Roskilde Fest!

I feel almost like Denmark is celebrating my year mark for me in their own special way. Each year Denmark has a maaaaaaaassive party in Roskilde, the area I'm in right now. This week tons of odd looking people have just been streaming into the train station here from all over Denmark. The Roskilde party is like two weeks long and they have tons of people here for it, I believe the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonders are both coming. The people coming for the party come with huge backpacks and pads ready to be homeless for two weeks during the craziness. I saw one guy with ten cases of beer to himself in preparation for the next few days. They can really hold their alcohol here. It's supposed to be similar to Woodstock because after the party the entire city is just covered in trash and urine. Me and Elder Enniss want to see if we can help clean up or something. I'll keep you posted!

There was also a family here in the ward that invited us out for the evening to a traditional witch burning on the grounds of an old castle! The mission president gave us special permission to stay out with them until around 11 o'clock at night because we have a way good...... ah crap I can only think of ''forhold'.... it means relationship but I don't feel like that's right. Anyway a good relationship with their son that's less active. It was so much fun to see with them, the son is in a rock band so we hit it off with music and watched the Danes sing and light a massive bonfire to burn a witch. She weighed the same as a duck so I'm pretty sure that it was legit ;) 

Also their daughter Mathilde is five and she captured my heart. 

She told me all about her fifth birthday on the car ride home and then gave me flowers. I saved them in my journal. No judging. Basically they're the funnest family ever and I had a great time and me and Elder Enniss made some great progress getting the son involved in the spiritual thought and just getting him to be open to missionaries in general. He's a way awesome guy. 

Here's a picture with the castle in the distant background.... I failed to get a better picture. 

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We've also been able to do a TON of service this week. I haven't done so much service my entire mission.... we've been two heldige kartofler. A family in the ward has had some problems, the father is very sick and the grandma just passed away and now they're having problems with the government here trying to take their kids for some reason I don't understand. Anyway we got to help them fix up a ton of things around their house including removing a jungle out of their backyard and building a fence and tons of other things. Also a man in the ward sent us over to his friends house who isn't a member to help her out as well. Me and Elder Read my faithful old MTC companion sawed a zillion branches off an apple tree and bundled them up to be burned. She was super happy for the help and way interested in how we'd learned Danish and stuff. She gave us some amazing smørrebrød and sent us on our way! We're gonna go back in a little bit to do some more stuff in her yard later. Her husband passed away so she needs the help when she can get it. On top of that we did some yard work for the lady next door to the family in the ward we helped out cause she was curious why we were helping them and then accepted our offer to her. So lot of lots of yardwork. Yaaaaay. 

We also had a lot of appointments all over the place these last two days so we brought the other two elders that serve in our ward over to our area to help us. We taught a muslim couple that is way interested in what we believe and what we think happen to people when they die so we're excited to see them learn about the Plan of Salvation! There was also a man who referred himself to us after meeting the missionaries at a thing called Folkemødet. If you wanna know what it is then google it... Anyway I talked to him on the phone and invited him to come to church, and he did! I sat with him for all three meetings and he is way super nice. He wants to discover his own personal believes! Finally someone who is actually looking for something! You have no idea how rare that is here. Everyone just wants to do exactly what they have been doing for the last 182843 years. But yeah it was fun to be with the other two elders for the last two days, Elder Read is in my ward and we figured this was the closest to our year mark that we'd be together so we celebrated by going to a restaurant right on the ocean! It's a Jensens which is the only nice restaurant that missionaries can afford haha. 

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I took you up mom on buying me and my comp lunch and saved it for this day with a little bit of my personal money cause I figured you didn't expect me to get this kind of a lunch. But Elder Enniss says thanks! 

