May 21, 2017: Frederiksborg Slot

Picture with the missionaries in front of the ‘church’ in Nykøbing

Frederiksborg Slot

The Halls and Eric and Tove at Frederiksborg Slot

Candid pictures taken by the Halls—inside and outside of the castle. The bushes and trees are trimmed very precisely. Notice the elaborate ceiling in the castle. This is the great hall where the king entertained. 

Chapel in the Frederiksborg Slot

Elder and Sister Hall with mom in the Hallway, notice the ceiling.

Gardens of the slot

Thatched roofs still common in Denmark

Slot with lake and moat

Kære Familie,             22 Maj 2017

“Follow the Prophet” has been singing in my mind these past few days as I prepared a talk for Sacrament Meeting. I am really glad we teach this important doctrine to our children at a young age. It is something we need to have ingrained in our minds and hearts. I reflected back on my youth and how the words of the prophets gave me direction. The For the Strength of Youth pamphlets were not as encompassing as they are today, but there were plenty of specifics to help the youth keep themselves worthy. Those standards came from God to His prophets—and I followed the prophet. The blessing came as I was then worthy to go to the House of the Lord and be married. I think of the blessings we received over the years by having FHE, family prayer, family dinners, and family scripture study. These practices were part of our family life because we followed the prophet. I am grateful for this direction because it helped us be better parents. Now you are doing the same thing in your families and another generation is being blessed. I have heard and followed the council of 8 different prophets in these latter-days—as well as many more apostles. Each one became my ‘favorite’ prophet as their words guided my decisions throughout my life. We are serving our mission now because we followed the prophet on becoming self-reliant and managing our resources wisely. So ‘follow the prophet—don’t go astray. Follow the prophet—he knows the way.”

These were some of the thoughts I incorporated in my talk yesterday. I chose to talk on this subject partly due to the upcoming visit of Elder Neil L. Andersen. There is much anticipation in the mission as well as among the members in Denmark. It is quite remarkable to have an apostle visit their country. We had a mission-wide fast today to prepare our hearts and minds to receive Elder Andersen’s message. The temple will cancel the last two sessions on Friday afternoon so the ordinance workers can attend the fireside. It is a big deal. Our young adults have been asked to provide a musical number which we haven’t started to practice yet. I have the music but haven’t spent much time on it because I have been practicing for the musical fireside we had on Sunday night. But with a lot of practice and prayer to help me remember what I am learning, we should make it work.

Our musical fireside last night was exceptional. All the musical numbers were well done, including a number from two of our sister missionaries, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” and two numbers sung by Tomas Kofoed, our resident Broadway star. Our group of YSA practiced at 3:30 on and off until the performance. We sang an arrangement of “Beautiful Zion Build Above.” The eight YSA’s have good voices and harmonize very well. I’m glad the focus is on them and not on me. The musical number we are singing for Elder Andersen’s fireside is an arrangement of “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” and will have 20 choir members. I have a keyboard in the apartment and I am grateful I can practice on it. But it is not the same as a piano, so I take advantage of every opportunity when I have access to a piano. The page turns are a problem, so I will probably end up taping the pages together. I think I have used whatever talents I have in music more in the last few months than in the past 5-10 years. I have had to dust them off a bit, but I try. There is no substitution for practice—so that has occupied a lot of my time.

The Halls came into Copenhagen on Thursday. They were meeting some friends to visit Frederiksborg Castle. Their friends are Danish and wanted to give them a ‘guided tour’ of the grounds. The Halls invited us to come, too—so we cleared our day, packed a lunch and went with them. We had to back at 4:00 for institute. Eric and Tove are not members of the church, but they have a connection with Elder Hall. Forty years ago Elder Hall taught the gospel to Eric’s mother who was baptized. Eric and his 2 brothers were young men, but not living at home. In fact, Eric was living in the states at the time, so Elder Hall never met him. The missionaries rented rooms from Eric’s mother and helped her around the yard. She was the only one in the family to join the church and although she had a testimony, she did not stay active. She died some years ago. Elder Hall has received permission from Eric to do his mother’s temple work. Elder Hall feels that he should finish what he started. But he also wants to bring Eric and his brothers into the gospel. So, he made contact with Eric last fall and has had several meetings with him since. The missionaries have also visited him and his wife. They are exceptionally nice people. Elder Hall also wants to visit another brother who lives in Jylland sometime while they are in Denmark. We met Eric and Tove after lunch for a tour of the baroque gardens. Before lunch, we went on a tour of the castle with our personal I-pods. We visited here last summer, but it was nice to see it again. This is where so many of the original Carl Bloch paintings are housed. It is probably one of the best castles in Denmark. But that is because J.C. Jacobson (of the Carlsberg Foundation—and brewery) donated money to renovate the castle after a fire and turn it into a museum. Since then, the royal family does not use the castle although one of the Danish princes was married in the castle church a few years ago. The church did not burn down in the fire and is quite a show piece. It is still used as a church each Sunday and you can have special services there—wedding, confirmation, baptism, etc.

As you can see from the pictures, we had a beautiful spring day that day—on Thursday. It was amazing that we went from coat-weather to shirt sleeves in a matter of days. Friday was also nice, but on Saturday it was overcast and about 15 degrees cooler. I still needed tights and a warm sweater. On Saturday, we had 2 more apartment inspections. They went well, but they were some distance apart. So, it wasn’t a ‘quick trip.’ We left home around 9:30 and didn’t get back until 5:00 that afternoon. While we were out, we also visited two other apartments to deliver needed items. One of them was in Slagelse—a good 1 ½ hour’s drive from Copenhagen. But we were able to give the sisters the things we were not able to get last week on ‘Great Prayer Day.’ They were appreciative. I don’t know how effective our days are when we spend so much time on the road, but I figure someone has to do it, so I suppose we are just doing our part. We can send little items home with them when we get together for Zone Conferences, but it is difficult to carry an ironing board home on the train.

We had guests both Thursday and Friday nights—the Halls on Thursday night and the Yates on Friday night. The Yates came for a wedding on Friday and their Stake Young Adults had a temple day on Saturday. We didn’t get to visit a lot as we came home late on Friday (11 p.m.) and left about 9:30 on Saturday morning. But we did stay up late to ‘catch-up’ on what is happening on their side of Denmark. As much as we love the visits, it also means our schedule tends to get messed up—no exercise time—and there is extra laundry. I also want to have food on hand for breakfast and lunches. On Thursday night, we invited the Halls to institute for dinner. Unfortunately, we had a large crowd at dinner that night and only a ‘one plate’ meal of spaghetti. The food was gone before we could eat. I was practicing with our choir group before dinner, so we were late getting to the kitchen. By then some of the boys were on their second helping. Without bread, vegetable or salad to compliment the meal, the group just filled up on spaghetti and more spaghetti. At least we got a cupcake for dessert—I had made 48 cupcakes and we had 4 left over. I think everyone was careful to take only one ‘muffin,’ as they called them. We ate sandwiches when we got home that night.

We taught two lessons that night in institute. We are nearing the end of the semester and need to finish the curriculum. It is difficult to do two lessons in and hour because we have a lot of good discussion and could have taken up the time on just one subject. The topics were not necessarily related—‘Living Righteously in a Day of Wickedness,’ and ‘After the Trial of Your Faith,’ but we tried. Both topics led into some excellent discussions. Each of young adults have experience with ‘living in enemy territory,’ as President Packer described it. My heart goes out to the struggles they have—sometimes even in their own homes. But they are faithful and strong and are willing to take a stand for their beliefs. Dad showed this video of President Monson standing up and standing alone for his faith when he was in the army. I would also recommend this talk by Dennis Neuenschwander called ‘One Among the Crowd.’ I think these are important lessons and might make for a good FHE if you can make it age-appropriate—perhaps a ‘blue M & M among all red ones????

We love hearing about all you are doing—how well I remember those Saturdays of swim team, Encore, and other activities. There were dance lessons, piano lessons, voice lessons, basketball, baseball and tennis activities. All are worthwhile and can bring families together as they support each other; they can develop talents and build self-esteem; and the exercise is always good. But in the busy-ness of all that, the times I cherished most were the discussions we had as we traveled to those activities (or ortho appointments). It is the late-night talks we had after a date or activity. Those were the things of most value. I also cherish those times when you were young and we went to the park or just played in the back yard. Those are precious times that can’t be reclaimed as the children grow older. I remember the lessons that were taught at the ‘cross-roads’ of everyday life. In all those ‘busy days’ remember the ‘better part’ that can be of most value. We love you all and wish we could be a part of these activities. Congratulations to Drew on excellent performances in the band. We are so pleased to hear of all the successes and love the videos—Gavin’s smile wins the day even if the swimming still needs work. 😉 It helps bring us a little closer to ‘home.’ I’m not trunky, although I think we just reached our ‘hump day’ last week. Despite my earlier reservations about a 23-month mission, I can honestly say I am glad we still have about a year left. We are now ‘hitting our stride’ and I feel we have developed great relationships with these wonderful YSA.

