Four Weeks Down!

Rusty, I mean Elder Swenson, is doing great! Excerpt from his last letter:

"We got to hear from Russell M. Nelson last night at the devotional. It's always awesome to be in the presence of an apostle, you can seriously feel their spiritual presence as they walk in the room and everyone stands up. They all seem ridiculously happy with their lives, even though they're probably hard at work every second of the day. He talked about the ancient prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who saw today's missionary work happening in visions, and he read to us a few scriptures on that. It's cool to be part of the prophecy that's about 4,000 years old now.

"I guess I'm pretty lucky or something but I honestly haven't felt down much here. I've seen tons of elders getting homesick or overwhelmed when they get here and start thinking about ending their mission before it even starts. Whenever I get overwhelmed, all I have to do is think of what I'm here for. I know that there isn't a better place I could be, and that the Lord is happy for me to be here. It's been a huge adjustment, and still is at times, but I could honestly say that I'm happier now with this new lifestyle. I'm not worrying about myself anymore, most of my thoughts are on what I can do to be most prepared when I get up to Denmark. Speaking of which, our teachers told us about the schedule that we'll probably have on our first day up there. It's going to be crazy fun. So we get off the plane, meet the president and his wife and drop our stuff off at their house. From their, we go contacting, yes CONTACTING on our first day their with our MTC companions. I can't remember the name of the place we're contacting, but it's one of the public squares in Copenhagen. One of our teachers actually taught a guy his first day who was baptized 3 weeks later by the missionaries in that area. Pretty crazy to think about. After that, the president takes us to an amazing restaurant, can't remember what it's called but it sounds good. Then we have our interviews and get our areas the next morning.

"I love you all, see you in 23 months!"

This cool picture was taken off the coast of Denmark, and I posted it because I have no new photos of Rusty. In the resort town of Skagen you can watch an amazing natural phenomenon. This city is the northernmost point of Denmark, where the Baltic and North Seas meet. The two opposing tides in this place can not merge because they have different densities.

I know he's looking forward to being there. He said he made a cassette tape and promised to send it... we are still waiting to get that. He said that he speaks Danish on it along with some bonus features, like him and his companions making animal noises.... can't wait to hear it!