Anyway, I'm really enjoying my time here. So much happened this week I feel like I've only reported the random side adventures but we've been doing some good old fashion work at the same time as the fun service projects and castle trips with less actives. My good friend Jonas (I don't remember if I've told you about him.... but he's Athiest.) Agreed to try a prayer for the first time in his life! He had to cancel our appointment last saturday but hey I can wait a few days to see how it went! We've also had a few people respond positively while knocking doors and I've realized I don't even have to worry about or doubt my Danish before I open my mouth, regardless of the situation or idea I can get through it just as I talk instead of thinking ahead which has been fun to really feel fluent. Some Danes still change to English just cause they like to... but hey you can't win them all. 

Anyway, I better wrap up. But I have more stories like getting lost on the way to an appointment way in the middle of nowhere cause the other missionaries took our car keys by accident... or Ed Sheeran being on the cover of the most popular Danish magazine which drove me crazy all week, or the naked guy we gave a book too still being naked when we went back again and accusing us of trying to deceive him, or all the thoughts and ideas and discoveries I've made in studies and the awesome members here and finding a Danish twin and contacting a lady who looked a lot like my mom and then finding out that she's good friends with another lady we're in contact with... haha that one is actually kind of neat. I need to explain further. We talked to her by the ocean and I kept thinking that she just looked like you mom! She took a joseph smith pamphlet and actually highlighted it with a pen the same way you do a lot of papers and wants to talk about specific parts of it. We're meeting with her this week hopefully. It just kind of blew my mind because she was your doppelganger but she was speaking Danish... 

Point being, I feel like I'll never be able to convey all the stories I have in a week in just one email, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of the week I've had. Love you all and I hope everything is going great at home. If you love me send me music ;) 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark

Our Car Exploded

Funny that on the very week Dad sends me some random pieces of advice about our car here is the week we destroy it. 

Story time! So there is this green tank of gas sitting in the trunk that every missionary has been told is ''backup gas''. It's been in the car for like a year and Elder Enniss even finished filling it up with gas so we'd have some backup. Well we used in on Saturday... turns out the original gas that was in their that was given to the missionaries as ''backup gas'' was either Diesel or something worse. It's frustrating cause I know the difference between Diesel and normal gas so I tried smelling it but it smelled like normal gas because Elder Enniss had put a bunch of regular gas in it on top of the Diesel. Long story short, we had a very interesting day involving walking over 15 kilometers and getting picked up by an emergency roadside assistance vehicle. Whatever was mixed into that gas destroyed the engine. I always have my camera ready to go so I snagged this while I steered the car onto the emergency pickup truck :) 

  

Fun fun fun. It kind of ruins our plans for the next little bit while it's getting fixed which is to bad cause our area is doing GREAT! 

I kind of have a goal not to use the work Investigator cause it makes my relationship with the people I talk to about the church feel a little off to me personally... however our ward had five people in church for guest class which was fantastic! Wesley experienced some sickness because of the work the nurses are still doing with him so he didn't make it. However it was a great week. We've had major progress with two of our friends, one is an atheist but he agreed to try a personal prayer for the first time in his life! He got out a notepad and wrote down the four steps we gave him to pray... it was great. He's super logical and really smart which means he always asks great questions and wants a good answer. We tried to convey the fact that God understands us perfectly so even if we say a few of the words wrong or mess up what we meant to say it's perfectly fine! I think he was kind of nervous to try it but we'll see how it goes. Also a lady named Linda (who is the FUNNIEST lady you'll ever meet) came to church and loved it! She believes in reincarnation which although is an interesting theory has never made sense to me all... anyway we brought her ice cream as a joke because I always ask her if we can do anything for her and she always says no. Finally she said the only service we could do her was to give her ice cream. I don't think she really expected me to come through on that one but she got a good laugh when we came with tricolor ice cream in hand! She opened up a lot to us and even asked some questions about baptism. She's like my favorite person ever. 

We also found a big red field like the yellow ones that were here a month or two ago. We threw on our companionship glasses and beanie for a picture. Yes we're dorks. No we don't wear those while we work... they stay hidden in our car. Well I guess actually our apartment now... the car is dead.   

Let's see... I started writing down the interesting things that happen throughout the week on Monday's note page in my planner so I can remember all the stories. 

