October 22, 2012

Travelmode Must be related somehow Danish Hot Dog Godt dag! Vores ude var rigtig godt! Biggest news! TRansfers! Its time to say goodbye to my trainer and companion for the past 4 months, Ældste Koenraad Arts. If you can pronounce his first name, congratulations, you can speak Dutch. He's the only non-US missionary in the entire Danish Mission, and I had the opportunity to serve with him my first time here. He's now headed for Balorup Area in Central København. I on the other hand am left behind to progress good old Skive area, with my new companion Ældste Dunshee. I've heard he's a great guy. Transfers all kick in on Onsdag, (Wednesday) so I'll meet up with him then. Elder Arts has been in the Skive area for 8 months now so he's really glad to be moving on. Still, he'll miss the members. In addition to transfers, we had a fantastic District meeting in Aalborg, which was a good 3+ hour train ride away. These long train rides no longer effect me. I just go into travel mode, and we are at our location in a blink of an eye. All awareness of the passage of time ceases to exist when we go into Travelmode, and i'm sure we have less going on in our head then if we were watching a TV or were dead. Its a useful, but dangerous mode to go into. Anyway, on our ride there, this random guy sat down next to us and started talking to us. We proceeded to find out that he was a less active member and had some obvious brain damage due to the use of drugs and other stuff. He talked to us about seeing blue flying elephants and turtles that go flying past in 'whosh!' sounds. We gave him the missionaries number in his town and wished him the best of luck, being able to do no more for him. Don't ever do drugs. They will wipe out your life and brain. The zombies would not go for him first if they were to attack. Still a child of God. Still love him and desire the best for him. We arrived at District meeting, and we also had interviews with our Mission President. He lead us in our District meeting and expounded to us some basic but extremely powerful stuff. Answers to my prayers the past few weeks for sure. I'll share the best part of it. How to turn FAITH as a principal of action into a principal of POWER. The sort of faith that moves mountains, calms storms, cures sickness, and changes hearts. Its the faith that changes reality and what is. The answer, in the most basic of forms. Sacrifice. That's the whole key. Sacrifice will bring it to you. But then WHAT do you sacrifice? They told us that also. We are to sacrifice our WILL. Sacrifice our will to God, and let it be swallowed up in his. Learn His will and FOLLOW i! It will affect CHANGE that would not normally occur or happen. In doing this, its a similar notion to what Christ did with the Atonement. he sacrificed his will to God and we do likewise. Sorta similar. That is what turns Faith form a principal of action into POWER. Great strong, incredible, worthy,Godlike power. Super cool. The interview with him afterwards was also very great. I love our mission president! After turning on travelmode and returning to Skive, we had a super cool investigator come to our branch activity. It was fantastic because after the activity which was a couple sharing their mission experience in Russia, we had a Fællesspisening, (Eating activity) after. He was very involved in the conversation with the entire branch and it was way hygge! Very great moment. Hope he comes further! He grabbed the Liahona as he went home because he loves getting his copy and for some reason hasn't gotten his in the past two months. So cool! (Name withheld) at church was rocking! In Sunday school she was talking and getting involved in the lesson giving great answers. The member that she was sitting with was also talking to her and encouraging her. It was super great! And after Sunday School our branch had a Søndag dinner where she was also very involved and another member helped her out a lot! I think shes progressed great and is totally ready! We had a good meeting with one of our other investigators. After admiring his large collection of medieval swords and daggers, we taught him a brief lesson on the importance of prayer. I was a little disappointed when he didn't want to say the closing prayer, but as I said it, and closed, you could feel the Holy Ghost in the room testifying of the power and importance of it. That made me really happy that the Holy Ghost could come in. That's the absolute most important thing I aim for in lessons, and if we can't get it, then the meeting was not as effective as it could have been. The rest of our week was filled in with lots of aftales with people. I think this is the first week we had way more teaching hours then finding. And the finding we did do was very simple and minimal. We've got enough going that we don't need to spend entire days bånking doors. Yes! But beware of too many good eating appointments, especially if your norm is to eat a meal and not need to eat the rest of the day. That happened to us this week and it hurt to move we ate so much. It hurts to be polite sometimes. Anyway, best of busy weeks to you! Ældste Christensen

