HI!!
Ha. So, really it’s not that strict! Just the choir teacher is 
He is pretty great. I just love going to choir! It is such a nice break from missionary everything to just sing, and to sing about the Savior. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to do. Also, my schedule got seriously changed! Pday is now on Tuesday and service day is also on Tuesday, so it has been a crazy morning!! SO much to do!! The morning starts at 5 so we can make sure and get laundry done, service done, letters written, email’s done, temple attended, sung in choir and finally devotional. And eating somewhere in there. That’s usually a good thing! We now have personal study at 7am for an hour and 45 min. Ha. That’s quite the adventure trying to keep us all awake and focused at that hour! I laugh pretty hard sometimes. We have some great pictures of the AEldster sleeping. So great. Oh! And I have officially been dubed mom. I am no longer Soster Rigby according to my distrikt. Bahahhahaha. They crack me up! And I just love getting questions about laundry from my AEldster. Ha. No, chalk infact does not stain, and black socks cannot go in with white shirts. Ha. I love them! Also, with this new schedule comes some not so happy thing…we don’t get to go to the field as often. But, when we do, we usually play softball! I know, me, playing softball. Ha. It’s a good thing our AEldster our super nice! More like they just want enough people to have a kind of real game so they go easy on us. Ha. I love it! And can I just say, Scandanavia rocks. My zone is the best ever. And we basically dominate everything. And we all understand each other!! We can understand everyone the best. The Dutch can ususally understand the Swiss, most of the time. The Norwegians are kind of out in left field. And the Icelandics are…well….they’re basically in outer darkness. Ha. But, because we are aweomse and speak (ok, we are trying really hard to speak) Danish, we can understand them all! Cause they are all basically breakoffs of Danish. The Dutch/Nederlands and the Icelandics left yesterday, the Swiss leave on Monday and then it’s US! WHOA!
He is pretty great. I just love going to choir! It is such a nice break from missionary everything to just sing, and to sing about the Savior. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to do. Also, my schedule got seriously changed! Pday is now on Tuesday and service day is also on Tuesday, so it has been a crazy morning!! SO much to do!! The morning starts at 5 so we can make sure and get laundry done, service done, letters written, email’s done, temple attended, sung in choir and finally devotional. And eating somewhere in there. That’s usually a good thing! We now have personal study at 7am for an hour and 45 min. Ha. That’s quite the adventure trying to keep us all awake and focused at that hour! I laugh pretty hard sometimes. We have some great pictures of the AEldster sleeping. So great. Oh! And I have officially been dubed mom. I am no longer Soster Rigby according to my distrikt. Bahahhahaha. They crack me up! And I just love getting questions about laundry from my AEldster. Ha. No, chalk infact does not stain, and black socks cannot go in with white shirts. Ha. I love them! Also, with this new schedule comes some not so happy thing…we don’t get to go to the field as often. But, when we do, we usually play softball! I know, me, playing softball. Ha. It’s a good thing our AEldster our super nice! More like they just want enough people to have a kind of real game so they go easy on us. Ha. I love it! And can I just say, Scandanavia rocks. My zone is the best ever. And we basically dominate everything. And we all understand each other!! We can understand everyone the best. The Dutch can ususally understand the Swiss, most of the time. The Norwegians are kind of out in left field. And the Icelandics are…well….they’re basically in outer darkness. Ha. But, because we are aweomse and speak (ok, we are trying really hard to speak) Danish, we can understand them all! Cause they are all basically breakoffs of Danish. The Dutch/Nederlands and the Icelandics left yesterday, the Swiss leave on Monday and then it’s US! WHOA!I am officially halfway done with the MTC. WHAT!?!?! So crazy. I have been here for 20 days and have 20 days left! We get our travel plans next week!! What in the world?! Where did the time go?!!?! It looks like we’ll get our travel plans to Danmark but won’t actually know if we have gotten our VISA’s until the following week to see if we have gotten reassigned or not. So, in about 2 weeks I’ll know what I’m doing. But I am super excited! The Danish is coming. It’s really nice! It is starting to sound really funny – like we’re always playing chubby bunny trying to speak in englesk. Ha. Soster Ripplinger and I are now in the habit of having lesson plans in Danish with just notes on what some words are, but no script. And it’s has been intersting to see how that has affected our teaching beacuse we basically never teach our actual lesson plan. Ever. But it’s usually pretty good! Something kind of…odd we learned from the Icelandics is that if a horse lands on Iceland it is immediately shot and burned so that it can’t reproduce because Icelandics want to keep their horses pure. Oh my. These cultures are going to be pretty interesting. BUT! Something SUPER great I learned about Danmark – they have the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the Day After Christmas – they celebrate them ALL!!!! I CANNOT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! Oh my!! It will be absolutely fantastic!! I really hope whoever my companion is at that point doesn’t mind that I start playing Christmas music in October. Meh. I’m just getting into the culture, right?
