Wow, this is a new experience. Memories are flooding back to me now, this
time I'm thinking, 'I wonder how Elder Francis did it?'... But, I must say that
I'm loving every minute of training.
Sometimes it gets a little tough
especially when I have to break the news that we still wear our proselyting
clothes on preparation days, but other than that everything is going great.
Elder Pike really wants me to speak Danish to him as much as possible, and I've
really been trying to harness that desire that he has to learn the language
even if it's hard sometimes and I really have to break things down. But I know he is trying his best and has a
sincere desire, so I have no doubt he'll be fluent in no time.
Our area is going really well.
Though it was a short week I felt like we weren't cut too short of a lot of
what this week had to offer. We got around to meet with some people that became
new investigators this week, and found time in between for Elder Pike to start building
some street contacting skills.
One great experience we had this
week was on the train ride back from Copenhagen on Wednesday. A women got on at
one of the stops and seemed to be very expressive with her hand. I picked up
right away that she was deaf and asked her in Danish if she could read my lips.
She must not have picked up on my unheard accent because she showed me that she
only picked up a little of what I was saying and asked me to write it down.
Turns out knowing how to write really DOES come in handy haha!
I asked her if she could teach us
any sign language and just made small 'talk' ;) until she got curious and asked
about our tags. We talked a bit about our faith and that's when she pulled out
the Watchtower... Yes, she was a Jehovah's Witness. She was very nice though
and even took a Jesu Kristi Evangelium pamphlet to read during the train ride.
It was such and awesome
experience, and a very weird circumstance of where, I guess you could say I
opened my mouth and the words came, maybe in a little bit different medium, but
they still came and it lead to another lesson and a prayer with a deaf women on
the train.
She taught us how to say Jesus in
sign language along with a few other things. I was happy to have met a new
friend even if she wasn't really that interested right now. Elder Pike's first
lesson in the land, and almost no words were exchanged haha, the Lord really
does work in mysterious ways, but it was a great experience that I will
remember for a long time.
Some exciting news this
week!! Elder Bednar will be coming to do a mission wide conference at the
Frederiksberg church in September!! Everyone is going!! News has spread,
and Pres. Sederholm, I heard from his own mouth, has said that Denmark could
very likely be getting Ipads in September. A little set back is that
missionaries have to pay for them themselves, but we get to keep them
after. September... it's gonna be BIG.
Amy Wood was in Copenhagen when I
was it turns out! I tried to get an appointment set up with her uncle
Troels, but he was busy :P Apparently she had been in church the day
before though and Elder Ogden and Elder Wright got to talk with her. We
found another investigator this week also named Lars, who promised us he would
come to church with his whole family and then never showed :( We'll be
stopping by this week to figure out what's up.
Our area president was in Church
this week, and I learned that I can understand Swedish! It's just Danish
slowed down with accents thrown in different places haha!
'S' came to church this week,
our investigator from Brazil!! She seemed to enjoy it a lot, but her teen
daughter who was translating for her we could tell was getting pretty bored and
they left right after sacrament meeting, but still she came and enjoyed
it!!
It's been a broken up week but a
very exciting one.
It was great getting to ride
around Copenhagen again on the same bike that Elder Francis used when he was
there (he gave it to one of the Elders that is now an AP in Copenhagen...
actually, his name is Elder Gifford and it turns out I did Velocity with him
before the mission, small world). I ate my favorite Copenhagen pastry,
slept in my old bed that's as hard as a rock, walked the same streets, it was
just great :) I was in heaven. It's like going home again after
being away for a few months.
I'm having a great time here
still in Viborg. I hope you both are loving it there, and I look forward
to pictures!! :)
Love,
Ældste Pitcher
