12-8-14

Today I would just like to take a minute to tell you all about a woman named *A*. She's a short Little less active lady in our Ward, no taller than 4'10", but an absolute bundle of joy. Haha I'm really not quite sure how to describe *A* to you. You would have to meet her to truly understand what she's like, but I'll do my best. She's about 53 and we've been teaching her and her husband *S* since day one of the mission. They have two young children that both live with separate foster parents. *A* loves to Cook and would make us food EVERY time that we came over. She has an INCREDIBLE imagination and insisted that Elvis Presley was her actual father and that she was the best of friends with Michael Jackson. Haha but she has such a good sweet Heart and all she ever really wanted was to be together with her children again as one big Family. *A* has been a small ray of sunshine for me. She was often the highlight of my week. She has played a VERY big part in my mission Thus far, teaching her at least 3 times a week. I've really come to love this lady. But on Saturday morning I did something I never imagined I would ever have to do. I, with 5 other men, lowered her tiny Little White coffin into the hard cold ground. She's gone. Nobody expected it. It just happened.

The service was held at a local Dansk Folke Kirke (church of Denmark) and it was so strange. Not many people knew her so I was one of the only ones that showed up to her sad Little funeral. It was really quite sad. This woman that had meant so much to me was just gone and nobody even showed up to celebrate her beautiful life. I remember sitting there in silence, just thinking, when the church bells started ringing loud in my ears. It struck something deep inside me... I'm not sure how to explain it. I felt so hollow and empty inside..

Anyway.... I would just really appreciate it if you would all keep *A* in your prayers. She didn’t have many friends, so not many people will miss her, but your prayers on her behalf would be fantastic. I know she'll see her loved ones Again, but it's still sad. I thought lots about the plan of salvation that day. I sure am grateful for it.

But it's not just sad Things happening, I promise!! This week two more people decided to get baptized!! First is *V*, that blonde lady that cuts my hair!! She's getting baptized on January 17th!! And second is *J*!!! AHHH I can’t believe it when she finally said that she wants to be baptized! So yeah... Things to be happy about as well :)

I love you all!

-Ældste Jed Bradshaw

12/1/14

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving week because I sure did! I was feeling pretty low at the beginning of the week because I knew that Danes don't celebrate Thanksgiving and that we would most likely be alone the entire day. But what do you know the Lord blessed us with an incredible family from the great U S of A to invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner!! His name is Trey Greenwood and is an inactive member of the church, but when he heard that some American missionaries were going to go without a Thanksgiving, he quickly invited us over to spend it with his lovely wife and children. It was such an amazing afternoon. Trey had an ancient guitar that had been broken for decades and had never been able to fix it (one of the tuning pegs was cracked where the string wraps around. Pardon my guitar jargon) so I took a swing at it and got it sounding as good as new!! We played guitar and sang songs together all night long. It was a night to remember.

Other than that, we've been very blessed with tons of people to teach. There used to be days in my last transfer where we would sometimes go an entire day without teaching a single lesson, but that NEVER happens now. The investigators just come flowing in. We found a new investigator this week named Natada. She's from Thailand and her Danish is really not that good. We sat next to her on a bus one day and started talking. We couldn't get much across, but managed to find out that she had recently lost her husband. Naturally we started telling her about the plan of salvation and that she would see her husband again, and she lost it. Right there on a crowded bus full of judgmental Danes she just started weeping. She asked us how this was possible that she could ever see him Again and we continued to teach the entire discussion right there on the bus. As she got off at her stop we managed to get her phone number and give her the address to the church and what do you know, she showed up to church on Sunday!!

The Lord Places people in our path every day. It's quite incredible. Dang I love the Plan of Salvation. Eternal families are SWEET!!!!

I love you all!

-Ældste Bradshaw

11/24/14

Hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo everyone.

So it's been my first week here in Hillerød with Elder Nelson, and things are going great as always :) I'm in charge of the area now, so it's pretty much up to me what we do every single day from now until he gets to know everybody. It's been very interesting for me to have to come up with things to do now because Elder Hooper used to do it all. But it's great! I'm learning lots and it's kinda good because I get to do things MY way now :)

Okay so lots of great things happened this week of course, but the highlight would have to be Saturday. **M** was FINALLY baptized!!!! It was such an incredible experience. There was not a dry eye in the entire building (except for mine of course)! Ah I just love that lady so much and she finally went down into the waters of baptism. It was a big deal for her because she has an irrational fear of being submerged in water due to the fact that she was nearly drowned to death on two separate occasions. Okay so maybe it's not irrational. But it was so amazing to see her overcome that and take the next step towards the Celestial Kingdom!!

I love these people so much. I can't even begin to try and explain it to you. Just know that I love them. I love teaching them. I love serving them. I love just talking to them, even if they don't love me.

I love Denmark!

Keep it fresh,

Ældste Bradshaw

11/17/14

Okay, it's been a crazy week.

I'm currently sitting in the library with my new companion, Elder Nelson. He's from good old Alpine Utah and went to Lone Peak with me, yet somehow, I never even knew him... Haha it's a big school so I guess it's possible. Anyway, we've had an absolutely INSANE day with transfers. Transfers are super crazy in Denmark because of the fact that we all use public transportation and each missionary has about three huge suitcases and bike, so there is absolutely no Space on the trains for us. Ah it was just super stressfull. But it's over now.

My last week with Elder Hooper was just incredible. We used the fact that he was leaving as an excuse to get all of our investigators to meet with us, so we were able to teach soooooo many lessons. We finally met with a man by the name of Martin Rif, who we had assumed  had dropped off the face of the earth, but we taught him and committed him to be baptized!! He's in the process of moving, so he says that he can't get baptized until January, which means I probably won't be apart of it, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Planting for the future generation to harvest. 

We were also able to meet with the Hirse Family.... I'm not sure if you remember them, but I told you all that she was some kind of author. Yeah.... turns out she's a little more than that. Apparently Maria Hirse is one of the most famous people in Denmark. She's some kind of television star, and we've been teaching them this whole time, we've been completely clueless!! Not that it matters. She's still a daughter of God, right? It's just way cool to know how famous she is now. Whenever we tell members that she's a serious investigator, they get all star-struck and ask if we can get them an autograph. Haha it's really funny. Anyway, her 16 year old daughter Victoria said that she wants to become a member. Only problem is her father. He won't let her do anything until she's 18, so... yeah. That's kinda sad. But the lesson we had with them last night was amazing. We taught about eternal families and temple marriages, and the spirit was soooooooo strong. When we showed her a Picture of the Salt Lake Temple she was completely speachless. She thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. 

Yeah... things are going well here in Hillerød. Elder Hooper and I finally started to see the fruits of our work. I just really hope that things don't change too much with my new companion being here. 

Oh hey check out this sweet sign we made in Copenhagen today.

Love you all

Ældste Jed Bradshaw

11/10/14

Dearest friends and Family,

I'm sure you all know why I've gathered you here together today...... well I hope so. Because I certainly don't. I dunno where I was going with that....... ummmm so we're currently waiting on transfer calls, and to be honest I'm a wee bit nervous. We're expecting Elder Hooper to move, so I'll probably be taking over the area and getting a new companion!! It's really exciting, but it'll be the first time that transfers actually affect me. Keep your fingers crossed that I get someone good!

We had zone training this week, which was waaaaaay fun! Because it's the month of November, we ate a thanksgiving lunch (I know it's a Little early) and played some turkey bowl football! It was tons of fun, even though we were all freezing Cold. There should be some Pictures on the mission blog. We found two new families this week, both from Ghana!! We have already taught one of them and it went really well, and we plan on teaching the other one here soon. We've been fasting lots as a mission lately to get new investigators, and the Lord is hearing our prayers. As a mission this week we got exactly 100 new investigators, which might not sound like a lot, but for Denmark, it's a new record!!! Never before has that happened in the history of the Danish Mission!!  How blessed are we??

We also had Stake Conference this week, which was just incredible. I loved seeing so many of the saints gathered in one place. None of our chapels could fit everyone, so they rented out a highschool auditorium and over 700 saints filled the room. It was so amazing. I remember walking in and the Whole place, even though it was packed, was dead quiet, because there was a girl up on the stage singing this song about Christ (in English, which was weird) that just pierced you to the soul. I honestly thought this woman was an angel. And then we were Lucky enough to have a celebrity guest speaker! I'm sure you've all seen Finding Faith in Christ and The Testaments... well the man that plays Jesus in those movies is a famous Danish actor, and he spoke! It was really something special. He told us all about his experiences on set.

Haha okay as I was writing this, the assistants called!!! And, just as we thought, Elder Hooper is leaving me! And my new companion is Elder Nielsen..... We're pretty sure it's actually a kid that went to Lone Peak with me!! Oh man... I'm not sure how I feel about this one..... Pray for us :)

Love you all,

Ældste Bradshaw

11/3/14

Dearly Beloved,

What an incredible week it has been for us here in Hillerød. The Lord has just been opening the Windows of heaven and pouring out the Blessings. I'm literally soaked in Blessings right now. We've just been able to teach and find so many incredible people this week. We're super busy, and I love it. Josefines Birthday was on Tuesday, and she had invited us to her party that night. Obviously we couldn't attend seeing as there would be alchohol and loud music, and she wasn't too happy about that so we tried to make it up to her by planning the Worlds best lesson. Seeing as it was her birthday, we thought we would teach her about the biggest gift we could give her; the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The lesson went..... well I don't quite know how to explain it. The Spirit in that room was like nothing I had felt before. At the close of the discussion, Elder Enniss and I (we were on splits) sang her a hymn to wrap it up. Holy cow... It was just so incredible. I looked atJosefine and just felt like I loved her SO much. But not like any kind of love I've felt before. I'm assuming it was the pure love of Christ working through me, but I'm not sure. That was probably my favorite lesson on my mission thus far.

Other than teaching tons of rad lessons this week, we did tons of fun Things too! Halloween was just awesome! We decided that we just had to knock doors that night to see if we could get any candy. We did. Some in the form of sollidified and caramelized sugar, and others in the form of new beautiful children of God to teach. Haha it was way fun. Hardly anyone here celebrates it, which is a Little sad. Halloween is my favorite, only to be topped by Christmas. On Friday we did two great service Projects. First off we helped a new Family move into our area. They aren't members, but they know members that asked us to come and it was super fun! They're a great Little Family with two kids. The daughter is 18 and all of her friends were there. Naturally they took an interest in the fact that there were four boys from America there, so while they tried to flirt and look pretty, we did our best to teach them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ :) It actually went quite well and I think we'll be coming back to teach them Again. Later that evening we worked for hours and hours on Building this huge barn out in the middle of the countryside for a member Family. It was way fun.

But the highlight of this week was on Sunday. We were blessed with 4 investigators in church!! I know that doesn't sound like much, but for Denmark, it's almost unbeleiveable. The first two hours went great, and then came the last hour, which is sacrament for us. It was fast and testimony meeting. I was sitting with 'V' and 'G' (17 and 10 year old investigators. They're siblings) and told them that if I went up and embarresed myself by bearing my testimony in my awful Danish that they would have to go after me. They agreed, and I did my part. Then, one at a time, they both went up to the pulpit and bore INCREDIBLE testimony. 'G' was literally in tears!! Ah it was just so amazing to see. I love this church. The Work is gooooood.

I love you all

-Ældste Bradshaw