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?!