More Pictures

The other Sister Handley 

Sister Peterson 

 The last picture is the picture of our branch/zone/whatver it is in the mtc. They are all of the scandonavian missions.

 This is what Metcalf drew. He was falling asleep in class so he drew a pcture of a burning building and passed it on to me to color because i was having a hard time staying awake as well. It made me laugh. 

This is Brother Pullan. He is our Danish teacher and is from Vegas. He was trying to show us how small Denmark is compared to Utah but couldn't remember what Utah was shaped like. We were laughing so hard! 

Sister Hoffman 

Sister Bishop 

There is the picture of Aly Stephenson and I during our gym time :) That was fun :)

Week 5 5/7/13

Hej alle! Hvordan har du?

This week has been amazing! I have been blessed in so many amazing ways. My testimony has sky rocketed! I just cant believe all of the wonderful miracles i have witnessed, heard about or been a part of. It is so humbling and awe inspiring. I really have been blessed more than i could ever deserve.

This week i'll start out with the funny stories i want to tell then i'll tell about the spiritual experiences i've had. That way you can hear about how much fun i'm having too :)

So this week we taugh Søren about the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. We planned our lesson out and executed it really well. We planned out a million scriptures and they all lead to each other and everything fit together perfectly. We were able to answer all of his questions, even when he tried to throw us off track. It went really well. Towards the end when we were teaching about the atonement Søster Rogers had Søren read a scripture. She was trying to say "Hvad synes du?" which means "what is your opinion". Instead, she said "Hvad syndes du?" or "What sin you?" So, she asked him to confess his sins! haha He sat there and looked at her for a minute then asked her to repeat herself. We all realized what she had said and busted up laughing. I dont think we`ll ever mix those two things up again! haha

One day this week we went to the post office to wait for our district leader to get the mail. While we were walking in, an elder held the door open for us. We all said "Tak!" and Søster Rogers told him "Du er super mega fet!" which means super mega cool. The poor elder thought we were calling him super mega fat! haha i guess we'd better be more careful about when we use our Danish in public... haha

Sunday was Cinco De Mayo. Søster Bishop's mom sent her a pinata to celebrate with. It was a cute little lama with creepy eyes. We hung it from a random pipe in the ceiling and got a broom to hit it with. The floss that we used to hang it broke so we played baseball with it to break it. It took about 10 hits to break it open! haha I don't know why we Scandonavian missions had to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, but we had a blast playing baseball with a lama pinata :)

The very first day we got here we got swipe cards that let us get into buildings and that we can buy stuff with. We also got our room keys with them and we all attached them to our swipe cards. If we forget to lock our doors in the morning the MTC workers will come and lock our doors, but once we get back to the residence hall each night we unlock our door and keep it unlocked for the rest of the night. Well, last night we got back from our day and we all wanted to hurry and shower so we wouldn't have to worry about it on P-day. We ran to the showers to make sure we were the first ones in so we didnt have to wait in line. We were all done about the same time and we walked back to our door, but it wouldn't open. We figured that it was all ok since Søster Bishop, the most responsible in our group by far, always had her keys on her. Well, she didnt. Here we all were fresh out of the shower, hair dripping wet in our bathrobes, locked out of our room. We didn't know whether to laugh or to cry! Finally, Søster Hall remembered that we have a phone in the building to call the main office, so she ran and called for us. They had an extra key for us. We were saved! Just kidding. We had to go to them to get the key. Our building is the furthest from the main office on campus. Søster Hall was the only one who brought a real change of clothes with her. The rest of us were in our robes. She couldn't go alone, so we had no idea what we were going to to. Out of the blue our branch president's wife turns the corner to come say hi to us all. She just laughed at all of us then went with Søster Hall to get the key. Never EVER will i leave the room without my key again! haha

Sometimes we'll teach a lesson to one of our teachers as a class. This helps us all with our Danish and our teaching skills and opens our minds to new styles of teaching. We did this a lot this last week, which was very helpful. ONe of the times we did it we were teaching Brother Pullan. We were teaching him about how marriage was essential in our Heavenly Father's plan. Well, during this lesson we learned an interesting fact: the word "gifter" in Danish means two things: Marriage, and poison. There is a slight difference at the end of the word to differenciate. I guess we gave Pullan a whole lesson on how being poisoned was essential to our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness... woops haha

On Saturday we had our very first SYL day (Speak Your Language). We spoke all Danish all day. It lasted until dinner around 7. As a district we did really good! It was really good for us to force ourselves to use what we've learned like that. It makes me feel like i'm almost somewhat fluent, which i know will change once i get to Denmark.

