Elder Bradshaw arrives in Denmark!
Pictures courtesy of the Denmark Copenhagen mission.
Shows dinner at the mission home, and Jed meeting his trainer, Elder Hooper!

Turns out Jed's first town - Hillerod - is home to one of the most famous castles in Europe - Frederiksborg.


Picture below.  What a place!  Lucky guy.

8/27/14

We just called Jed's mission office.  They were delayed getting into Denmark yesterday and finally arrived safely 5pm yesterday evening local time.  Had a good nights sleep after 24 hrs flying, out on splits in Copenhagen right now.

His greenie area - Hillerodd.  Looks like the church building he will attend is in Lillerodd.  Both are just outside Copenhagen. 

 

8/20/14

Hello everyone!!!

It's a great day today!! My last P-day in the MTC has finally come!! Can you believe I leave in 5 days??!?! Ah I cannot wait to finally get out there and serve some real people. We said goodbye to one of our teachers yesterday, and it was really spiritual/sad. The Sister teacher was crying and she said she was so proud of us and couldn't believe how far we had come with the language. We thought back to the first day in class when she spoke nothing but Danish to us all day and we couldn't understand a single word, and now we can have in depth discussions about any gospel principle. It's so amazing. All this week is just getting ready for leaving on Monday. Guess what?? We fly through Heathrow!! I'm going home! Haha it's gonna be so much fun. I already have an English and Danish Book of Mormon to hand out at both airports.

If you hear about a missing plane on the news, it isn't a repeat of the Malaysia incident. You can just assume that my companion and I converted the entire plane and the Lord decided to translate it straight to Heaven :)

Not even kidding.

Ummm I heard this really cool quote this week from a General Authority. He said "If you do not choose the kingdom of God, it does not matter what you have chosen instead". I think that is so cool! This gospel is the only thing that will bring us eternal happiness. Nothing else will. Everything else is temporal and will never be enough. For example, before coming here I used to live with at least one headphone in my ear playing music and i thought I could never live without music, but now I've been in complete silence in the MTC and I've never heard more. The spirit speaks to me so much more. I love it. We have the potential to be the closest to the vail that we ever will be in our lives on our missions. I hope I can become as in-tune with the spirit as possible.

Sorry I don't have any pictures yet. I'm currently sitting in the laundry room waiting for my drying to finish so I decided to send a quick email and you can't send pictures from these computers. I'll try and send some later today around 12.

I love you all!! Thanks for your prayers and letters!

Next email will be from Denmark!

-Elder Bradshaw

8/13/14

Hey everyone!! Happy P-day! Oh wait, you don't know the joy of P-day. Well some of you do. Just think Christmas x10.

Anyways, it's been another fantastic week here in the MTC. I did my first sealing session in the temple last Wednesday, and that was super cool. I can't wait to go in that room for myself someday and kneel across the altar with my wife. The couple that was there with us were super young, so it was weird pretending to be their "son". Haha and then the lady acting on behalf of the daughters was like 75 years old, which was even weirder!

Thanks so much for the music setup Mum and Dad! I love hearing the songs that I would hear on a regular Sunday morning in the Bradshaw home. It's really improved my study time. And thanks for the photo album! It's so good to have pictures of everyone. I went through and did a "slide show" for my whole district, pointing out everyone by name and telling stories about you all! Even the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins! They think we have the coolest, best looking family in the world. They're right.

We watched the Testaments this Sunday, which is such a cheesy movie (all the missionaries were laughing at the stupidest things. Really tells you how little entertainment we get), but I love the end part when Christ finally comes and puts his hand on Jacobs fathers shoulder. Ahhh that was a cool feeling. It really strengthened my testimony of Christ and how personally He knows every single one of us. I love Him so much. 

I can't believe I'm off to Denmark in just 10 days... it's crazy. We get our flight plans this Friday. I'm hoping we go through Heathrow. That would be nice.

Anyway, it's been an incredible week! Learning lots of Danish and having tons of spiritual experiences! I can't wait to finally get in the field! Keep writing everyone! I seriously live for mail, and when it doesn't come, I cry myself to sleep. Ha just kidding. But really I love hearing from you so keep writing! 

I love you all so much!! Have a great week! Cya in 7 days!

-Ældste Bradshaw

8/6/14

Hello outside world!!!

 How is everyone? I'm doing FANTASTIC! The elders and I just finished having a sand castle war on the volleyball courts for gym time. They haven't been letting us play futbol lately because of the wet grass. Darn rain. Actually no I love the rain!! Did you all get hit by that big storm on monday? ALL of the missionaries ran outside and played in it for a good hour. I got some great pictures. Hopefully I can send them soon. None of the computers here have SD card slots. Oh and speaking of weather, Chad: you said in your email "it's been really hot over here in Utah, so the rain was good", haha, all the Elders got a good laugh from that. I'm still in Utah!!!

To all of those of you that send emails, dear elders and packages, thankyou so so much. It really helps. And I'm sorry I can't reply to all of you. I'm just so busy working for the Lord! Oh and Mum, concerning you recent packages, I love you, but you can stop sending treats for now!! haha you should see the stash that we have in our dorm. TOO MUCH FOOD. We're playing biggest loser in our district right now, meaning that whoever loses the most weight in a week wins. And you get everyone's pillows for a night if you win. So pray for that ;)

Ummmm this week in the MTC I would say the biggest thing that's been happening for me is the huge strides I've been taking with the language. The first two weeks I thought I would never learn it, but it's moving soooo fast now! I can have fluent conversations in my discussions now. #giftoftounges

I've committed a million fake investigators to baptism so far. It's just a bunch of ex Denmark missionaries from BYU. I think they let us off so easy with them because they know we won't get any baptisms in Denmark, so they feel bad for us. Haha... I hope it's not as hard as they say over there. Apparently it's considered the hardest mission in the world. So many athiests and well read Biblical Historians. But hey that's okay. I'll baptize them anyway.\

I love you all!!!! Have a great week and keep writing!! I'd love to get some hand written letters. Especially from my ward friends. Mum, could you talk to some of them at church? I think they just dont have my adress. Okay bye!!!

Ældste Bradshaw

7/30/14

Hello Family!!!!!

It's finally P-day!!!! yay!!!!

Okay this week has been great! Time is really just all blurring together now. I can't believe how long I have already been here. There are so many spiritual experiences happening every single day, so I can't really write them all. Just know that my testimony is stronger than ever.

Ummmm well this week I saw a few celebrities! First off, I met the lady and man from that famous Mormon Message about them getting in the plane crash and getting burns all over their bodies, and now she does a Mummy blog and stuff. You know who I mean? Well she and her husband sat right by us in the chapel before the endowment session and then came in with us!! Then last night, we had the man from The Other Side of Heaven and his wife come and speak to us!! Such a great guy!! I shook his hand.

Thankyou so much to everyone that has sent me things. They all mean soooooooo much to me. Mum and Dad, the care packages were perfect :) And I read "rosies" letter out loud for the district to hear and they all loved it!! Haha I just sent you a letter that says some more things, so hopefully you get that soon. But I gotta go, I only have 10 more minutes and Brynn is online so we can chat!!! (its allowed so dont worry) ;)

I love you all!!!

Ældste Bradshaw

7/23/14

Hey everyone!!

I'll just send my weekly email to my dad and hopefully he will send it to everyone else. I wish I could write each of you individually, but I have so little time and so many people to reply to! Ah there is so much to say. Why dont I start with my companions. I'm in a trio companionship, which is really rare. Elder Dickson and Elder Porter. And yeah its the same Nathan Porter that Amy was telling us all about!! Small world huh? They're both just amazing. Our district consists of 7 Elders and 5 sisters and they are all so incredible. We're already closer than family. Its almost weird. Haha. The danish district is Legendary. 

We play soccer every morning for gym and we have yet to lose a game! They say that rumors float around the MTC of the Danes that cant be beat. We beat the Bulgarians on the first day and you wouldnt believe the goal that Elder Amos and I scored. Amos (the kid from Liverpool) crossed it in and I behind the heel flicked it to nutmeg the keeper!! Haha I love gym time. We beat the Germans today. Just got back from that 10 minutes ago. I dunno how people put on weight in the MTC. Our district is gonna be ripped by the end of it with all the walking, gym time, and workouts in residence. Haha

Okay Danish is sooooo hard, BUT, I can testify that the gift of tongues is real. I look back on the first day here and its almost unbelieveable how far we have come. I can already struggle through almost any discussion in Danish. Pray for me to get better though!! We study for about 7 hours a day. I already committed our "investigator" to attend church and he's almost ready for baptism!

Haha its great. You get really tired here sometimes because you're ALWAYS busy and working hard. I get lots of headaches from focusing so much. Also, I regret taking spanish because its really messing up my Danish. 

Okay as far as mail and packages are concerned, send MORE!!!! I cant tell you how good it feels to get mail. It helps a missionary soooo much just to know that there are people back home rooting for them, and when you dont get any, its easy to get discouraged. I have a picture that I was going to show you of how much stuff the other elders get from home, but I cant get the SD slot to work. Just imagine and entire dorm room floor covered in snacks and gifts. The dear elder things are super easy so send more!! Oh and Mum and Dad, send more garments. I dont have enough when you include gym time. 

Okay I testify this church is true. I see the spirit working on these missionaries and myself every day. I know Jesus Christ is our savior. I know God loves all of us and wants us to show his love to those that cant feel it. I love you all!!! 

Sorry I cant write more :/

Next time. 

Love 

Ældste Bradshaw

(that's how you say Elder in Danish)