Dear Family and Friends,
This is the last email you will get from me (probably) as a missionary. Wow. Ouch. That hurts. I say that all the time when I'm talking to Sister Ripa and David. We'll be talking or something and all of the sudden I'll say "It hurts in my heart area!".
But really, it is so hard to say goodbye. Although it won't be goodbye forever. Still, it's really hard. Harder than I could have ever imagined.
I'm so sorry that this is going to be a really short email. But I will see you all pretty soon anyways :) (i've turned into Michael emailing!).
Serving a mission has changed my life and I'm so grateful to the Lord for blessing me with the opportunity to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ. I know that this church and the gospel, that they are true and that they will bless the lives of everyone who just follows the principles in it.
Keep on going strong. I'll see you all really soon :)
Love, Søster Briscoe
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Aug 11 Søster Brisco is going crazy
Oh my heavens to besty, time is such a funny thing, especially when one is a missionary. I think that you are just so busy that life slips by and before you know it, you're done with your mission and you're just sitting there thinking "what the? How on earth did that happen? I haven't grown up or become a mature missionary. I still miss the bus, I still get lost, sometimes people say things and I still don't understand". Plus, I have the weirdest accent as a missionary, I thought I wouldn't haven't an accent by now. It's definitely not sweet.
This past monday, Sister Ripa, Maria and I went to the Tivoli that is here in Århus. It was a lot of fun. We rode the rollercoasters and did a couple obstacle courses and then Maria talked us into doing what is called Sky Tower. It's where you pretty much dangle in the air 50 meters (about 160 feet) above the ground and then they just drop you into a giant net. so you just free fall and smack on the net. So Maria went. then sister Ripa. Then I was the last one. As the guy was strapping me in, I was just rambling to him because I was so nervous. "I'm really terrified of heights" I told him. "Well, your handling it well" He said as he hooked me onto the rope and then pushed me over the ledge. My heart was going a million miles an hour. "Tell me something funny!" I asked the guy who was about to drop me. "You are about to drop 50 meters." "THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" He just laughed at me and said he couldn't think of anything funny. I told him that I would tell him a joke so I asked "why did the chicken cross the road?" "Why?" "To get to the other side" and then I dropped. Bullseye. Right onto the net. It was a super thrilling experience.
This was my last zone training this past week. I had to bear my "final testimony" that was weird. My arms felt all numb when I stood up there and thought "what the heck is happening? I just got to denmark, I can't go home now." But I didn't not cry. I know I will definitely cry when I say goodbye to my friends here: Nynne, Isabella, Solveig, the Romanians, Ashley, Maria and David. They all have changed my life. Definitely for the best. Thank goodness for skype.
Also, I ordered two more missionary tags because I only had one left and I wanted a few others. But at zone training, I ended up getting 4 tags with "Søster Brisco" spelled on it. Oh well, pyt med det. puddle with it. such is life. I'll just be Brisco from now on.
Well, I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
Love, Diana (or for those of you who have permission to call me it, Nana :) Emmy, you're the best
This past monday, Sister Ripa, Maria and I went to the Tivoli that is here in Århus. It was a lot of fun. We rode the rollercoasters and did a couple obstacle courses and then Maria talked us into doing what is called Sky Tower. It's where you pretty much dangle in the air 50 meters (about 160 feet) above the ground and then they just drop you into a giant net. so you just free fall and smack on the net. So Maria went. then sister Ripa. Then I was the last one. As the guy was strapping me in, I was just rambling to him because I was so nervous. "I'm really terrified of heights" I told him. "Well, your handling it well" He said as he hooked me onto the rope and then pushed me over the ledge. My heart was going a million miles an hour. "Tell me something funny!" I asked the guy who was about to drop me. "You are about to drop 50 meters." "THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" He just laughed at me and said he couldn't think of anything funny. I told him that I would tell him a joke so I asked "why did the chicken cross the road?" "Why?" "To get to the other side" and then I dropped. Bullseye. Right onto the net. It was a super thrilling experience.
This was my last zone training this past week. I had to bear my "final testimony" that was weird. My arms felt all numb when I stood up there and thought "what the heck is happening? I just got to denmark, I can't go home now." But I didn't not cry. I know I will definitely cry when I say goodbye to my friends here: Nynne, Isabella, Solveig, the Romanians, Ashley, Maria and David. They all have changed my life. Definitely for the best. Thank goodness for skype.
Also, I ordered two more missionary tags because I only had one left and I wanted a few others. But at zone training, I ended up getting 4 tags with "Søster Brisco" spelled on it. Oh well, pyt med det. puddle with it. such is life. I'll just be Brisco from now on.
Well, I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
Love, Diana (or for those of you who have permission to call me it, Nana :) Emmy, you're the best
Aug 4 - What a wonderful week
Oh man, I love Aarhus. Can I say that again? I LOVE AARHUS! this city is my home. This is my city. But seriously, Aarhus is known as the "smilende by" or "the smiling city". And every time I look out over the giant cement buildings mixed with the cute, classic danish architecture, I just smile. When I first came to aarhus, I thought it was a little ugly, but know I think it's the most beautiful place in the world. A place is only as good as the people you see it with. I've seen Arhus with some of the most amazing people in this world. Dang, it'll be hard to leave. When you fall in love, it's hard to leave the thing you love. Stupid Aarhus, had to go make me fall in love. Anyways, that was my rant about leaving. Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but there is a grafitti artist whose tag is "Diana" or "Diana 42" and you can find my name all over the city, especially on the street where we live. So Aarhus really is my city. I've got my name all over it.
We had a little miracle with reaching our goals this past Tuesday night. We had been to CUV and then we got a ride home from some members. We got out of the car and I looked at my watch. We had about 7 minutes before 9pm. I pointed that out to Søster Ripa and said "that's perfect, we have time to go contact!". So we just walked up our street stopping a few people that said "Ellers tak" or "Nej tak". I pulled out my planner and looked at our goals. In order to reach our goals for that day, we needed one more lesson and one new investigator. I looked up and saw a young man walking up the street towards us. Now we had about 3 minutes left before 9 but I told Søster Ripa, "We have to reach our goal of one other lesson, let's teach this man!" And we stopped him. He was very nice and very open. He is catholic and interested in the fact that we believe in living prophets. We were able to teach him briefly about Joseph Smith and he even said the prayer at the end of our short lesson. He asked God to bless us on our way and to find those who would listen. And then we were able to set up a return appointment with him! So we reached all of our goals that day! It was just another confirmation that as we do all we can to reach our goals, including using the last, precious minutes of the day to work, the Lord will bless us with His children who are ready to hear about this wonderful restored Gospel.
We have started teaching David about family history work because he knows so much about the church now. And at first, he thought he wouldn't like it, but then after we found his grandpa in the danish church books, he got really excited and then went home and spent his night looking up his grandpa's family history work and then his grandma's. Then when he was visiting his grandparents over the weekend, he showed them what he had been doing with slægthistorie and they loved it and showed him pictures of their parents and grandparents and great grandparents. I think he is feeling the spirit of Elijah and that feeling that could open his heart more to believing in God. Family history work is a tool I haven't been very good about using but seeing how much David likes it, it helps me realize that no matter your age or your religious background, family history work can been exciting and brings the spirit for all those who do it. I cannot wait to come home and do more of our family history work. It is so fun. I get really into it when we are helping David and he just looks at me like I'm a weirdo and asks ”why on earth are you excited? This isn't your family.” and I say ”I just everyone's family! It's so exciting!” It's true though, families are the best!
We also got two really positive referrals this week from members. A member in Randers called us and we went and taught her friend Rikke on Tuesday. The appointment went so well. She is very searching and very open. She has the sweetest six year old daughter, named Emelie :) (so naturally, me and Emelie were best friends from the start. We played dress up and she showed me all of her toys. It was great) We felt prompted to teach her about the light of Christ and how we can know truth, before we started teaching about Joseph Smith. When we told Rikke that that was what we wanted to talk about she just stared at us and said "That is exactly what Elisebeth (her member friend) and I were just talking about this morning." The appointment went very well. Later this week, we invited them to church and She and her boyfriend and her daughter came! All three of them loved it! Especially her sweet daughter, who did not want to go home. She loved primary so much. The ward reached out and so many people talked to them and they are planning on coming back next Sunday.
And here are some pictures of us and Ashley. Ashley and Sister Ripa are teaching me how to be a good frowner. I struggle with it. Sister Ripa gave me a good piece of advice for it though, she said "Sister Briscoe, you cannot smile and frown at the same time"
We had a little miracle with reaching our goals this past Tuesday night. We had been to CUV and then we got a ride home from some members. We got out of the car and I looked at my watch. We had about 7 minutes before 9pm. I pointed that out to Søster Ripa and said "that's perfect, we have time to go contact!". So we just walked up our street stopping a few people that said "Ellers tak" or "Nej tak". I pulled out my planner and looked at our goals. In order to reach our goals for that day, we needed one more lesson and one new investigator. I looked up and saw a young man walking up the street towards us. Now we had about 3 minutes left before 9 but I told Søster Ripa, "We have to reach our goal of one other lesson, let's teach this man!" And we stopped him. He was very nice and very open. He is catholic and interested in the fact that we believe in living prophets. We were able to teach him briefly about Joseph Smith and he even said the prayer at the end of our short lesson. He asked God to bless us on our way and to find those who would listen. And then we were able to set up a return appointment with him! So we reached all of our goals that day! It was just another confirmation that as we do all we can to reach our goals, including using the last, precious minutes of the day to work, the Lord will bless us with His children who are ready to hear about this wonderful restored Gospel.
