Ducks and swans on our lake in the early morning on my run.
Our quaint little village of Dragør with its yellow house and red roofs. Some of these homes are well over 100 years old. Interestingly, this town was originally settled by the Dutch in the 1600. The Danish king invited about 20 Dutch citizens to come farm the area and provide fresh vegetables for his kitchens. The Netherlands were more advanced in farming which is why he brought them to Denmark. There are still many Dutch influences in the area.
Kære Familie Sunday, March 26, 2017
Tuesday was the first day of our tests for the 2nd language book we just finished. The test had sections on listening, writing and reading. It was about 2 hours with a 25-min break. We had to write an email for 30 minutes about a new sport we are trying, listen to dialogues and identify a picture that they related to, insert small words into a text, and identify a sentence in 5 different paragraphs that didn't fit with the context of the other sentences. The writing is always hard and the listening was harder than some of the trial tests we have done, but the rest of it was fairly easy. I could understand the sense of the discussions even though there were many words that I did not know. That is part of the testing technique they use – they throw in new vocabulary to see how well we can understand or interpret what we are reading or listening. We got the results back the next day and I missed only 2 questions. The teacher told me however that my writing skills need improvement so I should work on grammar and sentence structure. She made quite a few corrections to my verb tenses and spelling. These are some of mom’s strengths so she shined with the writing part of it
I spent a good part of the rest of the day working on my presentations for Wednesday’s test. The oral testing had 2 parts. The first requirement was that we had to prepare 3 oral presentations of 1-2 minutes in length about topics we have covered in class. She then picked at random one of them and we gave her the presentation. She then asked 2-3 follow-up questions to us which we had to answer. I was lucky and she picked maybe my easiest topic, which was my family. I did pretty well with that though mom said I inserted some French for my small pronouns, which I am apt to do when I get confused or nervous. I struggled a bit through her follow up questions as I couldn't think of the Danish words for some of the things I wanted to say. The 2nd part was that she gave us a topic of the Internet /mobile phones and we had to carry on a conversation with a partner. Mom was my partner, which surprised us as she likes to break us up so we don’t work together. We did ok but not great on that as there could have been a better subject for us maybe. On the other hand, we spend a lot of time on the internet and we could have been more creative in the questions or discussion we had with each other. The pressure gets to you and we didn't respond to it all that well.
We both passed anyway, as did everyone in the class. There was probably never any doubt that we would all pass but rather it is a check point for the teachers to see how well we are doing. It all feels a bit like being back in the 6th grade because that is about the level of work that we are doing. Are they going to let us graduate and go on to Middle School????
The stress related to these tests has been high for me. They should be easy but the pronunciation is hard and the fact that we can only use a card with a few prompts makes us memorize the presentations as there is nothing that I feel comfortable just talking about. It is too hard to mentally translate from English and have it go smoothly. I think the stress made me sick this week, though it could be totally unrelated. It hasn’t kept me from doing anything this week but I look funny and it has been very uncomfortable.
We both had a dentist appointment in Dragør on Wednesday, after the oral test. It is a small town on the ocean on the east side of Amager Island, about a 25-minute ride away. They appointment was for 2:00 and we were through at about 3:30 so we had some time to kill on a lovely day with lots of sunshine. Dragør has a harbor with small boats and is quite quaint. It also has an old fort that protected the channel up until about WWI. We walked around the fort, which did not have much to see other than some pits where large cannons used to be placed. We also walked along the shore for a ways and took pictures of the bridge going over to Malmo, Sweden. It feels wonderful to have our teeth cleaned after about 10 months, something that we didn't think we would be able to do over here but found out we can. Mom's cleaning was about $100 and mine was about double that as the dentist found an old cavity that had partially chipped and she repaired it while I was in the chair. I was surprised how nice and good the lady dentist was and how modern her equipment was. It was all totally equal to, or better than, a US experience. Somehow, I expected something a little less modern.
Our institute lesson was a little dry as we only had David and Shantay there. The lessons are easier with 4 or 6 people to draw on. It was on the importance of protecting religious liberty and the lesson material itself was very US-centered, though the broad topic is applicable to every country. I anticipated getting some interesting perspectives from David as he comes from Romania but that was a disappointment. He was born in 1994 and the iron curtain came down in 1989 so he didn't know that much about it and didn't know what experiences his parents or grandparents had had. They were Roman Catholics so one would think they experienced persecution or suppression from the communist regime, but he couldn't comment on it. I brought up Tienanmen Square in China as an example of the communist suppression of freedom. They had heard about it in history classes but didn't know much - still before their times. The closing video (a real example of bigotry from the left against a YSA church member) was at least a good way to end the lesson. I think it was an excellent portrayal of how we can sometimes be attacked as bigots and being intolerant. It then shows how we can ask for respect and understanding of our positions as we have one on one discussions and try to understand their views and present our own.
We had 37 students at institute so we are approaching the 40 milestone. We think we fed 28 or 30. Our goal is still to get to 50 attending the class (we really do not want to feed that many!). We started some discussions this week on how we could rearrange some furniture or make other changes that will make the space a little more comfortable as the numbers go up.
At the temple on Friday, I did Initiatories, then led the 2nd session and then we both did sealings (in Swedish). I also worked 3 veils and did Danish on all three. I think I did more veils in Danish today that I have done cumulatively so far. I am feeling more comfortable but still need some serious work on pronouncing some of the words. There certainly is progress from that first time where I wanted to find a dark corner and just shed some tears.
Mom is talking about our fireside on Saturday night. I thought I would just add a few of my own thoughts on happiness that I jotted down during the discussion on The Myth of Happiness; Many chase it but don't ever find it.
I asked myself what sort of things make a person happy. These were my answers.
- The feeling that our life is pleasing to God.
- Physical comforts and safety.
- Joy in our marriage.
- Joy with our family.
- The opportunity to live free.
- Having a purpose to life and good work to do.
- The opportunity to interact with and serve other people.
Love, Dad.
Kære Familie, 26 March 2017
I had a full day on Saturday. I attended a Stake RS Conference in the morning, baked cookies in the afternoon, then went to the stake center to help with dinner for our YSA fireside. It was not a P-day for us. The other senior couples took a train to the northern tip of the island, walked along the beach, and meandered their way home, by train, down the coastline. Our fireside and dinner prevented us from tagging along, but I also felt it was important to support the RS activity. Many of our YSA girls were there and I was glad I could participate with them. There were 2 hours of workshops/classes and then lunch. There were three classes each hour from which we could choose. You might wonder how much I get out of these Danish workshops. And the answer is unity. I really feel a closeness with these sisters. So even if I don’t understand everything that is said, I have a sense of belonging, and that is a good feeling. But the spirit also communicates in ways that transcends language. The first class I attended was taught by a woman who is probably 15 years older than I am. She is the grandmother of one of my YSA girls. Her topic was ‘Husk at leve liv—hele livet’ (Remember to live life—for a lifetime). She said we should continue to find joy and quality of life throughout our life. She shared some of her experiences as a young mother, as a grandmother and now as a great grandmother. She has recently traveled to China and Thailand; she learned how to use a cell phone; she has learned the importance of spending time with loved ones as she experienced the deaths of her mother and father; and she has learned the importance of staying involved. I see her weekly in the temple on Friday night, and I think she attends another night during the week as well. She is down-to-earth, ready to laugh at herself and find the humor in life’s unexpected twists and turns. Somehow, she lifts your spirit when you are around her. She truly is living life to its fullness; she is an elect lady.
The other class I attended was on the” Power of Faith and the Lord’s Will”—how do we stay strong in our faith when what we are urgently praying for does not happen. This seems to be the hardest test of our faith. We also talked about this in our TFOT lesson on Sunday—President Uchtdorf’s talk, “Fourth Floor, Last Door.” There are two things that faith cannot do: it cannot violate a person’s agency, and it cannot force our will upon God. “Faith is trust—trust that God sees what we cannot and that He knows what we do not.” This was a good reminder for me.
Normally, we have our monthly fireside on the last Sunday of the month. But on Sunday afternoon and evening (2:00-9:00 p.m.) there was an open house for a newly returned missionary. Our YSA leadership felt that this would be a huge conflict so they decided to move our fireside to Saturday. It was also at a different location—the stake center instead of the YSA center. When we started dinner at 6:10, there were only 12 people for the prayer. But the youth started to trickle in and we fed close to 30 people and had 40 people at the fireside. We had 3 sets of missionaries besides our YSA’s. The speaker talked about the ‘Happiness Myth.’ The world is always chasing happiness but never finds it. We say, “I will be happy when ….” or “I will be happy if ….”. The truth is that happiness is not external, but is found within. It is our attitude about our circumstances, our problems, our life, that determines happiness. Sister Klestrup (a clinical psychologist by profession) told us in our search for happiness, we should ‘enjoy the journey’—not wait to be happy when the journey ends. Humans get bored with the status quo, whether it is work, marriage, or anything. She gave us some helps to overcome that tendency:
- Be grateful
- Have variation in your life
- Take a break every 90 minutes—that stretches our attention span
- Stop harmful comparisons with others
- Write your thoughts and reflections—keep a journal.
Before dinner, Dad and I went for a walk around our lakes (along with hundreds of other people who thought it was a good idea to take a walk). The weather is beautiful—it was a bright, sunny day with temperatures around 50. It was still chilly enough to wear a coat, but the sun felt good. The crocuses are blooming along with daffodils. We saw beautiful patches of daffodils on the side of the road on our way to church—bright spots of yellow. It reminded me of patches of blue bonnets that should be out in mass right now back in Texas. Spring is here—a welcome rebirth after the cold, dark winter. We began daylight savings time today so it was light until nearly 8:00.
We had a meeting with the Stake YSA committee on Wednesday. We had postponed this meeting twice due various people not being able to attend. The meeting this week was still missing our Stake Presidency member (President Olsen) and President O’Bryant. We especially wanted President Olsen to be there as Jonathan Leit (our stake YSA chairman) gave a pitch for the self-reliance courses. The self-reliance initiative is meeting with some opposition in our stake—new concept, new method? We have mentioned Elder and Sister Pettit before—their mission is dedicated to training stake leaders about the self-reliance initiative and motivating them to get it up and going in the stake. Originally, they were assigned to the British Isles. They did such a good job there in introducing the program, that after a year they were reassigned to Sweden to do the same in the Scandinavian countries. The biggest road block in our stake seems to be Brother Andersen who is our Stake Self-Reliance director. His vision for the program is stake controlled—he has directed the wards to hold a self-reliance Sunday School class, teaching from the manual, “My Foundations.” He has also started a “My Plan” class for newly returned missionaries which is held before FHE on Monday nights at the YSA center. There is a newlywed couple who is teaching that class and they are very enthusiastic and have done an excellent job. But the self-reliance course outlined by the church is not meant to be a SS class; it is not meant to be led by a teacher. Instead, it is a self-directed group of individuals who want to improve self-reliance in areas such as “Starting and Growing My Business,” “My Job Search/Find a Better Job,” “Personal Finance,” “Education for Better Work,” and “My Plan—for RM’s.” They choose a facilitator from among the group, decide when they meet, (should be weekly) and are accountable to each other for their commitments. Each of the above courses begins with a 20-minute lesson from “My Foundations,” which can be taught by any member of the group. The principles in that manual are basic self-reliance skills and habits, which are needed for any of the other subjects—and life in general. The Pettits are calling us for updates, and we feel that we never have anything to say. The cogs in the wheel turn slowly. I know they are doing their job to follow-up—I just wish we had something positive to report. We are hoping that our high counselor can take the enthusiastic report from Jonathan back to the stake presidency to get them on board. Otherwise things will remain status quo. The “My Plan” class at the YSA center ended last week. Brother Andersen would like to see the class continue with lessons from “My Foundation” to the same group of RM’s. When that is done, he would select a new group of participants and they would begin with “My Plan.” The only problem is that the other courses never get taught which is what many of our youth need now. One of our RM’s who completed his university education before his mission, is now looking for a job and hasn’t been successful in finding something. It has been almost a year since he returned home. He has a girlfriend and would probably get married if he had employment. He could definitely benefit from these courses. There are others currently going to school who could use help with direction in their lives. The testimonials for these programs are so glowing, that it would be a shame not to offer them to help others.
I played the organ again in church. I brought my organ shoes with me so I felt much more comfortable playing the pedals. I specifically avoided the ‘Christmas’ section of the hymn book when selecting my prelude—or so I thought. I ran across “Beautiful Savior,’ which is not in the English hymnbook. That was a pleasant surprise as I love this hymn. The title translated from Danish is “Lovely is the Earth.” (I was expecting “For the Beauty of the Earth.”) But as I was playing, a sister came up to the organ and told me that they only sing that song at Christmas. I was surprised and told her I thought I wasn’t in the Christmas section. She agreed, but said they still only sing that song at Christmas even though it doesn’t talk about Christ’s birth (except the closing statement that says people feel joy and peace from our Savior’s birth). Thus, I am still learning and still bumbling my way through Danish customs, cultural and language.
Hope you all have a great week.
Kærlig hilsen, Mom
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