Saturday, April 2, 2011

Din Danske Missionær 03-13-2011

Kære min dejlig familie og venner!

Jeg håber i alle sammen har haft en utrolig uge. Jeg selvefolgie har haft en god uge. Når en tjene herren, i har ikke so meget at bekymre over. Mig og Ældste Pfeil har haft en meget travlt uge. Det var også svært på en måde, men det skete nogen gang. Det er svært at forklare, men den her uge jeg lærte meget om at Guds mirakler skete altid. Gud virkelig elsker os og hans plan er sand. Det var også en god uge fordi vi mødet med mange af vores undersøgeren, og det er jeg meget taknemlig for. Men som i har set jeg skrive på dansk, og det kan i ikke læse. Jeg vil nu skrive på engelsk! (FYI: Google Translate was not even close on this one)

Good morning and good day everyone! I hope your doing well and that spring is at your doorstop. I am currently looking at a very foggy but pleasantly temperated weather outside. We have clouds in the Sky's and its about 5 degrees Celsius. Pretty warm compared to what it has been. Its nice but when you go outside, it smells and feels like spring. There is just a different feel right now, and its awesome! I love the summer in Denmark. It reminds me a lot of Florida, except not as hot. I am counting down the days to a wonderful summer!

So Elder Pfeil and I have had a good week. Its definitely had its ups and downs, but nonetheless it was good. Right now the Danish mission is staying busy. Our Mission president has been very impressed with the rate of growth and improvement this mission is making. Our lessons are a lot higher quality and its been with members, and our investigators are more committed. So not bad for a small mission like mine. Unfortunately Elder Pfeil and I don't have a lot of investigators right now. However I feel we will have a lot coming as we follow up on the people who have taken our tours. But let me start from the beginning.

We started off with a p-day as always. haha, shocker that one. We again took an easy day, enjoyed the sights and sounds of Århus, and emailed. We have been super, super tired, and any moment we can get to sleep, we take it. So that was nice. I sure love it here in Århus and am going to really miss it when I get transferred.

Then on Tuesday we met with Nicole and had a great lesson about the atonement and Jesus Christ. She still had a lot of questions about repentance and Jesus and how all of that comes together. Our lesson went from a short message for 15 minutes, into over an hour discussion. It was a powerful lesson and the spirit was present and it was strong. She worries about her faith and not being worthy and things like that... worried that shes not utilizing the atonement. However the funny thing is, I can see it already working in her. The fact shes changed so much, shows the atonement is working. Sometimes the worst person that judges us the most, is well... us. We are our worst critics. However day by day shes learning and when we do our best to develop and change our Heavenly Father loves us even more. It loves us for trying. How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father.

Then on Wednesday we had our tour afternoon again. This time we had the Zone leaders with us for the entire day. We did a lot of stop bys still. Visiting those that once were taught. That's been a huge project and were almost finished with our list. However the tour went good and we had 1 investigator come. His name is Jonus, and he is Danish. We loved the tour and learned a lot. He is very fascinated about religion, but he said hes never came across a religion like the Mormon church. Interesting.. I thought... maybe its true? haha. He did say he would convert if he got an answer, so he said he would try. It was a great experience, and I think things could go really well with him.

Then on Thursday we had a district meeting in Århus. Its the first one I have ever planned. My goal was to keep it short and yet beneficial. I have had district meetings in the past where they just went on and on for hours... BORING! haha. So, I wanted mine to be short and entertaining and simple. It was about 1 hour and I had everyone involved. I figured nobody wants to hear a district leader talk and talk and train and train, so I made the entire district do it instead. I must say, it was a lot more enjoyable of a meeting. I have about 6 in my district and they are all working hard and doing well.

The on Friday we met with Naja and Ulu. It was Najas Birthday and we had a good discussion with her. I am really confused by this lady as she agrees with everything we teach her. The loves all the doctrine of the church, but yet will not come to church... really annoying. haha. :) But we sat down and really talked with her, and its basically come down to the Book of Mormon. She does not like it... she says she loves the Bible and has a hard time with the other. We explained the importance and comparsions and to pray about it... and she agrees. She said she knows it Gods word... so were kind of confused. However we asked her if it would be alright to show her a film next time called the testaments. It shows how the Bible and book of Mormon come together. She agreed, and so next time we are going to show her that film. That movie is really good and I hope it will help her. She still has not come to church... so were working on that too. Her daughter Ulu, is getting frustrated as she wants to go, but Naja wont come. So keep Naja in your prayers.

Then on Saturday we met with a less active guy named Fareed. I have been working with this man since day 1 in Århus. He still has not come to church... so were trying to figure out that one too. However we are bringing a member with us next time, so I hope that will help. Fareed finally agreed with it. We also had church tours and It was an interesting afternoon. It started off with nobody and we were just sitting and talking, when Elder Pfeil noticed a shadow at the door. We looked and we saw this figure dressed in black starring into the building. He wouldn't open the door, he just stood there. Freaky.... So I moved towards the door (Yes I was scared, but something kept pushing me to check it out). As I approached the door this figure turned around and ran away. The weirdest thing about it is, after he left the steps leading up to the building, he like vanished. I didn't see him run on the sidewalk or across the street, he just disappeared. There was no car and no other possible way for him go... I am not really sure what happened. Well Elder Pfeil and I were a little creeped out, but we were in the Lords church and knew these buildings were blessed. So we felt secure. We still are not sure who it was or what...

Well time kept going and we had about 15 minutes until we needed to clean up. I was kind of down as I really wanted one person to come. So I remember in my heart saying a quick prayer asking the lord to send one person, at least. Well as I finished saying that quick prayer all the sudden a car pulled up into the parking lot! oh hay! IT works! I was thrilled. This guy walks in and asks if we were open? I said yes, of course and we started talking. Apparently he read on the website we have a genealogy center in the building and he wanted to meet with somebody regarding that. Well we told him you have to make an appointment and he felt embarrassed and said he would come back. But we got into talking with him and started asking him about his beliefs and things regarding the Book of Mormon. We came to find out he had been doing some family history work and found some long lost family in Salt Lake City that hes related too! He said that hes traveling there next month to meet them for the first time! So way cool. He said hes been doing a lot of studying regarding our church. Well I turned to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and said, this is the best way to learn about the church. I said this book will tell if you its a true church or not. He took the book as well as some other things regarding the church. He then asked. "Will it be easy to find a place in SLC to drink?" haha, I smiled and well as him, as that was his way of making a joke! haha. He was a very nice guy and he was an answer to my prayers.

Well Sunday finally came and we unfortunately did not have any investigators show up to sacrament. However it was our fast and testimony meeting as last Sunday we had our stake conference. Nobody was going up to bare there testimony, so I went up and gave mine. Its always stressful as I have to do it in Danish, but I felt prompted to bare my testimony on the tour project. I don't have the best danish in the world, but people understood what I said. I hope it helped.

Then later that night we boarded a train and headed off to Silkeborg to teach our baptismal date Ami the discussions. Shes the daughter of a member and is about 13. She is very sweet and we had a great lesson with her. He step-dad is not a member so we manged to teach him though teaching Ami. We basically taught Ami as if she never heard anything about the church, so her dad could learn a few things. Ami caught the idea and we taught her. She surprisingly didn't have the biggest understanding of the gospel, but were getting her on the right track. I hope maybe her father could be a new investigator maybe from all this. We will see.

Well as you can see it was a crazy week. Were just running from place to place doing the work of the Lord the best we can. Its kind of crazy. Well I have already written a ton of stuff in this letter so I don't really have a spiritual message for you. But one thing I learned this week is that Gods Miracles are all around us. Its a crazy world we live in but hes constantly blessing us and helping us. Its a comfort and a miracle he does all he does for us!

Have an amazing week! I sure love all of you!

Din Danske Missionær,
Med Kærlig Hilsen,
Ældste Skyler Hardy

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