Mission Christmas Picture

 

The Week Before Christmas

Hello everyone! This week has not been terribly eventful but we have indeed had some fun! Here is the rundown!

We began this week in Copenhagen as I mentioned last week. We were on our way to do some service at a food bank in Copenhagen. Our mission president has asked us to focus a lot on service in this week leading up to Christmas so we have had a lot of service opportunities and we love spreading the light of christ in the process! 

Other than the Food Bank we have done yard work, delivered cookies, and helped some people with family history! It has been a lot of fun to see how open people are when they see that your intent is good. I will link some pictures of it at the bottom.

We also had splits this week on Wednesday where we got to enjoy the time that we had with the Elders in Slagelse! We had some good conversations and were overall quite busy with a bunch of Christmas deliveries! 

The next day we took the early morning ferry to Bornholm with the ZLs and had splits on Bornholm. We had some good meetings and a very good lesson where we helped with more family history! We also had a very fun activities with the branch where we decorated a Christmas tree and watched a part of the devotional from the first presidency.

We ended the week with a good day at church where one of our friend, Frederique, came and enjoyed the meeting! 

By far, the most spiritual thing that happened this week was when we knocked on this door that had told us to come back! She was cautious about letting us in but when we presented the plate of cookies that we had come to give she let us in. We had a long talk about why we are here and how we have seen the gospel help us so much in our lives. We were so happy to see her accept that there is a God that loves her and that we could be a means to that knowledge.

We look forward to focusing on the real meaning of Christmas and getting to remember the reason that we are out here! Along with that I am looking forward to the food that the danes make! It tastes so good! 

As the last part of this email I will just encourage people to watch "The Christ Child" video that the church has! It really is so good! We showed here during on of our activities on Bornholm and people loved it! '

Thank you everyone for your support and Merry Christmas! I hope everyone can have a fun and relaxing Christmas! 

Love,

Elder Lines

In København again and Serving in a Food Bank

Hello everyone! This week has been quite dramatic and the changes in environment have been drastic! 

The beginning of this week started out with a lot of activity as we had splits with the elders in Slagelse! We had a good day and I was with Elder Bouche. We had some good contacts and then got a really good eating appointment. We love the Elders in Slagelse and look forward to seeing them here in a bit. 

The next day was the foretold Zone Conference where all the missionaries from the entire country came to Copenhagen! We really enjoyed the opportunity to see all the missionaries but most importantly we loved the messages shared about our work and how we can do better. The mission has received an unlimited social media budget and we are making ads like crazy. We have seen a lot of success in the mission through social media ads. The rest of the conference was a massive white elephant and watching a film that includes a lot of the missionaries in the mission. It was a good rap up to the year. 

The next day we again woke up extremely early and drove to the temple! We barely arrived on time but we made it in and really had a calming time in the temple. We were exhausted on the way back after that but we managed to make it to a Mcdonalds in Sweden where we paid an astoundingly low price for a massive amount of food! Gotta love the no sales tax! 

The next three days were our only work days before we would be traveling to Copenhagen again! We worked really hard and had some amazing lessons. We got to teach and enjoyed the time working with the senior couple. We are really preparing for Christmas and can see that people are getting harder to meet with. We are praying that some people come to the activities that we have planned. Pray for Bornholm this week!

On a slightly low note, I have been sick virtually the entire week! Some sort of sore throat and cough has made its way into my body and made it hard to function. I have been pushing through it even though everyone told me to rest and now I realize that I have learned a lesson! Get more sleep when you are sick! I will not forget it! 

The highest joy this week was definitely the conference but honestly it was really just the entirety of the experience! It is quite weird to see so many missionaries that I know going home and realizing how much time I really got left! It really has helped me to consecrate myself to the work and really focus on being a more obedient and focused missionary. Don't let the distractions of home weigh me down! I am happy to say that I love Bornholm and I look forward to finishing my service here and then leaving at the beginning of the year to a new place in Denmark.

A Spiritual thought for this week really focuses on the atonement! We need to remember the invitation of the Prophet when he said to focus on the learning about the atonement of Christ every single day! We will see so many blessings as we learn about the process that he has created for our development and for the love that we can access along the way! Even when you are sick and tired! 

Thank you everyone for your prayers and I hope that you all have a good week! Thank you for the support! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Service and Some Christmas Hygge

Hello everyone! 

This week has been pretty good and as the title has stated we have done a lot of service! We are so thankful to be serving with the Foss's! They have been such a good help and we really are thankful for all the people that we have met. 

This week we started off with a service appointment on Tuesday where we removed a bunch of leaves and then got "paid" in candy. It was a bunch of chocolate and soda! They tried to give us money but we never accept money. We have to accept something, though, or they get mad. 

That same day we had two lessons that went well with appointments for us to return another time! We talked and taught about the restoration mostly and then a lot of about family ancestors! (We have talked a lot about that this week)

The next two days we had a total of 6 lessons and we had quite a lot of success in inviting people to come and to see! We have invited a bunch of our friends to come to church and even more to learn about the church's initiative for Light the World! We really known that this time of year needs to be focused on the true meaning of Christmas; Jesus Christ!

As another service project that we did on Thursday we remove some thorn bushes! I love removing thorn bushes because of the way in which you remove them! It is a weirdly spiritually growing experience! The most thorn bushes have roots that all go outwards creating a protective layer from their roots. This however can be bypassed by going right through and then cutting them from the bottom. This is applied often to sin as when we give it time to grow it gets harder to cut the roots! We all need to cut those branches and remove the roots eventually! HOWEVER, as we are removing these thorns we will get damaged as I did... That means that we will end up with cuts and sometimes scars that will last. The only way to have these remove is through some medical care or, spiritually, Jesus Christ! He can heal our wounds making them feel as if they were never there! I do love removing thorn bushes but I love relating it to the Gospel even more.

As the rest of the week went on we got to do a lot with the senior couple and even got  lunch with them! We ate at this cafe that was once a prison! We also got some extremely good tasting (I am not exaggerating) smoked food. It is was so good. That same day we had a good lesson where we talked a lot about Christmas traditions and that in Denmark they have slowly moved away from Christian traditions over the years.  The person that we talked about was kinda sad about that. Don't forget the true meaning of Christmas! 

On Sunday we had one of our friends, Frèderìque come to church! She loved it and was so happy to have had some good conversations and to have felt the spirit! We look forward to continue in our teaching and inspire her to take the next steps! 

Today we are in Copenhagen again and we are having an amazing time with the elders here! We went to some Christmas markets and then walked around on the streets to just talk! It can be nice to talk with some other missionaries sometimes. 

Thank you guys for all the support and emails! I hope you have a Merry Christmas! Glædelig Jul! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Here are some pictures of the Christmas markets and then our service!

A Lot of Rain and Christmas is Coming!

Hello everyone! This week has been filled with a lot of good stuff and some rough stuff! Here is the list! 

This week began quite normally with some good work days where we got to work hard and visited some other places! It was good to get out of Rønne, which is the city we live in. Then we came to Wednesday where we ended up having quite a rough time! All of our lessons were cancelled which led to some strain on our schedule as we had no idea what to do. We went to the city of Nexø and visited all sorts of places. In the end we realized yet again we were in the perfect placed as we talked with a lady who was trying to find peace and knowledge in her life! She said that we should come back and talk again. We got an appointment! 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and really taught us a lesson! We left our keys in the Senior Couples apartment and they went all the way to Copenhagen. That means no access to the bikes, to the car, or to the Church Building. We were left in the position where we couldn't visit all of our appointments and didn't have their numbers. We ended up knocking in Rønne for 3 hours. We got rejected so many times and in so many different ways that I was very surprised to see something new. 

Eventually though, after being really tired, we knocked another door of someone who was interested which gave us some hope. We continued after that, though tired, and thought about stopping many times. We eventually came to the last door where we were gonna knock and a lovely guy answered the door. He was a super chill professional Valorant player that told us to come back. He had had the missionaries live in his parents basement when he was younger. He invited to come back another day too.  It just goes to show, again, that we really are in the right places and that we really do need to have hope and faith! That is definitely where the spirit has taught me this week. We need to hope that life will succeed and then show the best side of us on the way. 

The last couple of days have also been pretty cool but with the rain and weird weather we have just gone visiting some people and knocking even more doors! It ended up being a good opportunity to get out of the house and really practice some finding skills. 

As for the some of the funny things here is the run down:

- We went to a Christmas tree activity where they turned the lights on to the Christmas tree in the center of the city! Got a candied apple and hot chocolate! We literally couldn't feel our hands though...

- We have around 5 flasks of this drink called Gløgg! It is a non alcholic Cider (Causem I guess Cider has alcohol in it). We drink it a lot and it reminds us a lot of normal cider in the USA. Look it up if your curious to try it! 

- We made some delicious Thanksgiving food! Funeral Potatoes, A Whole Chicken, and Homemade Rolls! It tasted absolutely amazing!  (yes, a lot of capital letters!!)

Thank you everyone for your support! We are thankful for the emails and the prayers that you send! See Y'all next week! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Here are some pictures of the Christmas Tree, Food for Thanksgiving, and some of the other things we saw!