Letter from February 29, 2016

Don't have much time! This week was pretty good! We had an amazing lesson with Alejandro again and he said he will come to church this Sunday! 

This week was one consisting of a lot of service and finding again. We went up to this beautiful city called Gilleleje one day to contact a referral and knock on doors. This is one of the older cities in Denmark, so it looks like all the classic Denmark pictures you see on google when you look up Denmark. While we were knocking on doors and contacting people we saw a lighthouse that was up the road a bit and we decided that we would go up there. This lighthouse was right by the ocean and it was just getting dark. We could see all of the lights of Sweden across the Bay and it was truly beautiful. We decided to get on our knees and just thank our Heavenly Father that we have the opportunity to serve in Denmark and see all these beautiful things and serve these people.

I am so grateful I can be here. I know this church is true! Love you guys! 

-Ældste Kennedy

Letter from February 22, 2016

Hi peeps. My first transfer is officially over! We had a pretty good week this week! We had the privelege of attending a baptism on Saturday of an awesome guy named Stephen! He is from Ghana and he was taught by the two sisters in our ward! This man is a stud! The day after his baptism he brought his friend to church and said "He can replace me when I'm gone" He is such an awesome missionary already! 

Later on that Sunday night we had an amazing lesson with Alejandro! We were able to see a change in his heart as we bore testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to him. He looked at us in a way that he hadn't before! The gospel changes lives! 

The church is true! It truly was restored by a prophet called of god named Joseph Smith! 

The people here are pretty amazing! I hope you all have a good week! Peace out...


 Here are some pics from visiting Kronborg Castle in Helsingor right by where we live (we can see the castle from the window of our apt) and some other random pics of the outdoors

 

COLD WEEK!

Hi everybody! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and a great week! I can't believe that I have already been here over a month! The time has flown by! 

This week was interesting. We are still doing a lot of finding, but we felt like the perfect way show our faith to the Lord was by having a Faith Day. A Faith Day is when you fast and knock on doors for 7 hours in a day, which isn't exactly the most pleasant thing to do. It was a classic missionary day. We got cursed at, we got persecuted, and we got rejected. One woman told us that we are so young and that we need to do something useful with our time.... Another told us that we should try somewhere else than Denmark because no one will listen here. Another told us that they don't need anything else than thinking good thoughts to be saved... It was pretty tough and we didn't see any success out of the day. But the one good thing out of all of this finding and rejection, is that we are getting way better at it. We are much more bold with people and we don't let being awkard stop us from declaring the truth. Me and Elder Beck work hard, and we pray everyday that we might find the people who will listen to us. 

There is only one thing that keeps us going, and that is the knowledge that we are here for a reason and that the Lord will help us through all that we do. A scripture that I have been applying to my life and my mission is Alma 26:27.

       "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success. " 

       The gospel is true and so is our message to these people! I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

Ældste Kennedy

 

Pics below...

1 and 2 are right outside of our apartment

3 this is the type of bus we ride on all the time

4 there are churches like this everywhere

 

 

Crazy People Here in Denmark!

Hello Brothers and Sisters! This week has been full of good things! It has been a tough week, but that is what brings growth! We have still been doing a lot of finding! We are getting really good at knocking on doors... We had a conference with our Mission President and all of the new missionaries who were brand new in Denmark. We learned that we need to be more bold!! So that is what we are doing! We try so hard to share the message of the gospel with these people! 

We were on splits this past week and I was with an elder named Elder Francis. He's a stud, but the only problem with that combo, is that neither of us are very good at the language... We had three appointments down in the city that he serves in and it was really difficult to teach what we needed to. Luckily it all worked out! The last appointment, we met with this man who was interested in doing family history! However, he was very challenged by using the touch screen on his iPad... It was PAINFUL to watch him enter his username and password into the website... After about 15 minutes of watching this, I impatiently tried to grab the iPad to help him out. He started shaking in anger and lifted up the iPad and it looked like he was about to WWE chair smash me with that thing! I was a little terrified and luckily Elder Francis, being the swift and agile Elder he is, grabbed the iPad from the man and for some reason the man just calmed down and everything worked out pretty smoothly after that! That being said, we did some solid family history with him after that (with the iPad in our hands). 

We had another lesson with Alejandro! He's the Chilean man who is a Jehovahs Witness and was once baptized in our church when he was a kid, but can't remember anything about it. The lesson went great. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon with him. He was pretty open about talking about his experience with Jehovah's witnesses and his life in general. We kept bearing testimony about the Book of Mormon and eventually he said that he can remember there was something special about this church when he joined it when he was a kid, and he wants to find out why again! We love talking with this guy! Especially me, because it is in English! Brothers and Sisters! The Book of Mormon DOES change lives! No other book brings anyone closer to God than that one! It is true! That is why I am in Denmark for two years of my life! I love you all and pray for you!

