12-28-15

This last week has been awesome! Christmas week is always the best. To be honest it hasn't been so busy on the missionary work side of things as far as teaching and finding is concerned. We spent an enormous amount of time with members and the work has been subsequently low, however, we have seen 'real progress' with our ward. About two months ago Elder Vance and I came up with a plan of how we could best help the ward in which we are serving. We saw a big hole in the youth with low attendance at mutual and church, so we made them our focus. We went especially out of our way to make the youth of this ward feel like missionaries are awesome (which we are ;)) and that the gospel is exciting. We have been teaching lessons at mutual activities and on Sundays during Young Mens/Womens and have been spending time at the members houses and building friendships with them. And I can tell you, IT IS WORKING! Attendance has almost doubled and the ward is so excited about it. The Christmas season was just the thing we needed to get it going. 

One thing I think I have realized is the importance of families as the fundamental unit of the church. If it were not for families, our church would not work. We simply could not do it with millions of single people. As Missionaries, we should be looking for and re-activating those that can build the kingdom, or in other words, those that can bring in families. God knew what he was doing when he gave us Mummy and Daddy and there is a reason we learn their names as our first words ;) 

I especially loved celebrating the birth of a savior this last week. I have learned so much about and come closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all around us all the time. 

Quick shout out to the Kearsley, Trap, and Rosenkilde families for the great Christmas they gave us Missionaries. I have made lifelong friends with you and your children. Tak for en hyggeligt juletid!

I wish you all a happy new year!! Have a great week and I'll talk to you in 2016!

MKH,

Ældste Bradshaw

12-21-15

Dear everyone,

HEEEY!!!!! It's Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha I'm so excited for this week!!! First of all, thank you to everyone for your kind emails and letters! I loved them :) Sounds like there are so many great things happening at home, but lucky for me I get to be in the DENMARK COPENHAGEN MISSION!!!!! I can't think of a better way to spend this special time of year! Okay I also should probably start with another little confession... at zone conference two days ago they gave us all of our Christmas packages, and everyone just opened theirs there on the spot, so I couldn't hold back and I opened all of mine!! So sorry!! But SOOO grateful for the love and support! Thank you so much to each and every one of you that sent things. You don't know how much it means. I seriously love my family so much. 

This week has been fantastic! We've been caroling a lot lately because... well because we can! It's Christmas! So we've been visiting all of the less active members in the ward and singing songs for them and reading from the Bible story of Christ's birth. They've been loving it. Great way to spread the Christmas cheer. We also had a big Christmas concert this week. There has been a group of traveling missionaries that have been performing for all of the different wards in Denmark. Well, they finally made it to Århus this week and I was the one in charge of finding things for them to do while they were here. We had about a 4 hour block before the concert began, so we decided to spread the word. We set up a hot cocoa stand in front of the church and then went marching down the streets. I led the group at the front with my guitar playing whatever Christmas songs I knew and then 16 missionaries followed behind me singing their hearts out and holding up signs to advertise free hot cocoa and the concert. It was soooo much fun! Everyone seemed to smile as we marched by singing all of the Danish carols that they know so well. 

Then at the concert TONS of people showed up! It was a full house! Investigators, members, less actives, complete strangers! Then in the middle of the concert Elder Vance and I got a call from a member that was on her way to the concert with her family but her tire had exploded!! So we biked over to her as fast as we could and switched her tire out with the spare, then barely made it back right as the concert ended. It was a crazy night. 

Our zone conference was also great. Just imagine 50+ missionaries gathered together all day to celebrate the life of Christ. It was awesome! Then at the very end they surprised us by putting on the new Disney movie ''Inside Out''!! Such a good day.

I hope you all have a great Christmas week and remember the Savior during this special time of year. He was born. And that is of great importance. He, a god, was born into the flesh. He condescended to the most lowly of circumstances so that he could experience mortality. So that he could understand US perfectly. He has been through it all. There is ALWAYS someone who understands what you are going through. How awesome is that?!?

I love you all!!! Happy Christmas!🎄🎄🎄🎄

Ældste Bradshaw 

Video of Jed receiving presents at Zone Conference https://www.facebook.com/janna.obryant/videos/10205269028475770/

12-14-15

This week’s epistle comes from Denmark’s slowest computer!!! The wifi has been down in the church for a while now, so I'm using this awfully slow machine in a random library. Sorry if I don't reply to your personal emails. 

But last week I promised miracle stories and this week you're gonna get 'em!!

