Week 24 - Shake it Off

Hey hey hey

As promised, an update on the transfer situation:

Life? Its gooood. My new comp Søster Semadeni is a straight up baller. She is also from Cache Valley, sings like a bird, and loves ice cream so much she is this 👌close to breaking the second commandment. Jk, there is no idol worshipping in Herning.

But on the real though, she is stellar. Loves the gospel. Loves the work. Loves the people. Such a great missionary, plus she is really good at cooking #thriving. We have a lot of fun and I am grateful for that. We work hard, we play hard, what more could you want?

I like Herning, missionary work is a little trickier when it comes to always having people to talk to, there were just always a ton of people out during my time in København. But on the flipside, people are a lot more relaxed and friendly. So conversations come a lot easier. There's pros and cons to every area.

The branch is amazing. I was a little nervous for church at first, it stressed me out quite a bit in my old area. But within the first five minutes in the building I had already been greeted with so much love, hugs, and smiles that I knew I was in a good place.

About 30 people came to the meeting. The majority of the group is composed of cute old ladies and a couple young families. Then there's a bunch of different aged men and women who are also fantastic. We have 12 children in primary, 1 in young women's, and 1 in young men's. There's also a couple of young adults up here for school. One of them, Frederik, was baptized on Saturday!! Whicchhhhh reminds me that I need to explain that there is another set of Sisters missionaries in our branch. They work in another area but do quite a bit of contacting on the same street as us, so we run into them a lot. It is. So. Fun. We eat dinner together often, have splits every week, and we are planning on carving pumpkins together with them this evening #sisterwifeswag

Oof side note, the other day when I was on splits with Søster Smith (one of the sisters close by)(loves sparkles, pink, and is basically Elle Woods) WE DROVE THROUGH THE END OF A RAINBOW. I'm not even kidding. We felt like precious pots of gold. Now we're just hoping that no small, redheaded men, dressed in green come kidnap us out of our beds as we sleep. Hehe.

Yeahhh other than that and branch activities we come to support the work has been slow. Lots of going out talking to people and no lessons. We got a total of one phone number this week...he hasn't responded yet..... that's okay! We'll find somebody. Keep that in your prayers. We're prepping ourselves for a whole lot of find grinds and praying for the energy they require. I'm super tired lol. #taknemmeligforvinebrød

The language has really been picking up for me lately and it had been so nice. God must have a reason for it because I know it's all because of him.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know he suffered every pain, sorrow, and heartbreak. I know that he, through his death, not only made the plan possible, but that he lives today! I know be can help you with what you're struggling with. I know that growing closer to him is how we find true, lasting happiness. I know we grow closer to him by loving and serving others.

Have a great week! Jeg elsker dig!

Med kærlige hilsen,

Søster Felt🇩🇰

Week 23 - Night Changes

Joooooo halløjså min kære familie og venner🙌

I hope all is going well with y'all.

This week has been straight up insane.

First off, I'm disappointed in you all. You didn't pray hard enough and now I am leaving Lyngby.

Jk.

I'm not disappointed in you all but I actually am getting transferred (#Godswill)(#spreadthelovelikepeanutbutter). Yup I am headed to Jutland. Tomorrow morning I am headed off to my new area, Herning, and to my new comp søster Semideni.

Have I reason to be nervous? Let us evaluate the facts and find out.

Reasons to be nervous:
- Not only leaving Lyngby, but leaving to a whole other zone. Leaving my dear island of sjælland and headed to Jutland.
- Do they speak Danish on Jylland? They do in fact. Is it a whole other kind of Danish where the words are pronounced differently and people have different accents? It is in fact.
- I'm peacin' out of that ward life and headed to a tiny branch in the midst of farmland and I don't know how I'm gonna find people when I'm not in the big city
- I have never been there before. And neither has my new companion. Because we are opening the area. Starting from scratch as one might say.
- Welp technically we are re-opening the area. There used to be Elders there a while ago but they had to be emergency transferred out after an accidental run-in with the Mexican drug cartel. Long story.

