4.28.14

Hej!

Well, I'm in Slagelse!! I am so stoked for this area it's not even funny. My email last week was a little rushed so I didn't really get to tell about the area. It is going to be a blast. I can't even begin to describe how good of a deal I got. I'll start with my comp. His name is Æ. Hardy-Hansen and he will be going home in July, so I could be his last comp. He is from Indiana and is super fun. Loves to play basketball, so we'll be ballin' it up a ton this transfer :) Slagelse is going to be the perfect area to spend summer in too. It is absolutely beautiful! Its a little bit of an older town and is really fun to be in. We have a pretty big area, the actual city of Slagelse isn't too big, so we cover a bunch of other towns and a good chunk of Sjælland... so guess what that means! A car!! So I'll be spending the Danish spring and summer driving around the Danish countryside on small little windy roads :) Not too bad, eh? So I definitely got a good deal!! 

Tåstrup sure ended with a bang though. Holy cow. It was a great week. To start, We went to Tivoli, this old theme park which actually inspired Disneyland in the middle of Copenhagen, for district activity. 

It was a blast! It was a little rainy at the start, but the weather shaped up and we had a great time. It had some fun rides and it is a pretty magical little place. It did inspire Disneyland after all! They had a ride like the Rocket at lagoon where it shoots you up and you could see all of Copenhagen and Sweden off in the distance. Just a really neat experience!! 

It was definitely bittersweet leaving Tåstrup though. I really had a good time there and although it doesn't have all the perks of Slagelse, the investigators there were awesome. We had one last meeting with Familien Hansen yesterday so I could say goodbye to them. And had a little lesson which went amazing. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and the spirit was super strong the whole time. And they definitely felt it! Pointed it out in fact. So we were able to talk to them about that and made a ton of progress from that lesson. They are great and I will miss teaching them, Æ. Read will take good care of them and I will get to go back on splits and teach them pretty often so that helps. But they are doing really good hopefully they keep having those spiritual experience! I'll try and include updates on them every once in a while as I hear about them. 

Denmark is absolutely beautiful right now. It is breathtaking sometimes. Like these fields of yellow flowers :)

This is just a little on from Tåstrup, but now that I'm out in the countryside I'm sure that I will be sending a lot more pictures like this one. We spend a ton of time out in the countryside and it couldn't be a better time of the year to be in an area like that! These fields are everywhere. They are sooooo pretty. In full bloom and they smell amazing! So I hope you are ready for lots of good pictures of Denmark, because I have a feeling my camera is going to be put to pretty good use here in the next couple of months. Haha really, this area is going to be so much fun. I will have to give you an update on the work next week, because I just barely got here today, But it has been going great in Slagelse in the past couple of months so I am excited to be here! 

Well, Hope you all are doing great! I love you and miss you all! Have an amazing week!!

-Conner

4.22.14

Hej Everyone! Happy tuesday!!

 

Sorry I didn't email yesterday. Don't worry, I'm still alive! For some reason Denmark shuts down around Easter. It was really weird... We walked out of our apartment on Thursday and everyone was just gone. No one out. And all the shops were closed. Grocery stores and all. The only things open were the Muslim bazaars haha. I guess Easter vacation is taken very serious here! Thursday and Friday are also considered part of Easter so everything was closed. Same story with yesterday. So that's why I didn't email!

 

It was a great Easter! We had a super sweet lesson with some Camaroonians that totally made the day. Can't complain :) Hopefully everyone had just as good of a day back home! Make sure to send pictures from Eastering!

 

It was a crazy week. Holy cow I have a lot to update on! Super fun. So, to start: we went into Copenhagen on Monday so Æ. Read could get his Biometrics done for his visa, and we found another castle!

Ha it just amazes me that you can be walking down the street and turn a corner and run into something like this. Crazy. It was right next to the Biometrics place so we had to make a little pit stop :) Way sweet.

 

We had a crazy lesson with Familien Hansen this week too. It started off by them telling us it wasn't going to work haha. Not the way you want it to start off! But we kept talking and found out they really didn't have that testimony of the Book of Mormon yet. So we backtracked and talked about that and explained how they can get that testimony. And it actually went super well! It was a lesson I had wanted to have with them just  not under those circumstances, but it went really well! I feel like they understand the purpose of all of our invitations a lot more and that we will start to see a lot more progress with them now that they will really be searching for that testimony, not just checking out the church. Shows how important the Book of Mormon is! That keystone analogy is definitely true. It really is that keystone! So hopefully they have good experiences reading and are able to get answers to their prayers.

 

The craziest day of the week though was yesterday... We got a call from president first thing in the morning... I'M MOVING!!!!!!! TO SLAGELSE!!!! and I totally wasn't expecting that. Like at all. It hit me like a brick. So this will be my last week in Taastrup! I'll be moving on Monday and my new companion will be Æ. Hardy-Hansen and It is going to be a blest. Slagelse is on the west side of Sjælland (the island Copenhagen is on) and is a way sweet area. It's bittersweet though, I will miss Taastrup a ton. I have had a blast here and didn't expect to be moving so soon. But yeah, that's the news of the week for me! Crazy right?

 

Well, Hope everyone is doing good. I love you all and miss you all. Hope you had a great Easter and have great weeks to look forward to :) Don't miss em!

 

-Conner

 

We got a grilled dinner last nast night... Brazillian BBQ! Oh how I have missed grills!!

4.14.14

Hej!!

 

Sorry everyone for the lack of an email last week... Hopefully this one makes up for it. It was a good week so I have stories!!!

 

To start, I passed my 1 year mark! Crazy right? There are 2 sisters from my MTC group in our district as well, so after District meeting we had a little district lunch. Mexican Buffet!! Haha Mexican in Denmark was a little interesting. It was more Spanishy than Mexican I think. But they had Tacos!!

That's all that matters :) So we stuck some candles in them and blew them out to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. And then I ate 10 of them. Plus 2 massive plates of nachos. And like 6 things of chips and salsa. And a burrito. And 3 slices of bread. And about 40 of these desert tortillas that were heavenly. It was easily the most I have ever eaten in my life. Without a doubt. So that was really fun :) And delicious.  

 

Storytime: We were in a town called Ishøj on Wednesday to stop by a couple of investigators. We were strolling down a path on our way to visit a guy named Hans who had had contact with missionaries a couple years back. While on our way to his house, we were stopped by this happy old man, who said "Hey! Are you the Mormons?!' We smiled and said yeah, and he went on to tell us that his name was Hans Hjellingholt, the exact same man that we were on our way to visit! He was excited to see us and told us to come with him to this place. So we went. Haha We walked with him for a couple minutes until we came to this place with a bunch of shacks. We walked into the first shack, and it looked just like the inside of a DI. Hans then told us that everything inside was free! I guess it was a charity place that operates a lot like the DI, except it is all the way free! There wasn't really anything we could use, so we just kinda walked and talked with Hans... until we came to the book section. Hans was like oh, this is the best part! and started showing us all the books. And man, we found some sweet stuff. I found an old pocket size bible, perfect for missionary work, Harry Potters, Eragon, some classic danish comics, cook books, a danish synonym (spelling?)book, all in danish! And Hans just shoved them in a bag and told me to take them. So I didn't argue haha. It was a sweet deal!! But it gets better. Hans was like 'hey, you know, why don't you come back to my house for some soda!' Jo Tak. So we walked back to his house with him and were able to sit down with him and his wife and talk. Hahaha This couple was hilarious I wish you could all meet them! Super happy and fun and friendly. Hans was hilarious. Here is a picture to illustrate: This pretty much sums him up. This was from when he showed us his study and all the things he had collected :) He let us try the hat on too, I'll attach that picture later :)

 Eventually we sat down over some flødeboller and chips and had a great lesson with them.  They had been to the temple open house and loved it, and asked what our church was about, which we were more than happy to explain. We went through the first lesson with them and it was one of the most fun first lessons I have had on my mission. They were very interested and curious and asked lots of questions, but those questions didn't draw away from the first lesson and It went really smooth. And the whole time they were just super happy and upbeat and engaged. We explained the Book of Mormon and they happily took one as well as a chapter that we thought they would like to read! It was a really fun lesson and Æ. Read and I are super excited to go back and teach them again. So that was the story of the week. Hans Hjellingholt. Haha he's a great man!

 

Things are going great in our area right now. We are loving life! Familien Hansen is doing good. We went with Danny, the son, to a young single adult activity and it went great! We had to leave to get home at 9, but he stayed until 2 in the morning with the youth from the ward! So we were really pumped about that. They are reading and doing all the things we ask and it is super fun to teach them. We're starting to go over the commandments so hopefully all continues to go well! So far it has been.

 

Well, hope you all have a great week!! Have fun at Eastering!! Eat some of my mom's Oreos for me. I think I usually eat about 20 of them so someone will have to pick up my load while I'm away :) Sugar cookies as well :) And I'd like to give a shout out to my Grandma Humpherys who is turning 90!! Happy birthday! Hope you have a super fun birthday party!  Hope you all have a fantastic Easter as well! It's a great time of the year, one of my favorites. I Love you all and miss you! Thanks for being so great!!

 

-Conner