Of Missionary Work and Gandalf

District Activity at Nyborg Castle

Hello, Hello, Hello! I am officially over my 1 year hump of my mission. Weird to think about. It's amazing all the things that have happened in this past year. I definitely couldn't imagine everything that this crazy adventure of being a missionary would entail.

Speaking of adventures, we held our District Activity this last week! We went to the town Nyborg to visit the Nyborg Castle and some other things around the area. Way too much fun! We have a lot of pictures where you will see us meeting some cool people like Gandalf and the Balrog of Morgoth!

So Gandalf, Have you heard about the Book of Mormon?

By the way, Yes, I am still District Leader. There are 2 District Leaders here on Fyn, and I'm the one over the Odense 2 Ward. That's why I've been going on splits with Svendborg and the Zone Leaders in Fredericia. I'm follow-up training Ældste Mogensen so he's only on his 3rd transfer here.

Defending Nyborg Castle (in background)

For some reason I thought Haley's theater thing was going to be in Idaho, not Montana! That's pretty far away! How long will she be there? And I wish her good luck with her Young Ambassadors audition results!

I hope Casey does well with her Student Council Interview. I bet she will!

We had a lesson with a couple guys named J****** and A********. They are both very active 7th Day Advendists who happened to walk in one time while Ældste Mogensen and Ældste Merril were holding Open Church. I met them for my first time this last Monday. The lesson started off really well as we began by asking about their experiences they've had gaining a testimony of Christ and of the Bible. After that, it started going downhill. They aren't against the Book of Mormon, but they explained that they found out that the Bible was true by studying its history, the archaeological evidence, and other ways besides just reading it. So now they feel like they need to have these physical proofs of the Book of Mormon as well as a spiritual witness. They also need to check it against the Bible to see if anything contradicts. The really difficult thing is that they misinterpret so many things in the Bible which in of themselves contradict each other, but there is no way to tell them that they understand all of the scriptures wrong. So we are a little confused on what we need to do with them. They are great people, but it seems like they are asking for more evidences than we have to offer. Testimony isn't enough for them. We'll see if we can figure something out.

We met with Martin again to help with his mission preparation! We gave him a “Preach My Gospel” [a missionary training book] in Slovakian and went through the main points of the first lesson. He really enjoyed it and asked lots of good questions about teaching and presentation. After that, we watched “The District” videos with him to get him excited about the mission and he really enjoyed that.

We met with Kim De King again this week, and he actually came to church! That was awesome! Unfortunately, he left as soon as the meeting was over, but it was still good to see him there.

T****** is doing great! I love teaching him. He came to church yesterday and is so excited for his baptism! We went over the Baptismal Interview Questions with him and he understands everything and has a strong testimony about it as well. He watched the entire "Thomas S. Monson: On the Lord's Errand" film and absolutely loves the Prophet. We also planned out his baptismal program and got it approved by the Bishop, so everything is continuing to go forward with him. President Sederholm actually asked us to move his baptismal date so he can come to it. He really loves T***** a lot. When T***** heard that President Sederholm was coming, he got so excited and asked if he could baptize him! Haha! So hopefully he can! May 3 is the magical date.

We had a great opportunity to serve this week. One of the less-actives we've been trying to work with, Stefen, needed help taking the wallpaper off of his wall. It was kind of a last-second call so he was really grateful that we could come. I remember doing it at our house, and for some reason, I don't remember it being that hard. But something made this project super difficult! And the room got more humid than you could imagine. All of us were sweating so much! While working with the steamer to peel off the wallpaper, we had some really great conversations about the church. He told us that he's getting married and he asked if he could do it in our church. We said of course. He wants to be married for time and eternity, so we're hoping we'll be able to talk about that more in the future and use that as an incentive to really get him back to church and active. He said his wife is also pretty open about it all, so hopefully we can talk to her as well!

