AND the FIRST week in Denmark is done... Søster Millika E. Holbrook is on Amager with Søster Ludlow !!

The very first week in the mission field is over for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and she is having a BLAST!! She stayed at the Mission home for the first night and got to know the mission president and his sweet wife.

 The sister at the top of Rundetårn in Copenhagen.

 AND... do NOT do this ;o)

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook has been here before but last time - ALL three of our kids fit in that little hole. It was LONG time ago.

 Playing ping pong to stay awake and get on Danish time :o)

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook is NOT competitive at all.  HAHAHA.. just kidding she does not like to loose at all.

 AND she is out of that game and this is how she feels :O(.

 Breakfast the first morning in Denmark. Looking good sisters.

 And they are off to a day of training and finding out who their trainer is. 

Then the next day she got assigned to a sweet companion named Søster Ludlow and they are together on the island of Amager.

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook's trainer is SWEET Søster Sarah Ludlow.

 The group and their trainers that came in September 2016.

President O'Bryant,  Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Sister O'Bryant.

This building is where  Søster Millika E. Holbrook lives on the 3rd floor!! Pretty awesome.

You gotta have a Cocio if you like chocolate milk...They are the BEST!

Here is part of our email this week:

 

I am safe in Denmark and officially serving on the island of Amager, which is still apart of Copenhagen! My companion is sister Ludlow (had a brother serving here at the same time as McKay) and she has been in Denmark for three months. We have such a great companionship I have already learned so much from her!! We are white washing this area, because we kicked the only elders here out and we are one of two sister companionship serving in a branch in all of Denmark. I feel incredibly blessed to be here. Not to mention that the branch members have wanted sisters for forever, so they have been spoiling us already!! 

The adjustment has not been too bad. I have had no jet-lag (God is so good) and I fall asleep so quickly every night! My insomnia is officially cured. :) I've had atheists and a Jehovah Witness yell or argue with me, and lots of people just tend to ignore me. One day I said "good day" to someone and they just replied with "No thanks". .... okay? But all in all, I love the people here. They are so funny and interesting and they really are nice once you get them to talk to you! I am excited and grateful to be a missionary in my country!!! It is seriously amazing. Even though the language sometimes gives me grief. This week I prayed for Heavenly Father's duck to be with us. Who knew the word for spirit and duck were so close in Danish?

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook and  Søster Ludlow.

  Søster Ludlow is AWESOME!!

And of course the food is the BEST over there and especially the hotdogs!!

The church building on Amager. Cute little place.

The first week is over and she is doing so GOOD. We are happy that she is safe and that she is being blessed so much. Keep working hard and know you are loved!!

Søster Millika E. Holbrook is in Denmark :o)

AND Søster Millika E. Holbrook is now officially in Denmark. I got the BEST text message at 1:18 AM this morning from a sweet lady from California that were traveling from Denmark home. She saw the 5 missionaries and took a picture and sent it. What a BLESSING!

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook is looking a little tired but that is what a missionary looks like :) 

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Morfar. It is AWESOME to have parents in the mission where your kids serve!

 She looks so HAPPY!!

Great pictures of wonderful people!

We are so blessed to have yet another missionary in the family and it is an even bigger treat that she gets to serve in Denmark!! How we love the Danish Saints and the family we still have there! Take good care of her and Søster Millika E. Holbrook.... know you are missed and loved, but that we know you are where you are suppose to be!!

LAST few days in the MTC in Provo, Utah!!!

So Søster Millika E. Holbrook had a few last days in the MTC and here are some pictures for you from those days ;o)

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook got a package from some of her favorite people the Ratto's .... YES and it was Kim's famous cookies ;o)

The district all get to enjoy the treats !!!

 OH NO ... It is a RAV ....I am sure Søster Millika E. Holbrook is thinking of a certain someone that is serving a mission in Uganda. YEP.. It is of course Elder Garret Grant her special friend from High School :o) 

Søster Millika E. Holbrook is saying ... look at those not a good thing ;o)

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook has created long lasting friendships in the MTC with these beautiful Sisters. Forever friends that is for sure.

 Look at all these great missionaries and I love this TAG picture ;o)

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook and her sweet companion. They learned a lot from each-other and had a great time in the MTC together.

