Monday, June 10, 2013

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
 

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