Hello Family (Letter From Katherine - 11/18/2013

Hejså!

Well, another week has gone by here in Esbjerg and I can hardly believe it. Sister Packard and I have had some pretty neat experiences. 

Like I mentioned before Sister Packard plays the violin. It's actually her major, so she is very very talented. We have had a lot of fun playing together. Monday after our p-day had finished we planned to visit some inactive members of the church. We stopped by one to invite them to a reliefsociety activity and then planned to go visit a man who was on our ward list. It's super dark outside early now, so we went into a store near by to try and find where he lived on the map. We did our best to figure out how to get there but we were a little hesitant that we would be able to find his house. Well we got on our bikes and rode. We were able to find his house easy. that hardly ever happens! It usually takes some time trying to get places we have never been before, especially since Denmark doesn't like street signs very much. haha but yeah we were guided right to his house. Their lights were on and we could see that they were cooking dinner. As missionaries we seem to interupt peoples dinner a lot. haha but afte we knocked and he opened the door he told us he wasn't interested . We kept talking and then out of the blue he said he would ask his wife if we could come in. I honestly thought she would say no, but we got a very hesitant yes, which is all we needed:) We went in and just started talking to them for a while. They kept saying that they weren't interested in the missionaries visiting them. The wife isn't a member and the husband hasn't been to church since he was little. I just kept praying that they would have a change of heart, when suddenly I noticed a violin hanging on the wall. I looked at that violin and it was almost like it was glowing. I knew right then and there that it was an answer to my prayer, and it was our way in. I asked them about the violin and it turns out that the wife use to play. they had just recently been to a violin concert and talked about how much they love the violin. I don't think it was a coincidence that my companion just so happens to be a violin major. She asked if she could play it. They said it hasn't been touched in years, but that she could try. She tuned it and played beautifully, leading them to tears. They told us they would love for us to come back. It was such a neat experience. It is amazing how music can bring the spirit so strongly. 

We are teaching a young family right now, Anne Marie and Min. I think I mentioned them last time. They are some of the most wonderful humble people I have ever met. Min has commited to be baptized and he isn't even able to understand the book of mormon because it isn't in Burmeese. They are the sweetest family. Yesterday we had planned to talk to them about Joseph Smith. I thought we were about done with the lesson when Sister Packard pulled out a picture of the temple and began talking about the temple. I was kind of like...uh...where did that come from? Well, It was definitely inspired. We started talking to them about the blessings that the temples bring. When we explained that only worthy members of the church could enter the temple we heard Min say something. We were both kind of like uh oh what did he say. We asked him, and he sait that is great. You have to know Min in order to understand that him saying that is like a normal person jumping up and down and shouting for joy. haha When we started talking about baptisms for the dead and families being together forever Min said, "If this is true, I am so happy." Anne Marie said, "My heart is singing!" It was so wonderful. I can't even describe how special they are. Everytime Sister Packard and I leave their home we just have the biggest smiles on our faces. Oh they are just so wonderful.

Church was great yesterday. IT was the primary program and the children are so dang cute. Anne Marie and Min were there with their two little children as well as Nikolaj. Nikolaj is one of the members grandsons who we have began working with. He is 17, and yesterday was the first time he has been to church since he was very little. The elders just started working with a man who was a referral from the office. They went to meet him and he said I have studied your church and I want to be baptized. They gave him a book of mormon and asked him to begin reading. They went back two days later and he had read the whole thing. Pretty amazing huh? The work is hastening and people ARE prepared now, more than ever before. 

Wednesday was our zone training and that was fun. We had a thanksgiving dinner. My zone leader actually went to riverton High, he was in one of my math classes, so it was a lot of fun to see him, He's a year older than me, his name is Nathaniel Vanderborghe. There's actually an elder in my district who also went to riverton high, he was pretty good friends with Peter James, his name is Elder Ennos. Small world huh? So we had our training, a talent show, and then ate thanksgiving dinner. Oh yeah, it was in Odense! So that was great! I love Odense. It will forever be a very special place to me. AFter eating we went and played football. Or should I say the elders played football. They're not the greatest at involving the sisters. haha whatevs they just missed out on my awesome football skills. jk jk 

It was fun talking to Sister Olsen again. She was very excited that I knew the Ericksons. She invited us over for dinner tomorrow:) 

Today a class came on a field trip to the church to take a tour. There was about 20 kids ther age 13-14 and it was a really good experience. We showed them the restoration film and then took them on a tour of the church. We took them to the chapel last and Sister Packard and I played come thou fount for them. They were very respectful and had a lot of questions. One of the girls said she had goosebumps the whole time. It might have been because the church was cold, but I think she was feeling something:)   

We are working with this man named Sven. How do I even begin to explain Sven. When we go to visit him we have the elders come with. Okay, I lost it in our lesson with him. I got the giggles so bad. We were trying to sing a hymn when he pulls out his guitar. We asked him to give us an A chord, when he played an a minor. His apartment is super dark, so elder hansen was standing behind sister packard and I holding a flash light so we could see the hymn book. The whole situation was just super bizarre and I just couldn't stop laughing. Sven got a kick out of it though. 

I wish I could just give you every detail of who i'm working with and exactly what i am experiencing. I am coming to love Esbjerg even though it is dark and cold and sometimes smells like fish. 

I hope you have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving! I love you!

Love Katherine

Hej med jer! (Letter From Katherine - 11/11/2013

Hello Family!

I'm not going to lie, i feel a little homesick for Odense. It's kind of tough getting use to a new area, especially since I was in Odense for a while and loved the people there so much, but I know that I WILL come to love Esbjerg just as much if not more:)

Washing the soot off of my luggage was quite the process. I tried vacuming it all off, and that worked okay but there was still soot on them so then I scrubbed them with water and dish soap. It actually worked pretty good, but it was quite the process. I probably should have done it earlier so I wasn't so stressed with time, but it was a job I wasn't looking forward to and besides, when do missionaries ever have time to clean there luggage off? haha I was able to get all packed though. I left my bike in Odense because we will be going back on Wednesday for zone training and a Thanksgiving celebration so I thought I would just get it then when I didn't have all my luggage with me. Speaking of bikes. One of the members in Esbjerg bought bikes for the missionaries here so that is what I have been using. After the fire Sister Hall and I used the buses a lot because we lived so far away from everything so I kind of got out of the biking mode. so once again i have to adjust to biking everywhere. It's kind of rough! but it's good for me:)

 

So far is Esbjerg is great. The apartment is so dang cute. I forgot to take pictures of it this week, but I will make sure and do it next week so you can see what it looks like. I'm not sure what exact address is, but I do know that it's Nørregade 128. Oh yeah, before I forget. I cut my hair! not super short but a lady in my ward in Odense has quite the nice salon and she said she would cut our hair for us. Sister Hall chopped all of hers off and it is sooooooo cute! I just told sister Arriaga that I wanted it to be healty so she took quite a bit of length of but I was fine with that. When we asked how much it cost she told us that it was my going away gift and sister Hall's birthday gift. It was very kind of her. Okay, back to Esbjerg.

So we got in Wednesday night and went straight to an appointment with a member named Ayesha. she is 14 years old and her mom is a member but not active, and her older sister is a member as well. She has two younger sisters that aren't members. We help Ayesha with her personal progress. Right now one of her projects is to do family home evening with her family twice a week and one of those times the missionaries come over to teach the lesson. I think that is just the greatest idea.

We have two people with Baptismal dates here in Esbjerg. Min and Anne Marie. Min is from Myamar and Anne Marie is from the philippines. They are so sweet. Language is kind of a barrier. They don't have the Book of mormon in Bermese which is what Min speaks. I had my first lesson with them yesterday and oh how I wish you could have been there. They are so wonderful, humble and kind people.

Sister Packard is great! She is a very hard worker and I have really been enjoying working with her. The other night when one of our appointments fell through we were contacting on the street and knocking doors. We contacted this one guy and I kind of just slaughtered it. The guy started laughing and then we got the giggles way bad. He wasn't very interested but atleast we put a smile on his face. After contacting him we went to knock a door and I tried to say something but I guess I still had the giggles because I lost it. I couldn't even talk I was laughing so hard. That has never happened to me while knocking doors. haha but it was pretty funny. Don't worry I was able to pull it together after that haha. 

We are working hard and during our planning sessions at the end of the day we realize that we forgot to schedule in meals haha. Speaking of meals, the members don't feed us as much here in Esbjerg :.( it's okay though maybe I will lose some weight haha. 

Guess what. I spoke on sunday too! We are twinners mom:) My topic was on the different cultures within different missions. It was kind of a tough subject, but it was good because I was able to clear some things up. There are 3 members that teach us Danish. one of the ladies teaches us on Sunday mornings before church. She helped me a lot with my talk. Her name is Birgitte Olsen. Yep that's right sister Olsen. Her son is Emil. Small world! I actually wasn't able to talk to her about Emil and the Erickson's because I didn't put it together till later. She is the only member in her family and she served a mission in Ohio. She's awesome. 

I could go on and on about some of hte people here. They're great! 

Sister Packard plays the violin and she was actually able to get a hold of one from a member so we get to play the violin an piano together. It is quite fun! 

 

Things have been going good. It's hard adjusting to a new area but I'm excited for what lies ahead. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!!!!!

Love Katherine

ps. It's so cold!!! 

pps. Isabella, the investigator we were working with in Odense, is getting baptized in January! so exciting!!

Jeg skal til Esbjerg (Letter From Katherine - 11/04/2013)

Hello my dear wonderful family!

First things first. The keys on this keyboard are sticking, so if there are a ton of typos i'm sorry!

Guess what?! I'm being transferred! to Esbjerg! Which is pretty funny because that is where sister Hall served before comig to Odense. I have heard nothig but good things about Esbjerg. I will also be companions with Sister Hannah Packard. We went to New York togther. She is the one that is really good friends with Summer! I am pretty dang excited. I mean, i love Odense, but i didn't realize how ready I was to be transferred until I actually recived the phone call.

It has been a crazy abnormal week. We had a lot of big events. Thursday we had a halloween party thing for invstigators/less actives and it was quite the project. We made  haunted house and It took pretty much all day. It was fun, but I was beat. I'm not sure how, but I ended up pretty much making all of the food. It was just so hectic! but pretty funny. Sister Hall and I accidentaly dumped like all of the noodls into the sink. So yeah that was quite the experience.

Friday was a pretty normal missionary day. We were able to meet with Birgit finally. she hadn't been respondig to our texts our calls so we decided to just try and visit her. She was home! She let us come in and we tlaked for quite a while. She is about 50 and she has cancer. She has  a very posotive outlook on life and is very open to our message. I am excited to hear about what happes with her in the future.

Before I forget, Sister Hall and Sister Bartholomew went to copenhagen on tuesday to take their language test. So sister Rigby and I were on splits together. Oh wait! K so monday there was like this crazy huge storm in Denmark. People couldn't even ride their bikes, and the next day a ton of trees were broken and stuff. The missionaries had to stay inside. So we bakded bannana bread and listend to christmas music. It was quite hyggeligt. Anyways, back to tuesdy so the other sisters hav e been

teachig  a young woman named Isabella. She lives in our ward so Sister Hall and I have been working with her now. Tuesday Sister Rigby adn I had a lesson with her and explaied why it's so important that she goes to the ward that she lives in. at first she hd  areally hard time with it, but all we had to say was God's house is a house of order. It was really cool to see how it just clicked. She came to the second ward yesterday and fasted for the first time. She is such a special girl. i am sad to leave her. She wants to be baptized in january:)

Saturday was sister Hall's birthday. We had an eating appoitmnt with one of the young singl adults and she had a little birthdya party for her. It was a lot of fun. I'm such an awkward missionary though. haha It's hard because I'm not Katherine, I'm sister Murray. I mean I'm still my self, but it's not the same ya know?

Sunday we had an amazing fast and testimoy meeting. Last week Ninna went to the temple to do her mother's baptism and confirmation. She had a wonderful experience. A lot of the testimoies were focussed on the temple. It was really neat. One of the young men about David's age got up and bore his testimony and it was very very touching. It was just a really good meeting. JJ a member from greenland invited his sister to come. She isn't a member and she just crited through all of sacramnt meeting. It was very sweet. It was kind of hard sayig goodbye to the people I love. Especially Ninna. Holy Cow I didn't relaize that it would be that hard. I have her information and will definitly be keeping in touch. Guss what?! Yesterday Lucia was in all three hours of church and so was her big sister  who isn't a member. IT was great! Mona also told us that her dad wants to staart coming back to church. What a huge blesing.

We had a little fireside thing for the young adults after churh and pretty much everything thta could have gone wrong went wrong. Holy cow. Long story short it turned out okay. we watched the other side of heaven. Well, I didn't watch it because I was like wired and couldn't relax so I cut apples with the other sisters hahaa. I'm pretty sure missionaries feel way to much stress. It's okay though because it somehow always manages to work out! We definitely have someone watching over us. Mom- we made the apple dip with the toffee in it for the dessert and they all loved it. Just thought I would let you know:) It was a hectic night though. It was just crazy because church was just absolutely wonderful nd then everything just went crazy. It will definitely be a night thta I rmmber.

