October 27, 2014

Hey, I need y'all to send me some drum scores!!  I don't know if Pres. Sederholm would allow it, but I'll ask him this week about getting something together with Elder Gudmundson for a zone talent show coming up, so I'd like to at least be practicing if the opportunity presents itself :) 

I haven't done the wreath class yet... If I do it will probably be in the future though so I'll let you know :)  I'm so happy to hear about everything in the family and back home.  I know that my family is being blessed because of my missionary service. I just wish I was there to partake of it a little bit! ;)  Aunt Val is in my prayers, and I'm really glad to hear that you have that opportunity to go with her for the first time.  Elder Lester and I got to go to the temple this week as well, since we took an 'essentials p-day' and went down to Copenhagen on Friday. 

Silver Boy at Helsingor Harbor

I didn't get pictures though. I know you probably want to beat some sense into me, but in my defense my camera was broken, and the thought didn't occur until later anyway.  So sorry again.  I'll repent and be better one of these times :P 

Here's kind of how my week went:

This was a wonderful week in Helsingør for teaching.  We know we still have a lot to improve on, but we are really working hard, and we've been seeing success, and progression in those whom we teach.  ‘V’ was in church this week, and even talked a little about her own new found faith in Christ in guest class!  ‘R’ has completely stopped drinking and even agreed to a date when he would come to church for the first time in a very long time. 

We also just recently started teaching another man named ‘O’.  He's a Jehovah's Witness, but surprisingly open to hear about our church.  We have met with him twice now, and he has already started talking with his family about the Book of Mormon, and was upset when he told us he gave away his only copy for his sister to read!  We have plenty of Romanian Books now, and he says to bring everything we can for himself, and for the family members he would like to share with.  The lessons with him right now are a little all over the place, but we've seen improvement in the concepts he is grasping. 

Elder Lester and I also were able to attend the temple this week on Friday.  It was an uplifting experience, and something that I feel both Elder Lester and I really needed. 

Afterward we went by the office to pick up our Romanian books, and pamphlets and I could tell that there was something up.  I greeted all of the office missionaries, and talked a little bit about how I missed being in Copenhagen so I could see them all more often. 

Before we left we asked if there was anything we could do for them before we headed out to get some lunch on the way home.  Sister Hamblin looked at Sister Swena, then at us, and asked if we would be willing to give Sister Swena a blessing. 

Beautiful Helsingor

I'm not sure if you've heard about this yet or not, but it was a comforting experience.  After gathering in an office we said a prayer and gave sister Swena an anointing and blessing.  She could probably better tell you how the experience was, but what struck me the most was what Sister Swena said to us on our way out.  She said "thank you both for being worthy of your priesthood, I could feel it through the blessing."  

That hit me right between the eyes.  I always knew it was important to be worthy to properly administer to others, but for them to be able to RECOGNIZE any kind of difference made me realize that I always want to live worthy of that privilege.  Needless to say, I had a good week, and I'm still loving it here. 

‘V’ just came and surprised us at the library.  She said that she sent mom a friend request on facebook, so go check for that, she wants to send you some pictures :)  It might be good to just drop her a note as well to say thanks for taking care of us. 

We are with the ‘D’ family a lot, and they really do take care of us. 

Love you both!

Ældste Pitcher

October 20, 2014

Hey Mom,

I promise I didn't forget your birthday, I figured I'd just save the B day greetings for the P day that was closest.  Looking back now though, I should've done it last chance I had to email.  Hope you don't mind.  Happy Birthday!!  :)  I'm glad you enjoyed the tag.  I was going to put a note with it, but it was really rushed/ I didn't think of that until Breanna (that's weird to say) told me to at zone training and didn't have time to ;)  I'm glad you got to meet some of the missionaries.  They are a good feel for just the caliber of missionaries that this mission produces.  They are all fantastic, and especially those you sent pictures of :)  

Go ahead and just buy the camera and ship it to my address.  It's:     Belvedervej 52. 2, 32

                                                                                                             3000 Helsingør DK

Let me know if there are any other problems you have with it, and maybe I can just find one here.  I just feel like I'm always way too busy to look around for anything like that so this way seems easier, but let me know.  

Here's how my week went... It's been a pretty exciting week here in this part of the country.  Last Monday Elder Lester and I went to our investigator 'V's house so that I could get my hair cut.  It was the first time I got the experience of teaching as someone else cut my hair.  It was a great lesson and she accepted the challenge to pray for an answer if Jesus really is the Christ (since after using the baptismal questions we realized we needed to start right from the beginning).

Fast forward to splits on Thursday and she got her answer, she knows Christ is her Savior.  I was ecstatic, and what was more, Elder Bradshaw and I had an incredible experience of our own happen the same day.  

While out knocking in Frederiksværk we knocked into a man that showed a lot of interest in the church.  He said he was busy at the moment, but told us he would really like us to come back, so we exchanged information and left to knock the next door.  After knocking the next door though Elder Bradshaw got a call.  It was 'F', the man we had just exchanged information with, and he wanted us to come back. 

Elder Bradshaw and I started to get anxious... We weren't sure what to make of this man telling us to come back.  When we got to the door he invited us into his house and had us make ourselves at home.  He went on to tell us that after we left he sat down alone in his house and felt suddenly awful telling us to come back later when he had time right then.  He felt prompted to call us back.  He added that he knew we were servants of Jesus Christ, and that he had a desire to come back to Christ, being religious himself, and knowing that the Savior had helped him through so many of his life struggles. 

