Nordjylland Drenge

A light breeze, a sunny day, a happy people, an overall just fantastic place. The whole week, filled with sun and a little wind, began fantastic as I began my travels to a land far away (or 4 hours on train), in order to go on splits with my Zone Leader - Ældste Kresge. 
The City of Dreams
Århus. Year house… in English. Imagine, a place where you can walk around… and talk to people. A place where they stop, talk to you a little, tell you about their life experiences. A place where one can go right outside one’s apartment and begin talking with strangers, learning more about what brought them to such a marvelous place. A city full of young, exotic, unique people that are willing to learn just a little bit more. A place where stores exist. Yes, stores exist, as in they have more than one store for each item. They don’t simply have one store for backpacks, one store for coats, one store for musical instruments. We had selection. Of course, since the one thing I desired most, I longed for, I missed, at the one place that I could fulfill such craving, shut down, I had the only option to buy it in the land of dreams. That one thing was music. In particular, a ukulele. My zone leader, a fantastic, spiritually strong, man, took me over to the music store because of his pity that in Frederikshavn, there existed no such store. Was the trip worth it, yes. Was it worth it for only the ukulele, no. 
New Jersey
It was worth so much more. As we travel back, from our fairly long tour, on the outskirts of the city. We come in contact with a man, around 35 from New Jersey. A tall basketball player, with a strong love for Jesus, refreshing man to find amidst the many non-believing Danes. We talked, and prayed, and shared contact information, setting up an appointment for another week. A success. The experience showed me that we must always be looking for opportunities to communicate our beliefs with others, those that are open to talk to others, even if they aren’t the same beliefs, are blessed the most. One never knows the impact or the change we could invoke in another’s life, just by simply sharing truths that we know.
Asguardians
After our encounter with the man from New Jersey, we took to Coordination Meeting. A most awkward experience, especially if you know nothing about the area, and nothing about the people. My good old friend from the MTC, Ældste Fisher and I, sat around, waiting for the meeting to end. The mission leader, Asger, is a unique character. Wearing overalls, and smiling occasionally (not on purpose, but as a nervous twitch), he lead the meeting with love and respect for the people. How glad I am that Ældste Fisher informed me of his smiling condition, for if he didn’t, I probably would have been smiling back at him, quickly becoming very confused on why he stopped smiling so suddenly. I learned, through his name, that he is an Asguarding, doing his best to help the people, not only that the missionaries are working with, but those that the ward is trying to help. 
A Crude Conversation
With our branch being significantly small, not many attend Institute. We decided that it would be great for us to attend the small gathering and support the members. We showed up, he began the lesson, and we learned many, many new important Gospel principles. But while learning this, we also learned of the branch’s crude humor. Talking about how “one man’s heaven is another man’s hell” with a pretty funny sign (the man who created it is around 70 too, making it just that much funnier). One of the members told someone to shut up - jokingly of course - but he used the most intense way of saying it (worse than a lot of the swears in english). Interesting members over here, but you just gotta laugh when you’re in a room with a bunch of old people and they are swearing! Realizing over the time being here in Denmark, it takes a lot to live as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ in Denmark. It takes a lot anywhere in the world, but the more so here because one can barely find a person with remotely the same standards as a member. Our church is not an easy church to follow, there are rules, there are commandments, but the commandments and the rules ultimately lead us to true happiness and lasting joy. Although it sounds contradictory, our many laws that we follow in the church bring us freedom. We don’t have to worry about addiction if we simply follow the word of wisdom. It’s tough, but it brings all the more blessings when done earnestly.
The Burning Tree
Seeing a tree that was completely burnt on some random persons lawn… being the only thing that was burnt (probably a controlled fire or something), it reminded me of us being burnt about 3 times this week. Showing up at one of our friend’s houses, we find out that he isn't home. After happening another two times, we decided to change the game.
H&H
Instead of working in our small Frederikshavn, we decided to take to the magnificent and massive town of Hirtshals and Hjørring! As Nordjylland has the massive town Frederikshavn(23,296), it has the massiver town of Hirtshals at around 5,759 people! A small fishing town, with nice enough people, and apparently a tourist town for Germans who want to waste their time. Hjørring (25,071), actually a bit bigger than Frederikshavn, we found little to no success, and the same, sadly, in Hirtshals. Now I tell you this, not to play the pity card, but to show that the Lord has His own timetable. Not always is it in his will to give us people to talk to, not always is it in his will to bless us with blessings that we ask for, or maybe not at the exact time. I learned this a lot during these times. Now did we not find anyone, yep. But did we have a great time not finding anyone, oh yeah we did! Travelling from the most easter side of our area to the most western side was a fantastic bike trip. Glad I brought my gloves! Because my companion’s hands looked as if they were about to fall out, pale white with a little bit of frost on them. It’s down to the single digits! :)
Jehovah’s Witness
Normally, the Jehovah’s Witnesses just nicely wave at us as we walk past them on the gågade. We wave back, and continue on with our days. Well the game has changed once again, they contacted us on the street, and created an appointment to where they could talk to us about the Bible. My companion and I didn’t really have a desire to do this meeting, because often they simply turn into Bible bashing. Well we tried to avoid the meeting, but they got us. They contacted us, asked us for a time, our number, and all of that. I hope that it will be a good conversation, and one that will help me grow in my Danish - and not a bible bashing. We will see on Wednesday.
Another’s Painful Story
On the other side of bible bashing, we had a fantastic meeting with a young girl who has gone through so much. Her mother was abusive to her emotionally, depriving her of so many things, because of her addiction to drugs. She had an abusive boyfriend, and she herself got into many of these drugs. She eventually decided that it was time to end her life. And sorry if this is to graphic, but I feel as though sharing the story is important. She got out a knife, and tried stabbing herself in the wrists. However, she could not stab herself, somehow, someway she couldn’t do it. She tried again, and the same thing. She heard a voice that she needs to stay. Hearing this story, almost brought me to the verge of tears. The pain you could see in her eyes, in her tone, but after, she told us how she changed her life around. You could see the joy in her eyes as she explained to us how she found Jesus Christ in her life, and how much it has helped her. She stopped doing illegal drugs, witnessed miracles, and got herself out of her situation. This shows me one, how important a basic faith in Jesus Christ is. No matter if it is my church or some else’s church, faith in Jesus Christ and his miracles is faith in Jesus Christ. There are of course our ordinances that are sacred and necessary, but I’ve realized how much faith can change someone’s life. And two, I’ve realized that tough things happen. Elder Christofersen said in General Conference (roughly quoting), “Bad things do happen in our life, but the point is to find joy in overcoming them.” It is vital that we find joy in overcoming the hard things in life, that we say, “I did that, I took my life from a terrible spot, and survived it.”  Faith is faith. Trials can be overcome. Joy can be found in overcoming them. We are not alone.
Forced Starvation
Sounds fun, right? Our zone decided to come together in a fast so that we could find new friends. A painstakingly long day of not eating, and a painstakingly long day of finding. Six hours. Six hours were we out, straight, finding people, knocking on doors. Now I really hate to spoil the end of this story, but here I go. After 6 hours, we did not find anyone. This was hard for me, not insanely hard, but it made me question a little bit on why I did that fast. Why did I do it, if it didn’t work. I feel like I had faith, I was praying through out the day - continuously, but nothing happened. But I learned a very important principle, another member of our district says this kind of annoying thing, “Have miracles ceased? Maybe in Nordjylland.” Now I want to assure you, miracles have in no way ceased. Not even in Nordjylland. By him saying that, he opens the way for doubt in our hearts. It is just not simply something to joke about, because miracles are a special thing. I have seen miracles happen. Meeting that person from New Jersey that I talked about at the start, was a miracle. It was an answer to my and Ældste Kresge’s prayers. I assure you that miracles have happened, are happening, and will happen. Have the faith, believe that they will work, and never let it be a subject of joke or ridicule. They are real, I know it, I have seen them, I have witnessed blessing that have healed the sick. I have witnessed blessings of comfort that have brought peace into my own life and into others. I have given blessings of comfort that have changed anxiety and feelings of unworthiness, to happiness and hope. Not through my own strength, but through the Lords. Miracles continue. Miracles are something that we must submit our will to the Lord’s in order to receive, and be willing to accept that our desires at the time may not be what he has in store for us. I say forced starvation as a joke, but fasting is a real principle. It did work for our zone. One person was on baptismal date, and 3 people were found. Our goal was 15 new friends in the zone for the week, and we only had 3 at the time they decided to do the fast, we ended with 17 new friends. A simple miracle. I fasted for my zone, which was in my prayers, even though my focus was of course on my area. Miracles do happen.
Nordjylland Drenge
Although we had starvation the day before, worry not for we were fed by our friend Svend and Sushi. Svend gave us food until we were about to burst, as did the Running Sushi buffet we went to. Delicious. Flaeskesteg is one of my favorite Danish meals with brunede kartofler, kartofler, og brun savs… mmmm! And he gave us leftovers, what a fantastic man. This man is also pretty much deaf (he can hear with his hearing aid, but even then not very well). It was my turn to give the spiritual thought (surprisingly the first time on my mission) and it was like two deaf people speaking to each other. I would say something and he’d question “what???” and then he’d say something and I would also ask “what???” But what a great guy - he always says “Howdy bro” to us. But he says it in the most Danish way and pronounces “bro” as “brew.” He’s also in charge of the institute… :) We also had a kagemand made for our district. It was also very delicious (basically just a huge danish).
General Konference
Fantastic. Simply fantastic. I only watched two sessions so far, but I absolutely love the message that I got from it. I found there were really two aspects that they touched on: lasting joy and centering on Christ. Joy is something a lot of this world lacks today, many think drugs, alcohol, tobacco, breaking the law of chastity, and many other things are what bring joy. Lasting joy in this world is hard to come by, but as the prophets and apostles promised us, I also promise you that lasting joy only comes from the Gospel. Looking towards Christ, and committing not just your excess, but your all, to the Lord, is what will bring you the most happiness. I have seen it. I am very happy. I am straight up getting rejected by almost every person I meet, but I am still happy. I still want to share this message. I still want to help others feel the lasting joy that I’ve found from this wonderful, peaceful message the Lord has given me to share with others. I promise you, you can find joy by listening to the prophets and centering your life around Jesus Christ.

Action: Share with me your favorite General Conference talk and why. I haven’t seen them all and I really want to know which ones I should watch first.
Scripture: John 5:1-8 - Look unto Christ, not unto others’ progress. Go straight to the source of the water, and there you will find joy. Do not compare or try to race to places, but work on them by yourself and with the Lord.
Word of the Week: Ingen køer på isen - No cows on the ice (kinda like saying “no problem!”)
Pictures: The big church is in Århus with Ældste Kresge, the small church is in Hirtshals, the danish with a man on it is the kagemand spoken of earlier, it says, "Nordjylland Drenge" (North Jylland Boys), one of them is a picture of us enjoying the delightful sushi, my new ukulele, an empty gågade... which we were supposed to contact on, head basketball (mainly this picture is for my dad hahaha)... :), a picture of the hirtshals harbor, Gåsedreng.

 I hope you have a fantastic and productive week. I love you all.

Med kærlig hilsen,
Ældste Salisbury