Dad in front of all the bikes at a subway station
Rosenberg Castle in the background
Little Mermaid statue--from the backside
The canal "street" lined with boats
An interesting bridge
Mom in front of the Weight of the World statues.
Kære Familie, September
18, 2016
This week seemed much slower than last week. We have been having such nice weather in
Copenhagen, but we have been too busy to enjoy it. So we decided to take ½ day on Wednesday and
just be sight-seers. We walked to
Christiansborg Palace where there are canal boat rides—similar to the ones we
have taken in Brugge and Amsterdam. It
is a good way to see the city and to have a guided tour. It is not very expensive, either. The day was warm and sunny (mid 70’s) so the
breeze from the boat felt good. Our guide
did a good job, but you could tell she was terribly bored![1] She played on her phone when she passed the
microphone to the Danish guide. We saw
some different areas than we had previously visited—some interesting bridges,
lots of people taking in the sun on the docks (doesn’t anyone have to work on a
Wednesday afternoon?) or out in a motor boat having fun, as well as the Little
Mermaid statue—from the back side. We
also saw the swarms of people crowding around this tiny statue from the front
side. (That was us 3 years ago!) The guide’s explanation for this small statue
went something like this: In Denmark, we
believe all people are the same and we don’t put anyone above another. We would never have a giant liberty lady in
our harbor.[2] I could almost buy this explanation but then
we came to an area on the canal of posh, expensive apartments. The guide indicated that she would be turning
off the microphone while we passed through this area in deference to the
apartment owners who wouldn’t want to be disturbed by a bunch of lay
sight-seers having a tour of the city.
Okay, I added the last part, but the meaning was clear.
After the hour-long canal ride, we rode an elevator to the
highest spot in the city and had a great view of Copenhagen. This was the tower at Christiansborg
Palace. There is a tour of the palace
but we decided to do that another day when the weather wasn’t quite as
nice. We wanted to be outdoors. We walked around the grounds, visited a
church and thought we were visiting another church, but it turned out to be a
church that had been transformed into a kind of art museum. It was free on Wednesdays so we decided to
visit. It was modern art and the exhibits
were a room completely draped in red—that had something to do with the heart; a
black-light maze which we walked through with objects hanging from the ceiling,
some that looked like jelly-fish, and a group of photographs from the north and
south pole. It was sad to see this
beautiful church reduced to this.
Nothing inside resembled a church.
But I guess there are just too many churches to maintain, so the
government has sold some.
On Saturday late afternoon, we took to the streets of
Copenhagen again to walk around the gardens at Rosenborg Castle. It was a little over a mile walk from our
apartment. We walked through a smaller
park on our way. Many people were out
enjoying what may be the last of summer.
It is fun to just see the people and the cultural differences from my
home country. I think I enjoy this part
the most when we walk around Copenhagen.
The gardens, of course, were beautiful.
Roses are in full-bloom and many other flowers. The trees are heavy with fruit (apples
mostly) which will most likely just fall and be wasted. It was a pleasant 2 hours of walking, but as
I watched the people enjoying the day, I wondered why I was tired from walking
the whole time. Why didn’t we just sit
and enjoy the sunshine? What is it about
Americans (or maybe just me), where we feel we must always be on the go—that
there is some kind of deadline—or that we must make the most of our time. The culture here is much more laid back. I envy it.
My big project this week was working on the next edition of
the mission newsletter. I have been
gathering information for the past two weeks and putting pages together. But as more items come in, I find I have to
rearrange the pages I have already done.
For example, we started out with 4 baptisms this transfer but the
pictures kept coming in and by the time I went to press, there were 8
baptisms. This is good—especially for
Denmark[3]--but
it just meant adjusting the pages with each additional picture. I also had to track down the names of the
missionaries in the pictures as I do not know the names of all the missionaries
serving here. The mission president’s
wife was the last one to send me her message.
I got it on Thursday night, so, even though it was after 10:00 when we
returned from Institute, I stayed up and reworked the newsletter once again,
because her message was longer than I had planned room for. (Dad stayed up, too, and played with his new
app called Mobile Pay.) After the temple
on Friday, we went to the Mission Office, which we knew would be nearly empty,
and printed, stapled and folded the newsletter.
Project done—for another month. I
am learning to navigate my way through Publisher better. I had no problems printing and had few
problems in the actual formatting.
We watched Elder Cook’s message on Monday night for FHE
while we ate left-overs from Golden Days.
