Fungus and Curds
This week was a lot of weird fun that we had full of a 3 day splits with Ældste Cook, a weird tour around the church building, and of course, racism. Strap in tight, it's gonna be a good one.
The Tour
I've never had more of a mess on my hands than this tour. We had a group of about 16 students come over to the church, the Sisters took half and the Elders took half. My companion said he had it under control and that he's done it before, so it's no big deal. Well, I guess maybe he's done it before, but that was the most awkward time ever. We ran into the sisters' tour group twice during the tour (oops), we didn't know where to begin and we didn't know what to say or what would be of interest to them. They made fun of me for saying ping pong table instead of board tennis and grilled us about weird things they've heard about the church. I felt like a fish in a fish bowl while they observed me as some fat out creature they can't understand. Turns out they really enjoyed it because they took about nine copies of the book of mormon, a bunch of pamphlets, and some cards. Overall it went well, but I feel like the two groups had very different experiences hahah.
Pranks
Ya know, I'm not a huge fan of pranks. Especially getting locked into a room in the middle of the night (@youknowwho ;) haha, but I do love the good hearted ones (not saying the above mentioned wasn't good hearted...). We were going on a trio splits with an elder from Fredericia, he's relatively new (newer than me at least), so we decided with a member that we had to do something. Let me tell you a little about Claus. Claus is an awesome member, fun to talk with, has cool stuff to do at his house, has an awesome dog. But Claus also lives 30 minutes away, in the middle of a forest, in a very very small town right outside of Dong. Well we decided to use this to our advantage. We pick up Elder Cook from the church and begin to subtly drop hints. In the car ride over, we tell him that the member we are visiting is really sketchy and lives in the middle of no where. We told him casually that the last missionaries that ate at his house got super sick because he used some kind of ingredient from the forest. What we don't know is that Cook is already a picky eater, so it just worked even better. Eventually, Ældste Leland and I got into a "fight" on who was gonna tell him. Ældste Cook starts to get worried, and we unveil to him that this is our last appointment with this guy. It's like our "breakup appointment" because president told us to. We keep arguing over who is going to do it and finally we come up with the brilliant idea to have Ældste Cook do it! He starts spurting out things like "no way, that's unprofessional, just text him" which wasn't a part of plan... But worked to our benefit. We finally reach the members house and Ældste Cook is visibly a little nervous. We get in, Claus pranks us (the prankers) by having us eat dog food and sniff some weird thing haha, but that just made it all the more genuine for Cook. We go and sit down and eat some SUPER weird traditional Danish foods: buttermilk soup and beer bread. Buttermilk is pretty gross with the texture (curds and such), and beer bread is just a weird porridge that I actually didn't mind too much. Anyways, this whole time Cook is just a little upset. He visibly doesn't want to be there and keeps making the excuse that he just ate. Well Claus gets him to eat some buttermilk soup, after he's done with a pretty good amount, Claus informs him that the milk he used he got for free, but was sadly spoiled. He then informed us that when you boil out the milk it gets rid of the bacteria and stuff that happens when milk goes bad. The whole time Ældste Leland is acting like he's having stomach problems and coughing (which could have been real, this stuff was pretty weird tasting). We then move on to the next portion of the meal, the beer bread. We again, begin eating it and Claus says "can you guess the secret ingredient?" He informs us that it is fungus he found from the woods, right outside! Delicioussss, and Ældste Cook has kind of embraced his impending death and starts asking questions about the forest and what he likes to collect hahaha. Soon after, it's starting to get pretty late, so we decide to end with a prayer. Right after, Leland says to him "and we have some bad news." At this point, Cooks heart sunk because he thought the plan was to just text him after. Claus starts getting upset and saying it's super dumb and that it doesn't make any sense. Leland is stuttering to get his words out, I'm just being quiet and not talking, and cook occasionally says something to try and save this boat. Leland brings up the past about Claus "accidentally poisoning" the last elders and cook tries to save it by saying Lan Le poisoned us one time too. And then Claus starts smiling and says "should we tell him?" Ældste Cook was a GREAT sport about it, and started laughing a bunch (probably a lot in relief), and they took a picture and hugged each other. It was really funny and Cook was laughing and talking about it all night. He said it was one of the best splits he's been on. Ya gotta keep missionary work lively... Right? :)
Cook pt. 2
The rest of our 3 day splits with Cook was also awesome. We went to the park, on splits with a member (so we could actually split up and have two people), i took Cook to a really nice park. We really just enjoyed Denmark. I think it was the first time where I could honestly say I love being in Denmark, and maybe could actually think about living in Odense. Odense is just a super nice city, and the people here are also very friendly, even though they're super busy. It was nice to walk and enjoy beauty.
Ken Hall
Ahhh Ken Hall, I think this was one of the weirdest eating appointments I've been at. We had an eating appointment with Ken, two of his daughters, and an African American that moved to Denmark who is investigating the church (and has been for 4 years or something). Well, Ken Hall made some really spicy chili that messed up all of our stomachs, we talked about past pranks that Ken has done on the missionaries and talked about family history. Well there were a few racist comments thrown around the table, but this little dialogue really was an interesting moment (roughly quoted):
"my family comes from the Virgin Islands, (long history lesson about the virgin Islands and Denmark and yeah, I may or may not have zoned out of Ken's nerdy history talk)" - Ken Hall
"really, that's interesting because my family does too!" - Our African American Investigator
"no way! My ancestors probably owned yours!" - Ken Hall
Now in a matter of fact kind of way, Ken hall might have been right, but gosh dang whyd he have to bring it up at the dinner table, let alone with one of our investigators. Don't worry, no damage was done, everyone is in good standing, he knows that that is how Ken Hall is, he signed up to eat there.
Perfectionism
I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. Maybe not in the way people think of it normally, but I've realized that I don't get a lot of satisfaction from things done to the best of my ability. I often debate what is the best of my ability with myself, and can't find that balance anywhere. It doesn't help missionary work or life at all. It might make you strive to improve constantly but it makes life never fulfilling and never joyful if we are always striving for unrealistic goals. I've been studying perfection a lot, and I still can't find an answer of what it is. But I think I've made up my own definition, it's not perfect (haha), but maybe it will resonate with someone (nor is it totally doctrinally or scripturally found or correct, it's interpretation, feel free to correct me). Matthew 5:48 says "48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." That's a hard commandment to follow saying that we always make mistakes. Of course, there's Holland's fantastic talk "Be Ye Therefore Perfect... Eventually" but that didn't answer all my questions. Well I want to point out one thing, Jesus says, "even as your Father." Why doesn't he say even as I am? 3 Nephi 12:48 says "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." This happens to be after His resurrection, showing that ascending to the Father and being resurrected was the last step of perfection. When we talk about the Lord going "grace by grace," I think that Jesus had steps to his perfection too. In the footnotes perfection is defined as "complete, finished, fully developed." Now here's where I start to fall off the tracks of background support from the scriptures and where it turns into interpretation. I think that the Lord, just like us learned to learn. One of those steps was going through what we did, being completely helpless as a child and depending on our parents for everything. This isn't to say that he wasn't a perfect baby or whatever, but to say that he went through the developments that we also must go through. When it comes to completeness or being fully developed, it's hard to say where it starts and stops for each individual, but I also think that perfection is a very individual process. I find that we all have our own personalities, our own gifts, our own talents that we have been bestowed with, not to mention the unique worldly and fallen environments we are born into, etc... So I think perfection is personal, it should be something strived after but worked out with the Lord. Each of us have a potential and the Lord wants to help us fulfill it, however the rest is filled by his grace. Taking a look at your entire life and all of your attributes and saying that one of them is a trait that makes your imperfect just because it isn't successful from a worldly perspective is not what I believe the Lord is trying to tell us here. For example, if someone is not good at presenting a business idea, or if someone is very shy, I highly doubt it will affect one's salvation, unless God has other plans for us. I think there are things in our lives that are important to fix, like laziness for example, but a preference such as how you fold a blanket, not being the most effective way, is not going to affect or change our personal perfection. This is where the Lord comes in and helps us identify how we can perfect our attributes. He wants us to keep our own personality while striving to fully develop it. Often, as people, we see the world as black and white, red and blue, perfection and imperfection. One's perfection here on earth can be very very different from someone else's, which is why we can't compare. Of course there are certain attributes needed for perfection, such as love and charity, but that can be showed in a multitude of ways depending on the person. Each intelligence has a potential, a fully developed state, and that is what the Lord is trying to help us reach. Not this far out, unrealistic worldly perfection, but growing until we can't grow anymore. The only way to do this is through the Savior, Jesus Christ. He saved us so that when we inevitably make mistakes, we can turn to Him for guidance, help, and forgiveness. Resurrection is a part of perfection only possible through our Savior. Doing our best, or even being completely perfect from a worldly perspective is not enough. Matthew 19:21 "21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." This gives us one, an invitation to be charitable and give up all things for the kingdom of heaven. Two, follow the Lord. A part of our perfection is looking to the Lord and doing our best to look to him in all things. Simply looking is not enough either, following is looking and walking behind. Perfection is not easily attainable, but when I see Jesus Christ as a guide to lead the way, realizing that I can find my own perfection with my own personality and acknowledging that perfection is a process of fully developing one's attributes, it seems less daunting of a task. Jesus Christ is the way, the light, the truth, and by following Him, we can find our way to an eventual perfect state.
I really hope that my line of thinking makes sense and that it isn't completely blasphemous, but all in all, look unto Christ and he will make us whole, perfection is a process, a goal to strive after.
I hope everyone had a fantastic week. I miss and love you all a bunch and would love to hear from you guys!
Challenge: enjoy nature. Enjoy the beautiful snowy outside, find a park and just take it all in, maybe meditate or something?
Word of the Week: tosse - simpleton, I was called this by a recent convert because I said that four o'clock was in the night (aften) versus what I should have asked for (eftermiddag - pronounced after mid day).
Scripture: Alma 7:11-12 "11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."
Pictures: sushi, this weird sketchy thing we found in the harbor, weird sketchy building we found near the harbor, the harbor, a picture of splits with Daniel, Ældste Redd and I, splits with Ældste Cook, HAM (thought this was funny if you didn't know Danish), more sketchy buildings, langeland harbor and sea
Med kærlig hilsen,
Ældste Salisbury
The Tour
I've never had more of a mess on my hands than this tour. We had a group of about 16 students come over to the church, the Sisters took half and the Elders took half. My companion said he had it under control and that he's done it before, so it's no big deal. Well, I guess maybe he's done it before, but that was the most awkward time ever. We ran into the sisters' tour group twice during the tour (oops), we didn't know where to begin and we didn't know what to say or what would be of interest to them. They made fun of me for saying ping pong table instead of board tennis and grilled us about weird things they've heard about the church. I felt like a fish in a fish bowl while they observed me as some fat out creature they can't understand. Turns out they really enjoyed it because they took about nine copies of the book of mormon, a bunch of pamphlets, and some cards. Overall it went well, but I feel like the two groups had very different experiences hahah.
Pranks
Ya know, I'm not a huge fan of pranks. Especially getting locked into a room in the middle of the night (@youknowwho ;) haha, but I do love the good hearted ones (not saying the above mentioned wasn't good hearted...). We were going on a trio splits with an elder from Fredericia, he's relatively new (newer than me at least), so we decided with a member that we had to do something. Let me tell you a little about Claus. Claus is an awesome member, fun to talk with, has cool stuff to do at his house, has an awesome dog. But Claus also lives 30 minutes away, in the middle of a forest, in a very very small town right outside of Dong. Well we decided to use this to our advantage. We pick up Elder Cook from the church and begin to subtly drop hints. In the car ride over, we tell him that the member we are visiting is really sketchy and lives in the middle of no where. We told him casually that the last missionaries that ate at his house got super sick because he used some kind of ingredient from the forest. What we don't know is that Cook is already a picky eater, so it just worked even better. Eventually, Ældste Leland and I got into a "fight" on who was gonna tell him. Ældste Cook starts to get worried, and we unveil to him that this is our last appointment with this guy. It's like our "breakup appointment" because president told us to. We keep arguing over who is going to do it and finally we come up with the brilliant idea to have Ældste Cook do it! He starts spurting out things like "no way, that's unprofessional, just text him" which wasn't a part of plan... But worked to our benefit. We finally reach the members house and Ældste Cook is visibly a little nervous. We get in, Claus pranks us (the prankers) by having us eat dog food and sniff some weird thing haha, but that just made it all the more genuine for Cook. We go and sit down and eat some SUPER weird traditional Danish foods: buttermilk soup and beer bread. Buttermilk is pretty gross with the texture (curds and such), and beer bread is just a weird porridge that I actually didn't mind too much. Anyways, this whole time Cook is just a little upset. He visibly doesn't want to be there and keeps making the excuse that he just ate. Well Claus gets him to eat some buttermilk soup, after he's done with a pretty good amount, Claus informs him that the milk he used he got for free, but was sadly spoiled. He then informed us that when you boil out the milk it gets rid of the bacteria and stuff that happens when milk goes bad. The whole time Ældste Leland is acting like he's having stomach problems and coughing (which could have been real, this stuff was pretty weird tasting). We then move on to the next portion of the meal, the beer bread. We again, begin eating it and Claus says "can you guess the secret ingredient?" He informs us that it is fungus he found from the woods, right outside! Delicioussss, and Ældste Cook has kind of embraced his impending death and starts asking questions about the forest and what he likes to collect hahaha. Soon after, it's starting to get pretty late, so we decide to end with a prayer. Right after, Leland says to him "and we have some bad news." At this point, Cooks heart sunk because he thought the plan was to just text him after. Claus starts getting upset and saying it's super dumb and that it doesn't make any sense. Leland is stuttering to get his words out, I'm just being quiet and not talking, and cook occasionally says something to try and save this boat. Leland brings up the past about Claus "accidentally poisoning" the last elders and cook tries to save it by saying Lan Le poisoned us one time too. And then Claus starts smiling and says "should we tell him?" Ældste Cook was a GREAT sport about it, and started laughing a bunch (probably a lot in relief), and they took a picture and hugged each other. It was really funny and Cook was laughing and talking about it all night. He said it was one of the best splits he's been on. Ya gotta keep missionary work lively... Right? :)
Cook pt. 2
The rest of our 3 day splits with Cook was also awesome. We went to the park, on splits with a member (so we could actually split up and have two people), i took Cook to a really nice park. We really just enjoyed Denmark. I think it was the first time where I could honestly say I love being in Denmark, and maybe could actually think about living in Odense. Odense is just a super nice city, and the people here are also very friendly, even though they're super busy. It was nice to walk and enjoy beauty.
Ken Hall
Ahhh Ken Hall, I think this was one of the weirdest eating appointments I've been at. We had an eating appointment with Ken, two of his daughters, and an African American that moved to Denmark who is investigating the church (and has been for 4 years or something). Well, Ken Hall made some really spicy chili that messed up all of our stomachs, we talked about past pranks that Ken has done on the missionaries and talked about family history. Well there were a few racist comments thrown around the table, but this little dialogue really was an interesting moment (roughly quoted):
"my family comes from the Virgin Islands, (long history lesson about the virgin Islands and Denmark and yeah, I may or may not have zoned out of Ken's nerdy history talk)" - Ken Hall
"really, that's interesting because my family does too!" - Our African American Investigator
"no way! My ancestors probably owned yours!" - Ken Hall
Now in a matter of fact kind of way, Ken hall might have been right, but gosh dang whyd he have to bring it up at the dinner table, let alone with one of our investigators. Don't worry, no damage was done, everyone is in good standing, he knows that that is how Ken Hall is, he signed up to eat there.
Perfectionism
I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. Maybe not in the way people think of it normally, but I've realized that I don't get a lot of satisfaction from things done to the best of my ability. I often debate what is the best of my ability with myself, and can't find that balance anywhere. It doesn't help missionary work or life at all. It might make you strive to improve constantly but it makes life never fulfilling and never joyful if we are always striving for unrealistic goals. I've been studying perfection a lot, and I still can't find an answer of what it is. But I think I've made up my own definition, it's not perfect (haha), but maybe it will resonate with someone (nor is it totally doctrinally or scripturally found or correct, it's interpretation, feel free to correct me). Matthew 5:48 says "48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." That's a hard commandment to follow saying that we always make mistakes. Of course, there's Holland's fantastic talk "Be Ye Therefore Perfect... Eventually" but that didn't answer all my questions. Well I want to point out one thing, Jesus says, "even as your Father." Why doesn't he say even as I am? 3 Nephi 12:48 says "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." This happens to be after His resurrection, showing that ascending to the Father and being resurrected was the last step of perfection. When we talk about the Lord going "grace by grace," I think that Jesus had steps to his perfection too. In the footnotes perfection is defined as "complete, finished, fully developed." Now here's where I start to fall off the tracks of background support from the scriptures and where it turns into interpretation. I think that the Lord, just like us learned to learn. One of those steps was going through what we did, being completely helpless as a child and depending on our parents for everything. This isn't to say that he wasn't a perfect baby or whatever, but to say that he went through the developments that we also must go through. When it comes to completeness or being fully developed, it's hard to say where it starts and stops for each individual, but I also think that perfection is a very individual process. I find that we all have our own personalities, our own gifts, our own talents that we have been bestowed with, not to mention the unique worldly and fallen environments we are born into, etc... So I think perfection is personal, it should be something strived after but worked out with the Lord. Each of us have a potential and the Lord wants to help us fulfill it, however the rest is filled by his grace. Taking a look at your entire life and all of your attributes and saying that one of them is a trait that makes your imperfect just because it isn't successful from a worldly perspective is not what I believe the Lord is trying to tell us here. For example, if someone is not good at presenting a business idea, or if someone is very shy, I highly doubt it will affect one's salvation, unless God has other plans for us. I think there are things in our lives that are important to fix, like laziness for example, but a preference such as how you fold a blanket, not being the most effective way, is not going to affect or change our personal perfection. This is where the Lord comes in and helps us identify how we can perfect our attributes. He wants us to keep our own personality while striving to fully develop it. Often, as people, we see the world as black and white, red and blue, perfection and imperfection. One's perfection here on earth can be very very different from someone else's, which is why we can't compare. Of course there are certain attributes needed for perfection, such as love and charity, but that can be showed in a multitude of ways depending on the person. Each intelligence has a potential, a fully developed state, and that is what the Lord is trying to help us reach. Not this far out, unrealistic worldly perfection, but growing until we can't grow anymore. The only way to do this is through the Savior, Jesus Christ. He saved us so that when we inevitably make mistakes, we can turn to Him for guidance, help, and forgiveness. Resurrection is a part of perfection only possible through our Savior. Doing our best, or even being completely perfect from a worldly perspective is not enough. Matthew 19:21 "21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." This gives us one, an invitation to be charitable and give up all things for the kingdom of heaven. Two, follow the Lord. A part of our perfection is looking to the Lord and doing our best to look to him in all things. Simply looking is not enough either, following is looking and walking behind. Perfection is not easily attainable, but when I see Jesus Christ as a guide to lead the way, realizing that I can find my own perfection with my own personality and acknowledging that perfection is a process of fully developing one's attributes, it seems less daunting of a task. Jesus Christ is the way, the light, the truth, and by following Him, we can find our way to an eventual perfect state.
I really hope that my line of thinking makes sense and that it isn't completely blasphemous, but all in all, look unto Christ and he will make us whole, perfection is a process, a goal to strive after.
I hope everyone had a fantastic week. I miss and love you all a bunch and would love to hear from you guys!
Challenge: enjoy nature. Enjoy the beautiful snowy outside, find a park and just take it all in, maybe meditate or something?
Word of the Week: tosse - simpleton, I was called this by a recent convert because I said that four o'clock was in the night (aften) versus what I should have asked for (eftermiddag - pronounced after mid day).
Scripture: Alma 7:11-12 "11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."
Pictures: sushi, this weird sketchy thing we found in the harbor, weird sketchy building we found near the harbor, the harbor, a picture of splits with Daniel, Ældste Redd and I, splits with Ældste Cook, HAM (thought this was funny if you didn't know Danish), more sketchy buildings, langeland harbor and sea
Med kærlig hilsen,
Ældste Salisbury
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