Birthday party for Lea Meilsoe. Mom next to Shantay Carr.
Canal boat ride
Planetarium and our lake on a beautiful morning
Kære Familie, 23
July 2017
Tomorrow is Pioneer Day.
In Denmark, just like in Houston, the members don’t think much of
it. When I got to choir practice, the
director hadn’t picked the song that we would perform today. I suggested a pioneer song in honor of
Pioneer Day. They only have two songs
listed in their hymnal for pioneers: “Kom, kom, Guds Folk,” and “Firm as the
Mountains Around Us.” “We sang “Come, Come Ye Saints.” It actually sounded pretty good for putting
it together at the last minute. If you haven’t watched this video on LDS.org Special
Witness, I would recommend it. I
love Pioneer stories even though I don’t have pioneer ancestors. You all have them though, through Dad’s
line. But there are many kinds of
pioneers in the church—modern and ancient.
We honor all of them. Denmark,
too, has its pioneers.
Our YSA are singing at Festinord which requires
practices. We have yet to get the whole
group together, but we sang for ‘Bedstemor’s’ funeral last week with 6 of them,
so we had a good ‘dress rehearsal’ for Festinord. We practiced Monday night after FHE,
Thursday after institute and tonight after the fireside. We have previously been singing the songs in
Danish, but for Festinord we need to sing in English. So, we had to copy new music for the hymn we
are singing and had to write new words in for the “Homeward Bound” song. It made for a late night on Monday after
FHE. I enjoy working with this group and
it has definitely brought us closer together.
It also pushes me to practice.
Our fireside tonight was all about “How to get the most out
of Festinord.” Brother and Sister Borup
were our speakers and because they live close to Roskilde, we moved the
fireside to there. I thought we might
have a low turnout, but we actually did better than last month. We had over 30 YSA attend. A couple of the girls made dinner so I only
had to make dessert. We have a large
group of YSA attending the Roskilde Ward.
Some of them come faithfully to the center for all activities, but a lot
of them do not. By having the fireside
closer to home, we were able to include these YSA. We had a lot of the Copenhagen crowd attend as
well. They managed to find rides—I don’t
think riding the bus was feasible as it would take 1 ½ hours each way and
require some walking and transfers. That
is why I didn’t think we would have a good turn-out. We gave a ride to two
YSA’s who wouldn’t have come otherwise. It
made me think that we should bring some of the activities to other areas in our
stake, to include those who do not live close enough to attend the center each
week.
We had Zone Conference on Tuesday this week. We didn’t have a large meal after the
conference, so that made things easier on my end—no food preparation. Instead, they mission just ordered Dominos
pizzas and we had fruit—not much of a lunch, but the missionaries didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t even set up tables—just serving
tables, and we stood around and ate our pizza.
We always take a break about 11:15 during the conference at which time
we all get a huge homemade cookie from Sister O’Bryant—so I guess that was our
dessert this time. She always makes
snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies.
You have to choose as she only makes one per missionary. Then we go outside and take a Zone
picture. Besides training and messages
from President and Sister O’Bryant, we were taught by the Assistants to the
President, the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders. I think this is valuable leadership training
for the missionaries who are teaching.
President O’Bryant shared some things from the New Mission Presidents’
training given this summer. All mission
presidents are encouraged to view the broadcast. He shared a new initiative the church has
conducted recently. Pages from the Book
of Mormon are printed and one page is handed out randomly to people on the
street. They are asked to circle or
underline all references to God or Christ on that page. The people are then interviewed to get their
reactions. Most of the people are
surprised to find that the Book of Mormon contains so many references to
God and Christ. People just assume that
it is a book about ‘Mormon.’ Some want
to learn more. The president handed out
a page to each of us and had us do the same exercise. It was interesting and might be a good
exercise sometime for the older grandchildren.
The Book of Mormon truly is ‘Another Testament of Christ.”
The president also talked a lot about missionary
companionships and I felt it also applied to couples and family
relationships. He talked about Peter and
how Christ always saw his potential.
Peter didn’t start out as a stalwart defender of faith, but he became
that and much more. Like Peter, we all
start out a little rough around the edges, but through diligence we can become
the person God knows we can become. We
need to see our companions (our spouses, our family members) as Christ saw
Peter—someone with great potential. We
should focus on strengths, not weaknesses.
We all have both. The president
said that every missionary companionship ought to be a divine brotherhood or
sisterhood, where harmony and unity prevail.
Every companionship ought to be a three-some, with the Holy Ghost being
the third partner. I think this is good
counsel for all relationships.
One more thought from Zone Conference: “If the only tool you
have in your box is a hammer, then you will see all problems as nails.” We must have more than one tool in our
toolbox to meet the various challenges in our day. “Obedience is obeying the rules and using the
tools.”
When we visited Fredensborg Castle a few weeks ago, we
received a flyer about free musical concerts that were happening in July. They are all held on Wednesday, so we
organized an outing with the other senior couples (Jensons and Johnsons) to
attend the one last week. The musicians
were an organist and flautist. The
concert was held in the chapel connected to the castle. The organist played the big pipe organ which
was located in the balcony of the church, as well as an electric organ that had
been brought in to the main floor. I
have never attended a concert that just included those two instruments. It was fabulous. Music is the universal language. Everyone enjoyed the music regardless of what
language they speak. It was an hour of
pure bliss.
The Halls will be using our apartment while we are
gone. They have family in town (they are
on Bornholm right now) and want to come to Copenhagen for a few days to see the
sights. So, in addition to getting ready
to leave for Festinord, we need to have our apartment ready for the Halls. Mostly that means cleaning and washing sheets
and towels. It will be nice to get on the road tomorrow
and enjoy the journey. We will meet the
new couple who arrived last week. We are
all traveling together in the mission van—the Blockers, the Yates and us. That saves us from taking two cars—and saves
on gas, bridge costs, but mostly it will be more fun to be together (and have
more drivers).
I am including a link to the video we watched for FHE. I remember this talk from conference, but the
video really makes the meaning come alive.
We want to make sure all of our grandchildren hear the music, not just
know how to dance.
Hope you all have a great week. Much love,
Mom
Kære Familie Sunday,
July 23, 2017
Our Sunday school
lesson today (#26) includes a story about Levi Hancock baptized in Nov
1830. His name is mentioned a lot in
church history and I am never sure, how we are related to him. So today I took some time to do some
searching in Family Tree and Memories.
What a wonderful tool this is to have at our finger tips. Most of my reading was done in the chapel as
I listened to our choir practice before our meetings started. Levi is the younger brother by 10 years of
our direct ancestor, Solomon Hancock.
They are the direct descendants by 3-4 generations of John Hancock, the
signer of the Declaration of Independence and President of the Continental
Congress in 1775 -1776. Both Solomon and
Levi were faithful stalwarts of the church and were supporters of Joseph Smith
all their lives. They followed the
church from Kirkland to Far West, then to Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. They had at least 2 homes burned down by persecutors. Solomon died at Winter Quarters in the hard
winter of 1847. His widow (our step
mother so to speak, a 2nd marriage), went on to Utah with the
children. Levi made it to Utah and was a
founder of Payson. He served as one of
the Presidents of the Seventy until his death.
You have probably read the story of Joseph Smith and the $5 gold piece. It is a story about Solomon and his wife
Phoebe, our ancestors. I have included a
little from the histories of these relatives as an addendum to my letter,
including this $5 story, which has always touched me when I read it. It is a symbol of sacrifice and following the
spirit. Good FHE material!
Mom plays for the ward choir
every Sunday as they practice at 9:00 am.
The choir size varies but this month it has been smaller than
normal. Steady members are 2 elders and
2 sister missionaries, and 2 ward members.
Last Sunday they sang with 3 men and 1 woman. Today looks like 4 men and 3 sisters. They sing the rest song most weeks. 1 of the men is an investigator dressed in Levi’s,
polo shirt and tennis shoes. This is the
2nd week he has been in church. The
sisters are teaching him and it is great that he wanted to sing in the choir
with them.
This has been a pleasant week
in Denmark with very mild temperatures.
Sometimes a sweater still feels nice.
Monday was a beautiful morning in Denmark. I had a good run and enjoyed
seeing our swan family in the water but staying very close to the shore. Mom and dad were very watchful over the 5,
not so little ones anymore. They are
starting to turn from gray to white. I
also had to take a picture of a beautiful sunrise over the Planetarium. [See picture]
We received a request to have
FHE at our house and had 16 YSA come over. That was about the max that our
upstairs room will hold. We filled the space.
There were fewer when we started with the message so it was better to
view our computer screen. Emilie gave a
lesson about learning to dance by listening to the music. It featured Navajo dances and a medicine
man. The gospel is like the music, we
can learn dance steps but it is not until we hear and feel the music in our
hearts that the steps become graceful and beautiful.
For the activity, we played 2
different games. The first was interesting because the language barrier was so
evident. It was the charade game in 3
rounds with the same names of people: describing the person; using a 1-word
clue; and acting it out. We started out
divided into 2 random teams and of course the youth were speaking in Danish,
leaving 4 of us in the dark on the clues and some of the names. That would leave us at a disadvantage for the
2nd round and we couldn't participate in the guessing. We changed and put the English speakers on 1
team, but that didn't help with the first issue on the clues that the other
team was guessing. There was also a
generation gap for at least me as I did not recognize several of the names that
they used.
The 2nd game was one I have
not played before. We sat in a circle
very close so that each person could put a hand on the knee of the person to
their right and left. It was a tapping
game with the hands tapping the knees one at a time in order. Two taps reversed the direction and sent it
the other way. If you tap out of turn,
then that hand is taken out of the circle.
If you lose both hands you are out but your knees remain in the game as
the person next to you may still be using them.
It proved to be really fun. The
gamed ended when only two people were left with a hand.
We invited the YSA’s to stay
around to visit and have refreshments as long as they wanted. The last ones left about 11:15 and that was a
little longer than we expected. The last
few weeks they have broken up closer to 9:30 - 10:00. The Halls arrived to spend the night for zone
conference and I spent from around 9:00 talking to him. Monday was practicing and preparing music with
the girls for their Festinord song and that kept her busy during that whole
time.
We asked why they had changed
the location to our apartment and they said that they feel like FHE should be
in a home environment. They were tired
of the Center and its sort of impersonal atmosphere. We hope they enjoyed this experience. For us, it was fun to have them in our
home.
For Thursday’s Institute, dinner
was hamburgers and baked beans with all the sides. We had 19 come to institute, including 4
visitors. We think we fed around 15 plus
maybe the stragglers who cleaned up the leftovers. Mom had 25 hamburgers and they were eaten
plus 5 hotdogs; they are healthy eaters!
The lesson went ok – we were
supposed to cover 2 lessons this week to fit them all into the summer schedule.
We got a call on Wednesday to teach the Danish class as well as our English
class. It is hard when we suddenly teach the whole class and don't know what
their assignments were for the week or what they covered in the previous
lessons. We also had 3-4 new faces who
were getting the self-reliance courses for the first time. I started out and spent maybe a little too
much time in review and reporting back.
We were rushed for the rest of the lesson - hard to teach 2 lessons in
one week anyway and still cover the whole material when all the points seem
important. We did not get to the 2nd
lesson at all but did cover both foundation points of Living a Balanced Life
and Solving Problems. It was
interesting that very few of them reported that they are tracking their income
and expenses but over half think they are living by a budget. There is a bit of a disconnect there but it
may be that their income is so little that most of it is eaten up by their
fixed expenses of rent, phones and transportation, leaving very little that is
discretionary. I had a sample budget to
jump start the process if they needed it, that assumed a 5,000 kr monthly income
from gov't school support and guessed at typical expenses. In a brief discussion, it was apparent that
rent is double what I had thought (starting at 3,000 per month for a cheap
apt), food and transportation is higher than I thought and that pretty much eats
up the 5000. Without working to
supplement their income or getting help from home, they are living very meager
lives. We don't always see that as some
will walk into the Center with fast foods, but they are likely the ones that
are working full time and are out of school.
Most of them have very little money for entertainment or dating. The last ones left after 10:30 tonight as
about 6 of them stayed to play a game. We
started a Skolmoski family council conference call about then and didn’t leave
the Center until after midnight.
At the temple, I did
Initiatory, a session and then led the 3rd session. In Initiatory, I was paired with Elder McBride
and after listening to his Danish for an hour I decided to try sealing the
washings and anointings in Danish. I
assume the Danes understand his American accent so I tried to mimic him, though
I am sure those from Copenhagen would pronounce some words differently than he
did. It went quite well considering I
was reading from the card. I also did
the new name booth in Danish for 7 men.
I need to work on that a little bit more to get it smooth and figure out
how the Danes would pause in certain places. There are always a couple of words
I stumble over and need to hear a Dane say.
Our last session started a bit late and we did not get out until 9:30. We
were supposed to let Lea and friend into Tivoli for a concert but we did not connect
with her until after she had gone ahead in because we were so late.
We had zone
conference on Tuesday. As always, the
president and his wife did an excellent job of training. I love to listen to them. They have spent quite a bit of time listening
to podcasts of the recent new mission presidents’ seminar and they shared some
of what they picked up from the Apostles as they taught. Here are just a few highlights.
· The
people here struggle to have faith and they do not understand their need for
repentance. Until that feeling changes
they will not be ready to receive the gospel.
There needs to be a spiritual awakening in each one. D&C 11:9. Say nothing but repentance unto
this people.
· It is
not what we do that exalts us but what we become. We need to be careful about
being so busy, even in good things, that we stop growing and becoming. Those who do not, will be in the Terrestrial
Kingdom as they are not valiant in their testimony.
· 40’ish
investigators are on date to be baptized now.
In November 2015, there was 1 person with a baptismal date. The missionaries have been working hard and
our way of working has changed. Opening
our mouths, working with faith, carrying the spirit with us, focusing on our
purpose: teach repentance and baptize converts, have all made a difference.
· We
don't need to walk with the Savior to bear a powerful witness of Him. Our testimony born by the spirit will be
just as effective. Each of us can be
like Peter. We start out a little rough
but we can become effective, polished witnesses of the savior. Faith replaces fear. We can get beyond our fear.
· The
BofM is essential as an undiluted testimony of Jesus Christ. With Joseph
Smith's personal witness, it will bring all unto Christ. It is the tool of gathering and conversion.
It will build faith and strengthen testimonies. One cannot doubt that living
its precepts will bring you closer to Jesus Christ.
Love Dad.
__________________________________________________
Addendum:
Solomon, the son of Thomas Hancock and Amy Ward was born on 14
August 1793 at Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. In about 1805 the
family moved to New York and settled in Ontario County. In 1814 Solomon joined
the Methodist Church and became well known for his excellent singing
voice.
On 12 March 1815, he married Alta Adams and they became the
parents of ten known children. In 1820 the family resided in Wolcott, Ontario
County, New York and by 1823 had moved to Columbia, Ohio. Sometime in 1830
they settled in Chagrin, Ohio and in that same year they were introduced to the
LDS faith. Solomon was baptized in December 1830. He was shortly thereafter
ordained an elder and was appointed by revelation (D&C 52) to travel to
Jackson County, Missouri with Simeon Carter on 6 June 1831.
He returned to Chagrin late in 1831 and moved his family to
Missouri in 1832 and located temporarily in Van Buren County, Missouri after
the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County in 1833. On 23 June 1834, he was
chosen to receive the "endowment" in Kirtland and was appointed a
member of the Clay County high council on 7 July 1834. In the fall of the
same year he served a mission to the eastern states.
On 18 January 1835, his beloved wife Alta died. [see more below on this event.]
In 1836, he participated in the dedication of the Kirtland Temple
and on 28 June 1836 married Phoebe Adams. Five known children were born of this
union. The family had located in Caldwell County, Missouri by December of 1836
and records indicate that Solomon purchased property. While at Far West Solomon
was called to the high council and sang a hymn at the dedication of the Far
West temple site on 4 July 1838.
He later settled in Adams County, Illinois in the spring of 1839
and subsequently moved to Lima, Hancock County, Illinois in 1841. There he was
appointed a member of the high council on 11 June 1843 and instructed to settle
in Yelrome on 8 October 1844.
He presided over the Yelrome Branch and received his endowment at
the Nauvoo Temple on 17 January 1846. The following April he and his family
left Illinois and located in Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
He died near Winter Quarters, (Florence) Nebraska on 2 December
1847.
It was while on this second mission that his (first wife, our
grandmother) wife Alta died. To their union had been born 10
children.
News traveled very slowly in those days and it was some time
before the word reached Solomon of his wife’s death. Their home and
household goods were destroyed by mobs forcing his wife and children to flee to
the rocks and brush for shelter. Two children died and were buried in the
same grave. The wife died from exposure, leaving 4 children ranging in
age from 7 to 15 years, living alone to care for themselves and dependent upon
the kindness of friends for food and clothing.
When Solomon received word of his wife’s death, he went home to
his children, but was called back January 18, 1835 to Cold Water Michigan to
finish his mission.
Solomon seemed to be a man very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
His greatest desire was to go west, but this was never fulfilled. They
started for the west in Brigham Youngs Co. But he died on the way December 2,
1847, at the age of fifty-four, at Pottawattami near Kanesville
Iowa. With faith in God and an undaunted courage, Phoebe left winter
quarters for the west, driving her own oxen part of the way. She was in
the Allen Taylor Co. They arrived in Salt Lake City in September of 1849.
They moved from there to Payson in 1851. Her mission completed she was called
home at the age of 86 on the 4th of February 1897.
Poem written by Solomon
Once I was a Methodist, Glory Hallelujah.
Then, I thought that it was best.
Glory Hallelujah
But when I read my Bible right.
Glory Hallelujah
I found myself a Mormonite,
Glory Hallelujah.
This is the $5
gold piece story that was published in the Ensign.
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