Missionary Prep

 Six years ago a 12 year old boy in Roskilde prayed for a good friend in the church.  Shortly after a boy just his age moved in and they became best friends and have grown up and supported each other through the years. They received mission calls within weeks of each other and today they both came to the temple to take out their endowments.  It was such a good day for them and their families.

 Many of the elders that have served in Roskilde and other friends and family their age joined them.  The church is in good hands

An added bonus to the day was that there were 14 who came to the new open baptism on Saturday mornings.

Air Conditioning

Danes has very little air conditioning in their homes.  It doesn't usually get that hot.  Last week we had a few warm days and this is our solution.

          Open the front door.....

and then the back.  We are at the end of the building so no one passes our door and the back goes out to a little balcony.

So Many Good Things

So many good things were going on in the temple today.  Helgi Andersen who took out his own endowment yesterday was back and is so pleased. He is the fiance of one of our sister temple workers.  It has been wonderful  to see him grow as he has prepared to come to the temple and now to have received his endowment and really be part of it all. Another inactive son of our good workers, the Kochs, has come back to the temple. And a group of 12 women from Aalborg have come for three days and one of them took her mother's name through today.  It was such a good day.

   On top of that, this is how the temple looked at 10:00 pm as we came out of the temple tonight and we still have three more weeks until the longest day of the year.  I love the light!

The Swan Family

I finally got down to the Lakes to check on the swan who was sitting on her nest.  This is what I found.

The little black bird must be looking for her too.   I rode around the lake and finally found..

They were kind enough to come closer for a family picture.

Temple Inspection Tour

For the last couple of days we have had Dawn Sorokine and Kent Reimschussel  from the  Temple Interior Decorating and Facilities Maintenance Departments here for an inspection visit.  We had a delightful time with them and so appreciated their thoroughness in going through the temple and checking on things that need to be repaired or replaced.  The Church is very particular about maintaining the temples to a high standard of quality.  They were both so knowledgeable that is was fun to hear them and understand how things are arranged or decorated according to designated principles.
   This was our final meeting where we outlined future projects and plans.  You have to think at least 18 months ahead to get everything okay and in the budget.  Our biggest need is to do something with the non functioning reflecting pool in the garden and to make our guesthouse more useful and welcoming.

Brother Wiborny from Frankfurt was there as well as our hired engineer, John Køster and Pres. Buur the "engineer" in the Temple Presidency.

Young Single Adults

Tonight Jim and I were asked to speak to the Young Single Adults for Family Night.  The weather was so great they chose to come to sit on the temple steps.  We of course talked about the temple.
  There is a great missionary couple, the Madsens, working with them, and you can see there is a nice big group.  About half are returned missionaries.

Sunny Sunday with Temple ID visitors

The Interior Design and Projects people ( Dawn S. and Kent R.) are here for a couple of days to go through the temple and check for things that need to be done to keep it at temple quality.  We had dinner and then took them around Copenhagen.  It was a beautiful day and they got the AAA Tour when we saw the Queen's Yacht .....

and happened  upon the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace. 

Wonderful Week of Celebration

Our Jubilee Week is over and it was wonderful!  We doubled the number of sessions for all ordinances and quadrupled the numbers.  I think everyone involved had a great experience and came away lifted and excited about the blessings of having a temple in their midst.
  The final celebration was a reception at the Nitivej Chapel just around the corner.  Jim gave a few comments as well as the Pres. Bernskov, Stake President, and Elder Olsen our Area Authority.  There were several musical numbers including three from the youth. Lots of visiting in between and lovely sandwiches and fruit.

   They finished with a picture on the temple steps for those who wanted to be recorded for history.

Another Great Day!

We were back to our usual Friday schedule today which is the full five sessions, but we were bursting at the seams for our first and last session and the others during the day were good.  We had the stake YM/YW come for baptisms tonight, about 40 of them and they brought our numbers up to almost 1500!
    More important than the numbers is the great spirit that has been in the temple. Many have spent the whole day and several the whole week here.  Our hope is that everyone goes away having had a special personal experience that brings them closer to the Lord, increases their faith and strengthens them and the church.

        We are also seeing a lot of tourists at the temple, many coming and going on cruises out of Copenhagen. I had this cute couple from San Diego pose to give you an idea.  I wish I had taken a picture of the tour buses that drive by and especially the one that did a U turn in the middle of the streetso those on board could take a picture out the window.  They must be groupson a tour with LDS connections.

1000

Our Jubilee Week is turning out to be a great success.  Yesterday we did exactly 1,000 ordinances!  We had baptisms which of course helps, but still that is a lot for our temple in one day and you could feel the enthusiasm of the members and just the joy of being together in the temple.  We so hope it will be a start for those who don't come often.   It has been so fun.
    Someone asked if I was tired, but I think it is working just the opposite, I am picking up energy from all the interaction with the good saints here.
    We went over to the exhibit for the Jubilee at the church. They had this picture of the Celestial Room from a news article at the time of the dedication.

