Monday, October 24, 2011

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

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