The Frozen Chosen

So the cold finally hit. There is snow and ice and outside isn't nice. This morning when I left the apartment I had two coats on and two thermals and gloves and a scarf and a hat... So of course we made snow angels.

This week, although freezing cold, hasn't been to bad! We went up to a city called Horsens for splits with some other Elders and had some interesting experiences. I met a man named Hamit (not sure how to spell it) who had met with missionaries several years ago because he played basketball with them and used to go to our church for five years in a row. That's right, five years. So guess what these stellar missionaries did with this man? 

Nothing.

He never was given a book of mormon, never given a single lesson, never invited to baptism, never even given a wimpy little pamphlet to read! After five years of this Hamit decided to look at other religions, and after praying about it recieved an answer that the Penticostal church was the church he needed to be a member of. 

I felt so bad for this man! Here he was willing to look and search, willing to find truth, even ready to convert to Christs church and nobody did a stinking thing about it! I apologized for everything the other missionaries had failed to do and told him Joseph Smiths story and about the Book of Mormon, he seemed very hesitant and hopefully the damage hasn't already been done. We got him to agree to pray about the Book of Mormon, and I really wish that he lived in my area so I could follow up and make sure that he at least understands what he almost had! He even offered to pray at the end of the lesson and he did it in Persian which was way cool to hear. This really came at a good time and was a great lesson for me because I'd been wondering all week long what I was doing that was different from what any other cookie cutter missionary would be doing. I had pretty much decided that anytime anyone is ever interested or gets baptized here is because they already had the desire, and that the missionaries were just the official part of the process that lead to them converting. I think I really saw the flip side of that by seeing other missionaries teach, seeing this man who had his own desire but had the missionaries drop the ball. After that lesson I started seeing a lot of other things that I felt I could contribute that were a lot different than a lot of missionaries. I don't know... it was just helpful =) So remember to invite those around you that you may not think need it! Holy cow I was so mad at those missionaries in the past, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they thought he was a member, or had some divine intervention, or they weren't really missionaries or something... I don't know.

On the bright side Silkeborg is still beautiful.

We're still trooping around with our bikes that break a lot and talking to a lot of Danes who are usually really grumpy about us and stuff. But we found one lady who is extremely positive this last week and we should be inviting her to baptism soon, so cross your fingers! We've had a massive struggle as far as getting investigators to church so that's our main goal this next week. We could have five or six people coming but they keep hitting these ridiculous road blocks! Frustrating... but that's just how it is. 

Also transfers calls are tomorrow! This will be my last week in a trio, which is kind of sad. We can visit single ladies when we have three but not when we have two. It makes the work here incredibly easier to be able to visit single ladies because that's our entire branch and like half of our positive investigators.... gah! We'll find a way. I will most likely stay here in Silkeborg but this will change which companion stays or if I get a brand new companion! Another big thing is that I get to go to Copenhagen this week :D So expect good pictures next time! Every missionary has to take a language test and if I fail I get kicked out of Danmark! Yay! So no pressure ;) I might glance at the study guide on the train ride over... maybe. But I am pumped cause we get to go stay with a few other missionaries in Balerup which is just outside the city and then we'll be spending our P-Day hours in the big city! Woot!

Love you all, stay beautiful and keep emailing! 

Riding solo

You guys! Christina got baptized! It was a way cool experience, I went back to Odense for it and got to see her again and be one of the witnesses for her baptism. She looked way happy and the talks were so amazing. Christina brought her two daughters who live in Sjælland, they mostly stuck to themselves but me and Eric Jepsen talked to them after they watched their mom get baptized and got them to ask a few questions. Hopefully they'll want to follow her example soon! Christina was the first person I've seen almost the whole way through. I wasn't there for teaching her the last couple lessons or for setting up the physical part of the baptism, but my last two comps Merrill and Mogensen did a fantastic job of it! 

    One thing that made me way happy was the way the ward recieved her. She walked out of there with a few new friends, a boquet of flowers, and a huge smile. That's something I think is important even for you guys back home! If you know of a convert baptism happening in your area don't be afraid to show up and make friends with them, these people need friends and guides during this new and confusing transition, it's frustrating to see some of them not get the support they need. 

    It took pretty much a whole day going to Odense and checking out all the things I'd never done there after the Dåb. We went into some pretty massive churches around the gågade, went by HC Andersens house, and then hopped on a train back. We had to catch a connecting train in Skanderborg, but we were debating which way would be fastest and the train was getting ready to pull out. We just agreed to get off but I was the only one that made it out of the train in time. I stepped off the train and turned around and my comps were both looking at me through the glass door trying to open it back up... but we could only stare at each other as the train took off without me. I was alone! It was really weird. I decided to make the most of it while I waited for them to find their way back and so I bought a Cocio (chocolate milk) and went on a walk up a hill. It was fun. No worries though we all made it back home safe. 

