Just Run it Off

This week was pretty solid. Monday night we had a neat experience where we said a prayer to dedicate our area to the Lord for the next transfer. It was neat because we were up on the hill overlooking the Skive fjord and it was a clear starry night... pretty poetic place to do so and we both felt like this next transfer the Lord has some big plans! I also have been thinking about Elder Ballard's quote that "we must wear ourselves out in the service of the Lord... dull or slow moments are for dull of slow missionaries. So remember that sharp missionaries don't have them." That was something I wanted to really fulfill so I feel like my mental sacrifice to work even harder than I have before was heard because The Lord really gave us some reasons to be worn out haha its awesome. Yet another example of our righteous desires being fulfilled. I gotta start making sure that I am fully prepared for what i ask for or else it is kind of trying of like trying to take a bull for a walk :)

But here comes the recent news to you, from Skive:

Progress:

Well Jimmi has taken it upon himself to be the best member missionary there ever was because he is still just on fire! He has been sharing the gospel left and right and is just so ecstatic that he can help others change their lives too. It it amazing to witness. For example, Jimmi and Vivi have a long time friend named M* that has had a similar path in life as they have had. Recently, circumstances (not actually sure what) made her decide to start fresh out in the area where Jimmi lives. Jimmi and Vivi decided to let her live with them until she was able to find her own house even though it is not an easy thing for them with Vivi being about ready to have her twins. But anyways, M* was pretty curios as to why there was a "warm and peaceful" atmosphere to their home. So Jimmi, in his best missionary imitation, said they could talk about it by sitting down, opening with a prayer, discussing and reading from the Book of Mormon, and then inviting her to find out for herself... When we got that text we were way hyped:) So he ended up setting an appointment for Saturday with her and then we had a great first lesson and she is really interested to find out for herself. So she came to church yesterday:) She told Jimmi on the way home that she felt a sort of swimming sensation in a good way when she took the sacrament. Jimmi told her that is the spirit and that he felt the exact same when he first came to chruch and started gaining his testimony. What a stud. If i were a missionary just arriving to the area I would think he had been a member for a longer time than a month! But yea, M* is doing well.

Also a fun experience, we went with Jimmi to meet a guy by a supermarket that Jimmi had promised a Book of Mormon. Apparently, Jimmi had had a deep talk with this man and told him that he once was in a similar situation (the guy is homeless) and that now his life had changed forever. Well, long story short, that guy didn't show but guess who pulled up in the parking spot next to us... Jimmi's landlord. And guess who has a cousin in the bishopric in Odense... Jimmi's landlord. And guess who invited us to come out to him sometime... yupp, Jimmi's landlord. We are seeing all sorts of blessings because of Jimmi haha so great.

We met with A* on Tuesday and had a stellar time. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was definitely there. He is just such a cool guy! I could tell he was changed a bit from the last time we had met. He told us he had really thought a lot about his life and the spiritual side of it and said he thinks his could be the right thing for him. He said that everything fits together to perfectly right now, "like a hand in a glove." I thought to myself "you can say that again" because I've been experiencing that pretty much every day. But anyways, we invited him to be baptized and he said he would if he knows it is right :) Thats what i love about the gospel... i don't have to do anything more than invite and then trust in the Lord. If it were my job to persuade or convince someone to be baptized solely by my own power and knowledge, I would have probably quit and run away to the Bahamas or something. I think Heavenly Father has prepared him pretty well. We were supposed to meet with him on the beach and have a campfire lesson but he had to go take care some family situation or something. Good stuff though.

The Week:

We did a ton of finding and stuff this week. Overall the area is doing pretty swell. We found a couple new friends that would like to investigate what it is the crazy American missionaries have to say:)

This week about every third door thought we were Jehovah Witnesses... here is a dialogue from yesterday:

ME: Hi my friend and i are two Mormon missionaries. We were in the area today to....

THEM: Sorry I'm not interested... i give blood and everything.

ME: Oh hey cool. Me too

THEM: Wait isn't that like not allowed as a JW?

ME: Not sure, we are two Mormon missionaries.

Haha not sure if my accent makes Jehovah's Witness and Mormon sound like the same word... I mean love and respect for all faiths but I am sure they would like the difference to be clear as well haha. I just crack up though every time it happens and they usually just look at me strange. Oh well.

Elder Baadsgaard and I have been going hard with working out in the mornings. We have run every single morning at the crack of 6 and its cold and it sucks but its been way worth it. There is a path which turns into a way long bridge over the fjord which has been frozen the past couple mornings so it is a pretty poetic picture even though you're probably imagining a more majestic vision of my morning runs than actually happen. But they are magical so no worries;) But a fun snippet from the Thursday morning run... i usually am a bit further ahead of Elder Baadsgaard because I am working him pretty hard upon his request . But anyways, when the bridge ends there is a gully with some large rocks to the left so i jumped behind them and waited very quietly.... then as Elder Baadsgaard was about to run by, i sprang out of my hiding place and scared him out of his socks haha. He said I am one of the only people to ever scare him enough to make him yell hahaha. I would probably yell pretty loud too if a large figure was coming out of the dark, making really loud small dog barks (Only Nate and Ben know why I have that ability ;) ). But that was a great achievement.

Karma came back to bite me thought because i think i did one too many pushups and now i have tendinitis I am pretty sure. Thanks Karma.

Spiritual Thought:

This week in district meeting Elder Brown gave a great district meeting on increasing faith. He said that one way to really gauge your faith is to ask yourself what you are doing on the daily, and why am i doing it. By stepping outside of ourselves and evaluating and discovering our motives, we often time will find that we are exercising a lot more faith than we realize.

Elder Holland expounds by saying, "Furthermore, you have more faith than you think you do because of what the Book of Mormon calls “the greatness of the evidences.” “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” Jesus said, and the fruit of living the gospel is evident in the lives of Latter-day Saints everywhere. As Peter and John said once to an ancient audience, I say today, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,” and what we have seen and heard is that “a notable miracle hath been done” in the lives of millions of members of this Church... In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith."

I've enjoyed thinking about it so I would invite you all to try as well.

"Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines" -Satchel Paige

Have a great week!

Ældste j