Danish Word of the Week: SKRUK (pronounced basically how it's
spelled but you swallow the r. I don't really know how to explain that...) BABY HUNGRY-
aka the mental and emotional state of the Esbjerg Sisters due to the missionary
rules prohibiting the holding of all of the new babies that are being born in
Esbjerg right now (there are so many!!) and due to the geographical distance between Sister Van
Orden and her 3 month old niece, Ella! Life is hard sometimes.
A comedic moment from the Book of
Mormon:
Mosiah 12:1 And it came to pass that
after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among
them, saying: 'Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying—'Abinadi.... Wait...DANG IT. Cover blown! Abort mission!'
Søster Ferguson and I laughed a
lot about that this morning.
This week has been way good! Søster
Ferguson is hilarious-I love her. We quote all of the same movies so we knew
from day 1 that things were going to work out.
Elder Gerber is training a new missionary in Esbjerg! We wanted them to have a good first day together, so we heart attacked their door. #OperationBefriendtheGreenie. Except after awhile, we ran out of nice things to say on the hearts so some of them say things like, 'bacon' and 'I hope you like biking.' And one of them has a picture of a squirrel on it.
Things are going good with the Christmas concert. We're scheduling things with the bishops so that we can
come and do firesides, and we're starting to collect music and get the program
together. It's going to be good! Basically I'm just praying a lot because
sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming, but Heavenly Father will help us
make it into what it needs to be.
Michael
is still the best. We did end up changing his
baptismal date to the 22nd of November. We were all just way too stressed
about when that baby was due. But he's basically planning his own baptism. He already knows what
songs we're going to sing and who's giving talks. It sounds like all we're
going to have to do is show up and he'll just run the show. :)
Søster Ferguson and I got to sing
with the Primary kids in the Primary Program yesterday! Oh my gosh it was the
best sacrament meeting ever. I was sitting next to a little boy named Silas who
kept punching his friend in the head, but somehow the spirit was still there. They were all so cute. I love hearing little kids talk
about their testimonies. The
gospel is not complicated. God speaks to the hearts of little children in ways
that they can understand, and he answers their prayers just as much as he
answers the prophet's prayers.
This special thing is advertising a play called "Adam and Eve." I wasn't aware they looked like that ...
It seems like a theme for this week
has been how important it is to feel the love of God every day. We had a really
great women's conference on Saturday with all of the Relief Society Sisters in
Denmark. There are 2 stakes in Denmark, and both of the Stake Relief
Society Presidents gave talks about hard things that they've been through in
their lives. One of them went through a really ugly divorce and got her kids
taken away from her for a year in the process, and the other's daughter died
last year at the age of 30 leaving behind a husband and 2 young kids. Both of
them talked about how at first, they were angry and hurt and completely closed
their hearts in order to protect themselves from feeling more pain. One of them
said that when she prayed, she couldn't even say 'Dear Heavenly Father'-she
just addressed him as 'God' because she couldn't bring herself to believe that
he loved her. But then they both talked about how they healed. They decided
that they didn't want to be angry and bitter anymore, they wanted to have
hope. Little by little they started feeling the love of their Father in
Heaven again, a lot of times through
small things and through the kindness of other people. We need to
feel God's love for us in our lives. We need to feel it every day. It is the
only way to make it through life without becoming hard and desensitized and
worn down. So ask yourself: Do I feel
the love of God? Do I feel it every day? What can I do to feel closer to Him?
Answer those questions and act on the promptings-it will change your life!
I love you all so much! Thanks for
the family history stories and group sheets-that'll be so helpful! Have a great
week!
Love, Søster Van Orden
We found a suitcase in our closet FULL OF CLOTHES-and after calling
around to the other Sisters who have served in Esbjerg, we discovered that all
of these clothes were up for grabs. Tears were shed, wardrobes were swapped; it
was better than Plato's Closet.
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