May 30, 2016

Kære Family,

This was just an awesome week! Time is just cruising by! Everytime I sit down to write lately I just think 'oh my gosh has it really been a week??' Elder Weese and I are doing great here in Holbæk still and having a blast! We had some great stuff happen this week! 

On Friday I got asked to give a 10 min talk for Sacrament meeting! The topic was really cool "Successes and Fiascos in Missionary work".  To get ready I took a trip down memory lane and thought of all the crazy disasters and the amazing successes I have seen out here! I didn't even get through the first 3 months before I realized I had to much material already for the talk haha. I decided to share the disaster of Karneval in Aalborg. I don't remember how much I told you but you probably remember the giant party in the streets and stuff right? Well the story I shared was of how we were biking through the city trying to get away from the partiers and I ran over a big piece of glass and destroyed my tire and then Elder Bateman kept going for a little while because he was in front and couldn't hear. So for just a little while I was totally alone, only a couple minutes but they felt like a looooong two minutes, surrounded by crazy Danes in costumes on their way to party! That was nuts haha. The success I shared was an awesome investigator we started teaching way back when in Aalborg! It was a really fun talk to prepare and give! It went a ton better than the time I had to give a talk in Aarhus haha. I seriously got to remember so many fun adventures and stories in Aalborg and Odense and Aarhus! I love all those places so much! I can't wait to see what adventures are still in store. 

I closed my talk by saying how I've learned to be thankful for both the successes and the challenges we experience. Even the disasters. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything! You need to have both and love both and thats when life gets really fun!

Anyway no "staycations" for us this week but I love you guys and hope you have a blast! What's the temperature in AZ now anyway? Are you melting? It's weird that Cole hangs out with girls now. A lot changes when you're on a mish!

MKH

Ældste McBride

Sometimes you just gotta take it easy at the end of the day!

Elder Weese barricaded me in the kitchen while I was making calls!  (We are thinking this place looks way too nice to be a missionary apartment!)

May 23, 2016 Hello!!

Kære Familie,

I sat down to write and realized I hadn't thought at all about what I wanted to write so we'll just see what comes out! Here in Holbæk we've just kind of hit a rhythm and the weeks are flying by. There weren't any really incredible things that happened or anything really that bad this week it was just a very normal week. We have some exciting things planned for next week though so hopefully I'll have some better stories to share :)

One weird thing, I like soccer. Ya I said it. I think soccer is pretty fun and I really look forward to when we get to play it! Hahaha I didn't think ever in my life think I would say that!  Does that mean I've been in Europe too long? Who knows! That is so weird those people were sophomores when I graduated and now they're done! They could get called to Denmark while I'm here! Time flies!

Congratulations Cole way to be a smarty pants! Also Mom remember I wasn't a morning person either haha there is still hope for Ike!! I believe in him!

What are your summer plans anyway? Are you taking any trips? Anything crazy? Happy Summer!! I love you guys!

Love,

Ældste McBride

May 16, 2016 A totally fantastik week!!!

This was a wonderful week! Truly! I'm 20 years old now! Holy cow! Ancient! Thank you so much for the package! My favorite type of pens! I was so excited to get tennis balls haha. Cracking open that can brought back a ton of good sport memories! For my 20th birthday I was on splits with Elder Bradshaw in Slagelses area and we had a great day! We did the slagelse tradition and went to Carls Jr. It was a blast! By the way Elder Weese and I are staying here in Holbæk for another transfer! It will be awesome! We have a ton of fun together :)

Later in the week I went on splits with one of the elders in my district! Elder Halling and I had a fantastic experience knocking in a city called Køge! We came to a door that was already cracked open a little bit.(This usually means something interesting will happen) We rang the doorbell and a woman answered and then jumped back like 5 feet because we were definitely not who she was expecting! We scared her so bad that I got scared and then we all looked around just woah haha. After we got it cleared up that we weren't her 6 year old daughter she let us right in! I know "let us right in" isn't the usual response but thats actually what happened! We talked with her and her boyfriend for a while and explained to them what it is we missionaries do and why we do it. Rikke had a million questions but we kept it simple and taught her that she was a child of God, that He loves her and then we taught her how to pray. She asked if prayer could help her stop smoking. We said yes of course. If we pray and then do our best God will help us with what we can't handle. Before we left I said a prayer and then, reading the 3 step guide in the pamphlet, she prayed her first prayer ever out loud. It was an awesome experience!!

I took a bunch of good pics so I'll send those! :)

Love,

Ældste McBride

Bday Car Ride...  Woo hoo!!!  20!!!

Yellow Field Time of Year Again

With Elder Bradshaw

With Elder Weese

What Danes think of when I say Arizona maybe?

May 9, 2016 What Up?

Dear Family!

It was so great to see you guys! I just want that it was so fun to talk to you guys! You're looking great! Sorry I didn't get super spiritual I guess during our talk, I felt a little bit bad about that. I guess It was too easy for me to start goofing around with you guys haha! I'm so happy we are a family that can just sit and laugh even though we haven't been together for such a long time! 

I just wanted to share with you guys that I know what I'm doing out here is right. I know I was called of God to come serve here in Denmark. People told me before I left, while I've been out here, and probably will after how hard it must be to do missionary work in Denmark. The truth is I love Denmark. I don't think I would trade this place for anywhere in the world to serve my mission. Right now I drive through these rolling green hills covered with fields of brillaint yellow flowers under the brightest bluest sky you could imagine and I just love it. Someday far in the future I'm probably going to see a picture of those golden fields and just start crying. Sometimes stuff is hard but I'm convinced that there isn't a mission in the world that isn't hard sometimes. Life is just hard sometimes but I'm so blessed, I've had it really really easy. I have met so many amazing wonderful people out here, both in the church and out of the church. They have had a huge influence on me! They mean so so much to me and I care so much about them. ( især dig i Århus :) ) I've learned a ton and grown a ton because of them. I'm so thankful I got sent halfway around the world just to meet them. Another thing is that the church is true. Even in Denmark. The Gospel of Jesus Christ works even in a wealthy first world country! The members here are amazing and the church is built on converts. If not themselves than thier parents or grandparents. It's amazing to hear thier testimonies! It strengthens mine. The work is going forward here and it will keep going forward. I love it.

I love you guys so much!

Ældste McBride

May 2, 2016 Hello!

Hey People!

We had a great week over here in Holbæk!! One of our friends accepted the invitation to be baptized! We're working towards a date right now so that is really exciting! She still has to come to church and some other stuff but hey it is dfinitely something in the right direction! The first few times Elder Magleby and I met with her, she didn't really seem to understand but this time the Spirit was really different and she understood and accepted everything we taught. It was awesome! 

Besides that we've just been having a fun time over here. The weather has been off and on but life has been pretty good! Elder Weese and I are pretty flexible for skype but I'm thinking we will probably skype around 6:00 here which should be 9:00 AM for you guys! It should be pretty fun!! Ya if you want something to count this week I hit the anniversary of the day I landed in Denmark so that's crazy! Weeks are just kind of flying by!

I'll send some good pics here in a little bit! I love you guys! Tell Matt I say congrats and just give Alec a solid fist bump for me!

MKH

Ældste McBride

Me Lifting a Heavy Rock

Me taking a break. It's hailing in this picture. It snowed twice last week, it was way weird!

It's a castle that's older than our country!  It had a legit moat.

Cool road up to the castle!

The district visited a 5000 year old burial mound! Epic!

The sisters also brought stuff so that we could make a torch!