time missionary.  

There are really no words that could do justice to what I have experienced. No carefully crafted sentence could explain the way I feel. All I know to say is that I have been changed. I feel like a better person. I want things now that I didn't want before. I've become a stronger and more dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ. 

The Prophet Joseph Smith spoke of the glorious news of the gospel, and then offered these words that sum it all up perfectly: 


"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy... 


"Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!" 


I testify for the last time as an emissary of Jesus Christ that this is His true church, the only true Church that has ever been on the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself leads His Church through men that we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators - the same organization of leadership that the Savior established anciently. This is the Kingdom of God on the earth. I know that it is through the Priesthood authority of God and through the ordinances made possible by this sacred authority that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. He loves us. He sent His Only Begotten Son to save us. Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and he is yours. He is my friend, and I know that whenever I call on Him, be it in hardship or happiness, He will run to me. He will weep with me and He will rejoice with me, and He will always, always love me. This is our message to the world - that Jesus is the Christ, and we are called to serve Him at all times and in all things and in all places. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? 

Stay shiny, and I'll see you on the other side.  


Rakkaudella, 


Sisar Hillebrant 

We're both leaving Tampere!!  I'm going home and Sisar Johnston is opening a new STL area.  This is us gathering up wardrobe items to donate to charity.

Enjoying a pynikki munkit in Helsinki

The burgers we made to celebrate July 4th

I'm too old to think of clever titles

Sent June 30th 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

Great week. First of all, it has been GORGEOUS. Second of all, our week was filled with fun and miracles. 

On the fun spectrum, we went to Särkeenniemi (on P-day), which is a free admittance theme park. We got ice cream, tried mustamakkara ("black sausage" made our of rye and cow blood, or so I've heard), and went up the Näsineula (Näsi needle, a giant tower).

Panorama shot taken from the Näsineula

Mustamakkara - yum?

We did service with P and she taught us how to wash mats. The Finns have places around town where you can go to clean them. There's a setup with big wash basins, and you use heavy-duty scrub brushes and lots of soap, then roll them through this big ringer-outer thing and hang them to dry. It was super fun and the next best thing to swimming as a missionary. 

Don't tell the President - this is as much fun as swimming!

We went to Mission Leadership Conference. I love being in the mission home, and I'm going to miss being around so many missionaries. Things like this are too fun. We also did an endowment session at the temple. The best part was that our full MTC group (well almost full - Elder Parker wasn't there) was in the meeting, so we finally got photos together in front of the temple that didn't happen 16 months ago because our flights were delayed.

Cruising with the Sisaret to Leadership Conference

On our way to the Temple

At the Temple with my MTC Disrict (almost - we miss you Vahnin Parker!)

On the miracle side (I don't have time for more than one, sorry), we had a lesson with P and rescheduled her baptismal date - she messed up last week, but she knows it and is still moving forward. The biggest miracle was that she got a full time job which will start next week. Quick story about this. When I was still new in Tampere, we were really struggling to know what to do with P. We were talking with Elder J, an Area Seventy who happens to be a member in our ward, and he said that we really needed to pray and fast in faith for P. So we did. We fasted and prayed that a miracle of some kind would happen and that she would be able to stay strong against this temptation. Well, we've been seeing miracles. The thought of getting a job had never even crossed P's mind until recently, and she got in within about 3 weeks. What an answer to prayer! Now she'll be out of the house and away from her drunk husband and she will have a reason to stay sober so that she can keep her job. We're so proud of her and she is just itching to get baptized on July 25th. 

We also met a really cool guy at the door last night. I wish I could adequately describe what happened, but suffice it to say that we talked to him at the door for about 40 minutes, and never have I experienced such an intense, Spirit-filled contact. Ever. It was incredible. We're bringing him a Book of Mormon on Friday.

I'm so grateful for the Spirit in this work. Last night when we were teaching that man at his door, there were many points where all I wanted to do was whip out something sharp and bash, but I found myself testifying more powerfully than I've ever testified before and as we did so, we watched this man's countenance completely change as he went from snarky to actually interested. I felt, more than ever before, the Spirit speak through me and touch this man's heart. I know that the Lord is in this work and I know He knows who is ready, even if they may not know themselves. He loves all His children and He will show that love to them through us as we follow the Spirit. 

Be awesome and stay shiny!

