S10:E4 "Come and get it"

Welcome back to the Elder Swan show, this weeks episode is brought to you in part by viewers like you, thank you.

Not a whole ton has happened this past week. Just work. Monday was fun, we played hide and go seek in this fake jungle place, it was like a giant green house. That was an absolute blast. Then after that, we went and met with Ana, a girl from Portugal that got baptized 5 or so months ago. We just answered a lot of her questions that she had. It was awesome because we came into the lesson planning on talking about temples and temple work, and who would've guessed what questions she had. So we just talked about why we have temples, and what it does for us. She actually brought up a question that I had had. It was just about why we even have ordinances, like baptism, and we both just talked about how we thought that it was purely to help us. God can do anything, but his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. So with that in mind, the reason why we are required to do things is because it will help us. It was a way good discussion we had with her. 

We have been meeting with a British guy named Roy recently. He is super nice, but pretty paronoid. And it was funny, because we brought Ashley with us to an appointment and Roy was acting way weird in the appointment, and we found out later on that he was just super intimidated by Ashley because Ashley is a little taller. But Roy seems to be sincerely interested in our message, and it was awesome because he had read a book by Dallin H Oaks before we met him. 

We have also been meeting with this guy named Frank, another person from England. He is way good at piano, and he is Bhuddist. We have had some way interesting conversations about the similarities that we share. We should be playing ping pong with him sometime soon.

I also was able to go up to Aalborg again, and that means that I got to see the Mathiasens! So much fun, I love that family. Got to play with Thomas (the youngest) again. I swear everytime I'm there he just pulls out all of his toy guns. Then we were able to just talk with them after all the other missionaries left cause we had like 20 extra minutes before our train left. It was nice, we just talked about how much they had done for us as missionaries, and they told us about how big of a blessing it is to get visits from missionaries. 

We also were able to help Daniel clean up his house. Daniel is someone who has in most ways hit rock bottom. His house was nasty. I was the unlucky one who had to grow through 2 closets of clothes that had just piled up for 4-6 years. There was too much clothing... we had to organize all of it as well. But I was way happy to help him. It was something that I wanted to do for a very long time, ever since I saw his apartment. 

We also made with Fred, and he was teaching us Pigeon English, which is the greatest thing ever. Fred is so close, he believes it all, he just needs to start coming to church. But he is the best, I love when we meet with him. It was way funny because we rode the bus with him, and the lights were out for some reason on the bus, so it was way dark. So you could barely see Fred, until he smiled, then you just saw these super white teeth. 

We finished carving pumpkins as a household yesterday. It was loads of fun. I love the Elders that I love with. They are all super funny. 

Well... love you all, keep on being awesome!

Ældste Swan

 

 

S10:E3 "Tidalwave"

Hello everyone. Time is still just flying by, having fun out here.

The best thing that happened this past week was that I was able to experience the baptism of one of my best friends here, Anders Steen. That man did so much for me way back when I first got here to Denmark. It was the neatest experience to see him make the decision, and to see the joy that came from it. It was also awesome because it was me and Elder Holbrook who went down together (we were there in Sønderborg in the beginning) and we were able to stop by Andrea, the girl that we found and baptized when we were there. All in all, it was awesome. I love the town there, it's super pretty and the people down there are the best. They pretty much are still my family. 

But besides that, things have been going pretty normal, just working hard, seeing things happen. We have been working a lot with a guy named Leonard. Sadly the last time we met with him we had a way bold lesson with him on baptism and more specific how we have to do something with our faith and that our actions is what defines as us Christians. But he shot down baptism way quick... kinda just told us that he was happy where he was, why should he change. So that was way sad. But we also got to meet with Kaj and Inger, the nice older couple. We had a good little chat with Inger, who is the member, we talked a lot about how God is loving, and talked about comparing the scriptures to our lives when we study them. 

We taught a lesson to Simon and Lise Lotte, that went well. It was another spiritual thought on the blessings that come through obedience, and we tried to focus on why we have the church and why we try to live it. It was good. The church just brings blessings, whether it is long term or short term, we don't know. 

We also got to finally meet the girl that seemed insane and was texting us a whole ton. She definitely was kinda crazy... just a hoarder, of beauty products and things. And she pretty much just vented her life story and told us about why she doesn't like people anymore and why she doesn't trust them. So that was fun. We didn't really get to say much at that appointment.

I went on splits with Elder Christensens (Lil' bear) the other kid that I trained. That was a lot of fun to see him again. Pretty much all we did was some service for Maria. 

We got to meet this awesome english guy named Roy yesterday. He went on about how dreams can be prophetic and how we should be aware of what we dream. It was way neat actually, because he had like 20 folders full of papers with dreams written down. He has been writing down his dreams for the past 20 years. He was way nice, and seemed way interested in the book of mormon, although once again, we didn't have a whole ton of time to say things. 

But all in all, it's been a very good week. My pen exploded in one of my pockets, I wore my tight pant suit again, I ate the delicious kebab. Life can't get too much better than that. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Ældste Swan

 

 

S10:E2 "Right on time"

I'm already back to writing all of you again. It feels like it was just yesterday that I was doing this. But this week consisted of a ton of eating appointments.

But big news is that this saturday I will be going to Germany again for the baptism of Anders Steen! I'm so excited for that! It'll be me and Elder Holbrook again, going all the way down. :) Nothing better than that. 

We spent a lot of time working with a member named Daniel. He is someone who has hit rock bottom and it's hard for him to really do anything. But we had a way good lesson with him, and it was a weird invite we gave him, but we committed him to 1. shave his beard because it looked gross, 2. Finish washing his clothes and 3. Start cleaning up his house. Like I said, he was someone who had hit rock bottom... But it was actually awesome because later that night we saw him with a clean face, and he had washed his clothes, AND started cleaning up his apartment. But the best part was that he felt good, like he actually did something and that he was on his way up instead of just staying on the same level or being stuck in a rut.

We also got to teach Simon and Lise Lotte, and that went pretty well. But they had a fight afterwards... makes me scared for ever getting married. But I think that they are over it again and that they are doing well. 

Oh... I screwed up a 120 dollar tile carpet thingy for Maria. I felt way bad because she actually trusted me to cut it right. We just forgot to measure a little lip of the stairs, so there was a gap right there. That was a pretty lame day. 

But we got to eat at Flemmings again, the greatest family ever. It was a lot of fun, and we convinced Flemming to play a prank on one of the missionaries here. So that's in the works and I'm way excited for it. 

We had an awesome lesson with Ashley, that answered what he had been going through recently. We shared the Elder Oaks talk from General conference. And that talk was the one that talked about how we need to love everyone, unconditionally, no matter who they are, or what they do. A way good talk, I highly recommend watching it. Then we just started talking about how it's up to us to react the way that Christ would. That we need to focus on being Christlike, and loving God and our neighbor. 

Another talk that we have been using is the one from Elder Bednar. He gives a great analogy of how we work as humans and why we try to share the things we share. (specifically with the gospel) 

We also got to Eat with Lin, our awesome chinese member. But Simon, our Swedish investigator came with us. It was a lot of fun. And Lin tried to super spicy hot sauce. I felt so bad for the poor little asian. He looked so miserable. 

But everything is going well with me. Nothing too crazy has happened. Love you all, have a great week!

S10:E1 "Now let the story begin"

It's been a good week for me. Nothing too crazy happened. Although I got a new companion. His name is Elder Ludlow, and I was in the MTC with him, and I am way excited to be with him. I have a feeling that this transfer is just going to fly by, and that we are going to do a lot of work here as well.

But we had a fun family home evening this week, we had quite the turn out of new converts. We taught a good lesson on Christ and why he is important to us, and why we needed his atonement. Then we played a game that the sisters led out, called "big booty". It was just your run of the mill girls camp rhythm game, and let's just say that I was "the big booty", champion of that game. Simon and Lise Lotte have been doing alright, no huge fights in the past little bit. So we are way happy for that. 

Tuesday was a good day as well. We planned for zone training, and then we ate with Simon and Lise Lotte, and talked about repentance, and how we can be repentant. How we should feel remorse, then try to make things better and say sorry, then not redo it and so on. It was a good lesson, and a good thing to clarify.  

We had a way bold lesson with Asger, a less active that we know and are working with. We pretty much just kept bringing up the question of why he doesn't want to come to church, until he actually answered us. It was a good lesson, just very bold. We also had a nice chat with an investigator named Leonard, and taught a short lesson on Prophets and told him to watch General conference. 

We had our zone training, which was just role playing how to implement some things we are trying to change in the mission, then we had our zone activity, which went very well. We just played a whole ton of sports. Soccer, capture the flag, then frisbee. We were all pooped by the end of it, but that's how it should be. 

I also got to have an interview with President Sederholm. It was good to talk to him, and I learned a lot. Although it was weird, he brought up how I only have around 5-6 months left, then asked me if I would prefer to go home in March or May. I told him March because that would be much better when it comes to finding a job. But I would be happy either way. :) I always enjoy those interviews, it's always a spiritual experience. 

We told more service for Maria... which was normal service. Then we had an eating appointment with a lady in the ward who is scary. She is the type of old lady that is just mad for being mads sake. She is super duper judgemental of what people do, so you have to watch yourself when you are with her. But I think(hope) that I'm on her good side now. 

We also got to see Fred! I love the black man. He is super funny and he really wants to do his best to follow Christ. 

Saturday we had a little birthday party for Ashley before we played soccer. We made some breakfast for him in the church, then had the gang together. 

General conference was way good, I highly recommend watching or listening to it, and then reading it. There was a lot of good stuff there. I personally really liked Elder Christoffersons talk. 

Love you all, congrats to Phill for getting married.