February 29, 2016 What's Hoppin' in Holbæk

Kære Familie,

We had a great first week together here in Holbæk! (Its pronounced like Hole-beck just fyi haha). It is a teeny tiny city but really really pretty! We live super close to the Fjord and we drive past some gorgeous scenery going over to Roskilde (think raw-ski-la) for church or around some other parts of our area. It's really really awesome! Its a huge change from Århus though because its so tiny and peaceful and there's not nearly as many young people! Sometimes if you stop old ladies on the street or just talk to them in general they answer by saying something that sounds like "Wababaha" which isn't actually a word at all, but it basically translates to "what?huh?Whats going on?" but all smushed into one word. Sometimes its hard not to laugh haha! But yes Holbæk is great and the ward is pretty solid too! There are a ton of members for a Danish ward like over 100! I met a bunch of them and I just felt really blessed to be able to start a new place when I can already speak Danish! Aalborg, Odense, and even at the start of Århus I really couldn't communicate with people very easily so it was awesome to start without having to worry about that hahah! I even had to sing in the choir yesterday and unfortunately my singing skills have not improved on my mission! 

Also, while we were out knocking this week we met and started teaching this awesome guy from Romania! We also met a guy from Bosnia who said he could be willing to meet. Bosnia! Add that to the list of countries eh! We also knocked on this one door and this Syrian family let us in then using google translate on the dad's smart phone we explained from Danish to Arabic that we were there to give them a book that is God's word. At one point he even just scanned the cover of the Book of Mormon with his smart phone and it translated the text directly to Arabic, I have never seen anything cooler happen.  It felt like a sci fi film. Technology has gotten so fancy and here I am still writing stuff down in a little paper calender haha.

Ældste Magleby and I are having a great time together and we have set some great goals for our companionship and are definitely motivated enough to reach them so I'm excited! We're gonna crush it oh ya! Sorry this letter just kind of became a random train of thought I hope it ends up understandable!

Oh and hey Mom to answer your question about the Bible! Its all in there, basically all the important stuff is in there! I have been doing studies lately where I just memorize a lot of Bible references and the doctrinal points they back up, some of them are super specific. For example Ephesians 4 explains exactly the how and why of Christ having a church or Hebrews talks all about the Priesthood and like a million places talk about Baptism being done properly. The Bible is awesome. I use it a lot in teaching because most people that believe in Christianity connect really well to it.

I love you guys! Isaac is the man for chugging that stuff! Hej Hej!

Ældste McBride

February 22, 2016 Area #4!

The Fjord in Holbæk and my new companion! 

Kære Familie,

I have been transferred! I now live in the city of Holbæk which is in the middle northern part of Sjælland! It's a small city, much smaller than Århus but our area is massive! Ginormous! We cover almost the enire northwest part of Sjælland! The bike rides are apparently really really long...just kidding we have a car! What up! I haven't named it yet but it will get a name I promise! My companion is Ældste Magleby, he was also trained by Ældste Bateman and so we were good buddies before back when he was in training! It's going to be a blast! I'm also a district leader! Our district is the 6 missionaries that are a part of Roskilde Ward which is one of the biggest in Denmark!

It was pretty sad to say bye to Århus! Half of my mission to this point has been in that city! It was especially sad to say bye to the ward because after 6 months I feel so close to so many of them! I got some good pics before I left that I'll attach! Work wise our area had really picked up which was great to see. There are some exciting new people that we have found/started teaching and lot of potential with some of them! It was great to see because I have been with that area in some really busy times and some totally dead times! Work is always rewarded though and I have high hopes for the future of that area! Work is always always rewarded that is for sure. 

We even had someone come to church last Sunday! We made a deal with this woman that if she visits our church we will visit her church so last Saturday we went to a 7th Day Adventist church because they have the sabbath on Saturday! It was interesting to see. Most of it was a lot like ours, a group of girls even stood up and sang Nearer My God to Thee in English! It was a fun experience!

I'll let you know more about this new place once I know more about it then what the library looks like haha! That is pretty cute that Isaac fell asleep listening to my voice, melted my heart a little bit!

I love all of you!

Ældste McBride

This is Familien Kearsley

 Tie trade I did with Nicklas and Daniel my last day!

Familien Rosenkilde!

Upside down city in the super fancy Århus library

February 15, 2016 25th Week Anniversary!

Hello Family!

Congratulations to Alex! Also go Danny, what a stud! I met a missionary that just came to our mission that knew Danny at BYU. That was pretty fun! I feel like you guys have gone to a million weddings since I left haha!