Some more funny things about the language. I love it! This stuff keeps coming up! Hoj means tall, loud and hill. Bahhh. And fro means seed and frog. No difference in the spellings or pronounciation, at all. Just the en/et that comes before it. I can’t wait to be explaining the seed of faith talked about in Alma and instead say the frog of faith if planted in your heart will grow. HA!!!! And lys soje means light pillar (used in the account of Joseph Smith’s first vision) and lys oje means light lizard. BAHAHAHA. I can’t wait for that mess up! Joseph Smith was praying and he saw a light lizard come down from heaven. HA! So funny! I love Danish. And my teachers. They basically rock. I had this moment yesterday while Soster Nielsen was teaching. She was explaining what we were going to do pertaining to the schedule and what each of those things meant. She of course was saying it all in Danish. Well, she finished and then said, in englesk, did you understand all of that? And then said it all again in englesk. But, the crazy part, was I totally understood what she was saying and what we needed to do without translating it into englesk!!! It’s COMING!! Ohhh. So, so, so, so great! I’m telling you, the gift of tongues is REAL! I promise! And another funny thing from this week. Or last maybe. I don’t rememeber. MTC time is the weirdest thing ever. Our teacher left her cell phone in the room. With a bunch of missionaerer. Ha. Don’t do that. BADDDDD idea. So, we got it and were trying to figure out the name of her husband so we could call him and tell him where it was. Meanwhile all the dansk missionaerer were like hudled in a circle staring at this strange contraption. Ha. So, lesson to all, don’t leave your cell phone around missionaerer. Who knows what is going to happen to it!
In RS this week we had the newly sustained General YW President come and she was super great!! So, before she got up, the MTC President’s wife was announcing the program and everything and said we have 1,258 SISTERS sitting in this auditorium right now. Crazy right?! So neat! We had the entire bottom floor filled and most of the bleachers filled as well. So when Sister Oscarson got up (btw, she and her husband served as Mission President and Wife at age 24 in Sweden. Opening a mission. Wow.) she had her cute daughters and granddaughters get up (one of her daughters actually served pa Danmark!!) and look around. And then she said, girls, I sure hope you got a good look at the sight behind you because this is what it looks like when a Prophet of God issues a call. And it’s true! This is what happens! We answer. We do what he asks. Because it is not what President Monson is asking us to do, it is what God is asking us to do. The call I got was not simply a call to quit school for a year and half, or go learn a crazy language, or live in a foreign country. Or even to go knock doors and teach lessons. I was called, by God, my Heavenly Father, to help bring His children back to Him. He is asking me to do what He would do if He were here. Nothing more, nothing less. I am struck more and more of the importance of this. To bring His children back to Him. He loves us, all of us and wants so much for us to be happy and He knows that that is through Him! He alone can make us happy. It is only through Him that we can have our families forever. I cannot wait to get to Danmark and tell people of this. I am so excited!! I just feel so blessed. I was also reading a talk the other day by AEldste Holland when he was President of BYU – If sometimes the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived. The talk is called the Inconvenient Messiah. It is a beautiful talk!! I just loved that piece. That sometimes it seems the more you try and do things right, the more everything goes wrong, it’s fine! That’s what we all go through. And everything will be made right! AEldste Holland also said in another talk, for those that believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the blessing will come. They may now, or later or even in eternity, but they will come. And I think that is a blessing that we can all take hope in.
Jeg elsker Jesu Kristi Kirke af Sidste Dages Hellige. Jeg kende det er sandt. Vi er Guds bon og sin elsker os og sin onske os vende tilbag. Jeg er taknemilg er missionaer at det tid.
I love you ALL!! Thanks SO much for all that you do! You are wonderful and fantastic and I am SO lucky to have you in my life!!
Jessica and Jono – CONGRATS!!!! I know you’ll have a BEAUTIFUL wedding!!
Dusty – Happy Birthday!!!!
Lindsey and Selina – Thanks for the cupcakes, you rock They were delicious!!! Oh boy. So great. I especially loved the drawing
They were delicious!!! Oh boy. So great. I especially loved the drawing Lindsey – I know I’m ridiculously late, but I have been remembering, promise! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!! PS. Where is my update?!?!?!
Marshall and Sena – Are you two alive?
Joshua – You too. Are you alive?!?!?!
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