View from Himmelbjerg
The meeting of the seas in Grenen, Sister Hall in the water with us.
Sankt Hans Kirke, Altar piece by Karl Bloch
Fredensborg Slot
Elder Johnson, mom, Sister Johnson, Sister and Elder Jensen
The guard that stopped us from going to see a castle in Aarhus (Marselisborg)—the queen was in residence and we didn’t know it. We felt kind of foolish
Rebildfest
(Texas flag!)
Kære Familie, 9 juli 2017
It seems the momentum of our YSA responsibilities has fallen
dramatically last week. People are
out-of-town, or just find better things to do.
The FHE committee evidently thought we are taking the month of July off,
so they scrambled to come up with an activity on Monday when they learned that we
weren’t. On Thursday, I made dinner for
7 people at Institute—three of them were the adults. It was hardly worth it, but those who came
were grateful for the food. (I only planned
for about 12, so there was not a lot left over, especially because everyone
took seconds.) We still prepared a
lesson—and actually taught the lesson even though Brother Andersen, the CES
director/Danish teacher, was also ready to teach. I suppose now is when we are needed more than
ever—the consistent faces at the young adult center. If you come, you will be greeted by loving
missionaries, even if there are not many of your friends in attendance. And sometimes the youth just need to talk
with an adult, so the smaller groups may be helpful for that as well. One example of this is the time we spent
visiting with one of our young men (26 years old) after institute class on
Thursday. He wants to be married but
lacks the self-confidence to date and find someone. He went on a date last weekend with a girl
who was visiting here from Jylland. She
was here on a temple trip and decided to come to institute. He knew of
her from previous youth activities, but doesn’t really know her. He got the courage to ask her out and now
wonders what the next step should be.
She has left Copenhagen and is traveling with her family in France on
vacation. He overanalyzes everything,
i.e. ‘Did she enjoy the date?’ ‘Is she
too young?’ ‘If I call her and ask her
if I can see her again, will she think I am one of those boys who are too pushy.’
‘What if she doesn’t really like me?’ and on and on. We told him to stop analyzing everything—he
is crippling himself. It is always
better to know than to live your life never acting and just wondering ‘what
if?’ The institute director was there
giving him advice, as well as one of the YSA girls. We committed him to text her that night—we
even composed the text. And then he is
to return and report. So, we will see if
he lost his nerve or kept his commitment.
Our institute lesson was on ‘Becoming Unified in our
Approach to Finances,’ with a heavy slant towards married couples. At first, I thought about trying to adjust
the lesson to focus more on finances for a single person, but then I realized
that we hope they all get married and now is the time to learn these principles
and practices. So, we went full steam
ahead. The first principle we taught was
work.
As you all know this is a favorite topic of your father—which is why all
of you had jobs while you were in high school (or earlier). This can be a hard topic in Denmark, as where
most people believe you should work, they also believe if you can’t work (or
don’t think you can work), you have a safety net in the government (i.e. The
tax-payers), to provide you with a living.
One young man said he home teaches a man who thinks he can only work 16
hours a week. So that is all he does and
he still gets enough money to support his family. His home teachers believe he can do more but
doesn’t know how he can convince him of that.
The man probably has not read the following quote by President Kimball: “The
responsibility for each person’s social, emotional, spiritual, physical, or
economic well-being rests first upon himself, second upon his family, and third
upon the Church if he is a faithful member thereof. No true Latter-day Saint,
while physically or emotionally able, will voluntarily shift the burden of his
own or his family’s well-being to someone else. So long as he can, under the
inspiration of the Lord and with his own labors, he will supply himself and his
family with the spiritual and temporal necessities of life.” Or this one from President Uchtdorf which
talks about the value of work itself: “The Lord doesn’t expect us to work
harder than we are able. He doesn’t (nor should we) compare our efforts to
those of others. Our Heavenly Father only asks that we do the best we can.
. . . Work is an antidote for anxiety, an ointment for sorrow, and a
doorway to possibility. . . . When our wagon gets stuck in the mud,
God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who
merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration.”
The second principle we taught was work together to manage money.
