December 4, 2016: Christmas Markets

This is a walnut branch put to good use as a decoration in a street market.

On Saturday we went to some Christmas markets. There were many things to do. Some children enjoyed playing on these hay bales. Notice that they are wearing snowsuits, even though there is no snow—it keeps their legs and bodies warm.

Santa Claus was also there, but in Denmark he is called Julemanden. He spoke Danish to the children. It is amazing that Santa Claus knows all languages!

There was also a band playing Christmas music. I think those musicians without gloves had very cold hands.

Children could also go on a wagon ride.

Here is the picture of Santa Claus riding a bike, like Grandpa told you about. A lot of Danish people ride bikes, so it makes sense that Santa Claus rides one, too. You could go on a ride with Santa and sit in his bike.

We also went to a castle to see another Christmas market. This is a picture in the middle of the castle courtyard.

Here is a picture that shows more of the castle.

The castle has a dungeon. It is very dark and damp. I would not have wanted to do something wrong in the old days that would have resulted in being locked up in the dungeon. This is a statue of an old Danish Viking Warrior. There is a legend that Holger Danske is sleeping. The next time Denmark is attacked, Holger Danske will awake and save the country. It is kind of silly, because statues can’t come to life, but makes for a great story.

Kære Familie                        Sunday, December 4, 2016

  We have a young adult getting baptized this coming Friday night. She is 20 years old. We have known her since we arrived in Denmark and she has been attending meetings fairly regularly for over a year. She has finally made the decision to be baptized but it has not been easy for her. For example, her married sister and her husband have been trying to talk her out of it. They think it is terrible that she would leave the state church of Denmark. Most everyone here belongs to it. They refuse to come to her baptism. Her mom and dad are going to come however, even though they think she is making a mistake. They are at least willing to support her as they have seen how important this is to her. The young adults here sacrifice a lot to keep the commandments and attend church every week. Most of their friends in school think they are silly not to enjoy Sundays having fun and they don’t understand why they do not want to drink beer or wine with them. Almost everyone drinks a lot. We admire these young adults we work with. They are very faithful and try very hard to be good church members. They read their scriptures and have very good comments in our classes. Their testimonies are very strong. Many of them have served as missionaries in England, Greece, France and a few on temple square in Utah and one young lady served in Colorado. They grow up speaking English as well as Danish so serving missions in English speaking countries is natural for them. They love being missionaries and we love the missionaries who are here serving in Denmark. Most of them come from the United States. One missionary here in Copenhagen comes from Texas! He is very polite and says “yes ma’am and no sir” to us!

We had a substitute in our language class on Monday and the whole class was dreading it because we are so comfortable with our current teacher. I don’t think we wanted to be tested and found lacking in our speaking ability after 2 full months of lessons. It was good to have a change however. She made it fun by having us write on the board, tossing a ball to each other and asking questions, etc., a little competition loosened us up and we did not get the impression that we were being judged harshly. She noticed however that our grasp of Danish numbers was a little weak so she drilled us by having us toss a ball to someone who had to say the next number in the sequence as we counted to 100. Then we counted to 100 forward and backward and whoever messed up had to sit down until a winner was selected. Mom won the first round and tied in the second. She is always a wiz! We only had 6 people out of 14 come today so the small class was sort of fun as well.

FHE was taught by Jennifer, one of our YSA who has gotten into family research. We focused on Family Search research in Danish records. She has a couple of good websites that she uses. Refreshments were homemade apple skivers. They were great. Mom is getting talented at trying new things. Turnout was only about 9 + us and 4 missionaries. Part of the issue was Soul Days. I think some were probably sleeping instead of coming after Soul Days in Stockholm this past weekend. They don 't get much sleep at these YSA conferences. We left the center at 9:30 but had to hunt along Stroget (the walking street) for a lost glove that fell out of mom's pocket. We could not find it as we retraced her steps. We passed several homeless people sleeping in the shop doorways where they get a little warmth and we hope that maybe one of them has at least one hand warmer.

We had our last apartment inspection to the Slagelse Elders on Tuesday. We left at 8:45, dropped in at the sisters and swapped out the desk lamps we purchased for them and made it to the elders by shortly after 10:00. We were finished by 10:30 and so we stopped in at the Bilka store. We were able to find some Christmas items, a sweater and long johns for me and some gloves for mom, as well as some Vitamin C. It is funny, but almost all the things we expected not to be able to find, and so tried to pack into our suitcases, are quite easily obtainable here. They just cannot all be picked up at Sam’s or Costco. We also bought some Glucosamine this week but had to go to an Apothecary to get that. We did not need a prescription.

At 12:30 we had to be back at the Nitavej chapel to teach Eline with the AP's. She was a little nervous about her baptism because of the commitments she will be making and mostly because her family has been giving her a hard time, especially her sister. The sister has been saying things like, “she can't believe she would even think about leaving the Danish Church”. She will not attend her baptism. Her mom and dad have said they will come, which is a good thing. They aren't happy with the baptism but they want to be supportive if this is something that she feels strongly about. She needed to feel the spirit again to reconfirm the reasons why she is getting baptized. She also helped herself in a big way. Over the weekend she purchased Pres Uchtdorf's little book "Forget Me Not" on Amazon. She read some of it to us: we focus too often on the “what and how” of the gospel - obedience to rules, reading scriptures, prayer, attending church - but not on the why we do these things. The “why” brings everything into focus. Elder Murphy followed up on that comment and asked her why she is getting baptized. That opened a good discussion that reminded her of Heavenly Father's plan for us and the need to be baptized to enter Christ’s church. She is humbly approaching this exciting day for her. Eline had her baptismal interview with the District Leader on Thursday. She was worried about it but it went very well for her. The AP’s had told her to plan on an hour, and she couldn’t imagine what she could talk to a stranger about for a whole hour. She told me afterwards that it did last that long and she did most of the talking and stretched it out.

The sister missionaries have reported that they have pushed David Borcuti's baptism from the 3rd to the 17th. They felt like they needed more time to help him understand the restoration and priesthood keys, etc. We think this is a good thing so that he will be truly ready to move ahead as a member without keeping one foot in his present church.

I spent most of the rest of Tuesday working on the Christmas slide show and got all the slides I have set up. I am missing 10 missionaries and 6 couples. It is almost ready to incorporate the music and timing into the movie maker program.

I made 2 bad boo boo’s at night while mom was gone. She went with the sisters to an Amber Party that Sister Warnsdorf was hosting. The social pressure of going was too much to resist and she ended up buying a necklace. While she was gone, I was supposed to put the towels in the dryer and put a turkey/dressing casserole in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I totally forgot the towels and was 10 min late getting the casserole in the oven but I didn't even think about converting the temperature from F to C. The oven setting did not go above 250 c but there were 2 more marks and I figured the highest one must be 350. When the timer went off after 30 min, mom was just getting home and she noticed how hot the oven was. She burned a hot pad getting the glass bowl out and it looked like it was black on the bottom. 350 F converted is only about 180 C and I had the oven on the hottest broil setting, something closer to about 700 F.

It turned out ok and the dinner and bowl were fine, but I could have started a fire or ruined the dinner, etc. I obviously am in the dog house for this week and need to do penance, as well as remember to put my head on at times. It reminded me of the right brain, left brain story told by the comedienne, Jeanne Robertson, "Don't send a man to the grocery store!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YFRUSTiFUs

At the temple, I was a patron on a session, did sealings and then led the last session which was in German. There were only 2 German speakers and a lot more Danish members but they were determined to show the A film in German for some reason. I know they wanted the shorter film as we started the session 15 minutes late and they wanted to get out as soon as possible. I was therefore surprised when the D film started in German. I have not seen it in several months, so it was quite nice to review it again. I led the prayer circle in English of course. After the session was over, the temple president and the matron caught me and asked me what film we had seen. They couldn't figure out how the D film was shown when they had scheduled the A film. We concluded that a higher power had intervened to show the one that was needed for someone in that session.

They do not train in this temple and at the end of the session, the coordinator took off before the veil was closed, leaving me to close it and to do the little bit of accounting that is required as we turn in the name cards to the office for recording. Only the office people record in this temple. I pushed the button to close the veil and all the lights went out leaving us in the dark. It also turned off the lights in the veil chamber with several people still in it. This doesn't happen in the Houston temple. There are different buttons for the veil and the lights. Apparently, these are all the same here. In the dark, I could not see to turn the lights back on again for what seemed like a very long time. When I did, the veil came up again. Later, one of the temple missionaries helped me to understand which buttons to push here. Several people commented about feeling their way to the Celestial room in the dark.

