Flea Market
Marriott Hotel--interesting architecture
Kære Familie Sunday,
November 13, 2016
The election
results happened early Wednesday morning for us with the time zone
differences. I woke up at 4:30
for some reason, maybe related to the election?
While up for a few minutes, I glanced at the headlines and election maps
long enough to see that Trump was ahead and was cautiously predicted to maybe
win, if Pennsylvania or
Wisconsin or Michigan could fall to him.
He needed at least 2 of the 3. He
had already won Ohio, Florida and North Carolina a bit easier than expected,
and these were must wins.
We woke up at
6:30 for good and put on the election results from Fox News all morning until
we left for District Meeting at 10:30. Trump was announced the winner just
before that and we were able to hear his short victory speech before we left. I
was very impressed that he sounded and looked presidential and gracious in
victory. It is being proclaimed as the
biggest surprise victory ever in US elections and an historical event. As an outsider, and with all his defects and
immoral character, he was never judged by the media or the political elites as
having a chance to win. The polls I read
the day before the election, did not give him a chance. Hence, pollsters are in consternation and
will need to rework their models.
Everyone underestimated the silent majority, the degree of fed-up-ness
with Washington and the desire to clean house with new thinking. It helped him that Hillary Clinton was such a
marred candidate herself and represented more of the same gradual decline of
our nation and its values and morals towards progressivism. One analyst also
said that she made the mistake of attacking Trump most of the time and did not
do enough to offer her platform and vision for the country. In other words, “vote against him and not for
me”. I think people would prefer to vote
for a cause rather than against someone or something. Jared’s analysis has
helped me to see another aspect, which is that the democrats stayed home and
maybe she lost it more than he won it.
However, when you look at the colored maps, there is a lot of red in
rural America and one would never believe that he lost the popular vote just by
looking at those county by county results.
This has given me a new understanding and liking for the Electoral
College and how inspired our founding fathers were in setting up our political
checks and balances. The link mom sent home explaining how the Electoral
College works changed my mind about its usefulness and how it makes candidates
work for the whole country.
We received a
message from President O'Bryant Wednesday morning as well, instructing us to be
very cautious for the next few days, to stay out of political discussions, and
to stay away from areas where Americans might congregate as it is hard to
predict what sort of blowback this might have in Denmark. There may be protests, etc. We have not noticed anything unusual like
that however and the protests seem to be in America this time around. The
interest over here is still very fascinating to us. We have been surprised at the
attention a lot of people show about it.
There seems to be a predominate feeling of anti-Trumpism, quite vocal,
that I haven't figured out. I suspect it is a mixture of the progressive nature
of Denmark, the America First theme to his candidacy, anti-immigration
policies, re-working trade deals, and the notion that if more profits are kept
in the USA, then the rest of the world's economies will suffer. I have also heard that America will be less
stabilizing as a foreign power and that Trump's brashness rudeness and lack of
foreign experience will work against him in foreign relations. They all say that America is the world's
leading economy so of course they will be affected by what happens and are
interested in the outcome. It is a sort
of eye-opening experience to see how the country is regarded.
We had the stake DVI meeting at 7:00 with
everyone there except for Jonathan. This
is the monthly meeting that has not happened for at least 3 months. Gismo
conducted and did a great job. I admire
these single, younger people who are not intimidated by the older generation or
stake leadership. They are very capable
and step up and take charge when it is asked of them. President Olsen also
showed a great grasp of the needs of the youth and offered more financial
support in the next year than they have even had in the past. It seems the stake has accumulated $10,000
(might be kroners) from funds set aside that have not been spent. He suggested we plan some sort of social
event (like the stake paying for movie tickets) for the leadership training /
kickoff event they want to have on Jan 6th.
Pres O'Bryant introduced the Church's Christmas initiative, The Light of
the World, and we decided collectively that this would be a great event for the
YSA to take on for themselves for the month of December. We will need to introduce it right away.
I spent a few hours working
on the Christmas devotional slide show this week. I have only gotten 9 missionaries processed
so far so it is time-consuming, but I was able to move the ones I have
processed into Movie Maker and played with the program a bit. Mom meanwhile played with the music portion
and so hopefully we can put it together and the process will start to go much
faster. It looks like 20% of the
pictures may have come in and there are a lot therefore that I need to process
quickly.
