Week One with Elder Roth

Kære familie,

How has your week been.  Its sounds like its been really interesting with this whole seminary thing.  I'm grateful everyday that I'm done.  :)  This past week was slow and different and I am excited about this upcoming one.  Monday and Tuesday, we basically just spent visiting and eating with people.  On Tuesday we had three eating appointments.  Yeah that was stressful.  But on Wednesday I bid farewell to my four month mission father Elder Mauler, who is now a Zone Leader in Copenhagen.  I now have Elder Roth.  He goes home in 5 weeks.  So I will be getting a new companion again pretty soon.  Roth so far is way cool.  He and Mauler were companions in Roskilde and they really like each other.  I think that we're going to be able to do some good hard work.  This week was difficult though, because we didn't have any appointments.  So we spent the whole last part of the week contacting and trying to come up with stuff to do.  I am sorta kinda senior companion because I've been here so long and know everybody, so I feel like when something falls through or we don't have anything to do its completely my fault.  And then every month, Præsident holds a fireside for investigators.  Its a great way to get the big guns on your investigators.  We were going to bring our eternal New Jersey gator, but when we went to pick him up, he canceled last minute.  That was super depressing.  We had a ride set up and everything and I had to call people to tell them that we weren't coming.

Anywhos, we're in Roskilde for P Day today and then we go into Copenhagen tomorrow for specialized training.  I hope ya'll have a good week.  I love and miss ya tons. 

Med Kærlig Hilsen (With Love)

William

Last Week With Mauler

Kære Familie,

 

Transfers are out.  We got the news that Mauler was going Zone Leader that I already told you, but we found out on Friday that I would be getting Æ. Roth.  He goes home in six weeks so it is very likely that I will be staying in Slagelse for 8 months in total.  Whoa!  Roth sounds like a way cool guy.  He's burnt out so I will have to take charge and make sure there is stuff to do.  He and Mauler were companions in Roskilde this time last year.  I'm pretty excited.  I think I could have done so much worse!  Anyway, transfers are on Wednesday.  The winner of the transfer madness is undecided still, but it looks like it'll be Æ. Williamson again! 

 

Conference was way good!  We got our New Jersey investigator to come to Saturday evening (or morning in Utah) session so I watched that with him in English, but all the rest were in Danish.  I hardly got anything out of it until the last session, which was the Sunday morning session.  I think I finally got used to the translators.  But since it was Maulers last Conference in Denmark he really wanted to watch it in Danish.  Whatever.  So I'm downloading all the talks in English as we speak.  Here was how it was set up across the pond.  The Saturday and Sunday Morning sessions were broadcast live at 6 in the evening here.  On Sunday, Priesthood was at 11am followed by Sat. Afternoon session at 2pm.  We haven't even seen the Sun evening session yet since they don't broadcast it here. 

 

Not much has happened since I emailed last.  This week has consisted of visiting people since Mauler is leaving.  Everybody seems really sad.  We have a dinner appointment tonight and 3 eating appointments tomorrow.  Yeah thats definitely not going to happen when I leave. 

 

I missed Chili's bunches after Priesthood session (the dad, the brother and the Miltons missed him too!!).  After 6 months I have come up with a solid list of the top 3 things that make me the most Trunky:

 

3. Sports

2. General Conference

1. Talking to Family (phone, email, etc)

 

Yeah thats an uplifting list.  Anyway thought I'd share that with you guys.  Hope you guys didn't have too much fun this week.  Hope ya'll have a good week.  Love and miss ya tons!

 

William

March 30, 2011

OK, so this is hopefully going to be a good email.  In the library you have to either book a computer for a certain amount of time or work on these 15 min computers.  The Book a PC program has a virus so we are just on the 15 min computers.  So anyway this was a pretty eventful week.  Our baptismal date who was supposedly super positive basically has all but dropped us.  We tried calling and texting and she has just totally ignored us.  It's way frustrating, but I am starting to get used to it.  That is basically the way of a missionary in Denmark.  They all get positive to a point and then the excitement fizzles out and they end up getting dropped or nothing happens.  So we had NO, 0, zilch notta appointments last week so we just banked (tracked) a ton!  We found this place that is basically like dorms where young people live and banked that.  It lead to a lot of success.  And killing the rest of the mission in finding numbers.  The young people are completely atheist, but are very open to learning more about the church.  Thanks to that, we are having a good deal of success with them.

So yesterday, we had interviews with President Andersen.  Mauler came out with the grin of knowing something that nobody else knew which turned out to be news that he was going Zone Leader in Copenhagen.  Which means that I'll be "taking over" the area.  I'll still be junior companion, but since I've been here so long I'll know it better than whoever is coming.  I'm just really apprehensive about who I am going to get.  I have really been blessed to have Elder Mauler as a companion for so long.  He has really taught me alot.  I'll have big shoes to fill.  I don't find out who comes until Friday so that will be in the next email.  Also the DL spot is moving to Nykøbing.  Personally, I think that is a big mistake.  Just my opinion, but we kill them in numbers every week and I think that I should get a DL as a companion.  This also means that Mauler and Meyer won't be able to come on splits since it is no longer a DL spot.  Oh well.

Now we have an exciting next week.  Mostly because I'll be getting my new companion on Wednesday.  Hopefully your guys' box will be there so I can pick that up while I am in KBH.  We're excited for conference this weekend.  Except that it will be in Danish so I might not get as much out of it as I would like.  Hope ya'll have a good week.  Hope the dog stops biting peoples butt.  Love and miss you tons. 

March 21, 2011

Kære Familie,

 

How goes it???  BYU IS IN THE SWEET 16!!!!!!!  Actually, really funny story behind how we found out.  So we called our investigator from NJ to remind him to come to church.  He asked if we followed BYU basketball?  We said heck yes.  He then told us that they beat St. Johns to go to the Sweet 16.  We knew they would play St. Johns or Gonzaga so we were super stoked and basically Missionary celebrated for a while.  We called Æ. Meyer who is like the only other BYU basketball fan to tell him.  Then he said that the senior couple in Copenhagen said they were playing Gonzaga not St. Johns and that the game wasn't until 145am here.  (Æ. Jensen the senior miss. ended up watching the game:( ).  So now we were all depressed because we didn't know if we would win or not.  The next morning, Christina, a way cool younger member texted us the score and we ended up flipping out all over again!  So yeah, we're not trusting investigators with scores ever again!

 

So this was another hard week since we were in Copenhagen for Zone Conference and Leadership mtg for two days.  I was on splits on Thurs on Amager while Mauler went to his meeting.  It was definitely an interesting splits.  The senior companion was this guy who has been out for 4 months longer than me, but can hardly speak Danish and actually just hardly speaks.  He would NOT do any of the doors that we knocked and when we did he would just lurk in the shadows creepily and not say anything.  So it was Æ. Klc (Kelch) who was in the group right in front of me and me.  So that was interesting.  Coming back we took the metro to the nearest station near the office, but its still like two miles from the office.  Meanwhile, its freezing cold and pouring rain!  We walk to the bus stop only to see the most packed bus I have ever seen.  Literally there was no room for us.  So we walk.  We come to another bus which has a little bit more room, but not 50 ft down the road, it breaks down.  Back to the cold and wet to start walking.  We finally get there and are tired, cold and sopping wet!!!  Only to leave right away for the train station.  Blah!

 

Transfer Madness is back up.  Picks are due today and transfers are in a little over 2 weeks.  That should add some excitement to our lives for a little bit.  Our baptismal date is still scheduled on going through. 

Hope all is going well!!!  Love and miss ya tons!!!

 

William