We Found Waldo

August 20, 2018

Danish Word of the Week: fod - foot

Danish Fun Fact: Where's Waldo in Denmark is Hvor er Holger? More on that later.  

In this edition of Lovely Lyngby we are with our protagonist Søster Esplin as she deals with a broken foot (not her own, don't worry), a heart-breaking drop text, baptismal interviews, splits, and a splendid game of ''Where's Waldo.'' 

On Monday our two heronies woke up to a text from their friends Koosha and Niloufar.  This Iranian couple have sadly decided that they can no longer meet with the missionaries.  They are happy with their own religion, and aren't really looking for change.  While this crushed Sisters Esplin and Calame, they held back tears and moved on.  Nothing gets in the way of missionary work.  They also met with their Zodiac Sign friend and had a good conversation with him on the Book of Mormon and prayer.  A quotation from her journal says, ''He is very receptive.  At the end we were talking about different University Studies and such and I said that I have to figure out what I want to do when I got home and he said, 'here's a suggestion: ask God.  Read Alma 36 and pray about it.' Which is what we had JUST committed him to do. Yeah he thought that was pretty funny... and it was.  But he's cool.  He has a marijuana plant plant just sitting in his apartment so that will be fun to talk about in the future.'' In the end, it was a good day. 

The day of Tues brought good news.  The sisters' friend Kim passed his baptismal interview with flying colors.  He is set and loaded for his baptism on Friday. 

On wednesday the Lyngby sisters travelled far far away to the land of Rødovre for splits with their wonderful sister training leaders.  Søster Esplin got the honor to be with her buddy Søster Fife and they had many an adventure together.  They brought their Mission President's wife to an appointment with a man ready for baptism, knocked on some doors, and met Martin.  Of the experience Søster Esplin says, ''After knocking this one street, we decided to stop and reevaluate because it felt wrong.  So after saying a pray and heading back to our bikes we felt better.  Right before we got to where our bikes were parked we decided to talk to a man that had just rode into a driveway on his bike.  He is very cool.  He is very aware of his spiritual self.  He holds the word of wisdom to the max (vegan) and does it because he feels cleaner.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and he is willing to meet.  He also said that he doesn't actually live at the house that we were in front of, but he was just there to pick apples to use for detoxing juices.  So we helped him pick (and eat of course) apples!'' It was a great day for these two, but not so much for their companions.  Søster Calame and Søster Peterson had lost their bike keys, so they were on feet all day.  That will be a turning point for the week.  

2 of the 3 appointments that these wonderful sisters had scheduled cancelled, which opened up a great day of finding.  Which also meant a great day of walking.  Which lead to a crippled Søster Calame.  Friday, Søster Calame woke up to a burning pain in her foot.  She could hardly walk and even standing was too painful.  Søster Olsen, the mission president's wife, came over to try and help where she could.  They came to the conclusion that Søster Calame had overused her foot muscles by walking too much and she advised the youthful sisters to take it easy for a bit.  So take it easy they did.  They filled their time as productively as they could with weekly planning and baptismal planning, and even made it out to 2 appointments by bus.  

The injured foot continued to limit these sisters physically on saturday, but not spiritual nor mentally.  They spent the morning inside going through the area book.  The organized, pulled records out that they wanted to stop by, and called a few people.  One person they called had quite the record.  He'd been taught by missionaries a lot but never committed to church nor baptism. After calling him, these sisters learned that he had talked to some missionaries at the Book of Mormon musical handing out Books of Mormon and they invited him to some activity in Roskilde but he didn't go because it was a little far (fun fact: it was Søster Calame that he had talked to!) BUT he would like to meet up.  He also informed them that he has 4 or 5 friends that might be interested too.  Unexpected, but miraculous.  After that experience and a few others, the Lyngby sisters ended the night with a dinner to top all dinners.  President and Søster Olsen took them and their friend Koo out for authentic Korean food.  Not just any Korean food, but Korean BBQ.  According to Søster Esplin, it was absolutely delicious.  They ate ''korean pancakes'' with vegetables and fish, beef with rice and wonderfully seasoned potatoes, zucchini, soy sauce, garlic leaves, and kimchi.  To end this scrumptious meal, the chef brought out homemade rice icecream.  ''I loved every minute of it,'' said our dear heroine.  She would like to thank her wonderful mission presidents for their contribution and help with their work.  They are absolutely amazing. 

Sunday was a day of miracles.  The man that the sisters called from the area book showed up to church with a friend! He was an active participator in YSA class and apparently priesthood.  The best part was his socks.  Ever since President Olsen has come into the mission he has made a huge focus on ''Finding Waldo'' and this new friend showed up to church WEARING Where's Waldo socks on!! The Lyngby Sisters found Waldo! 

This was a great week here in Denmark! Thanks for tuning in! Catch you next time, and have a lovely week! 

MKH, Søster Esplin

raya.esplin@myldsmail.net