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| Ikea soft serve 🇸🇪🍦 |
Here's some food for thought. How would you feel if you were given only a two day notice for a musical number to be performed in front of the Area Seventy President over all of Europe? :/ Whatever nerves or frustrations you're imagining were definitely felt by me and Leland. We bit the bullet and commenced hours upon hours of practice. We chose to sing and play "Come, Thou Fount" with a little twist; in other words, we sang the first verse, played a piano solo afterward, and topped it all off with a completely original Danish verse. Just to let you know, this was not the only time that we felt overwhelmed by a task that lay ahead of us during the week. We also triple tasked during our virtual language study in a new group that we joined called "Chat in Danish Odense". We listened to the host, wrote down new vocabulary, and added people on Facebook simultaneously for two straight hours and fried our brains. It was exhausting, but as we learned from the language study, "øvelse gør mester" (or the email title for those illiterate in Danish)!
Something else we practiced endlessly was patience. Patience is a virtue, my friends. That was especially true this week. I thought I had it down until we were greatly disappointed by the lack of energy from ward members. I thank God every day that he has provided at least the Ilskov family, the Nørrung family, and the Baird family. They have been the MVPs lately! Now, as for the rest of the ward.. We posted twice on the ward Facebook page, announcing our desire to get to know the members. No response. We introduced ourselves twice during our online church meetings. No response. We messaged all the leaders in the ward directory. No response. Bishop called them to repent for not taking us in well. No response. We tried everything and got almost nothing out of it. We did get something at the end of the week, finally. We shared a spiritual thought with the Jensens, who recently moved into the ward during the quarantine. I bet they understood how we were feeling and decided to take us under their wings. They appreciated our visit in the park and gave us some flødeboller in exchange for a Mormons Bog to give to a family friend. This was so small but such a miracle to us!
We practiced being creative and giving this week as well. We continued to post and work in different groups (fx: free copy of the Book of Mormon on Facebook marketplace, simple questions on a family history page, messages to those in the Chat in Danish group and Internationals in Danish group, etc). From this, we were able to hand out 3 more copies of the Book of Mormon, discuss the importance of family history, bear our testimony and share our purpose to Danes and internationals alike, and start steady conversations with 4 new people. Leland even started to get ultra creative by joining groups and asking things correlated with them (fx: asking which flowers are the best in a floral group, asking the best methods to sail in a sailing group, etc). We got a lot of responses from his ingeniousness. We gave our time to complete two service projects. We helped Claus find all his dog's lost toys and build a fire. We burned some missionary records and enjoyed the classic American fireside dessert and drink combo, s'mores with Coca Cola. After, we went to the Bairds to plant some lettuce, broccoli, and sunflowers. Our clothes got filthy but it was well worth it! ;)
I saved the best for last. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for.. SPLITS!! The Roskilde gang was reunited at last! Brown and Stowe came to our district meeting in Fredericia and gave a fire training that related the 10 plagues to missionary work during corona. After the meeting, Leland went with Stowe up to Århus and Brown came with me down to Odense. The highlights included dropping off a Book of Mormon, enjoying a beautiful view during the drive, taking pictures all over the place (the streets, the parks, the fjords, and many more), ordering cheap Ikea ice cream cones, eating at Burger Shack, making baked potatoes topped with bacon, green onions, and cheese, playing table tennis, playing a multitude of card games, sending messages to people in Spanish, and visiting Vejle. It felt like a dream that we were back together again, less than 3 months after we went our separate ways. We caught up on as much as we could fit into 24 hours and made old inside jokes that I hadn't thought about since he had left. We agreed that our memories together in that disgusting basement were the best of the mission. Love that gutte! :)
I thought to end by sharing a paraphrased version of something President Kopischke, the boss of our very own President Olsen, said during this devotional. He showed us a series of videos that included success stories from the European Area. He then reminded us that Erastus Snow, the first mission president of Denmark, had to change things up a bit when preaching was no longer allowed on the docks. In response, he set up sermons in tiny cottages. This adjustment led to 130 newly baptized members that year and eventually to 30,000 Danish Saints emigrating to Utah 50 years later. He encouraged us to do the small things and to think outside the box. This lined up perfectly with the most recently released Book of Mormon video as well, where Alma said, "..by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.." (Alma 37:6) I invite everyone to keep doing those little things. It is much easier to send an encouraging text message or have a good conversation over the phone. Distance doesn't matter, especially with the advances in technology. Use this tool to minister to others. It is not something we should be afraid of, but should be embracing. God is in the small details of our lives.
Jeg elsker jer højt,
Ældste Moore
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| Burger Shack with Daddy Brown 😏🍔 |
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| King Brown 🤴🏻 |
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| King Moore 🤴🏻 |
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| Approaching the shack 🤯 |
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| Salsa chicken and pomegranate 🍗 |
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| Potato bacon casserole 🥔🥓 |
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| Ældste Møller og jeg |