In the theme of weddings... (solid transition right) Today marks the start of the 25th week that Ældste Vance and I have been roommates! That's a long time! We have become great pals and have seen so many great things happen and have learned so much since showing up here 6 months ago!

So Elder Vance does these voice recordings that he sends home every week so this time I joined and we tried to recap the last 4 transfers! We didn't get nearly everything but hopefully it will be fun for you to hear some funny stories! Other than that this week went pretty well we went back to that college thing but this time it went really well! All positive, good questions, laughing and smiling. Much much better than last time haha. But yes here are the voice recordings!

They are split up into 4 sections one for each transfer.

(Max then included 4 voice recordings full of awesome stories and missionary fun, but I am not tech savvy enough to make them available to you here.  Just trust me, they are awesome!  Wish I could share.)

February 8, 2016 - I Love to See the Temple

Hey Momma!

The house is looking good! Sounds like a whole bunch of craziness over there haha! How are all those families doing anyway? Benches, McDonalds, Daytons? You'll have to say hi to them and everyone else for me! 

I don't have a ton of time to write because we have kind of a crazy day today! Do you remember my Egyptian pal C---? The one who calls me Mac? We're going over there again for haircuts in a little bit haha, should be fun! Also this morning Elder Bishopp and I were invited to a Gymnasie class which is like the Danish equivalent of Senior year through Sophomore in college. It was really interesting! Not anything like BYU hahaha. It was a little scary to stand in front of about 20 Danish youth all at once and answer questions but most of them were really nice to us! 

The highlight of the week was that on Thursday Elder Bishopp and I traveled to Copenhagen! We had to do a training for the new missionaries that have just come in and we got to go to the temple! It was my first time in the temple since once last May! It was very exciting and just so spiritually refreshing! I took a name I found myself with so that was awesome! I've been feeling energized since then! We are very blessed to have temples! 

We also got hints of transfers so shhhhhh but President told Elder Bishopp that I'm probably moving here in 2 weeks. I think it will be exciting to have a new place to work but at the same time I really don't want to leave the ward here in Århus! You guys have to meet these awesome people some day! I love them! It's so much fun being around them and I feel super at home here, I'll miss them a lot but I'll just have to worry about that in a couple weeks. 

Sorry I haven't sent a good pic in a while I'll get one to ya next week! I love you guys hug hug kiss kiss (tickle Isaac for me)

MKH

Ældste McBride

February 1, 2016 - Breakthroughs on Breakthroughs

What a week! This week was bombtastic for reals. We had some huge progress, more forward movement workwise than we've had in the past many weeks put together! When it rains it pours ya know. Ældste Bishopp and I caught ourselves going through the motions last week, just kind of grinding so we decided to up our focus, the catalyst being a first appointment we had set up for last Thursday with 2 smart young, bible believing Danes.

We knew we would have to be sharp with these guys so through the week we just really tried to stay focused. We walked into the appointment just chatting friendly with them and sat down. They started making jokes about a time they'd had Jehovah's Witnesses over but that they had "won" or whatever. So at this point we were on high alert, ready if they wanted to take this to some sort of Bible bash thing but luckily if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. For an hour straight we answered some really tricky questions and explained clearly what we believe using the Bible. It was awesome and by the end we were all good friends and had agreed without any argument that really the only way to know if what we said was all true or not was through the Holy Ghost. It was a miracle, we covered so many concerns/random points and were able to bring it all back to simple truth.

The week kept getting better from there and led to Sunday where we had tons of responsibilities. Sunday we taught both guest class during the 2nd hour and the 5th Sunday combined class. Lots of us talking that Sunday haha. A member that gave a talk even quoted Ældste Vance and I from our artikle.  That was a new experience for me haha. Later that day I get a call from a less active guy who says we need to come out and visit him and his mom. So fast forward a few hours and we're at the kitchen table with these 2 Romanians (specifically from Transylvania, awesome) speaking Danish, trying to help calm the situation of the son forcefully telling his Mom that she needed to be baptized. It was the first time we had ever met with them haha and it basically went he tells his mom she needs to be baptized, her saying that he can't just force her into it, and then both of them looking at us while we tried to calm things down and teach about what baptism is. It was a unique experience to say the least! They're really great people :)

The house is going to look way different by the time I'm home wow! Mom you just sound like you're having a fun time at work! Cole knows he can write Sam and me about any problems right? That's kind of what we do for a living now, try to help with stuff!

Anyways I love you guys! I'm loving it here in Denmark! It wasn't even cold this week :)

Med Kærlig Hilsen

Ældste McBride