Oct. 23, 2011

Hey Everybody!

I hope everyone is doing well! My week has been OK, but I've had better.. I've gotten kind of sick. :/ It's nothing with nausea, it's more of a headache, stuffy nose, sore throat and cough type thing. LAME. But other than that the week has been pretty good. Guess what! I have less than a month left now! :-O 4 weeks! That's so crazy!

That's cool that you got another car. I bet Jansen is pretty happy about that.

Thanks for including a passage from Landon's email. It sounds like he is pretty excited to get to work. I'm sure that he is gonna do a great job.

Hahaha that is way funny what happened with dad in Sacrament meeting. I didn't know that dad could make mistakes on organ. He plays very well. To bad that I wasn't there for that one.

After another day at church here I am starting to get to know the branch, and the people here are really funny and nice. I hope I can be one of those fun energetic happy old guys when I'm older, instead of one of those grumpy boring guys. There is one guy in the ward, (cool name) who is one of those grumpy old people. He made like 50 comments in priesthood class and they were pretty much all about how people don't read in the bible as much as they should. Oh by the way I held a talk yesterday at church.

It's crazy that Halloween is next week! It seems like I just barely had my Birthday, and now it's already almost been a month! I decided on an idea for my jackolantern. I hope it works. It's going to be really complicated but I'm gonna try to do a portrait of President m
Monson. I made a stencil for it just barely. We'll see how it turns out.

Well let me tell you a little more about the new area, and about my week. So our investigators are doing pretty good. Especially Leyla. We are going over there 2 times a week. She really likes meeting with us. This last time we were there we finally got her to pray. She wouldn't pray because she said she was scared to. And that she didn't feel worthy to. But we had a really good lesson about prayer, and at the end we challenged her to pray. She was still reluctant, so I said that I could say a prayer, and then Elder Nørgaard could say a prayer, and then she could try. And so that's what we did, and she said her first prayer in many many years. I then challenged her to make prayer a regular part of her life again and she said that she wants to do that. :) We are going over there again tomorrow and we are going to try to set a baptismal date with her. I'll let you know how it goes.

We also met with Elijah again. Elijah is way cool, and he is very smart and knows a lot about the bible. He asked a lot of questions, and we watched a conference talk with him. The one by Jeffery R Holland about the Book of Mormon. I think it's called Safety for the Soul. It made him want to start reading the BOM a little more.

I don't know if I told you last time that we have a blind investigator.. Well we do. She is an older lady named Lise and she can't see a thing. But she really likes the church and the BOM and we told her that we can get it to her on CD.

Elder Nørgaard's sister isn't an investigator, she is an inactive member. She is doing ok. We went there a couple nights ago, and she said she wants to know more about the church and make it a bigger part of her life. We were bummed when we got a text on Sunday saying that she was too tired to come to church.

The other day we went to zone conference and it was so weird for me. Because I looked around and out of the 30 something missionaries there, I was the oldest (mission wise) I've even been here longer than Pres Andersen. Then I realized that that was my very last zone conference. :O The next one is right after I go home, so I'm done! It was cool, at the zone conference I met my grandson! I got a picture of our whole family.

The other day I was in the right place at the right time. It was kinda funny, a guy was pushing an old lady on a wheelchair, and then he stopped her and went inside to grab something, and when he went inside the lady started rolling down towards the road (there was a slight hill) Right before she rolled over the curb into the street I reached out and stopped her. It was funny because I didn't even have to speed up to get to her in time. We just met up perfectly. Anyway, the guy ran back out, they thanked us and we continued on our way.

Oh guess what! I bought a new suit! It is the coolest suit I've ever worn. It's a grey European suit, originally 2500, but I got it for 1500 ($250ish) I tried it on and it fit perfectly, so I got it. I was going to take a picture and send it to you, but then I though instead that you can just see it in person in 4 weeks. :D

I have to admit, I am getting pretty good at accordion. haha. It's pretty hard, especially with the left hand because there are a million buttons and you can't see what you are doing, so I always get lost. I want to get one when I come home, but they are apparently pretty pricey.

I talked to Elder McCleary yesterday and got some bad news. The first bad news is that Annie has disappeared from the face of the earth. They can't get a hold of her at all. :/ And the other bad news is that Omar and Malin are still waiting for wedding papers. Since Omar is from Canada and he was married before, there is a bunch of crap that they need to sort out before they can get married. They are almost done but they need to wait a couple weeks for something, so it is looking like they are going to be getting married the Saturday AFTER I leave... What the heck?! Oh well, I guess what really matters is that they DO get married and she DOES get baptized. It's not so important that I'm there.

