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