Anya's Baptism
Some of the YSA who came to support
Mission Conference
Elder Andersen spoke
Dinner at the Mission Home
Departure of the Buxtons/Arrival of the Johnsons
FHE Activity
Kære Familie Sunday,
28 May 2017
This has been a
hectic, busy week, they seem to be piling on with lots to do and never enough
time to do it in. Sounds like being
home, right? Here are some highlights of
the week. For FHE, mom made cookies then
she walked to the Center to open it and practice the piano for a choir number
for the Elder Andersen member fireside. I stayed home and worked on Danish
until one of the YSA in charge of the FHE activity called and asked for my help
getting some supplies picked up. I met
her mom at a Home Depot type of store and she gave me rakes and gloves to take
to the Center. I drove to the Center so
that our car was available to pick up trash that gets collected. The FHE activity on Service was to go to 4
different locations and pick up trash in plastic bags. We had around 18 that came out for it. 2 of the areas needed bikes to get to them
and 1 was a walk across the bridge. I
was a bit disappointed that they all took off and we were by ourselves – it
would have been more fun to have a group of us.
We decided to just walk up our street and pick up trash as we went
towards the Town Hall. We got a fairly
full bag that was mostly cigarette butts.
I was amazed how many are lying on the sidewalks and gutters. That is something that I will never
understand - why people who smoke just drop their butts wherever they are, more
so here than in the states I think. It
is supposed to be a very clean country but cigarettes are an exception to that
perception.
One good experience
that happened to us was that a lady saw what we were doing in the plaza in
front of her apartment, and she brought us some plastic gloves (the kind you
get at a grocery store so you don’t handle the bread) so that our hands were
protected and we wouldn’t get sick. She
thanked us for what we were doing and said she tries to pick it up every
week.
The night ended
on a bad note! The choir started
rehearsing for the member fireside on Friday night so we did not leave the
Center until about 10:30. We drove (didn’t need the car for any trash) and I
had a parking ticket for 510 kr or $71 on my windshield. I paid parking for 4 hours so I knew it
wasn't that. Everything else looked
legal to me about how the car was parked.
I was going to protest, but I researched it the next day on the internet
and they had 4 pictures of the car, the markings on the street and a copy of
the regulation that had violated – parked too close to the intersection where a
bike lane merges with the traffic lane to make a right-hand turn. It was pretty
clear so there wasn’t anything to protest except my ignorance of the law. That is something no one has explained to
us. I have escaped a few tickets already
by parking the same way so I guess it is good to know.
Our Wednesday was
like this: Language class in the
morning. We drove over and did not
arrive until 9:00 because we were making sandwiches before that. We left on the morning break at 10:10 to pick
up the Mission van at the office and then go to the airport. Our assignment for the day was to welcome and
escort 3 Sr Couples from Iceland, the Michaelsens, Huffs and Pfaus. We all had sandwiches in the van as we drove
and they were happy for the food. Some
of them were up at 2:00 am to catch the flight to Denmark. We drove to the Frederiksborg Slot in
Hillarød (same place we were last Thursday with the Halls). We parked at the top of the gardens and
walked through them down to the castle with them. We then left them to do the tour with the
Jensens who took the train up to be with them.
We went back to the van, ate our own lunch and then worked on catching
up our journals or napping. We arrived
about 1:15 and picked them up again at 4:00.
We then headed back to Copenhagen with 5:30 dinner reservations at a
nice buffet restaurant in the Mall. We
were making good time and so decided to kill an hour and drive the city a bit,
especially around Christianborg Slot and the Norreport area. That was a mistake. There was some sort of festival in the Kings
Garden and traffic was horrific, worst we have seen. In trying to get off of the main streets, we
ended up by the Round Tower and the Norreport train station and then ended up
on a one-way street that emptied onto the plaza of the train station. It is a pedestrian only plaza. There was no way we could back up or turn
around in the 9-passenger van, so I drove across the plaza and over a curb to
get back on a main road. We had to slowly part a sea of bikes and people to get
across and there were many strange stares.