Søster Millika E. Holbrook.. one last picture from the MTC. She is ready to fly off to Denmark.

Last FULL week in the MTC for Søster Millika E. Holbrook

So it is that time where Søster Millika E. Holbrook is done with the last FULL week at the MTC. She is has learned so much and has loved her time there!

  Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Sister Albanese.

From her email this week:

"I am officially leaving to Denmark on Monday morning! I am so excited! This has been the best last week of the mtc, and I've learned SOOO many things!!!!

We have two MTC devotionals a week, and we've had the blessed opportunity to hear from THREE apostles IN A ROW. That is unheard of. We've been uplifted by Elder Christofferson, Elder Ballard（Shout out to Truman Ballard because I saw him on the screen), and Elder Cook. They are all very inspired people. Elder cook even left a special blessing on the missionaries which was just AMAZING. Seeing all these servants of the Lord has made me even more excited for conference!!! two things that I will share from these devotionals is:

1. "The Savior is my champion." -Elder Ballard.
2. It is often the case that the basis of missionary assignments is "this missionary needs the love and guidance from this mission president." It happens often enough that you should all pay special attention to the lessons you can learn from your mission president and his wife. -Elder Cook.

 "Forget about your hopes and dreams. Remember your vision and your faith."

Something that has been on my mind this week is Alma 26:1-2. "How great a reason we have to rejoice; for could we have supposed that when we started from the Land of North Salt Lake that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? and now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed unto us? Can ye tell?"  Well. I've asked myself that a lot. I've been incredibly blessed while being here, but I feel like I'm not even close to being able to name all the blessings. I have to keep asking myself, Can I tell? I've been working on having eyes to see and ears to hear. If you have any thoughts/advice I'd LOVE to hear it!"

  Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Sister Harmer.

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Sister Ngo.

 Missionary serious post ... I think :o)

  Søster Millika E. Holbrook got many new great friends at the MTC.

 Sister Missionaries ready to serve the Lord.

The White Handbook needs to be read often!!

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook's MTC group. Good looking Missionaries and a good teacher!

Another week down and next week she will be flying of to the mission field in Denmark. We are looking forward to talking with her on Monday morning before the flight and of course to see where in Denmark she will end up. So grateful for our sweet missionary, she is a GREAT example to our little family.

Søster Millika E. Holbrook's first FULL week in the MTC in Provo!

So the first full week is done for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and it has not been as bad as I thought having her gone. When we had McKay leave and serve in Denmark I would cry, cry and cry for weeks on and off. YES..... I have shed a few tears but I even went into her room and put her clothes a way and I did it without crying. THAT took me a year when McKay was done. I just know she is where she needs to be and it feels good!

 The Sisters in the district!

 

Can I just say THIS is ONE of my FAVORITE pictures we haven gotten till now. What a joy it is to see these 2 name tags together. Both Missionaries of the Lord and BOTH serving in Denmark. AWESOME!!

Food time at the MTC. I like that they all eat together that is kind of sweet.

Parts of Søster Millika E. Holbrook's email this week to us:

"I have been so blessed! I have not been homesick at all! I have heard all of the horror stories about people who cry their eyes out the first night, so I was a little nervous heading into the MTC. But I have not missed anything! well... I missed my pillow for the first two nights because the pillow here is crummy, but now I'm too tired at night to even care.

Over the past couple of months since I got my call, a lot of people have told me stuff like: "how can you give up 18 months of your life?" "that's so cool you're willing to sacrifice 18 months of your life." "Its a sacrifice, but man! its worth it!". I have been pondering this and now that I'm in the MTC I finally can confirm what I've been thinking. It is not a sacrifice. But not in the way you think! The blessings are SO great so yeah it's not a sacrifice, but I mean something else. Heavenly Father has always known I was going to choose to serve a mission and He's been helping me make that decision for the past FIVE years. It's not a sacrifice because I was never meant to do anything else with these 18 months. I'm not giving up 18 moths of my life, because I was ALWAYS meant to serve this mission (something about preordained or something?). It is such a comfort knowing that I am doing the right thing at the right time, and I am not missing out on those 18 months. God is so good.

