Hey Everyone,

 

      Thanks for the picture dad, and ha ha yeah we're definitely starting to see some weather changes here in Denmark. It's been getting a lot colder quite quickly. it's supposed to get down to 3 degrees Celsius this week, and most nights it gets down into the low 40s i feel like. So yeah we definitely have jacket weather now ha ha. It's come quite suddenly too. Oh and I also got my razor in the mail, and it works extremely well. way better then anything I've ever used before, so thank you so much for sending that, it really helps a lot, oh and I found an old camera cord in the Roskilde Apartment that Works with my camera, so you don't have to worry about sending me an sd Card reader now. That's way cool that Aunt Adele came down though. I feel like I haven't seen Adele or Alex or Herb in forever. I'm glad that you had fun with aunt Adele though. That's way cool about our ward though, it sounds like before long they might have to split the ward if it keeps growing as fast as it is now. And actually I gave Brother Ilskow a Blessing in English, almost all Danes speak English, and they said they'd rather have us say it in English and know how to say everything, but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to give plenty of blessings in Danish too.

        Zone conference was really good this past week though. I really enjoy gathering as a zone and seeing all of my friends, and listening to president Sederholm. President Sederholm is an amazing man, and pretty much every time he speaks I feel the spirit. He had actually just had a European mission conference with Ældste Oaks and Ældste Ballard in France. President Sederholm kinda laid down the law a bit with some of the mission rules like music and reading unapproved books. He pretty much just said only listen to hymns and EFY music, so no obscure Christian bands and stuff like that. Not going to lie I'm not too happy about that, but I'm willing to do what he says, even if others aren't. I'm really glad to be in this mission though, because we're not overly strict on Things, and there aren't tons of random rules not in the White handbook for our mission. It's a great mission and we have a great man leading it. President Sederholm also talked a lot about having the faith to find though.One thing that he always says that really hits me, is we believe in Christ, but do we believe Christ. We all know from the prophets and apostles that the time for the gathering of Israel is now, and we have also been told of the second harvest in Scandinavia and that there are more people prepared for the gospel than we could ever teach. The hard part is really keeping that in your heart after having doors slammed in your face and numberless nej taks. He focused a lot on praying to know where to go, rather than just going and knocking some random doors or talking to people in a random place. He then sent us all out into Copenhagen contacting people, whether we knew the city or not. Ældste Metcalf and I had a great time doing that, and while we didn't have anything spectacular happen we had a great time doing it. We did talk to a drunk guy for a while and give him a book of Mormon. We made good friends with him and he took a picture with (the Mormons ha ha) us, and told us to go out and drink and party for a day just to experience life ha ha. We got completely lost on our way back though, but we made it back eventually. It was a really good conference though, and I learned a lot from it, now I just have to learn to apply it.

      This week was kinda crazy to be honest though. We only had two normal work days in our area, but they we're pretty good. We painted a lot in the Roskilde Apartment and helped that get ready for when new missionaries come. Unfortunately though, we found out only three visas came this transfer, so we won't have new missionaries in our area yet. So if there's one thing you could pray and fast for to help, I would say pray and fast for visas to come. We have 18 missionaries waiting to come to Denmark right now, and we need them. So for now Ældste Metcalf and I are still together, but if even one visa comes Elder Metcalf will be training them (unless there a sister missionary of course), and I'll either be with someone else in Taåstrup or I'll get sent off somewhere else. We've heard that visas will probably come in a week or two though, so it will probably be sometime soon. So yeah this week has been a bit crazy, and we didn't have a whole lot of lessons. We did meet with Charlotte again this week though, and she came to church. She really is gaining a testimony and its amazing to see. She's really worried about the word of wisdom though, because she's tried to quit smoking before and had a really hard time. So if you want to pray for her too you could.

     Actually this week we went to Newkobing (South of Sjæland) for store splits. We had 8 missionaries go down there with the Newkøbing elders and we all went on splits with the members. It was really fun ha ha, we had to go up the night before, so it was kinda like a giant missionary sleep over in the Newkøbing apartment. We all had a great time getting to know each other and played a hilarious game called beenboozled with jellybeans. There are around 8 different colors, and there are a couple of each color, and some of each color are good flavors, but some are terrible ha ha. I ended up eating one flavored centipede, and another flavored canned dog food ha ha, they were terrible. Our splits the next day with members went really well too though. We got to know some of the great members down there, and we also had some good conversations and gave out some Book of Mormons. I think it helped strengthen the testimonies of some of the members, on how important member missionary work is, because we didn't have all that much success with about 20 people going out and knocking on doors, and they realized that the people we know are generally a lot more open and willing to talk about things like the church. It was a great experience though, and a great week. I hope all of you have a wonderful week, and that all is well at home. Jeg elsker jere!

 

-Ælste Redd