It was an awful experience. I was embarrassed but our guests thought it
was so fun. They thanked me for the
unusual afternoon! Once off the plaza,
we were able to navigate to dinner and arrive about 15 min late. To compound the experience of the above, my
phone died as we left Hillarød and the GPS in the van would not let us program
a point of destination. It would only
accept a street address and we did not know any of those. So, we felt cut off and directionless at
times.
Dinner went fine
and they all enjoyed the food and a good price at 119 kr ($17) a person. It was funny that Elder Pfau asked if we had
sandwiches left over. He took 2 into the
restaurant for he and his wife, but she refused to eat it and had the buffet. I think she was terribly embarrassed that he
was so cheap. He ate a sandwich and a
half and seemed to enjoy it, so it wasn't that he was too full from lunch to
eat again. I got him a plate from the buffet line for the sandwiches! Maybe
there is someone cheaper than me.
We went to the 7:30
temple session and met up with the 10 elders from Iceland. The session was full. Film D was filmed in Iceland and they had
requested ahead of time see that one, but we saw the B film instead. Mom thinks that this temple presidency is not
going to accept requests or changes to their rotation. After the temple, mom drove 3 elders and I
had 8 in the van to the mission home. We
got there at 11:00 and then had to drive the 30-min home. It was a long but good day.
Saturday after
the baptism, Mom needed a 2nd crockpot from the Jensens so she dropped me off
there and I attempted to bring my bike home.
The key I had did not fit but was instead a key to the Jensen's
apartment that I had forgotten we had. I
started to walk home and got about halfway when the bike lock key fell out of
the inside of the Helmut I was carrying.
It was tied into the webbing of the Helmut on a string and I had
forgotten where it was after 7 months. I
went back to get the bike again and met Jensens at the bus stop. They were off to meet Johnsons for an
outing. They allowed me to use my key to
go in their apartment to get the gate card for the basement parking. The bike
tire was pretty flat but I was able to ride it home with a lot of wobbling. I
hope I did not damage it. It was nice to
be on a bike again and it does beat walking. I didn’t have any problems with
the bike lanes or the traffic, though it was light on a Saturday. I could get used to biking but mom doesn't
really feel comfortable on a bike in a dress plus it will be very hot quickly
and would be sweaty to do, plus we would need some sort of a cart on one of the
bikes for the times we are carrying food. I now have my $75 bike at our
apartment but I don’t know how much I will use it (purchased from Elder Ottley
when they went home last November).
We had dinner with
some members at 5:00 and we did not get home until around 9:00. It was a very nice dinner and good company
but too long for missionaries. Elders
Jensen and Halling were with us and I felt bad they were not out doing
missionary work. However, Elder Jensen goes home Tuesday and his grandfather
served a mission here with Brother Andersen, so the whole dinner was a going
away party for him. Sister Andersen is
the one who taught us language lessons with the BYU exchange students last
summer just after we arrived. We got to
enjoy her and they have been promising to have us over. This was a good time to combine the 2
purposes.
Sunday was also a
busy day. Time before and after church
was used to prepare a dinner of Beef Stroganoff in 2 crock pots for dinner
along with salad, peas and carrots and flutes.
Mom prepared the chocolate and vanilla layered pudding dessert using
homemade pudding since they do not have the box kind we are used to. That was a lot of work for her. I don’t think the YSA appreciate how much
effort she puts into their meals. We
went to the Center at 4:00 to finish the dinner and had a YSA Committee meeting
at 5:00. It was a good meeting. They follow an agenda and there were 11 of us
there. I think all committees except for
the temple committee had a representative, plus Brother Ringheim from the HC
attended. They are getting excellent
training in conducting council meetings and they will be wonderful leaders as
they settle down with families.
For dinner and
the fireside we had about 33 and 36 youth plus 4 adults. Our speaker was the stake patriarch, Brother
Andersen. I have seen him around a lot
but never thought he was the patriarch.
