Howdy, all! :) It's been a grand week, once more, here in the frozen land of Denmark! We had our first snowfall of the season just a few days ago, so one can indeed say that 'it's beginning to look a [smidge more] like Christmas!'' The Christmas lights in the city are lit, and the giant tree in the Square is shining in all it's grandeur!! :) Sadly, I don't have any pictures with me from it, so that'll have to wait until next week: but then it won't even matter because I won't be emailing from Odense next week!! That's right!! Another transfer has flown by, and I'm getting kicked out of Odense :( But it's okay!! It's been a fabulous 12 weeks here :)
a sweet little note from a guy telling us that he wasn't really interested in us coming back. Well, at least he let us know when we came by again!
I'm headed back to Sjælland for what appears to be my very last area on the mission! I'll be serving in Birkerød (have fun pronouncing that one!! It has an 'ø' in it!!), which is an area that actually just opened up for Sisters this past transfer! So it's all pretty fresh :) Transfers are really weird for me this time, though; I'm not leaving Odense until Thursday, because I'm wating for my new companion to get back from Iceland!! Sister Lyman (and Sister Reed) has been up there teaching the Elders in Iceland how to use genaology in their Missionary work :) So that's fun :) I get a few more days in this delightful little city!! I'm going to miss all of the tributes to Hans Christian Andersen all over the place! But it will always hold a special place in my heart :) <3
I hope you have all had a fantastic week, because I sure have :) Life, and all of the experiences it brings, is sooooooo great :) We enjoyed a wonderful week, starting off last Monday with finding a man who is soooooooooooooooooooo super spiritual! haha, we had a great conversation, and he wants us to come back, which is awesome!!!
That night (monday), all the missionaries here on Fyn (Elders Amos, Dibble, Howe, Jeppsen, Jensen, Murphey, and Perkins, and Sisters Ackerman, Landvatter, Orr, and Soelberg) had dinner with Elder and Sister Turpin!! It was so great! I'm going to miss them :)
we also found this sign on a door, addressed to us:
a sweet little note from a guy telling us that he wasn't really interested in us coming back. Well, at least he let us know when we came by again!
On Tuesday, we were actually feeling under the weather, so nothing tooo exciting happened.
Wednesday rolled along, and the health was back!! So we went out and did our darling missionary work :) really good night!
THURSDAY WAS THANKSGIVING and it was wonderful :) We all headed up to Aarhus, and had a great time :) we had a fantastic Zone Conference, complete with Thanksgiving dinner, a talent show (graced with my new-found talent of ukelele playing), and some good ol' American football!!
I also ran into this guy:
Elder Ericksen!! What a champ!! :D It was so great to see him! It may end up being the only time we see each other on the mission, but hey, IT HAPPENED!! We'll all just have to come back and visit in a big huge family reunion sometime in the future!! :D
On the way home from Aarhus, we caught a ride from the Turpins- a trip that should only have taken 1 ½ hours took a whopping 4½!!!! All thanks to late night traffic due to road work! But we got home (eventually), and snuggled up with hot chocolate and a ukelele :) great way to end the day <3
Friday was super awesome!! We had back to back appointments all day long, and had a great time :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! Everyone you meet is soooo great and loving, and I love seeing them progress in their own testimonies and faith <3
Then Saturday happened- we ''enjoyed'' a couple hours of weekly planning, then did some genaology work during our lunch hour, and rode the train down to Svendborg to eat one last time (for me, at least) with our dear friend Maria Hartmann! She's soooo sweet, and I'll miss her a lot!!
On the train ride back from Maria's, miracles were happening!! I sat down in the train in a different spot than Søster Orr (it's easier to talk to as many people as possible that way), and as soon as I sat down, the man across the isle starting asking me about my nametag and the work I do here- he was actually interested in learning more, so he gave me his number, and we'll see him again!! He was particularly interested in Family History, so it's a good thing we've all been brushing up on that!
When the man got off the train, two women came on and walked past, but after a bit of time, they made their way towards me again and took the empty seats right across from me. They chatted for a while and finished their beers, and I just let them hygge while reading out of the Conference Liahona we had just gotten on Thursday.
I had been reading Sister McConkie's talk from the women's conference about being a light to others around us, when all of a sudden, these two women in front of me started talking to me asking about who I was, if I was a nun (how many times has this now?? haha, I promise, I don't look like a nun....), and what I've been doing here in Denmark! I had another fantastic conversation with them about faith and the Word of Wisdom (they asked about it, I didn't bring it up at first ;) hahaha).
I found it so exhilerating to be so easily recognized as someone different, and someone strange to other people! Both of these occasions started because people saw that I was acting differently and doing something different than the usual slew of people we run into!! I want to continue to be so recognizibly different after the mission!
We read in the book of Psalms that the word of The Lord is a light on our path, and that we can trust the Light that He is. We know that He is the Light of the world, and that as we strive to exemplify Him in all we do, we can also become a light to those around us!!
One of my favorite songs sung by Josh Groban has a quote in it that says, ''When darkness blinds you, I will shine to guide you!'' haha, don't think I'm being cheesy here, but I like to think that this is something Christ says to us all!! He will be the light to break the darkness around us, and we can be the same for our friends, collegues, and acquaintences!!
I hope you all have a fantastic week, and that you can all continue to build your priceless faith in Jesus Christ- it is the one thing in this life that really even matters :) and your faith will lead you to great things <3
I love you all!!
Med kærlig hilsen,
Søster Morgan B Soelberg
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