A visit to the Fredensborg Castle. This is a castle built in the 1700's by the king and is still used today by the present queen and prince consort. They only use it 6 months of the year in the spring and fall, so they are not there now. It is only open to the public for tours during the month of July. We had a guided tour of the castle and the gardens. We couldn't take pictures inside the castle because it is a private residence, but it really looked like a museum--at least the rooms we could see. It had very ornate plaster ceilings and many beautiful paintings. It was mostly interesting to hear about the royal family. The gardens were also very beautiful. We went with the other missionary couples.
Dear Family, Sunday, July 17, 2016
It has been a nice day but nothing really remarkable. We attended the 10:00 church at the Amager Branch. It is a quaint building with just the one branch meeting in it across the canal, about a 20-minute drive. Our 3 senior couple friends attend church there each week and have callings in the branch. It seems like they have 1 really active UV and 2 (brother and sister) that come most of the time but that are struggling with staying active. Only the latter 2 were there today and the sister had a non-member boyfriend with her. We were going to leave after Sacrament meeting as it seemed like the UV had left after the meeting. However, the branch president had a few minutes so we met with him and went over our list of all the UV's on his membership rolls. That was really helpful to get to know a few more that we can maybe visit or get to know plus he asked us to give special focus to the 2 siblings above. They are his biggest concerns right now.
We also attended our own ward and had maybe 20 in the UV Sunday School class. We met a couple of new faces. Seems like there are 1 or 2 new ones every week.
On Tuesday, we had our 2nd interview with President and Sister O'Bryant. He asked about our apartment and how it was going with the YSA's. I mentioned our concern that the wards were not inviting us to YSA committee meetings and that we have not been able to participate in any visits with less actives. He suggested we be a bit more pushy and demonstrate our commitment to help. He also said that the Larsen's in the other stake have been called as the stake UV couple and that seemed to be helping them get more involved as they are perceived to have stake authority to be over all of the UV programs. They are sometimes too busy. I am not sure how that "calling" would be any different than our position but we will have a chance to talk to the Larsens and the Yates next week when we see them at the seniors' conference and hopefully by comparing notes we can get some further ideas of things we can be doing.
I also said we have some daytime hours where we could be busier and he suggested and asked us to be in charge of preparing the mission Christmas celebrations. There will be two of them where 2 zones are combined in each one in the 2 main islands. It will entail collecting a letter and Christmas package for each missionary and a baby picture or two from their parents and then putting together a picture show set to Christmas music. It sounds like the difficult part is getting the material from the parents here on time and putting together the slide show. We will also help with the food and program etc. for the parties.
Wednesday evening, we had an Institute Council meeting at the stake center. The meeting was good with Sarah, Jonathan, President Olsen (1st Counselor Stake Presidency), Brother Ringheim (HC) and Sister Kirstine Larsen, 1st Counselor in the Stake RS. President O'Bryant also came in after 30 minutes. I am impressed that they allow Jonathan to conduct. It was mostly focused on the fireside schedule and on the YSA conference they are hosting in September. Out of the discussion, came the idea that we should be called as the stake YSA reps so that we would have some authority to visit the wards, work with them and provide any training that they may need. The stake also intends to call a Danish couple as reps. I guess they will work with us.
We taught institute this week as the teacher was out of town. The topic was President's Monson's talk from conference called Choices. We showed his talk + a video by Larry S. Kacher called “Dangerous Riptides” and had discussion and some group break outs. We think the lesson went very well. The discussion was deep and meaningful and there was a good spirit. We team taught but mom let me (???) lead out and do most of the teaching. (Maybe I just assumed authority? How does that work? We did not have time to huddle and decide our approach though we prepared the lesson together on Wednesday night, just in case we needed to fill in.) Rebecca Stewart brought a non-member boyfriend and the assistants got into some discussion with him after the lesson.
After Institute, we met with Jonathan and Sarah until 10:00 pm and went over 2 lists of UV's; the one provided by EQ President Jonas Klestrup of his top 22 focus individuals and then all of the 17 and 18 year olds that should be coming into Institute. We tried to have a buddy plan for the latter group of someone who can fellowship them and get them coming to Institute and FHE. The first group will be our initial "rescue focus group" and we came up with a plan or buddy for most of them to make some contact and invite them to come and join us in our activities.
