TRC is Hygge! ("who-ga")

It's been a really fast second week! I'm amazed that it's flown by so quickly! It's all started to kind of blend together. I'll try my best to give a good overview of what's happened so far. And please excuse my lack of englishing skills. I feel like danish is slowly taking over.

Basically with our "investigators" (or undersørgerne), we taught Katrina five times and got her to commit to church, praying and reading scriptures daily, but she wouldn't commit to a date for her baptism. Luckily she said she would be baptized once she knows it's true. But we won't have any other lessons with Katrina. And now my danish Restoration pamphlet is gone with her... Hopefully she still remembers how to pray though! ;) We've taught one of our new investigators, Martin. He's pretty difficult and not interested about doing anything with what we've taught him, so that's exciting. We just need to get a way to intrigue his interest. Then just yesterday we had TRC for the first time! Teaching Resource Center is pretty much members volunteering to have the rookie missionaries home teach them at the MTC. I felt like it would be much easier, but everyone else in our district was pretty stressed over it. Luckily Sister Reed (our third teacher and Katrina) gave us a good pep talk about how we were called to Denmark, not Texas or Colorado. It was pretty inspiring, but kind of hard to understand because it was in Danish... But we taught an old guy first and he was super nice! He spoke a bit in English though, so that was exciting. Then we taught a lady who went on her mission to Denmark. Both of them were super nice to us and basically amazed we could teach in Danish after only two weeks learning the language. We talked about the Hand of God in our lives and we read some scriptures about Alma and Amulek escaping the prison and people fleeing like goats from lions, and then Mosiah talking to his sons about the importance of the scriptures. It was really good!! Basically all of us loved our experience! Now I have to explain what hygge is. It's pronounced who-ga, kind of like an old car horn. It's basically an indescribable feeling of joy and love but specific and personal for each person. But as we were walking back to the residence, Ældste Myers was clicking his heels and kept saying "TRC is amazing! I want to live in TRC! TRC is hygge!" It was basically just hilarious. 

Now showing the diligent and gospel centered side of us missionaries, we aren't always on task... Ældste Wright got some 24th of July things from his mom which included some little glowsticks that have plastic American flag topper things. So, like all mature teenagers (or deacons) would do, a tomahawk battle ensued. It's boiled down to an ongoing duel between Ældster Myers and Wright. Sadly Ældster Bailey and I are in the same room as both of them. They've already had a duel complete with coats flicked back to reveal the holstered glowsticks, and random sneak attacks. Ældste Wright locked his glowsticks in his closet and ate the combination paper to keep Ældste Myers from taking them. But then he didn't lock it once and battle ensued again. So yea, that's exciting! 

On a more legal note, our district has played soccer twice this week!! It's honestly been my favorite exercise activity ever!! None of us are very good, except for a new Swede who played comp as well, so it's pretty nice we're all equally incompetent! On Monday we tied 4-4, so we played again Wednesday, but we have no clue what the score is. I'm converting the others though. Several of them said soccer was more fun than basketball. ;) Slowly but surely! They'll all come to realize the true superior sport! (No feelings were harmed in the sending of this email.)

I've seen quite a few new people here already! Elder Sam Francis, Elder Justin Butler, and Elder Jace Callor all came last Wednesday and now they're seasoned vets. I saw Elder Hayden Prows the other day along with Elder Tyler Peterson. They're all fellow darts, so it was fun to welcome them all. Also, I think SøsterAndrizzi (our district sister) is getting either more used to all the guys or more annoyed. It's kind of hard to tell becuase she's so patient and nice to all of us. Our teachers are amazing though! Ældste Myers told Bror Curtis about a Danish rap he heard, but he didn't understand it, and then he told Søster Reed that she looked from the spy from a movie, Salt. Then the next time we saw them, Bror Curtis had listened to the rap (which isn't a good song apparently...) and Søster Reed had watched Salt!! They're just the kindest and most wonderful people! They're awesome and make "learning" Danish so much better! Søster Reed is the nice and sarcastic teacher who laughes with us, then Bror Curtis is the nice and half-Danish teacher (also super tall), and Bror Bateman (who is on vacation this week) is the nice very-not-Danish-looking teacher who laughs at us quite frequently. :D They're all just amazing!