Rakkaudella, 

Sisar Hillebrant

Shoes I made for my "daughter" Sisar Lafferty

Juhannus - Midsommer

Sent June 23rd 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

We celebrated Juhannus (or rather, the Finns celebrated Juhannus) over the weekend - eli, midsummer. We also enjoyed a day of exchanges with Sisters Mendenhall, Wunderli, and Harris in Vaasa and contacted a TON of people. They are awesome missionaries. 

This was taken at 1:30 AM

One particular visit of note was a DA with an older woman in the ward. Her grandson and two of his friends were visiting from the States as part of a tour of Europe and joined us for dinner (the member originally set up for the five of us to be at the table and for her to sit at the couch - her grandson made her sit at the table. Good thing too, because it felt uncomfortably too much like a date - not that I know what that feels like haha). It was quite a fun evening, and the best part was that while we were talking with the member, she saw Sisar Johnston's legs and exclaimed "Good heavens you have beautiful legs! You could surely use short skirts if you wanted to!" It is a good thing none of the guys understood Finnish.

I'm amazed at how the Lord's work still moves forward, even when you have weeks when not much happens. I hear incredible stories every day of miracles happening around Finland and around the world and I just think how greatly the Gospel of Jesus Christ can change lives. I've been changed by it, and I see it touch hearts every day. This week I was particularly touched by these words in the Doctrine and Covenants 128: 

19 Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; ... a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy.

This gospel is the voice of gladness to all people! Shall we not go on is so great a cause?

Have a lovely week and stay shiny!

Rakkuaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Companionship study in Vaasa

Sisaret Mendenhall, Wunderlii and Harris - the right way to end exchanges

The significance of this is that I folded all my laundry
 and put the racks away before Sunday.
Granted we were home a lot because of Juhannus,
 but at least it happened. Sisar Johnston was paralyzed out of shock.

Missions are hard work - time to catch up on sleep.

Miracles in all shapes and sizes

Sent June 16th, 2015

Rakkaat ysävät,

This one has been a week of miracles. Let me elaborate:

Our investigator P has a baptismal date! We sat down with her this week and laid out the plan and set all of our appointments leading up to her baptism with her right there so that she wrote them into her calendar. At church on Sunday, she was telling all of her friends (she has a lot of friends in the Relief Society) about her date and showing them her planner with all of our appointments written in. She is so excited for it and so ready. This is it, and I can feel it.

We met an AWESOME young woman on Tuesday. Events panned out perfectly for us to meet her - we were running late and trying to catch a bus, and the one we normally take passed before we were at the stop, so we hopped on the next best one.  Sisar Johnston happened to sit right next to her and start up a conversation, which I then joined when we happened to get off at the same stop as her. She just found God and religion a MONTH ago, and her faith was already so strong and she was so excited - so excited that she even yelled "Hallelujah!" on the street haha. We talked about all sorts of things with her and gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and we got her phone number. She was so cute and completely blown away by the fact that there is a prophet on the Earth today and said she was going to go inside so she could start reading the Book of Mormon. When we explained how this is the only true church of Jesus Christ she said, "I get that people want to try to find their own faith, but if this is the true church then everyone should go there!" That pretty much sums it up. She was so cool.

On exchanges in Jyväskylä

Sisar Pace

While waiting for a bus in Jyväskylä, I realized that with both mine and Sisar Pace's cash combined, I was 0,10€ short of the fare. We said a prayer together asking Heavenly Father to help us either find a 10 cent coin or provide another way for me to get on the bus so we could find an ATM. A coin did not magically appear (rats) but when the bus came I told the driver my situation and he said, "Today you get a sale!" Heavenly Father answered my prayer by giving me a nice bus driver. 

These are only the beginning. There are miracles in the air, not just the spring humidity.

Stay shiny!

Ralkkaudella, 

Sisar Hillebrant

Sisar McAllister

Sisar Allen

Trials and Testimony

Sent June 9th, 2015

Rakkaat ystävät,

This week we've had a lot of things fall through and a lot of things not go as expected. BUT there was a lot of good stuff that happened this week too, even if we really had to dig to find it haha.

