Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I can't think of a clever title....

Hey Everyone!

How's it going? This week has been pretty good. It has been one of a lot of emotions though. It's been kinda sad in the ward for the last few days. A 16 year old girl in the ward died a few days ago. We went to the funeral on monday. It was really sad, but the funeral service was really nice. It was sad of course, but there was a really strong spirit there. Well, so that was the sad part of the week, but the rest of the week was pretty good. Here is an interesting fact that you might like, Mom. I found out that Elder Christensen's Uncle is Ken Hall! I thought that was kinda cool. I was funny how we found out too. We were talking to this guy who is in the Odense ward, so I asked them if he knew Ken and Sally Hall. And then Elder Christensen was like, 'wait, woah, how do you know Ken and Sally? Ken is my Uncle!' So yeah that's pretty cool.

I have something else cool to tell you about. This week we met a pretty cool guy named Jimmy Rooney. He is the son of Mickey Rooney! He is also an actor too! And he does mostly voice acting. He told us that he does 'voice enhancing' work, so he isn't the main voice actor, but after they record, he fixes and enhances the voice with his own voice or something. Some of the voices he's done are E.T. Crush the turtle, Mickey and Goofy, Sylvester and Tweety, and many other Disney Characters. I got a video of him doing some of his voices. So anyway, that was cool meeting him. He was in Denmark, because he is dating the mom of one of the ward members.

Hmm, what else is going on here? I've started running again. The snow is all melted so it is actually possible to run. So me and my comp run around the city a bit each morning.
Daylight savings time took effect here this week... It has been really hard to wake up in the mornings now :(

On friday, there was a disco bowling night for the young single adults in the ward. We didn't go to the bowling part, but we went to the pre-bowling party. It was fun. We did some Karaoki. Me and Elder Christensen sang a fun Danish song. And then the next day was Super Saturday. It was a Devotional/Dance for all of the young adults in the Stake. So there were a bunch of young people, it was fun to get to know some of them.

Umm, well the work is going great. We had 4 investigators to church on Sunday! That is really good! There is this one lady who was there, her name is [On] (I don't know how it's spelled, thats just how it is pronounced) She is way golden! She actually came last week because, get this, a 6 year old girl in the ward invited On's little girl to church, and so they both came last week, and then again this week. And we have begun teaching her. She has a bunch of good questions about the church and seems really interested in it. Cool huh?!

Well, it was good hearing about the family! Yeah, I'm really excited to call home on Mother's Day! When is Mother's day anyway?

The Skagen trip was pretty cool! It was cool seeing the two bodies of water running into each other. It's not like huge crashing waves or anything. They were small, but still it was cool. It would be a cool place for us all to visit someday! There are a lot of cool places I'm gonna have to show you sometime! So you still haven't been able to find my apartment? Go to google earth and type in 'herluf trollesgade 34 9000 aalborg denmark' That takes you right to it.

Oh yeah it was the Festival of Colors again! That is weird that it has already been a year since I was at that! That was way fun when I went to that last year. I'm sure Camron was super colorful. Do you have any pics of him?

So Tia needs glasses? What does she think about that? She is gonna be a little cutey with glasses. I'm glad to hear that Tia and Tani did good in their play! I knew they would. That's good that there were a lot a people that went to it. I remember it wasn't very full when I went, but that is good that it is getting more known, and that there are a lot of people supporting it.

Well you asked me a whole lot of questions, I'll try to answer them now:
Yup, Sunday is Easter! And also General Conference. I don't know what are Easter plans are yet. I'm sure we'll do something good though. We will go to the church and watch General Conference there. That will be good. We'll watch some of the sessions live. The saturday morning session will be played live, but it will be at 6pm for us!

We eat with members quite a bit. At one point we had like 3 eating appointments a week, which is really good. But it has died down recently and we haven't had one in awhile. I really like eating with the members. There are some really good cooks in the ward! :)

Yeah, I'm learning how to cook a few things. Usually when we eat at home, we just do something quick and easy though. We usually have something like open face sandwiches, Danish style. We do our own grocery shopping. There is a grocery store just right next to our apartment that we usually shop at, and there is one that is about 3 blocks away that is cheaper, so sometimes we go there. The thing about Danish grocery stores, is they have a ton of them just all over the place, but they are way small compared to american stores.

The month of miracles hasn't started yet. It is for the month of April, so it starts tomorrow. I think our date for fasting is the 26th. I'm sure that is gonna be a great program and will help out the missionary work. Maybe on fast sunday, you can do your own fast about seeing miracles in the Denmark Copenhagen mission.

