Elder Carter Denton: Week 3 - Beef, Chicken and Oreos

Hej everybody!

Just so everybody knows, hej is pronounced just like "hey" in English and it means exactly the same thing too :)

This week has been crazy awesome. This last Friday or Thursday night, we had a district bonding "dirt session". Basically, we went around in a circle and told why we decided to go on a mission and what we had to overcome to be here. It brought us so close together to do that. Our branch president served in the Pacific Islands and he is always telling us that they are very passionate about wanting to know your story. I can see why. You can't truly love someone if you don't understand their story, but it's hard not to if you take the time to listen. To share things as personal as we did created a sacred moment for our district.

Something that has made me laugh all week is our new district leader, Elder Ahonen. He's from Finland and you wouldn't believe the questions he gets. Somebody in our district legit asked him if they ate chicken in Finland... So this elder has started having fun with it. There are still missionaries in our district that believe they don't have beef or chicken in Finland. They looked pretty scared when he told them that all the hamburgers are made of horse instead. It was soo funny. So then my companion gets a package the other day stuffed with food, and tells us we can eat anything in it except the Oreos. So Elder Ahonen winks at me and says, "What are Oreos?" Then my companion is like "You've never had Oreos?? You've gotta try some! Here I'll just let you have some!" So. Funny. I died. He gets any food he wants with that trick.

Also, we've reached halfway! October 9 is coming quick! Then I'm off to the promised land :)

Some cool things I've learned this week:

One of the members of our branch presidency as this thing he always says to us. "Keep smiling. It makes people wonder what you're up to." Sometimes it's easy to complicate how to have a good time or be happy. Just choose to smile. It really makes you happier. It makes others happy. It's just a good thing for everyone.

For the devotional this Tuesday, Elder Quinton L. Cook came and WOW. He gave such an amazing witness of Jesus Christ. One of the nice things about being in choir is you for sure get a spot in the main room instead of an overflow room watching on a screen. As Elder Cook closed his statements, he testified, saying that he didn't share this often, that he knew the Saviors voice, and that he had seen His face. The Spirit in the room was undeniable. You could have scooped it with a spoon it was so thick. I testify that Apostles truly are special witnesses of Jesus Christ, and what a privilege it is to hear their guidance. The Savior truly directs this work. He is very aware of us, and closer than I think we realize.

Thank you to everyone who sent letters or pictures. I love it all and it always makes my day.

I love you all. Keep smiling.

Elder Denton

Elder Beckman blowing bubbles in class.

The Nord missionaries next door and their sweet decorations.

One of our zone leaders made a supersized ice cream sandwich with chocolate cookies and a about a pint of ice cream.

Some of our branch eating lunch together.

The Nord missionaries did that outside our room... they're always pulling pranks on us and stuff... but we hid an alarm clock in their vent yesterday that went off at 2:30 AM. And they still haven't found it. So it's going off again tomorrow I guess haha.

Our choir director Bro. Egget is always telling stories. He's incredible. He always gets our choir (which he says is four times as big as MoTab) sounding great.