7-27-15

Well.... I'm not in Nykøbing anymore. I'm currently writing this email from the SECOND BIGGEST CITY IN DENMARK!!! Holy green carrots... I've been transferred to the city of Århus as a zone leader with an Elder Clawson!! Haha it feels so strange... I don't get transferred too much. I tend to stay in places for a long time, so when I do transfer, it feels so weird because I really plant my roots deep in each area. I gotta say, it was difficult to leave Nykøbing. Much more difficult than I expected. Especially Sunday. That was rough. They had me give my final testimony in sacrament meeting and then we went over to the Johansens for dinner that night and they had baked a cake and everything. There were many tears shed (not from my side. I don't cry ;)) I don't like goodbyes. We do too many of them on missions.

But anyway, Århus. It's such an amazing place!!! Holy cow I can hardly take it all in. It's a university city, so 99% of the people here are students. I look forward to talking to every single one of them. The ward is also much bigger than my little branch of 12 in Nykøbing, or so I've been told. I've only been here for several hours, so I don't know much yet, but from what I've been told, the work is on fire and we hardly have time to teach all of our investigators due to the fact that we have splits with all of the Elders in the Zone. I can't wait to get to know all of them!

Wow, my brain is just moving 1 million miles an hour right now and I can hardly gather my thoughts. I can't even remember what we did this last week... we said goodbye to many of the investigators and members, so we were very busy. I told them all that the only way they will ever see me again is if they get baptized and invite me to come to the baptism. Haha hopefully that will motivate some of them to get moving.

Sorry but I don't have much time this week. Also, this silly computer won't let me load pictures, so I'll send some extra ones next week. For now I'll just have Gudmundson send me a few.

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

-Ældste Bradshaw

7-20-15

Godmorgen alle sammen!! Er det ikke en dejlig dag? Solen skinner... Hvad mere kunne man ønsker?

It's been a crazy week! We had our first zone training with President O'Bryant. Well... First zone training under his reign because he wasn’t actually there. He's been busy traveling all over Denmark interviewing every single missionary in their apartments! But it was a very good training! We have a massive focus on finding new investigators right now and the goal is to hit the standard of excellence as a zone. Luckily our wonderful district has been hitting that for weeks now, so no worries there.  After training we went on splits with some missionaries up on Sjælland (the Eastern Island in Denmark) because Elder Gudmundson had to take his language test in Copenhagen to make sure that he can stay in the country. Don't worry, we're pretty sure he passed. As he was in the exam room I had a nice long chat with the lady running the testing center and she told me how amazed she was that us missionaries learn their language so quickly. It takes years and years to master, yet here we are after 3 months taking the test and acing it. I was able to testify to her that it is because we are authorized servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we receive tungemålsgaven (the gift of tounges). Holy cow she was blown away when I used a word like that...

This week we've been blessed with 3 new investigators. Two of them are from Iraq and speak very little Danish, but have a strong Desire to come to church next week, so that's great! *T* came to church Again this Sunday. I really feel that he is moving slowly but surely towards the idea of baptism. The more he reads in the Book of Mormon, the harder of a time he has to deny what we are telling him. This Sunday we talked about baptisms for the dead. I flipping LOVE baptisms for the dead! It really is such a beautiful idea. If God really is a loving God, it just makes sense that he would give EVERY single one of his children the chance to return to him. It's a pretty tough idea to combat.

Well, let’s get the trunky news out of the way. Yes, I've been on my mission for just over a year now... woohoo! Haha it really isn't that big of a deal, but out of tradition we had to burn a White shirt to celebrate, so we did. We also did something terrible. Elder Gudmundson and I broke our diet that we've been doing so well at and went to a chinese buffet...... Let me just say these wise Words of truth. You NEVER leave a buffet happier than when you went in. Ever.

Shout out to everyone that sent an email wishing me a happy birthday!! I really do apologize if I didn't reply to you. There are just SO many of you, but know that I love you all individually and am inexplicably grateful for all of the love and support. I just don't have enough time! Haha it's a weird concept.. I'm on my mission for 2 years which is the longest amount of time that I've given to anything, yet I don't have time to write some stinking emails.

I have a testimony of the gospel and of the happiness that it brings to individuals and families, and the path that it helps to keep them on. Don't forget to try and keep the gospel a living part of your life. It's not just a good church that we go to, and it's not just a good book that we read. Share it with everyone and their dog, even if it's just through your example! :) The church is incredible my friends! Have a great week and don't forget to tell someone you love them!