Kind of a fun story:

While I was in Svendborg a couple weeks ago, Ældste DeMordaunt and I contacted a man who was carrying American Football Gear. By contacted, I mean chased down and yelled at. When we originally saw him, Ældste DeMordaunt turned to me and said, "We HAVE to contact that guy!" I didn't really want to because he had already turned the corner so we literally would have to chase him down. But Ældste DeMordaunt was persistent, so that's exactly what we did. Obviously he was very startled as we held at him from down the street to wait up, but after we introduced ourselves as Americans who loved American Football, he was really excited to talk to us! We never had the opportunity to really share anything about the church because he had to make it to practice, but it was a nice conversation and then we parted our separate ways.

So why do I tell you this story from a couple weeks ago, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you. This last week Ældste Jewkes and Ældste Demordaunt went to one of their really positive investigators and in the middle of the lesson she asked, "Hey, did you meet my brother?!" They were like, uhhhh....I don't think so...But then she said her little brother met a couple of guys dressed up all fancy who chased him down the road to talk about Football. He said they were really nice and he thought they were Mormons. Wow! What a small world that that guy just happened to be their investigators younger brother. Hopefully he'll start coming to the lessons as well!

We have big hopes for A*** P*******. She is the one who lived in Orem for 5 years. We visited her this past week and she loved our visit. We've begun a plan with her to help her stop smoking, drinking, and all of that Word of Wisdom stuff. She really has that sincere desire to come back. She even wants a calling! The problem is, her husband isn't as supportive as we initially thought he would be. She called us yesterday and told us she tried to get him to come to church but he refused. Apparently he has a big concern with tithing. He's a banker and has tight control over their financial situation. She really wants him to be supportive of her and come with her in this change in her life. We have an appointment with them tonight, so we'll see if we can't resolve some of his concerns. They both have a lot of baggage and stress from their previous lives and we know the church can help them so much.

Get ready for some pictures! I have quite a few to send this week from our District activity. I wish you all best of luck with you shows, auditions, and what-not you have to do! Love you all!

MKH,

-Ældste Wawro

Mom, I forgot to send you a picture of the Fat Sopas Ældste Mogensen and I prepared! Thanks for the Recipe!

Year 1

Down by the Sea

What a great week! So many good things have happened, especially with General Conference! Why does it seem so much better on your mission? Definitely a lot of things that I've learned. I still haven't seen Sunday afternoon’s session, so I look forward seeing that a little bit later on in the week. Ugh, my computer is set to Danish so it keeps doing weird things and capitalizing things where they shouldn't be. So judge not these things, for if there are mistakes, they are the mistakes of man! ;)

General Conference was way fun! I watched 4 of the 5 Sessions. I watched Saturday Morning Session on Saturday at 6:00 PM, Priesthood Session on Sunday at 11:00 AM, Saturday Evening Session on Sunday at 2:00 PM, and Sunday Morning Session on Sunday at 6:00 PM. So I was at the church all day yesterday watching conference!

I got the 1-year package as well and look forward to opening it on Thursday! Can you believe it's been 1 year? I really don't know what to feel. In some ways it feels like it's just all flown by so fast. In other ways, I try imagining having to do everything that I've already done all over again and that is a Little daunting. But It really is starting to hit me that time is short, and there's no time to just sit around! I'm also very grateful that this next year I'm not worrying about trying to learn a new language, ha.

As for my doings...

We started off on Monday with splits with the Svendborg Elders. We had an essential-preparation day because of our zone-activity, so right after we bought food and wrote home we went to the train station to meet up with them and go our separate ways. I went down to Svendborg with Ældste DeMordaunt and that was a great experience!

Some pictures of a cool house we found while on splits in Fredericia!

So, as a district, we've had this goal to pray and find 1 unplanned service opportunity every day. I hadn't found a chance to really go out of my way to serve somebody yet that day, but luckily, we were blessed with an opportunity that night at a member’s house. We went to eat with this member and found out that her daughter is being made to learn clarinet in her school and is really struggling with that. She is only around 10 or 11 years old which is really young to start an instrument like clarinet. So, I was able to give her a clarinet lesson! Who knew that my clarinet experience could have helped me in the mission field? But the mother was so grateful for the help. It has been really stressing her out to see her daughter struggle with the clarinet and she, not being musically trained, had no way to help her. Because she lives out in Svendborg I won't be able to go down again and help, but I will be spending some minutes after church in the future to help her daughter some more with the clarinet. Huzzah for helping people!