I think this is critical to the success of a marriage. I know it has made a difference in our
marriage. That doesn’t mean we agreed on
everything, but we counseled together so we could have a unified approach. The lesson pointed out that many couples with
financial problems believe that the solution is increasing their income. However,
‘a divided approach to managing money can be far more damaging to a
relationship than low income or lack of financial resources.’ This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to improve
your circumstances, but it does mean that managing your financial resources
wisely and being unified in your approach will do more to build good
relationships. The lesson also talked
about the importance of family councils.
I love that the principles of the gospel include practical,
everyday things. To the Lord, all things
are spiritual. So much of our spiritual
progression depends on our temporal lives.
It may be the trials we experience that humble us; it may be how we deal
with too little (or too much) money; it may be sickness or health. All these things play a role in how receptive
we are to spiritual things; how much we are dependent upon the Savior; whether
we are prideful and independent or humble and meek; whether our testimony grows
or stagnates; whether we serve the Lord or fail to do our part; whether we are
grateful for blessings or blame God for our troubles. I love the gospel. I love studying and learning all things about
the gospel. I realize that I will never
know everything—there is always more and more to learn.
Our missionary friends, the Halls, planned a trip to Aarhus
to visit some acquaintances from Elder Hall’s mission, as well as to attend
Rebildfest. When we heard of their
plans, we decided to join them. I had
heard of Rebildfest—the largest July 4th celebration outside of the
U.S., and had wanted to go, but we visited Jylland in April
so really didn’t think we would make it back over there. However, the stars all lined up—no
responsibilities on
July 4-5—so we joined them. They went
over on Monday, but we didn’t want to skip FHE, so we left early Tuesday
morning and drove back Thursday morning in time for Institute. We thought there would be an empty apartment for
us to use because the Larsens left and the new couple isn’t coming for two
weeks. Although we stayed in their
apartment, it didn’t quite work out as planned.
The missionaries had already moved in.
Their apartment which will become home for the Blockers (senior couple),
is undergoing a complete cleaning and painting, so they had to vacate it
immediately. However, knowing that we
were coming, they agreed to bunk upstairs with another set of elders for a few
days. We were gone pretty much both days
we were there, so they could use the apartment as needed except for
sleeping. I felt bad, but it sounds like
the Larsens and the missionaries had worked it all out before we ever left to
come. Dad and I got the bunk beds and
the Halls slept in the living room. (No
one wants bunk beds!)
Rebildfest takes place in the Rebild National Park. We visited the park in April because Dennis
Smith’s statue ‘The Family’ is located here.
The festivities had been going on all week, but the main celebration
program began at 2 p.m. Prior to the
program, there were various activities in the park. There were small groups of dancers doing a
type of square dance, accompanied by live musicians, ‘bounce houses’ and other
activities for the kids, and food for sale.
As you can see from the pictures, there was a main stage and some paid
seating. The rest of us paid as well
(about $22 each), but had to find a spot on the hill to view the
proceedings. We brought some folding
camp chairs from our apartment which made the 2 ½ hours more comfortable. The path down the hill to the stage was lined
with all the States’ flags, placed in order according to when the state joined
the union. It was so nice to see the
Texas flag. As we waited for the program
to begin, we were treated to some nostalgic American songs (Frank Sinatra
favorites) played by the Prince’s Band.
They were very good and we enjoyed the various medleys. We began the celebration by singing the
Danish anthem after they ‘hoisted’ the ‘Dannebrog’ (Danish flag). We then sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” after
they hoisted the ‘Stars and Stripes.’ I
thoroughly enjoyed the privilege! The
program featured speeches from Anders Samuelsen, the Danish Secretary of State,
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former prime minister and General Secretary of NATO,
and René
Gross Kærskov,
American/Danish entrepreneur (who was the U.S. keynote speaker). The first two speeches were in Danish with
English translation across the big screen on the stage. They were very respectful as they talked
about the close relationship they have had with America. There were some subtle references to things
where the two countries disagree (equality among people),
but for the most part it was upbeat and positive. One speaker even went through all the
presidents since Truman and made mention of one contribution each made to
better the world. He said whether they
want to or not, the world needs America to take the lead in keeping the world
safe. It was a very positive endorsement
of our role as the world police.
