June 10, 2013

June 10, 2013

Well, funny thing happened this week. I forgot my planner at the service

center and currently don't have it now. The information about this week I

remember will likely be a bit watered down. I never realized how lost I was

without it. And I'm extremely behind on my journal, but that's another

story. Haven't crashed on my bike yet either. *phew*

This week has been one large focus of less-actives. Sure, we've been

focusing on them a lot of course, but for some reason we had mutiple cases

where we were able to catch them home, be let in, and have a good chat.

I'll be honest, its still frustrating to see how many were offended by some

circumstance in church and don't desire to come back. But with

luck(probably something spiritual in it really...) this week, we found some

people who were more happy to see us, and friendly.

There was one in particular who hasn't been to church in 5 years or 20

years. (I don't remember,) and we invited him Friday to come to stake

conference. (We were also able to talk to him about certain aspects of the

word of wisdom, and D&C...) To a miracle, he came! He knew some members

and sat in the front row. We were able to talk with him after, and he just

had this big grin on his face. We saw him talking and chatting with a random

guy he knew and was having a great time I think! Finally, someone with

potential of genuinely coming back! So I'm particularly excited about that.

There are other details with his case, but its going good so far! Continued

contact important!!!

We were able to have another appointment with our one Friend I'll call E

this week. It was also a good lesson. We talked about faith, and how faith

grows. Read a little from the Book of Mormon. Committed to read Alma 32. The

good note was that he read the first chapter in the BOM like we committed

him too. We also committed him to stake conference, but he was sick that

day. :-( Spirit was there. Still a willing guy. Still willing to progress.

We have a set appointment every Friday so that's also very excellent. Makes

me happy. Now we just need more progressing people like him.

 

Personally I've been particularly happy lately to have refreshing studies.

I've been hitting walls in my thoughts but this week was good. Studied the

Fall, the Atonement and a lot of Joseph Smith on the side. Oh, and if

cannibalism was against the commandments. Maybe word of wisdom? You never

know...

mmm.... I don't really know if there is anything in needed reporting.

Nothing super good. Nothing super bad. Just... going.

Anyway, hope we don't get crushed in the flood of new missionaries this

week. Not kidding our mission has literally doubled in the past two weeks.

So many new faces I just don't know.

Din ven eller bro eller søn eller barnbarn eller whatever you'd like my

title to you be...

Hilst,

Ældste T. Christensen

May 6, 2013

I think that subject line is one of the boldest and most awesome declairations that can be made. I will expond upon the story.

So my companion and I went out to an area to find a Frivilliearbejede center in Ballerup. They are like a free service place. But when we went out we discovered it was just a free homeless place. Curse you technology. So we're standing there trying to figure out what to do when my companion spots something in the distance. Behind a line of trees at the end of a long street appears to be a mountain! Now this was very confusing for us because there are NO mountains in Denmark so of course we have to check it out. After reaching the tree line and going along a path for a second, we come out onto a large feild, and the first thing my companion yells is ''DINOSAUR!'' I look over to my right and sure enough there is our ''mountain''. (It was really just a BIG hill.) And sitting on the top of it was what appeared to be a dinosaur. We we make our way over to the hill, trek up and an discover that it was in fact not a dinosaur but a dragon! A full, wooden carved dragon. It blew our minds and we deemed to come back on P-Day and take pictures. So we did.
This was the return tale...

So my traveling companion and I were thus out uopn the flats, when we happend upon a terrified villege af petrefied townspeople. When we inquitred of their state, they exponded thus a dragon had been raiding their barns and homes and devouring their sheep. So thus my compaion and I took it upon ourselves to slay the beast. We travelled to its mountain lair and climbed its rocky incline. It was there, at the top overlooking its teritiory, the beast sat. We engaged it in thrilling combat and by our skill and rolling of a critical hit, slew the beast with our sword.. Thus we returned the victors!

