Spring is coming!
Sankt Bendts Church
Black Diamond Museum which is the National Library
With Sister Buxton
Kære familie,
We had a
speaking assignment today in the Roskilde Ward.
The meeting didn’t start until 10:30, so we had plenty of time in the
morning to review our talks. The church
is about 30-35 minutes away, but it took a little longer because of rain. It was just a constant drizzle all day. We should have known it would rain because we
washed the car yesterday. But at least
all the ugly snow-mixed-with-dirt is gone from our little white car. Now we just have the dirt from the
rain-soaked freeway splashed on our car.
Our talks went well—we are supposed to include the young adults in some
way in our message. But I also feel we
are talking to a lot of people who are not young adults and I want to include
them in the message as well. We talked
with a high councilor who wanted about 20 minutes to speak—he got 15. Because it is a very small ward, we were finished
with the sacrament portion of the meeting just after 10:45. My translator was one of our young adults—Anne
Marie Frederiksen. She is a very cute
girl with short red hair and she can speak English as fluently as she can
Danish. Her step-mother is American and
she learned English at a young age—before going to formal school. We haven’t seen much of her this
winter—although she works in Copenhagen, she lives in Roskilde. I think she has been suffering from ‘winter
depression’ which is evidently a real thing here in Denmark—probably like other
countries in these northern climes
where the days are very short. But she
did a great job of translating for me today.
I talked about trusting the Lord and about our move to Texas. I was inspired by this
BYU-I talk, but because my talk was only 5 minutes, I didn’t really use
anything from the talk. I shared the
following quote by Elder Richard G. Scott which tells why we should want to
trust the Lord.
“As you trust Him, seek and follow His will, you will receive
blessings that your finite mind cannot understand here on earth. Your Father in
Heaven and His Holy Son know better than you what brings happiness. They have
given you the plan of happiness. As you understand and follow it, happiness
will be your blessing.”
We
did 5 more inspections this week, hosted the Halls again for a night, and skipped
our temple assignment to ‘chaperone’ a UV activity on Friday night. The inspections went a lot better this
week—not so many repairs. But we always
do a little cleaning, especially with the caulk stains on the sinks and
faucets. I think we have mentioned that
it is Dad’s pet-peeve, so he always goes on the attack. He has also become obsessed with the grit in
all the faucet filters. So now he
typically attacks the faucet filters and I use a special cleaning agent to
remove the caulk in the sinks and make them shine. Once the missionaries see the difference in
the before and after sink, they seem excited to want a shiny sink again. (They probably stand there oohing and ahhing, all the while thinking, “We just suckered this senior missionary into cleaning our sinks and bathtub.”) We’ll see how long it lasts. We had to do some more shopping for our
visits on Thursday—which meant another trip to IKEA. Even though we came prepared with what the
missionaries said they needed, we ended up going shopping again for some other
items. We were in Slagelse for these two
inspections, which is over an hour away from Copenhagen. We didn’t want to make another trip back, so
we did our shopping in Slagelse. They
have a very nice Costco-type store there which has almost everything. We dropped the purchased items off at the
church where the missionaries were now having their District Meeting, and then
headed home.
We
decided to make a small detour on the way home to see an old church which one
of our tour guide books said was a ‘must see’—Sankt Bendts. The church indeed was very impressive and
built nearly 1000 years ago (1150). Many
ancient Danish noblemen, kings and queens are buried there, but their tombs are
not as impressive as the ones in the Roskilde church. It is interesting to read how religion was
intertwined with wars. My logical brain
wants to believe that religion should be associated with peace not war, but religion,
or preserving the freedom thereof, is the cause of many wars. Such is the case in the Book of Mormon, the
American Revolution, the Crusades, and many of the wars we see today. Somehow reading about feudalism and
pilgrimages and crusades is one thing, but when I see the evidence of these
things, then I really become a believer.
The church certainly was worth the stop—we were even treated to some
organ music during our visit—on a very impressive organ. It became apparent that we had stumbled upon
a soon-to-be funeral service. The flag
outside was at half-mass, which led us to wonder who had died. The long aisle leading to the nave had a line
of 5-6 floral bouquets lying on the floor. As I followed the flowers I found a
casket at the beginning. The organ music
was obviously someone practicing for the service. While we were wandering around, 5 or 6 more
bouquets appeared on the line. I guess
this is the way you show your respect.
We had the church pretty much to ourselves, with the exception of the
occasional bouquet bearer, and the organist, but when people started to arrive
later, we decided the funeral was about to begin and we made a quick exit.
The
Halls came in late Wednesday night so Elder Hall could take his language test
the following day. They had asked us if
we wanted to celebrate Valentines that night.
We called Buxton’s and arranged a nice dinner. We didn’t go to dinner until 8:00, but the
dinner was very good and worth the wait.
We have been here once before and liked it a lot then. It is Danish food through and through, but it
is very good. I ordered a chopped steak
which came out looking like two huge meat balls covered in brown sauce, fried
onions, and a fried egg. Yes, that’s
right—a fried egg. It was
interesting. Dad got pork loin with
potatoes and brown sauce. One of the
best things about Danish food is brown sauce and potatoes. Dad said he could drink the brown sauce—it is that good. I only ate one of the meatballs—way too much
food. But it was a nice Valentines’
celebration, with good company.
Dad
gave me the perfect Valentine. He
discovered the secret of fresh flowers in Denmark. He bought me roses, but when he saw how
inexpensive they were, he bought me 2
dozen roses. There is nothing I like more than fresh
flowers—in the ground or in a vase. Now
I know why Jared and Kari bought fresh flowers so often while living in The
Netherlands.
We
received a letter from the mission president this week addressed to all senior
couples. In it he talked about the new
missionary schedule and how it affects us with Zone Trainings and Zone
Conferences. He also said that senior
couples were no longer to attend District Meeting. We had been expecting this, as the President
told us during our interview 3 weeks ago, that there have been some problems
with senior couples taking over the meeting.
He told us then that this policy wouldn’t apply to us, and that we could
continue to attend our district meeting.
But when I received the actual letter, I didn’t feel we should attend
anymore. I think it is important that we
set a good example to the other missionaries about what ‘strictly obedient’
means. Surely the office elders and the
AP’s know about this change in policy—and they are both in our district. How is that going to look when we show up in ‘defiance.’ Also, missionaries get transferred
regularly. I don’t want to be the couple
talked about when a missionary moves to a new area and asks why the senior
couple isn’t attending District Meeting.
‘After all, the Shurtliffs always attended our meetings.’ So, we decided to stop attending. I’m not sure if all couples will comply. Dad agreed a little reluctantly because he
will miss the association with these missionaries each week. But I think we will just have to find
different ways to keep in touch—attending missionary discussions with them;
meeting them at the YSA center. We want
to work closely with the missionaries when they teach a YSA-aged youth or when
they want to encourage the YSA’s to participate in missionary work. We will see them once a transfer at Zone
Conferences. We can also have them come
to dinner. So, it will work out. It will be nice to have a free morning—which
is why we were able to do the two inspections in Slagelse this week.
I
hope everyone has a great week. Happy
Birthday Dallin!
Kærlig
hilsen,
Mom
Kære Familie Sunday,
February 19, 2017
Today was our first ward
speaking assignment for this year. We
were in Roskilde Ward (40-minute drive).
We could pick our topics but were supposed to speak to the young adults
and we spoke with our HC advisor, who was the concluding speaker. We were supposed to split 20 minutes and he
would take the last 15-20. When you
consider that we still feel tied to translation, we only had a 5-minute talk
for both of us (which gets doubled to 10+ when it is translated). We did well with the time. Mom says I took 15 and she was a bit less
than 10, so I still need to cut some time (darn translator was slower for me
than hers!). I spoke on avoiding being
sifted as wheat or chaff by the choices we make, and thus becoming just
ordinary instead of living up to our tremendous potential. (see Luke 22:31-32 and Alma, 37:15)
Our training meeting was
canceled because only 1 member of the YSA Committee was in church. It is a holiday weekend for the Danish and
there was also a missionary farewell in Esbjerg, that some YSA's had driven
to. Attendance was down in the ward
today. We will have to try and
reschedule our training meeting on another Sunday.
Another strange event, was that
there were 2 YSA's present for their SS class but apparently, they didn't have
a teacher. A man came up to us and said
he didn't have any authority but could we step in and teach a lesson to
them. We hadn't read the lesson at all,
but were happy to do our best. I think
it went just fine as we discussed Article of Faith #3 and switched off talking
about the 4 principles and ordinances.
We got the 2 youth to do most of the talking, which is usually a good
thing, and related it to decisions they are making.
One
comment on the Danish tradition of having candles lit all around the room – there
were about 25 candles of all sizes and holders scattered around the kitchen and
family room area. They spend a lot of
money on candles. I asked a sister
about this, and she said it is just a long-standing custom having to do with
the dark weather. Most Danes light
candles as soon as it gets dark to make the atmosphere cozier (hygge). It offsets the darkness which can be
oppressive to some. They only do it in
the winter but not in the summer when it doesn’t get dark until late at night
and they don’t need the extra light or the coziness.
Our temple day was very
short. We were the witness couple on the
2:30 session and then we left to come home.
We had to open the Center at 6:00 for an activity night. The activities committee planned a movie and
game night because it is the Winter Holiday this week where some of the schools
are out. Turnout was 14 for an event
that came together at the end of the week.
They watched the animated
Tarzan movie. It is so nice that all the
movies they watch are in English. I am
also impressed that they will sit and watch it and laugh at all the funny
parts. They are a good group. The movie
ended at 9:00 and they then broke out some games to play. We hoped they would tire and go home by at
least 11:00 but that was not to be.
About 10:30 some of them started out trying to pull up another movie on
Netflix using our IPad. They tried
several options but with the church's firewall, they eventually gave up and
just talked until about midnight. I
think 5 of them lasted that long. The
others drifted away little by little after the movie. We got home at 12:30, very tired. We also saw a movie on Monday night for
FHE. That was their activity this week
with popcorn, several kinds of chips and some chip dip. The movie was Finding Dory. I enjoyed both a lot as well but was glad I
also had my IPad where I could multi-task.
On Thursday, we started the
day early with apartment inspections in Slagelse which is an hour + drive in
the morning traffic, both the sisters and the elders. We had to do some additional shopping for a
faucet filter, squeegee and white board while we were there, so it took a
little more time than normal.
On the way back to
Copenhagen, we stopped and saw a church in Ringsted that is well known in the
tourist guides. (See pictures. Sankt
Bendts Kirke.) We got there about 12:15
and it looked like there was going to be a funeral in just a little while. A casket was on display at the front of the
chapel. People kept bringing in flowers
and laying them in the aisle leading to the casket from the main door. It must be another Danish custom. We felt a little like we were desecrating the
dead as we walked around as tourists to see the church, taking some pictures,
while the other visitors had sad faces and a few tears. I gathered it was a
grandmother or grandfather. Should we
have passed out brochures on the Plan of Salvation?
I will mention one other
adventure that happened this week.
Saturday morning, we had one other apartment inspection. On the way home, we gassed up the car and
tried to get a car wash in a new location that was underground in a parking
garage. It turned into a bit of a
disaster, embarrassment and frustration.
The car wash cost 70 kr ($10) but the machine bumped the side mirror
when it started and so it made an emergency stop. I had to re-center the car and then couldn't
get it to start again. 2 other cars were
waiting in line for me to finish. A
couple of men came over to help me and we figured out I supposedly needed a
ticket with a bar code on it to get it started again. I didn't have one of
those of course. Our conversations were
in English. They decided I needed to go upstairs to the gas station to get the
attendant to rectify the problem. That
was the ugly part. Her English was
better than my Danish, but barely so, and my English/Danish mix was only good
enough to communicate that I wanted a refund or a bar code since I had already
paid for a car wash that didn’t wash the car.
She understood me but I couldn't understand her enough to come to a
solution. It seemed she just wanted me
to buy a new one. She got quite angry
and used the F word on me several times (that part of English she had down) because
I was in Denmark and should learn the language and not expect her to speak
English. Very much like my attitude
towards our Mexican friends in Houston, only my language is nicer. I was sufficiently humbled, except that
rather than pay her again, I went to another car wash and paid again. It was an
expensive car wash. I will call it
another one of our culture lessons and I will be sure to pull the car in better
next time I visit a car wash.
Love
Dad.
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