Thanks, for all the news Dad. It's great to hear that everythings
going so well too.
I have to admit I'm getting kinda sick of the MTC. Our new schedule
consists of sitting in the same classroom for about 8 hours a day
without any breaks besides meals, so it's really hard for me to focus. I
know the mission will consist of working and staying motivated all day,
but at least I'll be walking and moving around. I just can't sit still
for that long haha. Other than that I still love the MTC though. The
food isn't especially good, but I like being able to eat as much as I
want. I generally eat 3-4 plates of food for breakfast and then 2-3 for
lunch and 2-3 more for dinner haha. I've already gained over 6 pounds
and I weigh 160 before I even eat in the morning now haha. I've been
doing weights during gym so I'm not getting fat haha, I also think I'm
growing, because I swear my pants are getting shorter. I'm also an inch
or more taller than
my companion now, and he told me he's five eleven and a quarter, so I
think I might have beat out dad. I think thats awesome, but my suit
pants are starting to get a bit short, which isn't so awesome haha, so I
hope I don't grow much more.
Ok enough of that, one thing I really enjoyed this week was
hosting new missionaries. Normally you don't get to do that until you've
been here for 5 weeks, but our zone leaders signed us up so we got to.
It was actually really cool, because the first person I hosted was
actually from Denmark. His name was Stephen Meilsøe. He's from
Copenhagen and he's going to the Germany Alpine mission, so he's here to
learn German. He actually knew my Danish teacher too, and he told me a
bit about Denmark, and it was really awesome to be able to talk to him. I
also spoke a bit of Danish to him haha although I didn't understand
everything he said. I also hosted someone named Elder Steel going to
Louisiana. It was really fun to just be able to meet and help the new
missionaries through a bit of their first day.
Lets see, another great thing we had this week was fast
Sunday. We had mission conference and got to hear from all the MTC
presidents and another MTC coordinator. It was really great and the
spirit was definitely there. My favorite part was when we sang Come Thou
Fount. I also really liked a talk that was given on reverence, and how
if we stay reverent during all places in the MTC we will be able to feel
the spirit and receive personal revelation more often and more
strongly. I know I struggle with that a little bit here just because
we're stuck sitting down in a room all day. We also had a great fast and
testimony meeting although, it was almost a race to get up to the
pulpit haha. We got to here from a lot of the people that just left for
Sweden this morning, and it was good to here from them again before they
left. Now that they're gone, the Danish districts are the senior
districts. It seems really
crazy that we'll be leaving in about two weeks. I'm really excited to
go I must admit. We also had a good fireside Sunday night and heard from
Chad Lewis. He was a walk on football player for BYU and played for the
Eagles in the NFL. I loved his talk, and he had a lot of really great
things to say. Some of the things I liked most is, he said, look past
all of the problems and faults of the people you'll be teaching and find
their hearts. He also said, that after your mission it can be easy to
become the same exact person you were before, but we need to stay
missionaries forever, and never forget what we learn. I want to make
sure to be that kind of person. I think my favorite thing that he said
was that every minute in the MTC is precious, and we have to fight the
boredom! haha I think thats something I really need to keep in mind,
because it is ridiculously boring sometimes, but I still need to make
good use of my time here. It's really hard to stay
awake in class sometimes haha luckily everone else nodds off too so I
don't feel alone.
We also had TRC two more times this past week. on Friday, I
was able to do decent, but I had a hard time understanding the one
person that was actually from Denmark, and to be honest I didn't
understand a word she said, but I feel like we were able to give a
decent lesson. I had my other TRC session over Skype. It was pretty
cool. The only problem was the sound on Skype was cutting out so I
couldn't understand much of the Danish. So the main problem I have with
the language still is just understanding it. I can speak it, even if I
do feel like I talk like a three year old, I just can't seem to
understand it super well. So lately during language study I've been
listening to the same general conference talk in Danish over and over.
It seems to be helping a bit too. I'm also to the point where I can read
the Danish LDS pamphlets pretty well and understand it. I admit I still
can't really understand Mormons Bog, but I think
as long as I keep speaking the language, I'll learn well. On Wednesday
we actually had an English fast, so we spoke Danish pretty much the
entire day. It was pretty hard, but I feel like we did a pretty good
job, and by the end I was actually starting to think a little bit in
Danish. So I think the most important thing I can do right now is just
speak as much Danish as possible. We're doing two more English fasts
this week too, so I think that will help more.
One of our teachers Bro Stacey told us a really cool story that I thought I should share with you this week. He went on his mission to
Denmark a few years ago. He told us about one day when he was out
contacting people and trying to teach two greeny missionaries how to do a
good job at it. One was fluent in Danish, but really shy and didn't
wan't to talk to people, and the other couldn't speak Danish well at all
but was super outgoing and wanted to talk to everyone. So finally
Brother Stacey just sent them off alone together (within sight of
course) and told them to talk to as many people as possible. as he was
watching them he got the impression to go down by a castle they were
close to. He didn't see anyone there so he ignored it at first, but then
the impression came again. So he went down there, and sitting on the
ground behind a sculpture or something, was a man. Brother Stacey said
the man was balled and scowling, and
just looked like a really mean person that you wouldn't want to talk
to. He did anyway though. he told the man that he had felt like he was
supposed to talk to him and that he was a missionary. The man scowled
and said he didn't wan't to hear anything about that and that if there
was a God, God hated him. It turns out, the day before he had lost his
job and his wife had left him and he had been evicted from his
apartment. So pretty much everything that could go wrong for him had
happened in one day and he was left homeless with nothing, and he was
just on his way walking to Sweden to start a new life. Brother Stacey
couldn't think of anything else to say besides, can I pray for you. The
man said yes, so Brother Stacey just prayed for him there, and as he
prayed the man started to cry. And he told brother Stacey afterward,
that because of him, he knew God loved and cared about him then. He took
a Book of Mormon, and headed on his way to Sweden. Brother
Stacey doesn't know what happened to him, but he suspects he has or is
being taught by the missionairies in Sweden now. I just love that story
and thought I should share it with you.
I think thats all for now, I'm about out of time, but I want
all of you to know you're in my thoughts and prayers, and I'm doing
great here. Jeg elker dig!
Love,
Ældste Redd
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