Anchored in the Harbor

The last week of the transfer went super fast! And (spoiler alert!) I'm staying in Frederikshavn this next transfer! And I get to keep Ældste Moulton too!! So it'll be incredible! And hence the title, I'm anchored in the Havn. :)

Last Monday wasn't super eventful. At least not in Denmark, because it was my Dad's BIRTHDAY!! So we celebrated by writing home and wishing him a Happy Birthday. We had a lesson planned with Nerkiz (the lady we moved the sofa for) but she cancelled. So we basically went knocking that day. We met a guy named John. He was very intrigued that we were from Christ's Church (Jesu Kristi Kirke). So we taught him a bit. He wasn't super receptive at first and wouldn't even read in Mormons Bog because it wasn't the Bible. But in the end, he took a book and said he'd read a chapter we gave him! Yay!

Tuesday existed as Grundlovsdag, which is basically like a Constitution Day kind of thing. We had splits in Aalborg, so we headed there! It's such a different area! I was with Ældste Danielsen-Jensen! We showed up to head to a lunch appointment with all 8 missionaries! It was with a recently returned Sister named Ana. She's super excited to be an awesome member missionary, so the Aalborg Sisters are super pumped. Then we (just us two) went to a lesson with Lai! She was sick, so we were able to give her a blessing. It was a good lesson! I enjoyed being able to teach her again. Then we fit in some studies and headed to another eating appointment! It was with an older couple named Jytte and Leif. They were fun! We had really good timing there, so we got some finding time when we got back home! We knocked and talked to a lady from the Netherlands! She was pretty interested in reading and seeing what the Book of Mormon was! It was kind of weird contacting in English with her, but it went really well!

Wednesday was supposed to be crazy busy. We had plans back to back with appointments and service. We left Aalborg and got home in time to get burned for the first appointment... Then we weren't picked up for service by Kurt, so we called and were told it was cancelled, along with our appointment with Henriette later that day. She had sent a very nice message dropping us and asked Kurt to send it to us. So that was pretty sad. We went out knocking instead and finally got in touch with David! He is a man from the Congo who is very Christian and is kind of disappointed with the Dansk Folke Kirke. We had given him a Danish Book of Mormon but that's hard for him to read. So we talked a little about the Restoration because he can actually speak English pretty well and read a pamphlet in French! He said he would love to get a Book of Mormon in Swahili so he can read it. He's pretty dedicated to finding God! So we're hoping to get him and his little family to church! Our lesson with him made us late to sport (totally worth it though!). The group was a little small, but we played 4v4 volleyball! Ældste Moulton and I did very well, along with Arne Holm-Larsen who basically won a game single-handedly. It was really fun! And then we had incredible calzones for dinner!

Thursday was good. We had some contacting and talked to a guy from Sønderborg. That was fun. We had weekly planning that day. Then we dropped off some cookies for some members, Søren of Jytte Nielsen and then had a lesson with Rene. He is literally reading the King James Bible along with the Strong Hebrew Dictionary. So he's pretty into the scripture stuff. We taught a bit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lot of Bible comments and some random scripture chases. It was pretty fun. But he really likes us coming and said he'd start reading the Book of Mormon!

Friday was weird! We had District Meeting, so we headed back to Aalborg (basically part of our area at this point). Most of District Meeting was complimenting everyone in the district, which was really funny! Then we had lunch and all the normal proceedings. But on the train ride home, we were trying to get in touch with a potential in Hjørring (Vera) so we could give her a book, but she wouldn't respond! So we stayed on the train, but at the same time three 20-24 year olds got on the train and sat a couple booths away. It was a guy and two girls and they were talking about us or staring at us almost the entire way back to Frederikshavn! It was super awkward! As we were hoping off the train, the guy was very conspicuously looking at Ældste Moulton's tag. So as I passed I told him he was welcome to ask questions if he was curious. So before we left the train station, he had stopped us and we got to explain what we're doing as missionaries! He was very nice and respectful, but also atheist. But it was a good experience! We also had a deep conversation with a half drunk Norwegian man while walking along the gågade that evening, so that was fun!

Saturday was fine. We had a totally open schedule after our appointments all cancelled. So we went contacting, talked to some interesting people... One old guy seemed pretty positive but then called us later and said not to contact him because he was homosexual. So that was a first! We went knocking on Fregatvej and kind of got lost in the confusion of houses. Also stopped by to give David a Swahili Book of Mormon.

Sunday was rainy! It has rained maybe twice in the past month, so it was pretty exciting! We had President Olsson (a guest speaker from, we think a Swedish temple) and his wife come and speak, but it was in Swedish. That was a little hard to understand, but we picked up a good chunk of it! We had a fællesspisning afterwards, which was pretty fun! We got way too much cake to take home though! And it was raining outside, so of course we had to fix the bike chains while in the rain and suits! It was pretty funny. We did a little bit of finding that evening as well.

My spiritual thought is this, Haggai 1:5 "Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; consider your ways." I've thought a lot about this the past couple days. How is what we are doing, helping the Lord's work in His kingdom? There are tons of ways to push the work forward, and also ways that we can increase the effect in the future, but we can always do something to progress the work! I really liked that thought as a missionary. There are a ton of ways that we can "meet people" but how many of them allow us to teach and bring them closer to Christ. I'm trying to be more effective with my time and activities. I would invite you also to consider your ways! How are you serving the Lord right now? What is something you can do to better serve Him?

I hope you all have a great week! Sorry graduations are over, but now summer is starting! A lot of people are headed on vacation. Remember to take your scriptures with you! And use them! ;)

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Ældste Bryant Jepsen

- Our kitchen (not actually sure why I took this picture)

- Our calzones!

- I don't have any exciting pictures, so here's us emailing....