Well that's about it. It was a good and crzazy week. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love Katherine

ps. I didn't have any migraines this week:) woohoo!

Hello!!! (Letter From Katherine - 10/28/2013

Hej Family,

So I am sorry but I am starting this letter off with bad news. It has been a pretty rough week for migraines. i think I had a total of three, but one of them was probably one of the worst ones I have ever had in my life and i'm not even exaggerating

. I started in the middle of the night so by the time i got the medicine in it didn't do anything. IT was so weird I couldn't talk at all and my whole body was like completely numb, and I threw up like 5 times. It was great. I think it kind of freaked the other sisters out. I felt bad. They called the elders and had them come and give me a blessing. After the migraine had passed Sister Hall siad Holy cow, now I understand why they are called mini strokes. It was really really hard. but i'm okay! I don't know what triggered them but I think it means that there are blessings to come!

Saturday was Davids's baptism. He is 16 years old and has been ready to be baptized for qutie a while and it finally happened! It was such a special day. His mom and siblings are members of the church, but his parents are divorced and his dad isn't a member. Earlier in the week Sister Hall and I were able to have dinner with Hannah and Lars Jensen, he was the man that baptized and confirmed Davids. It was fun getting to know them better and it made the baptism a really neat experience. Hannah and Lars have not been able to have children, but they developed a relationship with Davids, so Davids asked Lars to baptize and confirm him. Since Lars hasn't had the opportunity to baptize his own children Davids was the first person that he has baptized and you could tell how excited and humbled he was to do it. It was a very sweet baptism. 

During the dinner appointment with Hanne and Lars I was in heaven. Lars plays the piano, and very well at that! He would play a song and then have me play a song, and we switched back and forth a few times. It was so much fun. I miss playing the piano!!!!

Sunday they had the ward choir sing. I didn't even know we had a ward choir until yesterday, but I loved it. It was cool to look at all of them and say I have been in their homes and eaten with them and gotten to know and love them so much. We find out what is happening with transfers on Wednesday and the thought of leaving Odense makes me want to cry. I love the people here so so much.

We had interviews with president last week and I thought I could get him to tell what would be happening with transfers but he said he still wasn't sure. He asked me if I was sick of Odense and I told him I could serve my whole mission in Odense and be happy. haha

Yesterday Mona and Marejka were both in church. They are getting really involved with the young single adults so that his been wonderful. Thursday Ken Hall is having a halloween get together with the missionaries/investigators/members/less actives. It should be a lot of fun! I will let you know how it goes.

Guess what? Taylor's apartment got robbed! crazy huh?

Elder Larsen, he's my district leader is going home next week. now that is crazy! He has been here in Odense as long as I have. It's weird to think that the time comes in a missionaries life when they actually go home.

Things have been going well and Sister Hall has been making me laugh a lot. Oh she is so dang funny. Guess what we're doing on sunday?! so a few weeks ago we had a fireside for the young single adults where we watched the joseph smith movie and had a testimony meeting. This sunday we are going to do a missionary fireside and guess what movie we got approved?! THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN!!!!! cool huh? I'm pretty excited. This saturday is also sister hall's birthday, so it will be a good week:) Thank you for all your love and support and prayers. I hope you all know how much I love you. Have a great week!

Love Katherine

ps. so one of the members in my ward put a picture of four of us missionaries at the harry potter festival on a world wide church member page on face book and she said it got like 1000 likes. cool huh? 

Letter From Katherine - 10/21/2013

Hello Family,

 

This week was the Harry Potter Festival and it was a ton of fun. I have decided that when jeg rejse tilbage I will read all the books and then Watch all of the movies. But I'm getting way to far ahead of myself.

 

I'm trying to think of what happened last week but everything is blurring together. The weeks are flying! Last week was after år ferie so most of our investigators were out of town, so it was kind of a slower week, but it still seemed to fly! Oh yes. I remember now.

 

So last week we had Exchanges witht he sister training leaders. So sister Hall and i got on a train and we were off to Horsens. Once we got their we went to a dinner appointment. Guess who I met? I can't remember their names, but Dad, you Work with this guy whose parents are serving in Denmark. They were at the eating appointment! because he was the man who baptized the member that was feeding us. cool huh? So that was fun to see them. Im pretty sure they had just gotten to Denmark. They were very excited.

 

The next day we went to Work in horsens. Sister Briscoe and I had an amazing experience. We went to visit a Young woman named Kaitlyn. She is from Ohio and is living with her Danish boyfriend. We didn't have an appointment with her so we were praying that she would be home. Well my friends, she was home! we talked to her for quite a bit on the doorstep, but since missionaries are kind of a Little forward we asked if we could come inside and talk. She said yeah, but my boyfriend is sleeping. I'm not going to lie, i was kind of hoping he wouldn't be home. We went in though and Rasmus(boyfriend) woke up and joined in on the discussion. holy cow. They were both sooooo open and the spirit was strong. Sister Briscoe and her companion have met with them since then, and they both said that they would be baptized. :) I am very excited to hear how they Progress. I'm not sure if you have watched the district, but if so, they kind of remind me of Jackie and Caleb. On the way out of that lesson sister Briscoe and I were just grinning. We were so happy, and the next lady that we contacted just so happened to be a less active. Cool huh! she gave us her number and seemed pretty excited to meet with sister missionaries.

 

So Horsens was great. Sister Hall didn't even jump on me in the middle of the night screaming about rats, haha. Sister Hall and I met with a Young woman who came to Sofie's talk last week. She said she was interested in meeting with us, but it was a rough lesson. IT was just...hard! It was like one of the lessons in the MTC. I felt like my Danish was a lot better, but it was just a hard lesson. I'm use to people being pretty accepting and open when we teach, but not this time. I hope she will meet with us Again. I guess we will see.

 

But on the other hand! Mona came to church yesterday and told us that she wants to be baptized. She said she wants to be meeting with missionaries atleast three times a week. You probably can't tell over email, but I have a really big smile on my face :D

 

The Harry Potter Festival was Friday and saturday. We took an Essentials pday last week so we could experience the festival for ourselves haha quiditch was so much fun. They had harry potter charactesr all around the city and the Little kids loved it. They also had Booths set up where you could buy a wand, make a broomstick, etc.. it was really neat. So I can't remember if I told you last week, but one of the members is part of the IQA (international quidditch association) haha yes, it's a real thing. Anyways, he was in charge of the quidditch games and he recruited all of of the missionaries to help him. It was soooo fun.

 

Things are going good in Odense. I love it here. I love the members. I'm so happy.

 

We have had Svendborg missionaries for a while now, and this sunday we will be having sacrament meeting in Svendborg. pretty exciting. 

 

Well Family, I love you all very much! I'm so grateful to hear from you. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

 

Love Katherine

I just bought a really expensive coat and I'm sorry. It should keep me warm this winter though. (Letter From Katherine - 10/14/2013)

Hello my dear family!

It has been a good week. 

last Monday Sister Hall and i and two of the elders had family home evening at an eldery couples house. It was so much fun! After sharing a lesson with them we tried to teach them how to play phase 10. After about 10 minutes into it, Edmond told us that he just didn't get it and he was going to go into the kitchen and get dessert ready. It was pretty funny. Trying to teach people how to play phase 10 in not so good Danish is quite hard haha. They are such a wonderful couple though and they have been giving us quite a few of refferals lately. One of them lives in a kloster which is the danish equivalent of a Monestary. So we went to visit her and we saw Nuns! The lady that we went to visit is not a nun though. She use to be a member and she called the Nielsens up and told them that she wants to be a member again. She was a hoot. She is an elderly woman and i'm not exactly sure how with it she is, but we are excited to see how we can help her. She told us that she was very happy for us to come and to come back next week. I will keep you posted with how it goes.

Tuesday we had another lesson with Marejka, she is the girl from Germany who is friends with one of the young single adults. She is very open, and she really liked General Conference. Our other investigator Mona- she was also at general conference- told us that she wants to meet with us after she finishes the book of mormon. She said she should be finished either today or tomorrow, and yesterday she went to all 3 meetings of church in Copenhagen. She told one of the young single adults that while she was reading the book of mormon she gained a testimony of it and couldn't stop crying, and couldn't put it down. The book of mormon seems to do that to you doesn't it? :) We are really excited to start meeting with her. 

Denmark has a lot of random vacation weeks, and this week is one of them so a lot of our investigators are out of town. That kind of makes things hard but we're going to try and do a lot of service for the members in our ward. So you know how we have 6 missionaries in our ward now? Well believe it or not a lot of the members are signing up to feed all 6 of us. Crazy huh!

Yesterday a girl leaving on her mission spoke.

She will be serving in Canada french and spanish speaking. She is crazy, the good kind of course, and her testimony was powerful. I am so excited for her. We went to her house after meetings yesterday. It was crazy because she and her family would be driving to Copenhagen at 2 am and then should we be flying to the MTC in provo. It was kind of sad because they had the open house after church, and then she was off! She didn't even have any down time. But that might have been better for her because it didn't leave her with much time to think about it. There were a bunch of non members at her house, so it was a good experience to talk to them and answer some of their questions about missionary work.

So I don't think I have ever really been a sleep talker, but appearently one night when Sister Hall was sleep talking I started talking back to her. Funny thing is that the conversation was in Danish. haha. Last night sister Hall was contacting in her sleep. It was quite hilarious.

Things are going well here in Odense. Saturday the sisters in the other ward had a baptism. It was a beautiful service, and the spirit was very strong. I was in charge of playing the piano which I love, because I don't get to play very often. After the service was over and people were eating refreshments I continued playing postlude and a little girl came up and just started singing. It was pretty cute. It reminded me of how Brooklyn McKay would always come up to mom after primay and ask if she would play for her to sing.

The house that we are living in hasn't caught on fire or anything so that is good. haha I am

going to send some pictures of it today so you can get a taste of what it looks like. It is quite a bit bigger than our apartment which means there is a lot more cleaning to do. that's okay though! the heated tile floors and the message chair make it all worth it haha.

This week is the Harry Potter Festival! one of the members is in charge of the quittich tournaments and he asked if we could help him run it. how cool is that?! I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

So yeah I think that's about it. It was a good week.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love Katherine 

ps. Remember those lovely dansko shoes? Well they were completely protected from the fire, so I have worn them a little. I am very grateful for them, but I'm not going to lie, they haven't gotten any cuter. :) 

Letter From Katherine - October 30 2013

Hello my dear family!

 

I have some good news. We were able to get back into the apartment and get a lot more than we expected out. Everyone told us that our clothes were ruined, but we decided to try and wash them anyways. Fortunately the home we are staying in has a washing machine and a dryer so we have been using it pretty constantly. The smoke is coming out of some of the clothes, but some are ruined. We were able to save a lot more than I thought though. My luggage was covered in soot, but I took it out of the apartment anyways and I will try my best to clean it. It has been a crazy week. We only had a certain amount of time to get our things out of the apartment so we were quite busy with that, and then trying to clean what we got out. It hasn't been a typical missionary week that's for sure. It has been really hard, and I am now kind of dealing with anxiety. I actually brought it up to the other sisters today and they said they were all feeling the same way, so that gave me some comfort haha. 

So transfers happened. Sister Hall and I will be staying here in Odense. I was actually really surprised that I wasn't being transfered. I feel extremely blessed to stay here in Odense, but I was thinking it would be easier to get back into missionary mode after the fire by moving to a different area. It's just kind of hard because I feel like i have worked the area. At the same time though, I really think things will be picking up. 

Yesterday in church relief society was combined with the men and the lesson was all about missionary work. It was held in the chapel, and our Bishop had us come sit on the stand while he explained that the work cannot be done without the members. It was awesome. I have not been able to see the Relief Society broadcast yet, but President told us to find some time this week and watch it. I am looking forward to that and also General conference. I love general conference!!! It will be different not watching it with the family though that's for sure. 

Guess who is in my district now? Dane's little brother! haha he is a lot like Dane. It has been fun getting to know him. He will be moving to the first ward on thursday because his companion, elder larsen, will be training. We had a dinner appointmentment with Ninna (she was just recently baptized) and it was great! Her husband hasn't been supportive of her joining the church, but he has gone from not letting us visit to being kinder every time we do visit. 

Yesterday we had a fireside for the young single adults. It was awesome. There was a great turn out, 20 young adults, 6 of which were not members. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and then had a couple of people bear their testimonies on the resteration afterwards. A lot of the young adults are returned missionaries so they are doing a great job of inviting people to activities.

So yeah, things are going well. It has been kind of a stressfull week, but we're getting back in the routine of missionær arbejde. I can't remember if I told you, but we are staying in a couple's home who is serving a mission on Bornholm. It is a very nice home. The only problem is that it is kind of a ways out in first ward so it takes a while to get to our area. Thank goodness for busses! Both wards have been so helpful and generous. Words cannot even express how grateful I am for the members help. They have been awesome. We are definitely being taken care of here in Odense, actually in all of Denmark. there have been members from all over Denmark calling to see how they can help us. We are so blessed. 