Everyone is Celebrating

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the temple the youth from four wards got together and did a scavenger hunt around the area looking for letters which they put together to answer questions about the temple.  They invited Jim and I to come and talk to them for a few minutes in the garden of the temple.

It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed some of their celebration cake

The Temple was originally the first LDS churxh building  in Copenhagen.  They left the three front walls and built the rest of the temple inside.  Jim attended church in the original building and has great memories.

Ten Year Jubilee

Since we have arrived we have been working with the local leaders to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the temple dedication.  The temple was dedicated by Pres.Hinckley on May 23, 2004.  It was the first trip he took after his wife died and was a sweet experience for all and a boost to Pres. Hinckley's enthusiasm for work again.

   We have opened the temple every day this week  for 5 endowment sessions, at least 5 sealing sessions and open initiatory.  Today we also had a baptism.  We had one of our biggest days - just over 900 ordinances.  A lot for our little temple.  Today was such a good day as we saw people we had never seen at the temple before.  Our workers are amazing!
   The Stake is also holding a history open house at the chapel around the corner and are having lots of non-members stop in.
   

Summer Houses

City apartment dwellers in Denmark often have summer houses out in the country.  These are small homes with yards and often by water. Tonight we were invited with the Browns, Christensens and Mette and Ole Køster to Hans and Lis Andersenn's summer home out by Roskilde.  It was a beautiful 45 minute drive through the last of the yellow rape fields.

 You can walk to the Roskilde fjord from their little summer cottage subdivision.  A beautiful sunset as we left to come home.

Can you find the canoe?

Farewell Parties

Two of our great temple missionary couples: Edith and Ross Brown and Connie and Vance Chritensen are going home the 10th of June.  They are being invited out to dinner at every free break. People have been kind enough to include us in some of them.  Here was their last meal at  the Knudsens.  The Knudsens have invited missionaries for dinner every month since they got married and her mother did it before her.

For dessert we had the traditional rød grød with fløde på.  Red fruit porridge with cream.  Delicious!  They were showing me what I need to buy for thickening...a lot like the Danish Dessert at home.

Back to Reality

There are definitely more beautiful pictures of the cruise I could share, and I may as I finish cataloging them.  However, for now, back to real life in Copenhagen.
   Maureen and Walt Hales stayed a couple extra days and we took them to Tivoli Gardens.

 The flowers were beautiful and the duck was making a grand stand for attention.  Speaking of birds, I biked by the swan's nest today and she is still there..waiting

Bergen, The Last Port

Bergen, Norway is the second largest city in Norway.  They say it rains 365 days a year and that babies are born with umbrellas. We, however, were blessed with the loveliest day of the trip, sun and  warmer temperatures.
    We docked close to"Byggen" with all the old merchant buildings which they are preserving.  Note how crooked some of the buildings are.

The chief draw was a funicular railroad that took you up to the top of this hill and gave you a fabulous view of Bergen.
 

The modern part of Bergen was also beautiful with flowers, lake and fountains.  The heart of their shopping section of town is all pedestrian and really lovely.

There was a big fish market right by the boat.  We passed it up, especially  the fish head.

Back in Copenhagen today was National Prayer Day and all the stores were closed, except for the bakeries and flower shops.  The joke is that the Danes only pray one day a year...Whatever, the streets were certainly empty.

Olden, Norway

Olden, Norway is at the end of another fjord and besides being post-card amazing from every view, it is a base to visit glaciers.  We took pictures from afar and enjoyed walking through the beautiful little town and country side.

How do you feel about mowing your roof?

To prove we were there.....

Alesund

Alesund was destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 1904.  It left 10,000 people and the whole center of the city  was rebuilt in Art Nouveau - plenty of color and decorative details.  It was a charming city and fun to walk around.  This was the only day we had a little rain, otherwise we were blessed with great weather for this time of year.  It wasn't particularly warm, but very manageable.

I climbed the 418 stairs to the top of this hill and this is one of  the views I had...

Greater Alesund is built on a bunch of islands connected by bridges and underwater tunnels.

I loved this statue of the woman sorting  fish to sell.

Stop Two

Our second port was up Geiranger Fjord , the deepest and the most beautiful.  We anchored at the little town of Geiranger which was the center for a lot of outdoor activities, not just cruises.

Here we just walked around and these are some of the sites. Note the zigzag road behid the boat.

Trolls are Norway's special " inhabitants."  You can buy the everywhere.

 In all the other ports we could dock along the pier, here they brought the pier to us.  It just unfolded, very interesting.
     Back in the real world, we worked putting everything back in order at the temple.  We had a special session tonight and we are good to go tomorrow with another special session for missionaries who have been out a year and are being primed to become the leaders.