December 3, 2012

This week feels like there were rays of light in a darkening night. Echos

of the Invincible Dawn. And snow.

There were many days this week that were very rough. Long fruitless walks

around Skive, trying to find old former investigators to ask referrals from.

Days with very frustrating work. Cold. Dark. Moral on the low end some days.

I am getting pretty good at what to talk about, or do to make my companion

happier and in better spirits. I think my service to him, in many little

ways, is helping his time here in Skive. Its a very interesting thing to me,

forcing me to take the lead and plan out what we can do some days. Leading

the way. Making me understand what taking the lead is about, otherwise we

won't have a plan and end up wandering about aimlessly. Then nothing gets

done.

But we did manage some good plans for the week and some fantastic successes

came out of it, for the brief moments they really were.

 We had a really great møde med a less active. We were invited in to a very

warm and friendly home. Her husband was a very kind host. He likes us

missionary's at this point, something I'm grateful for. He has a good sense

of humor. We knocked and he answered the door. The looked at us and seeing

our big coats out in the snow, he asked if we were cold, to which we

replied yes. He then said ''Too bad'' and acted like he moved to close the

door. We all laughed at this and he let us in. Leslie served us some hot

chocolate, appropriate for the now very cold Denmark days. And although we

visited and talked about random stuff, like NASA has announced it can

maybe build sci-fi warp drives,(Its true. Look it up.) the gospel came up

quite a lot. That was something I had been praying for, that she would

bring up the gospel. We can't force it down her throat and face the problem

dead at hand. Instead I've learned that it must come from them. They need

to open up, make those first few steps. And she did and it was great!

We had two incredible teaching appointments this week. One with (name withheld) and

the other with this really random guy that just randomly called us one day.

We had a lesson with our Iranian friend which was incredible. We showed up,

and he invited us in. We sat down and went to get his Book of Mormon, along

with a piece of paper, that he said where a bunch of questions that he had

that he came up with when he was pondering about what we had said last

time. For any missionary, that's a super YES! They all turned out to be

fantastic questions, ones that we could answer with the knowledge that we

had gained through gospel study and understanding the plan of salvation and

the churches stance on certain issues. It was crazy because there were

several moments where in teaching, Æ. Dunshee and I were on the exact same

level of thought. On two separate occasions during the lesson, we both

thought of the EXACT same example to use to explain a topic. That was

ABSOLUTELY the influence of the Holy Ghost, telling us what we should say.

The other moment was when Æ. Dunshee was explaining something about growing

in faith and at the EXACT same moment, and I could tell what he was

impressed with it  as well, we both had the impression to use Alma 32, and

the example of comparing faith like unto a seed.  As we read that, the

spirit came in and began to testify of its truth. Super awesome! And it was

also incredible to me to see this scripture in action, as we compared it to

(name withheld). I have begun to see that seed of faith take root. He is beginning to

nourish it and it is brightening up his life. He even said to us that the

past few days since we last visited had been really good days. A lot of

good things had happened to him.

So it inspires me to learn more and hear more. I'll be able to use it when

I need. A spiritual promise from the Lord. The more you know, the more

you'll be able to do and say and the better tool you'll be in the Lords

hands.

The other appointment was a true miracle. We actually had somebody CALL us

this week, asking where the church building was, that they had tried to

find it the past two weeks, but couldn't. We met up with him the next day

and learned about him, and taught him a really great first lesson. He's a

man from shilangka (totally spelled wrong) but he speaks fairly good

danish. However, there seems to be a understanding barrier. He didn't even

know that there was a difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible!

We are still not even quite sure how he got our number, but he seems very

willing to learn. It was a sorta funny moment when we asked him to pray at

the end of the lesson and explained how to do it. He agreed, and we all

bowed our heads. However, after about 20 seconds of total silence, I had to

look up because he hadn't said anything. I could see that he was in deep

prayer. He hadn't understood that we meant to pray out loud! Æ. Dunshee and

I gave each other a look like ''uh...ok?'' So we didn't say anything until

he was finished. But as he raised his head, I could see echos of tears in

his eyes and I could suddenly recognize the powerful presence of the Holy

Ghost. Æ. Dunshee bore testimony of the gospels truthfulness and we could

tell he could feel it. We left a minute or two later.

To my great delight, he also came to church this Sunday! WOW! That was

super great! Thats the first investigator of our own efforts that have

come, on their own! In like... 5 months! The members were very friendly and

it just so happened that he came on a fast and testimony meeting, so if

there was anytime to feel the spirit, it was now. He seemed to like it, and

said see you next Sunday på danske, so we'll see...

