Snow Wedding

Our good friends, The Connallys from Ireland came to the sealing of their daughter at the temple this morning. Pres. Connally is a counselor at the Preston Temple and we know them from our time there.  He was able to get permission to perform the sealing.  It was a red letter day for them, the first time they have had all six of their children in the temple together!

The Throne

I don't know that is is all that appropriate but I had to post it. I've laughed about it all week.  It was the handicapped bathroom at the church on Sunday.  Besides the bright seat, note how high it is off the floor.  One needs to jump to get on and then your feet dangle...

Wonderful Wednesday

 Our week in the temple starts on Wednesday.  We have a 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm session. Usually it is quite slow and the temple workers often serve as patrons.  Today was a lovely exception.  We did over 500 ordinances.  We had three groups come for baptisms which helped as well as a young man from Sweden going through for the first time. I talked to the Malmo Stake Relief Society Presidency who decided to hold their presidency meeting while driving to and from the temple.  What a great idea.

Speaking of good ideas. I think this is the Danish way to reforest.

Sleigh Riding in Denmark

Denmark's highest mountain is about 480 feet.  So this actually may be the best sleigh ride around.  Not many places in the world you can go sleigh riding on  temple ground.

Winter Hits

We are finally feeling real winter here.  It started yesterday and is continuing all week.  Yesterday we invited the Audio Visual Man here from Salt Lake to dinner and then we took him on a car tour of downtown Copenhagen.  The Lakes downtown are frozen as was the harbor around The Little Mermaid.  We didn't spend much time outside.....

 The swans and ducks at the lakes have managed to keep a little spot open in the ice.

Allerod Ward

  Jim and I have been asked to join the High Council Speaking rotations and speak once a month to a different unit in the stake.  Today we spoke in Allerod which is about 30 miles north.  I have worried about what language to use.  I could read a Danish talk or use a translator.  I opted for a little of both.  I started in Danish, had a translator and finished with a testimony in Danish.  I am much more interesting in English.
  Here is the lovely little chapel they have.

This was the beginning of Relief Society.  More came in as it progressed.  The books are their hymn books with homemade covers. We discussed Elder Holland's talk on depression.  It was a sweet, open discussion, most of which I understood thanks to the sister in purple who sat by me and translated.

Mushroom Soup

Campbell's Soup has not made it in any serious quantity to Denmark.  I hear Sweden has Cream of Chicken but none around here.  So I have developed my own Cream of Mushroom which works well in most dishes.  The fresh mushrooms here are beautiful and not very expensive and the soup is really very good.

Have you met?

Since we arrived we have been looking for Liesle.  She is the sister of a good friend of our daughter and sons-in-law.  Tonight she came to the temple and we finally made the connection!  She is here working with her husband in a private educational project which basically teaches gospel principles of behavior, relations, work etc without the religious connection.  They are the second members of the church that we know that have been hired by this group to teach youth sound principles.

Bedtime Treat

For years, Jim and I and our family had a bedtime treat of ice cream.  Since we have been here we have discovered something we love even more...a fresh fruit compote with yogurt.  They have delicious, thick  pour-able yogurt in all sort of flavors.  Our recent  addition to the apples, pineapple, grapes,banana and  clementines has been pomegranate seeds,  The combination probably has just as many calories as ice cream, but it feels so healthy.....

New Film

We have received both new temple films...in English.  We showed the first one tonight to the Temple Workers.  How grateful I am for the Savior and the Atonement to overcome the Fall. Covenants are such a blessing to help us get back to our Heavenly Home.
  This is one of the few pictures I brought from home.  It hangs above my desk here in the apartment.  It is one of our favorites.

Definitely Danish

We had our monthly missionary dinner at the Knudsens tonight. He loves to cook and it is always delicious.  This is a traditional soup you can even buy frozen in the market.  Besides leeks, celery and carrots there are small meatballs and dumplings.  It is a good basic soup and anything can be added to it.

For the main meal we had roast and potatoes,which were cooker earlier and kept warm......naturally  under the comforter in the bed,  until ready to be served.

Drommekage

 Family Night at our house for the Temple Missionaries.  I made drommekage (dream cake) one of my favorite Danish recipes.  It is a white cake with a brown sugar, butter and coconut icing that is melted in the oven. It is delicious and gets better the older it gets.  I had to use my food scale to measure the right grams.  I'm getting so European...

We watched the movie ""Emma", the story of Emma Smith written and supported by the Joseph Smith Descendant Organization.  It was much better than I remembered.  We all really enjoyed it.

Sunday Dinner

People are so good to the missionaries.  There is a couple in the ward that invite the temple couple missionaries to their home every third Sunday.  We were invited this Sunday and it is one the loveliest apartments I have seen in Copenhagen.

 The couple that invited us have some wonderful faith-promoting stories. In December the husband's 37 year old nephew had a heart attack and was without oxygen for 18 minutes. The first day the father had given his son a blessing and felt the son had a choice whether to stay or go. After several days of being hooked to a respirator there were still no signs of life and the father was asked if they should turn off the life support. .The father went home to think about the decision and while he was gone, a brother-in-law came to visit and gave the man another blessing which was basically the exact same as the first one.  Within minutes the man opened his eyes and followed his brother-in-law's movements. The next three days he quickly improved and was released with a defibrillator implanted in his chest. The doctors were stunned.  It was a true miracle.  The son who was borderline active, as you can imagine, has now committed himself to the gospel.

High Priest Party

 Tonight we went to the ward High Priest Party.  They had invited most of the senior missionary couples as well.  We all put in about $20 and had a traditional New Year's Celebration Sorebrod menu.
     You start with the fish

 Move on to the meats and accompaniments

 And then to the cheese and fruits

We finished with chocolates, clementiners and hot chocolate being passed around andplaying  a fun game with small gifts we had each brought.  You put all the gifts in the middle of the table and pass dice around.  Everytime a 6 is rolled you take a gift.  When the gifts are all gone, you set the timer and continue trying to get 6.  YOu can take as many gifts as you get 6s.  It was a fun game to mix things up.  A very nice evening/

Good Friday

We had our best day of the year today.  We had 24 new missionaries and their trainers,  Plus a young man came to the temple for the first time in preparation for his mission to South Africa on Wednesday.  He stayed to do sealings and helped baptize a group of YSA.   We had a new temple worker and several groups from across the bridges, both Sweden and Jutland.  A lovely, busy Friday

This is my grandnephew and the companion he is training, who also happens to be a patient of our son, Brian.  Small world.

Spring?

The trees in the garden of the temple have started to bloom.  It is a nice promise of Spring, but I hope they survive the next few winter months.

The Bazaar

 Just a block from our apartment is the Norrebro Bazaar. It is behind the main buildings and at first seems a little scary.  However, I now feel quite comfortable there.  It has the most wonderful, fresh fruits and vegetables - varieties and products  I have never seen.  If you hit it right, you can get some great deals on produce they are clearing out.

 The candy aisle has products from all over Europe and the Middle East.  Only place I know to buy Wrigley's gum but M and M's are am expensive staple in most stores.

 The Bazaar is owned and run by Middle Easterners and and carries many products for that culture.  There is a huge meat counter, no pork.  This is the pasta, bean and grain aisle.  So many things I wonder how they are cooked and eaten.

Fog

 The evaporation of the snow left us with a foggy morning.  However, it wasn't cold so I rode my bike down to the Lakes.  Biking will probably become my exercise of choice over running as my right foots is being uncooperative.  You can go further faster and explore all sorts of sites.
      This is one of the lakes that you cross over to get into old Copenhagen.  There are buildings on the other side you can't see because the fog was so thick.

 This is a typical site.  Everyone takes their babies out in their buggies every day,  You see dads as well as moms, no matter the weather.  Hope the baby is asleep, not getting too much attention....

Snow

 The forecast snow came this afternoon, almost a quarter inch.  By tonight it is raining and the snow will be gone by morning.  Hopefully it doesn't freeze or it will be a mess.
   For Family Night we heard a recording of Michael Kennedy, the first Melchizedek  Priesthood holder to be ordained in Joseph Smith's Line.  We have heard it before but now working in the temple and the statement that the more family you gather on the other side, the more help you get on this side with your family has added relevance.
   

Temple Workers

We have called five new temple workers this week and we are very excited about them.  Two are a retired couple coming back to work in the temple, one in his late 30's and two YSA sisters.  We are excited about getting some of the younger people involved.
     Besides being a fun picture taken in front of the temple, this tells you what our weather has been for the past few days. The two darling girls on the left are our newest temple workers.

Loppemarked

 I love garage sales.  In Denmark they are called Loppemarkeder - Flea Markets.  Today we went to the big traditional one at the Forum which is a large convention/concert center.  It is a good thing I only had 2 hours and limited funds....

As you may imagine, Danish Porclain is one of my weaknesses.  Yes, I bought a piece from these lovely people

Juletid Udsalg

Fridays are our long days and if I need to shop I go for an hour in the mid afternoon.  

We get out of the temple Saturday afternoon and there isn't much time before Sunday.  So today I made a quick trip to the grocery store next door and they had just put all of the Christmas Candy on sale. Who could resist all of these for around a $ each, marzipan, almonds and butter cookies.. 

 I had to buy the Nougat Snitters just for the name.. They were  good. with a layer of nougat between two layers of marzipan.

I 

A Small World

This darling girl came to the temple today.  She is an airline stewardess and had a stop in  Copenhagen.

She is from Ukraine and knows my brother, Kay, who was a mission president there 10 years ago.  It is always amazing how many connections you can make within the church from all over the world.  She is still single and looking for a great LDS man...I'm taking suggestions  to pass on....

 .

Anothern Wedding, Another Story

This darling couple are from the Philippines. They went to high school together and then lost touch.  He married and divorced and she never married.  She is a good member of the church with half of her family and had never married as she couldn't find anyone in the church.  A little over four  years ago Charles, who lives and works in Denmark, looked her up on Facebook and started calling her - every day,  no Skype, yes it cost a fortune.  She was busy finishing her 3rd Masters's Degree.  They are both 37. Mary introduced Charles to the church via phone and finally Skype and he was baptized four years ago,  They have been waiting for the papers so she could come and they could marry.  The bishop and Stake President and two other friends plus Jim and I were the only guests at the sealing.  They had 5 or 6  guests waiting outside.
     Mary's mother died when Mary was 12.  She said she has prayed frequently that her mother would come and visit her.  Just a few nights ago she came in a dream and hugged her daughter.  I passed on a physical one from her today.  It was a very sweet experience.

Wash Day

Monday and Tuesday the temple is closed so that is the day we do all of cleaning, shopping and washing. Our washer is the traditional European front load that takes an hour plus per load.  And as we live on the 4th floor of an apartment building and have no outside vent for the dryer, we have a drawer that collects the water.  It needs to be emptied about every two loads.

 As you might imagine, the clothes don't come out totally dry.  So we have a drying chair, a drying bed,

 and even a drying rack when we do the bedding.

Family Home Evening

Monday nights the temple missionaries usually get together for Family Home Evening.  Tonight we included one of the single sisters boyfriends.
  We shared some great missionary stories.  One happened to a high councilman in Bro. Christensen's ward when he was a bishop in Hawaii.  The High Councilman stopped at his gelato shop to pick up sacks to put treats in for a class he was teaching.  As he looked out the window there were two men standing who didn't exactly fit in with their non-tourist attire.  He started talking to them and asked if he could be of help.  Yes, they would like a couple of bags to put their 6 packs of beer in. They were from a cruise ship and didn't know how to get back. He offered to drive them and during the conversation in the car they explained that they were two Catholic priests, hence the unusual attire. When they got out, they took the wrong package by mistake.This included the High Council man's lesson and personal Book of Mormon.  Before church was over he received a call on his cell phone from one of the men and he said  they wanted the book in the package. He offered to bring them another copy which he did and retrieved his own marked copy which had his name imprinted on it.  There was  a stake center within walking distance and the men had gone there and asked if anyone knew the name on the book.  Of course they did and gave them his phone number.
    Sometime later the High Council man received a phone call from one of the priests telling him he was giving up the ministry and joining the church.  The point being that the Lord can even use us in his work when we don't know it.  Imagine what he can do if we ask for missionary opportunities.
 

