Behold a Royal Army

It has been a beautiful Sabbath day.  Our meetings start at 10, which means that we try to be ready between 9 and 9:30 depending on whether or not we have the car.  Today we had the car.  It is nice not to have to stand out in the cold waiting for a bus, but I always enjoy the bus rides.

We attended Fast and Testimony Meeting and then Sunday School.  We only have two meetings in the little branch for now.  Fast meeting was inspiring as we heard from several, including our mission president who was visiting.  I stood and bore my testimony....which wasn't so inspiring.  I spoke in English and Anna (a dear Danish lady from the branch) stood beside me.  I would speak a sentence or two and then she would repeat it in Danish.

I know what you are thinking.  Why, with all the training I am receiving, did I not speak in Danish? Well...because I wanted to express myself from my heart about the deepest things of my soul, and I am incapable of doing that in Danish ......yet.

The good news is that several people came to me afterwards and said, "We are going to speak to you in Danish from now on....you can do it!  So I inadvertently enlisted the help of some dear people and will be forced to speak more Danish.  Are you smiling Lia?

Our branch lies south of here, and when the meetings were over there, we drove a half hour north of here to another ward where we attended Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School.  It is the first time we have visited that ward and were delighted to see several of our regulars from the center, as well as a whole group who don't come to the center.

We had some good chats with several of them.....invited them to join us and hugged Elijah, who gave the Sunday School lesson.  He is from Ivory Coast and grew up speaking French, so his English is sometimes a little hard to understand with that great French accent combined with whatever else he spoke in Africa.  We just love that guy!  He has a smile that would melt anyone's heart.

We drove back past our neighborhood and on to a neighboring island where our little church is, as well as the apartment building of two elders who serve in our branch.  We picked them up and drove back to our apartment building, where we all went up to the Hansen's for dinner with them and the sisters.

Sister Hansen fixed a real feast of American food for us with some of the best meatloaf we have had.  Our young elders were in heaven....I was too....but Elder Madsen vied with the young ones for eating the most.  He was loving that good food.

After we finished eating, the elders had a message for us.  Elder Jewkes gave the message - along with a Mormon Message.  He sat there with tears rolling down his cheeks and bore a sweet testimony of our Heavenly Father's love for us.  He is not even 19 yet, but he is speaking Danish well,  he is fearless about approaching people, and he has a strong and powerful testimony.  I only wish his parents could be a fly on the wall and see him.

Left to right:  Elder Madsen  :-)   Sister Hamblin, Elder Willardson, Elder Jewkes, Elder Hansen, Sister Hansen

This is the little message he showed:

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#earthly-father-heavenly-father

It is only 2 or 3 minutes long and it is beautiful!  Watch it for some tender inspiration.

He is one of over 100 young missionaries here.  And they are amazing.

I wish you could all see them.  It would make you think the world is going to be OK.  They look so young, but they are so bright and happy.  They are warriors in the best sense of the word.

Our day ended with the best of the best...We visited with Erin, Andrew, Lauren, Anna, Ben, Melissa, Derek, Matthew, Bethany and David.  We heard Sonantina from Bethany, and some great singing from David, saw some great - really great artwork of Andrew's, saw Lauren's new hairdo, and Anna's and Ben's great superbowl drawings.

It's been a great day....have a great week!