præstedommemyndighed og præstedommes nøgler

This week has been a pretty average MTC week. Nothing too crazy happened, but I’ll try to give a little bit about what life is like here at the MTC in a normal week. (I saw Lewis do this for the Guatemala MTC so I felt like I should too)

6:30 Rise and Shine (or lay for ten minutes summoning the will to throw yourself out of bed)
7:15 Plan the day that is already planned for you! (or make daily goals)
7:45 Read Mormons Bog (Book of Mormon) My goal is in 3 months have it done, wanna join?
8:15 Food - yum
8:50 Exercise time (I’m getting TYK...)
9:50 Clean up clean up everybody do your share (shower, clean your room, prepare for the day)
10:30 Me time (personal study with Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, prepare lessons… etc)
11:30 Not me time (companion study, same thing but with someone)
12:45 Late lunch time
1:30-4:30 Learn Danish and hope you prepared what they wanted you to prepare time
4:30 Learn more Danish
5:30 More food
6:15-9:00 GUESS WHAT? more language :) (not gonna lie I love it) (also we have to teach real people who speak Danish on Wednesdays and it is the best thing ever)
9:45 Be quiet or the Zone Leader attacks (not really our ZLs are really awesome)
10:30 REALLY BE QUIET and sleep
11:00 Actually when my room gets to sleep… oops
Next day: REPEAT

Sundays are wild cards and I don’t feel like going through it all, but basically we have something all day: Priesthood meeting, Sacrament, district council, devotional, sunday film, ponder time, etc… It is a nice way to break up the week!

So let’s get into the week! Though it was slow and not much happened, it was still a pretty good week. Definitely a shorter email this week though. - maybe I’ll bare my testimony or something in Danish... 

Friday and Saturday were pretty normal. We taught Klaus (our teacher interested person) and we committed him to baptism! But we had our last one with him yesterday… which means we will never know if Klaus will be baptized. We will be teaching Anne-Sophia on Saturday so that’s exciting (my other teacher).

Sunday was probably the best day this week. I’ve been praying to know what to do to help my companion more with the language and the Gospel. I want to do my best to help him out, but I felt like I couldn’t do anything to help him anymore than what I’ve been doing. But my branch president is AMAZING. He told me that he was proud of me, and that he knows that it was divine design that I was picked to be companions with this particular person. He says I’m doing a fantastic job at helping him and setting an example. It was a testament that the Lord understood that I was trying my best and doing everything I could, and that he is proud of my efforts. I taught a lesson in Priesthood with my companion and it was a big step, he contributed a significant part of it which is a ton of progress! 

But probably the CRAZIEST thing that happened that Sunday was what happened during Sacrament meeting. Basically, each Sunday you are given 30 minutes to write a talk, and then on Sunday DURING the meeting, they choose the speaker. So… so many people don’t prepare talks, so they just get up there and read out of preach my Gospel. And this is our third week, two groups (the Polish and the Finnish) have been here for two more weeks than us, so they all told us, “Oh, you’re safe, you don’t have to prepare one!” WRONG. The second counselor gets up there and is like, Ældste Salisbury and Ældste Laurence (my companion), you have a talk! So I was like sick, I got it right here, and my companion just goes wide eyed hahaha. I was like super pumped to give it, and I got a bunch of people complimenting me, and they said things like “I didn’t understand the language, but I understood through the Spirit” which really impacted me. I’m so glad I prepared, so my point I guess is always be prepared - the Scout motto is VERY important. It was about enduring to the end, about how it is not just going through trials, but to become better and become more like Christ as we go through life. Always improving and becoming better is super important to even be able to endure to the end.

Monday - pretty normal.

Tuesday was really good, it was kind of a weird day because 4 of the members of my district were in San Francisco, and my companion had a great experience where he told them his testimony and got a referral there! I was super proud of his experience, and he was on top of the world. It was a really good moment. In the devotional, the speaker talked about how our companions afflictions should be our afflictions, but that made me think that their joys should be our joys. I was so glad that he had a great experience in San Fran.

Wednesday was good and bad at the same time, we taught Klaus our last lesson on the Restoration. We taught about the Atonement in TRC (real people that speak Danish, not our teachers like Klaus) and it felt amazing. We talked about how to be grateful for the Atonement, and I always think of the first answers that come to my mind like think about the Lord, partake of the Sacrament worthily, and truly use the Savior’s Atonement, but one of the Sisters helped me a ton think about it in a different way. She told us that sharing the Savior’s Atonement is one of the best ways to show your gratitude for the Savior’s sacrifice. Sharing with your friends, your family, strangers in Denmark, it is a great way to show our love and thanks for the Savior, though we can never repay him for his great sacrifice, we can do our best to share it.

However, my teacher said “You were talking too much in the TRC” - now this struck me as I thought I was doing much better, and I’m gonna be blunt, my companion usually doesn’t prepare things for lessons, so it makes sense that I teach the lesson that I usually prepare. And I tried to get him to, but he just doesn’t, but I felt like he did CRAZY GOOD in yesterday’s TRC, and it was a ton of progress because he understood and followed the lesson this time. So I felt like her statement was a little unfounded and a little painful to hear because it was pinned on me. So I was feeling pretty down, and my new district leader Elder Fisher, gave me a blessing of comfort. He blessed me with the ability to love and to feel loved by the Lord, and that he is proud of my efforts. Not gonna lie, I got pretty emotional after it because everything he said (somethings I didn’t put here), was what I needed to hear. My district leader, one of my roommates, and my zone leaders and their roomates stood in, and the power of the worthy priesthood holders was powerful. They all gave me a hug, and I was able to feel a ton better. A blessing of comfort is amazing, do not ever be afraid or prideful not to ask for one, even if you are not a member, because the revelation and answers you can get, if you truly have faith, will bless you so much. If you’re struggling with anything, find a priesthood holder and ask for a blessing. I promise that it will help you so much, because it has helped me, when I gave one to Elder Fisher, it helped him, and when we gave a healing of illness to Elder Ngatikaura it helped him (his ankle was sprained and bruised, ALL of the bruising was gone and he could walk again). Blessings are powerful.

I want to end with talking about prayer again. Prayer is powerful. If you have faith that it will work, it will. Pray for progression, not money. Pray for others, be selfless. Pray for the ability to love more fully. If the Lord has it in his will, the Lord will bless you with it. Prayer works. I will probably say that in all my emails, but I can’t express it enough. Prayer can give you comfort, help, love, joy, so many things, and all you have to do is ask. I know it works, and I hope you also can come to know that it works.

Jeg ved at Gud vil velsigne os når vi bede til Ham. Han elsker os. Han vil gerne have bedsten for os, og hvis det er i hans vilje, han vil gøre alle til at hjælpe dig. Himmelske Fader har velsignet min liv så meget, men jeg ved at han vil velsigne dig også. Bede. Bede ofte. Jeg vil gerne dig til at have en vidnesbyrd at jeg har modtaget. Jeg også ved at gennem præstedommemyndighed kan vi blive velsignet hvis vi tro på alle vores hjerte. Jeg elsker det her evangelium, for alle mange tinge som det har gave mig. Jeg sige disse tinge i Jesu Kristi navn amen.

Jeg elsker jer.

Ældste Salisbury