Update at the end of Week 3

Before I add William's note I need to give a big thank you to my wonderful sister Melissa for helping me set up the blog for William!!  Miss - you're the best!!!

 

Hi all!!!!

 

So this is week numer tre!  I feel like I've been here forever!!!!!  Think about this, if I was English speaking I'd have left yesterday.   So yeah that's a wee bit depressing that I'll be here for three English districts!  I got several boxes this week.  The funniest one was when I got apples and carmelsauce from Susan!  I just sat in the middle of the floor eating.  According to my comps it looked pretty funny. Thank you to everyone taking yummy things to my missionary!!!

 

Language wise, I got into my first argument in Danish.  Pretty monumental if you ask me.  We were practicing contacting and one of the guys wasn't very cooperative.  Bro. Stacey says that we could all be fluent by the time we leave.  I'm pretty excited.  I learned that the actor who plays Jesus in the Testaments and Finding Faith DVD's is Danish and lives in my mission.  That would be cool -getting a member meal from Jesus.  Not everyone could say that. 

 

Things have been really dull.  Its that same thing day after day week after week.  We teach our first lesson in Danish next week, so that should be interesting. 

 

The most exciting part of the week was definitely last night at the Devotional.  Elder Russell M. Nelson was the speaker and he was amazing.  We sat on the fourth row!!!!!  It was pretty much awesome.  He talked about some practical advice for being a missionary.  Stuff like making eye contact and what not.  One really interesting thing that he said was to talk about genealogy and that that really helps you to gain the trust of an investigator.  That knowing where you come from is always exciting no matter who you are.  He also made a quote from Fiddler on the Roof, where Tevya says, "Here in Anetevka, every man knows who he is and what God expects him to do."  Yeah that sealed it.  I had Fiddler stuck in my head the rest of the night.  Also something else he said that I never really thought about was that the First Presidency, quorum of the twelve and most members are praying for the missionaries.  I just thought that that was pretty awesome to have so many prayers said for me. And another big thank you to everyone who is praying as hard as I am for this wonderful son of mine!!!

 

Yeah, that's basically it.  As Elder Tolman said very depressingly today, 3 weeks down, 100 more to go!  Oh jeez that was sad.  Hopefully this week will be a wee bit more eventful.  I love and miss you all!!  Vi Ses!!!!

 

 

William

Letter Week 2

Dear Family,

So you'll probably get this long after you get my email, but here are some leftovers that I'm guessing won't fit in the email.  We're only allowed to email or write on P-days so this is all until next week. 

So first, I'll tell you about my roommates.  Elder Joseph Mohrmon is from Payson, Utah and he is going to the Netherlands.  Elder Tolman is from Highland, Utah and is going to Denmark with me.

I set a goal while here to read the Book of Mormon all the way through by the end of the year.  In less than a week, I got all the way through 1 Nephi and learned more than all of my previous reads put together.  It's amazing how with no distractions and the Spirit to guide you how much you can learn.  I also have received a testimony of the gift of tongues.  As I mentioned in the email, all that I learned in Danish in one week, took me much longer in German and Latin.  I know that it is not because of more study because most of our days are devoted to learning how to teach.  I know that the Lord is blessing me to become more fluent in the language and for that I am so grateful.  Although some things are just unavoidable, like one foul-up this week.  While practicing door approaches one Elder instead of saying "I know God loves His children," he said "I know God makes love with his children."  It was funny and really broke the tension we were feeling.

All right, I'll email next week.  Love you all so much and miss you.

Elsker William

PS - Could I get the dates and times of the BYU home games?