Week # 68 Slagelse

Hey family! I feel like I haven't talked to you guys in forever!! Haha! Second Christmas day here in Denmark and life is just so chill and good! 

NO PDAY....

So me and Elder Erickson had so much going on last Monday that we literally had no Pday and only emailed. So we started by talking with our friend J who was born in the church but can't make it to church. Then we made cookies and stopped by I a lady in the ward that is pretty old so we shared some good Christmas vibes with her! Then we stopped by M who got baptized like two months ago. Then we ate at a members and then taught a Greenlandic family! We read 3 Nefi 11 to them and they loved it it is just their culture is pretty laid back and they really aren't willing to do anything. Then we stopped by a fisherman, C, and he said he had like five minutes and invited us in. He looked at some anti material but we threw down on the Restoration and gave him Moroni's promise. He is down to talk again but he sails for the navy so he won't be back until the end of February. SO that was a pretty dang eventful P day! 

Christmas Zone Conference

So on Tuesday we headed off bright and early to København for zone conference which was way fun! We had a training in the morning by the APs about getting investigators progressing and the Stake President came and said that we should try having member firesides. Then President gave a way fire testimony of the life of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. Then we ate food which was sooo good! Then we watched a slide show and got packages! Then we finished the night with Zootopia which is way awesome! It wasn't Star Wars 7 like Pres put on just to troll us but it was totally worth it! 

Friends

So I talked about a couple friends already. So on Wednesday we got a call from this random lady and she wanted help with family history so we are like ok.... So we go by and it turns out she has met with missionaries before in the past and her boyfriend has also been with!! So we ordered them fan charts and agreed to start teaching them again so that should be pretty sweet! Then we had our lesson with M the American. He is the guy who has met with missionaries for two years and knows the scriptures way well! He is a way awesome and chill guy! He had some bad run ins with some missionaries so he said he would never come to church again but he came last Sunday and we agreed to teach him the lessons again but to focus on the spiritual side of things so that should be sweet! And today in a couple hours we have an eating appointment with some random lady who called us from a card for Christmas dinner! So I am looking forward to that for sure! 

Caroling Grind

So on Thursday we caroled with all the sisters and the Møholt squad! It was pretty fun and all the Danes were way surprised because that is not a normal tradition here in Denmark. We only got the door slammed on our face but she was probs J dub... haha just kidding. Then  we went to carol to Holbæk's investigators and while we were caroling to this older woman. her daughter and grandson came in the house. Then we talked to them a little and shared our card with them and left. Then five minutes before we were about to drive back to Slagesle we get a text from them if we could come over and eat with them in fifteen minutes!!! That never happens! So we ate with them, gave them a book of Mormon and caroled to them for like half an hour more. Spread the Christmas spirit!

Christmas Festivities 

So real quick on Friday we spent the day with K who got baptized earlier this year. We went to a lighthouse and put a candle at his dad's grave. Then we made a classic Danish Christmas dinner which was sick! Then Christmas ever we played Munchkin for like 4 hours with J. Then we went to Familien Lykkegårds and chilled with them all night and got gifts from the ward too! Then Sunday we had church, chilled at our ward mission leaders house and then skyped!!! And i finally won the ris alamond game the last time i would ever do it!!!! CLUTCH!! 

The duck I had for Christmas dinner was so goood! And we had one Romanian friend in church yesterday. Well I love you guys soooo much! Remember to give out that Book of Mormon!!!!!!! 

Week #67 Slagelse

KÆRE FAMILIE!!!! We get to skype on Sunday and I am sooo pumped! Slagelse is dope Elder Erickson is dope, we hit up Odense,  and our zone has caught FIRE!!! Stay Tuned!!  

ZONE FIRE

So on Tuesday we drove up to København to introduce the zone goal me and Elder Erickson have schemed up to their district!! So after long thought and prayer, we came up with this church invite goal as a zone that if we get 60 church attendances then we will have 4 baptisms. We looked at the numbers through the past transfers and the numbers said that if we have more friends in church we will have more baåptisms. So we also made a new key indicator to record every church invite and to invite someone to church every lesson and even when you give a Book of Mormon out at a door step invite them to church. And we have seen miracles throughout the zone happen because of it!! With us, we took a friend to the choir concert in Odense , and this guy swore that he would never step a foot in our church again and we invited him that day and he came on Sunday!! The whole zone has been inviting people to church and people have been coming! So for the past three transfers we have been averaging about 6 people in church throughout the zone and last week we had 16!!! With our goal of 60 in church that would average to 10 a week and we already exceeded that by 6. It is awesome to see miracles happening in the zone! And everyone in the zone loves the goal and we are just cashing in the fruits of it. I love this work and miracles and how the Lord blesses us! And our zone is the best zone in the mission right now and the energy for the work is definitely running through everyone and it is AWESOME!!!!

Slagesle Grind

So we kind of got wrecked this week because we have been sick, up in København and Taastrup to get our car fixed but on Thursday we went on member splits! We went so hard and had four members and the sisters came with us and we taught like 11 member presents and got four new friends in like 1 hour! The ward is sooooo missionary minded! During high priests there was like four guys who shared experiences of sharing the Book of Mormon or the gospel with a friend! And our ward mission leader is soooo awesome! He served in England about 6 years ago and is a pro boxer!! (He actually trained us this morning for workouts and it was soooo FUN haha) He is so dope and he gave up boxing in the Olympics to go on a mission! He just has a burning desire for the work and has amazing faith and is a bro at the same time! So things are going way well here! The work is rolling and after the New Year Christmas season this area will be nuts!!! We also have M who has been an Investigator who swore he would never come to church again because an Elder offended him and he came on Sunday! Lets goo!!!! 

Odense Round 2 :)

Yep. You read that right. So let me explain... So we couldn't make it to Copenhagen for the missionary choir concert on Tuesday because we had an appointment with F, our American homie who just got baptized who has the most faith I have ever seen :), and M the American investigator lives at Korsør which is right by the bridge to Fyn. So we got permission from President and on Thursday we went to Odense again with him!!!! It was so cool just to walk through the city again and just think of old memories. Then we get to the church and sit down and we surprised everyone being there! Just seeing the faces of your best friends light up when they see you again was priceless! Oh and real quick I need to give a shout out to Caroline og Nadia because they told me to! It was so sweet to see everyone and catch up with them. It was way sad to leave and me and Elder Erickson talked about it, we touched a lot of lives in Odense in those 6 months we were there! 

Random stories... Me and Elder Erickson were looking for a place to get a hair cut from a cheap place and we saw the name Mohamad clips and we were like that is the one! So we mobbed over there and got sweet hair cuts by our bro Muhommad! Another way random story, so we had one last thing to do Sunday night at 7 30 and so we are walking to the car and the next thing we see are these Muslim kids running and then we see this huge fire work go off in the parking lot! Then the next one is aimed for us and i am like i am not backing you elder Erickson get in the car!! So we run to the car and drive away and as we are driving away they shoot a bottle rocket right for us and it explodes about five feet over us!!!! hahahaha it was nuts!!!!! But we survived and the cops shut them down so everyone is ok ;) 

So i will skype at 6 here in Denmark so I think that is 9 your time i am not sure.... But yea!! And we don't really have any sports activities going on here.... but we will survive! Driving is going ok... haha i am way rusty and i suck pretty bad but it is coming back slowly! We have everywhere west of Holbæk except Slagelse. We just work in cities around it like Næstved and Kalundborg and Korsør and a whole bunch more! So in the zone i have every Copenhagen ward except Gladsaxe 1 and 2 and Allerød and Bornholm. haha that is way funny squirrels are just posting in the lawn haha! Classic and it isn't too cold here at all and we wont have a white Christmas either so yea... Sounders won!! LETS GO!!!! And we have a guy in the ward who loves sports and NFL so i am way tight with him already and he always gives me updates at church haha! And i might want to buy a suit with the Christmas money on a January sale or something :). But i love you guys so much and vi ses på Søndag!!!!!! 

Week #66 Slagelse

Less then two weeks until Christmas!! Get in the Christmas spirit everyone!!! Oh and breaking news.... Chapter four of the mission begins in Slagelse with the homie Elder Erickson!!

Goodbye Herning

Well all the rumors were right... I got a call at 7 in the morning from President that I would journey back over to Sjælland and be a Zone Leader with Elder Erickson! When i heard i totally freaked out haha! Elder Erickson and I served in Odense at the same time and are WAY tight!! And Elder Brown will be Elder Hallings new comp. But I had to say bye to the squad so we taught S one last time and got some pretty sick pics :) Then I said by to the Burma family and COngo family which was pretty sad. Then on Thursday at District meeting I had to say bye to A and R and L which was way sad. I got way close with all of them. R told me that right after we left their house the first time he new we were different and opened up so much to us it was awesome! But I will truly miss Herning, the Forslunds, and the small branch! I will always have a piece of Herning in my heart. I feel like my faith and testimony on miracles has grown so much for the short time i was here! 

Kapitel 4 Slagesle

Well Friday I departed and took a couple trains to go back to Sjælland for the first time in like 8 months! So real quick on Slagesle, there is 6 missionaries here, four sisters and us and the sisters work in Slagesle and we work in towns around Slagesle because we have a car!!! FINALLY a car area haha! Oh and i drove for the first time in 15 months which was sick!! The ward is probably one of the best here in Denmark! They are all chill and LOVE missionary work! So that means bring on the eating appointments for Christmas haha! The work here is pretty slow... So that is one thing that we are going to go way hard and yesterday we got the members on board and we are going to have four members help us find people on Thursday! SO i am way pumped for that! And I am way stoked to work with Elder Erickson. We have been brainstorming how we can get this mission going because by the numbers we are one of the lowest baptizing missions in the world. So we have talked alot of out of the box things to get this mission going so just stay tuned because it will be good! :)

Haha those squirrels are way clutch!!! And the plan is to go to Winter 2018. And haha that is way funny mom said that about selling donuts in sacrement meeting! But our message is better than donuts right.... ;) Well not too much to say this week but it is ight ill catch you guys in less than two weeks!!! LOVE YOU GUYS!! '

Week #65 Herning

Fam!!! It is December! The time is flying, the weather is cold, and I am loving life! Also, transfers are on Friday and we find out on Wednesday and rumor is that I am out of Herning but we will see! 

Friends

Well another great week here in Herning as expected! We found five new friends, have almost ten progressing friends, had three people in church and have another friend on dåbs dato!!! So Monday we knocked on an investigator referal and found B. He let us right in and B is some organist for the free church. He loves the Bible and we gave him a short Joseph Smith lesson. The Elders taught him when I was in Fredericia for a leadership meeting and i guess he wont read the Book of Mormon at all... 2 Nefi 29 people!!! Then we had friends from Tuesday which I will talk about during splits with ELders Pihl and McDougall. Then Wednesday after FHE we stopped by our Hungarian friends and shared them the Christmas initiatve and agreed with V the boyfriend to start teaching him Enlgish and the lessons so we have an appointment on Wednesday which will be sick! ANd he came to church on Sunday! Then we taught A which was way FIRE as usually! We talked about the Word of Wisdom and she already knew she had to live it and she read 1 NEfi 8 and she understood everything! SHe came to church on Sunday and loved it!!!! All the members love her and she participated in class which was awesome!!! Then we taught P from Poland who is such a BRO! Haha he has like traveled the world and loves music! He read a couple pages from The Book of Mormon and is willing to learn more so that is sweet! 