The most interesting speaker was Kærskov (who talked in
English). He was born and reared in
Denmark (northern Jylland) and went to America as a young man. He realized that he must get an education and
do well in school. He passed the CPA
exam in one sitting and quickly climbed the corporate ladder while pursuing the
American Dream. Today he is the director
of the world’s largest hotel design company and he is one of the founders of
the Danish watch brand, “Bering.” He
also opened The Copenhagen House in Solvang, CA and founded a wine yard. Now he is pursuing a dream to become the
first Danish citizen astronaut. He is
married and has two children. He
emphasized that we are endowed with the unalienable rights of life and
liberty. Too many people think we also
have the right to be happy. But the
right we actually have is to pursue
happiness. It is not something doled out
by God or government, but something we find within ourselves as we pursue
it. He encouraged the Danes to always
have a dream and follow their dreams.
His dream of being an astronaut has come just recently, but he is
actively pursuing it. His ideas go
contrary to the laws and values in Denmark.
There was also a message from a representative from the U.S.
Embassy in Copenhagen who read a greeting from President Trump. It was positive and upbeat. The speech that I didn’t like came from the
President of Berea College. He got too political and expressed his
disagreement with Trump over many issues.
I respect his right to disagree, but I didn’t feel the celebration was
the right venue to say it. It brought a
negative feel to what otherwise had been an upbeat celebration of
American/Danish relations.
I learned a
little bit more about Danish Immigration to the States which happened in the
mid to late 1800’s. The greatest reason
most Danes immigrated was economic problems.
The Danish population had increased rapidly during the 19th
century which meant there were not enough jobs, so unemployment was
rampant. Families were large, but only
one child could take over the family farm.
That meant more and more children who grew up in rural areas had little
hope of owning a farm. Most of the
Danish immigrants were young sons of farmers, who left to escape from slipping
into the landless class of people.
America offered the hope to acquire a farm, marry and start a family in
a land of economic opportunity. The
Mormon Danes came for religious reasons as well.
So, there is your
history lesson. We then left the hills
of Rebild and drove to the beaches of Skagen.
The Halls had not been there to see the point where the two seas
meet. This time it was not so cold,
although I was still comfortable in my coat.
We took off our shoes, rolled up our pants and waded out on the sand bar
so that we could feel the crashing and the pull of the waves on either side of
us. Cheap thrills. It was a full day as we didn’t get back to
Aarhus until 12:30 a.m.—not good missionary hours.
I had to make
last-minute changes to the Banner on
Sunday night, but then sent it off to the Mission office. So that is a wrap until the next
transfers. On slow weeks like these, I
am grateful we have the temple as part of our ‘duties.’ I always feel like we are needed—it is a good
place to serve. I’m sure the week will
fill up—they usually do.
Have a great
week—enjoy the break from the usual routine.
Thanks for all your letters and blog/Facebook pictures. We love them!
Kærlig hilsen,
Mom
Kære Familie Sunday,
July 9, 2017
I did something new this week
in making an early morning run to the airport to drop off the Larsens from
Aarhus. This is something that the office couple usually does. We had it all
arranged however that I would drive them to the airport in the mission van with
their luggage as they were staying in our spare room and it didn’t seem to make
sense to wake everyone so early. After
they had gone to bed however, Elder Johnson called and said he really wanted to
go with me, so he joined the party at 3:15 am as we left for the airport. (With
hindsight, I should have just let him go and stayed in bed.) That was too early
as we got to the airport by 3:35 (there was not any traffic that early in the
morning) and it does not open until 4:00.
It took us until 4:50 to get them checked in as they had problems with
the Kiosk to get boarding passes and then they had to go to another counter to
pay overweight and extra bag fees of about $300. They had 2 bags overweight and had to
personally pay those fees. The church pays for 1 extra bag a person. I was home and back to bed shortly after 5:00
and slept until 7:30.