ANYWAY, dispite our intersting week, it was somewhat of a rough one. Our best investigator moved out of his apartment and we had no idea where he was. We still don't know, but we were able to text him and he responded so that we know he's still alive. Actualy we wern't able to meet with ANY investigator this week. Their all trying to avoid us I think... Haha. -_-

On lørdag we went and had breakfest with our bishop, and were able to recivie his guildance and coordination. Mostly it was to focus on 4 people that we'd already been working with. He didn't give us anything super big or unique to do. Mostly just a few names of less actives to focus on.
And he discouraged us to knock. How we should have fun with missionary work. He told us storys of how he and his companion went and flew a kite and had people come up and talk to them. Of course he was in Idaho and everybody there would really wonder why the heck the missionarys are flying kites, but I'm begining to see the pattern where if we can aproche people in a different way, we can get conversations going. At that point all we do is slip in a 2-3 sentences about the restoration, bear testimony of its truth, and we'll get them. But I'm still working on that part so that it can be a fluid motion.

But anyway, we were able to contact one less active and his family. In a very unfortunate situation, he went less active after being divorced from his wife. He was happy about the cookies, and we offered to come over and serve him or share a spiritual thought. Friendship them. Bishop kept telling us that doing stuff like that WAS missionary work. It'll still feel weird but for some people they really need it. So hopefully we'll be able to continue contact.

At district meeting, the Danish National Alarm sounded. It was the one that sounds if Denamrk is getting invaded from war. Quite frankly I thought that it was the overtone to a massive creepy ghostly wail. Go get out my ghostbuster equipment and I'll be good to go.

We've had some nice success in our early morning contacting around ballerup that we do before lunch. We're still trying to figure out different activitys that we can do to substute for knocking. We're very close to going out and playing soccer. Æ. Berry REALLY wants to go play tennis to find people. (I think it could be a great idea.) I also had the idea of playing chess in a park and call out for challengers. We were about to do that sunday, but got invited over for dinner that night. Next time... Just gotta remember our purpose in doing all of this... But still... :-) Creativity anyone?

One thing of particular great note was that we had a member-missionary coordination meeting in church. There some excellent things were coordinated. Basicly everyone we had was put on the table and all the member missionarys helped out. It was a great effort in member to missionary work. OH! and during chruch, one lady asked if we had a book of mormon on us (we did) and said they had a friend who was asking about it and they wanted to give it to and maybe invite them and us over for dinner. SUPER IDEAL. I can feel the missionary spirit building up in this ward. Soon, it will be rolling, but we still have to be doing our part. Loving the members, working our best, and smartest and trusting the Lord will make up the difference.

I'd really love to get somebody to chruch. An investigator or ANYTHING.  Its been too long. But if wishes were fishes then we'd all own aquariums or live in a sea with a fish tail.

There was a lot of other great stuff in there, but mostly in involves tired legs and thats no fun to hear about. We did a lot of walking. Kept things intersting though.

Keep up all the greatness and excitment we see throughout everything you do!
Bestest wishes from Denmark!

Æ. T. Christensen

April 28, 2013

Godt dag!
Sorry about lateness. Busy stuff happening.

This week has had an interesting focus on service. We stopped by the
frivillige arbejde (details mentioned below), Scrubbed and cleaned the floor
of a member who's pregnant right now, and on several ocasions made cookies
for members who were having a tough time. (Did you know you can make
cookies WITHOUT brown sugar? Substitute... Syrup. Smell like syrup when they
come out of the oven too.) You just gotta time it right when you make them
so it doesn't cut into your working time.

We stopped by a man that has recently been coming back to church this week
with cookies, and quite frankly I love the guy. He was having sort of a
tough day, so we were glad to stop by. Since i got here in the Gladsaxe 1,
he's made steady improvement week to week.  You can see just how happy the
gospel is making his life. The ward has been helping him out as well,
giving him rides to church. (name withheld) went home teaching with him and
he just felt so privileged and happy to be helping. One of the members gave
him a old suit coat and he proudly wears it. You can just see the pure
happiness on his face when he's at church. He has a sharp testimony of the
word of wisdom because of his alcohol addiction for many years, and I think
that after stopping and following the word of wisdom, even over the course
of the past month or two, the Lord has been greatly and visibly blessing
his life. I think he is someone I'll always remember. Keep
staring

Other then that this week has simply been filled with stopping by less
actives and mulig investigators. Not much has occurred from that quite yet.
We did find one new investigator so that will be interesting to see where
that goes. I'm a little concerned that we weren't able to set up as good of
teaching/expectations basis as I'd have liked, but he still has potential
if we can still set up a good foundation. He knows a lot about the church
and has a really good view on it. He seemed to know a TON on Joseph Smith
himself. Just doesn't know if he can believe that Joseph really saw what he
did. Book of Mormon. Read it. Pray about it. You'll get an answer. He
talked so much that was all I was really able to get in before he was on to
the next subject. Really neat guy.

I have a testimony of the divinity of the book of Mormon and the power of
its words upon the soul. I had this event happened to me once before. One
day this week, I got depressed at my own weakness. I'm out on the Lords
errand, I should be better then this, talk to everybody without hesitation.
blablabla. Anyway, I was pretty depressed. There was a point where we were
going out to stop by a less active and we were waiting for the bus and I
had a dark cloud over my head. (Figuratively and literally. Later it
rained on us. But it was a light rain and I had a windbreaker so it was
ok.)  So i pulled out my Book of Mormon to read a bit, to ''escape'' into
the stories of the BOM. as i opened up Ether 12 (I'm nearly done with the
BOM in Danish!) and began to read it was an incredible sensation. I could
literally FEEL the sorrow drain out of me and the Spirit replace that
gloom. I could feel that peace in my soul again and that happiness that
comes from the scriptures. There is no doubt in my mind that the Book of
Mormon is the word of God. The rest of the evening was gone about in an
upbeat manner. Very thankful to the Lord for his Spirit.

I'm starting to understand the better way of contacting, of talking to
people other then ''Hej, vi komme fra jesu kristi kirke...''. Its more of a
friendly way, talking about their life and interests. We had this really
good conversation with a man in front of his house that was doing yard
work. After saying no thanks to our offer of helping out with it, we sorta
asked what the barrel of sand was for. He mentioned that it was for his
kids sandbox, so that was neat. We talked a little bit more and he revealed
that he actually knew where our church building was! If we can avoid
putting up the robotic face, they will take down their robotic face as
well. Its still very hard to do sometimes.

We didn't do much knocking this week. I don't know if that was a good thing
or a bad thing. That form of finding is slowly decreasing. Its not the
best way of finding of course, but perhaps we shouldn't forget it.

Oh, and Sunday was of great note, as least from our mission leader
coordination meeting. Our mission leader has been kicking into top gear.
He's having a special meeting/class every week or so and having certain
family s come and follow up and do the family mission plan. He's giving
certain assignments to the ward mission couples to visit less active people
once a week. He's having all the member missionarys pray for one of our
investigators so that they can progress. And coordination in having people
present to our appointments is going great. For the most part we can get
someone to every appointment, although I think Brother Rasmussen is getting
tired of being called out all the time. Gotta find someone new. Or make
appointments where we can get someone else present. Church was just a
spiritual high. I just love going every week. There is just so much love
and connection in the ward, its great to see!

Other random stuff seen this week. A park full of big bunny statues. Kinda
creepy and we couldn't help singing ''the bunny song'' from veggie tales.
;-)

April 22, 2013

This week was great, and just a little bit on the weird side. Felt really long as well. Feels like it was forever since last writing. We had a great zone conference about our divine potential. D&C 138:53 and 56. Check it out, then think missionary work. It amplifies our my understanding of my divine purpose, and potential.. For some reason, there has been a lot focusing on that in my mind lately. Lots of general conference talks, and lots of other talks and lots of study stuff. I wonder if its what the Lord wants emphasized right now? How we are all sons and daughters of God. Also about the rest of the training, Æ. Berry and I have been doing a lot of thinking about creative ways to do missionary work, and ways that we can serve the members and simply show them we love them. I feel like that's been on my mind lately and it would be a fantastic help to do. To serve and find in creative ways. Just gotta figure out how to apply our talents into that. Maybe play soccer. Æ. Berrys pretty talented at that. We had a less active appointment this week. From what we could tell, she'd been offended, hadn't come to church and lost her testimony. She was very kind to us, but when we gave her a spiritual thought about Joseph Smith, she sorta shot it down, saying that all churches have good in them. True. BUT, Æ. Berry later mentioned that her issue of testimony seemed to rest in the authority part. So we emphasized the Book of Mormon, gave her one, (she didn't have one anymore.) and left with a prayer. I really just sorta wonder sometimes what can we do? We can offer it in the best possible way, and I even asked to remember why she joined the church in the first place. I just... really hope something good with kick some of these people into gear. We had 2 member present lessons in one day! With a returned mini missionary with us. He's a pretty good teacher. He has the points down. And he's Danish so that helps on the clearly explaining the points part. The people we ended up teaching weren't exactly the most positive, but I guess that's ok. Both just seemed to be nice and respectful to hear us out. The other was morely just curious. We'll probably try and stop by again. Are there keys to some people's hearts? Once again, the Lord knows, and all we need to do is ask then try and listen to understand the answer and trust him. I guess that the highlight of the week is the baptism! Yay! I guess you could count that as my first. But for some reason, it doesn't feel hugely monumental for me. I know it is, but it was something that was just one of the things we are called out here to do. Find, teach and baptize. That, and the fact I just sorta swooped in and finished the job. Sorta like a kill-steal, except its more one the lines of eternal salvation. So... Salvation-steal? We were very lucky that the Assistants were at the church early that morning to check it out because it was way dirty. So they cleaned it out for us and we got over to help fill it up. We thought it would only take 1 or so hours. They usually take 3+. So we ended up dumping buckets of water, filled up from the storage room to catch up. First time for everything I guess. I suppose that it's bigger event for the girls and family rather then for us. The blessings of taking upon Christ name as the first key to eternal salvation. Fantastic. Now we just need to get on the teaching the after lessons and help the mom get to the temple. Never in my mission have we gotten that far in the lessons, so it'll be completely new to me teaching them. Not a clue how to do it. I guess we'll figure it out though. Also, a neat teaching experience occurred after the meeting. During the meeting the Bishop noted to me that there were some people present that were not members and encouraged me to go and talk to them. I should have realized that the best place to sit was next to the non-members. After the meeting, I did go and talk to them (her) and the bishop jumped in and helped the conversation a lot directing it directly to the good feelings and the holy ghost. The lady just kept saying how good she felt during it, how special it was. Later, I was able to tell her about the Book of Mormon and give it to her as a gift, and she seemed interested. Maybe that will turn into a referral! On Friday, after weekly planning, we went and made cookies for a recently less active, (Divorce. Having hard time. Needs time to figure things out.) I thought that was fun, and simple. Perhaps its by small and simple things that great things come to pass. Perhaps cookies can fulfill that need we're looking for. But we're going to need some more ideas then just cookies, cause that might get old really fast. It goes back to that creativity serving. Maybe I'll draw little comics of the members to cheer them up. Who knows? I was reading Ether 2 the other day (getting close to finishing in Danish!) and how when the Brother of Jared brings the Lord the issue of light, the Lord flatly asks, ''what do you want me to do about it?'' and in a sense ''figure it out yourself. Be creative'' And so I've got the feeling he's doing that to me... Fun things we got to see this week. A legit black cauldron in a backyard, like a witch would use. Or a horned king from a Disney Movie. It's Æ. Berrys favorite. We also found a metal ping pong table on a hill, very randomly placed. We played on it. It was great. We also discovered a 4 man ping pong table. Now THAT could get interesting. Found some boulders that were shaped into a massive snake. Went into a store strictly about Disney. Saw some statues that were underwater. Oh yeah, and there was that one MIME on the gågade... He was shaving his face. Oh and went into the Lego store. Saw a Death Star Lego set with over 3000 pieces. We later mentioned it to our mission leader, and he laughed and his wife said that he had had his eye one it for a long time. Its an interesting thing, but a LOT of the older Danes here LOVE legos. I think Dad would fit right in. Bought a little StormTrooper Lego man. I'm really enjoying being companions with Æ. Berry. His and I's prayers have grown to be powerful at times. If anything, they are stronger then I've seen in a long time. (praying out loud helps a lot. Plus I learned a lot from Æ. Berrys prayers and testimony. He can be an incredible missionary.) We're getting tighter and tighter on being obedient. It's been helping I think. The spiritual channels are being opened up and cleared out of gunk. Very nice! But one thing is clear. I'm still happy and still hopeful that things will continue to roll forward. This is the Lords work. Things ARE moving forth, and I'm excited to be apart of it. Continual thanks for all that you do. Our mission had 5 baptisms last Saturday and only more are on the way! MVH Ældste T. Christensen

April 15, 2013

Hej! Busy busy week in Ballerup! Transfers once again kick off once again, but thankfully I'm keeping my feet planted. I'm with Æ. Berry now whose only one group ahead of me, and we basically ended up taking the work of two areas and combining it into one. It leaves for a particularly full week. Kinda like doubling the amount of work. I sorta feel greedy because suddenly we have lots of good things all to ourselves and have anything to share, except spiritual experiences. That and we've got 2 baptisms lined up for this Saturday. Two young girls of a previously less active mother. (now active :)) It'll be a good day. We actually taught them the last two commandments this week and I think it went ok. They understood the Word of Wisdom fine, and the pictures we made helped. Law of Chasity went... alright... as well as it could have I guess. I've taught the law of Chasity less then a handful of times on my mission and on top of that we needed to tailor it to a 11 and 9 year old... Can't exactly start using big grown up language if you get what I mean. We sorta struggled past the language barrier, but thankfully the member helped us teach in a very clear manner so it ended up going well. We talked with them on Søndag and it seems like the mom is really excited. They liked seeing the Dåb program. Also in church, the primary went up to sing a song and one of the girls went up and sang as well! So integration into the church I think is going great. There were actually lots of really good things that happened to us this week. Tirsdag was a particular jump. We found 2 new investigators, Æ. McDonnell and I and I feel like one of them has huge potential. There is actually an interesting story about how we caught him at home. Definitely a guided by the Lord experience.So we had an appointment to meet with a less active, but sadly she forgot and burned us. So with some extra time on our hands we stopped by some people in the area. One of them is a young guy and has never been home. But lo and behold this time he was! He let us right in and we talked a little bit. According to him has read about half the book of Mormon since we last gave it to him about 2 months ago! He said he didn't understand the ''bible'' language so much, but the fact he presses on is a inspiration to me! We went through a first lesson and gave a soft dåb invite and he said yes! His potential is there. Now all we need is to continue to meet these people. We've been getting much better at setting another appointments at the end of the lesson and its been paying off. Often it sets up our next week for us. He was sick sadly for our next appointment, but he texted us and told us so at least he has us in mind. Here's another neat experience. We were on the train down to the office to drop off the District Leader binder and randomly on the S Tog, a man asked us if we were the missionary s. We said yea, and soon started up a conversation about how he'd been to church about 4 years ago and had been taught by the missionary s. He really seemed to like us and so we traded numbers and he said once he moved into his new apartment, (Which we offered to help move) we could meet up! People are coming out of nowhere! Its really exciting. One of the biggest final notes of this week was our appointment with one of our new progressing friends. (still not sure on the last name... :p) After konfirmering the appointment the night before, we showed up, sat down, talked a little bit, and started teach Frelseplanen. Only got about halfway when the conversation started turning toward Faith. He was really open and said he had a quote. He told us not to think he was unserious or anything and then brought up a Winne the Pooh quote, how Pooh Bear says ''Something will show.'' and we all sorta expounded upon that. (Love Winnie the Pooh. Couldn't be more inspirational to bring that up!) Our member present was so great in bearing testimony all the time and I was really happy to add my testimony to his about the church. I'm very glad Æ. Berry and I were working as a team because he remembered to ask for a return appointment, and I remembered to invite him to baptism. His schedule was very tied up next week sadly, but he'll be coming to church, (maybe with his son) and I'll make sure to follow up a day or two before! So that's looking good. On Lørdag, Æ. Berry and I did some service for some members, who are moving. It was such a weird change of pace. We Americans are just like ''Ok! Get the big moving van! Throw it all in! Lets move!'' but these Danes were just way casual. We showed up and a lot of stuff just wasn't quite packed yet. But regardless, I think it helped build member relations. Then later we went and helped another member who asked us to help clean us after a wedding reception. That was actually sorta fun getting cake, but our help really wasn't needed. Thats the second wedding reception this month we've been invited to as the missionarys to help with. Everyone just seems to be jumping that boat. But regardless it's a win for the eternal marriage! In my own personal growth and spiritual thoughts this week, I've been studying about love, and how I can apply it better in my life. An interesting thought also occurred to me the other day in church. We were sitting there in Elders Quorum and the teacher asked us to share how certain aspects of the gospel bless our lives. So Æ. Berry and I start talking and as we talked a interesting thought was said. When we pray, the Lord ALWAYS answers our prayers, but usually never in the way we expect. Always in a better way. Often through other experiences. I feel there are some answers that won't come to you on your knees. The answer might come from a friend, from a scripture or even another experience. I love the thought that answers to prays will come though EXPERIENCES. Couldn't give an example but the thought intrigues me. Prayer is still the most important, and we must ask in order to receive. But the timing and way are always calculated to bless the most. So thats a super interesting thought to me. The companionship is going just great. I've basically known Æ. Berry since the start of my mission while he was in Randers. The apartment feels a little empty but I think that helps us focus on doing some things. Not letting hygge conversations distract us. I can almost feel as I tighten my routine into greater obedience, (for that is my goal.) I can feel all the gunk, fatigue or the spiritual influence interference being un-clogged and cleared out. Its a refreshing feeling and helps my mind feel clean and clear. Truly a manifestation of the blessings from the Lord with obedience. I'm excited to hear all the news going on in the mission. Things are really getting rolling now. I'm excited to see how it all unfolds. :) Speaking of unfolding, our mission is beginning to see great blessings throughout the land. There are 23 baptismal dates and 9 of them are in the month of April! This is the highest its been as far back as anyone can remember! (Except probably when they baptized people by the boatloads here in the 1800's...) As my mission President quoted, *''This is just a beginning of what the Lord has in store as He hastens His work. This is truly His work and no unhallowed hand will stop it.''*¨ The Danish mission is gearing up and rolling the ball. Better watch out you South American Missions. The 2nd Harvest is here. Thanks for all you do and your constant support and guidance and testimony! MVH? Ældste T. Christensen

March 11, 2013

March 11, 2013

It was a good week for us. Frustrating week as well, but good.

We had plenty of great appointments with our investigators. We had one with

a investigator and that was a very ideal lesson. She said that if she found

out that these things were true if she would be baptized. With the spirit

present she accepted, but she has to find out its true first. But then

following right after that, we asked if there was anyone else that maybe

could be interested in our message. She really thought about it for a moment

and then mentioned her mom might enjoy the message. That was obvious

evidence that her heart was being softened. Getting true good referrals are

very hard. You find them through the ideal situation of having the spirit

present and then asking while they are under the influence of it. That's

sorta what I've come to understand about it. In line with that method of

finding, I've been really frustrated about that lately. I've been content

with knocking most my mission. But a few days ago I just got way annoyed

with it. I looked out over the endless seas of upgangs and thought that

this just isn't working or at least not working fast enough. I could knock

the rest of my mission and get nothing. Too many areas to search. In this

area I could knock upgangs from sunup to sundown for weeks and not even

make a dent. That was just really annoying and frustrating to me, even with

the spirit to guild us. That's why one applies better ways of finding. Like

referrals.

Æ. McDonnell and I did try to try one of those other methods of finding. We

tried registering at the Kommune for Frivillearbejde, (local community

service) but that didn't work. They couldn't help us and the online self

help service was just too confusing. So that idea sorta felt shot down for

us.

We DID have several great lessons with some of our investigators. One was

with a young dane. He actually invited his two friends to our appointment

and we had a long, but good lesson. That was really cool because he was

interested in just what drove us to go and live the gospel like we do. We

bore testimony that we did it because it was true.

We also met with another of our prime investigators. We taught him about

keeping the Sabbath day holy. He basically understands all the principals and

commandments. He's also willing to be baptized when he finds out its true.

He continues reading in the book of Mormon and though he hasn't received an

answer that its true, he feels that every time he prays that he should keep

reading. So that's good news. Now what we figure is we just need to get him

to set some goals to work towards. He did say that he wants to apply the

word of wisdom because he wants to stop smoking. So he's in the right area.

Just gotta set those goals.

Let's see... Lots of stopbys and lots of knocking :-p in between. The

weather has been getting much better and worse. We've had a few days of sun

and shine and warmth and a few others where the wind wants to tear our face

off with its cold. We DID run into this one ''Missionary for Islam'' where

he let us right in, but then wanted to bible bash us on how Christianity is

wrong. Luckily Æ. McDonnell had that happen to him once, and he knew all the

tricks the Muslim was going to use. So he tactfully weaved his way out of

the situation without contention arising. ´Plus the spirit was there when

we did testify of the message we were out to share, so take that.

But other than that. I'm on the short side of time.

Wish the best of luck for everyone!

Æ. Tyler Christensen