Splits with Hammerum

So I went with Elder Pihl who has only been out like three transfers! He is a stud! We started the day watching the Joseph Smith movie with S! The spirit was so flipping strong no one could deny it. He knows it is all true he just doesnt want to repent and change... SO befalinger means commandments and anbefalinger means recommendations and he said that commandments are recommendations from God and i told him it isnt a reccomendation that we shouldnt kill other people... and then he like switched the topic to sports and i was like well what if there wasnt any rules in sports.. and he was like it would be caos! And i was like exactly! We need commandments bro! haha so that was good. Then we found E who is an old investigator.. to be honest, it was a way awkward lesson but she said the Book of Mormon is true! So there is a good start to work from. Then we knocked on Hs door and he let us in and we talked and got to know him. He has read the bible like 30 times, he has witnessed miracles, and just has a way solid faith in Christ. We talked about the Restoration and he said Jesus said that no other prophets are coming after him in the Bible and i am like show me..he couldnt... #bythefruitsweshallknowthem The other Elders found two new friends. M which is a young girl from the middle east and K who was an old investigator who the knocked into and then i taught him on Thursday. He has had a rough past but has found Christ and has an amazing faith in him. At first he said he wouldnt read the Book of Mormon again but after we taught him and bore testimony he opened up started crying and he said he will give it on last attempt! Lets go!! Then they taught family Burma and family COngo and via google translate they got the mom on baptismal date! December 17th is the date! I think we have to push it back a little though because Prez is in the works of getting us an interpreter. FIRE!! 

Being alone for 4 hours......

So we had leadership meeting in Fredericia so i had to travel there and back which took was like 4 hours there and back. It was a way good meeting and we learned that the future of the mission is going to need to rely on the leaders. So that was fun to see all the other missionaries also! And then i got to chill with Elder Olson who is a homie for like two hours because we were travling by ourselves to our areas after so that was chill too! 

Blitz Splits in Randers

So we had splits with the Zone Lords Elder Bennet and Dibble and they had a Blitz splits in Randers with their district so we went and helped! Randers is a city FULL of hills which would definately be a stuggle haha! I knocked for the first part with the main Elder Bennet! The only thing that came out of that was talking to a Greenlandic lady for like 25 minutes and she was just a question mark... haha! Then I went with the homie Elder Perkins and knocked houses for a little and gave out of Mormons Bog. So yea it was cool to be with a whole bunch of missionaries again! Then after the splits we went back to Århus and me and Elder Bennet finished splits! It is crazy to think about because we were on splits together on a Blitz in Seden on Fyn like 6 months ago and it felt like last transfer!! Time just flys! But anyways we had 90 minutes to knock and i was like we only got time for two doors and guess what... we only knocked two doors lol! The first was a younger lady who we taught the Restoration and gave a Mormons Bog. And then the next door was way cool, so i said God Aften and then coughed, then next thing you know i am speaking English adn this young girl speaks perfect English back and i guess she was from the Czech Republic! We taught her the Restoration and she became a new friends as well! WORK! haha! I love being a missionary! :)

Oh man there are so many transfer skeems i dont know what to rely on.. all i know is that office elders accidentally leaked that i was going to transfer so that was pretty interesting... We think 3 Zone Leaders are going down and a whole lot more guesses! So the light the world inititive is ight but I am mainly sticking with the Restoration so yea ;) And mom can just talk about all of my friends how i love life, and how we are going to baptize a lady from the Congo! Maybe that I am teaching people from the Middle East, Albaian, Poland, Romania, Burma, Congo, Hungary, Scotland, Australia, and Tamil ;) 

Shoot i will be skyping soon! That will be crazy! I am way pumped! And we were in pretty much all day yesterday with weekly planning and church and dinner at the Forslunds so I didnt get to see it.. And no we didn't get to watch the Christmas devo yet.. it was on at like 2 in the morning here and i am not apostate ;) Lets goo! Washington better take it! 

Well I might be starting chapter 4 of this mission on Friday... We will see but I have learned from Herning, wherever I get sent there will be people ready to hear the GOOD NEWS!! Love you guys!!!! 

                                                     Alex's trainer is going home!