The rest of the time in Svendborg was going a little slowly. Ældste DeMordaunt was feeling a little bad because our appointments had cancelled on us so we were left just going by and visiting people/contacting on the way. Nobody was home (of course). We then went to one investigator that I was pressing to meet, but once we were standing at her door Ældste DeMordaunt turned to me and said, "You know, I really feel like we need to visit E***. I don't think now is the time to visit this person." So we turned around and made our way across town to visit this other person. We knocked once at his door, no answer. Knocked twice! No answer. We were going to leave but decided to knock just one more time, and what do you know, he answered the door! Not only was he home, but so was his friend who turned out to be really interested in learning more about our church! Turns out E*** has been talking to him about it, and when he actually met us he became really interested to learn what we were all about. He agreed to come to meet with us again, he watched the Joseph Smith Restoration film that evening with E***, and I last heard from the Svendborg elders that at their next lesson with him he expressed his desire to be baptized!

Danish Coastline

We had Zone training this last week in Fredericia, and the focus was on the Book of Mormon. It's a great book, I highly recommend it. Afterwords, we had splits with the Zone-Leaders. It was a little weird to be on Jylland [the western peninsula part of Denmark] again. It's amazing the differences between Jylland and Fyn [the island Elder Wawro lives on now] even though they are so close to each other. Difference of language, people, feel, attitude, and even the all-around appearance of the cities! I suppose it's very similar in a lot of ways as well though. We had a great time though!

It was super funny, we ran into the Vejle Sister Missionaries while we were going around visiting people. They had contacted somebody on the street that we needed to go down and we didn't want to freak this guy out with missionaries coming from all sides! So we took the long way around the block. When we got there we saw the sisters coming towards us so I put my hood up on my jacket, Ældste Gines (my old district leader who is now Zone Leader in Syd-Jylland Zone) put a binder in front of his face, leaned against a brick wall, and we played masters of disguise. They didn't even give us a glance as they walked right past us. I could have literally reached out and touched both of them, but we were so efficient in the art of disguise that they didn't even notice us. We even had our nametags out in plain view! We are so funny, yet, so awesome.

Elder Wawro and Elder Gines

We taught T***** again this week about Frelsesplanen [the Plan of Salvation]. He's our paralyzed investigator. He absolutely loved it. It was really powerful when we got to the part about resurrection. He smiled so big, looked and us and said, "I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, but I'm really looking forward to it. I love my life here, but I am excited to have a perfect body where I can walk and run and do whatever I want." It definitely has given me an appreciation of being able to use my body in this life. T***** continues to remember what we've been teaching him and loves our visits and the ward.

We've also been meeting with Martin to help him get ready to go on a mission. We got him a Preach my Gospel in Slovakian and showed him the chapters inside of it and described a little bit about all of them. His desire to serve is definitely growing and I've heard him tell a few people that he's going on a mission! We know that he wants to wait until he's finished more school, but that won't be for many more years down the road, so we hope we can help increase his desire to serve and go soon.

Other than that, it's really just been General Conference! Of course that was great. Oh! also, tell Uncle Jeff to tell Elder Jewkes's Dad [who trained Jeff on his mission 34 years ago in Sacramento] to [make his son] give us back our blender! When we were gone in Fredericia the Svendborg Elders went to our apartment and stole our blender! Some people’s children... ;) Don't worry, I will get that blender back by any means possible.

The cat that snuck through the window into the Svendborg Apartment while on splits. We didn't want to get the couch dirty, so we just played with it on Elder Jewkes's bed instead. ;)

Love you all! Have a great week!

MKH,

Orem, Utah.

This week was C-R-A-Z-Y!

Hello everybody! Another week comes and goes, and it continues to be awesome here in Denmark. I miss Randers a lot, but let me tell you, I love being here in Odense! The 2nd of April will be H.C. Andersen's birthday so there's going to be a ton of festivities going on right around our apartment! Odense is great.

