Hej!‏ (Letter From Katherine - 07/15/2013)

Hello my dear family!

Things are going well here in Odense. Last Tuesday we had dinner with our Bishop and his family. They are such an awesome family! After dinner with them we went to this music fireside thing. One of the ladies in our ward has family visiting her. They are from Utah and they are incredible musicians, kind of like the 5 browns ya know? Anyways, it was glorious. haha It was in Itte's back yard and the setting was beutiful and so was the music. You all would have loved it! I have pictures.

Wednesday we had a zone meeting, and media training. It was fun to see the zone, and now we all know what to do if someone wants to interview us. I wanted to call up the newstation right away. How cool would it be though if they did a news cover of all the missionaries here in Odense! They actually did one a few years back in Odense, and they showed us it in the media training. It was pretty funny. 

After the meeting and training we went to Svendborg to teach Nina and Lucia. They are the ones that came to church last sunday and said they wanted to be baptzied. Lan Le wanted all four missionaries there so we all went and the lesson was incredible. We went over the first lesson and then showed the restoration dvd. The spirit was so strong. Everyone could feel it, and it was so cool because even Lan Le's kids were so into the lesson. I had no idea that it meant so much to them. Nina and Lucia will be getting baptzied August 3rd. I am thrilled! 

The Odense 2nd ward will be having two baptisms on August 3rd, one on August 10th, and one on August 17th. We are all so excited! The Lord is hastening his work. it's extremely humbling to know that it's not because of us that we have baptisms. These people are ready and words can't even express how blessed I feel to be able to be a missionary at this time, in this ward. 

Thursday we had a really cool experience. The elders in the first ward have been working with a lady that is actually in our area. They have been having a hard time progressing with her, so they decided to have us work with her. They took us to do service for her so we could introduce ourselves and get to know her. She had no idea that we were coming, so we weren't even sure if she would be home and we had to take the train to get to her home. Ken Hall picked us up at the train station and when we get to her house and she answered the door guess what? She was in the middle of a project! She wanted to repaint the window frame, so we sanded it down for her. The elders were definitely inspired to go visit her at that time. It worked out perfect. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her soon!

Sister Nuttall and I went to this relief society activity and it was fun. The culture here is so different. Enough said.

Friday we had another appointment with Nina and lucia, and it was at Lan's house again, so of course she fed us. She always feeds us and it's so much food. We weren't expecting her to feed us because the appointment was at 3 so it wasn't lunch time or dinner time. It caught us off gaurd, and then after that lesson we had a dinner appointment. We all wanted to die. The lesson with Nina and Lucia went well though. We talked about the plan of salvation, and when lan Le bore her testimony of the atonement the spirit was so strong. 

Saturday a member in our ward took us to this flea market carnival thing. his name is Klaus, and it's actually the man that came to my danish class to surprise dane for his birthday. How funny is that? Anyways, he took us to this carnival thing and it was super funny. You know how Riverton Town days brings out Riverton's greatest people? yeah you should have seen this thing. IT was HUGE! and the people there were crazy! It was fun, but I would be perfectly fine never to go back to that again. 

Sunday we had two of our investigators come to church. Michael and Ike. After sacrament meeting Elder Ivie went up to Ike and asked if he was a member. Ike said no...not yet. He is african american and he doesn't speak danish so I think the meeting was kind of rough for him. We had someone translate for him, but it would still be hard ya know? He said he will be definitely be seeing us again though. LAst week he even told us that he wants to be baptzied it's just going to have to take time. We want to be able to set a baptismal date with him soon. His wife is danish and I think it would be the coolest thing ever if we could teach her too. This is Michael's second week at church. He hasn't been able to meet with us during the week, but he likes coming to church. hopefully we can schedule an appointment with him soon!

Oh yeah! Guess who played the organ in sacrament meeting yesterday? haha I did. the first song was really rough. I had a hard time hearing the congregation so I was off at first, but luckily i pulled it together! We had dinner with Elder and Sister Ivie last night with all the missionaries. It was fun, they are one of the funniest couples I have met. 

Oh yeah! this is super random, but Sister Nuttall and I went to visit a member the other day, and  guess what? she drew us. She is extremely talented and her artwork is all over her house. We asked her what we could do for her and she sat us down and started drawing us. She is so sweet, and I will treasure her drawing forever. 

So yeah, i think that's about it. It's kind of a long email this week. I hope you don't get bored! 

I am so thrilled about Christina's news! How wonderful. Thank you for all your love and support! I love you all so so so so so much!

one other thing. I'm gaining weight. ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! so any suggestions would be appreciated. Har det godt!

Love Katherine