June 4, 2017: One year in; Outdoor museum, Frilandsmuseet in Lynby

We made a tour of an outdoor museum on Saturday with the Jensens and Johnsons.  It was a very nice weather day and it was nice to be outside. Yesterday was shirt-sleeve weather and today is rainy and back to a jacket.  

The museum had old Danish homes and farms moved from all over the country to this spot.  It was like Nauvoo, except without the people in each of the houses.  It was simply a walk around and look type of a day.  Old house can get boring in a hurry for me!  

3 Pictures from Frilandsmuseet in Lynby, just outside Copenhagen.  

Notice the flowers, thatched roof and the interesting poles that have some sort of vine climbing up them. They seem to be some sort of berry.  

Not a very good picture—but shows our group (and Dad) at our service project last Monday.

Outdoor museum

Outdoor museum.  I guess I like windmills because these are the only pictures I took.

Kære Familie, 4 June 2017

I have had a wonderful feeling today.  There is something truly unifying as we join our prayers and our fast together for ‘baby boy’—a special child of God.  I am grateful for our families’ continued support of each other.  I feel it and I hope you all do, too.  I taught the YSA Sunday School lesson today on The Plan of Salvation.  I began by giving everyone a couple of puzzle pieces and asked if they knew the picture they represented.  Our life is sometimes like those puzzle pieces—we are given only a few at a time—not enough to see the big picture.  And so we walk by faith until we come to a perfect knowledge of our trials, our tests, our purpose in life.  Fortunately, we have a glimpse of the big picture—at least we have the edge pieces in place through our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.  We know we are children of God and existed before we came to this earth.  And we know that after we die, we will be resurrected and can live with God again if we keep the commandments.  I am so grateful that we have scriptures and revelations to help us fill in the puzzle.  It is enough that through our faith we know that God has a perfect knowledge of the plan, and that can give us hope for the missing puzzle pieces.  So, as we fast and pray for baby boy, I put my trust in God and hope.  

I also prepared a lesson on hope this week for institute—but we didn’t teach it because we only had one student come.  
The lesson was actually on Faith, Hope, and Charity—three legs on a stool.  Each one supporting the other.  Brother Andersen spent most of his lesson (the Danish lesson) on Faith.  He shared his feelings after his daughter died a few years ago.  She was a young mother—married with two children.  She learned she had cancer at the beginning of the week and was dead before the end of the week.  There were priesthood blessings as well as prayers in her behalf.  They blessed her to get well—but she didn’t.  It happened so fast.  Brother Andersen agonized over it, trying to understand why he had felt impressed to bless her to get better.  He said the support and strength he felt from others helped buoy him up, but he could never have survived without faith.    During one of his sleepless nights as he was praying for understanding, wondering why this happened to his daughter, he heard the words, “She is my daughter, too.”  That brought him to his knees, grateful for the reminder.  He had a glimpse into the big picture, but more than that, he felt assurance.  His faith had been given a nudge, and although many pieces were still missing, he could go on in the faith that God loves his daughter even more than he can, and have hope in the resurrection and eternal life.  

I don’t think we talk enough about hope. President Uchtdorf said, “Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. Its absence—when this desire of our heart is delayed—can make “the heart sick.”  Hope is the antithesis of despair.  Somehow, we have to hold on to hope even when things seem hopeless.  We must always have a hope in Christ and we need to have a hope for eternal life.   “Hope is . . . the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance.”  Hope sustains us when our faith is weak and faith builds our hope when we are discouraged.  Charity is the manifestation of faith and hope in our interactions with our fellowmen.   Faith and hope lead us to do good and to have a pure love for all.

I spent last week-end doing The Banner.  I tried to do a few pages earlier in the week when I had ½ hour here and ½ hour there, but the end of the week was hectic and I didn’t have time for it.   I was also waiting for the mission president and his wife’s messages which didn’t come until Sunday morning.  I worked late both Saturday and Sunday night.   This time I didn’t have my usual printing frustrations.  I decided to print it from a PDF file and it worked the first time.  My next issue will be much more extensive.  We have 20 missionaries going home—that means the newsletter will be over 20 pages.  I think I am getting faster, though, so hopefully it won’t be too hectic.  I guess it just depends on what else is going on at the time.  

