Aalborg Adventures Episode 17: The Wheels on the Train Go Round & Round & Round & Round

May 31, 2018

Hellooooo!

Danish Word of the Week: Fest means a party!! 

Danish Fun Fact: Aalborg is called the party city of Denmark for one reason.  Carneval.  We'll get to that.  

So the majority of this week was spent on a train.  Søster Matheson and I travelled all around the northern part of Jylland to visit the districts in our zone and give trainings.  Our first destination was Aarhus.  We had to catch an earlier train, so we woke up on time, got ready, biked to the train station and still had 20 minutes to spare.  We saw a big regional train on the platform and after looking at the screen determined that this was our train.  We hopped on the train and the doors closed swiftly behind us.  We turned around to go find a seat and saw that this was not the train to Aarhus, but actually the train to Frederikshavn - going in the exact opposite direction of where we wanted to go.  We pushed the button to try to open the doors in vain, and slightly panicked as the train pulled away from the station.  Luckily, the first stop for this train is actually right next to our apartment, so we just hopped off there and took a bus back to the station.  We missed the train we were supposed to take, but got on another one that would still get us there in time.  On the train we met Chanton.  He is originally from Thailand but was adopted by a Danish woman when he was 8, so he has lived in Denmark basically his entire life.  He was on his way down south to go see the opening premiere of the new star wars movie.  We started chatting about that (thank you brothers for inflicting your love of star wars on me hahah) and soon learned that he knew a member in our ward! He is super believing himself and was beyond excited to get a Book of Mormon.  He was a super cool guy and he gave us some chocolate.  God does work in mysterious ways and sometimes you have to go in the absolute other direction in order to be right where you need to be.  

Another awesome thing that happened this week is that our chinese friend Lucy agreed to a baptismal date! She is so cute.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and says that she believes that it's true.  God is good and He does work miracles! 

So Carneval.  Carneval is basically a huge party around the entire city.  Starting bright and early Saturday morning people began to gather at various locations, dressed in the most creative and scantily clad costumes.  The drinking begins.  Floats appear and blast loud music.  The drinking heightens.  Around 10am, each of the various crowds begin making their way into the center of the city to really party hard.  The drinking is at its climax.  People from all over Denmark and Europe come to join in the festivities.  Saturday was absolutely insane.  The entire party was happening right outside our apartment, and the party was so big that we actually weren't allowed to leave our apartment.  However, we had to get to the church that morning.  We took as outside of a route we could, but we couldn't completely escape the parade.  Can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it, we'll have to go THROUGH it! I made the most of it and took some pictures for y'alls pleasure.  It made contacting on Sunday hilarious because quite literally everyone was hungover.  Good times, good times.

We had a really cool experience yesterday.  We'd met a man a few days earlier and talked to him about the Book of Mormon.  He said that he is from Cape Town and very, very believing.  He said his name was Humphrey, and when I repeated it back to make sure he said, ''no no, it's SIR Humphrey.'' So now we call him Sir Humphrey and he is hilarious.  We had a great lesson with him yesterday and boy is he prepared.  He is looking for truth and looking for Christ.  It was a nice comparison to have after watching the worldly partyings the day before.  God does prepare people.  

This was such and awesome week.  The biggest lesson I learned was that obedience brings blessings.  I've been trying to think of ways that I can show my obedience to the Lord more - by doing everything to the minute, trying to utilize every minute, etc - and He really has blessed us.  We have 3 wonderful people right now who are willing to follow Christ and be baptized! I am utterly amazed by what the Lord can and WILL do! 

Tak for bønnerne, støtten, og alt hvad I gør for mig og andre missionærer.  Vi kan føle jeres kærlighed! Ha' en god uge!

MKH, Søster Esplin

raya.esplin@myldsmail.net