Crazy Drunk Man, Soccer, Lots of Rain, and Marzipan Ice Cream

Hey Everyone!

The weather is pretty good in Denmark, I'm pretty sure its a bit colder than Oregon, considering I think it gets down to about 50 or 60 degrees most days at times. There also seems to be a random torrential downpour of rain at least once a day haha. It's pretty beautiful though, there are lots of trees and its really green kind of like Oregon. Haha I know they do burn a bunch of big bonfires, but I think here its on the 22nd. I unfortunately didn't get to see any though because I was at an appointment. I did help some people in our ward help clean out a forested area for service and we built a giant bonfire that I think they were planning on burning then. I'm glad to hear you had a good week though, and that things are a bit more relaxed now. I must admit I'm pretty jealous of all the fruit you're harvesting from the garden though. I actually haven't seen the broadcast for all the missionaries yet either. It wasn't at a good time for us here in Denmark, so they recorded it and we're watching it next Sunday night. I'm pretty excited for it though. I can't believe Trevor is leaving already too. It seems crazy how fast everyone is leaving to me. It sounds like the farewell went great though, and I'm pretty excited for him. That's awesome that you got a letter from Elder Kawamura too. He was a pretty great companion. He's been keeping me updated on how things are going in my old area too. There have already been two baptisms since I left. I got one picture that you attached to this email, so if you sent more I didn't get them. I'm glad Rebecca and Erik are all moved in now, but that air conditioning doesn't sound to fun. I'm actually going to have to send them an email today, because someone in my ward was on his mission at the same time as Erik in Finland and actually knows him a bit. I figure with the Memory card reader you can just send that at the same time as when you send anything for Christmas if you still want to send anything after hearing the prices haha. I can use my camera cord stuff for now, just a memory card reader would be better because that way I don't have to download all my pictures onto a computer every time, and I don't think I could find one here very easily. But just remember, if you do want to send anything for Christmas the office said to send it by September or October because the postage system gets really backed up at that time of year. and Don't send like beef Jerky or Soda, because they hate high fructose corn syrup here and they hate jerky and make you pay a huge tax to get your package if it has that stuff in it haha. over all I would just say don't send me anything besides for like Christmas though, because postage is really expensive. And I actually really love handwritten letters from people. I just hate writing handwritten letters myself haha. OK I think I've answered all the questions now so now I'll tell you about my week.

      First I got sick this week haha, so one of my days I literally slept all day long. I guess a lot of new missionaries get sick when they first get here, and they wont rest and then get really sick and can't work for a week, so my companion made me stay in and sleep and after a day I was pretty much fine again. I'm not sure if the thermometer I have works very well though because it said my temperature was 96.5 which I thought was odd haha. But other than that my week was awesome. We had a good experience with a man from the Philippines named Gilbert Gallo, or Sunshine as he prefers haha. He's pretty much explored all religions and has his own belief system. He's been meeting with the missionaries and still been searching for other religions for probably 30 years or so, and he has a lot of strange questions. At first when we met him he seemed kind of hostile and was telling us weird things like something Joseph Smith said about people living in the moon haha, but eventually we just told him, we can't answer every question, you just have to read and pray to find the truth of our church. The spirit ended up being really strong though and we have high hopes for him now.

     This week we also had three dinner appointments with the Anderson Family. They have a 23 year old son named Joakim and a 19 year old daughter Cecilia. Joakim is a return missionary and has been a huge help to us already, and is always willing to help us out when we need someone to go to appointments with us. It was great to have dinner with all of them though, and we've made great friends with them, not to mention the dinner was amazing. The third dinner appointment with them we actually brought our next door neighbor with us. We met her while we were doing our laundry, and shes really interested in doing family history, and it so happens that the Andersons are really good at family history. So we invited her along and had a great time with her and the Andersons. Because of how kind and awesome they are I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she becomes interested in the church too.

     Oh and I think I told you a little bit about it last week, but every Saturday we play soccer. This week we had some awesome members invite their friends and we had a great time with them. I actually scored another goal too haha. I'm definitely going to have to buy soccer cleats hear though because I was sliding everywhere. Soccer cleats are one of the few things that are cheaper here though because soccer is so popular haha. But while we were waiting for a bus on our way to soccer there was a crazy drunk guy by us. He yelled a lot of incoherent stuff and punched a metal pole hard enough to dent it. I'm guessing his hand doesn't feel too great now though haha.

     I admit Sundays here are really hard though. Three hours of trying to understand a language that you can't understand is pretty exhausting. I felt like I was going to pass out be the end, but after church we had a great dinner with famielien Thyssel. I ended up eating two shish kabobs, 5 pølser (kinda like hotdogs but better), and a bunch of other stuff including Marzipan Ice cream. It was so good, and we had some great conversations with them. Actually Eric Thyssel is from Sweden, and he served his mission in Finland with min Bror Erik Wiglama. He said he never served with him, but he was companions with someone in Erik's MTC group and definitely met Erik a few times. Small world right haha, I thought that was pretty cool though, and he remembered Erik being pretty funny. Hopefully the fact that their both named Eric/Erik didn't confuse you too much.

     Overall I'm just having a wonderful time here though. The missionary work is really progressing, the members are great, and Denmark is flipping amazing. I'm having a great time and believe it or not I'm starting to understand a little  more Danish and I'm starting to speak it better too, even if I can't necessarily pronounce it right haha. Have a wonderful week everyone. Jeg Elsker jere.

-Ælste Rødd

June 17, 2013- Settling into the Mission Routine

Dear Mom, Dad, and everyone else,

It's great to hear from you again. Denmark is really awesome, and I'm still doing great. I'm glad that everything's finally calming down for you and you have a bit of time to recover. It sounds like you've been having some insane past few months. I'm really sad to hear about what happened to T, and don't worry I'll be careful. First off I'll answer your questions haha.

1. I think that the whole address is Taastrup Hovedgade 8, 1tv, 2630, Taastrup. I think the HP 2630 is the postal code, but you might want to try to check online to make sure that's the postal code just in case. I also know that if you send letters to the mission office they'll forward them to me, but packages they wont forward, they'll just keep them there for us.

2. So my whole area isn't just Taastrup. Taastrup is just where my apartment is. Here's a list of the cities my area has. Taastrup, Høje Taastrup, Hedehusne, Ishøj, Greve, and Karlslund. So we've got a pretty big area, but it's actually one of the smallest if not the smallest in the Denmark mission. So most of the time we have to take the bus or train to get to places, but if we stay in Taastrup or Høje Taastrup we use our bikes. We do a whole lot of walking too haha, I'll tell you a good story about that in a little. haha sorry I keep adding things to the list, but when you do send the package could you try to find a waterproof rain cover for my backpack that you could send too. I found out that that will be extremely useful for me, and I know they sell those at most sporting goods stores in Oregon. And I'll try to send you some pictures today, but I honestly haven't taken any of just the cities I'm in. It's pretty much just roads with houses, and so I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'll try to start taking some though haha.

3. Our week has been pretty hectic to be honest. When we first got here we were given a three year old ward list and a map from 2008 haha. So we've kinda been guessing on a lot of things, but just yesterday we got a new map and a new ward list, so that will help a lot. We've visited most of the big cities in our area now though, and we kind of know the general directions of things. We have the buses and trains figured out though. We actually share our ward with the Roskilde Elders though, and so our ward is kind of split between us and them. Our actual church building is in Roskilde so it takes about 45 minutes just for us to get to the church on the bus. A lot of our members are even farther away too, and because many people in Denmark don't own cars, it's even harder to get to church for them. It seems like the farther away the people are from the church, the more there are that are inactive. I'd say we have about 60 people in our specific area though that go to our ward. I think only about 20 of them are active though, so we have a lot of work to do. All the active members that we've met are super nice though, and we've been making good friends with them.

4. Haha thankfully my companion doesn't prank me quite as bad haha. He's really nice though, and he knows a lot more than I do haha. He's great at Danish too, and I can actually almost always understand what he says in Danish. For most of his mission he served in Jutland, and his last area was Harhus. I know he did a bunch of great work there, and he and his companion, made a big difference. He also like to cook haha which is awesome, considering I don't really like too. Umm... he's pretty awesome though, and he's way better at soccer than I am thats for sure. We've been having some good times together though, and we get along great. 

5. I think I'm good on recipes. I'm eating alright though, even if we don't get fed much. Stuff is pretty expensive here though, so we kind of have to be careful about how much food we buy. We make awesome pizza Quesedilas and generally have rice or pasta with some other stuff for dinner. I admit I've already lost over 5 pounds since the MTC, but that's just because I haven't been eating massive amounts of food for every meal haha. We have good bread too that we eat a lot of, and I've also been drinking tons of milk here haha. I'll be fine though, as long as I have snacks in my backpack. The biking is fine too. We don't go too far, so honestly its easy compared to Oregon. Thanks for transferring that money. I figure I'm going to look for a good sale before I get my suit, but I would guess within the next couple of months. Honestly right now we only wear our suits on Sundays though, so I should be fine for the time being. I did buy a pair of pants and 6 ties though. The pants here are all much slimmer, so most of my pants are considered super baggy here, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for good deals. And I got all the ties at a little thrift shop for really cheap, and they're all skinny ties haha so I fit in a little better now. I'm also going to keep a lookout for good shoes at the thrift shops, because I admit my Eccos are way better for walking, and my companion found some at a thrift shop for about 8 dollars that are in perfect condition. So I'm just going to look for deals on things.

So... now to the funny stories of the week. So I guess in Denmark during the middle of the summer, there are frequent random torrential downpours in which every rain cloud in the world decides to gather over Denmark and obliterate anything below them with water haha. My companion and I experienced this on Saturday. We were in the city of Greve where it was about a 2 Kilometer walk to any members house. Luckily we were meeting a family in the safety of their home when the first wave of water hit haha. They were kind enough to give us a ride back to the train station afterwards. Me loving the rain as much as I do, told my companion we should go to someone elses house too though. I had a raincoat and he had an umbrella, and the rain had slowed a bit so I figured we'd be fine. Boy was I wrong haha. So we headed out and walked two or three Kilometers to the Thyssels house. When we were maybe halfway there it just started down pouring again though. I've never seen it rain nearly as hard in Oregon, and thats saying a lot. and of course the wind was blowing the rain sideways too haha. I had a raincoat on, but that didn't cover my pants. So by the time we got there, one half of us was sopping wet, while the other half was dry. We were just praying they hadn't moved since our three year old ward list was made haha. Luckily they hadn't and they let us in, and gave us some juice and chocolate and we got to know them really well. They're a super nice family, and the husband is actually the first counselor in the Bishopric, and asked me to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting haha. But we had a great time getting to know them, and we left a great spiritual thought. So even if we had to brave the insanity of a Danish thunderstorm, it paid off in the end, and we made some great friends. My companion might have a bit of a cold from it though haha, oops.

I'd say another great experience we had this week was meeting Bente. Bente is a nice lady in our ward who's a single mom and has two extremely energetic kids. She was baptized into the church a year ago, and she hasn't been making it to church for the past two months. So we went over and met her on Tuesday, but the third man that we were going to bring, couldn't come last minute so we could only set up another appointment, but it turns out that the next day was her Birthday, and my companions birthday. So we set up an appointment for the next day, on the condition that we make a cake haha. So I made a cake the next day out of brownie mix and Nutella frosting (it was actually surprisingly good), and then we brought it on the bus and train to Bente's house. haha It was a sunny day and the nutella was melting everywhere, and we got some pretty weird looks from everyone around us. Two random guys dressed up and carrying a cake around isn't something yo0u see everyday here I guess. haha that's something funny about the Danish people, They'll just stare straight at you even if you look back at them, and they dont really stop until you wave at them or something, and they realize they've been creepily staring at you for the past two minutes haha. But we got to Benta's, and our member friend came too this time, and we had an awesome time talking and eating cake, although her son Taj (he's extremely energetic) tried to kill my companion with a plastic light saber. He handed my companion one of his light sabers and then just started pounding it mercilessly with his own light saber. I was really surprised my companion got out of that appointment without a black eye hahaha. But once all the festivities were over, we had a great lesson about how important church was, and our member friend Michael said just what needed to be said, and the spirit was very strong. Bente said she'd start coming back to church too. I admit, she wasn't there on Sunday, but we'll keep working with her. She definitely has a testimony and wants to come back, but she does have a hard life and needs help getting back, so we're going to do our best to help in anyway we can.

I think that's all I have time for now, but I'll try to keep you updated well. I'm really loving it here and I love being a missionary. Oh and sorry if I use terrible grammar and spelling. I've noticed in my journal entries that the longer I'm here, the worse my English gets haha.

Love

        Ældste Redd

Denmark at Last- Assigned to Taastrup, Just Outside of Copenhagen

Hey mom and Dad and everyone else,

 

I'm doing great here in Denmark! I figure first things first, I'll answer all your questions.

