Monday, November 28, 2016

Arranged Marriage

This week was pretty swell! More and more good things keep on happening and it seems like I am still trying to be grateful for all the good things i haven't finished showing gratitude for yet! haha its funny how that works... One thing I'm thankful for is that the Lord loves us and is mindful of each and every one of us. Happy Thanksgiving you people :)

Well I'll cut to the highlights cuz some cool african guys were here to clean the carpets in the church so we had to wait to email...  so comin at you quick:

Progress:

J* is the man! This guy has incredibly strong faith! We talk alot with him about our faith starting as a mustard seed so to speak but this guy's seed is on steroids or something because he sends us spiritual thoughts haha its great:) I'd venture to day that he is every missionaries dream and that I am thankful that he is a part of mine. Here are some cool J* moments were Elder Beck and I look at each other and just smile real big:

We met with him twice this week and in one of the appointments we were talking about commandments and why God gives them to us. We explained how God doesn't give a commandment without a blessing attached, one that is ultimately designed for our ultimate happiness (Quote cred shoutout to Brother Zufelt). Well it worked because he had done his "extra reading" and said he saw that it is part of the word of wisdom to not use tobacco. After discussing it he goes... "well, looks like I smoked my last cigarette this afternoon. If I am going to stop, it is now. The gospel is more imortant to me than a cigarette." Right about then cue my African friends from the New convenant Bible study to walk in choir style and sing some songs of praise haha. I was way stoked to say the least! He is a truly inspiring man and it is just so neat to see how much the Lord has prepared him up to this point!

Another J* moment is one of the texts he sent to us. He sends us the most positve texts allllll the time. He loves asking questions and giving his insights from what he read so it is kinda like watching the play by play of a football game on ESPN or something except for J*s conversion process. Way coo stuff. But anyway he goes "Hey i just wanted to say how much i loved church...."(then he said a bunch of neat stuff about it).Then he told us that we are always welcome to stay with him once we go home (even J* is getting trunky for us...) and said he wants a picture with us so that he can always remember this time in his life. We told that he is also welcome to come and stay if they visit America and then there was silence from his end for about 2 minutes and then he goes, "We just decided to save some money I used for cigarettes and stuff to come and visit you in america sometime with our kids!" and stuff like that. That is the kid of stoke level he is on and it is really fun to see as well as inspiring. 

Needless to say, J is doing well:)

Our boy K* surprised us in a really good way on Saturday. We are starting to meet with him a lot more often and he is progressing really well. We had given him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon about Baptism and so we came in and sat down and he goes "hold on i need some water..." then as he walks in the room again he says, "hey so i read about baptism and stuff like that... like can i get baptized and stuff?." I loved hearing that from his mouth because K* is a really real guy and doesn't bush dance at all. What solidified that he had thought about it a lot was the fact that he had written out the entire chapter by hand. He told us that he did it because he had a lot of downtime one night and really wanted to understand it better. So that was way sweet! We re-read the chapter with him and now he is working towards the 14th of January to be baptized! Another cool related to the word of wisdom is that K* goes "so i can smoke cigarettes and S*** like that right?... okay i'll try and stop" He is funny guy:D We've been helping him out too with his living situation because he has friends that are pretty buck wild with drugs and stuff and are kind of shady dudes that use K*. He doesn't have a lot so a member hooked us up with some money to buy him a bit of food and he got way stoked! We also dropped by some apple pie for him in the post thansgiving givingness aka we were too full.


Thanksgiving:
We saved thansgiving in the last hours haha. We had to drive back from Århus from a zone training and I was feeling pretty sick like the energy zapped kinda sick so i sacked out in the car and we called an audible and went to the grocery store and bought a rotisserie chicken to toss in the oven while elder beck was on dinner roll duty and i got the apple pie and other stuff. It turned out to be wayyy great actually! I don't know if i've ever had/made a better apple pie. I think i used some magic ingredients or something but im thankful for thanksgiving:)

Fun random other stuff:

On splits i taught a family that has recently moved from the Congo and can really only speak Swahili. The 12 yr old kid can speak decent danish so he was our translator... basically all i got out of them was that the 14 year old daughter is in love with me and that the mom says I am welcome back anytime....yikes well im greatful that splits are only 24 hours haha.

Today for pday elder beck and I both found a pair of ecco shoes (very nice danish brand) for 50 kroner each! They are literally brand new :D That is the equivalent of 7 US dollars so guess what... im still thankful for secondhand stores. We are still way hyped about that.

Also, today we were walking and we came across a cool Christmas village market thing (they are starting to come out) and we me a really awesome lady from Bosnia. She must be in her 60's but we got talking with her and she really liked us because we werent from denmark either so she felt the connection. She was selling something i wont mention because we ended up buying a lot of them from her. (dont worry, it isnt illegal... theyre just gifts to the fam) She got way stoked and we got talking for a little while. She gave us a bunch of free Bosnian christmas cake and told me that i remind her a lot of her Grandson who lives here in Skive. She asked how old I was and I told her im 19 and then she got this light in her eyes and said "hey I have a granddaughter that is 19!" and I could see her wheels start to turn. Throughout us being there trying to figure out which of which we wanted to buy, she kept dropping little hints haha. Then guess what... while we are getting it all sorted out with payments and stuff guess who walks up? The Granddaughter and a friend. Well, long story short I got my marriage arranged right then and there haha. I mean... This lady is really really cool so good for the guy who gets her as grandma in law but im tryin to serve a mish hahaha so ellers tak. Man i busted up real hard though because it was the classic grandma-grandchild embarrasment factor and i really felt for this girl but ill tell you what... watching a sweet old lady tell off her granddaughter in both danish and Bosnian at the same time to marry me was one of the funniest things ive seen for a while hahaha.

Missions though...


Spiritual thought:

There is a quote i love that goes "Strangers are just friends youve never met yet." -- anonymous

wouldnt that be something if we all could internalize that one? Thought id share it cuz it helped me see from a new angle :)

The church has just released a new initiative to the whole world! Yes that means you! It is actually a way way cool idea. For everyone who has had the chocolate christmas calendar where you eat a chocolate a day until christmas... it is kinda like that! It is all about doing one thing every day that will #LighttheWorld. Basically it helps us focus on the meaning of christmas more. You can print out a paper with all of the days and the ideas behind them. Check out the video and pass it on! Id challenge you to share it to at least one other person in your life and join in! 

Not to advertise or anything... ;) but really though i got to cheat and look at all the days a couple days before the release and it is really inspiring! I promise this will make this one a memorable christmas! 








Hipster photoshoots over det hele!


Stars, Stockings and sweets,
-- 
Ældste  j








Add caption Post service with Elder reed (holding eggs) Elder Halling and Elder Beck #seatwarmers

J*s house! What a place.

Thanksgiving of Champions


Shout out to Teagan the member... again



postin up post J*

I saw a gnarwal... they're real

Elder Beck playing hymns ;) (nah but he actually is)


My xmas decorations

The Fjord Haven


I'm tired.... is anyone else tired?

my best popeye impression (pretty close right?!)



Elder Beck getting crazy 



Point and shoot 


Yea...the water actually was cold


National graphic where you at



Kings of the Slice

Kayak



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