"Legend has it that the elverpiges (human sized magical fairies with
holes in their backs...) come out of their hillsides (which are huge
viking burial mounds) on June 23rd every year. Their beautiful dancing
entrances the young men, and once an elverpige gets a man to dance with
her, they don't stop dancing for 100 years............"
And then the two grandpas ranted for twenty minutes
straight about why Denmark is the very best country in the world. And I
sat there and smiled because with my whole heart I absolutely agree.
Denmark is the BEST.
When I first got my mission call and I'd tell people
I was going to Denmark, the response was always something like "Oh that
will be a hard mission. Just remember that you're planting seeds!"
Well, they were right about one thing. It is a hard mission. One of the
first things that Google told me was that Danes are very private and don't like to talk to people about their religious beliefs.
BUT, the first thing the Prophet told me was that I could go on my
mission at age nineteen. And now there are thousands of sister
missionaries and thousands more young men serving too. Because the Lord is hastening His work. Its true. "The field is white already to harvest." Its not time to plant seeds anymore. Its time to harvest.
On Tuesday
morning we took the train into Copenhagen for a big zone conference.
President Sederholm (COOLEST guy ever) told us that there are "elect in every
city." More than we can even teach. "And ye are called to bring to pass
the gathering of mine elect, for mine elect hear my voice and harden
not their hearts." (D&C 29:7) I was overwhelmed by the Spirit as it
testified to me that it was true. There are so many people ready to
receive the gospel. We just have to find them. Zone conference lit my
missionary heart on fire! When we headed back to the train station I
knew there would be somebody there that I needed to teach. And right
when I stepped onto the train I found her. The cutest young mom with the
cutest little baby. I said "Hvor gammel er din baby?" (How old is your
baby) and it was crazy because Søster Peterson said the exact same thing to her at the exact same
time. I guess we both had the same prompting! We ended up talking with
her the entire train ride, and she was so sweet and eager to learn, and
she was so excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon.
Its definitely not always that easy! Sometimes
people laugh at us. Sometimes they shut the door in our faces. Sometimes
its stormy and the sky decides to dump buckets of rain on us. But I've
learned that good things come out of every situation. If it works out,
you gain happiness. And if it doesn't work out, you gain experience.
One day it poured and poured and pourrrred rain
until we were completely soaking wet. We were exhausted and drenched and
our feet were soggy and sore and it seemed like all of our plans had
failed and everything had gone wrong. We only had half an hour left in
our work day, and the idea of going home a little bit early to dry off
and warm up and make dinner was a MILLION times more appealing than
knocking on another door. But we trudged up the stairs of a nice
apartment building and knocked on the first door. And then we spent the
next twenty minutes talking about faith and eternal families and the
restoration with another young mother who the Lord had so evidently
prepared.
A few door knocks later we found another new investigator.
As we stood on the doorstep and talked with yet another mother about the
blessings and happiness of the restored gospel while her two kids were
waiting for her to make dinner, I could feel the spirit pouring down
around us. And I knew that once again we'd found someone who was
prepared for us to teach.
My favorite scripture this week is Alma 13:24
where it says that "angels are declaring it unto many at this time in
our land... preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his
word." Its absolutely true. The field is white already to harvest. The
Lord is hastening His work.
Just like that rainy day here in Slagelse, sometimes
our lives just seem sooo hard. Sometimes its stormy and we wonder if
the clouds will ever clear. Sometimes the sky dumps buckets of rain and
absolutely everything goes wrong.
But remember that good things come out of every situation. If it
works out, you gain happiness. And if it doesn't work out, you gain
experience. And remember that the moment you're about to give up is usually the moment right before a miracle happens.
Jeg elsker jer!
xoxo, Søster Rogers