Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Ana Marie and Min were baptized! (Letter From Katherine - 12/16/2013)

Hello my dear familiy that I love so much!

It has been kind of a crazy week, but so amazing. Ana Marie and Min were baptzied. It was a wonderful experience, and I can't even express to you how grateful I am to know them. It was a little hectic trying to get everything ready for the baptism, but everything worked out just great. Bishop ended the service with some closing remarks, and he shared a very sweet experience he had. He talked about how when he went into Ana Marie and Min's home he felt the spirit strongly and he knew that they were ready to be baptized. He talked about how he had asked Ana Marie and Min to arrive to the church before the baptism started so he could explain how things would be working and for pictures. Well, Ana Marie and Min and their sweet little children Samantha and Mathew got to the church early. Sister Packard and I were in another room getting things ready at this point and Ana and the kids must have been in the bathroom or something, but Bishop walked into the chapel and he saw Min on his knees praying. I can't even get through writing this without crying haha. Biskop talked about how it was such a humbling experience. The spirit was very strong. After the meeting was over min said to me, "We're on our way back." and I said, "You're leaving already? there's refreshments." He then said, " No sister, We have entered the gate, and now we are on the straight and narow. We're on our way back." Ana Marie told us how she felt clean and like it was a new beginning. They both felt very good after the baptism, but they knew that it wasn't complete until they received the gift of the Holy ghost. After being confirmed they were both so happy. Sister Packard and I taught the Gospel principles class and the lesson was on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked Ana Marie and Min how they felt. Min said that he knew that Jesus was so happy for him. Ana Marie said that she has just been praying to know which church is true and that she is so happy she found it. They both kept saying how happy they were. They are both just so sweet. I love them! and their kids, oh my goodness their kids! adorable.

The Christmas concert went well, but I was a little bit nervous for it. The song I was playing was kind of tough. Not way hard or anything, but it's not like I have a lot of time to practice as a missionary. Fortunately it went fine. i was glad to have it over with though. The concert was a lot of fun. There is a danish tradition of dancing around the christmas tree. Everyone holds hands and goes around the christmas tree while singing. It's funny, but fun.

Cool experience. So Sister Packard and I had not been invted anywhere for Christmas eve so we were trying to figure out things that we could do. We were trying to think of what we needed to be doing on Christmas eve but nothing felt right. It was weird too, because the elders had an appointment on Christmas eve and we didn't. That never happens. The members just love the sisters more. haha just kidding....kind of;) Well we went to visit the violin couple. Remember them? they are the couple that had the violin on their wall and Sister Packard was able to play it for them. So we went to visit them, and they invited us to spend Christmas eve with them and their children. How cool is that? He is an inactive member and his wife and children are not members, and they invited us over for Christmas eve. It was so kind of them to invite to missionaries that they hardly know to spend christmas eve with them. We will be at our Ward mission leaders house on Christmas and he will have skype set up. I will let you know the details next week.  

President Sederholm has talked about how he still wants us out working on Christmas eve/christmas. Sister Packard and I were thinking it would be a good idea to go to a plejehjem (old folks home) and spend some time there visiting the people that will be alone for christmas. If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them:) 

Funny story. okay well Bishop had sent us a text telling us about a man he was thinking would be Ana Marie and Min's home teacher. He told us to try and take him out teaching with us, but don't say anything about him being their home teacher because it was just a thought at that point. Well we misunderstood the text and called the guy up and said since you're Ana Marie and Min's home teacher would you like to come to a lesson at their house with us. haha well he was like what? I haven't heard anything about that, so we did the best that we could to cover it up, but sure enough the next day we received a not so happy text from bishop asking us why we told the an that he was their home teacher. haha we were really scared of Biskop at that point haha but thank goodness everything worked out just fine. 

Sonia is doing great. Our last lesson with her we taught the word of wisdom. She smokes and drinks, but she said she was going to live the word of wisdeom. She hasn't smoked since our last lesson. She came to church and was able to see Ana Marie and Min be confirmed. She doesn't understand danish, but she told us that she just has a really good feeling when she is at church. She is just so great. 

I'm trying to think of other things that have happened, but I think that is about it. Things are going well here in Esbjerg. I'm super tired! but happy. I so look forward to skyping! I hope you all have a fantastisk week! love you.


Love Katherine  



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