Chapel in Frederiksberg Palace
The Royal Yacht
Dad riding his bike from language class.
Beautiful wood-sculpted pulpit and model of a ship captained by a famous naval hero (who is buried in the church) in the Holmens Kirke in Copenhagen. It is the naval church and the place where the current Queen was married. (Moses is holding up the pulpit and the 12 apostles are featured.)
Fountain at Amalienborg Castle
Kaere
Familie Sunday,
September 2, 2017
It has only been 4 days since
we wrote our last letters and therefore a little hard to think there is much to
say. I have to admit, that my thoughts
are on Houston most of the time. It
seems a good part of the world is also directed there as well. I am amazed at how many people here know
about the floods in Houston and not just at a superficial level. My language teacher asked me about it on
Tuesday morning and ward members brought it up both weeks. I suppose that the news networks have covered
it here (why is the Danish news talking about Texas?!) but there is also
Facebook and most members have a link to someone in the states, so they are
informed. Personally, I would like to be
out helping with the cleanup and it is hard to not be involved. Ariane just
shared a video link from the Texas South Mission that shows the hard work the
missionaries are involved in. It said
they were working with a smile. We also
saw a documentary called something like the “Texas Miracle” that talked about
God throwing Texas a spit ball and they hit it out of the park. People helping people to the point of
exhaustion I guess. Truly a miracle at how everyone is pitching in to help
their unknown neighbors. Bishop Ross of
the Ponderosa Ward has delivered 22 babies in two days and at the same time has
been directing relief efforts in his ward.
We hope you can share some personal stories with us of your efforts this
week in the aftermath of Harvey. We are
proud of the way you have pitched in and have responded in help in lots of ways.
Stephanie and Ali were here
for the first part of this week (Monday and Tuesday) so we had some more
sightseeing around FHE and our language class on Tuesday. We have seen some things that we would never
have seen on our own. For instance, we
went to a cemetery we have driven by many times thinking it was just a
park. HC Andersen is buried there and we
walked around the whole very large cemetery until we found his monument. They also went to our Aquarium without us and
enjoyed it so that is something we will add to our bucket list when it is cold
and dark outside again.
Tuesday night Ali was kind
enough to help us with our Family Search.
We should have taken a picture.
She parked herself between our desks and swiveled from one of us to the
other without missing a key stroke of what we needed to do next. It was truly amazing! I was able to find 2
names that need their full temple work done, in not very much time. I sent the baptisms and confirmations to Drew
to do in the temple as soon as he can. I
hope they can clean up the flood damage quickly so the temple can reopen. Thinking about that, many temple workers
probably had their homes flood so they may not be available to work their
shifts. It will be interesting to see
how this ends up affecting the temple, churches, schools, businesses,
government, etc. Texas has a large
“rainy day fund” thanks to our conservative legislators and it may be drained
with the cost of the cleanup.
Thursday was the kickoff for our next semester
of Institute. We will be doing Religion
121 and 122, the normal BofM lessons. We
were not supposed to teach this first week as Maja Borup-Andersen was going to
teach the introduction to the whole class. We read through the material in any
case so that we were prepared to maybe step in and it was almost
necessary. She arrived late after the
class had started because of traffic issues.
We had 27 for the lesson, a few less for dinner. It is hard to understand how it fluctuates so
much from week to week. Last week was
41. Maybe last week was the end of
summer and this week some school classes are back in session so some of the YSA
have more conflicts? The rest of the universities start this week.
We had 2 possible English speakers tonight,
but one, Josh Hannah's friend from Scotland, will not be a regular
attender. The other is Omar from
Switzerland. He has just moved here to attend school. We will start preparing
lessons for next week and hope we will have more students to teach. Miranda and Jen, the American volley-ball
players, are possibilities but they likely have work or practices on Thursday
nights. If Omar is the only one
attending that needs English I would rather have someone translate for him so
he can get the benefit of interaction with the larger class.
