February 27, 2012

Hej med jer,

 

How are you all doing?  Another week gone.  Elder Bailey's doing pretty good.  We taught a young girl from England this week named Maria.  She was way cool and it was the first time we'd had a teaching appointment in about two weeks.  So it was good to get out and get some teaching done!  It's been unbelievably slow getting new investigators and appointments with our investigators.  Hopefully it will start picking up now that it's starting to get nicer outside.  I feel really bad because you know the ZL's are supposed to be the model area and we're nowhere near that right now.  I don't know what to be doing different either. 

 

So Tuesday, we had splits with Ballerup and it went pretty well.  It was such a trippy feeling to be back in the area and riding the trains and buses.  We tried to stop by Jack and Malene and came to find out that Jack went to Uganda two months ago and either hasn't been allowed back in or hasn't been allowed out of the country.  Malene sounded so sad and tired being with their twins alone.  Hopefully things'll work out soon. 

 

Then on Wednesday I got officially the biggest shock of my life!  President Andersen got up and said that he had recieved a letter from the First Presidency saying that his mission had been changed from a 3yr to a 2yr.  So come 30 June, he'll be done!  So there will be only one group that will see president and his family from the start of their missions the whole way through.  The new guy's name is like Shawn D. Cederholm I think.  He's from Arkansas.  But I'm so disappointed that I won't be with president through the whole thing.  I was really looking forward to that.  I'm also disappointed because he has done sooooo much for this mission and turned it around so much only to leave it.  I feel like there is a wave of success that 's about to happen and he's not going to be able to see it. 

 

So Wednesday was Specialized Training and Thursday was Leadership meeting so not too much happened.  Then it was a very quiet weekend.  This week we've got Zone Leader Council so that'll take some time to prepare for.  But hope ya'll have had a good week.  Love ya!

 

MKH

William

February 20, 2012

Hej med jer,

 

This was a pretty bad week.  Things are going good - just it was slow and not very productive.  It's starting to warm up.  With the weather we have right now, you'd think that it was spring, but it fluxuates back and forth and snowed that next day.  It didn't help that we didn't have a Pday this week.  On Tuesday, we went out and contacted with the greenies.  That was fun.  They looked so nervous and even worse than a deer stuck in headlights!  haha.  That was interesting, and took me back to those days more than a year ago.  It was a good way to measure how far I had come and the progress that I had made. 

 

Wednesday we had to do a bunch of transfer driving for the first part of the day and that shot our day right in the foot.  We also had to do a three way splits because the APs had an activity at the Young Adults center, but also the Farewell dinner for the missionaries going home.  So Æ. Bailey went to the dinner and I took another Elder in Copenhagen and worked with him for the day. 

 

It's pretty easy to sum up the rest of the week.  Boring.  I was impressed by a member in the ward, who's husband is less active.  He's been less active since a year after they got married, for no particular reason at all.  But that hasn't stopped her at all.  She comes every week and is more involved in missionary work than most other members.  Her son is on a mission now in Ukraine and her kids are also active.  We ate at her house and she just apologized that she hadn't thought of a referral for us in a couple months because she's been so busy.  She's just way cool! 

 

Anyway, that's about it for this week.  Hope ya'll are doing well.  Miss and love ya tons!

 

MKH

William

Your children came to dinner this evening

Dear missionary moms,  (I received this email yesterday and thought you all might enjoy it - btw - I feed the missionaries alot hoping for this very thing.  Thanks to all you wonderful Danish families who are feeding my son!!! - SV)

Your wonderful missionaries came to dinner at our house this evening. They were a delight to have in our house and as always they brought a wonderful spirit. I have a son serving in the Portugal mission at the moment. As a matter of fact, as I write he is leaving the MTC heading for the Salt Lake airport heading for Paris, then on to Lisbon.  So here is my plea...... Pay it forward. I fed your children tonight.... hopefully someone will feed mine in Portugal tomorrow, and you guys will feed someones' missionary where you are. Your kids are doing great here. They are such an asset to our ward. The Elders are the zone-leaders, which is a real honor here in Denmark, since we only have two zones. And the sisters are great to have. They work hard on their investigators and we try to help when we can.

At the moment we have a young lady living in our home who is waiting for her mission call. She is planning to leave around June first, so we live and breathe mission life here in our household.

We also have an older son who served in the Chicago mission 6 years ago. He lives in Provo with his wife while she finishes up school.

Anyway, just thought I would drop you a line and hopefully you love seeing your kids are well taken care of.

And oh... they had a dinner appt. yesterday, and every day for the rest of this week. They are not lacking for food it would seem. They look well.

Best regards.
'Susanne and Henrik Bryde

February 13, 2012

Hej med jer! 

 

How is your guys' week?  I saw the swim results and all I gotta say is, wow!!!  I'm way impressed!  Bailey and I are doing pretty well.  We had a really weird week this week.  Today, we were in interviews for the Copenhagen District all day and just barely got out so that's why the email is so late. 

 

On Monday, we gave a tour of the church building to this family history group that came to work on their family history in the center at our church building.  We showed them around and they thought it was all cool and then when the family history lady started showing them how to find some of their names they got very excited and just forgot all about us.  They were very impressed about the missionaries, how we come out for 2 years, learn the language and are out working everyday.  That's one thing that I never get tired of.  Members expect when you're older to have phenomanal Danish and just be amazing missionaries, but nonmembers don't know about all that stuff, so they are very impressed when they hear that we learn Danish that fast! 

 

It's been really cold of late.  And even though we have a car, there is something that the cold does to your mentality that just makes you not want to go out and work.  So we're trying harder and harder to get out the door and just do it!  On Thursday we had splits with Roskilde.  I was with Elder Willden all day and I really enjoy him.  He's a hilarious guy and a fantastic missionary.  He's the one who's mother died back in June.  I'm so impressed by his testimony of the Atonement, and his mother's death doesn't hinder him at all.  In fact, it just makes hime want to go out and tell even more people about the gospel!  So that was fun being with him all day!

 

We got to meet with one of our investigators that I haven't had the chance to meet yet.  His name is Stanely and he's from Cameroon.  He had a baptismal date earlier, but was just so busy that we couldn't meet with him.  So, we finally got to meet with him this week.  He showed us pictures for like an hour of his trip to DC and Atlanta.  It was so trunkifying!  Haha.  But the appointment went well and hopefully he can come to church soon. 

 

On Friday, we had interviews with the Allerød District.  It went well.  Elder Wright found out he was moving to Frederikshavn with Elder Poulsen and Elder Stoffey is going to be training.  So there's going to be another greenie in the apartment. 

 

On Saturday, we helped this family, that had served a mission in Russia, move.  They had all their stuff in a storage shed and we had to move it to their apartment in Charlottenlund, which took 5 hours!  I was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep when I got home, but at least the weather was decent that day!

 

That was our week.  Transfers, nothing's happening to us.  So that'll be good!  Hope ya'll have a great week.  Love and miss ya tons!

 

MKH

William

February 6, 2012

Hej med jer! 

 

It was an ok week.  The week was fast, but we didn't get that much work done in our own area.  It was so cold this week.  It got down to about -17 Celsius so a little over 0 F, and it snowed.  Nobody would listen to us in the streets.  So we started the week off by making a Zone report for Zone Leader Council.  We need to call every area in the Zone and see how their investigators are doing and how we can help them -  companionship or apartment concerns, etc.  So we did that Tuesday since we didn't really have anything else, and that took most of the day.

 

Then on Wednesday, Æ. Koop and Larkin (Assisstants) came on Splits.  That was pretty good.  Not too much exciting there. 

 

Thursday we went on Splits with Amager with Tolman and froze our patooties off.  Later that night, Tolman got a knife pulled on him, while they were knocking so that was a little scary, but all's good now. 

 

Friday, we had Zone Leader Council.  Elder Jose Texierea from the 70 was there.  That was really nerve racking.  A few months before I came, he held a mission conference and scolded the missionaries with the motto, be more like Brazil, and railed on them for not having as many baptisms as Brazil.  So I was pretty nervous going into this thing, but it wasn't that bad.  He mostly talked about how we could be better leaders. He had some ideas that seemed almost too simple, like pray more.  I talked to Elder Willden afterwards about it and he's just like he doesn't realize how much I've prayed not even for a baptism and nothing comes of it.  I kind of agree, praying can't take away the people's agency, but maybe open up more for blessings, so why not try it. 

 

Last night we stopped by Vanessa and Christopher.  Christopher is from France while Vanessa is Danish.  They have a sweet 10 year old daughter and they are super cool.  They pray every night to see if the Book of Mormon is true and Vanessa really wants her daughter Monica to be baptized in our church.  They said that they are going to try and come this week so we are super excited about that!  Love and miss you all!  Have a great week!

 

William