Hi Mom! I'm Alive and in Finland!

Mom Note:  Claire has arrived in Finland!  Her p-day is on Tuesdays and she would love to hear from all of you!

They took the train from Provo to the Airport

Arrived at the SLC Airport!

After a 10 hour flight to Amsterdaam and then continuing on to Helsinki.  Tired, but SO happy to be there!

I'm alive and in the most beautiful country I have ever seen! Everything is half frozen and wonderful and the Mission President and his wife are AMAZING <3 

Talk later next Tuesday,

Love you,

Claire

MOI MOI MTC!

Our District minus Vanhin Haws

Sister Dickerson and my relationship in a picture....

We escaped the MTC!

Moi! Hello friends! I hope all is well and that every day you see the good things in your life! This week has once again, been amazing! The highs were so great, and the lows just made me appreciate all the highs :) Some of my tender mercies this week were:

1) Hearing from Brother and Sister Zwick of the Seventy! Our Tuesday devotional was AMAZING! Sister Zwick spoke on patience and how we, as missionaries, are the resources, not the source. I loved that because its so true. I am just a tool of the Savior, but each day I strive to be the sharpest and most eager tool hes got :) Brother Zwick spoke on what matters most and shared with us 4 steps to be a builder of His Kingdom. One thing that stuck out to me was that he said that our faithful example of living the gospel will be more powerful than a lot of things we ever say.

As members of the LDS church, we are different. Everything we do should testify that we believe and follow Christs' example and teachings. We need to remember that with or without a name tag, what we do represents our beliefs. Choose the Right :)

2) All the flowers blooming at the Temple! I am so happy for flowers and spring and yummy smelling air! 

3) My Zone. Ok people. I have the BEST ZONE EVER! They seriously know how to bring the spirit, build you up and make you laugh so hard your sides hurt! I'm really gonna miss them all and I want them to know I love them all and wish them luck on their missions! Scandinavia is getting some fantastic people! 

4) Chiropractors. Yup. This week my back decided to protest all the sitting I have been doing and so I had to go see a chiropractor for the very first time! We left the MTC! It was weird driving by King Henry and seeing the places I ate at for dinner ( Wendy's mostly :P ). But it was fun to go and have a grown man pretty much sit on me, make my back and neck crack so many times it really shouldn't be healthy and then lay with little electrode things on my back for 15 minutes! Honestly that last part was great. I got about a 15 minute nap :) 

5) Something that my fellow Finn, Vanhin Jordan, said in class that really stuck out to me. He said,

" A ship in a harbor is safe, but that's not what a ship is built for."

As I prepare to leave the MTC this Monday and go to Finland, I have been so nervous. When you do literally the same exact thing each week, for 9 weeks straight, you start feeling pretty safe. Well, as I thought about all the new things I will be doing each day in a place where I don't speak the language too well, and I got scared. But when Vanhin Jordan said that, all I could think of was when Peter walked on water towards the Lord. When he saw his Savior, he called out and asked to come unto Christ. When Christ beckoned him, Peter didn't hesitate. He jumped out of that boat and walked on water. It was only when Peters' focus was not on the Savior, but on the tempests and storms around him that he started to sink. I want to be what the Savior wants me to be. I want to walk off that plane in Finland and never take my focus off the Savior because I know if I do, I will sink. I want to do what I came out on a mission to do. To invite others to come unto Christ.

 

 I love my Savior, and the Atonement that He provides. I know that because of Him, we have a perfect example to strive towards. That if we focus on Him, we will never sink, no matter how big the waves of life are.I thankful for my beautiful companion Sisar Dickerson and all I have learned from her sweet, kind, and caring example. It has been a blessing to learn here at the MTC. I will miss the cereal, the people and the Spirit I have felt each day. I am so excited to be in Finland and to teach the people I already love with all my heart! 

Moi Moi (goodbye!) MTC! You will be missed! 

Smile and see the good!

Sisar Phipps

Usko kautta vaikea ajat

Our new, and much bigger, zone!

Moi :) Mitä kuluu?? Its been ANOTHER incredible week! I love the MTC and the people I'm surrounded by! This week has been a pretty busy one full of laughter and the hand of the Lord. We had to say goodbye to some amazing Sisters and Elders going to Sweden and Norway but I know that they are doing amazing things and I wish them luck!!

 A few of my favorite memories of this week has been:

1- Getting 18 new missionaries in our zone! They are all really fun and I am now convinced that the best people are sent to Scandinavia! I love them all already! Sisar Dickerson and I are the Sister training leaders now that we have 5 new sisters who all make me laugh and I feel so blessed to help them in their journey here at the MTC. 

2- Seeing the flowers! Its been so nice here in Provo and a bunch of the trees are starting to flower. 

3- Being able to do a skype lesson with an ACTUAL FINNISH PERSON who was in Finland! It was so cool! I loved just attempting to talk to him and teach about the importance of doing member missionary work and hearing his testimony! I am beyond excited to meet the people of Finland I have already come to love.

4- Knowing I will receive my travel plans tomorrow!! I have a week and a half left here at the MTC and I am SO excited to go and start teaching the people of Finland and love them more than I do now!

This last point is what I want to focus on. While my stay here at the MTC has been SO fun and I have grown and learned so much and met life long friends, it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. You get discouraged and think "Can I do this?" or "This is so hard, maybe I should just go home" But I can testify with my whole heart that these thoughts are not from our Father in Heaven. Our Father in Heaven knows what we can do. He will NEVER give us anything we can't handle. Whether its the death of a loved one, a job that seems too hard, or a language named the hardest in the world, the Lord will ALWAYS be there to lift us up. An amazing missionary said to me that on our name tags Christs' name is on the bottom because he descended below ALL so that he may lift us up. He loves us and because He loves us, he won't do it all for us. We have been given agency to choose to have faith in Him. 

In Ether 12:18  Moroni states that no one had ever seen or performed miracles until AFTER showing their faith. The brother of Jared had to have faith first before he saw the hand of God. In fact the brother of Jared had so much faith that in Ether 12:20 Moroni says that God could not hide his finger from him because of his exceeding faith. I want this kind of faith. I want to go out and testify to the people and bring this gospel to them so that they may choose to love it. I want to share the power faith can have. Faith has healed the sick and caused the blind to see. It has raised people from the dead. But the point I'm trying to make is that those who witnessed the miracle already had faith. They knew Christ could help them. I challenge everyone to have faith first. Build up your faith by serving others and coming closer to Christ and I promise you will see miracles.

I know Christ and our Heavenly Father love us more than anything. I know that they have given us a plan to make us happy. In the words of Joseph Smith, " I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it." 

I love you all and pray for you daily. Smile and have faith :)

Sisar Phipps

The flowers are blooming!

My desk.....it's actually one of the cleaner ones in the classroom!

Mom sent me a bigger bag!

Life is like Feeding a Duck....

March 9, 2017

Feeding the MTC resident ducks!  Highlight of the week!!

Finns and Icees (Finnish and Icelandic missionaries)

Aeldste Birch!  (One of the departing Danish missionaries)

​​Hello everyone! I hope your week is going as good as mine! Thank you to my family who has sent me letters and packages and thank you to everyone who sends emails :) They really do brighten this missionary's day! 

This week has been so full of Gods mercies! Today the sun came out!!! I was so excited! And I got to go to the most amazing place on earth! The TEMPLE!!! I go every week but each time I just sit and wonder how such an amazing place where I can be close to the Savior and be where He walked could be on this earth! I swear every week I get more and more blessed! Don't get me wrong, this week was the hardest one yet, but I feel like when you're at your worst, its easier to see the good things around you! For example:

1) Even though our favorite Danish Elders left us for Denmark, the night before they left we had a big dance party and drank Martinellis.......Priceless. ;)

2) Getting to sing at several events around the MTC with my companion, favorite Norwegian sister and the coolest cellist going to Finland. Scary? Yes. Crazy fun? Heck YEAH!  :) 

3) Getting to feed the resident MTC ducks! So this was SO fun!!! I was pretty scared it was gonna to bite me, but it didn't! and it ate my gross bagel :) Win win.

Those are just a few from this week but there were so many more! This weeks Tuesday devotional was attended by Elder Costa of the Seventy and his wife. Something that Sister Costa said to us was,

"You're going to laugh about it later, so why not laugh now?" 

This is probably the best advice I have ever been given. I look back on different things I did before my mission and just laugh. One time, my dad told me to go check one of the spigots out in a field and of course being the typical teenager I was, I didn't want to walk all the way out in the field. Being so smart I thought I could just drive the truck out there and be just fine........wrong. Within about 10 seconds, I was stuck super deep in the mud and I was all by myself. I was FREAKING OUT! I kept thinking my dad is gonna KILL me! I honestly thought it was the end of the world. But it wasn't and now I laugh so hard every time I think of how scared I was! I really wish that I could have just laughed and called my dad and not freaked out.Now I know I pretty much say the same thing every week, but it is SO important to just have a good attitude! There are so many hard things that have happened in my mission and I'm just at the MTC! But a good attitude is the key. Never once did our Savior complain about the burdens he bore. He did it gladly because He loves us and wants us to be so so happy. I love my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ! I'm so humbled how we could have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much he sent His Son to atone for our sins, just so we can 1) be with our families forever 2) Be forgiven of our sins and have the guilt of sin taken away from us and 3) Return to live with Him. 

I love my mission. I love being a missionary and I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ.

Smile and Keep on keeping on :)

Sisar Phipps

Week 5......I think

March 2, 2017

Temple waffles are a highlight of my week!  SO GOOD!

Sister Gould is an Angel!  She brought us BBQ, the best food we have had in awhile!

Page 33.......Just a reminder

Terve! Mitä kuluu?? So I'm pretty sure this is week 5..... The days all kinda run together, but the point is that I am more than halfway to Finland! Its been ANOTHER amazing week at the MTC and I feel so blessed to be able to learn and grow. Thank you for all the love and support and letters! I truly love each and everyone of you and pray for your health and safety each day! Some fun things that happened this week were:

1) Word of the Week: Rakentaako. Sounds like rockin taco. So a little backstory. On Saturdays we have a four hour class block were we sit and learn and get headaches and a lot of times nod off :P But this Saturday we were split the sisters (Just me and my comp) and our teacher Sister Ross and we were REALLY tired! We just started to randomly laugh and as we were trying to stop, Sister Ross all of a sudden says this word that sounds like rockin taco and we just lost it. We laughed until we were all crying and then Sister Ross told us it meant " Does he build" and we stopped laughing because once you know the meaning its not as funny. 

2) Getting a bunch of Disney song lyrics from my mom! Its a tradition of 5 weeks to sing every night before bed and we were tired of awkwardly making up words. So thanks Momma! 

3) Getting pictures of my new baby nephew Daniel! Hes a stud! 

4) Eating chicken cordon bleu for the 5th time since arriving at the MTC! Its gotten pretty old. But of course I eat it anyway.

5) Telling all of my District that one of our Elders biffed it in the hallway and then making up a really funny story about how he was rolling on the floor and trying to get up but keeps falling....AND THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVE YOU! 

6) Printing out 100 copies of page 33 and plastering all of the Danish missionaries classroom, then taking videos with their cameras

7) Temple waffles!

8) Getting BBQ pork sandwiches from Brother and Sister Gould who are in our Branch Presidency! THEY ROCK! 

This week was so full of the Spirit! Every week is, but I am just amazed by how happy I feel even though I am learning a CRAZY complicated language, the food rotates about every 6 days and I'm pretty sure I have gained 10 pounds. But I get up everyday with a smile and I put on a skirt and go to class ready to be uplifted and taught more about this amazing gospel and how much our Heavenly Father loves His children ( That's us :) ). On Sunday after our devotional we are able to go watch different talks and this Sunday we saw Elder David A. Bednars talk " One by One" and HOLY COW! It isn't available to watch but Elder Bednar spoke on how the Lord knows us One by One. He knows us individually and perfectly. He gave several scriptural examples including the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:4) , The Parable of the Coin (Luke 15: 8-10) and the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-24). In each parable Jesus Christ shares, he illustrates that even if only ONE sheep, or coin, or son is lost, the shepherd, or father will ALWAYS search high and low for that which has been lost. If you are not familiar with these stories, the things that are lost are us. And he is our Master, our Father and our Shepherd. Our Father in Heaven loves us so fully and completely that even if we are the only one lost, He will send us a Savior. He did send one. Jesus Christ Atoned for our sins. He has felt everything we have, do, or will feel. I have had so many moments here where I feel so alone and insignificant, but then I remember. He knows me and loves me and wants me to go in search of those lost so that they can feel the same hope and joy I feel. Everyone makes mistakes, but God doesn't care. He cares that we repent, and remember Him in all we do. 

 

I'm so excited that I get to go two by two to teach one by one!! 

Have a safe and wonderful week!

Rakastaa,

Sisar Phipps