Friday morning, Brother Andersen asked me to
open the Center so an electrician could do some work from 7:00 - 10:00. There wasn't any reason for both of us to be
there, especially with our language class, so I decided to ride my bike over while
Mom went to class. This was my first
major bike ride to anyplace and it was in the morning rush hour. I took some back roads to avoid the busy
traffic lanes and it was uneventful and the electrical work of moving the modem,
router and firewall up in the ceiling of the office went fine, but it did take
the full 3 hours allotted to it. I studied, practiced pronunciation a bit on a
little speech for class and watched the guy work. The ride to the Center in the morning took about
10 minutes and then it was maybe 15 to go from there to the Danish class. I had my satchel slung over my shoulder with
my books and it kept slipping down to my side and bumping my leg. So, if I am to do this more often with books
and things, I will need a back pack to make it safer. I got to class just after the morning
break. Mom said I hadn't missed too
much, i.e. they watched a TV documentary on over-weight kids and they were
answering some questions in pairs about it.
I had another good day at the temple. I did a session and was able to take one of
the new family names, then I was the leader of Initiatory where we did 5 of Mom's
family names that were ready for that, and then we led the 7:30 session. It was in English as we had more visitors
than Danish speakers. The last few
weeks, they have put us as the session leaders for the 7:30 session. I am not quite sure why they do that every
week but one reason may be that some of the locals want to go home before that
session so the only workers left are the temple missionaries. It makes sense then that they would give them
a break and have us lead a session.
Saturday evening, President O’Bryant asked me
to do a baptism interview in his place. He is attending a stake conference in
Iceland. That was interesting. Other than 8-year-olds as a bishop, I don’t
think I have ever conducted a baptismal interview. I served as a District Leader and Zone Leader
on my mission in France, but baptisms were so few that I cannot readily
remember interviewing anyone. The sister
spoke great English so that was not a problem and we had an enjoyable
discussion about her life and the changes she has made leading up to her desire
to join the church. She is certainly
hungering for the opportunity to put her past behind her. I was uneasy about some Word of Wisdom
issues. She had smoked a cigarette on Friday and had some coffee Saturday morning. Her understanding of the commandment seemed a
little lax. After discussing this with
the President by phone, he decided that we should delay the baptism 2-3 weeks
and allow her to show her commitment to the Lord and herself that she really
has turned away from these vices. It was
also interesting, that she drinks an alcohol-free beer and green and white teas. In discussing this, the president said that
we could not hold converts to a higher standard than the local priesthood
leaders hold their members. It is quite
common for some of them to drink beer with 1-2% alcohol content as that is
considered "alcohol free" here in Denmark and a few of the bishops
tell their members that is ok. (This sister’s is supposedly 0% alcohol so she
is doing well?) He also said however, that she should give up her green and
white tea because he believes we need to draw a line with coffee and tea. Maybe the beer issue is similar to Kava with
the Tongan members?? It would be better
if they give it up but it is not something that is pushed. Elder Oaks has suggested to mission
presidents that converts do not need to be perfect when they are baptized and
that they will do better with the Holy Ghost than without it. It is true that as we build faith and
experience with the blessings of the Lord, our obedience to commandments
becomes easier and stricter. It is nice
to have the Spirit as a guide in these cases.
Well, I am a little less verbose this
week. We have zone conference on Tuesday
and will resume our apartment inspections.
We also have our Golden Days conference on the 15-17th, so
there are things to be excited about!
The next 2 Mondays, we will spend preparing decorations for the Golden
Days dances.
Have a great week. We look forward to hearing about it.
Love, Dad
Kære familie, 3
september 2017
It was with mixed feelings that I dropped Stephanie and Ali
off at the airport to go home. We had
such a good time with them and saw a lot of things we had not seen before. But it was time to get back to our missionary
routine in earnest and time for them to return to their busy schedules in Salt
Lake and caring for my mom. I hope it
was a break for them, but the worry and concern never goes away.
On Monday, I got a Facebook message from one of the YSA
asking me if I could play a song for the YSA girls chorus that was going to
sing for a baptism on Saturday. I said
yes, but never opened the message to see what song was attached. I thought it would be one we had already
learned, but I was wrong. It was new
music and all I had was the link.