I love you all!!! Have a great week :)

-Ældste Jed David Bradshaw

7-13-15

Hello!!!

So some exciting things have happened this week! There are some BIG changes going on in the mission since President O'Bryant got here. He's really shaking things up! But in a good way! First of all, he's completely getting rid of the entire ''leadership ladder'' concept. Basically what this means is that a greenie missionary with no leadership experience can be called to Assistant and Zone leaders can be called down to be regular guys. It should make for an interesting transfer!

This Wednesday was a neat experience for me. We were at a members house all day long to do service. The members are *H* and *L* Graabek, and are VERY old. *H* is in his late 80's and has some severe heart problems, and it turned out to be a very good thing that we were over that day to help with service. He was have a particularly bad day and could hardly make it from the car to the front door without having to sit down and catch his breath. He said that he did not feel good at all, and promptly asked for a blessing. Well, Elder Gudmundson could hardly even understand that part, so it was obvious that it would have to be me giving yet another blessing in my broken Danish. So we laid our hands on his head and gave him a blessing that he would be healed straight away so he could accomplish the things he needed to that day. And it worked. He stood up with breath back in his lungs and we were able to accomplish the massive work load that we had ahead of us!! The priesthood is real.

   OH!! I almost forgot. We have this new lady we're working with. Okay it's a cool story. She was contacted a few days ago by the missionaries in Copenhagen right outside the temple!! She was in the middle of a conversation when she was contacted  with some other lady. I guess this other lady was a member because she was teaching her the plan of salvation on a bench right outside the temple!! Well they got her info and it turns out she lives in our area. So we knocked on her door and went over EVERYTHING and she's ready for baptism!! She has a cousin in Utah that sent her a Book of Mormon a while ago and they have been talking via Facebook for a while and she's been taught everything! She said she believes it all and would love to be baptized ASAP. Unfortunately ''ASAP'' is 3 weeks minimum. So that will be yet another baptism right after I leave, but hey it's all good :)

 *T* came to church this Sunday again :) He's doing so well, just progressing kinda slowly due to the fact that he isn't reading the Book of Mormon as fast as he should be and he refuses baptism until after he as finished the book. But on Saturday we played basketball with him and a bunch of his African friends! It was so much fun. We also made dinner for them and showed them how to make bacon. They had never seen it before! Can you believe that?

Anyway, things are going great. I'm now in my last days of Nykøbing (or so I hope. I have been here since January...) and things are going great! I can't wait to see what the future holds!!

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

-Ældste Bradshaw

7-6-15

Hola!! Como Estas??

Happy fourth of July!!! I hope you all celebrated sensibly without excessive amounts of alcohol. Danes are not very good at that. I miss seeing good clean fun parties. But this week has been just... woah!! Crazy!! We've been teaching *T* and *M* as always and they were both in Church again this Sunday, so that's great! Earlier in the week we were on splits with the Elders in Slagelse and that went surprisingly well! Elder Lester and I were just on fire! We knocked for ages, but unlike your average knocking session, we taught lesson after lesson after lesson! We were on fire!! People just kept on letting us in! And the best part was that we found 3 new people in OUR area!! They were just visiting friends in Slagelse for the day and we have appointments with them now when we get back to Nykøbing!

Okay but the craziest part was meeting the new Mission President on Thursday... I honestly feel like I just started my mission over again in a new mission! It's quite strange. I like the guy a lot, but he's just so different from President Sederholm. But it gets me excited!! He has lots of new ideas and has a great vision for what this mission is capable of. Oh and his wife is great!! I don't know why but she reminds me of my Mum. Probably because she's so pretty and kind and smart and Chirstlike ;).

Oh my if you know any fan salesmen, please hook me up. It is SOOO hot right now!! We've been dying for the last 4 days in this insane heat. I do NOT have enough short sleeved shirts for this. C'mon Denmark, make up your mind! But then last night was the biggest rain and thunder storm I've ever seen!! It came at 10:20 at night, so Elder Gudmundson and I had just enough time to go running out in the rain. It was so much fun!

 Umm I dunno what else to say. I always have tons to say during the week, but then I forget it all on Monday. I think it's something all missionaries suffer from.

 Well I love you all more than you know!! Have a great week!!

-Ældste Jed Bradshaw