Sunday, June 23, 2013

DANMARK! 6/17/2013

Hej Alle!
Jeg er i Danmark! Jeg er so begejstre! (I am so excited) It feels great to be here! IT's all so strange and new, like how everyone speaks a different language, all the road signs are in Danish, the money is different, and the bathroom sink connects to the shower. Just like in the Best Two Years! haha Made me laugh!

When we got off the plane, i expected to be crazy nervous and to feel out of place, but once i walked across the international line into Denmark, i got this feeling of being home, like i was back in Tooele. Everything was different and i couldn't understand anything anyone said to me, but it didn't matter because i was home. It was amazing.

Our mission president and his wife are so cool! I love them! They told us how they got the call to come out here and they literally dropped everything to be here. It is amazing to me. They were so excited to have us all here finally and the members were too. They told us that the members her in Danmark have been praying for us all to get our visas because it means so much to them to have us here. The whole mission is excited! I love it! The members in Kobenhavn made us a delicious dinner and welcomed us to the country. They taught us some of the customs and answered all of our million questions. It was great!

The next day they took us all over the place and showed us all the cool sites. We got to go to the Frederiksberg Castle. So cool! I was inside a FOR REAL CASTLE! It was really neat, and had a lot of really cool history. I took a million and a half pictures. If i can figure out how to attach them i will. (It's kind of hard since everything is in Danish on this computer) There were suits of armor, crazy pictures, and a ballroom! It was awesom! I loved being there and hearing all the cool stories. One of the couples came with us and showed us around. They had so much knowledge about their country. I loved it!

Next we went to ^^^^^ and saw the Kristus and all of the statues of the apostles. So cool! It was all so inspired, you can tell just by looking at it. That was really neat. I took tons of pictures there. I'll send them sometime, somehow.

We contacted that day, which was interesting. We didn't quite know how to get past the first sentence, si ut was a bit nerve-wracking, but then everyone denied us so it all turned out good :) I was just so happy to hear Danish that i didn't care haha

The next day they gave us a little bit of training and gave us our assignments. That was really cool! I really lucked out with my assignment. I am with Søster Bishop, who was in my district in the MTC, and Søster Christensen who is almost to the point of going home. They're both amazing and we work very well together. We're serving in Ålborg (or Aalborg if you don't have the cool keyboard). They were already in Ålborg, so i had to ride a train out to them. There were a few others on the train as well, but only me and two other Ældstre were going as far as i was. If you look at a map of Danmark, Ålborg is almost to the northern part of Jylland. It's not quite so far up there, but it is the northernmost part that søstre can serve, and we are the first søstre to serve there, as far as i know. Anyway, so we had a forever long trainride and apparently some guy in the back kept yelling a whole bunch of Danish profanities because he was mad that the train wasn't going faster, but i couldn't tell, so it's all good :)

Ålborg is so cool! There are little bike roads everywhere and everyone rides a bike. They have small parking lots everywhere, then a million bike racks. It's so cool! The houses are all adorable and super small. They basically live in th ebare minimum of space they need. It's kind of cool.

Our apartment is super nice. Apparently it's the nicest one in the mission for the missionaries. The nice onces usually go to the couples. In September it'll go back to a couple, but until then, we're going to enjoy it :) It's really small, but the space is used ver efficiently. The entryway doubles as our closet, so we all have little closets there, then to the left is our livingroom/dining room/library. Then we have a small kitchen that we absolutely love, and a tiny bedroom where we have a bunkbed and then my bed.

We have a car that we share with the Ældstre here in Ålborg until September when we'll get a couple, so that's nice, but we bike more than we drive. Right now, i'm borrowing a really crappy bike from a member until the bike prices go down. I guess they fluctuate quite often and right now they're at a high. We got caught in our first rainstorm while we were out biking. It was so cool! Any normal person would have hated it, but i am not normal and i loved it! It was absolutely freezing cold and we were wet to the bone! It was great! I just kept thinking: I'm in the rain, on a bike, freezing, IN DENMARK! Love it! Someday it'll wear off, but as of right now, it's so exciting and happy to be here :)

I have a new motto that i go by. I decided that i don't have control over 90% of the things that happen to me, so i might as well be flexible about it and make the best out of everything. This new motto is: Jeg kan gøre det! or I can do that! I say it a million times a day and i live it to the best of my abilities. When my best isn't enough, i always have a little (actually, a ton) of help from our savior. With Him, i can do anything!

Well, i've written a whole novel here so i'll end it now so i won't take up too much time. I made it to Denmark and i'm super excited to be here serving the Lord. Je elsker jer!
Kærlighed,

Søster Handley

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