Daylight Savings and A Shift in the Seasons!

Hello Everyone, 

This week has honestly not been terribly eventful and we have just been working hard! As the title states we have had daylight savings on Sunday and that extra hour felt like 10! We really slept well and then had an amazing time at church. The members are absolutely amazing (all 6-7 of them, small but mighty)! We have also been blessed this week with some absolutely beautiful shifts in the colors of the leaves! We didn't capture any pictures of them but I will this week. So pretty. 

The beginning of this week also started out well as we had some service to do! We cleaned out all this junk from the back of someone's house!We brought it all out to the curb and it got removed on Thursday. It was quite fun and started the week on a good note. Another thing that made the week good was that we got to give out all the cookies that we had made. We had some great conversations and everyone is more happy to talk when they have a cookie! 

The same day that we had service we met with one of our friends, Klaus! He is the coolest person ever and loves talking with us about the Gospel! He believes in everything but just needs to take a leap of faith and see what is laid before him! We pray for him and that he may come to understand the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

On Thursday, we also had another activity with the members and enjoyed a great message about forgiveness! It was really good to focus on the importance of forgiving others and of ourselves! I read something this week in a talk that I sadly cannot remember! It says something along the lines of,"You must win the battle inward in order to truly exemplify it on the outside!" Often the Gospel starts within ourselves and then once we have accepted the change of heart so can we feel the change on the outside too!

The rest of the week has honestly been pretty calm! The weather is getting much colder and it gets darker a lot faster (like sunset around 4:30pm).  It really is winter time!

The Danish word for this week is Mariehøne! It means Ladybug! 

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support! I hope that you have an amazing week! 

Love, 

Elder Lines

Oh How Time Flies!

Hello everyone, 

This week has been amazing and has just seemed to fly by! We haven't had the opportunity to have so many lessons but instead we have done quite a bit of finding in different places. We are excited to say that we have found some great people to talk to! 

We had a great lesson with our friend Klaus and got to teach about temple work. We showed him Family Search and he thought it was so fascinating! We loved meeting with him,  he is the coolest! Another person that we met with this week is called Samson. We knocked on his door one evening after really hoping to find someone and there he was.  He has started believing in the Gospel because of the way that world is becoming. He sees things being fulfilled and wants to understand it from another perspective. We look forward to seeing him again this week! 

This week we also got to do some service where we removed this massive block of concrete from the ground! That was amazing and really made us feel strong after we saw how big it was. Look at the pictures for the size of it! 

Between the stone and the week we have come to think of something... As we were done with the stone we looked back on our comments in the beginning and they were quite negative! We had kept saying that we would not be able to lift the stone and that we should give up! Even halfway through we thought about stopping. This week I have had the honor of studying diligence. I realize that without diligence this project would have ended without success and we wouldn't have been able to help this old lady out! Diligence is necessary for us to overcome our own problems and challenges. We need to serve when we are tired and keep going even though everything around us tells us not to! We must work in all diligence without expecting praise from the world.

In the Song "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" this same man keeps going through these times when he feels as if he should give up in his service or that he shouldn't help. Throughout it all he still helps this man that he believes he does not know! The last thing that the so-called stranger asks the man to do for him is to die for him! The song describes that the flesh denied this but that the spirit joyfully said it would! After the man had finished his answer the stranger disappeared and before him stood the Savior! The Savior applauds him for his service towards this stranger and says that these services were unto Him.

Christ really did the unthinkable! He died for us so that we could come back to the Father! He did everything required of him. He fulfilled the promise given since the beginning of time. We are rewarded through him and his example! Following Christ is everything! 

Thank you everyone for reading my email! We are very thankful for your prayers and I hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Elias Lines

Hello everyone, This week has been very interesting! We began this week off by having a bunch of lessons on Tuesday as everyone wanted to say goodbye to Elder Webecke! We ended with a lot of good lessons and some hopeful contacts. As the first part of the title has explained, we went to Copenhagen and back this week. Sadly, we weren't there long and I had to say goodbye to Elder Webecke. We had a really good time together and I will miss him! The good thing was that I received another companion! With no further adieu, I would like to introduce you to Elder Jensen. He was born in California and lived there until we was 8 years old then moved to Utah where he has been ever since. He is 19 and also likes to swim. We spent a good amount of time talking during the trip back to the island. (We almost missed our bus back to the ferry when we got on a train going the wrong direction with his big suitcases!!!) All in all, I am looking forward to a new transfer with him. After we arrived back in our area, we began to get to work right away. We ended up teaching two lessons randomly when we went to a city a bit further from our apartment. We talked with them for a while and planned a time to be able to meet with them again! It all made for a good day! It's fun when things go better than we expect and we see these small miracles. The rest of the week was just planning as a companionship and as a distrikt! We got the chance to get everything worked out for our schedules and now we really are ready to get to work. Always good to get organized at the beginning of a transfer. There was however one experience this week when we were contacting on the streets of Rønne. We were walking around when we met a person that came from Elder Jensens last area who had talked with missionaries there. We talked with him and then he said that it was lovely seeing us and that he would love to meet again! It really goes again to show that we really are in the right places at the right time. Not a coincidence I think. This week as a part of my study I have been focusing on humility! It was a big thing that Christ exemplified and can honestly help a lot when it comes to missionary life! A lot of problems between missionaries and just people in the world comes from pride, which is the opposite of humility! Christ showed humility! He is the one that will lift us up and show us true grace and bring us true peace! Just like one of the talks in General Conference says and I quote,"We all need to be lifted up by the Lord with peace, with comfort, and most of all with personal revelation to counter the fear, darkness, and contention encompassing the world." (Elder Ronald A. Rasband, 2024 October General Konference)" As the other part of this email's title I would like to try my best to explain what I believe I heard about a folktale here on Bornholm about another race of people that lives on Bornholm under the ground. They have yet to have a picture taken but I have been convinced by the people that they exist! They are notoriously called the "Under-Jørdiske" or the under people. They have a massive folktale where some of them were thrown out of the ground in order to see the world but they ended up exploring and being seen by people. The notorious one is called Krølle Bølle. I have no true explanation other than that which was told to me in a very weird and complicated story in a dialect that I only half understood! Folklores are funny and creative. Well that's it folks! Thank you for reading today. Thank you everyone for your prayers and for the support! Love, Elder Lines

Hello everyone, 

This week has been very interesting! We began this week off by having a bunch of lessons on Tuesday as everyone wanted to say goodbye to Elder Webecke! We ended with a lot of good lessons and some hopeful contacts. As the first part of the title has explained, we went to Copenhagen and back this week. Sadly, we weren't there long and I had to say goodbye to Elder Webecke. We had a really good time together and I will miss him! 

The good thing was that I received another companion! With no further adieu, I would like to introduce you to Elder Jensen. He was born in California and lived there until we was 8 years old then moved to Utah where he has been ever since. He is 19 and also likes to swim. We spent a good amount of time talking during the trip back to the island. (We almost missed our bus back to the ferry when we got on a train going the wrong direction with his big suitcases!!!) All in all, I am looking forward to a new transfer with him.

After we arrived back in our area, we began to get to work right away. We ended up teaching two lessons randomly when we went to a city a bit further from our apartment. We talked with them for a while and planned a time to be able to meet with them again! It all made for a good day!  It's fun when things go better than we expect and we see these small miracles. 

The rest of the week was just planning as a companionship and as a distrikt! We got the chance to get everything worked out for our schedules and now we really are ready to get to work. Always good to get organized at the beginning of a transfer. There was however one experience  this week when we were contacting on the streets of Rønne.   We were walking around when we met a person that came from Elder Jensens last area who had talked with missionaries there. We talked with him and then he said that it was lovely seeing us and that he would love to meet again! It really goes again to show that we really are in the right places at the right time. Not a coincidence I think.

This week as a part of my study I have been focusing on humility! It was a big thing that Christ exemplified and can honestly help a lot when it comes to missionary life! A lot of problems between missionaries and just people in the world comes from pride, which is the opposite of humility! Christ showed humility! He is the one that will lift us up and show us true grace and bring us true peace! Just like one of the talks in General Conference says and I quote,"We all need to be lifted up by the Lord with peace, with comfort, and most of all with personal revelation to counter the fear, darkness, and contention encompassing the world." (Elder Ronald A. Rasband, 2024 October General Konference)"

As the other part of this email's title I would like to try my best to explain what I believe I heard about a folktale here on Bornholm about another race of people that lives on Bornholm under the ground. They have yet to have a picture taken but I have been convinced by the people that they exist! They are notoriously called the "Under-Jørdiske" or the under people. They have a massive folktale where some of them were thrown out of the ground in order to see the world but they ended up exploring and being seen by people. The notorious one is called Krølle Bølle. I have no true explanation other than that which was told to me in a very weird and complicated story in a dialect that I only half understood! Folklores are funny and creative. 

 

Well that's it folks! Thank you for reading today. Thank you everyone for your prayers and for the support! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Transfer News and Autumn has come!

Hello everyone, 

This week has been great! We have been able to do a lot of work and tried some new methods of finding that I will talk about a bit later!

To start out this week we had an amazing time with the ZLs here on Bornholm! Last P day we did almost everything that one can do while on Bornholm. We ended up having some good discussions with some people but didn't really find anyone new. The day went well though and we got to really enjoy the time with some other missionaries. It's good to do splits from time to time and to have missionaries come see us on this beautiful island.

Due to the lack of people we have been able to talk with, and just the fact that everyone we talk to has already been talked to before, we decided that we needed to do something else for a change! 

We got a good idea to try and do some knockin but in a different way! We decided that we would go out to the houses that were in the middle of nowhere and contact the people out there. We wanted to try to find the people that had not heard about the Gospel! Well, it worked! We ended up having some great conversations and it was an honest relief to hear that these people had never been visited by missionaries or for a couple of the people that "it had been many many years".This change helped us to really find more people to talk to and get us more hyped for the work! All in all, the finding time for this week went well! Also, my dad teased me that we should sing the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads"...funny enough....we learned how to sing that song in Danish and do actually sing it as a funny thing as we are going to the remote parts of the island down literal country roads.  So, my companion and I sang it as a duet, in Danish, for my parents! There you go dad. 

Now as the title states this week also brought the sad news that my companion will be leaving the island and going to Sjælland or the mainland! He will be in Charlottelund which is a very pretty place! One of our friends, Klaus, did not like that missionaries had to leave the Island so fast but has come to terms with the reality. I feel so lucky to get to stay here and enjoy the island a little longer! I love this island and this small little branch. And, I will enjoy my new companion as well. I like all my companions. 

As the other part of the title states, the weather here has become Autumn! It wasn't gradual or a slow change but the complete opposite! It just suddenly became cold and rainy! We have finally brought out the winter coats again and go around with layers. The weather does however lead to some extremely pretty sunsets as the light reflects all over the clouds making it look kinda unreal. That has definitely been something great to see this week! It's dreamy and beautiful to behold.

As for the spiritual side this week I would like to comment on conference and an eating appointment we had this week! First, I will start out by saying how grateful we are to have such amazing leaders over the entire world! I have not had the chance to see all of conference due to the time difference but I have been able to see a bit! I love the inspired messages and the clever ways they are expressed! I look forward to listening to more this week. 

The second part of my thought for this week is the power of the Spirit and its voice to those that try and hear it! During the eating appointment we had this week we got the chance to hear the story of two married members in our branch!  One is a Dane and the other comes from Wales! They met while Frants, the husband, was sailing  to different lands as part of his work. She came to Denmark in order to see him and eventually they moved to Bornholm where they have been since! Jerril, the wife, was not a member at that time but ended up being converted after the missionaries promised her that she could stop drinking tea and smoking by the next Saturday! She did that and was baptized shortly after. The story continues as Frants was not a member. It took him 16 years to convert! Near the end of 16 years the missionaries promised him that "if you read the Book of Mormon in Ether 4:11 you will receive an answer!" He did that and after some reading he sat down to pray. Jerril walked in on him some time later to see him crying and he said," 16 years of hardened heart melted in a second." Their story is just one of many that goes to show how impactful missionaries can be when they listen to the spirit in order to help people hold and keep commitments! 

Thank you all for the reading this week! We are so thankful for the prayers and support we receive! I wish you all a good week here from Bornholm, Denmark! 

Here are some pictures of my comp and I throughout the week! 

Love,

Elder Lines