Copenhagen Temple 10 Year Anniversary!

School is out on Thursday?!?!?! Oh my gosh the school year went by SO fast. I can't believe that! I bet Emily and Sydney and John have done so well this year, and I bet that for once they're probably not very excited for school to end since it means the move is happening soon! But that's okay. It'll end up being fun!

Oh man it DEFINITELY feels like summer here in Denmark, it's been up in the high 20's here (as in celsius, I think that's the high 70's?), and I think being in Denmark has made me a wimp because I am burning up! 

Plus there's no air conditioning here so being inside can be really suffocating. Last summer was unusually hot and rain-free for Denmark, and I think this summer might end up being similar because from what people have said, it's never this hot in May! 

I am doing great this week as usual and SO excited and happy to hear that everything is going well with selling the house and getting ready to move! That makes me so happy. Plus Erin told me that they're moving to Virginia!!! So it'll be one big happy family reunion on the east side of the country! 

Hmmmm my favorite way to approach a stranger. Well I think my favorite thing is talking with people on s-togs, because it's a little more natural to strike up a conversation on a train than on the street, and you can usually get to know people a lot better - We usually start off a conversation with something like "Hasn't the weather been amazing lately?" or "We're new to Copenhagen, can you tell us what is fun to do here?" and then it usually leads to people asking us why we're here in Denmark, which leads right into the gospel. I've gotten a lot better at asking people for their numbers here in Frederiksberg, so the spot for potential investigators to be written down in the back of my planner is a lot more full than it used to be! woo woo!

As far as sleeping goes, the hot weather plus no air conditioning situation means we have our windows open all the time, which is fine unless there's someone walking around or talking outside! But mostly I sleep really well. :) It just gets a little toasty sometimes.

Søster Hadley and I at the 10 year anniversary of the Denmark Temple 

Sister Hadley and I are having lots of fun together! We should be finding out about transfers today or tomorrow and she thinks she'll transfer away... we'll see what happens! 

And tonight we get to stay for the Young Single Adult family home evening because Emelie, an amazing girl in the ward who got baptized last August, is bringing her friend who is interested in the church! We aren't allowed to stay for YSA activities unless we have an investigator or a less-active there with us, which is kind of a bummer because we aren't often able to go! But tonight we can stay, and I'm going to try to learn and remember all the names I possibly can. :) Plus we're trying to come up with ideas with Elder and Sister Madsen, the YSA couple, for how we can be more involved with the ysa.

The Copenhagen Denmark Temple

This week we got to help with the temple's 10-year anniversary exhibition! (That will link you to the mission website where there are more photos of the open house, and one more really cute photo of Hannah) 

We helped run a little exhibition in the church building near the temple with a video explaining what the temple is, frequently asked questions about the temple, and a really neat presentation about the history of the church in Frederiksberg. There was an original printing of the Danish Book of Mormon on display! 

The exhibition ran Tuesday through Friday, and then ended with a reception on Saturday for members of the church all over Denmark. I saw some wonderful members from Odense, which was really great! Sister Hadley and I also got to go to the temple on Saturday, which was so so nice. It's been 8 months since the last time I went to the temple, and it was just great.

Update! We just found out about transfers! Sister Hadley and I are staying together, woohoo! It's gonna be pretty dang great. :) 

Yay!

We did some more cleaning at P's house.  Turns out the closets are white, not yellow like we thought! Oh P is so wonderful though, and we found Teachings of the Prophet Brigham Young as we were cleaning through things, and she read us quotes from it as we continued cleaning!

We had a great lesson with G, she is just progressing right along! She is worried that committing to live the gospel would be too hard to do her whole life long, so we are going to work on continuing to teach her the lessons and showing her that committing to live the gospel doesn't require her to change absolutely everything about her life, just a few things like following the word of wisdom!

Aaaand this week we have a crazy week planned! we're going on splits with the sister training leaders (PS Sister Packard just got moved up to be a sister training leader! Next transfer she'll be my sister training leader, isn't that so fun?!), and having our district activity (volleyball and a barbecue! woo!), and going to Aalborg for J's baptism!! 