October 1, 2012

Elder Arts and Elder Christensen

Spottup Castle

Spottup Castle

Tasting Rainbows

Woohoo! Its October! Time for spooks and ghouls and haunts! Guess what I'm going to be for Halloween? Oh, but they don't exactly celebrate Halloween in Europe. so... too bad. This week was one of oddities and adventures. It's been raining a LOT lately. I don't know if there was a single day that it hasn't rained. And it's not heavy rain, but instead is a light rain that is almost more of a mist that is enough to get you wet, but not enough that you'd want an umbrella (paraplute) out to stop it. There is no easy compromise. Oh, and it can literal rain anytime here. We were walking to an eating appointment, and it was a very bright and sunny day. I was squinting it was so bright. And then suddenly, out of nowhere it starts raining on us. In the middle of a sunny day. Like the sun is shining, I can see blue in the sky, but there was this cloud, right over our heads that was raining. What is this?!? So crazy! However, all the mist from the rain and the combination of sun make for some great rainbows. I see two or three good ones every week. One highlight of the week was the Spøttup Castle that we went to. It's one of the few castles left standing in Denmark. It was actually fairly empty when we went out to it. As we walked into the castle itself, we were literally the ONLY ones in the entire castle. We had it all to ourselves. It was super cool. Lots of interesting history there. One of our investigators actually worked there at one point, so that's super cool. It was hunting down old investigators week for us, that I'd fished out last week. Easy thing to do in our spare time. Too bad most of the people have moved. Just remember that going to an old investigator down by the docks, in the rain, in the evening will only leave you wet. Go on a happier day. And make sure to take the bus next time. But otherwise I sorta like hunting. I don't feel so much like a farmer, as much as I do a hunter. I fit more in the category of Jeremiah 16:16. ¶Behold, I will send for many afishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. Yep. That's us out here. However, there is growth where we stand. I recently finished the Book of Mormon again. It's true. I understood an incredible amount of it this time. Maybe it's because I'm on a mission or I'm spending much more time on it per day. Whatever the case, it's awesome! I'm also studying praying with power lately. Like truly powerful prayers, because there are times when you pray that you can... feel the words are being heard. That's the best way I can put it. That there is a strength in them that is uncommon in a normal prayer.  Evidence of this is all through the scriptures. Jeremiah 29:13, 1st Nephi 1:5, 2nd Nephi 4:24, and Moroni 7:9 and 48. Also Moroni 10:3-4. Pray with real intent. Pray with and from all your heart and soul. It can be a hard thing to do at times. I don't know exactly why it works all the time, but that's what I'm studying. Its got something to do with Faith, connected to Hope, which is connected to Humility which is connected to Charity. Something that is a combination of all those elements. And of course is the Lord's will. Can't forget that. Are there certain things that the spirit would guide us to say that will have power I wonder? Just thinking out loud. Oh! This week has been fantastic in the language! The gift of tongues' is kicking into effect more... well...It's already been there, but I guess I can better see the results of it. At one of our eating appointments, (actually on E. Arts følesdag{birthday}) I was being able to talk and listen with skill I had not been able to before, and the members noticed! Also at church, I was able to talk and understand the members better then I ever have before! I've still got a extremely long way to go, but there is progress being made! Yay! An active and visible blessing from the Lord! Put your heart and soul in His hands and he'll help you out. So that was my week this week! Best wishes to the world! Ældete T. Christensen

September 24, 2012

He said they give out this book in all different languages

I love that you can see the missionary at the end of the rainbow.

