Bornholm! En hæjlu ø!

Hello everyone,

This week has been very lovely. We have been working hard and serving the Lord. It was a lovely summer week on Bornholm! The weather was great and the sun was shining. Here are some of the highlights.

We had a bunch of service appointments, usually to help a lot of old, kind women. We have a facebook page on the island called Hjælpende Hænder. We use it to find people to serve and to help. And most of the people on the island that need help are those that are a bit older. We have done a lot of yard work , including removing plants and trimming hedges. I have become a professional at yard work. It really is such a pleasure to serve with the love of Christ! Oftentimes that's everything somebody needs. We can be the hand of God in their lives and though we don't get to teach them all of the time, it is certainly powerful to serve and love and hear their stories. 

We have also knocked quite a few doors this week. The island is small enough that we can almost knock down an entire city in one week.  We had a lovely discussion with somebody in their house and got to explain some things about the church. We do not have too many lessons, but we are trying to find more! It's fun to discover a new place and to focus on the work and to love. Truly, it's that simple and hard all at the same time. 

I have had some fun trying to learn/decipher the dialect here on Bornholm. It's a mashup of Swedish and Danish and it kind of makes my mind go crazy but also I find it fun. I bought a book to learn a few things. 

My new companion, Elder Wallentine, and I get along very well. We both like a lot of the same things  and have fun playing card games in the evenings. We both have Danish and Bornholmian ancestors! And, as mentioned last time, are distantly related. I'm going to enjoy the time serving with him! 

This week I also want to share 20 things that I love about Denmark. 

1. Swedish chocolate (just to annoy the Danes)

2. Frikadelle

3. Kebab

4. The word "hyggeligt"

5. The beautiful nature in Denmark

6. Saft

7. Pork

8. Danish members

9. Old Church buildings

10. Viking things

11. Danish language

12. Copenhagen

13. Beautiful architecture

14. Good transportation system.

15. Oceans

16. IKEA

17. National pride

18. When Danes try to speak English

19. The sunshine

20. Danish music

Scripture of the week:  This week's scripture comes from Doctrine and Covenants chapter 122 verse 7!  "...know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

I know that God has given us everything for the benefit of those around us and our own development! I have seen first hand how things have worked for my own good while on my mission. This concept has helped me a lot to stay focused and sincere in my desire to serve to see how God has worked in my life. 

Thank you all for your love and support!!!! I can feel your prayers and am very grateful for you.

Love,

Elder Lines

 (The title (or at least part) of it is in Bornholmian!)

Here are some pictures of the castle. We went last week and saw some cool nature. Bornholm is beautiful!

Bornholm! Et vidunderligt sted!

 Hello everyone, 

This week has gone actually very well and we are very happy with the work here in Bornholm. I have only had three days on Bornholm but I can definetely see that it is a beautifl place. There is a tiny....and I mean TINY...branch here. Just a very small handful of members. A few more in the summer months, as some of them own summer homes here. The church is actually a home that the church renovated. I'll be interested to see how this goes and am happy to be here!!!

This week I started out in Aalborg where I began to pack and get ready for transfers. I started to get everything ready and eventually got it all packed away very nicely which was actually a miracle (so much stuff)! We had two good lessons right before I left and that led to some good potential work in the area! One of the guys showed us what it meant to have a friend that was a member of the church and such a light to the world. His friend was the member and had told him to listen to the missionaries! He is currently reading more into it and we hope that he decides to become part of our church. I'm hopeful. 

After traveling the entire day on Thursday through Sweden, grabbing peanut butter and some cool stuff on the way, we ended up in Bornholm after 14 hours. Since then the work has gone strong and by trusting in the spirit we have seen some miracles! I don't have much more time today but I will next week to share more. We had a really wonderful P-day hiking to a castle and playing some games. Bornholm is so beautiful. And, I have a great companion who has been here for 2 transfers already. We are ready to work and see how we can share about Jesus Christ.

Thank You everyone for the support! We are thankful for your prayers and love! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Lines

Here are some pictures of the week from Bornhollm castle and some pictures of my companion and me!

Transfers and some rainy weather!

Hello everyone, 

This week has been amazing! We have had a couple of big activities and some big news as to what will happen in the next transfer! 

We had our first interviews with our new mission president. President and Sister Davidson are wonderful people and it will be fun to get to know them better.  He and I had a good talk and got to know each other better! He was very uplifting and building! That very same day we had an appointment with two different families and had some great times. At the  appointment that we had in the evening we talked about our efforts to help the young adults. We are so happy to see this work so heavily focused on them. It was a really empowering day and I'm grateful for those times in my mission that I feel encouragement from the spirit. 

The next couple of days went by pretty slowly. We had some good appointments and got to work more with our friends. Overall we have been doing very well and are very excited for the future of this area. Aalborg has been very building for me. I have had two amazing companions and wonderful families that have really blessed me. These families included the Palm family, Steffensen Family, Knudsen family, and Frost Family.  There were plenty of other members that really impacted me but these families really made a difference in helping us and the ones that we taught. The way they raised their kids and the ideals they stand for is something to strive for! They really are lights in the darkness and stalwart disciples of Jesus Christ.

Now for the big news of this email as you can probably see by the title and the last couple of paragraphs, I will be moving from Aalborg to BORNHOLM. It is an island off the coast of Denmark (by quite a ways..). I am excited to be serving there and getting to be in the place where my ancestors once lived. My great, great, great, great grandparents were amongst the first people on the island of Bornholm to listen to missionaries and join the church. They sailed across the seas (with 9 children) to join the saints in America. They sold their belongings to help pay for the voyage. I am excited/humbled to be serving where they once lived. They really are amazing and their stories are powerful. I find immense gratitude in thinking about them and what they sacrificed. As a result, all these generations later....here I am, as missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. 

My understanding is that we drive across a bridge to Sweden, then a ferry to Bornholm. It is  about 250 square miles total and has a population of about 39,000 people. There are 2 sets of elders  on the entire island. I look forward to working with my new companion and pray that we can teach, share and love the people we will meet.  

Thank you everyone for the prayers. We have been very thankful to feel so much support here and I know that the prayers help. We really can be blessed when we turn to our Father who art in heaven!

I love you,

Elder Lines

Another good week and A New Mission President

Hello Everyone, 

This week has been very good and I'm thankful that I could be here another week! We are coming close to transfer news and we have no idea what is going to happen! There have been a couple of rumors but with a new mission president we are very lost and will likely be surprised. 

This week has been amazing and we have done many things! We had some good lessons but mainly we were out to find people.  Honestly this week their wasn't much success and things were pretty slow with everyone getting sick suddenly, me included! We were doing better and were able to work just like normal throughout the week! 

This week I would say that the best time we had was during the Fourth of July! We had a big celebration at a place called Rebild Bakker where we went to talk with all the Americans and Danes that would attend. We had some great conversations and had a great time. All in all the Fourth of July although not so big in Denmark was still a blast. I also got to chat with my family for a bit. Always nice to have an excuse to do that!

On the spiritual side, the best experience this week was probably church and getting to see our friend come and then we just had a peaceful time while there. We have loved to see the success from the sisters also and know that God really is blessing our area and the members here! We are excited for the coming week and feeling fresh! We look forward to progressing in the work even more. The work continues and we see many blessings along the way.

On another fun note, we saw a bunch of our friends come to our Board Game week! We played and just enjoyed a chill laid back night. 

Thank you everyone for your prayers and for the support you give. We are so thankful for everyone that is trying to support the work and support us.

Love,

Elder Lines