The days are getting longer here. I love it! The sun was already rising when we woke up and didn't go down until 8:00! Way better then sunrise beginning at 10 and being completely dark at 4:00. I love the sun!

I'm sorry to hear about Nathan's election. That really is too bad. But that just means that there'll be time for more things to do his Senior Year!

Wish I could see your show, Mom! I bet you it's going great! I'm glad to hear Music Man went well too, Casey!

So what exactly did Nathan do to his knee? [Nathan injured it at tap dancing rehearsal]

So...as for my week.

A Needle in a Haystack

It all started off on Tuesday at CUV. We were hoping to get a less-active to come but he ended up not showing up. While we were there at CUV, one of the other Elder’s investigators came in with her friend and asked if any missionaries would be willing to answer some of her friend’s questions. Ældste Jewkes and I raised our hands and ended up teaching most of the Restoration to her and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She was so accepting of everything we had to teach. We didn't end up getting her address or number and had no way to find out which missionaries should be teaching her, so we just hoped that the Seden Elders would find out more at their next appointment with their investigator.

Ældste Mogensen and I were going to contact a referral about 3 days later. It was a referral we had gotten about a week ago that we had tried to contact a couple times but they were never home. They wanted a Book of Mormon. But this time she opened the door when we knocked and, lo and behold, it was the friend that we had just taught!! We had no idea that THAT referral, the exact one we have been trying to contact was actually the investigator's friend that we luckily, and accidentally, had taught just a few days previously. So we found out where she lived, got her phone-number, and she said that she'll come to CUV again this next week! Definitely a blessing from God.

"Just baptize him"

Things are going really well with our investigator with a baptismal date. We met with him a couple times this past week where we reviewed the Word of Wisdom and showed him some of the Bible Videos (which he loves!). He understands everything. It was especially helpful to read D&C 89 with him so he could stop and ask us questions. At the end we asked him to summarize the WoW and he understood it completely and agrees that we need to live it to protect our bodies which are gifts from God. He came to church as well and loved it, as usual. At the end of the meeting the Bishop said to "bare døbe ham." [Translation: Just baptize him]. He believes he's ready. So we'll continue to work towards the 3rd of May to get him in the water.

We did service for a member of the ward with the Svenborg Elders. We had to move a ton of chopped wood in a forest to his property before hunting season. It was hard work, but actually pretty fun. He was really grateful for our work and was surprised at how fast we got the job done. It's always great to do service.

CRAZY Bus Connections

So before I got here to Odense, Ældste Mogensen and Ældste Merril were contacted by a woman on the bus who said, "Hej Ældster!" [Translation: Hello Elders] which of course startled them. Turned out she had been taught by missionaries a long time ago but stopped investigating. They got her name but no other information other than she lived on the 2nd floor somewhere and was headed to Højby. Naturally, they went to the church and used krak.dk (in Denmark, everyone needs to register at the kommune, so you can use this website to find anyone in Denmark and where they are living and their phone-number) to find all the people that lived on the 2nd floor around Højby with her first name. They eliminated the names down to one person but never contacted it. So Ældste Mogensen decided to knock that area and "conveniently" knock on her door. When she opened the door she was very excited to see us and we had a great conversation. She also talked about a sister missionary who taught her here in Odense over 20 years ago. As she described her we became almost certain that it was Ældste Mogensen’s Mom while she was here in Odense serving her mission! Crazy! Obviously, she was really excited to hear that and said that we could definitely come back, so we will.

Just too cool

We met with Martin, who is a new convert from Slovakia, yesterday to talk about his temple trip. He really enjoyed it, but nobody explained to him that he wouldn't be able to go to an endowment session as well so he thought the trip was a little too short. But, as it turns out, he'll be a member for a year this May so it gives us time to start teaching some temple-prep to get him ready to get his endowment! So we'll talk with the Bishop and hopefully get that started!

"No. You do not! I lived in Orem for 5 years!"

We contacted another referral this last Friday. It was a family who requested a visit from the missionaries and a Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, they were busy that day but we got their number and they said to call back on the weekend to make an appointment. So we called both Saturday and Sunday but didn't get any answer until around bedtime. 

