6/3/2013

Oh what a week! It feels like i've been here forever, though. It's a good forever. I'm really getting into the work and i'm loving my companionship!

This week we did a lot of service. We don't have too many investigators since everyone out here has already "found Jesus". I just find it interesting that all these people that have found Jesus don't even know which church they go to or what Christ did for them. Anyway...

We helped a lady named Valerie move. She is a sweet lady. She was a former investigator they had to drop since she quit progressing. I think she's just not quite ready, but i feel like we've all been planting seeds. She remembers what we talk to her about and she's all for taking the discussions again, so that's good. I have high hopes for her.

We work and work and work all day and come back to the apartment exhausted each night. We still have fun though :)

This week we baptized Mator! haha I wish! We did, however, find Mater on the side of the road. We took pictures and gave him a book of mormon haha. I'd send them but i don't have my camera on me now.

I hope everyone had a good week! I'll email again next week!

Jeg elsker Jer!

Sister/Hermana Handley

Mexico, Missouri 5/28/2013

Hallo alle!

I hope this week's email finds everyone well. These last couple of weeks have been CRAZY!

All but two of the sisters in my MTC district were reassigned to St Louis Missouri. It was nice to all come together and to have familiar faces all around.

THe mission president and his wife, President and Sister Clark, have been very welcoming to us. They learned a few Danish words to welcome us and have called in to check on us a few times which has been very nice.

On Wednesday we had our transfer meeting. They had all of us new missionaries read from the pulpit where we are going and who our new companions are. When my turn came i read off Sister Proctor and Sister Leavitt. We would be serving in the Mexico Missouri area. WHat? Mexico? They came up to me and said "Hola Hermana!" AHHH! All i could think of was "That ain't the language they taught me in the MTC!" haha But don't worry, most of the people here speak English. Mostly...

I love my new companions. We get along really well and we all teach together. It's weird teaching in english, but even more weird having the chance to say something, but it's good. Every night is like a big sleepover and we make everything fun.

I have found that tracting is so much fun! Never thought it would be possible. It's cool to be able to meet so many different people and to hear so many different stories. The people out here are great.

Missouri is a really pretty part of the country. THe only thing i have a problem with is the humidity. It's doing some strange things to my hair, and the bugs are atrocious! But it's not too bad. I love all the green and all the trees and the pretty clouds. Everyday out here is a cloud watching day, unless it's raining.

I hope everyone is doing well! I have to get going now, but i'll email next week again.

Vises!

Soster Erin Handley

Week 6 5/14/2013

Hallo alle!

Last week in the mtc! AHHH!!!! Crazy how time flies! I can't even believe it! It feels like we just got here. I've seen 5 or 6 friends come and go and i'm still content with staying here. Don't get me wrong, i'm super excited to go to Denmark and teach real people and bring them to this wonderful gospel, but i love my district and my teachers.

This week was quite interesting. IT was a great week. We had a lot of laughs and even more amazing spiritual experiences. This place is just a constant spiritual high.  love it!

We taught a lesson to Søren this week. We were teaching him about the law of chastity in Danish, which is awkward enough, but then the words for prostitute and obedience are very similar. I'm pretty sure that we may have told him to be a prostitute about the law of chastity a few times... woops haha To make things worse, one of the søstre in my companionship accidentally grabbed a swedish pamphlet for the law of chastity. The words in swedish and danish are very similar, but the letter placement is very different. She tried to sound it out and accidentally said the s-word... haha we couldn't stop laughing the whole lesson! Every time anyone said that word we just laughed and laughed. It didn't help that bro williamson makes really funny faces when he's trying not to laugh. haha it was an interesting lesson.

 So, we got our travel plans this week. Crazy to think that on Tuesday i could be on a whole other continent, in a new country speaking DANISH! AHH!!! Like Frenchy always says, it's just a hop skip and a boat ride away. Well, more of a plane ride. It's crazy to think that it's so close.

We don't really know what's going on with our visa's at the moment. The last group didn't get theirs, but then again, on all of their paperwork it says they are coming into the country the same day as us since they moved them back 6 weeks. We all fasted this last sunday for them, including our teachers, and we have made it a goal this week to be exactly obedient, since obedience brings power. That includes getting up 5 min early so we make sure we are all out of bed on time and we hava community prayer. We make sure not to be a minute early or a minute late to anything and we go the extra mile to make sure we are EXACTLY obedient. That includes crossing between the lines of the cross walk at the temple, not eating anything at all in the classroom except for mints (That's a hard one), turning all lights of at exactly 10:30 and changing our laundry time on p-day. (apparently we have a p-day schedule no one knew about). It's only the second day but it's already been hard. It was especially hard for our companionship yesterday. We all decided that it's because we all prayed for patience and exact obedience at the same time. Big mistake... haha I think we've worked out most of the kinks. It helps to have the spirit on your side.

This Sunday was absolutely amazing. We had some amazing speakers. Relief society was especially amazing. The spirit was so strong. Sister Janice Kapp Perry who wrote songs like A Child's Prayer, Helaman's Army, and I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ came to talk to us. SHe also wrote the music to As Sisters in Zion. She gave a beautiful talk on the sanctification of a missionary and simplicity in music and in words. She wrote another song with the tune of As Sisters In Zion that is the sister missionary song. I can tell you that it was totally inspired. She had us sing that in closing. The lyrics were amazing and perfect for missionary work and the spirit was almost tangible in the room. The music kept building and building. The song got louder and louder as we sang. It got to one line that said something to the effect of we share our glad message with all who will hear. We go forth enlisted with Helaman's army in numbers far greater than ever before. That line is especially special to us sister missionaries since we are those numbers far greater than ever before. It hit us all, hard, and everyone started crying and we all had to stop singing, but the singing in the room didn't get any quieter, infact, it got louder and louder. It was overwhelming. It reminded me of when i was in the general conference choir and the choir director said that when you get that many worthy people together singing, that if they are all living how they should and are receptive to the spirit, you can hear the angels singing. I think that is exactly what happened. There is no other way that that could have happened. I am still in awe of that moment. I will always cherish it in my heart.

Søster Rogers is like a scripture queen. She knows a scripture for everything! She always finds the perfect scriptures for our situations of trials that we are dealing with. Well, she did it again this week. Someday i am going to be just like her. Anyway, we have all been crazy worried about our visas since we got our travel plans. It's been weighing down on all of us. It's kind of been distracting. So, Søster Rogers decided that she was going to find something to help us. What she found was amazing and fits our situation perfectly. The scriptures cease to amaze me. She read in 1 Nephi 7:12-13. It says:"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him. And if it so be that we are faithful to him, we shall obtain the land of promise" I don't know if we could have read anything more perfect for us right now. The Lord is able to do ALL THINGS. If we are faithful, we shall obtain the land of promise. The land of promise to us is Denmark. We all got a piece of paper, signed by the prophet to tell us that we will be in Denmark. If that is the Lord's will, we will be in Denmark. Wow. And if we are not supposed to go to Denmark yet, then that is ok, because the Lord does all things according to His will. I love it. It brought so much peace to all of us and we have been able to focus much more now.

Jeg elsker jer!

Have a great week!
Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley

MTC Pictures

The smuk girls in my district :) (smuk=beatiful)

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.