Kære Familie Sunday,
January 8, 2017
To the Grandkids
I am so impressed with our
missionaries. It has been below freezing
all week and the wind has been blowing very hard off the ocean. We even had some snow on the ground on Saturday
(less than an inch). But the
missionaries still ride their bikes and go finding every day for someone to
teach. And they do it with smiles for
they love sharing the gospel with anyone who will listen to them. One of our young friends in the YSA had a
bike accident 3 weeks ago. He was on his way to take a test in school and his
bike slipped on some wet cobblestones in the street. He was not wearing a helmet and he hurt his
head, arm and leg quite badly. He had to
have 7 stitches in his eyebrow. I think
he was very lucky not to have gotten a concussion. He came to FHE right from the hospital. He missed his test though and had to take a
note to his teacher from the doctor to be excused!
The weather has turned colder
this week and we are experiencing mid 20's in F. The high and low for the day
only varies by a couple of degrees. When the car says -5 or -7 (Celsius), it
sounds even colder and the mind is prepared to feel the cold! It is definitely more bone chilling to be
outside. When the wind is blowing, which
is most of the time, it really bites any exposed skin, such as cheeks and nose
and my fingers can be frozen even with my running gloves. I tried my heavier
ski gloves on Friday when we walked to and from the Center and it was much
better. On this trek, because it is
longer, I put on my only pair of thermal type underwear under my pants. We were both ok, but I was way too hot inside
the center with thermals so I will have to take them off and put them on again
or just grin and bear either the heat or the cold. Amazingly enough, the bike traffic does not
change in the cold. I guess they really
don’t have many options since they don’t own cars within the city much. We see
a lot of red cheeks on bikes but also a lot of scarves wrapped around their
faces. The little kids are still in
their wagons with their snow suits and mittens.
I haven’t focused too much on
New Year’s resolutions. I am not going
anywhere, right? It sounds weird when I
think that we will be here for all of 2017.
If I work daily on Danish - that is a lot, but I also want to focus on a
different Characteristic of Christ for every month. For this month, I am using the article I sent
you last week on improving marriage as a focus on gratitude and speaking with
more kindness and love and trying to eliminate any implied criticism in my
conversations. That part requires
constant focus but it has been good.
One of our joint resolutions
is to improve our companion study time in the mornings. That is what missionaries
are supposed to be expert at! The next
Institute course is one of the foundation courses, Teaching and Doctrine of The
Book of Mormon. It is topic based so that will enable us to experience a deeper
dive into basic church doctrines. It has
gone well so far this week and I am enjoying that part of the morning when we
are discussing scriptures together. We
also want to continue our BofM reading over breakfast and we have just started reading
the We're with You e-book before we go to bed every night. I am staying awake for that as well!
For FHE Monday night, we had
21 YSA come out for a movie night. They
watched the first Harry Potter movie in English The Sorcerer's Stone. We prepared pizza appetizers for a snack
during the movie so we didn’t see all of it. The pizzas were way good. The
movie was also great. It has been a long
time since we have seen a Harry Potter and I think I liked this one better than
some of the later ones. Harry and
friends are so cute as little kids. It
ended at 10:00. We got home at 11:00
after the cleanup. Lots of late nights this week.
We started our new semester
of Sprog (language) classes Tuesday morning.
We have a new classroom in the same building, the same teacher and there
should be 11 in the class. We only had 5
in attendance as the rest took extended vacations to their homes for the
holidays, wherever those are out of country. We also have 2 new students in the
class. Annemette, our teacher, seems to
be trying to speak more Danish to us and I noticed the speakers from the manual
are using harder words and are speaking faster.
Hence, it is harder to understand the dialogues and I will need to step
it up a bit in comprehension. It will be
good. The exercises are also more around
understanding dialogues and then having our own conversations on the same
topic.
I have to take a language
test at the Commune tomorrow. I don’t
remember if we have talked about this or not but it is part of the requirement
to have a Visa in Denmark. If I don’t
pass it, both mom and I will have to leave the country as our Visas will be
revoked. Some pressure, huh? The government wants their immigrants to
learn the language. {Editorial: Why can’t
the USA do something like this?} They used to have both of us take it but
recently it has only been a requirement for the husband to take it for the
senior missionaries. They realize we are a package deal I guess. Since the men have all served Danish missions
in the past, it has never been a very big deal.
But I am the exception! I have
spent a lot of time this week cramming for the test. I felt like I was ready on Wednesday for a
pretty easy test based on the handout samples that we have from the mission,
but then I listened to an online example that the Commune sent me a link to and
I got panicked again. It was way
different and harder. It seems to
require more listening and then interpreting and responding back to questions
to test my understanding. The whole test is oral but computer generated so that
I just listen with ear phones and then must answer questions. I think it is a
40-minute test. Wish me luck. We may be home earlier than expected.