FHE was on family history and
Mark Pedersen led the discussion on using the Family Booklet. Our goal was to
level set everyone and have them take the first step of having the booklet
completed on-line so they begin to relate to their 4 generations. We had about 21 attend and they each spent
time on their own laptops to work on something in family search.
We met with Daniel Olsen as
head of the temple committee afterwards to coordinate various approaches to
temple activities. It is evident that he
feels the weight of stepping up temple work but at the same time he wants to
move very slowly. We are anxious to get
our FH tag game going, and it seems like an easy step, but he suggested we wait
until after at least our first temple trip together. I think the game would help support and build
the excitement to be in the temple but he sees it as a distraction right
now. We will honor his request for now
and see how things begin to play out.
On Tuesday, we did more apartment inspections
with a stop in Helsingor to drop off a vacuum, then an inspection at the
sister's Hillerod apartment and then the elder’s Birkerod apartment. The sisters needed some things so we then
stopped at 2 stores to find a toaster, garbage cans, etc. and returned to
Hillerod to drop them off. The hour’s
drive up and back was very pretty. The
leaves are falling and aren't quite as vibrant as a few weeks ago, but the
colors are still very striking. All of
that took up a good part of the day and we got home quite late in the
afternoon.
We had dinner at the
President's house with senior couples to send off the Ottleys and welcome the
Rands, a local service missionary couple who will serve 2 years in
Frederikshavn as MLS missionaries. The
evening was very nice as it is always uplifting to be with the O'Bryants. They are an inspiring couple and we love to
be with them and to hear his advice and report on missionary work. They have just returned from a week of
training by the Area Presidency with the European West mission presidents in
Budapest. We will look forward as the
training is introduced throughout the mission in zone conferences.
We drove home in our first
snow storm in Denmark. It was not heavy
and fast but was sticking to the ground a bit.
The evidence was not strong the next morning as the roads were all clear
except for ice. We saw a little bit of
snow at the stake center but nothing in the city center. We understand that Roskilde got 6 inches that
stayed on the ground.
Thursday, we went to the
Center at 4:00 to meet David Borcuti, a new investigator from Romania, who
volunteered to make a Hungarian Goulash for dinner. He didn't come until 4:45 so we were a little
nervous and ended up pressed for time.
The soup was not done until 6:15 and some stomachs were grumbling at the
door of the kitchen. I had to run up the
street to get 3 loaves of bread and some onions. Everything went well however and most liked
the soup and we had just enough. We had
an excellent turnout and fed 23 and had 31 YSA for the lesson plus 2
missionaries, the teacher, ourselves and 3 film crew members. 39 total people in the room, which stretches
its limits for the hallways and kitchen area to serve food. Elene Holm was also
there and she is sticking with her baptism date of Dec 9th. David also volunteered to cook again sometime
soon, indicating his intent to continue to come and meet with us. As a post script, he accepted a baptismal
challenge this weekend for early in December.
We have not been in on his discussions, but it seems like he must be
prepared because he is moving along very quickly.
Our just released temple
president, President Williams, is healing from double bypass heart surgery and
will have additional surgery to implant a pacemaker this week. His departure
for home will depend on how soon the insurance company will let him fly. It
looks like it will still be a couple of weeks.
I am sure this down-time must be hard on them when they are so used to
being busy every day in the temple. Many members have visited him in the
hospital as they are much loved and respected.
The Larsens came into town
for the weekend to "escape" from Århus. I think Sister Larsen needed
a break and some adult company. Maybe we
have a real advantage being in Copenhagen with several other couples. We do get quite a bit of entertainment. There was a huge flea market taking place
this weekend in a convention center and that is what everyone, probably except
for us, wanted to do.
First, Elder Buxton and I
drove our cars at 8:40 to move the Jenson's from Valby to the Ottleys/our old
apartment. It only required 1 trip to
basically move their suitcases and carry-on luggage plus the little food they
have picked up in 10 days. We then
joined the women who left at 9:30 for the flea market.