September 24, 2012 Godt dag mine venner! Jeg elske dig! Men det er ingenting jeg kan tænk om til velkomme dig med det er forskellig. godt nok. Just a little Danish practice. This week can be summed up like this. Hugge i halv. Cut in half. Ældste Arts had an allergic reaction to something on Onsdag, (e he'd aged 50 years. We could not go out and work because we have the missionary reputation to uphold, and he did not look his best. So for 3 days of our week we sat in the apartment, and waited til the allergy medicine kicked in. He's all better now, but those were a LONG 3 days. To help with his allergies we've been leaving the window open to air it out, and it's been really cold lately... Glad I have a heavy pair of blankets. My nose is still quite cold in the morning. Oh, did you know that freezing tempatures kill dust mites? So lately my companion has put his sheets and pillow in our downstairs freezer... I guess it's working because we haven't had any problems. In my spare time, while we were waiting, I went through all the investigator records for the past 8 years, and found a few that are worth stopping by. That's a great activity at least. We had a fantastic Zone Conference this week as well. I love those. Being able to see other missionary's help you to know that you are not alone. One of our teachers was an old missionary, and he taught us lots of small ways to be better at contacting. When you go up to somebody, whether on the train, bus or on the street, don't start out with the gospel, but try and find something to mention before you bring up the gospel. Like on the bus, ask somebody if you can sit next to them, or just somehow engage in a normal conversation. Somehow, the topic will always come back to the gospel. Think about it. When you first meet somebody, you can talk about the weather, certain events etc. but somehow it will usually always come back to who you are, and what you are doing. That will be a great opportunity to introduce the gospel. Everybody, no matter who you are, missionary or not, can use this tactic. It's a lot less awkward too. Real application. The AP(assistants to the president) had an interesting activity. Instead of normal role playing, in theme with contacting practice, they had us grab a partner and hit the streets. Deploying 1/2 of the entire missionary force in a mission within a 3 mile radius can get a LOT done in a short time. Elder Baily and I even had some success giving away a book. There is a certain excitement and ecstasy that you get when you teach as a missionary. After a successful lesson. You feel...Upbeat. Energetic. Electrified. Sprit filled. You are helping the cause of truth to go forth, even in the little successes. Fantastic! Our Mission president gave his segment at the end. The Sprit is often so powerful when he talks and instructs that I don't dare move an inch. He is a incredibly spirit fill and guided man. And once again he emphasized and expounded upon fuldkommen eller samlet lydighed. (Perfect or total obedience.) Somehow he can make a whole unplanned lesson on just page 8 og 9 in the missionary handbook. But what was really interesting was how he pointed out the Spirit in such cases, even in just calling your companion or other missionary's by their last name. There was an interesting example. He asked how do we feel when we have the Holy Ghost. The answers followed. Joyful. At peace. Enlightened. Refreshed. Rejuvenated. Then he asked us what it feels like when the Holy Ghost was NOT present. Answers followed. Frustrated. Angry. Empty. Lonely. Uncomfortable. I believe that this is incredible to be able to recognize that and then point it out to help us recognize it. Then he did this example. He called two elders by just their last name. He asked how does that feel? and I recognized that there was a n uncomfortable feeling associated with it. A sort of... lack of respect in it. The he called them by their full proper titles. Elder 'X' or Elder 'y'. That good feeling returned. That respect back a again. It was a simple, but very clear example of the Holy Ghost and obedience. The adventure home was fun. We got a ride from the AP's(assistants to the president) part of the way, but somehow in following the GPS, it lead us onto a random dirt road. This concerned us, so we stopped by this random farm for directions. The Elders went up to the door, introduced themselves with a book of Mormon in hand, and before they could ask for directions the guys slammed the door in their faces. ooops. So they tried another door, this time asking directions very first, and somehow after managed to give a Book of Mormon away. Woo! Super cool! So that was this week. The quote of this week, as told by our Elders Quorum President is ''An apple a day keeps the doctor away if you know how to hit him!'' Throwing skills are valuable here. ;-) Bestest wishes from the land whose flag fell from heaven, (It did literally. Look it up.) Ældste Tyler Christensen