A couple highlights include, but are not limited to:

We spent 24 hours on exchanges in Kuopio between Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and that was a lot of fun. Sisar Johnston always says that when you go on splits as the Sister Training Leader that all your fear goes away, and that's why the STLs always seems so fearless. Boy was she right! On Wednesday evening, Sisar Andersson and I walked up and down the same strip of sidewalk and within an hour had stopped and taught about 10 people, gave out two copies of the Book of Mormon, and got a couple phone numbers. I've never had that kind of success before, nor have I stopped nearly so may people. It was incredible.

Being with Sisar Lafferty was funny because, obviously, after 4 months together we had patterns, and honestly, I had to fight back the same fear that I always seemed to have when we were serving together. But despite that, we still did some great street contacting, and then spent an hour trying to find somewhere to go to the bathroom. Haha, I told you there were patterns. It was a great exchange day, and I hope those wonderful Sisaret learned as much as I did. 

Back with my former companion, Sisar Lafferty.

Sisar Andersson - she is so Finnish it hurts ( in a good way)

On Friday, despite Sisar Johnston begin sick, we got to out to one appointment in the evening with a wonderful recent convert in the ward. She is awesome and has such a strong testimony. We actually spent most of the appointment helping her fix some problems with her e+mail account. I was so proud that I am still decently proficient in the technology department, and that I figured it out in Finnish. It still blows me away that I can understand this foreign gibberish. 

We had an excellent Stake Conference, broadcast to all of northern Europe from Scotland. If the Scottish accents weren't enough to make the whole meeting perfect, Elder Holland was presiding. It was an incredible meeting. One man, a stake president I think, spoke about how we are all on the Lord's rescue team and referenced the Miracle of the Little Ships from the shores of Dunkirk during WWII. He spoke of how we are all like those little ships - no matter how small or poorly-equipped we may seem, we are all invaluable parts of the Lord's rescue efforts against the powers of the adversary. Even if we rescue only one or two souls, we've made a huge contribution and our joy may be great. It completely blew me away. 

Then Elder Holland spoke for about 45 minutes and pretty much just bore down in testimony of the Book of Mormon for the whole time. It was amazing. They don't call him the bulldog of the Church for nothing. He spoke of the authenticity of the Book, the power of God that went into its writing and translating, and the truthfulness of its contents. Most importantly, he testified as a special witness that the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that Elder Holland is an actual called and ordained apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I know for myself that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. This, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the true and complete church of God on the earth today. Joseph Smith was a prophet. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet now. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior, and I love Him.

Keep calm, press on, and stay shiny!

Rakkaudella,

Sisar Hillebrant

On exchanges in Kuopio

A drunk man gave us flowers and Sisar  Johnston photo bombed.

Sickness and the Spirit

                                                                                                                                                                  Sent Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015:

Rakkaat ystävät,

It's been one of those weeks where our investigators can't meet with us or we can't get a hold of them, and both of us have been sick. We've also been back in the contacting boat and we've been talking with a lot of people and inviting them to learn or take a Book of Mormon or in some other way come unto Christ. The only trick is agency, and if I didn't know it was an essential part of God's plan, I would really want to take it away right now haha. 

This is what tracting looks like.

Despite all the illness and investigators not loving us, a lot of good and fun things have also happened.  

One particular contact to make mention of was a man studying to be a Lutheran pappi, and his wife. Man, it was a great conversation. They both had all sorts of great questions, and we just testified over and over about how they really can know truth for themselves through the Book of Mormon, and more importantly through prayer. I truly felt the Spirit guiding me through the conversation - there is no way I could have come up with answers to some of the questions they asked, let alone answers that really satisfied/confounded them. In the end, though, they said no to the Book of Mormon, and we parted ways. Too bad - how cool would it have been to teach and baptize a Lutheran priest? Afterward we were so energized. That was laying down the law and preaching the gospel! 

On Thursday we were in Mission Leadership Conference at the mission home, which basically consisted of all the STLs, Zone Leaders, Assistants, and President sitting around a long table discussing policies and doctrine and administration, and it was super fun. Can I just say that I love the Watsons? They are wonderful people, so down to earth, super funny, and I love being around and talking with them. Plus Sisar Watson is a wicked good cook. 

Doctrinal discussion at the mission home.

During MLC, we also had the chance to attend the temple to do an endowment session, and I had the chance to receive the endowment for Jeanette Elizabeth Bently, who is my mom's grandmother on her dad's side. It was a great temple session and I came out refreshed and edified and ready to tackle anything.  

Helsinki Temple

Sisaret Owen, Rochett, Hillebrant and Johnston
Sisar and President Watson.

