March 4, 2013

March 4, 2013 First thing first CONGRATS GARRETT!!! For that mission call just over yonder in Sweden! I'm so totally stoked for ya! Now we'll almost be able to understand each other as far as languages go! They are almost the same, but not. Anyway! It was a rolling week here in Ballerup. Actually in the whole Danish Mission! Some incredible stuff is on the plate! First is that one Iranian ex-Muslim investigator that I found and taught in Skive a few months ago. Just found out that he has been baptized on Saturday! Woo!  He has progressed so far and it's so incredible to see the change in his life! So cool to be a part of that whole process!  I'm filled with such joy to know that somebody that the Lord lead us to and has given me the opportunity to teach has accepted His gospel and taken upon His name! I guess its sorta selfish but I'm just so happy that I can be a tool in the Lords hands and actually making a difference. That something that brings the most joy. To know that I'm doing His work and finding success. I'm sure that many more baptisms in that area will follow! And the other crazy thing that came out of that area. So President has a fireside at him home every once in a while and we are invited to bring guests. So we showed up with this less active couple in the ward and enjoyed a very inspiring lesson about Christ and how he will never let us down. How he is there and how we are his friends. Afterwards we had refreshments and mingled. I started talking to this one lady with a child and realized that I totally recognized her but couldn't figure out where from. I talked with her a while and suddenly it hit me that I had found in Viborg with E. Dunshee like 3 months ago! What was she doing here on the other side of Denmark?! She had apparently moved and was in Roskila right now and in great contact with the missionaries there and learning about the gospel! Who would have thought? I guess that's how the Lord works. As for the work in Ballerup. We've done an annoying amount of finding lately. It sometimes seems that's all we ever do. Going over every investigator we have or have contact with takes no time at all. So that's been really annoying to me lately. I've begun to look more heavily at chapter 9 in PMG to figure out how we can find more people and get more from that end. I'm still looking at the beginning sections of it, but from what I learned so far is that we need to believe and have faith in the whole process. Also I have a theory and it's still in the beginning phases but I don't think there is ever a bad time to preach the gospel, as far as time of day or location. The Lord in the Scriptures has commanded that we open our mouths both day and night and we will received power beyond normal. The Lord can guild us to anyone that will receive it at any time during the day. If he needs us to go contacting at night in the snow, we'll do it because we need to find those people along that path. Æ. Singleton and I oddly did that once and we were having great conversations left and right. It was weird.  Are there situations and times we want to avoid, like contacting someone in the dark on a empty street? Maybe... But if it's the Lords will, anything is possible. Still figuring out the whole concept. Something must have worked because through planning on Friday evening, I felt some of our plans bekræfted and I knew in our plans the next day, we'd find some good things. We knocked in an area to no success. Not to be let down we moved to our next area, where we would stop by old potentials on an old list we had found. Most people were no longer living at their addresses, but we decided to knock each upgang as we arrived. It seemed that every upgang we knocked had a person living there who accepted a Book of Mormon and our message. It was a spike of success days. We even set up an appointment for the coming week! I don't know what it was that changed, but it was good. But this week was not all finding. We had wonderful appointment with our progressing appointment with (insert progressing investigator name here). It was the ideal teaching situation where we sat down in a members home, he'd read and said that he hadn't received an answer yet. He's trying and so that's great. We had a solid appointment. The spirit was there and so he's progressing. Plus it sounds like his girlfriend is supportive and the only reason he didn't come to church was because he was sick. So that's great. Those sort of sit down appointments feel so rare sometimes that Thanks for all you do for us! Have a great week! Anyway got to go. Æ. Christensen

