First P-Day E-Mail from the MTC

 I loved getting your emails! They were so great! I love my cute little monster man. He is seriously the greatest. And his user name! Loved it! Ok, so I am going to try to tell you all of the things that have been happening in the last few days. It is a little crazy, so here goes.

We get here Wednesday and we teach that lesson! But, first we get here and we took our stuff to our room and grab PMG and head straight to our classroom where all they do is speak Dansk. Ha. Terrifying! Our teacher told us latter that we all had terrified looks on our faces. Go figure! And all we got was dette ok (thats ok). And day two – super crazy long. We were basically in our classroom the whole day. And if we ever did not know what we were supposed to be doing, we figured out pretty quick that it was to study. What we were supposed to study…well…we so did not know. But we studied. Oh! And then they informed us that we were going to be teaching our first lesson…en Dansk…on Frodag. Yeah. One day. Ha! It uhhhhh…happened. Ha. There was a lot of ja! And nej! (Yes and no) happening. Super funny! But now we have taught 5 lessons en Dansk. And it has actually gone pretty well. We have been able to understand a TON! So that has been super nice.

That’s so funny about daddy! I love hime. Tell him that we’re inside bascially all day, so he probably won’t be able to see me anyways. Ha.

The language. Oh my heavens. It is ridiculous! BUT, the gift of tongues is SO real! I can already bede (pray), bear my testimony, and understand SO much! My brain has already switched to Dansk. So if random words start komme out, that is why. The sentance structure is SO much like Ensk. Its crazy. So in our hallway we have the Swedes, Icelandics, the Dutch and yesterday we got the Norwegians. Ok. They all actually pronounce their letters we so do not! Its like english where we sometimes say some letters, maybe, if it fits your fancy. Ha. And there are some crazy en and et words that change the word form that have absolutely NO rime or reason. There is ikke masculine or feminine or vowel or consonant reasons, its really just whatever those crazy Danes thought looked good. Great. And Icelandic sounds like parsletongue! From Harry Potter…you know, parsletongue. Yeah. Its pretty sweet. But I really do love it! Its absolutely amazing what Himmelske Fadder kan do with du when you work super hard to learn the language. He really does hjalpe du! Ok. So another funny thing about the language. Ds sound like Ls, but they have hard ds and soft ds and throaty ds and…yeah, you get my point. And js sound like ys. And sometimes you pronounce the d when there is an e next to it at the end of the word, but if its at the beginning of the word you might pronouce it, but certainly not in the middle of the word. Yeah. So much like ensk where we might, maybe pronounce things. Ha. Its coming though. I have learned so much!! Oh, and one more funny thing about the language. They don’t have words like please and thank you and excuse me. They just don’t exist. Like my teachers say, they’re vikings, they just take it! Hahahahahahaha. I’m so excited to get over there!

And my cute kommarate. She is so great! Søster Ripplinger! Jeg elsker hende. She is so fun! She definitely keeps things interesting. So when we went to NYC I just kept thinking, we get along so well, I really hope we get to be companions in the MTC. And then when jeg got set apart her name came to my head and I just kept getting the feeling that she was going to be my kommarate! But I just kept thinking, nej, that is just what jeg want. It is so not going to happen. And then I got here. And saw her name on mig folder thing. And yup. Himmelke Fadder elsker dig!! I am seriously one blessed child. That is for sure.

Some things I have been learning that I wanted to share. One. The work is seriously so real. And it is definitely Himmelke Fadders. Definitely. I was reading in Psalms the other day ch 37 v. 3-5. And it was just sweet. So go read it and then come look at this. We need to try our best, be our best and do our best. Heavenly Father needs us! We are here. To do His work. Not ours. We are here to learn and grow and become like Him. And He will take care of us! He loves us so much! Something I have heard a TON since I have been in the MTC – Heavenly Father has called us to succed, not to fail. And be happy! Heavenly Father wants us to be happy! Really. So even though life can be hard, and super crazy, and SO stressful, be happy. We know of Jesu Krisi, we know that all will be well in the end. Og i vi kan do this things, He will give us the desires of our heart. Because guess what, our will will be aligned with His. How beautiful. And something else that I realized that I needed to know. This is HIS work. Not mine, not President Sederholms, Heavenly Fathers. I just get to be here. He says so plainly in D&C that this is HIS work and HIS glory. He also says in section 88 that in HIS own due time HE will hasten HIS work. Again, not mine. The language is His, the people are His, the work is His. I just need to be here trying my hardest and when the time is right, He will make everything happen that needs to happen. How grateful I am to know this. How grateful I am to know that this is so not up to me and that I have His help all along the way. I don’t have to do this on my own.

And here comes the SUPER cool stuff. One ELDER RICHARD G SCOTT was here on Tuesday. AHHH!!! And we got an Apostolic blessing! AND, we get to be a part of the 2nd reaping in Danmark. SWEET! Ok, so Elder Scott. He is just ridiculously amazing. And I love him!! He came in the room and I’m pretty sure every girl in the room balled and all the Ældetes gasped. Ha. So he gave a fabulous devotional where he talked all about talking with our Himmelke Fadder. That we should do it all the time. Whenever possible. And that Himmelke Fadder really does want to hear from us. A ton! And the blessing. He said that the way will be smoothed with our companions, he blessed those of us learning languages that we would be able to learn them and also that we would have peace. How beautiful!! It was so amazing to be in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord. So he gets done speaking, President Nally gets up (MTC President) and announces the closing song and prayer, we sing. The Søster who was going to pray gets up and here comes Elder Scott just booking it back up to the podium where he blesses us again!! Wow. He is amazing! And he so needed to say what he said. He just blessed us with power and spirit and the knowledge that we are called of God to bring His truth to His children. I just love that man!

And the 2nd reaping buisness. So I am not exactly sure who said it, but, both of my teachers said that whoever it was that set apart President Sederholm said this in the blessing. And this happened back in July, before the age anouncement.  There was a debate whether it was Elder Holland or Elder Perry. Either way it came from a prophet, so it has got to be true. It was said that the first reaping of Danmark happened in the beginning of the church around 1850. And since then we have been planting seeds. Well, it is now time to stop planting seeds and start harvesting. It was said that the 2nd reaping is most likely going to be under the direction of President Sederholm. Holy smokes. That is me. I get to be a part of that!!! I am so stinking blessed!! Another super cool thing. We are the largest group of Dansk Missionærer ever. There are 11 in my district and 11 in the other district – we are split even Ældste and Søsterer. Sweet! Just the søsterer in my district are doubling the søster there right now. So cool!

My district is amazing, I love them all! They are super funny and super great! Life is great, the MTC is wonderful, though it is defintely hard. I love being able to see people I know here! Hermana Lake!! Ahh! ANd I also saw Brigham and Natalia. Love you two. And I have seen Ældste Webb so much! He has the same gym time that I do. And I have seen Hermana Lockhart and Sister Carpenter. And to Sister Ralph – I will see you next week girl!! Love you!!

Søster Rigby

PS. Use dearelder.com, especially while I am in the MTC. I might actually respond to you with more than a two sentance answer Love you!!! And thanks for all the letters I have gotten so far. They are so great. We seriously check mail twice a day…so send those letters!

Lindsey – AHHHH!!! So FREAKING EXCITED!!!! I’m writing you a letter since I’m almost out of time on my email.

Eric – You’re so great!! Same with you, be expecting a letter sometime soon.

Joshua – I need to hear from you mister!!

Aunt Michele – Be expecting a letter too. Love you!! I’ll tell you all about it

Andrew – thanks for the letter. That was my first one!!

Drew – you said there was going to be a surprise in my mail box…still haven’t gotten it.

Whitney – send me your address on dearelder and I’ll send you your letter. Love you!!

Hayley and Emma – you know Bro Stacey!!! He will (not) be getting a letter to you soon