A Birthday and Hurricane

Hey family and friends,

- It was Sister Peterson's birthday on Tuesday. I decided to break the
rule about not getting up before your companion to surprise her. I
blew up glow stick balloons, decorated and waited outside the bedroom
door until her alarm went off... then I rushed in with the glowing
balloons (it was perfect since it was still dark outside) and sang our
favorite birthday song in Danish. Ha ha, it was WAY fun :)

We had a Christmas Zone Conference this week:
- Sister Peterson and I sang O Holy Night between training. We were
nervous. She sang alto and I sang soprano. The arrangement we have is
super high. The highest note was a high C, but I think it turned out
well.
-We ate the traditional Danish Christmas meal which I have explained
in earlier emails :)
-President let us all watch a movie called Ephraim's Rescue as part of
the conference. It's about a pioneer trek. There is this part in it
when a girl and a guy kiss. It was really funny because as
missionaries, we don't watch movies that aren't missionary/church
related and don't date/kiss anyone so we can focus on our purpose
while here. You could just feel the room fill with the awkwardness all
40 of us felt, ha ha. But yeah, that was pretty funny.

- We met with Frely again. We had originally planned on talking about
the Restoration of the Gospel, but plans changed while we were there.
Sister Peterson opened up her scriptures and showed her a Picture of
her Family. That sparked the idea for me to pull out the one picture I
had of my family from my Grandma's baptism. I showed Frely and then we
started talking about following in the Savior's example (faith,
repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end).
It was cool how it just led right into that.

- We had another lock-in this week. A hurricane was in the area, so
President told us we had to stay in the rest of the day. It was some
pretty crazy wind outside! We were talking to a lady the next day and
she said the storm blew her bike over while she was riding with her
kid in the back! Scary!

- We've killed 63 spiders in the Roskilde Apartment so far

Well, that's some of what went on this week...

Oh and this is a cute little clip about the true meaning of Christmas
that I wanted to share.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

Love you all so much!


Søster Orgill

Soccer (as they say in the U.S.)

Beautiful sunrise at 8am

Accidently turned on the mixer when I set it down...

Toe warmers :) Thanks, Mom and Kim and Will!

Do Stockton and I look alike?

The Viking District... minus our district leader, Elder Hammond

The full district

The Domkirke

Making a wish on the 9 months left.

Chestnuts popping in my face.... haha :)

9 months

Stopping for Lunch / 9 months

Familier og venner,

Happy December!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. We got to

stop by the lighting of the Christmas tree here in Roskilde the other

day. It was so fun. They were selling churros, they had an elementary

school kid group singing Danish Christmas songs on a stage and an

orchestra all dressed in Santa like outfits. Oh and they have hung up

artificial trees and lights all over the shopping streets. We went

with Frely, the lady we ran into last week on the street whom had

given us directions before. She is so nice. She did end up reading the

chapter we had invited her to read and said it was like the bible.

We're meeting with her again this week.

We had a district activity last Wednesday and got to visit the Viking

Ship Museum (where they have pieced parts of 5 viking ships that were

found in the beach here). We got to learn about vikings and dress up

like them, too!

After that, we ate lunch at a bagel shop that's kinda set up like

Subway. It was just us 6 missionaries at the restaurant, so he asked

us lots of questions about what we believe. He is Muslim and thought

the Book of Mormon sounded interesting. We gave him one and invited him

to read Moroni 10. He said he would, we're going to go back sometime

to see what he thought.

Then, we visited the Domkirke. It was really cool! All the Kings and

Queens of Denmark are buried there. It's cool to see the influence of

many different centuries in the one building.

Sister Peterson and I have officially been out for 9 months. So, I

stuck with my molten lava cake tradition and we made a wish on our

last 9 months, how we want them to go :)

Hope all is well in the U.S. and that you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Love always,

Søster Orgill

P.S. Next week, we are going to Tivoli for p day so the email next

week may be very very short.