Sunday was fast Sunday so we all fasted for our visas to come and for help learning Danish. We realized that we really only have a week and a half-ish left her at the MTC. Crazy! So we all fasted to learn the language. From Sunday to Monday there was a huge difference in our Danish. It was amazing! We are all doing so much better! Brother Pullan said that he came back on Monday and was surprised at how much better our pronunciation and grammar had gotten. It's especially amazing since we are not allowed to use or study our mission language on Sunday. Miracle right there.

Yesterday my companionship taught Mads (pronounced mass) another lesson. We thought that maybe we finally helped him have faith that God is there and that he answers prayers. The lesson before we got him to pray and he committed to pray and read a few chapters from the Book of Mormon. We felt like maybe it was time to move on. We put together this amazing lesson about the Plan of Salvation with amazing scriptures. For this lesson we were not allowed to bring any of our Danish books with us so we had to write all of our vocabulary by hand. We got it all written out and had everything ready for our lesson on the plan of salvation. We started our lesson with Mads giving a great prayer and we asked him a few questions that were meant to lead him to our lesson. As he was talking, however, we realized that he still didn't quite know that God was there. He felt that prayer was pointless and unecessary if God wasn't even going to listen. That was not where this lesson was supposed to go. At all. Now we were completely unprepared scripturally, mentally and vocabularly(I don't even know if that's a word). We started asking him what he may be confused about and what concerns he had about it all. For the first time as a companionship we worked flawlessly through the lesson. While Søster Hall was talking to Mads about the Holy Ghost, Søster Rogers and i were finding scriptures. Luckily Søster Rogers had brought her English set with her so we could find a few. We all took turns telling Mads how we felt the Holy Ghost. His next concern was about faith. He didnt quite understand the concept. Now, i know there are many scriptures all over the place that explain faith and how to recieve it, but i was never good at remembering them. All of a sudden in my mind a scripture and it's reference came to mind. I found it in my Danish scriptures and had Søster Rogers pull it up in her English scriptures to verify which scripture it was. It was Ether 12:6 talking about how faith is things which are hoped for and how one can not have faith until after the trial of their faith. Verse 4 above it talks about how you first have to have hope to be able to gain faith. It was perfect! We had him read it. As he read it, the spirit was so strong. It hit all of us like a tidal wave. He looked up and asked another question and i was able to explain it, in Danish. Words that i had only ever heard or maybe had defined for me once were flowing into my head. It was a simple testimony, but it was in Danish and i answered his questions. In the moment i didn't realize what was happening, but when i was done they were all watching me. Then it hit. You see, i have had a very hard time speaking the language. I can understand, for the most part, what people say and i can write it very well, but for some reason i can not speak it. I could see it in Bro Pullan's eyes that he was proud. It really was a miracle in every sense of the word and I did not do it alone. After we closed and left, brother Pullan pulled us aside and told us that that was our best lesson ever. His voice cracked as he talked to us.

After that lesson it is not so intimidating for me to go to Denmark and speak Danish. I know i have the Lord on my side and he will help me say exactly what i need to say. My Danish is improving so much each day, especially after yesterday. I am so SO grateful for this gospel and for the gift of tongues. I can not do this alone and i know i will never ever have to. I am so humbled to have had the many wonderful experiences i have had. There are not words, in English or Danish, that can describe how i feel and how amazing this gospel is. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and your support. I can feel them helping me along every day. I love you all and i think of you often.

Jeg elsker jer!

kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley :)

Week 3

Hej alle!

Today is quite the exciting day. Not only is it pday, but it is also our halfway point. Yay! So exciting. Now we just need our visas so we can go to Denmark instead of be re-assigned. All of our fingers are crossed!

This week was just plain amazing. After everything that has happened this week, there is no way that i could ever not believe that God is there and he loves me. I had confirmation after confirmation.

