August 18

So there came the day that the keys were left in the apartment and two elders were stuck outside in the rain and there had to be some innovative thinking. working together they figured out using a bike tire, a hanger and a really good aim they lassoed the window handle and opened the window thought the hood vent hole in the wall. Thank you thank you I hit the target with precision and it was only after watching a couple hundred ours of Mcguiver that I could not only think of this but then execute it. Elder Warner's arm was not long enough but it would not have been possible if he had not popped his bike tire just a little week or so earlier. HAHA hope you all get a laugh out of this reenactment.

August 18

 *This week Elder Vance just answered the questions he's been getting from people*

 

So you have been there almost 5 weeks.  Do you feel like it is going fast?  It sounds like the language is coming great for you.  I am sure you are working really hard at it.  That was funny how you said people keep asking you what part of Denmark you are from.  Do people ask you if you have Danish ancestry? 

I have had many questions about my ancestry because if you take the tag off I am danish (minus the tight pants). And another thing I am changing and I only noticed this the other day when we went to a conference and I complemented my old comp on his new suit and euro pants and actually meant it. I don't know what is going to happen but things are changing here. I work so hard on danish as soon as I wake up I start pounding vocabulary during my work out. I read in danish know looking up words I don't know in the danish dictionary where I have to figure out the definition. My comp still wont go 100 percent danish with me yet because he is afraid I am going to loose it( he had a mental breakdown when he got here to Denmark) but I keep pushing him to do it. it is making a difference. Time has started to just cruise day in and day out the grind and I love it. I have never had the spirit with me so much and I got to say I am addicted to it.

 

Are you sleeping well over there?  Is it still hot there?  when I look it up online It is often just in the 60's which seems great but you had said it was hot.

 

I am doing well with sleep, and it has cooled down tremendously and it has been raining 3-4 times a week so it is almost always wet but I don't mind.

Are you getting to go and see anything interesting on your p-days?  Are you getting along ok with your companion/trainer?

We don't have much to go look at in Silkeborg, not castles and I have already taken pictures of every church but I have started to learn the guitar and piano, I convinced my trainer to teach me and about the time I come home I should be able to rock some hymns. I have picked up one winter coat and I might be able to trade an elder for another so no worries there and I have also picked up a guitar for free. I am decent at the barter system here, I collect all the free stuff and find the people that need it and work the system.

 

Do you think you will get transferred soon?

 

So the way it works I will be in Silkeborg for 2 transfers during my training and then my trainer will transfer out and I will stay and he is betting that I will be one of the few turn around trainers so I will be in Sikeborg for another 2 transfers to make it a total of 4 and then It will be right after new years more then likely when I leave here. So the next time that I see you I will still be here but I love it here, I have been learning so much.

 

 When you get transferred do you travel by yourself or does your companion drop you off somewhere with your new companion? 

So really interesting question there is a train that starts at one end of the country and runs all the way down and across and back, all the missionaries get on the same train in the same car and they ride until their stop their comps have to temporarily be adopted to another companionship for a couple hours and all the missionaries on the train are in a big companionship. It is a little crazy but the first transfer will happen in two days so I will see it all happen then.

 

It is great to hear about all of your interesting and crazy experiences.  Could you include maybe just a short thought about something you learned or gained a stronger testimony of regarding the gospel? 

Yea for sure, This week I have been reading in Jacob and I never really understood the analogy of the Trees until I read it really slowly in danish and then I kind of figured out that the lord was God and the servant was Jesus, I realized that the other servants of the vineyard could be members of the church who all serve for a short time and it is more like a take your kid to work day, we don't really do anything as missionaries we don't teach, we just speak, the holly ghost is the one who speaks and teaches this was very humbling for me. The story of Jacob is so powerful, he had a difficult life, hated and beat by some of his older brothers from birth. We learn of some of that when Lehi gives his blessings but to just think how tough his life was and he was nothing but faithful and trusting in the lord he has become one of my hero's. I have to learn how to be more humble like he is when someone opens the door and calls me a JW then cusses at me until I walk away.

 

Are you still getting to try some interesting foods?  Do you ever get American foods?  Do any of the members feed you?

 

So about one time a week we get meals from members, they usually try to make us American food but Danes just don't understand what anything we like to eat tastes like. I had some lasagna and let me just tell you, you should not be able to serve it with a ladle that is just a crime against nature.

So Today I finished Jacob but I am traveling to Copenhagen this week to go through the temple here with my mtc group and that means like 8 hours of solid reading time.

I have been really busy, this last week we had normal numbers to report (normal for the mission which hasn't happened ever in Silkeborg). So to start off I took off for Copenhagen on Wednesday and I had mission training. Turns out they mixed up which meeting I was supposed to pray in so I prayed in this one instead of Elder Bednars (two weeks and counting). Well I started this all off and the Presidents wife was the first speaker and she complemented my prayer because I was one of the newest missionaries, next up was President Sederholm and I literally had a conversation with him during his talk. He would ask me a question like how nervous were you to say that prayer elder vance and I would answer from the back of the room really dang nervous and he continued for four or five minutes. I literally felt like the whole conference was specific direction on what I can be doing to become the best missionary that I can be. I have so much to work on but man that was the best experience so far in the mission. Coming off that we rode home and that was when I started to read Jacob, the vocab was a little hard because I didn't know any gardening terms and man i was just working at it and things started to click.

