3-23-15

Alright,

You all need to hear about *E*. She's amazing. You see, as missionaries in Denmark, we are often combated with the argument ''Well, I believe in Science, therefore, I don't believe in God.'' Well obviously as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we know very well that Science and nature only confirm the presence of an almighty creator. God is The Great Scientist, is he not? Well, Danes don't buy that. But *E* did. Elder Zalewski and I were out to knock on some doors the other day, and we got into the typical 'Religion vs. Science' debate with a college student at her doorstep. It wasn't going well, but I felt prompted to ask her if she thought it would be possible that there was a God that used her beloved Science... but not the way we understand it... rather on a more perfect level of understanding. She stood there for a second and thought, then said (in Danish of course) ''Well, I've never thought about that before. That could very well be the case.'' She then started opening up big time. She told us that she had actually read quite a lot about us online, and was quite interested in what we believe, specifically eternal marriage. She said she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard of. And it is ;) Anyway, we asked her if she wanted to meet, and long story short, we managed to make an appointment for Tuesday.

Tuesday rolls around and we met up at the church for our appointment. We brought our good friend Morten with us to help with the teaching and fellowshipping. We walked around the corner, and there she was, on the bench just outside the church doors, smoking a cigarette :) 

I guess I should probably tell you a little about *E* first. She is 19 years old, currently living in an apartment in Nykøbing, and studying some sort of science at the nearby university. She's originally from England, which helped her and I to be able to connect a little bit, but she has lived in Denmark most of her life and speaks fluent Danish, so we speak Danish together. 

Okay so we go into the church and find a classroom to hold the lesson in. We take our seats and she just starts firing off questions like she's interrogating us! Well, we tell her that we usually begin with a prayer, and she was fine with that. I asked her if she had any friends of family that we could pray for, and she told me the name of her mother. I offered the prayer. It wasn't long. It wasn't special. But I named her and her mother by name, and when I said amen and lifted my head up, she was in tears. She couldn't get control of herself. So I ran and grabbed her some tissues as she tried to gather her feelings. We asked her why she was crying and she said that nobody had ever prayed on her behalf before and that it really touched her. Woah..... I was amazed. You would not believe the spirit that was in that room. And we had only said the opening prayer!! 

Haha oh man I could honestly write a novel about this lesson we had, but I'll try and summarize it all. Basically she had read EVERYTHING about Mormons online. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And I mean the VERY ugly. But she didn't believe any of the negative stuff. She said she much preferred the positive and spiritual things that she read and watched. She had soooo many questions. We covered everything from Temple garments to Polygamy to tithing, and she loved it all! Haha she loved tithing can you believe it?!! That's usually the one thing that ruins investigators for us. Anyway we eventually managed to teach her the restoration and invite her to be baptized. Oh man you're gonna love this part. Best answer to a baptismal invite ever. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said (in Danish) ''Well... that was a stupid question. Of course I do!''        Ha! Can you believe that? 

But that's not it!!! The next day as we were walking along the street we got a text from her. She told us that she had been reading from the Book of Mormon and decided that she would smoke a cigarette as she read, but when she picked up her box of smokes, she got crazy head pain and nausea that went away as soon as she put them down!!!! She told us that she thought it was a sign that she need to ''stop her sins in order to understand the truthfulness of the book''!! What kind of an investigator talks like that??! 

Anyway I could go on forever about *E*. She's just amazing. But ya I'll stop now. Sorry this email is so long.

By the way, I have a new companion. Elder Taylor. He's from Las Vegas and he's freaking awesome!!

Gotta go,

Love you all!!

-Elder Jed Bradshaw