Aalborg Adventures Episode 19: OLAV BLEV DØBT

June 11, 2018

How are you?? It has been great to hear all of the funess and craziness that has happened in your lives! Thanks for the updates, I really really appreciate them.

Danish Word of the Week: DÅB - baptism

Danish Fun Fact: One can get all the way from the upmost part of Denmark down across the country to Copenhagen in 5 hours.  More on that later.  

THIS WEEK WAS INCREDIBLE.  Our week was absolutely filled to the brim with appointments.  On Monday we met with Olav and talked more about his baptism.  That man is so ready.  On Tuesday we ate lunch with a recently returned missionary from Aalborg named Anna.  She served in London and is literally the cutest.  Out of the goodness of her heart she invited all 8 missionaries (Frederikshavn included) over to eat. It was so hyggeligt.  We met with Olav again on Wednesday just to review some things and talk about the blessings of baptism.  We also had a fantastic first lesson with a woman named Inge.  She is a normal Dane, and she sat, listened, and was very open to everything we had to say concerning the Restoration.  She very willingly agreed to read and pray.  I don't think I've ever had such a perfect lesson.  We also had another lesson with Sir Humphrey.  He is hilarious.  Great guy.  Dad sent me some greetings in Afrikaans, Xhosa, and Zulu so I used them with Sir Humphrey and he got a kick out of me trying to pronounce them.  Hopefully he thinks I'm cool now.  On Thursday we met with a guy that Sister Cole and I met on splits last week named Kenan.  His mom is from Turkey, his dad is from Syria, but he was raised in Jordan.  He's been living in Denmark for 2 years and is a very inactive muslim.  We had invited him to church but he didn't end up coming because he was embarrassed by his Danish.  So we met with him instead.  We talked to him a little bit about who Jesus Christ is and why He is important.  At the end of the lesson Kenan offered to teach us some Arabic which would be SUPER useful here in Denmark where we run into a lot of Arabic speaking people.  He taught us some pretty useful phrases so now I am set.  We met with Olav again on Friday to smooth out all of the details concerning his baptism.  Again, he is soooooo ready.  We had some other appointments scheduled for that night and were planning on just eating dinner super super late, but our investigator Lucy texted us and asked if we wanted any chinese food, to which we replied OF COURSE.  So we ate dumplings with her.  

As amazing as all of this was, the highlight of the week was absolutely seeing Olav get BAPTIZED!! He showed up an hour early to the church.  He got there before literally anyone else.  We came soon after so he didn't have to be alone.  The service itself was great.  We had 2 members give talks, and Sister Matheson and I performed a musical number.  Olav was baptized by Elder Walton.  He went down with such force into the water that we all thought he was going to hit his head, but he didn't thankfully.  And on Sunday, he was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He is such a sweetheart and it made me so happy to see him baptized.  YAY OLAV! Thank you all for your prayers! 

Saturday morning was a day of gladness and also heartbreak.  Happy for baptism but sad for transfer calls.  I am in fact not emailing from Aalborg right now, because I took a 5 hour train from the top of Denmark to Copenhagen to serve in Lyngby with SISTER THORPE!! I absolutely LOVE Sister Thorpe! We lived together in a 4 man not too many transfers ago, so I am stocked to be with her again.  We are going to kill it over here in Copenhagen.  I was absolutely heartbroken to be parted from my dear Sister Matheson, but I know that she is going to continue to kill it in Aalborg.  I loved loved loved Aalborg and am so grateful for the time that I got to spend there and all of the wonderful people that I got to meet.  Denmark is the absolute best.  

This week I read about the Helaman's strippling warriors.  Those guys were super cool.  They fought valiantly and while they all were wounded, none of them perished.  These verses 20-21 in Alma 53 describe them as ''exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity... these were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted... Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.''  This week I plan to study on how I can be more like these faithful young men and fight as valiantly as they do.  

Tak tak for alt hvad I gør for mig! Ha' en dejlig uge!

MKH, Søster Esplin
raya.esplin@myldsmail.com




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