From Weaknesses to Strengths

A beautiful tree that was hollow on the inside which Ældste Metcalf and I found in Klampenborg.

Congratulations to Nathan on winning Best Monologue [at the High School Shakespeare Competition]! That's absolutely incredible! Great work Nathan. :) And thanks to everyone that helped!

So this has definitely been one of the slower weeks as far as the work is concerned...but it was still great and I've learned a lot!

Basically, the biggest problem is that for the past couple weeks we've had about a billion lessons scheduled and have burned by every single one of them. That's been a little rough since we feel like we have been working so hard and these appointments are confirmed the day beforehand...but we still did have a few good lessons!

Elder Metcalf and Elder Wawro teaching at Zone Training

We were out knocking this last week and knocked on the door of a college student. He at first wasn't really interested, but then we introduced ourselves as Mormons and got really excited! Ældste Metcalf and I were both a little confused because, well, for the most-part people don't get that excited to hear that we're Mormons! He invited us right in and told us that he couldn't believe that he'd actually met some real Mormons. He's heard about us from South Park and The Book of Mormon Musical (of course) but didn't think any missionaries were actually there in Denmark. We taught the Restoration to him and he had a good blending of great questions, and maybe some not so great questions from what he'd heard from South Park. But the entire time he really was so excited to actually meet with us. By the end, he told us we could definitely come back and then next time he would invite all of his friends to come over as well! I'd consider that a success!

The District

During one of our visits to [a members home, her non-member brother] was there again! This time around we taught the Plan of Salvation. He really has some great questions, and it's even better because his sister [the member] thinks exactly like him! So she knows exactly how to answer all of his questions because she's already thought about them herself. It turned out to be a great appointment, and most importantly it boiled down to the great questions, why do I need to find out if God exists now? These visits are really getting him to start thinking so hopefully we start seeing some action from him to find out.

I contacted somebody on the train the other day. She didn't live in our area but I ended up getting her phone number and address from her and referred her to the Birkerød Elders. Apparently, they stopped by and now she wants to be baptized! I guess contacting on trains does work sometimes!

Zone Training

Ældste Metcalf and I have been trying to find more opportunities to serve in the community, so we decided to stop by the kommune and ask what we can do to help! The workers there were really impressed with us, it doesn't seem like they really get a lot of volunteers. They gave us a bunch of different options of things we can do. They asked specifically if I can begin going to a lot of these old people homes and hospitals to play piano for them. That should start within the next couple of weeks.

On a sadder note, a woman in our ward passed away this last week. She was only 30 years old with a husband and 2 daughters. She was completely fine the week before, and then she started getting headaches so she got a scan and found out she had a brain tumor on the brain stem. They thought they repaired it, but something went wrong and within a week’s time she had passed away. It has been incredibly sad for the entire ward and of course the family. The funeral was on Saturday and it was very touching, but very sad. I would invite you to keep The Als Family in your prayers.

Splits with Ældste Sakurada!

On a lighter note, President Sederholm told me to study Ether 12 and figure out how I can turn my weaknesses into strengths. I had some concerns that my weaknesses could be holding our area from reaching its full potential. I studied it and especially focused on studying that in Preach My Gospel and The Book of Mormon. There were a few things that I learned.

First off, in the last verse of 1 Nephi 1 it says: "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

I kind of consider that Nephi's "Thesis Statement" of The Book of Mormon. One of the purposes is to show how, through your faith, the Lord can make you mighty unto deliverance. The Book of Mormon always talks about remembering the captivity of our fathers and their deliverance from Egypt. This of course typifies both physically and spiritually. If the Book of Mormon has such a focus on being delivered from bondage, than I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that I have so many weaknesses to be delivered from! That's why I'm here! I need the Lord to help strengthen me so that I can overcome my weaknesses and be delivered from the natural man inside of me. And, most importantly, it will only come through my Faith in Christ.

There have been about a billion advertisements for "Fanta Peach" but not a single store has actually owned one! Nobody in the mission had been able to actually find a Fanta Peach. So we started a fun little competition to see who in the Zone could find the first Fanta Peach. I, of course, found the only one in existence. It was the only one on the shelf in a random supermarket. Skål to Fanta Peach!

I also started reading through Ch. 6 in Preach My Gospel and took the test at the end to see where I was at with attributes of Christ. It definitely was an eye-opener to me to see where I really needed to improve. I was better and worse in some areas than I initially thought. Definitely, this week, I'm going to be focused on what I need to do to strengthen my Faith in Christ so I can become mighty unto deliverance. We'll see where it leads me!

Here's to another great week! Love you all!

MKH,

-Ældste Wawro

P.S. - Has anyone seen [the new LDS film] “Meet the Mormons” yet?! I really want to hear how it is!! Mormon Newsroom has some really positive things to say about it, but you can tell me a lot more than Mormon Newsroom!