We had a Stake YSA committee meeting last Sunday.  Most of the committees were represented, but a few were not.  I see the frustration of the committee chairmen when people don’t attend the meeting.  It means more work for them, because they need to relay assignments as well as the discussion from the meeting.  I agree that a meeting has to be good before it becomes a useful meeting.  But no meeting can be ‘good’ if people don’t show up.  The committees that are floundering are the ones who don’t meet regularly.  A group that meets ‘as needed’ will almost never find a reason to meet.  The YSA leadership encouraged the groups to meet at least bi-weekly, if not weekly, just to touch base with each other.  If the group can’t find a convenient location, they encouraged them to skype the meeting.  Our committees that are functioning well are the activities/fireside committee and the FHE committee—they are also the ones who are meeting more regularly.  The food committee seems to be doing better, but maybe that is because the chairman is doing all the work.  Being a member of a food committee, or a music committee may seem to lack importance and require little effort.  It would be easy to think your talents aren’t needed or that your service on the committee is a waste of time.  But taken as a whole (another big picture, if you will), your efforts combine with someone else’s efforts and great things happen that benefit everyone.  For example, we have a missionary committee that is on the cusp of making things happen.  They talk about ideas, but they aren’t implemented, so month after month they report on the plans they have, but we never see the fruition.  The same thing happens in our temple committee.  We have met with the chairman, counseled together on good ideas, but then nothing happens.  When we came a year ago, there were two temple dates every month—endowments on one Friday night a month, and baptisms on a Saturday morning.  Now we don’t have anything planned.  I know our YSA organization is no different from anywhere in the church—we have our struggles just like anyplace else.   But my testimony of each one serving and doing his duty well is strengthened when I see the fruits of those who do.  

I made dinner for the other two senior couples on Wednesday night.  Brother Jenson knows a little bit about Family History and offered to help us.  They have time on their hands and keep asking us when they can come over to do Family History.  So that is why we had a dinner.  Dad couldn’t believe I was willingly volunteering to do more cooking and didn’t want to give up our free time after such a busy week last week.  But sometimes, we do things to help another....  It turned out to be a good thing for Brother Jenson.  I think he enjoyed feeling useful.  He showed us how to use Ancestral Quest and we downloaded all our known family trees into that system.  Ancestral Quest allows you to see your living relatives as well, which is a nice feature.   But other than get the information switched to a new program, we didn’t actually do any family history work.  We will save that for another time….and maybe another dinner.  I made meatloaf and scalloped potatoes.  I got several packages of Jello from Sister Buxton when she left, so I also made strawberry Jello.  It was a nice change.  They all stayed around and chatted for a little while after dinner, and by then it was too late to get started with anything else.  It would be nice to get some help with research.  That is the part that scares me.  

We have been studying about happiness in our language class—why Danes are the happiest people in the world. In order to improve our Danish, we read texts about somebody’s life, or some study, or some magazine article.  We have discussions in the class.  The whole point of the discussion is to get us talking Danish—the topic doesn’t matter.  But sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a hidden agenda.  Still, I find it interesting to learn about Denmark and its society.  The most interesting part is to hear about what the other class members think.  Many come to Denmark for the opportunities—high wages and good life.  But despite the opportunities, jobs are not plentiful, especially not good jobs, and especially not if you don’t speak Danish.  The cost of living is very high, but by living in a welfare state, you also receive many benefits.  In fairness to our Danish book, which didn’t just toot the horn for their welfare system, there was also a text about a young man who found Christianity which brought him happiness.  Several members of the class commented to us that we now were reading something that we could relate to.  A couple of the class members are very vocal and pushed back on me a little for choosing the following as the top three things that bring me happiness:  God (my faith), my family, and caring for others.  They were okay with the last two, but didn’t understand my first choice.  I also explained that I don’t think where a person lives and what possessions they have (or how much partying they do) contributes to happiness.  It might bring temporary pleasure but not happiness.  Happiness comes from within.  Social programs don’t bring happiness.   I do believe that there are many people here who are genuinely happy, but not because of what the government gives them.  I see happiness in the face of a new convert when they learn about Christ.  It changes their countenance.  There are people in Russia, in China, in India, in Africa, in South America, in Polynesia who are happy.  The secret to happiness is in making a choice to be happy.  God’s plan for us is one of happiness.  When we follow His plan, we can be happy.   We can at least find peace and lasting joy.  The people in Moroni’s time—in the middle of wars—were a happy people.  Nephi’s people lived after the manner of happiness, despite having to flee from the Lamanites and building a new place to live.  I think it is there for each of us, if we choose.

Kærlig hilsen, Mom 

Kære Familie Sunday, June 4, 2017

This has been an interesting week!  Do I start all my letters that way?  It is because most weeks are interesting and when you look back on a week or a month, rather than the day to day, I find that I love our mission.  It is challenging but fun, sometimes stressful but comes with a great sense of accomplishment and helping, it is sometimes mundane in that we can be perceived as spending a lot of time with food preparation but we also have some great relationships with young adults.  They love us and we love them.  It is neat to be involved with their lives and maybe we play a role in strengthening them, being good examples, demonstrating what a good marriage can be, etc.  This is not what we pictured a mission to be like, but I am very happy we are young and healthy enough to feel like this is perfect for us at this season of our lives.  In comparison, I would hate to be in the office 5 days a week or in the temple day after day.  Perhaps on our next mission, those will be good experiences, but this is a good fit for us now!

Most weeks bring some surprises and this one was no different.   Late Sunday night, Sisters Quinton and Dietch called and needed some help in the morning to get to the train station for transfers.  We have not had that request before and weren’t sure if we are supposed to help, but why not?  We left at 6:20 am to go to their apartment in Søborg and pick up 3 suitcases and 2 carry-ons. We were a little early as they had to ride their bikes to the station so we had time to come home and study for 20 minutes before meeting them at the central station and dropping off their bags.  Seemed like a little too much baggage for one missionary.  She must be accumulating clothes beyond the norm!  

I then had a run around the lakes and we finished our study and had breakfast.  We then discovered the water was off in our whole apartment building and would be for the day.  We had forgotten about the notice that we received a while back.  We had a 2:00 pm interview with President O'Bryant and had to spit bathe with what water trickled out of the faucet.  The interview went well.  He asked us to take on an additional office assignment and publish a Sunday evening bulletin each time there is a baptism with a picture and writeup of the baptism. This is something he has done but is happy to shift something more to us.   We are happy to help in any way we can.  

We left at 5:15 pm for our FHE to pick up Maria and drive to the Østergaard home 45 minutes away in the Roskilde area.  They have a home with several acres that was a nursery (green house) 20 years ago.  We had 26 YSA show up to help clean up the yard.  We had dinner first and a good dessert following the work.  In total, we had about 60 man hours of hard, sweaty work as we physically picked up a chicken coop and moved it 50 yards to a new spot and untangled 150 feet of fencing from briars and moved it to a new location.  We then attacked a heap of rubbish that contained metal pipes, plastics, cement chunks and lumber.  We separated these into new piles in different locations.  He is going to put in gravel parking where the dump pile was.  It was good service to go along with our theme for the month. I think it was great for our YSA to be involved in something so useful and hard to do. It was an interesting experience to see our YSA in a different setting.  Mom and I of course were the hardest workers!  (Not bad at least for being the oldest.)  Maria is a non-member who needed a ride.  She has come out a couple of times recently and is living with 2 of our active YW.  I think this has quickened her interest in the church.  I believe her mother and a younger brother are members, but I don’t know her whole story.  We talked about the church and institute and the missionaries a bit, but I feel badly that we had a 90-minute opportunity that perhaps was not maximized to the fullest.  

We did not get home until about 11:00 and then I had to clean out faucet filters and do a language assignment before I could sleep.  I had to take a cold shower because I was so dirty and we did not have hot water in the shower for some reason even though the other faucets were working with hot water.  

In the temple, I am much more comfortable with Danish at the veil now and am ready to try to memorize it and maybe tackle part of the Initiatory in Danish and the New Name.  That will give me some incentive to stretch myself a bit further.  I was an endowment session patron today, then Initiatory and then I lead the last session.  They have come out with a new temple schedule and the 6:30 session is moved back to 7:30 so we get out of the temple an hour later, closer to 10:00.  That gives us about 8 hours on our shift. The last session had 1 man and 4 sisters on it and the witness couple were temple missionaries. We were going to cancel the last session and then the 3 sisters showed up.  I don't know how the delayed timing will affect people coming to the temple, but attendance has been down this week compared with last. It may be that the new translation of the films has already worked its way through the normal temple attenders.  

Church was very good today.  The general tone of Fast & Testimony meeting was on missionary work.  The bishopric counselor said he had a significant gospel discussion this week with a colleague over lunch at work.  A sister said she is changing jobs and invited 18 women to her house as a good-bye luncheon.  After 2 hours, she brought out gifts and told the ladies she wanted to give each of them something that was very precious to her and gave each of them a copy of The Book of Mormon.  They then discussed what it was.  One lady asked her for her favorite scripture and she shared a couple.  Others thumbed the book and found scriptures that they also liked which they read to the group.  It was a nice affair and went better than she had hoped.  She later gave books to the 4 ladies who could not come, 2 people in accounting and the receptionist who she was friendly with.  I was very impressed with her courage, attitude and success with sharing her beliefs.  Elder Andersen promised the saints that there are more that are interested and will accept the gospel if we do our part.  This is a great example of someone who is extending herself.  

We also had a Senior missionary share his testimony (in English).  He is an area church history missionary based in Frankfurt.  Their task is to locate and film church history records all over Europe. He said that Denmark is the oldest and first non-English speaking nation with history records.  It turns out, that the basement in our church building has been an archive for old records and they have spent the last 2 weeks sorting, identifying and filming them.  History records are now supposed to be kept in their home country instead of being sent to SLC, but efforts are being made to preserve them and then make them available to the church at large.  It was very interesting, though not quite a testimony, but he did encourage us all to be part of church history by writing in our journals and preserving them for our posterity.  He said some of the records from which we will be judged, will be those that we have made ourselves.  

I forgot I was asked last week to say one of the prayers on the sacrament this week, hence I was sitting comfortably in a pew.  I was grabbed just before the meeting started to fulfill my assignment.  I confessed I had not reviewed the prayers and I could have said it in English, but that would not have been right.  He helped me pronounce a couple of words and I repeated it a couple of times under my breath before the meeting started.  I think I did fine, though I am sure my pronunciation was far from perfect.  The bishop did not correct me so I passed that test.  On a higher plane, it was very nice to officiate at the sacrament table.  It has been a long time since I have done that.   

This and the experience in the temple on Friday, have been sort of a "crossing of the bridge" for me in terms of the language.  I realize suddenly that Danish is a little bit easier.  I still understand less than 10% of conversations, but I can read better with some understanding, and I pick up more words, and I am not terrified by temple ordinances, sacrament prayers, reading a scripture in Danish, etc.  An example of the former, the two people who have translated for me in priesthood meeting were not there today so I just listened and tried to pick it up.  I do not know what the topic was.  I could identify words and sometimes sentences, but not enough to put it together to know what they were talking about.  I know it was a talk by Elder Larry Lawrence, but I do not think it was the one, "Is it I?"  That is a bit disheartening, but I choose to be optimistic that progress is being made.  It is like I can suddenly see a light at the end of a very long tunnel.  Still a long way to go, but there is some illumination in the darkness.  Thank you for the prayers and fasting in our behalf.  They are starting to have some effect.  

Love, Dad.