Luke 23:42-43, Alma 40:11-12‏ ~ March 7, 2016

The tip of Denmark where two oceans meet

Luke 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 

43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

 Alma 40:11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between deathand the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

 12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

One of the many ships

Everyone,

Lots of rain and snow this week. Most nights we come in wet and cold, but really happy about what happened during the day. We have had so many miracles this week. Hopefully you can understand them, and feel the joy from each of them.

At skak club they paired me up with a 9 year old girl. I quickly won, and then I thought of my siblings. I let her win the next game. I don't know why they thought I was good, but they paired me with one of the experts in the group. He quickly beat me, but they say that I do really well. What made the night amazing was when Ann came up to us. Two weeks ago Elder Jeppsen gave her a Mormons Bog. She told us that she was reading it, and that she thought it was really interesting. Neither of us expected that one to come, but we hope to talk to her tonight about it.

We went knocking by the coast here in Frederikshavn. The area we chose had lots of big houses, and we think that is were the rich people live. We got lots of "Nej, tak." while we worked. At the end of one corner was a big brick house. It was debatable if anyone lived there because the mailbox was smashed in. Elder Shuppy said we should try anyways. We did, and a lady named Nina answered. After telling her who we were we talked about Mormons Bog. She was very interested, but a little hesitant. Instead we asked about families, and she got a little bit happier. We did a fast Frelsesplanen lesson, and at the end she accepted a Mormons Bog. We walked out overwhelmed by the Spirit, and the incredible blessing the Lord had given to us.

Our appointment fell through on Friday, so we decided to stop by a few potentials in the area. First one we stopped by let us in. Mihrtu is his name. He had started to read a little bit, but not much. He speaks an African language that the church hasn't translated Mormons Bog into yet. The closest one we had was Amaric. After our short lesson he was committed to start again, and read a few pages before our next visit. This was great because it has been hard to meet with him, but he seems excited to talk with us.

We had zone conference this week in Aarhus. It is a two hour drive for us. The schedule changed several times, so we thought that we would need to be up really early. Luckily we left at 7:30 with the Blackums. The training was on all the tools that we have to help those we meet. The mission has been in decline all the way till November. Starting in December everything has gone up, and it looks like it will continue to rise. During our interviews President commited us to use everything we have to find, teach, and baptize. Elder Shuppy and I have already seen the effects here in Frederikshavn.

A side story from Zone Conference. President went to the whiteboard, and asked us what we wanted to say to the High Council when we got home. He drew a slanted line down the board. "My mission was in steady decline before I came, and I continued that line my entire mission. My trainee is still there, and should continue that line from where I left off." We were all laughing because we hadn't expected him to say that. He got really serious then and said that we are changing that line, and it is up to each of us to do so.

The lighthouse at Skagen

Saturday was our day up in Skagen. We knocked for a bit with little success. We discussed how we could improve, and then started again. At one door we met a kid who was studying to be a captain. He wasn't open until we asked about his accent. We learned that he was from København, and he asked us why we were here in Denmark. Our answer was that we were missionaries, and he seemed a little bit interested. It is only a potential, but the way we found him was great because it was a different approach than we usually did.

Elder Shuppy said that there was a familien Dumatrov that he had taught before I came here. We decided to see them because we were in the area. The mom was so happy to see us, and asked us several questions on God. She had been reading Mormons Bog, and that was where her questions came from. We decided to try and teach her Frelsesplanen because most of her questions were centered around it. There was a real language barrier because she speaks Romanien, and her Danish is very basic. We pulled up the Romanian pamphlet from lds.org. She started reading it silently. As she read she started smiling, and it got bigger and bigger with each paragraph. Before she had finished the first page she wanted her husband to come read it. We left the lesson so thankful for technology.

Elder Shuppy and I

We met a young man while knocking who had a friend who is LDS. His friend lives in København now, but when they were younger he had been to a few church meetings and activities. We asked if he had his own Mormons Bog, and he said that he didn't. We gave him one, and committed him to start with the first few chapters before our next lesson.

This week was great. Thank you Grammy and Grandpa Joe for the fun package, and for the Hunsaker calendar. I was so surprised when I received them at Zone Conference.

Be Blessed,

Ældste Francis