Thank you for all your love and support. Have fun celebrating Adam's Birthday!!! I will make sure to celebrate here in Denmark. I love you all so so much. 

Love Katherine xoxox 

This girl is on fire!.....and so is the Apartment... (Letters from Katherine - 09/23/2013)

Note:  We got a call from Katherine's Mission President on Sunday.  Seems like there was a bit of an issue with the apartment.

Letter 1
This girl is on fire!.....and so is the Apartment...

Hej!

Letter 2
We Didn't Start The Fire!!
(Response to my note - "Who left the curling iron plugged in?")

Hello!!!!

Yes, it's true. There was a fire in our Apartment due to some electrical issues. no one left anything plugged in. It is actually quite amazing that none of us our hurt. Sister Hall and I were fasting that day so we didn't go back for lunch. We considered going back to take a nap during our lunch hour, but i didn't feel good about that so we stayed out.

Pretty much everything is ruined. Fortunately I was able to get my passport and migraine medicine. Thank goodness. We did some shopping today. clothes are so expensive it makes me sick. Im sorry. I am officially the most expensive child.

We are doing well though. Elder and Sister Køster are serving a couples mission in Bornholm so we are staying in their home. It is definitely an upgrade from our Apartment.

Im still kind of having a hard time believing that it happened. The Wards here in Odense have been amazing. Words cannot Express how grateful I am for all the help, clothes, and food they have given us. We are so fortunate.

read D&C 84:77-99

Letter 3

Fire Sale!!!

passport is safe, migraine medicine is safe, area book is safe, and so are the scriptures that I have had since I was 8. I don't remember putting them in the case when we left that day, but when we went back to the Apartment they were in the case and protected from the fire. I had my camera with me so Pictures are fine. My journal is nasty, but it survived. What wasn't burned by the fire is completely damaged by smoke. so yeah. crazy huh?


Letter 4

Okay, take two.

I will try and explain Things better this time. But before I begin I would just like to say that I was able to go to the Copenhagen temple it was wonderful. Really, I had no idea how much I have missed the temple. We had to go to Copenhagen for my language test, (all missionaries have to take it) and after we got their we discovered that I wasn't scheduled to take the test, so that caused some stress but the people were very kind and worked with the office to let me take the test. Oh yeah and on the way I started having a migraine. So it was all just kind of hectic and then we had to be at the temple at a certain time so we literally ran there. It was so crazy getting there, but as soon as I stepped into the temple I was just overcome with so much Peace. It was such a good feeling. Im so grateful for the opportunity i had to go.

So back to the fire. Sister Hall and I had decided the night before to fast together. We left the Apartment at 10:30 and started contacting. There was a marathon taking place in Odense so we basically invited everyone watching the marathon to come to church. Lunch time came around, but we were fasting. The night before we considered taking a nap during our lunch hour but I just did not have a good feeling about that. I think i know why now. So we stayed out. Our church starts at 2, and towards the end of sacrament meeting the Sister Briscoe and Sister Bartholomew motioned for sister Hall and I to come out. Right then i knew something was wrong, but I had no idea what it was. We went Down in the basement and they told us that our Apartment had caught on fire and that everything was destroyed. Then we dropped to our knees and prayed together.

As soon as president found out he was on his way, so we waited for him to get to the church. when he got there we went and looked at the Apartment. I have some Pictures, but it doesn't do it Justice. EVERYTHING is Black and covered in soot. It was horrible.

The members have been amazing though. We are all doing well. We went shopping today so that was good. But everything is so expensive. 

I'm Soooo Tired!! (Letter From Katherine - 09/16/2013)

Hej min familie!

 

Like the subject line says, I am so tired. but doing great! I had the hardest time keeping my eyes open in sacrament meeting yesterday. Missionary life is exhausting haha It's worth it though:) Nothing too exciting has happened this week, but i'll give you a little run down of the weeks events.

 

So last week after p-day we had a dinner appointment with a young couple who was just recently married. They are so much fun! I don't know what for, but Sister Hall asked them what their favorite smells were haha....yeah. So they both said they love the smell of books. They then pulled out a bunch of their texts books so we could smell them. It was super funny. They are both returned missionaries as well. Julie served in the Oakland Sacramento mission and Christian served in Ogden Utah (woot woot!). They both loved their missions. It was a lot of fun talking to them about the experiences they had.

 

Tuesday we went to visit an investigator, but guess what? we accidentaly got on the wrong bus haha. I'm not sure how we managed that. So we weren't able to visit Helle (investigator) until later that evening. So before that, we went to another appointment and then to CUV (young single adult activity). CUV is every tuesday and it is always a lot of fun. We were hoping that one of our investigators would come, but he wasn't able to make it. The Ivie's are the ones that run the center. We don't always go to CUV, but it's a lot of fun when we do. Okay so after CUV we went to try and visit Helle again. So she answers the door and we're about to make an appointment with her when her neighbor comes around the corner and told Helle that she could not make an appointment with us. The neighbor was pretty upset and told us to leave. We started walking away when the neighbor came up to us and explained that Helle has a brain injury and can't handle visits from us. The whole situation was kind of sad. We were able to find a lot of potentials in her area though, so that was good.

 

So we went to visit this less active family, but it turned out that they live quite a ways away. on our way there we asked a man for directions and we ended up talking to him for quite a while. When we started back on our trek to find the pedersons we realized that we needed to run back to the bus stop to catch our bus. We really had to run. It was super funny. We would point to something in the distance and say okay, we'll run to that tree and then we can walk for a second. So we did that a few times when we saw our bus pass in the distance. So yeah we missed our bus. haha I don't know why i'm telling you all these details. haha sorry if this e-mail is long and boring! 

 

Later that night we had a dinner appointment with Familie Fredereksen. He is the stake president, and I met their daughter at the MTC. We had frikadæller! not sure if that's how you spell that... They were delicious. And guess what? That was the first time that I really felt like I understood danish. It was awesome! There's hope for me learning danish after all! Don't get me wrong though, it's still super hard.

 

Sister Hall and I have been working a lot with Nina. Unfortunately her daughter Lucia doesn't want to meet with us. Sad huh? we're going to try and get the primary kids involved. It's hard though because they live in svendborg which is kind of far away. Nina is doing awesome though and is getting ready for the ward temple trip so she can do baptisms. She wants to take her mom's name so we have been doing family history with her.

