Hej! All my family and Friends!
Disaster has struck in the Ballerup area. Thousands of people scamper
around, wishing, waiting for it to be over. The chills of the winter
air make the experience all the worse as they wait and wait. The look
to the right, to the left and notice a caution marker at the side of
the road. They look, they read, they KNOW. They run away, hoping they
can make it safely to their destination!
Hows that for a introduction! I bet you have no idea what I am talking
about. I have now officially been in Ballerup for 1 week! Its amazing
how much a person can learn in 1 week, and let me tell you its been
quite an experience and I am excited to tell you all about it.
So to begin, the one thing I have learned a lot about Ballerup is the
public transportation. It never arrives on time, or it arrives too
early etc. We as missionaries use the public transportation as we
don't have a car. This is tragic, but we do what we can do. My
introduction is about the public transportation. We always miss our
bus or our train. They never come at the time they say there supposed
to come on the train schedule (Caution Marker from intro). This makes
life a little difficult as we seem to always be either right on time,
to an appointment or a few minutes late. Its bad because we will be at
the station waiting, waiting, and waiting, then we figure out the bus
already came. Anyways, that's my public transportation drama this
week. You just got to love it.
I have only been in Ballerup for 1 week and I have already given a
talk. I know crazy! The bishop called me on Saturday and asked me to
give a talk in church. He said 5 - 10 mintues. I wasent too happy
about it as he only gave me 1 day to prepare. However I said yes and
worked all day saturday on my talk. I had Elder Christensen with his
great danish help me out. Sunday finally arrived and I gave my talk. I
was way nervous and pronounces a few words wrong, but I think I did
pretty good. They told me I speak really clear and that I dont have
too bad of an accent. I appreciated those comments, and was just glad
it was over with.
One thing about Ballerup that's completely different then in Randers
is the amount of appointments I have had this week. We have had at
least 1 appointment each day. Tomorrow we actually have 6
appointments. Its insane! we have been completely busy here. I am not
used to it. Ive met a ton of amazing people and all of them really
enjoy our visits. Elder Christensen has done a great job at creating
good relationships with them.
We have this investigator named Ann-Mai. She is a Danish girl and
actually studies religion in school. At first I was a little worried
about it, because shes probably only meeting with us to just learn
more about our church. However she told Elder Christensen that shes
studying religion in school because it interests her and shes looking
for the best religion to believe in. Ann-mai has a sincere heart and
is willing to listen, which is awesome! I wasn't there the last time
she was taught, but my companion was, and they showed her the Joseph
Smith movie. She loved it! She thought the movie was so powerful. The
movie brought tears to her eyes. After hearing all that I was way
excited to teach her. We decided to teach her the 2nd lesson which is
the Plan of salvation! She just ate this up! She loved it! She loved
how including it was. She just loved how our beliefs include everyone,
Mormon or not. It was a good lesson and the spirit was present. She
set aside her "mind" and was feeling what we were teaching, not
studying it. She loved the lesson and wants us to come back! I am
excited to see what the future brings with her.
Another experience I had, We were out knocking on doors in an area
about 15 minutes away from Ballerup. Just so you know, I haven't gone
knocking on doors yet. Usually we are just contacting on the street,
so this was a new experience for me. As of now, I don't like it! haha.
I really struggled with it. Over time I will get used to it but as of
now I do not like it! I contact on the street any day over knocking.
Anyways, we knocked on this door and a young guy Muslim opened up. We
told him who we were and what our message was. He said, "you want to
talk, lets talk". How he said it, made it sound like fighting words,
and they were. We ended up having a 45 minute talk about their
religion and ours. Whats funny is they did all the talking. We just
listened and were VERY respectful. They got a little aggressive (not
physical) but were talking loud and in a mean tone to us. I wanted to
die. This was a situation I didn't want to be in. They stated all
these "facts" about their religion and how it just has to be true. We
asked them if they have prayed to see if it is true. They say, we
don't have too, the facts themselves prove it. Oh boy, I thought. Then
they said, you think about what we said. Your preaching false
doctrine.
That lit my fire! I couldn't handle them dissing my church! I turned
to them an bore my testimony. I said, "I cannot deny what I know
(stole that line from Joseph smith, haha). I have prayed to my
Heavenly Father and he has answered me. That shut them right up. They
didn't know what to say to me. I thought to myself, "Now you go and
think about what I said!". Anyways, we said we had to go.I wanted to
get out of there as quickly has possible. However, I think they will
think twice before they say anything negative about the LDS church.
Then we had another appointment with an amazing lady named Vivi. She
is an older women and her husband was actually a member. She is very
familiar with the church. Before I came to Ballerup Elder Christensen
taught her once. Its funny because he was heading home and he actually
boarded the wrong bus. This wrong bus took him to Vivis house. He
decided to visit her since he was so close. He knocked on her door and
she opened up in tears. She said, "your a gift from my dead husband,
to come see me". My companion was like wow! Apparently her kids
promised to visit her that day. She spent days preparing for it. Then
her kids texted her and said they cant come. That broke her heart. It
broke her heart because they weren't coming and because they sent a
text instead of a quick phone call. So the missionaries came in her
time of need and helped her out.
Then on Monday he called her to schedule an appointment with her and
he called one again in her time of need. Her computer broke and she
didn't know what to do. My companion told her, well I just got a new
companion that knows a lot about computers. In short we got the
appointment made and visited her yesterday. We came in and she had a
table full of every danish candy/dessert you can imagine. We had a
great lesson with her and the spirit was present. Then we went and
fixed her computer. Her Internet was broken too be honest I wasn't
entirely sure what to do.The computer was WAY OLD and I am not too
familiar with the old stuff. I decided to say a quick prayer and asked
for help to help me know what to do. Sure enough, after I messed
around with the computer and did a few things, it started working. I
said a quick prayer in my heart thanking my heavenly father for
helping, because to be honest I didn't know what I did :). She
appoinment went VERY well and she loves me now! haha. It will be GREAT
to see what that future will bring with her.
Thats my spiritual thought for the day. God will always answer our
prayers. I know he did yesterday with that stupid computer. He wont
always answer when we want him to or how we want him too, but I know
he will answer. It amazes me every day when he does answer my prayers-
Even when i make mistakes and do stupid things, he still answers. It
goes to show you he loves us all and wants to help.
Those were the highlights of my week. Thanks again for taking the time
to read my emails, I sure appreciate it. I hope you have a great week!
Love, Your Denmark Missionary
Ældste Skyler Hardy
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