The Tonight Show of Denmark starring Elder Modersitzki and Madsen

Howdyyyy! This week was full of ups and downs. We will start with the ups so I can keep the excitement up haha!

First things first. Ældste Madsen and I made a video a couple weeks ago for our mission Facebook page and it got a lot of views. Eventually the Danish version of the Jimmy Fallon Show got a hold of it, played a couple of clips from it, and reacted to it along with a well-known Danish music artist.... So I guess that means that I can cross "be on national television" off my bucket list. It was mostly to make a little fun of us, but the Facebook promo they tossed up got over 80k views and 450 reactions so we are just playing our cards on that post a little bit. Plus, nearly everyone in Denmark watches that TV program, so I bet we reached out to a couple hundred thousand people. Not too shabby aye? We were out contacting a couple of days later and a dude recognized us on the streets... Is this what being famous is like???? Probs not considering they didn't spell the last name right in the subtitles... :/ (Here is the link if you're interested. https://www.facebook.com/natholdet/videos/979513349661788)

We also went on splits with my old comps Ældste Laurence and Ældste Langmann in Ballerup. We had a good time. It's always fun to see the old guys and get the work in with them. Plus I got to teach a lesson with Ældste Langmann as well as the sisters over there. Teaching is fun. I feel like I can just relax and have convos with people. Being experienced in Danish is nice because I am not stressed about language stuff anymore. I love it!

Another highlight of the week was getting invited to a less active's 5 year old's birthday party hahaha. There were only a few of us there because of covid restrictions, but the 5 year old is soooo cute and we were so happy to be there. She always gets so excited every time she sees us. Unfortuntately, she ended up getting a carpet burn, which gave a less than ideal ending to a rather lit birthday party. Side note: I ate wayyyyy too much sugar that day, lol.

I am super stoked for General Conference coming up this week! It will be the last one on the mission, but surely one that I can learn lots from! In a couple of days we will finish up our challenge to read the whole Book of Mormon in 90 days, and that has been great prep for me! I love that book! I am pumped to hear from living prophets! That's definitely something I have taken for granted my whole life. We have a living prophet that leads and guides our church! HOW SICK IS THAT???

Anyway, that was this week hahah.

Love from Køge, Ældste Modersitzki

Whip a Tesla

Howdy! This week was meeting-filled and chill, as usual. hahah. Welcome to the life!

This week was the start of the new transfer so we gave a farewell to Ældste Millett. We had a good time with him in Copenhagen, and after eating a FIRE dinner with President and Sister Olsen and Ældste Millett, we got to ride in President Olsen's Tesla! He was goofing around and trying out the rocket boost kinda vibe of the Tesla. The interior is white and President calls it 'temple white' hahah. Gotta love it. One of the highlights of the mission!

We had an eating appointment with a less-active member and it was someone who hasn't seen missionaries in a minute because she lives so far away. Her faithfulness is a massive example to me. I have never seen someone so excited to have missionaries over, even though she struggles to hear and understand. She is such a great lady.

We picked up 4 new sisters at the airport this last week. It was cool to see them all and we had a fun meeting with them. We had to deliver some old bikes to some sisters, so we took the opportunity to hit the bikes on the streets for the first time in like a year. We were stoked. We hit the bikes in helmets, suits and ties, looking like we were fresh out of the Best Two Years. After the chain fell off 5 times we put away our pride and drove them there in the car. Ældste Madsen and I got grease all over our hands and felt great about it hahah.

We had a few lessons over the phone with another less active. Man, the spirit can be found anywhere, even over the phone. She is also a amazing and I am super proud of her story. Plus, she is coming back to church more frequently! Progress!

Anyway, that's about it! Have a good one!

Kærlighed fra Strøget, Ældste Modersitzki

"I will not leave this country until I catch a duck" -Ældste Neiderman

Howdy folks! This week was more on the tame side of things, so no stress on this email hahaha. We did a lot of office work with planning transfers and travel plans and all that good stuff.

The biggest thing that happened this week was in-person district council meeting and going on splits with Ældste Neiderman and Ældste Hintze. This was the first in-person meeting we have had since November.... so that was baller. It was so much fun to see the district in person again. Plus, my district is undoubtedly the best district in the mission, so we all enjoyed that. We snagged some dinner beforehand, and a certain kebab place had a sale on pita kebabs for 15 danish kroner (aka $2.50), so we snagged two of those and a chocolate milk each.... safe to say we did not feel too good after hahaha. We also did a big old workout the next morning. The pitas were just not good fuel. Later we went out contacting in a place called Sorø, by a lake, and found some ducks chilling on the side... Ældste Neiderman decided he needed to catch one... After a good few attempts we gave up, but that man is fully convinced that he will catch a duck at one point or another. I fully support him, honestly.

We had a couple of other things going on this week including service at a restaurant owned by an Italian couple. After we finished cleaning drains and picking weeds, the lady asked us to come back on Saturday night for some fresh, authentic Italian pizza courtesy of her Italian husband (who we cannot understand). They were BALLER pizzas too.... AND she came to church on Sunday... We had 4 less actives pull up.... Gotta love it!

We also had an eating appointment with a newly baptized member and her daughter. She is 4 years old and probably the sweetest kid on the entire planet. We ate with them, shared a thought and had a little dance party with her hahah. It was so funny.

That's about it! Thanks to whoever still reads these, haha.

Love from Kirke Stillinge Strand,

Ældste Modersitzki

Coast 2 Coast (part 3?)

Heyyyooo! This week was full of splits and an airport visit. Things are getting a little wild. I'll dive in.

We had our Jylland Tour this week where we got to go on splits with all of the companionships in the other zone.... there used to be a ton of companionships back in the day.... now there are 4. So we hopped over the massive bridge and got on our way.

Our first stop was in Odense with Ældste Christensen and Ældste Langmann. It was an old ex-comp reunion with both of them and it was really good to talk to them. We helped them with some thoughts of the mission and they gave us some ideas too. It's always nice to get help.

We dipped up to Herning next! Ældste Cousins had made a Texas sheetcake for us when we got there and it was super good. Who can dislike sheetcake?? I got to help teach a basher over the phone with another ex-companion of mine, Ældste Millett. We had a good time.

We headed to Frederikshavn next! I love Frederikshavn. Plus, my boys Ældste Jensen and Ældste Jaursch from the MTC are there! We had a little fire on the beach because they had some records that needed to be burned. Don't worry, all was safe. We had a good time and just reminisced with them.

Then we headed to Aarhus with Ældste Fisher, Møller, and Paulsen. I was with the Danes for most of the time and I freaking love Aarhus. We got a nice burger too. Hahaha! I haven't changed too much, don't worry, lol.

After that, we drove all the way to Copenhagen to pick up a new elder from the airport. It was cool to pick up another new guy. That makes 2 American elders that have come to Denmark since 2019. President Olsen said that before I go home we will be down to 12 elders in Denmark. Crazy.

We gave a blessing to a less active member. The priesthood is super sick. I'm still learning more and more about it. We also had in-person church for the first time since before Christmas. It was so nice to see and talk to the members again! We had two meetings and the timing accidentally got messed up, so only one person got to bear their testimony. It was pretty funny.

That's about it! Good week! The church is true!

Love from literally every corner of Denmark,

Ældste Modersitzki

En blå bog??

The famous Little Mermaid statue

Heyyyyoooo,

Your favorite Danish representative of Christ is back again on the email train. Honestly, it feels like I hit send and then suddenly it is Monday again. Mission time is wild.

This week was not as exciting as some others but very funny. I would try to explain all of the jokes made in an eating appointment with four American missionaries and four Danes, but I don't think the English translations will make anyone laugh. I was laughing so hard I was crying during the whole eating appointment.... So was everyone else.

We had another eating appointment with our good friend and mission leader. Eventually I asked the question what his favorite book was and he said blue.....at first, I wondered if he meant a blue book---en blå bog. That was my utterly confused response. Maybe the Book of Mormon? He then just said he always puts blue in his paintings.... I had to laugh. I must have really messed up my Danish question. Just for the record, the word for book and color are not even similar in the slightest.... I'm still not sure where this conversation was going. Either way, it was tough to keep the laughter down.

We went on splits with the office elders and the Roskilde elders. Overall it was a good experience knocking doors and contacting with them. We met a lot of interesting people with the new missionary serving in Roskilde. It was probably was a good thing he couldn't understand everything they said to us, if you know what I mean. Small blessings, amiright??

We had a good lesson with Mette. She dove into some deep doctrinal topics with us.... oh boy. But luckily we could answer pretty much everything. We found a fire scripture to help solidify that Jesus created the earth under the direction of the Father. Hebrews 1:1-3 for all my missionary friends out there. Let's be real here, y'all probably teach more than me so you probably already knew that one. But it was a great testimony solidifier for me! :)

We got to tune into Iceland Zone Conference and give a training there. I really hope to go there in person some time. Fingers crossed!

We had lunch on President Olsen today with the office elders. He's fueling my love for burgers.

I also got a haircut from one of my favorite members here in Slagelse today. I will never forget getting lined up and a nice trim from my 80ish-year-old good friend Anny. Whatta legend.

Facts of the week:

• There are statues and monuments all around Denmark that are dedicated to or based off of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. Kinda sick. He wrote a ton like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, Princess and the Pea, etc. etc. etc. 
• There are no mountains here at all. The highest point is 550 feet above sea level. 
• Denmark on average gets 171 days of rain or snow a year.

Anyways, this is long. Have a good week!

Love from den lille havfrue, (the little mermaid)

Ældste Modersitzki

Haircut day!

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