Kære Familie Monday,
October 2, 2017
I just finished reading Haley’s letter with her Conference
impressions and it was so nice to see what thoughts she mentioned and what her
boys thought were the best parts. It made me think how important stories can be
(either personal or someone else’s) to help us remember, relate to and
internalize gospel teachings. I too, was
really touched by Elder Hallstrom’s story about the Clark family and the awful
fall he had and his road to recovery. It
was so personal how he brought it back to, “why am I not healed with a miracle
as well?” I am sure we have all asked ourselves that question on many
occasions. As he talked, I was picturing
my own ascent of a 14,000-ft. mountain peak with Clayton on our Colorado High
Adventure Trip. I still think it is the
hardest thing I have ever done. How
awful that exhilarating experience of making it to the top of the peak would
have been if it had ended with a terrible accident. It made me shudder. We had several boys sick with altitude sickness
who could not physically make it the last 30 yards to the top. It was straight up crawling over rocks. I felt bad for them and wanted to carry them
to the top, but it was all I could do to drag myself up those rocks. We indeed have to do hard things in
life. As we spend time with the young
adults, I am impressed over and over, with how hard it is to just to live in
today’s world. There are so many
temptations for the youth and the mists of darkness and spacious building are
all around them every day. They are no
longer off to the side but we seem to live right alongside those who are
mocking and shaming us for our standards. We are made to feel intolerant and
sinful for clinging to the Lord’s standards of righteousness.
Due to the timing, we have not listened to the Sunday afternoon
session of conference yet. I am excited
to hear Elder Callister and Elder Ellis, now having a glimpse into their
topics. On my run this morning, I
listened to President Nelson’s and Elder Rasband’s talks again. There were so many things in Pres Nelson’s
that I did not hear the first time, that I wonder if I slept through parts of
it!!! What a powerful message on the
Book of Mormon. Where would I be without
it? How would my life be different? What
would I not have without it? We are
studying the Atonement from 2 Ne 2 and 9 last week and this week in our
Institute lessons. As he shared some of
the responses that he received from audiences on these questions, I wanted to
shout out the Atonement as I ran. It
seemed to be such an obvious answer – It would be my #1 Response – and it was
not being mentioned. He eventually did
towards the end, but for me, that is perhaps the clearest message I get from
the BofM. Its teachings about why the atonement is necessary, how it works and
our clear need to be repentant, live righteously and endure to the end, are
laid out so clearly and simply. Close to
it in clarity for me, is the Plan of Salvation.
It is closely linked to the atonement, but again the BofM explains it so
beautifully and gives us a purpose for our everyday lives. How can one go through life with any meaning
at all without an understanding of the Plan of Happiness that we are a part of?
Elder Rasband talked about random acts that could be coincidences, but are God
accomplishing his work with us and through us.
He mentioned that we are like pieces on a chess board and the Lord moves
us around to be where he needs us to be at certain times and other pieces are
moved around so the whole game is accomplished.
My thoughts as I ran were on our experiences in getting to Denmark. People ask us all the time why we chose
Denmark to come to. I still ask myself
that question. In honesty, if I were
picking a place to come to, Denmark would not have been on my top 50 places to
go to. I am not sure I knew anything
about it outside of our stop here with Jared and family. But I can see how the chess pieces were moved
around, maybe starting several years ago, so that we are here now. I hope we are accomplishing the Lord’s
intentions for orchestrating this. I was
also thinking about the future. What chess
moves are coming in our lives? What and
where will they be? Are we preparing for
them? Will we recognize and accept the opportunities? Should we stay in the Westfield Ward or move
someplace else? (One of the talks (Elder Pingree I think) mentioned about a
family living where they were needed most – that made me start thinking about
this.) Can we just be temple workers, do family history, teach self-reliance
classes, maybe work in the mission office or is there still some leadership
opportunities that the Lord would like us to fulfill? Conference talks cover so many topics that
they truly help us orient ourselves to better gospel living. I am very grateful to recognize apostles and
prophets who give us divine guidance.
The
logistics of our conference watching were interesting and sometimes fun. On
Saturday at 4:30, we started watching the Women's Session at our apartment with
the YSA. We had 11 say they would come
on Facebook. Gismo and Emma arrived a
little early and they did not like the way I had the upstairs room arranged
with the Projector showing on the lake-side wall in the corner. They hung a sheet over the window blinds as a
screen and then rearranged all the furniture so the couches were in a better
position and the food table was at the back of the room. Then just before we started, they changed
their minds again as the sheet was not working all that well (ripples in the
picture). We took George Washington off
the wall and turned everything 90 degrees to the right to project on the side
wall. All the furniture needed to be moved again as well. That worked ok, but
the room is not large enough for 20 people. As we started, we had 2, plus a
girl from Germany with her mom, who were attending the temple this weekend.
These latter 2 left later to catch a 14-hr bus ride home. Mom prepared snacks for the session. The plan
was to watch the Women’s session, then the Sat am session live at 6:00, then
have dinner and then watch the Sat pm session at 10:00 to midnight. Mom made chicken fajitas for dinner. We grew
in numbers as expected and had about 18 for dinner. Some then left but we added a couple as well
and ended up with 13 who stayed until the very end. Mom ran the 2 Germans to the bus stop at
about 9:30 and she also took another YSA home at midnight. It was a very nice
night to be all together watching something as important as general conference. These youths really look forward to this as
much as we do. We did a little apartment
cleanup afterwards but left much of it until the morning, but it was still 1:00
am when we got to bed.
Yesterday,
we slept in until 9:00. I was so tired that I barely budged before then. Very
unusual for me. Our
schedule was dictated by food and conference sessions again. Mom has explained some of her food
preparation antics. We had to open the Center at 2:00 and we started the
Priesthood session at 2:30. Only 2 YSA came for that session. Christopher Lindberg came at 3:30 and
prepared dinner for the group. That was
way nice of him. I think it is the first
time he has helped with a meal. He
prepared most of it at home and brought it in a car. He even did the shopping himself. We had 10 for dinner plus us and 19 showed up
for the Sunday morning session of conference at 6:00. I was showing the session live off my
laptop. At the rest song, I think
everyone pulled out their mobile phones and it killed our WIFI. The signal is weak in the Center. We could not get it to come up again so we
used a Hotspot off one of their phones to finish it off. We missed maybe half of Bishop Waddell’s talk
as we were fiddling with it. We did not
schedule the afternoon schedule as it is too late for a school and work
night. We might see it tonight for FHE –
the committee still seems to be debating that. Otherwise, everyone will just need to see it
on their own.
Saturday
morning, we had our final apt inspection for this round at the AP's apt. It was our first visit to them and though it
was neat the caulk wear was very evident.
We showed them how to use the dishwasher and shared the rinse and rock
salt we had in the car. They had no idea
this was needed. The oven was dirty, the
sinks, faucets and shower had a lot of caulk buildup, there was rust on the
shower curtain and the bathroom was developing a lot of mold. It also needed
dusting very badly. They wanted to know
if they were as clean as the Sisters and I had to tell them they were far below
that level and that they should be setting an example for the mission. They took it good naturedly. We did
some cleanup ourselves and then asked them to follow up on their next
Pday.
The
stake has asked up to do a write up on what we do before we go home (they are
already anticipating that!) to pass on to our replacements. I am surprised that this has not been done
before but we certainly did not receive anything on our arrival. I started on it this week thinking it might
take me a few months, working a little at a time. I didn't want to save it until the last
month. I began with an outline of the
major things I wanted to include and then picked a few topics and started
filling them in. It went surprisingly
fast and was interesting to do. It felt
like I was 30% done by the time I quit Tuesday night. Wednesday our language class canceled (I was
free!) and I spent a good part of that time working on it and finished the
first draft. It will need some simmering
time and Mom will want to add her input but it outlines what we do for the YSA
and for the Mission and includes tips and resources as well as our functions.
Mom has already suggested some organization revisions that should make it
better as we have some mission responsibilities that have nothing to do with
the stake, so it will have a Part A and Part B.
Thursday,
we had another 30 Day-in temple session.
The session started at 11:00 and mom and I led the session again. They asked the Jensen's to be the witness couple
to observe us so they could lead the session next month. We had 27 elders and
11 sisters on the session, a very nice group of missionaries. It was wonderful to look in their faces
during the session and think about all the good they are doing in this
country. As this is also the My Plan
group, many of them will be going home in 6 weeks and we will miss them. It seems a little piece of us leaves with the
ones that we have gotten to know well. I
can just barely imagine the feelings that the O’Bryant’s must have for their
missionaries. It is fun to get to know the new ones arriving as well. We had the usual Domino pizza lunch at 1:30
following the session - 18 pizzas. Elder
Myers was there as one of the new missionaries.
He has been here a month. I
didn’t get a chance to talk to him but he seems to be adjusting very well and
seems to be happy.
