2 Dåb!

It has been an awesome and very busy week. We met with a lot of our investigators this week and it was good to meet all of them. We also found a couple of new ones to work with. 

We also visited all the different districts in the zone to present a zone goal. We are going to give out 576 Books this transfer. We are excited and everyone in the zone seems pretty pumped.

On Thursday and Friday we had MLC. When we got there Thursday evening we had Kebab for dinner then went and played basketball. Friday we had some training and that was really good. We are going to have a great zone conference and lots of great things going on in the mission.

On Saturday I was able to travel back to Odense in the morning and see Daniel's baptism. I started teaching him when I was in Seden a few months ago. Right after his baptism, I went to see Ena's baptism. The girl from Nykøbing where I just left. It was such an amazing experience to see these people enter into a covenant with our Heavenly father. It also strengthened my faith so much to see two investigators I taught be baptized. 

The Lord really does prepare people all over the world. He is working on all of his children to help them be ready for the things he asks of us. Keep an eye out for those you can help and for what God is preparing you for. 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Elder Smith

Here is my new address

Taastrup Hovedgade 40 6,63

2630 Taastrup

Denmark

Hello Mom!!!

Haha I was in the church when all the new missionaries were there and I was talking to people and each time I moved to a new group of people she came and took pictures haha. 

I got to go to the baptisms and they were so great. Daniel didn't know I was coming so he was really excited to see me there. 

I finally got your package haha. I think the deodorant will last. The treats were great. That is sad that cereal is too big. Do they charge you for weight or for size?

I have been on a part of the highline trail before! It is so pretty. That looks like a beautiful area you were at. I can't wait to go backpacking.

Taastrup is fun. It is a weird place. I am not racist or anything, but the town is like 80% immigrants and a lot of them aren't Christian so it is hard to teach a lot of them, but we have a lot of people we are teaching so it's good. The apartment is on the 6th floor of a building and there is an elevator that barely fits Elder Whitaker and I. He is a big guy too. He is a lot taller than me. The first day I got here the elevator wasn't working so we had to carry my 2 suitcases, a duffel bag, a guitar case, and 2 backpacks up the stairs to the apartment. That wasn't too fun. Elder Whitaker and I get along really well. We have a lot of laughs and have similar personalities in some ways. It is a lot of fun. He is from Sandy and has been in Denmark one transfer longer than me. I am in a big ward again. It is the ward that is right in the middle of Copenhagen. There seems to be a lot of good people there.

Yeah it was by Liz Wiseman. It was a great talk. Sometimes I get really into talks and read a ton of them in a week. They are so good.

It is weird that Coop is a junior already. I'm glad you have some good kids. I wish I was more like the rest of them ;)

I am excited for stake conference. I will get to see people from Holbæk, my first area, and people from Nykøbing. I hope you enjoyed conference.

Love you mom. I hope you have a great week. Smile to everyone.

Love, Ældste Smith

Hey Dad,

I am good. The new area is very different. It is in the city and a lot crazier than the little towns I usually serve in. Elder Whitaker is a lot of fun. We get along great. We are the zone leaders in the Sjælland zone. So it is the island that Copenhagen is on. There are 16 companionships. I made it to both the baptisms and they were great. We have a few people that have a lot of potential. A lot of our investigators are at the same level. They are hovering in that spot where if they will act and try things then they will probably be progressing quickly, but it could also go the other way. We will see. 

I feel pretty good about myself as a missionary. I think that all my desires are in the right place and that I am doing things for the right reasons. I definitely wish I was better at achieving my goals and becoming more what I want to become. I have been changing a lot though so I can't complain too much. I have had a lot of ups and downs as far as diligence and love goes, but over the past 6 months or so it has all just gone uphill. I think my relationship with President is good. I don't feel super close to him and I don't know how well he knows me, but I feel like he trusts me and his last few emails to me have been good. He says I am a great missionary and has really enjoyed seeing my success. I wish I knew what one thing all my companions would say about me. From what I have heard they say I am easy to get along with and happy. I don't want to sound prideful while saying this but a couple have also complimented me on being humble and charitable haha. I guess that is good that they would think that about me.

I really want some dutch oven food. That sounds so good. That hike looks beautiful. I have hiked a part of that trail before.

That sounds like a good stake conference. That is a great quote. All you have to do to have more missionary experiences is to make them/ look for them.

I am really excited for general conference. Thanks for the advice and questions that made me think. I love you lots. Have a good week.

Love, Elder Smith

Taastrup!

Well we got a surprise on Saturday when we found out about transfers. Elder Peel is staying in Nykøbing to train a new missionary, but I am now transferred to Taastrup. My new companion is Elder Whitaker, from Sandy. It will be a fun time.

This last week has been good and busy. We continued working with Ena to prepare for her baptism. She had her interview on Saturday and she is already to go on the 26th. It is pretty exciting. 

Our new investigator Dorthe had us over for some greenlandic lamb, which was extremely tasty, she had it cooking for 12 hours. She was really sad to hear that I would be leaving, but I think that she will be baptized sooner or later :)

We had a branch activity on Saturday and went to a little museum with little old danish houses and buildings. It was pretty boring, but it was good to spend some time with the branch.

It was really hard saying goodbye to the branch. You get really close when there are only 15 to 20 members of the congregation each week. (unless the germans are visiting.) I got to share my testimony with them one last time yesterday and the Johansens had us over for dinner. 

I read a talk this week called "the power of not knowing." It talked about how we should always be in a state of learning. I could really relate to it because when I am here on a mission and get used to doing the normal missionary things I am not doing enough. It is always important to try new things and to continue learning and experience. It was a great talk for me to read and encouraged me to keep looking for learning experiences here on my mission. I hope you are all doing the same at whatever point you are in life. 

I love you all. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Dad,

I am glad you are still working. That is pretty necessary :)

I am doing good. I am excited for the transfer. It will be different. President asked me to be a zone leader and that was a surprise because I haven't been a district leader or anything. I am a little sad to be leaving the branch, but excited for a new experience. I won't be baptizing either Daniel or Ena, but I am super excited to see them get baptized. I will be sure to write about it in my journal.

Not anything too crazy has been helping. I am happy though. The sun has been out a bit more than normal for Denmark. It still rains a lot though. 

I always like the temple activity. Speaking of the temple, I am a lot closer to the temple now so hopefully I will be able to visit soon. I really hope I can soon anyways, I feel like it has been forever.

I don't remember meeting Joe Wyerman. I remember when we had dinner up there. That is a little weird and sad. I hope his family is doing okay.

Thanks for the email and love and support and everything you taught me. Keep working ;) Send me any scriptures or talks that you find and think I would like. Have a good week.

Elder Smith

Thanks mom! I got your package today when I was transferring! I accidentally left it in the mission office though so I will have to get it later this week :(

I am really excited for the transfer. My companion Elder Whitaker is a really fun guy and we will have a really good time.

That sounds like a cool relay. Good job! I'm sorry you got the poops. That doesn't sound fun...

I promised smoked eel is good. I will have to try to bring some smørbrød stuff home. I don't think I can get eel because it is expensive but I will make something for you :)

You would be able to understand my talk because someone would translate for you haha. We have had to have a lot of translation recently because of the germans and a new member from the phillipines. I am probably the worst at translating. It is super hard. 

The best thing that happened this week was probably that Ena had her baptismal interview and is already to go. The worst is that I had to leave Nykøbing even though it will be really good.

I love you lots mom. Have a good week. Thank you for helping me get to these baptisms.

Love, Elder Smith  

Røget ål

Goddag!

It has been a good week in Nykøbing. Our investigator Ena is super ready for her baptism which will be in two weeks.

We met two new investigators this week. One of them is named Dorthe and she is from Greenland. She is a super sweet older lady and she even showed up in church yesterday! 

We have been working hard, getting back into the groove after Elder Peels sick week.

Last Monday we ate with some members in the branch and we had some smoked eel. I would highly reccomend it. It was tasty. It's pretty hard to say in danish though.

I got to give a talk in church yesterday. It went alright. I talked about some things I have learned from Preach my Gospel. One of my favorite chapters I talked about was the one about Christlike attributes. It is so important that we as followers of Christ are always trying to be more like him. We will become better servants of the lord and we will have a closer relationship to our Saviour. 

I love you all. Sorry for the short email. Maybe I will have more next week :) Stay happy and get excited for school!

Love, Elder Smith

Hello Mother Dear!

Thanks for sending me stuff. I was thinking about it later in the week and felt bad I was asking for things I don't need because I can get deodorant here. I probably won't ask you to send me stuff again. Sometimes I am thinking and I remember how much money I am costing... :( 

That sounds like fun going to the MTC. Did it make Cooper excited to go there? I heard the new part was really nice. Where is Elder Plant going again? 

That trail race looks fun! I'm glad you all made it and were safe. I'm glad dad is doing something he likes. He has done so much since I've been gone.

That sounds like a pretty hard relay. Good luck haha. How many legs do you have to run? 

I'm doing okay with eating healthy. It is hard. Sometimes I just want a sweet snack and not a carrot. I need to do better with the exersize half of the diet so I can actually lose some weight.

I'm glad you were able to figure out the job. It is sad that there is not enough time to do a lot of different things. It is probably a good thing that you were able to keep doing the things you love. A normal job might be nice. But it doesn't make you who you are.

I love you lots mom. Have a good week :)

Love, Elder Smith

Hey dad!

Good job on your race! that is pretty cool. I don't know if I would be able to run a half marathon on a trail. Sounds like you did pretty good. I told mom I was glad you all made it safe. She didn't tell me you crashed haha, but I guess it is alright as long as you didn't dislocate anything. Are you going to do more races like it? That is fun that you got to catch up with someone from your mission. I hope I get the chance to see a lot of missionaries from my mission later in life.

That also sounds like a fun trip to the MTC. I have heard the new part is really cool. Did you see any missionaries going to Denmark? One of them could be my next companion. 

Nothing crazy exciting has happened this week. It has been good. We have been getting back into the groove after Elder Peel's sick week. We get along really well. We have been working on teaching in unity. But we get along really well. You can read about investigators in the big email. We are pretty excited for the baptism. 

We find out on Saturday what is happening at transfers. I really hope I get to train this time. I'm not one that worries much about things like this, but sometimes it is kind of hard that I haven't trained or been district leader or anything yet, when there are lots of missionaries who haven't been here as long as me are. I don't really care about that stuff. But it makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Oh well. All that really matters is that I am a missionary.

Well have a good week. I love ya lots. 

Love, Elder Smith

Sick Week

Well it has been a slow week. Sort of. The week started out pretty normal. We had dinner with our new member Erik on Monday. That was fun.

Tuesday we had district meeting. 

On Wednesday we had splits in Slagelse. That was pretty fun. I was with Elder Saviano. He is a pretty new missionary, but he is a good one too. I learned a lot from him and we had a lot of fun.

Wednesday night is where it got pretty weird. Elder Iversen woke me up at 3 in the morning and told me Elder Peel was shaking and shivering and couldn't stop. He was feeling pretty sick the evening before. We called the mission President and he told us to take Elder Peel to the ER, so we drove over there, but by then he had stopped shaking. They said we would have to call a docor and set up an appointment. We got him in an appointment the next day. It turns out he just had a really bad fever and a bacterial infection. The rest of the week he was pretty sick so we were inside for like 4 days. The only exceptions were that we went to a baptism that was in Slagelse and we went to church on Sunday. It was a long week, but I got a lot of practice on the guitar.

Well, something I read this week was a talk about the Book of Mormon. It was by Tad R. Callister and he talked about whether the book is true or not. At the end of the talk he came to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with theories and history and geology. It has to do with what we feel and what the Spirit tells us. It is through the convincing power of the Spirit that we learn the truth of spiritual things. I would challenge you all to remember that when you have doubts or when you need answers. Search for a spiritual confirmation that your faith is true. I know that you will get an answer.

I love you all. Have a great week and stay happy even though summer is coming to an end.

Love, Elder Smith

Hey dad, 

Haha I'm sorry you have been too busy to get some things done. 

I'm glad you have been getting workouts in. I guess that is a good use of time. I hope all goes well with your race. I will pray that you don't pull your butt muscle.

I'm glad you had the missionaries over. I will tell his parents. 

I also wish I was better at having faith and hope. It makes the hard times much easier. When things are hard and I remember and trust in the Lord I instantly feel more peace and calm.

Something that can always help with missionary work is always looking for the people who need it. Look for the people who have had a recent death in the family, or a birth, or recently moved in. These are the kinds of people who need the gospel and are open to hear about those kinds of things. Just be aware of changes in peoples lives that might prepare them. 

I'm sorry I have to cut this email shorter than I wanted. I was going to write a good long one. I was just talking with a lady that sat next to me in the library. She thought we were workers because of our white shirts and ties. I told her we were missionaries and we had a good little conversation. Then some guy walked up and started saying weird stuff and asking if we have convinced anyone to be mormon yet. I wish those people would just go away. He told me my Danish wasn't very good. Then the lady said I had really good Danish. Then it was kind of awkward so I said I wouldn't use more of her time. I think I will try to give her a Book of Mormon before we leave. Just kidding she just left. :( Hopefully we will see her again. I love you dad. Have a good week. good luck at your race!

Love, Elder Smith

Dearest Mother Dear

It is sad how fast summer goes. It is nice to enjoy the sun and warmth. 

I like the pics from your trip. That looks so beautiful and fun. I miss mountains sooooooooooooooo much. And the lakes tucked in the trees. I'm glad you got to go on a backpacking trip. I can't wait to go with you someday!

Haha I'm sorry about the dinner with the elders. It may be that he thought they were too spicy. They don't eat very many spicy things here. I'm sure that the Elder from Brazil is a bit more accustommed to spicy things. I\m glad they gave you some challenges and that you are going to give them a try. I wish you would have gotten a picture of you with the missionaries. You will have to have them over again and give them some more mellow food haha.

I have been eating pretty healthy. Mostly just chicken and vegatables. But we have random meals that aren't as healthy. I am really trying to stay away from treats, but it is super hard. I need a scale or something so I can see if I am making any improvements.

That is cool that TJ Batty offered you a job. He is a nice guy. That would be cool. But it would be sad to stop doing all the other things. You could just work 4 jobs haha. I guess whatever you do make sure you pray about it :)

We drive a little hyundai. Elder Peel drives. It is usually whoever has been in the area longer who drives.

The members here are good and we don't have a lot. I wish they gave us referals. If you have any friends who even might say yes to meeting with the missionaries you should ask them.

I guess it is good to play it safe and give the missionaries lasagna or something haha. I'm sure elder Johansen would like potatoes meat and gravy haha. I am not very picky so I am fine with whatever people feed me.

I'm sure you testify in a lot of different ways. I guess just having uplifting conversations and taking advantage of times where you can talk about a church activity or something.

I love you mom. Thanks for being so awesome. Have a good week.

Love, Elder Smith