Zone conference, moving members (again), and other stuff.

Well it was a pretty good week. We had zone conference on Tuesday and that was fun. It was all on repentance and teaching repentance. It was super good. Elder Whitaker and I gave a training on Commitments and repentance.

We have been talking to a lot of people the past week. We made a goal as a zone to talk to 16800 people. It has been a lot of fun and really pushes us to get out and find people. 

Friday was a fun day. There was a member who asked us to help hand out fliers for a young single adult open house thing. We spent a couple hours in downtown Copenhagen doing that and we were super tired after that.

On Saturday we helped a member move to his new place. He was throwing out a piano which made me really sad. We would have taken it to our apartment, but we live on the 6th floor, so pretty impossible to get up there. We also watched some more of conference with our friend Nicklas in the evening. We saw the Saturday morning session and it was really good.

We had a good day in church yesterday and in the evening there was a broadcast from Elder Ballard to all of Europe. It was really good and he talked a lot about missionary work. Something he said I think applies to every one of us. He said we need faith in miracles. We can't lose hope in these people who do not have the same faith as us. We must believe in miracles and do everything in our power to give them the greatest gift. The Gospel. 

I love you all and hope you are loving life. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

To Mom:

I'm glad you liked the video haha.

That is awesome that the temple was full. That would be hard to not be able to do things for yourself.

That is crazy that you are in the RS again. I am glad you are happy to serve that is what is important. Does that mean you got released from YW camp director? 

So Nicklas is one of our friends. He was a member but he left the church because he is gay. He still believes in everything, and has a strong testimony, but he doesn't want to fight anymore. He started coming to church a few weeks before I got to the area, but he isn't planning on coming back to the church, he is mostly coming because we are his friends and he helps with the music. He is awesome, but it is really sad too. He is taking us on another tour of Copenhagen today so that will be pretty fun.

We had a separate Gospel Principles class yesterday in English and we had a member teach it. It went really well. MaryAnn was in church again and she seems to still like it. We had to crack down in our lesson with her this week to help her understand the apostasy. It seems to go better with her though.

I will try to get some good fall pictures this week. The leaves are actually changing color now. I love you lots and lots and lots. Thanks for being the best mor ever. I hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Smith

To Dad:

Hey! I am doing pretty good. It was a long week. I do enjoy the meetings. It is a lot of fun and I always feel really good afterwards and ready to work hard. 

That sounds like a fun race haha. I guess the race people should have had people at the checkpoints in time. That is cool that you did so well. When is your next race? I remember doing ragnar and I had a downhill leg. That was not fun. The downhill hurts especially after all the rest. Good job :) Is ideal dairy the place that the swim team always goes to? 

That sounds like a good training you did. I will write down those chapters and be sure to read them.

I'm sorry for the short email. I'm running out of time. I always plan to write good emails with lots to say, but I never have enough time. I'm sorry if my emails aren't good. I will try to do better. I will also send you a letter soon. It is much easier to write a nice letter to you in the evenings where it is relaxing and quiet as opposed to the library. 

I love you lots dad. I hope you are happy happy happy :) Have a good week.

Love, Elder Smith

From Eva Stokholm:

Week 1 and nothing is done.

Well as my subject implies, it was the first week of the transfer, which is always so busy. We spent the week preparing some goals and planning for the transfer. We went around to the districts in our zone and presented the zone goals and we had MLC. MLC got me super excited for zone conference this coming week and I learned a lot of good stuff. After MLC we planned for week 2 of the transfer and yesterday we had church and prepared our training for zone conference this Tuesday. So all in all, we taught a couple of our investigators, but didn't have any time to find. 

It was a good week though and it went by really fast. I think this will be a good transfer. We have a  lot of good stuff going on. One of the highlights of the week is that we had a dinner appointment with one of the senior couples that work in the office, Elder and Sister Johnson. They made us sweet pork burritos and we just had a super good time with them, it felt a lot like a family dinner at home. 

Well I hope you all are enjoying fall. The colors are changing here and it is beautiful. Have a great week! 

Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

I will try to attach the video.

Yeah I hope my teeth wont be too bad at home either.

