Den Lille Pigehær

Skulking down the weathered roads of Aalborg, rain pouring, bikes whirring, people denying. Denying what you may ask, denying our purpose here, denying our message, but most importantly denying that we, ourselves, are covered head to toe in an unsettling mist, completely and utterly drenched. Does that stop us? Will that ever stop us? No, because the message we carry, the joy we can bring, it’s too important to withhold others from. Occasionally do we question, do we rethink, maybe. That is simply a part of life, constant reflection, but somehow, someway, we come to the rapid conclusion, that burst of strength to keep pressing forward, because of what we have - what we want to share. Without a doubt, every time, the Lord lifts our burdens, that fear, those questions, from our shoulders. 
Split Up
Taking the train, I never looked back. I never looked back because I saw a glimpse of the future. A glimpse into a day that would change my life forever… Ældste Brown, riding next to me, slowly gave in to his eternal exhaustion, as I sat there, patiently awaiting my arrival to a semi-foreign land. Finally, the train pulled up to Aalborg Vestby where we went to the apartment to scheme the rest of our day. Little did we know that this day would consist of multiple thirty minute bike rides in the pouring mist of Denmark. A mist so enveloping that as soon as you exit an enclosure, one becomes soaked, no, not soaked, one becomes marinated in water. From head to toe, from layer under layer, from skin down to bones, the water seeps in, in a matter of minutes. The nice gray pants you were wearing, now they’re a spotty washed-out ash. The sweater keeping you warm? Soaked through and through. One might ask, “why not a wear a coat?” That’s what I asked too. But then, quickly, I realized that the coat is not anywhere remotely close to the defenses needed to combat the weapons of the mist. Nonetheless, we trudge on. Up a hill, down a path, to the right, and then there it is, the foreboding path down, the one that we knew that when we got to the bottom to visit a potential friend, that it only meant another, extensive, exhausting trek up. Oh how I overlooked such a miniscule detail, the way up was not the problem. No, it was the way down. Descending down from the great Danish mountain, I realized the rain did more than soaking, it stung. The little, tiny, droplets of rain began as a small tingle after the first part, but then the rain felt like small needles entering our face, soaking anything that happened to be dry - so nothing - and making our faces beyond red.
The Appointment
Quickly, however, we realized that our efforts were not wasted. The place we arrived at, after the journey back up the hill involved delicious food, the kindest family, and precious talks about our Church. The members gave us food, dried our drenched sweaters, and even warmed up some hot chocolate. Though my face was red, my pants, shirt, tie were wet, nothing could stop me from smiling the entire way down the stinging, soaking hill. Probably because I was going to receive food, but also because of the everlasting joy and love that the message we have to share can bring - and nothing can wipe a smile off my face for that.
Split Back
After a long, enjoyable experience, I soon returned to my trainer. But of course, not after a long train ride, with noisy and rambunctious… probably drunk… 15-16 year olds. Sitting their yelling, screaming, and cussing a whole lot, we finally get off the train and Ældste Kofford, Ældste Brown, Ældste Leland and I parted ways. But worry not, for our time apart lasted only a quick minute. As we said our goodbyes, we headed back to begin our day actively serving the Lord in our own area. In our own area, we headed to the church because a member needed help taking care of the church building. The task was simple… maybe too simple: take these plants and move them a foot to the left. Pretty simple right? We get about half way through, digging, pulling up plants, moving them over, digging a hole, placing them in about a foot to the left, and the member decides he wants to go home, but he also tells us to stop the work and begin again some other time. Finishing up the last ones, we set our tools down, get on our bikes and head off. 
Muslims and Milwaukee 
On the gågade, a place similar to an outlet mall, we met a woman around the age of 40, stopping her, desiring to talk about Christ and our religion, she began to open up. Beginning with our usual - probably not the best method of contacting, but my language is limited - “Hi, we come out today from our church and we are out to ask people about their faith. Do you believe in anything?” And normally people just walk away, or say “nej tak,” but this girl was different. She said she was Muslim, but her husband and kids were Christian. Continuing onward, I told her that what we do as missionaries is we help others increase their own belief and find out what they believe in for themselves. Demeaningly, she asks me how old I was, I say eighteen, and she said, “I don’t think you’re old enough to understand faith, or at least help others understand their own.” I was stunned. This sarcastic comment, something probably meant to offend me, just made me laugh. So that’s exactly what I did, but being here for only 8 weeks, I had no clue how to even begin responding to such a statement, but luckily my trainer bailed me out. She later stated with authority that she believed more in Jesus Christ than Mohamed (the founder/prophet of Muslims). Quite confusing. And then she shook our hands and said have a great day. Now if you know something about Muslim culture, that isn’t allowed for a woman to shake hands with a man that is not her husband (at least in some branches of Muslim faith). It sounded… and appeared… as she might not have the whole faith thing understood either. It’s an interesting thing to someone discredit you because of age, because aren’t we all at different stages in our life? Some are highly talented at their jobs, but lack the social aspect. The levels we all reach are at different paces and stages of life than others, comparing ourselves only brings heartache and sorrow to our souls. 