Reasons to not be nervous:
-I've got the Lord on my side

In conclusion: I am not nervous.

Maybe I'm acting in faith? Maybe I'm just super in denial? Idk probably both. Either way, as much as I love Lyngby and am sad to be leaving, I am legit stoked. The adventure continues as they say.

As far as how this week has been... søster Shults and I have been battling some blank days. We're learning how to creatively make use of the two course meal of a lot of nothing and time that has been heaped on to our plates. After some prayers and a whole lot of knocking,, God blessed us with some stuff to do.

Cuties! Søster Shults and Søster Felt

Temple with Isabella: On Friday we went to do baptisms at the temple in Copenhagen for Isabellas first time! She brought her grandparents and great-grandparents names. It was way cool. She's starting to get way passionate about family history work and has also mentioned a mission a couple of times...we all need to step up our game. I was way happy to do baptisms and confirmations in Danish. I did the work for a bunch of people from Bornholm and Iceland. And you know what? I could understand it! #babysteps.....I also got to be a witness when Isabella was baptized #thefutureisfemale #blessup

Søster Felt and Isabella

Service: On Wednesday the Elders in another area called and asked if we could come help with some service at this ladies house. When we asked them what we would be doing, they replied, "we don't know, she just said she really needed help cleaning in preparation for guests," so we were like okay cool we think we can squeeze that in to our intense schedule. When we got to her house... oh my gosh. Let's just say I was grateful for the path that had been carved out of the mountains of stuff everywhere. We somehow got the kitchen cleaned out (with lots of trips to the garbage bins outside).

How about our friends? Shao is doing good I hope,, we haven't heard much from him since our last lesson but he is working on all of his big project stuff for school so forhåbentlig that's all. Haven't heard from Laura in a while, trying to make contact. Christian told us he didn't want to speak with us anymore. We started teaching this new girl Lana though! Some missionaries met her in another city here on sjælland and gave us her number. She is from Croatia and is legit the sweetest person on planet earth. She brought us chocolates for our first lesson with her. Sad to be leaving these sick homies of mine but God's got em so it'll be okay.

Welp I'll be sure to let you all know what my new area is like next week! Keep me in your prayers and have a great week!

Xoxo, Gospel Girl💋

Danish Christmas Nisse

Night Changes Creator

My favorite shop on Lyngby Hovengade

Random but cool building

mlerp face twins

Week 22 - The Climb

"Life's a climb, but the view is great,"
-Travis (from the groundbreaking film; hannah-montana-the-movie-2008) aka min fremtid man

Moon-eyed Margo: Søster Shults and I were knocking some houses close by our apartment and this seriously beautiful cat followed us around the whole evening. She had these gorgeous bright green/gold eyes. I called her Margo:) if it wasn't for the fact that Søster Shults doesn't like animals I would have brought her home to live with us.

Spiser ikke frugten: We got to go through the temple on Wednesday! It was really cool to do a session in Danish. That really is the place where we can be the closest to heaven here on earth. Miss it so much.

Transfer Skeme: transfers are this Saturday...and I have been dreading it because I freaking love Lyngby and because of that I've felt like the Lord is gonna send me to another place you know because life can't be THIS good all the time. I dont wanna move!!! This primary girl in the ward ran up to me with a fortune teller yesterday,, and after choosing a color and some numbers... she opened it, looked me dead in the eyes,, and said, "Du skal flytte dig!" Which means- you're gonna move. RIP. Søster Shults was dying. So yeah basically if you're gonna pray for something pray that this girl isn't some freaky nine year old Danish profettess.

Two Snakes in One: Satan tried to pull a fast one on me this week. He found my kryptonite, my e-kill-ees (thats right i have no idea how to spell or say that word) heel, my greatest wordly weakness. Thats right, Taylor Swift. I miss music so much. Like, so much. I heard a small taste of Taylor Swifts song "Lover" for the first time the other day, it was the worst thing in the world. We were trying to contact someone and the song was just pouring out of there house trying to fill my ears and I was trying to focus on danish and teaching about where the book of mormon came from. The sweet dreamy melody tried to pull me into a daze but I fought the pull with all my might and focused on the task at hand. A triumph for the kingdom of God I would say. Not today Satan.

The House Matters: Søster Shults is obsessed with Harry Potter and basically we spend every moment trying to decide what house everyone we know is in. I, of course, am a hufflepuff. She is a ravenclaw. I would love to know what house y'all are. Please shoot me an email about which house you belong to and what brought you to that conclusion if you feel so inclined.

De-feet-tion by Bicycle: Well actually a more accurate description would be a de-foot-tion. But, for lack of better pun, you're all just going to have to live with that title. If I'm really honest this is the kind of story one should keep from your mother until you're already home. Nevertheless, because I believe you can learn something from my mistakes, I feel compelled to share the following with you all. Close your eyes mom. In the past couple of days, I had some anxiety about a few small and insignificant things that happened in the mission. Because of that, I had trouble focusing on the work and just trusting the Lord. I let myself get caught up in a snare of self-concern and worry. I woke up Thursday morning with the same worries on my mind and a pounding heart in my chest. I thought to myself, "okay, I gotta get rid of this anxiety," and suggested to søster Shults that we should go for a run. Because of my worries, my mind was in another place as we ran. I was not very aware or observant and blindly followed sister Shults on that dark morning jog. Mistake. We were checking out apartments we were thinking about knocking. As we crossed the street and bike path- I was hit by someone going way fast on a bike. I dont remember much about what happened or how he both fell, but I remember getting up and feeling very worried for the man on the ground. He was okay, miraculously, and very forgiving. But as the day went on my right foot began to ache more and more and I could not put weight on it. That terrified me. I wasn't in a terrible amount of pain, but you can't do missionary work if you can't walk. I had to stay in that day to give my foot some time to just get better. My mind reflected over all the possibilities of what could be wrong-and what could go wrong, when-as one as over dramatic as myself does-I imagined the worst case scenario-that is, my foot is injured enough that I need to go home to recover. Boy did that thought scare the daylights outta me. I said a lot of sincere prayers and had time to ponder over the things that had been worrying me. And you know what? There was nothing to ponder. I didn't care about all of those little things I was worried about anymore. I just wanted to be okay and be on my mission. I realized why I want to be here, how important this is to me, and how heartbreaking it would be to have to leave. And I didn't care about the small details that just plan don't matter. So yeah, God hit me with that gratitude bike that day. But hey maybe you guys can all learn from my mistakes and remember the bigger picture before having to get hit by a danish man on a bike. Instead of worrying so much about a disagreement with a loved one, try and remember how much they mean to you and how hard it would be if you didn't have them in your life. Instead of internally grumbling over how boring/unfun your job is, thank God that you have a means to provide for your family. Etc etc. (Btw my foot is fine I'm just I'm a dramatic soul sometimes).

We had a way good lesson with Shao yesterday. We taught him about Christ and who he is and why he is important. It was really cool to teach someone who had never learned about him before. Very humbling. We are so lucky to have a knowledge of who he is.

Welp, I hope my weekly was entertaining enough for you all. If not, I'm sorry it is all my tired little fingers have to offer.

Jeg elsker dig! Og, HAN elsker dig!

-Søster Felt

Week 21 - Clean

General Konferance: As always, so good, but not as always SO SHORT. Like since when does conferance only take two minutes?? We watched the Saturday morning session at an inactive members home and the sunday morning session at the mission home with President Olsen and his family. Because of the time difference the afternoon sessions are too late for us to watch, but we'll catch up on them eventually.

Old Danish church

Old Danish mill

My desk

Elsa Couldn't Let it Go because Scandinavian winter is so dark and cold you forget you even exist: Okay the title probably sums it up but, I can't even describe how cold it is here. The wind, the humidity, the rain, rip my fingers. The worst part is its only Oktober,, so just the beginning. When I first got to Denmark it was summertime, and when we'd stop people on the streets and ask them what they were thankful for, a lot of them would say the sun. Well I didn't realize it until now but like,,, that's actually a BIG thing. Be grateful for the sun! Everytime it comes out Danes and missionaries sing hallelujah.

Life is pretty good in Lyngby. I love the missionary work a lot. We have quite a few people to teach which is a such a blessing and lots of potential friends. I'm working on getting all my winter gear stocked up before it's too late and trying to not to overeat as one tends to do with lack of sunlight and freezing temperatures. 

A pastry with Søster Lewis, the STL I went on splits with
this week and neglected to write about in the email.

This is me with my true love. Open face sandwiches with
øslandbrød, Gouda, and rasberry jam.
Best Breakfast ever.

Søster Olsen brought us a vitamin D light and we are required to sit precisely ten inches away from it for 30 minutes everyday so that we can have energy throughout the day and not get depressed.

We have had a lot more eating appointments with members as of late (because this is the time of year that you eat and hygge together indoors) and getting to know all of the members and eating Danish food in the candle light is probably one of my favorite Danish things ever. You just leave feeling so cozy and loved.

Out with members

Isabella's Dåb: Um yeah, okay, BEST. DAY. EVER. Isabella got all of her "young single adult" member friends to come a long with her friends that don't have any association to the church (well I guess now we can say, didn't;). There were also a lot of missionaries from all over Sjælland that were able to come with the people they're teaching. Also our friend Laura came. Also also, Isabella asked Felix to be the one who baptize her. Felix is about 23, he was baptized in Søster Shults old area and received the priesthood about a month ago. So basically, it was one big meeting full of young people.

Isabella asked President Olsen (Our mission president) to speak about baptism before she was baptized. So,, you know what he did? The man stood up there and taught about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Namely, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Yep that's right, he taught about them simply and explained that the secret to happiness isn't a secret and that all were welcome to come and see- with all of our friends listening intently from their seats. What. a. legend. Every missionary who wasn't there with their friends later heard about it and wished they were. Meget sejt.

After,, Mikala Olsen (President's daughter and one of Isabella's close friends) sang, I am trying to be like Jesus. It was beautiful.

After after, Isabella was baptized. And oh my goodness the smile on her face, and Felix's face, that was priceless.

The happiness that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ is indescribable, matchless, and yet free to all that choose it.

After that there was another really good talk from a woman in our ward and Isabella shared her testimony. She stood up, thanked everyone for coming, then addressed each of her non-member friends in the congregation by name, and told them to listen carefully. She than proceeded to share how God had been preparing her for this day for the past 24 years. Starting with experiences from when she was only three years old. She bore her testimony and said. "I know God has been guiding me all along and I know he'll continue to be with me always. I don't know what the future holds, but I know I don't have to worry about that anymore because I have the Holy Ghost with me always and I know that Heavenly father loves me," and yeah. The room was. silent. The spirit was so strong. We sang a hymn, said a prayer. And everybody just sat still for about ten minutes more after, just stunned. After people began breaking the silence, I turned to our friend Laura behind us and said, "What did ya think?" she just kept staring at the ground. After a long pause she said, "Wow." Søster Shults and I just nodded and I said, "I know."

She told us later that day that she thought it was all so beautiful, that you could see how much everybody cares, and that she could tell we have something special.

Some Elders in our mission called us that night to let us know that their friend that they brought with, who had only received one lesson at this point, asked them on the ride home how long it was going to take before he would be able to get baptized and have that same happiness.

One member referred to Isabella as a "kingdom builder" and that to me just puts it perfectly. This girl is special. God is already working through her to reach his other children. I am so happy and humbled to have been a part of her story.

I know that when we come unto Jesus Christ, through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end we can obtain more happiness then ever imaginable. We can become the person that God wants to be. We receive the blessings that God desires to give us. We can achieve our divine potential and purpose. But hey, you don't have to take my word for it, you can instead just give your local missionaries a call and find out for yourself. Come and see.

Søster Felt, Isabella, Søster Shults