Baby It's Cold Outside & TAK TAK TAK
Nov 20, 2017
HELLO!! How are you all?? Is it snowing? THANKFULLY it is not snowing here yet, but I can smell it in the air.
Danish word of the week: gyngestol. It means ''rocking chair!''
Danish fun fact: 1 american dollar is more or less equivalent to 7 danish crowns.
So this week was great! And cray. But such is the same with every week.
Transfer day (last monday): We woke up and, after some last minute packing, walked with all of our stuff to the Hammerum train station. It's only about 20 meters away, so it wasn't a long walk. We quickly threw the suitcases onto the train and waved goodbye to Søster Jex and Søster Thorpe, our old roommates. We trained to Aarhus where I said farwell to Søster Dietch as she went up to Aalborg and I went to Copenhagen. I, fortunately, was not by myself as many many other missionaries were making the same trek from Jylland to Sjælland. We all hung out until we reached Copenhagen. It was planned that I was going to meet Søster Day at the Mission Office, but there were also tons of other missionaries going to the office. So I chilled at the train station on ''elder splits'' with 2 other elders and got a burger (I was STARVING). The AP's eventually came back and squished us into the mission van. I met up with Søster Day at the office and we took the car back to Hillerød. Hahah so those are the basic logistics of transfer day!
Okay so Hillerød has the best gå gade (shopping street) in all the world. It's cute, quaint, decked out for Christmas, and has a CASTLE on the end. A real life, full blown, absolutely breath taking CASTLE. It's called Frederiksborg and is one of the most famous castles in all of Denmark. It's beautiful. I have yet to enter in, but that will soon be on the way.
Søster Day and I decided to make a theme to our transfer. This is our transfer of Dygtig (which translates to ''able to handle it''). To start off our Transfer of Dygtig, we decided to up our Danish game and speak only Danish when we were outside the apartment. We even made it into a game. If one companion caught the other speaking English, a point was given to the transgressor. The goal of the game is to have as little points as possible. It was surprisingly difficult to remember to speak only Danish all the time, but we did it! The Lord noticed our efforts and blessed us with the gift of tongues AND the interpretation of tongues. It was awesome. We talked to some pretty awesome people and understood everything! People even complimented our Danish. It's amazing to see what the Lord can do if you just put your faith and your effort in Him.
We also got the chance to go up to Helsingør! It's a way cool city, and YOU CAN SEE SWEDEN! I saw Sweden all the way across the water! Oh! And Hamlet's Castle! It was big and beautiful. I love love love all of the castles here. It makes Denmark feel even more like a wonderful and magical place.
The rest of our week consisted of planning, contacting, and meeting investigators and less actives. We even got to go to a baby shower! I got to meet a lot of the sisters in the ward through that and it was way fun! Danish women are all very strong and very stunning. We had 2 people come to church! One was a man from Turkey that we teach English and the Gospel to, and he brought his friend. It was cool. ALSO the Allerød ward (my ward) is HUGE!! Like 100 people were there on Sunday! It definitley threw me for a loop. I am not used to having a church meeting with that many people. The people there are awesome and I am so excited to get to know them better.
The week was so fun! I am more than excited to be serving in Hillerød and can't wait to see what my time here has in store. One of my goals this transfer is to become a woman of sound understanding, just like the sons of Mosiah in Alma 17. I think it fits well into my ''transfer of dygtig.'' The Lord blessed the sons of Mosiah with knowledge when they prayed, fasted, and searched the word of God diligently. I definitely saw my knowledge grow when I tried to replicate the efforts of these wonderful missionaries. The Lord is mindful of us and wants to help us in every way He can, but we have to put in our effort first.
Jeg elsker jer og takker jer for jeres bønner. De betyder rigtig meget for mig
Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
Nov 27, 2017
Hej hej!
Danish word of the day: ''gå agurk.'' it means to ''go cuccumber'' which is their way of saying ''go bananas.''
Danish fun fact: They rarely eat vegetables...
As with all weeks, this week was crazy. There is so much that happened, but most importantly Thanksgiving. We started out our Thanksgiving Day with a grand total of 0 appointments. A little dit of a disssappointing start. We went finding and while we had an amusing contact with 2 young guys (an old lady came up while we were talking and told them to buy flowers for their girlfriends (us)), nothing happened to make this day of thanks special. However, if I were to think of a take away from Thursday, it would be that God is mindful of us.
We were planning on eating a few frozen rolls and slices of turkey lunch meat for our Thanksgiving feast when a young mom in our ward spontaneously asked if we had anywhere to eat Thanksgiving Dinner. We said no, and she invited us and the Elders to join them and another family! We were more than excited.
Thanksgiving was amazing with these families. The food was GREAT and it was the most hyggeligt thing in the whole world. They are both young families with little kids. I felt right at home with tiny humans running around the table, Christmas music in the background, and good conversation with good people. The kids watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while the adults reminiced on their own missions. The children joined us as we went around the table and expressed what we were grateful for. It was then we learned that the mom had been prompted to invite the missionaries over last minute. This just shows that God is mindful of us even concerning things that probably don't matter that much to Him. But if we care, He cares. It was such a blessing to have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving and I'm grateful for a God that loves me.
Sunday, however, was insane. One of our investigators really wanted to come to church, but he lives all the way in Helsingør (way at the top of Sjælland). The members that lived up there had full cars and couldn't give him a ride, so he needed to train to Allerød (where the church building is), which took him almost 2 hours. He arrived in the Allerød station just 5 minutes before church started and was very concerned about how to get from the station to the church building. He almost gave up and got back on the train up to Helsingør. We had to step out of the meeting for a few minutes to walk him through the bus system over the phone (we tried to have our mission leader grab him from the train station, but he was more than slightly hesitant because church was about to start and he had to give a talk). After much internal prayer and pleading with the Lord for help, our friend successfully made it to the church building, right in time for the choir number (he did miss the sacrament, so that was a little sad). To add on to the craziness of the day, a ton of our less actives showed up with was fantastic, but also stress inducing because we had to divide our time between 6 different people. All in all, our investigator loved church. He loved the music, he liked talking about the gospel, and he wants to come again next week. I tell you this long story because I learned a good lesson through this experience. During the sacrament I pleaded with the Lord with all of my heart. I knew that I wasn't perfect and there were things that I could have done to make this situation better, but I begged and cried in my soul to Heavenly Father. I needed Him to help this man get to church. He is an elderly man and gets discouraged very easily, so having him take the bus by himself was one of the worst solutions. I knew that I couldn't do anything more than pray, so pray I did. And God, being all powerful as He is, heard my pleas and performed a miracle. He lead the feet of our investigator onto the bus. He nudged him to get off at the church, and He stayed with him throughout the meeting. What I learned was this: God is real, He is there, and He is merciful. He knew that I wasn't perfect and that I could have done some more things to make the situation work, and yet He blessed us anyway. He was there when we most needed Him because He loves us.
Alll in all, I learned a lot of fun things this week, but the most notable being this: you will never be happier than you are grateful. In Alma 34:38 Alma says, ''That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.'' I like that Alma encourages us to live in Thanksgiving daily. We need to always always thank the Lord, for He has given us everything. I know that as our gratitude grows, our happiness will too.
Jeg elsker jer og jeg elsker min Frelser rigtig meget. Jeg håber at I få en god uge!
Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
HELLO!! How are you all?? Is it snowing? THANKFULLY it is not snowing here yet, but I can smell it in the air.
Danish word of the week: gyngestol. It means ''rocking chair!''
Danish fun fact: 1 american dollar is more or less equivalent to 7 danish crowns.
So this week was great! And cray. But such is the same with every week.
Transfer day (last monday): We woke up and, after some last minute packing, walked with all of our stuff to the Hammerum train station. It's only about 20 meters away, so it wasn't a long walk. We quickly threw the suitcases onto the train and waved goodbye to Søster Jex and Søster Thorpe, our old roommates. We trained to Aarhus where I said farwell to Søster Dietch as she went up to Aalborg and I went to Copenhagen. I, fortunately, was not by myself as many many other missionaries were making the same trek from Jylland to Sjælland. We all hung out until we reached Copenhagen. It was planned that I was going to meet Søster Day at the Mission Office, but there were also tons of other missionaries going to the office. So I chilled at the train station on ''elder splits'' with 2 other elders and got a burger (I was STARVING). The AP's eventually came back and squished us into the mission van. I met up with Søster Day at the office and we took the car back to Hillerød. Hahah so those are the basic logistics of transfer day!
Okay so Hillerød has the best gå gade (shopping street) in all the world. It's cute, quaint, decked out for Christmas, and has a CASTLE on the end. A real life, full blown, absolutely breath taking CASTLE. It's called Frederiksborg and is one of the most famous castles in all of Denmark. It's beautiful. I have yet to enter in, but that will soon be on the way.
Søster Day and I decided to make a theme to our transfer. This is our transfer of Dygtig (which translates to ''able to handle it''). To start off our Transfer of Dygtig, we decided to up our Danish game and speak only Danish when we were outside the apartment. We even made it into a game. If one companion caught the other speaking English, a point was given to the transgressor. The goal of the game is to have as little points as possible. It was surprisingly difficult to remember to speak only Danish all the time, but we did it! The Lord noticed our efforts and blessed us with the gift of tongues AND the interpretation of tongues. It was awesome. We talked to some pretty awesome people and understood everything! People even complimented our Danish. It's amazing to see what the Lord can do if you just put your faith and your effort in Him.
We also got the chance to go up to Helsingør! It's a way cool city, and YOU CAN SEE SWEDEN! I saw Sweden all the way across the water! Oh! And Hamlet's Castle! It was big and beautiful. I love love love all of the castles here. It makes Denmark feel even more like a wonderful and magical place.
The rest of our week consisted of planning, contacting, and meeting investigators and less actives. We even got to go to a baby shower! I got to meet a lot of the sisters in the ward through that and it was way fun! Danish women are all very strong and very stunning. We had 2 people come to church! One was a man from Turkey that we teach English and the Gospel to, and he brought his friend. It was cool. ALSO the Allerød ward (my ward) is HUGE!! Like 100 people were there on Sunday! It definitley threw me for a loop. I am not used to having a church meeting with that many people. The people there are awesome and I am so excited to get to know them better.
The week was so fun! I am more than excited to be serving in Hillerød and can't wait to see what my time here has in store. One of my goals this transfer is to become a woman of sound understanding, just like the sons of Mosiah in Alma 17. I think it fits well into my ''transfer of dygtig.'' The Lord blessed the sons of Mosiah with knowledge when they prayed, fasted, and searched the word of God diligently. I definitely saw my knowledge grow when I tried to replicate the efforts of these wonderful missionaries. The Lord is mindful of us and wants to help us in every way He can, but we have to put in our effort first.
Jeg elsker jer og takker jer for jeres bønner. De betyder rigtig meget for mig
Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
Nov 27, 2017
Hej hej!
Danish word of the day: ''gå agurk.'' it means to ''go cuccumber'' which is their way of saying ''go bananas.''
Danish fun fact: They rarely eat vegetables...
As with all weeks, this week was crazy. There is so much that happened, but most importantly Thanksgiving. We started out our Thanksgiving Day with a grand total of 0 appointments. A little dit of a disssappointing start. We went finding and while we had an amusing contact with 2 young guys (an old lady came up while we were talking and told them to buy flowers for their girlfriends (us)), nothing happened to make this day of thanks special. However, if I were to think of a take away from Thursday, it would be that God is mindful of us.
We were planning on eating a few frozen rolls and slices of turkey lunch meat for our Thanksgiving feast when a young mom in our ward spontaneously asked if we had anywhere to eat Thanksgiving Dinner. We said no, and she invited us and the Elders to join them and another family! We were more than excited.
Thanksgiving was amazing with these families. The food was GREAT and it was the most hyggeligt thing in the whole world. They are both young families with little kids. I felt right at home with tiny humans running around the table, Christmas music in the background, and good conversation with good people. The kids watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while the adults reminiced on their own missions. The children joined us as we went around the table and expressed what we were grateful for. It was then we learned that the mom had been prompted to invite the missionaries over last minute. This just shows that God is mindful of us even concerning things that probably don't matter that much to Him. But if we care, He cares. It was such a blessing to have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving and I'm grateful for a God that loves me.
Sunday, however, was insane. One of our investigators really wanted to come to church, but he lives all the way in Helsingør (way at the top of Sjælland). The members that lived up there had full cars and couldn't give him a ride, so he needed to train to Allerød (where the church building is), which took him almost 2 hours. He arrived in the Allerød station just 5 minutes before church started and was very concerned about how to get from the station to the church building. He almost gave up and got back on the train up to Helsingør. We had to step out of the meeting for a few minutes to walk him through the bus system over the phone (we tried to have our mission leader grab him from the train station, but he was more than slightly hesitant because church was about to start and he had to give a talk). After much internal prayer and pleading with the Lord for help, our friend successfully made it to the church building, right in time for the choir number (he did miss the sacrament, so that was a little sad). To add on to the craziness of the day, a ton of our less actives showed up with was fantastic, but also stress inducing because we had to divide our time between 6 different people. All in all, our investigator loved church. He loved the music, he liked talking about the gospel, and he wants to come again next week. I tell you this long story because I learned a good lesson through this experience. During the sacrament I pleaded with the Lord with all of my heart. I knew that I wasn't perfect and there were things that I could have done to make this situation better, but I begged and cried in my soul to Heavenly Father. I needed Him to help this man get to church. He is an elderly man and gets discouraged very easily, so having him take the bus by himself was one of the worst solutions. I knew that I couldn't do anything more than pray, so pray I did. And God, being all powerful as He is, heard my pleas and performed a miracle. He lead the feet of our investigator onto the bus. He nudged him to get off at the church, and He stayed with him throughout the meeting. What I learned was this: God is real, He is there, and He is merciful. He knew that I wasn't perfect and that I could have done some more things to make the situation work, and yet He blessed us anyway. He was there when we most needed Him because He loves us.
Alll in all, I learned a lot of fun things this week, but the most notable being this: you will never be happier than you are grateful. In Alma 34:38 Alma says, ''That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.'' I like that Alma encourages us to live in Thanksgiving daily. We need to always always thank the Lord, for He has given us everything. I know that as our gratitude grows, our happiness will too.
Jeg elsker jer og jeg elsker min Frelser rigtig meget. Jeg håber at I få en god uge!
Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
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