Alma 42 - October 5, 2015

Elder Francis with Elder Nielsen. Elder Nielsen's mom was my (Nettie's) mission companion 20 years ago in Japan! Now our sons are serving together in Denmark. They watched conference together in Copenhagen.

Everyone,

First of all, I wanted to share an experience that I wrote to the president about in my letter last week:

"Yesterday we saw a miracle happen. Our appointment in Greasted fell through, but we had a plan to knock in a neighborhood nearby. As we knocked we found out that most people were elderly, and didn't want to see us. We kept going, and it was my turn to knock. An older lady answered, and I thought great another rejection. I introduced us and the church, in my Danish praying that she would understand me. She did, and said that she had heard of our church in England. We had an amazing conversation on what makes our church different, and then she asked me how long I had been in Denmark. I told her three weeks and Elder Halverson told her six months. She was very surprised at our answers. It is the little times like these that the spirit is present, and I feel that I can continue on. It is amazing how plans prayerfully made will bring us blessings that we couldn't have imagined."

Elders at the train station on P-Day.

What a week this has been for me in Hillerød. For preparation day we went to celebrate with Elder Eaves. It was his two year anniversary since his baptism.

About 14 missionaries showed up, and we played basketball and pong. I had never heard of pong until this day, so I will describe it. It is like bowling with Ping-Pong balls, except you throw them into cups instead of rolling them. When the other team makes it into one of your ten cups you have to drink whatever is in it. The first team to make it into all of the other teams cups wins.

This was fun for one game... The problem is that the losing team is continually drinking from there cups, so you get really full. What made it worse was we were using Saft. Saft is a fruit juice which you mix with water. Without the water it is very thick and salty. Elder Halverson and I went home that night not feeling very good.

A replica of the Hamlet Castle with the real one in the background.

We spent Tuesday and Friday nights helping Helsingør. In one day they several of their investigators dropped them, so we went to help them find potentials. It was a very fun experience because both nights I went contacting around the Hamlet Castle. Friday was the best because I went with Elder Hendrickson. He is from Denmark, and when we weren't talking to people he told me about the history on the castle. We were able to find several potentials for them, and I think that mission wide this program was a success.

On Thursday we had a great lesson with our investigator Martin. He knows a lot about the church, and we hope that he will continue to progress. We told him about conference, and he was very excited about it. This week our plan is to watch a session with him. 

The really good burger!

That day I had to get a backpack because of all the traveling we would be doing over the weekend. As we went towards a shop we saw that a new burger place was opening. Elder Halverson asked one of the workers when it would open, and we found out that it would be that night at 6. He also said that the first 100 people would get free burgers. When we heard this we both got very excited. For our dinner our we went back, and we numbers 30 and 31 in line for our free hamburger. When we went in I was expecting a small kids meal burger from McDonalds. The ones they brought to us were about the sizes of big-macs, and it came with a small plate of fries. It was one of the best burgers I have eaten because of all the sauces and vegetables they put on it. One thing that was different is that Danish people don't pick up there burgers. They cut them up with a fork and knife. It was really weird, but that is how we ate them. Afterwards we had an appointment with Janice. We had a great conversation on trusting in the Lord, and then they gave us cake and doughnuts. It is impolite to refuse food when it is offered here, so we did our best to eat it. That night biking home was really hard because we were so full.

Friday we helped the Klestrup's wash there upstairs windows, and mowed there lawn. I was able to use an electric lawn mower which is very quite compared to a gas one. This was a hard day because none of our investigators answered us when we tried to make appointments. As a companionship we are going to work on contacting this week, so we can find more people to share the gospel with.

Conference weekend was wonderful. It was a little different than Utah times, and I still haven't see the Sunday Afternoon Session. 6pm Saturday was Saturday Morning, 11am Sunday was Priesthood, 2pm Sunday was Saturday Afternoon, 6pm Sunday was Sunday Morning. The senior couples brought us dinner in between sessions, and we all had a great time talking and discussing everything. It was fun to see missionaries from my MTC district. Elder Olsen and Elder Teynor are doing great, and loving the work. I spent the weekend sleeping at Elder Olsen's apartment, and we had some good discussions. He said there are is a 30 minute bike ride all the way across, and I told him that ours was about an hour train ride across. The further you are from Copenhagen the bigger the areas are.

I hope all of you are doing well, and have a great week.

Elder Francis

P.S. Happy Birthday Mama! I know that I am a day early, but I can't email tomorrow. I hope that you have a great day. Thank you for your support while I am on my mission.

Ben

Thank you for emailing, and tell everyone that I love them.

Ældste Ben Francis