Week 27 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Jan 2, 2017

Hey all! This week has been fantastic! I hope you all had a wonderful New Years and Christmas! Denmark knows how to celebrate holidays! First, Christmas is not 1 day but at least 4.. We have Lille Jul Aften which is little Christmas evening which is on the 23rd, then we have Jul Aften on the 24th so Christmas Eve which is their main christmas day, then we have Første Jul Dag which is First christmas day the 25th, then we have Anden Jul Dag which is the 26th and the second christmas day. its way fun! Also in all of Europe, for New years they set fireworks off for a straight 30 mintues from 12am to 12:30am and they give it all they have! It was so awesome! Everywhere you turn you saw fireworks everywhere :) People spend so much money on fireworks here its not even funny lol. People shoot fireworks everywhere in the streets, EVERYWHERE! and they aren't the small fireworks they are the big ones! We had a group of people shooting fireworks  30 feet from us the big huge fireworks, and it was so great! We ran inside once though because the thing was way too close and hitting us, but it was awesome! 

I hit my 6 month mark here on the 29th of December... Weird I'm a third of the way through my mission! That just doesn't seem right . I feel like I'm still new to all of this! I'm such an imperfect person, and I hardly know Danish to save my life! But somehow its been 6 months, I understand what's going on and by some miracle I've been able to help others in their discipleship and journey to come closer to Christ. 

Did I mention that during the missionary singing Christmas choir group I was in, when we were in Copenhagen, I got to help a lady make a bouque for her mother who was about to get married in the temple? it was wonderful! She told us we all had helped her so much. Helping makes me happy! 

Something which was heartbreaking, was we had met a girl named Carolina from "spirit finding" several weeks ago. We have gone back to her house a couple times and she wasn't there she's about 17 years old... We went the other day, and her mother told us she didnt want to talk to us and to not come back. And Carolina was standing right there and she had told her mother to tell that to us... It was so sad, because we had felt so good about Carolina! it was absolutely heart wrenching to know just how much she was missing out of and just how much Gods loves her. It was so sad! 

This week I have been thinking about just how much God is in the details of our lives... He watches over us and is always thinking of us even when we don't always think of him... A couple examples: 

we had to put money on our laundry card, and a man let us into the place even though it was closed, then he proceeded to give us 200 kroner on it for a christmas present.  Also this week, on a bike ride to an eating appointment, i said out loud to my companion how much I wanted pizza and that I really didn't want potatoes and brown sauce because we had had it for chirstmas food, for the past 4 or 5 days,... I wanted a little variety. We got to the members house with the elders, and apparently they had forgotten we were coming, and they decided to order pizza! It was so wonderful! And also this week, God watches over all of us specifically. I was in a round about on my bike, when i got hit by a car, he didn't see me as he entered the round about after me( i must have been in his blind spot). I saw him coming at me, and I slowed way down and swerved, then he came up right beside me and he finally saw me and his car hit me enough that I should have gone flying, but instead my body was leaning on the side of his car as we both were trying to stop, and he hit his breaks and I felt that I should lift my foot, so i lifted my foot off my right pedal, and right as I did, he slowed way down and my right bike pedal shattered his left front hubcap. I would have expected to have scratched or something hurt, but as we both finally stopped, I stepped off my bike and I felt completely fine and nothing was wrong at all. My heart wasn't even pounding. I know that God always watches over us and takes each of our prayers into consideration, and how he really is there to keep us out of harms way, all we need is to trust him. He is our Heavenly father. OUR FATHER... He loves us so much, and we so often don't listen to his fatherly counsel.. I would remind all of you this new year, to be aware of all he does for us, and to constantly listen for his divine guidance and direction in our lives. 

Stay safe and I hope all is well!

-- 

Sister Kemiella Quinton

Denmark Copenhagen Mission

                                                Lunch at and Asia restaurant

                                                  Binky Tree .....I DON"T  get it?

                                                      we watched Fireworks off our balcony

                                               Marzipan creations Mario Luigi and Yoshi

                                                             Best winter scarf EVER!

                                                Sister Petersen and I being weird.

                                I actually "did/ straightened my hair for the first time in MONTHS!!