He does not look very old and probably isn't since he was called at
55. He told me that is the minimum age
for a patriarch. It seemed like he did a
very good job with his fireside and as he had lots of comments and
questions. I understand from the
discussion, that the stake policy is that youth should be out of high school
when they get their blessing. That would
be 17-18, so a little older than our average age I would say. We got home about 10:30.
We had another
unusual experience on Thursday night. We
had arranged to meet Anne and Rex Billings at 8:15 at the Little Mermaid
Statue. They are on a 1 day stopover on
a cruise ship and we thought our YSA social would be over by then or close
enough that we could slip away. The social did not break up until closer to
8:30 and then they decided to have a practice with the YSA choir, so we had to
stay. I started texting Rex that we
would be late -- then later, then later still.
I finally thought it was too late but everyone else was a go, so we met
them at their ship at about 10:00 pm – still a little bit light here now. We had a nice 2-hour visit as we drove them
around Copenhagen in the dark. We started with
the temple and Nitivej chapel and then drove to the spiral church on Amager,
Christiansborg, Amalienborg and Rosenborg slots and everything in between. We really had a nice visit and it was worth
staying up for. Some of you may know
them. They were in our ward at one time,
then in the Spring Ward and he was bishop of the Cypress Creek Ward. They have moved to Seattle recently but we
could share a few memories of our home stake.
Sister Billings served with mom in the stake young women’s and we have
been good friends. It is obvious that we
have problems with the bed-time rule of missionaries!
Our two meetings
with Elder Neil L. Andersen and President Kearon and their wives were really
special. It was a wonderful week
anticipating and then enjoying the spirit of the meetings. President O’Bryant tried really hard to
prepare the mission for this visit as I described last week with a special fast
and then an emphasis on finding new investigators. Those efforts paid off and we had record
numbers in finding. Elder Andersen took
most of the time in both meetings with just short talks/testimonies by the
others but those short thoughts were impactful.
My notes from Pres Kearon in the missionary meeting are: We can revel in the challenge of
missionary work. As Mormons, we thrive on adversity and opposition. It is good for us and is part of being a
member of this church. It will build us
as it did in the early days of the church.
Be happy in our work. We are here
to learn how to act and not be acted upon.
2 Ne 2.
He
quoted from Elder Andersen's teaching on missionary work. We have no power to make people change and so
in one sense the missionary is not important in the conversion process. But on the other hand, Faith is a power that
can cause things to happen that need to happen.
You are very significant in the work. People have their choice but you
have a huge impact on those you teach.
Be happy helpers. Become the
message. What would it look like? You would look joyful, energetic, vital and
vivacious. Become that person. Note the actions that we should do as a
result of this conference. Otherwise it
will make no lasting impact on is. I am
binding myself to act in this way…. Act
on what you feel.
If there was a
theme to the teachings of Elder Andersen, it was that missionary work is hard
but our mission is not any harder than any other, it is just a different kind
of hard. We dream of baptisms,
missionaries in Brazil dream about the good living conditions we have
here. His blessing and promise to the
mission was that there are many more that are prepared to receive the
gospel. He blessed us that
our faith might grow and become even a surprise to ourselves on our mission. We
need to testify of Christ. Every time we raise His name, it will be a blessing
and delight to us; it will lift us up and bless our families. If we commit to these things, the Lord will
bless us so that baptisms will increase here.
There are more and we can find them.
He shared this story about
himself as a young missionary in France.
Story of Leader in a District in
Portugal who joined the church in 1973 in a French city where he had lived since
1969. Elder Andersen served in that city
for 6.5 months in 1971 and did not baptize anyone but he did tract every door
2-3 times. Where was this leader at that
time? Why wasn’t he able to find him and
baptize him? Don't feel sorry for
yourself and know that they are here in greater numbers than we think. They are here.
