Families

Well my dear friends and family, this week has been fantastic. For my entire mission I have dreamed of helping a family accept the gospel. Family was the main thing that got me on my mission originally, my own and desiring to have one like it in the future as well as the thought that I could help another family have what mine has. That dream looks like it may happen here shortly. The family I wrote about last week, the Steen family, has met with missionaries for several years. Well I had the unique opportunity to teach them last Friday with a member. Just me and the member, no other missionaries... I've never done that before haha! It's much more common in the states, but this was my first time doing it personally.

 

It was the best lesson I've been involved in my whole mission. Originally Anders (the father) said he only had ten minutes and we'd planned to go over the Word of Wisdom. Ten minutes is definitely not enough. Well he seemed to forget about the time after some small talk and we turned the TV off and said a prayer. It really is a shame his wife couldn't join in, but regardless I explained that the Word of Wisdom is a part of the way God fulfills his purpose in Moses 1:39 to help us become better and more like him. The lesson ended up going for about an hour and a half and we really got Anders to open up about the feelings he's had about the church, the impressions he's had about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and asked him why he hadn't been baptized. The Spirit was incredibly strong as me and my good friend Mikkel from the ward here bore testimony of the blessings the church, priesthood, temples, and everything else would bring to his family. Anders agreed to be baptized in just two weeks! There is a lot more to the discussion, it lasted about an hour and a half, but I'll restrain to simply saying that Anders felt the spirit and knew the time needed to be now. This was the strongest I've ever felt the spirit in my life, and after leaving their house Mikkel turned to give me a high five but I just gave him a huge hug. I was so happy! I could actually notice that I was physically weakened on the way home and the other elders got impatient with me because they wanted me to tell the story but I could barely focus I was jittery inside myself and unbelievable hungry and tired. I ate around three plates of food while I told them everything and then just fell on the couch and lied there. The members here know Anders very well and so they were ecstatic to hear he finally made the decision to be baptized. We are going to meet with him and his wife in a few hours and I have high hopes that she'll follow suit. Their two year old daughter is simply the most adorable little girl ever and fit right in with the other primary kids. (That's the thing here in Sønderborg... the primary is larger than the adult classes put together!) The date is now set for October 18th and it'll take place down in Germany. So you better teach me some German!

 

I am unbelievably thankful I was able to be a part of that experience. If I can help their family have the joy my family has had together every single second of knocking doors and getting insulted will have been 1000x worth it, not a lot of missionaries here get to see the work they do pay off. For example the elders who contacted Anders on the street six years ago. I wish I could find them and tell them that they're awesome!

 

I'd love to write more about the psychologist we met with who told me I only speak Circus Danish, and the drunk guy that yelled ''No interestings!'' when me and another Elder tried to talk to him on the street, but I have been super pressed here lately during email time. Sorry if my family letters are too short for you Mom ;)

 

But our trio is doing great! One more week and then it's back to two.

 

​

 

Love you all! I know that you all have great families back home, realize how big of a blessing that is! You're sealed in the temple, and know what the future holds and the bond that ties you together is that of eternity. That's pretty long you know, kind of makes two years seem really short.

 

As for pictures this week I'm sad to report that I still have not bought a new battery charger... but on the bright side I found these ones. There is a big Hulk statue in our area on the grounds of the castle in Augustenborg and it's a tradition for the Elders here to take silly pictures with it. Here are some of our best ones.

 

 

​​

 

Ældste Durrant                        

Borups Alle 128 1.tv                  

2000 Frederiksberg

Denmark​