September 24, 2012

He said they give out this book in all different languages

I love that you can see the missionary at the end of the rainbow.

September 24, 2012 Godt dag mine venner! Jeg elske dig! Men det er ingenting jeg kan tænk om til velkomme dig med det er forskellig. godt nok. Just a little Danish practice. This week can be summed up like this. Hugge i halv. Cut in half. Ældste Arts had an allergic reaction to something on Onsdag, (e he'd aged 50 years. We could not go out and work because we have the missionary reputation to uphold, and he did not look his best. So for 3 days of our week we sat in the apartment, and waited til the allergy medicine kicked in. He's all better now, but those were a LONG 3 days. To help with his allergies we've been leaving the window open to air it out, and it's been really cold lately... Glad I have a heavy pair of blankets. My nose is still quite cold in the morning. Oh, did you know that freezing tempatures kill dust mites? So lately my companion has put his sheets and pillow in our downstairs freezer... I guess it's working because we haven't had any problems. In my spare time, while we were waiting, I went through all the investigator records for the past 8 years, and found a few that are worth stopping by. That's a great activity at least. We had a fantastic Zone Conference this week as well. I love those. Being able to see other missionary's help you to know that you are not alone. One of our teachers was an old missionary, and he taught us lots of small ways to be better at contacting. When you go up to somebody, whether on the train, bus or on the street, don't start out with the gospel, but try and find something to mention before you bring up the gospel. Like on the bus, ask somebody if you can sit next to them, or just somehow engage in a normal conversation. Somehow, the topic will always come back to the gospel. Think about it. When you first meet somebody, you can talk about the weather, certain events etc. but somehow it will usually always come back to who you are, and what you are doing. That will be a great opportunity to introduce the gospel. Everybody, no matter who you are, missionary or not, can use this tactic. It's a lot less awkward too. Real application. The AP(assistants to the president) had an interesting activity. Instead of normal role playing, in theme with contacting practice, they had us grab a partner and hit the streets. Deploying 1/2 of the entire missionary force in a mission within a 3 mile radius can get a LOT done in a short time. Elder Baily and I even had some success giving away a book. There is a certain excitement and ecstasy that you get when you teach as a missionary. After a successful lesson. You feel...Upbeat. Energetic. Electrified. Sprit filled. You are helping the cause of truth to go forth, even in the little successes. Fantastic! Our Mission president gave his segment at the end. The Sprit is often so powerful when he talks and instructs that I don't dare move an inch. He is a incredibly spirit fill and guided man. And once again he emphasized and expounded upon fuldkommen eller samlet lydighed. (Perfect or total obedience.) Somehow he can make a whole unplanned lesson on just page 8 og 9 in the missionary handbook. But what was really interesting was how he pointed out the Spirit in such cases, even in just calling your companion or other missionary's by their last name. There was an interesting example. He asked how do we feel when we have the Holy Ghost. The answers followed. Joyful. At peace. Enlightened. Refreshed. Rejuvenated. Then he asked us what it feels like when the Holy Ghost was NOT present. Answers followed. Frustrated. Angry. Empty. Lonely. Uncomfortable. I believe that this is incredible to be able to recognize that and then point it out to help us recognize it. Then he did this example. He called two elders by just their last name. He asked how does that feel? and I recognized that there was a n uncomfortable feeling associated with it. A sort of... lack of respect in it. The he called them by their full proper titles. Elder 'X' or Elder 'y'. That good feeling returned. That respect back a again. It was a simple, but very clear example of the Holy Ghost and obedience. The adventure home was fun. We got a ride from the AP's(assistants to the president) part of the way, but somehow in following the GPS, it lead us onto a random dirt road. This concerned us, so we stopped by this random farm for directions. The Elders went up to the door, introduced themselves with a book of Mormon in hand, and before they could ask for directions the guys slammed the door in their faces. ooops. So they tried another door, this time asking directions very first, and somehow after managed to give a Book of Mormon away. Woo! Super cool! So that was this week. The quote of this week, as told by our Elders Quorum President is ''An apple a day keeps the doctor away if you know how to hit him!'' Throwing skills are valuable here. ;-) Bestest wishes from the land whose flag fell from heaven, (It did literally. Look it up.) Ældste Tyler Christensen

September 17, 2012 pictures

Pizza in Denmark

Elder Christensen says there are a lot of spiders and huge webs right now.  Quite often they run into them.

Some kind of advertisement for the bus system saying you are way cool to ride the bus.

Dessert at a branch social.  Chocolate covered marshmallows and some kind of bread of course.

September 17, 2012

 Hello! Hej! Godt dag!

Busy week with the many people we meet. Many miles we walk.

This week we had a branch movie night. That was really great to build up

the ward. They watched 'The other side of heaven' but me and my companion

couldn't stay because no less active or investigator had come. Rats. We

were able to go afterwards to the snacking time, where we ate fløeboller,

(chocolate covered marshmallow cream things. DELICOUS) and hung out with the

members. It was a great!