1. My trip to Denmark was pretty good. I admit it was really long, but I was actually able to sleep quite a bit during the flights so it wasn't too bad. oh and by the way the Danish keyboard is a bit different and I cant figure out how to use an apostrophe so sorry about that. I think my first impression of Denmark was wow its really flat haha. but I'm already starting to love it here, and to be honest it kinda reminds me of home. Its really green and beautiful and there are lots of awesome trees.

2. My companion is Elder Jared Wright. He's from Georgia, but while he was on his mission his family moved to California, so he'll probably go there after his mission. He went to a year of BYU kinda like me too. He only has two months left of his mission though, so I'm going to be his last companion. Danish is going fairly well though. I'm actually able to understand most of the other missionaries when they speak in Danish. The problem is, the people speak so fast I can't really understand. I'll get it eventually though. and I've been trying to speak Danish whenever I'm outside our apartment, so I speak it quite a bit.

3. My mailing address is Taastrup Hovedgade 8, 1tv Taastrup Denmark.Hopefully you can understand that, I honestly can't say I do myself. But if it's very expensive don't worry too much about sending stuff. I also know they said if you want to send Christmas presents you should send them in September or October too, just because so many people send stuff at that time of year that it takes pretty much forever.

4. Honestly my first week has been kind of insane. I'm really jet lagged and tired, and they lost my suitcases when I first got here. So I was wearing the same stuff for about four days before I finally got my suitcases haha. I think I probably smelled pretty bad. The first two days I spent with some Elders that worked close to my area, because my companion was giving one last zone training in Jutland (he was a zone leader there). So my companion and I are opening a brand new area here in Taastrup. Taastrup is close to Roskjila if you want to find it on a map, and its fairly close to Copenhagen. The problem is, we really don't know much at all about our area, and we're sharing our ward with two other elders, so its hard to know which people are in our area or not, and we don't have a car so we use bikes and public transportation. So pretty much we're just trying to get organized and figure out our area still. my companion has a strong testimony of member missionary work to, so we really want to get to know all the members and get them excited about the missionary work.

      I'm really enjoying my experience though, and I've already had some pretty good food. I think my favorite thing that I've eaten so far was a kebab. It was like a middle eastern wrap type of thing, and it tasted amazing. I also really like the muesli with yogurt in the mornings, and I discovered I can drink Danish milk! so I'm really excited about that. Honestly I just love all the food. They don't put nearly as much junk in the food, and things like candy and popsicles don't have food coloring in them, so they're actually the color they should be haha. And honestly everything just tastes great. The members don't feed us too often, but I've already had two eating appointments. They weren't really traditional Danish food, but they were really good. At one we ate a yellow curry, and at another we had spaghetti with meat sauce haha. The people here are awesome though and they're really friendly, I just wish I could understand them haha. And my first week at church was actually stake conference. It was broadcasted from Sweden, and Elder Ballard was there. It was pretty cool, but it was all translated into Danish so I only understood a little bit. and there were some technical difficulties so it cut out early, but it was good, I just wish we could have met everyone in our ward.

5. Sorry Dad, but none yet haha.

6. Haha Oregon seems a long ways away to me now. It really was a great experience though and I'm glad I went there, even if it was just for two weeks. My second to last day we actually had a baptism for Elizabeth. I actually got to assist with the baptism too because her back was messed up and we wanted to make sure she was alright. So that was an amazing last experience to have while I was there. We also had a baptismal date set for Andrea Kid, and it was great to see how excited she was about the gospel. I really just loved seeing the happiness people receive from the gospel and how much it changes there lives. I also was great friends with my companion and my zone leaders and I really had a good time with them. I'm not really sure what else to say about Oregon besides, it was a great experience that I was glad to have, and I think I helped at least a few people.

 

I'm glad everything's going well for you and I guess we can be jet lagged together, because I still am haha. I like your idea about preach my gospel too. Members really do make a huge difference with missionary work too though, and if you have any friends that might be interested, just share a little about our church. And if investigators come to church, be friends to them. I realized how much of a difference that makes while I was in Oregon. Oh and if you could just make sure there's plenty of money on my card that would be awesome. I might be buying a bike, and I'll be buying a suit sometime too. Also it turns out no one wears normal ties in Denmark, and you don't look at all professional unless your wearing a skinny tie haha so I'll probably buy some ties too. my companion knows where to get all the deals though, I guess they have thrift shops in Denmark :D. He has the same exact Ecco brand shoes as me that he got in a thrift shop for 10 dollars haha, so I should be able to find some good deals. I'll keep you all in my prayers. Jeg elsker jere.

 

Elder Redd