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