Dear Everyone:
So did you love General Conference? I got to watch
it in English. They broadcasted it in our chapel and there was a Danish room
and and English room. President always wants us to watch Conference in our
native language, no matter how good our Danish is. I love Conference. It is always such
an amazing boost, and it's so fantastic to listen to it as a missionary! It just gives all of their words a totally new
perspective.
Ok. So. I said goodbye to Søster
Handley today. We have this joke that she was my trainer for the mission field
and I was her trainer for the real world. I taught her all about hashtags and
snapchat and all of the slang she'll need to understand when she gets home. So
hopefully that'll ease the transition a little bit :)
AND
I'M TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!
I'm companions with two other sisters right now who will also be trainers-we
meet our new trainees on Wednesday. I have only been in the land for six weeks,
the training program is 12 weeks long ... I'm
only halfway trained! I'm nervous, but I know that everything is going to
be okay. I got a blessing from the Elders in my district that was so
comforting. It basically said that as long as I rely on the Spirit, I will be
blessed to know where to go and what to say to find people who are prepared to
hear the gospel from me and my new missionary. It's really easy to get
scared and overwhelmed when I think about all of the responsibilities that are
being transferred to me right now, but as long as I remember that blessing and
have faith in those promises, I know my new companion and I are going to see
miracles! I just keep saying over and over again in my head: Faith not fear! Faith not fear!
President has been teasing me about
it a lot though. The other day at zone training he just came up to me and was
like, “So Søster Van Orden, are you ready for this? Two brand new
missionaries...biggest city in Denmark...four more days!” I was like, “President you are not making me
feel any better!!”
It's honestly pretty humbling to
think that Heavenly Father is trusting me with this right now. I have no idea
what I did to make Him think that I'm ready, but apparently He thinks I am, so here we go! haha :) I also know it's
going to be really hard. Training is hard no matter what. But the most
important lesson a missionary can learn is how to rely on the Spirit, and
this experience is going to teach me how to do that really quickly.
Ok I wanted to share a story with all of you. We heard it from
a woman in our ward named Deidre. She's a return missionary, so she's always
just been really good friends with the missionaries who come through the ward
in Frederiksberg. She told us this little analogy last week. She said:
“I was in a pet store one day, holding a rabbit. It was
totally calm, holding totally still. I had a good hold on it, and it was
perfectly safe. I didn't move or adjust my grip on the rabbit at all, but all
of a sudden it noticed that it was 5 feet off the ground and started panicking.
It squirmed and tried to jump out of my arms because it was scared to be up so
high. The rabbit was still perfectly safe, I was still holding on to it, but it
didn't trust me anymore and so it panicked. I knew that if the rabbit jumped it
could get hurt, so I kept holding on.” She tied that little experience to our
relationship with God. God is always right there calmly holding us and supporting
us. As long as we hold still and stay with him, we're perfectly safe.
But sometimes we notice that we're high off the ground and start to panic. Our
first instinct is sometimes to jump away from God, but that actually puts us in
more danger than if we would just continue to trust him and stay with him. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's always right there. So, don't freak out about training a new
missionary Sister Van Orden! You're going to be fine! Don't be the rabbit!
Anyways. There are a lot of exciting
things happening, and I love my crazy cool family. Har det godt! Jeg elsker jer!
Søster VO
Letter
to Diana Briscoe: [Diana prefacing] We were talking
about how she is training this girl named Vashti who I know while I [Diana] was
a missionary. Vashti is a girl from Utah who lived in Denmark for about 6
months while training as a ballroom dancer.
[AMANDA] I am training Vashti!
Ok-crazy story-President told me a week before training happened to study the
story of Esther. He said he didn't know why but he just felt like I should
study it. GUESS WHERE THE NAME VASHTI COMES FROM? The story of Esther. That was
a fun little miracle. I think it's Heavenly Father's way of reminding me that
I'm not alone out here. Training is so
scary, but I really have felt Heavenly Father helping me. I'm trying
not to be hard on myself when I make mistakes. I feel like I'm not a very good
missionary sometimes! But I'm trying hard and hopefully getting a little bit
better every day!
Søster Reed is fantastic. She is so
prepared and I know we're supposed to be companions! I think a lot of great
things are going to happen in our area :)
Haha I talk about you all the time
too! I went on splits with Søster Ripplinger and again with Søster Hale and I
hope you know that everyone just thinks the world of you out here :) You worked
so hard! I just keep telling everyone that you were basically born to be a
missionary so I'm not surprised!
The Gladsaxe Søstre lived with us
last transfer but they got a new apartment this transfer! She's serving with a
girl from my MTC district right now who is so sweet - They're going to do great
together!
I love you!! Let me know if you have
any training wisdom :) Have a happy week!
Letter
to her Dad:
DAD! I can't believe I'm training
already either! This is without a doubt one of the scariest things I've ever
done: I'm in the biggest city in Denmark with a brand new missionary and I kind of speak Danish but not really and
I'm responsible for people's eternal salvation! It's so hard, but don't
worry. I'm doing great. We're actually working really well together and we
haven't gotten lost yet! But if you remember any advice that would be really
fabulous to hear :) Also the Ward is taking really good care of us. So that's
nice :)
There have actually been a couple of times over the last week where I haven't known
where to go or what to do, and I have felt like ideas come to my mind to tell
me who to visit or even what to say when I don't really understand their
Danish. It's been a really special experience because I literally have no
choice but to rely on Heavenly Father and I have really been able to notice the
help that he's giving me.
I'm trying not to be too hard on
myself because I still make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes all I can do is work
hard every day and try to be a little bit better every day. My companion is
really great about reminding me that I've only been out for six weeks and so of
course I'm not going to know everything! It can be a lot of pressure but for
the most part I feel good and I'm excited!
THE CSU RAMS! Dreams come true! Sad
about BYU though. They'll figure it out one of these days!
Love you!
No comments:
Post a Comment