We
did teach an Institute lesson Thursday night as we had 2 non-Danish
speakers. 1 was a new student from
Switzerland and the other a visitor from Germany, who dropped in. English was a
2nd language for them both but they did fine and we had a good discussion on 2
NE 2-5. We focused on the atonement,
fleeing from dangerous environments and living after the manner of happiness
along with the Psalm of Nephi and looking to the Savior to be our exemplar and
strength when we need divine assistance.
There are so many precious nuggets in the BofM and we are enjoying
preparing to teach even when we don’t.
Brother Andersen asked us to take on another task this week. They want us to teach another round of the
self-reliance course called My Plan for
Returned Missionaries. It is a 12-week course that should help with their
transition back to real life. They had a
young married couple teaching this Monday’s at 6:00 before FHE but they are
working in Australia for a few months so we will take their place. That will give us 2 lessons to prepare every
week. However, this should be more of a facilitated group discussion so our
approach and perhaps preparation time will be less.
Keep
up the conference stories and have a great week trying to implement your new
inspired thoughts. Love, Dad.
Kære Familie, October
1, 2017
As I drove the other senior missionaries to the stake center
this afternoon for our dinner with the missionaries, Sister Johnson said how
much she enjoyed the talks at General Conference so far. Then she added, “I can’t tell you how many
times I hoped that someone I know was listening, as that talk was just for
them.” That comment hit me square in the
face as I have been guilty of thinking the same thing. What I really should be doing is thinking how
that talk is just for me! And so I listened to the next session with
new ears—ears to hear the message for me and what I need to change. As I have reflected on the talks I have
heard (still have 1 ½ more sessions to go), I am humbled and have a desire to
be teachable. I look forward to really
digesting the messages as I listen to them again and again in the coming
weeks.
You may wonder what I meant by my opening sentence about
driving the senior missionaries. We had
two events on Sunday: the missionary
dinner at the stake center where we feed the local missionaries (those serving
in and around Copenhagen) between sessions, and our YSA dinner and conference
viewing at the YSA center. For the past
two conferences, the YSA’s met at someone’s house on Sunday at 4:30 for dinner
and then watched the Sunday morning session (beginning with Music and the
Spoken Word) at 5:30. We ate with the
missionaries and joined the YSA at 6:00 for the session at the member’s home. But this year, the YSA decided to watch the
Sunday sessions at the center, beginning at 2:30 with the Priesthood session,
dinner at 4:30, and conference at 5:30.
Those people at the stake center (mostly missionaries and their
investigators) watched the Saturday afternoon session from 2-4 p.m. and then
had dinner, followed by the Sunday morning session. I was still involved with the missionary
dinner, along with the other senior missionaries as Sister O’Bryant had planned
the meal a couple of weeks ago, well in advance. The YSA plans were made just a week or so
ago. The missionaries always have chili,
rolls, veggies, and dessert. I didn’t
have to make chili this year (the other three sisters made it), but I
volunteered to make the rolls and cut up veggies. That meant that I had to make a run to the
church shortly before 4 to deliver my food.
I had prepared my vegetables and made the roll dough at home, but I
rolled out the rolls and baked them at the center—which was nice because there
were two ovens. I baked the rolls during Priesthood meeting
and had to leave just before the rest song to make my ‘run.’ That’s when things became complicated. Elder Johnson left Denmark on Thursday to go
home for his brother’s funeral. That
meant there were no drivers among the other senior missionaries. The Jensons and Sister Johnson were dependent
upon us. When we realized the dilemma,
Sister Johnson said they could just take the bus. But I reminded her that it would be difficult
to take a bus (two transfers and a 3-block walk from the bus stop) to the stake
center carrying pots of chili and pans of brownies. I suggested that Elder Jenson drive the
Johnson’s car, but he made it clear that he had not been authorized to drive,
and the two sisters don’t want to/can’t drive.
So, I came upon a plan that meant I would drive all the missionaries to
the stake center, while Dad watched the Priesthood session with the YSA men. We both couldn’t go because (as Jared and
Stephanie knows) there is not room for 5 people in our car. So, I left the center with my hot rolls,
picked up Sister Johnson with her pot of chili and two pans of brownies, along
with a bunch of other things, and then picked up the Jensons with their pot of
chili and to pans of brownies and drove to the stake center. We arrived at 4:05, but not before we got a
frantic call from Sister O’Bryant wondering where we were. She had told us we would eat at 4:30, but the
missionaries were ‘chomping at the bit’ and ready to eat right after
conference. It took a minute to unload
the food and get it out on the table, but we blessed it and everyone enjoyed
the meal. I slipped out after my first
pan of rolls disappeared
and returned to the center to join the YSA for a chicken curry and rice meal,
which one of our YSA young men prepared. I had planned to return to the stake center
after 8 p.m. and retrieve the senior missionaries, but the O’Bryants said they
would do the chauffeuring.
We hosted the YSA for conference on Saturday. We began at 4 p.m. with the women’s
conference, followed by the Saturday morning session, a fajita dinner and
cherry cheese cake for dessert, and then the Saturday afternoon session which
went from 10 p.m. to midnight. It was a
very late night. I tried to have
everything ready for dinner before-hand, but I missed the last talk on Saturday
morning session so that I could cook the chicken and make the Mexican
rice. It was a hectic ½ hour, but I knew
that the YSA would be hungry. I had also
prepared snacks for them—crackers, cheese, fruit, veggies—to tie them over
until dinner. We watched conference
upstairs and had only 5 girls for the women’s conference, but got up to 18
people by the time we ate. A few went
home after dinner, but we still had 15 for the last session. It was a long afternoon/evening, but our YSA
had a great time together.
I think it has been a rough week in the mission office—and I
don’t know the half of it. What I do
know is that we had to move out of one of the apartments by the end of the
month—less than a week away. We had very
little notice of this and could legally have stayed 3 more months—the amount of
time a tenant can stay after being notified that they need to move out. But the president didn’t want to initiate a
legal battle, so he said to make it happen.
We have been hearing for at least 3 months, that the apartment in Søborg
was closing—the owner was going to sell the apartment. The plan back then was to move the sisters
into an apartment presently occupied by elders and get the elders a new
apartment—I guess it fit better with putting the missionaries in the areas
where they actually served. But it
wasn’t that apartment they were closing.
This new plan was to move the sisters from the Lyngby apartment
temporarily into the Søborg
apartment with the other sisters. We
found all this out when we received a call on Monday morning from the Lyngby
sisters saying their stove/oven was not working. We called the office and talked with Elder
Koch who is over apartments. That is
when we learned that those sisters were moving by the end of the week, so the
mission didn’t want to worry about repairs to the stove. The sisters would just have to get by for a
week. We wondered then if they had the
right apartment, and said as much, but we were told that the sisters knew about
the move and would be packing up this week.
I talked to the sisters on Tuesday morning to see how they were doing
and volunteered to bring them some dinner.
They assured me they were okay and were trying to fit the packing in
around an already busy week with appointments and such. Their microwave worked and they would just
eat canned soups and tuna sandwiches. They also said that they knew nothing about
the move until Monday. I still felt I
should do something for them, so on Wednesday I called and said I was bringing
in dinner. I made cheese soup, banana
bread and cookies. I couldn’t have them
come to our house for dinner because we are out of their area. But I could bring it to them. They had been busy. Their apartment was full of boxes as they had
packed up stuff that had been collected over the years—books and other mission
supplies, plus kitchen items, food, etc.
They were much appreciative of the dinner. The irony in all this is that the office had
indeed got the wrong apartment and late Saturday night, ‘all missionary hands
were on deck’ to empty the Søborg apartment.
The office elders had already moved all the Lyngby furniture into the
mission storage unit earlier that day, so they then moved all the Søborg
furniture into the other apartment—7 flights of stairs between the two
apartments. We didn’t learn about it
until Sunday, so didn’t get in on the fun.
I spent several days this week working on The Banner. We have 17 missionaries arriving and only 6
going home. On Thursday I learned that
another missionary was going home—one transfer early. His father has pancreatic cancer. His father seemed to be responding to
treatment, but that all changed this week and the doctors said that he wouldn’t
make it another 6 weeks. So, the elder
is returning home to Houston, Texas to say goodbye to his father. My heart goes out to him. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have
been for him—but he is a good elder and has been serving as a Zone Leader. We don’t know him very well as he has spent
most of his mission on the other islands, but his mother serves in the Houston
temple and said she knew me. I wanted to
include his farewell testimony in the newsletter, so there are now 7 going
home. It must be a logistical head-ache
to deal with these uneven numbers of missionaries coming and going, but I think
it all evens out by December. In the
meantime, we have nearly 30 missionaries who are training right now. That means 30 trainers which doesn’t leave
very many for leadership positions, but it all works out.
I enjoyed Elder Holland’s talk on perfection—lots of things
to ponder on that one. I also enjoyed
all the talks about service, but I especially liked Sister Oscarson’s talk
about service in our homes. And I am
going to work on being ‘glad’—always love President Uchdorf’s stories. He has a way of getting to the point without
being pointed. The new area seventy that
was sustained lives in our ward. He
served as mission president in Poland a few years ago and currently works for
the church in records preservation.
Hope you all have a great week. Love to you all.
Mom
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