August 24, 2015

This week was awesome, and I'm going to kind of rush things because, number one, I'll be seeing you so soon, and number two, we are going to a really awesome castle for my last p day, and I'd like to be sure that we are on time for that. 

A couple of awesome experiences from this last week. 

At Mission Conference on the steps of the Temple

Mission Conference!  Got to see all of my old missionary pals, and bear my final testimony to the entire mission and before an area 70.  I didn't get to do it in Danish which I was sad about, but I was more happy that I got to do it in front of EVERYONE that I know here, so that was pretty sweet. 

‘VL’ came to a baptism this week in the other Odense ward and he really enjoyed it!  He's getting along well with the ward, and will be coming with us to an appointment at a member's home this week.  He passed his baptismal interview yesterday, and he is excited for his baptism, and has asked me to stand in the water with him.  First time on my mission, and I'm really excited for the opportunity :) 

He's such an awesome guy.  You can really tell that he is just trying to do what is right. 

Later in the week we had a really special experience with ‘C’.  She is still having a tough time with her boyfriend, and it even started to get to the point where she's been considering breaking up because he's holding her back from the church and what she knows is true.  It sounds innocent enough, but if she breaks up with him, she's breaking off all her ties, and won't have a place to live (though ‘R’ has offered to let her stay with her at this point). 

On with the story though, we were teaching the law of Chastity, and she was in agreeance with everything we were teaching.  ‘R’ was with and was giving a lot of support, and the whole lesson just went really well. 

Towards the end of the appointment though, I could sense a lot of anxiety from her.  She was really scared to tell her boyfriend, because she knew what she had to do.  I offered to give her a priesthood blessing to help her feel comforted, and she accepted.  By the time the blessing was over she had tears flooding her eyes.  ‘R’ came and gave her a big ol' hug and they just sat there for a really long time.  The spirit was so strong!  It was incredible, and we testified of the spirit, and she was just overwhelmed with the spirit. 

Continue to pray for her!  She's so close, and wants to be a part of the church so bad.  She has so many good friends here now. 

Love you all, look forward to seeing you soon, and I'll have a chance to send a quick note next week :)

Ældste Pitcher

NOTE:  I wrote to Elder Pitcher and told him that he should be proud of the work he did on his mission and that he had planted seeds that he may not even be aware of, which will bear fruit later.  He responded with this:  “Sister Mandla at mission conference told me that one of their investigators close to baptism has a Book of Mormon he received about two years ago from a set of missionaries in København.  On the inside cover is written Ældste Pitcher og Ældste Francis.  :)  I thought that was a pretty awesome example of what you were talking about.  Look forward to seeing you soon!”

August 17, 2015

Hej mor og far,

I'm still loving it here in Odense.  Elder Jeppson is gradually getting a better and better hold of the ropes, and I feel that with just a little bit more time, he'll be ready to take over the area.  I have every confidence in him.  

My goals for this coming week are to take good opportunities to account for my mission (journal entries, personal notes, and pictures), and also to treat every contact different, because every person is different.  I'm also focusing a lot this week on trying to help Elder Jeppson accomplish his goals.  We took some time during weekly planning to talk about his focus with the language, and preparing to take over the area.  I've gradually been placing more and more responsibilities on him as time has gone on, and he's taking it in stride.  

This week was filled with wonderful experiences, and I don't want to take a ton of time, but I'll just mention a few.

*One of our recently reactivated member friends, ‘JU’ in the ward we've been preparing for the temple went through for his endowment on Thursday!  He's such an awesome and exuberant older gentleman.  Always letting women know how beautiful they are and making people blush with his compliments.  He just loves life, and on Thursday he was floating he was so happy :)

*’HK’, another friend of ours in the ward, has been receiving the sacrament weekly from his home, and is now down to only 3 cigarettes a day, in relation to the 20 a day he was at when I first arrived.

*’C’ came to church again this week despite disapproval from her boyfriend.  She is the most prepared person I've ever met.  Pray that she'll make the right choice!  Her boyfriend is the only thing holding her back from being baptized, and it sounds like he's pretty negative towards the church.  Urgh.. She's great though, and has tons of support from the young adults in the ward.

*’VL’ is getting baptized on the 28th, and he is really excited... still... :)  such a happy guy.

Love you all!

Ældste Pitcher

August 10, 2015

Hey Ma and Pa,

Hey, I gave a talk too! Mine was on Eternal life.  I don't have it typed out, and it's in Danish so you wouldn't be able to read it anyway, but I think it went pretty well.  I got to use Dad's mission experience explaining the plan of salvation, just translated it directly from my atonement talk, and I had a few people come up to me afterward saying they liked that new perspective on it.  I felt pretty good about it.  

I am feeling awesome.  I'm just happy to be a missionary, and I'm so happy to have seen the changes in myself as a missionary and as a person over the last two years.  I'm trying to make the greatest amount of growth here in the last few weeks of my mission, and I feel like the goals that I have will be able to help me see the specific growth that I'm looking for. 

I'm trying to improve my evening schedule, something that has been a constant struggle for me before and throughout my time as a missionary. I'm trying to help Elder Jeppson gain an understanding by seeking out more teaching opportunities throughout the day, not just in training, and also praying and focusing on my five year plan so that I can make an easy segue from full time missionary to the new and improved me back home. 

As far as the miracles we've seen this week goes, our new friend ‘C’ was definitely the highlight.  She called us on Thursday asking about church times and info.  Elder Jeppson and I spent the next few hours racking our brains to figure out when we contacted a 21 year old ‘C’. Turns out she is just a curious friend of a Mormon girl who invited her to come to church. 

On Saturday we lead ‘C’ on a church tour with ‘R’ and ‘N’ in our ward, gave her a Book of Mormon, and gave her a place to read and pray about.  She had expressed concern about losing a child 6 months ago, and we decided something about the plan of salvation would be best. 

The next day she came to our volleyball activity and asked about how she could know that it was true.  We again invited her to pray, and talked about spiritual confirmations. 

She came to church, and stayed for all three hours.  I gave a talk on eternal life, ‘N’ gave a talk on the plan of salvation, and the guest class focused on the plan of salvation (it counts to have it in good with the guest class teacher :) She loved church, and we will be meeting with her again on Tuesday! 

Loving it here! 

Fun fact.  There is a stress quiz online that all missionaries take towards the beginning of the mission, and usually when they train.  We have the highest percentage of missionaries in the green.. I am officially in the happiest mission in the world! :)  It's all because of the members and the other missionaries here. 

The relationships between missionaries here is incredible.  I am completely comfortable with going up to any missionary in this mission and giving them a great big hug (even the sisters, but we'll save that for when it's appropriate ;) We are a family in this mission.

I love you both lots and lots.

Love 

Ældste Pitcher

August 3, 2015

Hej Mor og Far :)

This has been a great week!  I am in really good spirits. 

I got to go to København to work with the people I started working with at the beginning of my time in Denmark, I got Elder Jeppson as a new trainee, (very excited about the missionary work, and very willing to work) and we taught, and found, and even made a baptismal date!  It was a very effective week.  We taught more total lessons than we normally do, and we were only in our area for half of the week. 

Elder Pitcher with his new trainee on his left (Elder Jeppson), his former trainee on his right (Elder Pike), and his former trainee's trainee on his far right (Elder Gardener).

I've always felt like miracles come when new missionaries are in an area, and I know that it's no coincidence that Elder Jeppson's coming has resulted in such awesome progress with the work here in the last week. 

Our friend ‘V L’ will be baptized on the 29th of August.  He previously investigated the church, and after our first visit with him for the second go around, he said that he felt a change in his life, and that the little things that held him back before weren't there anymore.  He feels confident and excited and has come to church for the last two weeks, and has been meeting with us every other day or so. 

Everything continues to go well here in Odense.  I'm loving training and being a part of the happiest mission in the world :)

I have been working a lot on my 5 year plan, something President O'Bryant gave as an assignment, and trying to seriously consider how I want things to go.  It's difficult, but a good exercise, and I'm hoping by the end I can have a better handle on what I want to work on and become. 

In other fun news I broke my bike.  Not just like a bolt or the chain, but the metal crank shaft to the pedal snapped in half. What is this?!  Of all things to break first, the dense, metal shaft decided to go.  In the mean time until I get it fixed, I've been riding around a sweet bike from the 80's a member loaned me.

Also, while in Copenhagen emailing last week, I met a man in the library who asked me for some help.  I helped him out, and he was really nice back.  Not interested in the church, but we ended up having a nice long chat about why each of us where in Denmark (he's from Bulgaria)... Anyway, fast forward to last night and we are sitting on a park bench getting ready to call in our numbers we just tallied up for the week, and this man comes walking up to us again. It was kind of creepy at first, but he was still the same nice fellow. One of the three Nephites? possibly?? ;)  It was just crazy to see him again in two different cities, and in such an interesting format, in the evening time in an empty park... Weird.

I'm loving it here, I love you all!  

Ældste Pitcher