March 11, 2013

March 11, 2013

It was a good week for us. Frustrating week as well, but good.

We had plenty of great appointments with our investigators. We had one with

a investigator and that was a very ideal lesson. She said that if she found

out that these things were true if she would be baptized. With the spirit

present she accepted, but she has to find out its true first. But then

following right after that, we asked if there was anyone else that maybe

could be interested in our message. She really thought about it for a moment

and then mentioned her mom might enjoy the message. That was obvious

evidence that her heart was being softened. Getting true good referrals are

very hard. You find them through the ideal situation of having the spirit

present and then asking while they are under the influence of it. That's

sorta what I've come to understand about it. In line with that method of

finding, I've been really frustrated about that lately. I've been content

with knocking most my mission. But a few days ago I just got way annoyed

with it. I looked out over the endless seas of upgangs and thought that

this just isn't working or at least not working fast enough. I could knock

the rest of my mission and get nothing. Too many areas to search. In this

area I could knock upgangs from sunup to sundown for weeks and not even

make a dent. That was just really annoying and frustrating to me, even with

the spirit to guild us. That's why one applies better ways of finding. Like

referrals.

Æ. McDonnell and I did try to try one of those other methods of finding. We

tried registering at the Kommune for Frivillearbejde, (local community

service) but that didn't work. They couldn't help us and the online self

help service was just too confusing. So that idea sorta felt shot down for

us.

We DID have several great lessons with some of our investigators. One was

with a young dane. He actually invited his two friends to our appointment

and we had a long, but good lesson. That was really cool because he was

interested in just what drove us to go and live the gospel like we do. We

bore testimony that we did it because it was true.

We also met with another of our prime investigators. We taught him about

keeping the Sabbath day holy. He basically understands all the principals and

commandments. He's also willing to be baptized when he finds out its true.

He continues reading in the book of Mormon and though he hasn't received an

answer that its true, he feels that every time he prays that he should keep

reading. So that's good news. Now what we figure is we just need to get him

to set some goals to work towards. He did say that he wants to apply the

word of wisdom because he wants to stop smoking. So he's in the right area.

Just gotta set those goals.

Let's see... Lots of stopbys and lots of knocking :-p in between. The

weather has been getting much better and worse. We've had a few days of sun

and shine and warmth and a few others where the wind wants to tear our face

off with its cold. We DID run into this one ''Missionary for Islam'' where

he let us right in, but then wanted to bible bash us on how Christianity is

wrong. Luckily Æ. McDonnell had that happen to him once, and he knew all the

tricks the Muslim was going to use. So he tactfully weaved his way out of

the situation without contention arising. ´Plus the spirit was there when

we did testify of the message we were out to share, so take that.

But other than that. I'm on the short side of time.

Wish the best of luck for everyone!

Æ. Tyler Christensen

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?