We got a call from an unknown number and when I answered it this woman speaking English in a thick German accent asked if we were the missionaries. We said we were. She then commented that my English wasn't a Danish-English accent and she asked where I came from. For some reason, I said "Orem, Utah" which is a lot more specific than I ever tell anyone right off the bat because most people don't even know where Utah is. I normally just say the United States. But then it got silent. She said, "No. You do not! I lived in Orem for 5 years!" 

She then asked me a ton of questions of where I lived in Orem, and if I knew people she knew. She also asked if I was the missionary that tripped at the door step when I was turning around and almost trampled her roses...I was. She laughed, I cried. She continued to explain that she was a member, she is now with her 2nd husband, and she had just received a visit from one of her old friends from Orem. While he was there, her husband read a Primary Children’s Songbook and the words really touched him. The prayer that the man said also stirred something inside of him and he told her that he wanted to learn more. So they referred themselves to the missionaries! They said that I have to come over now because I'm from Utah and we have an appointment for this Saturday! Pretty unbelievable.

That was basically everything with our crazy week! I don't think I have anything more to share. But I hope that you all have a wonderful week and I'm excited to hear all about it next Monday!

MKH,

-Ældste Wawro

Tillykke Med Fødselsdagen, Ældste Mogensen!

Ældste Jewkes, Ældste Mogensen, and I celebrating our March birthdays together!

Happy birthday to my wonderful companion, Ældste Mogensen! He turned the big 20 as well this last Saturday! They grow up so fast. :,)

Again, things seem hectic back at home. Best of luck with your student elections Nathan! And congrats on being asked to Spring Fling with Anna Nielsen. She's a great girl. Great Family!

I'm emailing a little bit later today because the Svenborg Elders came up here to Odense to play some frisbee and visit some stores. Way fun!

So, funny story...two families here in Odense talked about their family member who teaches folk dance at BYU. Turns out she was my teacher and she came from Odense! Crazy!! She is the Family History consultant's daughter and the Bishop's wife's sister, so they both love me because I did folk dance. ;)

Beginning on Monday after our preparation day we had an eating appointment with the Ward Family History Consultant. We all were very excited to meet with her because we have been really trying to start using family history more in our teaching and finding. The appointment went great and she's going to get us started with some training so we can start to show people ourselves how to use familysearch.org ourselves during our open house hours.

We found a new investigator this week. He was a media referral we received from the office. We talked to him once before and we made a return appointment. He also asked if we could bring another Book of Mormon for his friend. The lesson itself went well, but he never really seemed to get excited about the Things we were talking about. It seems like he is more interested in learning about the religion itself but not really to convert to it. We introduced him the Book of Mormon and invited him to read out of it and pray. Hopefully he does!

We had a lot of service this week. We went with the Sisters out to visit a previous investigator. We went because she told the Sisters her Lock needed to be fixed and so the Sisters invited us to come with. While the Sisters were teaching we worked on the Lock, and they gave a great lesson...a lot better than us fixing the Lock. She didn't have the right tools to replace the old one with the new one so we ended up just breaking the old Lock and were not able to replace the new one...we felt pretty dumb. Luckily she was cool about it! We'll try to fix it in the future.

We also helped a member move one of his friends. It was a pretty easy move and we did it really fast and efficient so they were super thankful. It was us and the Svenborg Elders so we moved all of their really heavy furniture, no problem. The member also said that he's going to invite them to come to his house to eat and have a lesson with the missionaries!

We met with our investigator with the baptismal date two times this week and they both went really well! The first time we talked about following the Prophet and he was really excited to hear about President Monson. He also really enjoyed the talk we gave him to read. The second time we just read through 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Great appointment. We've moved his baptismal date to the 3rd of May to give him more time to prepare and to come to church. But, he did come to church this week! He absolutely loved the talks. It was actually a Little rough to get him up because they just took out the front steps and ramp to the church so we had to carry him and his wheelchair up the back steps into the church. But he got in and out and is excited to come again!