Kærlig hilsen, Mom

Kaere Familie         Sunday, May 21, 2017

We are sitting side by side again at our desks looking out on our lake. There are ducks swimming and sea gulls darting around. People are strolling around the lake, jogging or sitting soaking up the sun. The sun is shining and the temperature is on its way up to 64 degrees today. It is cozy and quite nice. We have been to the store already and have walked to Tivoli to let 3 YSA in with our season passes. We do miss having grandkids to play with however! Now it is letter time. We ran out of steam last night again after a long day.

We were assigned to speak in the Frederiksberg Ward and to conduct a YSA training meeting after their block. There was a race in the area and we were forewarned that the roads around the chapel would be closed. Therefore, we left home at 8:00 and did not have any problems getting into the parking lot for their 10:00 meeting. This time we had 30 minutes to split between us, leaving the High Councilor 15 minutes. However, they had a confirmation and the ward is larger so the sacrament takes longer and the choir was singing. When mom started, there was only 20 minutes to divide for us. We both had to cut our talks. I only gave 1 of my 3 sections. I thought it went well despite the time pressure of trying to speak to what was most important. Mom had some original thoughts while I recycled a talk and concentrated on living up to our potential and living without regrets by following our Father’s plan for us. I like this quote: President Uchtdorf has said, “Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about ourselves. He will illuminate the path ahead and open our eyes to see our unknown and perhaps unimagined talents.”

Our training meeting started late and went long (we were told ahead of time to keep it strictly to 15 min or less), but only because they had comments and experiences to share. We basically tried to invite the spirit into the discussion by reading Mosiah 28:3 about the Sons of Mosiah not wanting any soul to be cast off. We showed a video about YSA's visiting a less active sister and the ward YSA committee being involved in blessing this sister as she struggled to come back and rekindle her testimony. It also depicts the bishop and stake presidency being involved in the rescue efforts. From there, we just opened it up to discussion about how they are or can apply these principles. It was a good meeting and great involvement from every member.

We dashed home from 2:30 to 3:00 and I got nap in. Then we dashed to the stake center where mom had a practice with the YSA Octet singing in the musical fireside. I left the church a little after 5:00 and went to the Bångs home for a dinner with the ward YSA's. We had 11 there plus 2 sister missionaries. One of the less actives came so that was a success. The musical fireside started at 7:00. They do a good job with these firesides. I think this was the 3rd one we have attended with musical numbers and a short "spoken word" in the middle. Tonight, they had 11 numbers. Tomas Kofod (our friend now and star of several Danish productions + Christ in the Testaments) sang two songs that were very nice but Rasmus Svejstrup (YSA) and Brother Valgren also sounded great to me. Our YSA group also did great.

We gave the Jensens and Sister Johnson a ride home. Then mom noticed she had left her journal at the chapel and so we went back and were able to get in and find it.

I had a funny experience on the way to the Center on Thursday. We were walking as normal and I remembered that I needed the HDMI cable for our lesson. Mom continued on and I went back for it. My phone rang just as I got to the apartment and it was a Cedar City #. A young man said he was stranded with his pregnant wife in the central train station until the next bus to Berlin at 11:45 pm. They had gotten our # from the sister missionaries in Lyngby, which they got off the internet (I haven’t figured out why that # would be on the internet). They were hoping we could offer them a place to rest and freshen up until the bus departure. It felt like providence that I was home, so I invited them to come over. He said they could easily take the bus, which is only a few stops. We go by the station each time we walk to the Center. 40 minutes or so went by and he called saying they were at the Forum, which is at the opposite end of our street. They were actually further away from us now than the train station. I gave them directions to walk and started out to meet them halfway. Matthew was pulling 3 Suitcases and Courtney was walking behind him looking very tired. That is when I felt really dumb for not picking them up in the car when they originally called. We are just so used to walking everywhere that the bus sounded like a good option. I had to get to Institute so I basically turned the apartment over to them for food, sleep and baths. Maybe the story will appear in the Ensign someday, as a modern day good Samaritan. When we got home at about 10:30, they were just finishing their showers and it was evident they had slept in our bed. We chatted until about 11:15 when I drove them to the train station. They were stranded due to missing at least 1 train and bus due to events beyond their control. They are students in Cedar City, he served a mission in Germany, and they are going back for a visit and meeting his family who were already there waiting for them.

