June 7, 2012

Hej Du! Vordan har du det? Jeg elske dig!

How is everyone doing out there? I've been busy out my ears, but at the
same time right now am gunning for more. I'll give you the update. During
one of our lessons the other day, I was having the hardest time with the
language. I could barely say a thing, and what I was trying to say was
coming out totally butchered. I can get what I want to say in order in my
head, but somewhere along the lines of going from my brain to my mouth,
everything gets scrambled. Also, as we learned new grammar principals, it
was just not working for me. After you have days like that, you are
inclined to be a little depressed for a while after the lesson. But weird
thing. I wasn't at all depressed. Yes, I said to myself I needed to
improve, but I wasn't at all depressed like you would normally be. Why is
that? I contribute it to my studies of the people of Alma, in Mosiah
chapter 23 - 24. They were cheerful in their trials. I believe that in all
our trials, we should be cheerful, which at times can be a very hard thing
to do. However, it is totally worth it when you are. I challenge you guys to
go and study it in more depth. It's a very interesting chapter. Look closely
at 24:13-14. I REALLY love those verses.

Ok, so another study topic. With all the studying we've been doing, that
seems to be a chunk of my experiences here. It is very VERY interesting to
study 1st Nephi. It is very interesting how deep it can get, even though
we've all read it a hundred times. Here's another challenge that will
SIGNIFICANTLY help with scripture study. Go in with a question, or specific
topic you want to study. Have it in your mind as you read. You will get
crazy awesome things out of it. I studied how to receive revelation with the
1st chapter of 1st Nephi. It was way cool! Try it!

We "babtized" one of our mock investigators the other day. It was a notable
accomplishment for us. It was infesting and awesome to see the light in her
eyes. Even though it was all fake... You know... I really think there is a
lot of truth in those lessons. Very incredible thing to see. Can't wait to
see it in the field!

Learned a new word the other day. It's one of those crazy awesome words that
have no English translation! Here it is! Hyggelig. Pronounced
"hoo-goo-lie''. It can only be described at this. "You are sitting in front
of your fire, under a blanket on the couch, with a hot cup of coco in
hand, snowing outside, with all your family." THAT is hyggelig. "You are
hanging out with your friends, all chilling out, playing a game, being way
cool." THAT is hyggelig. It's like a cozy, homely atmosphere. Very cool
word.

So explanation on the subject title. A mini wizard war has appeared here
at the MTC, or at least on the bottom floor of the 8M building. Let me
explain. For some reason that is still sort of beyond me, many Elder's and
Sisters are very into Harry Potter STILL. Completely understandable. Grew
up with it. Memorable thing. All that. But they just keep talking about it.
My one companion, Elder Elsbury, can QUOTE almost all of it, or at least a
good chunk. So as a result of all this wizardness, a 'game' has appeared.
Your pen is your wand. The other wizards you are out to get are on the
other hallway. If you are not careful, you'll find someone across the way
will nail you with a spell, blasting you. It's like this. We'll go on
little raids with 3 or 4 missionaries, burst into their room (When there is
no teacher of course. We're still in the MTC, and should not drive away the
sprit.) and zap them. The catch is half the time, they are ready for us,
and counter. Just a weird, fun, harmless game at this point. If it gets out
of hand, it has to stop, but at this point, it's ok.

Ok, some random short facts. There is a wonderful member we teach here as
part of the training. She not only speaks Danish, but also 5 other
languages! Crazy! My doodling in free time has attracted attention. My
companions keep asking me to draw them a picture. I'm working on it, but am
super busy, so I can't promise anything! I'm learning to love my companions
and everything I'm doing. It's a very curious change in me. I am different
then before. Still need work, but different. Better. I completed my journal
finally. Bought a new one. Took me two years to fill up last one. Pretty
awesome. If there is one thing I encourage, it is good journal entrees. You
will always want to remember these experiences. It's awesome!

Hmm... Well, I believe that all worth reporting this week.

Mom, Dad, Family, I love you all so much! Thank you for your prays, I can
feel them helping me. It's incredible!

P.S. I honestly don't believe I've got less than two weeks left. I think
that only an illusion.

May 31, 2012

Hello Everyone!

No fancy greeting today. I don't know any new ones. I'll give you the old

one then. Vordan har du det?

We've kicked SYL(Speak your Language) into high gear. What I mean by this,

is we're trying to speak it almost every second we get, and we've got a

great motivator to help us. See, in our classroom, there was this bag up in

the corner. It was kinda an old bag, next to all the memorabilia from

Denmark and other missionaries. Nothing to special we thought. Didn't even

really notice it really till the other day. We were in a Weekly planning

meeting trying to figure out a good motivator to SYL, and our teacher

Brother Pullen pointed the bag out too us. He went and got it and explained

what it was. It was a "Skamtelse" or Bag of Shame, and it was to be worn by

whoever wasn't speaking Danish. Kinda like, "Oh! You were talking English!

you get it now!" kinda thing. The catch was this bag is quite frankly ugly.

It has the kind of design that someone 50 years earlier would have. Just..

an ugly bag. The the game began. I've had it twice not for extremely dumb

reasons, like simply announcing "Got it" when I memorized the first vision

in Danish. A brutal, but effective game. I haven't SYL like this since I got

here!

I've hit a mood wall. Or the wall. Or my wall. That sorta thing. Sorta.

I've mostly running out of steam for the MTC. Sometimes, I walk out of a

lesson, and think, I didn't get anything from that, or 'imp so bored', sorta

thing. Get me something new! We found a napkin in the Cafeteria the other

day with a note written on it, under the stack of other napkins. It said

"Help me! I'm trapped in the MTC!" It was funny and I could relate very

well. However, there is one other side to this. It's the, I want to work as

hard as I can and have no regrets, side. After watching some of those talks

from the general authorities, you REALLY don't want to slack off one bit. So

its good I'm slowly packing more onto myself.

So yesterday was the day the new missionaries arrived and we got to Host!

That means we met the new missionaries on the curb and helped them get all

their stuff dropped off and to their first class. Wow, that was tiring, but

very fun! I loved talking to those new missionaries! It felt like I was

reliving my first day here at the MTC again, except in a better way!

During Gym, my little group of people that run with me has expanded to 5.

When a good activity is present, people seem to congregate. Kinda strange,

but cool.

This week, I've learn a massive amount about two things.

First, is the Holy Ghost and teaching by it. I had the opportunity this

week to teach one of my teachers as he is. Not as a mock investigator, but

HIM. My thoughts on that were, "How do you teach the teacher?" and the only

answer we had was get the Holy Ghost to teach. He's a much better teacher

then we could ever be. There are two things to teach by the sprit. The

first is preparation. You must prepare your lesson with the people you're

teaching in mind. You'll learn some interesting things for yourself as

well. The Second is just trusting the Lord to use what you have to teach

what they need. It was a really incredible experience. I challenge you to

try it sometime.

The other thing is the Book of Mormon, and my testimony of it. Though I

already have a testimony of it, I made a goal to by the time I'm out of the

MTC, to have an unshakeable faith, and fiery testimony of it. The Book of

Mormon's words are Extra-Ordinary. They have true power in them, as they

were translated directly through Gods power. It's really an incredible book.

Just in the three days I've made the goal from, my testimony has grown. It

is really incredible. The Lord WILL bless you in your good desires and your

efforts to increase them.

Well, I guess that all. I love you all you people! Be save and stuff!

Ældste Christensen

Week 3 - Pictures

Week 2 - 05/03/12

The days are blurring here. I blinked and we're already on week 2. It's all becoming the same to me. I can see how 9

weeks here drive some of the missionaries here crazy. The food is ok....

mmm... Awesome really, but in all honesty it's all beginning to taste the

same. Elder Elsbury, one of my companions made the comment yesterday that we

should tell the our zone president that we should get the full missionary

experience here and have us go to his house and feed us like members do.

ha-ha!

By the way, thanks so much for all the boxes you sent me! They had tons of

stuff I needed, especially the shoes! Special thanks for that Dad! In Gym,

I'm running 2 to 3 miles a day. I'm so glad I did and stuck with cross

country. I'll take the skills I learned there into my whole life. I notice

that as I run, I'm falling into many of the techniques I learned. It's

awesome! The other day, I had an interesting relation experience to running

and going on my mission. The other day, I finished my workout, but for some

reason I was dissatisfied with my effort. I'd run 2+ miles, but was still

annoyed, like I hadn't given it my all. So the next day, I ran extra hard,

and did extra pushups and everything, and to make up for the other day, I

was very satisfied with my results. Then, in a train of thought, I related

that to my mission. I did NOT want to end it feeling like I hadn't given it

my all. Quoting one of the speakers I heard here, they said on the day you

get off your mission, have the others have to take you off on a stretcher

because you worked so hard. THATs how I want to end.

Anyway, do you know how tired you get here? You'd think that after sitting

around all day eating super high calorie meals would make you energetic,

but instead most days during a meeting or class lesson the guys going to

Denmark find our eyelids are made of lead. It's so annoying! I really blame

the food. yep. That is one thing I WONT miss here. the food. hehe.

In my studies,(because we have HOURS of personal study time here...) I've

been reading Jesus the Christ. That is a flat out incredible book. If you

could somehow challenge the scouts, or boys, or ANYONE to read it, they

would find they can draw incredibly close to their savior. It tells them

incredible things about Jesus, and why he did what he did. My testimony of

my/our/the world's Frelser...Savior... is growing. it's grown a ton, and I'm

not even halfway in!

So I've mentioned our investigator Tobias, right? He was a guy that on the

first week here, they said go teach. he only speaks Danish. oh, and he's a

non member. good luck! We were like... WHOA. Pressure! This is the real

deal. So for the past week we've been working our hardest to teach him, and

for me the BIGGEST ANNOYANCE then AND still is the language barrier. Oh I'm

improving most certainly, but I've still got so far to go. Anyway, we were

teaching him and we were going to challenge him to be baptized, on the last

lesson before he was suppose to leave. and then he left early. he sent us a

video revealing he COULD speak English. (I'd figured as much. He'd have to

to get through the gate.) And how he'd felt the sprit and intended to

follow up with contained lessons. We were both excited and satisfied.

Little bummed because we couldn't challenge him to be baptized but oh well.

BUT THEN! later that day as we were in the start of our second class, in

walks Tobias! We were so happy, especially elder elsbury who'd been very

dedicated to him. But then we noticed something wrong... he was wearing a

white shirt and tie and a white name tag of a teacher.... PUNKED! He was

actually one of our teachers! We reviewed over the whole experience and

what we learned. I'd learned a lot about loving and teaching with the sprit

with our investigator. Though Tobias was fake, the spirit of him and us

teaching him was not. It was a great experience.

Ok, I'm out of time. Love you all so much! Please keep sending letters, they

totally make each day I get them!

vises!

Elder Christensen