Monday, December 20, 2011

Nu er det jul igen!

 

Hej.

So, I know I've talked alot about christmas. You're probably sick of hearing about Christmas in Denmark every week for the past 4 months. But that's about how much they talk about it here, so you're getting a good taste. But now I will proceed to lay out the Christmas plan for the week and then it will be done. Hang in there.

 

This week we had our ward Julefrokost (directly translated: Christmas Lunch). It's their version of thanksgiving. Huge feast. Family, friends, etc. We also had our ward Juletræsfest. (Christmas tree party) We sang songs, ate lots of yummy food, and played christmas games and danced around the tree as a ward. It was alot of fun. We've got a great ward. Just a fun group of people. So it was a big party week.

 

Last night was also our ward Christmas koncert. Went pretty well. Sang in our church with the Ældresagens kor. ("Danish national church" choir from Frederikshavn). Our little branch choir is only 9 strong, but we busted it out. It went really well. We definitely held our own. If it was a battle of the choirs, we would have won. We sang a mix of english and danish traditional christmas hymns and stuff, it was pretty fun. Had a good time. Its helped us strengthen our relationship with the branch a ton as well.

 

So, this week:

We'll be in Aarhus again for two days for zone conference/mission julefrokost. Be back in F-havn friday night.

 

saturday is Juleaften. (Christmas Eve). But in Denmark, it's on that day that all the celebration takes place. So we'll be spending the whole day with a family from the branch. Eating, opening presents, singing songs, eating, dancing around the tree, playng games, eating, hanging out, and eating some more. Should be alot of fun. And its a very proper occasion, believe it or not. Apparently we will be wearing suits. And not becuase we're missionaries. I'm told tradition goes that it is a very important occasion. Everyone wears their sunday clothes. I'm sure it all depends on the family so i'm not positive exactly what will happen but that's the plan as of right now.

 

Sunday, Jul. (Christmas). Not sure what exactly what I will be doing that day. I'm calling home! That'll be great. And we'll have a short church service. But if i was Danish and not a missionary I would be just eating and hanging out all day with my family at home. Not sure if its as formal of a day for danes, but you just enjoy time with family and eat. Did I mention we eat alot around christmas?

 

Monday, andenjul (Second Christmas). Danes take the 26th and have another christmas day to hang out with their families. Stores are shut down, everyone's home, and the streets are pretty much dead from the 23rd to the 27th. So not sure what we'll be doing. Its p day but the library will be closed so i'm not sure how we'll write home. We'll find out what happens i guess. I'll probably just be eating and drawing and playing musik all day. Really looking forward to it to be honest.

 

So there it is. I apologize with the christmas overload. Its just so contagious! I love it. There's alot more traditions dealing with food, candy, songs, presents, and gatherings and more food but its hard to remember them all. It's just great. We'll leave it at that.

 

Jeg må skundte mig, men jeg håber i har det godt alle sammen. Tillykke til Josh Dahlin, hjemkommende missionær! Jeg håber alt er i orden og I alle kan ha' en glædelig jul med sine familiene. Fryd dig, o jord!

 

god jul!

ældste wooden

Monday, December 12, 2011

Hej med jer, jeg håber alle har haft en rigtig god veekend.

So i'm getting the impression its going to be January 2012 before I know it. Time is speeding right along. Christmas is upon us! And with Christmas comes joy and charity and love and hygge. Hope you're all thinking of someone else this juletid. When we look out for others they look out for us. So don't worry about yourself. Life is to short to waste it thinking about yourself. On top of that, Christmas is alot more fun when your with people, lemme tell you. I love my companion and all, but christmas time just isn't the same when you're not with the ones you love. So this christmas, be a people person. There's my little message for this month I guess. Be a people person. Think about someone else.

 

Fluffy stuff aside, lets get down to business. Food, Talks, Peruvians, and Storms.

This week we experienced som of the craziest weather I have ever seen in my life. I was very close to being blown over by wind. Not even kidding. I don't know what ticked poseidon off but he was pissed. We went up to Hirtshals on the worst day of all of it and saw the biggest waves i've ever seen. It rained/hailed all day, and by the time we got back to Frederikshavn it looked like a warzone. Banners were were torn off buildings, trees blown over, it was great fun. This was also the same day that we had to carry lots of christmas packages and a duck that a member gave us. So tomorrow night we're making JuleAnd (Christmas Duck). I'll let you know how it goes. I am rather excited. I don't think I've ever had duck.

 

I gave a talk in Church yesterday. It didn't go too badly actually. My topic was inspiration. I even went overtime. It was a whopping 7 minutes of danish. I imagine the members found it pretty dry due to my limited vocabulary and simple sentence structure. But "by small and simple means", right? That was my motto for the day. I was feeling pretty good about myself. They just said afterwards that I should have spoken up a little, apparently the mic is turned way down since the room is so small anyway. But not bad in my opinion.

 

The Peruvian family we're teaching is extremely extremely close to baptism but they all want to be baptised together but they're at different points in their journey. It could happen by the end of the year though. Its possible. Pray for us. We gotta help them make the jump. They're ready. Time to act.

