Friday, February 27, 2015

Light

I was so excited this morning to wake up at 6.30 and see that there was some light in the sky.  When I went to the temple at 8 is was lovely.  Longer days can't come too soon for me.

Of course when you are in the temple it is always light.  This is a great symbolic picture.


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Creative Missionaries

Missionaries couples only come with two suitcases which doesn't leave much room for personal decorative items.  Check out this great creative idea from Pam Hoge.
We all love browsing the genbrugs (charity shops) Pam has collected some beautiful hand crocheted doilies . She just glued them on bottles, tied the ribbon and put the ever-present candles inside.   The wonderful cut work table covering was also a great find.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Visits

Danish Class was cancelled because of a death in Mette's Family.  So I went visiting to some dear sisters in the ward.  Sis. Inge Suhr-Hansen and Ruth Hammerlund.  Inge Suhr doesn't speak much English so called her sister to translate over the phone.
Ruth was baptized 10 years ago after attending the Temple Open House.  She often came out to the mission home for Family Home Evening with the missionaries.

Tonight, Amanda Nielsen came to help look at material for the chairs.  She has a lot of talent in that area. Her daughter, Augusta, had this clever jacket on with the zipper up the back.  She said it is great as she kept unzipping her coat when it was in front.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Dinner at Kochs

Johan and Lisa Koch invite the temple missionaries for dinner every third Tuesday.  Johan has been sick with various things so this is the first time we have been for a while.  Their apartment is fairly new and they just got this new bathroom mirror.  Check out the digital clock in the middle of it. It goes on and off with the lights.
 They have also added this huge wall size map from Ikea and have put dots on all the places they have visited.  A good way to study world geography. It comes as a kit with the frame to stretch it on.





Monday, February 23, 2015

We Win

     Hoges had located Elder Holland's talk to the CES seminary and institute teachers last month,( I think.)  He  had asked for questions beforehand and many focused on fear of the future.  It is a powerful talk on "Be Not Afraid, Only Believe."  He gave such a strong witness and testimony that this dispensation is here to stay and nothing will change it's course.  We just need to hold on to our faith in Jesus Christ and not get discouraged no matter what our circumstances.
     As I often told the missionaries, "We Win. So get to work and enjoy being on the winning team."



Sunday, February 22, 2015

Nap Time

Traditionally, Danish babies take their naps outside, no matter the temperature.  I took this picture from my back balcony today.
   Dad talking to mom inside the apartment.
  Rocking the baby to sleep, note the gloves..
Now even a hood is needed. The babies are wrapped and covered in wonderful down comforters, so they are no doubt perfectly comfortable, and enjoying the  fresh air....

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Guests

I originally organized the dinner party tonight for the Sederholms who are finishing up this June as mission president.  We invited the stake president and wife, Elder Olsen our Area Authority and the Paulsens.  As it turned out, the Sederholms went to a baptism of a family of 4 ( a singular occasion here) and  the stake president thought it was next month.  So Elder Olsen, the Paulsens and we enjoyed a lovely dinner for 5.  Yes, I have plenty of food left over and will not have to cook again all week.
 We had barbecued spare ribs, except that it wasn't spare ribs. That is not a cut they do here. I used cutlets instead.. .almost as good.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Dinner Parties

Denmark is known for it's beautiful porcelain.  Irma Warnsdorf sets a wonderful table with her collection of the most famous Royal Copenhagen pattern.


Older Olsson, our Area Authority is coming to the temple tomorrow so we have invited him for dinner with the stake president and the Paulsens...

Thursday, February 19, 2015

What Color?

The furniture in our living room needs to be recovered,.  These sorts of choices are not my forte'.  If we could, be would find the exact same material and just reupholster them.  We have loved what is here.  However, that is not possible so we have been thinking and looking for a couple of weeks.  I have finally come around to the fact that I may need to go with something more subtle .  I"m still learning toward blue for the chairs and wheat color for the couch, but maybe I should reverse..I'm open for suggestions......



Wednesday, February 18, 2015

A Good Beginning

We had a good beginning to our week.  Cute Sister Røder came to the temple for the first time.  Here she is with her mother and grandmother. A happy day for everyone.
We also have two German sisters who have come for three days.  The Freiberg Temple is closed so the Frankfurt temple is so busy we are seeing more Germans coming here.  We love it.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The Couples Take Over

There are so many couples serving in Copenhagen, that the Knudsens had only the senior missionaries to dinner tonight. Thornes are serving in the mission office along with Sis. Hamblin. Madsens are working with the YSA, Brooks and Baileys (who were absent tonight) are photographing records and then there are the four of us from the temple: Hoges, Hansens, Taylors and us.  Peder was a family guest (Danish but teaching English in Saudi Arabia) and there was a sister visiting  from the church auditing department in Frankfurt.


We take the bus and train to get to Knudsens.  You can see it was a cold night, but not as cold as yesterday.  I stopped a cute lady on the street to take our pictures and got her name and phone number to give to the missionaries.  Her name is Doris, send up a little prayer for her.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Cold Monday

Mondays I like to go for a bike ride, but with a 20 mph wind making it feel like 20 degrees, I stayed in and did the usual Monday  washing and ironing and emailing.  Hansen's hosted Family Home Evening and we saw a good old church film about consequences where  the man drinks the water instead of priming the pump.  So important to make good decisions, even little ones. Commandments, leaders' counsel and  the Holy Ghost are such blessings.

On the way up the stairs, my necklace broke.  I was chasing  all these little beads up and down the stairs, Fortunately most were on the landing by the elevator. Looks like a new project.....

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Danish All Day

We have been invited to speak on the High Council Circuit this year again.  Last year I used an interpreter. This year I decided to bite the bullet and try it in Danish.  I wrote the talk and Jim and our Secretary at the temple helped me translate it.  Today I gave it for the first time in the Allerød Ward.  It went okay and I think they understood most of it.  Jim and I have been reading the Book of Mormon  aloud in Danish and that has helped immensely with pronunciation I talked about the various slangerne pÃ¥ stæmger (snakes on poles) that the Lord has put up for us to look at and be protected and blessed.  I talked about three that have been important in my life: Family Home Evening, reading The Book of Mormon daily and doing Family History Work/Temple Work.
We finished off the day with a lovely dinner at the Warnsdorf's and the Temple Presidency, where the conversation was mostly Danish.  Reading and understanding Danish are two different things,,,,


Saturday, February 14, 2015

Celebrations







This cute couple were married today. He is from Sweden and she is from Portugal.  They met once while he was serving a mission in Portugal. They were introduced and sensed something.  There was no communication until he returned home.  She found him on Facebook and they started emailing.  He visited her in Portugal a couple of times and then she went on a mission to Brazil.  She came home four months ago and today they were married. They had just a few guests, she is the only member in her family.  











               











 The High Priests Party was a great success.  We had thirty come and they all enjoyed the game and the Hawaiian Hay Stacks.  The menu worked well because everyone could choose just what they wanted and could eat on their laps and didn't need knives.

                                                     





               










                                     




The desserts were delicious and thanks to Mai Johansen for the beautiful flowers..




Friday, February 13, 2015

Party Preparations

The High Priest Group in our Frederikberg Ward is very social.  We have an activity every month.  This month we and the temple missionaries, are hosting dinner here in our apartment. Since it is on Valentine's Day we are decorating around that, well at least using a lot of red and white.  We are having Hawaiian Haystacks/Chinese Sundaes.  We will miss the Chow Mein Noodles we can get in America, more rice will have to do..
We are going to show some of our pictures from the MTC in England and the Church History Tour there.  But we are also going to play one of our favorite games for a crowd.  You hide these 15 things in plain site and let people find them.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Popcorn Inspiration

Two darling sisters from Jutland came to the temple today after a business meeting here in Copenhagen.  They are making and selling gourmet popcorn.  They refer to it as HIS popcorn because that is where the inspiration came from. They had talked to a big client today and were very excited about future prospects.  I'm excited too as they promised to bring me all of their new creations.
These are their first four flavors: BBQ, Mexican, Salty Caramel and Caramel, which can be put in the oven for 5 minutes to make it softer and stickier.  I can hardly wait to try them all.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Connections

Part of the joy of working in the temple is making connections.  Last week I connected that I met Barbara ten years ago when she was a non-member, waiting for a missionary, definitely an unusual situation. They came to the temple and it was wonderful to see "The rest of the Story."  She joined the church a few months before he came home, they were married in the temple and now have a family.

This Danish man is involved in wind turbines and was interested in making connection in Nigeria.  He called the Stake President who referred him to one of his branch presidents.  The branch president came to Denmark and I presume they have worked something out. They came to enjoy the temple before he left to go back to Nigeria.  What a fine young man.

  And tonight we had Christian Olsen receive his endowment prior to his mission.  His extended family came and I realized that three of the loveliest ladies I know, are sisters, It was Christian's mother and her two sisters.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Coming Out

The first flowers of the new year are so exciting.  I saw this patch of little yellow ones while I was out on my bike today.  Our weather has been warmer than usual so they may be a bit early.  But they are so welcome.

And speaking of coming out, our special session with the Frederiksberg and Roskilde Wards tonight was totally full - 21 sisters and 19 brothers.  A good night.

Monday, February 9, 2015

FHE at the Taylors

It was so fun to see how the Taylors have fixed up their apartment at Family Home Evening tonight.  This is the first time we have met there since they arrived.  They went rug shopping and found a great deal.  Rugs make such a difference.
 
   Dorte, being a native  Dane, fixed real ablekage, which is crushed macaroon cookies layered with cooked apples and whipped cream.  It was delicious.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Social Sunday

Sundays are usually a quiet day for us.  Today we were super social.  I met Amanda at the church and we had a good visiting teaching appointment. It is the only time our schedules match.  We had company for dinner, then we went home teaching to the Bishop's





































Finally we had invited our neighbors that live directly below us, Hanne and Gregars Knjudsen up for cake and ice cream with their neighbors and our missionaries, the Hoges.  It was fun to get to know them.  They were so nice when our grandchildren were here at Christmas,
  Their apartment has the same layout as ours, but they have cut the space up differently.  It was so interesting to see.



Saturday, February 7, 2015

Heaven's Direction

One of the great joys of working in the temple is talking to people and hearing their stories and how the Lord has been involved in their lives.  Every person I talked to today had a great story.  I will share a couple and save some for another time.
     We had a 25 year old young man come to the temple for the first time.  He has worked hard to come back to the church and prepare to receive his endowment.  His mother was so happy.  (Aren't we all when our children make good eternal decisions?) She was married in the temple, the husband started criticizing church leaders and fell out of the church and the marriage, and then proclaimed he was gay.  Three of her four children have now managed to hold fast.


These are the missionaries that have worked with him. He is working on submitting his missionary papers.  He was so thrilled with the whole day. It was wonderful to be part of it.

These two I introduced as they were walking out the door.  They are both temple workers but I made the connection today that they are both in physics.  She is a post doctoral researcher in laser something and he is working on his masters .  They both commented on how they love the films and marvel at all the laws of physics involved in the creation.  They walked out of the door chatting  about the wonderful world of physics.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Internet Down and a Tiger Pick Up

WE came home from the temple last night, already to get caught up on the news and I was ready to blog, and our internet was down.  I'm not the most technologically advanced or even technology dependent person, but it is amazingly how cut off you feel when you can't get on the internet.  One of the great joys of working in the temple is that we have a temple engineer who handles all those sort of problems and had it up and working this morning.  Thanks Allan.
   On a brighter note, I'm sharing some of the new items at our neighborhood Tiger store.  For those who have been here, you will appreciate the fun things and for those who haven't, think a step up from the Dollar Shop.
  The colors are delicious!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Patrons - YSA

We have noticed an increase in the number of people who are trying to come to the temple every week. It is all ages which is wonderful.
  There was a couple tonight and he has really been touched with the Spirit of Elijah in finding names and coming to the temple weekly.
  I thanked one of our workers who came when it wasn't his shift and his response, "I always try to come when I have the time."  I loved the idea that when you have extra time you choose to go to the temple.
    Sister Meilsoe, a widow often comes two times a week, sometimes meeting  her daughter or grandson there.
   We also have Young Single Adults that  come regularly.  It is such a great way to keep grounded and on the right path when there are so many challenges.  You can see the joy in their faces.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Line Dancing

When I am in Utah I go to a line dancing class at our ward.  It has been going for 20 years.  I talked to Lis Andersen in the ward here and we were all ready to start a class today.  However, her mother was operated on so she couldn't come, But Pam Hoge, being the great sport that she is, came with me to the church in case anyone else came.  Sure enough someone else came -- missionaries for zone conference. We ended up back in the apartment, rolled up the rug and I had a great time remembering some of my favorite dances from the DVD the group made for me 10 years ago.