Our temple service was good once again. President Williams expressed how much he appreciates us being available for them as Friday mornings are normally quite sparse on temple workers. Jean and I did sealings for the first session which were all in Danish.
On Saturday morning, we attended the UV baptism session at the temple. There was only Ann Marie there and then 2 of the BYU girls with family names. I was able to baptize and confirm them. It seemed like Ann Marie had a tearful time. She mentioned that she had never been in the temple with her father and their family did not do church things together. She was feeling that loss quite a bit. I think the cause was that we had several fathers there with their sons or daughters. It was touching to see them perform the baptisms together with the fathers baptizing their children. I can see how that must have affected her deeply.
So much for his week. Living it is a lot of fun with mom.
Love to all of you, Dad.
Kære Familie, 17 juli, 2016
I have often wondered how much we take our blessings for granted. I know I am guilty of it sometimes. One example is how much we value the temple and the blessings it brings. I see people coming to the temple, having traveled hours to get there and do back-to-back sessions all day long. All the temples in Germany are closed so the Copenhagen Temple is the closest one for northern Germany. (Frankfurt is closed for a couple of years for renovation—same with the Freiberg Temple. The latter will be rededicated in September.) The Copenhagen temple is also the temple district for people in southern Sweden. We typically have 4 languages on a session. There is one elderly Danish woman who comes every Friday. She rides in an electric scooter to the temple which is stored in an outside garage while she is in the temple. Then she uses a cane to walk in the temple. She is stooped over and I can just imagine how difficult it is for her to get to the temple, but she is there every Friday I have been there. On Friday I worked in initiatory with three U.S. BYU students who were on a different study-abroad—they were making several stops all over Europe. Their one day in Copenhagen included a couple hour visit to the temple. On Saturday, two of the other BYU study-abroad students came to the temple to do baptisms (YSA baptisms for the dead temple day). They could have been out seeing the sites or goofing around, but they wanted to be in the temple.
We met with a young woman this week—26 years-old. She spent two years in the states going to school. I believe she has also been on a mission. She is back in Denmark now and is serving as a counselor in the Stake RS Presidency (which was why she was at our meeting). Her plea was to find something to help the mid-singles. (In her mind ‘mid-singles’ is over 25 to 35.) They don’t feel they belong with the 18 year-olds who are pre-mission, or those who are still in school. These are young people are need more than ‘fun and games.’ She agrees that institute is important—they still need to be learning. (I love institute and learning, and I am much older than 25.) But they have finished school and are now in careers. They need direction and guidance on being a grown-up—living life. These are all things for us to think about. How can we best help? How can we reach out to rescue those who struggle?
After settling into our new apartment for a week, I decided it was time to invite people over. The missionaries here don’t get dinners very often. Our table seats 6, plus we only have service for 6, so that is about our limit. All the dinners were a success, but required a lot of work. We enjoyed spending time with the missionaries. Great guys! I am still experimenting with cooking, but so far nothing has been inedible—just doesn’t quite taste like home. Because of the extra planning, I also went to the store nearly every day. I always forgot some necessary item . . . .
Our days fill up somehow and I find myself wanting more hours in the day—maybe just to catch up on sleep as we tend to go to bed late and get up early. But we see the hand of the Lord here at work in Denmark. There are little miracles, like the young man (Martin) who has been attending institute and FHE for over a year off and on. I asked the elders if anyone was teaching him and they told me that he always says no when they ask to come by. He says he is learning enough at the activities he attends and will let them know if he needs more. Well, at FHE this week, after a short spiritual thought on what the plan of salvation means to you, and a rip-roaring game of ‘extreme charades,’ the elders approached him again. This time he agreed to let them come over. They went by on Wednesday and he accepted baptism. He has a baptism date for August 6. They taught him again on Saturday and he came to church today. He still has some things to learn—especially accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. He knows that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. So we will see if things move forward. His mother was reluctant about this new church—believing that tithing is like ‘paying your way into heaven’—similar to some religions that require absolution (paid repentance to have your sins forgiven). The missionaries thought they resolved his concerns. We hope he comes to FHE tomorrow.
Hope you all have a wonderful week.
Med Kærlighed,
Mom
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