In the missionary meeting on
Thursday, we did the usual thing of everyone got to file past and shake hands
with our visitors. It was interesting
that before they arrived, we passed around hand sanitizer so we would not
spread germs. On Friday for the member
meeting, they stayed around after the meeting closed and shook hands with
everyone who wanted to greet them and then even took pictures with those brave
enough to ask. I did not see any
evidence of hand sanitizer then. They traveled with 2 security guards who came
into the meetings ahead of time and sort of scrutinized everyone and then were
nearby with careful eyes during all of the hand shaking. It is sad that is a necessary part of the
itinerary of our general authorities.
I close with
this. Elder Andersen said he has not
used this scripture in a talk in over 10 years, but felt impressed to share it
with us.
Alma 42: 27 Therefore, O my son, awhosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life
freely; and whosoever
will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall
be brestored unto him according to his cdeeds.
One of our purposes is to
keep faith in this country and not let it die.
Whenever we can share our faith, testify that Christ lives and share
some stories from the New Testament.
Sample of something that we could say to this people: You are going to have to change your life if
you ever want to be happy. You need to
find discipline. I am just telling you
as the Lord's servant that there are some things that need to change in your
life before you will find happiness and peace.
(Example of being bold I think.)
Lots of things to think about with his thoughts.
Love, Dad.
Kære Familie, 29 May 2017
We had a spiritually uplifting and eventful week last week. There were great moments of just soaking in
the spirit, but there were stressful moments as well as I accompanied two
musical numbers. This is when I wish I
had my sister’s talent. She would be so
much better at this than I am. I
thankfully have a keyboard in my apartment, but it only goes so far with a
limited number of keys and no sustaining pedal.
Plus, the ‘touch’ is very different from a piano. But when I can’t get to a piano, it is the next
best thing—and allows me late night practice sessions. We sang a beautiful arrangement of “A Poor
Wayfaring Man of Grief” at the Friday night fireside with Elder Neil L.
Andersen. We had a choir of 6 men and 8
women. We practiced a short time (parts
only) on Monday night after FHE, a longer time on Tuesday and Thursday night,
and for an hour before the performance on Friday. I was a little skeptical that the choir could
learn the parts which so few practices, but by the end of Tuesday’s practice I was more
confident in their abilities—not so much about my own. We sang right after the opening song, and the
choir really invited the spirit into the meeting from the outset. It was further enhanced when Tomas Kofoed
sang “This is the Christ” right before Elder Andersen spoke. Good music always makes a meeting
better.
At the risk of being ‘all over the place’ in my letter, I
will tell a story that Elder Andersen shared about Tomas Kofoed. The movie “The Testaments” came out in
1999. President Faust was asked to
oversee the planning and production of this film, and Elder Andersen served
with him. Their committee searched long
and hard for the right person to portray Christ in the movie. They looked at LDS actors, Hollywood actors,
local actors and finally narrowed it down to three people. They made a video of the different actors,
dressed in character and acting out a short segment of the movie. They showed these videos to President
Hinckley who said that they had not found the right actor. They didn’t know where else to look. But President Faust said they needed to
pray—the Lord knows who should play the part and He knows where to find
him. So, they did. Not many days later they received a video
from Tomas Kofoed. They liked it and
invited him to come to Provo. They knew
he was the right one and President Hinckley agreed. Elder Andersen said it was a “gift from
Heavenly Father.” They would never have
found him—an unknown actor in Denmark, but the Lord knew who he was. Elder Andersen said Tomas was humble and
reverent with all the right characteristics needed for the production. He is that way now. He said that Tomas never capitalized on his
role in the movie—he could have used it for personal gain or self-promotion,
but he never did.
One concern they had when making the movie was the scene
where Christ descends from Heaven to the temple steps. They worried as it was filmed that it had the
feel of a Rock Star descending on a crowd.
So, to avoid that impression and help the actors feel the right spirit,
the song “This is the Christ” was playing on the set while they were
filming. You obviously can’t hear it in
the movie, but the actors could hear it.
