Christian's Best Two Years: Hvorhen? [Translation: Where?]

Goodbye, Randers

Hello family, friends, one and all! I am currently writing from a city that is not Randers. Yes...it's true, today I was transferred from Randers. Caught a train at 7:47 and took it all the way down to ______ where I currently am!

I am very grateful for my time spent in Randers. I was very sad to hear I was leaving. I grew so much as a missionary and as a person while I've been there. I love the members and everyone else that I've met there so much. I hope I'll be able to return one day.

But! I have been transferred to a wonderful place. In fact, they call it the "Promised Land" of the mission. They have 6 Elders, 4 Sisters, and 1 Senior Couple in this city alone and another pair of Elders in the District. It is famous for being the hometown of Hans Christian Andersen, the writer of fairytales.

And my new area.....

An old Viking burial ground

ODENSE!!!!

Odense. It's a wonderful city. I already love everything that I've seen. It's on the Island of Fyn which is in between Jylland and Sjælland. It's my first time not serving on Jylland...in fact, it's my first time not serving in Midtjylland! But I'm very excited to be here.

My companion’s name is Ældste Mogensen, and I can already tell that he's way cool. He actually is Danish! He comes from Bornholm, that one Island that's in between Denmark and Poland. So, needless to say, he's a lot better at Danish than me...and everybody else in the mission. He's a really great guy, though, and I'm so excited to serve with him! Our apartment is way nice. It's right on the Gågade in the center of town.

BTW, you might be interested in my new address:

Ældste Christian Patrick Wawro

Vestergade 7, 2, MF

5000 Odense C
Danmark

So yeah, I am currently

New Danish Companion: Elder Mogensen

writing from Odense. It's pretty weird not being in Randers anymore, but I'm excited for the work here in Odense!

Last Monday was a really great experience for Ældste Brindley and I. We met with one of our investigators. He's the one that came to our Åbent hus and really enjoyed it He especially liked the baptismal room. He told us that us Mormons do Baptism right. So we decided to go in at this appointment teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We started the lesson by reading in Matt. 3 the baptism of Jesus. We found at that he loves that scripture. He then cut us off at the end and said, "I know what your purpose as missionaries is. I'm not dumb. I have looked you up on the internet in the past and I know that it's your goal to baptize people like me. And that's great. The only thing is, I'm one of the few people here in Denmark that my baptism actually meant something to. I loved my baptism and it really means a lot to me. I have a hard time grasping the idea of a re-baptism."

We were a little taken aback, but after we explained how we know that his baptism meant a lot to him and we were so happy that he understands what baptism really means, a commitment to follow God. We told him that we preferred that than someone who didn't grasp the concept and commitment that follows baptism.

We then told him to pay attention to how he feels as we read in the scriptures, and we hope that the Holy Ghost will testify to him what he needs to do. Then we read 2 Nephi 31. As we read and discussed, the Spirit was so strong. It really was unbelievable. We felt it, and we knew that he felt. At the end he just looked up at us and stared, which is really out of the ordinary for him. He's a talker. We sat there in silence for a little bit, then, I testified that I knew these things were true and would bless his life. Ældste Brindley then came in with the commitment to be baptized on the 12th of April, and to read in the Book of Mormon everyday to prepare for his baptism. He accepted, and since then he has been looking forward to his date!

Cool church near Randers

I was very grateful for this experience. After being in Randers for so long, I was getting a little disappointed that I hadn't seen any baptisms or reactivations, where as in Århus I saw multiple reactivations and helped 2 people in the baptismal process. I was a little down, but it was a tender mercy of the Lord to let me set a baptismal date before I left. I don't know if he'll be baptized, but I feel like I've done my part in Randers.

We also had a great experience with contacting using Family History. Right after or Zone Conference we had some time to contact people on the road. We didn't have a lot of time, so we walked around our neighborhood, and it seemed like nobody was around. There was one lady we passed by right at the beginning that we hadn't contacted because we were busy talking about where we needed to go, but as she passed by I told Ældste Brindley we should have contacted her, and he agreed. But she was so far down we decided to just keep walking. About 10 minutes later, when we were heading back we ran into her again. Thank goodness the Lord makes up for our slack and gave us another opportunity to talk to her. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and explained we were going around talking to people about family history. She looked only around 23-25 years old, so I really didn't feel like she would have been that interested, but I asked her if she had done any genealogy, and she affirmed that she had! She continued to say that it has been hard for her to do because she really doesn't have a program or anything to help her with it. It was the perfect lead up to start explaining familysearch.org. She was so excited to hear about it and she wants to learn more! It was definitely a testimony builder to me about using genealogy more in our missionary work.

I'm trying to remember any other significant things that happened...but I don't have my planner from last transfer on me. It's been kind of a crazy day with moving and all that jazz.

Oh! I did get both of the packages! Thank you for sending them! I'm excited for the 15th of March...can't believe I'm reaching the big 20. Elder Mogensens birthday is on the 22nd, and I also hit my 1 year mark this transfer, so we have a lot to celebrate!

Excited to hear about Ashley! Mandarin speaking! That's gonna be fun.

Also, thanks for all the recipes! We're going to be doing some cooking this week.

Thank you for everything that you do! I love you all and hope you the best!

Here ends 7 months in Randers, and begins my first day in Odense. Challenge accepted.

-Ældste Wawro