First Week In Copenhagen

I am SO excited to skype on Sunday! 6 days 'til we can see each other agian! :) I can't believe how fast the time has gone. And as far as details go, all 6 of us missionaries in the area are going to one member's house for skyping on Sunday. It'll be anywhere from 3 to 5 in the afternoon our time, so 7 to 9 am for you (sorry it's early, and also it might be cutting into sacrament meeting). 

I am so excited to see you! Don't make fun of me 'cause my face is chubby! ;) I don't think I'll be able to skype for as long as I did last time, I think 2 hours at the most (haha that is a long time!) is what is acceptable. Plus I don't know how many computers there will be, so we shall see how it goes! I am just so excited to see y'all!

Part of the Library.

That sounds like such a nice Sunday! So hyggeligt. We had chocolate chip cookies yesterday too, because we had this new idea to make cookies for every member who has a birthday in the ward and stop by the day before their birthday to say hi and wish them a happy birthday. But of course we had to eat some as well. :) 

So far the idea has been bringing a lot of success though, on Saturday we stopped by an inactive woman who was born in Denmark, then lived in the states for most of her life, then moved back to Denmark last October and hasn't been to church since. When she first opened the door it was barely a crack and she told us we didn't need to give her anything for her birthday, but then we told her it was fresh-made cookies and she opened the door a little further, and we started talking and getting to know her. 

She opened up (literally! she opened her door wider and wider the longer we were there, and by the end of our conversation she was just standing and talking with us!) and told us a lot about her life, which has been really challenging. But it was just a great experience and we're praying for a miracle so we can start meeting with her more and bring her back to church!

Church was SO fun yesterday! I bore my testimony since it was my first Sunday in the ward. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, I feel like I've been here for a lot longer than one week! (In a good way! :) ) 

Søster Hadley and Søster Barrett with some sweet spring flowers.

Okay and Søster Hadley and I are seriously twins. At first it was funny things, like that we are both really good friends with elders serving in Spain and we like the taste of vinegar, but then we started noticing that we have the same exact toothpaste and floss, the same brand of face wash, and I used to have the same kind of toothbrush that Sister Hadley has now. We both worked at little hometown ice cream shops through high school and in the months leading up to our missions. 

Sometimes we say the same thing at the exact same time. It is so fun!!! We're doing so much work and basically laughing all the time. I love it! And I am learning a lot from Sister Hadley - she is so sincere and so good at finding the good in everyone we meet. 

Also, every week she tells her family something she learned from Preach My Gospel, so I think I am going to start doing that today because I think it's a good idea! So here I go. This week we started studying chapter 10, How to Begin Teaching. We study a new chapter every month and I always start off by reading through the chapter and color-coding all of the principles and promises/blessings given in the chapter. 

Something it said right in the beginning of the chapter really stood out to me - everything I do in my studies and throughout the day (developing Christlike attributes, studying the missionary lessons, improving my ability to speak Danish) is done so that I can teach with more clarity and power. It is so true! In the past when I am working on becoming better at doing something, I do it so that I can be a better person - and yes, everything about being a missionary has made me a better person, but the core purpose of everything I do is to teach well so I can invite others to come unto Christ. 

And the more prepared we are, the more we are aware of opportunities to speak with people, which leads to teaching, which leads to bearing testimony and inviting people to learn more, which leads to more people learning about Jesus Christ, which changes lives! It's really motivating me to learn the scriptures better and talk with everyone.

This week we had some great miracles! On Monday night we walked past the temple (super great perk of serving in Copenhagen! The temple is in our area and we walk past it several times a week!) and saw a man sitting near some of the flowers, smoking a cigar and drinking a beer (hehehe). 

We decided to talk to him, because anyone who wants to sit on the temple grounds has to have recognized how special that building is. We told him what the temple is and why it's such a beautiful place, and ended up having a great conversation and getting to know him really well. His name is B, and he has been out of work for a long time and gone through a lot of hard things. He said it is really hard to find his way when the world can be so bad and confusing. 

I asked him if he wanted something that could help him find his way when life is hard. Sister Hadley pulled out a Book of Mormon, and we bore powerful witness to him that the Book of Mormon can guide him and bring him closer to Jesus Christ, whether he is a member of the church or not. The Spirit was so strong!! He took the Book of Mormon and told us we were the sweetest girls he's ever talked to. I believe it made a difference in his life, and I know the experience made a difference in mine. I know that just being on the temple grounds made B more open to hearing our message and we were able to bear testimony with a lot of power.

A blurry photos of me near the canal.

Throughout the rest of the week we gave out 5 Books of Mormon (maybe a small amount for some places, but more than I've ever given out in a week on my mission!), and talked to sooooooo many people! We take a lot of trains and buses here, and on Monday I was already feeling motion sick from all of the driving and stopping and going. 

So I said a prayer to Heavenly Father, and told Him that I was really worried I would feel sick the whole time I served here in Copenhagen, but that I would talk to people on every train, bus, and metro we took if he would bless me to not feel sick. Well, Sister Hadley and I have talked to at least one person everywhere we go, and I haven't felt motion sick since! And I'm getting a lot better at contacting and bringing up the church on s-tog trips where we only have 3 or 4 minutes to talk to the person sitting next to us before we have to get off again. It's really really fun! I have met so many people!

Ahh basically it's been the greatest week of my mission. I wake up every morning feeling so happy! Sister Hadley is the most amazing companion and I am so grateful I am here.

Our apartment is fun and has definitely been well-used by sister missionaries over the years. We had the great pleasure of cleaning out the bathroom drain because the shower flooded the entire bathroom, and it was pretty gross. Also, our toilet is clogged so today we will be buying a plunger and taking care of that! Hahaha, I'm pretty sure my mission has turned me into a plumber. 

The YSA's are awesome! We have an investigator, J, who came to institute on Thursday night which means we got to go to, and there are so many amazing young adults in this area. A lot of them are either return missionaries or preparing to go out on their missions, so we have lots of people who want to go out and do the work with us. 

HC Anderson's Grave

A really cool gravestone with Runes all over it, in the graveyard.

And once a month we have a night where we go out on splits with some of the girls in YSA, which we did this week and it was very fun. Only one girl was able to come, so we didn't actually go on splits, but it was really nice to have her come to our lesson that night! 

And the best thing about this area is definitely having the temple so close by. We're going to go during the week of the temple's 10-year celebration, and since we can go once a transfer and my birthday falls right after next transfers, I'm hoping we can go to the temple on my birthday! Woo woo happy birthday to me! :) 

As far as birthday gifts go... I think my dream gift might be a new camera because something weird happened to my camera (mehhh! Sorry Christensens I somehow destroyed your gift to me for my mission!), and I don't know if you've noticed but all of my pictures are slightly fuzzy and warped. But that's just my dream gift! I am sure I will survive without it! :) 

I don't think there's really a worst part of this area. Maybe that on Friday nights lots of drunk people are on the trains? But that's just funny, so I don't think there's really anything terrible about Copenhagen! At least as a missionary!

I love you all so much! I hope you are having good missionary experiences, because I know that missionary work goes a LOT better when it's done with the members! :) 

And I really miss you but I hope you know I am working as hard as I can. Sister Hadley and I are trying to work on being more obedient to the schedule because sometimes we just start chatting away and the next thing we know it's 10:30 and we're not in bed! The hardest part about having a companion that's practically my twin sister is that we have way too much fun together. :)

Søster Hadley and I with HC Anderson's grave

Today we're also going to see the Kristus statue in Vor Frue Kirke and Strøget (I don't know how to spell that), a huge gågade in Copenhagen with lots of fun stores!

I can't wait to see you on Sunday! I hope you have a great week!!! I love being a missionary. :) It's so much fun!  

See you in a few days!

Love,

Hannah

Copenhagen!

It was an awesome last week in Odense. Seriously all the miracles happened right there at the end, which makes me feel bad for ever feeling sad, but it's always so much sweeter when you go through the bitter right? :) 

H (She is great!) and I.

After we finished PDay on Tuesday, we went out to give cookies to one of the families in the ward. 

Afterwards we decided to stop by M, who we street contacted my first week in Odense and made a return appointment, but it had just never worked out. Well, she was home and she let us right in, and her good friend M2 (haha both of their names start with an M so yeah! M2 it is!) was there. 

M2 had actually borrowed the Book of Mormon we gave to M and read a little bit in it, and they both had some good questions about the church. We got to know them a little bit better, and talked about prayer. We gave M2 her own Book of Mormon, and invited them to a pizza night the ward was having a few days later. 

They came to the pizza night!!! And they brought another friend, M2's roommate E, who is from the Faroe Islands which I think is pretty awesome. We gave them a tour of the church and they had a lot of good questions, they stayed for the activity and a short lesson afterwards. They said they want to start coming every week, and they want to learn more! Ah it was so exciting and they are all the sweetest girls.

Søster McVey and I in the mustaches.  (thank you Julie!)

On Saturday Sister McVey and I went out to give cookies and a talk by Elder Bednar to C, and on our way up there I saw a man on the bike path in a wheel chair. He seemed really happy and nice, and on our way back he was still on the path! So Sister McVey and I stopped and approached him to just say hi, and it turns out he has met with missionaries before in Fredericia! He said he had never seen girl missionaries before, and that his wife is expecting their first daughter in September and he hopes she will be as dedicated to her beliefs as we are to ours. It was a really sweet little conversation, and it just goes to show how small and simple promptings can be, but what sweet experiences can come from following them!

Transfers went well, I did get my bike here and all my other stuff in one piece (well, many pieces actually... I have too much stuff!)! The Ægtepar from Odense actually go home this week so they weren't able to help us with transportation, so we walked all our stuff to the train station! 

All of us one more time at the train station this morning.

Some of the Elders came and helped us which was a huge help, but whew! It was quite the work-out. Sister Sheridan (we were in the apartment together, she was in the other Odense ward and is now in Gladsaxe) and I had a great conversation with the lady who sat by us on the train, and then we made it to Copenhagen! 

Sister Hadley, and I got all of my stuff (two suitcases, a duffel bag, another huge bag with my dyne and study stuff, and a bike) on and off an S-tog, and then we walked it to the apartment. 

It is a really cute apartment! There's a little overgrown garden in the front and we want to see if we can clean it up for service sometime soon. Sister Hadley, my new companion, is awesome! She is from Utah, has 7 older half-siblings, and is way enthusiastic and motivated to work!

I got the cards from John, Emily, Sage, and Chloe this week, they were so sweet!!! And I also got your packages. THANK YOU so much!!! The candy and the scarves and shoes and face stuff and everything was just wonderful. I'm wearing the shoes and one of the scarves right now! :)

The Easter package!

My mind is kind of running 100 miles a minute right now, so I may have forgotten some things so I might email a little more if I think of anything! :) But it's fun to transfer again already, and although I will miss Sister McVey (love that sista!) it'll be fun to be with Sister Hadley.

Me and Søster Hadley, my new companion

Fløde Ketoffler and Hollansk Waffles

Easter sounds like it was wonderful! Sydney made a strawberry pie? that is awesome! I told my companion about the bunny rolls you  make, and we thought about getting the recipe from you to try it but then we decided it would take too much time. ;) Oh well! 

Did you know in Denmark there is an Easter Bunny AND and Easter Chicken!

Us with S (the coolest girl eva!) and some really cute baby chicks! (this was at our Mission leader's house)

We didn't have anything super fancy happen on Easter Sunday, but Sister McVey and I did go and sing easter hymns on a park bench for a little while! It was totally terrifying - and I'm pretty sure some people laughed at us - but there was a family that sat down at a picnic table close by and could hear us singing. They didn't leave, so we took it as a sign that we didn't sound too bad. ;) 

On Saturday night we ate with our ward mission leader and his family, and I found out that they found my blog last week! How funny and great is that? Now I better watch out when I talk about Odense, since I know people who live here will be reading what I say. ;) Just kidding!! 

But I won't be talking about Odense much longer because yesterday I found out that next Monday, I'll be transferring! Ahhh it's breaking my heart to leave! I love it here and I love all the people we work with. I've made so many good friends and I kind of assumed/counted on staying here! But the Lord has a plan and I am very happy to follow it. :) 

I'll give you 3 guesses to where I'm going.

1. It's on Sjælland. (go look on a map!)

2. It's the biggest city in Denmark.

3. It also happens to be the capital of Denmark.

I'm going to COPENHAGEN! 

Well, to be specific the area is the Frederiksberg area, which is the suburb of Copenhagen where the mission office is located, but it includes downtown Copenhagen! So I am very very excited. From what I've heard it's a great area, and when Sister Hale was there she carried a guitar around on the s-togs (like the metro or the subway) and sang songs - and it got alot of people to talk to her! So I think I'll copy her with my ukulele. :) It'll be fun! 

But I was thinking, would it be possible for you to send me some ukulele music/a print-out of all of the ukulele chords? I used to just be able to look it up online, but now, as you know, I can't! And I can only play one or two songs by memory now, so I need to work on that! 

Søster B and Søster McV at the Hans Christian Anderson home

That also reminds me - I just asked President last week, and it turns out I am not actually allowed to look at the blog. Woopsies! My bad!! So I won't be doing that anymore. Lesson learned: Don't go by word-of-mouth exceptions to the rules! Make sure you hear them from the original source!

And I haven't gotten your easter package yet, but I will next week when I get into Frederiksberg. So woohoo! 2 Easters for me! Did you get my Easter package yet? It should get there soon! Along with a postcard for Emily for her birthday.

This week has been so great. We did a lot of fun Easter contacting (that awkward moment when you ask someone what Easter means to them and their response is "absolutely nothing!" - what do you say to that? Hahaha!). It gave us the chance to bear our testimonies of Jesus Christ and hopefully the people we talked to will remember that. 

Sister McVey and I with the fløde ketoffler we made!

There is a sweet older woman in our ward who made Easter gifts for us to give to the people we work with, so we went around and dropped off Easter eggs as well! Easter is 2 days long in Denmark, so we were still able to give away Easter gifts yesterday - to the H family, who were really cute about it. We told the kids that they couldn't get their easter gifts unless they participated in our lesson, which of course made them very eager to listen and answer our questions, and then they were really cute about saying thank you and sharing the candy with their parents - which I don't know if I would have done. ;) sorry!

This is us with some Hollansk Waffles

The B family is letting us teach them! C & C, the two daughters, are almost 8 and almost 10 and before we started becoming good friends with them they weren't really thinking about being baptized, but their mom told us yesterday that the youngest said she wants to be baptized when she turns 8! We were SO EXCITED to hear that! 

I really hope it all goes well because I am going to really miss going to visit them. C & C let me play barbies with them (it's been a long time!) and we're all just really good friends. We're definitely going to stay in touch! 

Anyways It has been a great week! A lot better than last week, because I decided to stop whimping around and start choosing to be happy no matter what. :) things go a lot better that way! 

Plus it seemed like a lot of people we met with shared with us why God is so important to them, which was a tender mercy to me because I was starting to worry no one felt like they needed God anymore. :) But of course we all do! 

This week we have an appointment with the B family again, as well as a lot of members we want to stop by (we'll be baking lots of cookies! woo woo!). And then I'll be packing up again and transferring away from this lovely city! Ahh it is so bittersweet! 

Søster McVey and I doing some epic walking down a cobblestone street.

It's amazing how close I feel I got to the ward here - I made some really good friends who are my age or close to it, who I hope I can stay in contact with - in just 6 weeks. I love being here! And I am excited to see what will happen in this last week here in Odense.

I hope this week is great! 

Love,

Hannah