The market was interesting
only because of the size of it. Hundreds
of little booths set up selling junk mixed with treasures. We stayed about 4 hours, which is a lot of
wandering around, especially for me who hates shopping of any kind. The Larsens stayed a few hours longer than
that! We did buy a picture for 300 kr to
hang behind our bed and a little ship for 325 kr that can hang on our
front-entrance wall above our Pres Monson quote. "We can't direct the wind but we can
adjust the sails." It looks great there and I think adds something special
to our front entrance.
I best sign off. Love to all.
Dad.
Kære Familie, November 13,
2016
I woke up Wednesday morning (which is 11:30 p.m. your time)
to quite a surprise. I will confess that
I was drinking the Kool-Aid given to us by the media, i.e. Hillary will win in
a landslide. We incredulously watched
the news on our computer as the rest of the election unfolded. We
have since heard and read many explanations of how this happened. On Tuesday night, we got a text from our
district leader asking if we would take a minute in tomorrow’s meeting to
report on the president. Both of us
jumped to the wrong conclusion that he wanted an update on the Temple President’s condition who had undergone
double bypass surgery Tuesday morning.
Our district leader is Swiss—why would he want to know about the U.S.
Presidential elections? But that is
exactly the president he meant. Before district meeting, however, we received
a mission-wide text from the Mission President telling us who won the election
and telling us to politely avoid commenting on the election—saying that ‘our
focus right now is on missionary work, not on what is happening on the
political front back home.’ He also said
for safety reasons to avoid areas like the U.S. embassy and other places where
people might be gathering to protest the winner.
I had an interesting conversation at language class during
the break with a French woman and Belgium man.
The French woman said she was a bit afraid to ask me about the
election—I told her there was no need. I
would be happy to talk about it. I told
her that I found it very interesting that so many people outside of the U.S.
are interested in our elections. But I
guess what the U.S. does influences so many things all over the world. For example, she said that France would be
having elections next year. There is a
conservative woman who wants to oppose the current President. She worried that our election outcome would
bolster this woman’s confidence about running.
The Belgium man (6o+ year old professor) felt like a Trump presidency
would adversely affect the economy and would hurt the strides made in climate
change reforms. I asked why they think
it will happen—how do they know? I said
that it appears the American people threw out the politicians. They were tired of politicians making
promises and not keeping them. We don’t
know if Trump will be better because he has no track record. But we do know he ran a successful business
and knows how to create jobs. I
emphasized that he is an unknown and people seemed to go with that rather than
a known politician. But the Belgium
just shook his head and said it will be a disaster. The most conservative news they get over here
is CNN or BBC. They are likewise
influenced by the media—just as America.
Winter seems to have come.
Many say that it arrived a lot earlier this year. Our storm Tuesday night left snow on the
ground in some areas. There is ice on
the lakes. We admire the missionaries on bikes as well as the rest of
Copenhagen who seem to take it all in stride. And then I ask myself, where is the girl who
grew up in Utah? I know what cold
is. Has my blood just thinned from being
in Houston so long? We walked to the YSA
center on Monday night. It actually felt
colder walking at 5:00 p.m. than at 11:00 when we came home. I wear hat, scarf, and gloves and my nice
down coat—better than anything I had in Utah.
So, I can survive. I have gotten
some good thick tights to keep my legs warm and I now have some boots which
help keep my toes warm. I can adjust to
this climate. When I see a baby napping
outside (at 32˚F) in a buggy while his mom is eating lunch inside with
friends, I say to myself, “If he can do it, so can I.”
I made waffles for Monday night FHE. Waffles are for dessert here in Denmark. They put powdered sugar and Nutella on them. I discovered two waffle irons at the YSA
center, so I thought someone must have done this before. It was a hit.
When I said that waffles are a breakfast food in America, I got comments
about Americans eating unhealthy foods.
I assured them that we do not eat waffles every day for breakfast but I
didn’t rub in their practice of eating delicious Danish pastries that are so
prevalent here. I guess they just bike
off all their extra treats—that’s the difference. We ate lunch with our district on Wednesday
after our meeting. We went to a bakery
which had many wonderful, tempting treats.
But we resisted and opted for a sandwich and salad instead.
We had dinner at the mission president’s house on
Tuesday—fajitas. We welcomed two new
senior couples and said good-bye to the Ottley’s. The two new couples introduced themselves
and the Ottley’s gave their farewell address.