-- 

-Ældste Kennedy

Conner's letter from January 31, 2016

Hello my friends and family! 

All is going well here in Denmark! The food is still great and the doors are still being knocked on! I am starting to love knocking on doors! It is an adventure every time! We knocked on some lady's door and starting talking about our church. We asked her about her beliefs, and from what I could understand, she said that she wasnt part of any church because her husband died. So we asked her if she believed that she would see him again after death. She smiled and said "I know I will see him again! But not until I turn 126 years old"... After she said that, me and Elder Beck just kind of looked at each other.... then looked backed at her, and kept chatting about the plan of salvation. She was not interested in our message, so we basically just told her good luck with her beliefs. And she said "You can come back in sixty years when it happens!" At this point I just started dying laughing because I didn't know if she was joking or not! Then she shut the door... I'm still not sure if she was joking... I guess we'll see in 60 years. 

Anyways! We are doing some street contacting too! That is an adventure every time too! The other night, it was raining pretty hard and it was pretty cold, and it was too late to knock on doors, so we were just trying to find people to talk to. One of the only people we saw was outside of the local bar. so we walk up to her and start talking to her. We start the conversation and slowly she grabs my hand and squeezes it with both of her hands and then says in English "I'm too drunk to hear your message, and I'm not really interested. But, I have to say that you mormon boys are always so handsome and are just better than other boys in Denmark." So we basically just told her to travel home safely! That made my day haha! 

Well, I have to go. I have many more stories but I don't have time to tell them! I love you all and I hope you are all doing great!

CONNER'S PICS FOR THE WEEK :)

1st: The Library that I always email in. It's Huge and sweet. And that's Elder Beck.

2nd: The view of Helsingør... Right outside the library. The land in the distance is Sweden!

3rd: Quick little selfie in our apartment

4th: Our attempt at making cookies last night...

 

Conner's letter from Jan 25, 2016

Brothers and Sisters! I'm in Helsingør not Belsingør!! Big difference!!! Actually, I'm not even sure if a Belsingør exists....  Anyways, quick story. The members here are so friendly and are always so willing to feed us. We had a dinner appointment with this amazing family in our Ward (I have no idea how to pronounce or spell their last name)... but in almost all classic Danish dinners, there is always dessert! For this meal, the dessert was Ice Cream! We all began to eat the ice cream when we were all dished up, but the difference between us and the Danes in our ice cream eating habits, is that they always open up the entire box of ice cream and cut it up into pieces! There is no way to close those boxes up again... We had to eat all of it. Brothers and Sisters.... I have no idea how much ice cream I ate... But I do know that my stomach was quite literally and considerably larger than it was before I began eating... I really need to learn how to politely decline food here. I literally ate half a box of ice cream... after eating 3 plates of spaghetti... Let's just say that riding a bike home wasn't the most delightful experience. 

Anyways, I am doing lots of missionary work over here in Denmark! We are still knocking lots of Doors!! Woohoo! Luckily, I am actually getting pretty decent at Danish because of it! This past week we have seen the fruit of our labors! We knocked on a man's door one night in a random appartment building named Alejandro Bravo. He's a former member of the Church from Chile! He is in his late 40s but he was baptized when he was 13 and doesn't remember anything about the church! He said he would love to talk with us and relearn what our church is about!! We had a lesson with him last night and it was amazing!! The spirit was so strong and we invited him to begin reading the Book of Mormon again! We even got him a Spanish edition of the Book of Mormon for him! He was so grateful for that and we have another appointment with him next sunday! A lesson with someone doesn't sound like much. But anyone taking steps to their salvation (even baby steps) is HUGE! That is what has been giving me so much joy! Just that I have this amazing opportunity to help someone on their way to happiness! It's the best job anyone can have! I hope that you all have been doing great! I love you all! 

 

 

1st pic: The castle right next to where I live that I visited today!

2nd: The view outside my window in the appt.

3rd: Weird bball court in the stake center...

4th: pday in Copenhagen! It's beautiful!

Conner's recent letters and pics!!

LETTER FROM JAN 18, 2016

What a week! I'm in Denmark and it truly doesn't feel like it! I haven't had any time to soak it in! The MTC is over FINALLY! 