The turnout at FHE was
surprisingly low. We started with 6 and
3 guests but eventually had 9 of our YSA. The guests were friends from
Scotland. They had to leave about 8:00 to go to the airport. Emma and Hannah did some dance instruction on
what I think is a traditional Danish square dance modeled on the period of
Louis 15th of France. The Danish Kings loved to act the same as the
French (and copied their architecture and gardens). It was a little weird as a dance but it was
also fun to learn as a group. Nicolai
would not participate and left early.
Because of the low turnout, everyone left by 9:00 and we were able to
get home earlier than usual. That was
good as it gave Mom a chance to finish up the Banner and we packed for our mini
sightseeing breakaway to Aarhus with Elder and Sister Hall (mom is writing
about the trip).
From our trip, I have an
observation about what it takes to be a good missionary. Elder Hall speaks pretty good Danish but he
also has one of those personalities that likes to talk to everyone he
meets. On both days, he struck up
conversations with people we crossed paths with that turned into some sort of
discussion about our purpose as missionaries.
I was impressed with his fearlessness, natural ease and happy
personality. It is very normal for him
to talk to people he runs across. His conversations start about walking a dog,
the scenery, the weather, whatever. I
envy his ease at doing this – though it does help a lot to be able to speak the
language. I can see how and why they met
Anja in the grocery store and eventually helped her get baptized. He is just very up front with people. His wife is not that way at all, but she is
right at his side and once the conversation has started she will take people
under her wing.
We
drove back to Copenhagen Thursday morning from Aarhus leaving at 9:30 so we
could shop, prepare food and finish our lesson for Institute. We stopped in Odense to see the Karl Bloch
altar piece painting of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane in the Sankt
Hans Kirke. As we were getting close,
the road we wanted to take according to the GPS was closed with construction.
As we tried to go around it, the GPS kept wanting us to go back to the original
route, and it looked like parking was hard to find. Hence, we finally parked the car and thought
we would walk. It was about 1.6 km, 15
minutes away. As we started walking, the
GPS did not update the distance so it never got shorter and we passed many
parking places on the roads. It was
frustrating and I started to have a bad feeling about all of it and we were
both concerned whether we would be able to find the car again, even though I
had noted the street we were on and a cross street, just in case we needed
them. We seemed to be going out of our
way, or at least very circuitous, but we finally found the church after 25
minutes of walking. The picture was
large and very beautiful and the church was nice, though not as elaborate as
many other churches we have seen. Its main feature was certainly the Karl Bloch
painting. We only stayed about 10 minutes and then figured we better get back
to home as time was starting to seem very tight to get everything done. Rather than retrace our steps, which we were
not totally confident we could do, I had the GPS take us just to the street the
car was on. It went a totally different
direction which turned out to be much more direct and it took us only about 15
minutes to get to the car. I think the
difference was that the first time we were on a car route and the 2nd time I
made sure we were on a walking route. Electronics
are not always my friend!
The
turnout at Institute was a big disappointment.
We only had 4 come to the class and none of them were our English
speakers. We prepared food for at least
15 so there was a lot left over. Jens
was there to teach his Danish class and we had Morten, Amelia, Nicolai and
Jonas Larsen. As we finished dinner and
were clearing the tables, Jens asked us to teach the lesson, not sure why that
made any sense, but we are afraid to speak our mind to him when he makes a
request like that. After all, aren’t we supposed to be minutemen? This is the
2nd time he has done this to us. The class was very strange. Only Morten was there last week and the
lessons build on each other from week to week since it is a finance
course. Both Nicolai and Jonas are
handicapped in different ways. Nicolai
laid on the sofa and played with his cell phone the whole time except when I
called on him to read - he loves to read in English. Jonas is mentally slow and seems spaced out
most of the time so it is difficult to involve him in the lessons. So, we were really only teaching 2 students
and I wasn’t sure how to include some review from last week so they had some
context. Awkward! At any rate, we tried to have a good discussion
with them.
It
was great that Jonas came. We have not
seen him at FHE or Institute for a couple of months or more. I hope he felt our love and that we missed
him. He was baptized Dec 14th and I am
not aware that he has been to the temple yet or what his priesthood status
is. I will need to find out.
