Week #33 Ordense

Hej alle sammen! Jamen eehhhh a baptism is coming to Odense in 3 weeks!!! I am so pumped but i will get into that later! :) This week consisted of breaking in some christian church with the Zone Leader, getting our friend on dåbsdato, and crazy ping pong and soccer games! 

Splits

So this week we went on splits with the ZOne Leaders in Frederacia which is on Juland! I went with Elder Hartmen who is a 6 7 and played basketball in Cali in Orange County and he knew some of the teams we played in our tourny back in the day! Anyways haha,and so we started out helping this greenlandic guy paint his house and then we had a way good conversation on soccer so that was way fun! Then we knocked liked the whole time and we had some pretty funny stories like a guy saw us looking for his door, and he shout outed to us, ''Er i Jehovas Vidne?'' ''Nej vi er Mormoner!'' Okay good come in! Haha it was way funny and he turns out to be some leader of some reformed church in France or something. Then we were looking for churches so we could ask them about if we could come to their Bible Group class, and we go into this one church and start looking for signs that they say that they have a Bible study group and the next thing we know this super loud alarm is going off and i am like, lets get out of here, but we eneded up talking to some old guy and then not getting invited to their Bible group because we are Mormons and they dont want other churches there and all that good stuff. So that was a pretty adventourous splits!

Baptism Date!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We got C on baptism date!! We had a lesson with her and a member on Wednesday and it was probably one of the most spiritually guided lessons I have ever have. We talked about baptism and we were going to set a date with her. Before the lesson Elder Baadsgaard and I prayed for a date and we were not sure for a specific date, but we wanted to get it in before the transfer so we could help make our zone goal. But C pretty much said that she needs a date and pretty much put herself on date for the 14th of May! And when she said the closing prayer she asked for help to make her date!! So I am way pumped for that and this is actually happening! She has came to all of our activities this week, church, and even soccer. And her ex boyfriend who was holding her back is like totally out of the picture so yea, me and Elder Baadsgaard are way excited! :) I talked with Elder Jensen, who just served here, not my MTC comp or my last comp, on the phone and he said that she has made major progress from when he was teaching her with her actually praying so like, LETS GO! My first baptism is coming up in t minus three weeks and i am so pumped! And we were walking home from church yesterday and some reason we were talking about our friends the J Dubs and how they were trying to give her fliers but she told us she told them no, i am mormon! So lets go! Elder Reed is a happy man!

Thursday Fun

So Thursday night activities usually consists of English class and then a different activity. We had a lack of peeps in English class, so an hour before, us and the other Elders from the other ward, ELders hager and erickson went hard in the paint handing out english fliers! It was sway weird that we were talking to everyone in english and being like, yea we are americans and offering a free english class. Everyone said they were already too good at english but oh well. haha it was fun! After English class we had pizza aften and ate pizza with members and investigators and C was there again! We played around the world ping pong with a couple missionaries, C and N, who is an inactive guy but he is my boY! He is half danish half italien and we talk about soccer for dayssss! Haha he is way awesome! And then at the end, the senior missionaries came to play, and sister turpin, was destroying everyone! haha it was so funny! 

Soccer  

Aye! We started up soccer again and it is so fun! We had like 8 missionaries a couple members and our investigator C, and N was there! It was way fun and we played missionaries or americans against the Danes! After we were all so dead and sore for like the next couple days, but it reminds me perfectly of life before the mish so i was used to it :) Oh and after we got some pastries because you cant play soccer in denmark and not get pastries at the end! 

Well another week has past and gone. Oh i almost forgot, I got to act out the doubting Thomas in primary yesterday which was legendary and i cant believe i almost forgot that! So i am in a district of just four elders, elder howe (from my mtc group) and elder teynor (one group in front of me) and elder baadsgaard! I am in the Århus stake and South Juland zone. And my investigators are doing good we are going to try to make a lot of potenitals into friends and them into progressing friends so lets see how that goes! And Odense first ward is great! I am so blessed to be able to serve in two fantastic wards! Aye! Katelynn graduated lets go! I loved the pics of the fam! And i am digging dad by the Danish flag! My favorite pic i have ever seen! haha Well that is all i got for ya'll this week! I hope you all have a great week and I love you guys so much!!!!

Med så meget kærlighed, måske det er en søstre ting (oh well) , men i hvert fald, jeg elsker jer!!!!!

Ældste Reed

Odense #32

Jamen Hej hej!!!! Time is just flying here in Odense! And I am loving this place more and more every week! 

Sidste P Day!

So last p day was pretty crazy! So after emailing we went to eat kebabs and Is with all the Odense missionaries! And then came the church is true moment! So in the park there is a little kid swing where you can go on it and like fly around in circles and get way dizzy, so me and Elder Hager from the MTC, went on it because of course! And we just ate a whole bunch of food so why not! Oh and the swing was in this huge sandbox and of course my bike key flew out because after i couldnt find it in my pocket so we went hard in the paint to look for it and then next thing you know, this way nice Danish family is helping us and their kids are going hard looking for it. After 10 minutes we had no success and we were about to give up, so we said a pray and not even thirty seconds later, a little girl found it like at the exact spot which she was digging for for the last 5 minutes. #thechurchistrue Then we went home changed into balling clothes and played some street ball with a couple guys from the ward! Way fun and then we ended the night at an awesome families house for FHE! 

Z Conference aka Fire!

So we had zone training on Tuesday and I got to see Daddy! It was way awesome to catch up with Elder Gudmundson! But kort sagte, we pretty much got pumped to baptize people and become master teachers! SO we are going to go hard in the paint and master PMG! Also, we set a huge goal of as a zone to baptize 7 people which is crazy because last transfer the zone i guess they got 0 so lets see what happens!

Friends :)

So lets see who are our friends.... we have Caroline who we are going to get on dåbsdato soon! We just need to find a time when she is not busy with work! Then we are teaching an older lady named Hanna who was baptized when she was 8 but has never been to church since and she flipping came yesterday! #letsgo!!! And we are working with her daughter and trying to get her on dåbsdato too! So we will see how that goes. Then we have my home boy Steffan from Bulgaria and we were trying to get a hold of him and then we were finishing a day by contacting on the Odense gå gade and ran in to him and invited him to soccer and he came even though it got cancelled..... Oh and we started teaching a women who is a Danske Folk Kirke priest, I didnt know women could be priests.... but welcome to Denmark! And we also started teaching a college student from Germany who is way strong in her Protestant belief so we will see how that will go! Other that we just go hard in the paint teaching lessons on the street and contacting is getting better and better. I am working hard at keeping conversations going especially after the first Nej! And just firing questions at them which has lead to a lot more street lessons and more Mormons Bøger handed out! 

Oh and just a little mini recap of the weekend is that we had soccer planned but the second ward cancelled it last minute when our home boy Stefan came and also a less active guy came and when we biked back we had a way good talk on soccer and i got all caught up so that was fun even though i didnt get to play soccer :( Then after  we had back to back service projects which included chopping wood and painting walls! And we got to wear way cool suits during it, if i could snag the pic from Elder Baadsgaard i will send it! And sunday was pretty sweet with ward conference and then a BBQ after! And I talked with Erik Jeppsen a lot about Moses Lake and jsut about a whole bunch of families and it was way fun! And his follow up trainer was Elder Williams who is the guy i used to ball with back in the day when missionary ball was huge! Small world and fun stuff! And then we had like 25 minutes left until call ins and taught two lessons on the street and gave out a Mormons Bog #work! Pretty good way to end a pretty dang good week! 

So i have not had any updates  on my last investigators i just know that none of them are on date now :( And let me tell you, three suit cases two bags and a bike on a train by yourself is not fun at all! But some nice girl helped me carry my bike out for me! And that is cra the Katelynn is graduating from the Y! Dont party too hard in Utah without me ;) My knee is doing way better so dont worry about that, it just bugs me on and off. And i bet dad did great in his talk! He always spits fire! (that is a good thing :) ) LIES! You did not adopt a little black kid! Zach is lieing and i know you all are in on it! haha And any news on mission calls???? Well one more week and i am half way done with this transfer! Man time flies when your doing work and having fun, while keeping the rules of course :) Jeg elsker jeg så meget og husker at Gud elsker jer! 

Æ Reed

Week #31 ODENSE!!

Forår!!!! It is finally spring here in Denmark, there is sun, and flowers everywhere!!! Life is good, Elder Baadsgaard is awesome, I had a life changing spiritual experience, and even played some street ball this week. You could say it has been a pretty good week here in Odense! 

Last P Day

So after unpacking and stocking up the fridge with food, me and Elder Baadsgaard set out for Elder and Sister Turpin's house to watch the last session of General Conference. We biked through the park and I remember I told Elder Baadsgaard that Odense is 10000000 times better then Sjællend!! Flowers everywhere and oh man! It is sooooo nice here! DOnt be jealous from the pics :) Then we ate with all the missionaries on Fyn and watch GC, and that last session was sooooo good! There was so many good talks! I loved the talk on the refugees because that applies to me and everyone here in Europe and Jeffery R Holland's talk was fire like always! 

Investigators

So we had to give two of the most progressing investigators we had to the missionaries in the other ward because i guess we just found out that they dont live in our area. But that is whatever, not too big of a problem! So we are working with a man named Vo Long who I LOVE sooo much! HE is from Vietnam and got baptized 9 months aggo and we help him understand the gospåel way slowly because of the language barrier. THen we are working with a lady named Hannah who used to smoke a pack a day but is now down to 6 cigarrets everyday and she has a daughter who has been investigating the church and could be positive to be døbt :) Oh and we work with this old man named Jens who has this CRAZY life story! Kort sagte, he grew up in Odense, studied in UCLA, became a rich car owner guy and then started dating this ballerina girl, and then like two days before the wedding, she died and he like became a drunk and lost his fortune, ended up in Denmark and then met the missionaries! Thats me! Then we have been hitting the streets hard to find some friends and we found this German girl who is Protestant and is college age and taught her in the park and she wants to meet again and she is bringing a friend so that is gold! And finding is fire! Like we have gotten pretty good with asking people questions and turning that into lessons on the street! 

Ball is Life???

So it was pretty sad not to be able to ball every Saturday but you know Elder Reed cant stay away from basketball ;) So we were contacting in the park one day and i saw this guy shooting by himself so i go up to him and ask if he wants to play one on one. Like dream come true, playing some street ball in my missionary clothes! SO we play, and in the processes of tearing my pants, RIP Pants ;(, and draining a couple threes, we are friends, and he invited us to play with his friends so that will be bumping!! Basketball= Missionary tool :)

Service for Dayzzzz

So we had two pretty big service projects this week, and some member took pics so that can describe it better than I can. Pretty much mixing concrete and laying a foundation for some neighbor of a member. And then the second project was helping this older man move some things out of the attic to the dump and both projects ended in food so Elder Reed was happy!

Sunday!!!!

So this beautiful Sunday started with us going around trying to preach the good word to people with not really that good success. Then came church to meet the new fam for a couple transfers! And GUESS WHAT! I dont if you remember a missionary named Elder Erik Jepsen, who served in Moses Lake four years ago in 4th, 7th, and 10th ward, well he is in my ward!!! How crazy is that! He remembers Bishop Wilks and everything! That was sweet, then it was fast sunday so i felt that i needed to introduce myslef to the new fam so i bore my testimony and i started by saying i am the new missionary and unfortuantly, I served on Djævelens Ø but i am so excited to be on Fyn! And that means the Devils Island and that is what the Danes who do not live on Sjælland call Sjælland. So I made the ward laugh so that was a good first impression, right.... I hope... haha it was good stuff! Oh yeah, then to my crazy spiritual experience! Yesterday after church, we taught Caroline, and she said that she broke up with her fiance which was the only thing holding her back from the church. We had two members with us from Iceland and we told her that this was a huge decision for her but God loves her and the only way you can find your answer is if you pray. And I guess she hasn't prayed with the missionaries before and she said it didn't feel comfortable to pray. We then, all five of us, got on our knees and all said a pray one by one out loud, and she said the last prayer. It was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my life. The spirit was incredibly strong and at the end, me and Elder Baadsgaard were in tears. And then she said that she felt amazing and that was just a huge testimony for me on God answering prayers and we think she will be baptized in the next month! And that is just a testimony to me that this gospel is soooo easy! God loves each and everyone of us! Regardless, who we are, what we have done, he will never deny the love he has for us! Good stuff!


So I am in the first ward. That is crazy that you kind of know Elder Baadsgaards's fam! Small world! My knee is doing better, i ran a little on it this morning but it wasn't that bad, just bugged me a little. That is awesome little Webly could be blessed and of course i will teach reid dog! Ball is life! For the family names I would say keep them, because you can only go to the temple if yoou serve in Sjælland, so i wont go again until my death meeting i think so it okay. And Zach is saying lies! Zach always starts the nonsense! COol news on the mission calls, keep them coming :) Oh man i love march madness and that buzzer beater would be sweet to see! But i can wait one more tournament! And hopefully the soccer team can make a playoff push! Well, fam, week one done in Odense, plenty more to go! Jeg elsker jer!!!!!


Elder Reed :)

Week #30 ODENSE!!

Kære familie og venner!!! Hvad så!!! Well transfer came and gone and...... Ill just say it at the end to hold the expense, but promise that you will not peak at the end ;) But this week was definately a great one with Elder Jensen in Ballerup!

Investigators

We found a new investigator named Patrick who is about 23 who like raps and produces music so that is way sweet! I almost didn't contact him, I almost contacted another guy but Elder Jensen like said talk to the guy with the sun glasses and i did and BAM, we are teaching him! He really just has no sense of purpose in his life but he really is loving our message and I think he even cried when we showed him an Easter video so that is a plus. We finally taught our friend Svend who we haven't had contact with for a while, and we asked him if he has read or prayed and he said no, so me and Elder Jensen just went simple and talked on prayer. It was one of the most personal lessons we have had with him and he said he is going to try praying every day so I was glad to hear that. We aslo taught David and Sarah, the couple from the Apostolic Kirke who was at General Conference last night. They are doing their homework! They are really searching in the Book of Mormon and have great questions and they really like the Book of Mormon and they liked conference, too! Oh, and when they found out that I am transferring to their home town they said that they have friends and family over here that would love to talk with the missionaries so that will be interesting! We also found like a way old women who was walking back from the grocery store and we contacted her and she is like, can you help me carry my things to the bus and we are both, YES WHY NOT! haha it gave us a good chance to talk to her and she daid that we could meet again so that could be excited! (for elder jensen not me :( ) Oh, and we taught our friend from Texas again! We taught him outside because his son wanted to play outside so we had kind of an all over lesson but he said he is going to pray with his son every night! So that is sweet! Oh and fun story, i finally got to use my French! Shout out to ms. French teacher! SO i was on a quick blitz splits with Elder Poff and I contacted this black guy but he could only speak French and a little Danish so i said a couple things in french but still, way fun stuff!!!

Missionary Night

Oh snap! SO we pretty much had mutual night with the young men to get them pumped for missionary work! Shout out to Elder Hendriksen and Jensen for like planning all of it. SO we had a Spanish MTC class so he only spoke spanish to the young Danish kids and taught us how to pray! Then we taught them how to shave by getting them shave whipped cream off of a balloon which was way fun! Then we had a little race where the kids where missionaries who where on splits, so that meant you had all of your books, your clothes, and a huge box of Book of Mormons and they had to catch their bus! So we had them run around the gym with them holding two heavy bags and a Box full of BOMs so it was pretty funny. Then after we had p day with elder reed and played basketball ;) 

Knee og Service

SO i dont know what has been up but for the past couple days i have had a pretty dang bad knee pain in the front of my knee like on my knee cap. I was like limping all the time on Tuesday and it was not fun and hurt pretty bad. We went home to rest it but it has been sore for a while. But on Thursday I asked for a blessing and we had to do service which was helping someone move so that probs wasn't the best idea for my knee. But i did it and the pain wasnt too bad! And the crazy thing was is that we had to carry all of these dressers and things up these stairs and i couldn't walk up stairs for the past couple days because i couldn't bend my knee, but i did it and now my knee is fine and all i can say is miracles :) 

Conference

So we watched every session excpet sunday afternoon session which we will watch tonight at the senior missionaries place, where in Denmark though.... ;) you'll find out if you didn't peek:) But conference was way good! We waatched it at Lars and Teressa's house for Saturday morning which was 6 at night here #timezones but we ate Phillipino food which tasted soooo good like always and then watched conference! On Sunday we watched priesthood and the rest except sunday afternoon. But there was a lot of great talks so far!  I really liked the talk by, i think he is in the presidency of the 70 not sure, but when he talked about whatever happens in life, just remember that you are a son or daughter of God! Just keeping it simple that is how the gospel should be :) ANd President Uchtdorf was being a jokster!! haha him saying that German is the celestial language, sorry dad it has to be Danish ;), and that your dads fav movie is probs star wars so you are wearing a chewbakka costume! haha I really like what President Monson said about making right choices and his story in Preisthood about the guy commanding the ship to come to hiom in the name of Jesus Christ. He said few words but they were important :)

So i paid Harris for the bike and he fixed it up real good. I will need my bike a lot more in my second area :) Sorry if i cased any problemos... You guys always come in clutch! And my pick for the finals is UNC! Tell me where all of the youngens are going out on their missions! And how boys soccer is doing! Jeg elsker jer så meget! Tak for alt og ha' en god uge!

Ældste Reed

Oh ya, so when i was in the car i told President Michael Olsen that i wanted to go to Odense for my next area because i heard it was great over there and..... IM GOING TO ODENSE!! It is on Fyn which is the middle island of Denmark! The ward is way fun and we are going to do a lot of things with the single adults which will be way fun! And my comp is Elder Baadsgaard!!! He is from Utah and he is one tranfer older than i am. He is way good at singing and he was in the music group that went around Denmark and so he stayed at my apartment for a couple days a couple months ago so i already knew him a little but we are going to have a way good time together as i have already saw!!!!!!! LOVE YA!

                                           Good bye to Alex!

                                               Last day with Elder Jensen

                                                         ODENSE!!

                                                Missionary Prep night

                                            Good bye to great friends

                                           More friends Alex will miss