We had a stake musical fireside tonight for Christmas. It was excellent, even better than the Fall one. Some missionaries did 2 numbers and 14 YSA's sang Hallelujah along with mom. She was a good sport to join them. There was a YM, 10'ish who played God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on the piano, he was very good. (I closed my eyes and pictured Caleb or Dallin playing.) Another YM, a bit older, accompanied his 3 aunts(?) and he did a nice job. We also had 2 piano and violin pieces. All in all, a very nice evening and I wonder why our stake is so anti-musical.

I taught the YSA Sunday school class today on Ether 7-15, but mostly all centered-on faith, hope and weaknesses from Ether 12. As mom suggested, I way over prepared and only got through half the lesson material I had studied which was only about half of the potential lesson material. I think the lesson went well though. I got lots of participation and comments and had an object lesson to capture their interest. Hopefully, as part of our mission, we can model what good teaching is supposed to be like. Brother Andersen is an exceptional institute teacher however, so it is hard to keep up with his standard of excellence and mom makes teaching seem so easy.

This was my parting challenge at the end of the lesson. Think about the Christmas season and your opportunity to be a light to the world, to add light to a dark world. What can you do better in your daily living to seek the Savior of us all?”

Dad.

Kære Familie, December 4, 2016

We have been watching new training films in the temple. Previously, all training films were centered around the proper way to do the ordinances. We still see those as they are good reminders of how we should perform the ordinances and other various responsibilities in the temple. But there are some new films that center around ‘the spirit’ of the temple and how we as ordinance workers can help bring the spirit to the patrons as we perform the ordinances. These news films haven’t been translated into Danish yet, so we watch them in English. There is a narration in the background that tells a story, and then still pictures which depict what is happening. The one we saw this week was of a couple and their mother who came to the temple in street clothes. The woman was in her 8th month of pregnancy and very distraught. They said they knew they were not dressed appropriately but felt they needed to come to the temple. The point was that the brother at the recommend desk greeted them kindly and warmly. The sister ordinance worker was also kind and asked what she could do to help. They told her that they had just come from the hospital where they had learned that their baby had died in utero. They had come to the temple seeking comfort. The sister suggested they speak with the temple president. Every ordinance work was kind and understanding. They wanted to do some sealings. They did some couple sealings and the young mother had a difficult time. Only when the sealer (who didn’t know the situation) suggested that they do some daughters to parents, with the young man’s mother acting as child, the couple felt some comfort and peace. I cried through the whole movie. It was very touching.

We have seen other such movies—one of a group coming late to do baptisms, just before the temple closed. One ordinance worker wasn’t feeling very charitable, because it meant she would have to stay later than expected, and the group didn’t look like the ‘typical’ LDS youth coming to the temple. But another worker was kind and generous, making them feel wanted and at home. It turned out that one of the youth was a recent convert of a few weeks and was coming for the first time. They had come a long way. It turned out to be a wonderful experience and we could hear (in the narration) how the ordinance worker’s heart softened.

Another is of an elderly man who was coming to witness his granddaughter (or great-granddaughter’s) wedding, but got confused about where he should go. He got to the room too late, and the ordinance worker did not let him in. My heart went out to this grandpa as he sat outside the sealing room, obviously distraught and disappointed. Again, the lesson is that we follow the spirit; we are kind; we are loving to all who enter into the House of the Lord. President Monson narrated this film and he said that there is no sealer who wouldn’t willingly stop to allow such an interruption so all could attend. This one was also a tear-jerker. I really appreciate this kind of training—the other training films are the ‘how’ of the temple; these films are the ‘heart’ of the temple, the ‘spirit’ of the temple. We need both.

The temple this week was much busier and we had more workers. It was good to see the temple being used. One reason was because there was a live endowment—a young German girl. There were other patrons who came to share this experience with her so that added a few more people. The session was in German. Dad officiated the last session—it had 2 men and 14 women. I was the follower. Only two of the people in the room were German, but that session was also in German. We had mostly Danish patrons, but also a few Americans. The Danish patrons did not use headsets. I asked later if German was so like Danish that they could understand. One of the sisters said, ‘Not really, but there are similarities.’ They could follow along because they know the endowment so well. Their only other choice was to listen in English because we were watching one of the new films. Also, many of the Danes took German in school, which is another reason they are familiar with the language. I also did initiatory ordinances with the same two German sisters. Two of the ordinance workers spoke English and the other spoke Danish. One of the patrons used a card but the other one seemed to understand all of us. The people here seem to take different languages in stride. For me, it is still a struggle. I am questioning the wisdom of the people who participated in the Tower of Babel building project. I think we would have been a lot better off if they had never come up with that idea!

