Cleaning the baptismal font

Cleaning.....

Romanians friends. 

They came to all 3 hours of church and stayed an

hour before and after dinner...

Søster Swett and Søster Henderson 

made us cookies for our year

mark coming up

Some people refer to where we live as a castle, it's fun. It

used to be an old nursing home. Did I mention we have an elevator???

Romanian food

Romanian Food

This week was my first week attending institute here. Two people we

met last week came and really enjoyed it.

The first hour of institute, we had a class where we talked about 3rd

Nephi, when the Savior came to visit in the Americas. Then we had

dinner, a spiritual thought and we learned how to juggle with scarves.

It was way great and it sounded like they want to continue coming! The

elders also had someone they met come to institute as well, his name

is Michael. And then get this! The next day, I was on exchanges with

Søster Swett and met Michael's friends on the street! We talked about

our beliefs for an hour and then 2 of them told us they would be at

church the next day!

So, Sunday comes around, we all show up an hour early to meet with

Michael before church. Him and his friends stayed for all three hours

of church, met some people after church and then invited us and then

elders to come eat dinner with them that night so we could continue

the conversation. They are all from Romania and they cooked us

authentic Romanian food - kind of like maltomeal, but more

cornbreadlike, complete with Romanian sheep cheese and pork. Then they

made American pancakes for dessert and we ate them with sheets of

chocolate. Then we took a group photo. Søster Briscoe and I will not

be at institute this week because we will be in Copenhagen, but we

will all be at the baptism on Saturday and it sounds like the Romanian

group is going to come, too.

Things are going really well here is Horsens, it is starting to warm

up... Spring is coming! There are little white flowers that grow right

before spring comes. It is tradition to pick them here, cut up a piece

of paper with a bunch of shapes (like a snowflake) and then write a

riddle on it, poke holes for the amount of letters in your first name

to sign is, and then stick the flower in. If the person guesses right,

then you owe them a chocolate easter egg, if they don't guess it's

you, then you owe them one. Fun, huh? :) They are called vinter gækker

brever.

Kaj's baptism is this weekend. We talked to him about the 10

commandments this last week and about how we believe in honoring the

laws of the land. He's all ready to go. We are so excited for him. He

is so happy to begin again, completely clean with the change of the

season.

I also just realized that on Thursday it will be my year mark! Kind of

scary. This mission is flying, but I am happy I still have 6 months

left.

Life is beautiful,

Søster Orgill

Three Danes

Well, it really is starting to warm up here, so that is fun. And, the

work is going great. Here are some things that happened this week.

-We cleaned out the baptismal font, in preparation for Kaj's baptism.

(I'll send a pic of it next week).

-Since we only have 2 sets of sister training leaders and 4 zones in

Denmark, we attended two zone trainings and did a 15 minute training

at both.

-We taught Kaj about the law of tithing, he has full faith and is

excited for his baptism

.

-Apparently most people in Denmark only celebrate Valentine's day if

they have a significant other... but we still told a bunch of people,

"Happy Valentine's day." Then they would ask if we had boyfriends that

sent us valentines. I told them no, but that sisters, mom and Grandma

:) They thought it was strange when we told them we would give

everyone valentines when we were younger.

-Valentine's day is more of a U.S. tradition. Sounds like only in more

recent years the flower shops here have tried to make it catch fire.

-We have a list of 22 people we are going to text to invite to

Institute that we have recently met. Exciting!

-I went on splits for the first time as a sister training leader.

-My favorite miracle from the week:

I was on splits with Sister Rigby. We were in Horsens, going to go

visit a less active, but then I felt we should knock on this one door

(we had been saying hi to everyone all day and knocking on any door we

even had the slightest prompting to knock on. We knocked twice, waited

a few minutes, started to walk away and then saw a guy come to the

door. We asked what he felt was the most important thing in his life.

He said money and friends. We started talking about how we are

missionaries and he told us that him and his friends were JUST talking

about how they wanted to go to a church sometime. He invited us in.

But, it is a missionary rule that we can only go inside if there is

another woman there or with us. We asked if there was a woman in

there. He said yes! So, we went right in! He had a friend that was a

girl and another friend that was a guy in his apartment. We talked

about their beliefs, what we believed, invited them to church and

institute and gave them a Book of Mormon. They were surprised it was

free. We read a couple verses with them and set up an appointment to

come back. And, we closed with a prayer. I felt they were sincere

about it as I asked them to turn off the t.v. and explained that we

usually fold our arms and close our eyes. They also folded their arms

and closed their eyes as Sister Rigby prayed. I'm excited to go back

next week! And, we are hoping they will be able to make it to

Institute! They are all three Danish, too!

 Delish danishes :)

Valentines Day

The day after Valentine's Day breakfast 

on splits with Odense sisters. They came here :)

Mission Leadership Council, picked up by the assistants, 

headed to Presidents to stay the night

Biking Around Horsens/Texas Pride

Biking Around Horsens/Texas Pride

Family and friends,

Well, like I probably said before. I am really happy to be back in

Jylland! It's just great!I feel like I am so close to Denmark home:

Vejle. Well, I am. Only a 15 minute train ride away!

