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