S5:E3 "Illnesses, and surprises!"

Hey everyone! Sadly this email will be kept pretty short because... we didn't do a whole ton this week. But I'm still doing well. Nothing wrong with me!

Monday was alright. We went into the city, after emailing and buying food to check out a church there. But it was closed right when we got there... after that we had an awesome dinner appointment which consisted of 6 missionaries and one family. It was... different from what I am use to. But still a lot of fun. After that we started splits. I went with Elder Petersen, a kid from Idaho who is going home in a couple weeks. So we had some really good conversations about plans after the mission.

Tuesday morning, we eat some Petersen eggs. Which is Rugbrød with spicy mustard on it, then a piece of ham, then a fried egg. It is suprisingly good. After that we had district meeting... that I had to teach and lead. That was fun. We talked about the differences between love and charity, and what both of those words mean. After district meeting, we ate some lunch as a district, then me and Elder Petersen went out and got a referral from the office, then we gave the guy a book of mormon like he wanted. On our way back from doing that, elder Petersen wasn't feeling well... so we went back to his apartment and he just laid there and we talked a little.

Wednesday we spent the day stopping by two potentials investigators. One of which moved, the other one wasn't too interested. Then we tried stopping by some less active members to no luck. And to close the day off, my companion was feeling sick, so we went home early.

Thursday, we were stuck inside all day because of illness. Until night time, then we went to choir practice. Which was fun. One of the members rage quit because he felt that the choir director was blaming all of the mistakes on him.

Friday, we made some cookies and gave them away. We talked with a 92 year old woman, who has lived in the same house all of her life. :o she told us about when she became a member a long long time ago, which was cool to hear about Denmark way back when. For the most part we were just trying to stop by some less actives.

Saturday, trapped inside again, this time it was all day. I wrote some letters, drew some random things, studied my scriptures, thought about life, and all of that fun stuff.

Sunday was a good day. We went to the church and had choir practice, then we had the normal church services, with our investigator named David Barrett there! After church, there was a little ward eating thing, then we had choir practice again right before the concert. Then the concert happened. Which went really well. David Barrett came to that as well. Right after the concert is when I ran into Sister Robertson, a member from my home ward. It was a big surprise, and it took me a long time to realize who it was. But we ended up talking for awhile about the home ward, and people back home and how everything is going. It was a nice random encounter.

That was my short, fairly uneventful but still fun week. I hope you all had a great week, and have a great week.

Love,

Ældste Swan

S5:E2 "Shoe shopping"

Hello everyone! It's that time of week Again! By some miracle I am still alive, and willing to write to you all today!

 

So the area here is getting better. I'm slowly getting a handle of how the Work should go, and how the companionship will Work, as well as the district. I'm still having fun with my companion, but the Work is quite... tedious right now. But it will only get better. We had quite the exciting week, so without further introduction:

 

Monday, we wrote home, then we worked because we had the zone thanksgiving dinner later that week. So we wrote home, finally got a vacuum cleaner!!! Which is a huge bonus, I enjoy a clean Apartment every once in a while. Then we went and tried finding some less actives. Sadly we didn't have a Whole ton of luck on Monday. We also ate dinner with the Sister missionaries in our district. (By my companions request) which was fun, but they just asked him lot's of questions about eating horse over in iceland.

 

Tuesday was fun. We started off the day by playing football as a zone, in some freezing Cold weather. (Standard turkey bowl, am I right?) after that we had a good Little zone conference, and our zone leaders gave an uplifting lesson. Then we ate, and ate, and ate. It was nice to eat some stuffing, it felt very American, and took me back to the good old days of 'freedom'! Right after the dinner fest, there was a talent show, but sadly, I don't have any talents so I didn't do anything... maybe NeXT year I will end up doing something. After the zone activity we had a lesson with Jonas and Shi Xin. Jonas is a member, but has been less active for quite some time, and Shi Xin is his non-member girlfriend. This lesson was bad because we didn't really have anything prepared, because I have never met them, and my companion didn't have a Whole ton to say. So the member that we brought with us ended up taking over the lesson, which ended up being really good. But it made me feel bad because I couldn't help out a Whole ton. But he is an awesome member, and it made me see that I was in a really good Ward.

 

Wednesday, we started off by knocking some doors, then stopping by an old lady in our Ward, WHO gave us hot coco and sweets. :) It was a way nice break from the Cold, she also has a super strong testimony and has been a member for a very long time here in Denmark. After that we went looking for less actives Again, and trying to get in touch with them. We found one really positive older lady, that told us to come back, but that she was sick so it will have to be NeXT week. So we are definitely following up on that.

 

Thursday, I bought some shoes, and a measuring cup, and some other Things that I/we needed in the Apartment. Sadly we are still missing a lot of Things in the Apartment, and I don't have the MSF right now to buy everything for it. So hopefully NeXT month it will be all completed. But after buying some shoes, we had splits with 2 members. It was awesome! I went out with a Thomas, a very strong member. We had really good discussions in the car to appointments. We also had some very good appointments with members. (Home teaching) He seems like one of the members that I can just turn to whenever I think help with something. 

 

Friday was not a productive day. So in the morning we went to the office to pick up some Things for our Apartment, then we ate lunch with the sisters, which ended up with a super grumpy neighbor of theirs yelling at us. Then we went to our Apartment, to find that we didn't have the keys anymore... So we went back to the office to get the spare keys, after getting those we go back to our Apartment, and go right inside the door to the opgang, to see the keys on the bulliten board. So we go Upstairs and drop off the stuff, then we go and talk to a less active, WHO says that he has a problem with the history of the church, and that we can't do anything to help him. Then we went home and weekly planned. Although, the best part of the day was the delicious cinnamon rolls I made that night. It was the first time I felt that they actually turned out well. So that was a Blessing. :D

 

Saturday, we played some soccer! I even had shoes for it this time so my toes didn't just die! That was a lot of fun. After soccer we went home and showered, ate some food, then went out and delivered some cinnamon rolls to some members. Sadly, none of them were home, so we left them on the doorstep. Later that night we had a really good lesson with Jonas and Shi Xin. It was more of a hang out session than a lesson. My companion was teaching Shi Xin German, while I talked to Jonas about what he believes in, and what he wants in life. I felt that it went really well, especially compared to the last appointment we had with them.

 

Sunday was the Primary program in church! Which is always enjoyable. But what made it even better was the Jo, a less active showed up, with his non-member wife, all because their daughter wanted to be in the primary program! (Kid doing missionary Work!) After the program I talked to Jo and he said that he really wants to come back into the church, and we need to help him read every night and all of that. So for my first time meeting him, he seems way promising. Then after church we had a missionary meeting, where we just told the Ward mission leader about our investigators. Then we stopped by a less active, WHO turned out to not even be a member which was super awkward for us. But I'm glad we got it figured out.

 

Now I am here! Still going strong (Enough) I hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Ældste Swan

S5:E1 "Transfers, hospital, and turtles"

Hello everyone! I hope you all have had an exciting week like I have. Transfers went decently. I eventually made it to Virum, which is the North part of Copenhagen, where all the rich suburbs are. So I guess I will start of talking about my companion then I will go through my week.

 

My companion is Elder Gudnerson, from Iceland. He is coming up on 19 soon. He played a lot of video games. (Skyrim) He has always been a member, he has actually lived in Denmark for 4 years of his life. So he knows about half of the members that we see, and almost everyone knows his dad. He is a quiet kid, that enjoyed that sanctuary of his computer. He was born in Germany, then moved to Denmark when he was 11 or so, then moved to iceland. He is really smart, and really funny. (In a European way)

 

But anyways, onto the week:

 

Monday, it was my last p-day in Sønderborg, so we bought some stuff, and stopped by some people to say bye to them. Then we closed the day off with an eating appointment with Familien Eriksen. That was a lot of fun. We took the last Picture of "The LDS assassination squad" which is a little sad, but that's okay. After that it was my last time stopping by Tai, my lovely nerdy friend in Sønderborg. I will miss all of them, such a great area down there.