The first big confirmation was Thursday. It was p-day, but it was a bit of a rough day. We had so much going on and i had so much on my mind. Adjusting to the mtc isnt exactly easy and with all i had to think about at the time i was really struggling to keep up with my comps all day. Finally at class we taught our "investigator" Sørin (aka Brother Williamson). It went well, but i was very much overwhelmed by everything. This was at the very beginning of class. At the very end of class Bro. Williamson always takes each companionship out to talk to them about how they are doing and what we can all do to help. He said that he had noticed that i had had a hard time with the lesson. There was no denying it at all. He asked if everything was ok and me, in my stubborn Handley way, told him it was nothing i couldnt handle and that i was just fine. Most everyone else would have accepted that answer and jsut moved past it, but Bro Williamson sat back for a minute looking at all of us and then told us an amazing story from his mission. i wish i could tell it all, every detail, but it would take way too long and it isnt really my story to tell so i will give you an extremely watered down version and that will have to do. He told us a story from his mission where he had had a really hard time. He said his whole life had fallen apart and he had no one to turn to except the Lord. He hadnt been living the mission rules like he should have at all, and they were having no success in the little country town they were in, so one day when things were at their worst, he got down on his knees to pray. He said that he didnt get any big answer when he was done praying and he didnt feel anything special, but he did decide to live the mission rules to the best of his abilities.He did and he had to work at it, but things started to get better. They finally found this man who wanted to learn more about the gospel. They had no idea what this man was saying at all since his accent was so thick, but they kept teaching him and teaching him. The man read the book of Mormon and they assumed that he understood what he was being taught, but they had no way of knowing for sure. Eventually they were both transferred and later they learned the old mans story. His wife and most of his family had all died and he was all alone. He felt in his heart that he would see them again but had no way to know for sure. He felt that no loving God would give you a family just to take them away at the end of your life. He had just been waiting to hear the truth for years and years. They learned that the man was bearing his testimony to them during every lesson and wanted to be baptized. The new elders in the area baptized him. The mans name was Sørin. He was the inspiration for the way Bro. Williamson teaches us. Bro Williamson said that the old man had been waiting his whole life to hear about forever families from two broken teenage boys who were lost but trying their hardest. It was so powerful.

Now, i dont feel like i have my feet in two places at once and i am living the mission rules the best i can. I am not perfect but i am serving to the best of my abilities with my whole heart. I was, however, getting frustrated with the fact that everyone else in my district could talk back and forth to the investigators with little problem except me. I could sometimes understand what they were saying, but it never came together, and even if i could understand, i couldnt come up with an answer. I just couldnt handle it any more. The story about Bro. Williamson and Sørin was exactly what i needed. It just confirmed to me that our Savior knows each and every one of us individually and that he loves us more than we could ever comprehend.

The next day we went to a thing called TRC where we go and teach real members of the church in Danish. The first TRC we taught was an elderly couple who had both served in Denmark on their missions. Apparently the rate of missionaries getting married to each other from the Denmark mission is crazy high because they are one in four who help out at the mtc. Anyway, we came in and introduced ourselves. All i said was Jeg Hedder Søster Handley and they asked me if i was Danish! My confidence went through the roof for about two seconds until i had to say something else in Danish and i totally butchered it. But, the most important thing is that i recognized that as another tender mercy from Heavenly Father. My confidence had been so low with my Danish the night before, then all of a sudden someone asks me if Im Danish. Since then i have progressed so much. I will get into that later.

The next TRC we taught was a girl from Denmark. She is a foreign exchange student living with an LDS host family in Idaho. She wanted to learn more about the church so the host mom offered to bring her to the mtc where she could be taught in Danish. (the host mom served her mission in Denmark and married one of the missionaries haha) They drove 6 hours so this girl could come talk to us. We had no warning that she was not a member. We were given 5 min to prepare something to teach her, then we walked in and just started talking. She was a sweet girl and was very patient with our Danish. She asked questions and talked to us back and forth. She asked us why we decided to serve missions. I told her that before my mission i was a firefighter and i loved helping people. I told her that i loved it so much that i decided that i wanted to help people in any way i could and i felt so strongly that this church is true that that was the best way i could think to help people. It wasnt quite as fluffy as that, infact it was quite simple, but she listened and asked me more questions. We told her that Heavenly loves her and we taught her the plan of salvation (Frelsesplanen in Danish). At the end we asked her if she would be comfortable praying for us. I expected her to say no and to have an awkward silence, but she said yes! First for real missionary moment. The spirit was so strong. It was amazing.

Anyway, i do know that God knows us individually and intimitely. I have never felt his love so strong in my life. There is no doubt in my mind that he lives and loves us. It took the MTC to really figure that out and i am so glad that i have the oppurtunity to be here and i cant wait to serve him in Denmark.

Jeg elsker jere!

Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley

P.S. Here is the song that i always used to sing "Jesus Said Love Everyone" in Danish. Enjoy!

  

                Jesus sager: elsk en hver,

                mod dem kærlig vær!

                Alle elsker dig igen,

                hår du kærlig er.