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