 

Tuesday rolls around, and this is train ride day. We stop by Andrea, the girl that was baptized to say goodbye and give her some of the death brownies I made. That was sad, but we will definitely stay in contact. Then we saw our mission leader one last time. We ate some rolls with Tom, and said goodbye and talked about the future, and coming back to visit and all of that. Then we were off, and a 4 hour train ride. When we got into Copenhagen we ended up eating at Hardrock café,which was awesome. AMERICA!!! Then we spent the night with some other elders in Copenhagen.

 

Wednesday, I say goodbye to my son, Elder Holbrook leaves me to go and get my grandson. Then I head up to Virum which took 2 hours because we got lost driving up there. I meet my new companion, say goodbye to his companion because he was going home. Then we had a missionary meeting with the ward, so we saw some of the priesthood leadership, and got to meet them.

 

Thursday was an alright day, because we were literally left with nothing to work with when I got here, we spent all day trying to find some less actives. Sadly none of them answered. But our day was still fun because I had an awkward encounter with a girl on a bike, who ended up laughing at me :( and elder Gudnerson got the bus doors closed on him.

 

Friday, was the same as Thursday, tried finding less actives, and they were all sick, busy, or not home. We knocked a little just because I started to realize that we have nothing to work with... nothing too exciting, although I saw the nerd shop here! It has all the comics and card games you could ever want, I am excited to go there.

 

Saturday we had something different!!! We woke up and played some soccer with the ward in a gym. That was a lot of fun. Although I was wearing these super wimpy shoes that just felt like cardboard and gave no support, so right now my shins feel like jelly because of shin splints. After playing soccer with the 3 sisters and the ward we went home, I tried to fix up the terrible blister on my toe. Ate some lunch and showered, then went to the church for choir practice. We practiced, then got some dinner, then Elder Gudnerson was supposed to play piano for the bishop and his family. (Accompany) So he wanted to practice a little bit. So after the practice and everything we went into stake conference. Elder Gudnerson said that he had a really bad headache, and I kept asking if I could do something, he finally stands up and goes out side and he says it's hard to breath, and he ended up hyperventilating. So I went back into the chapel where the bishop and his family was sitting at the microphone, and I just told them that my companion was sick. Then I got the mission president and we went to the hospital, because my companion wasn't doing well at all... So we get to the hospital, this super nice nurse calms him down, puts the back on his face and everything. Then we sat there for a long time while he got over the feeling of shock, and after getting home at 11:30, I made him take some ibuprofen and then we slept.

 

Sunday, he was feeling a lot better, but we still had a chill day just to not risk him dying or anything. It was still stake conference, so we went to that, and sung in the choir, which was a lot of fun. After stake conference we got to see a ton of people. I got to see lot's of missionaries that I haven't seen since the MTC which was cool. After that we had studies\me taking control of this area and trying to figure it out. Then we had the fun choir practice. They were singing in English :D and it was just our ward. So we had a way good time with that, then for refreshments for it, they brought some brownies and things, but the kicker was a box of 45 chocolate turtles. I ate at least 4 of them, and I was very happy. :) We also ate dinner with the sisters, and they pointed out that elder Gudnerson kept using the word hyperventilate, and joking about that. (sisters -.-)

 

But now I am here. Still alive, still going strong. Looking forward to Christmas, and livening Virum up, because it is dead. Thank you for your prayers and everything. I miss you all and hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Ældste Swan

S4:E12 "Far far away, to the suburbs"

Hello everyone!!! I hope you all have had a fantastic week. Here in Denmark has been really Cold, and really stormy, but still really good. We got some big news this past week about transfers. We found out that I am going to Copenhagen, the suburbs of Copenhagen none the less, as district leader, and training some goober from Iceland. So I am excited for that, but it will be way different. I'm leaving my nice small farm town of Sønderborg and going to one of the richest parts of Denmark. That's the big news of the week, so I am making a long move this wednesday and my address will be changing. As for my week:

 

Monday was a good day, we had the elders in our district Down here just to have fun together. But it was super duper stormy. It was actually the biggest storm that Denmark has ever had. (At least the windiest) We were just walking Down the gågade almost getting blown over and getting hit by leaves in the Wind that felt like razer blades because of how fast the Wind was. But it was all for experiences sake! :D We also played on a playground and got super Dizzy, which was fun. Then we went to Familien Kuntz and ate dinner with them, and sadly said good bye to them. I love that Family so much. Also, the trains weren't running because of the storm, so Esbjerg elders were stuck with us for that night.

 

Tuesday, we finally got the other elders out of our Apartment! Then we cleaned for 2 hours because we had Apartment checks. After cleaning we went up with Andrea to teach Andrea's cousin. That went really well, although she lives really far away. We just went over the basics points of what we believe, the first lesson. She said that she just believes that everything is one, and if it gives you hope, then it is good and true. So that was an interesting perspective to hear. After that we drove home and gave Kenneth a tour of the church, and just talked about how the services run Down. He was just bashing the Danish Folk Church the Whole time, and was supporting the Things we did. After the tour we read a Little bit in the book of mormon and he was super interested to see what it was all about. After that we watched some of the "Hastening the Work of salvation" broadcast with Andrea, and ate some lemon cake.

 

Wednesday, this was the day we got the transfer call, so I was quite sad the Whole day. But we stopped by Eileen and shared a lesson with her about why we have church, and what it does for us. After Eileen we took our last Tønder trip to visit Emil. Like usual it was awesome and we ate a lot of good food. Then I just told them thanks for everything that they have done for me. The Ward became like my Family here.

 

Thursday came around and that was a district activity! Our district came Down to our turf for Halloween, and the plan was for them to take a bus to a place called Åbenrå, but sadly, the tickets didn't Work, so we ended up cramming everyone into our small car. (Including one in the trunk) Once we got to the magical town of Åbenrå we played some football on the Beach even though it was really Cold, then we walked around the town and just gazed and it's beauty. After that special moment we went to the same chinese resturaunt that we ate at last week and got some food. We played some basketball, talked a lot about our pasts, then drove home and got some icecream before they had to take off. It was also my last time seeing them, so that was a sad moment to say bye to them... but oh well, that's how it goes. After they left we went up to Peters to visit him. He is finally done with Kemo which is good, but he is still sad because of his wifes death. It was a super sad meeting just because we were sad that I was leaving. After that we went over to Rubitas, WHO is an 18 year old girl, WHO was just stressed because of guy drama, so we ended up talking with her about highschool drama the rest of the night. Which was... fun.

 

Friday, I didn't write anything in my journal so I will try to remember what we did. I packed a Little bit, then we stopped by Maria and heard her Little rant about how we need to set our own limits so we can improve. We also stopped by Tom and that was the last time for me cleaning his house! Umm... we had another appointment but I can't remember that right now.

 

Saturday was a good day, we made our Little weekly newsletter, then we weekly planned, then we had dinner with Familien Steen. We read with them and talked about their testimonies. Anders said that he is 80% sure that the Book of Mormon is true. Then we brought up that the last step is to pray about it. I love that Family so much. We said goodbye, hugged it out, dropped a few tears, then we went home.

 

Sunday, last day in church, said thank you to the Ward for everything they have taught me, and also had to say bye to most of them. After that I packed some more, then said bye to Maria, went up to Nordborg to return a book to John Sundahl, then we had an eating appointment with Familien Cullingford. That was a really fun time, just chatting and playing some Cards with the Family. Then we said bye to them. And now we are here! :D

 

So that was my super lame run Down of my week. I hope you all enjoyed it, and be constructive with your feedback, please. :)

 

Much love for you all,

Ældste Swan