7/22/2013

Hej Alle!

This week has been full of ups and downs with all of us being somewhat sick at some point this week, and my one companion having issues with her back that landed us in the ER so that she can get into the doctor within the next month... got to love socialized medicine haha She's fine, just in pain all the time. We're doing everything we can to help her out and we'll be returning to the doctor soon, hopefully.

Yesterday was quite the miracle day for me. It started out pretty hectic with us trying to help one of the Ædlstre get ready to move on to another area. It's still three weeks from transfer day, but Ælsdte Ludlow from my MTC group got his visa, so the third Ældste from Aalborg is moving to open a new area with him. Yay! Miracle number 1 :) So that took up most of our morning. Then, we got a text that was sent the night before but we didn't receive until that morning that told us that we were supposed to teach gæsteklasse during sunday school. Agh! We had no time to prepare anything at all before church. After sacrament meeting, I went to gæsteklasse with the Ældstre's investigators while Søster Bishop and Christensen went and set up appointments real fast before we taught. I waited and waited for them to come to gæsteklasse, but i realized that they would not be coming when they were 15 minutes late. I had to teach it all by myself, in Danish. AGH! I was terrified out of my mind! So, I asked one of the Ælsdtre to pray that i knew would say a really long prayer. While he prayed out loud i prayed in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me teach this lesson. I told him that i was just going to open my mouth and talk and he would put the words i needed to say in my mouth.  I told him i was putting my trust in him 100%. When the prayer was over, i opened my eyes and looked at the headings of the two lessons we were supposed to cover in the manual. It was the Holy Ghost and Prophets. I just started talking about how we can use the Holy Ghost in our lives and how we listen to the prophets and follow what they say, but we use the Holy Ghost to find out for ourselves that what they say is  true, just like we do in every aspect of our lives. Words kept rolling off my tongue. I asked questions and everyone was participating. All of a sudden, i could understand what they were saying to me! It was amazing! I was in complete awe the whole time. After, one of the investigators told me that my Danish accent was very good and the Ædstre told me that they were very impressed with how it all went. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who hears our prayers and keeps his promises to us. I couldn't have done that alone, even in English. The gift of tongues is real and i see it every day. As much as i hate it in the moment, i am so grateful that Heavenly Father pushes us to become better and to realize our potential. The decision to go on a mission is the best decision i have ever made. I never would have grown in these ways if i hadn't. I am so grateful for a living prophet who guides us and for our loving Heavenly Father.

My companions never showed up to gæasteklasse, and i found that they had their own little miracle as well. They had found and talked to one of the less actives that had been less active for more than 5 years that had been bullied and had some major emotional trauma from her childhood. She had been terrified to come to church, but they were good friends to her and made her feel at ease.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Stay strong everyone and remember that Heavenly Father loves you!

Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley :)

7/15/2013

Hej Alle!

Oh boy, what a week! So many exciting things happened! A bit up and down, but you can't enjoy the good without the bad.

This week we had zone training. We had media training which was great. The only problem was, the whole thing was in Danish, which would have been fine, but they made me wear the little translation thing so i could hear the English translation, but the guy translating didn't seem to care at all, and just kept saying "Oh, he just said something about faith. That sounds important" or "He just said a funny joke, too bad you wouldn't understand it" Rude! haha So i didn't get a ton out of it. Good thing we did role plays in English.

We got 3 new investigators this week, which was great! The only problem is i think two of them will be dropping us soon because they are muslim... but, I am hopeful for the last one we got :) His name is Ivan and we found him while we were finishing knocking an apartment complex. It was my turn to begin the approach, and as soon as he answered the door, i noticed that both of my companions had completely backed off, and my trainer had hidden behind the door! Ah! So, i did all i know how to do, i bore my testimony. I said a silent prayer in my heart for help. I told him about the Book of Mormon, about what it contains, and the promise that Moroni gives at the end, that if we read it ourselves, and pray to know for ourselves that it is true, we will recieve an answer. Then, i asked him about his faith and if course i couldn't understand a word he said back, so Søster Christensen stepped in to help. But, he said that we could come back and teach him more! :) So exciting! I know that that was the Lord's way of letting me know that i can talk to people and i can teach them about the gospel, as long as i rely on Him.

So, our ward mission leader isn't exactly our biggest fan just because we're sisters. He's hard on the Elders too, but he's definitely on their side and doesn't hide that. So, we decided this week that we weren't going to give him anything to criticize about so he wouldn't have any excuses :) He randomly texted us and asked us how many push-ups, sit-ups and crunches we could do. None of us actually knew for sure, so we all dropped down and did some push ups so we could tell him in the middle of the parking lot. (I'm not going to tell you how many because sadly, with all of these delicious Danish pastries and other foods, my strength is decreasing and my waistline is not haha) Needless to say, we got a lot of weird looks. There were three 20 year old girls that randomly dropped and started doing pushups in the middle of the parking lot. We must have been a sight! Sadly, the text was not for us and H.C. just laughed at us for even trying. Now we know to work on our pushups and situps so next time we will be much more prepared. Next time, H.C., next time...

Well, it was a good week with lots of good experiences. I am learning a lot and growing in many different ways. Thank you to everyone who sent me letters this week. I very much appreciate mail and i will do my best to write back as soon as we get some time on a p-day. Love you all!

Kære,

Søster Erin Handley

7/8/2013

This week was crazy! I feel like i say that every week, but i really mean it when i say it! Wow! So up  and down, but ended on an up note, so that's all that matters :)

So, this week we gained 3 new investigators, but then lost one of them. He wasn't super positive to begin with, so we were kind of expecting it. But, we also know he'll come back. We also lost the less active who we weren't even sure that she was a member. The missionaries before us told her to read D&C before she knew the Book of Mormon was true... Bad idea! She had some big questions and instead of asking us or turning to the Book of Mormon, she turned to the internet and found a site set up just like Mormon.org, but it was all about being an ex-mormon. So, she watched one of those videos and believed every word of it. Stupid anti-mormon stuff... Gah! Oh well. She'll come back once she realizes that she's not happy.

On a happier note, we got an investigator we weren't expecting in church. That was cool! She came with one of her friends and is now investigating. She's very interested and very excited. Thank goodness for members who invite their friends to church!

Søster Bishop and i also had an interesting time. Søster Christensen had to go to a leadership training in Copenhagen, so we were left all by ourselves in Aalborg. Gah! Two Greenies and no trainer! But, it turned out to be a really great two days alone.We only got lost once and found our way back like pros, and we got everything we needed done exactly as planned, with a little extra time for is. :) But, on the second day, all but one of our appointments fell apart, and in the one that didn't, the investigator dropped us! Gah! And no, that was not our fault. He was jus obsessed with money. lame! But, Søs. Bishop and i successfully pulled our schedule together and made appointments all by ourselves! We are basically pros!

So, the last place we stopped on our way home was this little old lady's apartment. It took her forever to open the door, and when she finally did, we discovered that she was ANCIENT! She was all shaky and looked like she was 150 years old! I was afriad she was going to keel over and die right then and there! But, we sort of communicated with her and told her that we were missionaries coming to visit her. She let us in, and we tried to talk to her, but we couldn't understand much of what she siad because she was so old and shaky. We tried as hard as we could to tell her we'd come back later, but all she said was (In Danish, of course)"I hate americans. You can come back when you learn Danish!"That was all we understood from her! haha So, we told her we'd come back when we learn Danish and that God loves her, then we left. haha

Looking back, there were some pretty rough days this week, but it was a great week. Things are starting to pick up for us, and i can feel that something big is just around the corner. It's coming and were ready for it!

I hope everyone has a great week! Work hard this week and remember that the lord loves you, and i do too!

Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley

7/1/2013

Hello everyone!

We had quite the crazy week this week! We were all over the place since Søster Christensen is Sister Training Leader for the area. We went on splits, which was fun, and we did lots of service this week.

So, cool splits story. I was in Horsens with Søster Swett and Bartholomew. Søster Bartholomew was in my MTC group, so our Danish is on about the same level, shich means it's basically non-existent haha. We couldn't understand much of what anybody said all day and we were having a difficult time saying anything in Danish. That's just like every day here. Well, we were walking towards home on one of the mai streets of Horsens, when Søster Swett stopped this older couple on the street. She started talking to the wife which left Søs. Bartholomew and i to talk to the husband. This is quite a bit of a problem since our Danish is quite a bit lacking. As he was talking to us, i suddenly realized that i was understanding what he was saying! It was kind of strange to know what he meant by all of the strange words he was saying. I didn't quite understand every little word he said, but i understood what his questions were and what his concerns were. He wasn't sure if God loved him or why he would alow bad things to happen to innocent people. Søs Bartholomew and i were able to assure him that God does love him, and that even though bad things happen to good people, God has a plan for us and loves us because we are His children. He seemed to really like that answer, and i guess we made a good impression because he wanted to make sure we were taken care of and had food and a place to live. He was very relieved to know that the church took care of all that for us.  We left he and his wife with a Book of Mormon and a pass along card, then went on our way. I could not understand a word the next person we talked to said. To me, that was Heavenly Father's way of letting me know that He is aware of my needs, and the needs of everyone around me. He knows exactly what we need at exactly what time. That man needed to hear what we had to say, and i needed to understand it, so that's what happened. It was a really neat experience.