Week 26

Dec 26th 2016

Hey all! Merry Christmas! Hope all is well with all of you! Here in Denmark the festivities never seem to end :) on the 23rd of December, is called Little Christmas Night, the 24th which the day they celebrate all of Christmas is called Christmas Night but its celebrated all day, then the 25th is called First Christmas day, and then the 26th is called Second Christmas day, and all 4 days are celebrated! It has been way fun! Some fun traditions is in December they have something called the Jule Kalendar, which is the Christmas Calendar, which is a tv show series that they make every year. The episodes are 20 minutes long and there is one each day in December. EVERYONE watches the jule kalendar, its way fun and cozy! They also as part of their traditions on the 24th, we dance around the Christmas tree while holding hands and singing christmas songs its also way fun I got to do it :) There are so many traditions I can't name them all but those were just  a couple basics. Here in Denmark, families all celebrate with all the same food of Christmas dishes, it hardly varies at all which is interesting! But its way fun and it tastes really good! 

My companion and I got someone on date for baptism! He is supposed to be baptized February 11, and we hopefully will have 2 more on date this week! Speaking of baptisms, did I mention my old investigator in Rødovre got baptized? Jonas was baptized I can't remember if I told you all that but its way exciting! I heard he was very happy and excited! :) Were doing great things here in Denmark :) Always bringing others to Christ. 

It was quite a crazy week! First off I got my 3rd, 4th, 5th AND 6th flat bike tires this week... found out I had a hole in my actual tire tread so I had to buy a new one... We got one of those on the way to sing to an old folks home (Note: its weird to go caroling and what not in Denmark that is not a normal thing, and people look at you weird but they still enjoy it). There were 12 of us missionaries going to sing, so the elders got off their bikes, switched me to a shorter elder bike, then took off running while another elder towed my flat bike next to him as he rode his bike. Then after we sang, the elders helped me fix my bike(so basically they just fixed it for me even though I was planning on doing it), then we start riding and like 100 yards in, my bike tire explodes again. all 8 elders circled around it and fixed it or enough, then like 3 elders kept passing my bike along as they biked on their bikes, there were 3 runners who would run beside as well were on our trek back to the church of a normal 20 minute bike ride if you're biking fast. There were flying helmets, switching people, all sorts of craziness but we finally got back to the church all safe and sound! 

Another crazy story, was that we had zone conferecne! We got to watch Finding Dory which was so cute! But the crazy part was is that that night before zone conference, we have a  big mission van which it kinda looks like a creeper van, lol, but over night in Århus(second biggest city in Denmark), the van got broken into and 2/3 of our christmas presents got stolen! It was way sad! But we still got presents from the stake president here and also our mission president and his wife. Despite how sad it was, we stilll were being optimistic... maybe they will find the church because of it! lol but yup oh well its been an advetnure! 

Something mentioned that Inreally liked at zone conference, is that if our thoughts are always virtuous, then the Holy Ghost will be with us! If we have clean thoughts and actions and doing our best, then God will bless us and help us. Something that builds off of that I also liked, was a quote that says, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we arent willing to change and become better, then we aren't going to change. Sure, we can desire to be better but if we aren't acting or changing our lives so we can become better and closer to God, then its not going to make a difference. We could do the same thing eveyday, hoping for different results, but its not going to change if we don't take the leap of faith to trust in God and try to be better through our actions. Its called a leap of faith, because its not a simple easy step. Its a leap, because its hard to trust when you aren't sure wherre youre going to land. To push off from one bank or edge of darkness, to land in the lighter, happier side of Gods plan for us

I hope you all have had a fantastic Christmas and continue to think of Christs light throughout the new year! #lighttheworld#oplysverden

-- 

Sister Kemiella Quinton

Denmark Copenhagen Mission

                                          How many elders does it take to fix my bike tire? 8!

                                                         8 great men, thanks guys!

                                             Christmas Gifts from Charlottee and Richart Grandt

                            Sick and total exhaustion, sleeping on the train to zone conference:
                                                       not my best look, but so worth it!

                                                 The touring Christmas choir Kemi was in!!

                                                       Decorated store

                                                       Dinner and "Street Food"

                                                       Christmas eve

                                                      Sister ones and Landeen

                                 Accidental matchy matchy on the way to zone conference

                                         LOE these cheese slicers, hae to get one of these!!

