December 26, 2016 Og et godt nyt år!

Kære Familie,

It was so awesome to see you guys yesterday! It seems like you're all doing so well! I can't believe Cole is a cool 8th grader, I was definitely not cool in 8th grade! 

I had an awesome christmas too! I'll tell the story through pictures :)

On Thursday we had zone conference! It was great! We had a training and then a lot of Christmas songs and we read the Christmas story. We ate really good food and also watched Finding Dory. It was a lot of fun! Despite almost half of the missionaries presents being stolen everyone was in really good spirits. Our mission is stacked with great misisonaries :) We did however get a visit from Santa Claus. This year it was Elder Ericksen, the missionary I trained! I have almost never laughed harder. He was perfect for that role! (see first 2 pics)

I was lucky and got my package which meant we had some sweet apartment decorations! We put up the giant tree of high 5s and got in the Christmas spirit. I even did my best to look like a Russian missionary with my cool new hat. We've been blessed with weather in the mid 40s for the past few weeks which is nice! Denmark isn't quite as cold as everyone thinks! I thought my package was hilarious though thank you guys so much! :) (next two pics)

The next two pictures are on Christmas Eve. We had presents under an itty bitty Christmas tree at the Molbeks apartment. They are a great family! On Christmas Eve it is tradition in Denmark to eat what is called Ris Alamande or rice pudding with whip cream, chopped almonds, and cherry sauce. It tastes amazing. In the pot they put one whole non chopped almond in and whoever finds that one gets a gift. There was accidentally two almonds in there this year so Daniel and I both won. Funny enough I also won last year! I guess I'm pretty good at eating a ton of dessert :) (pics 5 and 6)

On Christmas we were with the Bornemann Family! Thomas and Marie are the parents with Jessica, Joshua, and Emily their kids. I gave Emily the slingshot screaming monkey thing for Christmas. She loved it :) That family is great! My family is also great! I got to see you guys. Looking good ;) I love you and miss you! See you soon :) (Pics 7 and 8)

Merry Christmas,

Ældste McBride

December 19, 2016 Glædelig Jul

Kære Familie,

Hey that is so cool that you guys got to try Æbleskiver!! That is very classic Danish Christmas. I ate a ton last year but we haven't gotten quite so much this year. I'm glad you got a tiny little taste of Danish Christmas. I'm going to make you this dessert called Ris alamande someday. That stuff is good! I think I should be able to skype at 4 but if I can't I'll let you know before.

I had a pretty good week this week. I was with a temporary for about 10 days and things went great! Today I'm picking up my new companion Elder Howes, almost 20 months after we entered the MTC together. He's traveling all the way from the island of Bornholm so he'll probably be exhausted by the time he gets over here. It will be fun and weird to be with someone from my own group! The last time I was with someone who had been in the mission equal or longer than me was August 2015. That is a long time ago! 

Elder Fairbanks and I had a good week! We had a lot to do but eveything went well. We met a Mexican man out late one night and had a first meeting with him yesterday. He is only the 2nd person from mexico I have met on my entire mission! My spanish was pretty rusty unfortunately so we just spoke english. He's a really good guy! Another big highlight was that we got to go to Århus to see the missionary christmas concert! We drove up and picked up Elder Gardner and his companion on the way to. It was like a christmas road trip! It was so fun!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all next sunday!! Sorry I couldn't figure out any presents to send. oops! I love you! 

Glædelig Jul

Ældste McBride

December 12, 2016 Christmas Craziness

Kære Familie,

This week has been crazy! There is a group of missionaries touring the country to perform christmas concerts and so it made transfers crazy. I'm still in Fredericia and Elder Gardner moved to a city called horsens. We're still in the same district which is awesome! We had such a good companionship. Busiest time of my mission. Now all that business is entirely up to me to handle. Because of the music tour my new companion has to stay for a while in his old area so I have a companion right now for about 10 days on a temporary split. His name is Elder Fairbanks and he's a really funny guy. He's a lot of help but since he is leaving so soon all of the planning is up to me for our area and the zone. It's a lot! Time is flying by so fast it is insane. I can't believe we're so far into December already! 

I think I'll be skyping sometime between 2-4 Danish time so I think thats like 8am your time? I'll try to figure it out a little bit better by next week! Wow I had almost forgotten about AD. That was a good chapter in our families history :) I think I'd like to ride into my wedding on those Green Machine bike things we had. 

One really fun thing was that the ward here had the Christmas party! I don't know if i told you this tradition last year but Danes hold hands with each other and walk around their christmas trees while singing christmas songs. It is really fun. I think Danes are where they got the idea for the Whos from whoville in the Grinch movie! They know how to Christmas :)

Love ya!

Ældste McBride

December 5, 2016 17 Awesome Weeks in a Row

Kære Familie,

Wow Congrats Cole! You guys look like real studs out there!! You look so big compared to last time I saw you! That is definitely a bigger trophy than anything I've ever won! You must have been really good if teams chose to forfeit instead of play you wow. Pretty jealous you got to see Jim Gaffigan!

We are still just being blown away here by how many fantastic days and weeks we have had! We went to the temple with M---. She loved it! It was such a cool experience to be in the temple with someone for the first time! She said it was the greatest day ever. It is so cool to see how happy she is about the Gospel! 

We stayed in Copenhagen and were on splits with the assistants. They happen to be some of my best buddies in the mission too. It was fun.  I worked with Elder Hartmann and last time we were on splits was over a year and a half ago when we were both in training in Aalborg! Man I love that guy. At church we had 3 people there for their first time. That's a lot! One of our friends showed up wearing an all white dress. Perfect to be baptized in ;) Christmas food in Denmark tastes so so so good!

Transfers are on Friday. We aren't really looking forward to them very much! But who knows where I'll be or who I'll be with next time! I love you all so much! 

MKH

Ældste McBride

November 28, 2016 Happy Thanksgiving

Kære Familie,

It sounds like you all had an awesome Thanksgiving with a heavy dose of American! Over here Thanksgiving would have been a totally normal day, but we got some American going by eating at Burger King. Also the senior missionaries, Elder and Sister Yates threw a Thanksgiving party so we got all the good stuff! They are so cool. We had a bunch of our friends come to it too. It was awesome because more than half of the people at Thanksgiving weren't from America and it was their first time celebrating it! Hooray for America! Fun fact, Danes love Black Friday so the shops were packed with people. 

For this week I'll just share a story about a new friend I've made. I think that is the coolest part of my mission is the friends I've made from all over the world. My new friend's name is V--- and he is from Romania. He has a thick black beard and walked into the church this Sunday wearing jeans and a bright red t-shirt. I introduced myself to him and we started talking. I asked him what brought him to church that day and without hesitation he said, "to worship God of course".  A couple minutes later I found out he was a member of the church that recently moved to Denmark. But this guy just keeps getting cooler. I sat down next to him during sacrament meeting and right before the meeting starts he looks at me and says "one second, I've got to get something" but instead of standing up he just pulls a worn, well read book of mormon basically out of thin air. So fast. He had it tucked into his belt behind his back hidden under his shirt. He is a really funny guy! As we kept talking I learned more about his story. He met missionaries on Cyprus (part of the Athens Greece mission) and was baptized in the Mediterranean Sea. He quickly became part of the branch presidency there. On his first trip to the temple in Kyiv Ukraine he met his wife, also from Romania, who was on a temple trip at the same time. Later they were married in that same temple and he moved back to Romania where he became the branch president. He told me stories of baptisms he had done in the Black Sea! He has just moved to a city about half an hour from Fredericia, Kolding and without knowing Danish and with a map he drew on a scrap of paper he found his way to Fredericia by train and then walked the rest of the way to the church building. V--- is the man! 

I love you family! Have fun starting the Christmas season over there! We've been in full force for about two weeks now :) I'm so excited for Danish Christmas again, that was the best last year!

Glædelig Jul,

Ældste McBride

November 21, 2016 It's a Piece of Cake!

Kære Familie,

What a great week this was! The weather warmed up a bit so no more snow. Definitely the highlight of the week was M---'s baptism on Saturday. You guys, it was so great! Everything just went perfect. I was blessed to be the one to baptize her and the next day Elder Gardner confirmed her. M--- is a really great example to me and basically everyone that knows her. She has wanted this for a really long time and it was so great to be one of the missionaries to help her make this step! 

She made maybe the coolest cake of all time for the baptism too. I'll send a pic! M--- is the mom of 4 kids under 6 years old. Right after she was baptized and we changed clothes she stood up and bore her testimony. I was sitting with two of her kids in the front row and they went wild as soon as mom went up to the stand. So there I was, a lone awkward missionary not knowing how to handle kids haha :) At the end of her testimony she made this comment, "You aren't baptized just to be blessed but to be a blessing." What wise words. That is the magic of the Gospel when people stop sitting back waiting for blessings, but instead stand up and help others. That's what the baptismal covenant is all about! M--- has taught us a bunch. We are so lucky to be her missionaries! One cool highlight from teaching her was that we covered all the commandments in one marathon lesson, so epic. Saturday night we went over to her house for dinner and ate a fantastic Danish Christmas meal! I'm so excited for Christmas again!

Missions are great! We had another awesome lesson this week where we found out that one of our investigators has kept the Word of Wisdom her whole life. Finding someone that on their own doesn't drink alcohol, coffee, or tea and doesn't smoke is very very rare! She is great. I think in the next few months she will also be baptized! Fredericia is cruising. President O'bryant visited our ward last Sunday and made a bunch of jokes about one of us being transferred or staying together or both moving just to keep us on our toes haha. He's a funny man!

Have fun with Thanksgiving! Eat lots! Thanks for all your prayers and tell the family I say hi! I love you! You should probably stop watching scary movies, it doesn't seem like you can handle it ;)

Love

Ældste McBride 

November 14, 2016 Dominate the Dark!

Kære Familie,

It is starting to get cold here!  Dark too! I have these sweet gloves I got in Iceland and also this giant scarf someone gave me last winter that keep me nice and cozy. We also have a car so thats really lucky! 

Also the work has never ever gone better. Elder Gardner and I sit back sometimes and just wonder why things are going so well. We feel very very blessed! We are just meeting lots of incredible people lately! Missionary work is so fun! You'd never believe who you can meet wandering around a city on a cold, dark night. We've made some really great friends that way. I stopped this one girl that was biking past us one night. She was so excited to meet Mormons in Denmark because she knew some back in Ukraine where she was from and was also an exchange student in the US and in Germany with Mormon families! We are quite the international church! I want to tell you more about some of the people we are teaching but I think its pretty personal info, I promise I'll share a bunch of stories with you someday.

Denmark exploded because of the election. Most Danes are dumbfounded that America could choose Trump. It's hilarious actually.  One newspaper headline was a quote by Trump that said "I am the greatest president God has ever made." Hahah they hate that guy! As two young Americans walking around we get a lot of people giving us their political advice!

Also in theme with your trips to the temple this week, we have been helping M--- get ready so that we can all go to the temple later in the month. It has been fun for her to start figuring out family history! She is so cool. The other night she had a dream that answered one of her prayers. The spirit is amazing!

Earlier this week we had a Leadership meeting in Copenhagen with President and Sister O'bryant. They are such awesome people. I've really learned a ton from them! I think the real miracle was that Elder Gardner and I were early this time and not late. Our transfer name is 3 is the magic number. We really went back and forth between that and 3rd times the charm. Decisions are tough sometimes! Anyway I'm always so happy to hear from you guys. It was weird not being able to recognize anyone in those pics you sent. I don't know that ward at all anymore! I love you family have a great week!

Knus

Ældste McBride

November 7, 2016 Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Kære Familie,

Week 13 of Elder McBride and Elder Gardner in Fredericia was great! Right after we sat down to write it started snowing outside, first snow of the season!! They don't do Thanksgiving here, so we are allowed to really start getting ready for Christmas. It has started to get much colder here so I was really surprised to see pictures of you guys at the lake, so fun :) What is the temperature back home? Its been in the 40s most of this week I think.

3 Nephi 18: 18-21 is a great scripture. Especially verse 20. "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." Its pretty incredible that God, the most important being in the whole universe, will take the time to listen to us. Not just listen, but He has asked us to ask Him for things. He will give us anything we ask as long as its good and we have the right intentions. Pretty cool doctrine I think. It made me think a lot this week especially since we helped a lady pray out loud for the first time in her life and you could tell she didn't take that communication with God for granted! I've asked for a bunch of stuff on my mission and God always finds a way to bless me if I do my part.

Some other fun stuff. There is a young man in the ward that comes out to teach with us all the time and he is waiting to get his mission call in the mail. Its been like 4 weeks and there has hardly gone a day where we haven't called him to ask him if he's gotten it yet haha. We've been telling him he's going to get sent to Mesa! 

Elder Gardner and I also painted a wall in the middle of a salon during business hours. The surprising part is we actually did a good job! Not professional painters but pretty close. I only got a tiny bit on the roof by accident :)  

Also one of the sisters' investigators gave me a sweet tie and came to church for the first time ever in a suit! He usually wears these animal t-shirts, but yesterday he said to me basically "well you did say I should wear a tie someday, so I thought it was about time" My tie has polar bears on it with cool hats. 

Well my goal for this week is to try not to freeze. Wish me luck! I love you! Have a great week!

Ældste McBride

SNOW!!!

My friend Bob the turtle :)

October 31, 2016 3 is the Magic Number!

Kære Familie,

I am happy to announce that Elder Gardner and I are staying a third transfer together here in Fredericia! We were both pretty excited :) President's words were "No change, but only one more." It has been great here.

One highlight of this week is that we ate at a Chinese buffet with a member from mainland China. She was baptized a few years ago and is really awesome. The food was also awesome. Didn't you guys say something about branches in mainland China? Do you know anything about that because she can't go to church when she visits back there.

By the way, thanks so much for the Halloween package! An old companion was on splits and told me I get very random things sent to me. Wouldn't have it any other way. Also tell Kirsten and Kirk Pinto thanks for me, They sent a package too :) Feeling the love. That's a little funny how serious Joseph is after coming home. I don't know if you'll have that same problem with me. Also Denmark is pretty luxurious so I don't think here is the best place to learn those lessons against "excessive living" haha :)

This week Elder Poul Johnson of the 70 toured the mission. He is a great man. We got to meet with him and all the Zone Leaders and he taught us a cool lesson about leadership. Basically in the church, never let any assignment go to your head because your position in the church has no effect on you going to heaven. Also he gave a great training in a zone conference. I was given the opportunity to have a one on one interview with him. We only talked for about 10 minutes, but I was just blown away by his genuineness. You could just feel that even though he is constantly in meetings and interviews when he looks at you he really wants to get to know you. What a great example and a great experience!

Anyways thats about it this week! I love you guys! Happy Halloween!

MKH 

Ældste McBride

October 24, 2016 Lej Godt!

Kære Familie,

In fun news,We went to Legoland this week!!! That made me miss the little bros a lot but it was sweet. LEGO is a shortening of the phrase Lej Godt which means play well! I'm going to send you all a postcard from there here in a bit. It was a lot of fun :) 

In other news, Elder Gardner and I have been on splits a lot lately! We did 4 splits in 8 days which was crazy. Busy busy. One of my favorites was that Elder Weese, my comp from Holbæk came. He is hilarious! I love him to death! He has grown a ton since we left each other. He made us go to a running sushi restaurant which was awesome. I had no idea sushi tasted so good! 

In M--- news, she is still doing great. She sent us a text saying how her friends were starting to follow her example so instead of clubbing that chat and drink wine and she drinks juice. :) She's got it.

In boldness news, I've got a story. I was on splits with a younger missionary and I took him to go stop by somebody. A different guy than I was expecting answered the door and we started talking. I asked him what he believed in and he looked at me dead in the eyes and said he was a Satanist. I think he was expecting me to be a little more shocked but I've been doing this missionary thing for a while so I didn't really get phased. I looked at him straight in the eyes and asked how that happened to him and why he would ever do that. He told me he just likes Satan more than God and he has even read the satanist bible. He was really trying to freak us out. I asked him if he wanted to know the truth about Jesus Christ and God. He said sure bring it, I don't think he actually expected that we had anything to say about it haha. I told him that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to have true lasting happiness in this life and after this life. Then I told him that Satan doesn't want him to be happy at all. He responded by saying he was happy. I told him he wouldn't be if he kept following Satan (should be a no brainer right). Then we politely shook hands and went on with the day. I think the missionary I was on splits with was pretty surprised by the whole encounter. The least I could do was to tell that guy the truth!

In future news, we have a member of the Europe Area Presidency visiting the mission this week! I got invited to be interviewed by him. 10 minutes one on one with a seventy. It should be sweet, I'm a little nervous.

In international news, we have a new investigator from Greece. Still working on getting some greek food ;)

That's about all the news I got! Thanks for sending me the news from back home with all of you! Sounds like you guys are prepared for Halloween, I'm excited to see the costumes! I love you!

Knus

Ældste McBride

We made pumpkins with the youth in Fredericia! Dad you'd be proud mine is the one throwing up!

