Elder Salisbury's Mission

This week (or rest of the week) has been one of the best parts of my mission that I will never forget. Syg When I say that it was a “sick baptism,” sadly I don’t mean sick as in what the cool kids say. I mean sick as in I had a fever ever since I talked to you guys on Wednesday. Nothing too terrible, just a headache, sore throat, stuffy sinus, all that great stuff. While this didn’t change the outcome of the baptism, it did make it much harder to focus on feeling the spirit during this exciting, first time in my mission. Which, I believe, made it a much more spiritual experience for me as I had to focus on feeling the Spirit. Before the baptism, I was praying a bunch that I would be able to feel the Spirit even though my head felt like it was going to explode. Taking away from this experience, I’ve found that being brought to our knees, and praying, is our trial/test. I could’ve gone through the entire baptism just feeling like trash the whole time, or I could do something about it. In...

Are you ready for a really ambiguous email because of lack of time? And a huge desire for emails from you? Here we go. Monday: splits with Leland, super fun, great guy, played piano, sung a bit, emailed at the church Tuesday: more splits, not so much happened, talked to a girl from Thailand, found a member of another church that we testified to, talked to a guy who seemed really interested, after we asked him if we could talk more he straight up just walked away Wednesday: choir, a great meeting with Ella (a member), met with the Jehovahs Witnesses - they tried to Bible bash with us, we kept just bringing the spirit in, we asked to pray with them and they got really uncomfortable, that was pretty interesting Thursday: meeting with a member, she told us to bring a message to help her reactivate her son, well turns out she didn't tell her son we were coming and so it got realllllllyyyyy awkward. But he committed to come to church, and her daughter also showed up, and we committed the...

I don't even know where to begin it's been quite the week and a half. Get ready because it was weird, fun, crazy, and dangerous. Vietnam If you thought I'd have a Danish Christmas in Denmark, you were wrong. Of course I have to experience a different culture... In a different culture. Let's just say it was a Very Vietnamese Christmas. We begin the night with an expectation that it would be us 4 missionaries (we were with the sisters), a Vietnamese woman that we call Mor, and her sister and maybe a few more people. So because it was Christmas, I brought my ukulele to sing some Christmas songs to the small crowd. Boy were we mistaken. We walk in and there is around 25-30 plates on this massive table. All surrounded by Vietnamese people, speaking Vietnamese with an occasionally Danish word thrown in. Now, we eat some weird soup, noodles, with duck and potatoes. Pretty good food, but I'm stuffed and we barely dented any of it. But before they clear the table, or stop ea...

More learning this week. It’s just amazing how much one can learn while being sent to a different country, not knowing the language the best, and having your focus set on serving. Bishop Blazzard always said that the mission is a springboard for the rest of your life, I know without a doubt he’s right. Service This week we did a ton of service and it was great. I love just getting my hands dirty, getting splinters, and then seeing the effects we made on the progress of the work. With the first one, wood chopping, we carried the wood into a trailer, drove it to a house and unloaded it. I wouldn't say I'm the strongest person ever hahah, but I could help with it nonetheless and the work continued forward quickly. The second one we helped take down a set for a play. It was just fantastic to talk to the person who built the set and ask her how long she's been doing it, which plays and musicals she's done. Just a super great way to connect over something. It was super cool t...

This week has been probably the weirdest yet most amazing weeks of my mission. Like super weird, but fun, and enjoyable, and creepy, and just a mess at times but it's been a really really good experience. So much fun hahahah let's get into it. New Companion My companion is from German, his name is Ældste Jaursch and he's just an awesome guy. It's been one of those relationships where I just felt like I could trust him right off the bat. He's a hilarious dude, he's pretty good at English but occasionally he does the funniest things. Just the little things like spelling Cinnamon with a Z and having the sisters harass him, saying everything is "so cute", and he can't pronounce his V's right, so he ends up saying things like wegetables hahaha. He's a really great guy with a strong desire to change, his past just shows what the atonement and what this church can help people do. He's just a stud. We are both SUPER new to Danish, but since I...

Saturday morning, relaxing in our apartment, enjoying the Christmas hygge, det hele. We received a call from our mission president, as expected, however completely out of my expectations was the call to take up and leave Frederikshavn. I at least expected to stay for Christmas because of their concert here soon, president told me a while ago I was going to stay, and I was working with familien Blankensteiner. Yet to my surprise, President told me that I have a new area called Svendborg. Hvor??? Just to educate y'all on a little Denmark geografi. There are three main islands that make up Denmark (sorry Bornholm), you have Jylland (the one I was in in Frederikshavn... I mean technically it was Vendsyssel, but whatever), Fyn (the middle one) and Sjælland. Jylland and Sjælland hate each other. Fyns kinda like the middle child telling them all to stop fighting. (if Fyn didnt exist, Denmark would be two countries). So Fyn is the island I'm going to, Odense is the third biggest city i...

This has been quite the interesting week. Miracles exist up here in Nordjylland. Missions are a rollercoaster and I absolutely love it. I feel like I’m growing everyday, through my trials and the miracles I’ve seen, it’s fantastic. Let’s get right- into the news. Gathering Well we had mission conference, and it was, not gonna lie, pretty awkward. We had a seventy there and many of the things he said were really wise. But during it, he was looking for a specific answer a lot of the time, making a bunch of missionaries embarrassed. He also brought out mission president to do a role-play (or public humiliation if we’re gonna be honest), and basically didn’t let him talk. It was a little weird, made everyone feel awkward, little contentious almost, but the overall idea of it was good intentioned. Also, his wife made us do yoga and was very very animated. very. Anyways, I got to meet up with those of my old MTC district, which that was fantastic, and I got to see my dad, Ældste Kofford, so ...