Hej ho! Transfers kicked off this week which lead to lots of scrambling and long train rides. Luckily for me, I only needed to skip across to the Ballerup area which is on the other side of København so it wasn't so far. My new companion is named Æ. McDonnell and he comes from the Washington state area. Kinda quite but rarely takes Nej Tak for an answer. And the more I learn about him, the more I'm pretty sure he's done everything. He was an extra in the first twilight movie, made a CD in a band with his friends, did half a dozen sports in high school and cooks incredible food. (He made homemade tortillas yesterday. And homemade pizza. Woot.) The other fun thing is in our apartment, we have 2 other Elders with us. Its E. Berry who I was pals with when he was in Randers, and an E. Richards, who as a pokemon is as classy as a ''Persian''. Super nice guy. So the apartment has some fun times. The past few days have been mostly for familiarizing myself with the landscape and the areas we have to work in. We were able to meet with our bishop of the ward, and we asked what we could do best for the ward. He told us to be happy, talk to the members on Sundays and share spiritual and missionary experiences we were having in OUR area now. As we tell people about them, it will get them excited about missionary work. He also had a few names of people we could continue focusing on. So in this area we seem to have a problem with ice paths. Sections of the sidewalk that are totally iced over. There is a section right in front of our house that we have to be super careful about. I've almost fallen twice. Then there was this other path a while ago while we were on the way over to the bishops house that was in the middle of this forest and totally iced over. It would have been easier to walk off the path. My companion almost crashed 3 times while on the phone with the Zone Leaders. Beware of ice people. Ok, story that I check off on my missionary experience boxes. Somebody threatened to call the police on us the other day, while out knocking an upgang. He was being all unreasonable, hateful and really didn't care what we said in response. We finally just dropped him and left. I just can't figure out those sort of people. What makes them so bitter inside to hate us? (Probably Satan or the Jehovah's Witnesses.) Anyway, what he didn't realize is that he would have totally lost legally because we have a license to preach the gospel out here and the law supports it. Take that! Its good to keep it on you at all times. The Gladsaxe 1st ward is... a ward. Big. Biggest church building in Denmark I think. About 100+ attend every week. Its just so crazy being in a big ward after so long in small ones. I was actually way nervous at how well I was going to be able to talk to everyone. Just engaging conversation and getting to know people. Memorizing names and what not. If you don't make a good impression the first few weeks, it can be really hard to get out of the rut. Falling into the rut of bad habits and being content with mediocre. I'm terrified of that. Settling for less then what I should. We can go through the motions of a mission, and nothing really come out of it. The more I put in, the more that will come out of it. I want to get as much out of it as I can. We are really obligated to. A must. Its a duty we have as servants of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Other then that, everything is good, and moving along fine. As we start getting more momentum, we'll see more and more miracles as we go. They are all around us. Just gotta have the faith to make them happen. Count on it. I expect them to. Don't know how, but I expect them to. :) Anyway that's all. Ældste T. Christensen Hey Mom. Could you again send this email to other people? Thanks so much! Forward it once to ..."Calvin Rowley" <calvin.rowley@myldsmail.net>, ''Alex Martineau'' alexander.martineau@myldsmail.net, Addison Blair addison.blair@myldsmail.net and add this to it. " Alex:Super great to hear you've got things rolling in your area. Intersing observation about the Catholic church. Nailed that on the head. True dedication to our Heavenly Father requires sacrifice. (And that doesn't mean that annoying dog in the neighbors yard.) Oh, and in the picture you sent with you at the desk, I see that little Pikachu to keep you company. Nice move. Got the biggest smile when I spy ed that. I approve 100% and then some.He must help you spell check and keep the CPU going when blackouts occur! :) Calvin:Got to emails before you did. Your testimony inspires me. Go baptize the Pope! Woot! Addison: I absolutely understand what you mean about noncommittal investigators. We have more then our fair share of foreigners our here, from Africa and other such locations. I could give my own rant on it, but I'll save you the pain of it. Short to say, when they say they've read about half the book of Mormon, but don't understand who Nephi is, you can guess pretty quickly they haven't read at all or don't understand the language they said they can read it in. As for your questions, do we have to pay to use the bathroom here? Yes. In some places. It costs only the equivalent of a quarter, but its super annoying. So that's why you strategically figure out where the free bathrooms are. In my last area we knew of 3. The Amager Central Mall, the Feilds shopping mall (biggest in Scandinavia) and the Airport (It was in our area, and very close to where we worked sometimes. Never needed to go there though.) As for rocking socks off, they do wear socks here, but the fashion is to wear them with your pants tucked into them. At least that's what I understand. Super weird. and then another email to ..."Eric Van Blankenstein" < eric.van.blankenstein@myldsmail.net>, "Jeremy Massey" < jeremy.massey@myldsmail.net>, and add this to it. '' Elders Van Blakenstein and Massey. You should email me sometime. Or write. I'm curious how its going down there! Or up?