October 17, 2016 Tilykke med fødselsdag Mor!

Kære Familie,

I'd like to start by saying happy birthday to my angel mother (haha I know you don't like that phrase! ;))  I hope you had a really great fantastic wonderful birthday! I love you. This morning I read about the stripling warriors so Mom you have been on my mind! Thanks for everything you've done/do to help make me into a good guy :) Seriously mom, you are awesome! It will be fun to hang out with you again someday! Those trips look like so much fun! And to answer your question, no there is not really any homeless people in Denmark. So cute that Isaac likes doing that!

Its pretty cool to see pics of all those guys! Kevan looks like a straight up viking! So sweet to see Bill Pickron, what an awesome guy! Oh man it is so crazy that Seth is home! How is he doing? I loved his tie with the little llama on it!

We had a great week here, again. Elder Gardner are almost confused about how well things are going here for us in Fredericia! We're hoping we stay a 3rd transfer together but its not looking likely. We kept getting texts from M--- this week that would start out with, "Now that I'm an LDS Mormon woman I got to know..." We went to her place, ate pizza, and watched meet the Mormons. Tons of fun!

Anyways I can't think of any big stories this time but I'm doing great! I love you guys!

MKH

Ældste McBride

p.s. I was thinking that since I get home a couple months after Christmas, you guys don't need to worry about sending gifts or an expensive package or anything. It sure costs a lot to mail stuff! 

October 10, 2016 M--- is baptized!!!!!!!

Kære familie,

This was a very exciting week! M--- was baptized!!!!! YAAAAAA!!!! She was so happy! It's crazy to think that we met her for the first time just two months ago. :) A little after the Baptism we were in the hall talking and I told her, "hey M---, now you're a Mormon" You should have seen the smile haha!

The week leading up to the day involved a lot of last questions and long talks but when Saturday rolled around she was more than ready! Elder Gardner performed the Baptism and I confirmed her the next day. She loved it! She was seriously so happy. She shared her testimony at the Baptism and sang two songs from the pulpit. She said that was the best way for her to express her feelings. Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and she stood up again to share her testimony! Brave, right? Well she stood up said a few words and then sang loud and proud, completely accapella Amazing Grace. It. Was. So. Awesome. She is really adding some spice to this ward! :) It has seriously been so special watching this woman grow and change as she learned the Gospel of Jesus Christ! She has incredible faith and it was great to see her kids and her friends come to the baptism to support her! 

I'm definitely not doing a good enough job explaining how sweet this whole week was but I'm trying! Being a missionary is the best because you get to see people start to realize how huge their potential is as children of God. I love being a missionary!!

Much Love,

Ældste McBride

October 3, 2016 Woah!

Kære Familie,

Sounds like you all had a busy week! We did too. There are just a lot of great things happening! :) We had a zone training where President and Sister O'bryant preached about the Book of Mormon, then this weekend was conference. We watched all the sessions except sunday afternoon in the church. In the words of one of our friends, "Wow that was something". It was her first time seeing conference and so it was fun to point out who the apostles are and who the prophet is! She was amazed to see so many mormons in one place haha!

Maybe the highlight of the whole week was a man named R---. R--- is married to a less active member who was baptized about 10 years ago, B---. She loves the church but has fallen out of the habit. Elder and Sister Yates (the senior couple missionaries here in Fredericia who are basically our grandparents) invited them both to Institute last week and they came! We got a call from them the next week asking us to come over and teach R--- a lesson. That was pretty unique, receiving a phone call to come and teach a lesson. We went over there last Thursday night and just prepared to talk about the atonement and repentance, we didn't know what to expect. We sat down and they told us that since institute they haven't been able to stop thinking about the church and they talk about it all the time. Then they told us that they had set a goal to quit smoking and stop drinking coffee. Then R--- said he wants to be baptized. Then B--- says they want to be sealed in the temple someday. At this point we share our message about how Jesus Christ and his atonement is how they can accomplish all those goals. They told us some more spiritual experiences they've had and we invited them to pray about a specific date for R---'s baptism. B--- volunteered to say the prayer at the end and we all kneeled down. As soon as she said amen R--- jumped up and said 7 I felt like it is something with the 7th. We looked at our calendars and all of us wrote down November 7th. Two days later we came by and R--- had stopped smoking. He is showing so much faith right now and is sincerely repenting! There is still a lot of work to do but woah these people are great!

So ya it has been a great week! I love you guys! Time is flying :)

MKH

Ældste McBride

p.s. at omvende-to repent does mean literally to turn around in Danish too :)

We are preparing our apartment for winter

September 26, 2016 Wow! I've been here a long time now

Kære Familie,

This was another really good week! I got to see a lot of really great friends. Both missionaries and members! This week we had stake conference in Århus. Let me tell you about a stake conference out here. They're amazing! Members of the church from all over half the country drive all the way to Århus and the church rents out the main concert hall in the city. There is seriously so many amazing members there and also the 40 missionaries in the stake. Everyone runs around seeing old friends and then the talks and testimonies are always really good. It is seriously one of my favorite things, Jylland Stake Conferences. I got to see friends from Aalborg, Odense, and Aarhus. I was amazed because there were actually a few people from Aalborg that even remembered my name. I feel so blessed with how tight missionaries and members are here in Denmark! They are all huge examples to me. It was awesome to talk with them :)

One crazy thing was how long I've known some of these people. This one girl and I realized that the first time we met was a year and a half ago when she skyped us missionaries in the MTC. Time really flies on the mission. Last year this time I was running around Aarhus like a madman with Elder Sakurada and now its already been a year. I've made so many great friends here! 

On a spiritual note I found a sripture I really like Romans 8:28 "and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." in my mind thats kind of what faith allows you to believe, that everything in your life, every experience enjoyable or not, will eventually be for your good. I don't believe we're just subjects to unfortunate circumstances or that God sometimes just teases us by making life hard. Its all for a purpose. The stake President said in his talk that Jesus often stopped to teach those that followed him instead of going straight to the destination. He then said this is still how he teaches those that follow him, sometimes I trial is sent so that we stop and can be taught. Brilliant. I love that idea. 

I love you guys! Keep on "churching" Mom its good for ya. ;)

MKH

Ældste McBride

September 19, 2016 We're Staying!

Kære Familie,

Transfer day was this morning and I didn't have to move a single suitcase! That's right Elder Gardner and I are staying together. We were both pretty excited! :) Everything is just going really well here. M--- has a goal to be baptized on the 8th of Oktober! We're very happy for her, she is just loving it! Other things are going really well here as well. We have been so blessed.

Two of my old companions got transferred into our zone today to be district leaders so it will be really fun to work with them again! They're good guys, Elder Weese and Elder Magleby. Our zone is now 4 districts with a total of 26 missionaries. They're all studs. 

Another fun story. There was a baptism on Iceland last week! It was held in a swimming pool in a little city at the very north of the island, a place called Akureyi. The first baptism in that city in 20 years. Extra cool, I got to meet her once while she was in Selfoss for a little while. We had a lesson and she was just incredible. 

Another fun thing. We went to a city called Sønderborg for splits! It is the southern most area in the mission! I was on splits with a missionary in his first transfer Elder Burgin. While we were out knocking we met the sponsor of a handball team. I started talking to him about handball and then I just asked him for tickets! Dad you should be proud! He said tentatively ya and then ran back in the house to get his business card. By the end of our convo he was actually pretty pumped, he kept laughing and saying "nobody is going to believe me when I tell them this story". So Elder Gardner and I left that night and the next day Sønderborg got swiped in on the main sponsor's season tickets to the opening game of the season on the second row. Ya I got some cool zone leader points that day haha :)

But ya this whole transfer was just amazing! This next weekend we have stake conference in Århus and I'm excited because I'll get to see people from 3 of my old areas! 

Hope you all have a great week! I love you!

MKH

Ældste McBride

This awesome guy in our ward loves Arizona! Loves it!

Sønderborg!

September 12, 2016 Welcome to Hotel Fredericia

Kære Familie

We had another wonderful week here in Fredericia! Things are going so well! M--- came for the 5th Sunday in a row and she brought a friend, and the friend brought her boyfriend. It was awesome. She loves the church and it has been amazing watching her make the changes in her life and seeing how much happier it makes her.

Elder Gardner and I have turned Fredericia's apartment into a chocolate chip cookie making machine. We got a chocolate chip cookie recipe and after like the 2nd or 3rd try we figured out how to make really good cookies really fast. So we have made a ton of cookies in the past couple weeks. 