Believe it or not, but for the entire first week of us being here, none of the sisters in my room had an alarm clock. So I went to bed every night and prayed "We don't have an alarm clock, but I want to be obedient and do thy work. Please wake us up." We were up at 6:30 everyday. When we told our district leader and teacher about it, they both freaked out a little bit. The next day our district leader brought us an alarm clock. See what I mean? God is good.

There has been so many good things this week that I can't even begin to write them all. Thanks for the love and the support and especially the emails! I've been studying the Savior a lot this week and I really loved His question "what manner of men ought ye to be? Even as I am." Growing closer to the Savior is my goal and it is my life. I love this work. I love the Savior."

 Love it and it says it all. It ALL about the temple where families can be together forever!

 Temple day as a district.

 Two sweet sisters.

 Be ready Denmark HERE she comes.. I hope you are ready for Søster Millika E. Holbrook.

 Teaching and learning how to share the gospel!

Sisters all wearing Lava Lava's . This is what Søster Millika E. Holbrook said about it,  "My companion gave me a lava lava and "its weird seeing a white girl wear it"

Great week in the MTC. One more week and a half and she is off on a plane to Denmark. We miss her. We LOVE her and she is where she is meant to be like you can see she said in her own words on this post!!

Søster Millika E. Holbrook's first few days in the Mission Training Center in Provo are done!

SO it was P-day today and that is equal to Mommy HAPPY day :o). So yes her p-day and email day will be on Fridays for the next few weeks until she gets to Denmark and then it will be HAPPY Mondays for our family! Anyway it was GREAT hearing from her today and she is doing wonderful. She has already learned a lot and she is getting into missionary life.

 

Søster Millika E. Holbrook and her companion is Sister Gisa (pronounced Nisa) and she is Samoan. She will be serving in San Jose, California Samoan speaking.

Here is part of her first email to us:

"The MTC is amazing. I feel like I have learned so much already! I am in the international branch, which means I am one of three white people in the entire zone. I am learning enough culture to last the entire mission! I was assigned to be the music coordinator. Figures. I dislike anything musical, so of course I would get this assignment. At first I was disappointed, but after about 30 seconds of moping I became really happy! I am determined to happily accept whatever comes my way! It is just one more opportunity to grow so how could I be upset ? The cool news about being in an international branch is that everyone is at least bilingual! One day we all bore our testimonies in our native languages and it was so cool because you could feel the Spirit so strong even though you could not understand any of them. But what I really liked was when everyone bore it in English. not because I could actually understand it. But because the foreigners bore their testimonies with the most pure and simple English. Their humble way of speaking brought the spirit so powerfully. They did not try to sound all fancy or elaborate. Instead, they spoke of the simple truths that they know and they spoke from their heart. I loved it. Even though I get more sleep here than I do at home, I am even MORE exhausted than usual. I think it is because the work is so important that it the preparation just takes a toll on your body. The instant my stake president said that I was a full time missionary, I felt the weight of it on my shoulders. The weight is real and I carry it around with me all day, everyday. It is humbling that the Lord would trust me with this magnificent work, it is the most important work I have done in my life thus far and will ever do!(along with building a family of course). Wearing the name tag is awesome, but I can also feel its weight on my heart. The pressure helps keep me focused on the work and keeps me humble enough to accept Gods will. I feel if I were to become prideful, the weight of the work would crush me. but as long as I keep turning to the Savior, He will give me the strength to carry the weight. In fact, I was reading  somewhere in the scriptures this week that when we attach ourselves to the Saviors yoke, our burdens are made light. When you yoke an oxen it is for them to work, so as I yoke myself to the Savior and His work, I feel strength beyond measure. He truly helps His missionaries. "

  Søster Millika E. Holbrook's District.

 AND our Søster Millika E. Holbrook. We LOVE her.

 MTC Fun !!

 Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Sister Albanese, she is from New Caledonia and these 2 sisters are creating a great friendship.

 No need for words here. JUST that I LOVE IT!!

All in all a great first few days for Søster Millika E. Holbrook in the MTC. She is happy and she is learning a lot. We are so glad she has a chance to serve the Lord and especially in Denmark. God is GOOD like she said in our email to us!