WEEKS 20-21: Pictures

Amazing & Beautiful Marble Church

A White Christmas Morning

Grandma Dixon's Famous Hot Chocolate!

Christmas Footie PJs

Danish elevators are SMALL!

WEEK 21: New Year's Eve Copenhagen Style = CRAZY!! Families are Eternal and the Lord's Tender Mercies

Danish word of the week: Skvat. (for once you can just sound this one out :)) WIMP. Søster Reed and I are branching out our Danish vocab. And we've started biking again-so I feel like a skvat all the time! So out of shape. It's fine.

Godt Nytår! Ok-New Years Eve in Copenhagen is the CRAZIEST thing I have ever experienced. Basically every kind of firework is legal here, so whatever money Danes don't spend on Christmas, they spend on enough fireworks to supply their own personal Stadium of Fire firework display. Not exaggerating, the booms of fireworks began at about 3pm on December 31st (it was definitely still light outside...), and did not stop for one second until about 3 am in the morning on January 1st!

So, how did the Copenhagen Sister missionaries spend their New Years Eve? Great question. We THOUGHT we were going to be spending it with the 4 Elders and the Senior missionaries-the senior missionaries have an apartment right in the middle of Copenhagen with an AMAZING view of the fireworks...but somebody put the Elders in charge of that plan. So, we ended up staying in our apartment. Søster Reed learned how to knit and I crocheted, we watched all of the church movies in our apartment, and ate brownies. We were a little bummed at first about not being able to see the legendary Copenhagen fireworks, but it turns out that we had nothing to worry about. When 12:00 am hit, like 5 of our neighbors came outside and put on the best firework show I've ever seen-right in front of our big bedroom window! We were only allowed to stay up until 1 am, but they were still going strong when we went to bed.

So we had New Years Eve, and then on New Years Day all of the missionaries stayed in all day long to deep clean the apartments. It felt so good to CLEAN! We have time during our normal days to like-maybe do the dishes and vacuum on P-day, so it was seriously a dream come true to just be able to throw stuff away and scrub some floors. Oh my gosh who am I? I'm turning into Dad. The whole day all I was thinking of is that weird thing he says whenever he cleans, 'Suburban life requires constant scrubbing.' Yes, Dad. Yes it does. :)

Aviaaja is back! We went to the temple with her on Saturday to do baptisms! I LOVE THAT GIRL! Her spirit just radiates. She came to church yesterday for the first time in almost 5 months, and was just so incredibly grateful to be together and to be able to take the sacrament. She reminds me over and over again to never take the opportunity to go to church for granted! We brought her to a fireside at President's house yesterday evening, and she was the best missionary in the room! She went around to all of the investigators who were there and made friends with them, and just genuinely shared her testimony about how happy the gospel makes her! It's like she can't even contain it! I think I say this every time I talk about her, but I am just so grateful I know her. AND I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S BACK IN COPENHAGEN!!

Ok-this is a story. Søster Reed and I were together with a third Sister for a couple of days because this third sister was getting ready to train a new missionary. She stayed in Copenhagen with us so that she could be close to the mission office when her baby got here. The day the new missionaries got there, we dropped her off at the office so she could have her quarterly interview with President, and then go see some sights with the new missionaries. As soon as we dropped her off and then left the office, we got a call telling us to come straight back. When we got back, one of the office missionaries pulled us aside and told us that they had just found out that her father had just died. Obviously she wasn't in a condition to go out and sight-see with new missionaries, so Sister Reed and I did that while she stayed in the office and talked on the phone with her family. When we got back from sightseeing, President pulled us into his office and asked if this Sister could spend one extra night at our apartment. It was only about 6pm, but he told us to just go home early, and stay with her. Of course we were happy to do that. It was such a heartbreaking thing, but there were also so many tender mercies that let this Sister know that Heavenly Father was aware of her at this time. She 'just happened to be' in Copenhagen, in an interview with President, right as she got the news. You can't get closer to a better support system than that. Søster Reed and I had had an appointment cancel on us earlier that day, but then because we had an empty evening, we were able to take her home early with us and give her some time to relax, and cry, and process. And I am so amazed by her strength. Of course she was heartbroken and worried about her family, nervous about training, but the next morning she woke up ready to go to the training meeting and pick up her new missionary. I have never been so grateful for the knowledge we have that families are eternal. This life is just a moment-it's just a preparation for so many amazing, eternal blessings yet to come. We will see our families again. We will be together! I think all three of us, but especially this Sister, were very aware of the Savior's love that night. Because the Savior overcame death, there is always hope for us - even in tragedies.  Heavenly Father really will strengthen us when we turn to him. I know she received strength beyond her own-I couldn't believe it when she woke up the next morning and said she was ready to go to the training meeting. She inspired all of us by her example.

So that was our week. It was a little bit different than a usual missionary week, but no less wonderful. I love being with the new Sister Reed! The Elders think we're a little too sassy together, but I think we're fun. :) ...maybe we're a little sassy. We'll make them cookies for district meeting or something to make it up to them.

I love you all!! Thanks for the love, support, emails, and prayers. It really means a lot! Have a great week! :)

WEEK 20: Remember that one time when we SKYPED? & A White Christmas in Copenhagen

Danish phrase of the week: Godt Nyt År! (Got Noot Oar) Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Remember that one time when we SKYPED? That was fun. It was so great to see you all! What a good looking bunch of people.

Ok-Danish Christmas. They have so many fun traditions here-I'm bringing them ALL home. They celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th-which was a little strange for all of us Americans. I feel like so much of the excitement of Christmas is waking up to Christmas morning on the 25th! But I LOVE all of their Christmas music, decorations, FOOD-I sent you all a Christmas package with some little things-I hope it gets to you soon!

On Danish Christmas Day (24th) our ward had a hour long service-I played the piano while 2 women in the ward sang Silent Night-I think Gay Slade would have been proud! I can't even REMEMBER the last time I performed anything on the piano. But it went well! #christmasmiracle

After that we went to a Christmas Service at a Danish Christian church-that was an awesome experience! They have so many beautiful, old churches here! And they are packed with people on Christmas Day :) There was a beautiful pipe organ and the preacher gave a really good talk...sermon...preaching? about how when we celebrate the birth of Christ we also have to remember everything that came after. We celebrate Christ's birth because his LIFE was so significant.

We had Christmas with a member, Tina, and her friend Kirsten. They both have grown-up children who have known each other for years, so it was really fun. They were so sweet and taught us how to make Danish Christmas food! We played some games, ate, and read the Christmas story from the Bible-we also read the sections in the Book of Mormon that talk about Christ's birth. That's something I want to start doing every year as well-there's some really beautiful stuff in there.

The morning of the 25th-IT SNOWED! Søster Reed and I were like little kids. We woke up, looked out the window, and just jumped around the apartment because we got a White Christmas! It NEVER snows in Copenhagen on Christmas! We opened Christmas presents, made Grandma Dixon's hot chocolate, and sang Christmas songs for companionship study.  Great day. 

EXCITING NEWS! Aviaaja is moving to Copenhagen TODAY! haha it totally came out of the blue-I thought she was just coming to VISIT for New Year's, but nope! She's moving! She got accepted to university here so she bought a ticket, packed up, and she'll get here at 8 pm tonight. Oh my word. I'm so excited for her! I'm so proud of her for how strong she's been-and it will just be so wonderful for her to be able to come to church, go to the temple, and really be a part of things here. Plus I just can't wait to see her!! This will be fun!

I'm looking forward to another transfer in Frederiksberg-people keep joking that I'm staying here because it's taking me extra time to learn what I need to learn here. I just hope I can make the most of it and do good work in the next 6 weeks. It's seems like a long time, but it's seriously crazy how fast transfers come and go!

I was talking to another new Sister Missionary-well, I guess I really can't say that I'm new anymore- but anyways, we were talking about New Year’s Resolutions and how we are going to spend ALL of 2015 as missionaries. This entire calendar year will be completely devoted to missionary work. It's such a unique time! I am so excited for everything that's coming in the next year-because so much has already happened in just the last 5 months! And as President reminded me a couple of weeks ago, most of the miracles that have happened are small and easily missed, but if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, and gratitude in our hearts, the hand of the Lord becomes apparent in our everyday lives. That gives us a lot to look forward to.

I love you all! It was so fun to talk to you this week. Keep it real, VO's!

WEEK 19: God Jul! and "I know that book is true. I am happy to read it every day because it makes me feel close to God. Can I get baptized next weekend?"

Danish Phrase of the Week: God Jul! (Goal Yool) Merry Christmas!

We got transfer calls this morning! Drumroll....I'M STAYING IN FREDERIKSBERG! Søster Reed, my baby!, is transferring to Slagelse, and I'm staying here in Frederiksberg :) 6 months in one area! My new companion is also named Søster Reed, and she was in my Søster Reed's MTC group. So they're the same age in the mission. She's the one that we were combined with that week we were a three-som! It's going to be a blast. I am honestly so excited to be staying. I LOVE this area. I love the ward, I love the city, I love the wonderful people we're working with-this is going to be a great transfer. And the ward members won't even have to learn a new name :) Still Søster Van Orden and Søster Reed. Love it.