We had splits with Ældste Jewkes and Ældste DeMourdant in Svendborg and that was way fun. Unfortunately, all of their appointments cancelled on them so we basically just contacted and knocked doors the entire day. We had the goal to empty our pockets, though, and we did it! We passed out a ton of copies of the Book of Mormon and Ældset Jewkes and I alone gave out over 40 pass along cards, almost all of them talking about Family History. So it was a good.

We also had an extra Sacrament Service Down in Svendborg on Sunday after ours in Odense. It was so cool. It was in this little rented out house with chairs set up and there were only around 12 people total there. It was way spiritual though, and one of Svendborg's previous investigators randomly showed up! That was a way cool experience.

That's my week! I also received the Easter package today so I look forward to opening it! Thank you for everything you do! I love you all!

MKH,

-Ældste Wawro

20

Well, greetings everyone from your no-longer-teenager-but-20-year-old-missionary Ældste Wawro. It's weird to think that I'm actually 20 years old, but I really don't feel much different. I'll have you know that my 20th birthday was INSANE, but we'll get to that a little bit later. :)

BTW, I did get all of my packages, Mom. Thank you so much! I am so glad to finally have pictures! They really are so great so thank you for sending them. Also, thank you for the fruit leather. You don't have to send any other candy in the future because the most of it I can get here. But if you do send anything foodwise, fruit leather is the way to go because I can't get it here and I LOVE IT! Also, Dad, thanks for sending the classical music!

That's crazy that you met one of Ældste Huffaker’s friends! What's her name? Maybe he's told me about her...but let me know!

As for Odense...it is such a beautiful place. It's an incredible city and I love it so much! There are also two wards here so it's crazy going from a branch to a city with two wards! I used to think that Danes in general were obsessed with Hans Christian Andersen, but it's nothing like here. They absolutely LOVE him. I'm going to have to visit his childhood home, it's pretty close to our apartment.

The apartment is great too. It's not super big, but it's one of the only apartments with a dishwasher. We also have a washing machine and the floor in the bathroom is heated! Awesome! I love it.

Elder Mogensen 

Ældste Mogensen is such a great companion. I am his follow-up trainer so he is just on his 3rd transfer here, but he already knows how to be a missionary. He had a great trainer and he's in general just a great guy, so I'm super glad to be with him! I'm also glad to finally be with someone whom I can learn Danish from. Since I've been training for most of my mission I haven't really had someone I could ask questions. We just speak Danish out of the apartment so that's been a great help for me. I think I forgot to tell you as well...Ældste Mogensen is the first missionary to come from Bornholm...ever. I think that's pretty awesome.

We had a lot of service this week. We helped a member move, helped a part member chop wood (a lot of wood), and helped another member dig a trench. Not going to lie, we are a little bit sore, but we are grateful to be able to serve those here in Odense.

Family History and Missionary Work

As a distrikt, we have been thinking a lot President Sederholm's call to use family history more in our missionary work. So, this last Distrikt møde [meeting], we collectively made a vision of what we wanted to happen here in Odense concerning family history and the use of the family history center by both members and non-members, as well as small goals of what we are going to do within this next week to help us achieve this vision. We have found family history to be an amazingly effective tool in working with both members and contacting people on the street. With every family that we've taught so far, they've mentioned that they have friends that would be interested in family history and took cards from us to pass out to their friends. One family in particular told us that family history is the right route to be taking here in Odense and are planning on beginning their family history as well as inviting their friends!

We had a couple less active meetings this past week. The first one is a little bit of a character, but very funny. But! He really loves the church and hopes that we can build our own Zion here in Odense. We have some plans to start getting him to come to church more often, he just has a little bit of a problem with some of our members. We're hoping to get those resolved. He also fed us some chili frikadeller [meatballs]...that was...interesting.

We also met with another awesome less active member. He's the painter here in Odense and he has some really great art. I was actually surprised to see how strong his testimony is of the Gospel. He truly loves the scriptures and this church. The biggest problem is that he only comes to church every other Sunday. The other Sundays he visits his mom and skips church. We're not exactly sure what to do about that, but nevertheless, he is a great member that we are excited to continue working with.

I also met our one investigator with a baptismal date. He is a man who is completely physically disabled and can't move anything but some of his fingers and head. He also seems to be a little bit slow mentally. He has such a strong testimony. I am very impressed with him. Despite all of his disabilities he does have quite a grasp of the basics of the Gospel. We showed him Mormonchannel.org this week and he was really excited to see all of this videos. We also invited him to church, but unfortunately, he didn't come even though he said he would. We'll follow up with him this week to see what exactly happened.

The last exciting thing that I can think of right now is that this past week we received a referral. We went out to visit it and it was this younger man who's studied religion for a while and wanted a Book of Mormon for both him and his friend. He seems pretty positive and we're meeting with him tonight, so we'll let you know how that goes!

Birthday Adventures 

Now, concerning my birthday...

It all began waking up very sore because we had been digging a trench for about 3 hours the day before. We had some studies and then went to go renew Ældste Mogensens bus pass...but they were closed. So we had no way to get around! Luckily, the last missionary here left his "Welcome to Odense" packet we get when we register at the commune which gave Ældste Mogensen a free trip one place and back on the bus. That was just what we needed to get to one of our investigators.

Birthday Toast

On the way to that investigator we saw a woman running around in a naked man suit...ya, weird. Then Ældste Mogensen bought me a pastry that is a specialty to Fyn and it was sooooo good! We then had to go down to Svenborg to have an eating appointment with a member. All of our distrikt was invited. It's about a 45 min. train ride. We get down there and meet the Svenborg Elders who proceeded to tell us that the member called just 5 minutes ago to tell us that she had forgotten our eating appointment! So she picked us up and drove us to a kebab house and bought us all some kebabs...ha, good thing I love kebabs!

After that we had some time to kill, so we decided to split up and go contacting down the gågade [a pedestrian zone]. We met up 45 min. later to see the Sisters still contacting a man. They took 20 minutes to contact him and we really needed to get to our train. We quickly scurried over to the train station and let the Sisters buy their tickets first. Right after the Sisters got on the doors on the train closed and it drove away...we just kind of stood there because it was the last train to Odense of the night. So we had to sleep with the Svenborg Elders, which was fun. We squished their two beds together and three of us slept horizontally on that while Ældste Mogensen took the couch...so uncomfortable! A brilliant conclusion to my 20th birthday.

 That was my week! I'm looking forward to all the new adventures Odense has to offer this week! Hurrah!

-Ældste Wawro

Two cool guys on the train

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

Great Randers Nielsen Family - Spent Christmas with them, formed a Christmas Folk Band with them, Ate at their home every week!

Friends who are investigating the Church: Peter and Anika Rasmussen and their newborn baby

Friends from the Frikirke Church and bible study group 

Wonderful Koch Family from Randers Branch

Simon and Rachel Bendtsen from Randers Branch

Possible last week here in Randers..? Måske?

The greatest street ever!

So, funny story. We get down to the library to write emails, and when we get on a message comes up saying that myldsmail has been blocked at the library because they think it's a dangerous website...so...now we're writing at the church. Because there is only one computer and we have to take turns, I don't have a long time to write...but I'll write a few essentials and then just copy and paste my message to the President to you.

So I've been in Randers 7 months around now, and we found out about transfers on Wednesday. Everybody is telling me I'm getting transferred, but I really hope I don't. But transfers happen next Monday, so nobody send me anything from this point forward! Also, because I may be transferring, I have no idea when I'll be writing on Monday because if I'm getting transferred to Sjælland [the main island where Copenhagen is located] I'll be taking a train in the morning...so that's that.

So I've been having the craving for some Mexican food recently...so I was wondering, Mom, if you could send me some of your recipes to that I can make it over here! I don't know if I'll be able to find all the ingredients needed, but I should be able to find most of them.

One more thing, I deleted a lot of classical music off my ipod on accident before I got here, and it's approved...so Dad, if you can think of any good classical songs to send me, feel free! :) I'm thinking specifically about the Billy Joel Classical CD (Not Classic Billy Joel) ;). I would loooooove to have that again.

I'm excited to get my package! Thank you for sending that! I should be getting it within the next few days.

