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 |
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