"No Capes"

This week was pretty excellent. I wish I could just say that and that you would understand what it meant by it but I guess I will have to describe my week to give you a picture of the why:) 

Progress:

We met with a girl named A* this week. She is actually someone we met at the New Covenant church Bible study. She isn't necessarily a part of their congregation but she is a strong believer and wants to check out what we were all about too. We had a way solid lesson with her on Monday night and it was great once again to see how the spirit guided the direction of the lesson. We had a beast member there named William and he was right on point with everything too! Quality stuff:)

We follwed suit on Wednesday and brought a member named Nikolai to a lesson with C* and once again, it went way solid. The common thread this week (as it should ALWAYS be) is that listening to the spirit will never steer you wrong. In fact, you can do more by the spirit of God than you can by any other means. So  that was a cool lesson from this week that I am now just realizing as I type this out so it just keep being great:)

If you're wondering at this point in the email... no this week did not include chili peppers... sorry haha'

We had a cool knocking session yesterday. We met a super cool guy from Iceland who lived in the states for 19 years. I saw he was from Iceland so I asked him how he has it in Icelandic and that got him stoked so we had a great talk and he wants to meet again! Following that we met a lady who was super believing and directed us to the back porch so we could tell her what we were all about and the message we had. We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon so we will see how that goes:) then right around the street corner we met some way chill drunk guys that actually had some connections to the church and we had a way chill conversation about it. Something I learned is that the gospel is for everyone no matter who you are!

Other good stuff:

We got to clean the baptismal font this week because a leak happened and it got the nice slimy algae green coating all over it so that was a fun service project. We were on splits that day so you would be amazed how fast four dudes can scrub tile. We are planning to be standing it again shortly;)

Once again, four missionaries turn into a four man hedge cutting crew and we cut the churches main hedges... ​we will see if the service projects continue around the church building because if so... i might have to call out the cleaning guy haha. (only mostly joking)

I got on a bus to go out to an area to knock some doors with Elder lee, and I had the fastest Book of Mormon share of my life haha. I walked on the bus- which had no sitting room- so i stood in front of an old greenlandic woman. She poked me in the arm, pointed to the good book, and I gave it to her. For about 5 minutes I watched her read it in silence, and then she looked up and said "ah I've missed this beautiful book" or something like that. I told her she could keep it because it turns out she had gotten one from a member in Greenland but had lost it. I asked her if she was a member and she just opened her eyes real wide and then exited the bus.... So I am still torn about what that meant... haha but fun stuff:)

We used the slackline to contact for a bit on Friday and it was super successful! This little 5 year old came up and asked me if he could try, so i let him haha. His mom soon came over and helped him and did mom things and at the end of it, Elder Lee had a way deep talk about the gospel with her for about an hour while this cute little guy named Jamie went at it for an hour on the slackline. I think we were friends in heaven before we came down here haha he is great! He said "whats in your pockets?" at one point so i told him he has to guess. Well I had a pass along card with Jesus on it and he asked if he could have it so he could have something in his pockets haha:) He told me it looked like his dad and he wants to keep it haha. Such a cute kid:)

Spiritual thought:

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley…but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.

If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie, then just be a bass…
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew.
There’s something for all of us here,
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
And the task you must do is near.

If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can’t be a sun, be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail…
Be the best of whatever you are!

​word.

Have a great week!!

​

Ældste  j

Our district attempting to successfully take one picture... at least we smiled haha

Cleaning the baptismal font for near future use. There was a leak so it was kinda like above ground pool type green.

Splits pic with another Elder Erickson: fun fact is that he can impersonate 50 voices

The gym: our theme pic for the zone newsletter 

Semana del Espanol

This week I spoke more Spanish than I have since Spanish 4 class junior year haha. I think I got a taste of what is like to be some of my buddies in Spanish speaking countries so hats of to them because my ears can barely hear that fast haha. Don't worry though it was still a way solid week in Århus so i didn't leave the mission boarders or anything... 

Progress:

So those four way solid people  from last week we met are still on vacation and getting married and all that... but we are in contact with them so we are pretty stoked to see what goes down when we meet with them again:) In Denmark it is pretty common that everyone just disappears to their various vacation spots for up to a whole month, so we are meeting with them intermittently but we have some good things set up for those coming home soon. This next week should be a good one! But in the meantime we have just made more friends so There is lots of work for us to do here in Århus:)

Monday:

 Monday was pretty chill. We did the usual thing where we email all of you and then we did some fun stuff like buy Bang and play it for pday for four hours:)) (the insanely fun card game with cowboys and stuff) Elder Erickson also pulled out some Trinidad scorpion peppers that he had very discreetly bought at the average Danish supermarket. Don't know why they have those but they are in season four week out of the year in stock in Denmark and Elder Erickson happened to find them ( Our mission culture includes chili challenges...) We didnt' eat them that night though because they are the worlds second hottest pepper at 1.2 million schofield units. 