We have started teaching David about family history work because he knows so much about the church now. And at first, he thought he wouldn't like it, but then after we found his grandpa in the danish church books, he got really excited and then went home and spent his night looking up his grandpa's family history work and then his grandma's. Then when he was visiting his grandparents over the weekend, he showed them what he had been doing with slægthistorie and they loved it and showed him pictures of their parents and grandparents and great grandparents. I think he is feeling the spirit of Elijah and that feeling that could open his heart more to believing in God. Family history work is a tool I haven't been very good about using but seeing how much David likes it, it helps me realize that no matter your age or your religious background, family history work can been exciting and brings the spirit for all those who do it. I cannot wait to come home and do more of our family history work. It is so fun. I get really into it when we are helping David and he just looks at me like I'm a weirdo and asks ”why on earth are you excited? This isn't your family.” and I say ”I just everyone's family! It's so exciting!” It's true though, families are the best!
We also got two really positive referrals this week from members. A member in Randers called us and we went and taught her friend Rikke on Tuesday. The appointment went so well. She is very searching and very open. She has the sweetest six year old daughter, named Emelie :) (so naturally, me and Emelie were best friends from the start. We played dress up and she showed me all of her toys. It was great) We felt prompted to teach her about the light of Christ and how we can know truth, before we started teaching about Joseph Smith. When we told Rikke that that was what we wanted to talk about she just stared at us and said "That is exactly what Elisebeth (her member friend) and I were just talking about this morning." The appointment went very well. Later this week, we invited them to church and She and her boyfriend and her daughter came! All three of them loved it! Especially her sweet daughter, who did not want to go home. She loved primary so much. The ward reached out and so many people talked to them and they are planning on coming back next Sunday.
And here are some pictures of us and Ashley. Ashley and Sister Ripa are teaching me how to be a good frowner. I struggle with it. Sister Ripa gave me a good piece of advice for it though, she said "Sister Briscoe, you cannot smile and frown at the same time"
July 28 If you can't take the heat... just remember the winter
Kære Vidunerlig Familie og Venner,
Hold nu op! it has been such a hot summer. I sweat a down every day. just letting you know, in case you were wondering. I must smell great...sorry mom, it was not a requirement to look good or smell good in order to come on a mission! Really though, the heat and the humidity is crazy and literally no one in Denmark has AC. no one. So we just open all the windows all day and lovely little bugs come crawling in at night and make themselves at home. Nah, it's not bad. I shouldn't complain, especially because I remember the cold, dark, long winter. I'll take the heat over the witner any day.
This week has been really good. Again, lots of time meeting with some of the best people in the world. Ashley, my hilarious, english brother. That's how I think of him now. My whitty, brother who helps me out whenever I need it. He changed the bike tube on the back wheel of my bike and that was awesome.
Then time with David. We are helping him with his family history and that's lots of fun. There is this awesome member in the ward that helps us a lot when we are teaching David. Her name is Gitte and she's great. She has just the best spirit in her home. Oh and a family from Peru came and visited church on sunday. They are members and they were here visiting. and so I made David speak spanish with them. i love spanish. I can still understand a bit of it and speak very little but enough to communicate.
Also we saw our friend Marius, from Romania. He works a ton but he really wanted to meet last night, so we met up and talked and read some scriptures. He's such a giving person. Just wants to make a difference in this world but he works like 3 jobs and doesn't have time for much of anything else.
Also, we went to Copenhangen this week for the New missionary and the trainers meeting. That was great. And we were able to go through the temple. I love the temple so much. What a wonderful place. Truly, it is the House of the Lord and you can just feel His Spirit so strongly when you are there. I was sitting in the Celestial room and I did not want to leave. I could have sat there in silence forever, just feeling like I was close to my Savior and Heavenly Father. I hope you all remember to look towards the temple in everything you do because that is the goal, that is the vision of the Gospel and of life: to live in the presence of God forever and the temple gives us a little taste of what that will be like.
I am so grateful for this last month I have to be a full time missionary and I love you all so much for your support and encouragement.
MKH Søster Briscoe
Hold nu op! it has been such a hot summer. I sweat a down every day. just letting you know, in case you were wondering. I must smell great...sorry mom, it was not a requirement to look good or smell good in order to come on a mission! Really though, the heat and the humidity is crazy and literally no one in Denmark has AC. no one. So we just open all the windows all day and lovely little bugs come crawling in at night and make themselves at home. Nah, it's not bad. I shouldn't complain, especially because I remember the cold, dark, long winter. I'll take the heat over the witner any day.
This week has been really good. Again, lots of time meeting with some of the best people in the world. Ashley, my hilarious, english brother. That's how I think of him now. My whitty, brother who helps me out whenever I need it. He changed the bike tube on the back wheel of my bike and that was awesome.
Then time with David. We are helping him with his family history and that's lots of fun. There is this awesome member in the ward that helps us a lot when we are teaching David. Her name is Gitte and she's great. She has just the best spirit in her home. Oh and a family from Peru came and visited church on sunday. They are members and they were here visiting. and so I made David speak spanish with them. i love spanish. I can still understand a bit of it and speak very little but enough to communicate.
Also we saw our friend Marius, from Romania. He works a ton but he really wanted to meet last night, so we met up and talked and read some scriptures. He's such a giving person. Just wants to make a difference in this world but he works like 3 jobs and doesn't have time for much of anything else.
Also, we went to Copenhangen this week for the New missionary and the trainers meeting. That was great. And we were able to go through the temple. I love the temple so much. What a wonderful place. Truly, it is the House of the Lord and you can just feel His Spirit so strongly when you are there. I was sitting in the Celestial room and I did not want to leave. I could have sat there in silence forever, just feeling like I was close to my Savior and Heavenly Father. I hope you all remember to look towards the temple in everything you do because that is the goal, that is the vision of the Gospel and of life: to live in the presence of God forever and the temple gives us a little taste of what that will be like.
I am so grateful for this last month I have to be a full time missionary and I love you all so much for your support and encouragement.
MKH Søster Briscoe
July 21 - Sorry it is going to be so short!
Dear Family,
I am so sorry but this is going to be a really quick email. Sorry! I have gotten very busy on the computer trying to write to lots of different people in Denmark. Plus talking to the mission office and President, etc. etc.
Anyways, the elders have started keeping a countdown for when I go home. Jeps. They are all pretty excited about that. it's weird to be a "dying" missionary. Doesn't feel like I should be leaving. I feel like I have so much to learn and so much to do.
Here are some pictures of me, Maria, and Sister Ripa after a huge rainstorm.
And here is me and the coolest trashcan in Aarhus. It talks when you open it's lid! I stood there for a long time just opening and closing it.
I am so sorry but this is going to be a really quick email. Sorry! I have gotten very busy on the computer trying to write to lots of different people in Denmark. Plus talking to the mission office and President, etc. etc.
Anyways, the elders have started keeping a countdown for when I go home. Jeps. They are all pretty excited about that. it's weird to be a "dying" missionary. Doesn't feel like I should be leaving. I feel like I have so much to learn and so much to do.
Here are some pictures of me, Maria, and Sister Ripa after a huge rainstorm.
And here is me and the coolest trashcan in Aarhus. It talks when you open it's lid! I stood there for a long time just opening and closing it.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
"We have been shanghaied!" "what does that even mean?" "I don't know it just means we've been tricked!"
Dear Family og venner,
Sister Ripa and I in the middle of no where
I speak really bad danglish now. Seriously, the other day I was reading something in english and I switched the word hjælpe for help. Søster Ripa just grinnede. I also was speaking english and switched the word "ham" in for the word "him" so I said "Well, we will just talk to ham later". So when I come home and say weird things, just be patient.
So this week was a really good week. We were able to see our friend Joakim, who is the Swedish ballroom dancer a couple times this week and that was neat. We went over to bring him lunch (cause he's been terrible about eating, so we decided to make him some lunch and bring it to him) and then he invited us to go on a walk this past saturday with him through this really cool forest. I love danish forests. So beautiful. So green. We had a really good chat about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joakim impresses me because he just understands the gospel so well and is so open to trying things that scare him, like coming to church or praying beccuase he says he knows it will help him become a better person.
We met with our friend Ashley, he reminds me a lot of Dad and Matt. He could definitely fit in at a Briscoe Family reunion, I'll tell you that, despite the fact that he is from England and doesn't look like any Briscoes that I know of. But he is studying engineering and loves puns. So many puns. All the time. He's great.
We also went out to a place called Odder to visit Vibeke. Vibeke was baptized April 2013 and she is just so sweet. She always spoils us missionaries by making us food or buying us cake or ice cream. She is just incredibley sweet and kind. She lives out in a tiny little....hold op...i can't remember what is called in english....well in danish, it's a landsby...tiny little city, town, but smaller than that. Oh well, you know what I mean. It's called højby and she's right by the ocean. It's a gorgeous place.
We also started teaching this young man from Nigeria named Jerry. He is so neat. Super open and super interested in learning about the gospel. Very intelligent too. He's studying here in Denmark and we just started talking to him on the street and then we met with him this pastthursday and had a really good conversation with him about church and the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Then on Sunday, we were doing a musical number in church with a guitar (don't worry we checked with the bishop and he was okay with it) and I was really nervous and sounded awful on my little solo part but oh well. Sådan er livet bare.
Well, that's about all that happened this week that I have time to describe. Sorry for the short letter. One day, I'll show you all picutres and tell exciting stories in hopefully understandable english.
Love you all! have a great week! Go enjoy summer and be friends with lots of people :)
Diana
Us and our friend Joakim
Sister Ripa and I and our friend
Lots of love
Dearest Family,
I don't know why I titled my email "lots of love" because the love I felt this week wasn't much stronger than the love I feel pretty much every week as a missionary. It's funny because coming on a mission, you just love people, everyone. Including your neighbor who spills smelly fish all over the stairs and you slip on the fish slim and smell like gross fish in your appointment. But still, you love them and you bring them cookies. If you want to be better at loving people no matter what, become a missionary or just become a disciple of Christ or a good person, whatever you'd like.
