what I learned this week

Dear Family and Friends :)

So what I learned this week from Preach My Gospel is the importance of the Book of Mormon and how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. Whether we have a spiritual question or a temporal question, the Book of Mormon combined with prayer can answer our questions. It was written for our day and for us and so we can find useful things that relate to us and help us in our every day. What did you learn in Preach my Gospel this week??

So Tuesday night was a great night. We had gone through the whole day with not much happening. We had contacted a few people and gotten some telephone numbers but our appointments fell through and we were not really excited about going out to work in the cold rain. But as we were heading out, Sister Hale said "let's go save a soul". Our plan was to stop by this less active young man. We had stopped by three weeks ago and he had given us his number but the number didn't work so we decided to stop by again and see if we could talk to him.It was windy and rainy as we biked to his apartment but we tried to have an upbeat and positive attitude. We buzzed up to his apartment and he answered! We asked if we could come in just to say hi and he paused for a little bit then said "ja, det må i gerne." So he let us in and we just chatted at the doorway for a little bit. It was really good getting to know him and establishing a relationship that way but after the small talk I said "hey, we are sharing a message with all the members from the Book of Mormon and we want to share it with you" so we read Ether 12:4 with him, which talks about the hope the gospel gives to people. We asked him how the church had helped him in his life, and he said it had given him a firm foundation but that some of the doctirnes and principles he didn't believe in anymore. We were prompted by the spirit to ask good questions about what his really concerns are and also about times in his life when he has felt the spirit and the blessings that come from the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We committed him to meet with us and give the gospel and the church a second chance and he agreed!

Oh, a member of the ward saw our friend David reading the Book of Mormon on the bus and sat by him and talked to him about it. He told us about it saturday when he came to basketball. Also, later Saturday, David, Sister Hale and I all went to visit a member in the hospital to give them some art David had drawn. He is really really talented. Meget dygtig til at tejne. Sister Hale and I steal sketches from him. Okay, not really steal but ask if we can have them.

This past Friday, we went to a member's house for dinner. She was baptized a year ago and she has two kids our age who are not members. The Garriots (the senior couple who has been working with this family) had told us that the kids usually didn't stay for the spiritual thought after dinner and that we should be sure not to press them too much. We were able to connect really well with both of them at dinner and establish a friendship and not only that we were able to have a very powerful spiritual thought where we bore testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The kids both contributed their thoughts about it and it went really well. We committed them to pray to receive confirmation that God is there and aware of them. It was a really fun night too.

Those were the main miracles of the week. Things are going great in Aarhus. We are finding lots of people to teach because most of the amazing people we meet with tell their friends and then their friends are interested in meeting with us.I think is great for them to see that there are other young adults meeting with the missionaries. I think it makes them not feel so alone in their search for truth.

Oh but a few funny moments from this past week:

1. On a search for a friend of ours who is homeless and an alcoholic, Sister Hale and I stopped by Salvation Army, where all the very very drunk homeless people are and where our chances of finding him are really high. While we were in their looking for him, this drunk man came up to me and showed him two drumsticks and told me about how he was a ninja. He stuck the drumticks in his shirt on his back. I told him that was really neat. He showed me some pictures he drew and wanted to give to me but I misunderstood him and after I was done looking at his art, tried to give it back to him. He got so angry and started yelling at him and swearing and I thought he was going to attack me. Luckily some other people calmed him down. But yes, I was nearly killed by a drunk ninja this week. A few days later though we were able to find our friend (the person we've been looking for this whole week every time we are near Salvation Army) outside with a bunch of other drunk people. We just walked straight up to him and told him to leave his wine and come with us so we could teach him the Gospel. He's really positive, even when drunk, we just need to get him a better group of friends, drunk hobos tend not to be the best support group for people who are trying to live the gospel.

2. We were knocking doors in this area while waiting for a bus and this old man opened the door and he was completely naked. So that was an interesting door converstation. He was not interested in a return visit for us to teach him about the gospel.

3. We were meeting up with our friend Elliot and he thought it would be fun to mess with the gullible sisters and tell us that we were going to go "bus hoping" so we could meet up at a place. He called us as we were waiting for the bus and said "okay, do you see bus 200, are you ready?" and then hung up and so sister hale and I ran for bus 200 and nearly hoped on when he came up from behind us and said "hey! don't get on!" he had just been watching nearby, laughing at us. Pranksters. Even as a missionary, my life is full of people pulling pranks on me.

Well, I love you all and pray for you too!

Med Kærlig Hilsen, Søster Briscoe