But the level the next man we met was beyond me, he was straight up from Milwaukee. Living in Denmark for around 8 years, has a wife, and speaks a pretty interesting dialect of Danish, Milwaukanish. Think of the thickest Milwaukee accent possible, and then apply it to norwegian and you’ve got this guy. He was a really nice man, friendly as all out, and eventually we switched to English because it was a little difficult for us to communicate. Telling us about how he met his wife, what makes him happy, he ended our contact with “That’s probably not for me, but the door to Jesus is always open right?” Now his milwaukee accent made this a pretty funny sounding statement, but I’m thinking over how true it is. Not simply an excuse to procrastinate, but that even when we turn from the Lord, sinning, or simply making a mistake, he will always be their with open arms. All we must do is knock.
The Return of the Zone
Our long awaited desire to be with the members of our miniscule, Nordjylland, district were fulfilled as we tarried with them in Aalborg over the night, awoke at the crack of dawn, and took a train to Århus for Zone Konference. Luckily, I was able to dive into an uninterrupted, much needed rest while the train took to our conference. Præsident Olsen trains us, the Assistants give out new rules, and then I have a delightful conversation with Præsident. He told me important, powerful, and inspired things that I will never forget. A man of pure love, pure joy, pure knowledge. He leads us with power but care, strictness but success. After finishing the conference, we head back, once again to Frederikshavn, saying goodbye for the week to our friends in Aalborg and taking our newly bought pack of fresh new pass-along-cards (even though we already have an incomprehensible amount). 
Den Lille Pigehær
While planning our day, we decided to go out and knock. We chose an interesting place, where the houses were next to a playground. The playgrounds were literally outside their front doors, so there were kids playing and enjoying the slides and the swings, while we were sitting there knocking doors and getting rejected. Well we reached this one house, and one of the little girls - around 4 or 5 - playing on the playground comes up to us with her group and says “I live just over there, want to knock on my door!” My companion lets her down and says that we are just knocking on the doors in a row, so we will eventually get to hers soon. She accepted and said, “I’ll come back when you get closer!” This girl was definitely a girl of her word! We get down to her house and of course her friends follow, and she knocks on her door, eventually goes in because her dad isn’t coming and shows him to us. Instantly, I kid you not, instantly the man says, “I’m not interested in that, farvel (which means basically don’t come back).” They asked us what we were doing and told them that we were talking about faith. We then asked the girls if they believed in God, and they replied with a resounding yes. They said “who else could have created the world?” We just continued onwards after her dad’s house, thinking that they would lose interest. Nope! They continued, telling us a little bit about each of their neighbors and if they believed in God or not. And I thought, well this is great, who wouldn’t want to hear our message if we have a bunch of sweet girls following us around, crazily knocking on their doors (at that point, they were the only ones knocking on the doors). How wrong could I be, even having them, all of them said “nej tak” almost instantly, and one of them even slammed their door. After a lot of rejection, the little girls asked, “Why does no one want to talk to you?” We simply answered I guess they don’t believe. Finishing up the doors, we told them we had to leave and go find a new place to knock on, they were sad, and asked if they could go across the street and knock, but we said sadly no and said goodbye to our little army of God loving girls.
Watch
You find yourself in your most prized place, somewhere where you have to do something beyond difficult. You’ve prepared your entire life for this one event, maybe it is playing one of the most important games of a football season, maybe its building an application that will change the world, maybe it’s showing someone one of the hardest skateboard tricks. You know you can do it, and you want to show your family, your friends, maybe anyone that wants to see. Your simple plea to them is to watch. Watch me present this app, watch me win this game, watch me do this skateboard trick. Everyone you invited doesn’t show up. You text them asking them where they are, what they are doing, and everyone responds with dried up excuses such as “I slept over my alarm,” “I forgot that was today,” or whatever their hapless justification was. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen very often, if at all. When we talk about being truly alone, I truly believe that no one has ever been more alone than Jesus Christ at the time of Gethsemane.
Mark 14:33-38, “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, tarry ye here, and watch. And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” 
Jesus Christ suffered through this, through this ultimate isolation, so that we will never feel alone again. He is always there for us and he always understands the pain and the sorrow that we experience here on Earth - because he experienced it himself. He simply gives us two commandments, watch and pray. Today, the wickedness of the world runs rampant. We must be vigilant and watch ourselves and others in order to avoid it. We must look out for those that are feeling this loneliness, help them understand that they are never alone, lift them up and bring them to our Savior. Watch for those that are struggling, for those that need comfort, for those that are going through the hardest times in their lives. Support them, encourage them, go to their achievements, help them through their sorrows, become a friend. Most importantly, know that through Jesus Christ, you are never alone. Although Peter, James and John did not watch over him, he will always watch over you.

Challenge: Watch out for someone in your area. Show them you care, reach out to them. Find someone that is in need of a friend, or that’s struggling and help them. 
Question: I tried something a little different on my emails, did you like it or not? Why?
Word of the Week: at passe - fit, watch out, take care of, match, allow, works, pass
Scripture: Mark 14:36 - Thy will be done
Picture(s): The "death mist" that I spoke of earlier.  
I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Med kærlig hilsen,
Ældste Salisbury