Well first week here in Horsens and let me tell you it has been awesome.
First my companion: Sister Van Orden is from Colorado, she studied music at BYU and is probably one of the best singers ever. She was in the MTC with me so it has been way great to be reunited with her. She is way hardworking and it has been so great to just throw ourselves into the work and work our butts off.
Second the area: It is beautiful here, it is hard to descibe it because we don't have cities like this at home but there is the actual city and there are about 50,000 people I have heard and there is a college here so lots of young students from all over the world. And we live right next to a fjord which is really pretty. But then outside of the actually city is rural and farms and just land. It is really pretty. And it is a lot smaller compared to Copnehagen and Århus. It is kind of funny when we are talking to people like investigators and I tell them I jhave lived in Copenhagen and Århus they are all like, 'why would you move here from Århus? It is so boring here.' But I like i here. :) I feel like we have a good mixture of poor and rich because this is a college town so we have lots of poor college students but a lot of the members and families in the ward and have really nice homes and seem to be well off. Speaking of the ward, the ward here is so awesome! Oh my goodness, they are so involved in missionary work and want to share the gospel it is awesome. Also I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. That was terrirfying but it went okay.
Third biking: We have been biking a lot here and long story short my bike is still in Århus (I am getting it back in about two weeks when we go there on splits) so I have been riding this bike that has been through two or three other sister missionaries. It is ready to be retired but it has to last just a few more weeks. But yes we ride bikes everywhere and I swear we live in an alternate universe because no matter what we are always biking uphill. My legs are killing me and my first day here we went out to this way small farming town population 50 and it was about a 30 minutes bike ride and there were some hills that I thought I was going to die and I just thinking the whole time 'I used to bike up mountains and now this hill is killing me, my mother could beat me right now.' But after I serve here for a little bit hopefully that will not be true!
Fourth the people:
First we meet with this really awesome guy who was a catholic priest before but then held up with that because he didn't like the hierarchy and he is seriously so great. He is from Canada but has lived here 14 years and is fluent in almost 12 languages. He is very open, asks really amazing questions and really wants to learn and understand what we believe in. If we mention a chapter or anything in our lesson he would write it down or remember it so that he could read it later. We are going to watch general conference with him and he said he is excited to have a pause button so he could stop it and ask us questions throughout the whole thing. :)
A great miracle that happened this week was we had a member with us to go and teach this guy who the sisters had found the week before I had come. So we go to this guy's apartment with the member and no answers and he doesn't answer the phone. And it is absolutely the worst to get burned like that when a member is with you because you want to show them that you have people who you meet with who are great and build their confidence in you but it is hard to do that when you get burned. But anyways that was kind of bummer so Søs. Van Orden says there is a girl who lives in the same building who they had stopped by before and said they could come back so we go to see her with this member, hoping that this girl is home. She was home and let us right in and she told us that she had been looking at the book of mormon and looking at stuff on our website and researching stuff and had been hoping that we would come by so she could ask us some questions. WHAT. We had a great lesson with her and showed her the Because He Lives video and she loved it and talked about how she wants to strengthen her faith in God and Christ so she can have something to hold to when things are hard. It was just a way great experience for everyone involved. Then later that night the guy who we had tried to stop by called us and said he was so sorry and still wants to meet and made an appointment for another day which was great too!
Fifth Danish words of the email:
sommertid: summer time but it is for daylight savings which we just had
God Påske!: Happy Easter :)
Sixth Because He Lives: The church has made a great new video and iniative called #BecauseHeLives and it is beautiful! You should all watch and look at the website because it has a lot of things that we can learn and then share it with someone! this is an awesome missionary tool and way that we can bear our testimony of Christ. It is at helives.mormon.org
Well I hope that you all have a super fantastic week!
love, Søster Perkins
First my companion: Sister Van Orden is from Colorado, she studied music at BYU and is probably one of the best singers ever. She was in the MTC with me so it has been way great to be reunited with her. She is way hardworking and it has been so great to just throw ourselves into the work and work our butts off.
Second the area: It is beautiful here, it is hard to descibe it because we don't have cities like this at home but there is the actual city and there are about 50,000 people I have heard and there is a college here so lots of young students from all over the world. And we live right next to a fjord which is really pretty. But then outside of the actually city is rural and farms and just land. It is really pretty. And it is a lot smaller compared to Copnehagen and Århus. It is kind of funny when we are talking to people like investigators and I tell them I jhave lived in Copenhagen and Århus they are all like, 'why would you move here from Århus? It is so boring here.' But I like i here. :) I feel like we have a good mixture of poor and rich because this is a college town so we have lots of poor college students but a lot of the members and families in the ward and have really nice homes and seem to be well off. Speaking of the ward, the ward here is so awesome! Oh my goodness, they are so involved in missionary work and want to share the gospel it is awesome. Also I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. That was terrirfying but it went okay.
Third biking: We have been biking a lot here and long story short my bike is still in Århus (I am getting it back in about two weeks when we go there on splits) so I have been riding this bike that has been through two or three other sister missionaries. It is ready to be retired but it has to last just a few more weeks. But yes we ride bikes everywhere and I swear we live in an alternate universe because no matter what we are always biking uphill. My legs are killing me and my first day here we went out to this way small farming town population 50 and it was about a 30 minutes bike ride and there were some hills that I thought I was going to die and I just thinking the whole time 'I used to bike up mountains and now this hill is killing me, my mother could beat me right now.' But after I serve here for a little bit hopefully that will not be true!
Fourth the people:
First we meet with this really awesome guy who was a catholic priest before but then held up with that because he didn't like the hierarchy and he is seriously so great. He is from Canada but has lived here 14 years and is fluent in almost 12 languages. He is very open, asks really amazing questions and really wants to learn and understand what we believe in. If we mention a chapter or anything in our lesson he would write it down or remember it so that he could read it later. We are going to watch general conference with him and he said he is excited to have a pause button so he could stop it and ask us questions throughout the whole thing. :)
A great miracle that happened this week was we had a member with us to go and teach this guy who the sisters had found the week before I had come. So we go to this guy's apartment with the member and no answers and he doesn't answer the phone. And it is absolutely the worst to get burned like that when a member is with you because you want to show them that you have people who you meet with who are great and build their confidence in you but it is hard to do that when you get burned. But anyways that was kind of bummer so Søs. Van Orden says there is a girl who lives in the same building who they had stopped by before and said they could come back so we go to see her with this member, hoping that this girl is home. She was home and let us right in and she told us that she had been looking at the book of mormon and looking at stuff on our website and researching stuff and had been hoping that we would come by so she could ask us some questions. WHAT. We had a great lesson with her and showed her the Because He Lives video and she loved it and talked about how she wants to strengthen her faith in God and Christ so she can have something to hold to when things are hard. It was just a way great experience for everyone involved. Then later that night the guy who we had tried to stop by called us and said he was so sorry and still wants to meet and made an appointment for another day which was great too!
Fifth Danish words of the email:
sommertid: summer time but it is for daylight savings which we just had
God Påske!: Happy Easter :)
Sixth Because He Lives: The church has made a great new video and iniative called #BecauseHeLives and it is beautiful! You should all watch and look at the website because it has a lot of things that we can learn and then share it with someone! this is an awesome missionary tool and way that we can bear our testimony of Christ. It is at helives.mormon.org
Well I hope that you all have a super fantastic week!
love, Søster Perkins