STOR NYHEDER! [GREAT NEWS]

BIG NEWS EVERYBODY! I'd love to share that all with you now, but I think I'll wait to the end to write it. By the way, I got a 35 on the ACT on the English section so I do not need help with the English language Dad! ;) [Christian's dad had to reacquaint him with certain grammatical rules of English such as the differences between "their" and "there."]

I must say, my favorite thing to read are the funny family stories. They make me laugh so hard!

My coats have actually been just great. I don't need a warmer coat. Oh, and actually, remember that side bag that we bought from Mr. Macs? First, they changed policy so we always need to wear sidebags, so I'm glad we bought that. Also, the bag says TASKE and that's Danish for Bag! Funny stuff.

It's great to hear about Jared. I wish I could have seen him before I left! Sounds like he's adapting fine to normal life.

Shakespeare festival should be a great experience for everybody. That was always one of my favorite parts of the year! I love the Shakespeare Festival! I'm sure the Madrigal is going to turn out great.

I think Casey's decision about Seussical was smart. She's already busy enough as it is. I don't think it's anything she needs to stress over. No use stressing over things that are out of your control. I also think that Volleyball has been a great new opportunity for her! Keep it up! Keep me updated on Nathan's Football games. I want to hear how he is doing.

I hear Christmas in Denmark is fantastic, but I am going to miss Temple Square. That's so great that Haley has the opportunity to be in the “Savior of the World” [production at the LDS Conference Center this Christmas season.]

Ha, Dad did mention about Gayle's [Lockwood] comment [about how she could use Christian for an accompanist for her 12:00 voice lessons at BYU this semester]. Tell her I'd be more than willing in a year and a half!

Glad the garage sale was successful. I've actually learned the joy of having a clean and organized house/apartment since being here on my mission. It's really the only way to go! Sorry I didn't learn that lesson earlier. ;)

Yes, it is funny that I live on Prince Christian's Road! It actually took me a couple weeks to even realize that. I need to take a picture of me next to that sign. And yes, Denmark is so clean and beautiful. It's green and filled with old architecture and the clouds are amazing. I'll actually send some pictures that show that today! But yeah, there is also a lot of not so clean stuff on billboards...everywhere.

Missionary Apartment (brown door on right) on Prince Christian Street.. No kidding!

Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro

Pr. Christians Gade 15,st TH

8900 Randers C

Danmark

About all the new social media stuff, trust me, the missionaries here are on edge just waiting for our turn to begin this new phase of missionnæring.

This past week has been a lot of finding and not so much teaching, but actually, it was fun while doing it. We really learned a lot about finding during the zone conference and it's made it so much more enjoyable to do because we really are searching out to find the elect. I also think it's better for us because Ældste Peterson and I are understanding significantly more in Danish and can start really getting to know the people we meet. Where before giving out 1-2 copies of the Book of Mormon was a good week (it was the same in Århus while I was there) we are now giving out 2 BoMs every day! It is really great to see.

I had been having a little bit of problems with my bike so that's why I've been spending money out of my debit card. Everything is fixed now though!

Probably the biggest miracle this last week was when we met with one of our investigators. She is one that Ældste Peterson and I found our first day here in Randers. They have been good lessons, she doesn't have a Christian background so we have to go really slow with our lessons...like REALLY slow. One time we had watched "Finding Faith in Christ" the week before and began talking about His 12 apostles and she said, "What?" We replied, "Do you remember from the video (and all of our lessons before) that Jesus had 12 men who helped him out?" She sat there for a second and then began, "oh, Oh, OH! Ya, the Three Wise Men?!" .... No, not the Three Wise Men.

Anyway, she had been asking about why we don't drink coffee or tea. We were a little nervous to teach her the Word of Wisdom because since our first visit she had gone through around 3-5 cigarettes a visit. Huge smoker. Anyway, we decided it was time to teach her, so we prepared our lesson and went to her apartment. When we got there we realized it smelled significantly better than usual. We sat down, prayed, showed her a video (because she loves the Mormon Messages) and were about to begin but she cut us off and said, "Yeah, so this last week I don't know why but I decided to stop smoking, so I'm not doing that anymore!" We were dumbfounded. Here was this lady who smoked packs every day and out of the blue just randomly stopped even though we had not even remotely mentioned that we don't smoke in our religion. Needless to say, we proceeded quite easily into the Word of Wisdom and she committed to try and live everything in it.

