Re-runs of Odense

This week was major deja vous! Its actually pretty funny how spot on it is to Odense 2 with Elder Erickson. Here's why:

We were sick for three days and sat inside and ate pretty much the exact same things as last time we were sick for three days, except this time we got Elder Lee sick too so he joined the fun (muwahaha)  I don't actually know what it was... we all thought is was strep but it wasn't as bad for Elder Erickson or myself.  Elder Lee took some amoxicilin because we are pretty sure he had it haha. Major bummer. Other than that though here is some actual missionary stuff that happened:

Progress:

We met up with M* and her husband B* and had a great second lesson. They are both way believing and have strong faith. The husband has had some problems and for a while turned away from religion because of them but ended up trying to turn it back around. He has a firm testimony in Jesus Christ, as does M* which is great! So they want to meet again and we gave them some scriptures to read and they gave us some to read so they sound way awesome! ( i wasn't there because i was on splits. This is according to Elder Lee). 

We helped an investigator move. It was a little frustrating because he lived way out in the boonies and we ended up getting lost and in the end, all he had was probably 5 boxes and 4 bags and a bed and a couch. But we got it done in like 30 minutes; and on the bright side, while we were lost we had a fluent conversation across the Danish-Norwegian languages with 4 elderly Norwegian ladies on a bike trip in Denmark. They spoke Norwegian to us, and we spoke Danish back. The languages are similar enough that we can fluently understand if we focus hard. It was way neat! I didn't know I speak Norwegian too until then ;)

Elder Nielsen and I went on splits together. He is the district leader over in Herning. Way great guy! He hails from Virginia and is the group ahead of me. We had a solid morning block and went way hard for two hours and had 4 really great convos. We ended up by evaluating in our apartment and grabbing some saft to cool down. After that we had 5 minutes, so trusting in the last five minute miracles that Heavenly Father always provides, we went out and had a 30 minute convo with the most nicely dressed homeless man I've ever seen. He had a pretty sad backstory and we talked with him about faith and how God can really help. He said he would think about it all, but that he has had such a hard life that he is not sure. The spirit was present and his countenance shifted slightly throughout the conversation. By the end, he was happier and said he might stop by the church. He lived on the street next to it so he knows very well where it is. I thought that was a funny comment. At least he is happy enough to still make jokes:)

We definitely have a dynamite area:) I love it so much! The zone is great and the work is so great so it is amazing what the Lord is preparing for us. 

Other things:

 At CUV we had a institute kick-off with dominos pizza... that was great:)

I think i sweat for 3 days straight haha. It was really humid and actually pretty warm for a 3 day burst so i got a small taste of hotter missions in the world. My hat is off to them.

We got free apples from a bucket that someone left outside of their house. That was a miracle because Elder Nielsen and I were hungry and needed something to keep us refreshed while we had doors slammed in our face haha. That was a particularly hard knocking sesh.

Spiritual thought:

Here is a quote from Elder Jeffery R. Holland that really inspired me:

“Although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother, and ‘because I have been given much, I too must give.’”

Beauty.

Have a great week! 

-- 

Ældste  j

We all survived sickness! 

a sweet ocean view.

Carolina reaper chilis= 10 kroner of fun.  We didn't eat any... don't worry.

                   We found the chili shop!! we made friends with the guy there and might buy a chili plant haha.

The crew

A sweet sunset

I made biscuits out of a mormon cooking cookbook hahaha

A Sleeping Bag Week

Last night as I was thinking about all the things that have happened and how much was somehow packed into the week, I had a flashback of my Dad asking me to stuff sleeping bags. The problem was in this instance, I was trying to stuff the big Coleman bag into the small mummy bag because I was too lazy to get up and find the right bag. Needless to say, the sack wasn't big enough for the sleeping bag and I eventually had to find the bigger bag. 

That was my week except it all fit in the 7 days I had.... just unreal:

Progress:

So C* is still sick/unable to meet but she is still down to meet so no worries!

We met some new friends about 2 weeks ago I believe. They are a young couple who love Medieval festivals and learning about religion... perfect:) We had a way killer lesson with them and it was so neat because we are still in a trio companionship because Elder Erickson's comp is still sick in the US. But the  tri-panionship juices were flowing so well and the spirit directed a beautiful lesson. So we have a return appointment to teach about the plan of salvation. Just textbook stuff... couldn't have gone better. It was legitimately refreshing to walk out a lesson like that.:) Love it.