Hence, the reason Brother Kofoed was asked to sing it at the fireside
that night. And it was beautiful!
Elder Andersen spent the first part of his talk sharing
stories and experiences with people he knew from Denmark (such as the ones
above) as well as his experience this trip.
He and his wife lived in Europe for 6 years, but have never visited
Denmark. On this trip, they went to the
Frue Kirke to see the Christus statue as well as Frederiksborg to see the Carl
Bloch paintings. One of the Family
History experts in the stake also arranged for Elder and Sister Andersen to
visit a church where his ancestors had been christened. The
church was actually closed at the time of their visit, but the Danish member
had made arrangements for a back door to be left opened so they could visit the
church. They were very grateful for the
kindnesses shown to them.
Elder Andersen’s main message was on President Monson’s last
General Conference talk. He confirmed
that President Monson is no longer coming regularly to meetings because of
health reasons incident to age. He also
assured us that President Monson is in no pain.
He only spoke 2 ½ minutes at conference, so he chose his words very
carefully. Elder Andersen had the talk
written in a power point presentation and talked about the lesson in each
sentence. He emphasized that we cannot
live on borrowed light. We each need to
have our own testimony and that begins by reading the Book of Mormon daily. He said the great sermons of the atonement of
Jesus Christ are found in the Book of Mormon. In his 2 ½ minute talk, President Monson told
us three times to turn to the Book of Mormon daily. “Let us listen to the prophet,” he said. He then shared an experience he had with
President Monson during a stake conference
visit. A righteous family with two sons
had just suffered a tragedy when one of their sons was killed in an
accident. It was shortly after the son had
returned from a successful mission. As
he and President Monson were leaving, Elder Andersen recognized the parents of
this young man and reminded President Monson about this incident. They continued through the crowd, when
President Monson stopped and told Elder Andersen he wanted to speak with the
parents. They were small in stature and
it seemed almost impossible to find them in the crowd again, but he said that
President Monson, who is tall, could somehow see over the thousands of heads
and find the couple. He spoke to them
and told them they will see their son again.
Ten years later the husband died and not long after the wife also passed
away. But she had written a letter and
given it to her Bishop, asking him to send it to President Monson. She said that the experience with President
Monson gave them the assurance that they would see their son. They were faithful until the end of their
lives. Elder Andersen then said that is
what mortality is like. A lot of things
happen that are unexpected. We must hold
on to our faith and take confidence in the Book of Mormon. Central to the plan is Christ. One day we will kneel at His feet and every soul will acknowledge that he is
the Son of God.
Elder Andersen encouraged us to read the last 4 verses in
Alma 32. Three qualities are mentioned several times
in those verses—faith, diligence and patience.
We need to develop all three.
Some people have faith and diligence but lack patience; some have faith
and patience, but lack diligence. All
are needed in the kingdom of God. He
said never in his life did he expect to sit where he sits today, or experience
what he has experienced, or have a sure knowledge of what he knows. When Christ returns, there will be a
righteous people in every land and among every culture. Every day He is creating a righteous band of
people all over the world. He admonished
us to live through our mortality with faith, diligence and patience. “Keep the commandments and be diligent.” He said that our responsibility in our sphere
of influence is the same as his responsibility in his sphere of influence. There is no hierarchy in the church. We all need to be His disciples.
Sister Andersen read her testimony in Danish. It was a valiant attempt and very short. Elder Andersen called her up later to share
her testimony again and she talked about Helaman 5:12. She also spoke on
Thursday at our Missionary Conference and gave a powerful testimony and support
for her husband. She quoted from several
of his talks and testified that she knows that what he bears witness to is,
indeed, true.
We also heard from Elder and Sister Kearon. I especially liked Sister’s Kearon’s
comments. She said that the same water
that hardens an egg, softens a potato.
We can choose how the waters of life change us—do we become hardened or
softened? On Thursday she emphasized to
the missionaries that ‘no effort is wasted.’