The Ravn’s are a couple from our stake here in Denmark. They will serve in Jylland in the Århus
stake. They will help the YSA program in
Frederikshavn on the north end of the island.
They only speak Danish and I felt badly because most of the dinner
conversation was in English. They
introduced themselves, and even the mission president was having trouble
translating for them because their accent is thick. They have a son who is serving a mission
right now as well. They had a daughter
who only lived a few days. Then they
couldn’t become pregnant again for a long time.
The son they have was an IVF baby.
They are very happy to be serving a mission now. They will go to the MTC in London for a few
days and then come back to Denmark. They
won’t understand much at the MTC.
Sister Jenson introduced herself by saying she came on a
mission ‘to get away from her children and grandchildren’. I am very grateful to say that statement is
NOT TRUE in my case. Brother Jenson
speaks Danish and Sister Jenson seems to be learning from him. They have experienced a few days of
‘capturing’ (photographing and digitalizing records) so they know what they are
getting into. The Ottley’s are very
pleased with the amount of work they have accomplished while they were here on
their mission. Neither of them spoke
Danish and had no desire to learn. They
didn’t hold back when they said that their work was boring and mundane. But they enjoyed seeing the progress they
made and are excited for the future indexing work that can now be
accomplished. They said the greatest
thing about their mission was studying the scriptures together every
morning. They said study not read—and that made the difference. They also said their relationship has
improved. Just like a young missionary
who saves just one soul—themselves, maybe a senior couple saves just one
marriage—theirs. They left Saturday
morning and are now safely home in Kennewick, Washington.
Our lesson in institute was on ‘Rearing Children in Love and
Righteousness’ –a ‘handbook,’ if you will, on how to rear your children. I was most impressed by an article in the supplemental
reading by Elder Holland. A
Prayer for Children I would
encourage all parents to listen to his counsel.
As parents our stewardship is to rear children—that is more than just
clothing and feeding them. You raise chickens but you rear children. Rearing
implies loving, teaching, guiding, being an example of righteousness. We should never abdicate this responsibility
to anyone else, or anything else. If we
don’t do it, we are actually letting someone else do it. We had a young woman to dinner tonight with
the missionaries. She is a beautiful
girl. She is 18 years old. Her parents are divorced and her mother lives
in Florida. After the divorce, she went
to live in Arizona with an aunt. Her
father was in California. The mother is
not active, but the father seems to be.
He met his second wife on an internet dating sight. She is Danish. He married her, and brought his 4 children to
Denmark with him. (Evidently he has
custody of the children.) Unfortunately,
he could not find work here and took a job in China. He has been spending one month in China and
one month here. His new wife, who has
two of her own children, has been trying to hold the whole family
together. But the situation has taken a
toll on this girl and her older brother.
I was pleased that she agreed to come to dinner—after all, she doesn’t
know us, which is why we also invited the sister missionaries. I hope any influence we or the missionaries,
or other members of the ward can have will help her. She needs direction in her life, as well as
spiritual guidance. Her older brother
(20) is about the same. He has moved out
of the house, though, and is trying to make it on his own. Both have lost the light of the gospel. But like the father of the prodigal son, we
welcome with open arms all who return, and we do anything we can to bring them
back. This is the work of rescue that
goes on in the church, in families, in missionary work. I believe it is why we are here. Just maybe, we might be able to reach one or
two. My heart goes out to these young
people who have so many difficult hurdles in their lives. The message the sisters gave was about
temporary happiness versus lasting happiness.
It is easy to find temporary happiness, but the greater gem is found in
eternal joy. Joy can be found in
becoming—it is found in doing the will of the Lord. It is found in our relationships with others
as we serve and help each other to be all we can be. It is found in the journey, even when it is a
difficult one. It is found in our faith
and hope in Christ.
I spent a few minutes studying the Danish veil again this
week at the temple. The sister who was
working with me thought I was ready to do it for real. So, I did the last veil of the night in
Danish—using the card. I don’t have it
memorized—that will take some time. But
I was able to pronounce the difficult words.
I suppose that is progress.
I hope everyone has a great week.
Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
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