We had a conference call with
the Swenson's in Germany Wednesday. They
are a couple with Europe Area responsibilities for YSA. It lasted 30 minutes. They were seeking input on the status of our
YSA program so they can report to the area presidency. It is nice that YSA’s are on the leaders’
meeting agendas. They would like to
attend our Golden Days in September and our Nordic Institute Council last
September came up. They had not heard
about this and asked if we would share our notes. Consequently, Mom spent quite a bit of time summarizing
her notes and I later edited them. We did not finish that until 10:30.
We
had a neat experience on Saturday night.
President and Sister O’Bryant invited us to their house for dinner and
then some training. Two Zone Leaders were
also there and we brought the 2 sisters from the Amager Branch. These 4 missionaries are going to be a pilot
for a new program in the mission, that is also being introduced in all the
missions of the church.
The
concept is to “Find” young investigators by using the Facebook Friends of the
YSA’s.
15-25
yr old’s are a new focus for the church using Social Media as a contact point
for them. About 40% of the area
authority seventies were converted at that age and the Church is realizing (has
known) that they are the future of the church.
The
simple concept is to sit down with a YSA and use their Friends List for
non-members or less actives to find new investigators. They ask questions such
as:
·
Who do you feel impressed might be interested in
knowing something about the gospel?
·
What do you think you could say to them?
·
For example, “I was thinking about you today, and
thought I would share something that is very important to me…”
They
then send a message to these friends right then during the meeting with an
attachment of a Mormon Message, scripture, video, conference talk, article,
etc. that they think would be appropriate for this friend.
The
approach is a personal message and yet is impersonal because they don't have to
talk them face to face. It is easier to
send a message and get a conversation started using social media tools than
striking up a conversation at school or the gym, etc.
The
president showed us two training videos prepared under the direction of the Quorum
of the 12 and then we got 2 missionaries in Finland on Skype and talked to them
about what they have done since they had a similar pilot last Nov/Dec. We then strategized together until about 9:00
on what approaches we could take in our mission.
The
president asked these 4 missionaries to make this a near-full time focus for
the next two weeks. They are to report
back when we meet together again on the 25th and then they will take
part in zone conferences the first week in February to train the rest of the
mission on the program. He asked them to
try it on 1 or 2 YSA’s, a larger group, perhaps some older, 15 to 16-year-old
youth, a family, some young marrieds, etc. so they have a cross section of
experiences to report on. They need to also identify a sampling of resources
that can be suggestions of media to use, i.e. some good Mormon Messages,
etc. Not many of these are available in
Danish, so that will be interesting.
Also, since there isn’t much time before zone conferences, we will likely
have experiences with sending out messages, but not much to report back on in
terms of results from the efforts: how
were the messages received, was there opportunity to have a gospel centered
dialogue, did the contacts turn into teaching situations, what is the next step
after the message is sent to follow up on the effort, etc.
As
in most things missionary, mom and I are asking ourselves a bit how we fit into
this program. That is not very
clear. We participated actively in the
discussion and contributed ideas and can help with contacts with the YSA’s, but
the effort itself should be with the young missionaries we think. It is not
currently our role to teach though we can be finding and we participate in
discussions whenever we can.
I
guess that is it for this week. We send
our love and hugs to everyone.
Dad
Kære Familie, January
8, 2017
Did the week return to normal? I think it is the consistency and order of
our ‘normal lives’ that make us appreciate the chaos, lack of schedule, and
unpredictability of vacation. It is
called ‘fun.’ ‘Rest’ it is not part of
the equation—but ‘different’ is. I hope
you have all recovered from a wonderful Christmas adventure.
We started a
new weekly schedule as our languages classes have changed days. Because of that, we met with our other
mission district this week. It has changed a lot since we met with them in
September. But that is because
missionaries transfer and move around often, so it probably doesn’t matter that
much which district meeting we attend.
We will meet lots of missionaries during our two years here. There was a great spirit in our meeting and I
felt the unity of purpose as these young missionaries brainstormed ways to
overcome obstacles for coming to church on Sunday. We listed the reasons WHY we come to church;
then we listed reasons for NOT coming to church; and finally, we listed ways we
can OVERCOME these obstacles. Basically,
if you truly understand the reasons why
we come to church, no one would ever stay away. Then you come because you want to come—self-motivation. The reasons someone won’t accept the
invitation to come to church include:
have better things to do on Sunday—work or play, don’t know anyone,
don’t have transportation, too long of service, shy, fear of the unknown, not
interested, etc. It is not much
different from the reasons a member of the church doesn’t come to church—except
that you could probably add offended
to that list. There are some obvious
things you can do like get them a ride to church, bring a member to a
discussion so they get to know members of the ward, and do a ‘church tour’
prior to Sunday to help them feel comfortable about the setting. But the best way—actually, the only way—to
get them to want to come to church is to talk about promised blessings, i.e.
you will feel the spirit; you will make new friends; you will feel a sense of
belonging; you will receive answers to your concerns; you will learn about God
and Christ; you will receive help for your life and for your family; you will
be refreshed. Well, you might not get
all these things all at once, but continued attendance at church can bring you
these blessings and so much more. It is
not just about what we get, it is also what we can give, i.e. we can show our
love for God by worshipping Him; we can show gratitude; we can lift
others. I like the scripture found in
Ephesians 4: 11-14, which tells us that we come together to be unified, to be
edified, to be perfected in Christ, to be protected:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Why do you go to church?
How do you think we can allay concerns over going to church? After our discussion, we role-played two on
two—one being the investigator and the other one the missionary. Role-playing is so good—it gives you
practice, and allows for ‘do-overs’.
Then when you are faced with the situation, you are already comfortable
in how to handle it. Dad and I
participate I these role-plays as well.
So fun!
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that our Danish guide through
the canals of Copenhagen told us that Denmark society prides itself on everyone
being equal—no one is better than anyone else.
Of course, I believe this is true, but I don’t believe it goes so far as
keeping people from achieving and living up to their capabilities. If you are given 5 talents, or 2 or 1, you
should multiply them. The Mission
President told us that this attitude is based on the Janteloven (The Law of
Jante). Here are the 10 concepts of that
law:
1.
You're not to
think you are anything special.
2.
You're not to
think you are as good as we are.
3.
You're not to
think you are smarter than we are.
4.
You're not to convince
yourself that you are better than we are.
5.
You're not to
think you know more than we do.
6.
You're not to
think you are more important than we are.
7.
You're not to
think you are good at anything.
8.
You're not to laugh
at us.
9.
You're not to think
anyone cares about you.
10.
You're not to
think you can teach us anything.
This comes from
a Danish novelist in 1936 who wrote about typical life in small town
Denmark. To me, it sounds just like
George Orwell’s Animal Farm,
which pokes fun of Stalinism. God’s law
is much different. We are encouraged to
reach our full potential and eventually become perfect, even as He is. We should think of ourselves as special,
recognizing the divinity in each of us. God’s
plan lifts and elevates us—not be better than anyone, but to be the best of
ourselves. “God will help you become something greater than you ever thought
possible.” (President Uchtdorf) God’s plan is all about self-worth. It is about believing in yourself and working
together to lift each other. We can’t
very well help others if we haven’t strengthened ourselves. I don’t see how a mindset like the list above
can bring fulfillment and happiness in life.
If ‘men are that they might have joy’, this ideology is anything but
that.
We went to a
missionary lesson this week with our friend Eline Holm. It has been about a month since she was
baptized. It sounds like with the
holidays she hasn’t been back to church since.
She came to FHE and Institute this week.
What she was starving for was to feel the spirit. She requested to meet with the Elders. We (somewhere in the church) have dropped the
ball a little bit with her—for some reason her baptism record has not generated
a membership number. The bishop feels he
can’t do anything until he has her record.
So that means no ‘new member’ discussions, no home or visiting teachers,
no calling. Our lesson was on
temples. The missionaries asked her what
she knew about temples—she knew a lot.
She must read a lot on her own because she had a very good foundation
about temples and temple work. She wants
to do baptisms, so we mostly talked about the logistics and what to expect when
you do baptisms. There was one thing she
didn’t know—she didn’t know that you are actually
baptized for those who have died. She
thought it would be done symbolically.
We also went over the temple recommend interview and told her what to
expect. She is going to Utah at the end
of the month for 5 days. She will stay
with a former Denmark missionary who will take her to at least 3 temples. She is very excited.
On Friday night,
we left the temple early to attend a YSA activity-a sort of kick-off to the new
year. The YSA stake committee was in
charge—they even made dinner. Dinner was their version of Hawaiian
haystacks—curry chicken sauce over rice, with cold canned corn, red peppers,
coconut, peanuts, raisins, and bananas. The counselor in the Stake Presidency, the high councilor and CES
Director were all invited as well.
During the meeting portion, these brethren all spoke. We also had testimonies from Eline Holm and
Martin Fredberg—two of our newest converts. Their testimonies were amazing.
Martin has been a member since August.
He received the priesthood a few weeks ago, and blessed the
sacrament. I can visually see the change
that has come over him—it is the light of Christ (and a new haircut). During the next part of the meeting, the
committees met separately to plan activities for the coming year. We have all new committees: FHE, Food, Music, Fireside/Activities, Temple,
Missionary, Reactivation/New Convert, and YM/YW transition to YSA. The food committee planned all treats and
meals for January and into February. My
only responsibility this month is to provide a dessert for after Institute each
week. I am still a bit in shock, so we
will see how it all falls out. Dad is
worried that we won’t have anything to do now—but I think that this frees us up
to do more with activation. We have
another meeting this week with the Stake YSA Committee so we can get some more
direction on our responsibilities. We
certainly can do more to help the outlying areas of Copenhagen with their YSA
program. I am very glad to see these
YSA’s take charge of the program. They
are adults, after all, not children. This is good training for future callings and responsibilities. Many of them are already serving in elder’s
quorums, as mission leaders, in RS and Primary callings. They are very capable. We can be there to support, advise and train
when needed. And maybe we are here just
to be an example. Who knows?
We are excited
for the Social Media initiative for missionary work. We will be spending time this week looking
for some Mormon messages that our YSA’s could share with their friends. If you have any ideas, we would welcome your
input.
Hope you have a
great week.
Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
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