S9:E3 "Pollen knee, bolemic missionary"

Hello everyone, I hope that you all are doing dandy! I sure am. Nothing too out of the ordinary has happened with me. Just kinda... still missionarying.

Oh, starting off, right after emailing last monday, some guy stopped us and talked to us for like 20 minutes about how everything leads back to aliens and the flat skulls. He also talked about royal blood and things like that. It was pretty intense. Good ol' people like that. But nothing else too special happened that day, we just bought a whole ton of asian goodies from an asian import store.

Tuesday was fun, we played tennis, then had a lesson with Ashlee, the funniest british man in the world. We just had a nice discussion about taking that leap of faith, and finding confidence through obedience. But after that, we had a nice lesson with a guy named Leo. He is a nature lover, hippy for lack of better terms. He mainly just believes in intuition and karma and things like that. But we had a way good discussion about who God is and why he is there. He is a way smart goober. Right after that appointment, we went and ate dinner with Simon and Lise Lotte, my two friends. It was way good. They tried to kill us though, with hot sauce. I was crying for 5 minutes and it instantly gave me the hiccups. Definitely the hottest thing I've ever eaten. But we also had a good lesson about Family home evening and trying it out for them. :)

We helped out Maria, our good member friend move some things, then we ate lunch with her. I was also on splits again with Elder Christensen, the boy I trained. It was fun. Then we had a good lesson with a guy named Bull tut, he's from Africa. We talked about church and the blessings that comes from coming. All in all it was a good day. 

Thursday was thursday. We had district meeting, learned about setting goals. Then we ate some koldskål with a member, then we tried stopping by someone, but the bus drove right past us so we couldn't make it up there. But we finished off the night with an appointment with a nice older lady who is a member. We talked about how there is always a plan for us, and we shared the story in Ether 6:4-6,12. We just talked about how faith ties into these plans. 

Friday we got burned... darn it. But we finished off the day by having an appointment with Ashlee and a member. Ashlee wrote a song that was inspired by me. :) I will send it to you all when I get it. But that went very well. We talked about our life here on earth and that God sees the bigger picture. Kinda like the lesson from the day before. (2 Nephi 2:6-8,25)

Soccer on the weekend, like always it was way fun. Then we had a lesson with Thomas, our good friend that won't do anything. So we talked about what grace is, and tried to explain how we are saved by grace but still need to do something with our faith... but he still doesn't see it. But we believe! It'll come! Then we had another appointment with Maria, which was fun as always. 

Moving on to church, which was good. :P Nothing too special. Then we taught Ashlee again, he said that he wants to get baptized in the next 4 weeks. :D I'm way excited for him. But after that we tried stopping by someone, with no luck. 

Good week everyone. Keep the faith, thanks for the prayers! LOVES!

Ældste Swan

S9:E2 "Don't listen to your parents! Listen to your mind!"

Hey everyone! I'm doing just smashing! Århus is a nice area, and being a zone leader didn't really change much of what I do at all. I hope that everything is going well with all of you.

So this week was a blast. We started off on Tuesday with playing tennis with this way funny British investigator. That was a good start. We also had a way good  lesson with him. Then we had a sweet lesson with this couple named Simon and Lise Lotte, who have been investigating the church quite a while. They are living in Århus for a couple weeks because Simon is going through a rehab program for drinking. Which is working wonders. We just had a way chill chat with them. Got to know them and figured out what they want from the church. They both want the church in their lives to bless their baby, because they know that this will be the greatest blessing they can give him. AND with Simon, his occupation is a video game tester, right? :D Way awesome. Then to finish the night off, we went to SUV, which is just the institute thingy for the young single adults. They have a nice ward here, I'm excited to get to know them even better.

Wednesday went pretty well too. We went on splits at a place called Horsens. I went with a kid I knew pretty well from before the mission. Elder Bateman. He was in drumline with me. So we had a lot of fun talking about Mapleton and things, we also had some way good lessons. Nothing too exciting happened on splits. :P

Thursday we had district meeting, and it was weird to not be the one giving the lesson. But... things change in life haha. Then we went and had a lesson with Thomas which didn't go as well as I would've hoped. :P He has a testimony of the book of mormon, but doesn't believe that he has to do anything now, that just his faith will save him alone. Kinda kills me, because I feel like that defeats the purpose of faith if you don't do anything with it. But hopefully something will change in his life. :) After that we had a way good eating appointment with some members, and we completely shocked them, with how awesome we are. They were kind of in doubt on inviting missionaries over, but then we just had a way fun time, and had a nice little spiritual discussion after. It was amazing.

Friday was... alright. We did some stop bys, then weekly planning. Then we got lost because we took the wrong bus. And because of that, we missed our appointment with our investigator. :( But we finished the day off with some more stop bys. So it was all right. 

Saturday was soccer in the morning! :D Got to see and play with the British guy again. He is pretty much my most favorite guy in the world. After that we had another lesson with Thomas. Nothing changed. He told us he had a strong belief in the book of mormon, but didn't want to do anything with it. Then we went and stopped by some people. But while on the way, this way drunk middle aged greenlandic woman stopped us and started ranting. It started off nice enough just talking about how she is Christian. But then she got mad... then sad... then mad again. I thought she was going to kill us in the end. So as we started finally walking away from this woman she turns around and says "Don't listen to your parents! Listen to your mind!" and points at her forehead. So after this traumatizing experience, we took a little breather to laugh about it, then continued on our merry way. 