I felt the prompting to tell him exactly what he needed to do to follow the Savior, and extended him the invitation to be baptized.  He said 'one day' and then started off into another topic.  We were running late to another appointment, but he said we could stop by at any time, and that he was willing to meet again. 

It was an incredible lesson, and experience for both Elder Bradshaw and myself.  Things like this always happen on splits. 

'V' also asked me to make a wreath for her out of branches from her front yard.  It actually turned out quite nice... And that's just the trouble ... Elder Lester is now showing everyone he possibly can and bragging about the stupid thing.  'A' (a Norwegian women in our ward) is even talking about setting something up with the relief society so that I can hold a class on it...  not that I'm not flattered, but.... Hopefully everyone just forgets the whole thing ;)  

I also found out that the girl that gave me her phone number at Matt Boulton's wedding reception is Elder Lester's ex-girlfriend's sister.. Ha!  It was a funny little connection.  I've had a pretty great week.

You are all in my prayers, I love you all so much!

Ældste Pitcher

October 13, 2014

Hey ma and pa

So I broke my camera..... :P  I biffed it on my bike and when my bag flew around I landed right on it.  The card is ok, and the camera still turns on, there is just something wrong with the lens or the screen or something because the options come up on the screen but there is no picture... Should I just buy a cheap new one?  I'm having Elder Lester take pictures of me in the meantime, but just let me know. 

I'm really excited that ya'll get to meet Sister Rogers... Or should I say Breanna... That's weird ;)  She is a great missionary, and was a lot of fun to be around.  Tell her hi for me. 

Oh yeah!  You guys are talking about ‘S’!  He's great, we actually just had our second appointment with him today.  There are just a few more hang ups, but he knows that this is what he needs to do.  Such an incredible story. 

His parents were members when he was young, he grew up in primary, then they separated, and he lost his way.  He had a crazy life style, but since finding the missionaries has made a complete turnaround in his life.  He is planning on getting baptized before the end of the year, and even sooner if he can get around this one last hiccup.  He plays in an ACDC cover band. He's just awesome :) I don't know about the meet the Mormons movie yet, but I'll be sure to ask at the next zone thing. 

So I've heard that this whole mission thing is supposed to go by a lot faster once you get to the year mark, and I must say, that now I understand why.  I am just trying as hard as I can to make sure that I'm always counting UP to 2 years, and never counting down from the half way mark. 

This week I got to go to a little moto cross thing for kids since my companion is so handy with that stuff and a less active in our ward's sons are really into it.  Basically all we did for an hour was pick little kids up out of the mud and get there bikes started again, but we had a lot of fun. 

We also had a humbling experience with contacting one man on the street who had just recently lost his wife earlier that week.  He wasn't able to understand much of what we were saying, only spoke a little Danish and no English, but he explained as best as he could in a thick Serbian accent that his wife had just recently passed away, and that his grandson down the street could help translate.  As we walked he burst into tears, and I got the strong impression to just put my arm around him.  We walked, and he talked about how sad he was, and I just reassured him that everything would be ok. 

When we got to the shop his grandson was at he started translating as we tried to tell him about the happy message we had that his wife would be with him again.  He wasn't interested in talking about anything religious, but he was grateful for the comfort. 

No big miracle story, but I felt better about myself after, and I could tell that it was what he needed at that moment. 

We also were contacted by a Jehovah's Witness missionary (not uncommon) to come to a bible study group.  I normally am not into going to those kind of things, but we decided we would try and see since we had recently contacted a JW couple who were interested in what we had to say, and figured there might be a good chance that they would be there. 

The JW's burned our appointment though. Turns out they don't really meet there when they say they do. Oh well, we might try back in a few weeks. 

It's been a great first week for me here in Helsingør! I'm loving my new area and my new companion and new people. I really felt like this fresh start in a new area was really good for me.

Elder Lester and I are working hard to make this a changed area. There seem to be a lot of old habits from previous visits that I'm starting to notice, and that we both want to change. I'm really looking forward to seeing the change in this area and myself over the next few weeks.

Love you both.

Ældste Pitcher

October 6, 2014

Hey Mom and Dad!

I'm in Helsingør! This is so crazy to be back on Sjælland. We got transfer calls on Wednesday so sorry you all didn't hear about it before. 

New address:

Belvedervej 52. 2, 32

3000 Helsingør

Hey, you should also at least get in contact with Sis. Rogers parents sometime later this week, because I sent home a small little token with her to give to you, and if you don't go you might be able to try and pick it up later. Just let me know.

I was happy to also find that my area is beautiful and my companion Elder Lester is awesome. I'm really looking forward to my time here.

This last week in Viborg Elder Pike and I had was good. In all honesty I don't know what more I can say than that. We finally met with good friend ‘K’ again, and it sounds like he's just been busy with work so hopefully things will start accelerating as we figure out his schedule a little bit better.

Other than that it was just a lot of goodbyes, and exchanges of gratitude with those that I've worked with for the past 5 transfers. I loved my time in Midtjylland, but as I mentioned before, I'm excited for the change.

I'm not really sure what else to think right now... I can see Sweden from this library, that's how close we are. Sorry though, there won't be a picture until next week because my camera died on the way down.  I'll be sure to send stuff next week to make up for it. 

I loved all the pictures this week!  Seems like the fam is getting along quite nicely, and I was happy to see that you ran into Miss at the game.  She really misses seeing you guys.  My new little nephew is such a stud! I'm so excited to meet all of the fresh faced little ones when I get back.  I love you both, and hope that y'all have an awesome week!

Ældste Pitcher