The Swings of Life

"When the swing of life throws you off, you just need to get back on and start working again. Maybe you need a push or two, but you'll get the hang of it yourself to get just as high as you were before."

                -Anonymous (or at least if you don't know who I am...)

This week has been quite crazy. I was both excited and a little taken aback to be staying in Skive, but I'm very happy I have the opportunity to serve here with my new companion Ældste Haruch!! Just some quick background for him. Ældste Nate (or Nathaniel) Haruch hails from Layton, Utah. He is a choral singer (was in BYU Mens Chorus for a year before the mission), was a frequent cast member of musicals, and is the official Mr. Northridge of 2016. He's a super nice guy who is very dedicated to the work. 

Last Monday, like I reported before, I basically spent in Aarhus then came back and emailed before we went to bed again. I really like the Elders and the city of Aarhus though, so that was pretty fun! 

Tuesday was a day of make-up P-day activities and finding! We went grocery shopping and finding! It was a pretty good day and we found some good potentials who sounded quite positive and excited about the message!

Wednesday was the return of the apartment checks! We spent the morning deep cleaning the kitchen and bathroom because we didn't have time on Monday. Then we had a lunch appointment with Ingefred Bech, which was great! She and her husband have a talking parrot named Jacob! He's pretty cool! We raced back to meet the Ravns at our apartment, and they basically gave us a new dryer and said it was looking pretty good! There is talk of getting a new apartment for Skive, but it wouldn't be before the New Year, so it wouldn't be a big deal for us right now. We then had an awesome lesson with Helle!! We sang "Jeg er Guds Kære Barn" for her. (I am a child of God) The Spirit was way strong and she almost started to cry! (Hopefully a good time to make women cry, right?) But she committed to stop drinking coffee that night! We told her that we'd call to check up on her every night.

Thursday was weekly planning and finding. Ældste Haruch does weekly planning differently than I was used to, so it took longer and we had to break it up because we had some appointments and such as well. We ate with the Reuters again that evening! They're just an awesome couple who are such strong examples of living the gospel!!

Friday, we finished our weekly planning and did some visits. We then had District Meeting that evening in Herning. We had the Zone Leaders introduce our new transfer goals, which are focused on Becoming. I really like their focus on helping the new investigators we find really become baptized, where they don't just meet with us, but they do something because of it! They also taught about becoming along with our investigators! I loved that! We can all work on becoming at any stage in our spirituality! I've started focusing more on becoming submissive to God's will.

Saturday was a good day! We met with Karsten for some sandwiches and basically just talked about where he wants to get in life. He really does want to change and he sees that meeting with us is helping, he just needs some more motivation to actually take bigger steps towards the goal of a happy family that he really wants. We also went and followed up with some previous investigators in Struer. There was a man named Mouhmad who was really interested two years ago, but couldn't speak a ton of Danish. So we went back that day! He is still really interested but doesn't feel like he's fluent enough to discuss the things we talk about in the church. Luckily he has contact with some members and we're visiting later to give him time to read the Book of Mormon. We've only been able to get a hold of Helle once which was on Saturday, but she said that she was still going strong!! I'm so excited for her!! She's just amazing!

Sunday was super weird, but great! I was asked to be the pianist, kind of. (Yes Mom, you were right. I did play the piano on my mission.) But I basically told them I would play, but it was quite bad because I didn't have a ton of time to actually practice the songs, so I basically played the top hand for every song except We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet, which I already knew. To make things better, we had a ton of visitors that week! The branch was over twice as big just because of some family of the members! It was crazy! And only in Skive do the visitors give the Sacrament talks. ;)  It was great though! Later, Ældste Haruch and I went finding in the cold and dark hours of 5 pm. We also had some good time laying on the frozen ground, looking at the stars, and talking about our goals for the transfer. I really enjoyed that.

Today was also pretty good! We're trying out some new schedules and such, so my email is a little later than normal. But we're getting the hang of the new companionship, new district, and we're excited to see the miracles that this transfer will bring as we become more of the people that God wants us to be!

Have a wonderful week! I invite you to look for ways to become more Godlike. Especially by being grateful during Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful holiday and make sure your family knows you love them! Thanks for your support!

--

Ældste Bryant Jepsen

-The Thug Life of missionaries (on P-day, of course)
-My first Kinder Egg!
-When your investigators go to Iraq before you can visit them again....
(Mom and Google translation: "I have traveled to Iraq, I must apologize.")