My district

Here's my message to the Præsident:

"Hello President!

This week has definitely had its ups and downs. Things started to pick up towards the end of the week.

We had a lesson with [female investigator #1] on Monday and that lesson in of itself went pretty well. We focused on the importance of really reading and praying and coming to church and how those things are essential for personal conversion and will bless every aspect of her life. She agreed to do it.

So as the week progressed we texted her to remind her to read in the Book of Mormon, like she asked us to do, and every night she replied that she hadn't read. Finally, on Thursday evening, she replied that she hadn't read and it now is necessary to tell us that she doesn't have time to read or to come to church. We replied telling her that every commitment we've given her is meant to bless us, but she said that she felt confined by the commitments and needed freedom. We then told her that these things don’t limit her freedom, but helps her retain it. She disagreed and said freedom is being able to do exactly what you want when you want to. So, unfortunately, we had to drop her because she is not willing to meet with us anymore. That's particularly sad for me because I found her my first day here in Randers with Elder Peterson and saw how close she was to baptism. She just needs some time to think things through.

Thursday we had splits with Skive. They are having it a little bit rough right now. They're only investigators just dropped them. Elder Parry and I went out to meet them, but when they answered the door they slammed it right in our faces. The rest of the time was spent finding (knocking doors, contacting, etc.). They are working really hard, President. I am glad that we will be studying Ch. 9 [in Preach My Gospel] this month, not just for our sake, but for theirs.

Sunday, [female investigator #2] came to church again. This was her second Sunday in a row. She brought her son as well. You can see her aura change from being very sad and almost hostile to really being happy to be back. I really hope she continues to come and becomes reactivated.

After church we stopped by [male investigator #1] and he let us in. We shared a message about "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass" and he really enjoyed it. We invited him to read and pray and he said he would. He also wants to come to church! He was really impressed by the members at the Open House. We have another appointment scheduled for this evening.

We met with [male investigator #2]  from the Fri Kirke church yesterday evening as well. He's the one who leads our bible studies. He was really nice to us and was really open. He talked about the Book of Mormon and he says he's been reading! He has a lot of questions that we didn't get to yesterday, but we hope to be able to answer them soon. Also, right before we left, he said he was talking to some of the other Fri Kirke leaders and said that the most religiously solid and believing people in his group were the Mormons! That was pretty cool.

That was basically everything from this week. This next week is already looking pretty busy, so we hope to bring good news in a weeks time. Vi snakkes!

-Ældste Wawro"

So, another crazy story I didn't write to the Præsident:

Ældste Brindley and I were going to get a hotdog when, all of a sudden, we get this text. When we looked who it was, it came from our old telephone we sent to the office. This is what it said (translated to English)

"Ok, excuse the late point in time, but I have just received a text from you. We can bring it up the next meeting, if you want. Remember, I have God and Jesus on my side????? I am just back from Germany, and I'm not holding anything back. No answer is also an answer...sorry"

As we were left pondering who our unknown nemesis was and wondering how he obtained our old phone, we received another text.

"Good Evening. Ældste Wawro and Brindley. Thanks for last time, and sorry for my skepticism. You still have much to learn... Now the Olympics are finished and the world’s discussion goes political against Russia and their stance towards homosexuals. I know where I stand...what about you?"

At this point we are veeeerrrryyyy confused on what is going on! Who is this person, what are these religious debates we've apparently been having that I cannot remember, and how does he have our old phone?? About 20 minutes we get another text from that phone, and it turns out some other missionaries now have our old phone and they forwarded us those super hostile messages to us. It was from one of our investigators while he was drunk, he sometimes likes to get very contentious when he's drunk. So he was our unknown nemesis! Just the previous week, he also got a little bit mad at me because he brought up that only Moses has seen God so it's impossible that Joseph Smith could have...so I kindly redirected him to the Book of Acts where Stephen sees God and Jesus Christ. He got a little mad after that....ha.

That's basically everything! Can't wait to tell you what's happening with transfers! Let’s hope for Randers, 6 more weeks!

Jeg elsker jer! 

-Ældste Wawro