Alooooooha!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD! Woo! he's hitting the big 24 right? ;)

Aloooooooha! Remember living in Hawaii and everyone saying that every time they gave a talk or bore a testimony? I loved that!! 

I am doing great today. :) It's been a fun preparation day! And by that I mean we have spent most of the morning helping Søster Murray and Søster Rigby move into our apartment. They serve in Gladsaxe 2 ward, and the man who lives above them got really angry with them last week apparently, and tried to break into their apartment. 

President Sederholm moved them right out of there, and right into our apartment! It's going to be really fun :) And just a little bit crowded! They'll only be with us until they can find a new apartment, but it should make for some good adventures in the meantime! 

For the rest of the day, we'll hopefully go to Strøget, and get some I love CPH shirts! And stop by Nyhavn and all of the good sites downtown. 

Then at 6 we'll go out and stop by some people... a few days ago we talked to a woman from Poland on the street and she was interested in getting a Book of Mormon so we're dropping that by tonight! In the coming week we're helping C move, stopping by a few families in the ward that we'd like to get to know better, meeting with some wonderful less actives (including P! Love her!!), and following up on some promising potential investigators. And of course we'll always be finding finding finding, wherever we go! :) It's going to be a great week. 

PLUS we just found out that in September, Elder Bednar is coming and speaking to the whole mission! We'll be having a mission conference and it's going to be amazing.

 

I love Søster Handley! She is so fun to be with. At home she's an EMT with the fire department, so basically she's my hero because she has so many great medical stories. We're working on some medical analogies for the gospel, and it's probably really nerdy but very fun! 

Søster Handley and I at HC Anderson grave

Last week we had a lot of fun adventures - mostly having to do with finding our way around, because I am not as good at navigating Copenhagen as Sister Hadley was, ha! But it's been fun and the city is starting to make more sense to me. 

Yesterday was a fantastic train wreck day. We were going to walk to church with a less-active woman who lives in a care center pretty close to the church. Her nurse knew she would be doing, and she said it would be fine, but as we slowly made our way to the church, K suddenly felt really sick and needed to go home. So we walked all the way back with her and made sure she was okay, then booked it to church - we got there 5 minutes late. It was so embarrassing, but we couldn't do anything about it and I'm glad that we took care of K. We probably won't be venturing out with her on foot to church again. ;) 

Then that evening we had a wonderful dinner appointment, but it went longer than expected. Then the bus we needed to take to our next appointment wasn't running, and the metro is down right now, so one thing led to another and we were 45 minutes late to the appointment. :O I spent the whole time just worrying and worrying about it, because I was sure G, the man we were meeting with, and H, the member we brought with (she is amazing by the way!), would be so mad at us. But H just teased us a little bit, and G was really go-with-the-flow about it, and the lesson was amazing. It was the first lesson we've been able to have since we contacted G in June, and he was so willing to listen and learn! He was really excited to get a Book of Mormon of his own, and told us that he really wants to find out if it is true and is going to start reading it. We're meeting with him again next weekend and I am so excited to see how it goes!

 

Sister Handley and I have been working on being more bold. Actually, our whole district has! Our district leader, Elder Ogden, surprise texts one of the companionships in the district each day and tells them it's their turn to be bold. Then we have to share a story with the district of something bold we did that day. On our bold day, we talked to a train worker on the s-tog platform and had a great conversation with her about what we do as missionaries - she's seen a lot of us on the trains over the years, and she was really curious about what it was we did. 

At some point I want to try contacting someone while biking - I've never tried it before but it sounds fun! :) And we set some really good goals for the area, for our companionship, and for our apartment. It was such a mess! But we've really cleaned it out. So that is a goal achieved! 

I love how you applied Preach My Gospel chapter 8 to the family Mom! I think that is so awesome!!! I can't wait to hear how it goes. Something that really helps me stick to my goals is sharing them with my companion! So thanks for sharing your goals with me. :) I'm still working on my goals and I think I need to revisit/revise them because I don't want to just forget about them! But I've done a better job of focusing on the Book of Mormon with people and giving books away, and I've definitely gotten better at being positive about myself. 

I think for a little while there I lost my confidence, but I'm getting it back! And it's motivating me to do the things that scare me most - like talking to people at the bus stop while we're waiting for the bus, or committing members to do missionary work. Maybe that's a silly thing to be afraid of, but I'm always nervous to ask too much of members because I know they have busy lives - but that doesn't mean they can't be blessed by doing missionary work! And luckily, Sister Handley is incredible at working with members so she has been giving me great ideas and helping me do better at it. :)

 

I definitely agree with you about following the Holy Ghost without realizing it. I think when we are obedient and doing the things we should, the Holy Ghost is able to guide us without having to do something crazy to make us aware of him. A few months ago I remembered something that happened when I was in 7th grade that made me realize how much the Holy Ghost guides you and Dad. I don't think I ever mentioned it to you though! 

So one time, I don't know if you remember it or not, but I was invited to someone's house for a sleepover. It was right after we moved to Hawaii. The girls I was sleeping over with weren't the best to be around, and I remember that you weren't super happy about it but you let me go anyways. It got kind of late and we were getting bored, which is always a bad combination, and one of the girls suggested that we drink some of the alcohol her parents had in the cupboard! I don't think I would have done it, but right after she said it the phone rang and it was you, saying that you and Dad had talked about it and didn't feel good about me staying the night. So Dad came and got me and we walked home together and I was safe and sound! I know that Heavenly Father was looking out for me through you, and that parents really can help their kids so much more when they are receptive to the Spirit.

 

It's been a really great week and I'm so grateful I'm here! I can't really imagine any other life than being a missionary, ha. I love that nametag! I love the rules! I even love the skirts, most of the time. ;)

 

Love you so much! Have a good week, and give everyone hugs from me!

 

Love,

Hannah

 

PS I slacked on pictures this week but here's Sister Handley and I at HC Andersens grave! We went again with P, according to tradition. :)