We are Mormons, she said, and we thrive on adversity. Missionary work is hard and we don’t always
see the results of our efforts, but those efforts are never wasted. We are here to act and not to be acted
upon. So, we need to choose to be happy. There is a power that can cause things to
happen that need to happen. Faith is
that power. Be happy helpers, she told
them. ‘Become the message.’ She also told the missionaries that they have
a huge impact on those they teach. ‘We
don’t know when, but you will make a difference.’ One
thing that impressed me about both the Kearons and the Andersens is that they
stayed to shake hands with whomever wanted to shake hands—some 800 people
perhaps? Then as they were leaving they
even posed for some pictures with whomever wanted one. This meant a lot to our YSA’s, especially as
they were sitting on the stand and Elder Andersen turned and personally thanked
them for their music as he shook hands with them. People were lined up in the aisles for nearly
an hour after the fireside to shake Elder Andersen’s hand.
The second event that I accompanied some YSA’s for a musical
was on Saturday at Anya Johansen’s baptism.
The Halls came in on Thursday with two of their members—Lena ? who was
baptized a year ago and was going to the temple on Friday, and Anya who was
going to be baptized on Saturday. It was
a great week-end for Bornholm. It just
so happened to coincide with Elder Andersen’s visit, so a lot of the
missionaries who had worked with Anya and Lena were also in town and received
permission to stay for the temple on Friday and the baptism on Saturday. The Bornholm members got front-row seats on
Friday night for the fireside. I was
able to attend the temple session with Lena and the Halls. The Halls did the work for Lena’s parents, so
after the session they were able to seal them together and then seal Lena to
her parents. It was truly a special
experience and there was no shortage of tears.
There were at least 6 missionaries who also attended the temple. It is a great likelihood that Lena will not
get back to the temple again as she is 71 years old and in poor health. Also, members on Bornholm rarely come to
Copenhagen because of the distance and the cost, so it was good that they did
all the temple work on this trip.
The musical number for the baptism went very well. We practiced for an hour before the baptism,
and had to have an elder step in at the last minute and sing tenor for a YSA
who overslept. The elder has had vocal
training, so luckily he picked up his part quickly. This time there were only 8 members in the
choir—two on each part, so we needed the elder.
We did the same number as we did at stake conference,
but it was rusty for everyone as we hadn’t practiced it since April. I spent Friday night after the Elder Andersen
fireside putting together music for everyone, as I had the only original copy—I
guess everyone else threw away their music.
I had to ‘white out’ the old words and write in the Danish words, and
make copies. I would rather have spent the
time practicing the music. The baptism
itself was an incredible experience. The
support was overwhelming—lots of missionaries.
Anya couldn’t believe that people who did not know her would come to her
baptism. We didn’t have institute this
past Thursday because it was a holiday—Ascension Day. Instead, the YSA’s held an activity at the
stake center with games and activities and we grilled hamburgers for
dinner. It was especially for Anya. It was so good for her to meet the other YSA’s
in the stake. She felt like she had
family. That is why so many of them
attended her baptism. She bore her
testimony at the conclusion of the baptism—very powerful and insightful. She talked about an experience she had had on
Tuesday prior to her baptism. She went for
a walk in the woods and found herself in the thickness of the forest. It was dark and gloomy. As she looked around her she saw one spot
among the trees—a path that showed a glimpse of light. As she took that path, the light filled her
and she felt lifted. She said it was a
real metaphor for the way the gospel has lighted her path in life. She was in darkness, but there was a glimmer
of light before her and it brightened as she learned about the gospel. It brought hope, and purpose, and happiness.
Well, I went a bit long this time—and still have more to
share, but it will wait for another time.
Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day. It sounds like you will have some cooler
weather
today (80?), but it may be rainy. What
is the weather like in Iowa? Good luck
with the last few days of school. Good luck to Derrick as he officially starts
his internship.
Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
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