July 4th, Goodbyes for now, and the Gospel

TRC:

So we got to do this thing called TRC, or Teaching Resource Center. It basically means we get native Danish people who are members in the Provo area. We taught two sisters together for thirty minutes, and then switched rooms and taught their mom for thirty minutes. All of them were born in Denmark so it was both easier and harder to teach them. Easier in the sense that we didnt have to teach them for the first time. Imagine home teaching and that's basically what it felt like to me except that they were speaking so quickly and so fluidly that i pretty much couldn't follow them for until i got more accustomed to their accent. It was harder in that sense. I'm used to teaching my two teachers who are our "investigators", and they usually try and sound american for the sake of us understanding correctly. But nevertheless it was an amazing experience and i felt like that helped me to grow a lot more!

The wise words of Broer Williamson:

One of our teachers is very good at make a point and making it stick in your mind. He taught us during a fundamental teaching hour that we must be with our investigator until the very end, meaning that we need to go through everything with them. He told us a analogy that went like this:

You are trying to help someone find the most succulent steak in the world. This steak is located just over some mountains. You tell them to walk along a pretty easy path (in your mind) and its just over the mountain. So they head off and get to the top of the mountain and guess what... more mountains. A whole range of them. So they trudge on going up and down until they finally reach the last peak of the last mountain. Then guess what... An ocean. So they have to build a boat and sail across this vast sea to where the restaurant with steak that the knife can cut through like butter (which sounds great to me since i have this "food" here haha). Anyways, this guy is sailing and then finally see land. But wait..... it is a small island with a volcano. So he begrudgingly hikes

the volcano and finds some locals who give him the right directions. So he sails off again but gets lost and finds himself on another island. Its pretty terrible now and really discouraging. He finally makes it through to real land after battling a 30 hour storm. By the time he gets their he quits because the steak is not in sight and he cannot do anything more.

The point of this was to illustrate the battle people go through to have this "most delicious steak" which symbolizes eternal life. This is why it is imperative that we say, "Hey don't worry we can all hike this mountain together" or " hey lets build a cool boat to sail this sea" or "hey lets race up this volcano together." To me this was really powerful.

Then he told us to look up Doctrine and Covenants 15:4-6 which basically says we are here to serve if we do it well we can rest with those we have saved up in heaven so don't give up the fight until then!!

4th of July:

For 4th of July we go to go to a special devotional. There was a cool slide show and special musical numbers and the flags of all countries where missionaries are serving! There was a short talk by someone who is a professor of ancient scripture from BYU but his name escapes me but he did well! After that we got to go watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire from the front parking lot haha. It was a nice change for a bunch of restless missionaries! We actually went back earlier to watch from our third floor window and that was actually way better! We had about 8 missionaries crowded around a very small window it was awesome.

Goodbye to my Dutchies:

I had to say goodbye to all my Dutch friends from my zone. It was kind of sad but most of them will be at BYU when we are all home so I will definitely see them again. It was super neat on fast Sunday to hear all of their testimonies as they were leaving. They are all awesome missionaries! I also got the chance to bear mine since it was my only fast Sunday at the MTC. I felt the spirit more strongly than I ever have at Testimony meeting! Then that night the Danes all inherited all of their extra stuff because we are their favorite "new people" haha. So we now have a small pantry that is open to the whole zone and a variety of new decorations and toys (even nerf guns haha). But i love them all they are great!

Language:

Everything is falling into place. I keep progressing at high speed and its so great! The accent is still hard but that comes with months of practicing so I'll get it someday! Sometimes though I just say English words in a slightly British accent when I don't know a word hahaha. I said "Det er.... Possible" in a lesson which means that is possible but i didn't know what the word for "Possible" is haha. I said it with a very thick British accent for some reason and then the "investigator' lost his mind and could not stop laughing so that was fun haha.

MISC:

Yesterday night i got to say the opening prayer for the Tuesday night devotional! It was pretty amazing to pray on behalf of 2000+ people! It was a little bit scary but once i closed my eyes it was just a normal prayer. It was pretty weird at first because 1. I've never heard my one voice so clearly (in surround sound) and 2. I almost started it in danish so i had to rethink it haha.

But Elder Condie was the speaker and he gave a super powerful message about Joseph Smith's First Vision and had two main points:

1. If the first vision did not happen, then the LDS church is a sham so we must know for ourselves that it is true.

2. And on that note he gave a stellar one liner that belongs on a wall or something, "If you don't believe in the First Vision... take it up with God. He was there."

So that was so powerful that it will probably go on a plaque or something when i get home haha.

Well that's about it for this week! Jeg elsker jeres! jeg er maget glad at være i MTC! Jeg vil at envangelium er sand og Jesus Kristus er vores Fresler!

Mel Kærlighed,

Ældste Jeppson