Week of Understatements

Well as far as my week, it was just incredible! 

I think I said "Today was great" every single day and I don't think I was close to capturing how great it truly was.

There were gems in every day at some point and I really feel that the Lord has helped me grow a lot this week. I don't know if I could love life more until my capacity to love increases haha. I really truly feel blessed to be in a great zone with a great area and two-ish great companions. The gospel works wonderfully as usual. I'm glad it will always be that way:)

As far as the zone, everything is going well! I think there is an increased desire to cultivate the right motives and really dial into the work. We have recently finished touring the districts and had a great district meeting every time. We focused on members and how we need to recognize the weight and meaning of our identity as representatives of Jesus Christ. I think it really helped some wheels turn.

Here is a quick run down:

Monday:

P-day: We had the Frederikshavn Elders down on splits, Elder Jensen and Elder Brown. Both studs:) We ate kebabs and drank boosters (a soda here) and played the card game bang! For like four hours haha. Great stuff!

Tuesday:

I got to go on splits with Elder Jensen who I trained. It was just a blast. We have both grown so much since we were last together. Incredible! He is a beast missionary and just a solid dude in general. We had a solid day of work (and some play) and ended it off by contacting and teaching a way open and happy referral we got from the Svendborg elders! So solid!

Wednesday:

We had a way cool experience at the new covenant Bible study. My brotha Joshua asked the question, "Why are there so many branches of Christianity if Jesus only set up one?" Well an intense hour long discussion of this topic ensued and it was so powerful. Us missionaries really testified strongly about the apostacy and  did very well to give a neutral yet powerful answer. (Our goal there is to just participate and we don't want to come off preachy) We have a great reputation there and are great friends with the members so I feel like they really listened to us. One of the coolest parts was that Apostle (the leader) said,

 " The thing is... we should all be unified. If someone was to come in here and say that, for example, that Jesus Christ has revealed who is the right church, then we must be ready to follow them. I don't say I am right, but I am trying to find it. For example, if the Mormons are right, we must be ready to follow them. They are great Christian people who I really admire and if God said they are right, we will follow them. And if God told them to follow us, they would do that too."

Well the spirit was way strong and I think wheels were really turning that night. I really feel like that was an inspired question:) So great stuff on Wednesday night too. Three for three so far.

Thursday:

We had a great time going up to Ålborg's district meeting and bringing Elder Poff and Stephens back on splits. There is some solid gems but I don't have time to write it because I want to do Friday right now:))

Friday:

With Elder Poff, we did great work. He is a very good missionary who has a great heart and a handle on how to represent Jesus Christ. This pretty much sums up our splits:

We were out in a seemingly average contacting session where people were "too busy" and not a lot was happening. About 30 minutes in, we met a very nice young man of about 24 from the Czech Republic. We tried starting in Danish but he shut us down and asked to speak English. So we switched and started again. Elder Poff asked, "so why do you think there are so many churches on the earth today?" This guy (his name is V*) responded by saying that everyone interprets things differently and has different views and opinions. I followed up with that by asking what he thinks and he said he really is not sure about the whole religion thing. I asked if he had ever tried to pray before and he said he had not. We began to talk about God and prayer and other things of that nature. Basically he admitted he does not really know if he believes in a higher power but said he thinks he has seen evidence that He might exist.. We asked what the evidence is and he told us that he thinks he has started to realize and find his destiny. He had moved to Denmark 10 days prior and was very happy to begin university and become a stock broker. He said that some things have happened that have shown his path of destiny in some ways. We asked what he meant by that and he said " I don't know... but I guess for an example I will  tell you something. It is funny that we are having this conversation right now because I had a dream a couple nights ago that I met people like you two here, and now that I think about it... this is kind of deja vous because I feel like I've met you before but I dont think I have."

Well that gave Elder Poff and I a surge of confidence that Heavenly Father's hand was in this, so we began to testify of how God helps us on our journey back to Him. We kept talking and it led into the the message of the Restoration and at some point we mentioned that God gives us guidance and communicates with us in ways that we will understand. Well here is the coolest part of the experience... after saying that he interrupts the flow of teaching and says, " Here's what I think. I was sitting up in the botanical gardens waiting for a meeting with people from school. No one showed up because it started raining hard but I just sat there. After a while it stopped and I just kept sitting there." Then jokingly he says, "I was lonely and bored so I pulled out this one hundred dollar bill so Franklin could keep me company." He smiled and continued by talking about how he just looked at the bill and saw how it said "in God We Trust" and he said that really made him think. He said that if America bases basic moral values on God, then there must be something up there. He then said "So i just got up at was thinking about that as I left and then right after all that, I meet you two. So there must be a higher power."

Well for me in any case, that put my stoke meter at 100%, so I began to testify to him of God and that his plan for All of us was that we cross paths and that he had prepared us to meet. Then Elder Poff came in and began to promise blessings of praying to know the truth of God and pulled out a pamphlet where it describes prayer and begins to talk about it, but V* cuts him off by saying "woah, I knew you were going to give me this! I was starting to wonder when, but in my dream you gave this to me."

Two things came to mind. 1) I truly have the greatest calling... doing the Lord's work and being a worthy vessel. and 2) I learned a bit more about what it means to be "possessed by charity" like it says in the scriptures. Heavenly Father really blessed us that Thursday morning. 

So we will see where the Lord takes it:) We didn't get his info because he had recently been mugged so he had no phone or anything and I am pretty sure he is staying with a friend so he didn't give us an address. We gave him probably all the info we could possibly give him and we invited him in the very least if we didn't meet again, to pray to find out about the truth of a living and loving God and he said "I can promise you that I will do it. I want to try" I hope Heavenly Father keeps helping us cross paths:) I love that God talks to us in a way we understand. turns out money isn't always the root of all evil haha. 

Saturday:

Played sport with our friend Salaam and the sisters. Did weekly planning. Ate dinner with Salaam and the sisters. Quality day:)

Sunday:

It was Sunday. They're always good:)

Spiritual thought:

Don't be a human doing, be a human being!

A man could be happy in a cave if it was his duty to be there -John Poulsipher

Well Have a great week!! Sorry this was rushed:) Not really though because P-day is here haha.

-- 

Ældste  j

the Ålborg district meeting

Elder Jensen and I- Reunion splits

Lights out XD

                         Elder Poff. The man myth and legend

Weekly planning doodles

Dinner with Salaam, one of our friends

The crew still going strong

               The one and only... Elder Erickson. Hails from Sweden

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