First I would like to tell you all about the ARMENIAN (yeah listen up Yerets Ethan Bradshaw) that we met last Monday. We had been emailing in this huge library in downtown Århus that day and as we were walking through the revolving doors something awesome happened! I went into the doors from my side and as I walked through there was a man that I could see through the glass that had come in on the other side. He was waving at me excitedly... As I exited the revolving doors into the sharp Århus winter air, I waited. He soon came out after us and hobbled quickly over to us. He was a short little man with a tweed suit and heavy winter jacket and hat. The first thing he asked was ''Mormons?''. We nodded and smiled :) He then told us in his broken English that he had hitchhiked his way from Armenia to Denmark over the past couple of weeks and was living here on the streets. He had met with missionaries before in Armenia and therefore knew quite a bit about us. 

His name is *N*. He didn't have any phone or address or any other way for us to contact him, so we gave him the time and place for our Sunday services and told him we would meet him at the bus stop just outside of the church. He held the little piece of paper with the church's address tightly to his chest and gave us a huge smile and a handshake. 

Sunday morning: we waited for him at the bus stop for 40 minutes in the harsh cold. He didn't show. So we went into sacrament meeting and as we were finishing the Sacrament Hymn, he walked in the back door!! Oh what a glorious little man he was. He loved church and was just so humble and kind to everyone. We are going to start teaching him again outside wherever we can find a warm spot, then his plan is to continue traveling around Denmark, so maybe we'll get him taught by other Elders as he goes. He wants to get baptized, but I think finding a home is the first step for him. 

We also picked up a new investigator named *K*. She was a long miracle story as well...but long story short, she lived in Arizona for a year with a Mormon family and is now back in Denmark. She's 20 years old and plays Handball (the Danish national sport) and will be teaching us how to play on Saturday!! She's great.

Some sad news: Elder Ericksen (one of the Elders I live with) had to go home this last week due to an emergency surgery, so it's been crazy in Århus for the last couple of days trying to get someone new here. But we now have Elder Bishopp with Elder McBride and we're just having a blast! 

We taught a man named *J* yesterday. We showed him the new Christmas video that the church has come out with. When it was done, I turned to him and he had tears in his eyes. Elder Vance and I both bore testimony to him about the reality of a Savior. There was a very special spirit in that room. Those are my favorite moments on my mission. I call them Spirit bubbles. You feel like you're in this little bubble that nothing else can get inside, completely separate from the world. 'Tis fantastic. 

That's all for now folks!! I love you all and hope you have a great week full of Christmas cheer!!

Ældste Jed Bradshaw

Castle in Skive

This place is called 'Den Gammle By' meaning the old city. 

Elder Vance and I working on transfer number 3 together!

12-7-15

Hello Everyone!!

So sorry, you'll just have to live off of pictures this week. Other things seem to have sucked up my writing time this week! I'm doing great though! We're ushering in Christmas and it's bringing miracles! I'll write about them all next week I promise!

I love you all!!

Elder Bradshaw

11-30-15

Well first I would like to address those of you that sent me an email this last week asking me what on earth is going on and why I was flying home.... I am NOT leaving Denmark. Ethan is the one flying out TO his mission (love ya bro). Apparently my Father thought it would be funny to mix up our email templates and send Ethan's email under my name. 

So to answer all questions: No. I will NOT be home for Christmas. Only in my dreams.

But speaking of Christmas, great things are happening in Århus around Christmas time! A new initiative just came out from the church with a new video that we can easily share with people to spread the Christmas spirit! It's a great tool. We have also seen LOTS of attention from the ward recently! They've all been quarreling over who gets to have us over for Christmas, so that means a ton of eating appointments :) Bring on the fleskersteg and brunkartoffler and rødkål!! 

Thanksgiving day was lots of fun. We had zone conference and waaaaay too much turkey. But President and Sister O'Bryant gave a great training about gratitude and it really struck me. I feel like I need to be more grateful towards God. Just imagine for a moment that when you wake up tomorrow morning, ALL that you would have would be the things which you had thanked God for the night before, and everything that you forgot to thank Him for would be gone. You probably wouldn't have very much left. I know it's a little drastic, but it illustrates how much God has given us. EVERYTHING we have comes from Him who wants to give in even more abundance. He truly does love us. 

I was in a city called Frederikshavn on Tuesday and we saw miracle after miracle after miracle. My favorite one for the day was the fact that we had received this referral from church headquarters the day before for a young man named *S*. We had his address, so we biked out 21 kilometers in the rain to get to his house. When we knocked on the door of this Danish cottage in the middle of thick woods, a woman answered. We asked if Søren lives here. She said ''ja, det plejer han at gøre...'' which means ''yes, he usually does...'' Apparently, *S* was currently living at a place called 'Brigham Young University' to study and had met Mormons. After he got to know what it was all about, he quickly hopped online and requested that missionaries be sent to his home address in Denmark!! His Mum was a little confused to see us at first, but quickly opened up!! We will now be coming back to teach the mother and children next week!!! God is a God of miracles!

I hope you are all staying nice and warm! Have a great week! Love you all!

Ældste Jed Bradshaw

11-23-15

Hey,

Don't have much time this week, so I'm sorry to say that this will be a short email :(

Things are going great and I'm feeling wonderful! We had a MASSIVE snow storm yesterday so we were just shoveling snow for the most of church so that people wouldn't get stuck in the building.

Otherwise, Elder Vance and I have been traveling lots as always :) We were in Copenhagen just a few days ago when there was a bomb threat on the trains and at the nearby airport. This world is crazy!! I love my mission!!

We find out about transfers on Thursday, so that should be exciting! Looks like I'm due to move which is quite a bummer, but it's alright. A new chapter in the mission.

I'm happy and optimistic, loving the winter weather and looking forward to Christmas (all of the decorations have been up for a while now).

Have a fantastic week!! I love you all!!

Ældste Jed Bradshaw 

y

11-16-15

Hello!!

God Mandag alle sammen!! It is getting CHILLY in Århus, but that can't keep our spirits down!! We've had such an awesome week with splits on the other side of the country to 6 hour zone trainings and everything in between! 

Zone training this week was all about family history work and how we can use it as a finding tool in our mission. There is tons of potential here with the people of Denmark because they LOVE their families and they have such a good system set up that makes it so easy for them to find their ancestors! 

Oh guess what?!? A couple of weeks ago when I was on splits here in Århus we contacted this lady on a bridge. She turned out to be a school teacher that was looking for someone to come and give a presentation to her students as they were beginning to study world religions!! Well this last week we finally made it out to her class!! She called them the class of ''misfit children'' as they were all struggling students of some sort. They had tons of questions for us and we just chatted openly for about two entire hours! By the end we had handed out several copies of the Book of Mormon and they had given us lots of hot dogs in return. It was awesome. Then as the teacher escorted us out of the building she took us to the principal and introduced us to him. He was so impressed by what we do that he insisted that we come back and present to more of his classes! Awesome!

We've had some exciting progress with our investigators, especially one man named *S*. He's *F's* best friend and this last Friday he invited us over to cook us some traditional Ghanaian food. It was delicious and after we ate we had the chance to share the message of the Gospel with him. He is now on date to be baptized on the 19th of December! He's such a great guy. 

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love you all!!!

Elder Bradshaw  

11-9-15

Howdy Y'all,

Happy Monday!! I hope you are all healthy and happy! I certainly am! We just kick started our Monday with a great 5 mile run with our investigators Mr. T (the Colombian) and his wife *S* (the Dane)! Elder Vance and I have become avid runners actually. We were in Copenhagen this week for our Mission Leadership Council and we spent the night at President O'Bryant's house so we decided to invite him to go running with us in the morning. Of course he couldn't say no! You should have seen it... ha ha it was hilarious. President was the only one with a headlamp on (it was pitch black) and we went running through a thick forest so Elder Vance and I had to stay as close to President as possible in order to see where we were going!

Sunday was a great day this week. Mr. T showed up for the closing hymn of sacrament meeting but was able to attend guest class and priesthood meeting with us translating along the way. We've been encouraging the ward to invite their friends to church recently, and this Sunday, two of them brought people! One brought her boyfriend who really wants to come again and the other brought her best friend from Ghana!! It's so great when the members get involved in the work. It gets everyone more excited and it keeps the missionaries happy.

We've been trying to visit a member a day recently and we've really seen the trust between members and missionaries grow. They are inviting us over to their place more often to eat with their families, which is awesome! Especially this one family, the *T-Ns*, who have really taken a liking to us. And I don't know how, but the father *F* found a Hollow Bodies ad online some place and looked up everything about us. He then pranked me this last weekend by blasting one of our songs that he found on the internet right after we had blessed the food. He thought it was hilarious. I didn't. Good one *F*. Good one.

Oh a crazy thing happened this week!! As we were on our way to Copenhagen, standing in a packed train like canned sardines when *J* from Hillerød (my first area) ran up to me and tried to give me a big hug!! Ha ha I didn't know what to do! We had the Sister Training leaders with us and everything, so I kinda just stood there as she hugged my stone body. At first she reprimanded me for not talking to her after I left the area, so after I explained that I couldn't she told me some great news!! Apparently *M*, a man we found and spent months teaching in Hillerød, got baptized!! So that was a neat tender mercy for the day. 

This week has been a great testimony for me about the blessings that have to come to each and every one of us because of the restoration of Christ's Gospel to the earth. Just think how much it changes the way you and I live our lives every single day! It's beautiful. I know without a doubt that Joseph Smith was called in his imperfections to bring to pass a perfect and marvelous thing. 

But I hope you all have a great week!!! I love you ALL!!    

Ældste Bradshaw