Tuesday:

Tuesday was another quality day. Elder Erickson and I revived our companionship and went on splits for the day and picked right up from where we left off when i left Odense. We fasted for special guidance that day along with the other Elders and we ended up finding a combined 7 new people that wanted to hear the gospel, 3 of which represent families so that was awesome. It was way cool because we were kick-starting the other Elder Area because it was shut down for a bit due to lack of Elders so way good start. We most definitely felt the Lord's love and guidance for sure! I don't think we would have had some of the opportunities we had without the guidance of the spirit so I'm grateful the Lord is willing to use his 19 year old tools. Its  quite humbling. We also all went basketball contacting and met two way chill guys from Somalia so they want to start playing more often with us:)

Oh yea... we ate those peppers on Tuesday night. We basically just toughed it out by sitting still for 20 minutes of extreme fire in the chairs on our back patio and then drank chocolate milk.  I honestly think we do these challenges just because of the willpower it takes to beat it because otherwise it would not be worth it at all. That pepper topped the last by far though and for a while I couldn't feel my hands for some reason but our manhood increased by 9000 so it was a good experience. For all the mothers worried for my health out there... it is most likely my last time and there were no lasting effects so its all good. We even used one in our crockpot chicken haha. 

I digress...

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday:

These days we went around to all the districts to give a training on goals and goal setting. We had a great experience with all of our friends around the zone and it definitely was edifying each time. We talked alot about how we can "eat the elephant," meaning how we can realistically break down our goals into bite sized pieces in order to achieve the larger goal. Good stuff. Also, Elder Erickson slipped a disc in his back so he has to lay low for a while so I babysat him on Torsdag so Elder Stephens could go out and work haha.

Sabado y Domingo:

So i got a call from a family that took missionary discussions in the past and they needed help with their computer because they had locked themselves out and it was in English. This family is from Colombia (shoutout to Jan) and they have lived here for three years. So they kinda speak Danish but mostly just Spanish. It is pretty hard to hear anyone over our phones but i attempted in Spanish and actually succeeded so that was a win. Something I misunderstood though was that they also wanted to employ me as a piano teacher haha. I thought they were asking to also help fix their piano... But we showed up on Saturday and brought the sisters because Sister Acosta is native Spanish from Spain and we are native computer fixers haha. We ended up fixing their computer and explaining we are not in Denmark to teach piano and taught a 30 minute lesson... well sister Acosta mostly did and i tried to help in my limited gospel spanish vocab and the other two just looked confused haha. It was amazing be a part of and they actually want to meet again so that was very cool:) The spirit is strong regardless of the language!

Also that night, we went to go and visit a lady who was having a birthday on sunday but we couldnt make it to her brunch thing due to it being the same time as church. So we went and sang her her favorite hymn instead and the sisters brought flowers for her so she was very happy. But guess what, her nephew was there visiting how had lived in spain for a long time so him and Sister Acosta went off in Spanish for the 45 minutes we were there haha. 

Then to top it off, their is a man from Spain who is on a family history assignment for work from Family Search so he is living in Denmark for about 6 months. But he had his family and other friends come visit so there were about 18 only Spanish speaking visitors in sacrament meeting. It was rough to translate because Sister acosta doesn't speak a ton of Danish yet since she is newer so they didnt' get a ton out of it but it was all good. By this point it was like someone had dumped gasoline on a small flame because i was pretty conversant at that point and even made it through a conversation with a 12 year old who talks faster than i can in English haha. I'm going to give credit to the Lord for the help because it was amazing how much I remembered. So now our apartment is also on a Spanish hype haha. 

Spiritual thought:

Something president talked to me in my interview with him was we all have a spiritual "bar" in a way... when we start being able to reach it and feel comfortable with it the Lord will often raise it to help us grow and develop our relationship with the spirit. That is why we often feel inadequate to do something but that is why the principle of enduring to the end and trusting in the Lord is so important. That is what will allow us to keep reaching for the bar and all the while drawing closer to our Heavenly Father. 

Have a great weeK!

ÆlDsTe JePpSoN

Minute 12 of the Trinidad scorpion morunga chili - haha

Our first successful attempt at crokpottery

A snapshot of New Covenant church Bible Study :)  

The Gospel Works Wonderfully!

This week was a whole new level of stellar! I cant even find a place to begin to find where to begin haha. But ill start with a highlight that was probably one of the best days of my life.... 

Stellar people: 

So this week we met M*. He is one of the most positive people i have even talked to on the street! He was walking by on a rainy Tuesday and i stopped him to talk to him. He was blown away by what we were doing! He was absorbing everything we were saying and you could see the flashes of amazement dancing across his expressions. It was great! We were able to get his number and said we would set something up. Now jump forward to Friday... He texted us right after zone training and invited us out to dinner at his place so we show up on time and it turns out he had his fiancee and his 2 close buddies with him. They also had just stellar faith and a strong desire to develop their relationships with God. We didn't even have to initiate anything the entire night. One of the "small talk conversations" was about if child baptism is right or not...haha only small talk. :) As we sat down to eat, we asked them "so how did you all find your faith?" and it just led into a beautiful discussion of the gospel from there. We taught the entire Restoration lesson in deep and it was amazing to see how riveted they were to it all. Now i know eating appointments/lessons shouldn't be three hours normally, but I'd venture to say it was the best three hours of my life, even the best day of my life. The spirit was probably the strongest i have ever felt it It was truly a humbling and amazing thing to see the Lord use two of his 19/20 year old missionaries; and to use them so evidently! Every time Elder Lee or I opened our mouths, it was immediately filled with bold yet loving statements of gospel truth. I'd say a majority of what I've learned and experienced as a missionary thus far really manifested itself in those remarkable three hours and it was hard to fathom that it had all happened. The coolest part was at the end, we asked what it all would mean to them, and one of the guys named L* came out and pretty much said what everyone of them was thinking. He said "if this is what God wants me to do, ill do it!" Man, great answer:) Also, as we closed with a prayer, the way they wanted to do it was that everyone could have a chance to say something. So we went in a circle. It was basically 6 prayers in one, and they were six of the most sincere prayers i have ever heard. The spirit was so strong! I still dont have words to describe it but i wont bother to try. But i wouldnt trade it for anything. Elder Lee and I made a voice recording right after it at the bus stop so we wouldnt forget it all. Pure joy is all i can say.

Rest of Friday:  

Lets go back to the rest of Friday before and after that experience because the whole day was a gift. Elder Lee and I were able to give a zone training and it was a great edifying experience. It was all about teaching and planning by the spirit which was beautifully ironic that the Lord helped us do that on the subject of doing that haha. But we have a  goal for every companionship to baptize and we just had one already so far:) The work is picking up a lot and i think its about to explode! 

No bus, just run:

Friday night after all that great stuff happened, we missed the bus twice... haha whoops. So we had to call the assistants and president just to check in and tell them we would get home late and that we were all good. President didn't answer but in my interview the next day he said he loved the voicemail i gave him. I happened to be in the process of running 2.5 miles for 25 minutes home to try and beat the buses and at least get home before bedtime (we didnt, but we tried right?? hahaha). I haven't sweat that much since cutting weight... i had a long sleeve and my rain jacket (which is still good at insulating, even when you dont want it to). But if you could take missionary extract and put it in a cookie and give it to someone to let them get a small taste of what missions are like, id extract Friday the 8th of July:)

Other News:

-Well we got two more roommates again. The two man apartment life wasnt meant to be in Århus. But we got elder Erickson and Elder Stephens all moved in on Saturday so fun stuff. 

-It is cold and rainy and it is July.

-C* is doing super well and she is really close to getting it all. She will be on vaycay next week but she is awesome!

-We got talking with this Icelandic guy that knocked into and he was super awesome. The world maybe underestimates how great of a nation it is up there and what it really means to be Icelandic. It is always fun to see what is behind door number 392304 ;) haha

-we went to a 95 year old lady named Eva in the ward to visit her. We ended up singing hymns and eating cake so not a bad time haha.

Id be lying if i said im not caught up in my journal all the way... so i cant really remember anything else at the moment haha

Challenge time:

Ill pose the same challenge/question that i did to the zone here in zone training... What can you change in order to have the spirit with you in your ministry? 

Now i know you all are not full time missionaries, but everyone can do the same thing in their own way. The spirit is something that will bless your life more than you ever could on your own accord. So by asking in essence, "What do i do that would hinder the spirit and how can i change it" you will receive an answer because Heavenly father loves you. And by having the spirit, By the power of the spirit can ye know what ye shall do, and in that way can you know how to help others come closer to their savior too.

Its a double edged sword:)

Have a great week!

--

Ældste  j

 Me and My brotha Christian from the New Covenant Church. Hes legit.

the innovative genius of sloppy joes with cheese

Elder Lee and i during the ice age july morning haha

Elder Lee, Elder Curtis, and I

 Some homies of my mission past present and future. Elder Shuppy, Elder Erickson, and Elder Howe

Back on the sleepytime vanilla tea grind 

Happy 4th of July!

I'm feeling extra patriotic today because I have to make up for the lack of Americans here in Århus:) A new level of American pride came out of Elder Lee and I this morning as we took on the day. I think it is just because we have red, white and blue streaming through our veins. *Merica

Well this past week was a trip! We had a stellar 7 days in a row and we aim to keep them coming. Here is what went down into the books:

Monday:

Got eaten up by transfer day haha. We spent most of our time helping people move their stuff on and off of trains. The sun was shining though so no worries.

Tuesday:

We had Elder Eaves still with us on splits because of some mix ups. So Elder Lee, Eaves, and I took on the city and had some great things happen. Everyone seemed to be out to chat that day so we had a TON of conversations that went places. I would venture to say that it was the most amount of positive conversations/lessons with people in one day than I have ever had thus far. We met a guy named Kevin Ocean who is a 60 year old fitness fanatic and sells controversial body building supplements (Elder Lee knows a lot about a lot in the world of lifting) But he was pretty cool haha. I should Have taken a picture with him...

We were walking past some of the open air seating for a bar on the gå gade and a lady and some dude she was with, both in their fifty's I would guess, were sitting there with two girls our age having a drink. They  said as we walked past, "hey are you Mormons?" We told them yes and then the invited us to sit down for a drink. When we said we don't drink alochol and explained why, they said okay and then got up and ordered the fanciest Pepsi's I have ever had and then told us to sit (i mean... as fancy as pepsi can get haha). So we sat down and had a good long talk with them. It was kinda of like we were teaching three people three different lessons because the guy turned to Elder Lee and started chatting with him, the older lady just yelled across the table to me, and the two girls asked Elder Eaves a bunch of questions. One of the girls named Ema was actually super religious and had great questions. We ended up having a great hour long lesson with them all haha.

Oh yea i forgot to add something, right after that the girls had to go print out some tickets for Roskilde fest (the biggest one week concert/festival in Denmark) but the problem was that the printer shop was closed. Because Ema was actually interested in checking out what LDS is all about, I offered that they could use the one in our church building and they were way stoked we offered. They also wanted a tour of the building to check it out, so of course we had some time to show them around. Ema actually wanted to come back and try out church so we will see what happens. She said she lives right next door to the building so it would be neat to see what actually happens every Sunday.

Wednesday:

Met with our friend C*. She is super awesome! We had a great lesson and she said she feels the spirit every time we come:) So we will see what happens...

Helped a girl in the ward move. Got some ice cream for it. yes.

Thursday and Friday we were in København for a meeting to plan the direction of the mission for the next six months. Great two days and a lot of new hope to continue all of the success. We had 7 baptisms in the past 6 weeks... that is the most that have happened here in six weeks than any other 6 week period for the past two years I think. So great:)

Saturday:

We rode more trains (whooo...) up to Aalborg to do a baptismal interview for a way cool guy named Christian. Super great experience to meet someone with simple and strong faith like him. Needless to say, he passed - the work is really picking up here in Denmark.

Sunday:

Was way great! We got to teach the 12-18 year old class in second hour and it was a neat experience. I had flashbacks to when I had lessons taught by the missionaries in church so it was a cool experience for me to be on the other side of it:)

Also, We fasted basically to work super hard and we found a girl named A*. At first she was about to just shut the door, but it was amazing to see her open her heart to what we were saying and watch the spirit soften her to listen and want to meet again. Great experience!

We also found out this week that we will be getting the four man apartment back in Århus! Elder Erickson (past comp) and Elder Stephens are going to be joining us because they merged two branches here to make a bigger branch/ward so there are no longer Elders directly in one of the areas. So im wayyy stoked for that:)

Spiritual thought:

3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.  4 You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned.  5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.  

- Doctrine and Covenants Section 31

Pretty sweet scripture! I almost want to change my mission plaque scripture to this one but we are making it are companionship and maybe even zone scripture. I read it one morning and it just got me super stoked on life! So to all those preparing to go on missions... ponder this.

Have a great day! Light off a flare or something for me tonight when your blowing things up and eating apple pie and burgers.

With Freedom,

Ældste J

Festivities with the fourth of July crew 2016
 

Feeling the patriotism today! 

Elder Lee & Elder Jeppson

Hot dogs...*fist pump*

Adventure is out there

A crazy amount of whatever you call those things (wall bushes?)