The old Turkish man we are talking with told Elder Enniss that if he wants to he's welcome to join him on a vacation to Turkey next month and that he'd make sure there were girls there. I died of laughter, it was way too funny. 

A lady told me that if I bring her an armbånd (bracelet? I feel like there should be a better word for it in english...) that I've worn than she can tell me exactly what our apartment looks like even though she's never been there. Challenge accepted, next appointment I'm bringing one that I wear around the apartment each night now. 

A member gave us a drink called ''Princesse Vand'' or Princess Water. It was pink and super carbonated and the nastiest thing I've ever tasted in my life. Stear clear if you ever come to Denmark.

We drove down to the bottom coast of Sjælland this week to see who the less actives down there were. Turns out they are all related and got baptized at the same time around thirty five years ago in Copenhagen by a certain Elder Monson. Unfortunately his first name was Kevin. Anyone know if he's related? It's sad because they had some trouble with a few members and with rumors and grudges and they left the church because they say the members mistreated them. They were super nice though! I almost died of second hand smoke but we had a good talk about old cars and which direction was really north and the temple in Copenhagen. 

A girl we're meeting with wants to stop smoking so we're trying to help her in anyway we can. Other than that it's just been normal good old missioanry work as far as I can remember. Denmark didn't even make the world cup so that's not even a thing here :( 

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. So make sure you're always sacrificing, even in Utah ;) 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark

​Because Cats

I Just Got Rebuked by a Canadian

I'm sitting here in the Roskilde library very confused and with about an hour of my email time wasted after being baraged by a Canadian man lecturing me on the importance on D&C 89 and 90:5... Apparently he like has the Doctrine and Covenants memorized but isn't a member. He rebuked me for eating meat in the summer time as well as the Joseph Smith Building for selling meat. I told him I'd love to talk to him another time but he's headed back to Canada soon, I hope he gets get hit in the head with a hockey puck =)

In other news I LOVE THE WARD HERE. We just spent our P-Day with four or five of the Young adults in the Ward that are either just back from missions or getting ready to head out and ate a ton of pizza. We got to go through the temple a couple of weeks back with two of them, one just had his farewell and is off to Scotland! The other is getting ready to leave to South Africa. Crazy stuff. We're really going to miss the kid heading to Scotland, not just because he's way awesome but he is like the only member we can bring to lessons at a moments notice. Oh well...

We did a ton of service this week for a Family in the Ward. Their Mother/Grandmother just died and they needed some help clearing a jungle out of their backyard. We took it Down and have the stinging nettle burns to show for it. (Sidenote: for some reasons these computers capitalize random letters... I don't have time to fix it thanks to my new Canadian friend.) This is the baby of the Family we helped though, Danish people just seem to look better all around whether it's a teenager, old person, or a baby...

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Also, my friend Wesley that I have already told you a Little bit about has decided to get baptized! So I think I better explain the Whole story with him. He is from Sri Lanka and has lived in Denmark for like 20 something years. He's in the hospital because of some problems in the past he's had with alchohol (we think... we're not sure how severe the damage was) but he's doing a ton better and has started turning his life around. He's really emphatic about doing religious Work actually, he regrets not serving God earlier in his life and now that's all that he wants to do. He's seen how stopping alchohol has really helped his Family and he actually wants to introduce us to his Family as well! He told us that he had now realized that before he brings other people come to Christ he needs to bring himself. Let me repeat that.

Before we can help bring people come to Christ we need to bring ourselves.

He had kind of been acting like he was already a member but when this realization hit he was much more ready to learn and asked us to help him build a Foundation and learn the basics of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Perfect! We shared the first lesson in it's fullness and he told us he was ready to do what was required to follow God, all he needed was for us to tell him what to do. I read a verse in 2 Nephi 31 to him about taking Christs name upon us by baptism and invited him to do it. He said of course! He wants to get baptized on August 8th =) I'm way excited! Hopefully his Family will follow suit. My goal for my entire mission is to have the privilige to convert a Family to the gospel whether it be by bringing them back or baptizing them, and this could be the moment I've been waiting a year for! Gah me and Elder Enniss are killing it here, we have so many people to talk to and a lot of people we expect in church each week! The area was almost dead a few months ago but Elder Enniss has been doing some serious Work here and I got to come in during the middle of it to help him push it even farther. Wesley originally discovered the church because a nurse told him about it and he felt a prompting to pursue it later in his life. Like I've already told you, he knows ''The time is now''. Becuase he wants to help others he is helping himself. I've definitely seen that on my mission. When I learn the material myself and do the Things that I know I need to be doing I am put in more Places where I can help others.

So if you wanna share the gospel with somebody back at home, you can always share it with yourself. We already know what we're supposed to do, question is if we're actually doing it. Actually praying with real intent, aactually reading the scriptures to learn something instead of checking a box off for the day.

Also the Turkish man whose shower we fixed may or may not have lung cancer... we're not sure we understood him right though. Turkish and Danish mixed is næsten uforståelig. So pray for him maybe?

​Lastly, at the farewell for the missionary headed to Scotland there were a ton of people from Odense that came! It was great I got to see a ton of old friends again. I could understand them waaaaay better this time than I ever could when I was a missionary in their ward. It was tons of fun =) 

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So remember: Check yourself and make sure you're ready to help those around you that stand in need of help! Just saying :) 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark

Big pizza, bigger miracles (June 3-9)

So this week has been a very interesting one. For starters we ate this pizza.

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That knocked my socks off. The man that sold it to us bet us we wouldn't finish it. We planned on making a bet with him that he had to take a Book of Mormon if we ate it all but he disappeared and so we just ate it alone in his restaraunt... it was odd. Afterwards we walked back to the car and a woman stopped us and yelled ''Are you really the Mormons??'' in English. That was unexpected. Turns out she's missed our visits that she used to get for a while. She lives in the sisters area though so we gave them a nice referal. 

This week we had absolutely zeros for our numbers until Sunday. Sunday was a good day. We had three people in church! One was the man I told you about last week I think. He's from Sri Lanka and wanted to bring like a million people to heaven with him before he dies. He told us that the reason he heard about our church was a nurse many years ago. The nurse told him about the church and he sai that he felt the spirit of God witness to him that this church is a good church and it is a path that he needs to take later in his life. ''That time is now my brothers'' is what he told us. So we're gonna see if we can get him to understand all the different parts of the church and what being a member means and stuff. He knows about tithing and the Word of Wisdom though so it should be a great time teaching him the rest. He wants to bring his ex-wife and daughter to church next Sunday. Oh boy :) 

We also had a man from Ghana come. Guest class was interesting with the man from Sri Lanka going off on tangents and this man from Ghana who hadn't heard a thing about our church before just trying to listen while a member of the ward gave a very long and complicated schpeel about the scriptures and didn't pause for any questions... Probably the most frustrating half hour of my life. We took the man from Ghana to priesthood and the lesson was on ''The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood''. My mind almost exploded. This man didn't even know what the Book of Mormon was! Me and Elder Enniss just took him out of the class and got to know him and taught the first lesson in another room.

Church is stressful people! Mormons are hard to understand if you aren't a member. These people need to learn from the ground up. Just my two cents for the day. God is the author of simplicity, the devil is the author of confusion. Love that saying and it's so true! Really when we're feeling confused or overwhelmed that's not what God wants, the answers are almost always way more simple than we imagine they should be.

We're still your local neighborhood missionaries wandering around huge apartment complexes looking for people who will spend five minutes to talk about what they believe and take a quick look at what we've found.

 

I don't know why Elder Enniss looked so sad in that picture I promise he's a happy kid :)

It's actually going great here we have tons of people we've found... our list is growing and getting better quality too! It's been fun. I'm learning and growing by helping others do the same and I don't think I'd be the same person if I had done anything else with my life. So even when I miss people and it's hard to see everyone at home changing so much and blah blah blah I'm glad I've accomplished what I have and I hope I can do even more. I mean I have a whole stinking year left right?

Anyway. I'm sure there are stories I'm forgetting from this week. Like Wesley giving us a laptop that we aren't permitted to have so we dumped it off at a less actives house, or giving a book of mormon out to a naked guy at his door (why are they always naked?), or the part member family that wants us to start teaching them the lessons, or the Russian family that gave us a ton of Russian chocolates cause they love us, or Elder Enniss drinking a liter of Apple Cider and then realizing it was 0,8% alchohol, or helping a Turkish man repair his shower and getting offered a large frozen chicken in return.... I just don't have time to write them all! The Danes had one of their many little fancy holidays on Monday. So I'm writing now....We don't have oodles of time because I'm with my district leader on splits.

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Banana splits actually :) 

Love you all! I'll have more fun stories next week too :)

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark

I graduated a year ago!

Holy cow it's June! Where did this last year go? Congrats to everyone that just graduated. 

I got the opportunity to go to the Danish temple this week! I did a whole session in Danish and it was great :) I understood it just fine, and it was a great experience. The temple in Copenhagen is pretty small because the government put a bunch of building restrictions on it, but it definitely made up for it on the inside! Woooow. The two kids that were getting their endowments were way excited and the Kjeddsen family actually took us out to eat at a nice restaraunt in Copenhagen after. What a day! 

We had a fun time with a family in the ward that put the elders in our district through a scripture chase. Made the appointment a bit different than most. Normally we're the ones that give the spiritual thought haha! 

We had a man from Sri Lanka make his own way to our church. He told Alex, one of the kids we went to the temple with, that he wants to learn about our ''Bible'', but he left without coming to sacrament meeting or talking to us. We were able to visit him a bit later but he was actually in a hospital that takes care of people with mental difficulties. They wanted to learn more about him because they said he was hearing voices. Apparently this guy told them that we were his good friends so the nurse thought we could shed some light on the situation. We told them that we had only just met him and that didn't know a whole lot about him. They let us visit him and the voices they think he is hearing is just the Holy Ghost! Haha the language barrier from the Sri Lanka langauge to English to Danish made them think he was literally hearing voices but he told us that the Holy Ghost speaks to him through the scriptures and gives him good impressions. The doctor thought he was like talking to something in his head and that he was crazy. I'll admit the guy was a very... interesting character... but I don't think he's insane. He is very emphatic about religion though and wants to take a Book of Mormon and show it to everyone he can. His goal is to bring one million people to Christ before he dies. I'm just happy I could explain to the Danish nurse that when he ''speaks with the Holy Ghost'' it means that he gets feelings or impressions he believes to be from God instead of actually conversing with voices in his head. 

His name is Wesley and now he wants to come to church and have us talk to his wife and daughter. Wish us luck! He really seems to like the Book of Mormon and that is the most important part for our friends to get a testimony of. 

The missionaries from Silkeborg were also able to get this picture for me.

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These are two of the three drunk people that let us into their house. The third one that gave me a bear hug just after is taking the shot (He did a pretty good job of centering it for a drunk person I must say). Anyway they loved us so much they took a picture while we were trying to leave. This happened a while ago but they just gave the picture to Elder Lawless last week. 

Anyway, as far as Holbæk goes we're doing pretty good. The other elders in our ward are teaching a really great family that has a goal to get baptized around the beginning of next year. They have some severe challenges with the word of wisdom because they have had coffee and cigarettes since they were as young as twelve years old. They love the church though and have made some serious progress! I love being able to get to know them and see them make the journey. They're starting to wear nice shirts and ties to church and have cut down on the cigarette count, and have made a ton of friends. They really love the temple and how beautiful it is. Just shows how much this church can help families. Makes me super pumped to find a family I can help do the same thing! 

Love you all, keep being awesome!

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark