Temple Garden

We have a small garden at the temple which is in full bloom right now.

 The reflecting pool is over the baptismal font.  It has been under repair for 10 years.  It is almost finished.......

Controlled Snacking

Denmark packages things in much smaller quantities than the US.  Many things are one to two servings.  I can only buy milk in one liter cartons.  But this corn chip package takes it a step further and only opens wide enough to allow a small hand-full to be taken out at a time.

Decor

I am very good at saving things,,,,everything.  But today it was finally time to part with the Spider Christmas Candle.  We love these candles and hope they come on the market before we have to pack up next fall.

 This beautiful orchid has bloomed again since last summer.(thank you Pam Hoge).  However, I'm wondering what I should have done to help it grow up and not down.  These are probably the most popular house plant in Denmark. They are fairly easy to grow. They only require a small amount of water and apparently better direction.....

Lasse's Dåb

When we first arrived in Denmark, we were assigned to home teach the  Bishop, Peter Andersen,  and his family.  Their youngest child, Lasse was just 6 and too shy to talk.  Tonight, we went to his baptism.  Time  makes a difference....

 Peter has 5 brothers, no sisters.  Karen, his wife, has 5 sisters and one brother.  It was fun to see everyone together and make the family connections.  They are two strong families and have been blessed to keep most of their children active in the church.

 I was happy to play the piano and.....eat the refreshments.  Peter baked the cake, he likes to bake and Karen cooks.

Birthday Parties

We were invited to Jesper Paulsen's birthday dinner tonight:  good company and good food.  Jesper has just been hired as the full-time recorder for the temple.  Until now a member of the temple presidency has been doing the job.  It will be a great blessing to have a full-time recorder to carry the temporal part of the works.  Jesper is the perfect recorder personality: kind, congenial, capable, helpful and a good leader and organizer.

We also "attended" the birthday party of our back window neighbor.  It was almost an all night
occasion. Here is a recording (note the time) from our bedroom.  At least they had changed to more mellow music.

Saturday Scenes

The Bentke Family drove 10 hours to come to the temple.  The younger son is going on a mission and they brought him here to receive his endowment.  The older brother we met at the MTC in England. They loved our little temple but will be glad when the Friberg opens again in September.

This weekend seems to be the big time for gymnasium graduation parties.  We have seen 3 or 4 trucks like this honking and blasting music yesterday and today and have heard many more.....

 It's a safe way to control the drinking and driving...though the driving isn't really a problem since you can not get a driver's license until you are 18 in Denmark about the same time you graduate from gymnasium.

Full Friday

Today was one of the busiest Fridays we have had.  We had two own endowments, a wedding and Charlotte Leit's deceased mother was sealed to her parents, to her living husband and Charlotte was then sealed to her parents. She had all of her children there who acted proxy for various parts. It was a very special night for that family.
 We had a family visit from India.  The father is in the State Department and they brought their son to do baptisms.  Two cute Metcalf sisters stopped as they were beginning their 6 week back packing trip through Europe and a sweet young couple(Helds) who are expecting their first child in two and a half weeks, have spent the whole week here doing almost every session.  She took out her endowments just a few months ago.

 Eric Moline was in the England MTC while we were there.  Madeline is Swedish, so to be impartial, they had Jim do the sealing in English.  It hit 80 degrees here today!

 How wonderful is this native Swedish dress one of the girls wore to the wedding.  I'm pretty sure it is Swedish, but the Norwegians wear theirs for special occasions too.

Skt Hans dag

June 24 is Skt Hans day here in Denmark. Mette Paulsen finally explained the connection with the summer solstice.  Since Christ was born on December 24, they reasoned that John the Baptist was born on June 24, hence St. (Jo)hanes dag. When Christianity came to Denmark, it was a good way to make the pagan celebration of summer solstice a Christian  holiday.

Most people celebrate with bonfires to burn the witches (see June 18 post).  You can see fires all along the beaches. However, tonight there is a raging thunder and lightening storm.  I imagine the fires are struggling.  We were happy to be in the temple.

We celebrated by finally getting new flowers planted.

These pictures were taken at 10.00 pm in the rain, still plenty of light.

Harvest Joys

We had two people receive their own endowments tonight.  They both hold a special place in our hearts and history here.

We met Michael at one of our first Stake Conferences in Aarhus.  The missionaries were teaching him and I stopped to talk to him, I encouraged him to find out the truth for himself and then be baptized.  He is so polite and just nice,  He said tonight he will bring back his grandfather's name soon as he was the one that gave him his solid Christian upbringing.  He is extremely knowledgeable about the Old and New Testaments.  We were so excited to see him in then temple.

Alma has a mission call to Milan, Italy.  She just graduated gymnasium with high achievement (black cap) and came to the temple for the first time tonight.  When we were here as mission president, Alma was 8 years old and came with her mother, Katja, and aunt, Kiera, to our regular Family Home Evenings.  She has held on and is rock solid in gospel.  We are so happy for her.

Dinner at Sydhavn

The Knudsens live right by the Sydhavn S-Tog station.  This fun statue of a fisherwoman is just outside the station.

 There were over 20 Senior missionaries to dinner, including the Shirtliffs who have just arrived from Texas to work with the YSA.  Great story: the couple who were supposed to come, got sick so the mission president sent an SOS letter out.  The Shirtliffs put in their papers but were turned down because he was in his stake presidency.  After a call to the stake president from the mission president, Pres. Shirtliff was released and they received their mission call three weeks later.  The work goes forward.

We are excited because they have worked in the Houston Temple and would like to be temple workers here when they have time.  We have had several missionary couples do this and it has been a great blessing, especially when missionary groups come in for special sessions.

19.4 Miles

Once I get on my bike, I usually have a goal or place I want to visit.  Today it was to Toys "R Us which is just by IKEA.  I was looking for the game we played at Andersen's Summer House.

 But  Lyngby where we shopped when we lived in Holte wasn't too much further, so I continued on.
This is one of my favorite stores.  It is an old-fashioned, packed housewares store.  Full of great things to look at. Note the girl in her gymnasium graduation hat.

Now it is time to get home.  I could ride directly east from Lyngby on Klampenborgvej and come to Bakken, "The oldest Amusement Park in the World."  Which of course I did.

The oldest wooden roller coaster, still running, is here.

After this great picture opportunity, I biked home down Strandvejen against 15 MPH winds,the hardest part of the trip. But I made the loop I'd been thinking about. iI turned out to be 19.4 miles. Hope I can move  tomorrow.....

Kolonial Have Dinner

If you can afford it and you like gardening, many apartment dwellers have a little kolonial have house, literally many little houses with small gardens in a colony in the middle of the city. These are different than the summer homes which are often by water and  more of a residency.

   Tonight we went to the Warnsdorf's little garden house for dinner.

 We were missing the Modues, they have family visiting.

You own the little house, but pay rent to the commune for the ground. There is running water and electricity if you pay for it,  but communal bathrooms   Some are pretty rustic, but of course Irma's is lovely and decorated  with beautiful things.

They come out several times a week to putter in the soil and just relax and enjoy their own green space.

Sct Hans Aften at Andersens

We again enjoyed the great Sankt Hans party at the Andersen's summer house in Vellerup.  Everyone brought their own meat and a side dish to share.

There was a fun lawn game we all took turns playing...You threw wooden dowels to knock down "soldiers" of the other team.

 After picking up lighted torches, we walked a block to the fire site. (they lite the torches closer to the site this year.)

 Ready, set, throw..

 and we sent the witch on her merry (?) way to Germany.

This is such a beautiful view even if Hans can't hear the announcer.

Connections

One of the fun parts about serving in a small temple is that you get to talk to almost everyone that comes in.  It is amazing the connections you  find with people.

These are the Rust brothers and their wives.  We lived in the same ward as their  oldest brother, Richard in  Durham, North Carolina 45years ago.  When Richard went on a year's sabbatical, Jim took his place in the bishopric.
   Steve Clawson, true to his generous nature,  has taken them under his wing and shown them around.

Benedicte Klein (on the right) was my first visiting teaching companion.  She received her own endowment tonight in preparation for her marriage in a few weeks to Axel.  Axel's stepmother is the daughter of some great people we met in England when we were at the MTC.

Swan Check

I checked on the swans this week and they were so close I could have touched them.

  The parents are still very protective.

The ducks in the neighborhood were having quite a convention.

T