Glædelig Jul!!!

I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas since my next email won't come until after. It's been a great week! Me and a bunch of other missionaries toured Denmark and put on Christmas concerts. It was an awesome experience!

So we had our first concert on Tuesday and everyone loved it. You could just tell on people's faces that it was way better than they expected.

On Wednesday we traveled to Fyn and we caroled on some of the gågader. While the choir sang, other missionaries handed out Mormons Bøger and talked to people. It was amazing. The Danes were so much nicer and open to talk and it was cool to see.

We had three concerts in all. One in Copenhagen, one in Odense, and one in Århus. I am excited to continue to hear the great things that come from the traveling music group.

So I'll finish with one of my favorite experiences from the trip. On Friday we were singing on the gågade in Århus like we did on Fyn. At one point in the song someone in the choir motioned toward a girl that another missionary was talking to. We circled her and continued singing and she just burst into tears. One of the missionaries handed her a wrapped Book of Mormon. We finished our song and she thanked us. The Spirit was so strong and it was just great to see the impact it had on her. I love how the Spirit of Christmas can soften the hearts of many and give us a little window that we can share a gift that was given to us. That we know can help them as much as it has helped us. Remember to share the gift that Christmas is all about and #LightTheWorld of everyone you meet.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Stay warm and happy!

Love Ældste Smith

P.S. I know you are all going to hate this but I don't have pictures right now. I have a lot from the music trip though. I will send them later.

Hey Dad

I'm doing good. My toe is doing much better. Trains are fun. They aren't very fun alone though. They are fast. The funny thing is you don't realize exactly how small Denmark is until you do a tour across the whole thing haha. The scenery is either fields or there are thick trees or something so you don't see that much but you get good glimpses. There also aren't very big hills so it's hard to see big views haha. The singing was awesome. My big email has everything about it. It was fun being gone but at the same time it was hard leaving the area for a week and hard with my toe just being fixed, but it was definitely worth it.
Yay driving! Why did you go to Colorado? I like drives but I guess they wouldn't be as great when you have to do them so much.
That sounds like a fun weekend. I like Pho. I ate food that a vietnamese lady in Odense made. It was pretty good. I did get pho that one time though. Why did mom play such an expensive violin? That's fun. I really liked the violins in our Christmas concert. Anyways that sounds like a fun time. I'm glad it was fine haha.
Church was short for me this week. We were in Århus and we had sacrament meeting and watched the Christmas devotional and it was really good.

Yeah things haven't been SUPER cold yet but I hope it doesn't. We have no snow though so I don't know if we'll have a white Christmas. Just be glad you don't bike in the cold haha.
So I know we have a family that we are skyping from their house but I don't know the exact time. The problem is that I don't know when. I told our mission leader that we needed to do it early enough because you had church so fingers crossed that it all works out. I will let you know more if I find out.
Thanks for everything. I love you. I knew about Lindsey but not Lauren. Who is she engaged to? That's so weird.

Have a good week. Godjul!
Love, Elder Smith

Dearest Mother of Mine,

Thanks for the songs haha.
I can't believe we get to talk on Sunday! I'm so excited! I don't know all the details for it yet.
Sorry that us missionaries aren't good at lighting the world. We try haha. We had our Christmas concert in Odense for the music day and a lot of other things we did fell into place with it so that was fun. It was a good week. I like that you went to President Basset. I bet he liked that.

My toe is doing good. It isn't all the way healed yet, but much better. It didn't hurt as much as other times in fact not at all, but it has taken a little more time to heal.
I'm glad Sister O'Bryant put up the videos so you could see them. I was right in front of her and president for that song so I was pretty nervous haha. The medley one was in Danish. I'm glad we made you cry.
I thought the stories about the sculptures were cool. They aren't really about all my ancestors but his on the other side, but they are still cool stories.
What songs are you doing for sacrament? I want to hear your violin. I really liked when the two sisters played Dejlig er Jorden on violins for the concert. I cant remember what it is in english. Beautiful Savior? It made me think of you.
Haha don't you wish you were a primary teacher? That would be fun.
I don't have tons to tell you so I'm glad you will have questions. I will try to think of some stuff. I will get to talk from 45 minutes to an hour. I'm super excited!
I love you lots and hope you have a good week. I hope you have the best Christmas ever and I hope you can really feel the love of our Savior. I looooooooooove yooooooouuuuuuu soooooooooo muuuuuuuch!!!!
Godjul!!!

Love, Elder Smith