Week 37 - Unanswered Prayers

Highlights from the week:

Lesson with Ronald: We finally got Ronald to meet with us! Had a great lesson about repentance. Keeping this kid focused is nearly impossible so we try to just teach one principle at a time. So far it's going well. He's praying, reading, and he texted us to let us know he really enjoyed reading the story of Alma the Younger. Unfortunately he didn't show up to church this Sunday, but we're hoping he'll come this week.

Girl Squad: Sister Paras and I found an old lady knitting club at our local library and we joined this week. These ladies are seriously hardcore! The 'president' stood up and had everyone introduce themselves to us and we had to share a little bit about ourselves as well. Which we were more than happy to do;) They were all very happy to have us there and some of them have connections to the church! Were going to keep going. It's a great way for us to meet people in the community and make new relationships. Plus we get to learn how to knit, so it's a win win!

Lesson with Michael og Jannie: This is the couple we have been teaching, we taught them about keeping the Sabbath day holy. This was honestly one of my favorite lessons. We began by sharing experiences of how we knew God loves us, the spirit was so powerful. We then read Moses 1:39, "For behold, this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," we bore testimony that everything that God does he does for our benefit and explained that that's why he gives us commandments. They were so humble and willing to accept our words. They are going to try and find a way to come to church even though they live really far away.

I just really really love teaching. I love testifying of the gospels simple truths. I love helping others come unto Jesus Christ.

Sometimes when I read other missionaries weekly emails or watch the missionary training videos I feel discouraged and maybe a little jealous over how often they get the opportunity to teach people with open hearts. Sometimes it hurts because I have such a strong desire to help and teach, and it feels like such a righteous desire too, and yet it just doesn't come often if at all.

Sister Paras and I are working on being grateful for the almosts. The people who almost met with us, almost took a book of Mormon, and almost came to church. I love my Heavenly Father, hopefully doing this will be a good way to show him that.

New Homegirl: We met a girl on the street on Thursday who was VERY open. This one seemed different. God gave us both the words to say. She came to church on Sunday and shes meeting with us this week. We think this might be the miracle we've been praying so much for. If not, I'm still thankful for the almost miracle.

Aftensmad i Videbæk: We ate dinner with a sweet non-member couple on Friday. They are, unfortunately, a little too elderly to teach (they couldn't come to church if they wanted too) but we can still give them a visit now and then:) they don't speak a lick of English and their Danish is what we call "styrk jysk" (strong Jutlandish). Which basically means they pronounce everything in the back of the throat, swallow all of their words, and barely open/move their mouths while doing so.

Sister Paras just got here, so my Danish was REALLY put to the test🤣 haha. Tage went on about the 2nd world war and Henny force fed us chocolates, candy, soda and ice cream. It was a great night.

Things are going really well! Up and down of course, but really good. I'm learning how to love a little more and judge a little less. Trust a little more and worry a little less. And everyday I learn how to sacrifice just a little bit more for my Heavenly Father.

I know that Christ suffered and died for us. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can have true hope. I know that God loves you, so so much.

Good week my friends, remember who you are and what is really important!

Med Kærlige Hilsen,

Søster Felt🇩🇰🇺🇸

I feel like I should clarify... the subject line of my email is a song title. The song talks about how God always answers prayers.... don't worry God always answers my prayersXD

Danish tradition,, if you are not married yet,, on your 25th birthday your friends and family tie you to a pole and COVER you with cinnamon. It honestly looks like torture. Year 30 is pepper. The pictures below are the remnants of someone's 25th birthday.

Sketchy Apartment buildings (opgangs)

Week 36 - Turn, Turn, Turn.

SPOILER: this may look like a normal, boring missionary email, but if you look closely, you will find a variety of fun facts sprinkled throughout. Making it a unique, try-hard, boring missionary email.

Tirsdag: SpLiTs! I kicked my baby out to spend a day at granny's and I had a fun time with Sister Semadeni. The poor girl is dying on Monday and I'm gonna miss her so much! (She's going home for those of you that don't understand mission vocab). We taught the girls that visited church on Sunday for their project and met with Carmen. We also knocked some doors. It all went well and it was fun to see how we both had grown in just one transfer.

Fun fact: Sister Paras told me that I have begun to speak in my sleep. Last night I said, "I love the gospel,". I think I have been out here for too long.