Oh I forgot to tell you about a neat experience that happened this past sunday (not yesterday but the sunday before). So President and Sister Sederholm were visiting and speaking in Sacrament Meeting and President was speaking and I was sitting with David and Sister Ripa and some of our other friends who were visiting. And I was busy writing notes down from what President was saying so I wasn't looking at him when all of the sudden I hear him say "Now Sister Briscoe didn't know I was going to do this but Sister Briscoe, can you come up here please". and my head just jerked up and he repeated "Come on up" So I am came on up and I was super nervous, like my heart was beating super fast and my palms were sweating. and he says "Sister Briscoe is going to relate to you all how the church got started and the story of Joseph Smith" and then he sits down and I just start teaching the first lesson in front of everyone. It was actually really neat though because as soon as I started teaching and testifying about Joseph Smith's story my nerves were immediately gone. Afterwards David asked me if me and President had planned that because he thought it looked like I had something already prepared and I told him "no, it was the Holy Ghost who helped me". Hopefully that made an impact on him.
Anyways, this past week has been great. Sister Ripa and I have just been enjoying life. We helped our friend MaiBritt move into her new apartment and then she had her baby on Friday! That was exciting. Also, when we were helping MaiBritt move, we met her neighbor who was this really really nice older gentleman and we started talking to him and he opened up a little about his life and some of the hard things he's seen so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he started crying out of gratitude.
Also, there is this friend of ours named Ana, that the elders are teaching and she got baptized this saturday! That was a really really wonderful experinece. the feeling of peace and happiness and love on that day was very strong. It was great to see Ana make that very special covenant and promise between her and God. She's a great example to me.
And I embarrassed one friend we met with. His name is Pavel and he's from Estonia. He's a really nice guy but he got way embarrassed when we met with him in the park and then I saw the Elders across the park so I yelled "Elders! Elders!" and just waved at them. Apparently you are not supposed to flag people down in public and Pavel had to walk away and pretend like he didn't know me. We caught up to him though and were able to teach him about the plan of salvation.
We were also able to meet with our Swedish friend Joakim. He's awesome and he learns so fast. He also told us more about his awesome life as a professional ballroom dancer. It sounds pretty intense to have a dancing career. "I wanna dance with you Fran!" (anyone get that movie reference?)
Well, life is good. It's the best. The weather is great. Sometimes it rains a ton and sister ripa and I look like we've been out swimming but other than that, can't complain.
I love you all! have a great week! Go do some selfless service :)
Love, Diana
I don't know why I titled my email "lots of love" because the love I felt this week wasn't much stronger than the love I feel pretty much every week as a missionary. It's funny because coming on a mission, you just love people, everyone. Including your neighbor who spills smelly fish all over the stairs and you slip on the fish slim and smell like gross fish in your appointment. But still, you love them and you bring them cookies. If you want to be better at loving people no matter what, become a missionary or just become a disciple of Christ or a good person, whatever you'd like.
Oh I forgot to tell you about a neat experience that happened this past sunday (not yesterday but the sunday before). So President and Sister Sederholm were visiting and speaking in Sacrament Meeting and President was speaking and I was sitting with David and Sister Ripa and some of our other friends who were visiting. And I was busy writing notes down from what President was saying so I wasn't looking at him when all of the sudden I hear him say "Now Sister Briscoe didn't know I was going to do this but Sister Briscoe, can you come up here please". and my head just jerked up and he repeated "Come on up" So I am came on up and I was super nervous, like my heart was beating super fast and my palms were sweating. and he says "Sister Briscoe is going to relate to you all how the church got started and the story of Joseph Smith" and then he sits down and I just start teaching the first lesson in front of everyone. It was actually really neat though because as soon as I started teaching and testifying about Joseph Smith's story my nerves were immediately gone. Afterwards David asked me if me and President had planned that because he thought it looked like I had something already prepared and I told him "no, it was the Holy Ghost who helped me". Hopefully that made an impact on him.
Anyways, this past week has been great. Sister Ripa and I have just been enjoying life. We helped our friend MaiBritt move into her new apartment and then she had her baby on Friday! That was exciting. Also, when we were helping MaiBritt move, we met her neighbor who was this really really nice older gentleman and we started talking to him and he opened up a little about his life and some of the hard things he's seen so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he started crying out of gratitude.
Also, there is this friend of ours named Ana, that the elders are teaching and she got baptized this saturday! That was a really really wonderful experinece. the feeling of peace and happiness and love on that day was very strong. It was great to see Ana make that very special covenant and promise between her and God. She's a great example to me.
And I embarrassed one friend we met with. His name is Pavel and he's from Estonia. He's a really nice guy but he got way embarrassed when we met with him in the park and then I saw the Elders across the park so I yelled "Elders! Elders!" and just waved at them. Apparently you are not supposed to flag people down in public and Pavel had to walk away and pretend like he didn't know me. We caught up to him though and were able to teach him about the plan of salvation.
We were also able to meet with our Swedish friend Joakim. He's awesome and he learns so fast. He also told us more about his awesome life as a professional ballroom dancer. It sounds pretty intense to have a dancing career. "I wanna dance with you Fran!" (anyone get that movie reference?)
Well, life is good. It's the best. The weather is great. Sometimes it rains a ton and sister ripa and I look like we've been out swimming but other than that, can't complain.
I love you all! have a great week! Go do some selfless service :)
Love, Diana
Quick update on my life
Hey everyone! Hej Alle Sammen!
Livet er bare godt. Jeg elsker det.
So this week has been really awesome. Just a great week all around. What happened that made it so good? well, we were with our friend David again and that is always fun. He actually came with us to an appointment that we had with a couple of Jehovah's Whitnesses. We didn't mean for him to come with us. We had an appointment with him at a member's house at 11.30 but an appointment with the JWs at 10.30. Well david decided that he would just show up an hour earlier to our appointment at the member's house (because he thought we were meeting the member an hour before or something) and we all showed up at the same bus stop and said "ah, what the heck, if the JWs can help David believe in God, that'll be just fine" So he came along with us. The JWs just ignored him though and talked to us the whole time, trying to get us to bible bash but we refused and told them our danish wasn't good enough and then left. Afterwards David was joking around and saying, "you just need to throw out scriptures like they do. Alma 2! Nephi 3!"
We also had a great dinner with Ashley and the Elders and the sweetest woman here named Eva, who loves squirrels. Her house is full of them, not live ones, by the way. just decorative squirrels. Sometimes older danes decorate their homes with animals, but like it's a theme. like hedgehogs in one house, mice in another. It's very interesting. love it.
Oh also this week we had an awesome experience. We had had one of "those days" where everything was going wrong and stuff was hard and we left the apartment after dinner and I just said a silent prayer in my heart and said "Heavenly Father, please, I'm tired of these atheist guys we meet with, can you please send us someone nice and open?" So the thought popped into my mind "it would be great to find a nice, open, young woman." So we stopped by a couple people, who weren't home and there was this woman sitting oustide drinking some wine and I thought "her, I have to talk to her" So i went up and asked her about the music she was listening to and pretty soon, we were sitting down with her just telling her everything about the church and it was great. She actually told me some things I really needed to hear. She was so encouraging and it was just a great experience. We took a picture with her (i'll send it next week) and we are definitely going to keep in touch, cause she's moving to Austria...or she did move. but we got each others information and we'll keep in contact with her.
Well, Sorry it's so short. I ran out of time.
love you all!
Knus. Diana
Livet er bare godt. Jeg elsker det.
So this week has been really awesome. Just a great week all around. What happened that made it so good? well, we were with our friend David again and that is always fun. He actually came with us to an appointment that we had with a couple of Jehovah's Whitnesses. We didn't mean for him to come with us. We had an appointment with him at a member's house at 11.30 but an appointment with the JWs at 10.30. Well david decided that he would just show up an hour earlier to our appointment at the member's house (because he thought we were meeting the member an hour before or something) and we all showed up at the same bus stop and said "ah, what the heck, if the JWs can help David believe in God, that'll be just fine" So he came along with us. The JWs just ignored him though and talked to us the whole time, trying to get us to bible bash but we refused and told them our danish wasn't good enough and then left. Afterwards David was joking around and saying, "you just need to throw out scriptures like they do. Alma 2! Nephi 3!"
We also had a great dinner with Ashley and the Elders and the sweetest woman here named Eva, who loves squirrels. Her house is full of them, not live ones, by the way. just decorative squirrels. Sometimes older danes decorate their homes with animals, but like it's a theme. like hedgehogs in one house, mice in another. It's very interesting. love it.
Oh also this week we had an awesome experience. We had had one of "those days" where everything was going wrong and stuff was hard and we left the apartment after dinner and I just said a silent prayer in my heart and said "Heavenly Father, please, I'm tired of these atheist guys we meet with, can you please send us someone nice and open?" So the thought popped into my mind "it would be great to find a nice, open, young woman." So we stopped by a couple people, who weren't home and there was this woman sitting oustide drinking some wine and I thought "her, I have to talk to her" So i went up and asked her about the music she was listening to and pretty soon, we were sitting down with her just telling her everything about the church and it was great. She actually told me some things I really needed to hear. She was so encouraging and it was just a great experience. We took a picture with her (i'll send it next week) and we are definitely going to keep in touch, cause she's moving to Austria...or she did move. but we got each others information and we'll keep in contact with her.
Well, Sorry it's so short. I ran out of time.
love you all!
Knus. Diana
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Jo, tak
Okay so for those of you who do not know danish Jo tak (pronounced like "yo talk") means yes please and is a very common danish expression. I love it. I probably overuse it but oh well.
This week has just been a "jo tak" kind of week.
