Monday, December 3, 2018

The Taxi Miracle


This is basically like a sequel to last transfer, but more as a preface to the next couple weeks. It's been a strange week with a lot of teaching which is kind of setting up the rest of the transfer.

Monday was quite basic. We had P-day stuff with people transfering around us. We went to send off the Sisters in the morning, then we basically just did normal things until we all met at Steffan's house to eat. Sister Thorpe is happy to be here, and is used to the weirdness of the Elder-Sister (fælles) area, so that's good. After Steffan, Ældste Bailey and I had to finish Weekly Planning because it got cut short (again) last week. So it was a pretty relaxed day. 

Tuesday was exciting-ish. The Sisters were having bike problems, so we were called in as reinforcements. Turned out they needed a new tube, so they headed off to get one but picked up the wrong one... Eventually we told them what they would need and basically headed our way so we could try to do missionary work. But we came back later to help put everything back together anyways. Then for just a half hour before Coordination Meeting, we biked over to Martin's house and just knocked a couple of his neighboring buildings. While we were there, we were let in by a Romanian family! Constantin (father), Mihaela (mom), Albert (18, but wasn't there), and Simon (13). We explained why we were there and Simon just bore his testimony of how Jesus Christ is the greatest man in the world! They're all Christian Orthodox, but told us thank you for coming by and teaching them more. They're super open and really want to meet! We're super stoked to be working with them. It's mostly in English, but sometimes we have to translate through Simon so his dad understands. (Simon-Danish, English, Constantin-some English, Mihaela- Romanian, Albert- English) We then had Coordination meeting and then went knocking afterwards. 

Wednesday we had a couple appointments, but they were cancelled. So we were out finding the whole time until UV (young adults) that night. We had quite a few really cool people talk with us and made several appointments. For UV, we played Never Have I Ever, but we didn't run around a switch chairs or anything. It was ok, but mostly fun when people had stories.

Thursday was District Council, which was fun. Then we went out finding in the pouring rain. We got literally soaked, but had a couple people let us in! One lady named Karen let us in and talked with us. She's basically an older cat lady, so that was pretty chill. That evening, Don and Solveig Miller had us over to eat! We also had Kim Andreasen there, and he shared his conversion story, which was super cool!! It was really fun! Don is from Rose Park, so it was an interesting mix of Danish and English the whole night.

Friday was miraculous! We had just finding most of the day, so we went to Fyrparken. While there, we had some amazing conversations and found quite a few people who set appointments with us! We're going back Monday to teach a couple of them. It was really cool! One guy named Klaus seemed like he was going to be a punk guy, but he already had Mormons Bog and was super open to talk about religion. We'll see how well that goes for us. We then ate with Steffan again! He made an amazing flæskesteg. After that, we hurried over to Constantin's and taught those four again. We had some Romanian materials so we could fluidly teach the Restoration to them. Constantin also asked us if we could help him stop smoking and drinking because he knows it's bad! It was a super cool lesson and the Spirit was quite strong even with a language barrier. They also said they wanted to come to church on Sunday! It was super fun!

Saturday was good too. We had a lesson with Faris again, and he brought a friend, Hassan! They're both from Iraq and are interested in learning what we believe. They listened very intently to us in Danish but sometimes have to ask us to clarify in English (which they are fluent in anyways). That was fun! We then had Weekly Planning and headed to Martin Nielsen's to teach. It was basically the same thing on repeat. He couldn't really remember anything we had taught him, told us the same stories, and asked the same questions. So we're questioning how much he wants to learn. But he said he wanted to come to church, so that's fine.

Sunday was hectic and insane! We went to choir in the morning, but had to call Martin to make sure we wouldn't come pick him up for no reason, but he said he would get ready. So Don drove us over so we could pick him up. Martin was totally drunk, which was scary because he wasn't too much different. We had to help him with a white shirt and tie and then we finally made it out the door and to church. Martin came in and sat down easily enough, but during the Sacrament he told us he was leaving and then just walked out. We waited until after the Sacrament and then chased him outside. He was smoking, so we just talked with him. He was ready to leave, but I wasn't sure how to get him home safely... But the Lord did! Literally right then a taxi pulled into the church! Martin said he would take that home, so that was all fine. And then out of the taxi comes the Romanian family!! All four of them!! They all stayed for the rest of Sacrament Meeting and Guest Class (which was in English that day). The Sisters also had their friend, Jonas, come to church, so we were his friends during Priesthood. He had a ton of questions after a lesson about Priesthood Blessings and such, so we were there for a long time afterwards. After we left the church, we went knocking for a little while and got some more appointments through some miraculous (Dale Carnegie) methods. Then we hopped on a train for ten minutes to eat with Christina and Torben Buur Pedersen! They're super cool!! 

As for a spiritual thought, I've been reading a lot about Joseph Smith lately. In "The Articles of Faith" by James E. Talmage, he discussed several claims to Joseph's authority as a prophet. It's really good! Just by studying more about Joseph Smith can help build your testimony that he is truly a prophet of God! One thing I thought was interesting is the amount of time between the First Vision and when Moroni comes. That takes a lot of patience and perseverance!

I hope you all have a great week though! Keep being awesome and look forward to Christmas!! It's just around the corner!

--
Ældste Bryant Jepsen

-We ate at the Buur Pedersen Family's and they took our picture.





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