Aalborg Adventures Episode 10: What's a Baptist Church without Sushi?
April 9, 2017
Heeeeelllloooooo Good Ol' Provo!!! How are you all doing? From the emails it sounds like you all are having a BLAST in the sun and in the spring! The first whiffs of spring also made their way across the many waters. I'm READY for spring. I am sick to death of the cold and absolutely 100% ready for the sun. I think it's coming, I really do.
(Lack of) Danish Word of the Week: There are no words for ''please'' or ''sorry.'' It's been a little exciting to try to eliminate those words from my vocabulary ;)
Danish Fun Fact: At the very tippy top of Denmark in a city called Skagen, the Baltic and Atlantic Sea's meet. Remember this. You might hear something about it soon.
This week was absolutely one for the books. We began by watching the last session of General Conference on Monday and I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the switch to Ministering! I'm excited to see how it works!
Tuesday was nothing too exciting. It snowed which I was NOT happy about, but I really truly believe it was the last of winter. I can smell spring on its way.
On Wednesday we went back to HERNING (my first stomping ground) to visit the district down there and give a training on ways we can ''sharpen-up'' for spring and our new mission president. We and a few other missionaries had saved up a few pday hours from last Monday to hike Himmelbjerget (the largest ''mountain'' in Denmark. It's really a hill) on our way back from Herning. We got off the train and started on our way. We strolled along for about a mile or two when we saw Himmelbjerget on the other side of a big lake and knew that we wouldn't be able to make it. So we stopped a nice lady and asked for her help. She said that it would be a 15 km walk to get to the mountain, so we decided against that. After a few minutes she chased us down on her bike and told us of the smallest church in Denmark that we could see instead. She was such a kind human. I'm really grateful for people like her. This new walk didn't look too long, so we decided to do that. We began our journey and walked and walked and walked and walked. We found some homemade honey being sold on the side of the road, ran into an old and broken boat, saw some shaggy cows, and enjoyed the sun. And then we walked some more. By the end we had walked 8 miles. Turns out, we took a different route to this little church and added a few miles to our trip, but we made it back to our train and home to our Aalborg safely.
On Thursday Sister Matheson got really sick, so we stayed inside and I got some things DONE. I read in Jesus the Christ, finished one of my notebook projects, read some scriptures, read an entire Liahona in Danish, ate some food, cleaned the kitchen, and read some more. Still a fabulous day.
On Friday we had our own District meeting and we visited one of our new converts! The one with the birds. The birds were at bay this time, much to my delight. We also went to go find people at an adorable park right behind our train station. No one really listened, but it felt good just to have some time to search.
Saturday brought more train rides. We were down in Aarhus for another district meeting, and after spending some time with them we came back up to Aalborg and found 2 really positive people!! One of them is a good friend to one of the Elders' investigator! That was such a blessing because we hadn't found a single person that week who would even give us the time of day. It's the little miracles that make the week incredible.
I experienced many firsts on Sunday, namely my first baptist church and my first sushi. We had an old investigator that runs a baptist church so we decided to come along and see how other people show their faith. We walked in and happily discovered that the service was in English! The Pastor is an American from California and there were many other people of different nationalities. We met and befriended a girl named Hannah, a professional soccer player from California. This was her first time too and she was really happy to hear some American voices. Although this baptist church is different from our church, it was still very interesting and touching to see how much the Savior means to people around the world. They showed their feelings through music and prayer. I was really happy to be able to experience that. Right afterward, they held a dinner for everyone. Apparently, every Sunday a different member of the congregation makes dinner for everyone else (there are only 16 members of this church). The chef this time was Japanese and had a make your own sushi bar. I had never really tried sushi before, but I went for it and surprisingly liked it! I put tuna instead of raw fish in, but I liked it nonetheless! I even ate two. This was a great way to set up some good connections and show a good face to the other Christ believers. I loved getting to know them.
And today we went up to SKAGEN! It was quite the train ride and quite the walk, but most definitely worth it. The very top of Denmark is a sight to see. All of the houses were yellow and the ocean was the most exquisite blue. I felt as though I were in a painting the entire time.
This week was filled with many adventures and many learned lessons. One thing that hit me really hard during our fast and testimony meeting yesterday was the power of charity and faith. I had recently read the story of Christ and His apostles when He comes down the Mount of Transfiguration to find that they cannot heal a man possessed of a devil. He uses this moment to teach them that if one has the faith of a mustard seed, he can move mountains. It's not so much the quantity of faith, but the quality that really makes an impact. I think that also goes for charity. While the quantity of charity can bring many miracles, it can mean so much more with good quality. An act of charity that was impressive to me was the woman we met on Wednesday. She was kind and helped us with our problem, but what really showed us her charity was biking down a large hill that she would eventually have to go back up to let us know of something else that we could do. Whether she knew it or not, she made 6 missionaries very very happy. She didn't know us at all, she just knew that we were unprepared for our excursion and she went out of her way to give her aid. That, to me, is quality charity. I'm going to try and remember her example throughout the week as I try to find how I can go out of my ways for others.
Tak for alt hvad I gør for mig! Tak at I tager denne tid for at læse om mine oplevelser. Tusinde tak og hav en god uge!!
MKH Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
Heeeeelllloooooo Good Ol' Provo!!! How are you all doing? From the emails it sounds like you all are having a BLAST in the sun and in the spring! The first whiffs of spring also made their way across the many waters. I'm READY for spring. I am sick to death of the cold and absolutely 100% ready for the sun. I think it's coming, I really do.
(Lack of) Danish Word of the Week: There are no words for ''please'' or ''sorry.'' It's been a little exciting to try to eliminate those words from my vocabulary ;)
Danish Fun Fact: At the very tippy top of Denmark in a city called Skagen, the Baltic and Atlantic Sea's meet. Remember this. You might hear something about it soon.
This week was absolutely one for the books. We began by watching the last session of General Conference on Monday and I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the switch to Ministering! I'm excited to see how it works!
Tuesday was nothing too exciting. It snowed which I was NOT happy about, but I really truly believe it was the last of winter. I can smell spring on its way.
On Wednesday we went back to HERNING (my first stomping ground) to visit the district down there and give a training on ways we can ''sharpen-up'' for spring and our new mission president. We and a few other missionaries had saved up a few pday hours from last Monday to hike Himmelbjerget (the largest ''mountain'' in Denmark. It's really a hill) on our way back from Herning. We got off the train and started on our way. We strolled along for about a mile or two when we saw Himmelbjerget on the other side of a big lake and knew that we wouldn't be able to make it. So we stopped a nice lady and asked for her help. She said that it would be a 15 km walk to get to the mountain, so we decided against that. After a few minutes she chased us down on her bike and told us of the smallest church in Denmark that we could see instead. She was such a kind human. I'm really grateful for people like her. This new walk didn't look too long, so we decided to do that. We began our journey and walked and walked and walked and walked. We found some homemade honey being sold on the side of the road, ran into an old and broken boat, saw some shaggy cows, and enjoyed the sun. And then we walked some more. By the end we had walked 8 miles. Turns out, we took a different route to this little church and added a few miles to our trip, but we made it back to our train and home to our Aalborg safely.
On Thursday Sister Matheson got really sick, so we stayed inside and I got some things DONE. I read in Jesus the Christ, finished one of my notebook projects, read some scriptures, read an entire Liahona in Danish, ate some food, cleaned the kitchen, and read some more. Still a fabulous day.
On Friday we had our own District meeting and we visited one of our new converts! The one with the birds. The birds were at bay this time, much to my delight. We also went to go find people at an adorable park right behind our train station. No one really listened, but it felt good just to have some time to search.
Saturday brought more train rides. We were down in Aarhus for another district meeting, and after spending some time with them we came back up to Aalborg and found 2 really positive people!! One of them is a good friend to one of the Elders' investigator! That was such a blessing because we hadn't found a single person that week who would even give us the time of day. It's the little miracles that make the week incredible.
I experienced many firsts on Sunday, namely my first baptist church and my first sushi. We had an old investigator that runs a baptist church so we decided to come along and see how other people show their faith. We walked in and happily discovered that the service was in English! The Pastor is an American from California and there were many other people of different nationalities. We met and befriended a girl named Hannah, a professional soccer player from California. This was her first time too and she was really happy to hear some American voices. Although this baptist church is different from our church, it was still very interesting and touching to see how much the Savior means to people around the world. They showed their feelings through music and prayer. I was really happy to be able to experience that. Right afterward, they held a dinner for everyone. Apparently, every Sunday a different member of the congregation makes dinner for everyone else (there are only 16 members of this church). The chef this time was Japanese and had a make your own sushi bar. I had never really tried sushi before, but I went for it and surprisingly liked it! I put tuna instead of raw fish in, but I liked it nonetheless! I even ate two. This was a great way to set up some good connections and show a good face to the other Christ believers. I loved getting to know them.
And today we went up to SKAGEN! It was quite the train ride and quite the walk, but most definitely worth it. The very top of Denmark is a sight to see. All of the houses were yellow and the ocean was the most exquisite blue. I felt as though I were in a painting the entire time.
This week was filled with many adventures and many learned lessons. One thing that hit me really hard during our fast and testimony meeting yesterday was the power of charity and faith. I had recently read the story of Christ and His apostles when He comes down the Mount of Transfiguration to find that they cannot heal a man possessed of a devil. He uses this moment to teach them that if one has the faith of a mustard seed, he can move mountains. It's not so much the quantity of faith, but the quality that really makes an impact. I think that also goes for charity. While the quantity of charity can bring many miracles, it can mean so much more with good quality. An act of charity that was impressive to me was the woman we met on Wednesday. She was kind and helped us with our problem, but what really showed us her charity was biking down a large hill that she would eventually have to go back up to let us know of something else that we could do. Whether she knew it or not, she made 6 missionaries very very happy. She didn't know us at all, she just knew that we were unprepared for our excursion and she went out of her way to give her aid. That, to me, is quality charity. I'm going to try and remember her example throughout the week as I try to find how I can go out of my ways for others.
Tak for alt hvad I gør for mig! Tak at I tager denne tid for at læse om mine oplevelser. Tusinde tak og hav en god uge!!
MKH Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.net
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