I have 2 pics for you today. The first is of me, My son Elder KLC, and his son, I think his name is Elder Dunshee. And then there is a picture of me and sister Andersen. She comes home I think in January or February.

I am excited to see you again in a few days! I miss you all! See ya!

Love Elder Tyler Lee

ps, about that school stuff. That is good that you have found someone that can help us with it, because I don't really know at all what we are supposed to do. I guess you can just take her advice and go with that writing 150 whatever. And I'll go with Biology. Thanks for staying on top of all that. :)

Oct. 17, 2011

Hi there!

That makes 2 emails missed... You've been slacking a bit lately. Just kidding, no hard feelings.

How are you doing this week? How crazy is it that ín 5 weeks from today I'll be coming home! My paper chain is so short now! It's about as long as my arm!

Well I'm starting to get used to Skive I guess. I really miss Herning and Silkeborg already. I really wish that I could have just stayed there for the rest of the time. I guess I'll tell you what has happened so far since I've been here. Well first, on Tuesday, me and McCleary decided that we needed to end strong, so we went to Jensens Bøfhus, and bought all-you-can-eat ribs. It was way good, and we sure did eat all we could. I was so full, but very satisfied.

Transfers were on Wednesday. I finished getting packed, and we caught a train at 5. It was so dumb, because it should take only 45 minutes to get to skive from Herning, but I had to go with McCleary to meet some other missionaries, and I met up with Elder Nørgaard and headed back. It ended up being about 4 hours in all.

This is kinda funny, the very first appointment that I had here in Skive happened to be with Elder Nørgaard's sister. Haha. She lives in the area and is less active so we visit her.

We don't have a ton of investigators here but there are a couple of positive ones. There is a new investigator named Leyla we met with. She is cool, she let us in and we were there for a long time, because she had so many questions. She received a BOM the time before and she had read the first 16 chapters. And liked it. She also saw the movie The Testaments and thought it was really good. We talked to her about pretty much everything, and when we brought up baptism she said that she had actually considered that before and she thinks it's something that she would like for her and her 10 year old daughter. We didn't set a date but she said that it could be something that happens in the future.

Another investigator we have is Elijah. He is funny. He is a friendly little black man, probably about 5 feet tall if that. Our apt with him was very interesting. We went over to his place and he wasn't home, but about 10 other Africans were. His wife invited us in and while we were there another 10 Africans came in, and finally Elijah showed up too. So we were just sitting there in a room with like 20 Swahili speaking Africans. But it was actually pretty good. We ended up teaching like half of them. There were these 2 girls who were very interested and very believing. Problem is, they live in Norway and are just visiting.

Elder Nørgaard was sick for a couple days though so we weren't able to do much. I took advantage of that time though by playing a lot of accordion. Nørgaard has an accordion!! How cool is that? And I'm learning how to play it. In a couple weeks when I'm better at it I'll send a video of me playing it or something.

Church yesterday was actually really nice. I already like this little branch. There were about 20 people who showed up, and me and Elder Nørgaard were the only 2 under about 60... No joke. They are all nice and friendly and were very welcoming to me. After the meetings we had a potluck meal. That was a perfect opportunity for me to get to know some of the people in the branch.

Well so far the new companionship is going alright. The 2 of us have a lot of similar interests and things, but his personality is exactly opposite of mine. But we are getting along alright, and teaching well together.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I'm a grandpa now! Yup, my boy Elder Klc is now training. It seems like I was just barely training him.

Guess what. I have some pictures for you! The first one is me and McCleary after our all you can eat ribs day. Then there is me by a fountain in Skive. And then last of all, I made it to my final planner!! That is crazy. I went all out on this one and decorated 5 pages of it. What do you think??

Well that's all for today. I hope you have an amazing week! I'll talk to ya later, and see ya soon.

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Oh ok there it was. I wasn't expecting to get a letter from you on this email. I don't use this one very much. Well, thanks for the email! :)

With all that BYU stuff, I'm not really sure what the best way to go about it would be either. I'll get back to you on that next week. For the first semester I don't think it matters too much. Just the general classes I need, and I'd also like something with art/drawing.

And about leaving for Thanksgiving, I think that would be fun. It would be a good way to catch up with everyone in the family. But if that is the case, I hope it's ok with you if I sneak out real quick Tuesday evening to go say hi to some friends.

Thanks for the email, and the pics and everything. I'll talk to ya later!

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Oct. 10, 2011

Hey everybody!!