 

Mad. (food)

Danske julemad er den beste mad på jorden. I love Danish food. Especially Danish Christmas food. Kartofler, brun sauce, frikedæller, æblekage, risengrød, ris alámand, grønlandskål, and, kylling, I could go on and on. Its so delicious. So don't worry too much about me food wise. But I do miss a good american burger. Alot. And homemade cookies. Danes don't do cookies, i've found. Just marzipan and pastries and småkage and a bunch of other delicious things. But oh what I would do for some snickerdoodles. 

 

Anyway, I'm short in writing today, but as usual time runs out. Too many good things to talk about!

Monday, December 5, 2011

goddag!

So not much time to write at all, really. we gotta go get some things done. but. Thought i would give all an update from the High Plains of Denmark. (Name that literary reference)

 

This week's been up and down. Sometimes it feels like no one cares. In fact, lots don't. But theres some that do. "Going for the one" was our motto this week. We did find a few people who were interested, and One we are especially excited about. An old woman who lives in Sæby. We're excited to start teaching her this week. Go for the one! They're worth it!

 

We've also done lots of experimenting with food lately. We've winged some ideas for food that have been delicious. Homemade æblekage. Deer meat. Piskeflød. Thats all I can say. Can't give out too many secrets. But its good.

 

I've also become very interested in old Danish books.

Here is a good time to explain a little background/cultural info about Genbruger. A "Genbrug" is a store thats basically a small D.I. or Salvation Army. A secondhand store? is that what they're called? anyway. Denmark is historically Christian, and so theres lots of conservative and charitable traditions that run in their culture. They're recycling fanatics. Danes also WILL NOT cross a street unless it is within a crosswalk and the green man is shining. But in every city there's a couple Genbruger where people just go drop stuff off. Usually sponsored by the Danish national church or Jehovah's Witnesses. No Mormon genbruger. Yet. But yeah they don't like throwing things away. So everything goes to Genbruger. They're gold mines! The have the coolest old stuff. We've furnished our apartment solely on Genbrug art, for example.

But they always have sweet old books. For example, I now have in my possession a 1925 Danish leatherbound copy of Charles Dickens' To Byer. (A tale of Two Cities). I'm gonna keep a look out for more classics. They're pretty sweet. One day i will be able to read them. My danish is a little too primitive right now, and its really old Danish anyway.

But yeah there's your fun fact for the week, I gotta run.

 

med venlig hilsen,

ældste wooden

Monday, November 28, 2011

Hej med jer!

Glædelig Taksigesdag! Happy thanksgiving/black friday everyone!

Hope everyone had a hyggelidt thanksgiving with their families. The holiday season has made me painfully aware of how much I miss you all. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I'd like to say how thankful I am for my family and friends. You are all a huge inspiration to me and remind me of the need to count my blessings. I'm thankful for the blessings that come from living the gospel and the opportunity to be here in Denmark. Its a pretty unique experience, as I'm sure you can tell. Chances are if you're reading this, I know you. Which means I owe you a personal thank-you for your example and help. If I don't know you, well... Go to mormon.org. Its cool.

We had a great thanksgiving week. Our mission præsident was cool enough to let us have a thanksgiving celebration in connection with zone conference. Thus, we were down in Aarhus on Wednesday and Thursday. Such a cool city. I'd love to serve there one day. Kind of has that big-city feel. But wednesday morning was a turkey bowl followed by Thanksgiving lunch. Both were exceptional. It was great to play some good ol' muddy american football. I borrowed some cleats from an elder who wasn't playing and we had a fun time. Our mission president watched for a little and was pretty confused. He asked when we were done, in a very mild-mannered Haven't run that much in a while, unfortunately. I miss sports!!

Next was the feast. There were 3 ektopars (senior couples) who prepared it and basically went all-out. It was fantastisk. They made so much delicious food. I forgot to get a picture of it I was so carried away in eating as much as humanly possible. But it was great.

After which, we had a talent show. haha that was lots of fun. Me, Williamson, Klc, and Dunshee put together a 'Book of Mormon Stories' arrangement and performed. Our band is called the Boxcar Children, since we're on trains quite a bit. But it was pretty impressive, if i don't say so myself. Williamson and I were on ukes, and Dunshee and Klc had homemade moraccas. Williamson has a video of it so we'll see if we can get it uploaded or something somehow. Idk. But it was a blast. We had a great time. Not bad for our first gig. Book us for 2013 if any of you out there are interested.

Thursday was zone conference. It was very good. Not much else to say i guess. Took alot of notes... Yay.

Friday we had a great meeting with Christof and June (fake names). They're a young couple we met in Hjørring last week. He's in Denmark playing professional soccer actually. From england. So its weird teaching in English. It just doesn't come out quite the same. But they're both very very curious and we're excited to see what happens with them.

The peruvian family I've mentioned is so close to baptism! They just gotta take the step of faith, and they're having a tough time with it. I've learned alot about faith through teaching them. It really is a 'leap of faith' most of the time, because we dont know exactly what we're leaping into. Could be a swamp, could be a swimming pool. But we gotta have the faith to put Heavenly Father to the test and make the jump.

Had my first experience with being yelled at in public on Thursday, that was cool. Williamson, Klc, Dunshee and I were on a bus in Aarhus headed to the train station, standing just talking among ourselves, when a guy a few rows down said (in a scottish or irish accent or something not quite english) started yelling about how crazy mormons were. He was very drunk. But being loud in public is very unusual in Denmark. They are a private, self concious, self contained people. Basically, don't draw unneccessary attention to yourself by being obnoxious. Thats the first rule of Danish society. So this guy made quite a statement. We all laughed about it. He said some pretty derrogatory things, but he was a wacko. it was fun.

We had a "hurricane" yesterday... It was really really windy and rainy actually and we couldn't really work outside.  But the danes were all kinda freakin out. It was funny. Hurricane advisory in Nordjylland... haha now i can say i've been outside in the middle of a Danish hurricane. Beat that.

So we're shifting into the christmas cheer now, and Denmark does Christmas right. We've got two or three 40-50 foot christmas trees scattered througout town and every sign or lamp post has lights on it. I think its mandatory by law or something. There's bands dressed up like santa that walk around town causing traffic jams and disrupting gågade shoppers, but they spread the christmas musical cheer so i guess they can get away with it. We put up our christmas tree in the apartment yesterday. Its a very indie christmas. Our tree is about a meter tall and didn't have a stand so we stuck it in a stack of 5 kg weight plates. But it has lights, so that was cool. We've recently been listening to Sufjan Stevens Christmas album and its fantastic. I would highly recommend it. We've been making hygge food. Soup, mashed potatoes,etc. I'm learning how to cook, believe it or not. Poor man's food, but food nonetheless.

Thats about it i guess. All i can think of in the life of logan. ældste logan wooden, i mean.

I miss you all! Happy Christmas! Think about other people this holiday season. Thinking about yourself is boring.

med kærlig hilsen,

ældste wooden

Wednesday, November 15, 2011

Goddag til jer!

It was a tough week in F-havn. Had some great moments and some rough ones. Lots of dropped appointments, flakey people, and cold weather. But some great progress with investigators and just good ol' fun. Such is life I guess right? We win some, we lose some.

Most importantly, we successfully played floorball without any major injuries. Chalk one up for safety first. Williamson will regain full vision in the next two weeks we're hoping. Still a little foggy. David Bowie all the way.

But, exciting news right now. We're looking at a few potential baptisms with Karen and her children, Tyra and Bernard, (All fake names, privacy's sake) right now. They're awesome. From Peru, so language is kind of tough. We teach in a medley of Danish, English, and Spanish. haha its kind of a riot sometimes. But they're awesome. Karen is battling breast cancer right now so we have been keeping really close contact with them and its amazing to see a family grow together in the gospel. I've watched as the church has strengthened this family quite literally. Tyra is 10 and Bernard is 18, and they enjoy church despite the fact its 100% danish... Which is a miracle in and of itself. But Bernard reminds me of Nick and Andrew. haha We're really good friends with him actually. He always comes and plays soccer and floorball with the branch. December 22nd is what were looking at as a possible baptisimal date because its Karen and ældste Williamson's birthday, so that would be a fun little party. Keep them in your prayers.

Everyone is gettin in the Christmas spirit over here, its pretty fun. Danish culture is very social. Everything is about family and friends and who's with. Its fun. Interestingly enough, as a result they dont use brother and sister so-and-so when addressing members of the church. Everything is just first names. Its strange at first but I've grown to like it. Instead of Præsident Christensen, kind of a mouthful, its just Kasper. And last week we had a lunch appointment after church with Ella, this sweet old lady in the branch. I don't even know anyone's last names really. haha But the informalities bring everyone a little closer together, its fun. I'm learning alot about Danish traditions and they're so sweet. Their holiday traditions, birthdays, weddings, you name it. They've got the coolest traditions. Real heritage, not quite like the states. haha But i do miss american soil, i promise i'm not a traitor or anything here...

But I gotta run, we're running out of computer time.

Love you all! Sorry i'm short in writing again this week. Thanks for all the support though. I appreciate your letters and notes and thoughts and prayers. They do not go unnoticed. Oh and if anyone wants to send me anything, use the Søndergade address on this blog. The other address takes way longer. And if you send packages to the other address they just stay at the mission office until the next zone conference or something, which will be a while. So yeah, be sure and send stuff to søndergade. its a good place. you can even stalk me on google maps. haha

 

med venlig hilsen,

ældste wooden

Monday, November 7, 2011

Hey everyone, its me again from, the north pole.

 

Its gettin pretty dang cold up here, but wintertime in Denmark is supposed to be pretty sweet so I'm looking forward to it.

 

We had another interesting week. Haha as usual.

The last few days have been a little slower paced because of some health struggles...

Wednesday night we played floorball (indoor floor hockey, no skates) like we always do, and Ældste Williamson took a wild slapshot to the eye from about 6 yards away. We rushed him out to the bathroom and watched as his blood filled his iris. Usually his eyes are blue but his left one was green/brown. We both said "lets get to the hospital," but all the Branch members were just making fun of us saying that Americans just rush to the hospital for everything. So we waited a little bit to see if we could get things to calm down but his vision continued to deteriorate to the point where he couldnt see his own hand a foot in front of his face. So finally Arna (the member who did the dirty deed) drove us over to the little sygehuset here in Frederikshavn. The doctor took one look at him and said "I can't do anything for you, go to Aalborg." We then realized we were in for a long night. We went over to the ward mission leaders house, I gave Ældste Wililamson a blessing, and then we got picked up by a little government sick transport van. Not really an ambulance, persay. So they drove us down to Aalborg, we talked to our chauffer and he almost took a book of mormon but not quite. Typisk. Then we waited 30 minutes in Aalborg for an "eye specialist." By the time we got to see him it was 00:30. (12:30 am) He administered a basic optometry exam from what i could tell, did a ultrasound to make sure there wasnt any permanent damage, and gave him a bunch of medicine. Anyway, long story short we end up staying the night with Ældsterne in Aalborg and got to bed around 3 am. I woke up the next morning with an awesome head cold, so i'm wrestling with that right now too. Williamson is doing better, but still doesn't have full vision back. We end up finding out he probably got a minor concussion as well. All in all im not too impressed with the doctors I've seen here thus far, but what can you do but hope you dont fik en bod til din øjne.

 

[I ran out of time bc i had to write president and we have a train to catch but we will probably take a few minutes to write more tomorow. Vi snakkes.]

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011

Goddag alle, jeg håber du har det godt.

 

Its been a busy and fun week in norjylland aka The Northern Kingdom. I'll start with an interesting night in a pinsekirke...

We had an investigator invite us to her pentacostal church on saturday night bc they had a "prophet" coming from Mississippi to address them. We, uh, yeah. We went. haha It was an interesting experience. We got lots of weird looks as we walked in. Everyone was extremely nice to us. And as we sat down we could see the word spread that the mormons were here like the wave around lavell edwards stadium on a good day. It was really funny. But I enjoyed it. They had a christian rock band play for a long time, and it appeared to me like the members of the congregation were really enjoying it. They believe that they have the gift of tongues, so at the end of every song the room would fill with chatter as each member of the congregation would start praying in a different made up language. To who or what they were praying, or what about, I have no idea. The tower of Babel just exploded around us. So that was interesting. After about 45 minutes of the band-prayer routine, the "prophet" gave a very general, energetic Mississippi-style message that felt more like an inspirational speech. That lasted about an hour, after which he began "healing" people... Thats where things got interesting. He would put a hand on their head or neck or chest or some combination thereof and start praying/shouting in english/made-up-language... Until the person passed out. There was always someone standing behind to catch them, after which they had a nice warm blanket draped over them. And the patten continued. After about 15 minutes of this, we looked at the clock and saw it was getting late so we courteously stepped out. But holy cow. Talk about an eye-opener. I've never been more thankful for the truth of the restored gospel.

 

Monday we headed up to Skagen, "The land of light," for p-day. Its kind of a mystical place in Danish culture. We walked all the way out to the northernmost tip of the country. It was really fun. We ran around in some nazi bunkers, saw some cool stuff. The city of skagen smells like pure fish. Its rather abrasive, really. But its lots of fun. If you're ever in the area, let me know. We'll get lunch or something.

 

Denmark is a very interesting place. I love it here, but the government really affects the way the country and the people operate. Its sad to see, but people are pretty apathetic about life in general sometimes because the government creates this bubble of high taxes and all you can eat benefits, so they essentially have nothing to worry about in life. Which would make anyone apathetic and lazy, really. But I have never been more thankful for the United States. Seriously. Im not tryin to get all sappy and patriotic here but my eyes have been opened a little bit, thats all.

But other than that, Denmark is a thousand times cooler than the US, of course. haha

 

Thats all for this week, i guess. Oh, i had leverpostei a few days ago! It was delicious. Everyone go out and try some, just for me. Its, uh, liver paste... But dont think about that. Its delicious. Throw it in the oven for a few minutes, heat it up, spread it on some bread. Some hardy (sp?) rye bread. Rugbrød, preferably, if you can get your hands on it. haha It's some really hardy traditional Danish bread.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

 

Med kærlig hilsen,

ældste wooden

Monday, October 24, 2011

Godmorgen! (fra hjørring idag)

Its been a good week! Busy, but good. Been traveling alot all over norjylland. Spent time in Hirtshals, Sæby, Skagen, Hjørring, and Frederikshavn, just going to appointments, meeting members, contacting, etc etc. Spent the night in Aalborg with the Ældste Klc and Dunshee on Tuesday night because we had a specialized training meeting in Århus wednesday morning that we had to take a two hour train ride for. So lots of train hopping. I've seen a lot of the quaint Danish countryside. Its beautiful. I love this country more and more every single day. Wednesday night after our training meeting we made the three hour train tur from Århus to Frederikshavn and then we went and played "floorball" with some members and investigators. Its basically just hockey on a basketball court and you play with a really thick, stiff, wiffle ball. I was skeptical at first but it was so much fun. We're gonna be playing alot in the winter months here i think.

Speaking of winter- Its getting a little chilly in these parts. Every day the sun comes up later and sets earlier, and by mid december we'll only see the sun for about 3 hours a day I hear. Should be interesting. I'm mentally gearing myself up for it and getting used to being cold. So far it hasnt been too bad. I've learned that scarves do wonders and that american jackets arent made to withstand this kind of cold. The wind is the worst part of it. Its alot like the humid san francisco cold/wind combo, but drop about 15 or 20 degrees. 

So far its been a ton of fun. I feel very blessed to be in frederikshavn with Ældste Williamson. I know alot of other trainers wouldnt be game for P90X every morning and Salmon Sundays. I couldnt be happier. So lets talk Danish- It's very hit and miss depending on who I'm talking to. There are like 100 different danish dialects depending on where you are in the country. Literally, about a 100. I asked a few Danes. So it takes a few sentences to figure out what they're saying, if I'm lucky. If they talk too fast or have a really thick norjyske or Københavnsk accent then I'm totally lost and I'll catch a word or two here and there. Its lots of fun though, most people know broken english (or better english than we do) so between my broken danish and their broken english we can usually communicate okay. I've had lots of conversations where they are speaking english and im speaking danish, becuase we both want to learn each others' language. its a lot of fun really. generally speaking, the people are awesome. Really nice, but not very open to the gospel. A bit of a bummer but not too bad.

The food, well. haha the food is heavenly. I havent really eaten anything weird either, its all just meat and and potatoes and pastries. haha pretty standard stuff. hard to completely mess up. We had a trekant pastry on the way home from Århus and i thought it was going to kill me. It was disgustingly delicious. A giant triangle of pure butter, flour, and chocolate. But when in rome, right?? Thats kind of been my motto lately.

This is probably the most diverse society ive ever seen. Tons of immigrants. Most of the people we see around are native danes but lots come from all over the place, and speak broken Danish, broken english, and portuguese or something random. Im actually wishing i remembered more of my spanish too, because we're teaching a family right now that are native peruvians. The mother and daughter speak spanish and danish but the 18 year old son just came over, so he speaks zero danish, a little english, and spanish. Lessons take a while because there is lots of translating and clarifing going on the whole time. My brain is fried by the end because i'm trying to switch between three different languages, but its fun. They are a great family. They've been investigating for a while now, and are making huge steps. It's a really exciting experience.

The work is going well. There is loads of potential in our area, and we're pretty excited about it. Every day is an adventure.

Love you all, hope all is well at home! Say hello to the sun for me, its pretty gloomy over here.

 

oprigtigt,

ældste wooden

Monday, October 17, 2011

Last monday/tuesday i Danmark:

Flew all day, tried hard to sleep on the planes but it was really tough. Didnt get too much sleep. We arrived at 9:30 am København tid, so we had a full day ahead of us, having already been awake for 20-ish straight hours, it was rough. Greeted by the Præsident and AP's, everyone is great. Our mission president is such a stud. But also the nicest guy ive ever met. I would have to compare him to a real life Santa Claus. No joke. Just look at his picture. And Søster Andersen is hilarious. Funniest lady ever. The first thing I noticed driving from the airport to the mission office was hour beautiful the country is. Its so green! I love it here. The mission office is in Frederiksberg, which is an area in København basically. I felt like I was in a Jason Bourne movie for the first few minutes- european cars speeding everywhere, everyone wearing super fashionable clothes compared to the states- its just cooler here. So we met the ektopare (senior couples) that work in the office, and were interviewed by the mission præsident and went contacting in København for a little bit- quite an eye-opening experience. It was hard, people are rude, but it was a ton of fun. It was Elder broschinsky, my MTC comp, me, and elder hansen, a zone leader on sjælland. We had a great time. When it comes down to it its really just talkin to people! Its a ton of fun. We had pastries and sandwiches waiting for us in the office, helligko. The food here is the best I have ever had in my entire life. I'll talk more about it later, but its glorious. We went to the mission home after that and had dinner- again, himmelske. Søster andersen is an amazing cook, and danish food in general is amazing. We were all so tired we were literally falling asleep at the dinner table, so after a dessert and quick testimony meeting we got to bed early.

 

Tirsday aften:

probably the best night's sleep of my entire life.

 

Wednesday (onsdag):

Wake up, søster andersen made a huge fantastic morgenmæl. We head over to the mission office, which is just down the street from the temple and meetinghouse also. We cruise to the meetinghouse, where they put us in the chapel, bring the trainers in, and we get our assignments! It was really exciting. Quick side note- the chapels are so cool here. Everything looks like it came out of an IKEA catalog. I'll send you some pictures. Seriously everything is cooler here. The library im in right now looks like the Museum of Modern Art. And it isnt anything special according to my companion. Anyway. Præsident announces that Ældste Williamson and I are serving in Frederikshavn, and we go over and sit together while he continues to announces the other assignments. It was pretty sweet. And then i realized i had a 6 hour train ride to get to my area... And we already had a busy day ahead of us. But Frederikshavn is awesome. I was kind of worried initially, i thought i was going to be in the middle of nowhere in a little po-dunk town. Its not quite that bad. Our area is really big, so we spend lots of time in the surrounding cities. Hjørring is the biggest city in our area. But yeah yeah yeah so we take some pictures, and then caravan over to Frederiksberg Castle- Home of the Carl Bloch paintings. We toured it, and i stood in the kings prayer room surrounded by Carl Bloch's original 22 paintings. It was a really cool moment. Amazing that i was at the BYU Carl Bloch exhibit reading about Danmark and looking at pictures of that castle, beautiful grounds, and room about 6 months ago. A year ago i never would have guessed i would have that experience. After that we had our first Kabob- another glorious food experience. Its a muslim food, kind of like a burrito? amazing. After that we had to hurry back to get on a train. The other elders serving on Jylland hopped on the same train. We almost missed it. We went down the street to get some food for the trip real quick and and the line was super long. Elder Dushee, me, and our trainers ended up sprinting down the street and through the station and literally barely made the train with our 3 suitcases each. We had a good laugh about it on the train because we were all running with bags coming open and armfuls of food... It was fun. Talked lots on the train, elder dunshee and klc, his trainer, only got off an hour before us because theyre serving in aalborg. so we see them alot actually. Which is good. Dunshee's the man. So we got home at 11 30, another heavy sleep, thats for sure.