In Initiatories this week I was the coordinator for the first time. Of course, they don’t provide any training. We are just expected to know it all. We did 2 on 2 for 4 names and then 2 on 1. We used English and Swedish for a brother who speaks only Danish. I assume the spirit communicated with him. Brother Folkmann (our patron) is an ordinance worker but he is in his 80's and is a patron or a witness more than a worker, but he does lead an endowment session sometimes. He is very faithful and hardly misses a Friday. I think he is also at the temple Friday morning so he works both shifts.

We got out of the temple around 9:00 (the schedule with the new films was not as backed up this week) and then went to a Generations dance for our stake. It is quite an event with an MC of Tomas Kofod and music from each decade for an hour starting with 1960's. The decorations were similar to Golden Days but not with quite so many props. They had more sofas and lamps both outside and inside to make little hygge areas for relaxing and talking. Food was hamburger sliders with onions, brown gravy, etc. They also had 4 kinds of fruit mixed drinks and lots of fruit and cheese as finger food. Gismo dragged us on the dance floor for several dances, mostly fast modern ones. I think they were in the 1990's by then. The start of the 2000's featured the video that our YSA put together. I was embarrassed that my scenes as Grandpa were prominent at both the beginning and end. Gabriel did a good job editing and the video was very cute. We left the dance about 11:00 but I think it went until at least 1:00 am.

We put the video together during the last two FHE’s. They divided into 4 groups and each had to create a music video of music from the 2000's. Gabriel edited them all together into a video to show at the dance. They got me to act the part of a grandfather with Lea as my granddaughter and we introduced and closed the movie. I had 2 lines:

Nu, skal du hører lille barnebarn (Now you shall hear some good music, my little grandchild)
And then after the music and acting ...
Det var tillidt (that was amazing)

Yates were staying with us for one night with a temple trip Saturday so we came home and they were still awake. We talked for an hour with them catching up on both our activities. As we were going to bed at 12:15, I noticed the toilet was running and not stopping and wouldn't flush because the tank was not filling up. Not good with company or otherwise. I tore into the inner valve and float workings which are very different than any US models. Thus, I worked until 1:30 trying to get it to work again. The problem appeared to be Calc buildup that was keeping the floats from working and the seals from shutting water off. I cleaned that up thoroughly with calc remover but then it still did not work until I fiddled with parts for a while longer. I finally got it reassembled correctly I think as it started working again. Mom was going to make cookies but didn't because of the hour at midnight. She would have if she had known we were going to be up another 90 minutes.

Here is just a preview for things happening this week. Elder Neil Andersen is visiting our mission on Thursday and Friday. It has been a few years since they were blessed with a visiting apostle, so it seems to be a big deal. We have a missionary conference for 2 hours on Thursday, 1:30 to 3:30 and then there is a member meeting on Friday at 7:00 pm. They are canceling the last 2 sessions and closing the temple early for that. The Iceland missionaries are also coming in for the missionary conference. Wednesday, we have been asked to pick up 3 senior missionary couples from Iceland at the airport at 11:45 and then site see with them, go on a temple session and dinner and drop them off at the mission home at about 10:00 pm. The mission has been preparing for this for a couple of weeks. We had a special fast on Sunday, apartments were supposed to be cleaned, suits dry cleaned, haircut, shoes polished, etc. There has been a special emphasis on Finding, repenting and preparing spiritually to be taught by an Apostle. President O’Bryant shared one story from Elder Packer, where he said he could not share much at a mission conference because the missionaries were not prepared to listen and to learn. Thus, our emphasis has been on preparing ourselves so that this can be as special revelatory experience and the mission and country will be blessed.

Love, Dad.