It was the CES broadcast (Worldwide Devotional now). Even though I didn’t actually have to prepare
any food, I bought some fruit to supplement our meatball (frikadeller) sandwiches. I also had to heat everything up. We had 17 YSA’s attend. That is a good group for us. I liked Elder Cook’s talk very much,
especially his comments goal setting and the distractions that keep us from
reaching our goals. He labeled them
‘Saturday morning cartoons.”[4] He said that social media could be a
wonderful tool for good, or it could be a Saturday morning cartoon
distraction. He also talked about the
way we present ourselves on social media.
He said, “Being sincerely Christ-like is an even more important goal
than being authentic.”
We visited a sister apartment this week so that the mission
handy man could come and fix their toilet.
My job is to make it possible for men to be in women’s apartments. So while the two men tackled the toilet, one
of the sister missionaries helped me with the language. (The other one was studying herself—having
been here less time than we have.) She
went over D & C 4 and helped me pronounce all the words. Then I asked her to clarify a few phrases
that I don’t think I am saying correctly when I pray. She was very helpful. The we sang some hymns in Danish. She is trying to memorize a hymn every few
weeks. What I have is fear and I would
give anything to have their confidence to just belt out with Danish. When Dad and I pray in Danish (just over the
food), we have to ask each other what we said because we can’t understand each
other. When someone asks me a question
in church, I respond with a blank look, so then they ask in English. It is not that I don’t understand them, it is
just that it takes me too long to process the words. Once I understand the words, it takes too
long to formulate a reply—thus making it impossible to communicate. I hope the Danish lessons help, but what we
really need is a miracle. I think Dad
already explained the difficulty being translated in church. Now I have a lot more empathy for those
Hispanic sisters who speak in stake conference.
We had some sisters come from Italy to attend the temple
this week-end. I saw them there both
Friday and Saturday. One sister was from
Peru and spoke Spanish, one was actually Italian, and one was from Egypt, but
she had lived in Italy for over 40 years.
Because I had previously told the presidency I can do a Spanish veil
(they think I can actually speak Spanish…ha!), they figured I could do the
Italian woman as well. The Spanish veil
went well[5];
the Italian veil was a bit rough. She
read from the card and I stumbled through my part by reading the card as
well. The second veil (they did
back-to-back sessions), I said my part a bit better. The receiver spoke Spanish for both
veils. The Egyptian woman wanted
English. She did initiatory rather than
a second session, which is where I was assigned the second half of my shift
(until the veil). She was pleased that I
spoke the ordinance in English. One of
the other sisters also spoke in English, but the third sister spoke in Danish,
even though she had just returned from serving a Family History mission in Salt
Lake for 18 months. The Egyptian woman
was so grateful and was very emotional during the ‘initiatory session.’ It made me see, once again, how much love
people have for the temple. There is a
yearning to be here which goes beyond any difficulty and sacrifice they make to
get to the temple. As we left that
afternoon, all three sisters were preparing to do another session. There are 5 sessions on Friday—I wonder if
they attended all of them. When we came
back on Saturday morning, they were there serving once again.
We came back to the temple on Saturday—it was the YSA day
for baptisms.[6] There were two of our young men there doing
family names—one was our new convert of only 6 months. His friend baptized and confirmed him for his
ancestors. I had 3 names (which I had
accidently, or more accurately, miraculously
found a month ago) which needed baptisms—2 females, and 1 male. The young men did the male name and another
new convert there for the first time with the missionaries, did my female
names. Afterwards we participated in the
confirmations and then we did the initiatory ordinances for them. It is not so simple in our temple to pop into
initiatory and expect to get our names done.
Typically, initiatory ordinances are performed only at the same time as
the endowment session. Once the veil
starts, all ordinance workers are needed to help. That is when I went to do the initiatory work
for my ancestors. We just don’t have the
personnel to do both. The temple matron
saw me sitting there, waiting patiently, so she got another sister (who spoke
Swedish) and the two of them did the ordinance for me. I was very grateful. So it was a good morning in the temple. I will close by including two of the quotes I
used in my talk. President Monson said,
“As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we
will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation. The temple provides purpose for our
lives. It brings peace to our souls—not
the peace provided by men, but the peace promised by the Son of God when He
said, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you…’” and President Boyd
K. Packer said, “The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance
work of the temples. Blessings there
will not be limited to our temple service.
We will be blessed in all our affairs.”
I hope everyone has a good week. Love to you all. Please give those precious grandchildren a
hug and kiss from me. I enjoy the
pictures you post.
Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
[1] I
can hardly blame her—she probably does this 5-6 times a day, 5 days a
week. She looked bored, but her
presentation was good.
[2] Of
course, the Statue of Liberty was actually a gift from France—we had no input
as to the size of the statue, although we did build the base for the
statue—which is large in itself. And
where else we were going to put such a gift?
‘Not my backyard.’
[3]
There was even a baptism in Iceland this time.
[4]
Read his talk for the full story behind this.
[5]
This is the second time I was able to do a Spanish veil.
[6] We
saw 3 other YSA’s doing an endowment session—such great kids!
Kære Familie, Sunday, September 18, 2016
We spoke for the first time in a Sacrament Meeting today as
the HC representative. The outline was
that we would split being the last speaker and would have 20 minutes between
us. Then since they have to translate
for us, which doubles the time, we effectively have 5 minutes each to
speak. It worked out almost exactly like
that has we had just under 20 minutes when the musical number concluded. (Primary kids singing with a piano and flute
accompaniment – nice). Mom took 13 and
left me 7. She said she only had 5
minutes of material! I had probably had
10-12 minutes prepared (double that for translation) since I assumed I would be
last on the program and would need to be the accordion speaker. I was mostly concerned that a speaker would
not show up or would be really short and leave a lot of time. As I stood, the counselor who was going to
translate for me emphasized that I only had 7 minutes. I think he was serious that they did not want
me to drone on into overtime. I think I
sat down after 9 minutes so hopefully that was not too bad. He wasted some of that as he struggled to
translate some of my big words. I did
not keep them simple enough for the translator.
Mom did a great job talking about the importance of the temple and what
it has meant to her over the years. I
spoke about keeping our testimonies strong and remembering who we are and what
we stand for. We both flunked out and
got an F grade on our Danish. We tried
just a little in our testimonies. You
know you have failed when they feel the need to translate the part that is in
Danish. I guess they assume that they are the only ones who understood
it??? A sister sat behind us on the
stand and translated the other speakers.
We had a youth speaker and man who spoke quite slowly and clearly. It
was interesting that some sentences I could understand before the translation
came or I had a good sense for part of the sentence. In contrast, I could understand very little
of what the counselor was saying who conducted the meeting. It really depends on how clearly and fast
they speak. We have learned that even
with only 5 million people speaking the language, there are different dialects
around the country and some are easier to understand than others. Copenhagen is
one of the worst because they tend to run their words together and drop the
ending of words. That is why I have
mentioned in the temple, they seem to start sentences and end them and sort of
skip everything in between. I guess in Copenhagen
dialect; they really do that. A sister gave us a suggestion after the
meeting, she said if we would pronounce every consonant and speak very broadly
(not quite sure what that means but I think it is enunciation) then it would
help the Danes understand through our American accents. What, we have an accent?
Our weather has taken a turn towards winter after 2 weeks of
just gorgeous temperatures. This week it
is supposed to be highs of 64 and as low as 48.
That should feel a bit nippy I think.
The wind is also blowing today and though we haven’t really been outside
very much, it feels a lot colder. I used
a sweat shirt on our 5:00 walk yesterday to Rosenburg Castle and it felt just
right. On Friday, I would have been hot
in the sweat shirt.
We also had our first YSA
Committee meeting with a ward. It was in
Frederiksberg Ward today at 1:15 so we had to leave Allerød right after SS and
rush to Frederiksberg. It is a little
under a 30 min drive. The meeting went
as expected, which is to say much like a similar meeting in the states. We had the bishopric member conducting the
meeting, 2 YSA ward reps and the YSA mom joined us part way through the
meeting. They said the EQ and RS
counselors usually attend but they could not today. We had the chance to explain our role in the
stake and then we focused on 5 or 6 youth that they are concerned about and
which seem to be the "low hanging fruit" that we might have the most
success with in terms of activation. It
is still unclear as to the exact plan to reach out to them. Everyone seems to agree that the two of us
dropping in to see them would not be the most likely approach to succeed with
them. Hence, the best way initially seems to be to ask/assign an active YSA to
take them on as a friend to develop a deeper relationship and try to encourage
them to come back. It will have to go a
bit further than just inviting them to institute or church to be successful.
They will need to develop a real friendship that goes beyond just church
meetings. They need to feel love and
know that they are missed and needed.
I reminds me of a video I need to look up that shows how this was
successfully done by a young man with an assignment to fellowship a classmate
he did not know all that well. It might
be something good to show in similar meetings.
I made my first real more
difficult meal on Frida; Beef Parmesan
using something like flank steak with new boiled potatoes and Parsley sauce (using
a package for the sauce flavoring). Mom
gave me a few tips on the parmesan, but I mostly did it by myself and she
appreciated the break from cooking. To
be clear, I have cooked quite a few meals, but they have been my typical pizza
burgers, tacos, omelets, etc. This one
was much more involved and required the use of a recipe and metric
conversions! Yea. Officially, I am supposed to be cooking every
other day and though we are sort of transitioning to that, we are not quite
there yet. Mom did omelets last night
and then French Onion Soup today. I
should definitely be on tomorrow night and will need to think of an idea really
quickly. (Maybe I can do my old mission fallback of liver and onions.)
We are in the process of getting a local Danish checking
account set up. Our debit card came this
week and the account is established. I
think I am just waiting for a PIN. They
use a system that is sort of cool called Mobile Pay. It seems to me to be a step above ACH transfers
or P2P that our US bank is using. Mobile
Pay is an app that transfers money to another person just by inputting a
person’s phone number, the amount and a reason, if desired. You then swipe a bar on the App and the money
is gone to their account. All of the
UV’s are supposed to pay 20kr for the institute dinners, and most of them do
this by using the mobile pay on their phone APP, a few still do it the old
fashioned way and drop a coin into a bottle on the table. Now that we have this
capability, we are supposed to take over the accounting for this process. One of the girls has been doing this for the
past few months. The stake will advance
3000kr into our account. We pay for the
food and collect the youth’s money each week.
When we use up the petty cash (the 3000kr) we will have to turn receipts
into the stake clerk and he will put another 3000kr into our account.
Elder Buxton called Wed night
and asked if we could man the mission office for them Thursday. They have friends in town and want to take a
long weekend with them. Ottley's will
take Friday because of our temple assignment.
We were glad to do it but missed our district meeting for the 3rd week
in a row. We arrived in the office at
10:00 and really had no responsibilities other than keeping the office
open. The phones are forwarded to Elder
Buxton. Hence, we worked on YSA things
we have put aside: accounting for dinners and refreshments, presentation for
YSA Council Meetings, Roskilde YSA visits, update to journal for 3 days, etc.
It was really quite nice to be focused on these items. Several missionaries dropped into the office
in the afternoon but otherwise it was quiet time.
We left the office at 4:00 in
order to walk to the CUV and prepare a dinner of chicken fajitas from left over
Golden Days food. It was 30 minutes
later than we had hoped so we had some stress about getting the food prepared
on time. Dinner went well though and all
was ready at 6:00. We fed 14, and had 18
come to Institute. Sister ??? did not
arrive until just before 7:00 to teach, so we were getting a little nervous
about teaching the lesson. Neither one
of us had looked at the 2 chapters yet.
She arrived though and it seemed like they had a good lesson, but only
really covered the first of the 2 chapters.
It is getting dark at about
7:30 now and so it seems like it is really late when we are walking home after
Institute. The youth also seem to be
leaving by around 9:00 instead of 10:00 or later. I think this is because summer is over and
most have school or work in the morning.
The darkness also makes it harder to travel home by bike, train or bus
in the dark.
Mom is talking about Elder
Cook’s WW Devotional and perhaps you watched it or will watch it soon. These
are a couple of my thoughts that I noted in my journal for follow up.
We
need to have righteous goals and then have a plan to achieve them. I have
let his slip a bit in my life. Other
than a goal to serve a successful mission, my post retirement goals are pretty
empty. This will take some thought. What
do I want to accomplish in the rest of my life?
Go back to school and get the MBA I always wanted, have a list of books
to read, get certified as a financial planner, learn a language, perhaps
relearn French or keep working on Danish, pick up some new hobbies?
Planning,
Grit and determination are required to accomplish our goals.
Enthusiasm
is common, determination is rare. Goal
setting with the above ingredients will set me apart from the pack. The
difference maker in being someone who really accomplishes something, is the
pursuit of worthy goals.
Elder
Cook told a parable that he called, ‘The parable of the brick layer’. 3 men
were working on a building laying bricks. It was to be a temple. Someone asked
them each what they were doing. The
first was laying bricks, the second was building a Church, the third was
building a House of God. The moral is
that the men had a job, a career and a calling, respectfully. Which do we have
in our profession and lives? Am I serving a mission, building Young
Adults, or Hastening the 2nd coming of Christ?
All is well. Love Dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment