2-23-15

Well, this week has been all over the place!!!

We started it off with a lesson with our good pal *K*. We had decided beforehand on a baptismal date so we were really just presenting it to him and seeing what he thought about it. He accepted excitedly!! April the the 18th was his date. All was well in Zion. But then... not two days later her gave us a ring. He sounded rather glum and went on to tell us that he didn't think our church was for him because it didn't fit his lifestyle. He cancelled his baptismal date... We were so upset. But we've managed to get back in touch with him and he has agreed to keep taking the lessons, so hopefully after we explain that if we keep the Word of Wisdom and hold the law of chastity that we receive enormous blessings he'll be a little more open to recommitting to baptism. 

Wednesday was a fantastic day! We found 3 new families to start teaching. One of them is a family of a VERY young couple and their 3 children (4 if you count the one exploding out of the mother's stomach). It's quite amazing to see such a big young family in Denmark. Most households don't have more than 2 children by the time the kids leave the house, but both the man and wife are only 25 in this family and they already have 4 kids!! Very un-Danish of them. But I love teaching families. It's my absolute favorite. They remind me of my own family back home and teach me a lot about what kind of a family I want to have one day. I've also learned lots about what kind of husband/father I want to be. There are MANY bad examples  out here! 

Oh on Friday we found the coooolest little town you've ever seen. It's basically just a fisherman’s wharf with a couple of classic old school Danish houses and a fish restaurant that is the buzz of the town. We found the place because we received a referall from the mission office out there, but what do you know, the guy wasn't home. It turned out to be a great thing though because we made some good friends down at the restaurant and tried their famous fish platter. I wish you all could see it with your own eyes. So authentic.

I've been missing Hillerød particularly this week when I realized that I desperately needed a haircut and Jessica wasn't around to help me out. But we decided that with or without a professional hairstylist we WOULD get haircuts. Sooooo we buzzed all our hair off. My hair is currently shorter than it has EVER been before. Even shorter than when I first left my mother's womb. It actually isn't too bad :) I don't have to worry about doing my hair in the morning anymore. I'll be sure to attach a picture so you can all make fun of me :)

God be with you til we meet again!

Have a super week!

-Ældste Jed Bradshaw

2-16-15

Well, Happy late Valentine’s Day everyone,

I hope all of yours were much more romantic than mine :) We've had another great week here in Nykøbing Falster. We can't believe how much the work has picked up in comparison to how it was just a few weeks ago. Elder Zalewski and I are are just on fire! We can't be stopped! We get along great actually. He's a retired standup comedian from Minnesota and he's absolutely hilarious! Our teaching styles really go well together. 

Side note: Sorry if any of my English sounds funny. In Danish there is a grammatical concept called inversion, and we missionaries tend to let it leak into our English sometimes. 

We have a new investigator called *K*. He's the best friend of *M*, that less active man that was recently reactivated and went to the temple for the first time. *K* is absolutely amazing! I've never heard anyone be so accepting of the first lesson as he was. It went soooo well :) He said yes to baptism, but does not have a date as of right now. Hopefully he doesn't chicken out and we can set a date at our appointment with him tomorrow night. 

The other night we were in a city called Vordingborg to teach a man who lives out there, and as we were SPRINTING to catch the next train home, Elder Zalweski's wallet must have fallen out of his pocket because we couldn't find it when we tried to check into the train station. It had ALL of his important cards in it along with 800 crowns.... so if you could pray that it makes its way back to us, that would be great :) 

Oh I dunno if you guys heard, but there was a shooting in Copenhagen on Saturday night!! A Muslim man shot a Jewish man, so a Christian man shot the Muslin man to get revenge and then the Christian man was killed in a shootout with the police in which two police men were shot. All this in the name of religion.... so sad. Sounds like it could have all been solved with a little Christ-like attitude. Copenhagen needs the Church now more than ever. 

Well, have a great week my loved ones! I hope you're all staying warm, cuz we're not ;)

-Ældste Bradshaw

Elder Bradshaw in action at Zone Conference this week

2-9-15

Hello Again :)

We had an absolutely fantastic week here in Nykøbing Falster. So when I first got into the area, there wasn't much going on because the Elders had been in the hospital for weeks because of Elder Petersen. That meant we had to do some finding. We've been working super hard to find some new people to teach to really give the area some new spark, and the Lord has been Blessing us tremendously!

Last Sunday, Elder Zalewski and I both fasted that we could find a new investigator. We went out to a city  called Stubbekøbing to stop by a former investigator, but they weren't home, so we decided to knock a few doors instead. We knocked the first one, but nobody answered. Second door. Knock knock knock. A bright smiling man opens the door! We come to find out that he's from Syria and does not speak English OR Danish, yet he insisted that we come in. We did just that, and after much back and forth over Google translate we were able to teach the restoration.

