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
Saturday, June 28, 2014
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
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