The episode where the Aussies say goodbye

Saying goodbye to Ældste Ngatikaura

Heyo! This week had some wild events but I will attempt to keep this short.... I know I say that every week, but it's true, I swear.

So the week started off with interviews with President Olsen, and honestly, we have fun kinda joking around a little and talking. It is always enjoyable. Both he and his wife are great people and this time they just pretty much told us, "We will see y'all tomorrow." So that was good. 

Now for the interesting part. There are two Australian missionaries that need to go home, but Australia is having a tough time accepting people in their country because of COVID right now. One of them has been waiting to go home since January. He found out on Monday that a plane was leaving early Thursday morning and he was going to be on it. So we started planning on how we would pick him up from his area. Then suddenly, on Tuesday afternoon, we found out that the other Aussie (my old comp Elder Ngatikaura) would be leaving a couple of weeks early because they were uncertain about him getting into his home country at the end of this transfer. Soooo he had to pack in like a day and a half. We picked them up and got their Corona tests and travel plans ready, and headed to President's house for a farewell dinner and testimony meeting. Then we dipped to the airport the next morning at like 3 or 4 am..... Safe to say I was tired after. We could for sure see the hand of the Lord in it all though because we ran into no problems and everything turned out perfect. It was tough to say goodbye to Elder Ngatikaura. He is a good friend and it's tough because I won't see him soon. Australia is far away. A mission is a constant goodbye to friends it feels like. 

We also went on splits with the ZLs. Nothing too exciting happened there. It's always fun to see other missionaries though. 

The video finally dropped! Check it out!

Quick spiritual thought from Alma 30 verse 8 which I studied this week. It says, "Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve." This hit me hard, as it always does. I am just happy to be on the team that will win and have made my choice beforehand that I am going to serve God. I am happy to be here and be able to act on my choice to serve God. Faith without works is dead. ;) 

Love y'all lots! 

Love from Bredegade,

Ældste Modersitzki

Church tour featuring unexpected theories

Look at the ice at Nyhavn! Crazy and beautiful!

Heyyyyoooooo! It has gotten down to like 10 degrees out here and I was not feeling it, haha! It froze over the ice in the lakes and even in the ocean. It's wildly pretty. Y'all should see it sometime! Let's dive into the week.

We had a ton of meetings, some more interesting than others, but some big news is that Elder Madsen and I are trying out Instagram for finding, wild. I don't know how I feel about it honestly. I guess I just need to get used to it.

We gave a couple of trainings to the two zones here in Denmark. It was a good time. We decided to teach about what our mission motto, Be Kind Do Good, really means and how to apply it to the mission. I guess sometimes I don't ask the right questions to get enough participation and then I have to make up the time, but overall it was a good experience. Ældste Madsen even taught me some ping pong tricks between meeting sessions. Also President Olsen announced in-person zone conference and district meetings coming up. Fingers crossed it works out!

Even the ocean is iced over!

Our friends are doing great! We had a lesson about tithing with one and she is down! Gotta love it! We read in the Book of Mormon with another, and had a first get-to-know-you lesson with a man we found on Facebook. We referred him to the sisters who work where he lives right after. Hope everything goes well with him!

We made two other new friends this week in a wild church tour. We found them over Facebook from our mission Facebook page, and they were interested in what is happening in the church, so we gave them the usual run through and they seemed pretty interested. Two 21-year-old dudes just wanting to learn about the church. We sit down to talk about the Book of Mormon and all that jazz and they just derail the convo soooooo hard talking about how freemasons run the world and all this wild stuff. I thought that I should just hold my tongue about Joseph Smith, seeing as he was a freemason, but they noticed my George Washington socks I was rocking and it just erupted. It was definitely not what I expected to happen hahah but we will probably be teaching them again so I will let y'all know what goes down.

We had p-day in Copenhagen because of a meeting with President Olsen and we checked out Nyhavn. It was so sick with the harbor all iced over. I will drop a pic or two so everyone can appreciate it! So sick. We went to go play basketball at the stake center there and realized I forgot my workout shoes in the apartment..... So I bought a quick pair of supermarket shoes for a one time ball session.... Safe to say I don't think I will be wearing them again, they are nasty.

Anyway, that's all for today! 

 Love from Nyhavn,

Ældste Modersitzki

Business moves and airport trips

Hejjjjjj! I'm back at it again from the land of the Vikings. The week was eventful, as always, so let's hop innnnn.

We started off the week with zero sleep because we got up at 3:45 am on Tuesday to drop off the new missionaries. I was super tired for most of the week because of that early start. This week was full of meetings too, butttt we are chilling.

We had a tour of part of Temple Square in Salt Lake City together with our friend Mette. She loved it! She is such a fan of the church and honestly just needs to join. She even FASTED yesterday! She's doing all the hard things already! She is a legend! We are still teaching her a lot and it's a good time.  

We filmed part two of our church tour video. Tune in to https://www.facebook.com/103540114691822/videos/180237823539269 to see me speak some Danish hahaha. It was fun filming with the tech elders. They helped a ton.

THEN we finally got the new missionaries that we have been waiting for, for MONTHS! Ældste Madsen and I and President and Sister Olsen picked up NINE new missionaries! Ældste Madsen and I were standing out in 15-20 degree weather in just suits and ties waiting for the new missionaries to come out of the airport. It was FRIGID, hahaha, but a good time. I've gotta say that I ended up rather purple, but you win some and lose some. Plus Sister Madi Hafen from Lone Peak pulled up! It's always nice to see people from high school. Crazy how we meet again in Denmark!

We visited some old monastery ruins today. It was slippery, but pretty cool. It mostly just looked like a run down building, but apparently it was the capital of the northern churches at one point, or something like that. It was built around 1100-ish and torn down and rebuilt a couple times.

Fun Facts: Stats edition

Our mission received 9 new missionaries this week, giving us a 25% increase in missionaries in one day hahaha!

We received a new American elder. The first American elder since December of 2019. Big news!

Nine new missionaries is the largest group we have gotten at one time during President Olsen's time here as mission president.

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed!

PS - I hit my 18 month mark yesterday... wild days.

Love from Søborg,

Ældste Modersitzki

Ældste Ngatikaura's last day of his mission in Denmark.

All the new companionships---social distancing, of course. :)

From Slagelse to Palmyra

DAVSSSSSS! Hope everyone is doing rather well. We are big chilling in Denmark, but it is chilllllly. We are thriving, so it's allllll fineeeeee.

I started off this week by going on splits in Ballerup with Elder Stowe. I got to meet some of the members in his ward and visit some less actives he has been working with. It was a good time. We stayed the night there and I was able to talk to my good friend Elder Jensen! It is always fun to be with one of the boys from the MTC.

After our splits there we helped the Facebook elders by filming the first half of a church tour video for the Facebook page. So stay tuned to Jesu Kristi Kirke - Den Danske Mission to see us giving a church tour. We are finishing up filming this week.

We had a cool opportunity to participate in a Sacred Grove tour with our friend Mette who we are teaching. She is super interested in church history right now and loved it! We are going to do one of Salt Lake City next. She is super dope and down to get baptized..... stay tuned.....

We had a really awesome time on Monday with the departing missionaries, Elder Leland, my old comp, and Sister Duckworth who I came into the MTC with. In my mission we get one final tourist day with the APs before we leave and they decided they wanted to check out these really cool castles in my old area, Hillerød. So I got to play tour guide around 3 cool castles with my homies. We got up at 3.45 am to send them to the airport this morning. I cannot believe that my good friends on the mission are starting to leave. It is throwing me off hahah.

Fun facts for the week:

Denmark is the world champion of handball, again. They beat Sweden to win the chip.

The Danish flag 'Dannebrog' is the oldest flag in the world. It is 801 years old.

The furthest you can be away from the ocean in Denmark is 52 kilometers (32.3 miles).

That's all folks! Have a wonderful week from your pastry-eating boy in Denmark.

Love from Københavns Lufthavn,

Ældste Modersitzki

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.