ære Familie og venner!
I have some horrible news for you today. Its news that just about kills the heart and attitude of most missionaries... well at least the ones I know. This news is so heart wrenching and sad, I don't know If I should even share it with you... The news is...
Summer is over!
There I said it! Summer is officially over here in Denmark! The Rainy season has begun and the temperature has dropped! Once the weather starts taking a turn for the worst most missionaries start to hate life, just a little. When the weather is bad, missionary work is a little harder. People become less willing to talk to you on the street and Danes begin there longer work hours and school. The danish summer is over. :( However, with this change in the weather comes exciting things like fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas! All exciting things! Lots of fun Danish Holidays are on there way!
For example this week they have a huge party going on called, "FESTUGEN" or in English "THE PARTY WEEK" haha. School began almost 1 week ago, and after they begin school they decide to take a week break and party a little. I am in the 2nd largest city in Danmark so you can probably imagine the type of partying going on here! I cant even begin to tell you all the crazy stuff that's going on. Every city in Denmark has what they call a Gågade... which closest translation is pedestrian street. Basically it is a very long road or a series of road where they stopped cars from driving through permanently and made it a huge shopping area. So Århus where I am serving has one of the largest gågade in all of Denmark... Its almost as large as the one in Copenhagen. So my companion and I checked out the street and WOW! There was so many people... I was literally standing in line just to walk through the street. There were a million people drinking, people doing street performances... you name it... it was probably there! It was a lot of fun to see but not the best area for missionary work! haha.
They also had tons of family activities and places to eat. It was really cool to see and the Danes are just partying it it up over here! It began last Friday and will continue until this Friday this week. Its kind of effected missionary work as not so many people want to talk when there is a huge party going on. haha. However me and my companion are managing.
This week was kind of a fun week. First of all our investigators are doing ok. We haven't met with Tobias since the last time I wrote to you, but we have an appointment with him this week and I look forward to that. However we have met with Marianne and we had a great appointment with her. We showed her the 20 minute restoration film about Joseph Smith. She absolutely loved it! She could understand and visualize the first vision and see why its so important. She kind of got a little emotional during it as she told us she feels just like Joseph Smith did. She told us shes exhausted of searching for a church and hopes to find the truth. We promised her she could and told her ways she could accomplish that. She also came to church this last Sunday and to be honest I think she felt a little overwhelmed... in a good way though. She didn't say much after the meeting. However she made an appointment with us for Tuesday... so I will let you know how it goes! Things seem to be going good with her!
Speaking of church... my companion and I had to give a talk! haha. It was a 5th Sunday so they decided to have it on Missionary work and why we do missionary work. So they thought it was appropriate to have us speak. I must say I did much better on this talk then any of my other talks I have given in Danish. It went really well and the ward was very impressed. My danish is coming along, but I am still not quite happy with it. I still struggle sometimes speaking and its just a little hard. However it is improving and that's always good!
On a weirder note this week we had an dinner appointment with one of the members. I don't know the members to well so it was good to get invited over. However this appointment was just kind of weird. She is a wonderful member and very nice and I am grateful she wanted to feed us. So we show up and she tells me and my companion to take off our shoes (which is normal) but also our socks. I thought that was a little weird. Well it turns out she had foot baths for us.... so while we eat dinner our feet can soak in warm water. Kind of strange.... I have never done that before! haha. So not only did I have a full stomach I also had clean feet! haha. That appointment definitely goes on the most strange list... haha.
So my spiritual message for this week goes with my awkward appointment.... Bet you didn't see that one coming. :) One thing I have learned on my mission is how adapt and change. If you know me well, I am one that doesn't break from my shell to often. I like staying in control and doing my thing. So my message for today is change is good if we let it. I could have told that member, no Way am I putting my feet in some water while I eat dinner. It was an awkward experience but I adapted and changed and made it into a good experience. So my message for you is learn from change! Life is good and change is part of it! :)
So I hope all of you have an amazing week! I sure love and appreciate all of you! Take care and I hope and pray for your success and happiness. (Ok wow, that was a pretty cheesy sentence... sorry about that! haha.).
Med Kærlig Hilsen,
Ældste Skyler Hardy
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