Elder Salisbury's Mission

Keep the miracles rolling. We had a pretty great week, despite our current odd and kind of worsening (more locked down than the USA, but they're getting to be about the same) situation. A little update: more people have the virus, 13 are dead (but may have not been due to the virus), gatherings with 10 or more people are illegal, all stores are closed down except for grocery stores, there are around 42 missionaries in the Danish Mission, we closed 3 areas in an emergency transfer. Our Friend Although we've had a week of Facebook contacting... (if anyone has any tips for doing this, much appreciated) we had a great week with our friend here on Amager. He's a British guy that loves to talk deeply. We had a great lesson with him that was a little thrown together because it's been a while since he was taught last so we had to gauge what he remembered. We talked about Heavenly Father's plan for us, and then we talked about commitment. He told us that he knows if he tries...

I honestly don't have a whole lot to write this week. Not a ton happened this week, but I'm settling in to Copenhagen well and enjoying the time I've had so far. Amager Contacting Talking to people on Amager is a little like talking to people in Frederikshavn. Not super friendly, a little cranky, and always say they're busy. So I'm back to my first area, one might call this the "Frederikshavn of Sjælland," but I've been in Svendborg and Frederikshavn, so I'm sure I can handle one more... Right? The one conversation we did have this week was with an older lady was super short, but we gave her a card. 👍 Copenhagen I really thought Copenhagen would be a lot bigger, but it feels really really small. Think of downtown Boise, but less skyscrapers. It's like the Grove, but trashy. I wish I could sugar coat it, but it's a really weird vibe here. Tons of people smoking, no one really smiling, everyone just going to the next thing. However there is ...

Mor vs. Køsters In the first corner, we have Mor! *vietnamese people and anyone who has ever served in Svendborg goes wild* A middle-aged, vietnamese woman who, after being hit in the head, has gone a little bit off the deep-end. She believes that God is a woman and a man… at the same time. She is a member of our church but also believes in the trinity (how this works - I’m not quite sure). In the second corner we have the Køsters! They are a really outstanding senior couple who have dedicated pretty much their lives to the church. Very faithful members, who are all about cleanliness. Don’t let them inside, because they will destroy even the cleanest people. Got mold? Got kalk? Got one, yes, just one, unclean dish? This will be a quick match for you… They are infamous for taking our perfectly good couch and replacing it because it had a super miniscule, almost unnoticeable to the natural eye, rip in it. Toilet not clean enough? Don’t worry Søster Køster will get down there, basically p...

I’m kind of embarrassed that this email is going out after Josh Henstrom has sent his… but it’s okay. It’s not a race. It’s a journey. Anyways, I have a pretty good excuse - I’ve been on a train all day! Amager I’ve debated whether or not to start the email with the big news, or not, because many of you might stop reading… BUT DON’T! I have had an amazingly powerful week this week. In fact, my last week in Odense has been one of my favorite weeks in the mission. As you might of guess, I got transferred. This transfer was bitter sweet, but I’m excited for another change. I am on Amager (the island), which is a good 15 minute bike ride from Copenhagen’s massive city. It’s super exciting and I’m excited to have finally made it to the promised land (sjælland). Many missionaries have spoken of copenhagen as a desired, loved, and maybe even longed after place of gloriful contacting, investigators, and members. We will see. I am with Ældste Millet, he’s a super awesome guy, wants to be a mech...

This week was a lot of fun and full of experiences. We had a few successes knocking, gave out four copies of the Book of Mormon, and saw a few small tender mercies. (I tried a new spacing in this email, so hopefully it seems a little bit more readable… as Josh pointed out that his old man eyes can not read the massive maze of text)  Up to the Tower I was on splits with an Elder from Fredericia this week and we went out contacting for around 4ish hours. We decided to take a quick break in one of the huge Odense churches and found this volunteer there who showed us around and talked about the church. He told us that he did in fact have one of our books and read it occasionally, he liked it, but didn’t think it was for him. We got talking, became pretty good friends with him, and went back to talking about the church. I asked him if the church has any ways to access the massive tower. He said, “yeah, right over here, do you want to go up?” I was ecstatic. One thing I really wanted to ...

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 ...

The Vision As much as I’d love to say this was about Joseph Smith’s first vision, it’s not. Instead, we went on splits with a really awesome, recently returned missionary. We went knocking, had some really good conversations where they talked so quickly to each other in Danish I had to ask them what they talked about after, and basically just had a good time. We were getting close to the end of our splits, but I decided that we should do this last row right before we leave. Well we do, and this guy comes out, I think he’s russian, but he starts telling us about his vision. Now, you never know, this man could definitely be telling the truth of what he saw, I don’t want to say visions and dreams don’t exist - because they most definitely do. However, you could see the hint of crazy in this guys eyes, and the fact that he began every single sentence with “Hmmmm, how can I tell you?” Well we went along with it, tried to relate it to Joseph Smith’s first vision, but he just wouldn’t let us ...