Talisa is home!

This is Tonya, Talisa's mom. This will be the last time I will update Talisa's blog. I just wanted to say how happy I am she is home! I'll give control of the blog back to her now. What a wonderful experience she had in Sweden. Keep reading, I'm sure she'll have many more adventures to come.

Goodbye Sverige!

The feeling that I have right now is very strange. Knowing that this
will be my very last email home is kind of exciting. I am super excited
to come home and continue on with my life. There will always be a part
of my heart in Sweden though. I love this country and the wonderful
people that I have met during the last 18 months. When you serve
people with everything you have you develop a undescribable feeling
for them.


My very last Sunday in Sweden I was able to travel down to Malmö for
Stake Conference with two of my converts. We had a little
scripture study session on the way down and then had an amazing new
convert meeting with the Stake President and the area Seventy. There were a
total of nine new converts and five of them I had the chance to teach
and be a part of their conversion! It was a wonderful blessing.

This morning I spent my personal study time studying the blessings that I
have recieved on my mission because of my obedience. I have a very
strong testimony of obeidence. The last six months of my mission have
been the best six months because of the change that I had in myself.
I am most happy when I am obedient and follow the rules and
commandments from God. On the way home last night we ran into three
members that I got to say goodbye to, what a blessing. Heavenly Father knows
each one of us personally and He knows just what to bless us with.
He knows what blessing we personally need at every moment in our
lives. Sometimes I feel like we just aren´t aware of the blessings
that we are receiving.


Anyways, my heart is filled with love for Sweden and I will miss this
wonderful country! I hope that I will be able to come back and visit
next summer. We will see how much money I can save up. Haha.


Another blessing that I recieved this week was a baptism! It
was Friday night and it was beautiful. The Spirit was present. Syster
Schneiber and I actually sang "Heavenly Father, are you really there?"
in Swedish at the baptism and we did a great job. I am so grateful for
the gift of singing that I have been able to use on my mission. I
am now not scared to sing all by myself. We split up into parts even
and it sounded great! We had about 25 people at the baptism and it was
wonderful. Marie and Brita gave the talks for us and they were
perfect. I really love the members here and boy, am I ever going to
miss them! I feel once again very blessed to have been able to serve
in Kristianstad.

I will end my last email with one more miracle teach that we had
earlier this week. We had set up with a less-active family to go over
and teach the entire family, but  once we got there we saw that only
the kids were home. We had planned to show the restoration movie but,
the moment we walked in the door I felt a very strong prompting that
we need to just read with them in the Book of Mormon. We sat down and
talked for a little bit... the entire time I had a prayer in my heart
asking Heavenly Father what to read with them. Syster Schneiber said
the opening prayer and then it hit me, we needed to read the story of
Enos. I had just read it a couple of days earlier and at that moment I
was very grateful for my personal scripture study, that I was able to
use it for someone else. We sat there and read the story of Enos with
these two less-active teenagers and it went really well. You could
tell that they were actually listening! We both testifed strongly of
the power of prayer. I felt God´s love very strongly for those two
teenagers and I will never forget that. When we listen to the Spirit
and act upon the promptings we recieve then we will see miracles.


I have loved my mission! I am so grateful for all the life long
lessons that I have learned. I am definitely a changed person and I
am looking forward to the rest of my life in the service of my
Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth
today! And I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today, Pres. Monson. I am so
grateful for Joseph Smith and everything that he did for us. I know he was God´s prophet.


See you all soon! I love you all and thank you for all the support
that I have had! Pretty soon your Swedish daughter will be home.
Yippee!!


Love, Love, Love, Talisa!
AKA: Syster Vistaunet

A million miles a minute

Our wonderful YSA Family Home Evening. 

  
At the primary activity teaching these wonderful kids. 

Roland and Ingrid´s wedding!!

The days just are getting busier and busier. But, I suppose that is a good thing. I am totally ending with a bang! Haha. We actually have two goodbye parties planned for me. One at Bonnie´s house this Saturday and then one on Monday night for my final FHE at the Jacobssons. Wow. 

After that Syster Schneiber and I will be leaving Tuesday morning to head to Örebro and then Stockholm! Yes, you heard right, I asked President if there would be any way if I could go and see a great friend I made in my first area and do a spilts type of thing on my way to Stockholm and he said yes! That means next Tuesday I will be ending my mission right where I started my mission. And I will be going on spilts with Syster Francis! My last missionary lesson will be to Jaana, who I love so very much, with Syster Francis. I am so happy. I could not think of a better way to end my mission.

 

Haha. If you were just walking by me right now you would probably think that I am crazy because I just cannot stop smiling. My mission has been wonderful and boy, I am so looking forward to the next step in my life! I know that there is a lot of good to be done at home and I can´t wait. Woohooo!!!! Look out Provo.. Talisa is coming back. And this time even more spiritual. Bam! Man, I love you all so so much and the pictures that you sent this week got me really excited to come home and start going to art and music shows again with all of you. I love my family!!!

 

Okay.. this week has been insane. I don´t even know where to start. We had an amazing FHE on Monday night with all of our YSA´s in the branch at an awesome members house, a mini zone conference on Tuesday in Lund, a missionary primary activity, two teaches with some less-actives families who want to come back to church, our choir sang in sacrament meeting, and Roland and Ingrid got married!! Ahhh. I love non-stop serving. This is the life.

 

Yesterday, was my last church meeting in Kristianstad, because next week we are having Stake Conference in Malmö! I am looking forward to that. It will be a great way to say goodbye to Sweden. I am really looking forward to meeting Mikeal and Senja´s baby! Today was Joel Sandelin´s last Sunday here before he goes out on his mission and that was really neat. I love his family so much, they really have taught me a lot. Sister Sandelin reminds me a lot of mom and I love her so much! Joel and both of his parents spoke in church and I got to bear a short goodbye testimony. I actually starting crying. Oh, no... I don´t want to become known as a crier like my mom. Haha. Love ya mom! Anyway, just before I got up to speak our choir,  that Syster Jacobs and I had started up, sang and it was wonderful. I am sure the audience could feel of the sweet spirit exuding from our choir. It was an experience that I will never forget. Standing up on the stage and looking down on the branch that I love so much was memorable, singing as loud as I could in Swedish. We also had 9 investigators at church! Wow. The second harvest has begun!!

 

After church Syster Schneiber and I headed down to Malmö for Roland and Ingrid to get married by the Stake President. It was great and since we traveled down and back with them we met some of their friends along the way and got a chance to share the gospel that way. I love being with members,  or soon to be members! We have their baptism planned for this Friday!! My last baptism the weekend before I go home. I am in heaven. And they are two Swedes! That means I will have taught and baptized a total of three Swedes on my mission. The Dunn's are such a blessing to us - they came down and made us a lovely wedding dinner after the wedding and then ate with us. They are a wonderful missionary couple from Colorado. I love them so very much.

 

Wow... I have so many stories, but they can wait until next week when I will be able to just tell them all to you face to face! Yippee. 

I will end with a miracle. On Tuesday the primary had a missionary activity planned where the kids would go out and visit our investigators and less-actives that we have been working with. It went wonderfully! I got to go with three members to visit our 11 year old investigator. It was a great experience to watch the cute little kids bear their testimonies and share the message. And Syster Schneiber got to go with three other members to meet some people who are not members -  referrals for us! A family who said we were welcóme to come back and teach them more! This family knows some of our members and because of that we have ended up getting the chance to teach them! Proof again that working through members is really the only way to do missionary work!

 

Well, I love ya all! I will write one more time and then HELLO! After you guys pick me up from the airport I would love to go and eat somewhere and see people. You guys know me.. party! Plus Syster Dabb will be at the airport to say hello to me and Syster Detinne-Cassel! YES! Two of my old missionary companions there with us. Joy. And thank you for putting together a welcome back party I am really looking forward to that and to my 20 boxes in storage with my clothing. I can´t wait to wear my crazy clothes again! Love ya!