Sunday
church was uneventful except that they did not think about translation until
after the sacrament when Elder Weese pulled out the equipment. We did not go and get any headsets at that point
so we wouldn’t interrupt the speaker and so did not understand very much of the
meeting. I thought I would pick up more
and was disappointed in that sense. I
decided therefore that it is better to listen to translation and get something
out of the meeting rather than to hope that I may pick something up. I don't think this is the best way to
increase listening skills. Attendance
was even less than last week and was maybe 25-33% of normal. Mom played the organ and we did not have a
chorister. Sister Downs jumped up and
led the music, but it is not unusual that we just follow the organ. Only Brother Barre was there from the
Bishopric for the 2nd week in a row.
Taking July off for vacations is a serious commitment for many
members.
Sunday
School was about the same. We had 4 YSA
but 2 of them brought girl friends with them.
Our new YSA couple are friendly enough but they lack the gushing love
for the kids that the Bångs had and there have not been any refreshments since
they started. I guess that tradition is
dying with the change.
President
O'Bryant translated for me a bit in Priesthood meeting. I am starting to feel bad that someone must
do that every week as I think they miss out on some of the lesson. He said that one brother was hard to
understand so he missed his comments. That makes me feel a little bit better
about my own understanding skills.
Johnson’s
invited us to dinner with the AP’s. The
discussion over dinner was very interesting as the 2 missionaries talked about
how difficult it is to preach the gospel to the Danish people. We concluded that socialism has killed their
faith, belief in God and has convinced them that being average is the way it
should be, taking away their drive, ambition and what we would call the
American Dream. I understand better why
Rene Gross Kærskov gave the talk he did at Ribild Festen. He was pointing the way to a better way of
life of exceptionalism by living the American Dream and having goals and the
ambition to excel. The missionaries
pointed out that the people have bought into the country’s written rule that
everyone should be average because no one is better than anyone else, there are
no special talents or abilities and no one deserves to have a better life
style. The normal person on the street
is close to being atheist and doesn't care about religion. When you ask them
about the 3 important questions of life for instance, or if it would be
important for them to know that God has called a prophet today and has restored
his Gospel, they just don't care. It is
not something that they are interested in.
As
for the happiness factor in Denmark, these missionaries think it is a
farce. The Danish people never smile at
you, do not greet you first on the street, the suicide rate is very high, and a
large % of the population take anti-depressive drugs (they said it was 60-70%,
but I don’t believe it is anywhere near that high) [mom did an internet search
afterwards and Denmark is 85 per 1000 people – the USA is 110 per 1000 –
obviously we have a worse problem].
Drinking laws are at 16 but they are not respected and no one cares that
12 and older drink all the time. They
only have the law because the EU requires it.
They said pornography is much worse than I have personally seen, as it
is very open on the busses and trains, which we hardly ever use. We have seen a lot of kids smoking in front
of their schools at very young ages.
Saturday,
we planned a visit to the Fredensborg Slot as it is only open for tours in the
month of July. (We wrote about it a year
ago so I won’t say much here.) We met at 10:00 and we drove Jensens while
Johnsons followed in their car. On
arriving, we found that the first English tour was not until 13:45 so we had
some time to wander the Baroque style landscaping, which is extensive and
beautiful with trees, manicured lawns and low shrubs with statues. They do not use flowers in these layouts very
much. At 12:45 we started searching for
a place to eat rather than wait until after the tour. We found a Chinese restaurant with good food
and great prices. Lunch was only $20 a couple.
We ended up rushing the end of eating and then had to walk fast to catch
the tour which had already entered the slot. No one will walk as fast as I want
to. The tour is in 2 pieces, inside the
castle and then inside some private gardens.
Both were done very well in English.
The best thing about the castle is the beautiful stucco ceilings and
many large paintings. The castle was
finished in 1722 and has not burned down, so many of the furnishings are the
original ones. The Queen lives in this
slot 7 to 8 months of the year, so it is her favorite - maybe quiet countryside
living but only 40 minutes from the city center. She also uses 3 other slots. The tours ended
at 3:30. The weather was nice but it did rain on us a bit during the garden
tour - unfortunate timing - but Denmark rains are normally not heavy and even
those without jackets didn't seem to get too wet. We had jackets and by also standing beneath
trees we were fine.
Hope
you have a great week! Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment