Some Noteworthy stories from this week:
1. A miracle that happened this week was last tuesday, we were out walking around and had tried stopping by some people but no one was home because it is easter vacation time so we had like five more minutes before we were going to go in and eat lunch so we were just walking down the street a little past our apartment building (oh and it was snowing, like a blizzard all morning) And I look across the street and see this man in a wheelchair trying to work his way up this hill using just his feet probably because his hands were freezing and I was like wow that looks like a terrible situation to be in. And I had this feeling that I had to point him out to Søs. Van Orden so I nudged her and told her to look over there and she saw him then immediately crossed the road and offered to help push him wherever he was going. He was way taken aback but said sure he was going to the bank. So we pushed this man to the bank and it took maybe 30 minutes for us to walk there pushing him. And he told us that he had done it once before by himself and it had taken several hours one way. so we were like okay we will help push you back home too. So we waited at the bank then pushed him back home. And he was very friendly and we talked a lot as we walked but after a while I was sitting there pushing him up a hill, wondering what we were doing and if this was even helping anything so I said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me have a better attitude about helping him because it was a good walk and talk and it is always good to help people. well not ten minutes later we run into this guy who we had knocked into a few days before and he started talking to us about how he wants to learn more and had thought about us and what we had said to him and that because he had seen us again it wasn't a coincidence. So we ended up getting him to come to general conference and are meeting him later this week. But wait there's more as I am talking to this guy we knocked into, Søs Van Orden was pushing the guy in the wheelchair and another one of our investigators who we haven't been able to get in contact with runs into us and says he also wants to come to general conference and I will talk more about him and general conference in a minute but we are meeting with him today. So that was just awesome in and of itself. BUT there is more. After we pushed this guy home we told him about how we are missionaries and share a message with people about Christ and our church and he said he would also like to learn more! WHAT. It was really amazing. It was just so great to see that we really were in the right place at the right time and how Heavenly Father leads us to people or them to us.
2. We went and visited this super awesome lady who we visit every week and we were having a great conversation about Christ and who he was. She was telling us how she doesn't think it matters so much about if Christ was the Son of God or just a normal guy but what matters is the things that he did. One of the things that really stood out to her was how he loved and spent time with the sinners and outcasts and she kind of referenced that she herself is an outcast so she appreciates that Christ would do that for 'people like her'. I almost started crying because it just broke my heart that this amazing girl doesn't realize how great she is but also because I am so grateful for Christ's example that he did set that perfect example and loved everyone and that because He lives, we are never alone.
3. The highlight of conference was saturday evening we were watching the saturday morning session and we had three investigators with and all of them were men who have never been married and two of them are around college age and Søs. Van Orden and I were just praying that they would hear the conference talks they needed and I was definitely hoping for some missionary talks and about baptism of something along those lines. But all of them were about families and fasting and marriage/law of chastity so I was just sitting there praying the whole time that something that was said was going to be what they needed and I was just way uncomfortable because those are like some of the hardest lessons and commitments for people here and this was like the first thing they were hearing. So after I turned to one of our invesitgators (the second one who we ran into in story #1) and asked him what he thought and I was way worried he was going to laugh or not like it. BUT he just sat there and said 'that was amazing.' My mouth like dropped and I was like 'yeah. so you liked it?' and he said 'I loved it, that was exactly what I needed to hear. Are those the standards that all of your church believes in?' And I was like, 'yeah, that is what we all try and live.' Then he just sat there for a minute and then said 'I thought I was the only person who believed and wanted to have those standards, but now I know that I'm not alone that there are so many people who do believe that. That is amazing.'
So basically that was just a really amazing experience for me and really strengthened my faith of how inspired the apostles are to know what to talk about and about what each person needs.
4. We had splits here in Horsens with the Sister who are serving in Esbjerg! Sister Rovig and Sister Mølholt. I was with Sister Mølholt for the past 24 hours and it was so much fun and I learned a lot from her. She is so cute and happy for missionary work and wants to work as hard as she can. It was also way great because she is from Denmark and had actually lived in Horsens for awhile so we were able to stop by some members that she knew so she could say hi. It was way fun and hyggeligt. And of course because we were on splits a miracle happened! So on our potential investigators sheet there was guy who the sisters had met a couple months ago who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so Søs. Mølholt and I went out to see him and give him a Book of Mormon. It was actually pretty funny because he let us in then said that he hadn't ever met missionaries from our church before or heard of the Book of Mormon and he doesn't really read the bible but that he would still be interested in having the Book of Mormon and maybe reading a little from it. (Which was way exciting and surprising!) So he was just really nice and open and we testified about prophets and the Book of Mormon and he said that what we said made sense and could be true. It was a way great experience.
