Week #55-Hello Herning

Family!!!! This is my last week as a teenager!! What in the world happened!! Cool thought.. I spent my whole 19th year of my life servinng the Lord! No better way to use it i gås!!!! Anyways! I love Herning so much and Elder Howe!!! And I had to say goodbye to all of my good friends from Odense again this week! 

HERNING

Well I am starting a whole new mission! Everyone in Herning believes in God and is strong in their faith! So when we go contacting and knocking, which we do a lot of here ;), we have to bring our Bible and show them how it talks about apostasy, Restoration, and Mormons Bog. I never had to do that before so it is taking time to getting used to. Herning is so chill though. Everyone is so laid back and life is just way slower down here and i love it with missionary work! I guess there is 30 members in the branch because it just got combined with Silkeborg which is north of here so we got some work to do.

WORK

So the work is not at all like Odense! Elder Howe and Shuppy opened the area a couple months ago and the work is pretty slow. They were used to teaching single digit lessons in a week, which is way different then 20 plus in Odense. So last Monday i was determined to change that. And we ended up teaching 15 lessons and found 5 new investigators this week, and take in a count that we were out of our area for three days! I was sick for two...... I had a bad headache because i was not used to working so hard and we had Stake Conference in Århus on Sunday. So we will be teaching 20 plus lessons weekly soon! And by the way, I LOVE working with Elder Howe. He is such a stud, and SO insanely good at Danish! We are just a power companionship! And i love to see how we both have changed so much as well! Well back to the work! So ever since i got here i felt this buzzing in the air that Herning is about to explode with investigators! Now lets fast forward to Friday night and our correlation meeting with our mission leader. He by the way is way sick and got baptized a year ago, but he told me that Herning is different than Odense. You don't teach as many people, not as many lessons..... and I was about to go crazy lol! good thing i didn't! I am going to change is attitude by finding people and working like crazy! It will be awesome! And we talked about how to get members involved and pumped for missionary work and i told him we should get members out knocking with us and creating miracles and having the members share that at church on Sunday! So the future definitely looks bright! Our friends include J who is a way sick Dane who was adopted from Columbia! HE has been taught forever and has abused missionaries time of service for his house so we only teach him now I guess. Anyways, we had family home evening with him last Monday and his little girls and read stories from the little Mormons Bog story book and played a game which was way fun! We have Jø and I-L who are our most positive friends! We had a member out with us and taught them about the atonement and Jø said he felt pressed aka Holly Ghost so we are skeeming a baptismal date soon! We had a Family Home Evening or a cookie night at the church on Wednesday which was cool to meet some of the members. Then we found for the rest of our time and i never thought i would come to love finding people so much! We will get to that latter ;) But we found 5 new friends this week! F who is way relgios and a little crazy and said god told her not to read MB but we told her to pray one more time and ask him. Our smoking bros! Lol! We were in a park talking about our contacting sesh and these bros were smoking pretty young and I was like are you guys down for a talk about God??? And thery were like Yea Bro! Haha so at first they said they were athiest and that lead to them saying they believe in God and they were really interested in the plan of Salvation! Then we found these J Dub bros who were the coolest j dubs i have ever met! They were like 25ish and way swaggin and we were contacting and looked at their sign thingy and started talking to them and in was such a chill conversation it blew my mind! We shared believes for like 45 minutes and then agreed to meet and continue so we could tell them about Mormons Bog! #sosick! 

Goodbyes ROund 2 

Well we had stake conference and that was way good! The area seventy spoke which was nuts! Because it was in Norwegian! I could understand like 60 percent of it maybe..... Lol! Anyways i had to say Goodbye to the Odense squad again after it which was way hard but we were skeeming about meeting up again in the future so it should be way good! Miss them though..... 

Change.....

Well we had another round of interviews with the main President O'Bryant and these ones were about how we have changed on our missions and how we want to change and for the change I said that i have fallen in love with missionary work! I realized that when i was sick all i wanted to do was knock on doors and talk with people and when i was sick last week, i was so mad because i just wanted to go knock on doors! haha it is so crazy! And with that i was reading in the Bible today and Jesus had a way fire scripture that said he that findeth his life shall lose it, he that loseth his life for my sakes shall find it. And I just love this gospel so much and spreading the good vibes and happiness and love with others!!!!!!

So i will probs get my package tomorrow at zone training! Thank you for it!! And that sounds like a legendary pizza night lol!! And if i was home i would break the missionaries ;) In all good purposes of course ;) And that is sweet that girl is going to Finland! RIP with the language though... so hard but the gift of tongues is real! And sister Feller!! Haha that is awesome that she went to the same school has dad! I totally forgot about the Fellers! AND I WOULD LOVE to coach Zachs AAU team next fall! That would be so sick! And getting a concussion playing ping pong and spiltting open my head is such a great story! Dang that sucks with BYU football..... Well fam! I love you guys so much and I am so excited for General Conference for my birthday present!! Haha remeber how we went on my birthday and i was sooo mad! All i can say now is that i am so excited for it!!! #change! Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                              

                                                           Elders Reed and Howe

                                                                  Old Friends

Week #54 Goodbye Odense

KAPITEL 3

I want to start out quoting my favorite song by Wiz! '' Its been a long day, without you my friend, but I will tell you all about when I see you again....'' I just left Odense and it was probs one of the hardest things I have ever done. It was probably harder to leave that area then to leave home... Just standing there at the train station and having C, Na, Ni there to say goodbye and all the missionaries that were my family for the last 6 months. I just felt like I wanted to throw up.... It is way sad that I had to leave and say goodbye to life long friends, but welcome to missionary life. You get pretty good at saying goodbye. Anyways, on Saturday we waited for transfer calls when Elder Bennet and Smith came over so they could bike over to soccer with us, and they might have spilled the beans before the assistants called... But I am currently in the promised land of Juland!!! I am serving in Herning with is like the middle of Juland in the Midt Juland Gren and my companion is my friend from the MTC...... ELDER HOWE!!!! It will be a little weird to not be in a ward but I will try my best to get the members out with me teaching and finding! And I am so excited to work with Elder Howe! I am already tight with him and we will definately work way hard!!!! 

Wednesday Split- Last District Møde

Well my thoughts are pretty mixed right now but last wednesday was our last district meeting of the power house Fyn district. So our district was pretty much leading the mission and the last district meeting was pretty much a testimony meeting and it was way sad. We had a goal to teach 100 lessons last week and we beat it teaching 101!!! I am going to miss the District so much! They were all my brothers and sisters... The only one who i will see is my home boy Elder Bennet who is my Zone Lord now! So that will be fun! And to celebrate or i dont even know, just celebrate the success we had we had one last dinner at this Mexican restaurant on Saturday. Then back to Wednesday we had splits with odense 2 and Svenborg in our area and me and Elder Smith taught my man Ra. It was way sad that it was the last time! We also got two more friends and it was way weird that that was the last time i would be in Æbleparken to teach! Time is a crazy thing.  

Veritgo

So on Thursday, the man Elder yates drove me back to the specialist in Århus for my check up and he said the Vertigo was gone and that I would be back to normal in a month so i was way pumped to hear that! I worked pretty well without probs last week just in the morning kills me with dizziness a little bit but totally managable! 

Til Vi Ses til vi ses....

On Saturday I texted R that i was leaving and asked if i could come say goodbye and he was like of course. So i go over there and he makes an on the spot dinner for me and Elder Keller and we just talk with this wonderful inspiring man for an hour and just have a way open talk. It was way hard to leave him especially after he started reading Mormons Bog på spansk and said that he wanted to come to church! Then comes Sunday with a load of goodbyes! I had to bear my testimony in sacrement and the whole time C and Elder Keller were crying... I guess they were talking about all the memories we had and wow... I took pics with all the members of the ward that i was tight with... It was also said to say by to Ni and his bro S! That was so hard to say goodbye to them. I spendt so much time with them and got so close to them. And it was hard to say goodbye to VL! And all the CUV friends!!! And then last night at about 2000 we said goodbye to Se and St which was SO sad tooooooo! Then this morning like i said C, Na, and Ni were at the train station at 7 30 in the morning to say bye to me! #squadgoals I think we will have to pay Odense a visit in the future parents!!! BUT, there is stake confrence in Århus next Sunday so i will get to see everyone again then! So it is not the last goodbye!!! 

Chapter 3- Herning

And here is the third part of my mission. So Herning is a branch and just got combined with another branch called Silkeborg. The pace here is more chill unlike Copenhagen and a little slower than Odense. So that will be cool to experience. My apartment is WAY nice! I will have to take pics of it! I am just getting spoiled with nice apartments I guess! And my new district is Elder Neilsen, Pill, Howe, Beck, Jensen (my MTC comp) and a senior couple! 

So all the new converts and investigators are doing way well! And Elder Magleby is coming to be Elder Keller's comp and he will be DL. They are splitting up Fyn again to two districts because they brought sisters to the first ward. The Svenborg Elders told me that the package was there and so I will get it at Zone Training in two weeks! And that is awesome that dad went out to teach with the missionaries. I have a feeling when i get home i will be doing a lot of that! And shout out to Elder Holden!! My boy! And happy anniversary!! And you know i cant tolerate that chocolate cake at Magionos!!! Too much! Haha I loved your stripling warriors analogy!! It was way fire! Lets gooo! Washington is ranked ninth!! Represent! 

Well fam! I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything you do and have done for me! There is no way I could have made it this far without you guys and your prayers! I love you guys! And I love Elder Howe! Next Step Love Herning! And I love Odense! A piece of my heart is at that city forever! Well have a good week and a good time with the missionaries on Friday!!! 

Ældste Reed

Week #53 Odense

ONE YEAR DOWN!!!! Where did the time go! What a journey it has been! I am so thankful for this full year that i have had to serve the Lord and wouldn't trade it for anything! I have learned so much and became such a better person and am loving everyday of this journey!! 

V go!

So i went to work this week which was a little crazy! I got dizzy a couple times from biking far distances and the mornings have been the worst dizzy wise! But things are going better! We are on a come up! And haha i don't know that song but i home holding on i guess! The exercises are helping a little but i don't know! I hope my appointment on Thursday in Århus will be good and find out more what i can do! 

The Work

The work is going alright! We had almost ten member presents again this week which was could because we haven't been in our area for so long. We worked with R again and he is cruising through El Lebro de Mormon or however you spell it in Spanish! We read 1 Nephi 8 with him and explained it to him and he is just taking it all. I truly think this man will get baptized it will just take a lot of time. And we are planning a fiesta for this pregnant lady in the second ward and invited him and there are a couple more Spanish speakers in the wards here so that should be fire! We had N with us to help us teach and N is less active but always goes to our missionary activities! We finally asked well eLDER Keller asked why he is inactive and i guess he never got a testimony of the church and so we are going to help him read Mormons Bog. And the new converts are doing fire as usual. My boy F gave a short talk in sacrament meeting which was way sweet to see!  And we finally taught S the restoration. We had to teach her twice because the first time on Tuesday C helped us teach then we had a CUV activity and then we finished it on Thursday and N helped us teach! Haha! Funniest story of my mission. We were about to start and this ridiculously drunk bro who was a little older like sat with us in our circle, we taught in the park #thirdmanrule, and just joined and started talking about everything possible! Then i was like if this bro is talking to us, we are going to talk about Jesus so i asked him if he has ever read MB and then he goes off about how do we think we can come to Denmark and tell people about our american church and he was like no one will listen to you and then i was like, N just got baptized! And he was quiet real quick! Haha it was so classic! Also, me and Elder Keller found so more fire places to knock and i don't want to leave Odense because i feel like there is so much more work to be done here especially because i have been sick!  

Other Activities

Other notable activities of this week included eating legit Ghanaian food with a girl from Ghana! Taking a road trip with S and S to Kertiminde to get ice cream on p day! And trying to play soccer again even though i was wrecked after it! 

1 YEAR MARK!!!!

Man who would have thought i would have made it a year on my mission! So it was a pretty chill day! We weekly planned, had a lesson with N and then went with N, S, and S and ate out at this place called the burger which is this way fire burger place! Then we went to the church and i burned a shirt in the parking lot! I wanted to make it more epic but it was pretty cool to say the least! It is just so weird that i will be home in less than a year! 

That is awesome the homie Jace participated in the primary program that stud! And that is awesome that Jim is on the radio making it big time! And that is so awesome John Redford is the new patriarch! I know he will do such a good job. Oh man! I could feel the intensity when you guys described the byu game!! That sounds crazy! Down with Utah! And for transfers i have no idea what is going to happen. I have a feeling i am going up to Aalborg! On juland but who knows!!! And I showed that pic of me dancing to all the missionaries and they all died lol!!! So legendary! Well fam i love you guys so much!!!!!

Week #52 Odense

Hej familie!! Wow does time fly! I feel like it was a couple months ago that i was getting on that plane with Elder Osborne peacing out Moses Lake... #mindblown Time goes by when you are having fun aka doing the Lord's work ;) ANd i loved your camel pics you sent! So classic! 

Vertigo

So after my epic road trip with Elder Yates and just being serenade by his nuggets of knowledge, I got to Århus where i found out that i have Vertigo! #familygentics So I have been feeling better and i feel like i have more energy but i still get hit with these dizzy spells and get these headaches... So i got a call from Prez this morning and he asked how i was doing and he told me that i could go home home and get better or i could just tough it out so that is what i am going to do!! I still get dizzy and get headaches but going home is not an option so I am just going to stay and grind it out. So i am doing the exercises and sleeping with my head up  and they are helping a little.... so i am just going to grind this out! 

The Work 

So i wasn't feeling that hot on Saturday and the ward said we had to take the train and we decided it wasn't worth it to pay all that money to watch but N and F went so that was awesome!! And i am about go so hard this week to get this area rolling again because it hasn't been worked for three weeks. But we have like ten referrals to contact and so many investigators that we haven't visited in the past while to start to get teaching again. We are way close with S too! Her and her boyfriend came to church again which was so awesome to see! It was during sacrament Se's mom bore her testimony of eternal families which was absolutely perfect! And we contacted a referral, elder keller did on splits, and they are a family and have like eight boys and they all play soccer and the dad used to be a professional soccer player! #mygoldenfamily

That is awesome you guys are going to the temple so often! I still need all the prayers i can get but it was crazy yesterday i could really feel an extra push and more energy and i know it is from all your prayers!  And that makes me so happy that mom has a good class this year! The 7th ward is the best! Tell them all thanks for the extra prayers and shout out to the primary for the cards!

And to answer your question i would say this experience has taught me how much i miss missionary work! It is kind of like what Lehi says in the BOM with we have opposition in all things, we have the bad struggles in life so we can know the good and i can just appreciate the missionary work even more when i haven't been doing it because i can see how happy bearing my testimony makes me feel and how much i miss the grind even if it is way hard! I love you so much family and everyone praying for me! This week will be a grind week so it should be good!

Week #51 Odense

Hey everyone!! Thanks for all the prayers!! I still need them as I am still on this roller coaster! But I think i find out what happens tomorrow so there is a light at the end of this tunnel. So i am not feeling to hot today.. I think i told you guys yesterday when you called that i havn't been feeling good, well i went to church and then a family after church took me and Elder Keller to their house so i could chill there and get out of our apartment. They are hands down my favorite family in the ward, plus when i was chilling on the couch I helped there son with math and so now they love me even more :) But anyways, I am not feeling too hot again today. I am really tired, and it is hard to focus and light headed. I forgot to print off the excercises so i will start trying them tonight. And so i got an an appoitment in Århus with an ENT doctor on Thurday so that will be solid. 

So the area i feel like is slowly dieing eveyday we cant work in it... We have like nine referals we need to contact and Elder Keller went on splits like everyday last week and he only got like two hours in our area. So only T and R were taught this week. And also S came to CUV and our Thursday night activity so that was good news to hear. And i guess we have an eating appoitment with them on Wednesday.. Hopefully I can make it! And all of the new converts are planning on going to the tempel on Saturday and I am hoping that I can make it, too! ANd Elder Keller is doing well. We are only being positive no matter what so we have good vibes there! 

Thanks again for all the prayers from everyone!! They mean a whole lot! I am hoping for the best of news tomorrow so they can figure out what is wrong and then I can get back to work!!  

Week #50 (Prayers for Alex)

Hey!! So family do not freak out!! Lol! So i have had quite the week. So I was better and not that sick on Monday but it came back on Thurday way bad so yea story time. Sister O'Bryant set up a couple doctor appointments so i saw the doctor and they took my blood pressure and I guess i have a low heart rate. So the next day they took some blood and did a heart chest scan to see if that effected anything. And i am currently waiting for the results and will get them on Wednesday. But on Thursday I got a call from sister O'Bryant and she told me that she talked with the area doctor and I guess the symptoms I have been having sounds like Lebrathantitus, i totally spelled that wrong.... anyways, it is a condition in your ears and it has to do with the little bones or something and the only way to heal it is if you dont move for seven days..... And when sister O'Bryant told me this i was like, i am going to be sooooo bored. So i pretty much have been on bed rest for the last three days and cant leave my bed and have to try to move as little as possible..... And they also want to ct scan my brain to see if any of this had to do with the concussion i got a couple months ago so i am waiting for that too! But dont freak out! So I have been way bored lately but i have caught up on a years sleep missed and wrote a lot in my journal and have watched movies and studied a whole bunch of danish. So life has been way chill lately. But i am still light headed and a little dizzy so i think something is wrong but we will find out soon enough i hope! And some members have been way solid by giving us mormon movies so i dont go insane!! So i am playing the waiting game to see what will happen and also not moving.... the senior couple drove me to the church and i am emailing on a couch on their laptop so they came in clutch! 

Anyways, i will give a little update of the week from the beginning. SO Monday was p day, played a little soccer ate pastries and had a way fire eating appoitment and the members let us be "culturized" so we watched a little bit of the denmark handball team game which was way fun! That sport is actually pretty intense! Then Tuesday was zone conference where they focused on working with members which will be way good to start to apply. And it was way good to see some of the squad and it is crazy to see how fast time has flown because we will hit our year marks soon and we go home in exactly one year from today! #nottrunky Then we went back from Aarhus to Odense and we had a meeting with all the missionaries in the ward to skiem how we are going to help the ward relations. Then we went to YSA which was way fun! And if there could be any highlights of Thursday they would be pizza night where we had like 30 people there and it was way fire! 

With our friends, we are having way good progress with S. She came to church on Sunday, even though i wasnt there, and is so awesome! And they moved Rs panio on Friday without me too and they got mexican food but R was way pumped for the help and we keep on getting good vibes from him. We actually took C out with a lesson for R and he totally loved her haha! It was so funny he like invited her to eat mexican food with us on Friday! So classic! 

But other than that, i have been on splits with a whole bunch of missionaries so elder keller doesnt go insane haha. It sucks to just be in your bed all day, it really makes you miss being a missionary and makes you want to work hard. Oh and i havent shaved and i am rocking a pretty sweet beard :) So the O'Bryants are back in Utah for like two weeks so Prez can get a quick heart surgery but it is honeslty no worries. While they are gone, prez buxton will be in charge and he was an office missionary and is so sick i love that man! And i will be 20 soon!!! What!! Oh no!! Haha! I dont care! Not fruit snacks or beef jerkey! Me and my comp are sick of them now... haha! Some american candy would be clutch and flaming hot cheetos or something and just way good american snacks that one cant find in Europe! And Nolan got hitched! Shoot!!! Who else has gotten married while i have been gone?? And that is a way funny story with dad and grandma hansen haha!! Man it sounds like the us is just killing it at the OL. And the mens basketball team won the gold by 30.... haha! Yes. I love America! And the OL is not to big here in Denmark but i guess it was crazy news that denmark won the gold in handboll and everyone is going nuts about it here! It is awesome! That is crazy that Michael Phelps has just been killing it!! And crazy that he is done. I ask danes at eating appointments how he has been doing and they are like who is that.... haha it is funny! And dang with the scandal.... that sounds crazy. Swimmers.... haha not judging but that sucks they did that! Dont drink kids! 

Well fam i love you so much and this week should be way interesting! I will keep you informed asap so mom can stop worrying ;) Vi snakkes!

Week #49 Odense

Hej!! So I still have been way sick so this week has been VERY slow and not too much exciting Things happened so sorry if this is short!!

Friends

So we had a breakthrough lesson with our friend from Mexico R!!  So i dont know if you Guys remember but we offered him to help him move his piano and last Wednesday when we taught him it was sooo different! He was like so you Guys always want Water and never kaffe and that became into a W of W lesson which he said it all makes sense and just took it all up! We had a member with and it was way fire for him too and he just threw Down in a good way. But the biggest thing was that he loved how we offered to move his piano for him and he just could feel the love and charity that we have for him. But I think a baptismal date could be Brewing so that would be awesome! Also we are getting way tight with S WHO comes to CUV and our Thurday night activities and are hoping to teach her the lessons soooon!! And our newly baptized friends N and C found out i have a blog so i am giving them a shout out!!! But they are both doing way solid. :)

Other than that i was in the Apartment a lot sick.... It wasn't fun but we went on splits on Friday with Odense 2 and i went with Æ Smith from Californien and had a way goood time. He played soccer back at home so that was legit. We got to see another baptism in the other Ward too so that was fun!

So I guess i have a doctors appointment tomorrow but i have zone conference so i will try to reshedule it.. To answer your questions my comp is doing great! I would say the Ward is going in a postive direction. Me and Elder Keller went hard talking to people WHO we usual dont and got a couple eating appoitments because of it so that was way fire. And the people at the door were like freaking out and one said a not good phrase in Danish and i cant repeeat.... haha! That is crazy that Josh is home and Megan is coming to the mother land of Europe! Lets go! Dang that looks pretty toasty! It is actually getting darker and darker which is way weird and the fall vibes are coming so i am way pumped! Favorite time of year :) And the new bike is soooo good! I should have taken a pic of it. It is a mountain bike and i saved like 2000 krones on it! It will definately last the rest of my mission thanks for the Money!! i couldnt do this without you! Haha that is a way good dream but dont worry i am not leaving Denmark any time soon. I got more prepared people to find and i am so motivated to Work harder than i have ever gone before. Staying in all week was the worst and made me miss missionary Work so good Things are going to happen here in Odense. :) I love you fam sooo much! Keep living life and Watch for miracles to happen!!

Æ Reed