Kære Familie Monday, May 15, 2017
So, it is 6:00 pm on Monday and we are at the Center waiting for FHE to start. I am just getting to my letter for the week. It has been a very busy past week and this weekend was more of the same. I thought we would get to letters this morning as we normally would, but instead I potted some plants, cleaned the car and did the apartment cleaning, plus we had some computer issues that needed attention to renew our software that is all expiring. We now have 1 tomato plant and 3 strawberry plants in our little patio garden spot. Plus, we inherited several potted plants from the Buxtons and they were root bound and needed repotting, so that was the gardening work for this morning.
A lot of our business this week was sort of self-made as we started our round of apartment inspections again. We have 10 of them to fit in and we did 2 each Thursday, Friday and Saturday to get started. Several of them always require some shopping so that takes up time as well. For example, we have a new apartment to inspect that is in the southernmost part of our side of the mission. It is on another island called Falster in a town called Unyoking. Elder Bryner has inspected it in the past as it has elders in it but he wanted us to check it out this time for him. It is about a 2-hour drive down there. We inspected one apartment here and then headed down. We are glad that we took it on as we have a higher standard apparently than Elder Bryner does for missionary accommodations. We always feel sorry for the missionaries when we picture our kids in them and think they deserve a little better living conditions. This apartment needs a serious coat of patching, paint and new carpets, but we don’t have a lot of control over those items. Mom showed them how to clean the oven, which was dark with grease, defrost the freezer, she elbowed some black grime out of the tub/shower and removed calk from around the kitchen faucet. I put new filters on the kitchen and bathroom faucets and measured the windows for some venetian blinds. We then went to several stores to find the things they needed: a blender, blinds for 2 windows, knife set, batteries, trolley for personal bathroom items, lights for the kitchen, etc. We returned by 6:00 and met the Johnsons and Jensens for dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate Mother's Day.
We helped Buxtons a bit off and on Monday as they did their final day at the office and packed their suitcases. I hope our going home is easier. They have shipped 9 boxes home already and had about that many more today that they took to the shipping Company. I can’t imagine buying that many souvenirs and paintings. I guess we are just not knick knack appreciators. We brought their desk, chair and credenza down to our apartment and put them upstairs next to the one we have -- double desks now to study on. They just fit in front of the window so we have moved our companion study upstairs and have the view over the lake each morning as we get up and study. It is way sweet. We did not ask the office elders to help us this time so mom and I lugged the stuff around. It was hard with the two of us to move the credenza upstairs as it was quite heavy, but we made it.
We had another effective stake YSA Council meeting this week. I really enjoy these as we have a chance to talk about the YSA program and agree on objectives. Jonathan or Gismo prepare the agenda and conduct the meeting and I think they are remarkable considering the rest of the attendees are a counselor in the stake presidency, high councilor and institute director (sometimes we get the mission president and a counselor in the stake RS (she is also a YSA but is maybe 28)). This time, we concentrated a lot on our June 8th visiting night. We are going to contact as many less actives as we can in one night. The stake presidency and high council are going to be drivers and they think they will have 12 -17 drivers. We will have to work hard to provide 34 youth to match them as the plan is to have 2 YSA with each car. The driver will stay with the car, if necessary, since parking is hard, and the YSA will visit with some cookies and a message. We also all agreed that we would prepare a dinner before they go on the visits (our favorite role of course). We are excited for this opportunity to contact less actives and lost sheep and we think it will reap many benefits and blessings for some of them if they respond to the invitation to join with us.
The 3 new temple films (same old one for you – films B, C and D) have finally been translated to Danish. Our temple has been closed for 2 weeks for the Spring maintenance and as it opened this week the new films are being used. That means that most of our sessions will now be in Danish and we will always need to wear head phones. I have only seen the C film so far and the synching to the expressions and pauses is remarkable. It did not bother me at all that the language is dubbed over. Our Institute Director, Brother Jens Andersen, is the voice of Jehovah in all 3 movies. I didn’t recognize him but mom says she did. At some point, I want to ask him about the experience and how they worked the technical details, where they did it, how long it took, etc. I think, they would need to have separate recordings for each film, but mom thinks they did one recording and then spliced and diced to match the acting. Since the expressions are so different in some of the parts, I just don’t see how that could work. In any case, this is a great blessing for this country that they can now enjoy and learn what we have been doing for several years. The switch over is not without some growing pains since the films are 10-12 minutes longer than the A film. We have just one endowment room, but we move to another Terrestrial room. Also, we only have 7 veils so it takes a while to complete a full session of 40 people. We were getting backed up on Friday. We led the last session of the day which is supposed to start at 6:30. It actually started after 7:15 and so it did not end until 9:30. The temple is going to monitor options for 2 weeks and then they will publish a new session schedule with the longer films. I suppose it will mean that our day is a little longer on Fridays when we do our temple shift. I worked back to back Initiatory sessions in the first two blocks. That is very tiring. It amounts to about 3 hours with just a little break in between.
