November 17

Well to start out Congrats to my Sister and Will on EMMA I have heard the good news and holy cow it seems like just yesterday y'all told me that you were having a kid and that I was about to start my mission. Time flies in the service of the Lord.

District Activity- Our district had an activity this past district meeting and it was bowling. We had a great time, just relaxing a little bit and having some fun, I threw a bowling ball 37.64 kil/hr and afterwards we got a bite to eat and held our regular district meeting. 

Finall Days in Silkeborg- So there was not much craziness in the last days leading up  to the end other then a circut being blown in our apartment and then I had to try and figure out Danish electricity and fix it that was great but that was about it. Packing started Wednesday and ended Sunday night, I have acquired many things so far on my mission and trying to get them to fit in the suitcase is not the easiest job when I ended it was two 80 something lbs bags that were very full of stuff. I am going to slim it down next time after I know just how cold it is going to be.
  The last sacrament meeting was the biggest thing that went down. I had to bear my testimony and then I took pictures with everyone. I really feel like family there with all of the people that have helped me learn to read and speak danish. To finish things off a member made a feast for us to say goodbye and good luck. It had turkey bacon and Icelandic Layer Cake which is the best stuff on earth holy cow. I swear it is like nuttela and cream and coconut yummm.

Transfers- The day started with a 530am wake up call, getting ready for the day and then heading to the bus, from the bus to train one and from train one to train two. 4 hours later I ended up in the big city with the assistants there with a car there to take me and the new assitant home. I set my stuff down and we ran to get some food and then biked through down town to get to the library and start emailing. So that is it right now but some awesome pics of the place and of Copenhagen will be comming.


A Testimony by yours truely
So there have been a couple of things that I wanted to do recently and this is one of them. I want y'all to know that I know that this church is true. I just finished reading the BOM in Danish and after I finished I hit my knees for a little while to double check and see if it was true and if I was out here for the right reasons. My conclusions were as follows one the book it true and it is also true in Danish. Two, Joseph Smith was a true prophet and some of the evidence comes from the BOM and also from Docterine & Covenents. Jesus Christ is our brother, savior and redeemer and we are only able to get back to God and Heaven through his great sacrafice and Atonement. As I have been here I have been trying to figure out my own knowledge of Christ and who he is or was and my conclusion has been that he is and will forever be the man. He was a perfect individual with patience and love but he was also perfectly balanced in all things and I know it is only by his blood that our sins can become clean again. I love you all so much and wish you happy hollidays and close this i Jesu Kristi navn Amen

November 10

 

So this week has been a lot of fun with our celebration of thanksgiving a reactivation, branch conference, and to end news about transfers.

 

Thanks giving, we traveled to Århus for a zone conference/training and it was great. This month was all about finding and talking to everyone that we can possible make contact with, including contacting on bikes and other crazy stuff. I we got some more ideas on how to contact but I mean life is every changing and to be good at contacting you just have to be ridiculously outgoing, talking to anyone and everyone that would listen. The best contactor I have seen is just a very easy going kid who is really good at cracking jokes and that is how he starts all of his contacts with a great joke and a complement or something like that. I will be trying the new stuff out in the next couple weeks and see how good I can get at connecting with people in a split second.

 

After the training we had lunch it was a great deal of turkey and mashed potatoes, I ate three servings of each because you don't see that every day here. Then came the talent show, the tripanionship put on a little reenactment of the night before Christmas with a mission transfers theme. There were lots of talents from guitar to violin and singing and skits, just missionaries that wanted to relax and have some fun. And like all great thanksgivings there was football, we had two zones and a lot of people to play so we split up in districts and had some fun with it, nothing to competitive but just a lot of running around which is just not possible as a missionary. On the way home we got on the train covered with mud and looking for some people to talk to on the train ride home, I plopped down next to the nearest college kid and started talking a little about his math book, the subject that he was studying and why (at this point he switched to English) and we started talking about differences in the culture of Danish and really every where else, some of the most important things that we are supposed to do in life and why we thing they are so. I started into the differences in religions and then to Joseph Smith but he soon lost interest. I then just asked him a lot of questions about how to say things in danish and he ended up just laughing at my attempts to pronounce them. Then I brought up Christmas and some of their traditions that they have in his family and the train ride was over. I was not the most successful contact I have ever had but it was the one where I was most like myself, I am almost to the point where I can be myself in danish but there is  a lot more work to be done before I am there.

 

Branch Conference- so a less active that we have been working to help come back to church has been coming on and off since my second transfer here and this last week she has been coming enough to be reclassified as active wowowoowowowowowo that is great for her, and we are working on setting a date for her to work towards the temple. At branch conference we meet the new stake President and enjoyed a great meal prepared by the ladies in the ward.

 

Today I learned that I am going to Fredricks Berg which is in down town Copenhagen and is a 4 man Apartment with the assistants so I will be able to ask some of the best danish speaking missionaries about questions I have every day.

November 3

 

So a week of many blessings.

Splits in Horsens

- I was on splits this week with the district leader and we headed out after lunch to give some service to an investigator who was has been difficult to get a hold of. It had been about three months since the last set of elders had spoken with him because of some medical conditions he is sleeping a lot of the day. We started to mow his lawn when out of no where he walks out, he is from Florida and asked if we could come in and teach him and his kids a little about God and clarify some questions he had. I about dropped on the spot you don't get asked that ever in Denmark so we went inside and he asked many really great questions committed himself to read the Bom and come to church, what an experience and blessing that was to me and to the District leader.

A Less Active coming Back

- We have a less active who has been very set in her ways since she was baptized and hadn't been back to church for a long time, in the past two months she has been 5 times and has committed to keep coming. Awesome

Endurance like none else

- So something went wrong with my bike the other day and it was late in the evening, I looked at it, it was strange it would roll without me on it just fine but wouldn't roll with me on it at all. (came to find out later that the quick release on the back wheel was up and when I sat on it the wheel would pinch itself in the breaks but when I got off it would release, crazy thing so we started walking but weren't going to make it in time for our missionary curfew so I started jogging and the other missionaries were riding next to me for 7 klicks until we got home with 1 minute to spare, I haven't ran in a long time it was a lot of fun but everyone who saw the three missionaries gave us some crazy looks like why is that third one running. I fixed the bike the next day when I could see it in the light, crazy stuff.

There are so many miracles that I get to see in a week that to list them all would take more then 2 hours I hope you all get a taste with just the one or two that I can write in time, know that I love you and can't wait to see y'all at Christmas.

This next Monday we should get calls telling us where we will spend Christmas, crazy that I have been out that long already. I will always keep you in my prayer

Love GV

October 27

So this last week we had many interesting things happen, out district meeting was on Tuesday so we traveled up to Horsens and had a blast with the District helping each other set new goals and conference about new ways to try old things like knocking and street contacting. Then returned and worked the rest of the day. Wednesday morning we had a visit from the Couple missionaries who came to inspect out apartment, we passed with flying colors. (Mom I have kept the who thing clean since the day I got there, I even make my bed).
 Quick story- so out sinks seal was bad and it leaked a little so we went to the hardware store to get a new one with the Couple, they were newer in the land then I was so I directed them around the store and talked with the employees trying to find what we need. I am so thankful that Danish has a lot of English Cognates. Well found the parts and repaired the sink and got a great candy bar from them.
 Anyways life continues and that night the Horsens Elders got in for splits, because I am the oldest one in the area I had to make plans for two sets of elders to go around and explain where everything was and is. Next morning we went out to work, two went to a lesson the threesome (I was in the three) took off to visit a Less Active that lives outside Silkeborg. Well we made it about 3/4 of the way there when we got a flat tire (theme of my mission) and walked it all the way back home. We fixed it and took off to go try and catch an investigator before he went to work and on the way up we got a flat tire awesome. We ditched the bikes and went knocking for the rest of the night and ended with a lesson at a Less actives home.
 Next day We repaired the bike again and take off to an area that has a lot of promising potential investigators, we set up two appointments and find another potential investigator and begin our Journey home when once again we had a flat tire, (total to date 34 flat tires in my mission all with my companions bikes) We then spent the next two hours walking out bikes home. Well many many many flat tires but there is just one more that I would like to talk about and that is the miracle flat tire.
 We were biking heading over to knock a new area when one of the elders got a flat and we had to stop for a minute, in that time a young man that we had been teaching English to pulled up on his scooter and wanted to schedule an appointment, he had lost our number and didn't know how to get in contact with us again. Well we set it up and it should be a great meeting.
 So this was a basic summary of the week hope you all have a great week, love
Æ GV