Yesterday, we went around to visit less actives to let them know that the ward is still aware of them and that they are missed. We stopped by one lady's house, and she opened the door, pants-less. Kind of awkward, but whatever. The next less-active we went to visit, same thing! haha It's just normal here, i guess. Kind of funny. At least the second guy was curtious enough to answer the door with his dyna wrapped around him... haha

This week we went to help the bishop out with his yard. He has been so busy that he has not had any time at all to take care of his garden. Søster Bishop and i took a whole section and weeded it all. It looked really nice :) the Elders trimmed the bushes and did more weeding, and Søster Christensen made the cobblestones look nice. We got a lot of work done for him, and his garden is starting to look real nice. We have another appointment with him for next week. Once we were all done with the garden, the bishop said that he had lunch ready for us. In my mind, lunch is sandwiches, salad, something light. Well, in Denmark, that is not the case when you have guests. He had made two big pans of lasagna for the seven of us to eat, with salad and fruit on the side. He wanted us to finish all of it. haha So, we took the challenge to finish the whole thing. We did! It was great! The only problem, was that we had a dinner appointment for 4 hours later... So, we took our bikes out and biked around, then went to our appointments, and then to dinner. We were still stuffed, but these people had the same expectation of us. Gah! They also made a ton of really yummy food. This time it was potaoes and chicken with whiskey sauce. Yum! We ate it all and were stuffed to the piont we could no longer eat anymore. But, this family had dessert for us too. Oh no! haha So, we all had to stuff dessert into our over-stuffed bellies. luckily this time their kids ate the majority of it, and it was a light dessert of fruit and cream. I don't think i've ever been so full in my life!

The ward mission leader in my ward loves peanut butter. So, this week we had a baking contest with the elders and HC was the judge. Of course we made peanut butter cookies with homemade reese's on top :) They were absolutely delicious! We gave some out to some of the less actives and they were all skeptical of my peanut butter at first, but they loved the cookies and wanted the recipe. I am slowly converting the Danes to love peanut butter. That's the first step to getting them to come to church/get baptized I decided. :) So far, it's working! haha

Well, this week was great. I'm learnign a lot and having tons of great experiences. Hope you all have a great week this week! Love you!

Kærlighed,

Søster Handley

P.S. They have 7/11's everywhere here, and, i found this week, THEY SELL REESE'S! :D

This is me and a fleskasteg sandwich, which is pork with the skin left on. The skin is fried and it is delicious, even though it doesn't sound like it.

There are cute streets like that all over and i love taking pictures of them :)

6/24/2013

Well, this has been my second week in the land. So exciting! It has been so much fun and i am learning so much every day. As of right now, the work is a little slow, but the field is ready to harvest and there are more than we can teach in Aalborg, so we'll find the people and we'll get to teaching them :)

There's actually one lady here that says that she was baptized into the church when she lived in Bountiful when she was a child, but when her family moved back to Denmark, they couldn't find an lds church, so they became inactive. The missionaries found her a few weeks ago. We've been visiting her and teaching her about the church so she knows what everyone's talking about when she goes to church. When we were talking to her one day with the Elders, she told us that she was baptized when she was six and moved back before she was 8. What? That doesn't quite fit into our calculations. It's also strange that she doesn't remember her baptism... so we decided that she's probably not even a member, but she thinks she is. Crazy! So, we might be having a baptism here soon :)

This week we went knocking (or tracting).  In Danish it's called Banking, which literally means knocking so that's what we call it here. Anyway, we went knocking and had a really great time. We were in a much nicer neighborhood by the church. The houses were all so cool looking! Especially their doors. I know, it's a strange thing to think is so col, but it's true. The doors were really cool looking. There were some modern looking doors, then antique looking doors, then doors with cool designs. A lot of them had knockers, which i thought was really cool :) But, that's not what i was going to tell you. We were knocking at one particular house that had a glass door. The whole wall was actually glass. The guy poked his head around the corner to see who it was, then tried to hide from us. That doesn't really work when you've got a glass wall... so, he decided to man-up and answer his door. He walked out and he wasn't wearing pants! Awkward! haha He was wearing these really small black underwear, and it didn't help that he was a big guy. We talked to him for a minute and left him with a pamphlet. He was really nice, but it was really strange that he wasn't wearing pants. Welcome to Denmark! haha

We went to visit a member and had such a nice time. Her name was Mae-Britt. She gave us a little tea party with hot chocolate (because it's almost that cold some days) and delicious Danish pastries. Yum! I had so much fun! We only ever played with tea sets as a kid and imagined what it would be like, and here i was, having a for real tea party in Denmark with the sweetest lady and i couldn't understand a word she said! It was so great! I love tea parties!