Elder Peterson and Elder Wawro

Ok, time for the BIG NEWS! -

So Ældste Peterson and I were making dinner on Wednesday night I believe where out of the blue we got a phone call from Præsident Sederholm. Obviously we knew something was up because you don't just get calls from him for no reason. Anyway, I answer and he asks me to put it on speaker phone. He then tells us that all the missionaries have received "THEIR" (happy Dad?) VISAS and they would be coming the following week. 15 new missionaries are coming and we have need for emergency transfers, so Ældste Peterson, you're moving to Fyn (the middle island in Denmark)

*RANDOM SIDE STORY!! - The lady write next to me on the computer here in the library heard me ask a question to Ældste Peterson in English (don't worry, I usually speak Danish to him) and introduced herself as also being an American. Small world!

Back to the story - "So Ældste Peterson, you're going to Fyn and will be companions with Ældste Eisert. Congratulations! Now Ældste Wawro, who is going to be your companion?" "Well, I don't know Præsident, you should tell me." I replied. He laughed and then said, "Ældste Wawro, you will be receiving a new missionary and will be training him in Randers!" CRAZY! So on Wednesday I will be going down to Copenhagen (I feel like I was just there) pick up my new missionary. Obviously it's a little scary because I've only been in Denmark for almost 4 months and am still not super great at the language, but I guess the Lord qualifies his servants!

So that is all for today folks! I hope this week will be a fantastic week for you all! I'll let you know all about my trip to Copenhagen and my new missionary in my next email! Oh, and get ready for some pictures of my trip to another castle last week!

MKH,

-Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Baptism of Brother
Dani Lakatos

Hilsen fra Randers! Another week has come and gone in the land! Everyone seems to be just as busy as usual, and things are the same here. I swear, every morning is like pulling daggers out of my eyes because I'm just so tired! It's ok though, I'll get my nap in a year and a half.

Now I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what happened with transfers. Big news, I'm staying in Randers with Ældste Peterson! Nothing big is happening because there are a bunch of VISA problems. Only 3 Elders are coming this week and there are over 20 waiting for their VISAs from this group and from the last group. There should be some sub-transfers within this next month as more and more missionaries obtain their VISAs. 

It's so great to hear about Casey's volleyball games! Way to go Casey! Det glæder mig [translation: I am pleased] to hear Orem beat Mountain View, but when I heard yesterday that BYU lost to UoU I was distraught! All well, if I remember correctly I'll be home in time to see their next game. Great that Eric Sackett won a new car! Wish that happened to me. 

Can't believe David [Buckley] and Ben [Thomas] have already begun/are beginning their missions. David chose a great scripture to use. That is definitely one of my favorites. And I replied to Ben's email weeks ago so he did have the right email. 

Ha, speaking of scriptures, I have this huge quote wall above/adjacent to my skrivebord [translation: Desk] where I put sticky notes of some of my favorite scriptures. I'll have to take a picture of it sometime and send it to you, because there are a lot of sticky notes!

It's a little sad seeing the sun go down significantly earlier day after day. Pretty soon the sun is going to be completely down around 4:00. It's also starting to get colder. Definitely can't wait for that.

Copenhagen was pretty boring. We rode a train for 4 hours to get there, then we took the language/Danish History and Culture test (way easy), and then rode home. It was super sad though because 2 days later at Zone Conference Præsident Sederholm told all the other missionaries that when they make their way over to Copenhagen to take the test that they should make time to visit the Temple! Ældste Peterson and I were the first to take the test of our groups and so he forgot to tell us beforehand. All well, we'll get there one day! 

Here is my direct address if you want to write directly to me. It's a little risky because if it comes after transfers and I leave the missionaries will probably forget to forward it to me for a long time. I do get the letters significantly sooner though if you send them directly to me. Oh, and I got your package last week at zone conference! I haven't opened it yet like you said. Thanks for the package and also thanks for the sheet music!!! 

Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro

Pr. Christians Gade 15,st TH

8900 Randers C

Danmark

So there were two big events that happened this week. I'll start off with Zone Conference...

Zone Conference

So we had Zone Conference with Præsident Sederholm. Let me begin by saying he is probably the greatest mission preæsident of all the mission præsidents. He just went to conference in France where they had 2 Apostles and many in the 70 in attendance. They focused on the importance of obedience and finding people. He came back and taught so many amazing things to us all He said we should make it a point to talk to every single person, even if you normally would judge them as somebody not interested. He also told us to "Not just believe in Christ. Believe Him." Believe His promises that He is gathering Israel for the final time and that He is hastening his work. He will lead us to the elect

Zone Training

. 

