WEEK 72!, December 14, 2015: I forgot how happy singing makes me!

Danish Word of the Week: Budbringerne (BOOL-bring-eh-neh) 

The Messengers. This is the name of our traveling music group. 

Week 2 of the Christmas tour has been so great. Every night I just sit back and think-this is amazing. We are 20 years old. There is so much talent in this group. Here's a list of all of the songs we do.

1. Bagpipe Medley of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Dejlig er den Himmel Blå

2. The Little Drummer Boy w/ a violin part (arranged by an Elder in the group) 

3. A Christmas Medley on the piano (John Schmidt's arrangement)

4. Let it Snow (me and Sister Lyman sing with Elder Geslison on the guitar. We made up this arrangement)

5. Et Barn Er Født i Bethlehem (A Child is born in Bethlehem)- We do this as a combined song with us and the audience. Every Dane knows and loves this song.

6. I'll be home for Christmas (whole group)

7. O Holy Night (solo)

8. Luk Julefreden Ind (Let Christmas Peace In) (sister song. I LOVE this one)

9. Hallelujah Chorus (piano and organ duet!! This one is SO IMPRESSIVE!)

10. Jingle Bells (we put some beatboxing in this one. It wakes up all the kids. :)

11. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (With choreography! Broadway anyone?)

12. Joy to the World (piano solo-another John Schmidt arrangement)

13. O Come O Come Emmanuel (this one is my fave. It's the Piano Guys' arrangement except instead of a piano and a cello, it's a piano and a classical guitar. I could literally listen to it all day.)

14. Silent Night

I love it so much! Members are loving it!

We are hoping that this year we will get all of the kinks worked out so that next year can be even more successful. We've been getting decent attendance this year-it gets bigger every performance because members hear about it from their friends and see our videos on Facebook, but I know that if the mission does this again next year that the churches will be packed from day one of the tour.

The ward mission leader in Esbjerg has a film studio. He's going to help us make higher quality videos of a couple of our songs! So excited for another week of firesides! 

I'm excited to talk with all of you next week! I can't even believe that's coming up so soon! I still don't know what our plans are for Christmas Day-I'll keep you posted. :)

Love you all so much! 

[Part of Letter To Mom from Amanda] 

            I'm scheduled to return to BYU Summer 2016. I sent my ecclesiastical endorsement to President O'Bryant today. Good to know that Shawna is still rocking the MDT office. Love that lady.

            The dumb computers we're emailing at don't have USB ports, so we can't upload any of the pictures from this week. But it's been a great one! I'm grateful to be a part of this. This is exactly what I needed. I still feel like a missionary, but I feel more like myself too. I forgot how happy singing makes me.

            I love you lots! Hope the one-acts and melodrama go well! And HUG DIANA FOR ME IF YOU SEE HER! I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER!

[FROM a Bishop in a Ward Amanda served and they held a fireside] 
Hello parents of missionaries in Denmark,
            We have had the great pleasure to see your young missionaries hold a Christmas concert here in Horsens.  They are some amazing young people, several of which have served their mission here in our ward. You can be proud of your young people. They are amazing with their music, song and spirit.  They have brought a wonderful Christmas spirit into our hearts.  Thank you so much.   You can see their performance in Horsens congregation facebook page : LDS Horsens menighed

Yours sincerely,

Bishop Ryan Kristensen
Horsens Ward
Denmark

[FROM Amanda's Mission President to me] 

Sister Van Orden,
We have been recording the musical numbers as we have had the opportunity. We don't have the whole fireside, but we have the musical numbers.  They are being posted on Sister O'Bryant's facebook page. By the way, your daughter is such a wonderful missionary.  And she sings like an angel.  We love her!
President O'Bryant

WEEK 71, December 7, 2015: On the road! Miracles and Angels Abound!

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.

WEEK 70, November 30, 2015: Christmas Tour Begins, Secret Weapon = Sister Van Orden, Death Crawl Scene from Facing the Giants = Missionary Life

Danish Word of the Week: Biltur (BEEL-toor) Road Trip!

Hey! The Christmas tour starts this week! I'm traveling to Copenhagen early Thursday morning. We'll rehearse Thursday and Friday, and then we'll have our first performance on Saturday. We have a fireside every night for the next 2 1/2 weeks! Mom asked about how we're traveling-the Assistants have a sweet 9 passenger van, and we are just going to pray really hard that it can fit 8 missionaries, 2 speakers, 4 microphones, 8 duffel bags, 8 blankets, a cooler, and a bunch of Book of Mormons. We are going to get to know each other reeeeeeeeeeally well. I'm just grateful that 8 year old Andrew isn't going to be riding in the car with us. If I can survive a 9 hour car trip to Idaho with that kid scream-laughing the entire way, I can survive anything. :)

We had such a fun Thanksgiving! We had a Zone Conference, a talent show, and a Turkey Bowl! And GUESS WHAT I CAUGHT THE FOOTBALL LIKE 6 TIMES AND SCORED A TOUCHDOWN! SECRET WEAPON SISTER VAN ORDEN. Our team killed it. It was so fun. I was sore for like 2 days in my whole body but it was so worth it.

This is actually one of the happiest Thanksgivings I've ever had. The zone training was on gratitude (of course), but also on feeling capable of fulfilling the calling that we have been given. That part really spoke to me. We watched this video that I sent to Frandy a couple months ago, and I want you all to go watch it. Don't be alarmed by all of the yelling. Listen to the words that are being yelled. On Youtube the video is called-'The Death Crawl Scene from Facing the Giants.'

Go watch it.

This video clip sums up a missionary's life in the mission. There are so many times when you don't think you can go anymore, you're so tired and your heart hurts-but we have a coach who knows our potential and knows that we frequently sell ourselves short. I love towards the end when he's reminding Brock, 'You promised me your VERY best.'  Brock never would have gotten that far without his coach kneeling down right beside him, directing him the entire way. I promised Heavenly Father at the beginning of my mission, and specifically at the beginning of this calendar year [see letter from week 20], that this year I would find out what it means to serve with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. That promise has kept me going when I could easily give up or slack off. We are capable of so much more than we think!

As I was watching this video and as we were talking about it after, I wrote down some of the things that I thought about and felt like I needed to do in order to finish my mission strong. The night before, I had asked my Zone Leader, Elder Reber, one of my friends I served with in Horsens, for a blessing. He gave me a blessing right after this training. As he was speaking, I noticed that he began quoting-word for word-the things that I had written down in my journal just a couple hours before. I know that the Priesthood is real, the Spirit is real, and I felt like that blessing was a confirmation from my Heavenly Father that he knows exactly where I am, what I'm thinking, and what I need to hear to keep going.

I love you all so much! I'm glad you had a happy Thanksgiving! It looked so fun. Have a wonderful week! 

WEEK 69, November 16, 2015: Family History Experts and Bike Repairmen Extrodinaire; Savior's birth and life brings hope, comfort, and happiness!

Danish Word of the Week: Julekoncert (YOO-luh-kon-SAIRT) Christmas Concert

Hey family!

So this week we finally got our training on how to start incorporating family history service into missionary work! We are so excited. We got these fancy new pass-along cards and everything-which is probably not a big deal to you but it is a big deal to us because the old family history cards literally put people to sleep. It's a big improvement. :)

Danes already keep really detailed records-a lot of families have a family history book with all kinds of pictures, stories, and birth certificates. So we're going to tell them about this great website called Family Search (maybe you've heard of it :) and we have like four lessons to help them get started with it. We don't try to teach them about the church unless they ask. (which they always do). It's a great idea because it's just pure service. We help people with something that's important to them with no strings attached, and then after they start getting to know us, asking questions, and finding out that we're not weirdos, we can teach more.

Sister Ferguson and I have discovered that this is the key to success with knocking houses! Usually knocking houses is a rough time because people won't even hold the door open long enough to hear where we're from, but with family history we have had good conversations like every other door! It's crazy! We found a handful of people this week that we're going to start helping! I really like pretending to be a family history expert. It's fun.

But seriously, did you know that the church stores their family history records in a high security vault in the side of a mountain? You could drop a nuclear bomb on that place and the family records wouldn't be damaged. PRESERVE THE GENERATION CHARTS AT ALL COSTS! It's way intense.

What else...umm....Christmas concert in two weeks! We have all of the music sent out, now we're just getting all the details into place and we should be ready! I just really want this to be a meaningful experience for everyone. I hope that people will come away with the feeling that the birth of the Savior isn't just a cute story we tell once a year, it's something that can help them in their lives today-even though it happened over 2,000 years ago. I want people to be able to feel that there is hope for the world. A lot of people are really scared about the things that are happening in France and elsewhere-there is a lot of tension and fear. We're not supposed to live our lives in fear. We're supposed to have hope and to love each other. Sometimes it's hard to have hope in society, but we can always have hope in the Savior and his ability to heal and comfort us. He overcame sin and death, and because he did that for us, what do we have to fear? I just want people to feel uplifted and be happy. So. Hopefully we can do that. :)

 

In other news-Sister Ferguson's back tire now has 6 patches on it, and my bike tire decided that it was done with life so it literally cracked in half the other day. We have spent so much time fixing bikes this week. Every time the district leader calls to see how we're doing we're like 'Well...we got another flat...' I think we've set a mission record! We finally just caved and replaced Sister Ferguson's tube so hopefully that'll hold for a little while.

I got the package with the Spooky Pops! They were all in one piece and tasted so good! Thank you!

I think that's about it. Life is good. I love you all so much! Have a great week!