Week 3 – The Field is OPEN and Ready to Harvest!!

 Ok, so explanation of that one….the FIELD is open!! Which means that for gym time we get to go OUTSIDE!! And that is a super wonderful thing because we are inside in our classroom ALL the time! So, instead of staring out our teeny little window all day and then going to the gym and looking at 4 gray walls again, we get to slide on grass! And play soccer! And kickball! And frisbee!! And we all know how good I am at those….so it is definitely a gooooood thing we are in the MTC and it’s not super competitive. But I do have to say, the Danes rock. We dominate pretty much every team sport there is. My zone consists of the Scandanivan’s – the Dutch, Norwegians, Icelandics, Swedes and the Danes. We are losing the Icelandics (who are actually in our mission, kind of. They never go to Denmark and we never go there.) and the Dutch on Monday and we are getting more Dutch in on Wednesday. So that will be great! We just got the Norwegians in last week and and the Swedes leave in like a week and a half. It’s really happeneing! We really are speaking another language and we really are leaving the MTC! Yeah!!!! It’s so exciting!!

A couple funny things about the Danish langauge. Oh man. It just cracks me up! The word for jeans literally means cowboy pants. BAHAHA! And the words sorry and desire are super similar. Undskyld and ønsker. Lie, promise and live are all super similar too! Løde, leve and løse. Ha. I promise that if you have the desire to lie you will live forever. Oh my. There is going to be some super funny things happening!! And window and windy are like the exact same thing but with an r at the end of window which you basically don’t pronounce anyways. And bite and pray are super close too!! Will you bite for me?? HAHAHA! And if you say oh my bad, I’m sorry, the direct translation is I have gonnereha. Oh good heavens! And another funny one. Lyde and Lude. Obedience and prostitute. Our teachers were definitely trying to warn of us some things we should NOT say. Ever. At all. Ha. But my favorite of all is bat. The direct translation for bat is flying mouse. HA! I think that has become my most favorite word ever! And Rigby en Dansk literally means the rich city. I think I’m ok with this! And it’s pronounced like ruby. So. Yup. And the numbers. Oh. My. Freak. They are the most ridiculous things of life! They are kind of normal until you hit 20. You say the one number first and then the ten. So for 21 they say enogtolv. En=1, og=and, & tolv =20. So basically you’re saying one and 20. And that goes until 39….and then you count by SCORES! Good heavens. So 40 is tol, 50 is syksoghalv – 60 scores and minus a half score. Uhm. Confusing. Danish people are weird. And another weird thing. They leave their babies outside of the shops when they go shop. So you’ll be walking down the street and there’s all these strollers outside with no parent to be found!!! What the?!?! So weird!! The language is coming along. I realized on Tuesday just how much I really do know. It’s really cool! I was getting pretty down about it cause I didn’t feel like I was learning all that I should be or could be, and then Bror Stacey came in and taught us our language lesson and made us only speak in Danish and…I could. And I didn’t have to look up anything either! It was SO cool!! And we’ve worked on kontakting a lot more this week and me and Søster Ripplinger didn’t bring notes for it, at all, and we did fine! Granted, it was slow, but we did it! And we could actually understand our teachers!!!! Oh man. Gift of tonuges. So real. So grateful!! I know it’s going to be so different once we get there and we are talking to natives who talk MUCH faster, but for now, I’m good with it. And we started SYL (speak your language) this week during our meals. Ha. Definitely some of the quietest meals I have ever had! But we’re learning and it’s coming. We know a TON of gospel vocab, just not much normal people vocab. So, that’s what we’re focusing on outside of study times.

We were told this week by our teachers that the church puts in $1.5 million to support the missionaries in Danmark. And that was before the age change and the mission compliment doubled. So now it will probably go up to $3 million. Oh my. The church really does love the Danish people and wants them to have the gospel. And I get to be a part of that I am one incredibly blessed girl!! We were also told that it is the 2nd most expensive mission in the church just under Norway. Wow. That’s crazy. Oh and my pday might be changed next week to Tuesday. So don’t be shocked if you get an email that day. But, that’s just rumor right now. The teachers schedules are changing, but we’re not sure if that will affect us too much anyways.

During Sacrament on Sunday I was looking around and the room was seriously  2/3rds Søsteren! It was pretty cool!! I am the only one in my district not affected by the age change. So, needless to say, I am definitely the oldest. And the Ældester do not let me forget it! I get called old all the time. If you are not 18, 19 or 20 then you are basically on the brink of death around here! Cracks me up.

Ok, and here is the absolute best part of the week. I got super sick last week – just a nasty cold, thank you Ældsterer. I figured I would take the weekend and hopefully I would feel better by then and be able to function by Mandag. Yeah. That did not work. So Søndag Ældste Christensen – the district leader looked at me and asked me if I wanted that blessing now. I had asked him the night before if I could have one Søndag night if I was still feeling yucky. Anyways, I said yes. And he started looking up how to administer one and everything, Ældste Jensen did the anointing and Ældste Christensen did the sealing and blessing. And all 4 of our Ældste stood around me and blessed me. It was truly one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. To witness these 18 year olds immediately turn into Melchezedik Priesthood holders. I just feel so blessed to have them. And I immediately felt better. And the nasty, yucky cold has gone away. I know the priesthood is real! And it is completely amazing!!! I feel so blessed to be here at the MTC learing all of the things I have been and being able to experience all that I have. I cannot wait to have the opportunity to share this with the people of Danmark. Heavenly Father loves us, I know that. He is our Father and we are His children. This is His work. And all He asks is that we come unto Him. Thats it. Just come to Him. Live His commandments and you will have eternal life. That is a blessing and a promise. Something my branch presidency said to us this week is that we had hands laid on our heads and promises made that as missionaries He would go before our face, He would be on our right hand and on our left and we would have angels round about us to lift us up. I know that is true. The MTC is hard, and I am sure being in the field will be too. But it is only truly hard if you do not have his spirit with you. If you have it, then you will have all the strength you could ever need. And I am incredibly grateful for that promise! I love the Lord, I love being a missionary and I cannot wait for all the crazy, exciting things that lie ahead.

Jeg elsker dig!!

Søster Rigby

PS. Thanks for all the letters everyone! I love you and I am SO grateful!!