Because I didn’t check earlier, I couldn’t print off a copy once I got
to the YSA center. So
when we practiced after FHE, I used my I-Pad for music and had Dad scroll up as
needed. They mostly wanted me to practice
parts anyway. The music was “You Raise
Me Up”—not my favorite for a church service, but I guess it was a personal
favorite of the girl being baptized. It
was a SATB arrangement, but because it was an all-girls choir, the bass and
tenor just sang one octave higher.
Luckily my part wasn’t hard—but I still needed to practice. Finding time to do so was the hard part. I also made copies of the music and put them
in folders for the singers.
As you know, I am not the best Facebook user, and only check
it a couple of times a week. I do get
notifications of messages sent through Facebook—but again, I’m not the best at
checking those. However, Thursday proved
to be a fortuitous day for checking messenger.
I actually went on Facebook to send two messages myself—one to a YSA
whom we have not seen for a few months, and one to Mary Petrakovitz. I sent an invitation to Elena Holm to come to
Institute, and I messaged Mary about her home.
I had seen pictures of Mary’s house on Facebook. Her damage was caused by sewer back-up. It was while I was composing my message to
Mary that I had the great idea to offer her our house to stay in while they get
theirs cleaned up. Kara told me that
Mary was concerned about the piano I had given her, and I wanted to reassure
her that the piano was not important.
What was important was her family.
After a few message exchanges, she said she would take me up on the
offer.
While I was writing my messages, I also happened to check a
message that I had received from Gismo Borup, one of our YSA. She had asked me to make some lemon fromage
for refreshments for the baptism on Saturday.
What if I hadn’t looked? What’s
wrong with a phone call? This was no
easy task because it meant another trip to the store to get the ingredients for
the recipe I found on the internet. I
also had to figure out how to use husblas—gelatin sheets. But other than get the shopping done, I
couldn’t think about it that day because I had a full day of cooking for our
institute dinner. I did the lemon
fromage when I came home from the temple on Friday night after 10 p.m. Between Danish classes and the temple, our
Fridays are very full.
Finally, quite uncharacteristically, I checked on some older
messages—one whose name I didn’t recognize.
I would never do that, but this time I did. It was a message from an American girl who
had been visiting Denmark and found my credit card at the airport. She found it the same Friday I picked up Ali
and Stephanie and looked me up on Facebook to contact me. She left her phone number, but now it had
been two weeks and I hadn’t called. I
called the number but only got a voicemail.
So, I ‘messengered’ her and got an immediate response. She was back in the States (California) but
had left my credit card with the airport authorities when she left
Denmark. I thanked her for her honesty
and felt very fortunate that nothing worse happened. I have since found out that the airport turns
all their lost and found things to the police department within 24-48 hours, so
I will check with the police tomorrow morning.
No one has used the card, so I am grateful it was safe. I remember trying to pay parking with two
different credit cards—neither of which worked.
I finally paid by coin. I must
have dropped the card while I was trying to put it back in my wallet. Anyway—I may never have known what happened
if this honest tourist hadn’t messengered me.
It is my American credit card which I don’t often use because we have a
Danish card. Who knows when I would have
discovered it missing. Obviously, I
hadn’t missed it in the two week it had been gone. I don’t know whether you call these silly
coincidences of checking Facebook
tender mercies or what, but I believe someone was watching out for me. I would have been so embarrassed to show up
at the baptism without my lemon fromage…..
Gismo would have said, “What? You
didn’t get my message?” I need to learn to think like a millennial instead of like
a grandma!
We had a lot of YSA come to institute last week, so this
week I prepared for the same number. I
made honey lime chicken enchiladas—42 of them, and hoped it would be
enough. It was, because we only had
20-22 people eat. There was plenty of
food—enough that those who came late could have something to eat after
institute. I didn’t take any home. I also made Rice Krispie Treats, an easy
dessert for me, but not a favorite with all the YSA. Still, most of the cookies got eaten as well
and I was lucky enough to take four of them home for our lunch on Friday.
