Week 3: 1 Nephi 15:8

Eating at a member's house with the other elders in the ward.

Everyone,

This week has had some of the highest ridges and lowest valleys. One of the first things is that I got to bike in the rain. Almost everyday there is a light rainstorm, but this week it came down hard. My pants and jacket got soaked, but that's what mission life is all about.

Many of you have been asking about what the food is like here in Denmark. I have a short list of some of the things that I have eaten. We had meatloaf one night, and across the top were strips of bacon. (Papa you might like that) For breakfast we eat toast with butter, cheese, and jam on top. Even though it sounds weird it is really good. One day we tried a Danish open faced sandwich. It had butter, salt, pepper, pickled herring, and onions. I liked this, but it isn't something I would recommend to anyone. Hopefully that gives everyone an idea of some of the foods.

Danish breakfast...Toast, jam, cheese, butter!

As I said earlier there have been ups and downs this week. We were able to find another investigator, and we hope that we will be able to teach him. His name is Martin, and was really excited when we taught him. We were able get into contact with Henrietta again, and have an appointment set up with her. Unfortunately we had to drop Aram's baptismal date because he was Muslim as a teenager, and we don't know if he will get baptized for a couple of months. Other than that we have had lots of contacting time all over our area.

There was one miracle this week. Monday night we finished up an appointment, and we got on our bikes to go home. I turned my lights on, and turned to see if elder Halverson was ready. He couldn't get his front light to work, and tried everything he could to turn it on. I said a quick prayer, and immediately it started to work. I knew right away that God was with us, and because Elder Halverson said he doesn't know how it worked right then. We were able to make it home safety, and without accident that night.

Another miracle occurred last night as we were knocking in Hillerød. We had several reactions last night as we knocked. A gentleman opened his door heard who we were said good luck, and laughed at us. Another guy wouldn't open his door, but talked to us through his window. A lady answered one door, said no, and closed it on us. At a fourth house the owner asked us why we were knocking doors, and then said it was a waste of our time. All of these things made it seem really pointless to go on, and there were also many doors that wouldn't even open to us. we decided to go for a couple more minutes, and two houses later we had a miracle. Some people were leaving the house right as we knocked, but we talked to one of them. He was very friendly and seemed interested in what we had to say. He accepted a card, and then they left. That one person made the night for me. We knock and knock to nothing, so to be able to give out one card makes all the difference.

I had a few questions about my area. I live in Hillerød, and the ward that we attend is in Allerød. We have our own building, and there are about 60 members. A couple weeks ago there was a ward activity, and all 6 missionaries came. We made up 1/5 of everyone there to put things into perspective. The other Elders in the ward live in Birkerød and Helsingør. It takes us about an hour to travel to church by train and bus. Sometimes we travel to Helsingør for eating appointments, and I can see Sweden from the train window. About the mission office, temple, and church. The office is about two blocks from the temple, and the church building is across the street from the temple. In the church they have a distribution center and rooms upstairs for members traveling to the temple. For us it is an hour train ride south to get there, but for some of my friends in Jylland it is a 5 hour train ride.

I hope that all of you are doing really well. Thank you for all of the kind emails and letters. They bring a lot of comfort when I feel lonely here in Denmark. Happy birthday Autumn!

Love,

Ældste Francis