I made two Danish dishes this week for our Young Adults—I got inspired from my Relief Society activity. I made homemade æbleskiver for FHE and risalamande for dessert on Thursday. I had served æbleskiver before, but I had bought a frozen bag and just reheated them. I found two æbleskiver pans in my apartment so I thought I would give it a try. It is a lot more work than flipping pancakes. One of my pans is a cast iron pan. It hadn’t been taken care of properly, so I first had to season it. The first batch did not work so well, but after that it got easier—I used more oil. The second Danish dish is just rice pudding, which unfortunately, I have never made before. After the rice pudding cools, you add sugar, lots of vanilla flavoring, chopped almonds and whipped cream. You serve with warm cherry sauce. Both dishes were a success, but I’m not sure I will do them again too soon—maybe next Christmas.

We had a stake Christmas concert tonight. There has been a big banner hanging outside over the church doors announcing the concert, with the hope that those who see it would come to see the concert. Our young adults prepared a song for the concert. They practiced last Thursday night, but not very many YSA were there, and some had to leave right after the lesson. In desperation, they asked me to sing with them. The pianist was the same as for the other number they sang for Golden Days. She doesn’t work with music—only chord names, so there was no music to look at, just words which they downloaded from the internet. I do much better when I can read the music. But it turned out okay. We sang ‘Hallelujah’—a Christmas version, which I found out came from the movie ‘Shrek,’ of all things. The whole evening was very nice and brought a nice Christmas spirit.

We spent the day yesterday visiting two Christmas markets in Sjæland—one in Borup (on the west side) and one in Helsingør, (the north side). The first one was on the estate of a Baron and Baroness. The market was set up in several outside buildings. Visitors were allowed to go into the house for a brief tour of the main-floor rooms. It was lovely. The market was typical of what you would see at a convention center—little booths where people displayed their wares. I was impressed with the many homemade items—lots of knitting (sweaters, ponchos, socks, hats, dishrags), but a lot of crafts, too. It was cold, but we were bundled up, and the sun was shining. I liked the small Christmas trees that lined the paths. There was a small band playing Christmas music, horse-drawn wagon rides, and a visit from Julemanden. They also sold various Danish Christmas treats—like candied almonds and pandekager (a Danish crepe). We ate lunch there as well—a bowl of goulash and a piece of bread.

The second market was in one of our favorite castles—Kronborg. The ambiance of the castle is fun—there was a large Christmas tree just outside the moat and the inner courtyard was festively decorated. The shops were in various rooms in the castle. In the large ballroom, Julemanden and his wife were there to greet children, along with elves and court gestures and whatever else is traditional in Denmark. I didn’t recognize all the different characters. The elves did not look like our typical elves. There were also programs, like a young ballet company performing, and a Christmas jazz group. There were places to eat—in the dungeon. When we visited the dungeon last summer, it was cold and dark and we almost got lost. But yesterday there were lights in the various rooms and Christmas decorations to make it hyggelig. There were lots of people there and it was very crowded in some of the shops—not much different than a typical Christmas shopping day in Houston. It is definitely Christmastime in Denmark.

On Tuesday night, I was invited to an ‘Amber Party.’ One of the Danish service missionaries collects amber. She invited all the American missionaries to the ‘party.’ I assumed she had invited ward members as well, but only the 6 of us were there—3 temple missionaries and 3 Den Danske missionaries. I felt a lot of pressure to buy something. It wasn’t the amber I was interested in—it was her apartment. It is here in Copenhagen—maybe ½ mile from our apartment. The building is like all the other old buildings in Copenhagen. It was built in 1906. But I got a huge surprise when I got inside her apartment. It was as beautiful as any of the castles we have visited. The molding on the ceilings was quite spectacular. Every inch of wall space was covered with a picture—some were quite valuable. She had two prints by Carl Bloch. She also collects vases and angels. Every window seat, table, or shelf was covered with her collections. There was a baby grand piano in the apartment, as well as some very nice antique furniture. I felt like I was in a museum. We only saw 3 rooms—dining room, living room and piano room, which were all connected.

Kærlig hilsen, Mom