The work progresses slowly in Skive. Our investigators are hard to meet

with and our less actives even more. We did have a fantastic Zone Training

this week. I love those meetings so much, because they refocus your work

for the week. It's a great blessing and if you take the right notes, a

powerful learning experience. And my mission president grows in my eyes. He

is an incredible man of god. He has a astounding testimony of the Atonement

and of The Son. As he bore his testimony of it, the Sprit in the room was

incredibly powerful and there was nothing you could say that could deny it.

It spoke absolute truth.

Random story for the week. Me and my companion were walking down a small

walkway, and right to my left was this black cat. As my companion walked by

him, I looked at the cat and said ''I dare you to cross my path cat.'' No

sooner had I said that then right in front of me, this black cat walked

right across my path. oops. Good thing I'm not superstitious.

Oh. And the bus system is super cool lately. I feel cool just riding them.

The picture says why.

Study for the week was the will of the Lord. All things according to his

will. We need to sync our will with His. How do we do that? Several ways.

Start at 3rd Nephi 5:13-14. Exercises greater faith in Christ. All things

according to the will of God. All things asked in the Spirit are the will of

God. (D&C46:30)  There is great faith required in doing these things. They

can be also formed through scripture study, frequent prayer and fasting, and

also priesthood blessings. And do all these actions in the name of Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, who has Atoned for our sins, so we can be free

from them and our weaknesses. Obedience is the Key to bringing your will to

Gods.

That's my tidbit for the week! Yes I am still alive. And just so you all

know, it rains a LOT here. It's sunny and it still rains. Go figure.

;-) Ældste Tyler Christensen

September 10, 2012

Hej! Godt dag! Jeg har ikke tid denne ude til skrive jer. Unskue mig!

No time to write this week, so I have to make it short.

This week was seriously weird. The week was busy with lots of work in big

towns. Per warning, don't eat a TON of food before going out to work. It

makes you tired and your companion grumpy.

But anyway, we had splits this week! Cool! We did it back to back with

District meeting so I basically spent the past two days in Randers area.

Kinda crazy, but you learn a lot from splits. Oh, and I also at some of the

best Kebabs and pizza I've ever eaten before.

 We played some American Football with the District after the meeting. That

was super fun, but it proved that no matter how much you walk, you can

still be very out of shape. Working out in the morning is still very

important. My body ached for the next few days, but it was great.

So me and Elder Berry, went to go street contacting on the Gågade (shopping

street) and we forgot it was a Lørdag (Saturday) so NOBODY was there. Oops.

The few people we did contact were... well... Elder Berry has talked to

them before. He accidentally contacted this one old lady, that he referred

to as the devil lady. We sorta started talking to her, but there she just

started criticizing us about how bad our Danish is. We're barely 3 and 5

months out! We finally ended the conversation. Elder Berry said that she

was still a child of God, but he emphasized that she was a MEAN child of

god. So I thought that was pretty funny. I can just play the ignorant card

when talking to such people.

Oh and lately I've begun the develop a bad habit of not closing doors. I

either forget to or just don't. I find I forget the fridge a lot, the front

door, cabinets, etc. But the lesson that makes the day came while we were

on splits. We'd returned to the Randers apartment, our day pretty much

done, our body's still very sore from football. I was the last one in the

door and I THOUGHT I closed it but I guess I didn't. It's a weird door and

didn't shut all the way. So we Elders are just sitting there chilling,

waiting for the train, and suddenly we hear something at the door. I

thought, no big deal, it is the wind, which was blowing though and making

noise earlier. But suddenly Elder Arts jumps up and goes for the door, and

suddenly we hear a voice that is not familiar to us. So we all jump us and

this random guy is in the apartment. Not cool. So he starts talking to us,

and we are friendly back but not moving to let him in at all. Very

surprisingly he invites us all next door to come visit. So we all agree and

go out, shutting the door firmly behind us. We went over and hygge and end

up telling him and his friend to whom he was staying at, who we are and

what we do. We proceeded to teach him a strong lesson, with powerful

testimonies bared, and the presence to the Sprit very strong behind us. His

friend & friend's girlfriend were listening too. It was super cool and a

very random. We as missionaries are in the Lords work. We need to be

prepared to teach whenever the opportunity presents itself. And it's all the

Lords work. In the many opportunities that present themselves its all the

Lords hand. We still have to work for it, but the Lord will make up the

difference. When it really comes down to it, we are nothing and the Lord is

everything in this work. We ended on a good note with him and he wants to

hear more. So that's really happy. Too bad it wasn't in our area. So that's

how forgetting to close doors opens new ones. Just remember to close the

fridge door.

That's the story for this week.

Trust in the Lord with all thy strength!

Bestest wishes to the world!

Ældste Tyler Christensen