More and more members are opening their homes up and getting excited about the missionary work that they see happening here. For example, we brought Ashley to this older member's home. Her name is Eva and she loves LOVES the gospel. She was so excited to open her home up to us and Ashley and she enjoyed herself so much that she offered her home again for us to come over there and teach him and so we taught him over at her house twice and she invited him over for dinner with us and the elders tonight. Seeing Ashley's growth and change is a modern day miracle.
Things are going well with David too. We had a really good lesson with him at a member's house about the Atonement. The spirit was definitely present but he says it is very hard for him to understand or relate to the things we tell him. He's making more friends in the church so that is good. He comes to CUV every tuesday and I think he's getting to the point where he would feel comfortable going without us there which would be really great. He's awesome.
We had a good meeting with two young men.We met them on the street 3 or 4 weeks ago and then we finally were able to set up an appointment with them. They came with a lot of questions and kept asking us one after the other so that unfortunately we didn't have time to teach them a whole lot. But we set things straight and told them we would love to answer all of their questions about Joseph smith and the three different worlds after we die, but we would want to answer them another time. And then they also told us "Hey, we were talking together and we would really love to come see a church service at your church if we can. is that possible?" I said "jo tak!" that would definitely possible. So they will be coming this sunday.
Also, yesterday our friend Joakim came to church. He is from Sweden and is a professional ballroom dancer. Yes, pretty legit. He came to church and we played sharades in our guest class and he got way into it.
Another fun thing about this week is that we were invited over twice by our good friend Duyen (from vietnman) for a vietnamese bbq and then a taste of a vietnamese dessert. I love Duyen. She doesn't speak danish or very much english but she is so loving and open. her husband speaks some danish and no english so meeting with them is lots of fun. Most of the time they talk to each other in vietnamese while Søster Ripa and I sit there and smile. And then we point out scriptures in a vietnamese book of mormon for them to read.
Hmmm, I feel like some other stuff happened this week....lots of it...but I can't remember/I'm too lazy to write it all. I'll try to see if I can get some pictures sent again.
I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
Love Diana
This week has just been a "jo tak" kind of week.
More and more members are opening their homes up and getting excited about the missionary work that they see happening here. For example, we brought Ashley to this older member's home. Her name is Eva and she loves LOVES the gospel. She was so excited to open her home up to us and Ashley and she enjoyed herself so much that she offered her home again for us to come over there and teach him and so we taught him over at her house twice and she invited him over for dinner with us and the elders tonight. Seeing Ashley's growth and change is a modern day miracle.
Things are going well with David too. We had a really good lesson with him at a member's house about the Atonement. The spirit was definitely present but he says it is very hard for him to understand or relate to the things we tell him. He's making more friends in the church so that is good. He comes to CUV every tuesday and I think he's getting to the point where he would feel comfortable going without us there which would be really great. He's awesome.
We had a good meeting with two young men.We met them on the street 3 or 4 weeks ago and then we finally were able to set up an appointment with them. They came with a lot of questions and kept asking us one after the other so that unfortunately we didn't have time to teach them a whole lot. But we set things straight and told them we would love to answer all of their questions about Joseph smith and the three different worlds after we die, but we would want to answer them another time. And then they also told us "Hey, we were talking together and we would really love to come see a church service at your church if we can. is that possible?" I said "jo tak!" that would definitely possible. So they will be coming this sunday.
Also, yesterday our friend Joakim came to church. He is from Sweden and is a professional ballroom dancer. Yes, pretty legit. He came to church and we played sharades in our guest class and he got way into it.
Another fun thing about this week is that we were invited over twice by our good friend Duyen (from vietnman) for a vietnamese bbq and then a taste of a vietnamese dessert. I love Duyen. She doesn't speak danish or very much english but she is so loving and open. her husband speaks some danish and no english so meeting with them is lots of fun. Most of the time they talk to each other in vietnamese while Søster Ripa and I sit there and smile. And then we point out scriptures in a vietnamese book of mormon for them to read.
Hmmm, I feel like some other stuff happened this week....lots of it...but I can't remember/I'm too lazy to write it all. I'll try to see if I can get some pictures sent again.
I love you all! Jeg elsker jer!
Love Diana
Monday, June 16, 2014
I guess it's just been one of those weeks.
Oh those weeks, you know what I'm talking about? One of those weeks where you drive away on the bus without your companion, and one of those weeks where you get hit in the eye with a soccer ball, one of those weeks when you find out August 15 is going to be an amazing day, and one of those weeks where you just feel tons of love for the patience and kindness of others.
Okay, so funny story, Sister Ripa, David and I were all taking the bus and then Sister Ripa's and my stop comes up and so we say "bye david" and head for the door and Sister Ripa hops out of the bus but someone comes in and prevents me from following immediately after her and then to my great horror, the bus doors close and do not open again, despite me yelling to the bus driver "JEG SKAL AF! JEG SKAL AF!" nope, he was just lige glad. So Sister Ripa is just calming waiting at the bus stop, I'm freaking out because I have no idea where this bus drives and David is just laughing because well, he thought seeing a sister missionary freak out was funny apparently. Luckily though, David did walk with me back to Sister Ripa's bus stop because we were in a part of town I didn't know and I don't know I could have found it without his help. Sister Ripa was fine. I wasn't though. I had to hug her like 3 times before I felt a little bit better. She just laughed and thought it was all pretty funny.
Also, I'll share another classic Diana story with you all. So we play sport every saturday with the ward and investigators. and this week was the first time I was able to really play (due to a series of minor injuries with my legs and feet these past couple of months). So I was really pumped to play football (soccer) but that excitement quickly faded when one of the players kicked the ball super hard right when I was in front of him and it smacked me right in the eye. yes, so I have a slightly blue/blackish eye.
This past week was zone conference and we are learning about chapter 7 from PMG (learning your mission language) and an activity that we did was teach danish speakers the gospel. So we brought in people from Aarhus and Randers and divided into groups and then taught them. One of the people we asked to help out and be taught 4 times in a row by missionaries was David! And then after that activity, the assistants invited David to stay for the rest of the conference. He loved it. Oh, David, our little atheist missionary, what on earth are we going to do with him? ...probably just continue to teach him until one day he wakes up and realizes that it's true. We actually had a really good lesson with him and another investigator, named Elliot. Elliot had called us earlier in the day, wanting to meet up so we met up for a little bit and then he walked us to Maria's house becuase we had an eating appointment there. Maria saw Elliot and immediately invited him to join us for dinner. And after dinner, we wanted to have a lesson with David about the Holy Ghost and we invited Elliot to join us. So that was fun. Two very different people in the same lesson made things really interesting. David, the shy quiet logical thinker, vs. Elliot, the outgoing, outspoken spiritualist. But they got along well together.
Sister Ripa is awesome and I love her. She teaches me more than I teach her. She is fun, nice and patient. Pretty much the perfect companion. Plus, she speaks very good danish already. Still cannot get over how great her danish is.
Well, that is all the fun stories I can think of. Oh except for Ashley! Ashley is doing so well. I cannot believe the difference in him. He's going on 3 weeks without drinking and he says he is not even tempted to drink anymore. He attributes it to praying to God, meeting with the missionaries and coming to church. Oh President, I remember so many long, seemingly pointless talks with Ashley in the park, where Sister Hale and I would leave and say "Is he really worth it?" and we would doubt there would be any hope for him because he seemed so far gone. But then every time we doubted, we would think about what the Savior would do and we would convince ourselves to continue meeting with him and sharing a little bit of light and hope. Now, he's sober, he's seriously considering baptism, he's reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and he's praying out loud every night. Never ever judge, that's what I've learned so much since becoming a missionary. If someone is struggling with an addiction or other problems, do not just shrug the person off and say "oh, we cannot help them" because there will always be something, however small, we can do to help them feel the love of their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember that.
i love you all and thank you for your support and love!
Knus, Søster Briscoe
Elliot after we taught, wanted to take some pictures so here are pictures of sister ripa, me and david.
I am trying to frown in this picture
and the other one, I don't know what is happening.
And the last couple of photos from our photo shoot, so now I can say that I have been part of a photo shoot with a danish model (that is what Elliot does for work)
Okay, so funny story, Sister Ripa, David and I were all taking the bus and then Sister Ripa's and my stop comes up and so we say "bye david" and head for the door and Sister Ripa hops out of the bus but someone comes in and prevents me from following immediately after her and then to my great horror, the bus doors close and do not open again, despite me yelling to the bus driver "JEG SKAL AF! JEG SKAL AF!" nope, he was just lige glad. So Sister Ripa is just calming waiting at the bus stop, I'm freaking out because I have no idea where this bus drives and David is just laughing because well, he thought seeing a sister missionary freak out was funny apparently. Luckily though, David did walk with me back to Sister Ripa's bus stop because we were in a part of town I didn't know and I don't know I could have found it without his help. Sister Ripa was fine. I wasn't though. I had to hug her like 3 times before I felt a little bit better. She just laughed and thought it was all pretty funny.
Also, I'll share another classic Diana story with you all. So we play sport every saturday with the ward and investigators. and this week was the first time I was able to really play (due to a series of minor injuries with my legs and feet these past couple of months). So I was really pumped to play football (soccer) but that excitement quickly faded when one of the players kicked the ball super hard right when I was in front of him and it smacked me right in the eye. yes, so I have a slightly blue/blackish eye.
This past week was zone conference and we are learning about chapter 7 from PMG (learning your mission language) and an activity that we did was teach danish speakers the gospel. So we brought in people from Aarhus and Randers and divided into groups and then taught them. One of the people we asked to help out and be taught 4 times in a row by missionaries was David! And then after that activity, the assistants invited David to stay for the rest of the conference. He loved it. Oh, David, our little atheist missionary, what on earth are we going to do with him? ...probably just continue to teach him until one day he wakes up and realizes that it's true. We actually had a really good lesson with him and another investigator, named Elliot. Elliot had called us earlier in the day, wanting to meet up so we met up for a little bit and then he walked us to Maria's house becuase we had an eating appointment there. Maria saw Elliot and immediately invited him to join us for dinner. And after dinner, we wanted to have a lesson with David about the Holy Ghost and we invited Elliot to join us. So that was fun. Two very different people in the same lesson made things really interesting. David, the shy quiet logical thinker, vs. Elliot, the outgoing, outspoken spiritualist. But they got along well together.
