Hello Everyone!
Its been a fantastic week and I am excited to tell you all about it! Things are so busy in Ballerup that its hard to keep straight all the things I have done. We have also had a TON of snow in Denmark! Its the most snow Denmark has seen in 15 years! Basically it feels like UTah outside. Its also been very cold. Its been so cold, It actually has been kind of painful! haha. I sent a photo with this email, so I hope all of you can access it. But I think it explains perfectly the weather right now... I also hope I my introduction on last weeks email changed things up a little! This week I will start from the beginning...
In Ballerup the Ward actually has a ton of members. The problem is only 1/3 of them actually come to church and remain active. So the Bishop in this ward as asked that we try to meet with less active members and get them coming to church again. So Elder Christensen has been trying to meet with a less active named Foster. Hes been trying over the last few months with little success. So we headed over to his house with a member named Rhonnie. We knocked on his door and he was finally home! Elder Christensen was so happy! He couldn't believe it! Foster is a awesome Guy from Africa. He told us he got really sick the last few years and in short had a really ruff time with life. But it made his day to see the missionaries and a member! Hes like you guys care, that just means a lot. He talked all night. HE is a talker, but I think he was just so happy to be able to talk to members. IT was a good appointment to me, because you just never know the circumstances of people. I kind of pre-judged this guy thinking he was slacking off a little. But in reality he is still knows the church is true and just has struggled with things. He now has the help and guidance of the ward and the missionaries to get back on the right path. Given time He will be back to church in no time. '
We have also this awesome brand new investigator who is completely fascinating and has had some interesting experiences. For privacy reasons, I think I will use a different name. So We will call him Frank. I trust all of you but I think I would rather be safe than sorry. So we were out in a near by city trying to contact a less active when Frank comes running up to us. He says, " are you guys the missionaries, the Mormon ones!" and he said this in English! So I turned around and said, yea we are. Frank then said, "Oh good, I really need to talk to you guys. ITs really important. Here's my number I will you on Saturday. Frank was way nice. He is a young kid going to school. Hes about 23 ish. What are the odds, we ran into him. Whats even weirder is that less active we were trying to meet never showed up. God does work in mysterious ways... haha.
So we call him on Saturday and set up an appointment for Sunday. He gladly opens his door and welcomes us in. He had sodas, and danish pastries for us. Hes like, I know you guys are busy and hungry so enjoy! Wow, what a nice guy, haha. We started talking to him and found out hes met with the missionaries before, but was never that interested. But hes said hes had some weird spiritual experiences and from those experiences he knows he needs to do something with his life spiritually wise. We discussed more with him about his experiences and found out he had felt the spirit. He said he was thinking about God and felt this calm and peace. He said, *I know this sounds weird but I heard a voice. Not a mean one, or a loud one... Then I interrupted him and said, a Still small voice? Hes like ya! He said the voice told him he needs to better his life. Then he said he had a scary experience with the devil after that. He said he felt something bad entered his apartment. He said he felt every bad emotion. After that he saw he said he had a impression he needs to meet with the missionaries. We also found out hes experiences with different types of drugs, etc. So those experiences might be the drugs talking, but in any case, he knows he needs to do something and hes willing to do it. The lesson was powerful as we answered his questions and taught various topics from various lessons. Hes a sincere young man, well my age, and wants to be better. That was an amazing appointment. The spirit was so strong and whats great was he was able to recognize it. It was a great appointment, and we have another appointment with him on Thursday!
The area I am in has always been the pit of the mission. Ballerup is always the area new missionaries and old missionaries get sent too, right as they arrive or when the are about to go home. So we have hundreds of papers of contacts that have never been touched and have just been forgotten about. We also have a ton of what we call Knocking books, where we record where we have knocked on peoples doors before. Unfortunately these records are a disaster and completely un-organized. So we have spent a few hours every day reorganizing and developing a new systems for all this. I know, Leave it to Skyler to make thing organized. haha. But our records are looking awesome and we are working a lot more effectively. We spent yesterday at the church typing and organizing everything. Now when need to visit people we know exactly where we need to go and not have to look through a thousands records. Anyways, i am proud of my new system and wanted to brag a little in my email about it. haha. We created a new system for knocking on peoples doors. We are going to start trying it out. I will let you know how successful it is. But Ballerup I think is now one of the most organized areas in the mission! Its amazing how much easier to work when things are clean and sleek, and simply organized.
So here's my spiritual message for the day. Keep your lives organized. I know it sounds kind of weird but I believe it to be true. Remember to keep your time balanced from worldly things and churchy things. Enjoy life, but know when its time to work. Things like that. Our church is ran very organized. Christ ORGANIZED his church. He didn't just call random people. That's the message for this week. I know our missionary work has seemed a lot more effective and successful having it organized and I believe the same concept can be applied to us.
Have a fantastic week everyone! I sure love and miss all of you!
Love, Your Denmark Missionary,
Ældste Skyler Hardy!
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