 

There is also a new member named Hellen. She was actually baptized in England the same time that Nina was baptized. Hellen is 18 and she is wonderful. She is Danish but lived in England with her family for a while and is now back in Denmark for school. She fed the missionaries on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. She has a cute little kitten too! So yeah, Sister Hall and I have been working with them and teaching them the new member lessons.

 

Yesterday Biskop told us that he wants us visiting atleast one member every day. Active eller inactive. I think it's a great idea. There will be two more missionaries in our ward that will be coming pretty soon depending on visas. Some missionaries from last transfer still haven't gotten their visas. My group was very lucky to have gotten them so quickly. Transfers are coming up. Not this wednesday but next wednesday im not sure what is going to happen but I would be sad to leave Odense. I love it here. But at the same time I think it would be exciting to serve somewhere else. I have decided that If I do leave Odense I would love to serve here again at the end of my mission. So yeah!

 

We're still trying to find people to teach. We have been meeting with members quite a bit and so far we haven't gotten too many referrals. The mission is switching gears and the new missionaries are kind of the start of that. At zone trainings we have talked about effective ways of finding people and guess what? bonking doors and contacting isn't one of them. It's all through the members. Things will pick up though, because the members are starting to catch on.

 

Well Family, I love you all so much. I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Love Katherine   

Hej min familie! (Letter From Katherine - 09/09/2013)

Hej min familie!

 

As of right now sister Hall and I don't have very many investigators...but all is well! We have spent a lot of time meeting with our Ward members and doing service. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the Ward members better. I love my Ward here in Odense! Yesterday the missionaries from both first and second Ward sang in sacrament meeting. I lucked out and got to play the piano, which I was glad for. A couple of the elders are completely tone deaf so earlier in the week when we were practicing I got the giggles way bad, so its a good thing I wasn't singing with them because I probably would have lost it. I dont know why, but for some reason I think it's the most funny thing ever when tone deaf people sing. I think it sounded okay though. If not it's the thought that Counts right? I also got to play the piano in primary Again. I love being in primary! The children are super funny. One of the Little boys WHO - I don't know why it capitilizes random Words or letters. Anyways, the Little boy that gave a talk in primary showed the mormon message of the the boy WHO ran races with the handicap boy, and then he talked about serving others. The Little kids loved the video and they were so into it. They are usually quite rowdy, but while they were watching it was dead silent It was really sweet. So yeah I love being in primary, it's a lot of fun.

 

Sister Hall and I had a really neat experience this week. After CUV (the Young single adults activity) we went to visit a woman that sister Nuttall and I had met like sometime in July I think. The first time we met her she talked to us on her doorstep for a while and then told us to come back. When we went back she told us that she would be on vacation for quite a while and that we should try in like a month. So we went back and she wasn't home. Well Sister Hall and I decided to try Again. We went and knocked on her door and guess what. She wasn't home. Sister Hall suggested that we go and visit a member who lived close by, and I thought that was a good idea but I told her that I felt like there was something else we needed to be doing. So she asked, "Okay, what is it?" and I said, "I don't know. I just know that there is something else we should be doing." So I tried going through the Ward list to see if there was someone else that we should visit. Nothing really felt right so we decided to go visit the member that Sister Hall suggested. We got on our bikes and began to head out when we decided that we needed to pray about our decision. So right there in the middle of the road we said a prayer. And guess who came riding by on their bike? The potential who wasn't home. She asked us what we were doing and we told her we were praying. We talked to her for a few minutes and she gaves us her number and told us to call her and come back. It was really cool. It was just another reminder that although at times we may feel a Little lost as to what we should do, the lord will always guide us. It is his Work after all:)

 

Sister Hall and I also did some good ol' service this week. We went over to Lan Le's house and moved this gigantic pile of Wood that was on the side of her house into the middle of the yard and then burned it. We found toads, spiders, and giant snails during the Whole process. We also got stung by stinging neddle. We totes got the job done though! After that we went to Bishop's house and helped get ready for the Ward party. It was a lot of fun! I really have enjoyed getting to know the Ward better.

 

Last Tuesday we had an appointment with an investigator and we took JJ, a member, with us. We got to the appointment and the lady told us that she wasn't feeling too well and she wanted us to come back the next day. We were a Little disappointed when JJ said, "well what's next? there is obviously someone in this area who needs to see us." I loved that he said that, because if he hadn't I think we would have left the area to visit other people. We decided to knock doors and it was actually pretty succesful. We talked to a lady for quite a while and she said She's not so sure if this will change her life or anything, but she is willing to give it a try. haha Little does she know:) A lot of the people in the area gave us their numbers, which usually never happens. JJ called it a gold mine. A Little bit about JJ, he is from Greenland! Cool huh! he served a mission in Ogden Utah. He's awesome and a huge help with missionary Work. As of now missionaries aren't serving in Greenland, but I think that will change soon. JJ is one of 3 members from Greenland. He has a really good spirit about him, it's kind of hard to explaing, but you can just tell that the greenlandic people are special people. I can't wait for the day when missionaries can serve there.

 

So last night we had an eating appointment. It was delicious like always, but after it was dark and rainy and we had to ride our bikes home. The elders still don't have bikes so the members offered to give them a ride. Are elders are so chivilrous that they offered to ride our bikes home so we could ride in the car. NOT!!! So there we are riding in the rain when all the sudden my chain falls off. Okay, so I fixed it. It falls off Again. After the third time I was just like whatever I'm walking. haha typical missionary experience. It was funny.

 

You know, it's tough not having people to teach, but I'm happy. I really am so grateful to be here serving the Lord. I know that he knows what he is doing, and it is so important for me to rely on him completely.

 

I love you all so much! I'm so grateful for all your love and support. You're always in my prayers.

 

MKH

Katherine

Helloooo!!!! (Letter From Katherine - 09/02/2013)

Hello my dear family,

So since Sister Hall and I don't have too many investigators we started off the week just trying to visit a lot of members. It was great and I really enjoyed getting to know some of them better. Wednesday we had a huge service project. An elderly lady is moving to a nursing home and she needed help cleaning out her apartment. She is also an artist and a hoarder, so it was a huge project, and for the most part it was only the missionaries that were there to help. So that took up a lot of our time this week, and then a couple of the sisters including sister Hall got sick. So it has been kind of another weird week, but don't worry.  All is well. I'm happy.

It seems like the people we do meet with are really nice and happy to meet with us, and the first lesson goes really well, but when we try and schedule another time with them, they never respond, so that's kind of a bummer, but I KNOW that there are people here ready to hear the gospel. I just hope i'm doing all that I can to find them.