Our strongest two investigators are both progressing, one came to church and the other has committed to stop smoking. The one who came to church has been investigating for a little over a year and has only come once three months ago, she has started to really look at converting fully because I fixed her light. While I was fixing her light she was asking me where in Utah I come from and I laughed because for the past year there she has had so many Utah elders and I told her that I come from Texas and she was fascinated with that, along with a few other investigators that we have talked to, the think I am a cowboy. But then she asked if I had ancestors that came from Denmark because I look like a Dane. We talked a little about my ancestors and hers and know she refers to me as the handsome Danish cowboy elder, heck I will take that title all day. Well I think that is enough for this week I will continue to update you on there progress I hope all is well

Love Ældste Vance

August 11

So we bumped into this man one day and set a time to come back and have a lesson, we came back and went through the first lesson and during the process he brought up 4 or 5 other religions that he has explored and how they all pointed to the BOM. He practically put himself on date and we already went through the plan of salvation with him. When the only problem is that he is headed off to college before his baptismal date so we will not be able to continue his lessons but one of my mtc friends will continue with the lessons up there. 

There is a old woman who is investigating the church, she needed some help with her farm and we were more than willing to help so we donned the regular clothing and went to work. I fixed a light fixture for her, We all prepped her windows for paint, and the walls of her barn and garage. As a reward she cooked us a crazy good meal, (she was a pro chef) and I was so full of joy at that moment after working all day and eating a good meal and then teaching a good lesson that I almost fell asleep on the car ride home.

At a different point in the week we contacted our branch president and asked him if he had any suggestions on where we should go knocking this week and he gave us to neighborhoods. The first door e gave out a BoM and then every door there after we had good experiences. Three different times a teenage girl answered the door and we said that we were missionaries looking to give a message about family so e asked if there family would be interested. The responses were always no but we got some really nice complements like you are ridiculously handsome, and other funny things that we immediately said that you and left. Twice on that same street I was asked where I come from in Denmark and I said that I come from the Us and they responded with how long have you been here and again I would say less than a month to which they would ask did you study danish before and I would say no and then they would then say something that I would not understand and my vocabulary would not reach. 

All in all not a bad week. I am headed to Copenhagen this week for the Mission conference, next week for my first transfer meeting with my mtc group, and then not the following week but the week after to hear elder bednar speak to us. This week there is a huge celebration in Silkeborg it happens once every three years and will start on Wednesday and go through Friday night, talk about a party right, it looks kind of like a carnival but they are shutting down the city, fireworks every night, music everywhere and a couple 100000 extra people will be here. The president will send 4 extra missionaries to the area and we are going to contact for 3 days as long as they partying doesn't get to crazy.

August 4th

It was early in the week and we had been knocking doors, two of our previous investigators had dropped us and we were just not feeling great. We took five minutes looked at a map and I picked out a street that wasn't to far away and we biked there. We knocked the first two doors and they were friendly enough but anything but interested, I thought just another average Danish street we might get one or two good chats in but a really tough street to get anyone really interested. Then came Door number three. To pause in Denmark you just never know what lies behind the door, it could be an inquisitive college kid, a beautiful young family, or in our case a rather hefty old man with a bone to pick with J W's. We knocked and he answered, his eyes immediately drifted to the name tag and then the gears start turning in his head, curse words were flying and I only understood the ones from the scriptures, he was not happy. He thought we were JWs and he wouldn't let us talk. I tried that to say that we were LDS but he ended his spew of profanity with a wave of his hand a told us that he will be ringing the police (it is illegal for JWs to knock streets) and would give our description to the police. He then puffed up his chest and with the biggest grin I have had since I landed in Denmark my comp said we are from the LDS church and that he should have a good day. As we walked off I ended with God Bless. I love Denmark because the work is so hard. I have gotten to the point that I understand about a third of what was said and I can peace it together by the time they end what they say. I am really getting noticeably better every day, or that is what the members are telling me. 

Or trip to Horsens, our district is composed of six people the two in silkeborg and then 4 in horsens, two elders and two sisters. We travel once a week to horsens for district meeting so I am on the trains about five hours a week, I really like riding them you get to see some really stunning views and over all it is rather affordable, about 2 dollars for a ride there one way. but this week we had splits so we left silkeborg at 7 and got to the apartment about 10, for the first part of the day I worked with Elder Bateman, he is 6 weeks older then me in the land so we are rather clueless in terms of great communication skills but we got in one lesson and to good potential investigators. It is easier to speak with him in Danish because he speaks as slow as I do so we did that for most of the day. The other Elder is the DL Elder Oakey and he is my favorite elder so far, we worked together after dinner and things went great. We got in on a less active and had good discussion about guns. He (less active) knows its true he is just two lazy to change but I held a good conversation about riffles with him and he was impressed with what it is that I know in terms of Guns, it was a lot of fun.

Friday night we had not had any success inside of silkaborg that day so after dinner we decided to go knock one of the small towns near by, we biked out to it and there was a total of two houses. One was for sale and the other was not ready to accept the church so we headed back. I had been talking with my trainer about his bike, it is called a fixie with one gear that can be locked so if you pedal back it goes backward or it can be like a normal bike. I suggested for the large hills coming up that he switch so he could coast down and not have to pedal to keep up with his legs. He said challenge accepted and tried to keep up with me with his one gear, behind me I hear a click, skreetch of a tire, then a pop and hiss should. then a yell of disappointment 'elder'. His chain had popped off, locked around the wheel stopping it dead and then he slide about 25 feet where the tire had warn through and then the tube popped. His first statement was you know what I think I am going to switch my gears around, I laughed so hard that I had nothing to say. We made the call to our DL and we started our 11 kilometer hike home. We got in at 1715 that night, but we had one funny conversation during that walk.

Since I have been In Denmark I have eaten nothing but fat, butter filled pork, pastries and really good yogurt and so far I have lost a little under 5 Kilos and I have my six pack back, I have no Idea how but I like it.

Love you Ældste Vance

His apartment and companions/roommates

his new bike

the view from his apartment