June 25, 2012

Hej! Godt dag! I'm proudly announcing that I am alive and in Denmark right
now! I haven't talked in almost 2 weeks, so lot to say! Here we go!

The plane ride here was a tough one. Or at least the one from JFK, New York
to Denmark was. Yea, sure they say you can sleep on the plane, but from
what I saw, that's not really sleep. Its like a dozing period. Not true
sleep. Kinda like... a feeble attempt to sleep that only makes you groggy
and tired, and less rested then before. The plane ride was a 10 hour
flight. I can do the 3-4 hours easy, but after 10 hours, it starts grinding
my nerves. And your not supposed to watch the on plane movie... so... I was
quite glad I had my scriptures. 10 hour study session? Works for me!

A few random things that I noticed and loved on the plane. Mostly out the
window of the plane. I looked out, over the endless blue, and for a brief
moment, I thought that I could see the curve of the earth. It made me think
of how the prophets of old would go up to high mountain tops. When on high
places, you can see far more then you could below. As such, it put it in
perspective of me of just how much there is out there. I thought of all the
people out on the earth and how many little details are there. Then I
thought how God sees all of them, and it was an intersting moment to
vaguely perceive just how much He sees and understands. Just how infinite
he is, and how infinite his wisdom is. And how infinite his love is for us.

The clouds were cute too. They looked like a ice cream slushy. And as we
flew into Denmark, they looked like cottenballs. So thick and dense!
Intersting to see clouds when you look DOWN at them. ;) And then you
realize just how high up you are off the ground. 3 or 4 times as high as
those clouds. WHOA.

As we got off the plane and into the airport, as we waited in line to get
passed... passport security, it struck me how quite it was. Kinda scary at
first, but once we got past that with no problems at all, we opened up into
a normal airport. We saw our wonderful mission president and his 2 AP´s and
off we went. President Anderson is an incredible man, in just the short
time I´ve known him. My first impression of Denmark was that it seemed like
anywhere else. Little colder, little cloudier, and the license plates are
completely different. We hopped in the white brick of a van the APs
(Aassistants to the Presidents) drove, and away we went. I noticed several
things about the landscape, in the short time I´ve been here.

Its green. Insanely green. So green and lush it almost hurts! The trees and
foliage are so thick that it scarce me. These trees make WALLS of
themselves, they are so thick. Very cool! Everyone here has hedges. Very
few fences. I guess that hedges are just... the thing here. All very
trimmed as well. All the houses are brick. Or at least 90% of them. Love
them. Brick lasts way longer I think, and doesn't rot so they last FOREVER.
Makes EVERYTHING here old! BUT! at the same time the architechre is
BEAUTIFUL. Oh my goodness the buildings are so beautiful! Massive
cathedrals and buildings with details through the nose! Simply incredible!
I want my future home to have many of the features they have here! Yes! The
flat landscape... Yep I'll miss mountains eventually, but for now, I can
enjoy these endless rolling hills. They are so unique and hygglie in their
own way! Cute almost! Beautiful doesn't quite fit.

OK! so enough about the landscape. You can see it all on google earth. We
got picked up and headed to the mission office. In the sea of
unfamiliarity, it felt good to see some familiar things. Namely a clean
office with church related things on the walls. Like the church logo. When
you see that out here, there is a sense of comfort in it. We had our
interviews with the President Anderson and we went off to place our first
Book of Mormon, and to see some of the sights of Copenhagen itself. As we
contacted people on the steets, having no immediate success, we went to the
VorFrue chapel, to see the Chrisus statue, like the one in temple square.
Remember how I said the buildings here were beautiful? The chapels in
particular are incredibly beautiful. The statue of christ and the twelve
apostels? Amazing. The men who make those have incredible talents from God.
No other word for it. Way to say it. Whatever.

After gaining strength from those statues, we set out again. I did place a
Book of Mormon, happy to say, to a man who seemed intersted in Family
History. I wonder where it will lead him... After tracting for a hour
longer, finding no success, we returned to the office to head out to see
Denmark and some other notable locations. First stop, a Kebab shop. Its a
food that we apparently dont have on the west coast. Its like a torriia
wrap with meat, lettuce and other such things, but WAY better. Super
delicious. Can't even describe it.

Anyway, we went to Fredricksburg castle. First real castle i've seen. And
oh my, it absolutely blew me away. There is NOTHING i've seen that is like
it. the closest things I can think of is the Salt lake, manti, and st
george temples, and even then they dont quite compare in the same ways. Its
massive. It has history through the nose. The chapel had so much detail on
EVERYTHING it made my eyes hurt. The Carl Bloch paintings were beautiful.
There is a dance hall that I fell in love with. Detail and beauty in
everything. Statues everywhere and beautiful, but oddly naked. We don't
look to closely at them. The castle grounds were massive, and beautiful.
The garden one of a kind. Everything sharp and neat, exactly like out of a
storybook. There were many paths and trails in the forest right next the
the castle and as I walked though them, I could suddenly understand how
these people could believe in fairys and magical things. It literally felt
like I was stepping into those fairytale storys I'd read as a child. It was
incredible. And since President Anderson is a native to Denmark, he knew
all the history behind everything, so he was a incredible tour guide. I
learned a tone about the royal history here.

