Love from Denmark, Ældste Modersitzki

Whelp, now we are here and I need to sum up the mission in one email. I don't know how I am going to do that, so bear with me. I will say that I am very excited to see my fam and hug my mom again though, not gonna lie.

Well, I don't really know what to say. I have fallen in love with Denmark. I don't know how else to explain it. I started off my mission less than loving everything here and feeling like God really didn't care what happened to me. I was very selfish overall. BUT luckily God was willing to work with me, through many wonderful people, places, companions and tons of blessings. God has blessed me with the ability to see His children and give me a glimpse of His plan through His eyes, especially the missionaries I have been blessed to work with. WOW we have some rock stars here in the Danish Mission. I love all of them so much.

Ældste Jaursch and Ældste Mod
They were in the same MTC group.

Being in the position I have been in for a little while, I have had the opportunity to see how a mission president gets inspiration. The Lord leads his people, especially in Denmark. Between calls and texts at 4 am from the mission president and the random ideas he gets, the Lord is behind everything!

I have come to LOVE the gospel while I have been here. Before my mission I will admit that reading scripture and learning about spiritual things was about the last thing on my mind. But don't worry, I have found that I love reading in the scriptures and diving into the stories and verses. I am fully convinced that God had every single one of us in mind while He inspired / wrote the Bible and Book of Mormon! And to add to that, there is no way that Joseph Smith wrote that book, he had to be inspired!

I HAVE BEEN SO BLESSED, and I am so thankful for my time here, for the people I have interacted with and met, and that God was willing to work with someone who was probably not the easiest disciple in the world. I am thankful for every single missionary I have interacted with, they are the best and I am happy to call them my new found family. I also want to thank all of you for reading my emails, donating money, and offering prayers on my behalf...and a big Thank You to Grandpa Dave and Grandma Karen for quietly funding this amazing experience!

I have so much more to say but I'd best stop soon.

Jesus is the Christ. We have a loving Heavenly Father. We are His children. God lives. Christ lives. It is only through Him that we can come back to our Father in Heaven. He knows us all individually. He knows my trials and how to comfort me. He loves me (and you). He is the answer to all the problems that the world is experiencing and it has been my pleasure to put on the name tag and represent him every single day for the last 2 years. I love Him and His plan.

See you all soon!

Love from Denmark one last time,

Ældste Modersitzki

It wouldn't be right to end the blog without Tate
eating a kebab. Food. Always food.

And it wouldn't be right to end without showing a Zoom call.
Every missionary who served during COVID knows these well.

I'm so proud of Tate for loving his Savior enough to serve
a mission. We missed him like crazy, but it was 
completely and totally worth it.

Saying Goodbye to my Danish Grandparents

We're so grateful for Leo and Anny!

Helløjsa!

This will be my second to last email just FYI. I will try to sum up the mission next week.

So our big thing this week was another combined zone conference with our new mission president and his wife. It was such a great experience. He is different from my last mission president, but I was able to get a spiritual confirmation that he is taking things where they need to go. So of course I'm going to back that up. He is such a great guy and very inspired. I'm happy to be working under him. Plus it is always the greatest to meet up with other missionaries and see friends. It was sad to say bye to the missionaries in Jylland, especially my boy Elder Vestergaard, my trainee and great friend. Hopefully I see him one more time before I dip on outta here.

We had a couple of service projects which were of course great and I attended a birthday party as well. It was fun and there was great food there too, which I am always down for. There was also a big Danish EFY kinda thing and we got to be involved, which meant that I got to see some of my old friends from earlier areas. We got to give a training to them and just hyped up missions and how they are so great to a bunch of 14-18 year old youth. Love it.

We also tried this bomb miso ramen place in Copenhagen, recommended by a member, and I was feeling in heaven hahah. Mod approved lol.

The hardest thing of this week was saying goodbye to my Danish grandparents, Anny and Leo. I have been over at their house once a week since December, plus an interval of time where it was every Sunday for online church. I have really grown close to them and they are so kind and loving. Giving them a last hug tugged at the heartstrings and kinda kicked things in. Woof not fun.

Anyhow, this email is LONG so I am going to finish it off with Moroni 7:13 which states: "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." Bam. Everything which has good consequences and invites you to do good is inspired by God. That applies to everything. Listen to that voice you have which helps you discern what is right and what is wrong and then ACT on it!

Love from Vor Frue Kirke,

Ældste Modersitzki

New President and New Places

Helløjsa everyone! My week was crazy and I have roughly zero minutes to write this, so sorry in advance Mom! This is going to be a short one haha rip.

We used this entire week to prepare for and receive the new mission president we got on Wednesday! His name is President Mattsson and he is a really dope Swedish guy! We have already connected quite well with the 213098 meetings we have had which he likes to hold in person, so we have been driving over an hour one way for these meetings every day haha. But, excitingly enough, one of the first items of business was them asking us when we will move to Copenhagen... we had like one appointment two days after and they said to move by next week, so we geared up and said goodbye to Slagelse today. I had five days notice to leave the area I have been in for 7 months lol. I gave a closing testimony on Sunday and now we are living in downtown Copenhagen in a really cool place. It's definitely gonna be a good time. I bet everyone is jealous high key.

On July 4th we celebrated with the new mission president, his wife, the office elders, and 2 senior couples, and it was a lot of fun! I was of course whipping my America outfit (shout out to my mom for the socks) and everyone was loving it lol. God bless America.

Well, my spiritual thought today is veryyy simple. God puts change in our path to change us, not to make us even more stubborn. His plan is always better, even when we want ours to work out more. Change is GOOD. My favorite quote from this week was from President Mattsson. He said, "Do pilot things. Let's be different!" And I came to realize how much more I need to learn about letting God change me and putting myself in uncomfortable positions to become who I need to be.

I am loving it out here and trying to live up the last two weeks! Also, Denmark is in the Euro Cup semifinals against England.... Copenhagen is going to explode with cheers if we win!

KOM SÅ DANMARK! VI SKAL IKKE HJEM, VI SKAL VIDERE!

Love from Vodroffsvej,

Ældste Modersitzki

Sankt Hans Aften

Ældste Paulsen & Ældste Mod

Helløjsa! Your fav half Dane, half American here again. Let's just dive in!

Soooo this week got very occupied by my boy Ældste Møller. He is from Denmark and was originally assigned to South Africa (shout out to Marc) but has been serving here for nearly a year.... but he finally made it to South Africa! We were with him from Tuesday to Thursday morning, trekking into Copenhagen every day hahah. We ate with him and his grandparents Tuesday evening, and then on Wednesday it was his parents and President and Sister Olsen. It was lots of fun, a really good time. I'm gonna miss him. It was weird dropping yet another missionary off at the airport, his fam was all there, but he was stoked to make it to South Africa. He wasn't even that sad to go. I don't even

With Ældste Møller

think he cried hugging his family goodbye part two.

Wednesday night was Sankt Hans Aften aka a day dedicated to John the Baptist combined with an old witch burning tradition. So everyone lights a big bonfire to ward away witches and bad spirits, but also to celebrate John the Baptist hahahah. It's pretty much just another excuse for Danes to drink lol. We only saw one bonfire though because the sun is nowhere near down by the time we get home. I love the daylight here.

We helped out with a wedding reception here in Slagelse to make up for not being able to help my sisters with their wedding receptions lol jkjk. Love you both @shae and @erin. But it was fun and everyone was grateful, and we got free food out of it... and one of our friends even pulled up. Win win situation I guess.

Lately I have been vibing with the hymn Come Thou Fount. Let me just toss in some really good lyrics.

Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be Let Thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee Prone to wander, Lord I feel it Prone to leave the God I love Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it Seal it for Thy courts above

Woahhhhhh I know. I know. What a good song! I LOVE how I feel listening to it. Christ searches after us EVERY time we go astray and leave His presence. He rescues each of us individually. He makes all the difference. We cannot repay Him, but we can show him we love Him by keeping His commandments and loving the people around us. Right now I am working on giving Him my whole heart. I invite all of you to do the same, give Him control, give Him your talents, give Him your thoughts and best efforts, give Him your all. I promise you won't regret it. I love this gospel and it makes me so sad to think that all these random people around me have no idea how great of a plan was created especially for them. Gotta change that!

Love you all tons! Shout out to my homies who have gotten home! Also shout out to Denmark's National team for moving on in the Euro Cup. Everyone here is going wild over it!

Love from Kirke Hvalsø,

Ældste Modersitzki

When you know what you know....

Tate found the church where his ancestors
were baptized (in Vejle).

Aloha everyone! It's felt like summer in Hawaii here this last week because of the humidity and temperatures, so I felt like that fit well, lol. I bet I am the only one who will find that funny but oh well hahah.

My week was great! I ate lots of good food and felt lots of birthday love! (Thank you to everyone who shot me an email or text! Love you all!) We also ate lots of cakes and cookies.... not mad about that in the slightest either, just a little worried about my sugar intake. I also had my final interview with President Olsen which was good, but sad. I'm gonna miss him, but I'm excited for the next chapter that begins here on the 30th! I am very grateful for the example and kindness that President Olsen has showed to me these last two years. I don't know where I would be without him. I have been very privileged to work so close to him these last 7 months.

I am not going to bore you with the details of my week so here are my thoughts from a fire devotional that we got from the general YM president, Steven Lund, on Sunday evening. He dropped the most fire quote that sums up my service as a missionary. He said, "When you know what you know, you do what you do." I have been blessed to have received a testimony of the gospel. I am here to spread that. I cannot deny the things I have felt. I can't even express my desire to share the happiness, peace and love that I have felt from this gospel. I know what I know and that is why I am out here doing what I am doing. Best two years of my life, for my life and for others' lives. People would risk life and limb to be out here doing what I am doing, others are incapable of doing what I am doing but they wish they could, so that makes it my responsibility to serve for them. I am very privileged to be out here sharing joy, peace, love and eternal happiness with my family. It's so special and I love it.

Also, I hit the amusement park that inspired Disneyland.... there is my flex for the week lol.

Happy 20th birthday Tate!

Also, I can't believe I am 20... when did that happen? Time cruises.

Love from Tivoli,

Ældste Modersitzki

This is where our Danish ancestors are from (in Vejle).

More birthday fun!