Because I've been sick, I asked the Elders for a priesthood blessing and I'm so glad I did. I have no doubt it's part of the reason I'm faring so well now. I really appreciate how willing the Elders always are to serve us, and the blessing was a sweet reminder of how much the Lord loves me and is aware of me.

The Lord is aware of you and loves you! You can always feel His love if you turn to Him.

Have a great week and stay shiny!

Rakkuadella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Believe it or not, but I took this in the middle of the city.

What we see when we wait for the bus.

Service in the land of my birth

Sent Tuesday, May 26th, 2015:

Rakkaat ystävät,

What a week! It actually feels like two - who knew that traveling back to the past could break up your rhythm so much? 

Welcome back.

To kick it all off, we spent 24 hours of exchanges with Sisaret Bruce and Moffat in Turku! That is a blessed place indeed. I got off the train and just took a deep breath, and to my delight, it smells exactly the way I remember it smelling. It was super bizarre to be back, but I loved ever second of it. Throughout the splits, I had the chance to visit some of my favorite places and people. It was also a really wonderful experience to work with Sisaret Bruce and Moffat int their area. They are really wonderful Sisters and are trying so hard to do the work as well as they can. 

Working with Sisar Bruce

and Sisar Moffatt

While in Turku, it no longer felt like it was "my city." When we came back into Tampere, the feeling of belonging and responsibility came back, and I realized that is was because Tampere is "my city" now. It testified to me that I am where the Lord needs me to be when He needs me to be here. Turku may not be my city anymore, but it's in the best hands it can be at the moment. 

Tulips by the Aura

I loved coming out every day to see this.

Some cool experiences for the week:

1) We were out contacting one night and we felt we needed to go talk to a man who was in the park with his little boy. We talked to him for a while. He was Atheist and didn't feel that he really needed anything religious in his life, but he was super nice and patiently let us say our piece. We testified of the Book of Mormon and prayer, and how through these things he can come to know that God is real. He took the Book of Mormon we offered to him, and that was that, but I felt like we were really able to make an impression, and if anything he came away with a sense that maybe it was possible that God exists. Who knows.

2) We finally got in contact with an investigator after a few weeks, who had been pretty drunk last time we saw her. She was super coherent on the phone, and came to church on Sunday for the first time in months!

3) We had a lesson with H, in which we set a baptismal date and she prayed! The Spirit was so strong as she said that prayer, and I hope she felt it because it was the comforting assurance that she is looking for. She has a lot of things to work through in order to get baptized, but I know she can do it through the Atonement. Anything is possible. 

4) I translated for the first time in church. It was in Relief Society for two little Filipino ladies. It wasn't awful, but it felt like my brain was running a marathon. I actually had a lot fun doing it.

5) We stopped this lady on the street, and told her about the Book of Mormon, and asked if we could come talk about it, and she basically set up her own appointment for Friday. It all happened in about 4 minutes.

I don't need a jacket! What is this sorcery?

Now two funny things:

1) We knocked on a door and a scary, super white and shirtless man with a ton of tattoos and a gross beard opened the door. We didn't get much farther than "We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of..." before he said very loudly "Saatte olla!" (basically means "go away" - I can't think of an English equivalent) and slammed the door. It was shocking, but I'v never been so happy to have the door shut on us.

2) Sisar Johnston met a nice Chinese man on the bus who just got to Finland, doesn't really have friends here, and doesn't speak English very well and no Finnish. She gave him our number and invited him to YSA. A little later in the day he asked if she wanted to go out for a drink. So we told him to come to YSA. And that was it.

It really was quite a week. And throughout it all I've been thinking a lot about sanctification - how do we turn ourselves over completely to the Lord? I'm still working this out, and have been studying a lot about it in the Book of Mormon and In Preach My Gospel, specifically under the chapter about Christ-like attributes. I've thought a lot about service and I found this scripture in 1 Peter 2:21 - 

"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."

When we lose ourselves in the service of others, we become like Christ, for that is what He did. This is our calling, to represent Him and love those He loves and serve as He would serve. There is no greater calling than the one to develop yourself through the building of others. 

Serve with your hear and stay shiny!

Rakkuadella,

Sisar Hillebrant

Morning jog along the Aura

Stropping by the chapel. 

Dinner by the river

Leaving Turku.

Our view as we leave.