The subject line can adequately describe several of our days this week,
especially that one day when I was one splits.
There was a lot finding work going on, and so that can really do a number
on your feet. But I guess I should start at the beginning of the week with
all the cool stuff and whatnot.

The first big note of the week is that TRANSFER MADNESS IS BACK! OR WAS
BACK! We found out transfers on Tuesday and the A.P.'s were being pretty
tricky about it. First off, my companion was going nuts the days leading up
to it. Transfers seem to do that. Plus President has been dropping hints to
specific missionarys in the weeks leading up to it. Finally my companion
asked for a riddle from the A.P.'s (they are in our district) and they gave
him one. But it didn't make sense until we found out. They had sent
Transfers in the mail, instead of doing the normal calling spree. Tricky.
And the transfer news is... I'm moving! 0.0!!! I'm still in shock because I
thought that E. Singleton was heading out. Instead, he's the one staying
and training a new missionary. Exciting for him! He keeps saying he's glad
he's going to be done before the blitz of new missionarys hits the land,
because he says they will be a way immature generation. We'll see. I'm sure
he's right. There is a noticeable difference between people who have lived
on their own and those who haven't. So there will be some adjustments
needed.
Anyway, I said I was heading out of good old Amager. I'm going to miss it a
lot. I absolutely love it here. We've got a lot of potential, but I gues I'm
needed elsewhere. I've been transferred to the Ballerup 1 area, to the
Gladsaxe ward! I'm going to be with an Ældste McDonald. He was in the same
group as E. Arts, Dunshee and Singleton so that's interesting. Its going to
be in a 4 man apartment so party all the time. Its still the Sjælland and
København city so theres still a lot to do and see. I'll let you know how
things go.

Weird story. While we were in the Amager Central (a mall) going to the free
bathrooms, we saw a pair of Lord of the Ringish Elves in the lobby, all
dressed up and the works. Very strange to see, and upon closer observation,
(A sideways glance as we walked past trying not to make eye contact.) we
saw they were doing a advertising for a childrens role playing thing.
LARPing as its called. Random story.

Had a double splits of a sort this week. On onsdag, (wednesday) i had the
oppertunity to go on splits with Æ. Elsbury, my old MTC 3some comp! He
seems a lot the same as we parted, just more missionaryized. We did a lot
of contacting and hit the pavement hard. I came home so tired, and
satisfied. Very glad for my two good pairs of shoes. (Fun Fact: My
companion and I own the SAME brand of shoes right now. They rock, and hold
up fantastic. Jonsten and Murphy! Yea!)
The other splits was with E. Christensen. Yea, I was a little concerned if
people took too close of a look at our same nametags. I think that keeps us
from being permenent companions but it was fun this time. He had a cold, so
for lunch I made him some lemon tea. Being sick out here with any problem
is no fun at all.

Søndag was of note because of what we did. I gave a talk in church and
though I felt like my danish was sloppy, Æ. Singleton said he could totally
understand me and so did many of the members, so that's good.
As we were talking about members in the ward, he mentioned that the one of
the familys was sick today. So when we got home, we whipped up a batch of
suger cookies and headed out to drop them off. The live a fair distance
away. We knocked, one of the little sons answered. We gave him the cookies
and he said thanks and went back inside. (He looked tired at the time.) As
we were walking away after this very short exchange we heard the door open
and the mom call out to us. We turned back, and she called out her thanks.
So as we made our way home that dark night, our hearts were warmed with the
feeling of service. Æ. Singleton said it sorta clicked that thats the stuff
we needed to be doing. Showing the members we love them through small acts
of kindness. it will continue to help them feel more towards missionary
relations.
We also saw LOTS of airplanes flying off because it was right next to the
airport. Like one every 30 seconds. (Its in our area. They have free
bathrooms and is a good place to go in a emergency. Feel REALLY apostate
being there though...'' My companion told me a joke his old companion would
ask. He'd ask how far away he thought the plane was. Æ. Singleton gave him
an answer and his reply was '' I'd say that plane is only 14 months away!''
yea. Rather not think about it like that... hehehe.

We had a District Activity and that was super fun to chill with the
Distict. We went to one of the super old and big and beautiful churches. We
even got to go out on the sketky top and overlook all of Copenhagen. Æ.
King said something intersting. Something to the effect of, ''Copenhagen
has over 1 million people living in it right now. We have divided between
maybe 8 of us. Crazy huh?'' We then tried to go bowling, but every bowling
alley in Copenhagen was booked. (Its a Saturday go figure. Never though
Danes were very into bowling.) Anyway, our backup plan turned out to be
going to IKEA and getting 5 kr. ice cream. Worth it.
Anyway, that was most of what I've been up too.
My CPU is running out of time. My birthday has so far been great! Thanks to
all! Love you! One day older to the grave, think of all the food you'll
save!
Happy Birthday... to me? Is that vain?

Loves from Danmark!
Ældste Christensen

February 11, 2013

It was a decent week this last one. Not the highest success but still on top of it. Zone Conference on Tirsdag was a highlight of mine. All of it seems very spirit led. Once again all the review of the Mission Conference was very insightful. The constant theme of having faith as an action to find, goal setting and planning have been good reminders of our focus at the moment. We are still not perfect at it and it's a constant experiment to see how it works and how we can maximize its power. And of course being happy. I absolutely love it when the leadership say things that through applying principals we learn, I can feel in their words that our goals are 100% possible to achieve. Big mission changing goals. That excitement really starts to build up in me, and I feel like I'm 10 feet tall and nothing can stop me! We've got the Lord on our side and so nothing is impossible. Like what Æ. Kearon said, ''We are here to prepare the world for the Saviors return. We can and we must.'' So thats a super inspiring and powerful statement. The spirit was very there. The week as far as work goes was ok. We reached our 'other lessons' goal which is totally exciting! A lot of finding was done. All day contacting down the Amagerbro. If we reached our goal, then that must mean it was inspired and we did what we planned to accomplish, at least in that aspect. We did ask the branch president to pray to receive inspiration for what we can do to best help the branch and as we were doing service at the church, he said that 3 names of less actives had come to mind for us to work with. So we are going to focus on those this coming week. Don't know how yet. Not even sure what to say. But this is what he's been inspired to tell us, so we are going for it, with faith that we will succeed. This is the Lords errand. We joined the members in a cleaning out of our church building, and in getting rid of old stuff, like broken chairs and old cabinets. We also went through all the old Spejder (scout) basement stuff. I was very impressed at how much stuff they had and how well run the program was set up. You would have been proud dad. They had a woodshop right there, so there were lots of little projects made out. Swords, walking sticks, little replicas of things you could build with wood and rope. Lots of little troop flags and odd pieces of wood all around. Even an old pinewood derby car set. (They were going to throw it away, so we snagged it on the way out. ;-) ) It looked like a lot of fun, and I liked the concept of a Scout... fort you could say? Hut? Base? Something like that, where all the equipment could be stored. There was even a little pioneer handcart they'd made at one point. So that was fun seeing all the history. So I guess that was most of our week. I'm sure there are tons of other details in there, but for now it suits me. Håb du har det godt! Ældste T. Christensen