Malmo Stake Conference

This weekend was  the Malmo, Sweden Stake Conference.  I was invited to speak last night and Jim this morning.  Elder David Homer an Area Seventy, living in Switzerland,but from the US presided.  His wife was with him.  A lovely couple. Their situation is a testimony of the Lord's dealings across the world.  He works for General Mills and was called to the Seventy while living in Canada.  The church needed him here and "coincidentally"  his company transferred him.
    After the meeting last night, we went to Pres. and Sister Clark's  (the stake president) home for dinner with President and Sister Beckstrand, who preside over the Swedish Mission.

Beckstrands                                  Homers                      Williams                     Clarks                             

Last night's meeting was in the Malmo Chapel, today they met in an Auditorium in a hotel, a mini-Conference Center.

We love these good people from Sweden.  Jim spoke slowly in Danish and read the scriptures in Swedish.....he had practiced.

I spoke 5 minutes on Hastening the Work, really 2 and a half with translation, but it went well.

We've Survived!

Everyone kept talking about Week 42.  I now understand why.  It is the biggest week of the year at the temple. We were open Tuesday through Saturday from early morning until night and did more ordinances in this week than in a month or several months for that matter.  It was wonderful to see so many in the temple.  Besides all the baptisms, we had 5 people receive their own  endowments this week and today we were totally full in all the ordinance sessions.

          About half of these people from Bornholm were at the temple today to support the Mogansons who brought their son to the temple.  He will be serving in the Salt Lake West Mission.  His younger brother is serving here in Denmark and was able to come to the temple to meet the family today.  The younger two sisters did baptisms, the youngest for the first time. It was a big day for this family.

Copenhagen Youth

Today was the last day of  the Copenhagen Youth Conference.  This was their final picture on the temple steps.. It was a big undertaking but everyone seemed pleased with the experience.  We certainly were. Today I was thinking what a a privilege it is to be able to be in the temple all day almost every day.  We are grateful for the opportunity.

On The Nose

   It has been fun to see such large ordinance numbers at the end of the day.  It is all driven by baptisms so this has been a good week.  Today we hit 1800 right on the nose.  The Copenhagen Stake brought .youth.  They had a bigger challenge as many of the youth come fairly often to do baptisms.  I think it was a sort of mini-youth conference with those living outside of Copenhagen staying in members' homes in Copenhagen. Next year they are planning to combine with the Aarhus Stake.  That should be exciting..Such good youth and leaders.  If they can hold on to all of them the Church should explode in Denmark.
     No new pictures today as we were in the temple from 9 to 10. We didn't quite go in the dark, but we certainly came home in it.  Our days are definitely getting shorter.

Day 2 of Week 42

We were at the temple at 6 a.m. to welcome the first group of baptisms for the day at 7 a,m, The Aarhus Stake came again so every youth had the opportunity to be baptized two days.  They had all been challenged to find and bring family names and many of them did. The letters read: Temple Challenge.

The four groups finished up by three so they could have a testimony meeting and then get on their way home.  The leaders figured they had 85% of all their youth participate.  Some units had 100%! We were so impressed with the organization of the leaders and how reverent and prepared the youth were.

These are the leaders that came to support and direct. Everyone stayed in a school which is the normal procedure for youth conferences etc.

These are the beautiful 15-18 year old girls. Their smiles tell you a lot about the experience.

Week 42

Week 42 all the schools close and it is basically Fall Break.  Traditionally all the Young Men and Young Women from the Aarhus and Copenhagen Stake come to do baptisms for the dead.  Today and tomorrow is the Aarhus Stake.  They were wonderfully prepared and organized .  There were 51 YM and 45 YW.  They had prepared this little pamphlet for each one.  It contains church articles about the temple and a detailed schedule for the three day trip.

They divided into 4 groups: Girls 15 -18 came from 8-10 am this morning,  boys 15-18 from 10-12.00, girls 12-14, 12.30-3.30 and boys 12-14- 3.30-5.30.  They have been doing this for 20 years. The first few years there was only one bus.  Today they brought 3 with many leaders to help.

Tonight they are having a dance with the Copenhagen youth.  They will be back for baptisms on the same schedule tomorrow, then a testimony meeting and then bus home. We were all so impressed with how smooth everything went and what fine young people they are and what great leaders. They did everything except the laundry..all the cleaning etc.
   One boy was baptized for his deceased father. He did 14 other names and then everyone stopped and watched as he acted as proxy for his father.  His sister stayed behind and watched and cried.  It was a very tender moment.
   We did a record 2364 ordinances,

Family Fun

Six of our children and 18 of our grandchildren gathered several times while we were home. Chris, our oldest, who lives in California, is coming to Denmark for Christmas so passed.  Realizing how chaotic that many people can be, we tried to spend time with each family individually plus collectively  and found it worked well for all of us.

Our youngest grandchildren ... until the end of November.

 We had several family meals and nights together.

 All ages mixed and the cousins had such a good time together. The Arizona cousins had their fall break and were able to come.

 We planned a special night to watch Frozen since we had never seen it and it is after all about Scandinavia and based on Hans Christian Andersen tale of the Snow Queen.  The best part was at the end when they played "Let It Go" again and almost everyone in the room stood up and sang and danced with it.

 We caught a few soccer games and this track meet as well as some musical rehearsals. All of our children were with the Clayton Performing Groups and now some of our grandchildren are enjoying the same great experiences. So fun to watch everyone.  It is amazing how they all grew in a year.

    Loved seeing the mountains again.  Denmark's highest point is 485 feet

Before we knew it, it was time to say good-bye.  We had a fabulous time and are so grateful for  supportive family and friends.  Thanks!  See you next year.