Weird Week

Hey everyone! It has been an interesting week for me, but a lot happened.

Last Monday I had my friend Nicklas from Copenhagen come visit us in Aalborg. We had a great time and went and saw a few of the random things around the city.

The middle of the week was pretty normal, we had quite a few teaching appointments and one was with our investigator Ryan and it went really well. He accepted the invitation to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he is so humble and willing to learn. I hope all goes well with him.

On Saturday we received transfer calls and I got quite the  surprise. I found out I was leaving again. I got transfered to Ballerup which is in Copenhagen not too far from Taastrup where I have served before. My new companion is Elder Woodforth from Australia. I was sad to leave Aalborg for my last transfer, but it will be good. 

On Sunday we had stake conference and that was really good. I was able to see a lot of missionaries and members from past wards and it was really weird because I realized I will not see most of them again before I go home.

Yesterday (Monday again) is where it got interesting. When I come home in May I will be coming home alone so this week I went to President's house with all the departing missionaries for their final meeting and night in Denmark, then this morning we took them to the airport and said goodbye and I came to my new area. It was pretty weird saying goodbye especially since one of them was an old companion and the rest I have served around a lot and gotten to know. So that was a weird part of the week, but things are hopefully back to normal for now.

I don't have a lot to say for this week but I want to share a short thought on Charity. Charity never faileth and if ye have not charity ye are nothing. Charity is one of the most important attributes we can have and it is a gift we must receive from God. Without his help we cannot achieve true charity like he has for us. I have learned this lesson well on my mission as some days it is even hard to love everyone around me, yet it is so necessary. I love all of you and I hope you are seeking after this charity and developing the same kind of love God has for us.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

No no St. Patricks day here. I guess it is more of a kids holiday all around.

I'm glad you were able to go for a trail run! Yay recovery! how is your wrist doing anyway?

That is good that Aubrey and Caden are doing well together I can't wait to meet him.

We unfortunately haven't completely gotten spring yet, but it has been a lot warmer these past few days I hope it keeps up...

I'm glad you are going to the temple more. I hope I will get to go another time before I go home. I am closer too it again after all.

Well I'm sorry for the short choppy email. We have a lot of work to do and I haven't unpacked yet! I love you lots. Thanks for being the best mom ever. Have a good week.

Hey Dad!

It has been a good week. A different one, but good. Transfers did not go how I expected. I did not think I was leaving and most of the mission thought I would be training a new missionary for my last transfer, but I know that I am in the right place at the right time and it is going to be a great transfer. It was a great week and Elder Hunsaker and I saw a lot of success.

You have had a busy week haha. Glad things are improving in Salt Lake. It has not been too cold here the past couple of days but actually pretty nice and sunny, it snowed last night though so that was a little surprise. I don't know if we can ever expect consistent nice weather.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for a job. I know that is going to be important if I am going to go to school...

Well thanks for everything you do. I have to keep this one short because we have missionary work to do today :) I love you dad.

Love, Elder Smith

Elder Hunsaker's Email and Photos

Hey everybody!

We got transfer calls on Saturday and Elder Smith is leaving Aalborg and I'll be getting a new companion named Elder Ellis. He got here three transfers ago so it'll be fun having a younger companion. His mom is actually from this area so it should fun being around his family i.e. free food.

We were all pretty surprised that Elder Smith was leaving because he only has two transfers left and now he's been one and done in his last three areas. If there's anybody that can handle it though it's Elder Smith. we had some late nights this week trying to get everything packed up for transfers so I had a weird amount of late nights this week so I feel kind of wrecked right now. Thank goodness for p-day.

This week was way busy. We had two splits, one in Aarhus with the zone leaders and one in Nørre Sunby with Elder Maready and Elder Erickson. We talked to some really great people on both splits. It's always way cool to learn from and be around other missionaries.

One of the Aalborg sister's investigators had her baptism this week. Her name is Tina. She's pretty quiet but she has a real strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. It was amazing to see how happy she was after she came up out of the water. 

We got this years Easter initiative during district meeting this week. It's called 'altid  der' which means always there. The whole thing is about Christ (of course) and how he is always there for us no matter what. It's pretty awesome and should be a great tool for us to use over the next few weeks. I've really seen this over the past 8 months or so. He really is always there and the time when it feels like there is some distance between us and him it's only caused by us turning away from Him.

Have a great week everyone! Sorry for the weird email but I'm way tired. I think I'm gonna spend the rest of the day sleeping.

Ældste Hunsaker

Pictures: 

Limfjorden and some pictures around Aalborg.

 

Snow!

Hey everyone! Happy Monday :)

It was a good week here in Aalborg. Elder Hunsaker and I are beginning the last week of the transfer and then we will find out if we are both staying here or not this Saturday. Pretty crazy to think I am starting the last 7 weeks of my mission right now.

Well the week started off with a very very snowy Monday. We didn't do anything too exciting, but we made a giant snowman outside the church building. It was a very snowy week, which is pretty uncommon in Denmark.

We found four new people to work with this week and one of them is from Ireland so that is fun. We actually have a lot of people from different countries we are working with. We met with one of them, Liv, on Wednesday this week. This was our second lesson with her and she is really solid. She said that she just felt something different while she read the Book of Mormon. She is super cool. She also wants to take us to Rebild, a way pretty national park  here in Denmark.

Nothing else too exciting for this week. It was a good filled week though so we are happy. We have another busy week this week so hopefully we can keep things going.

I was reading a talk from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talk called "For Times of Trouble". It was a great talk and I really enjoyed a part where he talked about repentance and how sometimes we tell ourselves we can't change and "that's just the way I am", but in the talk he says this: "You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast... It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it." We don't have to work and work and work before we can repent. We can change now. There will obviously be corrections to make and thinks to work through, but we can change a lot faster than we tell ourselves we can. We can make the decision to repent now and not delay the blessings and help that God has for us. I know this is true and I hope we can all make the decision to change for the better now.

Well I love you all. I hope you have a great week. Thank you for all the love and support!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey good morning Mom!

It is morning for me and it will probably be morning when you get this haha.

I'm glad Aubrey and Caden could come. He sounds like a good guy. Do you think they will get married?

It is supposed to warm up here over the next few days so I am pretty excited for that. I am tired of freezing my buns off. It does get very pretty here in the spring it has been an abnormally cold and snowy march though so I don't know when spring will come haha.

Here is a funny/weird story from the week. There is a member from the ward named Pia. She is like 3 feet tall and shaped like a ball. She is super funny and has the missionaries over for a FHE type of thing every couple months. We went over there and the food she prepared for us was mushrooms and cream. Then we watched Pres. Nelsons press conference from when he became the prophet. Anyway, Pia is just way weird and has creepy dolls everywhere and inappropriate pictures of marilyn monroe. She is a funny lady though.

I got the letter from Grandpa and Grandma. Super good! It is awesome to see so many little evidences in our lives of God.

I do feel sad that my mission is almost over. Every day seems to go by too fast. I'm just enjoying every minute I can.

That is cool that Emma got her call! Bishop Hyde actually emailed and told me. It is so cool how many people are getting their calls and going!

I love you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! Have a good week :)

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Dad!

This week has gone fast for me as well. Some days go somewhat slow but the weeks are going by faster than minutes it feels like. It was a good week though. Elder Hunsaker and I are seeing lots of successes.

I'm glad you work hard. You have been a good example of hard work for me because I see your emails each week of consistent work, running, and church/scripture study. I want to be as diligent as you all the time. 

I hope you can get things going in Salt lake sorry it has been slow.

Haha I'm glad you had a good time with Aubrey and Caden. The daddy daughter date sounds just like a Jared Bigler thing to do. I remember when he wanted to have a date night as a priests quorum where we could bring a date and the leaders would bring their wives. I'm kind of glad we never did that one haha.

Prayer is awesome. We read 2 Nephi 32 with a less active this week and talked about prayer and scripture study. It is one of my favorite chapters in the BOM because it is so short yet powerful. In order to receive guidance we need to read in the scriptures and if we don't understand what they are telling us we are forgetting to pray. The adversary teaches us that we don't need prayer, but the spirit says we should always pray. Awesome chapter.

I love you lots dad. I think these next 7 weeks will be some of the best of my mission. Good things are happening everyday. I thought of something you could do for me, could you maybe ask a couple people, maybe some ward members if there is anywhere I could work for the summer? I need to make a lot of money and I don't think life guarding will cover all I need to earn. Paying for school is going to take a lot of work...

Thanks for everything dad. Keep working hard and have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

I have pictures this time!

Hey everyone! Well it has been a pretty good and busy week. Elder Hunsaker and I have had some good time to work and find people.

Nothing too exciting for Pday, we kind of just walked around Aalborg, but hey! I found some cool streets and took some pictures! Haven't sent many of those in the past while.

We have been delivering cookies to members and stuff like crazy these past couple weeks. It has resulted in a ton of biking and a lot of happy members! We tried something cool on Wednesday. There is a member who has been stuck at home for the past little while because she broke her foot. We brought by some cookies and shared a message with her about miracles. We invited her to pray with us and for us before we went out to knock and for her to help us exercise our faith in miracles. She agreed and we went out to knock and found 5 potential investigators that we are going to be visiting throughout the next week. It was cool! We usually don't find so many. After that we went back and told her what happened. Good experience. Others we have visited have been sick or have needed our help for a little task so it has been pretty cool visiting all these people.

Elder Maready who is in the other Aalborg area has been sick this past week so we went over on Thursday to help them out. Elder Hunsaker went out to work and go to some appointments with Elder Erickson and I stayed in with Elder Maready. I am really grateful I havenøt ever gotten too sick on my mission, because sick days are usually not very productive.

We were knocking on Saturday and met a guy who was willing to talk but not very open to try anything. We really tried to get him to try and read in the Book of Mormon, but he said he already knew it wasn't true. That was sad to me that he would jump to that conclusion without reading a single word of the book. I hope one day he might give it a chance. He was a funny guy and a nice guy so while he was getting something I slipped a Book of Mormon on his bookshelf. I don't think he will be too mad and he might get curious and read a couple pages. Fingers crossed.

Well that is about all for the week. Things have been good. I really enjoy working with Elder Hunsaker. He has kept me motivated and we have had a lot of fun.

I have started reading through the Book of Mormon again and marking power statements or direct instruction from the Lord or His prophets. It is amazing how much there is. The Book of Mormon is not just there for fun. It contains crucial instructions and guidance from our heavenly father. It lifts us and strengthens us through its strong witness of Jesus Christ. I challenge everyone to take an extra thought during their scripture study and ask "What has God asked me to do today?" then apply it. 

I love you all and hope you are surviving winter. Yesterday was really cold and Elder Hunsaker and I thought we were going to freeze to death, I am looking forward to things warming up. Anyway, have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

Snow sounds like fun. It snows occasionally, but it never sticks. It has been really cold though. We thought we were going to freeze this last week.

I'm glad your wrist is healing up. I'm sorry it has been hard, but it sounds like you are taking it like a champ. You are such a great example. I will keep praying for you that it will heal quickly.

That is too bad that the US hasn't done too well. Denmark doesn't have anyone because they don't really do that much. There aren't any mountains here and they aren't too outgoing. I heard they had a curling team but that's all. It's a bit sad because the other Scandinavian countries do so well.

Fixer Upper sounds like a fun show haha I'm glad it helps you feel calm and happy. The sound of tv makes me feel stressed haha.

It's okay that you haven't been too self-reliant the past couple of weeks, because self-reliance isn't always doing everything for yourself. I'm glad you have had people to help you. I like your thoughts on the Atonement. It is hard yet wonderful when we get into hard situations, because although they hurt, we really feel close to the Savior.

I love you lots. I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Dad,

I am doing well. The weather is cold. Waaayyy too cold haha. I live in a different apartment this time around, unfortunately, because the last one is much better. This one works though for what we use it for. We found a lot of potentials this week, but we are still working on finding solid investigators. It has been hard to do that which has been hard for Elder Hunsaker and therefore hard to keep it up. We are working hard though and I know the blessings and success will come soon. I haven't done much with my "My Plan" I should probably pull it out and set some goals, because I know President will ask about it in our next interview.

Sorry about the snow. We have gotten snow a couple times this past week too, but it never sticks.

Mom is awesome. I hope it heals up fast.

I feel the same way as Grandma and Grandpa. The time is going very fast. I feel like I am working hard, but I just feel like there is so much more I could do. We have been working really hard with members the past few weeks. I thought to myself if I want to do something for this area and ward while I am here I want to make it a missionary work focused ward. When I was in Odense the ward was so great at working with missionaries and they were enthusiastic and had a lot of baptisms. This ward has a lot of the same potential, but they aren't as excited about it. I want to help the ward become better in that way. It has been going well and now I just really wish we had more investigators so we could have members with us to teach them.

Well I love you lots. Thanks for everything you do for me. If you can help me figure out what I need to do when I get home that would help. I think I have to figure most of that out myself though. Thanks for being my Dad. I love you.

Love, Elder Smith

Flat Tires and Self-Reliance

Hey everyone!!!

Things have been good here! We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was about the Book of Mormon. It was great. I love the Book of Mormon a lot and it has changed my life. Elder Hunsaker and I have also used it in finding a lot and we found a few really good people this week who are interested in the Book of Mormon.

I also had my interview with President this week. It was kind of funny because for a good chunk of the interview we talked about him going home because he goes home just a couple months after me and then a bit of it was about me going home, but it was a good interview.

It is hard being in a biking area again because Elder Hunsaker and I both got flat tires on different days this week. Super annoying and a huge waste of time, but I guess that's just how it is.

We made a ton of cookies this week to take to members and it has been fun bringing them around and talking to the members. We have a great ward and it is fun talking to them again after so much has happened between now and the last time I talked to them.

Sunday after church was super funny. There is an old Vietnamese lady here named Sister Lam. She loves missionaries and she had all six of us over for dinner yesterday. She made soooo much food and she speaks a little bit of Danish and no English. We were stuffed then she sat us on her couch and showed us a 35 minute video of her on her trip to Vietnam 2 years ago with crazy Vietnamese music in the background. It was super funny.

I also was able to give a short talk on self-reliance yesterday and I think that went well. I talked about how service relates to self-reliance in regards to these questions. How can I be more self-reliant? How do I know if I am self-reliant? Why do we need to be self-reliant? The answer for me was helping others. God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39) So if we want to become like him we need to be able to help others and how can we help others if we aren't self-reliant? We know we are self-reliant when we have the capability to help other people. We can be more self-reliant by talking what we have and the things we are good at to help others. We should always strive after being more temporally and spiritually self-reliant so that when the time comes we can help God in his work and help our neighbors.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

I'm so sorry to here about that stick! That sounds terrible and painful. I will pray that all will go well. I'm glad you are tough. I can't believe that thing was stuck in your wrist. :(

How are the olympics? Anything exciting? What is fixer upper?

I still don't know my first choice in schools. I haven't heard from BYU. That might not be until June. I have been looking at different degrees though on P-days. I wish I knew more about them though. Something that sounds interesting though is a communications major.

Elder Hunsaker have some goals to really work a lot with members and to strengthen our faith a lot. Faith to find people and stuff. It is nice having less to worry about but sometimes it leaves more time to stress. I miss it sometimes. We don't go on very many splits here and I always loved that, but it's okay we are doing good work and having a lot of fun. We haven't heard anything about the language test but I'm sure he passed. It is stupidly easy.

I love you lots mom. Thanks for being such a great example. Get better soon! I looooooovvveeeeee yyyyooooooouuuuuuuuu!

Love, Ældste Smith

Hey Dad!

Well I hope Mom is doing better. That doesn't sound like too much fun.

That sounds like a good run. I am trying super hard to eat well and work out. It is hard. We have worked so hard for 2 weeks and then between yesterday and Saturday we had 3 eating appointments including the one with the little Vietnamese lady and I feel like all the work I have done in the two weeks has gone down the drain. It makes it hard to keep going. I really have to lose weight though. I hate looking at my fat belly with stretch marks and wishing I hadn't done that. How long did it take you to lose the weight that you did? It was pretty fast wasn't it?

I am doing pretty good though. We are doing pretty well in the area. It is just hard to find people. When I got here we had basically nothing. We still don't have much, but we have a couple of potential investigators. My favorite thing about zone conference was just getting excited to use the Book of Mormon more in teaching. I love teaching. I have loved my areas where I have a lesson every day, but it has been really hard this transfer and last. Both areas have been slow and we haven't been able to do a lot of teaching, but I am excited to. Elder Hunsaker and I get along great.

That is cool about the warriors. It is cool to see in the Bible and the Book of Mormon that the authors were powerful prophets and warriors but not educated geniuses or anything.

I love you lots. Sorry I suck at pictures. I will try to remember. I am so bad at it. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Same old

It has been crazy seeing all the old stuff and members from my previous time here in Aalborg. Seeing members reactions in church yesterday was funny. Some thought that I never left, some were happy to see me again, some didn't remember me at all. Good times.

Elder Hunsaker and I have set some good goals for the transfer and we are excited to work hard over the next few weeks. This is a great area with lot of potential.

Well not much else to say for the week. We haven't done anything too exciting. I will finish emailing tomorrow or Wednesday. Elder Hunsaker is in Copenhagen for his language test so he will be emailing another day so I will just send out my personal emails then.

Stay happy. In priesthood yesterday we talked about what we practice. When we are angry or sad it only gets more like that. The happier we are and the more positively we see things, the more positive everything will be. 

I love you all! Have a good week! Sorry for the lack of pictures over the past while I will try and send some next week.

Love Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

That is so cool that Becca got her call! She will be a great missionary.

That is also great that my mission is paid off. I'm sorry for costing so much money to get me here and all the random stuff I need. I am super grateful for you guys.

I'm sorry about the little trail mishap, that doesn't seem so fun :( hope you are feeling a little better by now.

I got an email today that said I am accepted to BYUI so we will see what happens with BYU.

I am not a zone leader anymore, just the normal missionary stuff. I am really excited to work here with Elder Hunsaker. Things are great already. He has said a bit, but he said it was better now. That's great. 

Phyllis speaks Chinese and English. She is in Kolding though and they haven't met with her yet so I'm not sure how that's going yet.

I love you so much! Hope your wrist heals quickly. Have a super good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Aalborg round 2

Big news! I got transferred back to Aalborg, my second area in the mission. It has been about 10 months since I was last here and I was here for about 6 months the first time. I am super excited to be here! My new companion is Elder Hunsaker, one of my favorite missionaries in Denmark. He was in my zone for the three transfers I was in Taastrup and we have gone on splits a few times. This is going to be an awesome transfer.

So this week was pretty good. We got loaded up with finding, teaching, eating appointments with members, splits. A well rounded week.

We found a chinese girl named Phyllis who took a Book of Mormon and is excited to read it. She is very interested actually. She is excited for the missionaries to teach her, because she said she was going to need them if she was gonna understand that book.

On Saturday we got the call from President that I was being transferred. I am sad to be leaving this area and this ward after such a short time, but like I said before. It is gonna be a blast. 

I was studying about miracles this week and it was interesting. Miracles are not for the purpose of building our faith. They are a blessing, reward, or sign of our faith. I learned that our faith cannot be built upon signs and miracles alone, but that we must build our faith off of other means such as doing things to come closer to Christ. I have had the chance to see many miracles on my mission and we all see miracles throughout our lives, but it is important for us to see where our faith stands and ask ourselves if we would believe without seeing miracles. I hope we can. I hope we pray and study the scriptures in order to build our relationship and faith in Christ, because if we do that, it won't fail.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

To Mom:

Hey! Good job on the race! You are fast! 24:32 is a good time, faster than I could run it right now.

I'm glad you had a good birthday. You are getting pretty old!!!

Haha I think it's funny that everyone in town knows you and your talents and they really help you put them to use! You're awesome!!

That is cool that you are trying to learn cello! I think you will pick it up pretty quick! Du er dygtig!

The weather is getting colder and rainier every day! :) Things with Elder Saviano have been good. I am going to miss him a lot.

Here is a funny story about the BYU application. So yeah I got it in in time and then the next day I get an email from BYU saying that they extended the deadline to Feb. 6th! So I guess I was actually early! I haven't looked at the FAFSA stuff. I will try to figure that out soon.

I did get the email sent and he did it for me. I am grateful he was so willing to help. It should be out of the way for a while now thank goodness.

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

Love, Elder Smith

Hey dad! Things are going well. I have been busy with missionary work. Unfortunately the school stuff was distracting for a day or two, but I did almost all of it on Pdays.

The temple was great. It was a little weird and felt sadly unfamiliar, but it was still peaceful and great. The zone is amazing. I am going to miss them quite a bit. They all did great this last transfer.

That sounds like a good birthday with mom. I'm glad you could be with her.

How is the homework going? Do you like your classes? Keep up the good work.

Who won the superbowl? That sounds like fun.

I love you lots. I hope you have a great week! Thank you for being my dad!

Love, Elder Smith