A Southernized Dane

Hey friend and family!

 Well, I’m still not caught up on my journal, but I went through my planner so I could summarize my week J

 Last Monday was preparation day; however, it was a holiday, Anden Pinse Day. Yes, almost everything was closed. The 3rd grocery store was opened, but they didn't have stuff we needed. Two years ago they moved all post offices to grocery stores (So I heard from Sister Arbon), but all the grocery stores with post offices were closed!

The library did not have any air conditioning and the windows weren't open (and we could not get them open) and there was not personnel since it was a holiday so it literally felt like a sauna!

Monday night we waited for an investigator to come to the young single adult family home evening. We waited outside for 1 hour, trying to call and text him the whole time. He had told us he was on his way He never came.

Anyway, the next day we had zone conference. Our theme this month is Chapter 7 of Preach My Gospel about learning the language.

Really neat because we had the Stake President come and he told us tips for working with the members.

Then we gave the first lesson to a few different members from our stake.

After that, I headed out with my drawstring purple backpack full of clothes and what I’d need for exchanges in Gladsaxe 2 area which is right next to our area. While there, I ate dinner at an investigator’s house. She made us Pakistanian food. I've attached a picture ;)

We talked about the Book of Mormon. She told us it has made her so happy, happier than she’s ever been and asked us to recommend a new section for her to read.

The next day we met with an investigator in their area who has MS. So sad! : ( She pretty much can just use her hands to do everything and sits in a wheel chair. We talked to her and I could just feel God’s love for her. I didn't know her, but I told her that I know that God loved her. We watched the Mormon message, “Mountains to Climb,” bore testimony, sang, prayed and then I asked if I could give her a hug and I did. I love giving hugs.

Back to Gladsaxe 1st area (mine). The guy who never came to YSA FHE… he came to church! He was 30 minutes late, but we walked out of sacrament meeting to go get him (it’s kind of confusing since our building is a 5 story building and looks business-y and it is next to another church). Everyone was really friendly to him and spoke English to him which was great since he moved here a few months ago. He liked church and plans to come next week.

 And one more miracle for the week- We were lost and trying to find the street of a less active member  while on our bikes, trying to pinpoint where we were on the map.

This lady saw us and asked if we were from Utah and if we were lost. She’s a Dane and used to live in the South of the U.S. for 9 years! She was so cute and even had a southern accent (mixed with a Danish accent) when she spoke English! She was so sweet and told us we could come back sometime. She told us to have a “blessed day” ha ha J I felt like I was in Tennessee again! I loved it : )

 Love you all!

 Med kærligste hilsener,

 Søster Orgill

 P.S. I heard the Spurs won the championship! WOOHOO!!!! GO SPURS GO!!!!! :)

 P.S.S. I just heard that my new niece named Julia was born yesterday! :) I can't wait to meet her! I love being an aunt!

10 Minute Contacting

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm 2 months behind in my journal, there is just never any time to write... this also means it is hard to quickly summarize my week each week. I'm trying to catch up during lunches and dinner during the week when I can. For now... here are two highlights from this week:

-We had an eating appointment at the Nielsen’s house. The elders have a car this transfer and were able to give us a ride since we were in their area and did not think we would make it in time on our bikes. When we got there we realized still had ten minutes before our appointment. We all agreed to having a contest to try and find someone to share a lesson with before we had our dinner appointment and the winning team would receive chocolate milk from the other team. We frantically tried to knock on doors hoping someone would be home so we could share a message with them. The first three doors we knocked… no one was home! Finally we found a father and his little baby girl (who reminded me of nieces Daphne and Danielle combined except she was less than a year old, so how I remember them) sitting outside on their little porch patio. He said he does not believe in God, but we were still able to share with Him a some of what we believed and he even let us pray with him and his family. He said he was not interested in having us come back, but would check out the church website. We decided we are going to try to do this before every eating appointment. It really pumps us up to find those people who the Lord has prepared :)

-We ate with the Bishop and his family. My companion mentioned that I had just found out my dad was going to be getting a new calling to serve in the temple. Our Bishop had us read the first paragraph of Temples in the Bible dictionary, it says,

"A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness."

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/temple?lang=eng&letter=t

Then he asked if the home is the only place that compare in sacredness then what makes it that way? The people there. It's ironic because the next day we went to our investigator's house and she told us that she doesn't let just anyone into her home. I think that's why we need temple recommends in order to enter into temples just to keep us in check and the environment so we can control the sacredness within.

I love temples :)

Life is beautiful!

Love you all!

Søster Orgill

Pictures

Pictures
Family and friends!

Well, this week, I've mainly got pictures...

And pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

Sorry this will be like to shortest email (or post if you are reading this on my blog), but things are going well here in Gladsaxe Første Menighed.

Søster Packard is my new companion and I am so excited to be with her. I wasn't sure if I was going to get the chance to serve with her. We are going to set some goals this week so we can get as much accomplished this week as we can!

Oh and Sister Peterson and I did make molten lava cakes on our 15 month mark. We didn't have any candles so we used sparklers... Dangerous? Yes! Ha ha. But I made a wish on my 3 sparklers and I want to make this the best most productive transfer I've ever had! :)

Life is beautiful! Heavenly Father loves us and can't wait to see us again! Alma 34:32

MKH,

-Søster Orgill

Navigation: Not my Strength

Well family and friends,

 Here are some things that happened this week...

 -Last preparation day, I got to go to the Post and Tele museum! That was so fun! :) It was a free museum all about the postal service (not the band... ha ha) and communication throughout the years here in Denmark. We only got to stay for about 20 minutes, but boy was it a blast! I love hands on educational museums!

 -We reorganized all the microfilm for the Family History Center in our church building so they can now all be in numerical order

-We were served a couple shifts of staying at the church and welcoming all who wanted to come looks at an exhibit on display in the church building in celebration for the 10 year anniversary of the Denmark Copenhagen temple for the church. We welcomed members and non members to come learn about the history of the church in Denmark. They also had a video running answering common questions with short films about temples. In another room, we had a 20 minute video running about the purpose of a temple and why we love them (this one was in English with Danish subtitles).

 Will there be a 10 year anniversary for the San Antonio temple? I sure hope so :)

 -We went on exchanges (as always, right?). This time I was here for them. Oh man, I was completely lost! Ha ha. I've only been in this area about 4 weeks... Navigation is not my strength... not going to lie, I miss having a GPS! Anyway, switched plans like 5 times, took some wrong buses and trains, but eventually when we were on our bikes (and were lost), a less active stopped us. We didn't know here, but she helped us find our way! How neat, huh? So it seemed that was all part of the plan.

 -We met with one of our investigators this week and actually talked to her about the importance of temples. We read 1 Peter 4:6 and 1 Cor 15:29. She read them in her native language and then sat there silent for about 5 minutes. It made sense to her that if baptism was a saving ordinance that those who did not have the chance to hear about the plan of salvation in this life must have the opportunity sometime to be baptised by someone holding the authority of God.

 We should find out about transfers today. I'm pretty sure I'll be staying here and Sister Peterson will be leaving, but we have no clue where she will go or WHO my new companion will be. We'll see. Love you all so much!

Happy Memorial Day in the U.S.!

Love always,

Søster Kelly Orgill

P.S. We just got transfer calls! Sister Packard will be my new companion. Sister Pearson trained her. I've been on exchanges with her before. She is an excellent missionary, so this will be great :)

P.S. I also fell off my bike twice this week, once with my feet Falling in a mud puddle. It was way awkward at the 2 appointments we had after that... I had to hide it and wash my feet and shoes in their sink.

Exchanges

Hey friends and family!

 So this week, Sister Peterson and I were on trio exchanges with Sister Barrett while her companion was in a special meeting President had with all the people from her MTC group. We were walking around the Herlev station and met a man named Farhat. He said he had just moved to Denmark three weeks ago and that he had Christian friends and wanted to know more about Christianity. We talked to him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how the Savior taught that we must have faith, repent, be baptized, be given the holy spirit and follow Christ's example to return to live with our Father again. We talked about the Book of Mormon, how to pray and invited him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon before the next time we met. Unfortunately, we found out that he doesn't live near us, but we called the elders who live in the area when his congregation meets. They met with him, he said he had already prayed over what we had talked to him about, he knows it's true and he wants to be baptized. It was really exciting. Søster Peterson and I are planning on attending his baptism in June :)

I went on exchanges in Roskilde this week! It was fun being back in my old area. We woke up early and joined the ward in traditionally celebrating the Koch's 25th anniversary. Half the ward was there and we gathered around their door step singing songs until they came out (this was at 8am in the morning). Anyway, after the songs, we all ate breakfast (pastries, bread, cheese, jam, juice, pineapple...) and the couple danced with a top hat and veil on their heads as a little band played.. Very fun.

 My highlight of being in Roskilde though? So I had noticed that the sisters had a Romanian Book of Mormon in their Apartment. I was so excited to see it and really hoped we could meet some Romanians while I was there since I love Romanians! :) Thanks to Horsens! Anyway, we were headed to visit a less active who ended up not being home. On the way there, we met a couple from... ROMANIA! It was so amazing! I got to tell them the 6 phrases I knew in Romanian and then we talked to them about their family. Sister Hall then told them how we believed we could be with our families for eternity because of revelation through modern day prophets. They want the sisters to come back next week to hear more about it and to get the copy of the Romanian Book of Mormon :)

 Anyway, it was a pretty great! I am so blessed to be able to serve a mission. I love being here and meeting all these people whom the Lord has prepared to hear His word.

 Love you all!

 Søster Orgill

 P.S. It was way funny, we were practicing teaching lessons the other day. I was pretending to be an investigator. Elder Eisert called on me and just pretended to make up what my first name would be. He said "Kelly," not realizing that was actually my first name! We all laughed and told him. He was so shocked.

P.S.S. We we soaked all day on Wednesday since it was pourring rain outside!

P.S.S.S. We celebrated our District leaders birthday... we made him cookies and then found out he was fasting... oops!

Helping an Elderly Man

Helping an Elderly Man

We had zone trainings this week. I felt like our portion didn't go too smoothly for either zone, but oh well. Sometimes it's just trial and error. When I was in Horsens, last month, our training went really well... but hey, guess I just needed to be more humble or something?

As far as traveling here goes. We have all zone passes to go almost anywhere in Sjælland on any bus, but most of the time we bike since it is actually faster so you don't have to wait for buses. Plus without a smart phone or much access to internet, it is hard to know what busses to switch on to to get places.

Miracle of the week:

I was on Exchanges with Sister Murray in Gladsaxe Anden (2nd) area. We took the S Tog (a quick train) to visit a lady who hasn't been to church in a while. As we got off, we saw this elderly Danish man with a cane and an umbrella trying to walk around to find the elevator to get up to the main street. We started asking him what his family meant to him to talk about the church, but quickly changed the subject asking if we could help him. He let one of us carry the umbrella and the other hold onto his arm. We rode the elevator up with him and then planned to separate, but he was headed to walk down a steep flight of stairs and did not look like he would make it on his own. We asked him where he was going, he said "hjem" meaning "home." We told him we could walk the whole way with him.

As we walked, we talked about his family. Many stared and smiled as they watched us walk with him. As we caught the rain with the umbrella so it would not land on his head and helped him balance his strides I felt in my heart that feeling that this is what it is like to walk with God (like our mission President always talks about). That Heavenly Father was overjoyed and happy we could help our brother along his way. We got him back to his apartment. He had a hard time understanding us, but we gave him a Book of Mormon, our number, prayed at his door and left. I talked to Sister Murray after that and we discussed how good it felt to be able to be there. For both of us, it will rank as one of the highlights of our missions.

Love you all!

Søster Orgill