Odense Part 2

Well this last week has gone pretty quick! I kinda feel like i took a 6 week vacation up to Frederikshavn and then back to Odense haha. But no complaints here for sure:))

I'll hop to it:

Progress:

So we have some good stuff going right now and it is going to keep going. We have some cool friends from Syria named A* and M*. They have been over here for less than a year but they speak English pretty well so we don't really have any issues with communication. But we had a way good lesson with them. They are Orthodox Christian and they believe in Jesus and have a lot of faith. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and had a great discussion. We didn't push them too hard because definitely want time to think about it. But they are great ! And they fed us some wayyyyy good Syrian food. So they definitley have a lot of potential (not just for eating appointments ;) )

We also have a man named B*. He is a pretty sophisticated, charismatic German who has lived in Denmark most of his life so you cant' really tell he isn't Danish except that he is very proud of Germany haha. But we gave him a call and he agreed to meet at Ikea at the food Court. So we had a long lesson were he talked alot about his life and about philisophical Things... but in the end he agreed to coming to church and he followed up on that commitment so he has potential. A funny note, me and elder Erickson got sick for two days but fought through it for one of them so we could meet with some people. We both used all the willpower we had to stay awake for one of B's* rants about some British royalty and the politics surounding it. So we learned not to give him to much room to run with the conversation hahaha.

Other teaching experinces:

These are some investigatoers that aren't necessarily positve right now haha. But there was a Romanian couple who we taught that basically tried to just throw down with us the entire two hours we were there. The only reason we stayed that long is because they were pretending to be positive at first. But basically.... they were just trying to kill all of our vibes and tear down our faith. But me and Elder Erickson had the truth on our side so we shut them down hard haha. It was pretty lame because they were really sincere (mostly out of skepticism) at the beginning but turns out they have really harded their Hearts. But it was good though because me and Elder Erickson really defended the faith and really got into a teaching groove. So there is a good thing out a bad thing....

We also taught this really old dude... He is probably crazy. haha. He told us that he believes everything that we say, but that he can't join the church because he is part of a spiritual brotherhood who basically all think they are higher than Christ. Not in a bad way... but they just think they can cleanse themselves from their own sins. They also do this weird meditation thing..... And he thinks he has been reincarnated 3 times except in a totally different definition of reincarnation that I can't explain. I don't know it definitely was interesting but i think he got something out of it spiritually so we accomplished our purpose:)

Newness:

So Elder Erickson is my new comp from Centerville Utah. Wayyy cool guy. We hit it off way well because the first day we taught three lessons in a row with each other all in English. So that really got the companionship chemistry juices flowing. Hes a way solid missionary and a way awesome guy. Here are some of the Things that make up our companionship so far:

-Music: we have gone way hard during lunches and dinners working on a rendition of "Come Thou Fount" together. He is on guitar and I am on the ukulele. We made a studio (as we call it) out of the couch in our bedroom and some big dynas (Danish bedding) So the sound quality is way good actually. But I'll include it in this email:)

-Sleeptime tea: It is kinda an inside joke but we have this herbal tea in our Apartment that supposedly helps you sleep but it tastes way good with Vanilla sugar so we are way hyped on it.

Questionable choices:

We have both been battling sickness and it caught up to us Saturday so we were immobilized for a good part of the day. Dont worry.... medicine does in fact do what is says it will. But because we were sick, our minds were a Little feverish haha. for example, We thought it would be a great idea to set alarms every hour to wake up to because Elder Erickson heard his friend Kline say that it helped optimize sleep.... Well Kline was cursed many times that night hahaha. We looked back on it the next night and died laughing for probably an entire train ride haha. Good times...

So we are getting along just fine:)

My challenge for this week is to really study the scriptures. I know a lot of times when we hear that from leadership in the church, we often take that as just reading longer (maybe that is just me... haha) But i recently finished the Book of Mormon. I think it is safe to say that is the first time i REALLY studied the Book of Mormon cover to cover. Like taking notes, cross referencing, taking time to think about it.... etc etc. And it felt so great!! I realized how much more i gained from it than the other times I've finished it in my life. The verses we read and take for granted are wayyy deeper than we know. It strengthened my testimony quite a bit so I was happy for that. :)

So give it a go this week.

"Cheaters never Prosper" - all the teachers anyone has every had

See you in March!!

MKH,

Ældste jeppson