December 8, 2014

Hey Ma and Pa!

Everyone loves Christmas!! I've been able to bring up the Savior in conversations that started out talking about an RC robot that a man was bringing home as a Christmas present for his grandchild. Everyone feels the spirit of Christmas, and it makes it easy to bring in the message of our Saviors birth.
And, of course, ‘V’ is set to be baptized on the 17th of January now!! It came out of nowhere when we were just talking with ‘V’ about setting a date, and how she didn't feel comfortable about doing it before the end of the year.  Elder Lester just said, 'Well then, when DO you see yourself getting baptized?' And January 17th was the date. 

What an amazing week it's been in that part of Helsingør. It's crazy to see that she has seen such a dramatic change in her overall happiness this last week. She is so excited, so nervous, and sometimes even a little bit worried, but we've been reminding her of the blessings she's already seen as a direct result of her decision, and she's pressing forward with faith. 

December 2013 - Copenhagen Denmark Temple

During this last week as we were considering different pieces of the baptismal calendar, ‘V’ asked me to do the confirmation.  I feel so honored, and am so happy that I've been here to witness the change in this family's lives over the last few months.  I know that I was supposed to be sent to this area at this time to help them, and I'm grateful every day for the experiences that I've already had, and for the ones that are on the way.

Participating in the Christmas concert in Copenhagen was also a wonderful experience, the spirit was present, and I was happy to be a part of it.  This mission has A LOT of talent, and I'm always impressed at the caliber of missionaries we have in this mission.  It's awesome to see.

It's really good to see the family pictures and all the fresh happy faces.  Still, I'm going to have to be sure to get as much out of my last Christmas in Denmark as I possibly can :) 

December 2014 - Copenhagen Denmark Temple

I actually got to see Sister Klein at a Christmas concert put on by our stake last night (the Kleins were the family I was with last year for Christmas)  and it was an awesome little memory of my time spent here in Denmark during the Christmas season, and the amazing experiences that I'll be able to cherish the rest of my life.  I'm definitley going to be incorporating some of these traditions when I get home though. THAT you can be certain of :)  They really know how to party during 'Juletiden'. 

Another big part of my Christmas this year is actually a big thing that the church has going on right now.  A huge initiative is being put on by the church right now to share the true meaning of Christmas.  On christmas.mormon.org, there is a Christmas video called 'He is the Gift' that talks a little about the first gift of Christmas.  It's really inspiring, and I've already seen it touch a lot of hearts of people that we've been able to share it with. 

And that's the next part of the initiative.  Share the video with EVERYONE :)  #ShareTheGift and share it online, and everywhere you can.  This is something that all my missionary friends, and all the members over the whole world are doing right now to spread some Christmas spirit based around the true meaning of Christmas.  Let me know how things go :) 

Love you both

Ældste Pitcher

December 1, 2014

Hey Ma and Pa

We will indeed be skyping from ‘D’s. Likely around the same time as last year. I'll be sure to coordinate, and of course ‘V’ can always just find you on Facebook :)  

ON to this week :)  We needed to find a few new people this week and we did. It's been tough over the last little bit here with finding. We've been talking with more and more people and learning how to come out of our comfort zones with the focus on finding since it's been the focus mission wide, and we found two new investigators to start working with this week.

I'm most excited about a girl we met named ‘L’. Elder Lester and I were going to an appointment Thursday evening clear out in Tikøb, a little city out in the middle of nowhere to have Thanksgiving with a friend of ours. He burned our appointment. We were a little upset, especially since it was supposed to be our Thanksgiving meal with him, but we decided we'd just hop back on an earlier bus and try to see if we could talk with anyone on the way home.

I sat next to ‘L’ in the back of the bus and started a casual conversation. After a while we started talking about why I was here, and about the church, and eventually her questions led to a full blown lesson. We ended up getting off at the last stop with her, and she told us she hadn't really had a plan of where she was going to go that evening, she just felt like taking a trip on the bus. It's moments like those that always make me feel the best. 

We'll actually be meeting with ‘L’ later today, so hopefully things go well :)  

Everything continues to go well with the ‘D’s, and we're working so hard to make sure that ‘V’ keeps progressing the way that she has been.  ‘Vi’ also got back from Thailand this week, and we've started teaching her.  So innocent and humble.  It's awesome to be with this family.

Ældste Beary

I miss you both huge bundles.  I'm grateful for everything that you guys have given me, and I just remembered after saying that that I forgot my 10 things... sorry. I'll have to try and do some make up work, but I am thankful for the plan that God has for all of us. 

Recently I've really started to focus on the plan God has for us while we are on the earth.  After feeling pretty low in the middle of this last week, I kneeled down to pray to ask for forgiveness, and help to be able to bear some of the burdens I've had recently.  A scripture from my personal study came to my mind, and I recognized something interesting when comparing it to another scripture we had considered sharing we someone earlier this week. 

The first one is in Matthew 11 when Christ invites us all to come unto him and he will make our burdens light AS we take upon ourselves his yoke.  Right then a huge burden hit me like a pile of bricks.  I sat there for a second thinking, 'man, I thought coming to Christ meant the burden would get lighter' but then I remembered a good lesson one of my missionary friends Elder Beers wrote to me about a man who was asked by Christ to move a boulder.  The man and Christ worked together for a little bit to move the giant rock, and then Christ left him for a time on his own to push the rock.  After years of pushing the rock alone Christ came back to the man to see that he had nearly given up.  The man asked Christ why he left him to be alone, and why he couldn't have come to help him.  Christ then told the man to stop and look at himself.  The man realized he had become big and muscular, and strong.  Christ told him again to move the rock, and finally it moved.  The burden is meant to keep us going.  Just like in Elder Bednar's talk from a while back.  Don't remember what it's called.

Anyway, Love y'all have a great week.

Ældste Pitcher