Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Legoland, Language Test, Temple Trip, Baptism, New Investigator..great week :)

Mine familier og venner!

Wow, what a week!

This might be another time for BULLETPOINTS! :)

-Went to Legoland with a less-active on p-day. They had mini versions
of cities from around the world made out of legos, it was so cool! And
it was fun riding the roller coasters :)

-Had zone conference in Odense (about a 1 hour train ride away)

-The new sisters that are supposed to be coming to Denmark did not get
their visas, so we are holding off on transfers for sisters for about
3 weeks. It's nice though because I LOVE Vejle :)

-We took a Danish test this week in Copenhagen (about a 2 hour train
ride away). As long as we pass, we can stay in the country ;)

-We went to the temple after our language test! It was really cool!
All in Danish!

-Annelise got baptized this week! The members helped us make it
special for her and she told us that even though her family was not
there, that the ward felt like her family :)

and finally...

-We tried to visit some less-actives and recent converts in an area,
none of them were home, but this lady waved to us and smiled. We had a
feeling we should go talk to her. We rang the intercom, she let us in
and then we talked and set up an appointment for next week and she
wants to invite her neighbor.

So... yep, things are going well. Oh, and after all the traveling...
I've come to realize that Vejle is my favorite city (as of now). I'm a
suburb girl by far and I love it here :)

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Jelling Stone



Welcome to the Queen


Viking check

The Vikings have arrived!

The Queen

Kære søskende ("dear siblings"... but you can say that to everyone
because we are all one big family),

So this week, we received a call that there was someone in Jelling
(about 30 minutes away) who wanted a Book of Mormon. We were trying to
figure out when to go visit them and then happened to get a call from
a less active member in our ward who said he would love to take us to
Jelling to see the Queen of Denmark because it happened to be the
anniversary of the Jelling stone! So we went out there, got to see the
queen fly in (by helicopter) and were only about 5 feet away from her
at a couple points when she came to look at the Jelling stone! It was
a great experience because the member we were with helped us talk to
many people around us and we found someone who lives in Vejle that we
are going to go back to visit this week!

Another highlight this week was teaching Anne Lise. She has so much
faith and says she knows all she knows because of the spirit that she
feels and that she knows the church is true.

Anyway, we find out about transfers this week. I love Vejle, I'd love
to stay here another transfer, but I am happy to go somewhere else,
too if the Lord needs me some where else. We'll see what happens.

MKH,


Søster Orgill

Blond, Brunette, and Redhead



Me with my companions (Sister Handley and Sister Ripplinger) on a windy day! :)
Sister Swett made me an "O" pancake for Orgill :)
Pluck your own apple!



Pluck Your Own Apple

Mine Familie og venner,

Well the week started off with Splits in Horsens with the Sister Training Leaders. It was great! They are very kind and we all learned what we could do to be better missionaries.

Oh and when we were in Horsens, we walked by a house with a sign that said we could pluck our own apples. They had three apple trees, completely full. Guess they wanted to get rid of some. Anyway, when picked one each and ate it. Fun times :)
Also this week... I received Word from Sister Hadley (my former companion who is now in Aalborg) week that, the guy that bought me an apple juice on the train a could weeks ago who I talked to about the church in English, has been meeting with the missionaries each week with his family! That is great news and I am so happy the Lord trusted me to be his instrument that day I met him on the train.

Trains are awesome! We met someone else on a train this week. His name was Mol. Sister Ripplinger and I both had this strong prompting that we should talk to him. I waited for a little bit trying to figure out what to say. Then I asked him how to pronounce a word in Danish. I told him about why we were here and he said he had seen missionaries in San Francisco before. Unfortunately, this was when the doors opened and we had to get off the train (without even knowing where he is from) but we gave him a mormon.org card and he said he would look it up. We kept him in out prayers the whole day. I hope one day soon he is able to get directed to the church again.

Last thing, Friday night I started to get a sore throat, but hoped it would go away. By Saturday night, after one of our lessons, I was feeling really sick to my stomach and exhausted. We came home a little early because I felt so sick. I took a shower and even though water was warm, I had the chills, like I was freezing and I kept shaking uncontrollably, even when I got out of the shower which lasted about 15 minutes. We also found out my temperature was 103. Anyway, Sister Handley called the mission nurse and she said I should probably go to the hospital by the morning especially because of my temperature. Two ward members came over and gave me a blessing. As soon as they had finished the blessing, I really did feel like my fever had stopped climbing and I went to bed. In the morning, my fever was gone and I just had left over flu/ cold symptoms, but we were able to go to church. When I saw Bishop, he told me that he was surprised I was there and that it was a miracle. I am grateful for priesthood blessings that come straight from our Father in Heaven.

Med kærligste hilsener,


Søster Orgill







oldest house/building in Fredericia


All Things Happen for a Reason

Mine Familier og Venner,

So, last Tuesday, it was my 6th month mark on my mission. As you can see in the picture attached, I started a new tradition, "candles in a molten lava cake of the number of months you have left" instead of the old elder tradition of burning a shirt and a suit,...

mine is just at 6 months out- make a wish (on 12 candles) to how you want the next 12 months to go.

and at 12 months- make a wish (on 6 candles) to how you want the next 6 months to go.

Yep, yep. Anyway.

Oh and we attended the Medieval Festival in Horsens this week! It was amazing! There were so many people there who were dressed up! It was AWESOME! :) I've been to two medieval festivals in the U.S., but not were as "legit" as this! Even the trash cans looked like they were from the Medieval ages! They has people jousting and everything they sold looked super authentic. The people came from all over Europe. There was a medieval band from Czech Republic,... It was way cool. I took several pics and will attach them. We also got a little tour later in the week of Fredericia (where our Ward meets) and the history behind it. I'll send some of those pics, too :)

Miracle of the week:

We had a lesson/dinner appointment with a less active. We ended up arriving about 30 minutes early, so we tried to visit 1 less active and Grethe (a previous investigator) in the area. I have met Grethe before.

Rewind in time:
The first time, she told me she was not interested, but then somehow started talking about her family and I asked if I could see a picture of them, she got really excited and showed a couple to us. She said she didn't want to meet, but would appreciate it if we kept her in our prayers. The next time we came, she invited us in and we chatted for about 5-10 minutes. We couldn't tell if she was interested, but asked if would could come back to share a message (since her friend had just got there). She didn't want to commit to anything though... so we tried again the next week and she wasn't home.

Okay, back to where I left off in the first paragraph:
So we tried the less active, she was not home. We headed to Grethe's. On the way there, our investigator Jamshid ran into us and told us he has something wrong with his hand and he doesn't want to meet with us the next week. We asked if we could reschedule and he said, "Nej, tak." We figure we will try to stop by again in a month or two just to see if anything has changed.

So we knock on Grethe's door, she lets us in and immediately starts telling us all about the cancer she has and that she doesn't understand why she has it, or what the purpose is. She says that she is confused because "shouldn't [her] faith in Christ make her not have cancer?" And then she said she was worried about her kids and grandchildren because the doctors don't think she will live for much longer. She told us that she thought we were the ones that were destined to help her understand. We didn't have much time, but we started sharing a small portion of the plan of salvation and then asked if we could come back to tell her more the next week. The problem... we were COMPLETELY booked for the next eight days due to splits, zone training and other scheduled appointments, many are further out. She told us she was only home on the weekends. Then we remembered that Jamshid had cancelled his appointment with us and so that would be the only time we could fit her in if it was possibly a good time for her. It happened to be on FRIDAY! And she said it was perfect! What a miracle!

We won't forget able Jamshid, but right now, I think Grethe needs the gospel and we hope we can help her and her family see Heavenly Father's plan for them.

Jeg elsker jer!    meaning... I love you -plural form ;)

Med kærliste hilsener,


Søster Orgill

Apple Juice and a Baptism

Mine familier og venner!

Random fact: Tomorrow, I will have officially been out on my mission for 6 months.

Hmm... if I narrowed it down to two things I would want to share from this week, it would be these two:
I was sitting on the train across from a guy who had headphones on. I felt like sometime before I left, I should talk to him, but I waited a little bit. I was rereading the Plan of Salvation pamphlet as I overheard him order a beer. Then, a minute later, he slides an apple juice across the table to me and tells me I can have it. Then, he opens up a can of Pringles and offers to share them with me. It was way nice of him. I started talking, but he asked if I could speak English. I did, but then he asked if I could speak more slowly because it was hard for him to understand. He told me he was Muslim and on his way to work in Copenhagen (from Aalborg). We were just heading back from a district meeting where our zone leaders had stressed the importance of keeping the gospel simple in explanation. I tried to explain the restoration in the simplest I could and gave him a pamphlet in Danish. He said his native language is Arabic and I told him we could get him a Book of Mormon in that language and give it to him. He told me he really would like that and wants to meet with the missionaries! I got his information and gave it to the missionaries in Aalborg. I'm so happy that Heavenly Father let me help run His errand to find the man.

This week, an 8 year old boy in the ward had a baptism. We invited Anne Lise to it. We had one of the members in the ward bring her and it went great! The member talked to Anne Lise the whole time and answered all of her questions. I was sitting on the other side of Anne Lise during the baptism. After it was over, I asked her what she thought of it and how she felt. She told me that is was a beautiful day and that she was so happy to be there. But then, she said she was still confused why she would have to be baptized again if she already has been once in another church. We had previously taught her about how after the apostles died, God's authority to perform ordinances was no longer on the earth and about the restoration of the priesthood, so I just rehashed what we had already discussed. I can't even remember exactly what I said, but I remember looking at her and it seemed a light bulb had turned on and she told me it made sense. Then, I told her that we would be having a baptism on September 21st and asked if she would like to be baptized them and she said YES!!! I was so so so so excited. Anne Lise told a few people at the baptism that she had just made the decision and everyone was so exciting and supportive.

I love the ward here in Fredericia. We hope to one day have a ward here in Vejle.

Oh and Autumn is coming soon! My favorite season! Can't wait to officially pull out the sweaters!

Life is beautiful.

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill