Addendum February 23, 2015

NOTE: This is a short response to many people who have written to Elder Pitcher.  He is so appreciative of all the support.  We are too.

Wow, Sønderborg is beautiful.  It's been a really good week, and the work is really pushing forward down here, especially with the help of such an awesome young branch.  Here's some pictures. 

One with the district I have the priviledge of leading, and one of me in front of the oldest city in Denmark's cathedral, Ribe.

Love you all!

Ældste Pitcher

February 23, 2015

Hey Ma and Pa

First and foremost, YES, I can go back to the baptism... I just have to pay for it myself.  [NOTE: this is regarding ‘V’s baptism in Helsingor]  President always likes missionaries being there, so that shouldn't be a problem even if it's a long way.  It's a plus also because I'm with Elder Lawless, so I won't have to pay my companion's way also.. I'll try and figure out the tickets later.  It'll be pricey, so we'll just have to see.

Next, my new address is:
Ringgade 161 st
6400 Sønderborg DK    
                                                   
Here's the week.

The Elders and I here in Sønderborg had a really nice week this week.  The appointments seemed to fill up pretty well, and we finally got around to some people I had never met before, and were able to actually get in and teach.

The appoinment with ‘E’ went really well, and we actually set up an activity with her, and ‘R’, our member friend in the area to go bowling with them today.  Apparently they know each other beforehand, and ‘R is already helping with fellowshipping her.

The member missionary effort in this branch is awesome.  Along with this experience, there was also another really awesome member of our branch named ‘M’ who gave us a referral to a man in Slagelse.  After getting the info to the Elders, who then in turn got a hold of the man the next day, and got him a Book of Mormon (Elder Madsen and Elder Wright are the best) he'd been asking for, the man texted ‘M’ to let him know how much it meant to him.  ‘M’ graciously called us on Sunday to again thank us for our urgency to help out his friend looking for truth.

Earlier this week we also had splits with the Zone Leaders.  I love the leadership in the mission, and it was a great learning opportunity for me to have Elder Madsen and Elder Eisert with us for District meeting as well.

We also had a really awesome experience with two English classes this week.  Elder Lawless had gotten in contact with a woman a while back about possibly coming in to help teach an English class.  We had the opportunity first on Thursday and then on Friday, and it was definitely an effective use of our time.

The classes had hundreds of questions about the church and who we are, and our purpose as missionaries, it gave us a really good atmosphere to talk about the church to a larger group of people.

We gave out many books, and made a lot of friends.  The second class actually cleaned us out of books!  We are looking forward to the potentials that come from this, and have talked with the teacher about coming again in the future.

We have also found a few new friends.  We have taught them lessons, and invited some people to baptism, we just have to make some follow up appointments, and there will be some new investigators.

There is a lot going for us right now down here.  I even cut Elder Lawless' hair this week!  :)

Otherwise, I hope you got a lot out of my pictures this week.  There were a lot.  I'll be sure to get more this week.  Love you both!

Ældste Pitcher

February 16, 1015

Hey team back home! First off, no need to worry about the thing in Copenhagen. I'm sure you've heard more about it, but things are worked out, and they are pretty sure that they got the guy that created the problem, so no worries! Plus, I'm not exactly in the downtown area very much these days. Anywho. This is a little bit about my week. This was a good week to be my first week in Sønderborg. We invited many to baptism, found lots of people, and taught really good lessons. ‘MA’, a new convert's (‘A’) wife has been coming along with to church, and listening to the missionaries for a long time now, but never really getting really involved herself. This week we invited her to baptism, and talked about our purpose here in life, and she said that she felt her testimony of the church was strong enough right now to get baptized, but that she would like to. We invited them to read and pray as a family each day this week, and are going to follow up next time with talking about that first step of faith. Because after all, from what ‘A’ himself said, it wasn't entirely real to him until the day of his baptism when he decided that this was all that he wanted it to be. Another big highlight from the week that I'm excited about is a new investigator we have named ‘E’. She's a college student taking religious courses, and seems like a truth seeker. She let us right in and SHE lead a lot of the question and answer portion of the lesson. She's curious, wants to find out more about the church, and was really open to taking challenges. Everything one could possibly hope for in an investigator am I right? We actually will be having our second appointment today, and the plan is to help repaint some of her and her sister's dorm room. I guess we'll see if she did her homework. My first week as a district leader has been a great new experience. I feel like the district is a good mix of personalities, and everyone compliments each other's humor nicely. I'm so happy to be able to serve such awesome new friends. Some other fun stuff from this week. We're so close to the Germany, that the dialect here starts to rub against German. I actually got to go to the border this last week as well because one of our friends set on date to get baptized lives in the very VERY southernmost home in Denmark. Right next to the border, literally a stones throw away. I've got pictures. Next big order of buisness... Sister Alisha Mandla in my district comes from Australia, and I'm fairly certain she is in the same Ward as the Pitman family. She said she knew of the Pitman family, that there were two in her stake, and one of which was in her ward, so you'll have to reach out and see. I asked this last week, knowing only a few Mormons in Australia, but I was shocked when she answered right away. Small world, let me know what you find out. Also, Sister Dianna Rovig's sister is serving in Quinn's mission also, so I'll have to see if there is a connection there. Anyway, no more connections, but that's fun. I'm loving it here. If you are able to get your hands on this band 'The Lower Lights', I'd love to have their 'A Hymn Revival' album. Just a side note. Love you both! Ældste Pitcher

February 9, 2015

Hello Ma and Pa, 

Don't worry about the money. I don't really need it right now for anything anyway. 