Sister Orgill and Sister Petersen

Picture with the man who plays the Savior in 

“Finding Christ”.

A Familiar Face/ Forgotten French

Familier og venner,

We walked outside this morning and saw the ground was covered in snow…

actually it’s more like little pieces of hail everywhere… I wonder if

it will ever be powdery snow (that’s my favorite kind). It was only

day one of snow so only time will tell, but hey, that means Christmas

is around the corner! Good thing our ward is planning a Christmas

party that we can invite people to. We are excited for this month

since we can be pretty creative with finding people.

One miracle from this week: we had about 30 minutes before an

appointment we had with a new member. We decided to ring the call

boxes in the areas apartments and see if we could talk with anyone who

would let us in. It was getting dark and the street was all wet… so

there weren’t many people out of the streets. We rang a bunch of call

boxes. One guy let us in, but then he told us he was not interested.

We walked back outside and then we saw a lady who looked familiar.

Three weeks ago, we had seen her on the street and asked her for

directions to an address we were looking for. We said hi to hear and

retold her that we were missionaries and we visit people and share

more about the Savior. She said we could visit her sometime! It was

way cool. So she gave us her address and we made an appointment.

The appointment went great! She is wicken. We talked about the

similarities and differences between what we believe and invited her

to read 2 Nephi 33. We are going to meet with her again this week :)

The same night, we ran into a man who only spoke French. Sister

Peterson told him I could speak French. I tried, but I could not even

think of a word in French! Finally, I thought of one word… “pourquoi”

which means “why,” but I could not even think how I could ask why he

was here. We gave him a Mormon.org and that was it. Wow, so much for 5

years of French… After he left, I just kept trying to even think of

one sentence I could have said in French, only Danish words were

coming to mind. The only thing I can think of is that maybe because I

was called to speak in Danish, not French? Hmm… oh well, maybe I can

restudy French one day :)

Also this week, we sang in church again. We sang Joseph Smith’s First

Prayer (in Danish) to the tune of Come Thou Fount. Elder Hammond

played the piano, I sang soprano, Sister Peterson sang alto and Elder

Metcalf, Elder Carmack and Elder Ockey sang Tenor and Bass. It went

well and the ward asked Sister Peterson and I to help sing with the

primary in the primary program next month and we will be singing at

the ward Christmas party, too. We sure sing a lot here, but it is a

great way to bring in the spirit.

Jeg elsker jer!

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill

Together again...and visit to the Roskilde Cathedral

Great to be back together! Can't believe we are all on Sjælland! 

The typical Orgill sandwich picture and hoisting up 

the former MTC district leader.

The MTC district- reunited, without the Icelanders

Attending a funeral in the

Roskilde Cathedral

 Lutheran Church of Denmark

with Priest Ingrid Salinas

The Star mural with Ingrid Salinas a friend of
my mom's from when she was in high school.

This was a tough dandelion! We accidently got off at 

one or two stops too early, but it was a nice walk to

Svogerslev :) Clear skies, a little chilly

Really cool parking lot that has Christmas lights 

that look like stars above the cars! :)

Thanksgiving, Family History, a Funeral

Kære familier og venner!

I hope all is well for everyone reading this. I am assuming most of

you are preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Last week, we had a combined zone conference and had a mini

Thankgiving celebration consisting of a turkey bowl (American

football), zone training (great talks, inspiration and setting new

missionary goals for the month), Thanksgiving dinner (I just missed

the Orgill cranberry sauce and the pies in every flavor thanks to Stu

every year) and then, a talent show! My companion and I let 5 other

sisters in a remix of the song Give Said the Little Stream. It ended

up turning out pretty cool, and the great acoustics were a plus, too!

Another fun thing this week: This lady in my ward made tortilla soup

since she wanted to make a recipe from home :)

There were so many great things that happened this week.

