1-11-11

Hey y'all. <-- (I've been around Van Nevel and his Tennessee accent too long) First of all, thank you for the encouraging words. :) I'm trying to have a good additude about all of the stuff that has happened, but it is just really hard to. The last couple of days have been really tough. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard. I've been transferred before, but it has been nothing like this time. I never thought that I would become so attached to the people that I serve. I really do love the wonderful people in Aalborg, and leaving them suddenly was the hardest thing that I've had to do on my mission. This was equally as hard as when I said goodbye to my family and friends when I started my mission. I miss the people in Aalborg already, they are some of my best friends. I really really hope that I get the chance to go back there one more time. I'll definitely go there again, if not on my mission, then I'll go after. I also hope that I can grow a similar love for the people here in Nykøbing. I just got here last night and haven't been able to meet anyone yet. I guess I'll just have to have a good additude about things and try my best. On that note, I guess I can tell you a little bit more about the new situation. I'm now serving in a place called Nykøbing Falster. It's way down at the bottom of denmark on an island. It's in the Sjælland zone, but not actually on Sjælland. It's another island below it. My new companion is Elder Poulson, I think that's how you spell his name. He is from big ol' Texas, and he's very proud about that. He's been on his mission for almost 8 months I think. He's a cool guy and i think that our companionship is going to be a fun one. We left from Aalborg on Monday at 10 am. I feel bad for Elder's Greenhalgh and Van Nevel, because they had to travel all the way to Copenhagen with me and straight back again (but at least they got to go back again) That was over 10 hours for them.. hehe. After a break in Copenhagen I met up with Elder Poulson and we got on another train and headed to Nykøbing. We arrived at our apartment around 6. It was pretty crappy trying to get all my luggage there. I only have 2 suitcases (most have 3) but I also have my guitar, a cool framed painting of a sailor smoking a pipe (haha, I don't think I ever told you about that), and I also had a cactus... hahahaha. ok side story.. There is a girl in Aalborg, Cecilie, who had a birthday and we happened to have an eating appointment with her and her family the day before. We decided to get her a present. Well, we couldn't think of what to get her so one day I was talking to Elder Williamson on the phone and I asked what we should get her. He said, Just get her a cactus! So we did :D. I decided to get one for Willy too. So that made it a little harder to transfer all my stuff, oh and on top of that, one of the wheels on my big suitcase busted. grrr. The ward here isn't actually even a ward. It is just a branch. I've been told that there are only about 14 people that come each week! So it is going to be a bit different. The church building is extremely small, and they don't have anyone who can play piano. They use an ipod and speakers for music, and if they find out that I can even play a single hymn, then they will make me play. Our apartment happens to be right above the church. So we have no excuse if we ever come late to church. And church is only 2 hours. We have probably the nicest apartment in the mission. It is really big and well kept. So you may be wondering why it has such a bad name with the missionaries. For one thing, the ward is basically nonexistant, and the work is way hard. We have 1 single investigator at the moment, and the area has been knocked and contacted to death. Everyone has talked to us and almost nobody likes us. That could be the reason. Oh, Dad, I hope you know I do like hearing your mission stories from all those many years ago. I may not have when I was younger, but now that I'm a missionary myself it's fun hearing about what my dad did. And even though it was several decades ago, and times have changed over these many many MANY years, it still helps me out today. ;) Hey guess what! Next week I'll hit my 14 month mark, and that means that I only have 10 months left! TEN! We can count down on are hands, how crazy is that?! I can't believe how fast these months are flying by. Tomorrow should be a good day. We are having a zone conference. So I will get to see all of the missionaries who have been in Sjælland zone again, like Willy and Klc and the rest. Oh I wanted to tell you, I bought some fancy new shoes last week! They are probably the coolest shoes ever. They are brown with kind of a pointy-ish toe, and the best part about it is they are suade. They are ecco brand, which is supposably a good shoe, and I scored them at half off. I don't have a picture right now, but I'll try to remember to get one for next time. I have only one picture for you today. Nothing special, just me standing in front of a billion Cactuses. Uh, I mean Cacti. We went to a store called Plantorama, there was just a sea of plants, any plant you could ever need. This was the cactus isle. Well, I'll talk to ya next week! Thank you for always being there for me, especially when I'm having a hard time. Have a wonderful week! Love Elder Tyler Lee