How are you doing? First of all I should tell you the big news first. That is about transfers. As I predicted, I will be leaving. :( But the good news is that it isn't very far away. Tomorrow I will be transferring to a place called Skive (Ski-Vuh) It is about 40 kilometers north from Herning so not too far at all. That is awesome because now I should be able to come back to Malin's wedding/baptisms with no problem. Oh, my new companion will be elder Nørgaard. It will be kinda interesting, but it should be fun. He is Danish which is cool. He is also 26 years old, so that will be kinda weird. I don't know too much about him, but I've talked to him about art before. He is really good at art and piano. So we have some similarities. I hope it will be a fun final 6 weeks.

Anyway, I didn't think that it was possible to go to a smaller branch, but I am. Skive is one of the very smallest in Denmark. There are just a few old people in the ward and they are all way old. I'm excited though, I've heard that they are really nice. It's weird, I started my mission in one of the biggest wards in Denmark and every single transfer I've gone to a smaller ward.

The last few days have mostly been me trying to get ready, and going around to everybody to say goodbye. It's always pretty hard saying goodbye to an area. Especially when it's one that you really love and full of a lot of people that you love. It was tough saying goodbye to Omar and Malin and their family, and to Mia and some of the other members and investigators. When we said goodbye to Annie she said that she still wants to work towards getting baptized and she still wants me to baptize her.

Last night we went over to Mia's one last time to say goodbye and I decided to get her some presents to thank her for everything that she's done for me, so I got her a card game called Monopoly Deal, which is way fun, and we ended up playing it for like 3 hours. Also for my bday she gave me a sketchpad and art supplies so I used them to draw a picture of her from her baptism. She loved it, and when she opened it she started crying.

Other things we've done this week... We finally were able to play soccer golf!! Woohoo! And it ended up being way fun! It was perfect weather, and there was nobody else there so we had the course to ourselves. We ended up going through the course 3 times. And it was a lot harder than we expected. We had our own personal caddies. Well, ''Cat-ies'' There were these 2 cats that followed us around the entire time.

Wanna hear a funny story. The other day we were on the way to an appointment and we needed gas, (I told you we got a car right?) So Elder McCleary pulled over to get some gas. He drives because my license expired on my birthday. Anyway he starts gasing up and just as he was about done I looked back and noticed that he was putting Diesel Fuel in it. So he came back and I told him that I think he put Diesel, and he said yeah I think I did too. So we pulled off to the side and called into the mission office to see what we should do, and they told us not to start the car at all, and that we had to call and get it towed and pumped out. We were so lucky though, because we called Gene, the guy who the appointment was with and he is friends with a mechanic who was able to come and tow our car and pump it and fix it up for us for a ''cheap'' cost. 1000 kroner later we were back on the road. :)

Oh that reminds me of another funny story. We found out that the car is going to stay here in Herning. The funny part about it is that they took the car from Skive... Which happens to be where I'm going. :/ So I'm still on bikes. Oh well.

Guess what!! Today we went to Lego Land!! It was so awesome! Even though it was raining the whole time, and the coolest ride was shut down. I though it was way cool anyway. It is so crazy the things that they can make with legos. They said that some of the statues and things they make consist of over a million legos! By the way, Legos were started in Denmark. Lego is short for Leg Godt, which means ''play well'' Cool huh.

I wish I could tell you some more about that and everything else, but the library closes in less than 10 minutes so I gotta go. But guess what! I have a million pictures for you! I hope you like them. I won't explain them all to you because it would take forever. but you can figure it out and if you have any questions about them then just ask. ;)

Well I hope you have an amazing week and I can't wait to hear from you again, and I'm excited to see you all in 6 weeks! Miss ya!!

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Oct. 2, 2011

Hey Y'all

Well, my birthday was actually really great this year. Waaaay better than last year. We had interviews that day. It was cool that we were able to meet with some of the other missionaries at interviews. Guess what. There was actually another missionary that has the same birthday as me. Elder Sandstrom. So we had to share.. I got the package there from Chelsey and opened it. There was a Birthday Boy badge I put on and wore it the rest of the day. After we were done with interviews we went to Silkeborg and some of the members in the branch threw a little party for me. It was so nice of them. They made a danish dish, Flæskesteg for us that is so good. I hadn't had it since Christmas so I was happy about that. They also had a cake for me and THREE other desserts. We ate so much but it was all delicious food. They also got me a little gift as well.

The next day is when we had my other BDay party thing. We went to Family Home Evening and we gave a lesson about the Iron Rod and had an activity where we blindfolded everybody and made a course through the church with yarn that they had to hold on to and it led them to the tree (and the treats) at the end. That was fun and everyone enjoyed it. After the activity they brought me more cake and sang to me. When we were done we went to Mia's house with her two friends, Pia, and Anne Marie, and they made one of my other favorite Danish meals, Tarteletter, and they gave me some presents. It was a couple of really fun days. :)

The rest of the week was also pretty packed. We had a lot of appointments and also Conference. We couldn't really meet with Annie because she has been pretty sick, but we did stop by one day to see how she's doing and let her know that we care, and she was happy for that. She said that she still wants to come to church and that she still wants to meet with us as much as she did before but she isn't going to be ready for baptism on the 8th. So that's a bummer, but hopefully we will still be able to get her in the water before I go home.

We met with Omar and Malin the other day and found out some really exciting news. Malin told us that she is pregnant again! She's expecting another baby in May! We went over there to give Lucas his bday card and present. He just turned 5 years old and he is very proud of that.

Saturday we went to Århus to see the first session of conference. I really enjoyed Conference. We saw the Saturday morning session that evening at 6, then we stayed the night in Århus, and the next morning we went back the the church, had a nice breakfast, and watched the priesthood session and then the Saturday afternoon session. After that we headed back to Herning and watched the Sunday morning session with Mia at her house. We weren't able to see the final session because they show it from 10 to midnight. That's just a bit late for us.. But I enjoyed the talks that I did see. I watched them all in English except for the Saturday afternoon. Some of my favorites were Elder Hollands talk in the Priesthood Session, and Elder Eyring on Sunday morning. Oh and of course President Monson is always good. :) It's so cool that they are making another Temple in Provo! That was exciting to hear that they are gonna rebuild the tabernacle as a temple.

So that is the update with me. Thanks for the update with you all! Congrats on the Marathon! You two are both crazy! But that's cool. I hope everyone had a fun weekend in St George.

Tillykke med fødselsdagen to Tia!! That is so weird for me to think that she will be going to young womens in a year! I hope she had a good Bday and that she will have a good Bday party on Friday!

No way! Colton is coming home after me? He must have extended for a long time! That's cool though, so I'm the next one to come home? That will be weird with me, Colton, and Jerry all coming home a week after the next.

I'm pretty sure that the UFO thing is mostly just for art. It is in a little town that has a big art museum near it. I also heard though that it is designed so that it gets struck by lightning a lot and that when it gets struck it reverberates and echoes over the entire area.

So transfers are coming up on the 12th. I'm sure I'll know what's gonna happen by next week. I'm 90 percent sure that I'm going to leave, which kinda sucks. I'm so sure because McCleary is gonna be training and so they will most likely have him train here where he knows what is going on. I wish I could stay here, but I'm not to worried about transfers because it will just be a few weeks than I'll be outta here anyway.

Duh how did I forget to tell you this big news?! We got a car finally! When we went to conference they gave us a car to come back in. So we will finally be able to visit some of the people that are farther away and get a lot done. That also means that we have one last chance to finally go play soccer golf. We are planning on going today, and we really hope it will finally work out!! Oh and then next week we are hoping on going to Lego Land! That would be so cool!

Well that's all I've got for today. Thanks for everything you do!! Have a great week and I'll see you next month!! :)

Love Elder Tyler Lee :)

Ps. Let me explain these pictures for you. The first 3 are from my first BDay with some members from silkeborg. The big fella across from me is Benny the branch president. Then there is me with my cake from Herning branch (it's nice having two branches, haha) Then in the next 2 there are people who were with to FHE. The girls in pic number 6 are the ones who threw me a party after. Mia is on the left. Then there is a picture from my party, and then lastly it's me with my presents I recieved. Let me tell you a little about the gifts. Mia gave me the coolest danish book ever. Its called ''Muldvarpen, der ville vide, hvem der havde lavet lort på dens hoved'' The translation is ''The mole that wanted to know who it was that took a crap on it's head'' It's such a funny book. I got toy story 3 from Pia. It was so funny when I opened it, because a few weeks ago I told her that she looks exactly like Jessie the cowgirl from toy story (because she does) so she got me that movie kind of as a joke. I also got a sketchpad with some nice pencils, a nice golden danish Christmas ornament, and some other little things. And then the best is the pass of all passes I got from Chelsey. :) It's a pass that lets me go to basically any place in Utah as much as I want all year. (seven peaks water park/ice arena, trafalga, sporting events, wolf mountain ski resort, and more) She got one for herself as well so now we have a whole bunch of fun things we can do when I come home.

K gotta go. See ya in 49 days!