HELLO EVERYONE!
Its me your Denmark Missionary Elder Hardy again. I hope all of you are having a fantastic week filled with success and happiness and all that good stuff! This last week is up there in toughness for me... it was pretty hard. It was one of those weeks where nothing seemed to go right.
To begin this week we didn't get to meet with any of our normal investigators. We had an appointment with Marianne and Tobias but they both canceled. Marianne didn't say why and she was kind of weird about it. I decided to just give her some space, as maybe church was very overwhelming for her. I will try this week to get a hold of her and figure out what happened. I personally don't think anything happened at church or from me or my companion... I think it has something to do with her personally. So yea... I still feel like things are good with her and will keep you updated!
Tobias is simply an awesome guy and has just had a busy last few weeks. He is studying to become a lawyer and is very busy with his studies there. He had huge reports and other things due and just didn't have the time to meet. so that I can understand and told him we would call this next week and see if we would meet again. He is looking forward to it. So no worries with him! Just normal life got in the way... no problem.
This week while me and my companion were out contacting we had this guy come up to us speaking Swedish. It was way different but I was somewhat able to understand him. It was hard but he said something like, "Are you the Mormons?" I said yes and he mentioned how he dated a Mormon and she wouldn't let him come to church. I told him he could come to church.... and right in the middle of the sentence he started laughing and in normal English said, "I am a member!" haha. I cracked up laughing and we had a good chat with him. His name is Gabriel, and hes from Sweden. He was baptized 4 years ago and served a mission to California Spanish speaking. He is a solid member. He continued and told us that he just moved to Århus for school and will be here for the next 6 years! haha. He offered his help with missionary work and is just an awesome member! Hes young and excited about missionary work! So good stuff!
So we took him up on his offer and invited him to an appointment we had with a potential investigator named Nicole! I am so thankful we ran into Gabriel and invited him to this appointment as the appointment was pretty crazy. Nicole is a nice person but lets just say shes a little to open regarding law of chastity issues. Shes very open about her "Personal life." The way she spoke and the terms she used regarding that topic was a little PG-13-rated lets say. haha. Its good we had him with us, as Gabriel is young and was able to divert the topics to something else. We had a good lesson with her. Basically it came down to this with her... She wants what the church offers but doesn't want to change her life style to get it. After the appointment she offered to give a tour of Århus to Gabriel. He accepted and him and a few friends from the church all went with her. So she had a great experience with the members. So we will see if anything happens with her.
Also this week was Festugen. I explained Festugen in my last email. Well it got crazier and crazier as the week continued. In fact it got so intense I didn't feel comfortable being out. I saw a lot of drunk people and people doing things not Mormon friendly. So me and my companion found other things to do. :) However one night we were leaving the church to go home and we saw this drunk Greenlandic lady walking on the street. She was walking in zigzags and had a huge smile on her face! haha. When she saw me, she turned to me and said, "Hej Smukke!" Which in English means, "HI Beautiful!" I told her, "Tak, I lige Måde" or in English "Thanks, same to you!." She got a kick out of that and continued on her way! haha. Gotta love drunk people! :) But yea, the big party ended yesterday and the city is back to normal today. I am happy for that! :)
Also Århus ward has just received 4 new young people! Its a miracle! They are all here for school and will be here for quite some time. This is a miracle as many of our investigators right now are young people! So its good we have some young people at church that can be friends and talk with them! Because we also have received so many new young people they have decided to start a young adult night again at the church, which is awesome! As it can offer my investigators a way to get to know the church without actually going to church! so yea ! Exciting new things happening in the ward making it a lot better!
So my spiritual message goes with the ward receiving those new young adults. Ever since I have gotten to Århus my companion and I have in every prayer, prayed that the Århus ward will grow. I started almost doubting as we were having all these weird things happen to our investigators, the ward didn't seem to care about missionary work, we were contacting every day with little success and the lord didn't seem to be answering our prayers. One thing I have learned is sometimes the lord has to prepare places for the prayers to be answered. The lord works on a timetable and he was waiting for certain things to fall into place and I believe now things will start happening here in Århus. I in a way got a bigger glimpse into what the lord has in store for the Århus ward. Things are being put into motion and I sense a great change in this area.
My message is that God ALWAYS answers prayers. That principle you already know... but sometimes we may not feel that he answered us personally. My principle I want to share today is be aware of the events and things happening around you. God sometimes answers us in ways we might not even realize is an answer. I am realizing that my prayers are just beginning to be answered. Last week the topic of church was missionary work, this week we received 4 new young members excited about missionary work, who knows what this next week will bring. All I know is Gods there, He loves us, and he does things in a bigger grander scale, a more perfect way then we understand. Sometimes its us that don't realize that things are happening, requests are being answered... were just blinded with the way we want things answered!
I wish all of you the very best! Thanks for all your love and support! I sure love you all and have a GREAT week!
Your Denmark Missionary,
Med Kærlig hilsen,
Ældste Skyler Hardy
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