Yeah! Go to the temple! I am going to go in like 3 weeks maybe. I am excited. It has only been since last July :)

I'm glad you got to get some hiking in. Do all you can before it gets too cold haha. That sounds like fun with Adam. I'm glad you have a good brother who likes to hang out with you. It sounds like you have gotten more used to the off the trail type of hiking. Even if it's on accident, and it doesn't even sound like you cried.

It was super nice of sister O'Bryant to make the chili. She makes such good food. I didn't get to listen to any more conference this week, because we have been so busy. I really hope we get the chance to this week. We will for sure with one of our friends Nicklas. We have plans to see one of the sessions with him. Have I told you about Nicklas yet?

We had that lesson in Gospel Principles as well, but it wasn't that good. The teacher for the class had a stroke a while back and the ward figured that would be a calling he can handle. He basically just reads straight from the book and thats it. It is good that they want him to have a calling he can do, but they need to think about the investigators coming to visit the church. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. On the bright side, our investigator MaryAnn came to church!

Well I love you lots and lots and lots and lots. I hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Smith

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6QZHsZdihNxdWZ0RWEyUDJGZXM/view

Dear Dad,

I am doing good. I have been up to all sorts of busy stuff this week. I didn't get to see the rest of conference yet. Hopefully this week. That is awesome that you are already almost two times through. We showed a couple of them to investigators and less actives this week. The one from Gary E. Stevensen and the one from Pres. Uchtdorf in priesthood session. Those were both really good. The weather is getting colder every day, but it hasn't been too bad yet.

I guess it's good you get some pretty drives in. The leaves are just now starting to change color and fall here. Denmark is pretty in the fall, because there are so many plants and trees to change color.

I like reading about the city of Enoch, it would be interesting to be a part of a city like that. That sounds like a good talk from Elder Christofferson, I will have to look it up.

That's good you got a couple runs in. I would like to run, but it is hard to be dedicated and my companion doesn't want to run. Hopefully your race goes well. Just enjoy it and run hard. Is it a trail run again? 

I always liked preparing the yard for winter haha. Have all the leaves fallen yet? Are you going to make a giant leaf pile out in the field? Haha how did Cooper convince you to do another deer hunt? You promised to never do that again haha. Oh well I'm sure Coop is happy about it.

I love you lots. I will try and send you some good stories next week. I am writing it down. Well. I love you lots. Have a good week! 

Love, Elder Smith

Moving, moving again, and conference

Well it was a good week. We weren't too busy at the beginning, just the usual. Knocking lots of doors and teaching. We didn't have any splits or anything so we just got to work. However, the end of the week got more exciting. 

On Friday we held our Book of Mormon project again in Copenhagen and that went well. It is really fun with so many people around just sharing the Book of Mormon as much as possible.

On Saturday we helped a member move and that went quickly, but after that we had to help some of the sisters in the zone move apartments. We moved them into another set of sisters apartment and thought we were good. Then that evening we were getting ready to go to general conference, but we got a call from President O'Bryant right before we left. He said that the apartment that they moved out of was the wrong one and they were actually supposed to move into the one we emptied, so we spent the rest of the evening emergency moving 4 sisters stuff and furniture to another apartment. It went pretty quickly compared to how much stuff it was. 

On Sunday we watched general conference. Sister O'Bryant came and made a big chili dinner for the missionaries so that was awesome. I really enjoyed all the talks. I think priesthood session was my favorite.

Well transfers are today and Elder Whitaker and I are staying together in Taastrup for another transfer. It has been a while since I have had a companion for this long. It will be good.

Everyone make sure to review your conference notes this week. I know that each time you look at them you will recieve a confirmation that these men are prophets of God. And if you haven't found it yet, look for that thing during conference that was personally for you. 

I love you all. Have a good week. 

Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

Elder Whitaker took a video so I might be able to send it to you. We sang a song called "I Danmark er jeg født" (I was born in Denmark) Which is ironic because we were all American.

I really enjoyed conference as well. It was a really good one. We had tons of candy from a candy store, but I felt kind of sick after eating so much straight sugar. We go all out for conference though.

I will try to get some pictures sent. My camera has been full and I keep forgetting to switch the pictures to my flash drive, but I will do that. The hard part will be getting fall pictures without rain :(

I haven't heard Uchtdorf's talk just yet.

My teeth are pretty good now. It was just a really bad cavity. He said there are some other things that can get done, but that they can wait till I get home.

I'm not too scared about home, but I need to think about it soon. I will have to choose a school and classes and register and all that this spring if I want to go to school in the fall. I'm sure it will work out, but I do need to think about it soon.

I'm excited to hear how your temple goal goes. I am making a goal to go this transfer. I have a family name I found early in my mission so I need to do that soon.

I love you lots and lots and lots and some more! Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey dad,

I'm good. The week was pretty normal, besides the weekend. Yeah I have seen the priesthood session, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning. Hopefully I will see the other two this week.

Sorry your week was a little boring. And sorry your religion class isn't super exciting. I guess you can enjoy the material. That is an awesome study topic. What kind of stuff did you learn studying the fall and the creation? 

It was really sad President Monson wasn't there. I didn't know about Elder Hales until I checked my email. That is sad. One of my favorites was the one by Richard J. Maynes. I really liked priesthood session. That is sad Cooper wasn't able to go with you. I miss going with you guys. We will get to next fall. Make sure he hears it. Could you ask him if he ever read the talk I sent him? 

I will make sure to read that talk. I think I have read it recently, but I'm not sure. I will find it today. I love you lots. Thanks for being my dad. Have a great week. 

Love, Elder Smith

Feel the Spirit Music Brings

So we had another week full of stuff. It was awesome.

We had some splits on Tuesday and I was with Elder McKinnon, one of the new missionaries. We knocked for about 3 hours without much luck, but we did find one really positive lady!

We had our splits on Wednesday this week, because we had a super cool one! We have this friend Nicklas, who took us on a tour in Copenhagen. We went to Rosenborg slot, where they keep the crown jewels. After that we went and saw the botanical gardens. They were beautiful. After that we went and got our feet eaten by little fish! It was nasty and weird! It was a really fun Pday though.

We had lots of knocking and lots of teaching throughout the week and that is always good. On Sunday the stake had a fall music concert and I got the opportunity to sing a bit in it. It was really fun. It is always cool to feel the spirit music brings. I may be biased, but I think sometimes it brings the spirit more than words. Anyways, it has been a good week. I hope you all are looking forward to conference this week. I know that this is an opportunity to hear from prophets of God and that they will tell us exactly what we need to hear at this time. Make sure to set the time aside to hear them speak. It will be worth it.

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

Love, Elder Smith

To Mom:

Autumn is very pretty here. The leaves are just barely starting to change colors. I really love fall. Definitely my favorite time of year.

Haha I wonder why that is that President Uchtdorf always speaks at that. I'm glad it was good. I am super excited for general conference. It is always so great. I will definitely look up Uchtdorfs talk. That sounds super good.

The dentist went well. I found a member who is a dentist and he did it for free. The members here are always so helpful and I'm really grateful for them. I don't like going to the dentist, but it was good.

Sorry about Aub's car. That doesn't sound like fun. I hope you are able to figure something out easy. I am not looking forward to figuring out a car, and school and stuff. I don't really think about it because I have a long time to go, but every once in a while it flashes in my mind that I have to figure all that out eventually. I'm kind of scared.

I can't remember about the rattlesnake. You will have to tell me again. I am excited to see those trails. I really miss hiking and stuff. I don't think I will be able to get enough of that when I get home.

I haven't gotten to go to the temple yet. I think we can go once a transfer. I will try extra hard to go soon. Why is it 20 times before my birthday? That is a good goal though.

I love all the experiences too. Cool story! One of my favorite investigators is in Seden. Her name is Elizabeth. We worked with her a lot while I was there, and right before I left she left for vacation in Iceland, where she comes from. The missionaries lost contact with her, but just recently they got in contact again and she had a cool experience! She said a prayer that God would guide her. She opened up in the BOM and read 2 Nephi 31. She felt like it might be right to be baptized so she might be getting baptised soon!!!

I will get to hear most of conference this weekend. I am super excited.

I love you mom. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Dear Dad,

Hey, I am doing pretty good. It has been stressful recently but good. I don't know what the funniest thing was. We were able to attend a baptism on Saturday and the new baptism bore her testimony at the end and the spirit was very strong. Something I learned this week from other missionaries is the example I want to be. I just thought about our splits throughout the transfer and what we could have done better. I looked at myself and how I am at getting up in the morning and staying focused. I made some goals to do better. It has gone good so far. I worry sometimes my companions desires are a little different from mine. Some missionaries duck their head and do the work because they have to and others do it because they want to. Both do the work, both make mistakes, but there are other differences that are a lot bigger. The weather is okay. It was a little rainy, but that slowed down this week. It is definitely getting colder and darker.

Wow, that is a crazy week. Do you feel good about weeks like that? I think they are always so stressful, bu they also feel a little satisfying. I am glad you got all your homework done. What is your religion class on this time around? do you enjoy it? Sounds like you got a lot of driving time in. I wish I could hear all your talks in the different wards. I'm sure no one thinks they are dumb. I hope you are still in the high council when I report my mission. That would be cool. I am really looking forward to conference as well. It is one of the highlights of the mission. It definitely feels different as a missionary.

You can keep telling people I am doing great. I promise I am. You have served a mission so you know how hard it is, but I really love being here. I love this type of service and most of the time I wish it was longer than it is. I am glad you have been blessed. Thanks for letting me know. I wish I could help you more. I am sorry I haven't been the best with money. I have even bought unneccesary things on my mission that I feel bad about. I am thankful for the support you have given me and I love you lots. Thanks for everything.

Love, Elder Smith

Never Rest

Well, we have been crazy busy this week. Which is a good thing for the most part. I have been tired, but we had a lot of fun. 

For Pday last week we went and saw the marble church in Copenhagen. It was a massive beautiful church right in the middle of Copenhagen. After that we ate at TGI Fridays with a bunch of other missionaries. 

On Tuesday we had splits with the Elders from Slagelse. I was with Elder Saviano, he is one of my favorite missionaries because he is a hard worker and we always have great experiences finding together. For example we were knocking for a while in this area and not a single person would talk to us. Most of them were being pretty rude. So after about an hour and a half we went back to the car and sat down to figure out what we could do. We decided to find an answer in the Book of Mormon. Elder Saviano turned to Lehi's dream. We decided that most of these people were prideful and were most likely a part of the great and spacious building. Obviously what we wanted to give all these people was the fruit from the tree of life. As the scripture says, the tree of life is the love of God. From then on we made a goal to make an extra effort to show them that we love them and that God loves them. It went better. We found a couple potential investigators and gave out a few Books of Mormon.

On Wednesday we were down in Nykøbing for splits. That's my last area and I was on splits with Elder Peel, my last companion. It was a lot of fun and it felt just like last transfer. We got to teach one of my favorite investigators Dorthe and we also ate with one of my favorite families in Denmark the Johansens. It was a great time to say the least. I really love that place. 

Thursday was the most normal day of the week. We had a lot of time to kick it in gear and get to work. Something cool happened though. It has been raining for 2 weeks straight here and on Thursday it was raining particularly hard. We live close to a train station and right next to our apartment there is a little tunnel going under the train tracks. There is a big dip there and there was a "puddle" in the tunnel about 10 inches deep. We drove through it and turned around to do it again. The second time through we saw a car that was pulled over to one side. We pulled next to her and asked if we could help she said that would be great and I told her we would come and push. So we parked our car and went and pushed her car through this huge river in our white shirts and ties wading through the water. It was pretty awesome in my opinion and a lot of fun. 

On Friday we visited two of the different district meetings in our zone to give a training. We trained on goals and planning. It was fun to see all the missionaries in different places. 

Saturday was fun. We had another training in a district meeting and when we got back to Copenhagen we had a big zone activity/project. We set up some table and signs in the middle of strøjet, Copenhagens main shopping street. We went around and shared the Book of Mormon with as many people as possible. Not gonna lie it was hard. It was one of those talk to 99 people and 1 of them actually says something besides no thank you. It was a lot of fun though and out of the 9 companionships that were there we gave out 56 books. 

So as you can all see it was a busy week. I'm sorry for the long email, but I finally had a lot to talk about. I love you all. Serve everyone around you and work hard whatever you are doing. Have a good week! 

Love, Elder Smith

To Mom:

Haha I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help with the hay this time around. Can't say I wish I was there, but it's too bad you had to do it without me.

We finally just went and stopped by the Hansen family, but they said they have no time at all to meet. :( they said they would call when they have time so that was sad.

Elder Hunsaker seemed to be doing good. I was with Elder Peel this time, but he seemed to be doing better and was happy.

Haha it was so fun seeing Eva yesterday. I was surprised she remembered me so well. I knew you would be happy to get a couple pictures haha.

I've never heard of that hiking trail before. Is it cool?

I want some peach pie. That sounds so good. Now I really really really want some...

I'm glad you got to go to the temple. I hope I get a chance to go soon. Maybe we will try to go next week. I haven't done an endowment session since last July.

I love you lots. Have a good week! 

Love, Elder Smith

To Dad:

Don't feel bad about not emailing. It happens sometimes. I forgive you.

Those are some cool experiences. Sometimes it is hard to follow the promptings. I'm glad you did it in the end though, both times. One of my favorite investigators I have had comes from Hungary. Her name is Eniko. I taught her while I was in Aalborg. I'm glad you could help those people.

That sounds like a good stake standards night. 

I hope your semester goes well in the Pathway program. What kind of program are you thinking of after you finish? 

I'm sorry I wasn't there to help with the hay. That was always a lot of fun haha. I'm sure I will be able to help you again sometime. At least you were able to spend some time with Aubrey. That's good.

That's fun you got more chickens. What colors are all the chickens now? Are any of them the same as when I left? 

Thanks for the email and the other one with the letter. I really like that one. The work is so great when there are so many good experiences going on around. I tried to give Cooper a talk a couple months ago and asked him some questions about it, but he never said anything back about it. I will ask him again. You could ask him about it. 

I love you lots. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

From Eva Stokholm:

Be proud. He is doing great. He told me that he got 8 month left and I said, that then he would go home soon. He loves been a missionary and doesn't want to think about what to do when he gets home.
Be proud he is a great servant in the Lords house.
Thank you for raising such a wonderful young man.
Be proud of him.
Love, Eva

New Car!!

Well it has been a pretty good week. On Monday we went and got this massive ice cream cone which was pretty great.

​​On Tuesday we had zone conference and that was good. It was all about Jesus Christ and teaching like him. My companion and I had to give a training on commitments and it went really well. Everyone seemed to get something out of it.

We had splits on Wednesday with the APs and that was fun. We also had splits on Thursday with the Elders in Birkerød. I got to go with one of the new Elders named Elder Myers. We had a lot of fun. 

On Friday we got to pick up a new car. Like brand new. That was pretty exciting. Our old car was a piece of junk and the new one is beautiful. We forgot to take pictures but I will send some next week.

It has been a busy week and this next week is looking busy as well. It is a lot of fun though. At least we have stuff to do haha.

During zone conference I was really touched as we talked about the life of Christ and his character. He truly is perfect and He means everything for us all. I know He lives and I know he loves us. I know that He is the way.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week. If home is anything like here you are all probably trying to enjoy the last few days of sunshine before it goes away for the winter. Enjoy it!

Love, Elder Smith

Hi Mother

Life is good and it has been a good week. I would say I have bad moments or bad days sometimes but usually by the end of the week they always come around. :) it doesn't do any good to be negative.

I hope the family gets baptized. They have been ignoring our calls and texts so we stopped by and they said they have been super busy and have no time to meet. I asked them if they had 15 minutes a week and they said no so. Yeah. Hopefully things calm down for them so they can meet. They are just a bit flaky. Their names are Robert, Gitte, and Danny.

Haha No Elder Whitaker didn't eat most of my treats. We ate them all together. I decided it was better to eat them all at once anyways. No more temptation.

I'm glad your backpacking trip went well. Haha I'm glad you didn't thirst too bad. That is sad that captain is getting old. He has always had so much energy and never gets tired. Why did you have the heaviest backpack? 

Haha that's fun that you are friends with Elder Hunsaker's mom. He is a great guy. He is a lot of fun and we had a good time on splits. We are going with them again this week on Wednesday.

We haven't been able to meet with our 2 miracles again yet because we have been super busy, but we are really excited to meet with them.

That conference sounds super good. We will have Elder Sabin coming next transfer so that will be fun. 

I love you lots mommy. Thanks for being my mom. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Miracles

Well we had a pretty good week. We have been really busy. We had splits twice and that was fun. I got to go with one of the new missionaries, Elder Hunsaker. He is down in Nykøbing, my last area, so I had fun talking to him about that and getting to know him. We had a birthday lunch for one of the Sisters in our district and made a huge Danish meal. Elder Whitaker and I made patatoes and brune kartofler. It was really good food. 

We have stayed busy teaching people and finding and that has been going well. We had a couple miracles I will tell you about in a minute, but we also had a great appointment with some of our investigators, the Hansen family. They set a baptismal date for September 30th! 

Well I don't have much else to say but here are a couple miracles we had this week. One of them was on Monday and we were knocking. We were running out of time, but both of us had a feeling we could give out one more book. We kept knocking and no one was giving the time of day. We were about to give up and call it a night, but we decided to knock one last door. A smiling lady answered and was very excited to take a book. She said if we came all the way from America and learned Danish then we were more than welcome to come again and share our message. We are looking forward to that. Another experience we had was on Wednesday. We were deciding where to knock and I was looking at our map. We saw a really small town, one of those that have 2 or 3 streets connecting out far away from the city. We decided to give it a try. We started knocking and we were not having any success. After a lot of doors it was about time to go. Again we decided to try one last door. As we were walking towards the house we saw a lady with a wheelbarrow filled with hay walking. The house was also a stable where lots of people keep their horses, so there were other people around as well. We walked up to the lady and told her who we were and started telling her about the Book of Mormon and how it guides us. She was very excited to take the book. After she took it she told us of her own experience from a few days earlier. She was reading about something on Facebook about a lot of people who were led away from their faith and that scared her. She said a prayer that God wouldn't let her be led away and that he would guide her. Then a few days later we show up with the Book of Mormon. She really took that as a sign and she is excited that we are going to come meet with her and tell her about it. It was such an awesome experience. 

I will end by saying that there are still miracles today and if we keep an eye out we will see them. 

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

Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

I am doing good this week. The missionæring as they say it in Danish is going well. We set a family of 3 on date this week!

Elder Whitaker ate most of the treats the first day I got it haha. We just ate them all in the car. 

That sounds like fun. I hope Coop is enjoying the trip.

That is a scary story. I'm glad they were okay. I don't know them so they must be new ones on the swim team. That is scary it took the ambulance and police so long to come. Is sterling merrell in the maser first ward? 

It was 576 books because that is 36 books per companionship which is 6 per week. The zone is going super hard on it so it is really fun. We have given out 222 so far.

I think I finished my Duty to God, but I'm not sure. That is cool that you are all working on it together.

I love you lots and lots and lots. Sorry for the short email. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey dad,

It has been a good week. We have been pretty busy. We had splits twice this week and have been teaching a lot. We have to give a training on Tuesday and that should be fun. Our investigators are good. Funny you ask about families, because we just put a family of 3 on date. That was pretty exciting. The ward is big, but I don't know much about them yet. There are always visitors, because it is right in the middle of Copenhagen. We have had a couple eating appointmetns these first 2 weeks.

Haha what made you get burned out on running? Do you still like trail running? What kind of race is it in October?

I'm glad you got to go to the reunion. That is sad that mom missed the concert, but I'm glad you got to be with family. I always hate trying to decide between two good things.

I hope you have a good time on your backpacking trip. That is kind of cool that all your camping trips this year have been backpacking trips.

I definitely have been coming home tired the past couple weeks. The sad part is it doesn't feel like we have enough time to do all the things we need to do. Thanks for the email. Thanks for the advice.

I love you dad!

Love, Elder Smith