The baptism on Saturday was in Slagelse—an hour west of
Copenhagen. It started at 11:00, but we
left early so I could practice with the choir at 10. The young woman being baptized was a
YSA—Monique—25-ish. She was introduced
to the church three years ago while she was working in Shanghai. She just went to church one day. A newly returned missionary met her and
befriended her. She has been with her throughout
her journey towards baptism. Monique
returned home to Denmark and has been taught off and on by the missionaries in
Slagelse. Many of the missionaries who
taught her in the past were surprised that she was ready for baptism—her
interest in the church followed a ‘peak and valley’ evolution. But something seemed to click during
Festinord and she knew she needed to be baptized. Festinord is where she met many of the YSA in
our stake. I was pleased that so many of
them made the journey to attend the baptism—there were about 15 of them
there. There was a young man who flew in
from England to
attend the baptism—he also met Monique at Festinord. There were several ward members as well, so
it was a good group who supported her.
There was just one glitch—the missionary she asked to baptize her was
not there. He had served in the area nearly
a year ago. Now he is serving on Svendborg,
on the southern end of Fyn. The train he
caught to get to Slagelse didn’t stop in Slagelse after all, but went all the
way to Copenhagen. Another missionary
was with him, who had also taught her during the last few transfers. So, both missionaries had to get off and turn
around and catch another train back to Slagelse. This put us over an hour behind
schedule. We decided to eat refreshments
first, but there was still a lot of time spent visiting and waiting. Finally, the missionaries arrived and we
could get started. There were two
pre-recorded talks during the service—one from her friend in China and one from
a former missionary who went home in July.
Both talks were very good, very personable, and in English. (Lucky for us.)
After the baptism, we ran an errand for the sister
missionaries who needed a new iron. I
also did some shopping for dinner on Monday as the YSA leadership decided—while
we were waiting for the baptism to start—to have dinner for FHE. We will start early and have a ‘work’ night
to make decorations for Golden Days. By the time we got home, it was late in
the afternoon. An hour or so later, we
were on our way to meet the Amager missionaries so Dad could interview their
investigator for baptism. I visited with
the two sister missionaries while Dad was in the interview.
Our meeting schedule changed today and we now have the
12:30-3:30 church block. We had a lot
more people show up for our 11:30 choir practice than ever came for the 9:00
one. The choir sang for the prelude
music as today was Fast Sunday. I did
not have to play the organ today, but I enjoyed being in Primary. We didn’t get home until after 4:00, but it
had warmed up a little from this morning (59˚ F), so we went for a
walk. We tried to do some church visits
that are nearby, like we did last Sunday, but two of the churches we tried to
see were locked, and the other two have been turned into schools—so no churches
today. I really enjoyed the churches we
visited last Sunday. On Monday, we went
to see some other famous churches—one that has a Carl Bloch painting as an
altarpiece (Sankt Jakobs), the Grundvigs Church,
and the Marble Church. We also saw the
changing of the guards at Amalienborg Castle and visited the museum there,
which we hadn’t seen before. It was another fun, but tiring week.
Enjoy your true LABOR day tomorrow—for those in
Houston. Hopefully Lindsey will catch a
family picnic or do something fun. I
know the next weeks will be full of service opportunities, but slowly life will
get back to normal. I think we are most
fulfilled when we serve, so enjoy the work you are doing to the extent that you
forget your own burdens and feel your spirits lift in the joy of service. The service also helps you remember to be
grateful. I feel so blessed as I look
at all the homes and property which have been destroyed. I read
an article about the miracle in Houston (and surrounding areas). Miracle? you say—when there has been so much
destruction. But it is a miracle with so
much rain, so much flooding, so much high water, that there weren’t more deaths
during this crisis. There were 1800
deaths from Katrina—the count for Harvey is less than 50. Any life lost is a tragedy, but it also shows
that Houston was prepared for this crisis, even though it was worse than
expected. The miracle is in the people who
helped each other—neighbor helping neighbor.
It didn’t matter your age, your gender, your ethnic background, your
race, your sexual orientation—none of that mattered. It was humankind helping each other. It is not waiting to be asked or assigned,
but stepping up and volunteering. The
people in Houston are amazing—and you are part of that.
Hope you all have a good week.
Med kærlighed,
Mom
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