On Tuesday, we were walking down the street and noticed an elderly

lady standing on a ladder trying to clean her windows. We asked if she

needed help. She said she did not, but then we just started to tell

her a little about who we were and that if she ever needed anything,

we love to do service. She found out we were Mormon and got really

excited because she said her great uncle was mormon and she had found

some things about her ancestors on FamilySearch.org that she wanted to

show us! She invited us in, we chatted about it, shared a hymn, she

gave us some saft and then invited us back. We are so excited to help

her find more about her family!

On Saturday, we met my Mom's friend from high school, Ingrid. She is

so nice! We had planned to come and meet here. She ended up having to

be in charge of a funeral since she is a Priest and we got to go. It

was really neat to attend and witness more Danish culture. They had

real candles in the church on every bench and a row of flowers down

the aisle. A large majority of the program was singing. The program

consisted of lyrics to all six of the hymns we sang. We are glad we

had the opportunity to be there.

It was interesting talking to Ingrid because she had not known prior

what church we were members of, but as I was talking to her she told

me she was surprised that my mom had changed religions because when

she said she could remember that my mom was a devout Baptist. I told

her that I didn't know that, but I did know my mom is very dedicated

and true to what she believes and that it must have been right after

Ingrid went back to Denmark that my mom started attending The Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and found out for herself it was

true. She's put her whole heart into the faith she has and continues

to share it with others. I'm so grateful for my mom's example to me.

Sister Peterson and I talked with Ingrid a lot of our beliefs,

including what happens after death, the role of baptism, the schedule

of a missionary and the process of getting a mission call. She is such

a sweetheart and had made us bread, took us out to lunch at this cute

cafe and showed us around one of her Cathedrals. It was gorgeous! I

told her that it was the most beautiful one I had been into compared

to the ones I had seen in USA, France and England. It's true though.

Possibly because of the star mural :)

Anyway, it was a great week!

Hope all is well wherever you are reading this.

Love always,

Søster Orgill

Roskilde Beach and cows, ha ha :)

Free bread, spit and meeting Tomas

Here are some things that have happened this week:

1.Visited the city Køge (which is also in our area) so we could go

meet some less actives and previous investigators

-Ate dinner there at a pizza place. The owner came up and gave us 2

free pastries after we were finished and then gave us a loaf of french

bread to take home! So nice of him. We left a mormon.org card with a

thank you note on it and will definitely be back!

-This seven year old on a scooter saw us coming down the street. He

put his hand up as to have us stop. We stopped and asked what we could

do for him. He stood for a minute in silence and then spit on my

companion and then just stared at us. Ha ha, we had no idea what to

do. We laughed and were confused. Then, I realized I didn't want him

to have a bad impression of the church since how many times do you see

sister missionaries in your life? So I pulled out a mint and gave it

to him and told him it was from the USA. He was surprised. Looked

curiously at me, licked it and then put it in his mouth. I told him to

have a nice day and he told us to as well. I think he was blown out of

the water that we were nice to him, so I'm thinking he now has had a

good experience with missionaries and maybe he's remember for next

time he sees us :)

2. Met Tomas Kofod, the actor who plays the Savior in "Finding Faith

in Christ". We took a group pic with him... coming soon and he thanked

us for all the work we do here as missionaries. He was so nice! He

also apologized that his hair is a little longer right now since he is

playing a role in Les Miserables pretty soon.

3. Door contacting this week:

-A guy answered the door and hid behind it the whole time, we talked

for about 5 minutes. We are pretty sure he didn't have clothes on

since he hugged the door the whole time, we could only see his face

and neck.

-Talked to this lady that could not even really remember her name it

seemed and she just bent down and spoke through a crack of the door

the whole time.

But things are going well. We have a busy week planned and are excited

for more adventures here in Roskilde (and Køge). I know Heavenly

Father wants me here at this time and that his timing for everything

is so perfect.

Love you all!

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill

Cool house slippers at the Borups house :)

Book tree we found and added a
Mormons Bog to the Collection ;)

The district at the Ward Halloween party that we 

have just been informed will be annual from now on!

