I Think I Learned Norwegian...

I'm gonna try to copy other people's formats that I like because going through everyday 1. hurts my brain to think back like that 2. leaves you with a massive, probably crazy weird story... so let's copy Spencer Hull's! :) Also, if you read just the start of this SEND MORE EMAILS!!! I love hearing from you! Please tell me all about what’s going on, especially with college/school starting!!! (and send pictures)

TL;DR (A summary of the week for those in pure fear of my massive emails)
Basically this week went by REALLY quick, we had something to do constantly. We had a really great meeting with the Blackensteiner family, they’re super hyggeligt, but we are really trying to help them progress in anyway that we can, and it just doesn’t seem to be working, but nonetheless, we continue to try! We had a crazy meeting with our Zone Leaders… they’re great, and I’m really sad Elder Anderson is leaving this transfer because he’s such a funny guy. We went on splits with him, we were CRAZY successful that day and even got a new friend. At Zone Conference, everyone got phones, so everyone is stoked about that. I had a pretty great Sunday, had a conversation with a West jysk dude, basically a sailor, his friend and him made fun of me the entire time for not understanding what they were saying to me lol, it was great. Today was raining all day, and really hard, so we just decided to write emails and such.

Finding
So for those of you that don’t know what finding is, basically it is when you go out and find people. Easy enough, ang? It’s great, I don’t think there is a phrase I’ve heard more in my life than “nej tak”, it’s hilarious. Especially when there is some fist shaking with it, or in particular this one guy that yelled at us (probably some swear words in danish) and said “My god is dead”, very sad. I wonder if his god was thor or something and there was a battle or something against a guy named thanos or something and he didn’t braid his hair fast enough with lightning so thanos just took a great big swing at him with his gauntlet and took him out, or something. RIP Thor, sorry guys, you can no longer believe in thor pertaining to my last email… desværre, but you can believe in our God, because he lives! And honestly, I’ve seen that while finding people this week. We’ve had entire opgangs where people either looked through the peep hole, saw it was us, and walked away, or denied us after we said two words, or whatever, and we’ve felt pretty discouraged, but then we see God’s hand, and we met this guy named Sebastian. Sebastian is this super nice gamer football combo bro, he’s read the bible, the quran (is that how you spell it?), and like a ton of other religious things. We get in, teach him the first lesson, pray with him, and look at that, after an entire day of contacting we finally find someone new. We have a return appointment next week and I’m super hopeful that he will read the book of mormon and tell us what he thinks about it! 

Kind of the same story with another one, except we had success all day. 
I went on splits with one of our Zone Leaders, Ældste Anderson, crazy fun guy, loves the work, and he’s super good at it too. We found so much success that day, we gave out like 2 or 3 books, tons of cards, and got a new friend named Jula. He’s super chill, got us some pepsis, and really really was interested in the first vision. He just sat there in awe as we taught him, I felt the Spirit super strong, because honestly the first vision is very powerful. I mean our church began because of a simple question, which church is true, and what an experience you can get from praying to God and asking if the church that we believe in is true, or if the book is true, or if there is a God. We are no blind faith religion, because I’ve received a testimony for the book and for the church and for our God for myself. I’m so excited to help someone else have that experience and understand why it is so important to ask questions. My uncle sent me an email that said if we simply asked, the Lord would grant us a lot more than we think. If it is of righteous desire, and for the welfare of others, the Lord will help us with it if it is his will. I’ve seen it, I’ve been on the gågade (mall, but outside), and I’ve been praying to find someone who will listen to our message, and often times, shortly after, that person comes. It’s amazing and powerful. It testifies of how important and how much the Lord wants this work to continue. 

Church
Church was crazy this week, we had a ton of things from the Area Book to ask about from our branch president, we were expecting a lot of people to come (sadly only one family came), and we had a lot of people to catch up with in the branch. It was very confusing, but I felt as though I was understanding a little bit more. Like I said last time, if you want to feel like you’re in another country, go to a church. It is insannnne, but I love the challenge! They talked about faithfulness and sharing the Gospel with everyone. I started to follow lines of thought, but not really enough to contribute to the conversation yet, but “DET KOMMER!”

Fun Stuff
Okay, so zone splits were a little crazy. The zone leaders spent the night, and let’s just say Elder Anderson, super spiritual and great, is a little wild too hahah. We had some great chili, they ate all our food, and then he kept on juggling! Like he wouldn’t stop, I’m pretty sure he has an addiction. He isn’t good at juggling either hahaha, so he just sat there and tried and tried, a couple times I got hit, he knocked over the trash, spilt it everywhere, broke our light. It was great hahaha. He also randomly started beating up a giraffe, asking it over and over again where the banjo was, I was very confused because, you have to remember, this was my first time ever meeting him haha. He’s great and I had a super entertaining night.

We went to zone conference this week and we were learning about Dale Carnegie, the author of a book on how to win friends and influence people. It’s pretty interesting stuff. One of the Elder’s got called up for public humiliation… I mean a few questions, and one of the questions was “what attributes do you look for in a wife?” (and he was being rushed at this point) and the first thing he said was “Well…. I want her to be a woman” everyone died, it was fantastic. But later, the guy who was asking questions said, “What do you want your kids to grow up to be?” he said “people” it was ridiculous haha. And this guy was not satisfied with his responses, he was obviously trying to steer him in directions like spirituality is the most important thing for a wife, and he wants his children to grow up to be good people, nah, he just wants a woman and his kids to be people… it was great haha. 

Country
It’s wet.

I got soaked… It was honestly so much fun, I went out for like two seconds and my entire suit was drenched in water.

Language
As to the language, from last week, I feel better. I still have a ton more to learn, but it is coming! “Det kommer, det kommer” I think the worst feeling is that I actually learned Norwegian. We get a lot of tourists over here in Frederikshavn, and so granted, we get a lot of Norwegians. The problem isn’t that there are a bunch of tourists, the problem is that I understand a language I didn’t learn better than Danish! I don’t get it hahaha!!! Multiple times we’ve gone contacting, met a norwegian, talk to them for a bit, and I tell my trainer confidently that I understood that entire conversation. Then he crushes my hopes and dreams and tells me that it was norwegian… Now granted, norwegian is pretty close to Danish, Danish just has weird pronunciation for everything, and norwegian is closer to the english phonetics. If you really want a challenge, like I said above, I talked with a westjysk sailor, where half the time I didn’t know if he was talking, coughing, or choking… To make it better, he and his friend we were having lunch with just made fun of me the entire time, in danish, and then kept telling me “we are making fun with you, not at you” mhmmmm, sureeeeeee. Nah, it was funny, I had a headache after, and then we got soaked. So very soaked. Oh also, all the time we hear “Ha det bra!” which means have it good in Swedish, and my companion almost everytime (because usually they say “oh no, we don’t speak danish to deny us”) he responds back in swedish and it catches them so off guard it kills me hahah. You learn a lot of everything up here, just because it is so close to other countries I guess. As with the English language, I can see it already slowly melting away, I feel as though I am becoming languageless hahaha. To make it worse, my companion started counting the times I said “way or like” with a little clicker thingy, I was trying to say something spiritual and all I heard was ¤click¤ …. ¤click¤ …. I caught on pretty quickly and then started counting the times he did it, mentally, so when/if he does it another time, I can say his weekly total hahaha. 

Spiritual
Although I feel languageless, I can always depend on the Spirit to carry me through it all. I feel like I’m learning so much on how Heavenly Father works. I think this week I want to talk about the restoration. When giving lessons, this is one of the points that I feel drives everything home. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2014-06-01-joseph-smiths-first-vision?lang=eng 

Please watch that video, especially if you don’t know what the first vision is. I love that our church promotes knowledge for oneself, that if we have questions, we can ask God, we can ask our leaders, we can ask the scriptures. There is no blind following, because you can know for yourself. You have books, unlimited resources on ChurchOfJesusChrist.org, prayer, modern day prophets, church, and much more. Without his question, his sincere desire to know the truth, we wouldn’t have the truth that we do today. The circumstances leading up to the restoration such as the printing press, the creation of so many churches, and many more make it miraculous and truly God sent, the Lord planned that that time would be the best and the earliest time for the Lord to restore his church on the Earth today. I just find it powerful that it was because a question that many of us have, many of us ponder the question “what is truth”, and so I assure you that if you truly ask God, he will tell you. He will tell you like he told Joseph Smith, maybe not with an appearance or a vision, but with a deep warm feeling in your heart. Joy. Pure joy, that will help you know of it with a surety. My task out here as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is to invite others to read the book, pray, and go to church, and I know with an absolute knowledge that if you do those three things that your faith with increase if you already know the truth, but if you don’t know if it, and you try it, that is an act of faith. You will show God that you are willing to try what he has in store for you, and you will come to know as I have, and many others have come to known.

I love you all and I really hope and pray you are all doing well. It is a crazy time of year for all! As everyone wraps up summer and heads off to school, and for many a new school, I invite you to take a second, relax, and try to find peace. Do something you enjoy, for me it is singing and playing the piano, it helps me find that peace and joy I long after. These next few weeks will probably be crazy for a lot of you, but hold in there, keep your head up, and carry on. I’m here for all of you if you ever need to talk about anything. I’m just an email away. I love you all!

Med kærlig hilsen,

Ældste Salisbury