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