Sister Ripa is awesome and I love her. She teaches me more than I teach her. She is fun, nice and patient. Pretty much the perfect companion. Plus, she speaks very good danish already. Still cannot get over how great her danish is.
Well, that is all the fun stories I can think of. Oh except for Ashley! Ashley is doing so well. I cannot believe the difference in him. He's going on 3 weeks without drinking and he says he is not even tempted to drink anymore. He attributes it to praying to God, meeting with the missionaries and coming to church. Oh President, I remember so many long, seemingly pointless talks with Ashley in the park, where Sister Hale and I would leave and say "Is he really worth it?" and we would doubt there would be any hope for him because he seemed so far gone. But then every time we doubted, we would think about what the Savior would do and we would convince ourselves to continue meeting with him and sharing a little bit of light and hope. Now, he's sober, he's seriously considering baptism, he's reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and he's praying out loud every night. Never ever judge, that's what I've learned so much since becoming a missionary. If someone is struggling with an addiction or other problems, do not just shrug the person off and say "oh, we cannot help them" because there will always be something, however small, we can do to help them feel the love of their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember that.
i love you all and thank you for your support and love!
Knus, Søster Briscoe
Elliot after we taught, wanted to take some pictures so here are pictures of sister ripa, me and david.
I am trying to frown in this picture
and the other one, I don't know what is happening.
And the last couple of photos from our photo shoot, so now I can say that I have been part of a photo shoot with a danish model (that is what Elliot does for work)
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Letter from June 8th
Kære familie
så...yup, I am training. Everyone before I got sister Ripa said "oh you're going to have to train a baby" or they kept making comments about how difficult it would be to train a young 19 year old who didn't speak any danish. So I prepped myself mentally for this younger missionary who would not be able to speak or understand any danish. Well, Søster Ripa is completely the opposite of that. She is 23 years old, graduate from BYU, she served as a relief society president for a year so she has actually had more experience in ward councils and working with ward leaders than I really have. She also speaks beautiful danish and understands nearly everything. I was blown away by her danish and so is everyone else who meets her. Oh and she's also about 5 inches taller than me. Haha, so yes, she was completely opposite from what I expected. I don't feel like I'm training her, haha, I guess I'll never have the "classic" training experience. The first time I had know idea what I was doing and the second time my trainee already knows everything.
But earlier this week, I was in copenhagen a few days until Søster Ripa arrived. So I was able to see what it would be like to be a missionary in Copenhagen. I think it would be hard, people are much more busy and they speak københavnsk, which is very different from the jysk i've gotten used to.
Well on wednesday I picked up Søster Ripa and then we headed back to my wonderful beautiful city of Aarhus. Oh how I love this place. The elders met us at the train station to help with luggage so that was really nice of them. Then we went straight to an eating appointment with Maria (it was her birthday that day). She is awesome. Maria makes the best food and is always just so nice and open to new missionaries.
Then after our appointment at Maria's we went to a lesson with this recent investigator named Mahtab from afghanistan. she is so sweet and so open to hearing the gospel. She had a friend there to interpret into persian for her. We taught a simple explanation about the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. It was a neat experience to be able to feel the spirit was Mahtab explained in Persian some of her past experiences with God and with Christ. Even without being able to understand the language, we were able to understand the point of what she was saying.
So it's pretty much been a normal week after getting back to Aarhus. We've taught some people, found a few new people. Went to church. Hmmm, not much exciting is happening.
Oh! Except for Ashley. Ashley has been sober for over a week! He is such a different person now. The light in his eyes is so much brighter and he looks just so much happier. He has so much hope for his future and he's keeping busy and he is really seriously beginning to take the time to figure out if this church is the true church or not. He's reading and praying every day and coming to church and coming and doing service with us or the elders. Ashley is amazing.
We also met with David. Oh David, haha, love that kid. he's reading the bible from the beginning now. He also has changed. He seems happier, lighter and laughs a lot more now.
I love how the Gospel brings peace and happiness and joy. Pure joy. that's how the gospel feels. We are the happiest when we live the Gospel. Really, we are. I've seen it not only in my life but the lives of hundred of other friends that i've made here in Denmark.
Thanks for being wonderful family, I'll hopefully be able to send some pictures next week!
Love you! Jeg elsker jer!
Søster Briscoe
så...yup, I am training. Everyone before I got sister Ripa said "oh you're going to have to train a baby" or they kept making comments about how difficult it would be to train a young 19 year old who didn't speak any danish. So I prepped myself mentally for this younger missionary who would not be able to speak or understand any danish. Well, Søster Ripa is completely the opposite of that. She is 23 years old, graduate from BYU, she served as a relief society president for a year so she has actually had more experience in ward councils and working with ward leaders than I really have. She also speaks beautiful danish and understands nearly everything. I was blown away by her danish and so is everyone else who meets her. Oh and she's also about 5 inches taller than me. Haha, so yes, she was completely opposite from what I expected. I don't feel like I'm training her, haha, I guess I'll never have the "classic" training experience. The first time I had know idea what I was doing and the second time my trainee already knows everything.
But earlier this week, I was in copenhagen a few days until Søster Ripa arrived. So I was able to see what it would be like to be a missionary in Copenhagen. I think it would be hard, people are much more busy and they speak københavnsk, which is very different from the jysk i've gotten used to.
Well on wednesday I picked up Søster Ripa and then we headed back to my wonderful beautiful city of Aarhus. Oh how I love this place. The elders met us at the train station to help with luggage so that was really nice of them. Then we went straight to an eating appointment with Maria (it was her birthday that day). She is awesome. Maria makes the best food and is always just so nice and open to new missionaries.
Then after our appointment at Maria's we went to a lesson with this recent investigator named Mahtab from afghanistan. she is so sweet and so open to hearing the gospel. She had a friend there to interpret into persian for her. We taught a simple explanation about the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. It was a neat experience to be able to feel the spirit was Mahtab explained in Persian some of her past experiences with God and with Christ. Even without being able to understand the language, we were able to understand the point of what she was saying.
So it's pretty much been a normal week after getting back to Aarhus. We've taught some people, found a few new people. Went to church. Hmmm, not much exciting is happening.
Oh! Except for Ashley. Ashley has been sober for over a week! He is such a different person now. The light in his eyes is so much brighter and he looks just so much happier. He has so much hope for his future and he's keeping busy and he is really seriously beginning to take the time to figure out if this church is the true church or not. He's reading and praying every day and coming to church and coming and doing service with us or the elders. Ashley is amazing.
We also met with David. Oh David, haha, love that kid. he's reading the bible from the beginning now. He also has changed. He seems happier, lighter and laughs a lot more now.
I love how the Gospel brings peace and happiness and joy. Pure joy. that's how the gospel feels. We are the happiest when we live the Gospel. Really, we are. I've seen it not only in my life but the lives of hundred of other friends that i've made here in Denmark.
Thanks for being wonderful family, I'll hopefully be able to send some pictures next week!
Love you! Jeg elsker jer!
Søster Briscoe
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
On the Edge
To my wonderful family and friends,
Oh my word. Oh mit ord. Haha Sister Hale and I have an awesome friend here in Aarhus and him and I joke about danglish all the time and we say "oh mit ord" lots. He also calls us mangsters because we are mormon gangsters. I apparently come off as a gangster sometimes when talking to people on the street.
Anyways, you want to know something terrible about missions? (Rolig Rolig, it's not really terrible). But SO much happens in one week and every time something remotely interesting happens you think "Oh! I have to tell my family about this!" and then you reach monday and you sit down in front of a computer and you think "uhhh...." and your mind goes blank and you remember one or two of the less-than-exciting experiences you've had and those are the ones you share with everyone. At least, this is a problem I've experienced throughout my whole mission.
So what did I do this week? Wait...I seriously cannot remember, let me grab my planner. Seriously, my planner is my brain. If i don't have it, it's like I forgot my brain. Let's see, I'll just go through the highlights of my week day by day in a list.
Monday
Sister Hale and I went to a beach because we had a few hours free and it was awesome. No one was at the beach, they were all in the city and we had it all to ourselves to just sit and play guitar and take naps. One of the best Pday activities ever. And then we met David there and taught him about gratitude and appreciating life. We gave him a little notebook so he could write down all the things he's grateful for. Also, when we took the bus together, he dared me to contact like everyone on the bus, which I normally don't do. But I can't resist a dare, especially when it comes to missionary work.
Tuesday
Not much happened tuesday. We met with an 87 year old danish woman who lives just down the street from us. She is sweet.
We also saw this English guy we met last week again. He's in a band and also has his own solo albums. Check him out for me and see if he's any good. Go tobandcamp.com and look for "Jimmy Biggs".
Wednesday
Oh Wednesday was kinda crazy. I made a rookie mistake. We had planned on traveling out to a few surrounding towns and meet with some people and contact a referral. But when we arrived in the first town, I realized we had forgotten the addresses of the people we had planned to stop by and the map...and also because of the trouble with our phone, we had nobody's numbers so yes...that was fun. Luckily, thanks to the help of the wonderful Sisters at the mission office and also thanks to some helpful, danish window washers, we were able to find our way and make all of our appointments. I think that no matter how long I'm on my mission, I'll still always make silly mistakes and forget things like that. Sådanne er livet bare.
But later that night we went to our friend Nina's house and she threw us a late surprise birthday party. We ate McDonalds and she gave us the best gifts. I got an apron and oven mits, which I was super happy for.