Halloween day!

Halloween Dinner at Tina's

We got mail today in costume on the way to the ward party

Us with Naja :) and the cool background Sini in our ward made

Our district after the Ward Soccer Activity

 Cute puppy at the Borups' house

Lockdown and Halloween party

Lockdown and Halloween party

Last preparation day it was SUPER windy. I really thought we were

going to get blown away or tree would fly out of it's roots and hit us

or something. I kept telling Sister Peterson that I thought the wind

was so strong that something might hit us, but she doubted it. Then,

we found out that there was a hurricane near! We were talking to this

man while waiting for a bus and the wind was just going wild and was

shocked we hadn't heard anything about it yet.


We got home and then received word that President did not want us to

go out the rest of the evening because it was too dangerous. Pretty

crazy!

On Halloween, we had a dinner appointment with Tina and her mom! They

were so sweet and made everything perfect for the occassion, They also

required us to dress up, so we ended up just being 50s girls. And for

the spiritual thought we talking about Trick or Treating, but about

how with the Savior, there are no tricks and that we need not fear.

Isaiah 41:10. Then we sang How Firm a Foundation (In Danish).


The Halloween party was a success! I was so nervous because we had

only suggested the idea 3 weeks ago and the missionaries were in

charge of it, the members helped out so much! For dinner: Chilli over

rice, salads, bread, cupcakes and apple crumble. We had face painting,

bobbing for apples, mummy wrap, musical chairs with Halloween music

and then casting plates of whipped cream at the missionaries (the

elders' idea). Naja came and loved it!


Pretty crazy week, but we did find two great potential investigators

who invited us to come back, so we are going to meet with them this

week.

Life is beautiful.

-Søster Orgill

The progress of a member's heart shape bench carved into a tree!

Waiting for the bus after district meeting

Toni (our landlord's cat) came 

through the window during
personal studies

Efterår in Denmark

Somehow Elder Hammond and I ended up matching at church.
Sister Peterson thought it was so cool and made us take a picture.

The Dutch guy who gave us free donuts 

and chatted with us about the church

This week in Roskilde...

Mine familier og venner,

This week in Roskilde...

On Monday night ate dinner at member's house in Køge. It is more of

the country out there. It is so beautiful and was really fun. It gets

darker earlier now so we even got to see the stars on this little

watchtower they have :) They are carving a heart shaped sitting bench

into a tree right now, I'll attach of the picture of what it looks

like right now. It's not finished yet, but I thought it looked way

cool.

We went to this little Europe outdoor marketstand festival that they

had hear in Roskilde. Stands were selling sausages, olives, pesto,

pastries, cheeses, clothes and all sorts of stuff from Italy, the

Netherlands, France, Finland... Way cool. We walked by one Dutch donut

stand and the man there told us that he wanted to give us free donuts

because we were servants of Christ. It was way nice of him. We chatted

about our beliefs and then he wanted to know what we did as

missionaries. We told him we usually try to look for some common

ground to start with, then he asked us to try approaching him with our

message. It was cool. He lives in the Netherlands. We invited him to

visit Mormon.org.

I was on splits in Gladsaxe and we went over to dinner at this nice

lady's house who will be leaving soon to serve a Family History

mission in Salt Lake. She made a typical Danish Christmas meal for us:

Flæskesteg (pork that kind of has a crispy layer on top), boiled

potatoes, rødkål (red cabbbage that is sweet and vinegary, way good),

pickles, beets, and then for dessert, risalamande (kind of like a rice

cream pudding with cherry sauce on top... apparently at Christmas time

they put a whole almond in there and who ever gets it wins a prize).

So the point to this story is that I was trying to cut the pork and my

knife slipped off and as a result, rødkål landed in my lap and on the

table and on the floor... ha ha yeah. Somehow, my companion for the

day and the lady we were eating with didn't notice so I tried to scoop

things causally back on my plate and into my napkin for anything else

that still remained on my skirt or on the floor ha ha. It was WAY good

though! Oh my goodness. I might have to continue that Christmas

tradition... :)

Still on splits, I went to a 12 ½ year (copper) wedding anniversary

party of this lady who is half Indian and half Canadian, he husband is

a Dane. Way fun and quite the cultural party. We had Indian food

there, it was so good! She is an investigator in Gladsaxe and invited

the missionaries to her party. It was kind of funny at first because

her friends asked if we even knew her, then they realized that she was

friends with us (well, my companion at least since I didn't know her),

but it was cool because we got to have a lot of discussions about the

church and many people asked about our beliefs and why we had come on

missions.

And yesterday... Some new callings were made in the ward, as a result,

there was no one to teach the 7 to 8 year old class at church, so they

asked Sister Peterson and I if we could teach it. A little

nerve-racking since we found out right as we were walking into

sacrament meeting, but it was fun. It was on how we can show our

parents we love them (through obedience). It was fun. We colored

family trees and drew pictures of each family member on them, told

each other about our families, told each other how we have seen our

parents show that they love us and made a short list of how we can

show our parents we love them. We then talked about Nephi and how he

was always obedient to his parents. At this point, we lost their

attention, but then we got it back by playing Simon says and relating

it to being obedient. Ha ha, it was kind of hard because I realized I

didn't know how to say things like "hop" or "jump" or "touch" (like

touch your head) in Danish. I should try to learn more Simon says

vocabulary :)

I love October, it's a beautiful time of the year (everywhere! no

matter where you are, in my opinion)

My favorite lesson to teach? Probably still and always The Plan of

Salvation. The purpose of life on earth and Heavenly Father's perfect

plan for us.

Love you all!

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill

Roskilde

Kære familier og Venner,

Things are going well in Roskilde, we are still trying to set things

up, meet people and learn how to use the bus system here. Our ward is

huge! It is the biggest in Denmark and the members are really excited

because the last time they had sisters serving in the ward was 10

years ago.

The ward mission leader has asked that the missionaries join the ward

in playing soccer each week and to invite investigators for easy

fellowship. It's kind of funny because Sister Peterson and I are the

only girls that come. My goal is to be more confident in soccer by the

time I leave here, luckly Sister Peterson helped explain the rules to

me and gave me pointers even while she was on the other team.

We live in the basement of a really nice lady her in Roskilde. She has

an apple tree that she lets us pluck apples from. What does that mean,

we can cook tons of things with apples, too. Way, fun! I love it!

Maybe we can even make something to bring to less active with apples

:)

We had so many miracles last week, but I will just share one today.

We were looking for a member's apartment because we were supposed to

meet with her so she could give us a map of Roskilde, etc. We were on

the right street, but kept looking everywhere for her apartment number

and could not find it anywhere! We asked like 3 people for directions

and they all gave us obsure directions... bascially, no one knew where

it was. Ha ha. So then, we saw a lady walking just up the street from

us and we decided to ask her. We ran up to catch up with where she was

and asked for directions in Danish. She looked slightly creeped out/

surprised so we tried to explain that we just needed to figure out

where an apartment is. Then she said, "no, you don't understand... I

grew up Mormon." It was amazing! It turns out that she had just

recently moved, but hasn't been to church in a long time. She invited

us to come over sometime and gave us her name and address! Way neat!

We are excited to meet with her and felt so blessed to be a part of

the Lord's plan.

I love my companion. Sister Peterson is awesome! I feel like I am

growing so much this transfer. We made a goal to try and only speak

Danish from now on because we really want to try and improve. The

thing we are going to focus on as a companionship is to act on all

promptings we receive. What I love most about our companionship is

that we are always trying to serve each other. We take turns making

each others bed, doing each other's dishes (without the other

noticing), just random acts of kindness. Life is so much better when

you can make others happy and they can also receive more joy when you

take the time to let them serve/help you as well.

I hope all is well where ever you are! I love you all so much!

Love,

Søster Orgill