Ok! After the tour of the Castle, we went to the seashore and looked out
across the bay, to where we could see Sweden. It felt like it was a stones
throw away. Kinda cool. Then it was to mission presidents home, for dinner
and rest. At this point, all 3 of us were running low on energy. You look
at it like this, we had not slept decently in almost 32 hours at that
point. We still had more to go! The dinner was delicious and soon we were
off to a much needed rest.

Day 2 was less eventful I guess. We woke up and went to the Coppenhagen
chapel, which is beautiful. (does it ever get boring I say that so much?)
And it was there we met our new companions and the areas which we would
serve. I was assigned to Ældste Arts, who is one of the only non-US
missionarys here. He's from Holland, so he knows a lot about the Europe
Culture. Good for me! After that, it was a hop on the train and off to my
new area, called Skive. I.E., middle of nowhere. Compared to Coppenhage,
its the countryside. It took us 4-5 hours of travel to reach it by train,
another hour by bus, and a 15 mintue walk from there. Saw a lot of the
countryside, and have decided it is quite unique in its own regard. Loving
it!

Got to the very cozy aparment we now reside in, and that was day 2.

One of the first things I realized about this area I've been assigned in it
that its going to be tough. Way tough. Hard in the sense of reaching any
success. We keep losing members, in the sense they keep dying off. They are
old, and most of the people in this area are old. Very stubborn people, so
we need to get working if we are to breath life into this area. Travel can
be a pain at times, because of the distances. The farther you travel, the
less time you have to preach, so you've got to use what time you have to
the maximum efficiency.

A few curious things I've seen. I havn't seen the dark of night in a week.
The daylight hours in the summer span from before 6 to after 11. Im not
sure the exact time because im usually asleep between those hours. As a
result, I literally haven't seen night in a week. That will change in
winter, where it gets light at 11 am and dark a 4. Wee! Go crazy time
frames!

I've stopped thinking how much things are here in American money. It only
makes you sick if you do the math. Things are literally 3-4 times more
expensive here. Don't think about it when you pay 2-3 dollars for a can of
soda. Just don't.

The food is extremely fresh here. Like, way more then American food. As a
result it is better. It just is. Sorry. They don't have any of the usual
brands here, so its a little tricky figuring out what is the best brand.
Trial and error I suppose.

There is something extremely humbling about going to church, when there are
only 11-16 members in the chapel. It shows its not just tradition around
here. Its something truly special. And it really makes you self-conscious
when you think you are chewing bread too loud because its so darn quiet.
You thought MTC was quiet? Doesn´t hold a candle to this kind of quite. But
the chapel is very neat, and clean and the Holy Ghost is there. You can
feel it as you walk in. There is a huge comfort there, to know that the
Holy Ghost is always with you, wherever you go.

I had to introduce myself to the ward, and bear my testimony. My Danish is
quite terrible I've come to find out, and my companion has trouble
understanding what I try and say at times. Pronunciation is critical here.
I'll learn it eventually. Anyway, as I did, I do believe that they
understood me, and a lady after mentioned that she felt the spirt as I
talked.
The Holy Ghost is the great translator, and people will understand what you
say, even if they don't understand you. Make sense? It even works in a
language you speak fluently. There are things that can be understood that
otherwise would have not been. Its why you can learn so much more when you
study the scriptures BY THE SPIRT. Look it up sometime, its an interesting
topic.

So, I think that's all for now. I've wrote a ton, and didn't get it all to
my liking. I'll try and condense it in the weeks to come, so you don't have
to spend and hour reading it. Thanks for all the support at home!

Oh, by the way, send letters to me through the mission office address, and
they can send it to me wherever I am. Its at...

Ældste Tyler Christensen (make sure my first name is on the letter, because
there are 2 different 'Christensens' in the mission.)
Borups Alle 128 1tv
Frederiksberg, DK- 2000 Denmark

I belive this is what it is, and if it changes, or is wrong, I'll let you
know.
 Oh! and for those who want to email me because its quicker, my email is at
tchristensen317@myldsmail.net. Sorry I'm a lier to those I sent letter to.

Mom, thanks so much for your emails! I love you so much and will give you
more details later! Got to go buy food now, or we'll starve!
Love to the famliy as well! You all rock!

Love Ældste Christensen