Well I hope I answered all your questions. I'm gonna wrap this up. Oh yeah, I also wanted to tell you that I cut my own hair this week! It turned out ok. Haircuts here are like 50 bucks so all the missionaries just cut thier own.
Anyway, I hope you have a great week. See ya later!

Love Elder Tyler Lee

March 31, 2010

Hi Tyler,

We are happy to hear you were able to stay in your area! And your new companion sounds like a great guy! You will probably learn a lot from him! I like all of those good qualities you mentioned about him! What is his first name and where is he from? There are not many moms on the missionary mom site for Denmark. It would be fun if his mom was on. Tell him we feel really good about having our cute little boy under his care! :) (sorry, that's the mommy speaking.)

Speaking of the mommy speaking....your mommy will be speaking to you in May! We are looking forward to the Mother's Day phone call! But I won't worry too much about that....yet.

Your trip to Skagen sounds cool. We looked on google earth to see what it looked like around that area. We also tried to find your apartment but wasn't able to locate it yet. That's neat how the two seas crash into each other. Sounds like a good place for us to visit someday!

Today I took Tia to the eye doctor. A few weeks ago she had a doctor appointment to just make sure she is growing right and get a few immunizations. While there they did a simple eye exam. They suggested we take her to an eye doc. So today was the day. Sure enough....she needs glasses. Her vision is like 20/80. Maybe that is the reason she has so many headaches. I am hoping that glasses will cure those for her. She picked out a cute frame and her glasses will be ready in about a week. We will take a picture of her and send to you.

Tani started spring soccer today. She has never been on a soccer team but wanted to try it out. So this year she is doing that instead of softball. We are kind of sad to see her quit softball, but that is ok.

Tani and Tia did so well with their play this last week! They did 6 performances! We are all "wizarded" out now! They did it in the high school auditorium and it was at least 2/3 full each time. Everyone seemed to enjoy being in it and watching it.

Cam came up and saw part of the play, but he had to leave early because he was going to the color festival. As usual, he came home very colorful! That has got so big that they had to have 2 separate times for it this year. One at noon and one at 4:00. They said they usually order 25,000 bags of the color but this year they ordered 50,000!

Jansen and his buds are happy to have some nice spring weather once in a while. They went up to Sandy last Saturday to the skate park up there and had a great time! We are trying to get a bike rack for our van so him and his buds can go to St. George with us next week and take their bikes. He is hoping to sell his bike and use the money from that plus birthday money and some earned money to get him an even better bike! He does love biking! He is very good at it. But it's scary to watch him sometimes.

So this Sunday is Easter. What will you be doing? How often do you eat with members? Are you learning to cook a bit? What kinds of things do you eat at home? Do the members give you food for your apartment or do you go to the grocery store each week? How far away is the grocery store, do you just walk and have to carry your bags home? Are you able to buy most of the same things you would get here?

How has the month of miracles been going? It sounds like such a neat idea! Have you had your turn to be the "fasting" companionship?

We hope this past week has been good for you and Christensen and for the people you are teaching! Does each week just fly by to you? Good luck this week! Remember you are always in our prayers! Not only that, you are in lots and lots of other's prayers also! Keep working hard and doing the best you can and you will be blessed with the abilities and opportunities that Heavenly Father needs of you! You are amazing....I'm just sayin.... :)

Love you!

Love, Mom, Dad and the gang!

Friday, March 26, 2010

I survived training!

Hey everyone!

How's it going? Sorry that you are getting my email one day late again. I know that makes you sad when you are looking forward to an email being there but it isn't. I'm trying to remember why it was a day late last week. Oh yeah, it was because of zone conference. We were in Århus on wednesday for that so we emailed the next day. And this week I'm late because transfers were yesterday. And I am happy to say that I am still in Aalborg! I'm sure that I would've enjoyed wherever I went, but I'm glad that I have awhile longer here. I have a new companion though! His name is Elder Christensen. He seems like a great guy. I've been with him for less than a day, but I'm already liking him. Christensen is way tall. He is like 3 inches taller than me. Christensen likes everything super clean. Actually the first thing we did when we got back to our appartment was have a cleaning party. haha. Elder Christensen is a runner, so we ran today for awhile and we'll probably be doing that quite a bit. Elder Christensen speaks Danish more than he speaks English. So I'm excited for that. I think that I will learn much more, and progress with my Danish a ton during this transfer.

Well that is enough about him. Everything is going well with me here in Denmark. I am no longer a greenie! There are missionaries in Denmark who are bigger noobs than me! That's exciting! I haven't seen any of them yet, but there are 2 new Elders and 2 new Sisters. I'm excited to meet them, and hear there Danish, so I can maybe feel a bit better about mine ;) And yup, Elder Clayton is now a zone leader. He isn't one of my zone leaders though. There are 2 zones in Denmark (plus the iceland zone) I'm in the Jylland zone, and the other is the Sjælland zone.