My boy M* finally got back from Palestine where he was filming a documentary (he is Danish) and we are meeting today. He is still way stoked to come and have a church tour so we are pretty excited to talk with him. Elder Perkins and I contacted him on splits in May so it has been a while.

We met a cool young dane who was walking down the path by our house right before we had to go in. We stopped her and asked if she wanted to talk and so we did. She is super believing and was very nice and down to earth. The neatest part of the whole thing was that she told us she had just finished praying for something like this while she was walking down the path... yet another testimony block to my foundation of faith that God answers prayers:) How cool is that? 

We are waiting on meeting with a bunch of the new people we have met so we will see what happens this week with them. Lots of just great stuff is happening. I made a list of people we need to work on getting appointments with and get in contact with and by the time I was done I was very grateful with how much the Lord blesses those who work hard and love others! 

​Okay here comes snippets of the week... i can't fit it all nor put it into detail that does it justice but i went hard in my journal this week so no worries:

Tuesday:

We had a wonderful zone conference on member missionary work. It was really great for both zones to combine all the think power in the room and make a plan/train each other on things that help us as missionaries have better member relations and ultimately help members to be missionaries.​ it was solid. I also sang a trio deal with sister andrew and sister acosta (the same from last Sunday) so for the second time in my life (week) i sang a solo part. For those good at singing that does't sound too bad... but I almost wanted to laugh during it, it was hard to suppress. You definitely do crazy things on the mish hahaha. 

Right after zone conference, we got a call from a girl who recently came home from her mission. She had been reading her scriptures in the park and some guy came and asked her questions. So boom, member missionary work. We rerouted and walked to the park were she was and taught this slightly intoxicated guy. He turned out not all that down to talk again but way nice guy. During it though was the kicker... about 15 minutes in a drug dealer came up and asked who we were. We told him and he said that it was way sweet what we were doing. He offered us a hit of the marijuana he was smoking and we politely declined haha. He said it was chill, said some other things I won't repeat, and then gave us knucks and walked away. So back to the first guy right? wrong. Right after that a way cool guy from Louisiana named Crispen walked up and said "Hey you mormons. I know you" . He was on his way to buy more cheap wine but he pointed to "philosophers rock" as he called it and told us to find him there. 

So 10 minutes later when we finished talking to the first guy, we met Crispen there. He already had an audience of three other teenage danes. They were in the process of philosophizing large strings of English words that amounted to hot air basically. I didn't question it because they were also sharing a joint (probably from the homie we talked to earlier haha) they also offered us some and we said no that time as well. Gotta love the park. But Crispen had some legit questions at the beginning so we stuck around. He is such a character!! Man alive i love people:) 

Wednesday:

 The highlight of today was that the end part of it. We went to support the sister's friend Søren in this game called showdown. It is a hybrid of pingpong and airhockey played on a table with walls and the goal is to hit a ball with a small club into a net on the other side of the table. Way sweet! We got to play as well and they blindfolded us under the goggles. There is a bell in the ball so you have to locate with your ears. These guys are unreal at it! Søren can "see" the ball wherever it is on the table just by hearing it! So awesome.

Right after that we went to Bible study with our friends at new convenant church. The best part was that they have a full music set with drums, an electric guitar, a double set keyboard, and drums. So Elder Lee was on Keyboard, elder Erickson on guitar, a guy whose name I've forgotten on drums, and I learned the bass in the 20 magical minutes we jammed. The three of us have written a song and it sounded so good on real equipment. It was a bonding experience and everyone at the bible study loved it. There were about 30 people we had a mini performance for so that was sweet!.

Friday:

Tried taking cookies to a member. Got lost. Ended up in a giant field. Walked for 30 minutes. Found our way and delivered the cookies. We then sprinted desperately trying to find a bus that would come and take us home on time or else we were stranded way out an hour away. I really will never do that in my life when I am no longer a missionary haha. So great!

Saturday:

We attended a Catholic mass on an invite. It was cool to see the faith of the people there and how they worship. We had some very solid conversations with people about faith and stuff and made some new friends. It is fantastic to see faith, regardless of the level or depth. It is mostly the fact that they have the courage to have that faith that is so neat because most people are afraid to show it, especially here i feel. Great stuff!

Sunday:

A crazy Vietnamese guy basically disrupted the entire sacrament meeting on Sunday haha. When i say crazy... this dude was legit psychologically sick. Elder Lee had talked with him on Friday when we were contacting and he had seemed totally normal. He also started out way normal in the beginning of the meeting. I talked breifly with him and he was all there. But he got up in the middle of Elder Erickson's talk and started chanting and doing wierd/creepy karate poses, So Elder Lee and I had to escort him out. After that we tried for 20 minutes to get him to leave the steps of the building but he was freaking out. A way nice man in the ward from Sri Lanka took him on a walk and that was the last we saw of him. Despite how odd and disruptive he was, I feel way bad for him. But it was an eventful session of church. 

We also got invited to attend a way hip nondenominational Christian church for young adults. There was around 100 18-30 year olds all there and it was so cool! We met a ton of way great people and turns out that 3 of our potential investigators went there haha. I mean, i would too if i wasn't LDS. They really got that place down! They have a very family feel mindset and a Christian rock band and a super hipster place to meet haha. Great experience!

Inspirational thought:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that, because what the world needs is people that have come alive.” –Howard Thurman

Missionary work (should) make missionaries come alive.  What makes you come alive?

Have a great week! 

Ældste  j

The Jam sesh

A portal to the parallel 

The other parts of the tripanionship Elder Lee and Elder Erickson

Solo contacting...self portrait

A "cute" danish house for your pintrests haha

The crew. Elder Erickson, Rasmus, Lasse, Oliver, Me, And Elder Lee

No description for these....my guess...another zone newsletter :) 

3x3 Protein

This week was turned on sprint mode. I am not sure why but it just did not stop until Sunday night came around again. It was packed with a lot of business preparing/ setting things up for success this transfer as far as zone stuff and our area. If you are wondering about the title, it is because:

1) Elder Erickson will be in a tri-panionship until further notice because his new trainee got E coli so he is delayed coming out into the field (major bummer). But it is sweet to be comps again with him and Elder Lee:))

2) We Are the epicenter of working out in this mission hands down. We are low key hyping it up so we can turn the mission culture to working out in the morning as opposed to the bed-to-couch relay in the mornings haha. I think it it slowly taking over other companionships. Elder Eaves has apparently been going way hard since he left so boom... success.

Anyways, here is the rest of my week in a little nutshell:

(Monday and Tuesday are accounted for already from last time)

Wednesday:

                   

On Wednesday we did a bunch of logistical stuff a lot of the day which was made me a little restless but it was necessary (I don't think I will take a desk job haha) We also had an appointment with a half Dane- half Spanish girl but she burned us... so we picked up Elder Erickson and ate dinner instead:) 

Thursday:

We had district meeting with the quality humans in our district. It was Elder Johansens birthday so HE bought US a big pastry the size of an American cake to share. Danes are so kind:) He is on visa wait to go to the Provo Utah Mission but we get him while he is here so its a plus:) (not just because of the cake... who do you think I am)

Also, we met a wayyy legit old lady named Liz on the way to our Leadership Meeting. She is probably 65 and has traveled/lived in most of the world and is quite the character. She speaks All sorts of languages and has spunk in every sense of the word. Elder Lee and I had probably an hour discussion with her about every possible thing haha. It was sweet because good old Elder Gardner boarded the train and saw we were mid convo, so he talked to a girl from the Faroe Islands instead haha. It went up for me during that whole experience that meeting people and just loving them and learning about them is way awesome! It is a very under rated activity and is usually substituted for music or whats on the facestigram feed. You can do so much networking with the human race, it's incredible:)

Friday:

We had our Leadership meeting which was great as usual. Just quality stuff with quality people. Then we rode more trains. We are getting really good at that.

Saturday:

We went and taught a past investigator from the other area here in Århus. They had a death in the family recently so we dropped by to talk with them. Really sweet people! They don't really want anything to do with investigating but they basically said to come and hygge anytime so that was nice I guess haha. They haven't been to church in the 8 years they "investigated" so that kinda paints the picture... 

We also played the most entertaining game of basketball I have probably ever played. Four Americans, a Spainard, an nice Iraqi man, and a Danish member from the ward. Completely fun organized chaos:)

Sunday:

We, the missionaries, did a special musical number in church; which meant that Elder Lee played the Piano and Sister Andrew and Sister Acosta and I sang haha. The song required that I sang a solo for a verse so first time for everything hahaha. I thought it was very funny that I did that but we got scheduled for the next two sundays to do a musical number so apparently people thought it was good... 

Spiritual thought:

Here is an excerpt of a talk that is way fire! Coming back to the lady on the train, it really framed the things I learned:

"That is why President Kimball is so great. When I went out to Oklahoma, many years back and found young chaplain John Cooper out there, I was reminded of his father who had been the stake president up in Logan. In all those years President Cooper kept a little guest book, and he had every visitor that came to his stake sign in it. The guest book had the date, the name of the person, his title or position, and his hobby. When he had me sign this book, I saw all these thick pages with line after line of the Brethren’s names. I looked through and there were President Heber J. Grant and President David O. McKay and President Joseph Fielding Smith, Matthew Cowley, Adam S. Bennion—all the great apostles of the past. I came to this entry: Date: 1954; Name: Spencer W. Kimball; Position: Apostle; hobby: I love people. I kept turning the pages and came to 1964: Spencer W. Kimball, apostle; hobby: I love people. I don’t think that President Kimball went back through his book and found out what he had written before to be consistent. I think if we could call him tonight on the phone at his apartment and ask, “President Kimball, what is your hobby?” he would say, “I love people.” That is it. Put love high on your priority list."

Look at all the great things Spencer W. Kimball did. I'll bet most of the stemmed from the fact that he loved people as his hobby. Food for thought, why can't we make that ours?

Have a great week entering the school realm! "education is not a filling of a pail but a lighting of a fire" - W.B Yeats

Fred Ud, 

Ældste  j

The best rainbow I have ever seen (yes we tried knocking that house...nobody home...)

Waiting in the Copenhagen station for the umpteenth train haha

Pics of the most stacked Trio ever 

Me in epic tie-dye form

Our P-day pizzas - Elder Lee and Elder Erickson

An average Århus buy in day

Elder Erickson and I scored some sweet new jackets at a ski shop :) 

Århus Dynasty

Well transfers came around looks like I get to stay in Århus another round with Elder Lee!. That is the first time I haven't transfered or gotten a new companion since Elder Jensen (my son/trainee) so I'm pretty stoked. Everything is going super well here and we are stoked to help it become even better. The Århus scene has Elder Lee and I, and Elder Erickson (a past comp) and someone he is training so it is going to be stacked:) We are all so excited to go hard haha our apartment always has high levels of stoke.

Progress:

C* got pretty sick so we weren't able to meet with her this week. But we still have contact and hopefully she will be able to meet on Wednesday.

The way cool lady named B* (the one from splits with Elder Tompkins) set up an appointment with us and we had a pretty basic lesson on a lot of truths of the restored gospel. She didn't quite understand some things and felt bad for us... which is a sign she didn't understand the previous 30 minutes of the lesson haha. It was actually kinda confusing... But it ended well when we committed her to do something about it and take action on the promise in Mormons Bog (I'll translate: Book of Mormon) haha. But it was a good lesson overall because we had a cool young man from the ward named Oliver come with us and he was great to have along so it was an overall edifying experience (that lesson and some other things is why we are taking p-day today.)

We met a way cool dude named Dennis a couple weeks ago and stopped by him the other day. He let us in and we had a low key lesson where we all just kinda connected. it was great! Like all other humans, he has problems/concerns/questions and hey... we do too:) He asked near the end if we new the band Angels and Airwaves, which happens to be Elder Lee's favorite band and i am decently familiar with them as well. They aren't known in Denmark at all so that made Dennis's day and he gave us cokes and we ended up teaching the best parts of the lesson with that in the background. I've stopped questioning how the Lord helps us find the key to others hearts and so we just went with it and he asked if we could come back again. So fistpumps all around! Then we sprinted to catch a bus:)

Other Stuff:

We scheduled an appointment to meet with a guy we met a while ago. It turned into a big joke haha. He didn't show up for 15 minutes so I called him and he asked if he could bring Surströmming and two friends.

Here is the definition of Surströmming:

Surströmming (pronounced [ˈsʉ̟ːˌʂʈrœmːɪŋ], Swedish for "sour herring") is fermented Baltic Sea herring that has been a staple of traditional northern Swedish cuisine since at least the 16th century.

Just enough salt is used to prevent the raw fish from rotting (chemical decomposition). A fermentation process of at least six months gives the lightly-salted fish its characteristic strong smell and somewhat acidic taste.

When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odour; the dish is ordinarily eaten outdoors. According to a Japanese study, a newly opened can of surströmming has one of the most putrid food smells in the world, even more so than similarly fermented fish dishes such as the Korean Hongeohoe or Japanese Kusaya.^[1]

It is also illegal to open indoors... so we promptly shut the appointment down. So yea... fun afternoon.

I got to go on Splits with Elder McDougall on Thursday and we had a great day of knocking in the summer monsoon haha. I love the Danes because even if they don't want to necessarily hear about the message, they still feel bad for anyone out in the rain. We recieved a glass of water, a full twix bar each, and a tour of a sword collection that day. The kicker was that the last door we knocked was a cool 17 year old who let us and and we taught him the restoration in 15 minutes and then had a return appointment at the end. (it is always the last door haha:) )

Spiritual thought:

The Lord truly blesses those who are diligent in doing his work. (Not just missionaries so hear hear.) Elder Lee and I wrote out all the people with high potential on a white board during weekly planning and at the end of the list I stopped and felt a huge amount of satisfaction for the work we have done the last transfer. Our goal as a companionship was to work as it says in Doctrine and Covenants 31:

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. 

My thoughts were that the Lord truly has laden sheaves upon our backs, meaning he has blessed us with a ton of people to teach and help come closer to Jesus Christ and it was incredible to reflect upon. How it applies to you? Well the best way as disciples of Jesus Christ is to bear testimony:) It comes in many forms and a huge one is the examples we set. So i encourage you to keep setting those examples to everyone around you... BUT i have have recently seen bearing testimony make a huge impact and we have been challenging members to do so with their friends, relatives both active and nonactive, etc etc. so i want to extend the same to all who read this (thats what you get for being my friend haha)

. Consider the testimony you have been given by Heavenly Father and think of someone to share it with.  I can promise there will be someone that will come to mind that needs it:)  

"The Lord entrusts a testimony of the truth to those who will share it with others" Dieter F Uchtdorf

Jamen ha' det godt,-- 

Ældste  j

Elder Lee and I posing for the Northern Kingdom Newsletter

Family Picture:
Elder Stephens, Elder Erickson, Elder Lee, Elder Jeppson, Elder Magleby, Elder Johnson, Sister Baggaley, Sister Acosta

The origial aros stone (that is the face of Odin)

A view from the top of the museum (oh yeah... we also went to that museum again)

Drop the Mic

Honestly this has been one of the best weeks of my mission based off the success on all levels and all aspects of the work. I feel like the Lord is opening my eyes to what I can do on his behalf and what I can do to obtain my potential. It is truly humbling to see the Lord's hand in my life and in the work among the Danish people and I know he uses us as willing servants despite our circumstances. Elder Lee and I have really focused on what we call salvation steps, meaning we really try our best to really give others a chance to recieve at least some part of the gospel into their heart rather than any other motives (which there are haha)

 Sometimes I have been eager to talk with people so I can help them take steps towards a second lesson, or coming to church, but it has really gone up for me that those things will fall naturally into place when your direct your efforts to simply teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It doesn't mean the former things are bad... church is a great thing and so is discussing the gospel in a follow up appointment, but it comes down to what is good, better and best.  Thats not to say I've all the sudden figured everything out, but I do think the Lord has directed me gradually towards this transfer of my mission. The area is very much a gold mine now because we have really directed all our energies towards being servants worthy of hire and the reciprocating promise of sheaves being laden upon our backs is always fulfilled.   Doctrine and  Covenants 31 has really inspired me as you can tell haha. (if those references i just made went over your head, go read that section of the Doctrine AND covenants).

As far as the nectar of the week:

Monday:

We set up the slackline to unwind for pday but still try and make some new friends. unfortunantely this week came in monsoon style so the off and on dumping rain commenced at 3 o clock in the afternoon haha. Im hearing things about 110 degrees in california right now haha so i guess ill count the rain in this week  to make up for the past 2 years of rain in california haha (what is sad is that isnt far off from not being an hyperbole)

Tuesday:

The main with Tuesday is that we are starting a Bible study in our church building next Monday. We thought, hey... we go to lots of Bible studies that other people invite us to so why not start our own? So we made up some sweet flyers and came together as a district to go hand them out. So that was a fun switch up! We are shooting for an open discussion type deal on what the Bible teaches and how we as a group can apply its teachings to our lives and so forth. It isn't a preaching thing on any one persons side (ideally haha). We just want to find out what Arhus thinks of the Bible:)

Wednesday:

We had a way great lesson with C*. She really opened up a lot to us and Nikali (an awesome member here in Århus). It is really neat to see her faith grow and she has a pretty strong desire to know what God has in store for her life. We invited her to ask Heavenly Father about being baptized and she was pretty stoked to do it with some great counsel from Nikali. Members attending lessons are super clutch! So we are excited with what comes out of that for her.

Thursday:

Thursday had some highlight moments for sure! I was on splits with Elder Tompkins from Florida her in Århus and it was just stellar. We went out to go knock on some doors for an Improved finding block. (that is how we do our finding in the mission. We find from anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half, take 15 minutes to evaluate ourselves and take a short break to refocus, and then hit it hard again. It is always super effective and it improves every time if you have a mind for that)

But anyways, We knocked on probably 30 doors and basically just had a lot of insta-no's. I honestly was feeling that at all but then it went up for me that we hadn't asked the Lord where he thinks we should knock. So we in essence asked him for a referral to someone ready to listen to the gospel. We felt like building 8 but it turned out that we were in the odds of the complex and I didn't know where the evens where at all. So we tried another one i felt was good and there was something good that came out of that but not that original buidling 8. So after that we decided to leave the odds altogether and hey... we walked right into the evens:) Funny how that worked... But the first door to answer in building 8 was a super awesome woman named B' and she let us right in. It was basically every missionaries dream as cliche as it sounds. She was super kind and open and receptive to the message of the restored Gospel and it was just such a good experience! So in the end, she was exactly what we had asked the Lord to guide us to in order to help another learn of the restored gospel:)

Something that hit home as I sat in the bus stop was the thought of how the Lord had truly used us as His tools in order to do His work. Because we were willing to do the work, he was willing to make things work, despite us being tired and a little frustrated that we hadn't gotten a word in edgewise besides "godag" (that means good day if you didn't guess haha)

Once again, the gospel works wonderfully. I don't expect it to ever stop.

Friday:

Went hard, drank jordbær saft, lost to Elder Shuppy in chess... again.

Saturday:

I learned a cool lesson in another bus stop. We had just finished playing basketball and were waiting for the next bus. There was a guy sitting at the stop just rolling a joint and he looked pretty down. At first when I saw him I thought, "must be a rough day..." and then kinda moved on in my thoughts. But then I turned my train of thought around and it went "hey, if anyone needs the gospel it is probably him right now" so I went up and asked  him what he knows about the olympics and the Danish atheletes competing. He didn't actually know but we struck up a nice conversation in the 3 minutes before the bus came and he asked if he could come play basketball sometime, so we exchanged numbers. On the bus I couldn't sit by him but as I reflected on it, I thought why wouldn't the Lord want us to talk to people with similar circumstances as this way awesome guy i had just talked to? He really was grateful that I had talked to him and to me it had not seemed that big of a deal. Just one more lesson I learned on not judging others and more importantly, loving them:)

Also, on Saturday Elder Lee and I decided that watching Inside out at Christmas with the zone was the hands down best movie experience of our lives.

Sunday:

I got asked to give a impromptu musical number in sacrament meeting. I am pretty sure it was revelation but the clutch thing was I knew this would happen so I was already prepared with a cool number of "Come thou Fount." The one pitfall though was that I had always skipped practicing a particularly hard part (sorry piano teachers), so I pretty much did a funky improv in the middle hahaha. I am pretty sure only I knew though so no worries.

Spiritual thought:

Since I am on the poem hype, here is another favorite:)

Champion

Author Unknown

The average runner runs

until the breath in him is gone,

But the champion has the iron will

that makes him carry on.

For the rest the average runner begs

when limp his muscles grow,

But the champion runs on leaden legs,

his courage makes him go.

The average man's complacent

when he's done his best to score,

But the champion does his best,

and then he does a little more.

(see email title)

 Love Ældste J

And Dinner hour came to pass.....

The Northern Kingdom Newsletter II :) 

Stripling Warriors?  

Zone newsletter :

Danish Summer or California Winter? 

A Picture I received from Elder Milliards Parents who returned to Denmark after their son finished his mission to visit.  

Elder Erickson in his tawainese silk...injured from working so hard 

my view of the bus on the daily

Elder Lee, son of Bruce Lee

Elder Stephens made a drum... we made a helmet