I was able to attend the Mission Leadership Council this week in

Copenhagen. It was a really great experience. The spirit was so strong

there as we all talked about what we could do to help the mission.

President also helped us learn/remember the importance of effective

personal and companionship study. The reason we study on our missions

is not for us, but to prepare us for those we will teach during the

day. He promised us that if we used the time to study for others, we

would gain more out of it than just studying for ourselves. It sounds

simple, but it was eye opening to me and is something I will try to

focus on this next week.

Some great miracles from this last week:

-We were about to hop on our bikes, but I saw this guy and felt that I

should talk to him. I wasn't sure how since he was on the other side

of the street. I waved and then he came over to us! Turns out he had

met the missionaries before. We told him we would bring by a Spanish

Book of Mormon and invited him to institute.

-We were about to hop on our bikes, but I saw this guy (sounds

familiar, right?) walking past us and I wasn't sure what to say, so I

asked, "What is that?" because he had a box in his hand. It was full

of jumper cables. Eventually, we found out he was from Afganistan and

would be interested in learning more about what we believed. Yes, we

invited him to institute as well.

-We met a guy from Ghana who recognized our name tags from the Church

he has seen in Ghana. We gave him a church tour.

-We taught a family from Poland by using a Polish Book of Mormon and

pamphlet and inviting them to read specific parts while we were there.

So things are going great in Horsens. A lady in our ward asked us to

teach the plan of salvation in Relief Society. She gave us 10 minutes,

it took us 30. It's just really hard to do the whole thing in a short

time. We also made sugar cookies valentines for everyone there.

Oh and also, a handful of people who have met me and asked where I am

from, right off the bat associate San Antonio with San Antonio Rose, a

song I had never heard before. We met some people the other day, they

pulled out a small map of the U.S. Only 3 cities were marked in Texas.

One was San Antonio. They thought that was cool. So, am I proud to be

from San Antonio, Texas? Yes. I may not be a super prideful Texan, but

I can say it will always be in my heart and will always be my first,

real home.

Life is beautiful, we have lots of work going on here, we have an

investigator who is getting baptized on March 1st, so that's the next

big event around here.

Love you all. Oh and happy Valentine's day this week :)

Love always,

Søster Orgill

I have been in Horsens for less than 3 hours

Family and friends!

I have been transferred to Horsens and was called to be a Sister

Training Leader. I am here now (because our transfers just switched to

the same day as preparation day) and am now companions with Søster

Briscoe.

It was a 2 1/2 train ride to get here. I am back in Jylland, only a 15

minute train ride from my first area. It's funny because it kind of

feels like I am home since I used to come here every week when I was

in Vejle for district meetings.

Last week in Roskilde, things were well. We started helping a girl

from Italy with English! It was way neat! She has a lot of

grammar-like and phrase questions. I will miss being able to teach

her, but the sisters will do well there.

We did lots of knocking this last week and Roskilde has several

appointments set up for next week since we found several who wanted us

to come back.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? So here are some pictures

from the week with investigators, members and memories my last week in

Roskilde. I learned how to make risalamande and rødkål this week from

the Kjærgaards! We went bowling with Naja. We read scriptures with

Michael, his mom and their dog Rex. We had a great dinner appointment

with the Stokholm family, complete with a concert from Morten. I will

miss many from Roskilde, but I know the Lord needs me here now in

Horsens.

Life is beautiful. I know Our Heavenly Father loves us. He misses us

and hopes we will make the choice to come back to live with Him. But

since He loves us SO much, He has given us the opportunity to CHOOSE

for ourselves.

Love,

Søster Orgill

Crowded Bus/ Language Barrier

Wow, so much happened this week that I don't even know where to begin.

LOTS of miracles! Here are my personal two favorites:

Number 1 from splits-  The bus was SUPER crowded. Sister Swett and I

were talking about Fastelavn, kind of like Halloween here. I asked her

what day it was. She didn't know, so I asked the guy standing next to

me. He said he didn't know because he was not Danish. We asked where

he was from and he said Lithuania. So we just started talking to him

more. Eventually he asked why we were here and I told him we were

missionaries. I asked if he believes in God. He said he wasn't sure

and has not been able to figure it out. I asked him if he would want

to know how to figure it out if there was a way. He said he would. He

told us he has never read the Bible, but would want to if it was in

Lithuanian. We asked if we could come by and drop off a Book of Mormon

and the Bible and talk to him about how he can find out if God is

there. He said yes! So, we got his number and address. I was on

splits, so he is actually not in my area, BUT he texted that day and

asked when we would be stopping by to make sure he is home! Really

cool!

2. Søster Hall and I were waiting to get on our train and we saw this

man who looked lost. He asked us a question, but we had no clue what

he wanted. He didn't speak English or Danish. Eventually, we found out

he just wanted to buy a ticket. He got one and then hung out with us

while we waited for our train. He only spoke Arabic, but we eventually

found out he was a journalist visiting a friend for some undecided

amount of time. He wanted to know where we were from. I told him,

Texas and he made a gun symbol with his hand and looked like he was

scared or me the rest of the night. Søster Hall told him she was from

Washington, D.C. and he said "Obama" and then he pointed to the two of

them and said they were friends. It was hard to talk to him since we

couldn't really understand each other, but I decided to take out the

Book of Mormon to show him a picture of the Savior and told him we

believed in Jesus Christ, that He was an example to us and that He

will come again and people can learn more about it from the book.

Immediately, another guy in the vicinity came over to us and said, "I

would be interested in learning more about that book!" So then we

switched to Danish and talked to him more about the Book of Mormon. He

moved to Denmark 6 years ago from Afghanistan. Turns out he lives in

Roskilde and we are going to meet with him this week!

It's been a really great week. Although, it has been freezing! I

thought my toes were going to fall off when we were only knocking on

doors for an hour the other day. But luckily, the next day I

remembered to put on a pair of cool toe warmers my sister and my mom

sent me :) So that was a little better. Just in a little bit of a cold

spell here, but I like it :) It's fun.

Oh yeah, one more thing. We also met with a guy who said he thinks

people should live the same way they do at church throughout the week,

not just on Sundays. We told him we feel the same way! He's coming to

church next week.

Life is good. Love you all so much. Oh and today I have officially

been out for 11 months. Weird. Time flies. Glad I still have time

left. Now I just need to make the best of it :)

Love always,

Søster Orgill

Snow

Hey family and friends!

Last Monday, we came home from shopping for groceries, we put them

away, ate lunch, looked out the window and then saw airy snowflakes

just fluttering with the wind, passing the window as they descended to

the ground. I looked out the window, screamed, “It’s snowing!” Then,

Sister Hall and I put on our shoes and jetted outside so we could

dance and sing Christmas songs in the middle of the powdery white

street :) Blissful? Yes. We were so happy. Unfortunately, my camera

and Sister Hall’s camera don’t work right now so we didn’t get to take

any pictures of some of the crazy stormy snow weather from this week,

but we have heard that more snow is on its way, so stay tuned :)

Two of my favorite experiences from this week.

- We had a lesson with a less-active’s mother. We started to talk to

hear about the Restoration of Jesus Christ’s church on the earth

today. She then told us that she had been multiple times, but that our

church was different than the other churches she goes to. That it is

just not the same as a traditional Danish Folk Church. We asked what

she thought was different about it and she told us, “I feel that when

I am at your church it’s like someone has their arms around me” and

she demonstrated it was like she felt she was being hugged. We told

her that was the Holy Ghost that she felt.

- We got to sing at the nursing home again yesterday. We are going to

try to go every week. We sang hymns, visited with the people there,

they gave us some hot chocolate and then the nurses there asked us

about the church and what our schedule is like as a missionary.

So, things are going well here. I love you all and am so blessed to be

here, right now. I know this is where the Lord wants me and this is

His will, to take the gospel (the good news that He has a plan for us

to return to him) to all the world.

Love you all!

Søster Orgill

Pão de queijo og Guaraná

One thing I love about Denmark is that there are people who move here

from all over the world. Therefore, Denmark is rich in fun culture,

i.e. food! :) We have a lady in our ward who is from Brazil! I told

her that I had tried the cheese bread before when I was about 9 years

old and guess what! She made it this week and also bought Guaraná soda

to go with it. It was way good. She was way nervous it was not going

to turn out very authentic, but then she tried it and said it tasted

just like it does in Brazil! And it was delicious! So fun :)

This week went really well. We made missionary goals for the ward with

our ward mission leader. We're really excited to start working on

them.

We got to go to a baptism in Odense this week of a lady that Søster

Hall taught. It was really great. The lady's whole family came. How

great it was to have them their with her. We hope that they will be

open to learning more, so they can have an even stronger bond as a

family.

We also made carmel popcorn this week and took some to those who don't

come to church very often. Most of them had never tried carmel popcorn

before, so it was a great ice breaker :)

One evening, we realized we had misread the bus schedule and showed up

for a bus that was not running 4 times an hour, only twice an hour. We

realized if we waited 30 minutes for the next bus, we could not be

very productive because it was already 7:00pm and by the time we ended

up to where we wanted to be, we'd have to start heading back pretty

soon. So, we quickly thought of an alternative plan and it turned out

even better. They family was home and it was a productive visit. I had

been a little worried before, but I'm so grateful that it worked out.

I should have guessed it though. The Lord's plan always turns out

better than our own and everything always happens for a reason.

I can't remember if I have said this before, but check out Mormon.org.

It is really neat to see all the videos on there. Very inspirational.

One of my favorite videos is Brandon Flowers, the lead singer for the

band, The Killers.

Love you all so much!

Med kærligste hilsener,

Søster Orgill

P.S. My camera unfortunately broke. I don't even know how. We had a

waiter take a picture of us after the baptism on Saturday and then I

put it back in my case. When I took it out last night, it made a weird

noise and the lens would not open, so I may not have pictures the next

two or three weeks. Just a heads up :)