Week 17 – Jeg er i DANMARK!!!!!

So…I’m here!! And the keyboard is super funky…so this will be fun. But, I’m here!! It’s so great So here’s life at the moment. Got on the plane on Tuesday and flew to Toronto and was the only missionary for about 6 hours and then Ældste Ludlow showed up!! It was so good to see him! So we got on the plane for the next 7/8ish hours. So that was fun. And it was AirCanada so they kept speaking french..yeah, did not understand most of that! And then…we got to København! Præsident og Søster Sederholm og the AP’s picked us up and we were off! Went to the office, dropped my bags, met my komarater and went to my first lesson with an inactive! Yup. Pure dansk efter I had been up for like 30+ hours. But I could actually understand! Sweeeeeet. Came back had more orientation stuff/welcome to the mission/we are sooooo glad to finally have you here. Ha. It was great!! Then we were supposed to go kontakt men, the AP’s got lost trying to get us to Vor Fru Kirke where the Kristus og the 12 Apostel’s statues are. That place is SWEET!!!!!! Oh man, the spirit there is amazing. And that building has been around for….forever. 1200ad I think. Back to the mission home! We were told that our group – 21 missionærer – basically makes up half the mission. Because there are missionaerer that have gone home. Basically, there are about 10 missionærer efter this transfer in like 3 weeks that will have been out for at least 1 year. 2 of those er søster missionærer. Goodness. And then it drops to like 6 month missionærer. So…….we are desperately trying to speak the language! It’s hard, but it’s definitely coming! I can understand a lot, but as for the responding part….not so much. Ha. But I haven’t gotten the you have no idea what I’m saying, you’re just lauging with us comments yet. At least Søster Tew hasn’t said that I have…so that’s good.

So Danmark…oh man. I am in LOVE with this place! It’s crazy and insane, but I absolutely love it!! I had my 1st dansk dinner with a lady named Jytte – Joooo ta – shes about 85. And fiesty! She had invited the Ældste over for dinner as well, but they went on splitz and forgot to call her after we told them to call her…so we show up and she has made this gigantic meal and she’s super NOT happy about it. I could not understand half of anything she was saying….but she definitely was not happy. I got that much. So, we ate. And ate. And ate. And ate. And ate some more. And then continued to eat. Can you guess what we did next? We ate. We ate enough for 3 søster og 2 ældste to be full, overly full. And we ate it all. So I eat super slow, pretty much always have and she kept looking at me like, why aren’t you eating? This is not ok, you have to eat. And she kept saying Spise! Du spise! Du spis meget!Basically, eat, you eat, you will eat more! So I did. She is definitely one of those that you eat the food, or you will be on her bad list. Ha. So I just kept eating and she was laughing with me and speaking some engelsk when I didn’t know a word and min komarate both said that’s the most engelsk they have ever heard her say. And she gave me a hug. So I must be on her nice list. Look! I made friends! So that’s cool. At least the food is good – chicken, sauce, potaotes, and some weird kind of mixed vegetables. Thankfully min komarate ate most of that.

MOMMY!!!!!! Your package was the best package EVER!!!! Søster Hansen in the office was like we thought the package was for us, so we opened it and then thought maybe it wasn’t so we looked closer at it and discovered it was for you and thought, yup, she’s gonna fit right in Ha. But I love it Thank you!!!!

Oh and we went to futbal game on Saturday! It was close to Amager, if not on Amager between Nordsjylland og Vibor. It was cool!! So there’s pictures from that. And Ældste Christenen og Ældeste Madsen is in my distrikt. Ældste Madsen also serves in the same ward as me! Sweet. Oh, and I serve in København! I serve in Fredriksber – Frel rik’s bear – which is in the county of København and right on the city borders of København which we also cover. And we are in the CUV! It’s the young adult center. So we get to interact with them a ton! It’s so great! København is said to have the fastest and craziest mix of dansk og engelsk. I’ve been told by many, many people that if you can learn how to speak here then you’ll be good just about anywhere in the country. Except super south where they basically speak german, or in Bornholm where it’s Swedish. So. That’s fun. But, I’m learning! Promise! Oh! And I live on an island. That’s so crazy to me! I still don’t quite believe it all the time. And I have met people from all over the world! Seriously! Just a couple hours ago we met this girl from Sweden who is attending school here and she is half iranian and speaks englesk, dansk, iranian and some other middle easter language. And we also met some afgani people she is friends with. Oh and lots of American’s, and a couple from england and africa. And someone from Romania. It’s just amazing the conglomeration of people here! Also, there are lots of tall blonde people here. I stick out. A lot.

Kirke yesterday was….fun. Ha. We walk by the temple (beautiful!!!!!!!!! we are going in like 2 weeks, YES!!!!) and the kirke is right behind it. It’s the church for all the foreigners basically. So we go, and everyone is speaking danish….and ridiculously fast. Yeah, I basically got Mosiah 2:41 and that’s about it. But what makes it even more hard is that they have translators, so you can have a headset so that those foreigners can go to kirke and actually understand. Well, missionærer don’t have those, but we can hear the translator. So I was hearing this weird mix of dansk og engelsk, men the englesk was about 10 seconds behind. It was SO odd! But, I made it through! And then had another sacrament meeting to go to with the young adults. That only happens once a month though. And! I love Danmark

Life is good, I’m good. I love being a missionærer and I love finally being in the place where I was called to be. It is the most incredible feeling in the whole world! I know this is where He wants me, I know this gospel is true, no matter what language it’s in. I am SO incredibly grateful for the chance that I have to serve His children and to do it in the way that He would have me. I finished MB last week and so now I am reading more of the Bible and like 2 or 3 random chapters in MB and it is amazing to me how Himmelske Fader can just show you what you need to know and have you learn things. Like, how much He loves you. How important it is to rejoice in what you are doing! It’s good to be happy and have fun and work hard!!!! It’s good to glory in Gud and share that with people! I just love the gospel He loves us and is SO aware of us and all of His children. And for that I am truly grateful!!!!!! I love you all! Thank you SO much for everything! Jeg er i DANMARK!!!

Mange Kærlighed,

Søster Rigby