He said that we could come back next week, so we came back with our good friend *M* to help with translation! We now teach this man a few times a week through a translator, and things are going great!! His name is *J* (pronounced like the American baseball team) and he lives in Denmark alone. He has a wife and 2 year old daughter back home in Syria. He's such a kind and sincere man:) I love him already.

But it wasn't just him! We received 4 new investigators this week!! Awesome huh?? The Lord gets his Work done no matter what. This area has lots of potential. We just gotta find it. I have faith that things will pick up soon and we will see some glorious work get done in Nykøbing!

I love you all and so does you Savior Jesus Christ. If we just keep His commandments, everything else will fall into place.

-Elder Bradshaw

2-2-15

Well..... Where do I begin? You won't believe what happened to me this week. I'm going to try my best to describe it, but I'm not sure I can put it all in Words.

So as you all know, I've been in Hillerød for almost half a year now, and I'm absolutely in LOVE with the place. Transfer calls are supposed to come in today, but I really doubt they'll even bother to call me this time round. You see, something happened last Monday afternoon that I will never forget.... We had just finished our P-day and were walking out of this store we had been in with *J*. The store was fantastic and I even managed to snag a sweet pair of shoes, but as we were leaving the place, something happened that quickly changed my mood. The phone rang... I answered and it was President Sederholm on the other end... Woah. It's not very often that you get phone calls from the mission president himself. Anyway, I answered the phone with my usual cheerful ''Hej, det er Ældste Bradshaw!!'' but he quickly said '' sorry elder Bradshaw, but we'll need to speak English for this conversation.'' .... woah. I could tell it was serious. He went on to describe to me what had been happening to a missionary in an area called Nykøbing Falster, Elder Petersen. Apparently he had been in the hospital for about two weeks now due to some VERY serious Health problems, and was going to be sent home in the morning, and that he desperately needed a missionary to replace him in his area and that that missionary was ME. He told me that I would be moving to Nykøbing Falster the very next morning. That meant that I had less than 24 hours to pack my bags, say goodbye to everyone that I had come to love, and be in a city 2 hours away in under 24 hours..... I couldn't believe it.

Of course I told president that I would be willing to do whatever he needed of me, but as soon as I got off of the phone with him, I just stood there in shock. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to go see. I couldn't move. We usually have 7 entire days to say goodbye to everyone and a Sunday in church before we have to leave. I had one evening. Luckily, as I stood there in shock not knowing what to do, Elder Nelson took some action. He called up the *H* family and the *R* family straight away and was lucky enough to set up one big appointment at the Ricks house where everyone could come and say goodbye. So *J* came with us and we headed over there. It was such a bitter-sweet night. We had a little spiritual thought, but for the most part we just all talked about the great times that we had had together over the last 6 months. And you know what the weirdest part was?? THIS goodbye was 10x harder that the goodbyes that I gave back in Utah. That doesn't make sense to me. Far more tears were shed here in Denmark. I'll never forget the look on *M*'s face as she walked to her car after we had just said goodbye. Here was this 40 year old woman that had been a Danish tv superstar, crying over a snot-nosed punk missionary from America. Never before have I wanted more to break the mission rules than at that moment and just give the woman a darn hug!

Anyway... I won't say everything that happened that night, because it's quite personal to me, but how's about I tell y'all a thing or two about my new area?? :D Nykøbing is great! It's on the very Southern coast of Denmark. It's actually its own Island separate from the main body of Sjæland, and it's just beautiful. The work here is.... well I'll be completely honest with you, it's very slow compared to my last area. But that will be changing soon!! We were actually very blessed to be able to take a man that we just reactivated here through the temple for his very first time!! Oh and guess what?? So you remember *J*, the lady that used to cut my hair that just got baptized?? Well we were planning on taking her to the temple before I left Hillerød to do baptisms for the dead, and I was very upset that I wouldn't be able to go anymore, but they managed to get her session planned in the Copenhagen temple for the same time that I would be there on Saturday with our new member!!! I was able to take my new friend *M* through for the first time AND was able to take my old friend *J* through! It was such an incredible day.

Okay so I'm in a branch now. Woah. That's different. Only about 15 people. And guess what? I bore my testimony yesterday, and I'm giving a half hour talk next Sunday!!! Haha oh my... it's crazy. But the branch is great. A Little odd, but great :)

Okay sorry this email was so long. I still feel like there is so much I haven't told you. Have a great week!!! Lemme know if you have any questions.

-Ældste Bradshaw