I'm happy to hear that everything at home is going well. 

It was hard to make the transition into leaving everyone behind in Helsingør, but I'm also a big fan of change on the mission, and this is some change that I'm really looking forward to.  Here's the main part of my week though.

The first day in a new area is always pretty crazy, but having Elder Lawless and Elder Walch as my new companions has made the transition really easy. I've been good friends with both of them throughout my mission, and it's great to be with them here now in Sønderborg.

This is an awesome city! It's a very beautiful place, and I can already tell I'm going to love it here.

This last week in Helsingør was a good one. It was sad to say goodbye to many of my good friends, but at the same time, very happy to see the changes that they have made in their lives in only a few months.

The Dalberg's family dynamic has completely changed with a focus now on the church, and the gospel, and 'A' and 'S' have reset a temple date as part of their progress in being sealed to each other.

I also had the opportunity last night to say goodbye to 'S', whom has really been struggling recently. After a messy break up, 'S' had taken a break from missionary visits to gather himself back together, but last night on the walk home from the station after dropping off my bike, we stopped by and I was able to have my last visit with him.

He was happy to talk with us again, and as we could see that he was hurting, we offered to give him a blessing. He said yes, and was very emotional throughout the whole evening. I could tell that he was really hurting, but I feel like just getting to talk with us again gave him a new hope.

The blessing went well, and I could tell that he really appreciated it. 'N' was also there, and so we invited her to sit in on the blessing, and explained what it was as well.

Elder Millward should be going with Elder Christensen again this next week for a follow up visit. I feel like I made a difference in Helsingør, I'm grateful to have served there. I'm also looking forward to Sønderborg, and the opportunity to serve as a District Leader for the first time ever, and the adventures that will come from both. 

I also just found out today that Sønderborg Elders go ice skating almost every week with the youth!!!!!! Yesssss!!!! I get to go ice skating on Thursday!

Ma, I've been trying to think a bit about places that we can come to when you all come to pick me up, and it's going to be hard to make it a short trip.  There are A LOT of wonderful places that I have already been too, and Sønderborg is already looking to be a gorgeous place.  I'm loving my mission. 

I love you both!

Ældste Pitcher

February 2, 2015

Happy Anniversary you two!! :)

Looks like y'all had a great ol' time.  You have always been great examples to me of how to love each other, and there's now a 19 year library I have to pull from on future family tips that all come from you two, so thank you! 

This week has been extremely busy as I'm sure you'll see in my weekly update portion of the letter.  We have had an emergency transfer due to the fact that Elder Peterson in Nykøbing Falster is sick and can't do normal missionary work, so Elder Bradshaw went to take his place.  Now we are back in a three group after sending Elder Geslison off, and receiving Elder Nelson (along with Hillerød) to make a switch. 

I finally slept in my own bed for the first time in weeks because when Elder Geslison was here I was rollin' with the air mattress.  Things are just crazy, and a lot of appointments to show for it.  Anyway, here's a bit about the week.

This was a great experience we had this week with 'J'. The temple was a wonderful opportunity to go in and feel of the spirit that is always in the Lord's house. I was even able to be baptized on behalf of a few of her family members and that was a really neat chance for me to feel closer with their family.

Other than that it has been an EXTREMELY crazy week with all of the early transfers that happened, Elder Geslison and Elder Bradshaw both moving so closely spaced, plus a few preset appointments in other areas made for a not super productive week, at least not in our area. I guess I can't quite say that though because we were always teaching at the appointments, even if sometimes they weren't necessarily a part of Helsingør's area.

'V' is ready to be baptized. The initial plan was for her to wait until Elder Geslison could make another trip down, but seeing as how that won't be for a while, 'V' would like to be able to go with the young women to the temple to do baptisms for the dead before that, and so the plan is to push up the time. We haven't set an exact date yet, but it should be just around the corner here.

She's so ready! She even gave the young women's spiritual thought in church this last week. I'm so happy I could be here to be a part of the blessings this family has received over the last few months.

We have a LOT of potential investigators, and that will be the focus for this next week. It's hard trying to now balance the time between two areas with Elder Bradshaw's leaving and getting Elder Nelson along with his area, but we are planning it out well, and it'll work out.

I feel like it repeated a lot of stuff, but I'm trying to go fast today because we have another appointment here pretty quick.  Just know that I love you both, and really look forward to seeing you again! 

Ældste Pitcher