It is definitely fall. The last few days of August I could feel the weather changing and yesterday and today it feels totally and completely like fall. I love fall but it is quite chilly here in Denmark!

I have loved having a 4 sister apartment. We have been having a lot of fun together. It's going to be weird when I live in an apartment with just me and my companion.

I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say again this week. I'm not discouraged though I promise. It just hasn't been the most exciting week.

I hope you are all doing well and that you know I love you so much! Thank you for all your love and support.

Love Katherine

hej familie! (Letter From Katherine - 8/29/2013)

Hello Family,

Im glad you got the letter I sent you. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, so that's good. It has been kind of a weird week. Im having a hard time remembering what even happened. Right now we don't really have any progressing investigators so it has been a little rough. I think I will just start with what happened yesterday and work my way backwords. Yesterday, one of the members brought some of her friends to church, so that was neat but non of them live in Odense. A young woman from Ghana moved into the ward and it was perfect becasue we had an appointment with noble our investigator who is also from Africa and we needed somone to teach with us. she was more than willing to come with us and she is awesome! Unfortunately we "dropped" Noble. It seems like we have been dropping a lot of people lately. Anyways, her name is Ruby and she will be in Denmark 2 years for school. She came on her own and has only been here for four days.

Saturday Sister Hall and I found someones phone in the middle of the street so we called the contacts in it to try and return it to the owner. We got a hold of someone and while we were waiting to meet up with them these drunk guys came up to us. It was actually kind of scarry. There's a lot of drunk people here in Denmark.

I don't know i'm trying to think of what has happened. Sister Hall and I went on exchanges in Horrsens, and that was fun. I slept on the floor and sister hall was on the couch and in the middle of the night she jumped off the couch onto the matt I was sleeping on and said, there's rats! I was like what?? and she said that there were giant rats. I said are you serious, and she said oh wait no, i was just dreaming and then she got back up on the couch and went back to sleep. It was really funny, but afterwards I was a little nervous that there were rats in the apartment.

I'm sorry that this e-mail is so short, but there isn't much to say. It was just kind of a weird week.

I love you all!

Love Katherine

Hej Min Familie!‏ (Letter from Katherine - 8/19/2013)

Hello!

 

Another week has gone by already. I can't believe it, the weeks go by so fast! Some days can be pretty slow, but the weeks always seem to fly. Yesterday I saw Dane and his wife at church! that was a lot of fun. He said he will be back next Summer. He also asked me if I eat danishes everyday. I was like, "what is that supposed to mean?!" haha he said that that's not what he meant, but what'er.

 

So Sister Hall and I had an interesting week. We haven't been able to schedule very many appointments with our investigators so we spent a lot of time contacting. A lot a lot a lot of time contacting. One of the days we were out walking a long the street and I was thinking we shouldn't be on this side, I was about to say something to Sister hall when she said the exact same thing to me. We went on the other side of the street and almost immediately we met a young man from Norway. He was very kind and interested, but he doesn't have a phone that works in Denmark yet. He got our information and we are praying that he will call.

 

Remember Inus? I'm pretty sure I told you about him last week. Well Sister Hall and I also met him contacting and he came to CUV( young single adults). Before he came he texted us and asked if it was okay if he brought his partner. Sister Hall and I were like well maybe partner just means friend. Well we were wrong. Inus is Gay. His partner was not able to come to CUV but I think Inus had a really good time. It was actually quite a neat experience. There was a really good turn out to CUV and while we were eating he asked everyone to introduce themselves. After that he openly told everyone that he was gay and then he asked what the church's stance was on homosexual relationships. It was like the young single adults just surrounded him and helped answer the questions, and they continued to answer the other questions he had about the church. Sister Hall and I just kind of sat back and watched how well they explained things to him. It was awesome! He wants to meet with us again. 

 

Crazy story. Before I tell you I need to explain who some of these people are.

 

Noble- he is an investigator, African American, extremely hard to schedule appointments with because he says he's a free man.

Ike- Another investigator who is also African American. He had a month long job that was crazy so we haven't been able to meet with him for a while.

Jolly- He is a member of the church and is in the first ward. He is also African American and we have been wanting him to come teach Noble and Ike with us but we haven't been able to schedule appointments with them. Neither of us have met him before.

 

Okay so here's the story. We invitied Noble to come play soccer last Saturday and he came and had a great time. This past Saturday he asked if Sister Hall and I would like to come to a picnic that his church was putting on for the young people. We thought it sounded like fun, and it would also be a good place to meet people. So he gave us a list of busses that we should take. We went to the trainstation to catch the bus we needed and it turned out that it was the wrong one. So stayed on the bust until it took us back to the trainstation. Then we got on the right bus and it took us to the park right by our apartment. hahaha The park that the picnic was at was the park right by us! We got a kick out of that. As soon as we got off the bus we laughed and laughed. So we head over to where the picnic is, and Noble comes and greets us. The preacher guy from the church was talking a little bit and I was just kind of looking around and guess who else was at the picnic. Ike!!! So we talked to him a little bit and then soon after this other man came up to me and said, "Hey, do you remember me? we met in Svendborg" sure enough, Sister Nuttall and I had contacted him in Svendborg. Haha so Noble, Ike, and this other guy were all at the picnic! It came time to play soccer and guess who comes up to us. Jolly! Turns out he's friends with all of them!!!!!!! CRAZY! So they all said they want to meet with us, and Jolly said he would be more than happy to come teach with us. It was crazy.

 

Hopefully that story made sense. Things have been going well here. We had a dinner appointment with a Woman named Kristine and her two children. She hasn't been to church in over 15 years but when Sister Nuttall and I went and visited her she said we could come back for dinner on the 14th of August. So Sister Hall and I went and had a wonderful time. She said she wants us to come back and teach her children about Joseph Smith. We weren't expecting that! Her daughter is 12 and her son is 13. We were able to teach them how to pray and it was a very neat experience. I am really looking forward to going back.

 

It's just crazy how up and down the week was. Although we were contacting a ton, we were able to see so many miracles. I love it. 

 

Thank you for everything! I love hearing from you! I love you all so much! 

 

Love Katherine 

Hej (Letter From Katherine - 8/12/2013)

Hello Family!

Well to start things off, my new bike is kind of a peice of work. haha Either that or Sister Nuttall just wanted me to die when she was putting it together. haha Sister Hall actually has the same bike as me and she has been having the same problems, so I think it's just the bike. I guess that's what you get for only paying 999 KR. We are going to try and have Elder Ivie (senior missionary) take a look at them.

Funny story about Elder Ivie- So our bathroom has had a leak for quite a while and we have been trying to get a hold of the landlord, but we could never get a hold of him. Well when Sister Hall got here the sink wouldn't drain and then the toilet broke. So we called elder Ivie and he came to take a look at it and it was pretty funny. He was having the hardest time with the toilet. We could hear him mumbling under his breath and then he yelled.....JUNK!!! haha then we got the giggles way bad, and it was one of those situations where you shouldn't be laughing, but you just cannot stop. Sister hall and I went outside to take the garbage out and we could still hear him yelling haha. I'm laughing way hard right now as I am writing this. IT was so funny, but you might just have to know Elder Ivie to think it was funny. We asked him if there was anything we could do to help and he said, "yeah, get me a dynamite so I can blow this toilet up!" haha

So after Elder Ivie kind of destroyed the toilet a member from the ward came to take a look at it. He was like what the heck did Elder Ivie do to this toilet. He was able to put it back together, but he couldn't get it to flush. So we have a pot in the bothroom that we fill with water and pour down the toilet bowl when we need to flush. Life is so hard. haha just kidding, maintenance was supposed to come today, but so far they havent showed. surprise surpise. Anyways, while the members was trying to fix the toilet he unclogged the sink. You should have seen all the hair that came out of it. It was like 20 years build up of sister missionary hair. It was DISGUSTING! no joke.

 

Our apartment has been pretty cluttered lately so saturday Sister Hall and I weren't able to go to soccer because we had to clean. How the other sisters got out of cleaning i'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the apartment has never had a good deep clean. Missionaries just don't have time for that. Sister Hall and I were only able to really clean the bathroom. Believe it or not I'm learning the importance of taking care of things/doing dishes/ cleaning etc.

So Sister Hall is here. So far I am really enjoying her. She is really great at talking to everyone which is what I wanted to be better at. So that has been a blessing. Our first day contacting together this young man came up to us because he works for unicef and the first thing sister hall said is you can talk to us if you'll listen to what we have to say. haha So long story short, we're meeting with him on tuesday. His name is Inus. I really hope things go well with him! Sunday we were out inviting people to church and we talked to this man for like 20 minutes. At the end of our conversation we asked if he lived in Odense and he said yes, in fact I live here with my husband. It took us off gaurd, but he was extremely nice and the conversation probably helped his view on mormons. At least I hope so.

So I'm pretty sure that in my first week with Sister Hall I have contacted more people than I did in my 6 weeks. It is a really neat thing talking to random people on the street and bearing testimony to them that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them and has a plan for them. I love it! 

Things are going well here. Danish is still really hard. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary at this time and help the Lord in hastening his work. Oh how I love the gospel.

Thank you for all of your love and support!

Love Katherine 

Nina and Lucia were døbt!‏ (Letter From Katherine - 8/4/2013)

Hello Family!

 

Well to start things off... Yesterday Nina and Lucia were baptized and confirmed. It was wonderful. Everything ran pretty smoothly. Except for leading up to the baptism it was pretty hectic. Satin really does try his hardest to mess things up. On Wednesday we saw lan Le and she was telling us that a boy in the ward who lucia had been playing with told her some crazy things about the church, so lucia went home crying. Lucia's dad was extremely upset about it and he didn't want her getting baptized. So that was kind of scary, but he did let her get baptized, but he was not there. sad huh? He doesn't support Nina or Lucia in joining the church at all. But they were both set on doing it anyways. Then yesterday before church we get a phone call from the member who was confirming them saying he couldn't do it anymore. Our Bishop was more than willing to do it though so everything went well. It was a special day, and I am so grateful I was able to be a part of it. The baptism and confirmation was after church. Nina got up in testimony meeting twice to bear her testimony. It was awesome. The second time she got up she said I just have so much more to say, and she even said hallelujah. It may sound super funny, but it was so sweet and sincere.

 

Guess what?! I bought a new war horse! aka a new cykle. aka a new bike. haha She's a real beaut. It was a fantastic deal that I couldn't pass up! With the money I saved from that purchase I can buy a new watch. Oh yeah, I broke my watch playing soccer. I will find a cheap one here... anyways, back to the bikes! i'm pretty sure the one that I was borrowing wasn't doing so hot. earlier in the we we biked out to tommerup and it took 50 minutes because it was so windy, and as soon as we got there my tire popped. It popped right in front of my mission leaders house though so that was funny. of course he wasn't home. So the Ivies (senior missionaries) came to the rescue. We got the tire repaired. And then saturday we were going to bike out to hojby and that's like a 40 minute bike ride and on our way there I had a strong feeling that I should get a new bike. It may have been the holy ghost or it may have been because I saw an advertisement for a really good sale at Bilka. Either way, I thought it would be a good idea for me to get my own bike so that way if anything happens to the one I was borrowing I won't be responsible for it. So now sister Ripplinger is using it haha. her bike was stolen earlier this week. haha appearently odense is the number one place in Danmark for bikes to be stolen. She didn't lock hers though, so that's why it was stolen.

 

This week Sister Nuttall was sick. She slept for like 3 days. She was just having really bad pains in her stomach and she went to the emergency room to see if it was apendicitis which it wasn't so then she just slept the pain off, and boy did she sleep. Luckily the other sisters were really good about going on splits with me so i wasn't trapped in the apartment all day. I'm not going to lie though, it was really frustrating with her being sick. I felt really disobedient staying in the apartment, even though there was nothing else I could do. I did not like it! But with my migraines i know what it's like being sick so i tried to be patient. She's doing good now. She's actually leaving me! she is being transferred to Copenhagen and I am getting a new companion.... it's sister Hall. She was in the MTC with me. She will be coming tomorrow. . She's a hoot. It's going to be rough, but it will be good. I can tell you right now that there is a lot that I will learn from her. I actually had a feeling that we would be companions so i was pretty prepared when president called and said it would be Sister Hall. Oh yeah! we both can barely speak danish, so that will be interesting haha.

 

Saturday I played fodball! It was soooooo fun! saturdays the missionaries get together with members, investigators, and just basically anyone who wants to play. i'm not very good at all, especially since all the danes are pro. and i'm not even joking when I say pro. a bunch of the members have played professional soccer. It was still way fun though.  

 

So yeah. It has been an interesting week with Sister nuttall being sick and all, but Nina and Lucia's baptism was wonderful. I am so happy for them. Im kind of sad about transfers because I love my district so much! Missions are just full of goodbyes and it's really really hard. Things are going well though, and i'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve.

 

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your love and support!

 

Love Katherine