That's exciting that Tani and Tia are ready to perform their play now. Too bad I can't see them this year. What play is it that they are doing this year? I forgot. I'm sure that they will do a great job. They always do.

Ok thats good that you know where I've been serving these last 2 months. I thought you were saying that you thought I was serving in Randers. Anyway, you asked about my address so you can look it up on google. It is Herluf Trolles Gade 34, 3tv, 9000 Aalborg. And there is a weird building right by it that has a pyramid on it, that is the library that I am sitting in right now.

Wow, I just can't focus right now! I have a bit of a headache, and I just can't focus on this email very well. I'll try to get it finished up though.

Oh yeah, duh, I just remembered something cool that we did this week. We went up to Skagen! It is the very tip top of Denmark. So, it is the farthest north that I have been in my life. We went up to Frederikshavn and met the elders there, and then went up to Skagen. From the train station we walked all the way to the beach. It was a lot further than we thought. There is something cool about that beach that doesn't happen in many places. There are two different seas that crash into each other there. They are both moving different directions and they run into each other right there. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cold there though, it would be fun to go there when it is a bit warmer out.

Well other than that, nothing much happened this week. Sorry, I don't really have a ton to tell you about right now. I think I'm just gonna wrap this one up for this week. Hopefully there will me more to tell you about next week. I love you. Bye

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Not much from our end....

Hi Tyler,

Will this letter find you in a new area or with a new companion or both? We are looking forward to hearing of your first big change in Denmark! Last week your letter came a day late but you didn't say why. At first when we didn't hear from you at the regular time we wondered if that week was transfers. So if we don't hear from you tomorrow morning we will assume we will hear from you the next day. It's kind of a bummer when we wake up and look for your email and it's not there. But lukily we didn't have to wait a whole week, only a day. Anyway, enough rambling about that.

This week is the big week for Tani and Tia. They have been working all year on their play and it is finally time for the actual play! They get to do it four times this week. They are pretty excited. We will have to send you some pictures. Grandma and Grandpa are coming up to watch it on Thursday. Cam will try to make it up sometime too. We don't see Cam a whole lot. He is pretty busy at school and work.

Jansen went to St. George with some friends last weekend. It was Sunshine tournament down there. He said Spanish Fork High School won it for the 7th year in a row. He had fun down there and enjoyed the sun and the freedom from mom and dad.

I know you are serving in Aalborg not Randers. I was just looking at the Randers place on google map cause it was something I could locate. I would like your address so I can try to find where you are and what streets you are walking around.

You asked about Heidi having another baby. I think I told you, but maybe I forgot, unfortunately Heidi had a miscarriage. So as of right now Brielle doesn't have a sibling on the way, at least that I know of.

I noticed on Zach Clayton's blog that he has been called back to Copenhagen as a zone leader. He sounded pretty excited about that. How many zones are there in your mission?

What have you guys heard about the volcano in Iceland? We've heard a bit, but not much. We saw a few pictures, looked kind of cool.

Sorry, I'm kind of rambling....we just haven't had much going on this week to tell you about. We hope that you have had more going on and have lots to tell us!

Before I go I will attach a few photos for you. One is of the snow dino that Cam, Jansen, Tani, Tia and Rurika made over the holidays. I'm sure you will enjoy it. One is of Tani and Tia at Christmas time. I need to get a bunch of pics off of my camera. Maybe I can send some more next week. I will try to send one or two each week for you.

Goodnight!

Love, Mom, Dad and the gang!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

"Month of Miracles" coming up.

Hi everyone!

Yeah, this last week did go by way fast! All of the weeks seem to do that. These past 4 months have gone by way fast! Today is March 18, so I am now 4 months into my mission! That is 1/6 of the way! It's going so fast! I'm basically home! Nah, just kidding, I'm not already getting trunky, don't worry. But yeah, my training is pretty much finished! Transfers are on wednesday, and we will probably find out tomorrow what will happen with that. I'm excited to find out what will happen! And I'm really excited for the new missionaries to come in so I will no longer be the greeny. Oh that reminds me, yesterday was St Patricks day, and I didn't even know about it! Yesterday was also Zone Conference. We went to Århus and met with the rest of the missionaries in our zone. It was bad for me that zone conference was on st patty's day, because the other missionaries made sure to mention that I was green. This happened like 3 times, a missionary came up to me and said ''Hey you aren't wearing any green! It's ok, you ARE green'' anyway, just one more week of being green. Zone conference was good though. I've done so much traveling in these 2 months. I've only served in one area but I have already pretty much been everywhere in Denmark! Oh and mom, I'm serving in Aalborg, not Randers! You said you were looking on google earth at my Randers area. I've spendt a few days there on splits or pday, but my area is good ol' Aalborg. It is just north of Randers. It is the second northernmost area in the mission. It is really pretty here, especially now that the snow is pretty much completely gone! I'll email some pictures of it to you sometime soon.

You asked what the heck an Ægtepar is, I think I told you in the first email that I included that word. Yeah it means senior couple, or married couple is the actual translation. It is pronounced like 'Ekt uh par' (with a soft R) We are pretty lucky to have an Ægtepar in our area, they treat us pretty well ;)

Yeah the work hasn't been the best lately in the mission, but I think that it will start picking up as the weather improves. Also next month we are gonna do something pretty cool. Its called 'Month of Miracles' What that is, is each day in the month, one companionship will fast especially for the mission, and that there will be some miracles in the mission that day. And all of the other companionships pray for the same thing, and for the missionaries fasting. At the end of the day, the missionaries call that companionship and tell them what miracles they had that day. I think it will be cool. They said that they did it last year, and they had more success than they have seen in a long time. There were 16 baptisms in that month and they set up I think 38 baptismal dates.

Thats cool that Tani gave her first talk in sacrament meeting. Congrats on that! Thats great! I'm glad that I could help out a little bit. That's also really cool that she did baptisms for the dead for the first time! She is really growing up! That's right, last time I did baptisms for the dead, our van exploded! Hahaha! Thats actually kinda funny that you mentioned the burning van, cuz Chelsey also mentioned it in her letter to me today. Her car started smoking so she pulled off the side of the road and she was worried that it would burst into flames.

Sounds like the FHE at Hearthstone went great! I'm sure they love having the Lee family come over, with all of their musical talent! Sorry I couldn't be there to share some of my guitar playing, but is sounds like you had plenty of musical numbers and stuff without me. Speaking of that, there is a talent show that they're having here in Aalborg next month. I'll perform something in it if I don't get transfered.

Wow, you really had a busy Saturday! It sounds like an exciting and fun day! Congrats on you and dad's races!
That is crazy that Brielle is 2 already! Are they having another baby? I think I might've heard that she is pregnant again, but I don't remember. If so, that'll be exciting to meet they're new baby, and also Jamie's baby and any other babies that are born while I'm here.

Oh yeah, Alice in Wonderland was really good! It was way fun to see that. It was in English, so that was good. It had Danish Subtitles, which would usually bug me, but it was ok because they were floating a few feet outside of the screen. It was in 3D. Have any of you seen that movie? Or are there any other movies that have come out recently that have been good?

Every wednesday night and sometimes monday we have sports night at the church. It's been way fun. We just meet there with some of the guys in the ward and shoot some hoops or play some floor hockey. It's way fun playing some sports every once in awhile. It can get way competitive sometimes, which is fun. I really like when we play basketball, because Danish people just aren't the best at B-ball, so they think me and Dalton are way good. haha. Floor hockey is also way fun. Last night it was way close, but I scored the game winning goal. Just sayin...

Hmm, well I think I'll wrap this one up. Everything is going great here. I'm just livin' the dream! It's so cool being able to understand what people say! I don't understand everything of course but I understand so much more than before. Well, I miss you all and jeg elsker dig. Bye.

Love Ældste Tyler Lee

Oh yeah, p.s. We do have daylight savings time here, but I think it starts next week.

Our week in review

Hi Tyler,

Whoa! Where did that week go? It is Tuesday night, 8:30 and we just realized it is email time again! Did this past week go that fast for you? Maybe it was that daylight savings thing that sped the week up! We ARE one hour ahead now ya know? Does Denmark do daylight savings? Church wasn't so bad with DS this year because we have the 1 o'clock time. It was Monday morning and this morning that was a little more difficult. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit easier.

That is too bad that the missionary work in Denmark is suffering at the moment. But it's nice to know things are going well in your area. Does the weather have a lot to do with the harder times? I imagine the whole country gets a little tired of cold and dark! I bet this spring will be one of the most fabulous springs ever for you as you see Denmark in a whole new light! We would love some pictures of the country and area you are in.

OK, so what the heck is an AEgtepar? (sorry, I don't know how to make my computer make your fancy letters. But I also have no idea how to pronounce it either.) We are assuming it is senior couples.

