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!

Sept. 26, 2011

Hey Everybody!!

Thank you for all the great emails and all of the birthday wishes!!!! :D I can't believe that tomorrow is my birthday! It feels so weird to be turning 21! I'm getting so old! I'm excited though. I should have a really great birthday. I won't really do to much tomorrow to celebrate because we are really busy, but the next day Mia is going to through me a little bday party. Isn't that nice of her? It will be nice to have a little something because last birthday was really lame.

Whoah!! I never thought about this. In just a few days I'll be able to say I'm coming home next month! Weird! We are down to 8 weeks now. That will be done before we know it. There are six missionaries that go home in 2 weeks, and then me and my group will be the oldest in the mission. See ya soon! ;)

It sounds like everybody is doing good and that the girls are having fun as always with their plays. That's cool that I'll actually be able to see this next one.

Well there has been a little change in plans... A roadblock has come with Annie. :/ This last little while we have been working really hard to help her understand tithing, but she has had a problem with it. She has nothing against giving money to the church but she says that she won't be able to pay 10%. Because she has a daughter and grandson in California and family in Africa that she has to send money to each month to help them, and she doesn't think that she has enough to pay 10%. She said that she would be able to spend 500 kr a month and if the church won't accept that then she won't be baptized. She doesn't understand that it isn't about the money, but about the obedience and sacrifice. Anyway, she called us today and said that we are going to have to put off the baptism for now. She still loves the church and wants to come, but now she is just having some problems and the baptism will hopefully come later.

But at least we will still have a baptism in a few weeks. There is nothing that will stop Malin from getting baptized. She is doing so great! Even though she is getting a lot of crap from her parents and family, she is not letting it stop her because she knows it's true. The only thing that is a bummer though is that it is after transfers so I will most likely miss out on their wedding and I'll have to pay to come back for the baptism. Oh well it will be worth it.

We also hope that Ryan will keep moving forward. We were a little bummed yesterday at church because he told us that he was going to come but he never showed up.

So yeah this week has had it's ups and downs, but for the most part it was pretty good. Here is an up. The other day I bought a chocolate milk flavored slushy thing. It was so good! It was like hot chocolate, but it was freezing cold! (so I guess it really wasn't like hot chocolate at all..) I want another one right now.

This week we also went on splits to Horsens. I was able to be companions with the bald missionary, Elder Peterson. Haha. It was a pretty good splits. And when I was with Elder Camp we just talked about going home the whole time. He is in the group that is going home in 2 weeks.

Saturday was pretty cool. First of all we were able to meet with our investigator, Isabella again finally. It had been forever!!! She is doing pretty good. And then after that was fun. Do you remember those pictures of me and McCleary by that weird giant UFO-lookin statue thingie? Well on Saturday they had an open house thing for it, and we were able to actually go down inside of it! It was pretty cool. It seems so much bigger when you go inside of it! Don't you worry, I have some pictures of it.

Sunday was a good day, even though neither Ryan or Annie came to church. It was someone's birthday so we all had a delicious meal together after church. They had so much cake too. And then after we were finished with that we went over to Omar and Malin's place and hung out with them a bit and shared a message with them. I just love that family! By the way, it is the little boy, Lucas's birthday on Wednesday, the day after mine. It was funny, I told him that my BDay is the day before his and he got way mad and kept denying it, because he wanted his birthday to be before everybody elses. haha. We got him a coloring/activity book for his bday that we are hoping can keep him occupied during sacrament meeting.

I'm excited for this week because first of all it's my birthday! And we also have interviews and General Conference! I'm excited for conference! It's always cool because when I'm watching it I think that you all are doing the exact same thing.

I have a ton of pictures for you! Let me just tell you a little bit about them. So the first five are of us in OnePieces. We found these awesome One piece jumpsuit things at a store and had to try them on. They were cool, and they zip up all the way over the head. The problem though is that they are 200 dollars!! The next 5 are some of our recent card house creations. We are getting pretty good. Then the next 7 are from that giant space ship thing. And finally the last one is a giant disgusting spider that snuck into our house! It scared me so bad! It was so creepy! At first we tried to kill it by throwing a handfull of poppers at it, but that didn't work, it just made it mad, and it started running towards it, and it was SO fast! So we started yelling and hurried and crushed it with a newspaper.

