Transfer news and a good week!

Hello everyone, 

This week has been great!   We leared about transfer news  on Saturday. My companion elder Jepsen will be leaving and moving down to Sønderborg. It will be sad to miss him. But a good opportunity for change! We really had a fun time together and I'll forever be grateful that I has him as a companion. I'm sure more good things are in store. 

Anyways, this week consisted of a lot of member appointments and eating some really good food! We had an eating appointment every day this week.  I'm thankful for the members' service to us and also for the service that we could do to them. We had a particular experience with a family that has a daughter who recently got baptized. The spirit there was very strong and their family Is a great example of giving saints. I look forward to meeting with them again and to helping their family anyway we can.

During church this Sunday, we had 4 of our friends come to church. It really was a miracle and we are excited to work further with them!!!  We also had quite a few activities with our district where we got to eat good food and report on how the transfer had gone. Our district will be getting bigger so I'm wondering how it will work! I enjoy my district and know this next transfer will be good. I'm very blessed.

There is not much else to report on this week but we are excited for the coming week and transfers. Thank you everyone for your prayers and for your efforts in the places that you live. I will write again next week.

Love,

Elder Lines

Sorry I do not have many photos this week but here are some of our districts preparing for breakfast and nature!

You shall not pass!

The title of this email comes from an experience we had coming back from Aarhus driving through the Carnival party that was going on. There was a drunk man dressed as Gandalf that sat in the middle of the street blocking traffic for a while! Love a good Lord of the Rings moment!! 

But Hello Everyone, 

This week has been filled with a lot of good things! We have been having quite a bit of fun with splits even though we are quite tired also. We had splits almost everyday and had a lot of cool experiences with the missionaries. To get us into a safe place during the huge carnival, we left for two nights. I was also very thankful to get to visit the first area that I served in! I got to have some fun with the members playing soccer and see some old friends.! All in all we loved the time and I was paired with one of the new missionaries and helped him to learn some new things. He, in particular, was so eager to learn and I in the process realized that after a year I have learned quite a few things. 

This week we also had a baptism for a member. We invited some friends and got to enjoy the spirit that was there and help our friends to feel that too! They are from Sweden and they are just so amazing and kind. It was fun to hear them speak and to understand a little bit of what they were saying. We are very thankful for their examples!

Other than that this week was pretty normal! Thank you everyone for your prayers and continue to show your light!

Love,

Elder Lines

Zone Konference og jeg lavede mad!

Hello Everyone, 

This week has been amazing! We have gone to Zone Conference and had a Zone P day! I also made food for all the young adults and it was a blast! 

To begin with, we had Zone Pday and played a lot of fun games! I was excited to be able to see all the missionaries and just have a fun time! We ate after and then slept before the Zone Conference the next day! This time it was absolutely amazing. We all got pumped up listening to all the success we were having and were able to hear some miracles that had happened in the mission. We also heard some things to help us focus on the work. As a result, we are very pumped and spiritually lifted. I really love going to zone conferences. 

After that, we went home and the next day had our apartment cleaning check.  We had cleaned the apartment quite well and there wasn't much to fix, so I guess I admittedly learned a few cleaning things from those Saturday chores I didn't like doing,  I had also volunteered to make food for the young adults institute class and so I made some shepherd's pie! It was delicious and I can say that I love to cook (also, those cooking shows I enjoyed watching paid off)! A lot of young adults came and it was a success.

The next day we had three lessons (which is a lot)! We are trying to lead them all to  baptism and they each have some unique challenges that we are trying to help them with. They are awesome though and the lessons all happened and we taught some good stuff and the spirit was present. We hope that they follow through on the commitments and try to come to church!

 It was my companion's birthday and we got dinner from a member on Friday. Sunday was also quite normal as not much happened other than some finding time and a lot of work! We love it and we are moving forward! 

This week I would just like to say that I know our prayers are answered! I have seen that the questions I have asked have been answered by my studying the scriptures and  through study materials. I really have seen some answers to some pretty big topics that have comforted me during the busy week. I know that we can all find answers to the hard questions. Just keep searching and press forward!

This week marks ONE YEAR out on the mission!!! I can hardly believe it. It brings me joy to tell you that I have learned so much this last year and I look forward to serving and learning more. I REALLY love this work and I hope I become more of a light to the people of Denmark. It has definitely been a time to reflect on my journey and to feel immense gratitude for my abundance of blessings!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and for the encouragement! You are all loved and appreciated! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Here are some pictures of Skagen! The topmost part of Denmark! It is so pretty! 

Finder solen og lys i livet!

Hello everyone,

This week has actually been quite interesting! We have had a lot of time outside and I have found myself looking for the sun because of the warmth in this season. Everytime I do, I feel the love of God and get to take a second to admire all His creations. Denmark really is one of the most pretty places in the entire world! I love the scenery and all the greenery around. 

This week we were in charge of two baptisms of converts. Their father was a member and  baptized both of them but we needed to fill out the forms and make sure they were good to go. In the end, it went through smoothly and we witnessed the spirit filled baptisms of a daughter and her child. It was definitely the highlight of the week and I am so happy to be here in Aalborg to witness it! With this, we hope to work even harder to find some others that want to partake in the covenant and be baptized by water and fire! 

We also have been organizing quite a few activities outside because of the good weather and we love to play football or soccer and volleyball! It feels so good to have some fun and find people at the same time! We hope that the weather holds up for this week also.

This week we also got to enjoy our time in the presence of the spirit. Me and my companion have definitely been tired but we have been having a lot of energy and fun doing the work. This week particularly during Mothers Day we felt the love of God more being away from our mothers. (I love my mom!!) We know that families can be together forever and we look forward to helping more people here in Denmark find it! 

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

Tillykke med Mors Dag også!

Love,

Elder Lines

Almindelig uge og Transfer Opkald

Hello Everyone, T

his week has gone very well! I can see that there is growth in everything we do even if it is just line upon line. Here are somme of the highlights of this week! 

We had two splits this week which spanned over two days. We got to have some fun with them and just learn from each other. I love being with other missionaries and just finding something I can do to be better! 

We also had some fun activities in this week! We played some board games with some of our friends and just got to find a whole lot. Honestly this week has had anything too special. As the title says in Danish, this is just a basic week and we got our transfer calls. We will just be staying here in Aalborg! We have been quite busy and are just loving the work. 

I have almost come to a year mark and it almost feels unreal. It feels as if I have only been out a week and I am just now learning how to really do everything. The good part of that is I feel like I really understand the true purpose of a missionary. Something I studied a lot this week was General Conference. In it, it talks a lot about temples and eternal life. I see the importance of it and as missionaries our job is to bring this to pass with as many people that are willing and want to find more in their life. There is a quote I heard that talked about our potential and that we should focus our potential on more because we do not want to regret not looking. 

I am very thankful for the opportunity to serve. I hope that everyone that reads this email gets the chance to grow their own testimony. It really is special and individual that god will help all of his children. I am thankful for everyones prayers and Ill catch y'all next week! 

Love,

Elder Lines

Here's are some pictures of us playing a game and eating some good good food!

Aalborg is elect!

Hello Everyone,

This week was just amazing and it is gonna end on a high note! We started it out with some fun activities and got to work hard.  

It was great to make some time to really do everything we could this week including service, a lot of finding, and even some really fun teaching! We had some fun trying to meet people street contacting. We met a man named Nicolay on the streets on Tuesday and he ended up coming to Church, with his girlfriend!!!! He liked that we had a choir and loved singing himself. We look forward to seeing him again and getting to know these people even more! 

We had multiple lessons with our friend William! He is just amazing and loves to learn. We hardly do any teaching nowadays because of how much he learns himself. He is thinking about baptism and is starting to understand the truths that stand out from the Church! It really can be amazing to see the dedication that he has to find an answer. I've learned so much from him. 

We also had a very successful game night on Wednesday where almost 12 people showed up! We played games and just had a blast. We played the game Secret Hitler which is like a mafia game and was a big hit as everybody loved it! We are so excited to learn more about the people and have even more fun with them while they learn. It has been an effective way to get to know people and also do some missionary work. 

This Sunday was also a very special day as it was our wards Easter Sunday. We had choir music which I was a part of (I did not sound good) and some very strong testimonies! Afterwards we went to a member's house where we talked about Easter and the meaning of it in their lives and in Denmark. We learned a lot and shared some good laughs with them. It ended up being a really wonderful Easter.

We are ending this week with something also pretty fun! It is my Birthday on a P day  (today, no joke, I really was born on April Fool's day) which is quite nice! I hope to be able to have some fun. We are gonna play some sports and eat some good food...actually using my birthday money from my grandparents to take my companion out for a yummy dinner....lots of meat. I am officially 20 years old!!!

This week I wanted to talk a bit about prayer. I have recently read through 3 Nephi and something  that stands out strongly is prayer. Christ prays so many times for us and commands us to pray always in His name. As a missionary, I have begun to see the importance of that principle in my daily life. I love my Savior and that prayer is our way of thanking Him and talking right to our Father in heaven. It really is a miracle we get to be in this world and still come back to His presence. 

I am so thankful for all the support that everyone gives. We are thankful for your prayers for the missionaries and I promise you that I know they work. 

Love,

Elder Lines

First Week in Aalborg!

Hello Everyone, 

This week was lovely and I am happy to be in this area! There are a lot of members and a lot of cool people to meet! We had some great lessons and did some good work! Here are some of the highlights:

We had an "institute class" where everyone reads scriptures and we discuss them as a class. We had a record breaking number of people and I really enjoyed the lesson. We brought some of our friends to the institute class and they loved it. One of them is named William. He is so awesome and loves reading about scriptures. He is searching for an answer about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He loves the ideals of the church and highly respects the way it works. He is currently reading the scriptures quite often and we are excited about that!

Another friend is named Kathrine. She met a missionary from Denmark in England a bit ago and then came back home to Denmark only to see that the missionary she met lived in Aalborg and had returned from his mission! Definitely a miracle! 

This week we also had splits with the elders from Randers. They came down and we had a good time playing soccer and volleyball with some members and friends we invited! This ward is really the best! 

All in all this week was a great week. Adding to the goodness....we made great food...including but not limited to: Rice noodle stir fry, Alfredo, and plenty more. 

We are excited to continue to serve and bring joy to the people in Denmark. We are thankful for your prayers! I hope that everyone has an amazing week! 

Vi ses

Love,

Elder Lines