Week 25

 I tried to upload a video of the Sisters doing a Danish Traditional Christmas dance, but was unable. So I uploaded it to her facebook page!!
https://www.facebook.com/kemiella.quinton?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

12-19-2016

This week has been amazing! I can't tell you how many amazing things happened this week! I'm so excited for Christmas! And I was just in a long week traveling choir group ! We did awesome! Sister Obryant, our mission presidents wife' posted the whole concert on her facebook, and in 1 day, we had over 7000 views and over 60 shares! It  was so cool! We saw so many miracles and all it was so cool! I wish I could tell you all what happened but there's too much to write! 

I apologize my letter will be so short this week, but this week was just so good, there just is not words to describe how amazing it was.. I will be skyping home on Sunday and I am really excited to hear from them!

A little miracle is we talked to a couple yesterday on the street, and I realized just how much i've learned with danish. Because we had a normal conversation and I understood everything in it. It was so amazing! Danish is an amazing language and i'm so gratfeul for the opportunity to serve here! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!

--

Sister Kemiella Quinton

Denmark Copenhagen Mission

Week 24

Dec. 12, 2016

Hi everyone !
This week has been good! Some adventures have been going on in Denamrk! I'm in the travelling music singing group that we have for the next week,  and we sound so good! We have had so many good experiences with all these missionaries and helping other missionaries build their areas! 

Some fun things that happened, were that We sang a womens piece for the elders in 

the group, and they all  wanted to clap it was so good you could see how awestruck they were! It made us feel good lol. The elders also got wayyyy into choreography on this rendition fo Jingle Bells that we are singing haha it was so funny!  We also lost my temporary companions phone at one point, and I had seen an elder texting on their area phone in that same spot after that, so I look around, and O  say "I suspect it was Elder Allred in the chapel with the phone" and one of the other sisters starts laughing and says what are we playing CLUE now? lol hahha it was funny ahha. I was being completely serious but everyone started giggling hahha. also in church, a lady in the ward came up to me and told me her son had seen me and said " mom shes the one from the fantastic 4 movie! Shes the one she is SOO COOL!" ahha so I got mistaken for an acctress from a 6 year old yesterday it was fun! lol

While back in Odense before the group met up last week, there was a cat outside the church building that was trying to get into the building, so sister whitlock picked the cat up, while Iunlocked the door, then on 3 we said go, she set the cat back at the top of the stairs, while I ran in, and then she ran in but I tried to shut the door too fast to keep the cat out, and I accidently smashed sister whitlock in the doorway haha. we were lauighing so hard! ALos, SIster Player, she just got transferred to Sjælland, but she was doing laundry with her companion, and was pulling someones elses laundry out of the laundry to put theirs in, and he comes down, so in danish she asks if the laundry is his and he sas yes so she answers "oh Nah? " it means kinda like no really? but it means you know that what they are saying is true.. and she just kept pulling his laundry out as she said it and they said it was mega awkward ahha but it was funny lol.

Some miracles this week: we stopped by a lady we had met once to see what she thought about the Plan of Salvation, and she was like are you allowed to stay for dinner because I would love to have you over for dinner to teach my kids what you believe I think it so good for them! So we said yes! SO we got to go to a womans house with her 2 young kids, and then her husband and 4 members of their family also who were older and we got to teach them about why we do what we do and what we do do as missionaries it was awesome! we also had rung on a mans buzz box a couple weks ago and asked if we could tell him about why we were out as missionaries and he said he was busy so to come back... so we came back the other day, and he buzzed us up and we talked in his doorstep and he was like yeah you can come back! So we brought a new member who is from Czech Republic, and we talked with him and taught him so many things and was able to give him the Book fo Mormon! it was awesome he had so many good questions and was looking forward to meeting with us again! He is so positive and I can see us helping him come closer to Christ so much! it was amazing :) 

Hope all is well there in the US and I miss you all! Christmas is just around the corner I encourage you all to keep sharing the light of Christ with others :)

--

Sister Kemiella Quinton

Denmark Copenhagen Mission

                                            Jonas before he got baptised  and Sister Downs

                                                   Mission home christmas dinner

                                                    Louise Teague Jasmine Elliot and Alfie