Velsignelser

Hey everyone! It's been a great week! I have my new companion Elder Lee and he is a killer missionary! We get along great and we have been working like crazy. I'll share a few experiences from the week.

We have been trying to visit as many less active members as much as possible this week, so two of my stories have to do with that. The first one starts in a little town called Udløse where we visited a less active. After the visit we went back to our car and saw a little yellow note under the windshield wiper. Parking tickets are yellow in Denmark so I was pretty upset at first, when we got to the note I picked it up and realized it was handwritten, about two seconds after that an angry Danish man bursts out his front door and starts yelling at us about how we are disrespectful for parking in front of his house and that we don't think (where we parked was totally legal by the way). We found out that he has PTSD and hates the world. He continued for the next hour telling us about how terrible the world is these days and how many great things he has done in his life. It was lame.

Another less active we visited turned out to be a super old lady. Her name was Lise Nielsen and she invited us right in and started to hobble around and clean her house. She was super sweet. She made us hot cocao and bread with jam. She couldn't hear very well so when I asked how she became a member of the church she thought I asked how old is your dog. I promise it wasn't just a Danish mistake because those two phrases sound nothing alike. All in all though she was a very nice lady and it was a very good visit. Much better than the first experience.

One more thing happened that was a little more spiritual. We don't have very many investigators right now so we decided to fast until we found someone. We started that day like normal except without breakfast. We decided to study finding in preach my gospel. We learned that we should turn our conversations to teaching as soon as possible and bring it to the unique message of the restoration. We went out on our morning contacting session and talked to a couple people. The angrily told us no and I thought we were in for a long day. Shortly after that we met a girl named Sarah and she started to listen to us. We used exactly what we had learned that morning and taught her a short lesson. Right after she said she didn't have much time but set up an appointment with us. It was an awesome experience! 

To apply it in a way that maybe you all can relate to, I want to share a thought about fasting and faith. Over the past few months I have gained a strong testimony of fasting. I have seen so many blessings and experiences that have come from a specific fast and faith that the Lord would deliver. If you need help with something that seems impossible try and focus on something that always works. Show God your desire for his help by focusing your fasting and prayer. I know you will see His hand in your lives and he will help you.

Thank you for everything. You are all great friends to me and I look up to you all. Thank you for your support. I hope you have a super great week.

Elder Smith

Hi Mor!

Life is great. The mission is 11/10 and Denmark is beautiful. Elder Lee is great. He only has four months left but he is a great missionary. I have learned so much from him already. I miss ice cream. I'm almost done with Helaman.

That relay race sounds fun. Was it an actual race or just for fun? Did you all run the same legs? How did it work? Sounds like you had fun with Adam. I hope Aubrey and Cooper will hang out with me when we are old ;) haha.

Thanks for getting me a USB no rush haha. You aren't super slow. I have letters written for you all. I will try to send them today. My coat was about 1500 crowns. So like $200? It's a good one. I'll be using it pretty soon here.

So I just email you that I got the card when I get it? I'm excited to get your old letter. Do you talk to Sister O'Bryant alot? That's kind of weird.

That's cool with Grandma and Grandpa. They will love the MTC I hope they have an awesome experience there.

Yeah it's pretty easy to solve a rubik's cube. Find him some instructions for it so he can learn to solve it. I had to have someone teach me. It is one of those things that seems impossible but once you know how to do it it's easy.

I love you sooooooooooooooooo much. Du er fantastisk. I love you. I have like five minutes left and I haven't emailed dad or aubrey or cooper. I hate emailing.

Love Ældste Smith

Hey dad I'm good. I got a few minutes to write you. The first week with my new comp has been great. He is a great missionary and I don't think we will have any problems. I remember most things. We have a GPS and that's nice. I do know a few things and the members laugh at my Danish a lot but mostly because they ask if I understood and I have to say not really. Sounds like things are going better with work. That is good. Wow that sounds like Vernal has had more rain than Denmark and that seems wierd. I like this time of year too. It's really starting to cool off and feel good outside. I love riding my bike in this kind of weather. I'm glad to hear you've been running. How much do you weigh? I have been doing pretty good with workouts in the morning. Push-ups crunches squats and all that. It's been good. I haven't lost much weight but I bought a ton of fruits and veggies to eat this week. Thank you for your support and advice. I love you and miss you. Thanks for being such a great example to me. 

Love Elder Smith

I forgot how to drive

Pretty Danish sky out our window

Ocean and the Moon

So things have been pretty crazy. I'll start with some bigger news to get that out of the way. The transfer is over and I'm getting a new companion! Elder Weese was transfered to Odense to be the new district leader there. I will be staying in Holbæk and getting a new companion Elder Lee. I haven't met him yet but he sounds great. I'm currently in Copenhagen and I will be here until he arives and then we will head back to Holbæk.

So other than transfers the week hasn't been too exciting. On Monday I started driving which was super scary. I haven't driven in four months so I was super nervous, but it's getting better now. We drive alot in our area because it's huge.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Nykøbing for splits. Elder Hendriksen and I drove all over his area and knocked on tons of doors to check on investigators and less active members and not a single one answered the door. To go along with that when we were driving from Slagelse down to Nykøbing we were low on gas. It would have been fine, but we forgot to fill up when we got there. Later when we were leaving to do some stop-bys, we ran out of gas. Elder Weese and Elder Williams had to get gas on their bikes and bring it to us. It wasn't very fun.

So that was about it for the week. The rest was just the usual. Church was great this week. I understand a little more every time. This week in church we had a lesson about agency. We are extremely lucky to have the freedom to choose. There is a consequence to every choice whether good or bad. Thomas S. Monson gave a talk in the April General Conference I think and it was on choosing. He talked about Alice in Wonderland and how she came across a split in the path and didn't know which one to choose. The Cheshire cat asked where she was going and she didn't know. Then the cat said that it doesn't matter which way you go. We know where want to go. We have that knowledge of which path we should take. The next step is to choose. Choose the path that will take us where we want to go. The Cheshire cat wasn't exactly the best guide to ALice. Luckily we have much better guides in our lives. We have family, the scriptures, and the Spirit to tell us where we should go. So next time you make a choice, think of where it is you want to go and which path you should take to get there.

I love you all lots. Thank you for your support. I hope you all have a fantastic week and are loving fall. I'm in the same place so my address is the same. I will send pictures later, this computer doesn't have a USB port that I can find.

Love Elder Smith

Min Mor!

Thank you! I will let you know when I get it.

I will be getting a new companion today. His name is Elder Lee. I've never met him. I'm staying in Holbæk for now.

I'm proud of Cooper. Sounds like he is doing a lot better. I miss him.

Thank you for thinking of me. Now maybe I will learn the language. ;)

I found a coat! It's really nice. It's Columbia brand and it's really dark blue. I really like it. I'll send you a picture of me in it sometime.

I really really want ice cream. I haven't lost a single pound and now I'm just sad because I don't have is, candy, and chocolate.

Our bunk bed has been together for a couple weeks now. Believe it or not the IKEA was just like the ones I remember at home. Except all the prices were in crowns and all the signs were Danish. 

That is really weird with the letter. I'm super excited though because now I will get two letters soon! I'm glad you sent it to the apartment I'm still at. :)

Speaking of sending stuff, I know it's early but I thought of some stuff that would actually be useful for me for birthday and christmas stuff. To be honest I don't really need anything so if you just send a letter I will be happy. I already got a bike and a coat and food. But anyway things I could use are a new USB or SD card. I lost the SD card I was using for music, so now I just have the one in my camera. If you get me one sooner that I can use you could just stick it in an envelope and send it to me sooner. That would probably be cheaper. You could put good approved missionary music on it if you wanted to. These are some foods they don't have here. Flamin hot cheetos (or any crunchy cheetos. Just the fluffy gross ones), Swedish fish, american chocolate (they have twixes and snickers and kit kats and stuff, but the chocolate tastes different, not better or worse, but different.), beef jerky, muffin or pancake mixes. I could use another comfy t-shirt or two, a Rubiks cube would be fun. Elder Weese taught me how to do one of those haha. Any good talk ideas. Pictures of you guys (you can send me pictures over email if you didn't know). Maybe print off some pictures of me from my facebook of things I used to do, things I can show my companions. Sometimes TJMaxx has Skagen brand watches on clearance for really cheap. They are popular here and I like them a lot. I can't think of anything else. Those are just ideas. You don't have to send me anything really. I don't really need any new clothes right now and I don't need tons of food, so I'm pretty well off. (note for anyone reading this... if you happen to send him any of these things, let me know so we don't send duplicates!)

I love you tons and tons and tons and forever and ever and ever. You are my favorite mom in the world.

Love Ældste Smith

Oh yeah! I also made the group for the mission Christmas choir. I get to do a concert in Copenhagen, Odense, and Aarhus!

Dear Far.

I'm doing pretty well. I hope you saw from my other email I will be getting a new companion. Everything has been good here and I am happy. I love my work. I wish you could do more missionary work. That makes me happy. But it still makes me tired too. Keep working hard. Fall seems to be slowly coming here. We had a couple hot days but it seems like it's starting to change now. That elk hunt was fun. I wish you would have enjoyed it more. I hope you get to go bird hunting too. I've seen some pheasants here. Not a ton but every once in a while. I remember one day we were driving to church and it was raining and out the window there were like 20 of them sitting in a field. I miss ward parties. It sounds like it was a good BBQ. Have there been any big changes in the ward? That sounds like a kind of annoying situation with the skunk. That's pretty weird it stayed in there so long and didn't die. Skunks are annoying. I've been trying my best to give my all. I read a talk from Jeffrey R. Holland and he said how the apostles have given their life to the church then they are pleading and praying that we give it to years and put our whole heart into it. I'm here so there is no point in not giving my all. I've really been trying to give my heart to the Lord and entirely give in to his will. I am excited for the next while of my mission. Thank you for being my dad. I love you and miss you. Thank you for everything. Have a good week.

Elder Smith

One Week Left of Training

Well I only have one week left of training and then I will most likely have a new companion as well. That's pretty crazy. I have been on the mission almost four months and in Denmark about two and a half. Elder Weese hit his year mark this week on Friday so that was a pretty fun celebration. We went to eat at a mexican place (it didn't taste like mexican food at all but it was still really good) and burned one of his white shirts on the beach. It was a fun night.

On Monday we spent the night in Tåstrup so we could pick up a new bunkbed from IKEA in the morning. It is much more sturdy than our last bunked so our mattresses aren't on the floor anymore. 

Wednesday was really warm and we were out knocking the whole day. When we got home I was dying of heat and all I wanted was a bowl of ice cream, but sadly I gave that up. 

When we celebrated Elder Weese's year mark on Friday the sky was so pretty. Elder Weese and I just looked at it for a while and wondered how people can see the world and not believe that there was a God who created it. I have pictures so you can see how pretty it was, but they don't quite do it justice.

This Sunday was definitely a good one. I understood more than I ever have in sacrament meeting. Not nearly as much as I would like to, but way more than normal. After that I had to teach a lesson for guest class on Jesus Christ. I thought it went really well.

In the lesson we talked a little bit about why we needed to have a Savior Jesus Christ. We had to leave our Heavenly Father and come to Earth. Here, we must learn to make our own choices. None of us are perfect and we are all tried and tempted. How can we overcome it? The Savior. He has paid for our sins and our trials and imperfections. Elder Weese and I listened to a talk the other day by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient" If we believe that we can't change or become better, we do not understand the Atonement. His grace is sufficient. Jesus Christ our Savior has paid for all of it in full, he has covered everything. If we give ourselves up to him and give in to the Father's will, we will be cleaned and healed. Don't ever give up and remember that His grace is sufficient for you, for me, and for every one of God's children.

I love you all! Thank you for all you do. Next week I should have some news about a new companion and I will be finished with training. Have a great week!

Ældste Smith

Hvasa mommy!

Yep one more week till transfers. I'm excited because I like change, but I really hope I have a good companion. It's kind of sad when you have to get rid of a companion you know you work well with. I will probably be in the same area with the same address. You could send it to the mission office or just to my address. If anything it will just take longer to get to me.

I sent one last week when I was on the computer.

I have heard of Grandma and Grandpa's mission call. That is so cool. Elder Weese has a buddy in that mission who is speaking Navajo. Are Grandma and Grandpa super nervous? I am so excited for them.

I am sure you can learn the languages haha. My Danish definitely feels better, but it's so hard to understand. You don't leave me out too often. I probably have learned to fend for myself because you always forget me haha.

My bike is awesome. I don't use it a ton, but it depends on the week. When we are in Holbæk and it's too far to walk but to close to drive, we bike. I love riding though even though I get sweaty. I'm going to try and find a coat today. There are some outlet stores here that we are going to check out.

Not eating that stuff is really hard because after a hard day all I want is ice cream. I keep praying one of our eating appointments will have ice cream for desert so I can have it but they haven't yet. Thats so weird! Before we had ice cream like every few eating appointments. It's like they know.

Yeah we have a lot of fun adventures haha. We didn't break it on purpose. It was super shaky before. Then after that one day Elder Weese was climbing the ladder and the rung broke. So after that he had to shimmy his way to the top bunk and the bed shook around a lot and eventually things started breaking on it. My back is okay from the pullup bar though. Your tripping story sounds like it would be super funny to watch hahaha. I probably get my clumsiness from you. But you were pretty skilled that you didn't spill everything.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. I couldn't be on a mission without you. I love you so much.

It's a good talk. You should also read the one I put in my email today by Brad Wilcox. Elder Weese and I were almost crying.

Let me know if you have any really good talks or missionary thoughts. Love you!

Love Elder Smith

Hey Dad I'm doing good. Not much crazy has happened. I think you told me about Alyssa. That's so cool. And Grandma and Grandpa's is awesome too. I'm so excited for all of them. That's cool that you were able to be there for their call opening. It sounds exciting. Sounds like work is fun as usual. Do you like driving? I start driving today which is really scary. I don't really want to drive. I don't like feeling responsible for a car that isn't mine.

Things are good. We sadly haven't been able to meet with C since our last lesson and she hasn't answered our phone. So hopefully things work out. We dropped our other investigator this week because he hasn't been progressing. We really need to find some new investigators. My favorite food. I'm not sure. I make myself pasta or chicken or sandwiches and stuff, but Danish foodwise I have no idea. I like it all haha. Potatoes are great and we eat those a lot. The water doesn't taste too different. I like it for the most part, but sometimes it tastes weird. I don't know why. We don't ride our bikes a ton, but every once in a while. Not really to the ocean. We see it a lot. The closest I've been was on Friday when we burned one of Elder Weese's shirts on a little beach. I have a good story for you. Yesterday we were at a family's house for an eating appointment. It was great we had HUGE hamburgers and we talked with this guy named Paul for a while about the scriptures. He knows them pretty much front and back and pointed out a ton of cool things. When we were getting ready to leave we asked them if they needed anything and he asked us if we could give him a priesthood blessing. He has been thinking of switching jobs and has had a hard time with his stepson. He asked me if I could give him the blessing. Luckily he let me give it in English because they are very very good at English, but I was super nervous. Right when I started giving the blessing the Spirit was so strong it was short but by the end I had tears in my eyes and the Spirit was so strong in the room. Right afterwards we talked a little about how much we respected him and his family and knew things would be okay. It was a very spiritual experience and was really awesome. That's my story. I love you lots and lots and hope you are doing good. Thank you for your advice and support. I love you.

Love Elder Smith

 

Don't Ever Exercise

So it's been another great week in Holbæk. We've had a lot of fun and we've been very tired. Little things keep happening to make this week super great. So we have... had a bunkbed in our room that was super wobbly. On Monday it decided to quit. I decided not to sleep on the bottom bunk out of fear of death. It was the Jenga tower of bunkbeds but now it's taken apart and our mattresses are on the floor. Hopefully we'll get a new bed this week.

On Tuesday we had a long day of knocking. We had finished our day and started to relax. I decided I needed to do some exersize because I haden't that morning. We have a pullup bar that hangs in the doorframe of our room. I decided to do some pullups as soon as I put my weight on the bar I soon found myself lying on my back in pain. The bar totally gave out and landed me on the floor. To make it better all the doors in Denmark have this lame door stop thing in every doorway so I fell on that. I've decided to go on a weight diet and never do exersize again because it just brings pain.

Our investigators have been doing well. One of them is officially on date for baptism. She has agreed to prepare for baptism on the 29th of October. I pray that all goes well and she recieves a solid answer.

Elder Weese and I have experienced some humbling experiences this week as we decided to be consecrated missionaries for the week. It was extremely hard to stay motivated and work hard towards our goals. We were tired and worn out but we fought through it! No one can stop the missionaries in Holbæk.

I was reading a talk this week from Thomas S. Monson called "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" I would suggest you all read it. We cannot experience true happiness until we are grateful for what we have. Sometimes it is hard to see the blessings in our lives because we get caught up wishing our lives were better, or easier. We weren't sent to earth to have a perfect life, we were sent here to become like Christ, more like God, become perfect. I know it could be easier and we could all have it better, but remember what you have. Sit and think about what you have to be grateful for. It's actually the easier way out. It's the only way to be happy.

I love you all and I hope you are all happy! Thank you for your examples. I hope you all have a great week and I hope you are loving September.

Love Ældste Smith

Hey dad I'm doing great! It's been a good week but a hard week. Sounds like you've been extra busy with work. I hope it all goes well.  It looks like Aubrey is doing good. I hope you get to see her soon. That would be weird if she was married when I got home. She could be a mom. That's weird. Things have been okay with the language, but it's hard. I do like emailing my President. He has already been a huge example and help to me. He's a great person. Yeah we have the same investigators. Pray specifically for Christina. She has accepted a baptismal date but only IF she recieves an answer. I know she will but I really hope she works to recieve it and recognizes it. We have a few less actives we visit if we have time or if they are there. It's hard. That's another time members are important. You are a good missionary. And a huge example to me. I love you lots. What has Cooper been up to? he doesn't tell me anything in his emails. I hope the family is doing good. I love you lots. Have a good week. Thanks for being the best dad in the world.

Love Elder Smith

Hej bestest greatest mostest wonderfulest Motherest.

I love you lots. Sister Stockholm loves being friends with you on Facebook. Yesterday in church she was super excited to tell Elder Weese she had become friends with his mom on Facebook.

We have two weeks left of the transfer. I will definitely miss Elder Weese. We've had a great companionship and I've learned a lot from him. I really hope my second companion is a good one.

That lesson sounds really super good. I'm glad you love your calling. I love my calling too. :)

I cut my hair last night! It's a lot shorter now hahah. It feels really great. 

I'm glad I haven't been completely forgotten. I'm glad people ask about me. I wish I got letters from people instead of emails. Haha. Emails suck. I only like reading them. Not typing them.

Danish is hard. Sometimes I feel like it's going okay and then I remember I can't understand anything people say to me. I think you would be really good at learning a new language. You should try it. See how many you can learn before I get home. Haha.

Money is better. I'm determined not to run out of food money this month. I'm going to have leftover so it will carry over and I will have back up. The only thing I need to buy is a coat. I might try to find one online. I think they would have more of a selection than the stores. I have heard missionaries have done that with bikes and coats. But anyway I probably need a little more money on my card to do that. 

I decided to do something to make myself lose weight. I took it to my prayers that I won't eat any ice cream candy or chocolate until I weigh under 185 pounds. That's 30 pounds. So hopefully it goes well. 

I love you tons and tons and tons and tons and tons. I will try to send you my letters this week too.

Love ya.

Love Ældste Smith