At the end of the conference he told us that everyone in the zone was going to go out into Århus and find the elect. First we sent us out to pray what the Lord would have us do, and than have faith to do it. We had one hour. Ældste Peterson and I had the impression that we needed to give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon. Now, in Denmark it is pretty hard to give out 2 in an hour, but we decided we would. We ended up doing it and both with people we normally would have not talked to.

The first was a Muslim lady and she was the 2nd person we talked to. Contacting Muslims isn't very fun because they see we come from the Church of Jesus Christ and decide they aren't interested. We contacted her anyway and told her that God had called another prophet and she took a Book of Mormon!

The second person was a couple that we found right when we were returning to the church at the end of the hour. They were having an intense conversation on a bench and we really didn't want to interrupt them...but Præsident Sederholm told us to talk with "Everyone", so we did. The man went off on this huge rant about how Religion was the root of all evil and the woman affirmed that she not believe in God. Again, we normally would have given up then, but we continued to deliver our message of the Book of Mormon cause we "Believed Christ" that he would help us know what to say. Strangely enough, she ended up taking a Book of Mormon! 

It was amazing to see and this experience was a huge testimony builder! Since then as we've tried to talk to everyone we have passed out 8 copies of the Book of Mormon in just the last couple days, and all of them with people we would not have talked to before.

North Jylland Zone Conference

Baptism in Århus

The second thing is that I had my first baptism here on my mission!!! It was with the Romanian in Århus named Dani Lakatos. He just got baptized on Saturday and it is amazing to see how his life has changed since Ældste Elsbury and I met him on splits. Our first appointment with him was on splits and I invited him to baptism but he said he couldn't because he didn't come to church. He said while he was in the church he felt so peaceful and he didn't know why, so obviously, we told him why. He said he loved the feeling, but he was too busy to come to church. A few days later Ældste Lindstrom and I received a text from him saying he wanted to live the 10 commandments. He is just a little older than me and we really connected since we began teaching him.

Baptism of Dani Lakatos

 

Elder Wawro and Elder Elsbury who first met Brother Lakatos

I can attest to the power of the atonement as I have seen Dani change his life completely around. He prayed every day for help in making positive changes in his life needed to qualify for baptism.  I have seen how he learned to rely on the Savior as he left all of his friends who were bad influences on him and replaced them with supportive members of the church.  Like all of us, he made mistakes every once in a while.  Yet now he has learned he can always get right back on his feet by repenting and praying for strength. He is completely a "new creature in Christ" as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

I'd like to end with one of the scriptures I've read in Doctrine and Covenants. It's a letter Joseph Smith wrote to the people in Nauvoo where he explains Baptisms for the Dead and then attests to the greatness of the work. D&C 128:19, 22 -

"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? ...Mercy from heaven...truth out of the earth...a voice of gladness for both the living and the dead...

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

-Ældste Wawro

Happy Half Birthday To Me!

Preparation Day in Randers, Denmark

Greetings from the 19 1/2 + 1 day old Ældste in Randers! Yesterday was my half-birthday so I sure hope that everyone did something to celebrate! A cake, maybe a balloon or two?

As usual, it's great to be up-to-date with the daily affairs of the family back at home. Casey with Volleyball and Seminary, Nathan with Homecoming and his acapella group, Haley with school and Savior of the World, Mom with finishing It's a Good Man Charlie Brown and training, and Dad with...whatever he's doing. Probably busy being awesome.

BTW, mom, I have been getting your Dear Elders and I really appreciate them. I love hearing about Ældste Soper, Zushi, and Søster Wawro! Thank you for sending them! And I should be getting your package this week in Zone Conference!

Visiting Old Friends in Arhus
Honestly, this last week wasn't super eventfull. Not that it was boring or even that we were just knocking doors, but not anything too crazy. The highlight was probably when I was on splits in Århus.

My last companion, Ældste Lindstrom, is training again and so his new trainee is my brother in the Mission Family. I went on splits with him this last week and it was interesting to see him in the same position that I was in 3 months ago. Frustrated with the language, but eager to do missionary work. We had a couple lessons with some of my previous investigators and that was really great to see them again.

One of them we watched the Joseph Smith film with and he really enjoyed it. He's a muslim who is honestly seeking the truth to find God's will for him. It was interesting though, his favorite parts were some of the small parts we don't really think about. He really liked that part where Joseph was running with the kids and then when that one lady yelled, "Smith! I don't believe in your religion! But I do want to thank you for your service." and he replies, "Well, you might say that that is our religion Ma'm." He also told us that whenever he thinks that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ it just takes his breath away. It truly is an amazing story and we should remember how blessed we are to have this knowledge and be grateful that Joseph Smith had the courage to pray to God for wisdom.

The other investigator was one of my really positive investigators from before. He is supposed to be baptized this week and I'll be playing piano at his baptism. I really hope and pray that it goes through because he has really turned his life completely since he began meeting with us. 

Elder Peterson and I at a service project at the Randers Branch building

Language Testing and Transfers?
Tomorrow I'm going to Copenhagen to take my language test! If I don't pass, I'll be deported from the country! Ha, but I should be fine, a missionary has never failed the test. Oh, this is also the last week til transfers and there will be around 20 new missionaries coming this next week so we will see if Ældste Peterson and I stay together or if one of us will be on the flight! I might be in an entirely new area next time you hear from me! ;)

I hope everything continues to go well with you all! You are in my prayers always! 

MKH,

Ældste Wawro

5 Month Eve

Greetings from the Randers Tropical Zoo

Hej Hej Hej! Greetings from the Land! This week has been very good to us in Randers and we have been very blessed with our missionary work.

It sounds like “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” has just been fantastic! I can't wait to see it when I get back! I'm so glad that it's getting taped. 

That's great that you're still doing General Ruckus Casey! Sounds like you have your plate full with that, volleyball, and Student Council! Keep it up!

That Audra McDonald concert sounds like it was super! (Oh, btw, Danes here try to mimic some of the American phrases so they say "super" and "mega" a whole lot. Sometimes together! One of my favorites is when they say "super mega nice!") She really is so talented! I'm also super jealous that Haley got to do a workshop with her as well. Oh, and keep me updated with how her callback went! That would be great if she got the part!

Just Like Indiana Jones? 

Det vil altid gør mit hjerte glæde at høre BYU vinder deres kampe! [Translation: It always makes my heart happy to hear BYU win their games!] Sounds like the weather has been crazy! Well, comparatively to how Utah usually is. It's always raining here. ;) But all of those floods! I couldn't even believe the picture of the parking lot! 

So I haven't gotten the package yet but I'll let you know in a couple weeks because that's when the Assistants are coming for Zone Conference. 

I can't believe Ashley is leaving! So exciting, but she still has a few weeks left to squeeze in all the many things she'll want to do before leaving. How's Jared doing? So weird to think that he's home...

Cool to see that Michælah was on the cover of the Houston newspaper! I must say though, those American missionaries are pretty spoiled...we haven't heard anything of any of the new technology coming to the Great Danish Mission anytime soon! ;) We have a joke here that they're going to make "The Distrikt: European Edition" but it's just going to be missionaries contacting and knocking doors!

So this past week was filled with quite of few miracles. I believe we were blessed for our diligence for the week before even though we weren't receiving success. We passed out many copies of the Book of Mormon and many people told us to come back.

Ahh...Now that is a real Danish pastry!

I don't know if you know this already, but the highest ethnicity outside of Danish here is actually Muslim. There are more Muslims here than Swedes or Norwegians or any of these other countries. There are a lot of Muslims. Anyway, we were knocking in an opgang (it's like an apartment complex) and everybody seemed to be Muslim. They kept saying, in English because they don't know Danish well, "Everybody here is Muslim! Try somewhere else!" After one of these doors we were wondering whether or not we should just move to another no-so-muslimy area, but we decided to keep trying. The very next door....nobody answered. But! Just as we were walking down the staircase the door opened and this young Muslim lady called out to us to come back. I explained that we had a message about another prophet here on earth and she told us to come back to hear more about this prophet!

So one of our investigators had another dream. We had lost contact with her for about 3 weeks and we couldn't get a hold of her. Finally, we made an appointment with her and she explained this dream: In her dream she had a question that she couldn't seem to find an answer to. Then, God spoke to her and told her to answer her phone. Her phone started to ring and when she answered it …it was us! She's been really positive since then and we hope she stays that way!

Both Ældste Peterson and I made a couple mistakes this past week...hehe...First, we had a zone training and we received a text in Danish which Ældste Peterson thought said "The meeting is moving to 1:30" but really it said "The meeting is going until 1:30." We got a call about 10 minutes before it began asking if we were on our way and we replied we were still in Randers. We ended up being 45 minutes late to the training...ha, but the Mission President just laughed at us because he knew it was an honest mistake.

Then, the very next day we walked outside of the apartment and a horrible realization came over me. I had locked the keys in the apartment. We had no way to get in and we had locked all the windows as well! (I found that out as I climbed the fire escape to our apartment balcony ;)) We ended up having to take a train down to Århus and spend the night there until we got our key. That was fun. 