I truly think there are miracles from the Lord happening in our area right

now. Opportunity's arising from nowhere. Its an interesting thing to think

about, that the Lord will bless us with success when we are doing

everything we can and doing out best. Now my only fear is I'm not going to

be good enough, not be my best and the Lord will decrease these blessings

accordingly. There is so much I can work on so that I can claim these

blessings for and from the Lord. I intend to do my best to the best of my

circumstances! Yes. Anyway...

Random note. We got snow! In Denmark! Though it seems a little odd, the

people used to it. I'm just happy for the white Christmas! And it just gets

colder from here on out. But that's why I'm happy! I wanted to go somewhere

cold!

"Now where is that investigator?"

Snow in Skive

Happy December from Skive!

Ældste Christensen

Mission Blog

Oh! Our Mission Presidents wife has started a mission blog! Its at
http://cop-den-mission.blogspot.dk/ so for you who want pictures I didn't
get...

November 19, 2012

November 19, 2012

Well. I discovered when the real date of thanksgiving was. We celebrated it

a week early or something. oops. But hey, no complaints.

Actually not a whole lot to report this week, other then our super

fantastic zone conference and activity! But other then that, it only

appears like we did a lot... or maybe we did? I think we did. It was a lot

of walking.

It was our Jylland Thanksgiving Zone Activity! It took up the whole day and

it included a Turkey bowl, Thanksgiving dinner and Talent Show!

First was the Turkey Bowl with the entire zone. Ah! Good old American

Football. The downside? The field we intended to play on was wet and very

muddy. We quickly found the difficulty in running anywhere on the Field

because of the condition of the terrain. You had to dig in to get traction,

getting shoes extremely muddy. It felt like a tiptoe game we were playing,

trying not to slip and fall. You could tell where people had tried to stop

because there would be mud skids in the dirt for several feet. Many slides

and falling catches left people with massive mud stains. I didn't get

anything too massive, which in a weird sense was disappointing. My shoes

got it pretty bad. And of all the days, I forget to bring my church

shoes... Glad my other ones were somewhat black. After we'd finished and

cleaned up, we had a good old fashioned Thanksgiving dinner, with all the

works. Turkey, potato's, ham, stuffing, gravy, rolls and pumpkin pie made

by the mission presidents wife.

Next up was the Talent show! I did a solo act of juggling and telling

jokes. It got some good laughs and I think everybody was impressed when I

started juggling 5. I'll show you the trick to it one day. Then Ældste

Dunshee and I did a karaoke of Taylor Swifts ''Love Song'' except we did a

pardoy of it changing the words to ''Dåb(babtism) story'' That went great!

We looked pretty slick too. Elder Dunshee gets credit for that.

I have to tell you about one of the new elders in the mission. His name is

Ældste Crank, and he is a native American Navajo Indian. He apparently can

speak Navajo and I heard him speak it. He said he's been learning it for 12

years and almost has it down. You thought your languages were hard? I don't

think any of ours holds a candle to what I heard him speaking.

Our mission president then expounded upon something super incredible. He

emphasized that the Lord is hastening his work, and he's hastening it NOW.

Elder Bednar of the Twelve, said to the missionaries in the MTC, (I heard

this from one of the new greenies) that there are many speculations and

guesses at why the age limit was dropped. But the simple reason is that the

Lord needs to hasten his work .With all the publicity that the church got

from the presidential election, that is more evidence that things are

hastening. Our mission president then gave us the scripture D&C 88:73. I'll

let you look that up yourself. ;-) But that scripture is being fulfilled

right now before our eyes. Its an exciting time to be serving a mission and

I'm glad to be apart of it.

The work progresses! No unhallowed hand can stop the work! (unhallowed. I

like that word.)

Bestest wishes from Denmark!

Ældste Tyler Christensen

November 5, 2012

It was a crazy busy week this week! I mostly blame splits, double eating

appointment and immigration test. But ya know, I guess all the work we did

is also in there.

Last Monday was particularly nuts when I found out I had the immigration

test on Tuesday, and our train leaving for København left in one hour. Wow,

glad that piece of mail reached us in time. Lucky us. So Æ. Dunshee and I

scrambled to pack and were off. The trip to København takes 5 hours from

Skive by train. Glad I could keep myself busy. It was also very fun to meet

up with my good ol MTC companion Ældest Wible for the long trip over. That

was a fun 2 days, and I'm really glad it all worked out. Never thought I'd

be in København when I woke up that morning. Immigration test completed,

(super easy.) and return on Tuesday. Æ. Elsbury and King were very

hospitable to us, in the central Fredricksberg apartment and it was cool

seeing them again. OH! And I totally saw the København temple!!! It was

just a glimpse but it filled my soul with immeasurable joy. You don't

realize what a blessing it is to go to the temple often until you suddenly

don't for 4 months. I know my last companion Æ. Arts in his interview with

Pres. Sederholm said that whatever area he was transferred to, he only

wanted to be able to go to the temple. Very important place. The primary

song ''I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday...'' suddenly

become very precious. Actually, many of those primary songs take on a whole

different level of meaning when you listen to them as a missionary.

The work in Skive has oddly picked up lately. We've had several very

positive investigators that we've been meeting with on a regular basis,

ever since E. Dunshee showed up. We are totally rocking it! I really like

how he works and some of his working style. One is a Greenlandic lady and

we've been meeting with her a lot lately. She is open and progressing.

Another named (name withheld). He's one that you'd never think was open, but is super

open. Like he's being prepared. But like any good dish, you need to add the

right things at the right time. Guided by the Spirit of course.

I enjoy the format of many of the lessons and opportunity's I've had with

Æ. Dunshee lately. Several sit down appointments, with many of those

ingredients. He's the kind of missionary that likes Kig Fobi's so that has

been our main focus this past week. It has a ''Onto phase 2!'' feel to it.

Æ. Arts and I did all the finding, now Æ. Dunshee and I go to all the

teaching. I believe that Forkynd Mit Evangelium (PMG for you English

speakers out there.) can be super effective in helping much of the teaching

we've been doing lately. No matter how good you think you are at teaching

and think you can wing it on, there is always something more you can apply.

I like the scripture that says before all things were created physically,

they were created spiritually. So there was a plan set in place before work

was done. God didn't just, ''wing it'' on creating the universe, no matter

how well he knew how everything worked. He planned and prepared and

probably communicated with those under him on how it was all going to work.

A good outline of how our work should go.

We had splits this week, with Æ. Wright and Merriel. I had the opportunity

to go with Æ. Merriel, a brand new greeny in the land of... a week and a

half I believe... and that was a unique experience. Both of our Danish is

not super fantastic yet, so in those several hours we were together alone,

it really pushed me to focus and make sure that I was on top of what was

going on. To lead, so to say. It was fun, and we did not totally fail at

all, so that was a good thing.

We had the opportunity to meet with (name withheld) again this week. I think we said

that we moved the date back to the 17th because of scheduling stuff. I'm

personally very worried about her. She might not quite understand that you

can't have a cup of coffee every now and then. Thats not how it works. When

you repent, its for life. Or at least we try to. I don't want to baptize

her if she's not totally ready, just for the sake of baptism, thinking

she'll repent later or work on it later. We've got enough less active

people in Denmark. Part of Elder Hollands general conference talk comes to

mind for me. When you raise that arm to the square, you better make sure

they've repented. The missionary purpose goes, Tro på Kristus(faith

in Christ) og hans forsoning(attonment), OMVENDELSE(repentance), then

dåb(baptism). It doesn't all come at dåb.

So as we worked in one of the towns here called Nykøbing Mors, something

that has been dawning on me the past week hit me. It's completely dark by 5

o clock. WHAT IS THIS? Just 4 months ago I didn't see the dark of night for

almost 2 weeks! Now I'm never going to see it again? The other Elders in

the mission say that in the heart of winter, it will be totally dark by 4.

So... major contrast. And the constant rain can make it cold and downright

miscible. However, the fact I'm in such a situation excites me. Adventure!

I also found the most oddest thing in one of these Genbrugs up there... I

saw it and thought 'cool' then looked again and thought, something is wrong

here... it's a Pika-rabbit. Happy Halloween I guess.

Oh so I guess they DO celebrate Halloween in Denmark. Just... on a date

that is more convenient for them.  Like on the weekend where they can all

party anyway. And no trick or treaters I saw. I've been in Skive 4 months

now and I've never seen the Skive gogåde with so many people. Super cool,

because Æ. Wright and Merriel came on splits with us, so we toured up and

down with them looking at all the Halloween stuff. Fun. I saw another one

of the super big dogs here.

I guess thats all for this week.

Ældste Christensen