Onsdag: Søster Paras and I decided to go visit a lady, Maj, who we found a couple of weeks ago. We've tried quite a bit already-and she's usually not home or says she doesn't have time. Welp we banked on her door and she opened it right up and invited us right in and we started teaching! I dont know if that's ever happened to me before on my mission. It was really cool. We prayed with her, gave her a Book of Mormon, and testified of the peace we have received from it. She told us she believed she could receive it too. We hope to be meeting with her again.

Later in the evening we knocked on this door and this old dude showed us all of his sick wood workings. He had made some seriously incredible things. He gave us each a wooden pear and then tenderly stroked our faces and hair. We ran away because we didn't enjoy the tenderness but we kept the wooden pairs #mems

Fun fact: Sister Paras's stomach growls have always sounded vaguely familiar to me-and today I pinpointed the reason why. After intensive examination I have come to the conclusion that Perry the platypus is living inside of her small intestine.

Torsdag: Looonnnggg finding day. We tried visiting potential friends we had met but literally NONE of them were home. We were out on the streets for a while and when we came back to eat it took my hands like ten years to warm up.

We taught Institute though-and the two active YSA members were happy to here our lesson.

Fun fact: if you're going to eat rød grød med flød you must never mix the rød grød with the flød. That is both culturally insensitive and outright insulting.

Fredag: Went out finding with a member, my home girl Celine. That was chill. Spent the rest of the day also finding and inviting people to church.

Fun fact: A koala bear is not a member if the bear family. It is in fact, a marsupial.

Lørdag: Guess what we did? That's right, went FiNdInG! It was actually a super fun day. Sister Paras and I practiced different lesson and finding roleplays the whole time we are out and have fun with it. When we do find someone,, we are gonna be ready! We also had dinner with the sweet senior couple serving in the gren (the branch). Toooo fun.

We also had transfer calls! And I'm staying!!!!!!!!!! And so is Sister Paras!!!!!!!!! Haha we're both happy about it. The work is finally starting to pick up and being able to just keep working and teaching is such a blessing.

Sunday: Church of course, but also the last day of the transfer. Also the day that we review our numbers or "accomplishments" of this transfer. We knew our numbers were few. So we made the decision to not count up until the end of the day and expect to experience some miracles. AND WE DID! One of our friends, Ronald, who has been m.i.a. pretty much all of December finally came to church,, and he loved it! Especially Sunday school. He was very intrigued by the Vision of the Tree of Life (Lehi's Dream) and shared a lot of interesting insights with the group comparing the story to different parts of the Bible. The members were pleasantly surprised and he broke his way into their tight-network with ease. He fits right in.

I don't remember how much I've shared about Ronald, but I'll just give a little background anyways. Ronald is 23, Danish, and went to high school in Colorado, so he insists on speaking English with us. He liked his "American mormon" friends, apparently they had a better influence on his life than some of Danish drinking buddies. Weird.
So he likes lessons with us (when he finds "the time") and church. When he first met sister Paras he said, "You are really going to like Felt, she is really good at helping people not swear. I don't swear like at all anymore! Well, at least not when I speak English." So there you have it kids. If you need help fixing your language I'm the girl for the job.

Later that day, we made TWO new friends in the span of TWO hours!!!!! One was Maj (finally got a return appointment set up) and the other was this Nigerian man and his family. His name is Floriberi. We cannot pronounce it. So we call him Frodi, and occasionally, Frosted Flakes. But he loves Jesus and will hopefully like our message. Also his kids were cute so that's a plus.

But yeah. It was a good week. Life's good and the gospel is true. To quote Forrest Gump, "and that's all I have to say about that,"

Elsker Jer!

With Love, a sister whose goal this transfer is to be better at setting and achieving goals,

Søster Felt🇩🇰

Week 35 - Savior's Shadow

To all of you who still read these emails,
Or, dear mom,

I went home this week. It got to visit for a short time and it was exactly what I needed.

Ugh. I love the temple. I feel like the more we live the gospel the more we miss being with God the same way we miss our own parents. Being the temple can really feel like going home to him, or close to that at least. That's what it felt like for me this week. Home at last.