We had another miraculous week. Christmas is such an incredible time of year! Yesterday, we got a referral from some missionaries in another area to go visit the friend of a less-active they're working with. We were told not to say who sent us, we were just told that this woman 'needed God in her life.' So, with not a whole lot to go on except for an address, we stopped by her apartment. One tricky thing about Copenhagen is that everyone lives in big apartment buildings, and all of the buildings have buzz boxes that let you in to the building itself. So before you can even get up to their front door, you have to ring their buzz box and ask if they will let you in to the building-and THEN you have to go knock on their door. It's just one more 'obstacle' we have to get past. A lot of times people say no at the buzz box before we even get the chance to knock on their door and see their face! So we knew that we only had one chance with this lady. Something told us that she wouldn't even buzz us up if we announced ourselves as missionaries. We felt prompted to ask instead if we could sing a Christmas song to her. After a couple seconds of silence she said, 'det må i gerne.' (Yes.) And she buzzed us up. Then, we knocked on her door and as soon as she saw our nametags she got a little suspicious. But she let us in anyways and we sang Glædelig Jul, Dejlige Jul (the Danish version of Silent Night). She listened quietly to the first two verses, and then started singing with us on the 3rd and 4th. When the song was over her whole attitude towards us was completely changed! She told us that she had been sitting in her apartment just feeling sad, sad about Christmas, sad because she hurt her leg so she can't walk very well right now-and then as soon as we started singing she forgot how sad she was. She was so thankful that we came and sang to her! It was such an amazing testimony to me of the Lord's timing. We were able to find her and help her feel hope and love at a time in her day when she was feeling the most alone. It was one of the most special experiences on my mission so far.

Aviaaja is still being a rockstar in Greenland. She contacted our mission president and ordered 20 copies of the Book of Mormon to give to her friends! She also told us that she wants to serve a mission! That girl is such a light. I am so grateful every day that I know her. She's hoping to be able to come to Copenhagen sometime in January-ANOTHER REASON WHY I'M SO GLAD I'M STAYING IN FREDERIKSBERG!! I'll be able to see her!

More Christmas miracles-Hanne, a less-active woman with an INCREDIBLE testimony was finally able to come to church yesterday. She asked us to come pick her up and take the bus with her because she knew that if we were there to get her, she wouldn't back out at the last minute. :) We picked her up and it seemed like she just had the best time! I am so grateful for her faithful home and visiting teachers who have been such good friends to her and visited her every single month. It means so much, it makes SUCH a difference. I just about cried in Relief Society when I saw Hanne sitting there-following along with the lesson on her iPad-surrounded by friends reaching out to her and expressing how happy they were to see her. It was such a sweet experience.

Søster Reed and I have been praying to find other less-active members in our ward who want to come back to the church. A woman named Beatriz-who is originally from where Sara Marie is serving her mission!-came to church yesterday and brought her son, and told us that she wanted to start being an example to her family and bring her children to church. She has a lot of opposition from her husband, but she is determined! She invited us over to eat lunch with her on Saturday and we are so excited to get to know her and help her in any way we can!

AND, a less-active member we've been trying to get in touch with for a couple of months invited us over for an appointment tomorrow! Our prayers were answered in so many unexpected ways this week.

Other awesome thing-we invited a man named Carl to be baptized and he accepted! Here is how we met Carl. That week that we were a tri-panionship, we were in the library emailing on P-Day. That was a week where my email home was way short...sorry...it's because I was talking to Carl. :) We were sitting there emailing and an African man leaned over to me and just started chatting- asking me questions about what I was doing in Denmark, where I was from...when I told him I was a missionary he was like, 'I like going to other churches and hearing the preachers!' I invited him to come to our church and he said, I can't this Sunday but next Sunday, yes. Call me to remind me.” Well, he couldn't come to church, but we offered to give him a church tour instead. That he could do. We taught him about the Restoration and he was so intrigued. He was like, 'I've never heard anything like this before, but it makes sense that God could call a prophet again.' We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that the way he would know if what we were saying was true was if he read this book and asked for an answer from God. So-fast forward to this appointment-he said, 'I know that book is true. I am happy to read it every day because it makes me feel close to God. Can I get baptized next weekend?' We were like (screaming and shouting for joy on the inside but keeping it chill on the outside) We still have some more lessons to teach you, but we can absolutely set a baptismal date! YAY CARL! So, right now the goal is for the 31st of January. THIS IS AMAZING!!!!

Also, last thing. We were contacted by a young Danish man named Andreas out of the blue-he's not a member of the church but his aunt and uncle served a mission here a few years ago, he's met with missionaries before, and he called us and asked if we wanted to meet. We brought a member with us and really didn't know what to expect from this meeting...but we were excited! We were so amazed to find out that he has incredible faith in God (very rare in Denmark). He has complete faith in the fact that God can lead us down better paths than we can ever find on our own. He talked a lot about how there is a good way to live your life, but there is also a better way, and a best way. He wants to find the best way. He came to church yesterday-and he also knows a bunch of people in the ward! Goodness. Miracles abound.

I AM SO EXCITED TO SKYPE WITH ALL OF YOU ON CHRISTMAS! I CAN'T EVEN GET OVER IT! Merry Christmas, see you soon!!!!!