Quick story: The food here is amazing! We had a meal with an inactive member named Henning.... Something. I don't know how to pronounce or spell his last name... Anyway he is an 85 year old man who fell away from the church in his thirties. He can't speak a lick of English which is kind of hard for me because I can't speak a lick of Danish! Anyways, he cooked us some Steak and potatoes (which is literally like every meal here in Denmark) and we ate! Brothers and Sisters.... This food was not made by human hands... I quite literally gained four pounds.... FOUR POUNDS from this meal! I literally weighed myself at his house! 

I got a new companion! He's named Elder Beck. He's from Idaho and he's a stud! We get along great and we work well together. 

We're in a city called Belsingør. It's located near the top of the island of Sjælland (i dont think i spelled that right). It's really cold here... And the missionary work is slow here. I showed up and my Companion gave me the details about Belsingør. We pretty much have no members and no investigators. Which is kind of hard. Elder Beck was surprised when he heard that a new missionary (me) was coming to Belsingør because it's a tough area. 

So because we don't have many people to teach, we find people to teach. And yes, that means we have been knocking doors... Classic missionary work. People here are not very friendly on first impressions. They really don't want anything to do with us. So it's pretty hard to keep getting doors slammed in our face but we keep knocking! 

We were knocking doors last night in an apartment complex and we knocked on a Muslim family's door. They couldn't understand english or danish but the man who opened the door invited us in and let us sit in his living room and talk to him. He asked in broken danish if we wanted coffee. Of course, as the good missionaries we are, we politely declined the offer. So, knowing that we weren't thirsty for coffee, the man proceeded to grab two beers from his fridge! He poured them into two large glasses and gave them to us. Again, we politely declined the offer. We couldn't really do anything because we couldn't speak arabic, so we told him we would come back. The next door was another Muslim man! But, he could speak English! Hurrah! We talked to him for a little bit and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would start to read it! (BTW this like never happens here). THEN... THE NEXT DOOR a Danish man opens the door and we start talking to him about families... And he said that we could come back and talk with him later! It felt great to have some people not slam the door on us! 

After we left the complex and started heading home, my companion told me that he could count on his hand the number of times someone let him into their home.... He's been serving for 8 months! It's tough work here in Belsingør but it is good! I feel like a real missionary now! I've even been attacked by a dog already! #classic. 

The work is happening here in Denmark. It's a special place to serve a mission. My mission president told me on the first day that in other missions, missionaries have the opportunity to see miracles. But he said that in this mission, we NEED miracles just to do missionary work. I can already see that, and I've only been here like 6 days. I hope you all enjoy my letters! Good luck in your lives! Love you all!

 

LETTER FROM JAN 7, 2016

Hello everybody! I'm leaving to Denmark in 4 days! It's crazy! The Danish is coming along slowly but surely! I can convey what I want to say! It's weird haha. 

The work is going forth brothers and sisters! The church is true and so is everything in it! This week has been a rollercoaster for me. Some days I feel like I've never been so spiritually high, and others I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing here.... But every time, I always turn to the scriptures. They can LITERALLY brighten your day and make every thing possible. I bear testimony that that is true!! 

The MTC is still overall pretty boring. We do the same things every day.... But it is the hardest thing I have ever done. I realize that I need Heavenly Fathers help. I always find a way to become happy! 

It's amazing, how merciful the Lord is with his children. I have seen it. 

I love all of you guys and will write you MUCH more when I am actually in DENMARK!! Jeg elsker alle! Love you!

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 4:24 PM, Conner James Kennedy <conner.kennedy@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hello again everybody! This week has been great! It's crazy to think that I will actually be in Denmark not even two weeks from now! 

I still can't really say all that much in Danish, but I can understand almost everything my teachers are saying right now. So that's good.

Christmas here was AMAZING! Elder Bednar came with basically his whole family and we had a question and answer devotional thing. The man is a stud. He inspired me so much to change certain things in my life. Then I was able to call  my family which was awesome of course, and after that David Archuleta came and sang to us.... ughh. No just kidding, it was pretty good. 

Every day is such a spiritual experience! I am so privileged to be here on a mission! 

It's kind of a bummer being in the MTC just because I literally have nothing interesting to write about. There are not many exciting things happening yet, so stay tuned for a few more weeks and I promise my letters will get more exciting! Love you guys! Hope your Christmases was great!

-- 

-Ældste Kennedy

First three pics are taken at the temple while he was at the MTC...

 With President and Sister O'Bryant and his companion Elder Beck

 In the freezing cold!

 Inside of their apartment

 Showing that they live right by the ocean!

 inside their apartment

 He and Elder Brown and below are Conner and his new companion Elder Beck