Well I hope you have a great week! Thanks again for everything! And thanks for the birthday wishes! I miss you too!! See ya in no time!!!! :D

Love Elder Tyler Lee

Sept. 19th, 2011

Dear family.

Hey!! How's it going? I'm doing great! How crazy is it that we are down to single digits in weeks now! It is almost done!

Everybody is coming home from their missions now. So I guess the next is Colton right? And then me?

Congrats on your silver Anniversary! That is crazy! You are so old! Happy birthday to Tani! Yeah, it is kinda weird that she is 14. And also that I am nearly 21 years old. That is fine with me that you won't really be sending me much. That would kinda be a waste. It would be nice though to maybe get a little bit of money. I'd like to get a new euro suit before I come home, and also it would probably be nice if I could get a few odds and ends to bring back for people.

Well this has been another good week. They all seem to be good weeks lately. We have been so busy, it is hard to squeeze everything in that we need to.

I think it's awesome that Annie wants me to baptize her. And in the ocean! It is probably going to be freezing cold but hopefully we'll just be able to get in and out and hurry and dry off. Her baptism is in less than 3 weeks! I'm so excited, and I can tell that she is too. She is absolutely loving church, and really becoming friends with all of the members. They are also so happy to have her.

Tuesday was a great day. Tuesdays are always good because we usually meet with Annie, and Omar and Malin. We taught Annie about the Word of Wisdom, and she said that she likes drinking wine and coffee every once in awhile, but that she would stop. :)

Also on Tuesday we had an awesome appointment with the Pearse family. We talked a lot about faith and challenged Ryan to take a leap of faith by doing all of the necessary things to get a testimony and be baptized by December. He said that is something he wants and he'd do that. So, there is going to be another baptism in Silkeborg! :D We are going to set an actual date with him tomorrow. Probably the first or second week in December. So I won't be here, but oh well.

We went to Annita on Wednesday, and she was so happy to see us. She is so funny. And she is the nicest person ever. Bitten is also doing well. By the way, her name is pronounced just like its spelled.

Thursday we went to Århus for a special training thing. That was pretty cool. But other than those things, not much other exciting stuff happened this week. Hmm, I've been having really good weeks with awesome appointments and stuff, but there isn't really too much to write home about it.

Sunday was a very interesting day at church. We were in Herning branch this time, and I can honestly say that it was probably a good thing that no investigators came that day. It was kind of a disaster. First of all, David, the guy that plays the organ showed up late. He showed up right as we were starting singing the song, and he just ran in and shouted, I'm here! And then hurried over the the organ and started playing. Then during the second talk is when it got really interesting. It was Thomas giving the talk. You have to understand what Thomas is like to understand this.. He was baptized a little over a year ago. He's a way nice guy, just a little weird. Anyway, he was up giving his talk, but he apparently doesn't know how to give a talk. He was up there for about 30 minutes rambling on about random things that had nothing to do with anything. And he kept asking questions to the crowd and to the branch president. But nobody knew if they should actually answer so they just sat their quietly and he kept asking. Finally at one point the branch president stood up and told him that its his talk, he needs to just talk and stop asking questions. But he kept doing it anyway. And then finally when he was done he closed by saying something like,''I hope you all have a good day'' and then he sat down. It was pretty weird..

Anyway, the rest of the Sunday was actually really good. We had a potluck meal after the meetings that was really good, and then after that we rode back with a couple in the ward to their house. They live about an hour away from the church by car, but they come every week. They live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere outside of a tiny little village. So we went over there and got to know them better and they showed us around. they actually have a way awesome house that is way old and it has a ton of old furniture and stuff. The wife collects porcelain dolls and they were all over the house. We ate dinner with them and then we went home.

So that was my week. Today we are just gonna play some ping pong and maybe do a little shopping, and then we are gonna go over to Mia's and hang out there. Maybe play a board game or something.

I have 3 pictures today. They are just me making a house of cards. Nothing too exciting, but better than nothing at all, right? Thanks for the pictures you sent. Jansen is looking pretty snazzy.

Have a wonderful week. See ya!!

Love Elder Tyler Lee