Happy New Year

Bornholm is famous for having round churches.
This is one is called Nylarskirke and we biked by it on the way to Aakirkeby

Happy New Years everyone!!!

I can't believe that it's 2015...it's crazy. 2014 was the only year that I spent entirely in the service of the Lord as a missionary! It's actually pretty sad that think that that came to a close. But I'm sure 2015 has a lot of adventures in store for us!

Happy Birthday Dad! You're the best ever and I hope that your birthday was an eventful one!

New Years Day was spent with the Mogensens, as you probably could have guessed, and it was so much fun! We played boardgames and watched all of the fireworks, and they even shot off some of their own as well! You can probably remember from last year, the fireworks are crazy here! Well, it was just a way fun evening and great way to close 2014!

Elder Redd and I are having a great time on Bornholm. It was a little bit hard to get in contact with a lot of our investigators because of the New Year, but I'm expecting this next week we're going to have some great success! This week started off with a visit with *E. I feel way sorry for the guy because he's let his desire to drink alcohol destroy his testimony. He keeps bringing all this stuff up about Joseph Smith and how the church can't be true because of what he's done, but deep down I feel like he knows it's true. He's just trying to feel justified in his breaking the commandments. But I do feel like we're starting to build a friendship with him. He is a nice guy, just a little lost.

So, Elder Redd and I decided one day that we were going to bike from our apartment to Aakirkeby to work. It's about a 16 km bike ride, so it takes a bit to get there. And boy, was it windy. It was way nice and beautiful bike ride from Rønne to Aakirkeby. The sun was shining, the strong wind was on our backs. There were times where I literally didn't need to peddle the wind was pushing me so hard!

We biked to some members and had a great talk with them and then biked a little bit farther out from Aakirkeby to meet a previous investigator named Jens Knudsen. He was a way nice guy, and just about as bornholmsk as you can get! He has a family and just seems to be a great father. We talked for a while, but it was late in the evening and we still needed to bike home, so we didn't get to talk too much. But we did get to pray with him and I feel like it did make an impact. We'll have to see how positive he really is in the future.

But unfortunately, by the time we got out it was already 8:30 P.M. and we weren't even back to Aakirkeby. Let me just say, the bike ride home was not quite as beautiful and enjoyable as the earlier ride. It was dark, cold, and the wind that was carrying us was now against us the entire ride home! The normal wind speed was around 47 km/hr with gusts up to 60 km/hr against us the entire way home! We biked for 45 minutes with times where Elder Redd and I literally were almost blown off of our bikes and found ourselves only halfway home in Lobbæk. So, we decided we needed to put our pride away and call the Middlemas's to pick us up. We parked our bikes at the Mogensens and got picked up. Ha, though it was miserable then, looking back it was kind of funny to picture us riding against that wind uphill. But we're survivors!

Ældste Middlemas came with us to an appointment yesterday with *N and *K and it turned out fantastic! We showed them the "Because of Him" video and got talking about new beginnings and the end of the old life because of the New Years. It was such a good discussion and they really seemed to appreciate it. You could really feel the Spirit in the room as we talked and answered questions. Not going to lie, they have a long ways to go, but I do think that they have great potential.

That's all the exciting stuff from this week! Elder Redd and I are having a great time together and really enjoying serving together! I love you all and have a great week!

-Ældste Wawro

P.S. - We biked by Nylarskirke on our way to Aakirkeby.