This week we had zone conference in Århus. It's kind of a long train ride down to århus, so the senior couple there told us that we could come stay with them the night before. They spoiled us rotten! They had delicious is (ice cream) for us, and m&m's, and they cooked us breakfast and everything! It was a blast! We helped them with all the preparations for the training and had some nice little chats with them. They were just the greatest. I guess all the Elders were pretty jealous, though, because none of them are even allowed inside of their apartment, yet we got to stay the night. That's what we get for being the only sisters in the entire zone, though :) And, they asked us to come back for the next zone training :) I am so excited!

Well, those were the highlights of my week. It was a great week. We had tons of fun and got lots of work done :) Now, we just need investigators.

Kærlighed,

Søster Erin Handley

Questions:

Do you dream in Danish?

       No, i do not dream in Danish yet. Most of my dreams lately haven't actually had any sort of language, just pictures and really frustrating thoughts haha I keep dreaming that i left important stuff in Missouri and i can't get new stuff here. I'm sure i'll eventually dream in Danish because everyone out here says that eventually they do.

Are you loving the food?

 The food here is amazing! I love just about everything, except for the leverpostej which is literally liver paste. Gross! but everything else is amazing, especially their desserts! This is not going to be good for me. And, i found that they do have some good peanut butter here :) Day made! There are actually a lot of Danes her in Aalborg that really like peanut butter, our ward mission leader included :) I tried my first Danish hot dog this week. It was so much better than American hot dogs! They have this delicious sauce called Remoulede that is really good. We made our own all Danish meal yesterday that was AMAZING! I've got the recipe in the cook book i bought last p-day. It's the cook book that everyone has here and it's the one that everyone suggested to buy. The best part is, we found it for 1/3 of the price! Heck yes!

Have you received any mail yet?

 Yes i have :) There was a letter waiting for me at the mission office from President Lawrence, so that was cool. Then, this week i got a letter from Grandma Putscher and from Luke. Luke's in Sweden so not too far from me and the letters here can be 50 grams, so he sent me a Swedish candy bar. It was pretty cool :)

How are you doing with the time change?

 I'm still having a hard time with the jet lag. 8 hours is a big time difference, but it's getting better every day. I think the biggest problem is that we're far enough north that the sun never actually goes down here in the summer. That makes it hard to go to sleep and all that, but it's kind of cool. I woke up in the middle of the night once, it was 2 or 3 am, and it was still fairly light outside.

How do you like the weather?

 It's kinda cold up here. Not crazy cold, but definitely cold compared to the humid 90's it was in Missouri! It's cool enough to still wear a light sweater all day and we make sure to always have a jacket handy because the weather likes to change a lot. There's nothing here to stop the wind or the clouds so one minute it could be warm and sunny, and the next it could be cool and rainy. It rains a lot, but not heavy rain too often. The weather's really calm, too. The rain is usually pretty light and gentle. It's pretty pleasant, but it definitely does not feel like June! haha

What are the sun sets like?

 The sunsets here are BEAUTIFUL! I've tried to get pictures, but the pictures definitely do not do it justice. They're this beautiful pink and orange color. They're to die for! It's absolutely wonderful.

Are you near the ocean?

 We're pretty close, but i couldn't tell you exactly how close we are. Aalborgh does border a fjord, which is really cool. I've taken lots of pictures of that. Fun fact for you: No matter where you are in Denmark, you are within 60 miles (maybe even kalometers) of the ocean. :)

Are you able to talk to people?

 I am a pro at pretending to know what people are saying :) MTC Danish and real life Danish are very different haha so it's really difficult to understand what people are saying to me, but if i can get the gist of what they are saying, i can usually answer back. It helps that a lot of the members, especially the young adult and younger families, know English as well. They're really good at walking me through a conversation so i can talk. I'm understanding more and more every day so hopefully soon i'll be able to have a full for real conversation :)

Have you eaten any danishes or real chocolate?

 This week we actually went to a for real Danish bakery in Århus when we went to Zone training. It was absolutely delicious! All of the pastries here are heavenly. We also went to a member's house to visit and she set up a cute little tea paty for us :) I guess everyone does that here, which is pretty cool :) We had little tea-cups on saucers and we drank hot chocolate, then we had these delicious pastries with chocolate and vanilla frosting, and a jordbær tart (strawberry tart) that was absolutely delicious! It was absolutely wonderful. Apparently we're going to another house this week where the lady sets up elaborate tea parties for the missionaries. I'm excited for that :)

Pictures 6/17/2013

 The fountain at the Frederiksberg castle

 The suit of armor that i thought was pretty cool

 There's one of me eating a kebab

Erin was so excited to see the Kristus, it was all she talked about. She tells how it was an inspired statue, and how you could feel the spirit.

Me in front of Danmarks Temple

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