It's going to be an eventful week, but we've also got some good plans and opportunities for finding new investigators and working with the members. We're going to get this area moving!

Me with a really attractive hammerhead shark.  Aren't we a good pair?

Anyways I love you so much! I gotta get going! Have a good week and keep being awesome! Love you!!

Love,

Hannah

Half Way!

Ahh time goes too fast, I think. I'm almost 20 years old! 18 more days! 

And this week I celebrated my halfway mark! (Hannah has been out 9 months of her 18 month mission) That was a crazy day. Søster Hadley made a lagkage (Danish layer cake) for me that was deliciously amazing - we ate it for breakfast. 

Me with my halfway cake! (can you tell we're eating well? ;) )

Then I went and spent the day in Gladsaxe with the Sister Training Leaders there, because Søster Hadley had a special meeting with all of the missionaries from her group. The Sisters made me æbleskiver to celebrate and we all ate a ton of those. 

Then every appointment we went to served cake! And then we had a dinner appointment with a member family! 

On top of that, we biked everywhere in the biggest rainstorm I've been out in so far - so I spent most of the day soaking wet. 

Søster Hadley and I with some delicious chocolate lava cakes in mugs.

All of this led to... me getting really sick the day after! I was totally out of commission. But I got a Priesthood blessing and was on my feet and feeling better within a day! Isn't it amazing how the Lord blesses us with health and strength when the work needs to be done?

Søster Hadley and I discovered a cute harbor while we were eating the huge ice cream cone.

What big projects are left to do? Is there a for sale sign outside the house? (we are getting ready to move in June) I hope you know I am praying harder than I ever have before for all of you with the move coming up. I bet it's a really stressful time, and everyone is sad to go! It's okay though. Just like President Hinckley always said, It will all work out! :)

I can't believe school is almost over. School just started! What the heck! And I know that everyone will do well in the new schools. And wow, this week sounds really really busy. Busier than the week we have planned! Fun Fun!  and tell John I said TILLYKKE on winning the game!!

(I decided not to include a rather sweet, personal story)  Anyways I'm not trying to say I'm the most awesome person in the world or anything silly like that, but I think that lots of people downplay promptings of the Spirit by downplaying their own worth if that makes sense - if you tell yourself you won't make a difference often enough, then you'll stop making a difference and the Spirit will stop presenting small and simple opportunities for you to serve. 

Us with G, our investigator from Brazil! she is the SWEETEST girl and yesterday was her first Sunday in church! She loved it so much she wanted to take a picture.

But! I am working on being more positive about myself because the more I remember I have a lot of potential as a daughter of Heavenly Father, the harder I work and the more I try to reach out to the people around me - and the more of a difference is made, whether I see it or not.

Us with a HUGE ice cream cone that we ate together.

Well, I am running out of time ): I'm really sorry!! We had some other great experiences this week but I think I will write a letter when we get back from grocery shopping with more of them in it and send it to you. 

My bike did have a breakdown this week - during the huge rainstorm! Hahaha! But it's fixed now, phew! I thought it was fitting that it broke down on my halfway mark - what's a day in the life of Søster Barrett without a broken bike here and there? ;) 

The elders in our ward are great - Elder King and Elder Nordfelt are the assistents and very sincere, hardworking missionaries. Elder Redd and Elder Wright are the other elders who serve in our area and they are also really really great missionaries! We have a great district and there's a lot of support/hard work going on. So that's great!!

I love you! I hope this is a great week and that everything goes how it should. You are the best! Keep up the good work!

Love,

Hannah

Half Way Anniversary!

Skyping was SO FUN! Thanks for letting me speak some Danish, it's always fun to show off my mad skillz. ;) It was so great to see your faces and hear your voices! and to hear Emily and John play the violin, and Dad sing, and to talk with Sydney and you, and just everything. It was lovely! 

This mission is such a good experience. The Lord is so good. He's really taking care of all of us, don't you think? :) It's funny because being away, I forget about the real life day-to-day stuff like fighting with Sydney about using the car, or getting mad at Dad for pinching my cheek, but when you step back from all the small things, we're all always getting better and taking steps forward. Thank goodness for the Atonement!

Our zone at zone training last week.

Poor Sydney, moving halfway through high school was really hard. But it ended up beign such a good experience! You just can never see the end from the beginning, whcih makes it exciting and sometimes so challenging. I can't believe how grown up everyone is! Emily and John are getting so tall! And John's feet are the same size as yours? Ahhhhh!

We did have a good week. We're teaching this really cute lady from Brazil - Her name is G, and she is married to a Dane and they have the cutest baby girl! It was really exciting to meet with G because she has a baptismal date this summer and is pretty serious about being baptized - she asked us at our last appointment if we could tell her how her life will change because she converts. Sister Hadley and I were both born in the church, so we're not so good at that, but we have great members here who we can invite to talk to her about it! G is the sweetest, most sincere lady though. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her in Portuguese and she knew all of the things Christ said by heart from the Bible. The Spirit was definitely there!! And at the end her husband came and talked with us for a little bit, which is saying a lot because he used to not talk to the missionaries.

We found a new investigator on Saturday! His name is T. We street contacted him, and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said he would love to meet with us, and asked us when we could come by (instead of us asking him, which is how it usually goes)! We also did a lot of stop bys of past investigators - we found a couple of people home, and they pulled the classic move of asking for our numbers and telling us they'd call us... merp. That's okay, they will not be forgotten! We'll stop by again sometime down the road! ;)

This week we have another appointment with G, as well as an appointment with T (the new investigator!) and J, someone that Sister Hale and her companion found when she was here a few months ago, who's really positive but we're probably going to give to the Elders so it's easier to teach him - we're not allowed to teach boy investigators without another woman with us. 

On Wednesday I'm going to hang out with the Sister Training Leaders in Gladsaxe! Sister Hadley has a meeting with President Sederholm and all of the missionaries from her MTC group... no one knows what it'll be about and everyone's really excited to find out! 

Me with a street sign called the 5th of June (almost my birthday*, woo!)

Wednesday is also my halfway anniversary, so we're making a cake sometime this week in celebration. We'll also be meeting with V and cleaning at P's house! And other than that we shall find everywhere we possibly can, look for service along the way, bear our testimonies all over Copenhagen, and give away lots of Books of Mormon! It's going to be a great week. :)

Later today we're going to get ice cream the size of our heads (pictures to come next week!) and play volleyball with the elders. Oh and we're also meeting with E tonight, who has kind of investigated the church for a few months - I haven't met her yet, but we're going to study with her out of the Book of Mormon. She has a lot of faith in the Bible and doesn't really see how the Book of Mormon goes along with it, so we want to help her see that the Book of Mormon isn't completely different from the Bible - it is a second witness to it!

Go Preach My Gospel! Let's see... last week I started to read through each principle of the lessons we teach, and then write down how I have gained a testimony of that principle. I really love doing it because it's helping me see how much I already know, and what I can do to further strengthen my testimony. Studying chapter 10 is helping me want to strengthen my knowledge of the basic principles and doctrines we teach - because when it comes down to it, the gospel really is a simple thing!

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with mustaches.

Anyways everything is wonderful! Life is great! I love you all so much and I can't believe how fast time goes. We all better make the most of it!! I know that the church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that through the Atonement, we can be clean and start over again and again. And I know that families can be together forever! This is just a short time in the grand scheme of things. We're going to be together even after life on earth ends!

Give Emily and John and Sydney hugs and kisses for me! Even if they don't want them! ;)

I love you. Have a good week! Keep being amazing!

Love,

Hannah

* Hannah's birthday is June 6th.  There's just enough time to send her a birthday card!  It takes a $1 international stamp to send Hannah a letter. Her address is:

Sister Hannah Marie Barrett

Denmark Copenhagen Mission

Borups Alle 128, 1. Tv

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark