January 21, 2013

January 21, 2013 God dag! God dag! Godt at se dig! Or... Kinda at least. I hear things around and that gives me a good picture in my head. It's been a big week for goals and re-focusing. We have a big District goal on our plates, and after making the goal by the spirit, we are all going for the big one. Finding a family. Every companionship in our district will find a family by the next... zone conference? Or Transfer at least. And so that's where the hunt has begun. We made that Tuesday, and have yet to find anyone quite yet, but our tactics have changed and we ride the bus and metros forth in tro! (Faith) Our baptismal date is still on board and is sure that he can get an answer in time for his baptismal date. We have one by the way. (YES!) He's just going through finals week, so we're praying he passes. He's a smart dude so it'll be fine. We've been dealing out the Family Mission Plan this week and has a lot of appointments with members. That a lot of fun and it's to get them on board with missionary work. My companion is very fond of saying these members need to step up their game. Nobody will get baptized if the members aren't involved. Went on Zone Leader splits this week and that was very interesting and cold. (Actually, it's just always cold here. Can't go out without 2 heavy layers at minimum here. And you notice very clearly when you don't have a scarf on. I'm getting very used to them.) Anyway, fun story. We were going to an appointment with someone and it was planned that their kinese (chinese) girlfriend would also be there and interested. Well, in a very awkward situation, we ended up walking right behind he all the way to the door, and then realized it was her. And she forgot her key and the guy was still at work. So were standing there in the cold and start talking to her. Suddenly she goes into this SUPER flirty mode, like all the body moves and laughing super hard about things we say that aren't funny at all. So Æ. Broshinsky and I start laughing at the whole situation and finally disengage, saying we'd come back another time. I'm not into Chinese girls at all so that helps us both keep a straight head. The interesting situations we run into out here... Oh and speaking of the Asian inspired culture here, my companion and I saw a herd of cosplayers at the train station, all with their crazy clothes and brightly dyed hair. I personally thought it was super cool. Even saw a guy dressed up as Ash from Pokémon, (for all you Pokémon fans out there.) My companion just looked at me weird. And the ONE time I didn't have my camera on me... We, in conclusion for the week, had a fireside at a members house. house about family history work. Not much use to us as missionaries. Do work for the living, not the dead. The family we went to is super amazing! The husbands conversion story is great. He's Swedish and she's Danish. Both still pretty young. (or if they're not I wouldn't know.)  They are both dancers and were (or are) ranked #1 in Denmark and #3 or 4 in Sweden. He saw her at a competition one time and noticed something different about her. He asked around, found out she was Mormon, and a few questions later and visits from the missionaries, he was baptized and they later were married. And WOW. He is an incredibly talented guy. If being a dancer gets me to where he is, sign me up! He doesn't walk. He glides. He walks with pose and is a very business oriented guy. He loves Apple and Mac produces. He uses one every week in priesthood to display the announcements. He hooks up his I-phone to his Mac book, which is connected to the big screen TV, and so he basically controls the TV with his I-pod. He is a extremely slick guy. The couple reminds me a lot about Uncle Eric and Aunt Susan. Professional ballroom dancers and Apple lovers. Cool people. So anyway, things are going fantastic! Contacting is cold. Other then people randomly calling the office and telling them they won't be responsible for what might happen if we were to come again, it's fun and cold every day! Learning quite a lot from my companion. Big friendly guy. Tells great stories. Love to hear from all ya! Bestie ønsker fra danmark! Ældste Christensen

Copenhagen Denmark LDS Temple

Well, I'm in Amager now, and the adjustment is coming along like a fish
developing legs. It is literally a black and white difference of area then
Skive was. Going from a small country town to the hardcore, central
København city! I almost can't belive it! A ton more people to work with.
I'm excited, that is, if I can focus long enough on the goal at hand. Since
coming out here I've been very distracted with all the noise and people. I
can barely focus enough to write in my journal or let my creative juices
flow. Adjusting to city life so to say. The Amager apartment is SO small
compared to the Skive one. Skives was literally 3+ times bigger. Some
serious adjusting... :-) But hey, New Year, New Area, New Start.

Speaking of a new start, on Lørdag (Saturday) I had the oppertunity to
visit the Copenhagen Temple for my first time! They were having a
leadership training and after they all went to the temple with the mission
president, and so us other elders just sorta tagged along.That was a super
cool experience. The Copenhagen temple is really unique! Probably one of my
favorite temples. Its super close to our area (Like 30 mins of travel,
tops.) and so I may go more in the future. But I really liked what Dad said
on Skype. Its best to do work for the living, not the dead. But anyway that
was a great way to start the new area. To gain extra spiritual strength. I
appreciate the temple more each time I get to go. It really helps calm my
mind.

My new companion is a guy from Richfeild named Ældste Singleton. Where my
last two compaions have been almost black and white personalitys, Æ.
Singleton is extreamly like me. I can surely say I have never in my entire
LIFE met another person who has read as many of the same books as I have.
We literally spent HOURS talking about book series we've read. Even tons of
the way obsure ones. He favorite author, Brandon Sanderson. Nuff
said. There have been very long random convestations and I enjoy listening
to him, as he is very opinionated and has long fascinating explianions on
things. It will be a great companionship! And he is very dedicated to being
a better missionary on the spiritual level, and so I'm glad to have a
companion like that.

The past few days have mostly been getting the feel for the landscape. We
did some stop bys and lots of walking the first days. Wow, I was tired at
the end of that first day. It is a serious change of pace of the work in
this area. My body isn't used to that pace. Coming home tired makes me
happy. It makes me feel accomplished. I also got to go out with Æ.
Peterson on splits as they were having a leadership training. He
is an elder that can move!

Sunday was a super great start. Being fast sunday we were able to gain
extra strength and blessings from the Lord. After church, we went out
knocking and had some great success! Several very positive people to come
back to! Æ. Singleton said it was one of the most positive days he's had on
Amager! Our focus for the next several weeks will likely be towards finding
and building up a investigator pool. Lots of knocking. Lots of working with
the branch. etc. Wow. I could talk about the branch. The congregation was
twice as big and 3 times as energetic! Having several young couples  and
little kids in the branch will do that. I forget how loud little children
are. But man they are so cute!

Hmm... But other then using candles to light our apartment in a hygge way
 I think I'm doing ok. Adjusting well, getting to know the land, trying not
to get distracted by random random wisps of thoughts.
The work here is different, so I hope I'm up to it!
Anyway har et godt uge!
Ældste Christensen

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