5. One crazy story from this week starts from the week before actually that I had forgotten to tell. So two weeks ago we were out contacting people and stopping by some potential people and we met this couple and we just started talking to them about how we are missionaries from our church and they told us that the husband could only speak a little danish and the wife could not understand any danish and neither of them could speak english. they were from Syria I think. But they said they would like to come to church and then they invited over to their apartment to talk more and drink some water. Well we had a very short lesson where we basically handed them the restoration pamphlet in Arabic and asked them to read it because that was about all we could communicate with them and we showed them where the church was on google maps. Well now fastforward to last sunday so they didn't come to church so we thought we would stop by, give them another pamphlet and see what they thought. Well they had some friends over but still let us in and for the next 20 minutes there was just chaos of 5 little boys fitting and crying, very little danish and a lot of arabic. But we ended talking with one of their friends who can speak a little more Danish who is Christian and said we could come visit her and then this couple invited us over for lunch today. So it was just way exciting and very crazy. It is still a major struggle to communicate with them. We aren't really sure what we are going to talk about while we eat but we can always act out the first lesson. :)
1. A miracle that happened this week was last tuesday, we were out walking around and had tried stopping by some people but no one was home because it is easter vacation time so we had like five more minutes before we were going to go in and eat lunch so we were just walking down the street a little past our apartment building (oh and it was snowing, like a blizzard all morning) And I look across the street and see this man in a wheelchair trying to work his way up this hill using just his feet probably because his hands were freezing and I was like wow that looks like a terrible situation to be in. And I had this feeling that I had to point him out to Søs. Van Orden so I nudged her and told her to look over there and she saw him then immediately crossed the road and offered to help push him wherever he was going. He was way taken aback but said sure he was going to the bank. So we pushed this man to the bank and it took maybe 30 minutes for us to walk there pushing him. And he told us that he had done it once before by himself and it had taken several hours one way. so we were like okay we will help push you back home too. So we waited at the bank then pushed him back home. And he was very friendly and we talked a lot as we walked but after a while I was sitting there pushing him up a hill, wondering what we were doing and if this was even helping anything so I said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me have a better attitude about helping him because it was a good walk and talk and it is always good to help people. well not ten minutes later we run into this guy who we had knocked into a few days before and he started talking to us about how he wants to learn more and had thought about us and what we had said to him and that because he had seen us again it wasn't a coincidence. So we ended up getting him to come to general conference and are meeting him later this week. But wait there's more as I am talking to this guy we knocked into, Søs Van Orden was pushing the guy in the wheelchair and another one of our investigators who we haven't been able to get in contact with runs into us and says he also wants to come to general conference and I will talk more about him and general conference in a minute but we are meeting with him today. So that was just awesome in and of itself. BUT there is more. After we pushed this guy home we told him about how we are missionaries and share a message with people about Christ and our church and he said he would also like to learn more! WHAT. It was really amazing. It was just so great to see that we really were in the right place at the right time and how Heavenly Father leads us to people or them to us.
2. We went and visited this super awesome lady who we visit every week and we were having a great conversation about Christ and who he was. She was telling us how she doesn't think it matters so much about if Christ was the Son of God or just a normal guy but what matters is the things that he did. One of the things that really stood out to her was how he loved and spent time with the sinners and outcasts and she kind of referenced that she herself is an outcast so she appreciates that Christ would do that for 'people like her'. I almost started crying because it just broke my heart that this amazing girl doesn't realize how great she is but also because I am so grateful for Christ's example that he did set that perfect example and loved everyone and that because He lives, we are never alone.
3. The highlight of conference was saturday evening we were watching the saturday morning session and we had three investigators with and all of them were men who have never been married and two of them are around college age and Søs. Van Orden and I were just praying that they would hear the conference talks they needed and I was definitely hoping for some missionary talks and about baptism of something along those lines. But all of them were about families and fasting and marriage/law of chastity so I was just sitting there praying the whole time that something that was said was going to be what they needed and I was just way uncomfortable because those are like some of the hardest lessons and commitments for people here and this was like the first thing they were hearing. So after I turned to one of our invesitgators (the second one who we ran into in story #1) and asked him what he thought and I was way worried he was going to laugh or not like it. BUT he just sat there and said 'that was amazing.' My mouth like dropped and I was like 'yeah. so you liked it?' and he said 'I loved it, that was exactly what I needed to hear. Are those the standards that all of your church believes in?' And I was like, 'yeah, that is what we all try and live.' Then he just sat there for a minute and then said 'I thought I was the only person who believed and wanted to have those standards, but now I know that I'm not alone that there are so many people who do believe that. That is amazing.'
So basically that was just a really amazing experience for me and really strengthened my faith of how inspired the apostles are to know what to talk about and about what each person needs.
4. We had splits here in Horsens with the Sister who are serving in Esbjerg! Sister Rovig and Sister Mølholt. I was with Sister Mølholt for the past 24 hours and it was so much fun and I learned a lot from her. She is so cute and happy for missionary work and wants to work as hard as she can. It was also way great because she is from Denmark and had actually lived in Horsens for awhile so we were able to stop by some members that she knew so she could say hi. It was way fun and hyggeligt. And of course because we were on splits a miracle happened! So on our potential investigators sheet there was guy who the sisters had met a couple months ago who said he wanted a Book of Mormon so Søs. Mølholt and I went out to see him and give him a Book of Mormon. It was actually pretty funny because he let us in then said that he hadn't ever met missionaries from our church before or heard of the Book of Mormon and he doesn't really read the bible but that he would still be interested in having the Book of Mormon and maybe reading a little from it. (Which was way exciting and surprising!) So he was just really nice and open and we testified about prophets and the Book of Mormon and he said that what we said made sense and could be true. It was a way great experience.
5. One crazy story from this week starts from the week before actually that I had forgotten to tell. So two weeks ago we were out contacting people and stopping by some potential people and we met this couple and we just started talking to them about how we are missionaries from our church and they told us that the husband could only speak a little danish and the wife could not understand any danish and neither of them could speak english. they were from Syria I think. But they said they would like to come to church and then they invited over to their apartment to talk more and drink some water. Well we had a very short lesson where we basically handed them the restoration pamphlet in Arabic and asked them to read it because that was about all we could communicate with them and we showed them where the church was on google maps. Well now fastforward to last sunday so they didn't come to church so we thought we would stop by, give them another pamphlet and see what they thought. Well they had some friends over but still let us in and for the next 20 minutes there was just chaos of 5 little boys fitting and crying, very little danish and a lot of arabic. But we ended talking with one of their friends who can speak a little more Danish who is Christian and said we could come visit her and then this couple invited us over for lunch today. So it was just way exciting and very crazy. It is still a major struggle to communicate with them. We aren't really sure what we are going to talk about while we eat but we can always act out the first lesson. :)