 

Talisa!

Aka: Syster Vistaunet

Last Zone Conference and missionary fireside

The first picture is from my last zone conference with Elder Albertison and Syster Detinne-Cassel... both from my MTC group!

Then some fun girls from the branch here in Kristianstad.. I will miss them! The pink and black girls!

Woah! Once again I just love my life. 

This past week was my last Zone Conference, and boy was that strange. It was a very emotional Conference for me. The part that got me the most was singing with all the other missionaries and realizing that that would be my last time singing with a missionary choir and being a missionary. Elder Kearon from the Quorum of the Seventy's came and he brought such a happy spirit with him. He is from England and the very first thing that he said to us was "thank you for your service". He stood in front of us and for about five minutes thanked all of us missionaries for our service. It was an amazing experience. I really felt like I was being thanked directly from the Lord. I am so grateful for the leaders in the church. I know without a doubt that this is God´s true church on the earth. After we had lunch at the Conference the departing missionaries had the chance to bear their testimonies, which meant me. That was a surreal experience. I bore my testimony about missionary work and about how the only way to have real success with missionary work is by working with the members. I am so grateful that I have had the chance to be here in Kristianstad for four months and to end my mission here. I love it!

 

We have three investigators who are really progressing and I am hoping and praying that they will be able to be baptized next weekend before I go home. Which will mean a marriage for two of them too. I have been praying and fasting for them. But, I really don´t want to push anything if they are not ready. But, I do also feel like they are very prepared.They all came to church yesterday and it felt like they were already members of the church. It was wonderful.

 

Yesterday at church Syster Schneiber and I had the chance to teach the first hour to the entire branch. We had been asked by our zone leaders to prepare a Fireside for our branches before Stake Conference to give them training on how to be member missionaries. We both felt like it went really well. The main idea for the Fireside came from a talk called "The missionary next door", a wonderful talk. We talked about what every investigator needs in order to be truly converted. They need a social and a spiritual conversion. The members are in charge of the social conversion and the missionaries are in charge of the spiritual conversion. After all, it is so much easier to invite your friend to a ward party than to actually teach them about the word of wisdom. It was really great to be able to teach the entire branch in Swedish one last time before I go home. I love this branch and I will miss them so much.

 

A couple of days ago we had an amazing missionary experience. We were out in Hässleholm teaching some new converts and while on the bus we met a really nice woman and her two daughters. We began talking with them because we noticed that the Mom was wearing a cross necklace. We asked if they were Christian and how being Christian has helped them through out their lives. Within seconds the Mom was telling us all about her family situation and how they have experienced a lot of death recently in their family. Syster Schneiber and I knew exactly what needed to be done. We pulled out a plan of salvation pamphet and started teaching them God´s plan for families. They were hooked and by the time we got off the bus we had made some new friends. We have an appointment to go back this Wednesday to teach them more about God´s plan for them. Heavenly Father is really preparing his children for missionaries and we have been finding them! If we just open our mouths like the scriptures say then we will be blessed and be lead to those who are prepared.

 

The scripture that I have really enjoyed this week was Moroni 7:33. If we but put our faith in Christ then he will take care of the rest. We had another spiritual teach with a member and I was led by the Spirit to share that scripture and it turned out that it was just what the member needed to hear. She bore her testimony the next day in church thanking me for listening to the Spirit and sharing with her that scripture. Strive to have more faith every day.

 

Well, I love you all! Only two more weeks! Today we are heading down to Malmö to do some final shopping and hanging out with the Elders. Don´t worry about me buying things ... I am. Haha. Something that I would really love is if you guys could schedule a welcome back party for me for that Saturday that I am back. I am so looking forward to parties again!!! 

Thanks.

 

Love, Love, Love,

Syster Talisa Vistaunet

 

Oh yeah.. a couple of days ago a Chinese student that Syster Jacobs and I started teaching got baptized in Gävle. Now we have had four baptisms together!