So in 2 days you will be gone for 4 months. I guess you will be experiencing your first transfer soon. Good luck with whatever goes on there. I'm sure it will be hard to say goodbye to the area if you have to go. We are anxious to find out who you will be with and where you will be. We wish we had a mission map so we could see your areas better. I have been looking on Google earth lately and zoomed in on your Randers area. The pictures I saw didn't have a bunch of snow all around though, so it probably looks a bit different to you. It's fun to try to see some of the streets you may be walking down. What is your apartment address? We could try to see it.

Tani gave her talk Sunday. She did a great job! Thanks for sending her some info and for the Preach my Gospel advice. She used everything you told her about. She also gave the talk last night at the Hearthstone Manor. Our family did the FHE for them up there. Do you remember when we did that before? We were missing your guitar skills! We did a lot of musical numbers. Piano, flute, squeezebox. The members there seemed to enjoy it all. Jansen gave a scripture and a prayer. Tani a talk and a few musical numbers. She is having fun on the squeezebox. She has picked it up really well! Tia played a piano number and dad and I filled in on a few piano/flute things. It was fun. The people seemed very receptive this time. I think they like when it is mostly musical numbers. They can hear it a little better than talks.

Saturday was a pretty well booked day. Dad and I started off with a race at BYU. Dad did the 10K and I did the 5K. We had to hurry and leave before we knew the results. There were like 2000 people that ran the 2 races. We found out yesterday that he had placed 1st in his age and I was 2nd in mine. We hurried home and got ready, grabbed the girls and headed to West Valley in a yucky snow storm to celebrate Brielle's 2nd birthday. She is sure a cute little thing! She got lots of fun presents and attention. We had a nice soup with bread bowl lunch and yummy pink sweet dessert buffet!

After the party we had to run to UVU for some piano judging for Tani and Tia. They both did a great job there. Then home to get ready to take Tani to the temple for baptisms. It was her very first time. She had a very enjoyable time. We went with John Allan and Emily and Jeff and Kellee Parkinson and their daughter, Kortney. The Allans had some family names, so even I was able to be baptized. I haven't done that since I was in high school. It was so nice to do it. Dad just told me to make sure to bend my knees so he could get me under easier. It made us think of him baptising you on the day of the flaming van! Good memories!

That is about the jist of things here at home. We hope you have had an enjoyable and successful week! Everyone asks about you all the time and wishes you the best. I was talking to Todd Sermersheim. He said they had a surprise birthday party for Cade a few weeks ago. As he was sitting there at the party his cell phone rang and he heard....."Hello Dad!" It was Colton calling from Austrailia! His first thought was that Colton was in a hospital somewhere. Colton said, don't worry dad, I'm just in an interview with the president. Colton had mentioned that it was his little brother's b-day so the president handed him his cell phone and said, call him and wish him a happy birthday, you have 2 minutes! So Colton talked to Cade then Creed then Janalee got on and he was gone! I'm sure Janalee was sad to miss the hello. But how fun was that? I thought that was kind of cool.

Anyway, we look forward to hearing from you! We love you!

Love, Mom, Dad and the gang

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hi from Randers

Hey Everyone!

How's it goin'? I'm doing good! I'm actually in Randers again today! We went to the Regnskov again! Last time we went we got the year passes so we can go back as much as we want all year! We had Interviews yesterday in Århus and that went well. I always like doing things like that because its fun seeing the other missionaries in the area. Randers is in between Århus and Aalborg, so we stopped here for the day. We are here with the Randers Elders and the Frederikshavn Elders. It's kinda like a celebration for Elder Ribble, because today is his 1 year in the land mark. So we need to party with him. The Regnskov was way fun again! We saw all of our good animal friends and all, and I got some more pictures and videos.


Hmm, so whats else has been going on here? Its always so hard when I sit down at the computer and try to think of what I did during the week. It's always just a blur. With two of the investigators that I told you about last time, Celina and Lei, we tried to set up baptismal dates with them, but they both said that they would think about it and we could talk with them about it later. I really think that both of them will get baptized eventually. It's just a matter of time. Man, but that guy Lei, he loves us! He loves when we go over to meet with him, and I can tell that it always crushes him when we say we have to go. He has a guitar, and I played him a few songs, and he loved it. He asked me if I play electric guitar and I told him yes and then he said he was gonna buy an electric guitar for me so I could play it. Hahaha, we had to insist that he doesn't do it. We were like, ''Lei, thats really nice of you, but I can't accept an electric guitar from you'' haha, He is awsome!

The work is going really well for us right now, well for us in Aalborg, the mission overall is really suffering right now. We found out that the entire mission right now only has 1 single baptismal date! That is sad. President told us yesterday in interviews that he was really proud of what we are doing up in Aalborg, and he wants us to keep working hard and see if we can get a baptism or two.

Not really anything else has happened this week. Transfers are coming up pretty soon. It's weird that my training is already almost over! Soon the new missionaries are gonna come in and I won't be the biggest noob here anymore! I'm excited for that! I really hope that I stay in Aalborg for a bit longer, but I have no idea what will happen. I'm sure whatever happens is what is supposed to happen and I'll be happy with wherever I go.

Oh yeah, the new Ægtepar moved in. They got her at about 10:30 thursday night and we had to go help them move in. They seem like great people so far and I think it'll be good to have them here. They already seem to be getting along with the ward members really well, and they seem like they are eager to do missionary work, and I think they will really be able to help us out with ours.

Yup, its pretty cool that I got accepted to BYU! That'll be cool having that waiting for me when I go home. Thanks for taking care of all that stuff that goes along with it. And just let me know if there is anything that I need to do. It's kinda funny, cuz Elder Dalton has been really busy getting stuff ready for school, cuz he goes home in 4 months. He's been really stressed about all of that, and I told him, ''I'm glad that I don't have to worry about all of that college stuff right now'' and then later that day I saw that I had an email from BYU saying that I was accepted, and I thought, ''Dang, maybe I will have to worry about that stuff right now!''

About the electronic dictionary, I still might get one, but I might not. I haven't looked much for one, but It's hard to find one that is what I'm looking for. Since Danish isn't a very popular language its hard to find one that has a lot of Danish words and all. But if I see something that seems like what I want and its not too expensive I'll probably get it.

That's too bad for Camron and Jansen. That's probably hard for them. Especially for Camron and Rurika, they seemed pretty serious. I'm sure they will get over it though and be able to move on.

Hahaha! I don't know why Denmark has such lousy athletes! Did they even win any medals at all? They are kinda pathetic when It comes to that. I guess it could be something to do with the lack of mountains. Denmark has absolutely no mountains at all. Its just flat. I'm sure it will be really weird for me when I come back home to be surrounded by huge mountains. Norway however has a ton of mountains, and a lot of people from Denmark go on skiing trips there. They are just not good athletes though I guess.

Oh yeah, I got the package from you! Thank you! It was exciting to get my first package here in Denmark! The treats were way good. I really liked the Reese's! You just can't get Reese's here, or any good peanut butter. It was also good to hear a bit from you again on the tape. You weren't lying when you said its just gonna be quick, it was really short. But its better than nothing. Tani sounded great on the piano! She is getting really good! I'll record some stuff on it eventually and send it back to you. This time I'll try to remember to just send the tape and not the whole tape player.
Oh yeah, and speaking of Tani, that is cool that she is giving a talk in Sacrament meeting. I bet she is a bit nervous but I'm sure she will do great. The Role of The Book Of Mormon. That is a good topic. I can give a bit of advice on that topic. As missionaries, The Book of Mormon, along with the Holy Ghost, are our most powerful tools. It is so important because it confirms truth, and testifies of Christ. We work so hard to get people to read and pray about The Book of Mormon, because we know that if they do, they will get a testimony that it really is the word of God. And once they know that, everything else falls into place. It proves that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, and that all he did to reestablish the Church was by the authority from God. And it confirms that this is the true church of Christ again on the earth. That is a bit of what I've learned about it in my short time as a missionary. Do you have a Preach My Gospel book? My old one should be there. Tani should look in the Chapter about the Book of Mormon. It has a ton of good stuff about the role of the Book of Mormon. Good luck Tani!

Well I'm gonna split. See ya later!

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Hi from Dad and the gang!

Hey Tyler,

We figured it was about time I (your Dad) did a little letter writing instead of Mom all the time. I think Mom might still be writing you a snail-mail letter. Always enjoy your emails and hearing about everything about Denmark and your investigators and experiences. I guess here in a few days you or your comp will be heading somewhere else, eh? Hope that works out well for both of you.

Congratulations on your acceptance to BYU! That's awesome. We'll get working on that paperwork so everything is good to go for you down the road.

Well this last week has been a bit of a sad one for Camron and Jansen. At about the same time they both broke up with their girlfriends so they've both been no-so-happy campers. Cam made a spontaneous road trip and started driving south and ended up at the Grand Canyon. But it seemed to be what he needed as he was doing better after his time on the road. It's tough since he's so involved at Snow with the Asians and it's a pretty small, close-knit group so he's having to figure out how to deal with all of that and still being around Rurika. Jansen is doing pretty good but it's hard for him sometimes because he's in some of the same classes and hangs around with the same friends as his "old" girlfriend. I'm sure they'll both be OK after a while.

Hey one thing I was wondering about Denmark - how come they stink so bad at the Olympics? Are they not so great athletes or are there just not the mountains there like in the other Scandinavian countries so they're not the great skiers so much?

Been an interesting week with the condo - we've been booking reservations right and left lately. Almost the entire month of March and half of April is booked. We just got setup with our first "paid" advertising website - VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) and alot of the recent stuff has come through that. It was funny on one of the bookings when they first called and Mom answered the phone she could tell right off it was a guy we both know from childhood days from Ephraim. This guy used to ump all the ballgames for years and has a very distinct speech impediment. One of those small world moments. This week Bishop Bowman and family are staying there.

We that's about it for me. Take care Tyler and keep doing your best and the Lord will bless you. Now Mom will add a few more tidbits.....

Love,
Dad

Hey Tyler,

I have to say hi too! I have the papers you need for your deferment. I will get them off to you. I think you just need to sign them and send them in. That's cool to get accepted to BYU. I'm glad you went through the effort to get all done before you left! It will be nice not to worry about that later!

Sally Hall from Odense wrote me the other day. She said her parents live in the London south mission. So maybe Dan or Eric, whichever one was called to that one will meet them. Sally said she is looking forward to meeting you and hope you get trasfered to her area sometime.

Remember Brother Hebert in our ward? He stood up to bear his testimony on Sunday and told us that he has unoperable liver cancer. He needs a new liver or he won't be here on earth a whole lot longer. It was a pretty solemn time. He asked for the faith and prayers of the members of our ward. Maybe you can add a few for him.

Sunday Tani has to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. It will be her first big talk. Her topic is The Role of The Book of Mormon. If you have any advice to give her, I'm sure she would appreciate it. Then Monday night our family will be doing FHE for the Hearthstone Mannor. We are realizing that a lot of our musical talent has moved out of the house. We will really miss your guitar playing that night. Speaking of guitar....do you get to play once in a while? Hopefully not too much, but hopefully at least a bit.

That is crazy you got stranded in Frederikshavn. I guess that is just one of those missionary adventures! I'm glad you got to give the priesthood blessing. That was probably a neat opportunity. Can you believe all the things you are doing and learning? I think it is amazing! Missions are wonderful things for the investigators, the member, the missionary's family and especially the missionary! Thank you for your great example to us! We love you! Have a great day!

Love Mom

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I think Mother Nature is BiPolar.

Hey everyone!

So yeah, the weather has just been insane lately! There was that huge snow storm that went on for a couple of days, and then it completely changed. It suddenly got warm! Just overnight it became warm and the sun has been shining and the snow is melting! I can actually see the ground for the first time! It's weird seeing Denmark without piles snow because that is the only way I've seen it up untill now. So that has been pretty exciting! I guess spring has finally decided to show up. I don't know if I told you this earlier, but this winter has been the longest, coldest, snowiest winter that Denmark has seen since i think 1985! And of course, that is what I get thrown right into.
Anyway, so our little trip to Frederikshavn actually turned into a little longer stay than we had planned. Like I said earlier, there was a huge snow storm for a few days, and that was when we were up in Frederikshavn. It was so bad that they shut down the trains and we couldn't go home! We had to stay there for 2 days longer than we originally planned! It was fun though. It's always fun seeing other missionaries. I'm actually glad that we stayed longer, because of 2 things that happened. First of all, we ate dinner with a Greenlandic woman one night. She made the best dinner that I have had here in Denmark! It was some halibut that was in some sort of stew that we put over rice. It was so good! And the other reason that I'm glad we stayed was because I had my first opportunity to give a priesthood blessing! We went to a guy's house, and he told us that he wanted a blessing, and the responsibility fell on me. It was a good experience though and I'm glad I got that chance. Oh and there is another good reason that we didn't go home when we planned. We found out that there was some stupid Aalborg erotica festival thing going on outside the train station right when we had originally planned to get home. So it is definitely a good thing that we were held up in Frederikshavn.
Well, we are now back here in Aalborg and have gotten back to work. I'll tell you a bit about a couple of our most promising investigators. The first is named Lei, he is a guy from Burma, probably about 35. He speaks Danish, and a bit of English. We met him on the street and he has always been super nice and inviting. After visiting his house a couple times he told us that he wants us to visit him every single day. hahaha. We've been trying our best to. Anyway, he also wants us to teach him English, so we have been doing that as well. He is a great guy.
The next is named Bernard. He is a black guy from Cameroon about 30 years old. He is going to the University here and we contacted him at his dorm. At first he was kind of reserved and he stayed pretty quiet, but we have visited him several times, and he has opened up a ton. He says he really likes meeting with us. As he says ''I like meeting with you people. You people are good people''
And the last investigator I'll tell you about now is Celina. She is Chinese. Her real name is something crazy like Xin Yao or something like that, but she goes by Celina. She is in her late 20's. The sister missionaries before us actually started teaching her and we have just continued. She really enjoys talking with us and she told us that she feels good when she does. I really hope that these 3 continue to progress and get baptized.