Randers Branch Building

Finally, we had had a few investigators who told us they would come to church this past Sunday and we were working really hard because our Mission President was speaking that Sunday and we knew how awesome of an opportunity that would be for all of them to hear him speak. We haven't had anybody come to church since I've been here in Randers but everything was in order for a couple investigators to be there. Then, the night before, both texted that they were not able to come so we didn't have anybody coming to church. We just started praying for God to let somebody come to church! We had worked so hard and all we wanted was 1 person! The next morning nothing happened, and we prayed again that God would let someone come. We got there and nobody was there...disappointing, but we went to Branch Council. When we came out we saw a family sitting there who had been investigating the church 15 years and have only come to church twice before! We had invited them but we had never imagined that they'd actually come! Then the senior missionary couple walked in and they brought somebody in as well! Then, out of nowhere, a family we had never taught before came in this huge car and made their way in the chapel. Turns out that one daughter had been baptized, came to visit them, and brought them to church with her! All in all we had 9 guests in church when we expected to have none! God surely blessed us that day.

Well, I hope that this week will be just as amazing as this last week for you all! I love you all!

MKH,

-Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro

The Week of Bonking (door knocking)

Greetings from Randers

Hej fra Randers! Det glæder mig til at skrive hjem idag. Dette uge har været rigtig langt!  [Translation: Hello from Randers! I am pleased to write home today. This week has been really long!]

It's great to hear about all of the great experiences going on back at home. That's great Haley is back at school. I'm actually really excited for school again and I think that I'll be taking it a little bit more seriously than before. I mean, I did well my last semester and got good grades, but I'm excited to actively learn and really try to remember the things that I learn and not just memorize them for the tests. Remember that Haley! Enjoy learning!

Mom, it's so fun to see the play you’re directing, “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” is finally opening at Orem High! I love that musical!! I bet it is going to be so fun! It's hilarious that you do the Les Mis march in it! 

Sounds like your trip driving to Texas with Uncle Jeff in his new Jeep has been fun Dad! Make sure to tell everyone that I say hello! Also, I have been getting Grandma Betty’s Dear Elders letters but I have no idea how long they take to get here. I think only a day or two...anyway, I'm actually writing a letter for her tonight so tell her to expect it in a week or so! 

Thanks for the scripture Mom! I love that scripture too. Also, how is Grandma Warren adjusting to living at our house?

That's awesome about the Volleyball team Casey! That will be so much fun. It's great that you're starting up sports again. As for sports in Denmark, they are really into Soccer. There is actually a Major soccer team in Randers named FC Randers. A member works there and told us that she'd actually take us to one of their games on a P-Day! 

So, about the baptisms in Århus...they actually didn't happen. It was so sad to hear. None of the three ended up being baptized on the date planned. Luckily all of them just got moved back a few weeks, so hopefully it will happen soon!

My companion Ældste Peterson comes from Vernal, Utah. He actually began his mission the group before me, but because he applied for his VISA the same day I did, he ended up being reassigned to Tennessee for 8 weeks. We got to Denmark the same day. He's a really nice person and it's been a fun last few weeks.

This past week has been a little long...it was a ton of contacting. Actually, we only had three total lessons last week so we just went out bonking [translation: door knocking] and contacting for hours and hours every day. We kept praying to put somebody in our path but day after day nobody in these hundreds of people we've talked to were interested. We didn't pass out a single Book of Mormon up to this point. It was a little disheartening, but we kept trying and just pressed forward. Yesterday, after having no appointments and it was the last hour of the day we decided to knock on one last door. It was a huge house and we assumed that because they were rich they wouldn't be interested. A young man opened the door, let us in, and we taught the Restoration to him! God literally waited until the last hour of the week to give us someone to teach! It was a great miracle and I know it wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been working as hard as we could to find someone new.

This week we also went to meeting of another church denomination on a Friday evening. We were the only white people there but they were super nice! A friend we met here invited them a while ago and while we were praying for new ideas to find people (as contacting was getting really old) Ældste Peterson remembered that promise so we went! The church was called "The Gathering of Champions" ....and the preacher gave a really good sermon.

This was the first time last week that somebody thought I wasn't American. He asked if I was Swedish, then said "No, you must be Norwegian from the way you speak Danish." He was surprised to hear that I was actually American and have only been here for 3 months! I've promoted from American accent to a Scandinavian Accent!

Anyway, that's my week! Can't wait to hear from you all again next week! Jeg elsker jer og håber at I vil have et rigtig godt uge! [Translation: I love you and hope you will have a great week!]

MKH,

Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro