Written by Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.
This week we had some really good stuff happen. First off, we had an appointment with a less active member named Vi** and her boyfriend on Tuesday. It went great. He was way nice. We have this thing that we are trying to focus in our mission, to have multiple lessons a week for only like 45 minutes instead of one every week for an hour. We talked about Mormons Bog (The Book of Mormon) and then had a little introduction. Vi** helped explain why she believes in God because her boyfriend, like almost everyone else in Denmark, is atheist. But when we talked about God’s love and told him that he was a son of God, his whole demeanor changed. T** (boyfriend) has a very strong spirit. At the end of the lesson we made a return appointment for Friday, so we knew that we would be able to see him three days later.
Wednesday was my trip to København (Copenhagen). It was great....just my MTC (Missionary Training Center) group. It was so much fun. It's funny because our group alone makes up 1/5 of the missionaries in Denamrk, and over half the Sisters in the mission. It's pretty crazy. My MTC experience was one unlike any other.
When we got to the meeting, President Sederholm said, "All of you have asked me why I called you here. I just want to let you know that I still don't know why. I just know that I am supposed too," (President Sederholm is a very spiritual man....very in tune). He said, in fact, that there were only five people in the room that had prepared something to say; him, Sister Sederholm, the Assistants (APs) and me. I got to talk about the white handbook. Every meeting, someone does it. President said that no one had conversed with each other on what to say, we were just going by the Spirit.
By the end of the meeting, we were just in tears, or just so full of the Spirit. We learned about how we need to enjoy our missions when it rains outside (which is daily). We need to smile, jump in a puddle, take pictures of the beautiful rapeseed growing. President Sederholm told us we need to enjoy the hike and the scenery on the way up the mountain. We can’t just walk with tunnel vision up the mountain until we are there to look back and not remember the detail of climbing.
After the meeting, we were very blessed to go to the temple in København. It is only open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, due to lack of use. We were privileged to have the temple all to ourselves for a session, and they even brought in the newest temple film, which was so cool! So, I got to see the new film in English, for the very first time, and then go through the veil in Danish. So much fun. I really enjoyed it.
After all this, we were traveling home and we all talked about how this training was much needed. We all felt, first off, that we missed each other and that would be the only time to have us all together again in the mission. We all felt like we can just enjoy our missions instead of being so serious all the time. We still need to work and be missionaries, but we were all feeling like we had kind of made it not as fun as it should be. Well, I also heard that my Sisters from the MTC are going home on the 7th of October, which is freakin' crazy.
We had another great appointment on Friday with Vi** and T**. We invited them to church and to read the Book of Mormon, and they came to church. I honestly have never had anything like this happen in my mission. It’s almost too perfect. We go forward and just teach and do the things that we need to do.
We had a great opportunity to visit on old investigator from Poland. He is so much fun to talk to. He loves us and told us that he will by our groceries in Poland because it's five times cheaper. We told him that's okay, but maybe some candy. We need get some other culture in the mix, haha!
We had a great day in church yesterday. It was a huge blessing to have Vi** and T* there. The Lord has really been very giving to our mission lately. We are holding a mission-wide fast, so for 49 days we will have a companionship fasting throughout the mission each day. Thus far, things are working out very well. The work just goes on and that’s very evident in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission.
Well, great week. Love you. Have a great week.
Med Kærlig Hilsen,
Ældste Madsen
Happy Mother's Day from Denmark (May 12, 2014)
Drowning (May 27, 2014)