Don't worry mom, its not a big deal when we split up to contact. We usually just go on opposite sides of the street and talk to people. We don't like go to opposite ends of town or anything.
Yeah, my companion is really good. He has been a great trainor and I'm glad I got put with him. Transfers are in about a week and a half, so that is when we will get split up. One of us will stay here in Aalborg and the other will go somewhere else. I really hope that I am the one to stay. I really like it here. I hear that we are the envy of the mission, being the first elders here in a long time. It's just such a great place for missionary work, and the ward is so strong in the church and just great. So yeah, I hope I can have a couple more months here.
The Ægtepar left today. They are on an airplane home right now. The ward absolutely loved them, I could tell. They threw them a big surprise party on monday and pretty much the entire ward showed up. It was fun. I'm gonna miss the Adams. The new Ægtepar comes today. They are the Jepsons. I hope they are as cool as the Adams are.
Yeah, it is awesome that both Dan and Eric are going to London! I'm not sure when they go, but I think they are actually in different missions. One is in the north and one in the south or something. Still its crazy though. Its been really fun hearing where my friends are getting called to. It'll be really weird when I start hearing about my friends getting married!
That is exciting that Mark and Jamie had their little baby! I'm happy to hear that all went well with that and everyone is doing good. Steve and Susan must be pretty excited to be Grandparents now!
Well, I guess I'll get going now. Have a great week! Bye!

Love Ældste Tyler Lee

Hi Elder Lee!

Hi Tyler!

Here is it Tuesday night again! The Olympics finished up on Sunday. You asked about the Olympics. Apollo Ohno was lots of fun to watch. He ended up with 8 career medals. It will be interesting to see if he competes again in 2014. You mentioned that USA beat Canada in hockey. Well, they beat them to find the seeding, but in the long run Canada beat USA for the gold. Which is probably the way it should be since the Olympics were in Canada this year. It was fun to watch the USA four man bobsled team. They took the gold with a pilot from Utah.

Sorry to hear you have had such yucky weather! Two feet of new snow! Holy Cow! I hope you have been warm enough when you are out and about! It must have been pretty bad for church to be cancelled! I only remember one time that happened here. The snow drifts were so bad they couldn't get the parking lot cleared for people to get in.

So we have a question. You said that you sometimes split up so you can make more contacts. That is a little concerning to us. Are you within sight of each other when you split up? We are under the impression that missionaries should stay together. You haven't mentioned much about your companion. How are things going there? Do you guys have any idea of how long you will be together in that area? I guess your first transfer time will be coming up soon. It will be interesting to find out what comes next. It was neat to hear how you were able to talk to that contact so well. I'm sure you will have more and more of those kinds of experiences as the time goes on.

That is cool that Dan and Eric are both going to London! Do you know when either of them leave? Are they going into the MTC the same day? That's crazy! It would be fun if someone from here gets called to Denmark while you are there.

So Jamie had her baby girl! She had her the same morning we heard from you. She was born the 24th. She is sure a little cutie! Jamie and Mark are very happy to have her here! Susan has been with them since the baby was a day old. I think Steve was coming today. They are pretty happy to be grandma and grandpa!

We have new hometeachers. Brother Morgan Fife and Garrett Nielsen. They came for the first time on Sunday. It was nice to have them here. Garrett is preparing to go on a mission himself! He is planning to send papers in around September. That's pretty exciting, huh?!

Sunday was Kasen Graff's farewell. We talked to him on Saturday at Jansen's basketball game. He is seeming pretty excited to get going! He doesn't go into the MTC until next week. His farewell was this Sunday because of fast Sunday next week. I wonder if he will drop his plate at his first meal? Aren't you glad that part of your mission is over? I'm glad it's not us saying goodbye next week! It's good to have that part over too!

I guess you have heard about the earthquake in Chille. That is where Lyle Measom served. And I think it's where Doug Miller is going. I need to talk to Laite and find out when he heads out. It's probably quite concerning to Lyle as he tries to find out how all of his friends are doing.

I guess I'll go for now. I hope you are seeing some sunshine. Have a great week!

Love ya!

Love, Mom, Dad and the gang!