 On Tuesday and Wednesday søster Paras and I stayed in the mission home in Copenhagen for her, "30 days in the mission," meeting. That entailed a training with teaching/finding practice, a trip to the temple, and a foosball tournament that escalated into World War Three (there are a few German elders in the mission)(don't worry, it ended just like the other two). We had a great time:)

President and Sister Olsen were the perfect hosts, as usual and the spirit was strong in their home. But, they were understandably frantic, as their daughter in Norway would be giving birth to their first grandchild at any moment. Bless their hearts. They sacrifice so much for us. They really show how much they love us missionaries not just through what they give, but also through how they give it, always happy and positive. They always help us and never treat it like a burden. There were several moments where either President or sister Olsen would be sharing a testimony or a thought, and their phone would ring. They would look at it and back at us, and say something along the lines of, "I'm so sorry, is it okay if I just-" too which we missionaries would abruptly interrupt "GOOOOO!!! GOO ANSWER IT!!!!" They do too much for us.

One sacrifice President Olsen made for us particularly made an impact on me. It was late in the evening and we were finishing up our dinner. We missionaries were all talking and laughing and enjoying the chance to just breathe and be people together. President and his family were with us, we all debated over which burger joint was the best and how we were going to crush each other at ping pong after dinner was done. I can't explain how good it felt to just be a kid for a moment. After we had finished our food, we got up to take our dishes to the kitchen to wash them. President stopped us and said, "You all go down and play ping pong, I'll wash the dishes," The 10 of us looked at each other, we tried to take them in ourselves, but he insisted. He assured us that he enjoyed doing the dishes and we ran downstairs. This doesn't seem like a great sacrifice, and maybe it wasn't. But that was just it. Doing the dishes is such a small thing. President seems so powerful in our eyes. He chooses our areas, works with apostles, and to put it frankly, he is the bossman out here. And yet there he was, sitting by our sides, eating lasagna. It occurred to me in that moment that I had never imagined President doing the dishes before. It almost seemed beneath him. He is so good! His testimony is so strong! He receives inspiration from God for us for crying out loud! Dishes? Really?

While pondering over this in my bed that night, I came to think about Jesus Christ, washing the feet of his apostles.

I guess I could go on forever on this tangent, but I'll let you connect the dots. Service is good😉

The work is finally starting to pick up in Herning. Thank you all so much for your prayers. They mean everything to us and we are sure they are the reason we are finally beginning to see fruits to our labors.

Søster Paras and Søster Felt

We have found a lot of positive people this week that we skal continue to reach out to and hopefully teach. Many miracles were seen and prayers of gratitude said.

Here are a few:
1)Sister Paras received a referral from her homeward that lead to three people to work with! A total blessing. I would love to write more about it but I think it'll have to wait until next week.
2)Four girls came and visited church on Sunday! They were checking it out for a school project and one of them was genuinely interested.
3)We met three different families that accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back and share a message about it the next time we were in the area:)
4) I'm beginning to really feel that "lasting joy" that comes from following Jesus Christ. On Saturday night Søster Paras and I couldn't fall asleep because we couldn't stop laughing. We didn't even know why, we were just filled with so much joy. President Neilson is right, "the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives,"

I know you can, through Jesus Christ, find lasting joy.

Elsker jer!

Love, a girl with too many shoes and not enough socks,

Søster Felt🇩🇰

A church in Skjern

Week 34 - Touch the Sky

D&C 76:40-42
"And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice of the Heavens bore record unto us-
That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the sins of the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;
That through him all might be saved who the father had put into his power and made by him;"

It is a Monday morning. The Danish death mist settles gently on the windshield as my comrade cruises at an easy 57kph. I stare out the window, absentmindedly watching the towering windmills turn and counting the great pine trees.

The Lord of the Rings film score lulls me into a deep state of reflection and ponderance (I am artistically creating words)(just go with it).

I think of all the events that unfolded with the past couple of weeks. Dancing around the Christmas tree, sitting in the windowsill of my downtown apartment in a night illuminated by fireworks, and sitting here, driving through western Denmark farmlands. Each experience is one I never dreamed to encounter. It feels unreal.

Life is good.

Not much has happened since I last wrote home on Wednesday, in fact, next to nothing has happened.

Today for pday we visited a cool old chapel in Viborg and played board games with our district in the Library. That was funnnn

Viborg domkirke

On Thursday some guy came running up to us in a frenzy,, speaking Danish very quickly. I couldn't quite understand him, so I asked, "kan vi gør noget for dig? Har du bruge for noget?" (Can we do something for you/do you need something) to which, he responded, "Jeg har bruge for kærligehed!" or, I need love! And then in English he yelled "I want to marry you!! Please marry me!!!!" Yeah we skrrted on outta there real quick. I just felt extremely violated, but Sister Paras could not stop laughing. She insists on telling everyone the story now too, so this is my life now.

We had a couple of lessons planned, but they both cancelled on us. So we went finding all weekend.

One blessing of not many lessons is the freedom to have fun with Personal Study. That first hour each morning, has become my favorite hour of the day. Elder Holland has referred to a missionary's personal study as their appointment with the Lord, and that is exactly what I've found it to be. I began my meeting by addressing God in Prayer, then he addresses me through my studies, and I close by again addressing him, usually in a spirit of gratitude.

It is during this time that I find myself called to repentance, given peace and comfort, and receiving answers to questions. I take so much comfort knowing that each morning, almost like clockwork, I can receive the guidance that the Lord knows I need to receive.

But ya know, personal Study wasn't always this special to me.

It probably took about 6 months of consistent daily efforts. 6 months. 6 months of sincere dedication to the Book of Mormon and prayer before I really felt like I was getting a lot out of it. Moral of the story? Don't give up on reading. It might take more than one or two tries before you really start to feel the spirit speak to you as you read. I can remember my first few transfers, fumbling around through different chapters and sort of "wandering" about my studies in the beginning. I tried my best to make them special, but I still needed to learn from God how I could.

I know that as you take time and effort to make daily study a habit you will find the guidance and inspiration you didn't know you were in need of. It will become special. It will become a source of strength. And most importantly, I know that through studying the Book of Mormon you can truly get to know your savior Jesus Christ.

Hope y'all have a great week! Elsker jer!

Med kærlige hilsen,

Søster Felt🇩🇰

Me, surrounded my heavens sweet nectars  (aka cocio)

One of the greatest movies of all time,, in its mother tongue

A row of whomping willows

Week 33 - New Year's Day

Hej Familie! Godt nyt år!

Happy New Year!

I hope you can all look back with gratitude and look forward with excitement. 2019 has easily been the best year of my life. It's crazy to think that it was a whole year ago that I was anxiously waiting to turn in my mission papers.

It's pretty weird to think about all the stuff that went down, it has definitely been a rollercoaster. This year has actually been freaking hard. I've spent most of my time out of my comfort zone and there's almost always a problem that needs to be solved. So why has it been so good? Why do I feel so fulfilled? I know that a big part of it comes from serving others. That is one of the only things that can really bring us true happiness. But I guess what sticks out to me as I've looked back on this year is how much I've grown. I personally believe that our souls hunger for progression. That was one of the reasons we chose to come to Earth in the first place. It's pretty easy for us to just get comfy and waste a lot of time doing harmless yet meaningless things. As we choose to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and go out of our way to make time to become more christlike, we may not always find we have the most relaxing life, but we will have a fulfilling life. A purposeful and intentional one. The task seems daunting, but the good news is, that's what our Father in Heaven wants for us to. And I know that if you choose to involve him, he will help to shape you into the type of person you didn't know you could be and he will be by your side every step of the way.

I hope that with the start of the New Year, as you all are setting goals and making life changes, that you will turn to Heavenly Father in prayer. Give him an accounting of how you are doing, how you wish you could be, and express your gratitude for the help he has given you all along the path.

I also would invite you to consider the words of one of my favorite hymns:

More purity give me,
More strength to o’ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains,
More longing for home.
More fit for the kingdom,
More used would I be,
More blessed and holy—
More, Savior, like thee.

((Also quoted by Elder Eyring in his October 2019 talk, "Holiness and the Plan of Happiness" a fantastic read, I would 10/10 recommend))

I know that God loves you. I know that because of that he sent his son Jesus Christ for you so that joyful progression would be possible. I know he lives. I know that it is only through him that we can obtain true happiness.

Here's to 2020 I'll see ya THIS year! :)

Finding with a member

Jus a quick lil after 9 doodle

BEST Christmas present!!

A picture, of Sister Paras, taking a picture.

Me being a distracted passenger

Our church building