Stand Up Inside

Hello!

Danish Word of the Week: Hjemmesko. Det betyder ''Slipper!'' It's literally translates to ''home shoe.'' I like it.  I think it's cute.  

Danish Fun Fact: It rains or snows every second day.  Basically, we're always wet.  

So this week was good! We did in fact dress up for Halloween! Søster Jex was a cute 20's girl, Søster Thorpe was Sleeping Beauty, Søster Dietch was Kim Possible, and I was Judy Hopps from Zootopia! We dressed up for Institute and it was way fun.  Also, props to us because we put our costumes together in literally 20mins.  Missionaries are blessed with gifts and talents of every kind.  And the next day, actual Halloween, we decided to dress up as missionaries.  I know, I know, genius right? We had two appointments that day with a less active and our investigator on date.  We taught him tithing and I think it went fairly well! I felt the Spirit, and that's a good sign.  With our less active, we read a talk by Elder Sabin from April Conference called ''Stand Up Inside.'' Great talk.  Highly recommend.  10/10. 

The next day, we got to meet the author behind the article.  Elder and Sister Sabin came to Denmark!! We held yet another zone conference so they could impart their wisdom upon us.  And impart they did.  I came into the meeting expecting to learn, but I came out changed.  Wow.  First of all, I was way pumped because I got to play my flute!! Me, Søster Baird, and Ældste Haruch played a beautiful arrangement of ''A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.''  It went wonderfully well.  I missed playing way more than I realized.  I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to fiddle that flute. Not only was the musical number great, but the rest of the conference as well.  Questions I didn't know I had were answered and I came away with a stronger testimony.  One huge testimony builder came in the form of the ''Because of Him'' video the Church released a while ago.  100/10 recommend.  In fact, stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and go watch it!! I was also impressed with things I need to do, one of them ''being humble without being compelled to be humble.'' I also learned that if I put the Lord first, He will take care of everything else.  With faith in Him, I can move mountains. More on that in a sec.

The rest of our week consisted of knocking and contacting and biking in the rain, but the whole time smiling right through it.  Denmark may be the happiest country in the world, but I can guarantee you that the happiness the gospel brings is beyond all comprehension.  It doesn't logically make sense that being rejected over and over, being frozen to your bike handles, and being frustrated with the language would bring happiness.  But it does.  Every single day.  The happy people who are still joyful through seemingly unhappy times are those who are ''standing up inside.'' One way to learn to ''stand up inside'' is to build your faith.  I have been studying faith a lot this transfer.  One specific chapter that really impressed upon me was Ether 12.  It tells us that through faith, anything is possible.  Moving mountains, parting seas, and even just saying the right thing at the right time to a stranger on the street.  It's all possible if we ''stand up inside'' and work to build our faith.  

Jeg elsker jer og virkelig håber at I kan få en rigtig fantastisk uge! Husk at jeres Himmelske Fader elsker jer og at Han vil gerne lytter til jeres bønner.  Jeg også elsker jer, selvfølgelig.  Aldrig glem det også. 

MKH, Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Here's to the Best

Image
Mom Note:   This is Raya's last email as a missionary.  She comes home on November 27th!  Her Homecoming will be Sunday, December 9th at 9am.  Please come hear her report and then join us at our home afterwards for some yummy food and to give Raya a big welcome home hug.  Thanks for supporting her in this work! November 19, 2018 Wow this has been the best adventure of my life.  I am forever grateful for your support and love and prayers.  They have been needed and they have been felt for these last 18 months.  I love you all more than words have the ability to describe.  Thanks for it all. Danish Word of the Week:  Vi ses.  See you. Danish Fun Fact: Denmark is the best country ever.  that's a fact. I have had the most incredible week.  I don't have time to write about the various events, but it was one for the books.  This is my last email as a missionary, and I just want to express how this has changed...
Read more

How to Win Friends and Influence Danes

Image
November 12, 2018 Danish Word of the Week: Syg.  Sick Danish Fun Fact: Christmas begins nov 1 in Denmark WOW what a week.  So much happened.  Too much.  This is going to be short because I have 0 time, but we're going to see how much I can get done.  I woke up on Tuesday and felt pretty sick (still), so we took the day easy.  Had some planning to do, had a few lessons, but we laid low.  We had a wonderfully hyggeligt eating appointment with one of the members in our branch.  She taught us how to make Frikadeller and showed us one of the most famous danish flute songs (taagen letter by Carl Nielsen), and it was so fun.  Food and flute, my 2 favorite things.  On Wednesday we went out to a little bitty town north of Viborg called Aalestrup because we received a self referral!! He is a really cool person.  He wants a change in his life and thinks that this could be it.  Super positive!! We also met with T, which went re...
Read more

Glæde Jul Folks!

Image
December 26, 2017 Danish word of the day: sjov. it means fun/funny. pronounced like the english ''show'' Danish fact of the week: Danish people love to sing This week was mega fun Monday was spent doing normal PDay activities, such as cleaning, buying groceries, emailing, and practicing for a musical number.  A very normal day that was still quite amusing.  Tuesday: Due to the fact that transfers are technically suposed to be on Christmas, we had what we call a ''mini transfer.'' We sent a batch of missionaries home and picked up 4 from the MTC today.  These new missionaries are going to wait in temporary areas until ''real'' transfers on the 27th.  One of them gets to stay with us! We picked her up today! We drove to the mission office in Copenhagen and waited there with other missionaries until President decided who would go where.  The entire process took about 2 houres.  But it was worth it because I love our baby.  Her name is Sø...
Read more