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
Monday, September 23, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
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!
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
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. 
I love you all so much! Thanks for all your love and support!
Love Katherine
Hej! (Letter From Katherine - 7/29/2013)
Hej Family,
The library is closed for 3 weeks so you won't be hearing from me for a while.....
Just kidding! well the library really will be closed for 3 weeks, but I can email at the church, so all is well:)
I had another great week here in Odense. Last Monday Sister Nuttall and I went to Jytte's house and she cooked for us and then taught us how to make this danish dessert/breakfast. It was delicious! but she made us eat way to much of it. I felt so sick afterwards. It was a lot of fun though! After that we went to clean the baptisimal font. We turned the water on and it was nice and brown. We let the water run for a whie and it cleared up so we're hoping we don't have any problems with it this sunday, which is Nina and Lucia's baptism!!!!
I am so excited for both Nina and Lucia. It has been a wonderful experience helping them understand the gospel. Nina is so ready. We were able to teach them 3 times this week. All three times we went to Lan Le's house, and if you remember Lan Le is the one that makes soooooooooo much food. and of course she fed us all three times. So much food. I might have to buy a new skirt with a really loose waste band sometime soon... yeah...
We had splits this week and I had a really good time. The sister training leaders stayed in our apartment for two nights so we had 6 sisters all together! It was a bit crowded, but it was a good time! Sister Guinea is from Scotland and I spent the day with her one friday. She is hilarious and she taught me a lot. Transfers are coming up pretty soon and i'm curious to know what is going to happen. My guess is I will stay here in Odense and sister Nuttall will be transfered.
Tuesday we had a lesson with Helle. She is the lady that we met knocking on doors. I was so excited to meet with her. Monday night when we were planning our day we were trying to decide if we should have a member come with us to our lesson with Helle. At first we were thinking that we wouldn't have a member go with us because it would be our first lesson with her, but for some reason we just really felt like we needed to have a member there. So we got a member to come with us. At one point in the lesson Helle got up to look for her Book of mormon and the member explained to us that helle has some sort of short term memory loss. She kept repeating random things when we were trying to teach her, but I don't know if we would have caught on to that without the member there. it was kind of really sad because Helle would say things like most danes are very closed about religion, but I feel like i should be open with you and your message, but then she would start talking about something really random. We will continue to try working with her, but for the mean time she will be out of town.
Yesterday was a great day in church, except there is no air conditioning in the church building so it gets super hot, and then I get super sleepy. We had 4 non members in the guest class though! One of the elder's investigators brought his dad, Nina was there, and our Ward mission leader brought one of his coworkers! She was interested in learning more so we are hoping to meet with her this week! After church we visited members and got two referrels which is huge! The members are so awesome.
So yeah things are going well. This week we are really going to focus on finding people. We are always told to talk to EVERYONE, and I have been kind of struggling with that. It's hard because I can barely speak danish. I know that as I try to do my best the lord will take care of the rest. Did you like that little rhyme? haha
So yeah,
Thanks for all your love and support! I love you all!
Love Katherine
Hej! (Letter From Katherine - 7/22/2013)
Hej everyone!
It was a pretty uneventful week. Everyone is gone on vacation. EVERYONE! The people here take like month long vacations so it has been hard scheduling appointments, and when we stop by to visit people they aren't home. The streets are pretty quiet too which is kind of weird. We tried doing some contacting on the gågåde, (streets with all the shops, kind of like the gateway) but that wasn't very succesful. We also did a lot of bonking doors and for the most part pretty much no one was interested. On Thursday we had plannined to visit a ton of less actives and members, but seriously no one is home. We were a Little bit frustrated but we began knocking doors. WE finished one row and we could have been done because it was time for dinner, but we decided to do the NeXT row. We found a lady named Helle. We talked to her for a Little bit on her porch but then she invitied us in! That usually never happens! We noticed that she had a Family history chart so we were able to talk to her about the church's Family history resources. She told us that she felt a Peace while talking to us so we explained to her that it was the holy ghost. We are meeting with her on Tuesday. Im really excited about her.
So there is this one lady that we've been trying to Schedule an appointment with for quite some time. She has met with missionaries before, but didn't continue because it was too hard to say goodbye to them. Everytime we ask to Schedule an appointment she says let me check my Schedule and i'll get back to you, but then she never does. it's happened like 3 times. So finally i decided to ask her if she likes cinnamon rolls. She said, "yeah, but i'm not good at baking" and we told her we were going to make some and we asked if she would like some. haha so ofcourse she said yeah we can bring them by any time. haha I was like are you kidding me. Sister Nuttall and I thought it was pretty funny. By the way, I make some pretty good cinnamon rolls:)
We ride bikes everywhere. It's exhausting. Seriously I am sooooooo tired! All the other missionaries have bus passes, but for some reason we decided not to get them. We have been fine without them but the busses are good Places to meet people so I'm kind of torn as to what I should do. Im going to wait till transfers to see what's going on.
I don't really know what else to say. Things are going well. I'm happy and laughing lots. I have really enjoyed having four sisters in the Apartment.
It has been pretty hot. So that also makes riding a bike hard.
Now im just rambling. haha
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love Katherine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)