So for Silkeborg news things went alright this week. We were able to meet with a lot of people and they have, for the most part, been keeping commitments! It was kind of disappointing though because not one of them were able to make it to church. One had to take an emergency trip to Randers, one got really sick, one had commited to make food for her handicapped relative that day, one got called into work, one got depressed cause of a family fight and wasn't willing to leave the house... it was just incredible all the random things that came up to prevent these people from making it this week to church! Maybe it was just a coincidence and maybe some of them weren't really committed to coming but to me it felt like something was fighting back because it didn't want these people to make that step towards finding the truth! We'll be revisiting everyone and trying to get them to come take the sacrament, and we're really close with a lot of people to setting a baptisimal date. We have our appointments with the families we're teaching this week finally! They are much much harder to schedule things with. Danes always want to plan things like nine years in advance. 

Well in other news this week was budget week. We only spent 80 kroner (19 bucks) each for groceries in order to save some money, and we survived. We ate a lot of pasta, but we survived. 

Also we had a pretty intense lesson with a lady from Mongolia named Zula. She's way interested in the church and super positive. Her husband? Not so much. We were about five minutes into our second lesson with her, she had her Mormons Bog out and ready and was expecting us with drinks and stuff and was super happy to see us. Then her husband came home. The guy was a huge Dane and wouldn't even look at us. He asked her who we were, and when Elder Ludlow stood up and tried to shake his hand he just pointed at the door with his thumb and said ''Ud!'' (Out). Still without looking at us he just whistled and pointed like we were naughty animals or something despite his wifes arguments. We decided it was best to avoid a fight but we came back later that night and talked to Zula alone. She apologized and said she would love to come to church and was excited we had a Mongolian Book of Mormon for her. She was the one that got called into work though so unfortunately she was unable to make it.... Sometimes it's sad to see people taking others agency away. It's going to make it 1000 times harder to help Zula progress if her husband acts like that every time. He looked pretty drunk or hung over, so maybe it was just a one time thing.

All in all? Way fun week. Have fun watching the super bowl, although if the Broncos win I'm pretty sure Elder Ludlow will just kill himself cause he wasn't there to watch it haha! Thanks for all the birthday wishes, and good luck to everyone that just entered the MTC!

Hej hej!

Suit up!

It was my birthday this week, and thanks to my stud companion Elder Ludlow I got a birthday cake! I kind of destroyed it with the first bite though...

This week has been pretty neat though. It went by super fast, and some parts have been hard but it's been a good week. We haven't met with a ton of our investigators because they all want to make appointments way in the future. We'll work on it. Also nobody is ever home! Holy cow I can't believe how often people just aren't there when we drop by. Anyways, we did have a cool experience while knocking doors out here. A few weeks ago we dropped by a lady that told Elder Nelson and Elder Ludlow that they could come back. Well her daughter answered this time cause she was visiting and said that her mom wasn't quite there and that we shouldn't take what she says seriously. We started talking her at the door though and she said that although her mom couldn't really be interested that she herself had investigated the church a while ago and met with missionaries. We asked her if we could talk to her instead but she wasn't willing and lived somewhere else. Well we knock a lot here in Silkeborg so she could run but she couldn't hide! We found the house that she lives in yesterday! We were somewhere completely different Haha it was weird I knocked and when she opened up I could of sworn I'd seen her before. Anyway, after relizing we'd talked before she said she'd be happy to listen to us now. Kind of a neat little coincidence and I'm stoked she's willing this time, maybe it was just the timing, maybe it was the irony of finding her again, maybe it was just dumb luck and it will go nowhere but I felt like it was neat and that maybe this time when she talks to missionaries it will be different! Just a testimony to me that we are where we are for a reason! No matter where you are there's almost always someone close to you that could use a bit of Christ's love! Just an uplifting compliment, a smile, a friendly gesture, a thought about the gospel, really that's all it takes. We are where we are for a reason. So make the best of it :)

So we had a really cool Zone Conference this week, I had to sit there while everyone sang me the Danish happy birthday song alone cause nobody else in my zone had a birthday in January :(

But it's ok cause I treated myself to a ridiculously nice Bertoni suit that I bought in Århus after! I love it! It's way tight and this is the only picture I have of it so it might not do it justice...

But I'm way happy and I'm gonna wear it to Christina's baptism on Saturday cause SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!

This is a woman me and Elder Merrill found back in my Odense days. We committed her to baptism together about a week or so before I left and she's stuck to it, quit smoking, probably doesn't believe in reincarnation anymore (I'm hoping) and is excited to get baptized into Christs church! This will be the first person I feel that I've really been a part of that has gotten baptized. I was present for Davids baptism about four weeks into my mission but I never taught him before he had made that decision. I got to see almost the whole process with Christina and I'm so happy for her! I will most definitely send a pic next week! I get to travel back to Odense and see everyone again and be a witness during the baptism itself, can it get much better than that?

The message our mission has decided to focus on is that we are Deciples of Christ. So remember that. All you that follow in His footsteps and are a part of His church represent something special! Sometimes I forget that. But that's the message our president had for us, so thought I'd pass it along. I love you all a ton and have missed you a lot this week! Whenever I have cool things happen here it just makes me a little bit more sad that I don't get to share them with all my friends and family. But hey, just remember me and all the adventures I'm having out here. Denmark is pretty cool.

All the time I'm spending out here will be worth it. I'm gaining ground on my goal to help bring a family the joy of the gospel. Nothing big yet, but we have two or three that we get to teach now which is such an incredibly huge blessing to me :) So enjoy the fact that most of you already have the blessing of being part of a family that is built on solid ground, because that's where we need to be building the rest of our lives. I keep a book now of all the dumbest excuses I've heard from people that they have used to prevent themselves from gaining happiness. One lady told me she had already learned everything she needed to know and was therefore not included in the people that needed our help. Please never have that mindset.

Jeg elsker jer, have en god liv og husk til at aldrig holde op med at forbedre jeres selv!

Ældste Durrant

Literally Probaby the Best Week I'll Have On My Mission

So miracles happened in Silkeborg this week.

But in all honesty this week was incredible. Our companionship found 18 new investigators! Normally the highest area each week in the mission finds about 6. But it has been such a neat experience, our area is exploding! We taught two families this week and they were some of the greatest experiences and lessons that I've had so far. People have been home, accepting, and willing to meet! We knocked into a man named Christian and he let us come back. We had a lesson with his wife/girlfriend and their little baby and it was really really cool. He says he's been looking for something to have faith in because he has seen how faith has helped others but that he's never been able to really get there. After the lesson was dyign down I started to ask if we could say a prayer but the words just kind of choked in my mouth... I felt like we needed to say more. Nothing was being said though and it was important we pray with them so I just forced them out. He thought for a second and said ''ikke lige nu, jeg er ik' færdig med jer'' which means not yet, I'm not finished with you. He asked about our experiences with getting faith and our conversion stories. I bore what I felt was the most sincere testimony I've shared on my misson so far about all the different blessings I've seen come to my family because of what we believe in and the strength we've recieved from having the gospel in our lifes and the difference I see between those that hold these standards and have this core belief and those that don't. He said what I described was exactly what he's seen and after he listened to Elder Ludlow's testimony of how he found out for himself that the Book of Mormon was true he asked us for a few chapters in it that he could read from.
Pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Also we had new years here. America has nothing on Denmark when it comes to New years. There were so many fireworks it sounded like a warzone. Probably the only time Denmark ever has dangerous things happen. They were all private fireworks too so there were a bunch of drunk Danes launching tons of fireworks into the sky. 76 people were hospitalized this year, apparently that wasn't too bad. The fireworks seriously went off for an hour after midnight and they were coming from everywhere. A couple in the apartment complex we were at went off on the ground... hopefully they were alright. It's weird that 2014 is going to be my year completely as a missionary. Feels like just yesterday I was talking about how quick my cousin in Brazil had reached his 6 month mark. Now that's me. And I'm turning 19. What the heck?!?! I can't be 19. I should still be thinking that 10 seems super old. Life is weird. But now I'm in Denmark biking all over det hele.

Speaking of biking, here's my bike, it's named Sparky. Sparky breaks a lot but it's ok because as soon as I have an hour of free time I can tighten the tire and the chain will work better.

But I've just been doing good out here in the middle of Jylland. There aren't as many people as there were in Odense but it seems like we're finding more that will listen to us, and we find a lot of other funny things as well. We were on a bus out to help an investigator with some service and we say a 15 foot tall motorcycle just chilling in a field. Also the grafiti here is funny as well.

But I hope you all had a very merry start to 2014, I know I did. Keep me posted, and keep on being awesome! Congrats to everyone starting their mission papers back at PHS, that's crazy I got my call almost a year ago. GET CALLED TO DENMARK!

love you all, vi ses