 

Torsdag:

First day in my area. Woke up and looked out the window and our neighborhood belongs on a postcard, seriously. All these little houses with their bright colors and red roofs, its sweet. Ældste Williamson begins every day with P90X, which I was very happy to hear, so i join in on that every morning. love it. Went up to hirtshals, about an hour by train, and had a great day up there. First meal with a member, a lunch appointment. It was great. Great food. Stuffed me, which i think ill just have to get used to. Contacted for a while, met lots of cool people, a few potential investigators actually. Lots of referrals from members. Members are so crucial and help so much in missionary work. Everyone work with the missionaries! Umm.... lots of cool stories from that day. Moved a freezer for a member full of frozen lamb's heads... said she might invite us back and make them for us... im hoping that was a joke.

 

Fredag:

Kontakted some members and potential investigators that morning, then headed down to Aalborg for a baptism there. Elder Klc and elder Johnson taught a lady who had been investigating the church for about 4 years, and she finally committed to baptism. Elder Johnson is about to go home, and his parents are here picking him up, but he actually got to perform the baptism. It was awesome. It was good to see so early on. It helped spark me n Dunshee a little bit. train didnt come until 9 30 that night, so we got home about 10 40. long day.

 

lørdag:

a few appointments, tried to make cookies for a progressing family we have that is really close to baptism and the mom just had surgery but the cookies didnt work out so great. im blaming the recipe. we did everything right but the taste wasnt quite on the money. but we took them to our appointment that night anyway and they liked them well enough, so no harm done. it was funny. we figure we could get away with it, were a couple missionaries trying to make cookies. haha we played soccer with a few investigators too, that was alot of fun. very different soccer style up here though, it was interesting. they all said i played like an american. not sure what that means, because i scored alot, frankly, so im not too worried about it.

 

søndag:

first nadvermøde! its about a 30 minute walk to the chapel. we really need to get bikes up here. we're working on it. but we have an awesome branch. probably 50-ish people, everyone is super nice. we had 5 investigators at church and the members are amazing. very hospitable, always go and say hi. its really cool. we had a dinner appointment last night with that same family, it was great. they're awesome.

 

So there's a ton more i want to explain and write about but i gotta get going here, we're going bowling with that investigating family today actually. thought it would be a fun pday activity. but all is well. im loving it over here. i've found that people dont take you seriously when you kontakt them on the street wearing a baggy american suit, so that will have to change soon. its just a different world. Different culture. Extremely hard to understand what people say to me, but im starting to get an ear for it. i understand a little more every day. Now that we're caught up on all the hustle of this last week i can tell you more interesting stuff next week. Love you all, hope all is well!

 

Ældste Logan Wooden

Alma 37:46

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Hey guys.

Last week in the MTC! Today is our last p-day, so next time I email you will probably the monday after next, from somewhere in Danmark. I'm extremely excited. It's going to be tough and scary and fun and exciting and awesome. At this point I've heard so much about it and eaten so many meals in the MTC that it's just time to go. We fly out of Salt Lake on monday at 10 am, layover in Minneapolis for about an hour, layover in Amsterdam for about an hour, and then land in Copenhagen at 9:30 am local time, with the whole day ahead of us to meet the president and his wife, practice some contacting in downtown Copenhagen, and get a tour of the city.We get to go and see the original Kristus statue that first night, it's in a church in Copenhagen, with the 12 apostle's statues there as well. That night we meet our trainers, I believe, and go out to our first areas on tuesday and get to work! it's gonna be a blast. Can't wait.

Looking back at my MTC stay, I think I've had it as good as it comes. Awesome companion, good weather (its starting to get cold now), great district, best teachers in the MTC (I'm also going to the coolest mission in the world), got to hear from Elder Holland, Elder Ballard, Elder Nelson, Chad Lewis (former eagles TE) and listen to General Conference. Which was amazing, by the way! After being here for 8 weeks, I have really learned how to listen when it comes to talks and such. I got so much more out of general conference than i ever thought possible. There were some really really great talks. They let us have time to just chill and relax outside an! d stuff between sessions, which was much appreciated. It was just an aweome weekend all around.

Looking forward to getting into the game! I feel like I've been sittin on the bench!

Hope all is well. I miss everyone lots! Sorry my entries have been getting shorter and shorter here, but everything kind of blends together after a while... I will have plenty to write about next time you see me, that's for sure!

Ældste Logan Wooden

Alma 37:46

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2011

Hvordan gå det?! Hellig ko, I cant believe its onsdag already...

Its been a very quick week, as usual, but a very good one. Our district has been struggling with some health problems here and there that keep popping up, so its been busy. Been hustling around making sure everyone is in one piece and accounted for. Im so ! ready to get outta here. Trying hard to be patient and bide my time, only about a week and a half left at this point. We get our travel plans either tomorrow or friday, so i will let you know as soon as possible. Its hard to believe we are leaving. In a way it feels like we never will. But on the other hand we cant wait, clearly. I think it will actually be tough to leave when it really comes down to it. We have grown so much here and become so close with one another and our instructors. Im not looking forward to saying goodbye. Dont even want to think about it to be completely honest.

Heard about Kenna's finger incident! ouch! hope she is ok. Things like that do happen sometimes i guess. Sounds like she was a little trooper though, hearty-dog or not.

Ummm not sure what else is going on really. Just tired of MTC food and the same 4 walls all day long. It will be good to get out and see the ! real world again.

Oh yeah! So this week I had a bunch of friends from BYU show up, it was awesome! Elders Tanner Green, Jake Hobbs, Avram Twitchell, and Brandon. It was so good to see them. I've missed these guys so much. Elder Green is Zone leader already, the stud. Hobbs, Twitchell, and Brandon are all going to the same mission in Brazil so they'll be here for a little bit waiting on visas. They're classroom is just downstairs from mine, so I get to see them alot. Lots of fun. To be completely honest I can't remember brandons last name right now... its driving me insane. We're talking one of my best friends here. I'm rather embarrassed. But thats what happens when you force a new language, grammar, pronunciation, and new people into your head in a looney bin like the mtc. I'll remember as soon as i send this i'm sure... Sorry brandon from pleasanton. Love you man.

Jeg elsker alle jer!

Hope all is well at home, write me while its easy and free at the mtc! (if your using dearelder i mean)

keep me updated with your lives! Love you lots!

Ældste Logan Wooden

Alma 37:46

ps.  Brandon Barkdull!!!  Got it.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Uge Seks (week six)

Hello to all! Another week has come and gone in the MTC. We're movin right along, lots of danish and lots of learning still going on. We'll be on the ground in Danmark in 3 weeks! We're gettin pretty excited and ready to get outta here. It's going to be quite an experience. We get our travel plans next friday, so i'll know what flights i'm on and everything. I will keep you updated. Heard from Elder Russel M Nelson at our devotional last night. He gave a special message centered around the October 2011 Ensign. I would encourage everyone to grab a copy, it's pretty phenomenal. It is a special edition centered on the Book of Mormon, and it does a great job of laying out timeline, history, authors, and answering questions about the Book of Mormon. It's seriously fantastic. Elder Nelson wrote an article in it that was great. So yeah, get your hands on it if you can and give it out.

Not really sure what else to say, this week was pretty routine MTC-wise. Work work work, that's about it. I feel like I sleep for about 2 hours and then I'm back at it again... It's a vicious cycle, really. My favoirte joke of the week: "Your mom is so fat, her patronous is a cake." I seriously almost fell out of my chair. We tell alot of really lame jokes here in the MTC, and somehow they're hilarious. We're a little deprived of normal social interaction. But we're havin a good time. Not a ton to report, i guess?? If anybody wants to hear about something specific or has questions, lemme know so I can write about it in the blogstuff. Jeg håb alle er glæde i hjem!

Love you all, miss you lots. Keep me updated with what is going on in all of your lives!
--
Ældste Logan Wooden

Alma 37:46

Wed. Sept 15, 2011

Goddag! Hope everyone is enjoying themselves wherever you may be reading this. The MTC says hello. We've got a few weeks left here, and things are really starting to pick up. We've learned all of the major g! rammar lessons that the MTC has to offer now, so for the next few weeks its a matter of practice, practice, practice. My letters may become more confusing, so i apologize in advance. We are going to be speaking pretty much zero english. My spelling in english has already gotten pretty rough, as some of you may have noticed by the increasing amount of scribbles and errors... lets just say danish spelling rules and english spelling rules have little in common. We have devised a few games to get us to speak as little english as possible, because the only way to get better at danish is to use it. The best game thus far has been Skamtaske (Bag of Shame). We went to the bookstore and found the ugliest, girliest handbag/scripture case possible, and if you are heard speaking english to another Danish missionary, you get the bag. and you have the bag until you catch someone else speaking english and you pass it on. It's been extremely effective. Skamtakset is purple and floral print, w! ith a danish flag hanging out of it and the word SKAMTASKE emblazoned across the front with Sharpie. its hideous. And really annoying to carry around. it has an old danish/enlish ordbog (dictionary) in it along with random church pamphlets in Georgian and Arabic. But so far we have probably spoken more danish in the past few days than all of our MTC days put together. it's alot of fun. That is the most notable think that comes to mind right now. We heard from Elder M Russel Ballard at the devotional last night, he gave some amazing advice.

I'm happy to be here. I have learned more than I ever thought possible in a shorter time than i thought possible, but I have learned it only happens if you have faith. the term "leap of faith" really means just that. We can accomplish incredible things if we take the risk and work hard.

Miss you all! Hope all is well. We are having m! ail problems here at MTCet right now, so if i don't respond to your letters as quickly as hoped i apologize, its not my fault! haha I'll get back to you very soon. its laundry time, so that means letter time.

Oprigtigt,

Ældste Logan

Wed. Sept. 7, 2011

Hey guys, today marks a grand total of 4 weeks in MTCet.
I always say time is flying but i seriously mean it. We will be on a plane to Danmark før we know it. Learned there may be some mail stoppage from dearelder.com happening soon, so snail mail may be the best way to go for a week or two here? Im not sure, I am sure you can find the details on dearelder.com somewhere. Learned that the mail system between the US and Danmark isnt too bad, it will take 7 to 14 dage each way apparently. Apparently packages actually get to danmark faster than letters d! o, no one really knows why. But note that if you are sending a package, be careful. If its food that has preservatives, dont say that on the customs form. Say its candy or something, because one of our teachers got hit with a 350 dollar fine when his mom sent him Cheetos. Food preservatives are illegal in Danmark, which is why the food is going to be amazing. Apparently the chocolate, cheese, milk, and bread are supposed to be absolutely ridiculous. Im rather excited. And if package contents are valued at over 50 dollars (and you say so), then i will get hit with crazy taxes as well. Everyone says to use the prepaid packages and... ahem... bend the truth on whats inside. Its just not worth the socialist taxes.

But, in any case, Im excited to get out of the MTC... The food is, well, acceptable. Nothing special. We are just going stir crazy in here. Ive been playing alot of soccer lately in gym time as opposed to basketball just to get th! e fresh air. We are inside all day anyways. All the elders from Europe go and play our there, its a ton of fun. Elder Jensen is actually from Danmark so we always talk to him about it, he tells us all the cool stuff to look forward to. And hes a brilliant soccer player. They pretty much all are except the Finn, who is a hockey prodigy in Finland apparently. Lots of cool elders to talk to. Ive realized how much I love just talking to people. Elder Redpath is from England and is going to Georgia, like the country. Speaking Georgian. We dont even have Mormons Bog in Georgian apparently. He is the first missionary in history to have a georgian Forkynd mit Evangelium (Preach my Gospel). Hes got a pretty cool story. Its just lots of fun here once you get used to the schedule and learn how to make your own fun.

Oh yeah, i remember some news now. This week I was asked to be the new District Leader for the Danish District here at the MTC. Our Dist! rict is the 13 of us preparing to go to Denmark, so I have to prepare reports, lead meetings, etc.... Its alot of fun so far. When a group is here for 8 weeks or more they have one member be district leader for the first half (Ældste Singleton) and someone else takes the reins for the second half (me). We just made the change on sunday. Its going to be a neat chance to lead through service. I love my district, theyre awesome. I would do anything for these guys so its my pleasure and honor to lead and serve them.

My computer time is up, so im headin out, but hope all is well! I love and miss you all. If you ever see the missionaries around town, say hi. They are dying just to have a conversation with someone, it doesnt even have to be about church. I promise. Theyre just people.

Må Gud vær med dig alt dage i jeres liv.

!

Ældste Logan Wooden

Wed. Aug 31, 2011

Three weeks down in MTCet already! Time is really moving. It's great to be here. I get a ton of questions about the language, so i'll break it down the best i can: its comin along nicely, but it's still! pretty tough. Imagine... speaking english but from the back of your throat. If that makes any sense? It sounds like a caveman language most of the time, very few consonants are prounounced with a "hard" pronunciation. For example: if a "d" is preceded by a vowel, it's usually pronounced as a soft "d", sounds more like an "L." Although, the first thing they told us when we got here is that Danish has zero pronunciation rules. none. zilch. nada. so... previously mentioned "rule" is really just a guideline, applicable about 50% of the time. It's annoying, but lots of fun. There's 144 different Danish dialects that are spoken across Danmark (according to our 2 rm teachers), so if you pronounce something the best you can, chances are somewhere in the country a native dane is pronouncing it the same way. But it sounds weird if you have a Kubenhavn accent for half a sentence and an Odense accent for the other half. So we're gonna be soundi! ng pretty funny. Haha and i'm learning to eat with my fork in my left hand and knife in my right at all times, again so we don't look like complete losers when we get there. The mtc is just full of random knowledge. There's alot to learn about the country and people. We have to take a citizenship test once we have been in the country for 6 months, and if we don't pass it could get dicey. So we're learning a little every day about their culture. For eksample, they don't use clothes dryers. Or garbage disposals. Or dishwashers. (Dad, I'm gonna come home only hand washing all my dishes i'm sure. You'll be proud) They are a very self-reliant people, so machines like that seem like a waste of energy when they can do it themselves. It seems like its going to be quite an adventure. We've also been told that we're not going to come home wearing any of the same suits. What we have now is "too americ! an" and we will want to fit in more. Not going to lie, I'm kind of excited. Can't wait until i get there... Seems like so far away at this point, but 7 more days and we're halfway through MTCet already! It's been tough this week, because the Dutch, Norsk, and Swedish elders on our floor left for the field on monday. We're all extremely jealous. They were our scandinavian buddies that we had come to know so well, and we could all understand each other in our respective languages. Now it's just us and the Dutchys that came in the same day as us. We're good friends with them. But our languages aren't related at all, so we can't speak parseltongue to each other any more. That's another thing, we joke alot about MTCet being like hogwarts, complete with prefects, headmasters, secret chambers, parseltongue... you name it, we got it. It's sad really, we're all desperate for some form of entertainment so that's what we resort to. Anywho. My email time is up, they don'! t give us enough. But i miss and love you all! Letters are the best, so if your ever bored shoot me a note.

Gud vær med dig,

Ældste Logan

Logan Enters the MTC

Logan's Farewell!