Tuesday, August 26, 2014

My Last Week in Copenhagen


Hej!

Well. First thing's first - I transferred! Ahh! I miss Frederiksberg already - but I'm now in Slagelse, a cute little town close to the edge of Sjælland. It's very different from Copenhagen! But OH so hyggeligt! It feels like home already. (It's pronounced Slayelse, just incase you were wondering ;) )

I am companions with Sister Vige, who is from Norway. She is 21, is really good at doing hair, and is 6 weeks older than me in the mission. She is awesome and I'm so excited that we're companions!

I can't believe it's almost John's birthday. Is he really turning 11? I'm going to send a post card this week! And school is starting in a week?! AHHH!

This last week was a rather hectic one, with trying to see people one last time and making sure Sister Handley felt good about the area. She's going to do great - she's training a new missionary! I think she's a little worried about it but I know she'll rock it. 

We went on splits with the sister training leaders and I got to be with Sister Packard again for a day! That was awesome - we reminisced on all the good times in Aalborg. 

Sister Packard and I on splits (does it look kind of like a certain famous painting to you?)

The night splits started, Sister Packard got a call from a man named David who got a pass-along card a week ago. He called because he wanted to see the church but the church's address wasn't written on the card. Sister Packard invited him to come to a church tour the next day and we ended up teaching him the first lesson as we gave the tour - it went so well. It was pretty perfect that we were on splits for it, because it turns out he lives in the Frederiksberg ward boundaries, not the Gladsaxe 1 boundaries, so he will be attending our ward! It was really funny because David thought that the temple was the church building, and parked his motorcycle right outside the temple steps.

While we were together Sister Packard and I decided we would try to make a more focused effort to use travel time on the s-togs for finding people. As a result we got a girl's number, a lesson, and someone's address! It was really productive. 

Also, Sister Packard gave me some amazing advice that I really needed to hear. I told her that in the last little while I've been having a mid-mission crisis where I feel like I'm trying hard to be a better person, but I've kind of lost who I am. She quoted the scripture where Christ says "he that loseth his life for me shall find it" and it hit me: I've been working so hard to become a better person myself that I've forgotten to lose myself in the work, and therefore... I've lost myself! Haha does that make sense? 

Then Sister Packard said that sometimes it seems like there are all these expectations for a mission - that essentially a person has to become perfect in those 18 months or 2 years. But that's not the purpose of a mission! The purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ - and of course we become better people as we serve, but our focus is on inviting others, not reading the entire standard works or perfecting every Christlike attribute. We read in the standard works and work on Christlike attributes to become better tools in the Lord's hands - they are a means to an end, not the end itself. 

Anyways it really made me think about why I am out here, and it was honestly quite a relief to realize that in the 18 months I am on a mission I am not expected to become a perfect person - I am expected to help other people take the same steps I'm taking now! Faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance. Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Enduring to the end.

Our investigators are doing well, last week was a little challenging because we were having a hard time getting ahold of everyone - or we would make an appointment, the day of the appointment would come, and they would cancel. 

But! We met with G and taught her the plan of Salvation. It's been a while since she has been willing to let us teach one of the lessons (she dropped us on June but we held contact), but she had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and we had a great talk about it. J is also doing well, but from what G was telling us the language barrier (She's not super great at English or Danish) is intimidating to her. But we have some wonderful Portuguese speaking members who can help with that!

Yesterday I wrote all of the potential investigators we've found in the last couple of weeks in the area book and we called a lot of them and... miracle of miracles, people answered their phones! Sister Handley has 2 lessons and a church tour set up for this week from it :) We'll just keep praying that it all goes through.

And yesterday was my last Sunday in the Frederiksberg ward... ah what a great place I am leaving. I got to play piano for sacrament meeting one last time (haha let's just say I am not the best at playing piano for sacrament meeting) and relief society! It was very bittersweet. There are so many people in Copenhagen I have grown to love so much. Even if they forget me, I'll never forget them!!!

D (most amazing girl... she's from the US and always has something really insightful to say! She served a mission in South Carolina)

C and I. C's amazing, I don't know if you want to put these up on the blog or not because of the cigarette but I thought it was super funny :) I love C! She is an eternigator... for now! She has a great life story - and has been in theater and in movies!

Pia (Min lille Danske Mor) and I... I got a little emotional after saying goodbye to her. Love that lady so much!
So that was a bit of the week. It's been exciting, it's been crazy (we had a district activity by the way! Sand volleyball and soccer all day! One of the elders toenails cut my ankle during soccer... gross.), and this week will exciting be too! :) Transfers are always an adventure. My camera is dead but I will send pictures of Slagelse next week! 

Me and GILLIAN! How awesome is that? We went to high school together, and now she's studying in Copenhagen for 4 months... crazy coincidences! It was fun to see her and share a little bit of what I've been doing for the last year.
I'm glad I'm here on a mission and I am excited to see all the good things that will happen here in Slagelse!

I pray for you and I hope you have a great last week of summer. I hope it stays warm! I hope the volcano in Iceland erupts after tomorrow, because tomorrow is when all the missionaries go home and the new missionaries fly here!

 Love,
Søster Hannah Barrett :)

PS  and... a man duct taped to a sign in the train station.  Wha'?






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