I taught our HP Quorum lesson today. It was Hinckley’s #9 on the power of testimony. I am such a coward. I didn't even try any Danish but I am always surprised on how good their English is, even with the older generation. I always try to make lessons a little more interactive than what a normal HP lesson is like. It helps when mom has good ideas. I blind folded one of them and had another hold up pictures of the temple and Christ that he could not see. Then we slowly took the blinders off “so the light of the gospel and testimony” could come into his life and he could see clearly what had always been there, but he could not see. I think it went well and there was a lot of good participation. I am grateful for my testimony of the Savior and the Church. Like President Hinckley said, it is the well spring of my faith and life. I am so happy that I have temple covenants with my eternal family and the knowledge that makes this life sustainable and enjoyable.
In conclusion, I thought I would share this thought from our Institute lesson a week ago and the Book of Mormon and the gathering of Israel in the latter days.
President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
“The coming forth of the Book of Mormon is a sign to the entire world that the Lord has commenced to gather Israel and fulfill covenants He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We not only teach this doctrine, but we participate in it. We do so as we help to gather the elect of the Lord on both sides of the veil. The Book of Mormon is central to this work. It declares the doctrine of the gathering. It causes people to learn about Jesus Christ, to believe His gospel, and to join His Church. In fact, if there were no Book of Mormon, the promised gathering of Israel would not occur.”
Love, Dad
Kære Familie, 15 May 2017
It was so nice to talk with everyone yesterday. I had a nice, but short visit with my mom and a good visit with Stephanie—which was a bonus! It was so good to see and/or hear from everyone. We had four missionaries who came to our house to Skype with their mothers and families, so it was fun to see their enthusiasm and hear snippets of their conversations. We have a small apartment (large by missionary standards, but small, nonetheless). There is really no privacy which is good for the missionaries, but it makes it hard to have conversations. One elder was particularly loud—maybe he thought he had to speak loudly to be heard all the way to Washington State. Two elders came before 4:00 and two more came at 5:00 for dinner and to Skype at 6:00. Our plan to have a quick meal in between the two groups didn’t work, because the first elders talked for more than two hours. Finally, about 5:45, I fed the other elders. I had barbecue beef in the crock pot for sandwiches, along with potato salad, jello salad, and veggies. I purposely planned something that could be ready early or late. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Everyone got fed and everyone had nice visits with their families. Sometimes missionaries are invited to Skype from member’s homes, but these elders didn’t have a place to go—I suspect it is more difficult on Mother’s Day as opposed to Christmas. I assume there were elders at the office and I saw missionaries at the church, taking turns on the church computers. I left before the visits were over as I had a practice at the church with some of my YSA—they are singing at a special stake music fireside next Sunday night.
I was concerned about one of the sister missionaries—her mother and grandmother both passed away about a year before she came on her mission. She has had a lot to deal with. Her father remarried and moved from Utah to New York and is no longer active. Sister Dietch lived on her own in the family home while she prepared for her mission. Luckily there was a family in the ward who took her ‘under their wing’ and so it was this family who got a phone call from Sister Dietch. I was glad she had someone to call. She has other siblings, but for some reason she is closest to this family in her ward. She has been in the field about 7 months now and is doing very well, but the mission president keeps her close to him in Copenhagen so he and his wife can keep tabs on her. Perhaps she will be able to transfer to another area soon. Many of these missionaries do not come from the ‘ideal’ family. Their faithfulness and perseverance through trials from home as well as in the mission are examples to me. More than once I have seen the quote, “I can do hard things,’ plastered on a wall or the outside door of missionary apartments. And that is exactly what these missionaries do—hard things. I am especially grateful for the patient missionaries who train the new missionaries who come. They not only set high expectations, but they are examples themselves of how a missionary should act, should work, and should be obedient. When the missionaries are trained well, they serve faithfully and contribute to the spirit of our mission. We have great missionaries!
We spent Monday cleaning and moving more furniture—the desk, credenza, and office chair. We put the desk upstairs. Dad has always had his desk upstairs, but I studied at the kitchen table. Quite often he joined me just for the company. Now I can join him upstairs and it works out very nice and I appreciate the lovely view. The kitchen table also stays clear and uncluttered. All in all, we have made some nice improvements to our apartment with the addition of the Buxton’s furniture. And none of this would have been possible if that apartment had stayed in the mission, so it was a nice bonus. We also added some outdoor pots which we put by our front door. I bought some geraniums to go in them along with some ivy greenery. You know me—I love flowers. Flowers and growing things make me happy. It was hard to see the Buxton’s go, but I am happy that they can be with their family and move on to their next phase of life. The next day, after our language class, Dad went into their apartment to see if they had left anything that we needed to ship (they were worried they couldn’t fit everything in their suitcases), and the apartment had already been cleared of furniture. The temple department wasted no time in getting started on the renovations.
We had a crazy day on Thursday. It is time for apartment inspections again and Thursday morning is usually the only morning during the week where we can do inspections—except for Mondays, but that is p-day so it is not normally good for the missionaries. We made two appointments for the morning—9:30 and 10:30, and had to be back in Copenhagen in time to pick up 25 pizzas at Dominos for the mini-mission conference—missionary training for the new missionaries who have been in Denmark for one month, and My Plan training for the missionaries who are going home in July. We took the pizzas to the chapel by the temple where the missionaries devoured them, and then we all attended a temple session. We had 44 people on the session. Now that the Buxtons have gone, we are the only temple workers among the senior missionaries so we were asked to lead the session. I was nice to be with the missionaries. Because there were so many missionaries who had to get back to their areas, the President asked us if we could take three missionaries to the train station after the temple. I was in a bit of a panic because I also needed to open the YSA center for those who were preparing dinner for that night. My dessert was at home, but I had no time to go get it because the YSA’s were waiting for us at the center. We went to the train station—the missionaries had less than 10 minutes to catch their train—and then ran to the center. Luckily the dinner preparation was not too complicated and only required about 1 hour to make. I ran home to get my dessert, and returned to the center. We only had about 20 YSA for dinner so I thought we would have a light group for our lesson, but the youth came in one by one until we had 36 in attendance. There really is a great feeling among the youth as they study the gospel together.
We watched the following video together as a group before taking the English students into our class. It is about being inclusive—lifting others and not judging them. Lifting Others I thought it was very ‘on the mark’ and led perfectly into our lesson—‘All Are Alike Unto God.’ I love the principles of the gospel as they are taught so simply in the Book of Mormon—the example of the sons of Mosiah who ‘could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.’ They didn’t care that they went to preach to their sworn enemies—to them, the Lamanites were brothers, children of God. Dad asked the class if they could choose any place to go on a mission, where would it be and why. He expected to get answers like Hawaii, or some beautiful and exotic place that had good food, good living conditions, or people friendly to the gospel. But instead they surprised him by saying they wanted to go someplace where the people did not have a chance to hear the gospel—the most difficult places with difficult circumstances. That is exactly what the sons of Mosiah did. We love the comments and insights from our students—Kennedy, our blind YSA, talked about how she literally can’t judge someone by how they look. She is blind to color of hair, of skin, of eyes; she is blind to thin or fat; she is blind to handsome or plain. Perhaps we should envy her ability to not see. It was Kennedy’s last week in Denmark. She flew back to the states the next day. She shared her testimony with the class and I would venture to say that her testimony grew leaps and bounds while she was in Denmark. She sought out the church and the members embraced her. Our YSA are great examples of seeing others as God sees them. I am so glad we got to know her, but I am especially glad she got to feel the spirit of our young adults. I hope she continues on the gospel path in her future activities.
We had a funny experience on Friday. It was a holiday—Great Prayer Day—so we didn’t have language class. This holiday falls on the fourth Friday after Easter. The Danes have celebrated this holiday since the 17th century and combines all the various religious holy days and prayer days into one day. We didn’t understand the significance, especially since Danes are not that religious. But we saw it as an opportunity to do some apartment inspections in Slagelse—we do two apartments--sisters and elders. The sisters had a few needs and we thought we could pick up the items in their ‘bulk’ store which is close to the freeway and very convenient. When we went to get the items we needed, I noticed the parking lot was fairly empty, but I was just glad we could get a good parking spot. As we went inside, I noticed that much of the store was either taped off or blocked off with large crates. I found it odd, but went about my shopping. I went under the tape to get the items we needed and then got stopped by a clerk. She was not happy with me and proceeded to tell me that I couldn’t buy that item today. The only things we could purchase were in the garden department. Evidently the main store is not open on Prayer Day, just the garden section. I literally had to put the appliances back and leave. It was frustrating, but what can you do?
Hope you all have a wonderful week. Good luck with the soccer and baseball games, the swim meets, and don’t forget to practice the piano. You will need those piano skills on your missions!
Love, Mom
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