One of the things I really enjoy about being a missionary is hosting splits! Often in our mission elders have to travel to a different city to have splits and so they sleep over one or two nights and then go home. Since my first area I've always thought it was really fun to be a good host! So we always have good food and have the apartment clean and plan out good workdays. In Fredericia we even have guest towels haha! This last week we had elders on splits and we made Pazookies. They were sooooo delicious!  So that was a lot of fun. I've really learned how to make wherever I am my home. 

I'm very proud of President Isaac, the mullet man! Those pics were so funny! I have some cute little bros. Our family in general is just awesome.

When I opened my email today I had my death letter from the mission. When you have 6 months left they send you a letter letting you know that they are starting to plan your travel home. Yikes. Time flies I guess.

Well I love you! Have a great week!

MKH,

Ældste McBride

How I reacted when I got the 6 months left letter.

September 5, 2016 Awesome Week

Kære Familie,

What an awesome week! We had a lot to do this week because we went to all three districts in the zone for district meetings! So we traveled to Odense and then Esbjerg and later in the week, Copenhagen. When I set foot in Esbjerg's church building I completed a huge accomplishment, I have now been to every church building where a ward meets in all of Denmark. Not all the branch buildings but every single ward building. I have been here a while haha. 

I'll jump to stories. You meet a lot of cool people as a missionary. While on the train to Copenhagen I thought I heard these two girls speaking Spanish, turns out it was Italian! They were from Milan and recommended that I visit Venice someday! When we got closer to Copenhagen we got delayed because of track work. They had no idea what was going on so we started translating the situation for them. They were really nice, just on vacation here in Denmark. Then our train got canceled (while we were still in it), so we had to get out and quickly catch the metro train if we wanted to get to Copenhagen at all that night. So we ended up running off of a train, through a station, and onto a different train with these Italian girls and their bikes! It was chaotic, but pretty funny. They were really thankful, I honestly don't know what they would've done if we weren't there haha! I think by the time the metro left we had helped like 10 people figure out that they were now on a train going to Copenhagen. So that's how we made friends with some Italians!

Another story is that one of our investigators told us she was bringing a friend to church this Sunday! Awesome! Then another investigator promised us that she was coming to church this week also with a friend. We were pumped! Then we figured out that they were talking about each other haha. Only one of them came to church, though, 4th week in a row! She told us next week she is going to knock on her friends door until she answers and comes to church haha. Doing our job for us! 

I laughed pretty hard at your story mom! This one senior missionary one time gave us a big rant on that topic haha. The world is a little crazy! Also seeing a BYU game got me pretty pumped! Are they good this year? Cole's hair does look good ;) I'm getting my hair cut today by someone in the ward who has supposedly won some contests in Europe in hair cutting so I'll let Cole be the judge next week! Missions are awesome, you guys are awesome! I love ya!

MKH

Ældste McBride

August 29, 2016 Life Is Good!

Dear Family,

Thank you mom for forcing the little bros to write me! ;) I miss them more than they probably know! It sounds like things are busy and cruising at home! Mom can you believe how long ago we were in highschool? That was like 2 years ago! Crazy Crazy! Tell Grandma I love her and that I got her note! There is a lady in this ward who moved here from Ogden like 50 years ago and she is just the boss of Fredericia ward. Her son is the bishop and she has another son and his family in the ward and she lives literally 20 feet from the church! She reminds me of grandma, just one of those nice Mormon matriarchs with a ton of faith!

This week was awesome, again. Fredericia is great. We started teaching a Lithuanian guy named Goran. I figured dad would be pumped that I found Goran Dragich all the way out here haha! 

We are working hard and also having a ton of fun. We actually attended 2 beach parties this weekend. One for a ward priesthood activity and the other for a stake YSA activity. They were both really fun, we participated as much as missionaries can haha! One thing that made both of them more fun is that we had some really great lessons right before. Things are going really well here! Elder Gardner is hilarious and we get a lot done. We are seeing some great progress with people right now! President O'Bryant's surgery went well. It wasn't too serious but he is recovering well and plans on being back Sept 4th I think! 

But ya, life is cruising. I don't even remember the last time I had a stuffy nose! We ran for an hour and a half with an investigator one morning haha. Then right after we went and played soccer for a couple hours with some members! We were exhausted. We've been seeing some real miracles happen as we show faith in the people we're helping! It's so fun!

Anyways I love you!

MKH

Ældste McBride

This time our lesson with him actually did go really well!