From Start to Finnish: 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