Party Time & Conference Favorites-Søster Severson's Adventures in Esbjerg Denmark October 4, 2021 Week 76

10/04/2021 07:49:00 AM

This week was a party and a half!! It basically poured rain every single day and riding bikes in the rain but other than that, great week!! We actually taught some people this weekend and found some solid friends. MIRACLES. Friday was like the second time me and Kjar had taught a gospel lesson together since we became a companionship...We've basically just become English/Danish teachers! Anyways, Tuesday and Wednesday we got to be in what basically was a quad. Søster Clark and Hofmann had to come to Esbjerg from Copenhagen to get their car fixed so they stayed with us and that was fun!! Not going to lie, it felt like we just had some extra p days this week haha.

This weekend was general conference which is pretty much Christmas for missionaries. We got to watch it with some members which was super fun!! The Danes also always watch it in English so that made it easy for us!

One of my favorite talks from Conference this session was from Brad Wilcox, I love what he said in this quote:

"God loves us as we are but he also loves us too much to leave us this way!"

This session of conference focused a lot on loving God, loving ourselves and loving others as we actively try to progress in our faith, and live our stories. I also loved Valenzuela's talk about immersing ourselves in the scriptures, and his invitation to each come up with a permanent plan to study the scriptures. He also said:

"When we study the gospel we are not simply seeking new information, we are seeking to become new creatures."

Love that thought!

Sister Kjar and I have been having some problems with some of our ward leaders recently, they have high expectations of success. We have felt like we haven't been measuring up to their expectations, and it has put a lot of pressure on us recently.

This week I was studying and praying to know how to come to a peaceful solution, and was reading in Mosiah about when the Lamanite Daughters are kidnapped and they attack the people Limhi. Before my mission I studied intercultural peace building at BYU Hawaii and recognized this chapter as a good pattern to use to communicate and reach peaceful solutions. I realized that a lot of the problems we have been having with them come from miscommunication and unfulfilled expectations.

Sister Kjar and I realized that they, (and most of the members) don't actually know what we do everyday when we say we are working on technology. They didn't even know we had a Facebook page and how much work we put into it. It is SO MUCH WORK running multiple social media platforms, creating, scheduling, and following up with content, but our members don't see that behind the scenes. So we talked to them more and next week as part of our missionary coordination meeting we will be giving them a little presentation of everything we do, behind the scenes online organizing and scheduling, and how they can help making posts and sharing things. I am grateful for the opportunity we have to learn how to work better with members and across language and cultural barriers. As we strive to communicate and be passionate, like Elder Soares talked about, we too can be peacemakers.

Love you all! Have a good week!

Sister Severson

(Some pics ft. Clark and I crying because we only have 10 days left)