 We all got new HD TVs which replaced the old non-non working analogs. A lovely Christmas Present for everyone.  The added bonus is that you can hook them up to your computer. So tonight we enjoyed some of the travels of the Christensens. They have traveled most of the Pacific Islands and Asia.

Chapels

This is the chapel in Helsingbor, Sweden.  It is a lovely little chapel and very utilitarian and  expandable as many of the chapels here are.  

 You can see the chairs are all moveable and the back of the room opens up so it can become a cultural hall.  Most of the furniture and wood here is light and the Scandinavian clean cut style.

Such An Interesting story

One of the best parts of serving in the temple is meeting  people and hearing their stories.  Today Jim sealed a lovely couple.  She is Danish and he is from Australia.  They met on the internet while playing a Lord of the Rings game.  The girl had submitted her mission papers and suggested she teach Benjamin the lessons so she could practice since he knew nothing about the church.  He shortly thereafter invited her to Australia for two weeks...You can imagine her parents' trepidation especially since he had three children from a previous marriage and was 13 years older.  After two weeks, they decided there was something there and he would plan to wait for her. L receives  Her mission call to her dream mission: Temple Square but with the departure date 6 months away because of visas.  In order to earn some money, Ben in Australia offered to have her come and nanny his children and he would pay her.  During the first visit they hooked up with the missionaries. After 6 months.Ben was baptized the day before L came home to prepare for her mission.  She cried all the way through her farewell talk.  The bishop talked to her afterward and explained that you can't go into anything half-hearted and that the Lord would be happy with whichever decision she made, mission or marriage and being a mother to the three children she had come to love and worry about.  They were married by the bishop in Australia just over a year ago.  Today they came to be sealed and her family was able to attend this wedding. They couldn't afford to fly to the first one.

This is a great young man and you can feel his spirit.  Again, we see how involved the Lord is our individual lives and how he makes things work for the building up of the kingdom.  This young man is going to be a great strength in Perth.

Missionary Power

We had our largest session yet today.  We had to bring in a couple of chairs thanks to the 33 great missionary leaders that came after their leadership meeting.  They plus the other 10 patrons put us over the top. One of the patrons came out and commented on how wonderful it was to sit in the Celestial Room with all those great spirits.

 This is Elder Christensen my nephews son.

Yes.  It was raining.

Decorations Down

It is always a little sad to take the Holiday Decorations down. We miss the red and everything seems so mundane.  I had only 2 small boxes plus the permanently decorated tree to store. It was a pretty slick job.
    In Sweden many don't take their decorations down until the 13th of January, St. Knut's Day." In families with children, it's common to have a "julgransplundring" ("plundering of the tree" party). The children get to eat the candy which was used for decorating the tree, but nowadays they usually get little bags with candy instead.."    
                 These were some of the great decorations in the houses we visited there.

 They often hang special curtains for the holidays.  Everyone uses lots of candles.  I'm surprised there are not more fires.

 This little family of Julemen were living in the heart of the Christmas Tree.

I saw very few Nativity Sets except in members homes.  This cute one is made out of boiled wool.

 In the picture below.  The red picture on the back is Christmas and was rescued from ancestors belongings.  Note how they all tape up their Christmas Cards as part of the decorations. The decorations on the trees are fairly sparse.  It has been so delightful to get a  glimpse of others' traditions and decor.