Wonderful Week and Good Danish Families

Hey Mom and Dad and everyone else,

 

     I had a wonderful week this week in Denmark. Not only did I just have a good time teaching and meeting people, but it was also super sunny this week. It got up to about 90 degrees on Sunday, and it's also been extremely humid lately, so I've been burning up haha. This week we had three eating appointments three days in a row though, so that was absolutely wonderful. On Monday we had aftensmal (Dinner) with familien Koch, and we shared a good spiritual thought with them. There cousins were there so it was a little crazy´, but it was pretty fun. Then on Tuesday Elder Wright and I met with Vikas in the morning, but he forgot we were coming so there were a bunch of people sleeping in his apartment, but he still invited us in and gave us a drink (I guess its a tradition that Indian people won't let you leave without giving you something to drink haha). But then we headed to Tune and after a while had an eating appointment with familien Dalsgård. The Roskilde Elders were there too, and also two of their investigators Kim and Samantha. So we had a great time playing with there kids and eating and we actually had a really great lesson with Kim (in Denmark Kim is a boys name) and Samantha afterward. I didn't understand everything that happened in the lesson, but I do know that we were able to answer their questions and that the spirit was there, and afterward Samantha asked Elder Strong for a priesthood blessing. So that was really cool, and we have high hopes for them. They've been to church about 5 times too, and they are very nice people.

     On Wednesday we had District møde in the morning and then we went with the other elders to a conveyor belt sushi place for lunch, and this time I ate 40 plates of Sushi hahaha. I've already somehow gained the reputation of being the biggest eater in the mission and when I meet other Elders for the first time I generally get, "You're the guy that eats a ton right" hahaha. I think my companion must be spreading rumors or something. After that we went and tried to talk some people we met before though and then we went to dinner with our neighbor and her son and daughter in law. It went super well, and we had a great time. We're not really teaching her the lessons or anything, and she's made it a point that she wants to stay with the Dansk folke kirke, but she and her son and daughter and law asked a whole ton of questions about the church and seem very interested. For now we'll keep being their friends and inviting them to things though, and someday I really wouldn't be surprised if it makes a difference. Our neighbor wants to teach me Danish too, the problem is we have to have another man when we visit her because shes a single woman. So hopefully we'll be able to figure something out for that, because the more we meet the better, because every time we meet some question seems to be brought up about the church.

     Oh and we also went to the Høje tåstrup kommune (government building place) this week too to see if I would ever get my residence card thing that they were supposedly working on, and it turns out they had forgotten all about me and lost all records of me even though they had literally taken about three different copies of my passport and visa (yeah, terribly run government systems haha). So we had to figure that all out and hopefully I'll be legal before long and they'll figure it out this time. We're going to go back and check this week though haha.

     I think the only other crazy thing that happened this week is we went with Vikas on Saturday night to an Indian temple place so he could show us a little about his beliefs. It was pretty interesting and we got to wear bandanas and walk around a guy in a turban reading from a holy book. Then they took us downstairs and we all sat on mats and ate some epic Indian food that was super good. It was pretty cool, although very strange, and I didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, so I hope I didn't disrespect anyone or their religion in any way. Vikas gave us some metal bracelet things afterward that protect against bad dreams and evil spirits too, so now I can prove I was there haha. It was pretty crazy though, and we ended up getting home late because of it, but it was a good experience. Vikas actually had to go back to India on Sunday too because his visa is expired, but hopefully he'll make it back to Denmark someday, but before he left we talked to his friend who we gave a book of Mormon to, and he wants to meet with us in three weeks when he gets back from vacation. So we think something good will come of it, and maybe Vikas will meet members of our church in India that he can communicate better with too (its pretty hard to understand him).  Overall though this week was pretty great, and I had a great time. I'm starting to get better at looking for the good in everything and trusting in the Lord to help us and build us up when times are hard. I'm really loving it here, and I wish to all of you a wonderful week. 

 

-Ældste Redd

 

Meeting with Man from India, Good Food and a Lost Wallet

Hey Everyone,

 

This week has been much better. I didn't even get sick haha. I don't feel like I've really done anything amazing, but I've at least just helped some people and been a friend to them. I've also eaten a bunch of random wild cherries that were randomly growing next to the path we were walking on. They were quite delicious haha. My companion and I have been able to talk a lot too and he shared with me how he felt at the beginning of his mission, and it was very similar to how I feel sometimes and I think most missionaries go through the same thing like Dad told me about in his email. I guess I'll just start from the beginning of my week now though.

     On Tuesday we met with a man from India named Vikas, and he and his friends actually made us some super good Indian food (haha are you jealous Katherine). We had a really good time with Vikas and his friends and gave them some Hindi Mormons boger. I don't think Vikas is actually super interested in the church, but he really needs friends and wanted to meet with us, but you never know, maybe some day he really will become interested. We had an awesome dinner with them though and even though we couldn't understand everything they said (their not super skilled in English or Danish) we had a great time with them. We may have accidentally drunk some obscure type of Indian tea though haha... oops and afterwards my stomach was killing me and I felt like I might explode haha. That was pretty great though, and actually last night we went back to Vikas's house and helped him write an appeal to some Immigration office in good English, because I guess his visa renewal was denied so he has to go back to India soon. Haha it was pretty interesting though and I think he might be working illegally here, but at least hes aloud to be in Denmark right now haha. But I'm glad we were able to help edit it for him, because there's no way the Immigration office would have understood that letter if we hadn't helped him.

    Then on Wednesday we had our quarterly interviews with president Sederholm. That was a good experience and he mainly focused for us on having the faith to find people. We had great talks with him and I can tell he really cares about us and was inspired to put us in this area together, even if we don't really know why ourselves yet. He actually promised us though that we would be able to find someone to teach that day after our interviews. So we were both pretty excited and went out expecting to find someone and we were super positive. We went to Hedehusene and went by and tried contacting a bunch of old potentials the missionaries had met in March. All of them either weren't home or just said nej tak and shut the door, or someone else that didn't recognize us answered. So that was disappointing, but then to make matters worse, my companion realized his wallet wasn't in his pocket. So we spent the next three hours or so retracing our steps and searching for his wallet, because his wallet had all his MSF (missionary support fund for food and stuff) in it and it also had our Rejsekort (our transportation card thing for getting off and on buses and trains) with a bunch of our travel money on it. We actually never found it, and by the time we finished looking it was time to go home. So not going to lie, that was pretty much the worst day ever. We were super positive and president promised us that we'd find someone, but then we pretty much just ended up searching for a wallet that we never found.

    On Thursday, we went and helped an old British handicapped guy in our ward clean up his dog poop (we do it every week) and bought him some butter. He has two giant German shepherds one of which is completely insane because it never sees people and when we come its tail starts wagging and it thinks its tail is a demon or something and just tries to attack it the whole time. We helped him though and then we went to try to meet an 80 year old lady on our ward list, but after walking a really long way we just found that Mohammed lived there now. Not going to lie they're terrible at home teaching in Denmark, so to be honest no one ever visited or knew that old lady. It's really kinda sad. But then we decided to make cookies for our neighbor because she hurt her knee and couldn't leave her apartment for a few days, so we went and did that and did some weekly planning as well.

    On Friday we decided we were kinda out of options and until we thought of some other creative way to find we needed to knock. So we decided to go knock what we call Gettoville Tåstrup. It's pretty much the most getto place in our area, and if there were ever to be shootings in Denmark, that would probably be one of the top places. I think I heard there were something like over 100 languages spoken in those apartments haha. But we went and knocked for awhile, but after maybe an hour or two, we had literally only talked to maybe four people, one of which had slammed the door on her face because she thought we were the immigration police (her daughter opened the door and apologized haha). A lot of little kids and immigrants think we're the police for some reason. So eventually we figured knocking on Friday night wasn't going to work. So we went back and gave the cookies we made to our neighbor and we actually ended up talking to her for about an hour and a half, and She's reading the Book of Mormon now, and we're eating dinner with her and her son on Wednesday. So that's honestly really awesome and I'm super excited for that.

      Saturday we played soccer in the morning with a bunch of youth in the ward and had a great time (although I now have two huge blisters on my feet haha (don't worry I'll survive). We went and set up an appointment with a less active in our ward and tried to contact other people too and we also found a bunch of cherry and plum trees and had a feast. On our way home we bought a super good pastry too. And on Sunday we actually found out we have eating appointments this week, and they finally told everyone that we're allowed to be invited to anyones home in our ward, because we're there to help and get to know everyone not just the few people that live in our area. So I'm excited for this week and I had a pretty good week too. Thanks for all the nice emails and everything you've sent me too. Have a wonderful week.

 

Ældste Redd

Still Sick and Still in Taastrup

Hey Everyone,

 

      Sorry you were all worried about me mom, and dad. I was fine, I got over being sick after two days and it definitely wasn't dehydration. I admit I probably don't drink quite enough here because there aren't water fountains anywhere, and they charge a stupid amount for water. But when I'm at my apartment I drink a ton, and whenever we go to members houses they offer us stuff to drink. But I could tell it wasn't dehydration. I got sick this week too though, and it was a much worse disease. I had a super sore throat was super tired and had a major headache and tons of congestion. My companion said when he first came to Denmark he got sick 3 or 4 times in the first couple months too, so I guess its not that unusual. I was so sick of being sick that I just went out and worked anyway though. I'm glad I did too, because we were able to meet with some members that we hadn't met yet. We did end up running about a third of a mile to catch a bus though, and that made me feel terrible enough that I had to stay in the next day. I feel fine now though I just have a little bit of a cough and sound like batman when I clear my throat. To be honest this week has kind of sucked though. We literally have no investigators and I don't feel like I'm doing anything of worth here. My companion is super mad and frustrated with how they set up our area too and he says it's the worst area situation he's ever been in. I guess the ward mission leader helped pick how the area is, but we really don't have very many active members at all in our area and just things aren't working out so good for us. I honestly have no desire to email right now either, I'm sorry. I'm just kinda frustrated and don't want to rant about how crappy our week has been. So I'm sorry if my email is short. don't worry about me though, I'm not thinking about wanting to come home or anything, and I think part of the reason president Sederholm might have been inspired to send me here is because I feel like you'd literally have to chop all my arms and legs off to make me leave my mission haha. We actually had a meeting with him and I told him how discouraged I was and he told me that earlier that day he had felt inspired to share the story of Aaron, Ammon's brother, with me. When Aaron went to preach to the Lamanites, he was rejected and cast out of the first city he visited, and he was thrown into prison at the second city he visited. After that he had great success though. Hearing president say that kind of scared the halibut out of me, because if there's one thing I've learned so far on my mission it's that mission presidents are inspired men and receive lots of revelation. So I'm hoping that wasn't a literal story for me. I think what it means though is that I'm going to face a lot of discouragement and hard times, and I need to be patient and push through all of that before I have the better times. So I hope things work out eventually and I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's pretty hard.

       I haven't gotten a suit yet, because I'm looking for deals. I could get an H and M one for about 100 dollars, but the H&M ones that are that cheap don't fit me very well so I'm trying to find a sale. And not going to lie I'm never going to get my suit dry cleaned here because it costs about $100 to get it dry cleaned. I only wear my suit to zone conference and to church on Sunday though so I really should be fine. The biggest problem I'm going to have is not growing out of my suit pants haha. I did buy a nice winter coat for today for about $100 today though, so that was good. You can just send the package to the mission office though. It's not too far away from where I am so that should be fine. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay in this area though because my companion is going home and I'll be the only one that knows this area. I guess maybe this area will get changed though, so I think it would be best if you just send it to the mission office. I'm sorry, but that's all I want to email about for now. So have a great week.

 

Ældste Redd

Sick and a Bit Discouraged

Hey everyone,

 

    I had another great week in Denmark, except I was pretty sick half the time. honestly I was kind of sick since last P-day but I went out and tried to work my best on Tuesday and Wednesday anyway, but on Ønsdag I was really nauseous and light headed and honestly felt like I was going to just keel over while we were walking haha. So finally I decided I should probably stay in on Thursday and rest. I really don't like staying in though, because I don't feel like I'm here too sleep and I want to do my best to go out and help people, but I needed to get better in order to do that. So I ended up sleeping probably 18-20 hours a day for two days straight, and then I finally felt mostly better. So it took awhile and was kinda miserable, but by now I feel pretty much better, still a little off, but mostly better. I managed to lose about 6 pounds in those couple days though, so now I'm about to the same weight I was before I started my mission.
     So honestly, we didn't get a whole ton done this week, and the days we were working no one was ever home. It's pretty strange to be honest, in July the nicest month of the year in Denmark, Everyone and I really mean pretty much everyone, goes on a three or four week vacation and they all disappear. So it's really hard to find people right now, but we'll do our best and I'm sure we'll find someone. We've been trying our best to work with the members to do missionary work lately, and that's how my companion has had the most success on his mission, but we've begun to realize, we have very few active people in our area. We have a few great really strong families, but most of the other active members in our ward are in the other Elders area. So were trying to find all the less active members and get them back. We're starting to have to spend more and more time knocking doors and contacting people though now, so that's kind of hard, because we really just want to be teaching and helping people, but if we have no one to teach, we'd better find them.

     Sunday was a great day though, we had a baptismal service for an eight year old in our ward. The family wanted to keep it small, so most of the people there were family members, but I kind of liked it that way and there was a special spirit there. It was absolutely wonderful, and Ældste Metcalf got to perform the baptism. it went super well, and I know everyone could feel the spirit in that room. After that the day was over and we actually stayed the night in Copenhagen with the Elders and Assistants to the President so we could stay in Copenhagen on P-DAY. That was super fun and it was great to see people and get to know some of the other Elders better. Copenhagen was awesome too. I bought two sweet skinny ties and we got to see some awesome things like ginormous Danish churches and the Queens palace. I took lots of pictures two so I'll send some later. I saw the Christus statue too. I have to go now though so have a great week. Jeg elsker jere.

 

-Ældste Redd

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 6:37 PM, Benjamin Redd <benjamin.redd@myldsmail.net> wrote:
So sorry if this email is really lame, we didn't have much time to email today and the library closes in half an hour now. On normal p days we get up and study for two hours and then we have from 10am to 6pm to do everything. We go to some washers and dryers in our apartment complex to do our clothes and we come to the local library in Tåstrup to email and we get two hours to email. We generally buy food at a store close to our house called NETTO too.   Sorry if I forget to answer any of your questions, I just need to tell you about the week cause I'm running out of time.

July 1, 2013- Taastrup, Denmark

Dear, Mom, Dad, Family, and everyone else

Wow, yeah its definitely a lot warmer there than here. I'd say the highest it's gotten here for the past two weeks is maybe 70 degrees. Most days its been a lot colder though and its been raining almost every day as well haha. My companion says last summer was way warmer though and its really weird that its so cold. Hopefully we get some sun eventually though. And  your selling the car and renting out the basement haha, sounds like things will be a lot different by the time I get back. Hopefully you'll still live in Oregon  (you'd better not move to Costa Rica or anything crazy like that). 

     Denmark is really pretty great though, and I'm really loving it here. I'm feeling sick again today though, and my head isn't working extremely well so this email might not be quite as good as previous ones. Haha no, I think the family just felt sorry for us because we were new and had no eating appointments, so they invited us over. This week we only have one eating appointment though :(. So I'm not sure if we will continue eating super well because there honestly aren't a whole ton of active members in our area to feed us. And I haven't started eating any less yet, so I'm pretty much always starving still, but I'll survive haha. This past Sunday I didn't get quite as worn out though. I admit I still didn't really understand anything,  but I didn't feel like I had been hit by a truck just because I had tried to understand and listen for three hours like last Sunday. Don't worry though, I'll keep doing my best with the language. I'm definitely learning to speak it better, but the main problem is, every time a Dane comes up and starts speaking lightning fast I just stare at them blankly and have absolutely no clue what in the world they just said haha.

     Dang, thats really scary about what happened to Grandma. I'll keep her in my prayers. Make sure to keep me updated on that. How's Cousin max doing by the way? And it sounds like Alex didn't have a fun time getting home. There are plenty of dishonest people out there that are perfectly happy to mess up peoples lives if they get something out of it, luckily there are plenty of amazing people as well though :). Oh by the way is Alex engaged to Sara yet? 

    Other than the people I told you about in previous emails we don't have any other investigators. We've been working with some less actives though, and especially after that broadcast we're really trying to help the member missionary work expand. And I really loved that broadcast. I felt the spirit very strongly, and I know it was an inspired message that was shared. I'm excited that we'll be able to use media things such as face book, and that we'll be able to use I pads for things (its really hard to find places in Denmark with a map), but most of all I was excited about how much they talked about member missionary work. I feel bad about how terrible of a member missionary I was back at home, but I know I'll be a much better one when I do get home. I really feel like every member should watch that broadcast, and if everyone would just take it to heart, the work of the lord would progress at an amazing rate. A challenge that we've been giving to members in our area, is to pray every morning for a missionary experience that day. We also ask them to be prepared, and always have a book of Mormon that you can give them in your bag or in your car, so that if the opportunity presents itself you'll be ready to share the gospel. I would like to leave that same challenge to all of you. I feel like if every one did that it would change a lot, because honestly as missionaries, we can knock on doors all day, and have nothing come of it, but if the members are able to help find those that are ready the work can change so much for the better. That's awesome to hear about Drew and all my other friends on missions. Could you actually send me Drew's email if they're giving that out? I don't think I'll have time to write much to him, but I might send him a note and a funny picture haha. Oh and I also got a letter from Brother Dyer this week. Tell him thanks a ton for me, it was great to hear from him and I'll try to reply, but considering how much we have to do every P day it might take me a couple weeks to finish it.

    Yeah it seems crazy that I've been out three months already. It definitely doesn't seem like that long to me. I didn't have any especially awesome experiences this week, but it was still a pretty good week. Elder Metcalf and I went on Splits for a day, and we both came into the mission at the same time and were in the MTC together, so neither of us can really understand Danish haha. We were able to have a great day though. We talked to a lot of people on the street and found a lot of potential investigators that we'll hopefully get to talk to later, and we were able to get an appointment with someone who is less active, and we also helped get a less active to church. So I'd say it was a successful day, especially since we were able to speak a decent amount of Danish. Luckily where we were there were lots of African and Muslim immigrants though so a decent number couldn't speak Danish but knew English. I think I'm going to leave my email at that for today because I have a massive headache, but I hope you all have a fantastic week and jeg håber at I skal ikke blive mad for en stor Kakerlak. Jeg Elsker Jere!

-Ældste Redd

Benjamin Redd <benjamin.redd@myldsmail.net>	Jul 1
to me

Hey Mom,

Hopefully that helps. Oh and regarding the package I would still like a few conference talks in Danish and English, if you want to send them. Also I figure if your going to send a package you might just want to send any Christmas present kind of stuff with it just because I know its going to be kind of expensive. Also if you have extra room in the package i would love it if you could sent me my nice gray jean type pants and my black skinny tie haha only if there's room though (my one pair of jeans here got paint on them doing service). I really would love a package though. I love getting things in the mail. You might want to just send it to the mission office though because I'm not sure how they deliver packages here, and I'm only about half an hour away from the office by train so its not too hard for us to pick stuff like that up. I would really really really love a package though (hint hint hint :D) and I've also been told that Danish children will love you if you give them American candy so if you have room for a pack of star bursts some Danish kids will probably be really happy. I love you mom! and if I didn't say it in my last email tell dad Happy really late fathers day for me. You two have pretty much made me the person I am today, and I will be forever grateful for the wonderful family I grew up in. Have a wonderful week!

-Ældste Redd