Fun pictures from a Copenhagen Spring.
A morning run around our lake.
A hot dog stand being walked down the street and holding up traffic.
Spring flowers.
A friend on our lake. I think it is nesting season
Pictures from Fredericia on the mainland of Jutland. We visited with the Yates today.
These are from our short walk around the area near their apartment.
The cannons on the ramparts
The watch tower on the ramparts in Fredericia
Another view from Himmelbjerget
From the top of Himmelbjerget
The beach in Fredericia
On the coast with Elder Yates. You can see the island of Fyn in the back ground
Elder and Sister Larsen, who are the YSA couple in Aarhus, have their 3 adult children visiting this week. They wanted to spend some time in Copenhagen, so several months ago they proposed an ‘apartment swap.’ This obviously saves them the expense of hotels in Copenhagen. Because we have the largest apartment, and fewer responsibilities tying us to Copenhagen, they planned this ‘swap’ with us. We swapped on Saturday and will return Tuesday night. I do feel guilty because we are missing our FHE—the first one since our mission, but we arranged with the YSA chairmanship to open and close the center. If we hadn’t had a wedding to attend, we could have left earlier on Saturday to do more sight-seeing, but I’m definitely glad we stayed for the wedding, plus, I had to do laundry—sheets and towels X 2 because the Halls also left on Saturday morning after staying all week. We checked with the mission president and he said it was okay. So yes, it is a vacation because we don’t have any responsibilities in Aarhus. Because of the distance between wards, etc., there are only institute classes held during the week, no FHE. So we will spend today going to the northern most tip of Denmark and tomorrow we will drive down the west coastline on our way home.
Kære Familie Sunday, April 9, 2017
We had an interview this week with President O'Bryant. His wife was not with him this time as she was home baking cookies for zone conferences. He is always so upbeat, positive and complimentary that he is easy to love and he motivates us to want to be our best. (I am not sure we need motivation in that department but it is still nice to receive compliments and feel the confirming spirit that he is leading the mission as the Lord would like it run.) Each interview is a reminder of our purpose and what a wonderful opportunity we have to be here. In the short term, I sometimes focus on our spare time, the hours we spend shopping, cooking or cleaning up, the frustration with the language, the amount of walking that we do, etc., BUT the big picture is that this is such a blessing to grow, improve our relationship with each other, and to serve every day. We love these young adults and just pray that our efforts to serve them translates into a vision for them of a strong marriage, more faith, activity and steadfast testimonies and eventually to them becoming strong married church leaders. We also love associating with the missionaries. Right now, we feel limited in that as we no longer attend district meetings, but the apartment inspections, Sundays and conferences are still a good time to interact and serve them. We seem to get the best missionaries unless they are like this all over the world! None of that takes into consideration the cultural experience we enjoy every day of living in a foreign country and one as nice, stable and beautiful as Denmark. We are truly blessed to be able to serve here.
We got a “notch in our belt” this week for our first wedding of YSA members. Rasmus Sveistrup and Sarah Lundahl were married in the temple on Saturday. The reception was 1:00 to 3:00. We are delighted for them and wish more of our young adults would take this step. They seem very happy together. The reception was not much different than any typical Mormon reception at a church. We got there 15 minutes late so we are not quite what we missed (wouldn't have understood it anyway) but the groom was giving a little speech as we came in. Then everyone started going through the food line. There was not a formal wedding line, but the wedding couple stood beneath a little arch with flowers and greeted all their guests. The parents, etc. were free to wander around and mingle with guests and family. The food was typical little sandwiches, fruit and chocolates. I think I tried some Liver Postej. It is a famous Danish sandwich spread that is supposed to be like liver paté. I would never have tried it but someone told us recently how good it is. I decided to brave it and was surprised that it was nice.
The numbers for FHE were only 16 this week, down a bit. Does the activity that is announced affect attendance? Probably some. The announced activity was making Easter decorations by cutting designs out of colored paper. (A sissy sounding thing.) That fell through however so the FHE chairman showed the new Easter Initiative video for the spiritual thought and then he led 2 games. One was Charades with objects by clipping the object out of paper with scissors. He had 2 teams in a contest. It got kind of wild with the cutting as they are very competitive against the other team. The other game was Rhyming words. Each team was given the same word and they had 1-2 min to come up with as many rhyming words as possible. I was surprised that they enjoyed that one a lot as well and they all participated.
Zone Conference was Tuesday. In the President's opening message, he said that by the August transfer half of the mission will turn over. All but 4 companionships will be training. The mission right now is at an all-time high. We are averaging 4 baptisms a month. The goal is five, so we are a little behind, but there are 11 on date for April. The mission prays together every night between 9:00 to 9:30 for the investigators and especially those that have set a baptism date - that the Lord will bless them into the waters of baptism.
President is concerned that the spirit of hard work and obedience might slip as so many missionaries finish up their mission. He challenged them to work until the end and to pass on the traditions of being an obedient, faithful mission to the new arrivals.
The parting testimonies of the ones going home this transfer were special. It is so nice to see and hear what their missions have meant to them. They have come to know the gospel and have faith and testimonies of Jesus Christ and the church. They don’t seem to mind the hard work and the lack of converts but appreciate how they have grown and the blessings and miracles they have seen. Elder and Sister Buxton go home the first part of May and they shared humble testimonies. I love them. They are great examples of humble servants. They shared their story of being turned down to come to Denmark because of health reasons. It took an extra 4 weeks to appeal to another doctor and get their calls here. They were difficult weeks for them. Their mission call was only 18 months but they have now extended 3 extra months. President relies on them a lot to run the office and be like counselors for him. He shed a few tears at the thought of losing them.
The training in the conference was on the plan of salvation. 50 to 60% of the time, the missionaries should be teaching the Plan of Salvation in the first contact. This is what the Danish people are missing – a purpose in life, an understanding of what is expected of us, and the possibility to perfect ourselves and return to God's presence and become like God. God put us here to become like him. As members of the Church, we tend to soften this message by saying things like: we want to return to His presence; inherit eternal life, return to our heavenly home. Such statements are selling the extent and power of God’s plan short.
Why teach this instead of the Apostasy, Restoration, etc.? It leads to a desire to fulfill our purpose, which is to perfect ourselves through: Faith, Repentance and Baptism.
Since the missionaries do not have scripted discussions and have a lot of latitude in what and how they teach principles of the gospel, the message was: For each principle taught in discussions, relate them back to faith, repentance and baptism so that the purpose and path is clear. Then the president challenged the missionaries to ask themselves these questions as they plan and prepare their lessons:
- Why are we teaching this principle?
- What are the essentials that must be included?
- How does it relate back to faith, repentance and baptism?
- What do you think God expects of the investigator / what action is required next?
I also liked the suggested approach to teaching the Plan of Salvation. They should start with the common ground. Most everyone can relate to 3 things that we all understand. Earth life. Death. Then Heaven or Hell. By laying the ground work and acknowledging these basics, missionaries can build on these to explain the essentials of the missing pieces, restored by Joseph Smith. The Pre-existence, Agency, Spirit World (Paradise or Spirit Prison), Resurrection, Judgement, Degrees of Glory.
Two other principles were stressed that often come up in teaching opportunities.
1) Agency is so important, that God interferes in very rare circumstances.
2) This life is so short, that the tragedies we focus on are but a moment in eternity.
The president also discussed these 2 scriptures – and explained his thoughts on what they mean?
- Matt 11:29-30. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Being a member does not shield us from trials and heartaches. It does bless us with understanding, purpose, and access to the atonement.
- D&C 19:16-19. They will suffer even as I. We can be free from guilt and the pain of sin if we repent.
I will end with that – maybe on a spiritual high. We have had a nice day in Aarhus and Fredericia today and visiting with Elder and Sister Yates who came out with us. We get along with them very well. I think mom is sharing some of what we did. Have a great week. Our prayers are with you every day.
Love, Dad.
Kære familie, 9 April 2017
We have relocated for the weekend and are on the Jylland peninsula. We spent the day with our friends, The Yates, who are serving in Fredericia—about an hour south of Aarhus, which is where we are calling ‘home’ for three days. It was good to see the Yates again. We met them for church; they fed us dinner; and we went exploring a little in their hometown. Fredericia is a coastal city but I can’t figure out exactly what body of water it touches. It is all part of the Baltic Sea, but there is also Kattegat Sea, and Little Belt Strait and a bunch of other names on Google maps. What I do know is that the view was beautiful and the sea was very blue. Of course, we also live by the sea in Copenhagen and have a very nice view when we are along the coast. Fredericia was at one time a stronghold against the enemies of Denmark. The people built up mounds of dirt all around the city for protection and placed cannons on top. The mounds of dirt, or ramparts and were erected in 1650, along with a moat that surrounded them. These fortifications served them well and the town celebrates a huge victory in 1849 against the Germans. Today the ramparts have been transformed to a beautiful park with walking and bicycle paths, playgrounds, and historical monuments. After walking around Fredericia, we got in our cars and went across two different bridges connecting Jylland to Fyn—over and back again. Then we drove to Himmelbjerget—the highest point in Denmark. It means The Mountain of Heaven. It is 482 feet in height. There was a very short walk from the parking lot to the mountain ‘peak’, and the view of the Silkeborg forests and lakes was very beautiful. We were able to see all of this after 7:30 p.m. because our days are significantly longer. Sunset was at 8 p.m. tonight.
I know that none of our adventures today sounds like missionary work—and it isn’t. But it was nice to see some of the missionaries serving in Fredericia—three of whom we knew from their service in our area. I also knew several people in the ward because of my service in the temple—they are frequent visitors on Fridays. We compared notes with the Yates and shared YSA experiences. They support 3 YSA programs in 3 different cities, on 3 different nights. They are responsible for teaching the institute lesson in one ward and their attendance in the other wards is more for support. The Aarhus Stake is a lot more spread out than our stake, so the wards function independently, not as a whole stake like we do. They have stake activities every other month and get about 20 YSA’s attending. A typical institute class for the Yates is 2-3 YSA and 4 missionaries. Sister Yates prepares dinner for them each week.
This whole week was a bit out of sorts because we had house guests. The Halls came on Monday night. We love visiting with them and often forget the time. The mission is paying for an apartment here in Copenhagen which used to be occupied by a senior couple. No one has been in it since August—we have one less couple in the mission now. Because apartments are so difficult to find in Copenhagen, and because they are so expensive to get in and out of (3 months’ rent up-front, and 3 months’ rent after you vacate), the mission has held on to this apartment. The Halls were going to go there this week, but they ended up staying with us the whole time—Monday through Saturday. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday and Elder Hall had a stake meeting on Thursday night. They used the time to do some sight-seeing, attend the temple and do some shopping. Sister Hall came to institute with us while her husband attended the stake meeting. Senior missionary work is very different from the young missionaries—for sure. The Halls got some good news while they were visiting—a young woman to whom they introduced the gospel by inviting her to a branch Christmas party has agreed to be baptized. They met her in the grocery store and became good friends. The missionaries have been teaching her since January and the Halls have had her over for dinner, church events, and institute. Baptisms on Bornholm are far and few between, so it is an exciting event.
There has been a noticeable shift in focus in our language class. We missed our class on Tuesday because of Zone Conference, but we understood from the other students that the class is getting stricter with homework and attendance. We added seven new students to our class this week—students that transferred from other classes. It is a weeding out process—those who are serious about learning and those who are just coasting through. We have completed 250 hours of classwork and the rules have changed. I guess enough people have dropped out of the classes that the school could combine several classes into one. We are very fortunate that we still have the same teacher. She speaks completely in Danish now—and I feel that I miss half of what she says. We have been reading lengthy articles about Danish art and culture—famous artists, movie directors, authors. We are doing a lot more writing—every night we have writing homework. I got a burst of motivation, however, after hearing the conference talk by Elder C. Scott Grow when he said his 80-year-old parents learned Spanish on their 5th mission. I can do this!
This week in our institute class, Dad had assigned our 3 regular YSA attendees to share their favorite conference message. David Barcuti—our new convert—had put a lot of thought into what he shared. The talk he referenced was by Joy D. Jones—“A Sin-Resistant Generation.” He reflected on his own childhood and the lessons he learned. His mother and father were not religious and didn’t adhere to a particular moral standard. His grandparents, on the other hand, had a strong moral standard. He could see the difference in their lives. One example he shared was about chastity. He knew that his grandparents had been chaste before marriage—they have been married 45 years. His parents lived together before marriage, were now divorced and generally not happy. He believes the difference between the two situations is his grandparents kept the commandments. Even before he joined the church, he had decided to live the law of chastity. That is pretty unusual in this day and age. He sees the value of teaching correct principles to children and helping them ‘resist sin.’
Our institute lesson was a talk from General Conference. We decided to talk about Elder Rasband’s and Elder Stevenson’s talks on the Holy Ghost. We had a new student join us this week—Kennedy from Minnesota. She is doing a semester-abroad program here in Copenhagen. She is blind which makes it even more amazing that she can get around this bustling city. One of the young men brought her to institute last week. I hope she will continue to come. We had some great discussion on the Holy Ghost—how He helps us, how to live worthy of His Spirit, how to recognize promptings and act on them the first time. The students actually taught the lesson as they shared personal experiences and applied scripture. I always come out of our lessons more uplifted and strengthen by the faith and testimony of these YSA’s.
I will share one thought from our Zone Conference. We always begin by recognizing those missionaries who had birthdays since the last conference. We sing a Danish birthday song and then 2-3 other missionaries share something about the birthday missionary. Elder and Sister Buxton both had birthdays last month. They are leaving in less than a month to go home. It was a fitting end to their mission to hear some special tributes from the elders and sisters. As the office couple, they really have a lot of contact with the missionaries and have made a difference in our mission. After birthdays, the departing missionaries share their testimony. All the testimonies were great but the one who brought me to tears was Elder Thurman. He is a good missionary, but is kind of clown and brings levity to any situation. He told about an experience he had just a few weeks after he arrived in Denmark. He and his companion were walking along the street and passed a girl who was waiting on the corner. He had the distinct impression he needed to talk to her, so he told his companion they had to go back. His companion was skeptical, but agreed, telling Elder Thurman that he was all on his own. Elder Thurman, in his beginners’ Danish, did talk to the young woman and shared a message. They left and, as his companion predicted, nothing came of it. For a few days Elder Thurman was really puzzled. Why did he feel like he should go back talk to her? Why did he receive that prompting? He finally asked the Lord, and the answer came to him very distinctly, “Now I know you are listening.” It was a huge spiritual moment in his mission and from that time forward he didn’t question why he was on a mission, why he was serving in Denmark, or what his purpose was. It was a good lesson in recognizing the spirit and acting on it.
I hope everyone has a great week. We will spend two more days here in Jylland and will enjoy some of the sights here. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday.
Kærlig hilsen, Mom
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