Sunday was church, then we got summoned to help move a table for this girl named Maria, but the table turned into a lot of things. And we ended up being there all day because we also had an eating appointment with her. I got to talk to her mom, who is this way smart marketing person, and I learned a lot from that. Yay! :D So it was a very good day.

Now I'm here, same as usual. Love you all, stay strong!

Ældste Swan

S9:E1 "A new place, a new beginning"

Hello hello hello! I am out of Aalborg sadly... but life continues on! I made it safe and sound into Aarhus, a lovely little college town. And my companion is Elder Gines, the other Snare drummer in the mission. So I'm excited for this. But I forgot my old planner, so I will try to say a little something something that happened in the past week.

It was mainly saying bye to people. We had a nice little appointment with Kate, we started talking about a goal to get her into the temple! YES! :D she is an awesome lady. That would make my day if she made it to the temple while I was here. 

I also got to say bye to the Frosts. We had a nice eating appointment. They are such a fun little family. Then I said bye to Malik Jørgensen, I'm gonna miss him a ton. The Greenlander that got baptized while I was there. We had a nice conversation about when things get hard in life. To focus on the testimony that you do have, not the testimonies you don't have. I always love talking about it. Because it's a very helpful little principle. Ummm... I got to see Familien Mathiasen as well, another awesome family. We shared Alma 17:2-3 with them, and talked about how we need to stay strong in the faith so that when we see eachother again, we will be as happy as they were in the scripture. It was a nice little feel good lesson. 

Ummm... we met with Abdi, who going through a way hard time and not liking his life... at all. So we talked some sense into him. Luckily. So that was an exciting day. 

Sakarias (Judithes Uncle) is back! Which means he is out of money so he can't by booze anymore... but still. We got to teach him a little, and he was at church! It was kind of a perfect way of ending off my time in Aalborg. 

Ummm.... Frozen yogurt places are taking over the town of Aalborg. Which is ridiculous. We walked past one being build, then 30 minutes later we walked past it again and it was the grand opening. This was the second one opening in the past 2 weeks! Scary scary things. 

I'm still doing well, still alive. This is kind of a short one because everything I do through the week just gets all mushed together into this big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.  

Love you all, and hope you have a great week!

S8:E10 "Elder Swan is moving??? :o "

So, I am moving next week. I'm moving about an hour south of here to be a zone leader. I'm pretty excited, but I'm way happy because I will still be coming back to Aalborg. :D It's not completely gone yet! I'm way happy for that, but it will still be sad to leave, leave all the great people here. :P oh well. But as for me and my week:

We started off on monday by stopping by having a fun family home evening with the Klitgaards. Sadly we didn't have anyone with us, but it was still good to see the sisters' investigators and try to uplift them and stuffs. Luckily for us, Sister Middlemas didn't bust out one of her random distracting comments like "Those seagulls are like Terradons, they are huge!". But it was a good day all in all. 

Tuesday we had a lesson with Abdi, which was a typical Abdi lesson. We talked about the plan of salvation, specifically where we come from, and that we are here on earth to become better. But his mind was just taking it to completely random places, but we eventually got it on track and taught the lesson. He is a great guy and trying his best though. Then we had a good visit with this less active girl who we had never met before. But she was way nice, and she hadn't been visited by missionaries for like 5 years. So it was about time. We talked about what a testimony is and where it comes from, and just got to know this sweet lady. She made fun of our danish, which kinda hurt my feel goods. But I forgave her. haha

Wednesday was fun. We had a nice little kate lesson, talked about the temple and what it is and how it blesses us. It was a good little chat, and a very good clarification for her. We also got to walk her dog that day, which was way fun. Her dog is probably the funniest looking creature that has ever been made. But I digress. We finished off the day by playing some b-ball. (sadly not outside of the school)

Thursday was zone training, a very needed interview was held afterwards. It helped me refocus and do things better. I love my mission president. He is an amazing man who has taught me so much. But interviews went a little long so we got home just in time to teach an institute lesson, and an investigator was there! It was a god lesson. We talked about obedience to the commandments and how we can test what really is from God, and that we learn and develop from the things we do and don't do. 

Friday was good, we had a party with the district for the 4th of july, I stepped n a bee, and it stung me. :( I hate bees, just like Nic cage. Then we did weekly planning. Then we had an appointment with the Vand de Weerds. (Maybrits parents.) I love them so much. It went great. 

Saturday was splits, I was with Elder Zalewski and had a party with him. We did a lot of finding, and it was still fun! It was crazy! We ate the last box of mac n cheese (Thanks fam) and everything was good. 

Sunday was a good church day, then we met with an awesome member family and ate dinner with them. We just joked about EFY or FSY and the real purpose of them.  It was way stinking funny. Then we finished the day off by stopping by one of our Greenlandic friends named Andreas, and we taught him and his friend that was there. Hopefully they will be in church on sunday, because it sounded like they wanted to come. 

But that's me, I'm doing way well still. I'm excited for the future, and time just seems to be flying by. 

Love you all!

Ældste Swan