Well last Preparation day we had the opportunity to check out the
Fredriksburg Slot (Castle) So cool. My first time ever touring a castle! The
best part was seeing the original paintings of the Savior. Elder Simpson said
that last time he came here with the old mission president that the President
pointed something out. The big tall gold and silver stand, in the painting room
of the savior, was in the middle of the room. Everyone that came in noticed the
Giant gold and silver stand and walk out of the room. The president said that
this stand represents the world. Because everyone takes time to admire the
idol/stand and forgets the Savior. Cool object lesson.
I found out yesterday something awesome! The District leader has to do
splits/exchanges with each of the members in his district. Usually 1 missionary
every week. This week I will be on exchanges in my area with Elder Earl. (from
Allerød) President Sederholm contacted Elder King and told us that he will be
traveling to Bornholm next week. And we will be doing exchanges than. Because
Bornholm is in our District!!!! Because Elder King is the district leader I get
to go down with him. I am such a spoiled new missionary. Apparently it's the
dream to go to Bornholm. There is only 2 missionaries on Bornholm at a time.
Elder Madsen is down there now so that will be awesome to see my MTC district
leader again and serve with him over there. We get to travel to Sweden next Monday and we will take a Ferry
over to Bornholm. So I will not be able to email next Monday. So the heads up now. My email will come on
Wednesday because President
Sederholm is moving our Preparation day for then so we can go do exchanges. Oh I
am so excited!!!
Well I don't know if I put this in my last letter. Lone the women at
church that had a baptismal date for November 16th, she dropped us. Apparently she didn't enjoy
church very much. She got offended about what some one said and she felt judged
while at church. We are very sad about this experience but we can go see her
again in a month.
Last Wednesday
President came and interviewed and taught Bunmi L. with us. Such an awesome time
to teach with President Sederholm has such an awesome spirit. On Thursday we had Bunmi's Baptism!!!!! #1
for me to watch. Such a spiritual experience I loved it so much. The reason she
had her baptism on Thursday
instead of Saturday was because
it was her husband's birthday that day so that was cool to have her baptized on
that day. After the baptism she was filled with joy. She was crying because the
spirit had touched her and she could feel it. She knew and felt that she had
been cleansed of all of her sins. She truly felt clean!
Friday we were able to
go and help out at a mini missionary training for the youth. They really didn't
have it organized well. We had about 10-15 missionaries there. They pretty much
paired us up and said go out street contacting. Every missionary knows that this
is the worst thing that you can do here. Street contacting is not very
effective. We prefer different ways. Like through members, referrals, dinner
appointments, recent converts, less- actives ect. We started out. Me and Elder
King had 2 Danish youths. I could not understand them what so ever. We knew that
we were getting no where with contacting. One of the young men suggested we
visit a less active. We were so ready to went straight there. Much a better way.
They invited him to a testimony that night at the church. And said that they
would call him if he didn't show up ahaha. I hope they enjoyed that part of
missionary work. We tried hitting the streets again we split up and took
opposite sides of the road. Me and Elder King split up so that we could be
within sight and sound. And it gave an opportunity for the youth to get one on
one for contacting. I was with a 16-17 year old named David. He really wanted to
talk with someone because he wasn't comfortable doing it. Well I am still in the
same boat. And before this day I had not street contacted in Danish before. So
this was going to be interesting. We didn't have any success with any one being
interested. But we were able to talk with some people and give out some pass
along cards. I hope and pray that David had a great time and hope he didn't
think missionary work was just street contacting because there is just more to
that. For example......
That night we had the opportunity to go teaching with President
Sederholm to Finn P. We really wanted to put Finn on Date for baptism. And we
truly felt that we could have a baptism next Saturday. Because he was our only investigator to be
qualified to be baptized then. We went in and taught him. His mother was not
doing so great. She is like 91 years old and in the hospital right now.
President Sederholm shared his story about his mother back in December, the
prophet losing his wife a couple of months ago, and Elder King shared his story
about his Grandfather passing away while on his mission; I was held back. I
wanted so much to share my experience of my Grandpa Denning. I wanted to share
that experience in my mind. In my heart, I was told that everything that was
needed to be said for Finn had been said. No more was needed to be added. A
little bit different than my previous teaching opportunity where I regretted not
sharing what the spirit told me. This time I learned that all that needs to be
said is enough. The Lord will work everything out in the right way. I recall
what Elder King shared with me earlier that morning, PMG Ch. 4 on ''A Word of
Caution''. We need to keep our spiritual experience sacred and we need to
treasure them. No more was needed to be said for Finn. Evidence is clear with
Finn, where he is getting baptized this
Saturday!!! It was a miracle. But I truly believe I was being with held
to speak on that spiritual experience.
So excited we are having a baptism this next Saturday!!!! 2 in a row. So excited for Finn, he should
already be a member. President Sederholm told Finn that he could not understand
why he was't a member already. Finn replied that he didn't know why either. He
totally has a testimony on everything. 5 more days!!!! YAH!!
Bunmi's confirmation was such a spiritual experience also. I was
able to take part in her confirmation. I was in the circle. Brother Jens
Anderson, the previous Denmark mission President, did the confirmation. When he
said the we confirm the Holy Ghost to Bunmi I literally felt us giving her the
Holy Ghost! I cannot explain it. But it was a marvelous thing. So cool to see
that happen.
I almost forgot, besides Finn committing to baptism this week.
Our other miracle is that we found an investigator! His name is also Finn last
name starts with a B though haha. We started going through our previous
investigator list. We began by stopping by and seeing if anyone was still
interested, because everyone on our list has not been contacted for a couple
months cause our area just opened up. We went and visited a woman. She wasn't
interested in our message anymore. We asked if she knew anyone else that might
be interested in our message. Normally people just say no to get us off their
front porch. This time she gave us a name and an address!!!! Apparently this man
that she referred us to also visited with the missionaries with her when she was
taught. It was just down the street, but we went straight over there. Finn B.
let us into his home surprisingly very quickly. We went inside and chatted about
questions he had about our church. He as very receptive of everything. His
questions ranged wide on both the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. We were
able to answer them very well. He also asked me personally if I had a testimony
of our message. I let him have it. (This is all in Danish by the way) I was able
to understand him very well compared to most Danish people. But I gave my
testimony and I could literally feel the spirit confirming our message to him.
At the end we asked if we could come over again and teach him more. He is a very
philosophical man. He had a lot of information about our church especially. He
even had a book by President Joseph Fielding Smith. He said that we could come
again but he might not be here. He's like 80-81 years old and he thinks he could
die any time. The man look like he could be in his 60-70's. Fairly young and
very energetic. Yah we will be seeing him again haha.
Well that's my update. I love you all hope you have a good week
and I will write again next
Wednesday. Tillyke!
-Ældste Jantzen Richard Read
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