Week 25

Dear Everyone (I'm on an English keyboard again),

Not much to update this week, actually. Things are still going well with our investigators, for the most. Ol has been in England for the Olympics to cheer on a friend of his who's in one of the races, but he seems to be doing well. St has had problems with his back, so he hasn't been able to come to church. However, he's still reading and praying, and is going to the doctor tomorrow, so hopefully things pick up again. Personally, I think all the new opposition he's been facing is coming because he's on the right track. Sometimes when we're doing our best is when the devil does his worst. But if we stay faithful and have God on our side, then His is enough to make our best better. I don't know if that makes sense at all, but it's how I see it anyway. That's the situation with Gi. She's been invetigating for a while now. She's 20 years old, comes to church, has a lot of great friends in the CUV, and is open with her friends and family about going to an LDS church. The Elders only transferred her to us because their relationship became to "buddy buddy" and she needed to get serious. Which she did. She's really been studying and praying, and we were going to invite her to pray about a specific baptismal date at our next meeting. Her parents now feel like she might be getting in over her head with it though. It feels like Ni all over again, but Gi is tough. The girls studdying to be a car mechanic. If she wants to continue with the church, no one is going to stop her. At the same time though, she's been getting a lot of pressure from her parents. She hasn't dropped us though. She texted to tell us what was going on, and we told her that it wasn't up to us or even her parents. This is her development and her choice. We simply asked that she include God in her decision. She's been praying over it, and will let us know when she can meet. Please pray for her.

The Sisters from Horsens came on splits here to Odense. Sister Moore plays the guitar, so she was able to teach me a few new songs. We couldn't find graham crackers, but we were able to use Digetive biscuits and make s'mores. Oh. My. Goodness. It was a little piece of heaven. We're spending our Pday and Elder and Sister Olsen's house, and we brought all the suplies. We're just waiting on the Elders.

We taught Primary on Sunday and it was such a blast. There were only four children, and one of them couldn't talk yet, but they were a riot. In place of a talk (since everyone's on vacation) one of the younger fathers in the ward came in with a puppet dog looking thing on his hand. The kids flipped. Apparently, that puppet dog thing is the star of the Danish People's Church's equivalent of Veggie Tales. It's kind of like Blue's Clues, where a man sings the songs and tells the stories and the dog goes along with it and is adorable. He popped the DVD in (as the kids were all hugging the puppet and giving it kisses and high fives) and let them pick a video. One chose the story of John the Baptist. The Elders were there to help with our part of the lesson, and a soon as the clip started we all looked at each other in horror. The guy read the children's version of the story well enough, but then went on to explain that although we're baptized like Jesus was, we no longer do it all the way under water because that's not necessary and it's really uncomfortable, and why it's  good thing to be baptized as  baby. Then they sang a cute little song that's often sung at babies' baptisims and while the music continued, the camera showed a dollhouse style church interior with two hands holding three beanie baby bears - two parents holding a baby bear and one bear dressed as a priest. The priest bear dipped his hand into the raised font and dripped some water on the baby bear's head, then blotted it off with a cloth and bowed to the parent bears, who were hopping and moving like they were just so happy. All this time the four missionaries are trying not to laugh, the primary teachers are horrified, and the kids are staring raptly at the screne and smiling. Thank goodness the guy jumped back in with the puppet afterward to explain that it WAS necessary to be baptized all the way under the water and that we do it when we're eight so we can choose. He then demonstrated with one of the girls who was seven how the priesthood holder holds your hand and helps you come up out of the water again. The kids didn't notice anything was weird about the whole thing, but that was hands down one of the best days in church ever. For our lesson Sister Johnson and I talked about the Strippling Warriors, and how we can always rely on God when we have to go through hard times. Then as we told the story we had the kids help us act it out. I was Antipus, Sister Johnson was Helaman, and the Elders were the Lamanites. So I snuck past, the Elders followed me, then the kids took over the pulpit (the city of Antiparah). When I didn't come back from the back of the classroom, the kids decided they had to go rescue me, which they courageously did, crawling all over the Elders and hitting them with stuffed animals. We even cut up an old sweater left in the apartment so the kids all had headbands like Lamanites. It was a beautiful sight, seeing them run out of Primary with their headbands on. Mission accomplished.

The Olsens invited us over for dinner on Sunday night, since none of us had an eating appointment. With the Senior Couple and the Elders here, it felt almost like a big family Sunday dinner at home. I miss all of you, but know that my family here is taking good care of me. I wish you could somehow meet them all. You'd love them too.

I love you all!

Hannah

Grammy and Grandpa Morse ~ I'm so glad to hear that the treatment is finally over! If you ring that gong loud enough, maybe I'll be able to hear it over here. You never know until you try. Congratulations to William! That's great news about his mission call! It'll be an exciting area too.

Dad ~ It's true. No one gets Finnish. Thank you for your sweet email. You'll always be Hannah's Daddy.

Mom ~ I responded to your questions in your email directly, but this is just another opportunity to say, "I love you!"

Supreme Mugwump ~ You are the bestest bestest bestest friend in the whole wide world. I loved your birthday package. I'm really excited to dress up Korihor. By the way, yesterday was Friendship Day. I hope you noticed it on the calendar. I know for a fact that it was on there, seeing as we have the same one. Expect a letter soon and thanks for being so patient with your prodigal friend.

O'Very family ~ Thank you for sending the package off! Katie keeps me updated, and it sounds like everyone is doing well. You're in my prayers!