February Zone Training
Kære Familie,
We try to be at the Young Adult Center by 4:00 on Mondays
and Thursdays. Sometimes we go even
earlier if one of our young adults calls and asks us if we will open the center
for them. The center is a gathering place;
it is a safe place; it is a warm and spirit-filled place; it is Danish
hyggelige. On Monday when we arrived,
one of our YSA’s was waiting for us. I
went into the kitchen to make 7-layer Mexican dip
and Jennifer Christopherson, the YSA who was waiting, just followed us in and
talked to us the whole time we made the dip.
It made me realize how much these young people just need someone to talk
to—just the friendly kind of banter we quite often had when you kids came home
from school. It is ‘being at the
crossroads,’
whenever that is—even if it means midnight when you came home from a date.
We had another chance
to visit one-on-one with a young adult that night. We met him the day before at our Sunday
fireside, but just briefly introduced ourselves. I invited him to come again on Monday night
to our FHE, if he was still around.
Chase is from Arizona and has been on a European ‘walk-about’ for nearly
18 months. He is an RM, has finished his undergraduate
studies, and was working. It sounds like
he got very frustrated with business hierarchy when he asked for a raise in
salary. He said he was innovative,
changed several things in the office for the better, was a hard worker and felt
that he should be paid more. His boss,
on the other hand, made a lot more money than he did, but sat around all day
and did nothing (according to Chase).
When he was told that he still lacked experience and tenure to warrant
the kind of pay increase he wanted, the young man quit. With what money he had saved, he decided to
backpack his way through Europe/Middle East and ‘find himself.’ He left Arizona in November 2015 and plans to
return home in April—only because he is broke.
He has been to Turkey, Greece, Israel, most of east and west Europe and
landed in Denmark at the home of a young man who had once been an exchange
student in Chase’s home. That young man (married
now) brought him to our YSA fireside and hooked him up with some of our YSA’s
where he spent a couple of nights.
Chase’s next stop is Sweden, where he will work for about a month on a
farm. The farm belongs to a woman he met
last fall (she was on vacation), and she said she could use an extra hand in
the spring to get her farm ready for planting.
Chase will work for room and board, as he does not have legal work
status. After a month in Sweden he will
go back home and pick up his life again—be it work or more school. He fully intends on coming back to Europe,
specifically Switzerland, and live permanently.
I’m not sure what he expected to do while he was in Europe, but he has
had some very interesting experiences, met a lot of people, and learned about
the world. He just wanted to talk about
his life back in Arizona, his life in Europe and his future. I hope he finds what he is looking for, but
most of all I hope you finds his way back to greater activity in the
church. It is hard to attend church in a
different place each week—especially when you don’t have a church near
you. Then you don’t attend at all.
I spent a good part of the week working on the next edition
of The Banner. I tried to be more organized and called all
four of the missionaries who are going home two weeks ago, and gave them a
reminder to send me their pictures and testimony. I also reminded the President and his wife about
their messages. By midweek, I thought I
had everything. So, I began to put the
newsletter together—doing a couple of pages each day. Late Friday night, as I was doing the last
elder’s page, I realized he had only sent me pictures and not his testimony. I called him first thing Saturday morning to
remind him again. I checked several
times on Saturday and all day Sunday to see if he sent it in. Finally, I got it at 9:45 tonight. I had to ‘rework’ his page because the
testimony he sent was so short and didn’t fill up the space I had left. He also wrote his testimony in Danish. I proof read all the testimonies before I
send the newsletter to print, but I really can’t do the Danish
testimonies. So, I will have to wait
until Monday morning to get the Danish office couple to proof it for me. Monday is transfer day and the 4 returning
elders come into the office. They spend
the night at the President’s home and take an early flight home on Tuesday
morning. The mission wants to give them The Banner on Monday as they leave. So, despite my good intentions, I will be
crunching out this edition at the last minute.
Luckily, I have time. I enjoy
doing The Banner—seeing the Elders’
pictures and reading their testimonies.
I am impressed with the growth they have made while serving their
missions. If they can keep up the same
testimony that burns in them now as they resume their ‘normal’ lives, they will
be great members of the church and do much to build the kingdom. I will miss them—it is surprising how much we
get ‘attached’ to these young men and young women. They are great examples of our young members
of the church who are dedicated and faithful, despite the difficult preaching
climate of Denmark. They are positive
and find great joy in the work.
We had a baptism on Saturday—at 2:00 p.m. I wondered why it was so late in the day, but
I suppose it is because the transfer calls were made in the morning. There were 22 missionaries attending the
baptism (including the senior missionaries and the mission president) and less
than 10 members, so it was probably a good idea to wait until we could have the
optimum number of missionaries attending.
We didn’t know the convert—Camille, but were invited so that I could
play the piano. There were a couple of
things that left an impression on me because of the baptism—the elder who
baptized Camille taught her for the first time 18 months ago when he was
serving in the area. This is a lesson in
‘planting seeds.’ The subsequent elders
who taught her continued to nourish the seed until the last elders reaped the
harvest. It takes many contacts, much
perseverance, and continual effort to bring people to the gospel. One of the ‘harvesting’ elders gave a talk on
the Holy Ghost. He goes home on Tuesday,
so he will leave on a ‘high.’ Finally,
Martin Fredberg, one of our YSA’s and a convert since August, played a musical
number. I heard him practicing it a
couples of times last week at the institute center. It was a medley of ‘prayer hymns’—‘Sweet Hour
of Prayer,’ ‘Did You Think to Pray,’ and ‘Secret Prayer.’ He doesn’t read music very well, so he plays
by memory, making up his own accompaniment.
It was a beautiful arrangement and he played it lovingly and
expressively. He was very nervous as he
had never played before an audience. He
said this is his rehearsal as he will play it again in church in a few
weeks. I am very proud that he wants to
develop this talent and is using it to bless the church. It seems his spirit is very sensitive to the
hymns and the music of the church.
Our numbers continue to increase at institute. We had another record turn-out on Thursday
night. There were 40 YSA’s plus the
teacher and us—43 people. There really isn’t enough room to move. We usually set up dinner for 20 people, but
when the YSA’s kept coming, we set up another table. We fed about 30 people and would have fed more
but we ran out of food. Some YSA’s come
later, having already eaten, just in time for institute. But a few people came at 6:30 hoping to eat and
we had nothing to offer them. I had some
fruit in the refrigerator and some crackers in the cupboard which helped. I told the girl who prepared the food (curry
chicken over rice) to plan for 25-30, but the problem is that many of our YSA’s
(boys and girls) really take 2 helpings.
I cooked the rice—2 kg of rice which should feed 50 people—and watched
as some heaped 2+ cups of rice on their plates.
The rice ran out the same time as the curry chicken so I guess it was
all okay. We will have to start
planning for 40 people. They all loved
my oatmeal/chocolate bar cookies for dessert (2 recipes). There was none left—and I didn’t even get
any.
After institute, we quickly put up some chairs to give the
YSA room to mingle and talk in the main room.
A lot congregate in the kitchen and the narrow hall is so congested, you
can’t move to get to the kitchen or the bathroom. We talked to Brother Andersen afterwards
about this problem. It seems in order to
justify having an institute center, the church requires an enrollment of 50
people. We are easily there. Even though we don’t get 50 people out each
week, there are more than 50 enrolled.
If they all came every week, it would really be crowded. We took two of the YSA into the office and
taught our lesson in English, but that only removes four people from the main
room. We will plan to do this every
week. I wish there were a few more—we
have the possibility of more, but they didn’t come on Thursday. Brother Andersen really likes the center and
is convinced that it is sufficient for our needs. He is getting a bit of push-back from the
stake presidency who thinks we need to move all YSA activities to the stake
center. Other than having more room,
there really are more disadvantages than advantages. Location is the primary disadvantage—it is
too far away from transportation—it is a good 30-minute walk to the nearest
train station, and taking the bus would require multiple transfers—and a lot of
time. Our present center is less than a
10-minute walk from the central train station—all trains come into this
station. The other disadvantage is the
big space—that sounds crazy as we need more space, but the tight space at the
center forces the group to be close. You
have to talk to people. I worry that we
would be so spread out at the stake center, we would lose that closeness. We have some activities at the stake center (volleyball,
and dance instruction) and they are good, but every week might be too
much. The fact that we would lose a lot
of our attendees who wouldn’t travel that far, would negate the need for space. It is a problem that won’t be solved immediately. We have another 2-year lease on the YSA
center, so we will be long-gone by the time they figure it out.
Well, that is it for this week. We love hearing from you. We had 2 sets of missionaries to dinner
tonight—they spent a lot of time pouring over our calendar—it is a big hit. We love it and enjoy all the pictures of our
precious grandchildren.
Med Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
Kære Familie Sunday,
March 5, 2017
We had the
Assistants and the Rødovre Sisters to dinner tonight. It was a pleasant hour and we love so much
having the missionaries in our home. It
is an honor to wear the missionary badge the same as they do. We hope we are as faithful in completing our
assignments. It has been a cold, rainy,
gray day. I am glad, we don’t have to
ride bikes or street contact in this weather!
Sunrise is now 6:47 am and sunset is 5:55 pm. It is really nice to have some more
daylight. Though neither one of us felt
like we even got close to suffering “winter depression”, it is great that it is
no longer dark at 3:30 to 4:00. It is also easier on my morning run around the
lakes as one side of one of them is very dark and I am not afraid any longer of
tripping over something I can’t see on the ground.
Congrats to Haley
and Zane on the half marathon this weekend.
Wow! I can’t believe that Haley
gets faster with age and that Zane can get out and run that far, given his work
hours and large lunches and dinners :).
Did Zane train at all or just wake up decide to run a casual (fast)
race? At least Haley owns the bragging
rights at family gatherings!
I love your
letters when they come. It seems like
the most trivial things are vastly interesting to us because it is news of home
and your lives. We would like to be
there to experience them with you. I am
so sorry Matt is leaving his old work with some negative things going on. It points to the value of public audits to
keep people honest and ethical, but I know it is hard to see a good company
going down. They have been so good to
him for many years. It reminds me of
when Arthur Andersen had its demise. A
part of me died with it. I was proud to
have belonged to the best accounting firm in the world and it was hard to see
the negative press and mud get slung around.
I used to brag that I had the double doors (symbol of the company)
tattooed on my chest and I had to go have them removed. Good luck with the start with the new company.
We had a Regional Conference broadcast to 9 Countries in Northern Europe
today. There were 54 stakes and 4
districts, 10 missions and 5 temples represented. We think the
countries were UK, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland
and the 9th, Wales or the Republic
of Ireland. It was not quite clear from
the opening statement and since Wales and Scotland are not technically
countries (I don’t think) and there are 2 Irelands, it is a bit confusing.
The conference
was presided over by Elder M. Russell Ballard.
It was broadcast
was in Danish (SLC translation) and so we watched it upstairs in the HC room,
which was in English. There were maybe
20 people in our room, including a couple of our YSA’s who could have listened
in Danish but I think they wanted to hear the direct speaking rather than a
translation that is never quite as good as the real speaker.
It was conducted
by L. Whitney Clayton, Presidency of the 70, and Sister Reeves of the RS and
Elder Timothy Dykes also spoke. It
appears like Elder Ballard has used his talk a few times and you might want to
read it at:
His comments
today were very close to this with just variations to adjust to the location of
the members he was speaking to.
These are some
thoughts that I wrote down that he didn’t necessarily say. Stay
focused on simple doctrines. Avoid the
pride of wealth, easy living, negative information from the internet, etc. We need to ensure that nothing cuts off our
access to the living water, either by our actions, lack of action or someone
else's actions. If we have questions or doubts, we do not stop progressing or
take a time out, we continue to move forward holding to the iron rod while we
seek for answers. We should not take a timeout from church attendance during
stake or regional conferences. These
are thoughts that apply to each of us.
Then my notation of his concluding thought was:
If you need to do better, interview yourself,
if you are drifting in any way from the living waters of the gospel, make the
needed changes to come back and receive all the Father's promised blessing to
us.
I had an
interesting discussion with Martin Fredberg (baptized last August) this week,
which started with my concern that Jonas Larsen (baptized in December) has
missed our activities for the last week.
He commented he has also not been in church. He said that he has recognized that there is
a "post baptism blues" period that he went through and that Eline
Holm is going through. He thinks that
Jonas may be experiencing this as well.
I asked him to tell me more about it and how it got resolved. He said he just started feeling unsure about
his decision to be baptized and started asking himself questions such as, “What
if the BofM is not true, what if Joseph Smith did not restore the church as he
claimed, What if, What if ….?” It was a
dark and sort of frightening experience and a time of uncertainty and
doubt. He got through it by deciding one
day, that even if the church is not true, this is where he wants to be. He enjoys the people, meetings, and would rather
be with these youth at the SUV activities than anywhere else. He likes the standards and who they are. He wants to be part of that. After that, the
other feelings just kind of went away and he has felt more and more sure that he
is doing the right thing. I resolved to
reach out to Jonas myself because of this discussion and got a phone # for him from
the sister missionaries. I finally connected with him on Wednesday and he
seemed open enough to talk for a few minutes.
That is a hard discussion to have on the phone. He said he has been ‘down’ a little but he is
feeling better now. I did not see him in our conference today however (lots of
people), so I am still worried about him.
He displays some symptoms of being bi-polar and does not fit into the
group easily because he is quiet and withdrawn.
He also seems to be a deep thinker but takes lots of time to formulate
his thoughts, so it is normally hard to carry on a conversation with him.
I
ran across this quote from President Benson while studying the institute lesson
this week. “Oh, my brethren, let us not treat lightly the great things we have
received from the hand of the Lord! His word is one of the most valuable gifts
He has given us. I urge you to recommit yourselves to a study of the
scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of the
Spirit to attend you in your callings. Read them in your families and teach
your children to love and treasure them. … If you do so, you will find, as Alma
did, that “the word [has] a great tendency to lead people to do that which [is]
just—yea, it [has] more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the
sword, or anything else, which [has] happened unto them.” (Alma 31:5.) Like Alma, I say unto you,
“It [is] expedient that [you] should try the virtue of the word of God.”
“The Power of the Word,” chapter 8 in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson (2014)
I like this thought
because of our experience in studying the scriptures in the past 4-5
weeks. I have been keeping on track with
reading 6 chapters in the BofM every day and it has been a wonderful
experience. The stories flow better and
the prolonged time in reading and thinking has helped elevate my
spirituality. [I fell asleep last night
with 2 ½ chapters still to read and woke up this morning with a panicked,
guilty feeling that I had missed my goal for the first time. I had to quickly catch up before I could do anything
else.] We have also enjoyed our
companion study time on the institute lessons every morning. This has been the most focused period I have
had in quite a while in studying the gospel and I love the experience. President Benson’s promises are coming to
pass.
Thursday, we received an invite to the District
Meeting. Elder Erickson asked us to take
10-15 minutes and talk about what was going on in the YSA Program that might
affect them and ways we could work together more effectively on missionary
initiatives. Mom and I split the time
and each talked about different things. She focused on the purpose of the new
missionary committee that has just been organized and upcoming activities for
March. I talked about the spreadsheet I
have been working on that shows the availability of YSA's to help with teaching
opportunities and on the Facebook finding Initiative. We are going to push ahead
with an FHE activity where we have each of the YSA’s send out Mormon Messages
to a Facebook friend or two. The
missionaries will be there to introduce the activity and help them find the
best message to send and then of course as a follow up to any successes that
they have. We need to schedule a week with the FHE committee to make this
happen.
Mom mentioned the issue that
is coming up with our Institute Center.
I will just add that it seems like the cost is an issue since we have
less than 50 attending. The current
guidelines are that separate centers are only approved if 50 are attending
regularly and then they are supposed to then be only 100 sq meters. We have 2 problems in that our center is 123
sq meters (and probably expensive since it is in the heart of the city) and we
don't meet the 50-average attendance standard. Jens feels like once we give it
up, we will never see a center again so he wants to fight to keep it. Hence, he wants our help to get attendance
over the 50 mark as soon as we can. With
40 there Thursday, that mark is not very far off. We are pretty happy however that our
attendance has grown from 15 in the summer (not a good time to measure) to
maybe 40ish now. The stake is happy with
us – not that we have done that much. We
feed them well and try to make it a welcoming, happy place to be. The rest of the effort has been done by the
youth themselves, who come and try to bring someone with them.
Happy birthday to
Ariane, Talmage and Claire. Wish we
could be there to celebrate with everyone.
Love Dad.
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