New Year, New Area, New Country?!

Contrary to popular belief, Denmark is a small country. But what you also must know, they have rivalries. For instance, people who live on Jylland (mainland) call Sjælland (island where Copenhagen is located) the "Devil's Island." This will be important later on in the letter.

Monday, New Year's Eve! It was also a really relaxed P-day for us. We honestly didn't even worry about buying food for the week because the apartment needed to be empty at the end, so we just ate everything we could throughout the week. But we basically hung out on the gågade, checked out a few stores, played the piano in the church while the Sisters emailed, then rushed ourselves to email. Then we biked out to Kirsten and Carl-Johan Grabe's for New Year's! John and Annemarie also came along, so it was pretty fun! There were a lot of jokes all night! Later, Ældste Bailey fell asleep at 10, but I was kept awake by the fireworks outside the window. But we had a really good view, so that wasn't too shabby. 

Tuesday was our annual "Deep Cleaning Day." So we cleaned for a couple hours, and then went to the church and played ping pong with Benjamin, Pete, Steffan, Jonas, and the Sisters. Definitely a really fun activity and also helped fellowship Jonas! It was awesome! I'm sadly a little rusty, so I couldn't beat every body. ;) Afterwards, the Sisters and us went to a Running Sushi resturant. It was pretty exciting because I hadn't really had sushi. Ældste Bailey basically ate everything that came past except the oranges, but the rest of us also got our fair share. It was pretty decent, but not something I'd want to pay very much for. Then we all had a lesson with the Lupo family. We watched the Dispensations video and talked about The Book of Mormon more. Constantin has been reading The Book of Mormon aloud to the whole family, and they all love it!! It's honestly amazing! Constantin said every page is his new favorite, and Mihaela said (translated through Simon) that she really loved hearing it! The Sisters were thereafter in charge of teaching them, so we got some pictures with them. It was pretty sad saying goodbye, but they'll be in good hands. 

Wednesday was the only "normal" day. So we contacted a lot, tried to fix the Sisters bikes (again), and then biked out to knock and stop by people. It's pretty much just us trying to contact all potentials we've found to set them up for the Sisters to come. It's some pretty weird work, to be honest.

Then Thursday came. The plan was to take the train down to Sønderborg, but our trains were cancelled. So we decided to take the train to Lunderskov (like usual) and Sønderborg said they'd pick us up there. After waiting in Lunderskov for a half hour, and not having the Sønderborg Elders answer their phone, we texted them and went inside of a grocery store. Then we saw them, quickly bought the few food items we picked for lunch, and when we came out they were gone! We waited longer there and at the station and eventually took the train down to Sønderborg to be picked up there instead. Basically, they had forgotten their phone when they drove up, so they had just "randomly" (actually spiritually led) came into Super Brugsen where we were, but they didn't come in like they thought they should. So our splits were weird. Ældste Hosac and I did some stop by's for some people and then contacted. We had some short conversations, but mostly with German people.

Friday was District Council, which was about "many are called, but few are chosen." (See spiritual thought for details) The Zone Leaders were also with us. Afterwards, the Fonnesbecks came to inspect our apartment and plan how to empty it. We also had a frustrating lesson with a man named Jesper. He's extremely passive to the point where he said if God showed Himself to him, he wouldn't believe unless others could confirm it. That was kind of annoying...

Saturday included: No Weekly Planning!! That was exciting! We just had to have the area book updated enough for the Sisters to take it over. We did get transfer calls as well. Ældste Bailey is headed up to Aarhus, then Søster Routh is actually leaving for Slagelse, and finally: I'm leaving my Jylland Kingdom to white wash the Sisters' area on Amager! It's an island just next to Copenghagen. I get to serve with Ældste Noah Throckmorton, who is also from my group!! I'm super happy about that. It'll be an adventure with the new country and all. ;) (Sjælland is basically a new country compared to Jylland) We then taught Faris, which went pretty well. He had read in the Book of Mormon. We also taught Kim Asmussen, which was awesome! We went through the baptismal questions and he's solid on all of them. He just needs to decide when he'll get baptized! Then we may have gotten lost biking from Kim's to the Kjær family's house. We were on bike paths, but then they turned into highways or were interrupted by shipping warehouses so we had to walk around in a field. We also were chased by a dog that we first thought was a small wolf. So that was fun! But the Kjær family was really fun! 

Sunday was 2 hour church and then simply apartment stuff. First off, Martin Rusbjerg is officially home with his new wife, Brooklyn. That was weird to have her back in the mission. But we had a great Guest Class! There were five guests and about the same number members. We then visited Erik Houborg for the last time. Everything after that was packing up our apartment: our things, the book case, the kitchen, etc. It was intensive. Then we got to bed in order to wake up at 4 the next morning.

Spiritual thought from District Council! We read a lot of correlating scriptures and discussed that God really calls everyone to repent and come to Christ. Everyone is called by God in some way, shape, or form. But it is up to us if we choose to accept the call. Our action of following the promptings and doing His will. It was a really cool thought.

Have a great week! Vi snakkes!

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Ældste Bryant Jepsen

- Packing up Esbjerg

- Fireworks
- Running Sushi

- Lupo Family (Simon, Mihaela, and Constantin)

- Kjær Family (Lis, Marianne, and Lars)
- More bike repairs
- Sunday with Martin and Brooklyn Rusbjerg
- Transferring and passing The Wave apartments in Vejle

- Ældste Throckmorton and I at KFC