Egeskov Castle
Egeskov Slot
Kære Familie, 7 May 2017
Tomorrow we will say good-bye to the Buxtons—they go home early on Tuesday morning. They have been our ‘companions,’ ‘trainers,’ and friends for the past 11 months. We will miss them. The whole mission will miss them. When you are the office couple (and the warm, kind-hearted people like the Buxtons), you are loved by all. Everyone gets to know you. If I had a question or needed something, I would always ask Elder Buxton. He is kind, loving, very patient, and level-headed. He is good at putting things in perspective. Today we attended an open house for them that a member of their branch hosted in his home after church. The Buxtons have been members of the Amager Branch the whole time they have been here. It was obvious that the members of the branch loved them. They made a difference wherever they went. Elder Buxton served in the Branch Presidency for nearly a year of their mission. He quickly got to know all the members—all 50 or 60 of them. He speaks Danish so he could conduct meetings and give talks in Danish. His wife is also well-loved. She played the organ or piano as needed and became good friends with everyone. There is one deacon in the branch. Each week he gets to pick someone to help him pass the sacrament—he always chooses Elder Buxton. He told them that they couldn’t leave. “Don’t you know you aren’t supposed to do this to kids?” he said. The branch president and the member who hosted the open house both gave glowing tributes to the Buxtons before we ate the luncheon that had been prepared. There were many members of the branch in attendance to say good-bye.
The new office couple, the Johnsons, are getting settled in, but I think it will take some time to adjust—to the country and to the office responsibilities. I remember feeling like I didn’t know my way around and knew nothing about shopping, etc. But we had the Brookes and the Buxtons to help. Now we must be the helpers. Soon, we will be the ‘oldest’ senior missionary couple in the mission (along with the Forslands and the Yates who came out with us). On Friday afternoon, I took Sister Johnson on a walking tour of the shops close to our apartment. We went into various stores and I showed her where things were and she did some grocery shopping. She kept ‘doing the math’ on each item and saying that it was too expensive. I remember feeling that way myself, but I told her that the price for lettuce was good for Denmark even though it was $1.75 a head. I reminded her that a 25% tax was included in the price and it is just something we have to accept. Normally I am at the temple on Friday afternoons, but the temple is on ‘shut down,’ so I had the time to show her around. I will try to be more help, but our hours are not the same during the week—they work days and we work nights. The Johnson’s are from Gilbert, AZ and are freezing in our Denmark weather, although we are starting to get some warmer spring temperatures. This is their second mission. Four years ago, they served in the Cebu Temple in The Philippines.
Elder Buxton wanted to have one last ‘movie night,’ so, because we had a free Friday evening, we got together for pizza and a movie—‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’ We were going to meet at Buxtons although I had offered my place because of their packing, and at the last minute, they took us up on it. Their apartment is more conducive to showing a movie, but we learned that we can do just fine in our upstairs loft. The loft is long and narrow and there is only one blank wall to project the movie, which necessitates that we watch the short way. Dad says it is like the front row at the movie theater, but maybe it is like being on the second row. We had to move all the furniture around and remove George Washington from the wall, but it worked. Afterwards, we somehow became the new owners of the projector, and by default, the new movie night hosts.
The movie night was just the first of the ‘last hurrahs’ for the Buxtons. They had planned a visit to Egeskov Castle for their last week end. We borrowed the new mission van and the 4 couples from Sjælland drove to the island of Fyn, (about a 2-hour drive) where we met two couples from Jylland at the castle. Everyone wants to say ‘good-bye’ to the Buxtons. The castle is one of the top tourist spots in Denmark and is more of a park with exhibits, food places, as well as the castle. The castle is very picturesque and we saw a bride getting her wedding pictures taken with the castle as a back drop. The castle was built in the 16th century in the middle of lake for protection —on a foundation of oak pilings. Many different families have lived here, but at the end of the 18th century it was sold to Henrik Bille and his descendants have owned it ever since. There are rooms on the ground floor which are used as the residence of the current owner. The other rooms have been restored and are opened to the public about 6 months of the year. On the top floor of the castle there was an exhibit in one room called Titania’s Palace—a huge dollhouse that took 15 years to build. It is decorated with more than 3000 tiny works of art and miniatures from all over the world. It is on loan from the Lego Corporation.
Besides the castle, there are old farm buildings which have been turned into museums. There was a classic car museum, old motorcycles and bicycles museum, as well as old emergency vehicles. There was a tree-top walk which all but one couple braved, and an area where you could walk on stilts, ride soap box cars, and have a tug of war. It was called ‘Great-grandfather’s playground.’ There was also a maze, several large playgrounds, and a Segway course. We ate lunch at a café and there were other fast food areas as well. We managed to spend the whole day here. It was a beautiful day, but still cool. It was fun to be with the other couples. I also enjoyed the beautiful spring flowers.
I listened to a great BYU-I Devotional talk, "Stand United in Tribute to a Living Prophet." Brother Ryan Gardner told the story of Paul and the shipwreck to illustrate what happens when you don’t heed the words of a prophet, or other church leaders. As I watch these missionaries whom we have come to know and love get ready to go home, I wonder what will happen in their futures. Will they remain strong in the gospel? True to the Faith? Will they keep their testimonies bright and active? While they are on their mission, they know what the spirit feels like. They have spiritual experiences and see miracles nearly every day. They spend 100% of their time serving the Lord which draws them closer to Him. But what happens when they go home and they don’t spend 100% of their time serving the Lord. They can’t and it is unreasonable to expect it. But they need to always keep in remembrance those feelings, those thoughts, those miracles they witnessed. And remember what they did to get those feelings. That’s why ‘remembering’ is so important. We need to remember how we felt when we first fell in love with our spouse; we need to remember what it felt like to hold that newborn baby for the first time. And when we do, we will want to try harder to find happiness and harmony in our marriage, to fill our homes with love for each other, and to treat our families with kindness, patience, and understanding. Remember…
I hope you all have a wonderful week. And I wish a Happy Mothers’ Day to all the wonderful mothers in our family. I told Drew today that he had wonderful parents—but I could have said that to each one of you. We couldn’t ask for better parents for our grandchildren. We appreciate all of you. Hang in there through the ups and downs of parenting. I can say now that it was worth every sacrifice, every sorrow, every pain because my joy has exceeded all of it. Just like Alma, I can say that ‘nothing can be more exquisite and sweet’ as the joy I feel for my family. Thank you for your support for us and our mission and for my mom. Love to all of you—
Kærlig hilsen, Mom
Kære Familie Sunday, May 7, 2017
Sunrise is now at 5:14 am and sunset at 9:00 pm. Temperatures are ranging from 43 to 55 degrees. We obviously still have some heat on in the apartment. We are still wearing coats and they feel nice most of the time, but not our heavy winter coats, gloves and hats. We get a lot of sunshine and it looks warmer than it sometimes is. So, there is the weather report. It is so nice to get more light but it seems strange now when we are at FHE or Institute and it is not dark. The YSA tend to hang around a little longer when it is light outside and it is definitely easier to stay up late as there are fewer hours of darkness between dinner and bedtime. It doesn’t feel like it is time to go to bed.
I got my 2016 tax refund this week, which was wonderful news. I am still waiting on the 2015 refund but the tax advocate did call and said to expect it to hit my bank account on May 8th, so I should know the next day or two. After many months of promises and failed deadlines, this is nice – more than nice. The tax advocates’ office seems to work, so if you ever have tax problems, see how fast you can get into that program.
May 6th marks an anniversary for us. We go home in 12 months! These 11 months have gone by so fast, it seems unbelievable. From now on we are counting down. I keep thinking that if our mission had only been for 18 months, then we would have 7 months left. I think we are both glad that our call was for 23 as there is still a lot of work still to do and we love these young adults. We will be able to leave after 23 months knowing that we did all that was expected of us and hopefully we can show some results.
I think mom and I have slowed down just a step or two (but more on that when I describe our tree climbing experience yesterday). It was nice to have a slow day last Monday after our busy travel weekend. We slept in just a bit and I had time to run around the lakes and we cleaned house, like most Mondays. We had not written our family letter as you know, so much of the rest of the day was spent doing that and reading your letters and emails (we always devour those) on TOFW.
We went to the Center at about 4:30. We actually finished up our letters at the Center just before FHE started at 7:00. The zone leaders gave a thought to kick off our monthly theme of service. They showed the video LIFT, which was a good way to set the mood I think. The activity around service was giving the center a good Spring Cleaning. I was impressed at how they jumped in and mostly worked until it was done at around 8:30. We had 25 YSA there plus the 2 missionaries helping. It was a deep cleaning except for the kitchen as Lea and a couple of her friends were making cookies for refreshments. That was poor planning as the kitchen needed a good wash down as well and there is no way to mix baking with cleaning at the same time. I admit that I had a bit of the “deer in the headlights” look and feeling about me as all of this took place. Picture 29 people cleaning a space about the size of our family room. I think some surfaces got wiped down more than 1 time as there was not any organization that I could detect, just bees buzzing or ants migrating (I am sure they do have organization.) One wall is a huge book case and they pulled everything out, dusted and washed and then organized it as it all went back again. The 2 missionaries were outside on a step ladder washing some very tall windows. YSA washed the inside of the windows. My left brain wanted to divide the tasks into teams, slow it down and have check lists for them to complete. I was out of my element! Mom was much better in this situation and she helped make it all happen. Needless to say, the Center has never looked so good since we got here. However, mom made the observation on Thursday night, that we could have had them clean the inside of the light fixtures which were showing some dust. And there is still the kitchen.
For our Danish class on Tuesday we did something fun again. We had an outing to the National Museum with another class which is at our same level. This is a museum that we had not seen yet and it is on our ‘bucket list’. I suppose it is the largest museum in Copenhagen – likely the whole country. We met at 10:00 and stayed around 3 hours. I think most of the class took off by noon but we wanted our money’s worth (admission was free for education purposes). The museum is very well put together and it covers a little of everything from the dinosaurs to the Rune Stones, to Vikings, to half a floor on most of the exotic countries of the world, to Danish history. After 3 hours though, I think anyone is tired of exhibits. My feet and back hurt. We spent most of the time with several students from our class and it is interesting to compare notes and talk to them a bit on a social basis. Of course, they are all your age or younger so they may think it is weird to hang out with us. Benedict from France and Marina from Spain, especially seem to like us (mom) however and we have interesting discussions with them all the time. They were not in our group at the museum however so we got to know some of the others. Our homework writing assignment was to describe our favorite exhibit that we saw.
We had a dinner Tuesday at the mission president’s home to say farewell to the Buxtons and welcome the Johnson’s. All the senior couples were there so we were 13 (Elder Bryner is a widower and is on a 2 yr local service mission). These are choice meetings and the president does so well with them. He and his wife are so positive and complimentary to the work that each of the couples has done. They are gracious and generous in their praise and get specific on some accomplishments. They also are very welcoming to the new couple. We will miss the Buxtons. They have been great friends and have helped us to feel comfortable here. It has been fun and great to have an apartment underneath them so we can talk and see each other often. We also hope we have been a help to them as we have taken over the Newsletter, the Christmas program and now the senior conference. The Buxtons and Johnsons shared their feelings and testimonies and then each of us said something about the Buxtons or our missions, though I am not sure the President wanted it to go on that long. It is one of those times where you don’t necessarily want it to end. The President and his wife ended with a few thoughts on the opportunities we have to build up and be role models to the young missionaries. That is always a theme he has as he knows that many of them do not come from “normal” stable homes and he appreciates the positive influence we can have on them. We love being around them.
So, I said I would talk more about our tree climbing experience at Egeskov Slot. Mom is giving the background story on our outing Saturday. Our group of 12 moves at a much slower pace than we would ourselves but we get the benefit of lots of interesting discussions. I always wanted to raise an umbrella in the air like a tour guide and say, “We are moving!” The grounds included numerous different gardens, ponds, little brooks, etc., all nicely put together. It also has a treetop walk between about 5 trees, quite high off the ground, maybe 3 - 4 stories. The walkway was a suspension bridge just wide enough for one person. We all did that except for the Forslunds. Sister Buxton happily joined us even though her husband said she wouldn’t climb that high and the Johnsons just seemed to come along, though I don't think they enjoyed it. We are the youngest and healthiest of this group and it shows. The Yates did not come down because of a baptism and they are 2-3 years younger than us and quite fit. Larsens are just a little bit older and they ride bikes several times a week and are still energetic. The other couples are in their late 60’s early 70’s and age does catch up to a person. I am glad we are doing our first mission when we are still interested in tree climbing, scaling rocks, zip lines, etc. If we do another mission, then I am sure the experience will start to be much different.
We had only our normal trio of David, Shantay and Kennedy for our lesson. Kennedy has one more week before she goes home to Minnesota so we need to find some more English attendees as the class shrinks by one. It would be nice to have a larger class. At 2, I wonder if it would not be better to translate the Danish lesson for them and us? The lesson was on the role of the BofM in the gathering of Israel. One principle emphasized that the coming forth of the BofM was a key sign of the latter days. President Russell M. Nelson: “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.”
We concluded the lesson by having copies of the BofM in Danish, English and Romanian so they could try to give one away this week. David, from Romania and baptized in January, has not seen the book in his native language. He has been reading it in English. He was thrilled! I don’t understand why no one has thought of getting him a copy. I just picked it up from the mission office where they have a few books in many languages common here. I think he will likely keep this one for himself so he may need another. He also took a book in English to give away.
I had another interesting experience on Wednesday. I was leaving the apartment to go get the copies of the BofM for the lesson. As I was walking to the parking lot, a young couple (early to mid 20’s) passed by carrying a sofa between them. It was one of those types that fold down flat to make a day bed. I thought it looked strange and almost kept walking, but then had the thought that I needed to offer help. I acted this once. They almost turned me down but I suppose they realized they needed some help. They had bought it from someone and were carrying it to their apartment – just down the street they said. I don’t know how far they had already come. (Pickups don’t exist here and in their case I am sure they only had bikes.) So, we take off, me on one side and the two of them on the other. (I am the old man?) Just down the street turned out to be several blocks away. The sofa was heavy and we had to stop and rest every half block. They kept saying I had done enough, but by then I was committed. For the last 2 blocks, the sidewalks were too narrow to walk down since they put little tables and chairs or clothes racks outside the shops. At one point, the street was blocked and he had to ask a store owner to move a rack of clothes so we could squeeze by. Then we walked down the middle of the street as there was no place else to go. A couple of cars had to pull aside and wait for us. I felt pretty silly. Once we got to their apartment, they suggested to just leave it for now outside the door while they figured out the next step … but I was committed. Of course, they lived on the 4th floor and buildings don’t have elevators here. So, off we go hauling it up 4 flights of steps with a landing between each floor. The only way it would fit was on its end and it is hard to grip that way. We added some scrapes in the paint of the stairway. The only way it would fit through their apartment doorway was to open it up flat, still on its end and then walk it into the apartment. I finally left it there in their hallway as they had to rearrange furniture in a room where they wanted it. I was drenched in sweat and my arm muscles ached. I am an old man. They were as well however. Now the moral of the story. I had my missionary tag on and of course we talked as we carried about who they were and why I was in Denmark. It was a perfect missionary opportunity – they couldn’t run away. They made it sort of obvious that religion was not their thing and they weren’t very interested in what we were doing. But if I had a copy of the BofM or a pamphlet or pass-along card or something, I would have left them that. Maybe they would have been curious enough to open and read something. Now they only have a pleasant memory of the kind old Mormon man who helped them in a pinch. Maybe, when a missionary stops them they will listen because of that memory. It leaves me feeling a little empty though because I could have done or said more. I wonder if I can figure out how to drop something off to their apartment? (We sure passed a lot of other people who could see our need and could have offered to help. None of them did. I did my good turn daily.)
That’s all for this week. Love, Dad.
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