Under 6 months! BoM challenge! Get out of my house!

Dav du! This last week was kinda trippy. I don't remember every single thing that happened so if this email is scattered, bear with me.

We had splits with the Roskilde elders and it was fun but kinda different because they can only Facebook find. Their most positive friend with a baptismal date said that he doesn't want to meet with them if they go out and meet with other people. #safetyfirst. So that was kind of an L, but I added soooo many people that day on Facebook. I broke the 1,500 friends mark with a decent number of them coming from new friends in Denmark that I have never met before.

We were supposed to pick up some new sisters the day after, but they couldn't get here because the church offices got a little confused and cancelled their tickets.... so that was a little disappointing too. But, we went on splits instead with Nykøbing which was one of the last 2 areas of the mission I hadn't been to. It was way sick and I got to go on splits with my old companion Elder Leland! He leaves for home here on the 2nd of February, so it was sick to see him again before I take him to the airport next week. The city itself is way cool, but there's a super strong sugar beet smell in the air because there is a massive Nordic sugar factory right by the apartment. It is a little tough to breathe sometimes, hahaha.

This week we were trying to figure out ways to motivate our mission because we need a little extra push. President Olsen got the idea that we should have a voluntary Book of Mormon challenge to give out a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon with a reward of free pizza. We had 12 companionships say they were down. Our goal was one each per companionship and then 6 more... so 18. We ended up giving out 43! I hadn't seen that happen before in one day. We gave out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon here in Slagelse, and now we have some return appointments with a dude that was strung out on heroin and a way nice old lady. Hopefully it all works out. We were knocking and this immobile dude was yelling at us to open the door because he couldn't get it for us.... we opened the door and gave our little approach and he just immediately told us to get out and close the door. I never thought I would open the door for someone, hahaha.

We had a couple of lessons with our friends that we are teaching, and honestly, things are going great here. One of them is starting to pray daily and the other is wayyyy ready to be baptized, but just needs some time I guess. I hope that time ends quickly, hahah, but she wants to get baptized and knows that she should too. So continue to pray for her!

Fun facts about Denmark:

Kebab pizza - Durum kebab on a pizza. It is so fire. Y'all gotta try it. That's a fact.

Gas prices here are absurdly high to help get rid of fossil fuel. It is about 6 dollars a gallon. Wild.

The country of Denmark consists of 406 islands. About 70 of them are inhabited. Bet you didn't expect that. Plus the Faroe Islands and Greenland are a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. 

That's all folks! Thanks for reading! 

Love from Nykøbing Falster,

Ældste Modersitzki

Big pastry vibes

Davs! Big shout out to everyone that still reads this! Hahah! Love y'all!

This week was wild! I feel like I say that every single week now, BUT IT'S TRUE! Things go crazy and our days get busy and I love every second of it! Let's start off the email right and talk about food, hahahah the GOAT! We snagged some sushi this week to celebrate the New Year! We meant to do that literally 2.5 weeks ago, but our schedule has been so crazy since then that we never got around to it. It was FIRE. My chopstick skills are rather rusty, but that's chill. It gave me something to practice. This was the first time I've had sushi since last February, so I was HYPED!

We were on some back-to-back splits with the office elders and Facebook tech elders and we grabbed some kebab. You gotta experience the whole Danish life, right?? That's the big focus for the next 6 months, because that's all I have left..... six months. I can't believe it at all. I am really trying my best to soak in these last months and work myself as hard as I can. That's what's good right now. No time to waste and too many pastries to eat. I've had 4 pastries in the last 7 days hahahah. Such a W. They tasted so nice. I've had 2 of the best pastries I have ever had my whole time here. It is the little things that make life way happy.

We led two zone conferences this week. They went pretty well. We got blindsided and had an extra 10 minutes that we needed to fill both times, so we improvised way hard and it all worked out. It was all about embracing Danish and our mission culture to become happier as a missionary. We really showcased how cool it is and how rare it is for us to be here. I think it went over well! I love my mission and have really embraced everything in this country. It has helped me a lot. I LOVE IT HERE!

We also did some boring AP stuff, but we got a free tour from President Olsen of his new house. That was hype. There is still snow here over everywhere that isn't a big city so it is BEAUTIFUL here right now. We have a little ledge right outside our window that was covered in like 4 inches of snow so we made a little snowman! Check the pics down below!

Some fun facts:

- Danishes don't actually exist. There isn't a pastry called a danish in Denmark. It is called a spandauer here.

- Danes speak Danish, not Dutch. The movie The Best Two Years was not filmed here and is not based off of anything Danish-related.

- Colorful houses are in fact very Danish. They look even better in the snow.

That's about all I can think of right now. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love from København,

Ældste Modersitzki

Jylland tour featuring EFY bops and snow

Ældste Ngatikaura, Ældste Mod, Ældste Madsen
& Ældste Laurence in the SNOW!

Howdyyyy y'all! This week was a MASSIVE road trip for both myself and Elder Madsen! We ended up traveling roughly 1,000 kilometers aka from Utah to LA... so that was wild. I think I might have all the EFY songs that Elder Madsen has on his phone memorized. We were blaring them the whole time, we stay lit. 

We were on a big Jylland splits tour where we held splits with every single missionary in Jylland, aka the part of Denmark that's connected to Europe. It was lots of fun, I got to work with a lot of fun elders that I knew before and were companions with. We had a good time with all of the missionaries making donuts, having snowball fights and helping them with whatever they needed. I loved seeing a bunch of my old areas too, and it was a massive plus to grab some Burger Shack. Love that place!

It finally snowed and this Scandinavian country somehow turned into a winter wonderland! I have been waiting for this for the last 17 months! It didn't snow and stick at all last year, so I was stoked that it stuck this year. I was also in the most northern area in Denmark, my old home of Frederikshavn, and we got about 2 or 3 inches! That is a ton for Denmark hahah! It was great and honestly made me so happy. I also got to visit some friends, a lady I taught, and my friend Grazyna, who I helped teach and baptize. It was wonderful to finally see them again. I will say though, I was tired and ready for my own bed by the time we got back to Slagelse.

Church here is still online. We held it with some members and got to eat lunch with them and partake of the sacrament. It was a wonderful cleansing experience and I enjoyed it so much. I even got to try some pig neck. That was a first...but I am not one to shy away from a challenge, hahah!

We had a couple of lessons mixed in this week where we read the Book of Mormon with 2 of our friends. They are doing well and we were able to answer some of their questions and concerns, which I always love to do.

Gotta admit, I fell behind in the Journal and 90-day Book of Mormon Challenge this last week. I'm excited to get back on track though. I have seen this help my understanding and testimony much more than I could have imagined. Love that book!

Love from literally the entire eastern and middle part of Danmark,

Ældste Modersitzki

The happiest missionary because of the snow.

Tate with his good friend, Grazyna.

Soul, New Years and false doctrine

Howdy everyone! I don't have much time because I like talking to my fam more than writing emails, so I will keep this short!

This week flewwwwww, but we love that as missionaries. We had a big conference for the mission this week where we all met as districts and then zoomed into each other. We gave a training and it was honestly kinda weird because I didn't know if I should look at my district in front of me or the camera hahah but it went pretty well. I just got to flex how cool my dad was to my mission because he is a massive example of letting God prevail. So that was sick. We had some tech difficulties and that was rough, but it all worked out, we just needed to improvise a little bit. We also had our new mission president announced to us! I will only serve with him for like 3 weeks, which is so crazy to think about, but it was still cool.

After the conference, we had Danish Christmas food prepared by some members and it was fire, then we had one of the most exciting moments of the mission! We watched a Disney movie! We are only allowed to do that 2 times a year so that was hypeeeee. We watched the new Soul movie and it was honestly pretty good! The next real movie I see will be when I am home.... That's kinda weird to think about honestly.

We had a cool little interview lesson with this one guy, we had a member with us too (yay!).... let's just say I learned a lot of new things during the lesson. :)  Not the most standard lesson we've ever taught; can't say with surety that our guy will be coming back to meet with us again.... But it was mostly a school project so I am not too surprised there. We chatted about how Muhammad is a prophet of God, but in a slightly different way than Islam believes in him.... it was news to me.....

New Year's was cool. We had an eating appointment with a less active and her brother that we are teaching! It was a laid back good time. We switch between Danish and English and then occasionally Greenlandic.... I don't understand that part. But it is wild to follow these convos and have my brain go from English to Danish every other sentence hahah. That night, we had food dropped off to us by our wonderful mission leader and we chilled. Happy New Year from Denmark! (They start fireworks the day before so we could get some pics earlier in the day, it's nearly 24 hours straight.)

Overall, it was a good week! Next week, we drive all around Jylland and that should be fun going on splits with everyone over there. I'm looking forward to seeing some of my past areas! We started the 90-day Book of Mormon challenge and something I am starting to realize is that Nephi is a real bro. He had his doubts and struggles and he is actually relatable. I have also come to realize that when I am teaching people out of the Book of Mormon after reading with them, I am way more Spirit-led than when I am reading by myself. It actually teaches me more when I am the one teaching! Gotta love it!

Love from Korsør,

Ældste Modersitzki