6 MONTHS BABY

Mom's Note:  Monday, December 11th is Raya's 20th birthday.  I know she will be particularly tickled to hear birthday wishes from the people she loves so dearly!  Her e-mail addres is raya.esplin@myldsmail.net, and she will get your message on her ACTUAL birthday as long as you send it before midnight on Sunday night.  Much love to you!!

 HELLOOOOOOO HOW ARE YOU ALL?! It is wonderful and SNOWLESS here in Denmark! Mind you, it is still FREEZING.  I finally had to pull out my huge winter coat, but I am proud to say that I made it all the way to December before shrugging it on. 
Danish word of the day: Julemand.  SANTA CLAUS

Danish fun fact: Danes celebrate Christmas for 3 whole days! The 24th (which is their ''actual'' Christmas), the 25th (first Christmas Day) and the 26th (second Christmas Day).  

This week we tried to take the new Christmas initiative #LightTheWorld #OplysVerden into full swing.  We shared it with investigators, less actives, and ward members.  We really really want to light up Denmark.  Another, more personal, initiative that I decided to take on is caring.  This week I am working to care about every single little event that happens around me.  This way I want take my mission nor my life for granted and notice the blessings and miracles therein.  My new efforts really made a difference.  We met with a former investigator (but new to us) a few days ago .  He's a 20 yr old believer from the Congo and has lived in Denmark for half his life.  He's tried out many different churches and has some pretty cool life experiences.  He's a cool guy and it was way fun to get to know him.  I felt like we could be pretty great friends.  All while he was talking, I tried my very hardest to just be in the moment and listen with my heart.  It made it all the more great to talk to him.  

To really put the #LightTheWorld initiative into full swing, we filled our Friday with service.  Søster Day and I woke up bright and early to head down to a family in our ward's house.  They were moving and needed to be completely out of their house by 11am.  So we got to work! We moved boxes and furniture down flights of stairs, we scrubbed the bathroom until it shined.  We cleaned every nook and cranny possible.  After the cleaning and vacuuming was done, we had to continue moving everything out of the apartment building down to the moving truck on the bottom floor.  Luckily the Elders and a few ward members were there to help.  And we did it! Everything was cleared out by 11am, much to the rejoicing of this cute little family #OplysVerden.  Later that day, we went to Copenhagen for a Book of Mormon project.  We had wrapped books as Christmas presents to give out on Strøget, the main shopping street in Copenhagen.  It. Was. So. Fun. We had so many missionaries there to help out, and we talked to loads and loads of people.  We ended up giving out every single book, in both Danish and English.  Sister Day and I talked to a few really awesome people, one in particular who was an artist and absolutely tickled by the fact that we wanted to give her a free present.  She said she'd put it underneath her tree and open it on Christmas day.   The Strøget gå gade is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my whole life.  We were there in the dark with all of the store lights shining and it was quite magical.  The Christmas Spirit was thriving and people's hearts were open.  It was an incredible experience and I'm glad I could be apart of it.  

Another amazing experience happened yesterday.  The Copenhagen Stake put on a Christmas ''Music and the Spoken Word,'' and encouraged the missionaries to invite anyone and everyone.  We invited a lot of investigators with no luck, but at the last minute our investigator (whom I had actually never met) decided to come! She is an incredible lady and LOVED the concert.  We had beautiful Christmas numbers and the Spirit was very abundant.  You couldn't help but feel blissful.  It was a little miracle that she came and that she had such a blast.  It definitely rekindled her desire to investigate the gospel.  The power of music and Christmas is strong.  

Also, I have officially been a missionary for 6 WHOLE MONTHS!! Sister Day and I celebrated with Christmas music and Butterfinger Shakes.  

This week I was inspired by a talk by Elder Holland and made myself take on yet another initiative.  In my journal each night, I write down what I loved about the day.  I want to love every single day, and I firmly belief that looking for the good in each day will help me recognize even more blessings from the Lord. This new little perspective of mine has brought me immense joy already.  So I invite all of you to do the same this week! At the end of each day, write down either in your journal or on a sticky why you loved that day.  I can promise that you will see an inspiring optimism that will motivate you for not only the rest of your week, but in fact the rest of your life.  You have my word :)

Jeg elsker jer og håber at i kan få en rigtig god uge!

Søster Esplin




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