Danish Word of the Week: Engle (eng-lah) Angels
Oh my gosh this WEEK! Ok. So doing
performances is always a crazy life, right?? I forgot how crazy and wonderful
and stressful and rewarding it is! I haven't felt like this in a really long
time. The first two performances went so well!
Ok but let me start from the
beginning. Our two days of rehearsal all together turned into only one day of
rehearsal, because the first day when we were all traveling into Copenhagen in
the morning, one of the car keys accidentally got sent off on a train with
another missionary to Odense-so a huge rescue mission had to be coordinated
across all of Denmark to get this car key back to Copenhagen. We basically spent
all of the first day doing that. When we were finally together that night, we
put three of our songs together and then it was time to go to bed.
We worked double time the next day
to get everything rehearsed. We got about 9 songs decently performance ready,
and had a really fun concert the next morning at a ward Christmas party. That
is where the film clips that Cecilia Poulsen sent came from. I'm so
grateful she did that! She has a son on a mission. She gets it. :) We
went to church yesterday, practiced some more, and then performed 4 songs at
the Copenhagen Stake Christmas concert which was a beautiful experience.
We
have already seen so many miracles.
First of all, I am so grateful that God guided the process of making our
performance schedule. We are still not quite ready to put on our full blown
fireside, so it was a huge blessing that our first performance was 'just' a few
songs at a ward Christmas party. It gave us opportunity to see how people like
what we have so far, see what we need to add or take away, and give us a good
springboard to creating the entire fireside (which we perform for the first
time tomorrow night). It was perfect timing. It was exactly what we
needed.
Also, God is totally blessing us
to learn this music way fast. Like. WAY fast. Elder Baadsgaard said
too that since we've put so much work into this, angels will come sing with us to make up for what we can't do. He's
a really talented pianist, and he told about this one time when he had
practiced so hard for a performance and prayed so much about it-when it came
time for him to perform, there were a couple of times when he knows that he
pressed the wrong keys, but the right notes came out of the piano.
Other miracle-we have a sound
guy! Elder Porter (from my MTC group) got added to the tour when it became
very apparent that all of the sound equipment the mission rented for us is
completely useless without someone who knows how to work it. Duh. I don't know
why this didn't occur to us sooner. We were worried about not having enough
room in the van for Elder Porter, because let's face it, we ALREADY don't have
enough room in the van, but President gave us another car. TWO MIRACLES IN ONE!
I got sick the first two days
because of stress. My immune system was just like, you know what? No. And then
I got this really irritating sore throat and my entire face hurt. I got a
blessing, and, other miracle-every time we stand up to sing, the pain goes
away. I'm finally feeling a little better this morning.
Everyone is LOVING the music! These
are just a few of the comments that we've gotten so far.
'Jeg følte Ånden da jeres
personligheder kom frem.'
(I felt the Spirit when you showed your
personalities!)
'Jeg følte at vi er virkelig i Jesu
Kristi kirke. Jeg har aldrig følt det så stærkt som i dag.'
(I felt that we
really are in Jesus Christ's church. I have never felt that so strongly as I
did today.)
'I dag har I været engle for
os.' (Today, you have been angels for us.)
'I er jo ikke professionelle, men
der er en særlig ånd som kommer når I stå og synge. Det gør at folk gerne
vil lytte.' (Even though you're not professionals, there is a special
spirit that comes when you stand and sing. It makes people want to listen to
you.)
'Jeg vil gerne købe jeres CD!' (I'll
buy your CD!)
Highlights: The 6
nights we're in Copenhagen, all of the Sisters are sleeping in the legendary
'Ballerup House.' It is a sketchy run down house in the middle of
nowhere that is usually home to 4 Elders. But-because of...reasons...probably
the fact that it's a gross old house that has been lived in by boys for 20
years-it's getting shut down as a missionary apartment. Elders who have lived
there LOVE 'The House.' There are so many stories from this place. I think we
are the first sisters in history to ever live here. We feel grossed out and
honored to be a part of this piece of mission history.
We
also got lost in a forest as we were driving home one night. We didn't realize for like 15 minutes that we were driving
on a bus lane...turns out our map doesn't cover the area where the Ballerup
House is. We had to turn around and find a 7-eleven because they all have
computers where you can get directions to places. We got home around 10:45 at
night. Missionary curfew is 9. It's fine. It's totally fine. We're buying a GPS
for the car today.
One
of our Elders plays the bagpipes,
and we start the concert with him walking in from the back door up to the stand
playing Danish Christmas songs. People freak out. They love it. It's so great!!
Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer. We have choreography!
Kids are like...MISSIONARIES DANCING??? We're convinced that this is going to
inspire more children to go on missions. We're allowed to have fun out here! :)
After the stake fireside last night,
we stopped by a member family. The mom
had been too sick to come to the concert, and her daughter asked if we would
all come by and sing some songs for her so she wouldn't feel like she missed
out. We sang Silent Night and a song called Luk Julefreden Ind. (Let Christmas
Peace In). I felt the Spirit so strong as we sang for her, and I really
did feel like there was a choir of angels singing with us. They were so
grateful, and I will never forget that.
It has been a good first few days,
and I'm excited to keep going! This whole thing is trial and error, so we are
constantly problem solving and improvising-we are NEVER bored! I'm so grateful for this
opportunity to use my talents to uplift people. I feel so privileged to be a
part of this.
I love you all so much! I'm looking
forward to SKYPING with you all soon! Crazy how fast that came again, right?
Have a wonderful week! I pray for you all every day and think about you often.
Thanks for everything.
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