That's all from this Dane though. I hope you all have a wonderful week and you can take time to see God's hand in your life! I'm very glad so many of you were able to experience and love Trek! I loved hearing about your experiences and thoughts!

Jeg vil Gud elsker i! Vi ses! (“God loves you! See you!”)

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Ældste Jepsen

-Elders Gheen, Jepsen, and Francis
-Some Random Class photos, Ældste Angerhofer is the juggling master
-Our sweet study spot in T4, luckily by a piano so I could practice up a bit ;) 
 

 

We are all Bears of God, apparently...

It's already been a whole week?! I honestly felt like I was new this past Wednesday too. It was pretty weird. It was wonderful though! When I first showed up I was rushed off to receive my new black plastic identity and the responsibilities that go along with it! It was really fast and I can't say I remember much about it. Then Elder Fuller (my host) took me to my new home in R8. There was one other missionary in the room, but I had no clue who he was. I felt like a fish in a tank though. All the old Nordes and Swedes watched as I tried to find what I actually needed for class that day. (We weren't that bad to the newbies, don't worry) Then I was tossed out of the package and over the frying pan. The fire wasn't too bad though. (I say sarcastically) I walked into our classroom and Brother (Bror in Danish) Curtis started welcoming me and asking questions. For a second I thought I was just overwhelmed, but no. He was speaking some kind of alien tongue or something. He said something and motioned to follow him, so I waved awkwardly to the few others in the room and left. Bror Curtis brought me to the computer lab and I did some orientation. Then I went back to class and waited for my companion to show up. It was pretty easy to tell who had arrived in what order. A couple missionaries seemed totally chill with the fact that they had no idea what was being said to them. We started practicing introductions in Danish as everyone was arriving. Eventually all 11 of us finally came. (10 Elders and 1 Sister) My companion is Ældste Elias Wright who is from Layton. He's an awesome missionary and I'm really enjoying being comps with him! Then all of us were carted off to a devotional and dinner and then off to bed. That's where you realize who is new and who isn't. It's not the orange dot on the tag, it's the clueless and concerned expression when you walk in the residence building and you question the fact that people are working out, have random frisbee fights, and are saying things you didn't know were sounds humans could make. It's great fun!

Basically after the first day, everything has blended together. We taught our first lesson to a "Danish woman named Katrina." (it's really our 3rd teacher Sister Reed) It was extremely hard to prepare and awkward to deliver, but we talked about families because she has a little two year old daughter. It went surprisingly well, probably because we didn't really give her the chance to talk. But when she did we smiled, nodded, and just said "godt" repeatedly. (godt means good) It was really rough, but we've had three other lessons with her now and we're almost completely away from writing out Danish scripts! It's incredible how quickly we've learned so much, but we all feel quite clueless because there's still so much we have to learn. 

The title of the email comes from one of the lessons Ældste Hunsaker and Ældste Meready "taught" Bror Curtis because we were running out of time. Ældste Hunsaker was trying to teach that we are all God's children and he loves us, but instead of saying børn, which means children, he said bjørn, which means bear. We all busted up, at least after Bror Curtis could stop laughing and explain what it actually meant. Then on our walk home we all sang "I am a Bear of God." It was fabulous of course! Another random language story: We had a walk during one of our classes and our other teacher Bror Bateman (we call him Bror Batman) asked us what different things in nature were called. We identified the clouds, ground, sky, mountains, buildings, etc. Then Ældste Wright said he wanted to name his first child bjerg, (pronounced bee-ow) which means mountain. Then we all got off on how he would be announced as BEJERG! So now all the danish Ældstes will randomly yell mountain when someone does or says something cool! We also have a strange obsession with din mår jokes, which are still as dumb as normal "your mom" jokes, just in Danish.

We were able to participate in choir on Sunday and sing in the devotional on Tuesday. It was incredible! The choir director is fabulous and he teaches the gospel as we learn the song. We sang a song called Testimony and it has the same words as I Know That My Redeemer Lives. It was really cool!

We said farewell to the old Nordes and Swedes this past Monday though. Now some of the Danes are ZL's and STL's. But now it's back to normal (kind of) with the new Nordes and Swedes. It's just that the Danes aren't the clueless ones anymore. :) I love our roommates though. Ældste Wright and I are in a room with the new ZL's Ældstes Myers and Bailey. They're awesome guys and we laugh a ton. I have absolutely no complaints about it. It's been awesome! And I've seen a lot of friends and fellow Darts around campus. You get pretty good at acknowledging that you know them, but also getting across that you don't actually know them well enough to talk to them. But it's still cool to see people I recognize. 

Sadly Volleyball has been ended in the gym for the MTC tours. Apparently they don't want to give tourists the full experience and get spiked in the head. Which I get, I guess. There have been several injuries from volleyball alone since I've gotten here, and it was closed this Monday. But the foursquare is super intense too, so that's always exciting. I'm still hoping to get a district game of soccer going though! We'll all need the practice for Denmark!

I'll attach some fabulous pictures!

-- 

Ældste Jepsen

 *(He also sent 50 Google drive photos, saved. But most didn’t have him in them)

-My district: Left to Right

-Ældste Hunter Gottfredson (Maryland), Ældste Cole Newton (Gilbert, AZ) , Ældste Tyler Bailey (ZL, Bountiful, UT), Ældste Matthew Myers (ZL, Spring,Texas), Ældste Dustin Angerhofer (San Pete county, UT), Ældste Noah Throckmorton (South Jordan, UT), Some weird guy from I think Davis..., Ældste Elias Wright (Layton, UT), Ældste Reese Hunsaker (Idaho), Ældste Brigham Meready (DL, California), Soster McCall Andrizzi (STL, California)

- Our teacher, Bror Curtis

- Companions, Ældste Jepsen and Ældste Wright

- We share a room with Ældste Myers and Bailey

-How our class stumbles in

-Some cartoons I drew to distract from our lack of Danish knowledge

-Studying outside

-Juggling while solving a Rubix cube?!

 

 

 

 

Check the First Box

I made it in! Elder Fuller was super nice and made sure I knew where I was going and everything! It was really cool to finally put on my missionary tag. :D And my companion is Elder Wright!! I hope he's as excited as I am. I haven't seen him yet though. I'm off to class though. The Danish word of the day is venner which means friends. I've already started making some fun venner! We're all clueless and overwhelmed at the same time! It's great! I love you all! I'll talk to you later!

--

Elder Jepsen

Setting Apart and MTC Day!

Tuesday night, July 11th, Bryant was set apart to be an LDS Full Time Missionary. It was a great night, with a few tears and lots of love expressed. Pres Brown shared great insight and council.

On July 11th, Ben Francis (brother to Sam Francis, Bryant's good friend), returned home from his mission to Denmark. He flew in at 7pm, was released at 9pm, then kindly said he'd come over after for a brief chat with Bryant. Finally at 10pm, Bryant thought they weren't coming and changed out of his mission attire to get ready for bed. But at 10:20, here came the Francis Family! (So kind of them to stop in! Ben hadn't even been home yet!) It was so helpful and just added to the excitement Bryant already had to serve the people of Denmark!

-MTC morning! All packed and ready to go!
-After stopping to visit Grandpa Clayson, we took a photos and walked around the Provo Temple for a half hour before check in time. Several other missionary families had the same idea. It was exciting to hear where others were going to serve.

-Traditional sibling missionary bench photos!

(If you do it twice does it make it traditional?)
-Curbside at the MTC!
-And he is off! Yet he did look back and give us a wave (as requested).

We will sure miss him, but know he will be an amazing missionary!

 

Before Leaving

The three and a half months were filled with finishing high school, spending time with family and friends, and preparing for my mission...

Mission Call

After several long weeks of waiting, March 16th rolled around and my call finally came! Luckily I was able to rally some family and friends to visit that evening to share the experience of me opening my mission call. I was so excited to find where I would be serving for the next two years. After the drudgery of trying to complete homework as I waited for the evening to come, I was able to read the letter from the office of our Prophet Thomas S. Monson. I've been called to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission, leaving July 12th. I was also excited to spend the evening with another friend who was called to the Sweden Stockholm Mission, leaving just a week after me.

-The call arrives in the box of destiny...
-Opening my call for the first time
-My Baltic Brother!

(He's headed to the Sweden Stockholm Mission on July 19th)