Katherine's Mission to Denmark: Hej med jer! (Letter From Katherine

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!