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| Elder Nielson, Cook, Ogden and I at the top of Rundetaarn |
Hej med jer! I hope everyone has had a wonderful, productive week cause I know that mine has been that way! I find myself more and more able to go longer and longer hours working harder and harder. Missionary work is certainly not as exhausting or daunting as it used to be at first! In fact, it´s become fun and memorable! There´s been loads of hilarious experiences that cheer us up, even when the events that occur humiliate us. We get kicks out of our mistakes now and use it to motivate us. We also look very closely to our days to discover little acts of kindness that uplift us. Honestly, both these small things we do go a long way and help me enjoy the journey of a mission. I´d like to tell of some highlights from this week that brought me the purest, simplest feeling of joy.
I´ll start off by telling a few encounters Ældste Cook and I experienced while Ældste Ogden and Ældste Nielsen planned out our upcoming zone training. We were walking out in the street and the first lady that we stopped roasted us so bad. She said that she´s listened to so many missionaries before and only heard the same things from them. She also said that we have everything wrong and should be in other countries that actually need religion. She told us that learning and understanding Danish is too much for us and that we basically should give up. I know that this all sounds really negative but Ældste Cook and I could care less about what she was saying - what mattered most was that we ACTUALLY understood her! The second lady we stopped said that she has seen the church building and thought that it was pretty. She was very nice about her indifference toward religion and we parted ways. The third lady we attempted to stop just simply looked back at us and said "okej" while continuing to walk away. This made us giggle a bit because it´s funny to see the strange ways people react to our contacting. Let me say, tungesmålgaven (the gift of tongues) manifested itself! We geeked out about how much we knew, it was great! We´ve only been out for a month and we could already hold a conversation with a native Dane. Isn´t that awesome?!
We had our thirty day in on Tuesday. I loved seeing our MTC group again in the mission home and visiting with them! We also got to watch a movie! The one about John Tanner, haha. We also received a lot of good tips from Præsident Olsen and Søster Olsen, and Ældste Walton and Ældste Jensen (the assistants to the president). I´m so grateful for the great leadership of our mission! They are all so encouraging and suggest things in a very loving way. I learned that during contacting, I need to have direct eye contact, confident body language, and simplified language. It´s definitely helped me a lot more this week! We also got to attend an endowment session in the Copenhagen temple. We went through in Danish! It was the coolest thing ever and I stayed more awake because I was putting more effort into understanding what was being said. I couldn´t help but thank Heavenly Father for allowing me to enter His holy house and relax for a moment. I felt His peace and heard His voice speak to me. I had come into the temple with the question "why am I here on a mission" on my mind. I opened my scriptures randomly to D&C 50 and then again to D&C 106. Verses 13-14 of section 50 and verses 2-3 of section 106 answered my question. I´ll let you look at them yourself cause those would take up a bunch of space! After I read these in the temple, I knew right away that God was watching out for me. Such a glorious feeling that is really so precious!
Ældste Ogden and I had an amazing service opportunity this week. We helped an elderly lady named Lena move some stuff around her apartment twice. Lena is 84 years old and has three children that all served in Denmark. She is the definition of a hoarder, like literally, she had almost anything you could think of in her tiny apartment. We spent about two hours serving her each time we came over. She thanked us by making us food and giving us huge Tobleron chocolate bar (from Switzerland) and Marabou chocolate bar (from Sweden). She also played hymns for us and let us use her massage machine. Lena is a miracle worker! She´s such a gentle lady. She reminds me of all of my grandmothers in different ways. First, she reminds me of Grandma Rytting because she is giving. Second, she reminds me of Grandma Sandy because she is giggly. Third, she reminds me of Nana Mo because because she is gifted. Finally, she reminds me of them all because she is grateful. It was a tender mercy to be able to see qualities of my excellent grandmothers that have influenced my life so much. Shout out to Grandma Rytting, Grandma Sandy, and Nana Mo! Lova ya´ll!
Guess what? I had my first OFFICIAL lesson this week with a man named Casper! AHHHHHH!!! I was so pumped!! We didn´t even find Casper on our own. He was actually a referral from the Roskilde sisters, so all the credit goes to them. Ældste Ogden and I came to his apartment and found out that he REALLY enjoys Bible bashing. It´s basically a hobby of his because we saw several books in his room that explained how to do it. We tried our hardest to avoid getting into a heated argument. I´d say we did a good job with that because we were able to tell him what we believe. Although, most the time we listened to him. That´s probably a good thing because listening is more important than speaking. Near the end of our visit, he gave us a video called "Why Be Catholic?" which is 90 minutes long. He promised to come to sacrament meeting if we attended mass with him. Unfortunately, he didn´t show up but we were able to set up a second appointment with him. It was a joy to speak with him because most people here are not even willing to talk about religion. It really made my week!
Anyway, I gotta get going now. We need to get back to our apartment. Remember to find joy in the journey. Choose to be happy, no matter what happens to you. True joy is not a condition, it´s a mindset. Don´t ever forget that!
Med kærlighed,