Thursday
We helped Maria move some stuff in her house (because she can't really move after her surgery). Then we saw our good friend Ashley and read Ether 12 with him in the library. That was nice. Then we went to the hospital to visit a member. I have visited a hospital and a nursing home I think once a week if not more since I've come to Aarhus. Oh and then Thursday night we met with a really cool guy from Estonia.
Friday
....okay, I'm getting tired of this...haha, nothing cool happened on friday. Oh, except for we taught a Jewish lady and she laughed in our faces when we told her the book of mormon was written specifically for her. But she's willing to read it despite her sarastic laughter in Sister Hale's face.
Saturday
Saturday was awesome. We got up early and went to see a baptism in Randers with David. Also, David's grandparents live in Randers and he wanted us to meet them. So we had the chance to go and quickly stop by and eat some strawberry cake with them and gave them a book of mormon.
Later that night, we were able to see our good friend Isaac from Ghana. He is awesome. He understands the Bible so well and just gets it when it comes to being a follower of Christ. Now all we have to do is get him to really put some effort into reading the Book of Mormon.
Sunday
Ah, Sunday, what a great day. We went to church and had three visitors come as well. Well, David isn't really a visitor anymore because he's come so many times now. It's all old news to him. But we had this amazing lady named Mahtab come. She is from afghanistan and is seriously one of the most amazing people I know. She met the elders in Sønderborg and went to church with them once and then the Elders gave us her number and we called and she asked if we could pick her up and go to church together with her. We said of course! And she came and loved it.
After church, we went over to a Vietnamese couple that live right above a Japanese restaurant. They made us homemade sushi for lunch. it was delicious.
Then that night we saw Nina again and taught about fasting. She's great. She just is so patient with us when we struggle to explain a principle or doctrine and she just understands the gospel so well.
Okay, So that was my week. Hopefully that wasn't too boring for you. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!
MKH Søster Briscoe
Monday, May 12, 2014
Jeg er Guds kaere barn
Okay so last Monday was Cinco De Mayo! We were going to celebrate it with the Elders by eating Mexican food with some of our friends. Well, the elders burned us (meaning the didn't show up and didn't tell us), and only Ashley and David came. But we couldn't sit inside the church without the elders there. Also it was raining. So we ended up eating burritos in the rain. I thought it was hilarious: A spainard, an english man, two americans, celebrating cinco de mayo in Denmark. Viva el Mexico!
We are teaching Ashley (the man who is an alcoholic). And things are going very well. He has his own room at the shelter he is staying at so that is good because he now has more of an option to stay away from bad influences. He came to church yesterday, and even though he was a little tipsy, he stayed all 3 hours plus choir! He told us that he feels very accepted there even though he has a drinking problem that he is struggling with. Although Sister Hale and I committed him to give up drinking entirely. So he is going to try that out this week and we are supporting him and praying for him and keeping in good contact with him. We actually made an agreement with him yesterday about how to show him how much we support him and to be able to understand how hard giving up drinking will be for him, we are giving up eating all kinds of desserts and sweets. Yup, Sister Hale and I are going to quit cold turkey. So that will be that. He's probably the only person in Denmark I would give up dessets for. He's awesome. I threw a surprise party for Sister Hale this week (cause her birthday was this past wednesday) and he helped me figure the whole thing out. Him and Maria. We had it at maria's house and Ashley was the one who ran all the errands for me and got the house set up because I couldn't really do it because I'm with Sister Hale 24/7.
We are also teaching this jewish woman named Dasha. She is an older, lonely lady and she is really having a hard time seeing how God can exist when such terrible things happen in the world. But she is willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray. I think she just really needs to know that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her.
I think that one of the most important things I have learned while serving the Lord's mission is that each and every single one of us, whether we know it or not, is a child of God. The Gospel helps us realize our true identity and then helps us stay true to who we really are. Having that identity brings joy, peace and hope. That's probably why the very first point of the lessons in Preach My Gospel is "God is our Loving Heavenly Father". The joy of missionary work is helping our brothers and sisters come to know who they really are. I know that God is hastening His work and that He is longing for each and everyone of His children to know who they are. I know we can help them if we just reach out in love and then share our testimonies with others. Thank you for your testimonies and support. You are all the best and I love you so much. Jeg elsker jer!
Søster Briscoe
We are teaching Ashley (the man who is an alcoholic). And things are going very well. He has his own room at the shelter he is staying at so that is good because he now has more of an option to stay away from bad influences. He came to church yesterday, and even though he was a little tipsy, he stayed all 3 hours plus choir! He told us that he feels very accepted there even though he has a drinking problem that he is struggling with. Although Sister Hale and I committed him to give up drinking entirely. So he is going to try that out this week and we are supporting him and praying for him and keeping in good contact with him. We actually made an agreement with him yesterday about how to show him how much we support him and to be able to understand how hard giving up drinking will be for him, we are giving up eating all kinds of desserts and sweets. Yup, Sister Hale and I are going to quit cold turkey. So that will be that. He's probably the only person in Denmark I would give up dessets for. He's awesome. I threw a surprise party for Sister Hale this week (cause her birthday was this past wednesday) and he helped me figure the whole thing out. Him and Maria. We had it at maria's house and Ashley was the one who ran all the errands for me and got the house set up because I couldn't really do it because I'm with Sister Hale 24/7.
We are also teaching this jewish woman named Dasha. She is an older, lonely lady and she is really having a hard time seeing how God can exist when such terrible things happen in the world. But she is willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray. I think she just really needs to know that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her.
I think that one of the most important things I have learned while serving the Lord's mission is that each and every single one of us, whether we know it or not, is a child of God. The Gospel helps us realize our true identity and then helps us stay true to who we really are. Having that identity brings joy, peace and hope. That's probably why the very first point of the lessons in Preach My Gospel is "God is our Loving Heavenly Father". The joy of missionary work is helping our brothers and sisters come to know who they really are. I know that God is hastening His work and that He is longing for each and everyone of His children to know who they are. I know we can help them if we just reach out in love and then share our testimonies with others. Thank you for your testimonies and support. You are all the best and I love you so much. Jeg elsker jer!
Søster Briscoe
Monday, April 28, 2014
Dear family,
Wow, okay, I nearly forgot to write a big email. Sorry about that. Anyways, this week was super! Super Duper as the danes would say.
I turned 21 this past week. Weird. I could have never guessed that I would already have been a missionary for over a year by the time I turned 21. Life is great.
So my companion Søster Hale decided to tell EVERYONE that it was my birthday and so me turning 21 turned into a much bigger deal than I wanted it to be. We have some friends from Ghana, Isaac and Sampson that invited us over to Saturday night to eat traditional Ghanian food again for my birthday. Well, we couldn't go over without a third woman, so we ended up inviting a couple from the Aarhus ward to come with us. Also, our friend David came. So it was a very international night. We had Ghanan food with some Danish and Spanish and Portuguese people. It was fun.
Also, Saturday, Søster Hale and I went with the senior couple, the Garriotts , to visit the Hansen Family. On our way there we stopped by these amazing and beautiful gold fields. Fields that were just full of bright yellow flowers. Elder and Sister Garriott actually left today to go home from their mission. It was really hard saying goodbye. They have been like a mom and dad to me and sister hale.
On Sunday (my actual birthday). Søster Hale got up early and sneakily made me breakfast in bed. Then she showed me the cake she had made in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and I smashed my face in it (a classic tradition in her family). Søster Hale is awesome. We have lots of fun together.
Than later in the day, we went with a member and the Elders on a walk because this member is just getting out of the hospital and he really wanted to meet and talk. Well, we went to this park (because he loves to be out in nature). Turns out though that there was a circus happening in this park so we actually got to see a bunch of circus horses and elephants!
We had dinner that night with all the missionaries and some other people. I feel very spoiled to be surrounded by so many wonderful people on my birthday.
Well, I love you! I got to run though! Just know that I'm praying and thinking of you all.
Love, Sister Briscoe
Wow, okay, I nearly forgot to write a big email. Sorry about that. Anyways, this week was super! Super Duper as the danes would say.
I turned 21 this past week. Weird. I could have never guessed that I would already have been a missionary for over a year by the time I turned 21. Life is great.
So my companion Søster Hale decided to tell EVERYONE that it was my birthday and so me turning 21 turned into a much bigger deal than I wanted it to be. We have some friends from Ghana, Isaac and Sampson that invited us over to Saturday night to eat traditional Ghanian food again for my birthday. Well, we couldn't go over without a third woman, so we ended up inviting a couple from the Aarhus ward to come with us. Also, our friend David came. So it was a very international night. We had Ghanan food with some Danish and Spanish and Portuguese people. It was fun.
Also, Saturday, Søster Hale and I went with the senior couple, the Garriotts , to visit the Hansen Family. On our way there we stopped by these amazing and beautiful gold fields. Fields that were just full of bright yellow flowers. Elder and Sister Garriott actually left today to go home from their mission. It was really hard saying goodbye. They have been like a mom and dad to me and sister hale.
On Sunday (my actual birthday). Søster Hale got up early and sneakily made me breakfast in bed. Then she showed me the cake she had made in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and I smashed my face in it (a classic tradition in her family). Søster Hale is awesome. We have lots of fun together.
Than later in the day, we went with a member and the Elders on a walk because this member is just getting out of the hospital and he really wanted to meet and talk. Well, we went to this park (because he loves to be out in nature). Turns out though that there was a circus happening in this park so we actually got to see a bunch of circus horses and elephants!
We had dinner that night with all the missionaries and some other people. I feel very spoiled to be surrounded by so many wonderful people on my birthday.
Well, I love you! I got to run though! Just know that I'm praying and thinking of you all.
Love, Sister Briscoe
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
what I learned this week
Dear Family and Friends :)
So what I learned this week from Preach My Gospel is the importance of the Book of Mormon and how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. Whether we have a spiritual question or a temporal question, the Book of Mormon combined with prayer can answer our questions. It was written for our day and for us and so we can find useful things that relate to us and help us in our every day. What did you learn in Preach my Gospel this week??
So Tuesday night was a great night. We had gone through the whole day with not much happening. We had contacted a few people and gotten some telephone numbers but our appointments fell through and we were not really excited about going out to work in the cold rain. But as we were heading out, Sister Hale said "let's go save a soul". Our plan was to stop by this less active young man. We had stopped by three weeks ago and he had given us his number but the number didn't work so we decided to stop by again and see if we could talk to him.It was windy and rainy as we biked to his apartment but we tried to have an upbeat and positive attitude. We buzzed up to his apartment and he answered! We asked if we could come in just to say hi and he paused for a little bit then said "ja, det må i gerne." So he let us in and we just chatted at the doorway for a little bit. It was really good getting to know him and establishing a relationship that way but after the small talk I said "hey, we are sharing a message with all the members from the Book of Mormon and we want to share it with you" so we read Ether 12:4 with him, which talks about the hope the gospel gives to people. We asked him how the church had helped him in his life, and he said it had given him a firm foundation but that some of the doctirnes and principles he didn't believe in anymore. We were prompted by the spirit to ask good questions about what his really concerns are and also about times in his life when he has felt the spirit and the blessings that come from the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We committed him to meet with us and give the gospel and the church a second chance and he agreed!
Oh, a member of the ward saw our friend David reading the Book of Mormon on the bus and sat by him and talked to him about it. He told us about it saturday when he came to basketball. Also, later Saturday, David, Sister Hale and I all went to visit a member in the hospital to give them some art David had drawn. He is really really talented. Meget dygtig til at tejne. Sister Hale and I steal sketches from him. Okay, not really steal but ask if we can have them.
This past Friday, we went to a member's house for dinner. She was baptized a year ago and she has two kids our age who are not members. The Garriots (the senior couple who has been working with this family) had told us that the kids usually didn't stay for the spiritual thought after dinner and that we should be sure not to press them too much. We were able to connect really well with both of them at dinner and establish a friendship and not only that we were able to have a very powerful spiritual thought where we bore testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The kids both contributed their thoughts about it and it went really well. We committed them to pray to receive confirmation that God is there and aware of them. It was a really fun night too.
Those were the main miracles of the week. Things are going great in Aarhus. We are finding lots of people to teach because most of the amazing people we meet with tell their friends and then their friends are interested in meeting with us.I think is great for them to see that there are other young adults meeting with the missionaries. I think it makes them not feel so alone in their search for truth.
Oh but a few funny moments from this past week:
1. On a search for a friend of ours who is homeless and an alcoholic, Sister Hale and I stopped by Salvation Army, where all the very very drunk homeless people are and where our chances of finding him are really high. While we were in their looking for him, this drunk man came up to me and showed him two drumsticks and told me about how he was a ninja. He stuck the drumticks in his shirt on his back. I told him that was really neat. He showed me some pictures he drew and wanted to give to me but I misunderstood him and after I was done looking at his art, tried to give it back to him. He got so angry and started yelling at him and swearing and I thought he was going to attack me. Luckily some other people calmed him down. But yes, I was nearly killed by a drunk ninja this week. A few days later though we were able to find our friend (the person we've been looking for this whole week every time we are near Salvation Army) outside with a bunch of other drunk people. We just walked straight up to him and told him to leave his wine and come with us so we could teach him the Gospel. He's really positive, even when drunk, we just need to get him a better group of friends, drunk hobos tend not to be the best support group for people who are trying to live the gospel.
2. We were knocking doors in this area while waiting for a bus and this old man opened the door and he was completely naked. So that was an interesting door converstation. He was not interested in a return visit for us to teach him about the gospel.
3. We were meeting up with our friend Elliot and he thought it would be fun to mess with the gullible sisters and tell us that we were going to go "bus hoping" so we could meet up at a place. He called us as we were waiting for the bus and said "okay, do you see bus 200, are you ready?" and then hung up and so sister hale and I ran for bus 200 and nearly hoped on when he came up from behind us and said "hey! don't get on!" he had just been watching nearby, laughing at us. Pranksters. Even as a missionary, my life is full of people pulling pranks on me.
Well, I love you all and pray for you too!
Med Kærlig Hilsen, Søster Briscoe
So what I learned this week from Preach My Gospel is the importance of the Book of Mormon and how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. Whether we have a spiritual question or a temporal question, the Book of Mormon combined with prayer can answer our questions. It was written for our day and for us and so we can find useful things that relate to us and help us in our every day. What did you learn in Preach my Gospel this week??
So Tuesday night was a great night. We had gone through the whole day with not much happening. We had contacted a few people and gotten some telephone numbers but our appointments fell through and we were not really excited about going out to work in the cold rain. But as we were heading out, Sister Hale said "let's go save a soul". Our plan was to stop by this less active young man. We had stopped by three weeks ago and he had given us his number but the number didn't work so we decided to stop by again and see if we could talk to him.It was windy and rainy as we biked to his apartment but we tried to have an upbeat and positive attitude. We buzzed up to his apartment and he answered! We asked if we could come in just to say hi and he paused for a little bit then said "ja, det må i gerne." So he let us in and we just chatted at the doorway for a little bit. It was really good getting to know him and establishing a relationship that way but after the small talk I said "hey, we are sharing a message with all the members from the Book of Mormon and we want to share it with you" so we read Ether 12:4 with him, which talks about the hope the gospel gives to people. We asked him how the church had helped him in his life, and he said it had given him a firm foundation but that some of the doctirnes and principles he didn't believe in anymore. We were prompted by the spirit to ask good questions about what his really concerns are and also about times in his life when he has felt the spirit and the blessings that come from the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We committed him to meet with us and give the gospel and the church a second chance and he agreed!
Oh, a member of the ward saw our friend David reading the Book of Mormon on the bus and sat by him and talked to him about it. He told us about it saturday when he came to basketball. Also, later Saturday, David, Sister Hale and I all went to visit a member in the hospital to give them some art David had drawn. He is really really talented. Meget dygtig til at tejne. Sister Hale and I steal sketches from him. Okay, not really steal but ask if we can have them.
This past Friday, we went to a member's house for dinner. She was baptized a year ago and she has two kids our age who are not members. The Garriots (the senior couple who has been working with this family) had told us that the kids usually didn't stay for the spiritual thought after dinner and that we should be sure not to press them too much. We were able to connect really well with both of them at dinner and establish a friendship and not only that we were able to have a very powerful spiritual thought where we bore testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The kids both contributed their thoughts about it and it went really well. We committed them to pray to receive confirmation that God is there and aware of them. It was a really fun night too.
Those were the main miracles of the week. Things are going great in Aarhus. We are finding lots of people to teach because most of the amazing people we meet with tell their friends and then their friends are interested in meeting with us.I think is great for them to see that there are other young adults meeting with the missionaries. I think it makes them not feel so alone in their search for truth.
Oh but a few funny moments from this past week:
1. On a search for a friend of ours who is homeless and an alcoholic, Sister Hale and I stopped by Salvation Army, where all the very very drunk homeless people are and where our chances of finding him are really high. While we were in their looking for him, this drunk man came up to me and showed him two drumsticks and told me about how he was a ninja. He stuck the drumticks in his shirt on his back. I told him that was really neat. He showed me some pictures he drew and wanted to give to me but I misunderstood him and after I was done looking at his art, tried to give it back to him. He got so angry and started yelling at him and swearing and I thought he was going to attack me. Luckily some other people calmed him down. But yes, I was nearly killed by a drunk ninja this week. A few days later though we were able to find our friend (the person we've been looking for this whole week every time we are near Salvation Army) outside with a bunch of other drunk people. We just walked straight up to him and told him to leave his wine and come with us so we could teach him the Gospel. He's really positive, even when drunk, we just need to get him a better group of friends, drunk hobos tend not to be the best support group for people who are trying to live the gospel.
2. We were knocking doors in this area while waiting for a bus and this old man opened the door and he was completely naked. So that was an interesting door converstation. He was not interested in a return visit for us to teach him about the gospel.
3. We were meeting up with our friend Elliot and he thought it would be fun to mess with the gullible sisters and tell us that we were going to go "bus hoping" so we could meet up at a place. He called us as we were waiting for the bus and said "okay, do you see bus 200, are you ready?" and then hung up and so sister hale and I ran for bus 200 and nearly hoped on when he came up from behind us and said "hey! don't get on!" he had just been watching nearby, laughing at us. Pranksters. Even as a missionary, my life is full of people pulling pranks on me.
Well, I love you all and pray for you too!
Med Kærlig Hilsen, Søster Briscoe
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
He will lead you to them or them to you
Dearest Family :) This week has been really great. I feel so wonderfully movitated from General Conference and I hope that you all feel the same. If you haven't watched all the talks, you should find the time to do so because they are truly wonderful. Especially the words of the Prophet in the Sunday Morning Session. You can find all of Conference on this link https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/04?cid=HPSU040614654&lang=eng. Watch it :) It's amazing.
Another thing I want to do is to start sharing what I learned from Preach My Gospel every week and I would LOVE it if you did the same with me. That would seriously be the best. So one thing I learned from PMG this week comes from chapter 9, where it talks about how the Lord will lead you to people who are ready for the Gospel or He will lead those people to you. I love that and I feel like I've seen that so many times on my mission. This week was no exception and I want to share two stories from this past week that show how true this really is:
The first miracle of this week was meeting our new friend Ashley. He's from England and he has a very serious drinking problem. We met him while we were talking with our other friend Ben at the library. Ben was trying to find something in the Bible and closes the book and Sister Hale asks him ”Did you find what you were looking for?” ”No, I did not find what I was looking for” But that response did not come from Ben. It was this drunk man who just sits down on the couch right next to Ben and joins our conversation. Actually before we could really talk to this man, he and Ben got into an arguement over how to spell the word ”Fathom”. Seriously, they argued with each other for about 5 minutes. At first Sister Hale and I were really annoyed with this man but then he mentions that he knows the Church and we ask him how and he begins to tell us about how he used to live with a mormon family when he was 16 and how they were like his second family. He also had lived in South Jordan, Utah for a year or two. So now our attitudes are completely changed towards this man and we begin to teach him as well. He opened up a lot about how he was about to be baptized but he didn't want to "go out all day knocking on doors" and he never could figure out baptisms for the dead and accept it. He told us his life was a mess currently and he wanted to change and he wanted to stop drinking. We told him that the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him improve the quality of his life and he can be completely healed and cleansed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We were able to set up another appointment with him for the next day and again we were able to teach and testify of the healing power of the Atonement. It was so sad to see Ashley so broken but now he is humble enough to be taught by missionaries again. So that was a great example to me of people being led to the missionaries
I also saw another miracle where we, the missionaries, were led to someone who needed us. There is a recent convert in our ward and He has been really struggling recently and checked himself into the psychiatric hospital. Sister Hale and I thought about him a lot and prayed for him frequently. However, he never answered his phone so we had no way to get in contact with him. But on Thursday night we got a call from an active member telling us she had been talking to a woman named *Britte on facebook. Britte told this member that she was in the Psychiatric hospital and that she would really love a Book of Mormon to read while she was there. This member told Britte she would send me and Sister Hale with it. We scheduled it in for Saturday morning so the member could come with us. But Saturday morning, the member cancelled. That was okay and we headed out on the bus on our own. When we had nearly reached the hospital however, Britte texted us and said that she hadn't slept all night so she wasn't feeling up to visitors but we could drop of the Book of Mormon with the personale. We were kind of dissappointed that Britte had cancelled the visit because we were so excited to meet with her and get to know her. As we were walking to the section of the hospital where she was at, we thought "Maybe Tom (the recent convert) is here." So we tried calling him. No answer. We gave up on trying to find him and just dropped of the book of Mormon. But as we were walking down the stairs after dropping of the book, we heard Tom's voice! We ran down the stairs and to the room just in time to see the doors closing. We cautiously knocked and some people opened and we saw Tom getting ready to go for a walk. He was so excited to see us and we were able to walk aroud with him and go walk to the beach near the hospital with him. I think it was amazing to see how perfectly Heavenly Father's plan for each and everyone of His children is. He knows exactly where to place us at the right times so we can be there for another person. If we just go about trying to do good, Heavenly Father will bless us with the opportunity to serve someone, even if that person isn't the orginal reason we were serving. *Names changed
Life is wonderful and I am so grateful to be here in Denmark, serving the Danish people. And also to be serving with Søster Hale. She is great. Super enthusiastic and just has a great love for life.
Livet er godt :)
Remember the messages at Conference
I love you all!
Love, Diana
Another thing I want to do is to start sharing what I learned from Preach My Gospel every week and I would LOVE it if you did the same with me. That would seriously be the best. So one thing I learned from PMG this week comes from chapter 9, where it talks about how the Lord will lead you to people who are ready for the Gospel or He will lead those people to you. I love that and I feel like I've seen that so many times on my mission. This week was no exception and I want to share two stories from this past week that show how true this really is:
The first miracle of this week was meeting our new friend Ashley. He's from England and he has a very serious drinking problem. We met him while we were talking with our other friend Ben at the library. Ben was trying to find something in the Bible and closes the book and Sister Hale asks him ”Did you find what you were looking for?” ”No, I did not find what I was looking for” But that response did not come from Ben. It was this drunk man who just sits down on the couch right next to Ben and joins our conversation. Actually before we could really talk to this man, he and Ben got into an arguement over how to spell the word ”Fathom”. Seriously, they argued with each other for about 5 minutes. At first Sister Hale and I were really annoyed with this man but then he mentions that he knows the Church and we ask him how and he begins to tell us about how he used to live with a mormon family when he was 16 and how they were like his second family. He also had lived in South Jordan, Utah for a year or two. So now our attitudes are completely changed towards this man and we begin to teach him as well. He opened up a lot about how he was about to be baptized but he didn't want to "go out all day knocking on doors" and he never could figure out baptisms for the dead and accept it. He told us his life was a mess currently and he wanted to change and he wanted to stop drinking. We told him that the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him improve the quality of his life and he can be completely healed and cleansed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We were able to set up another appointment with him for the next day and again we were able to teach and testify of the healing power of the Atonement. It was so sad to see Ashley so broken but now he is humble enough to be taught by missionaries again. So that was a great example to me of people being led to the missionaries
I also saw another miracle where we, the missionaries, were led to someone who needed us. There is a recent convert in our ward and He has been really struggling recently and checked himself into the psychiatric hospital. Sister Hale and I thought about him a lot and prayed for him frequently. However, he never answered his phone so we had no way to get in contact with him. But on Thursday night we got a call from an active member telling us she had been talking to a woman named *Britte on facebook. Britte told this member that she was in the Psychiatric hospital and that she would really love a Book of Mormon to read while she was there. This member told Britte she would send me and Sister Hale with it. We scheduled it in for Saturday morning so the member could come with us. But Saturday morning, the member cancelled. That was okay and we headed out on the bus on our own. When we had nearly reached the hospital however, Britte texted us and said that she hadn't slept all night so she wasn't feeling up to visitors but we could drop of the Book of Mormon with the personale. We were kind of dissappointed that Britte had cancelled the visit because we were so excited to meet with her and get to know her. As we were walking to the section of the hospital where she was at, we thought "Maybe Tom (the recent convert) is here." So we tried calling him. No answer. We gave up on trying to find him and just dropped of the book of Mormon. But as we were walking down the stairs after dropping of the book, we heard Tom's voice! We ran down the stairs and to the room just in time to see the doors closing. We cautiously knocked and some people opened and we saw Tom getting ready to go for a walk. He was so excited to see us and we were able to walk aroud with him and go walk to the beach near the hospital with him. I think it was amazing to see how perfectly Heavenly Father's plan for each and everyone of His children is. He knows exactly where to place us at the right times so we can be there for another person. If we just go about trying to do good, Heavenly Father will bless us with the opportunity to serve someone, even if that person isn't the orginal reason we were serving. *Names changed
Life is wonderful and I am so grateful to be here in Denmark, serving the Danish people. And also to be serving with Søster Hale. She is great. Super enthusiastic and just has a great love for life.
Livet er godt :)
Remember the messages at Conference
I love you all!
Love, Diana
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
La Revedere - Mar 10 letter
The hardest thing about being a missionary? Saying goodbye. Last Tuesday, I got a call. Yup, a transfer call. Elder Whitlock told me that I was heading off to Aarhus (which is actually only a 30 minute train ride from Horsens) but I was still very shocked because I have only been with Søster Orgill one transfer! Sometimes as a missionary, you want tranfers to come around because you've been in an area so long and you want to see something new but despite being in Horsens for over 5 months, I just wanted to stay. Lots of amazing things were happening and I felt like we had some really good friends there. What are the things I learned from them?
1. Think critically
2. Always have a winning mindset
3. When you need something, call your friends
4. Eat your vegetables
For whoever reads this, I hope you always cherish these words of wisdom ;) Because I always will
So after I got the transfer call, the week just seem to fill up with a million things to do and people to see. We stopped by my good friend Lis, who has helped me out so much with my family history work (the Danish side). She is great and I've learned a lot about Denmark culture and history.
Also, this week Søster Origll and I braved the local university campus. It's called VIA. We were seriously terrified to go there because it's been over a year since either of us have been to a university. We went to see if we could do service there but they have no service programs. So we asked if we could do a presentation or have a display table around campus. The front desk referred us to the Univeristy Priest. She was busy but we got her number and hopefully we'll get something set up. Then all the students in Horsens will know who the Sister missionaries are :) Although we talk about 20 students every day. Most of them already know us. We're pretty cool :)
Then later this week, we saw a woman named Elly. She is my friend in the wheelchair. Although I haven't seen her for a very long time because she was in the hospital for a while and was just having a really tough time. But I was able to visit her to say goodbye and get her information so we can stay in touch.
We visited Solveig this week. Sovleig was the first person I met in Horsens. She isn't a member of the church but she is very beleiving and has a very strong faith in her Savior. She's been through many trails but finds peace and comfort in Christ. She is one of my heros. It was hard saying goodbye to her.
We were able to see our good friend Anhkaa from Mongolia because she came to church (which actually was Stake Conference in Aarhus). She also had us over for lunch and we ate some more authentic Mongolian food. I think it's so amazing how multi-cultural Denmark is. I've met so many people from around the world. And I've learned little phrases in other languages, like how to say stuff in Romanian! Even though I'm not very good at it. Now I know how to sing a little bit of a song in Romanian as well :)
I said goodbye to my sweet friend Lisbeth. She is 46 but thinks like a child. She and I grew really close in my time in Horsens.
Then the last people I said goodbye to was the "Romanian group". Michael (Mihai), Justin (Iustin), Cosmin and Robert. We were able to have one last dinner with Michael, Justin and Cosmin. I made my famous Chinese chicken :) and Søster Orgill sang them a song that she had made up. I actually saw Roby this morning and he helped carry my suitcase to the train station. I think it has been a huge blessing in my life to be able to have made friends like them while serving in Horsens.
Well, remember the importance of being a friend this week. Reach out to someone who needs it. Look for someone who may be struggling and show them unconditional love and remember, despite differences in culture, beliefs, language, we are all a lot more similar than what we think.
Love you all and hope everyone has a great week!
Søster Diana Briscoe
Picture Explanations:
Søster Orgill and I at VIA
Lis and I
Group of friends at the church for institute
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