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Mor (Mom),
First things first, yes, Skyping on the 25th will happen. I need to know what time works best for you. I will be at the church doing it because we will have two devices. I don’t know why my companion will need to do it because he will be brand new from the MTC (Missionary Training Center). Like, he will have seen his parents eight weeks earlier! No, just kidding...it’s just as important, haha! If you didn't catch it, I will be staying in Herning and training a new missionary! It’s going to be so much fun! The best part is that it almost ensures that I will be here in Herning for at least another 12 weeks, which is great. I am way excited!
Ok, so this week has been a little stressful. To start off, we haven’t been able to meet with C** (name omitted for privacy) because she is in the hospital and we don’t know where. So we just wait to hear from Sister A*** (the wife of our branch president and best member missionaries ever!) to tell us what is going on.
On Thursday we traveled two hours by car to a member's home (it would have taken us 4 hours if we had taken the trains and buses!). A senior missionary couple gave us a ride there. They fed us and we talked about some really good things that we plan to do. Our area is huge. We have the 10th largest city, and the 9th and 11th are in our area too. We have been trying to figure out how to get all those people without cars to church. When it takes four hours, it's not very easy! We've devised a plan (and it was all the Spirit) for how to do this. Anyway, our overall goal is to get missionaries in the big city up north, and get its own little branch going.
While we were there, and after we discuss this plan to get the work going up north, we get a text saying that C** has pneumonia in both lungs and they had just found a blood clot in her right one. She also has a fever and bronchitis and all that. So it was very sad.
On Saturday we had our branch party and it was great. While we were there, we found out that C** had just been put into a medically induced coma, so things were not looking good. The hardest part is that only family can visit. And even if we could visit her, we can’t give her a blessing because she can’t give her consent. Also, her family are not too found of Latter-day Saints. So it’s been hard trying to focus on the work. We have prayed for help focusing so we can work hard, we've been pushing through, and the Lord has helped us so much.
We had a potluck dinner at church yesterday and the branch president's daughter, who does not live with them, came and brought a friend. We had met her before. My companion and I went down to the basement and sought the Lord's inspiration to know what we should teach in our class for guests. While on our knees, seeking for what we need to teach, I thought about the Plan of Salvation (which is the second lesson, not he first). So I asked Ældste Zalewski and he said that he thinks we should teach about the Plan of Salvation! I look at him and just smile. Now that we had a topic, we just had to try to get them to class.
Sister A*** spoke in Sacrament Meeting and the Spirit was just so strong. As the meeting finished up, the friend of the friend asked for a Book of Mormon, so we gladly gave her one and invited her to our class. Right as we began to teach, I started thinking, "Well, maybe we should just teach the first lesson. It will really make more sense that way. We just gave her the book."
Right as we start class, Ældste Zalewski just tells them that we are go to talk about the Plan of Salvation. Immediately I got the feeling like, yes, that is what we are supposed to do, no doubt. As we taught she had questions and Sister A*** answers all of them before we can (and in perfect Danish). The lesson just flowed very well. The Spirit just kept building and building, and even Sister A***´s daughter started to add input and got teary eyed. At the end of the lesson it got quiet, and the feeling came to ask her what it would mean to her to know these things are true. The Spirit has never let me down before (and never will), so I asked her. She said that would be really good. So we had her read the promise in Moroni 10, and as she did, her eyes widened. She asked if she was allowed to highlight things in the book, so we gave her a colored pencil. Then we invited her to pray and read more in the Book of Mormon. We closed with a prayer and then went upstairs to eat. While walking up, we realized we'd forgotten to ask for a return appointment! But it was a little late to just spring the question, plus it didn't feel right.
After we started to eat, we noticed that she had left to go home. Sister A*** came over and told us she wanted to come back to church next week, and she wants to learn more. In our times of stress and unknowing, when it feels like things aren't going the way they should, with our only investigator that is progressing and taking steps toward baptism in the hospital, the Lord has blessed me with a testimony of three important things:
1. There are always people looking for the gospel and we need to find them, especially when we don't have the desire to work.
2. Member missionary work is, and always will be, the most effective work we can do as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. We must share our testimony at all times. This is the pattern that has been set for the world, and in my studies I've learned this is how the work of the Lord is supposed to be done.
I love you all so much! Please be safe in the stormy weather, and please keep C** in your prayers. Have a great week. Jeg elsker jer rigtig meget, jeg virklig ved at Jesu Kristi Kirke Af Sidste dages Hellige er Guds kirke. (I love you very much. I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's church.)
Med Meget Kærlighed (with much love),
Ældste Madsen
The Gift of Love (December 10, 2013)
Merry Christmas from Denmark! (December 24, 2013)
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| Herning Sqare |
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| Finish Jule Kager I made a Finish Christmas Cake with fondant! |
