7/29/2013

Hej alle!

This week was a pretty crazy week! Sister Christensen was on splits with all the sisters on Jylland and Fyn this week on splits because she is sister training leader.(Jylland is the big part of Denmark that attaches to Germany and Fyn is the island between Jylland and Sjealland, where Copenhagen is) So, that meant that Sister Bishop and i were all alone for a whole week. Agh! On top of that, we had all of two pappointments planned for the whole week. Two! Sister Bishop and i had to start with literally nothing and build up from that. Oh boy was it hard work, but we did it! We had lots of neat experiences too, like when we contacted people in the park and were able to communicate with them. We got turned down every time, but we never gave up :)

One neat experience we had was with a new investigator. The Elders found her and got her as a new investigator, but she is in our area and she is a single woman so it's easier and more practical for us to teach her. I am so glad that we have the oppurtunity to teach her! She is an inspiration to me! This lady has slowly been losing use of her legs over the past year or so because of a surgery gone bad. Now she is in a wheelchair and can't walk more than a couple of steps. You'd think that someone who went from 100% mobility to almost none in such a short amount of time would have a really hard time with it and would be bitter about it, but she is the happiest person i have ever met! Her attitude is that she can't control what's going on, so why worry? And God trusts her to have this trial in her life, so she feels honored that He can use her in her position. All she wants is to be able to help the people around her and she doesn't expect anything back. Amazing! As we sat and talked to her, she basically taught us a lesson instead of the other way around. Her knowledge of the scriptures was amazing and her understanding blew my mind! She was the sweetest lady with the biggest heart. I am so excited because we get to meet with her again tonight. I want to be like her one day and have the amazing attitude that she has.

This week we helped with a wedding. A couple in the ward was divorced a couple of years ago and got re-married on Saturday. We helped get everything ready for the wedding and reception. They had it outside the church under a few pretty white tents. It wasn't a big wedding, but it was absolutely gorgeous! And the ceremony was amazing. It was so cool to see two people who have had such a hard marriage re-commit to each other and to start fresh. They have three beautiful young daughters and now they are all one family together. I don't think i've ever seen a more beautiful sight than seeing them all standing together after the wedding. They got some really cute pictures of all of them after when it had started to rain. They were all under one big umbrella laughing at the rain. It was super smbolic because in Denmark, it is lucky for it to rain on your wedding day because weddings are joyful and if you can laugh and have joy in the rain, you can get through the hard times together. IT was perfect! I wish them the best of luck.

Well, that was my week. I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley

 To answer your quetsions...

What kinds of food are you eating?

I am eating lots of Danish foods, like pork patties wish gravy, kartofler (potatoes, but they have mini potatoes here. Love them!), amazing hamburgers (they make their buns and pickles fresh, and all of the greens are fresh out of the garden), hotdogs (not like american hot dogs), and yesterday we ate some vietnamese food. So good! The only problem is my skirts that used to be big on me are becoming smaller and smaller... haha Hopefully we can bike in my next area so i can fit into my clothes!

Have you eaten anything you don’t like, like Mexican or sea food?

I've liked most of the stuff we've eaten, actually. Haven't really had any sea food, and the mexican food here is not mexican at all, so i don't think i can really count it haha

Do you have any good stories?

This week while i was helping get the yard for the reception ready, they gave me a flame thrower-like-thing to burn all the weeds inbetween the cracks of the sidewalk. So much fun! They don't worry about fires here because it's so wet, so i went burn crazy! It was great! I can't really think of any other stories right now. We've kind of had to take it a little easy this week because of sister Bishop's back. I'll let you know if i have any crazy stories for you :)

I'm glad the house didn't flood and i hope you don't have any more problems with it! I kind of liked our basement... Good thing we've got great neighbors!

It's been pretty warm here these past couple of weeks. It wouldn't be too bad, but they don't have air conditioners for their houses... so it's miserable. It's in the 80's i would say (it's hard to tell because we don't have a thermometer, and nobody measures in farenheit here). Plus, the humidity is KILLING me! So it's a good thing i bought some summer shirts in missouri!

Thanks for keeping me updated on all that Tooele news! Sounds like everyone's all ready for stock show. Fun! And the Boekwegs really do have a full farm going on! haha I bet Courtney is loving it!

Thanks for all of your support! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Let me know how everything goes with stock show and all of that fun!